selfhosting.couchsurfing

#Surfhosting is #selfhosting while #couchsurfing. This is an infrastructure HOWTO project for #nomadic developers and power users.

Documentation is written with cyberpunks, cyberserfs, and frugality in mind. Special attention will be paid to portability and usability on untrusted networks.

The Surfhosting.cc website is back under construction as of mid-2025. Soon!!!

#DIY #Proxmox #miniPC #OpenWrt #GLiNet #Linux

header image CC-BY-SA Russell Street

Public Key

npub1nq6ztqk0qhj0uay4yfpmdzs0cqt6wks7txn0kc28v5fyczte7kvsr6salp

NIP-05 Address

surfhosting@mastodon-pirateparty-be.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsfsdp9st8ste87wj2jysak3g8uq9a8tg09nfhmv9rk2yjvp9ultxgpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerfw36x7tnsw43qfd4vee

Publishing to

relay.ditto.pub

Author Public Key

npub1nq6ztqk0qhj0uay4yfpmdzs0cqt6wks7txn0kc28v5fyczte7kvsr6salp

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Last Notes

2026-03-06 21:42:54 UTC

two issues I'm finding with using #Tiddlywiki for most of my personal documentation:
* my solution for self-hosting it with easy in-browser save is kinda PC-centric (I use rclone to serve a local directory as WebDAV over localhost, this could take requests from the LAN but that's still kinda PC-centric)
* unless I'm mistaken, there doesn't seem to be any way to have multiple copies open simultaneously and avoid edit collisions

2025-11-04 01:53:21 UTC

I really wish the Banana Pi BPI-R3 mini came with a USB3 port and two A7x cores in addition to that quad A53
it's an interesting little device though! I just wouldn't use it for any sort of USB NAS ... it's really gonna be best as a router (especially with 4G support!) and not much else, but it could act as a light-duty data sink in a role like keeping a Syncthing hot copy of your personal documents if you put a tiny NVMe stick in it though.
that Mediatek SoC should have good #OpenWrt support - keyword *should* - don't trust Me (I haven't checked), do your due diligence before buying one!
https://www.banana-pi.org/en/bananapi-router/149.html #DIY #SBC @nprofile…ah7c

2025-10-31 22:16:50 UTC

so, some random thoughts on #selfhosting decisions I've made as a technically-homeless semi-nomadic digital serf:
it would benefit me to be "dogfooding" Nextcloud more than I do, because my partner in Wordpress crime and I are learning it in order to be able to sell services installing & maintaining it for people who don't want to use MS365 or G Suite.
I do use Nextcloud for purposes related to our business together, but I don't yet have a personal install.
for calendar, todo, and contacts I use an install of Baikal on a penny webhost, with aCalendar and Tasks.org on my Android device (a desktop frontend is an unsolved problem)
for notes & documentation, I use Tiddlywiki
for file sync, I use Syncthing.
Nextcloud could do all of this in one fell swoop, so why don't I use that instead?
the answer, in short, has to do with *resilience* - specifically in the context of life instability which leads to an occasional inability to pay bills.

2025-10-22 05:59:18 UTC

updated the #NanoPi M4 with Armbian's armbian-config and it appears to have gone flawlessly ... and Youtube playback performance in Chromium on trixie is a LOT better than it was on bookworm.

2025-10-22 01:22:13 UTC

so, earlier today I made a subtle begpost as a reply to a post about how I use BikeRouter and CoMaps to bike around town to new destinations with no cellular service. that one was kinda tongue-in-cheek, low priority, just pointing out I'm currently too broke for a phone mount for my bike and a replacement Thinkpad T480 keyboard, both of which I kind of need of anybody can spare a few bucks, etc etc etc.
anyway, in the meantime, a domain I keep alive for a friend of mine who died in 2007 auto-renewed, and my penny hosting account got suspended because of it. that's the account where I have my CalDAV server... and I *just* got done overhauling my entire calendaring & tasks setup to use it. so now that's offline.
I am flat broke and could really use $22 to bring that account back online. anything beyond that would go toward a bicycle phone mount and/or a T480 keyboard (my M key and arrow keys are dead).
I've got a donate link in my bio or CashApp/Paypal available by DM on request.
thanks for any help anyone can give, even $5 makes a difference :blobheartcat:
#MutualAid #HelpPeopleLive2025

2025-10-22 01:05:24 UTC

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@nprofile…6kuw @nprofile…a4ty not sure if off topic but Cinnamon is really great these days in my experience

2025-10-01 00:38:21 UTC

I finally gave in and asked my therapist to spend today's telemed session collaborating on finally getting a care coordinator, primary care physician, and primary care dentist figured out, and made more progress in an hour than I have in the prior year. ADHD #BodyDoubling is real and it works.

2025-09-06 05:18:06 UTC

okay, it rebooted once since swapping out the power brick.
one other thing that's different is that the 2.5GbE dongle is plugged into a 2.5GbE switch instead of a 1GbE switch like it was on the covfefe table.
fuck it, gonna stick a 1GbE switch in between and see if it stabilizes.
I already set Proxmox not to start any guests when it starts up, to minimize problems from the repeat crashing. so I'll stick the switch in between and see what happens...

2025-08-25 23:55:34 UTC

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https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/proxmox-offline-mirror-released.115219/ 👀
#Proxmox #Debian

2025-08-25 23:52:16 UTC

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of course five minutes after posting that, I see that both apt-cacher and approx are packaged for Trixie.
I might try approx, it looks like it might be a bit better maintained than either apt-cacher-ng or apt-cacher...

2025-08-25 23:39:34 UTC

I'm sad to see there's been next to no progress on fixing bugs in apt-cacher-ng, and there are not really any easy alternatives for an apt caching proxy.
8 open merge requests on the Debian tracker. development appears to have been mostly moribund for a decade, and it's got a bunch of bugs 🤷

2025-08-23 20:50:19 UTC

Hardware Haven pokes at one of those fanless Intel N150 systems with 4x 2.5GbE
it works with 32GB memory (16GB officially supported), has an NVMe slot, and other interesting features such as an RJ45 serial port and some provisions made for 4G or 5G modems.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFbV9uoapuU
#N150 #CouchLab #HomeLab #miniPC

2025-08-21 03:34:26 UTC

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after determining that Secure Boot is pointless for my current use case, disabled it and now the module gets loaded and the interface comes up.
pretty sure that just took me like 3 weeks or so.

2025-08-21 02:42:03 UTC

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aha - Secure Boot is enabled, which apparently means that modules need to be signed 😑

2025-08-21 02:08:55 UTC

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okay, apparently that gets copied to /etc/udev/rules.d/ later.
so I wasn't making it up when I remembered past me having seen it there. but the module still isn't getting loaded.

2025-08-21 02:05:36 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm seriously dude. especially alcohol.
one of my parents was a drunk so I was never super into it, and even so, I witnessed a good amount of sheer mayhem in my teens and 20s as a result of alcohol. the stories only get worse, at least there's a slightly humorous aspect to getting your face licked by a drunk cougar with a concussion.

2025-08-21 01:56:56 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm it was pretty awkward, especially because we were the only 2 people on a 400+ acre ranch of sorts a couple miles out of town at the time!! she was drunk and possibly had a concussion from falling off a horse earlier, so I made her chill on the couch for a couple hours after taking her keys and wouldn't let her pass out. not exactly a great time!

2025-08-21 01:51:57 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm one of my lunatic sister's 40yo drunk friends licked the entire side of my face and propositioned me once, and I turned her down and took her keys until she sobered up. I was 18 tho.

2025-08-21 01:50:09 UTC

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# dpkg -L realtek-r8152-dkms
/.
/tmp
/tmp/realtek-r8152-dkms
/tmp/realtek-r8152-dkms/rules.d
/tmp/realtek-r8152-dkms/rules.d/50-usb-realtek-net.rules
... oh.
I'm gonna be super annoyed if I find out there was something really obvious about this in the README which I was unable to perceive due to brain freeze.
I know I'm harping on my bullshit a lil bit today, but I expressly decided to make Surfhosting at least mention some of the *reasons* one might be living on a couch and thus have a couchlab, and I cannot overstate the impact of cognitive dysfunction - #AutisticBurnout - on my ability to do complex work.
I can be staring directly at the solution to a problem sometimes and be unable to perceive it, like I'm a Westworld android and it's a doorway I'm unable to see.
going back to the docs.... again.....

2025-08-21 01:44:50 UTC

I am still flailing at the networking issue. it's going very slowly because there's an immense amount of info (forum threads, blog posts etc) to sift thru on these stupid dongles. also because I was so cracked out this morning I didn't drink any covfefe, so on top of the brain fog I have a caffeine withdrawal headache.
anyway I've managed to figure out that despite the fact DKMS built the driver, it's not getting loaded for some reason. and after the first boot subsequent to the module being built (e.g. after purging and reinstalling the .deb), the DKMS start job fails. I'm not sure if that's related to the module not being loaded or if it's a separate non-showstopper problem. I am having a lot of trouble comprehending what I'm looking at due to the cognitive issues.
https://github.com/awesometic/realtek-r8152-dkms

2025-08-20 20:04:00 UTC

got headscale back up and running, which reduces the complications I face getting the main problem I'm having - networking on the new server - resolved.

2025-08-20 18:50:22 UTC

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anyway I can feel my ability to grasp all the necessary info at once starting to evaporate, I've been focusing on re-establishing personal routines for maybe 10 days and was hoping I'd have a few more days before this happened so I could pivot and fix my setup, but it's happening now so I need to try to fix stuff asap. so that's what I'm going to do.
I will probably go quiet on social media for a bit if the pattern does indeed evolve as it almost always does.
love you subscribers - the favs and comments really do help, especially with keeping fluctuations like this limited to energy and cognitive ability, rather than also infecting mood and potentially becoming a much bigger problem. ❤️

2025-08-20 18:46:06 UTC

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this is a big reason I'm trying to turn my setup into a documentation project, because (as longtime readers can probably see) there are actual reasons I live on a couch and am lucky to not be living in the woods like I did briefly in 2024. and I know there are other people out there going thru similar shit who also make their best money from dev work, and don't want to use, or can't keep up with the pointless change in, Big Tech systems to do so.

2025-08-20 18:42:48 UTC

I post about mental health topics mostly on my personal account, but for anybody wondering what's up with the current state of this project and my #CouchLab, I have a strong tendency to global energy fluctuations, and right now I'm into a hard overextend of a "+" or high energy phase, very close to the point where maybe 19 out of 20 times it collapses and inverts to a "-" or low energy phase. I have got to figure out the network/DKMS problem on the new server, and a problem with my Headscale server, TODAY, or it's likely to be another week or more before I can manage another solid attempt.

2025-08-19 23:25:52 UTC

tfw Jandeep the megacorp customer service droid was all set to issue a refund for your entire grocery delivery when only 1 package of it was misdelivered to a neighbor (who then donated it to a food bank), and you're honest with him and alert him to his mistake, because his overworked ass is not getting fired on your account

2025-08-19 07:00:27 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm sometimes the tells are really fucking obvious 😂

2025-08-19 06:42:44 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm observations like this are one reason why I love reading neuropsych research into personality - traits and disorders both.

2025-08-19 02:13:39 UTC

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@nprofile…743j I hadn't heard of that one - thanks for the tip!

2025-08-19 02:06:27 UTC

hmm, well, it looks like my #GLiNet GL-MT3000 'Beryl AX' is not dead, it just doesn't power up reliably with at least one USB-PD power supply and certain USB-PD compatible cables (which contain a so-called e-marker chip which reports how much power they can safely transmit).
this is probably because the device doesn't support USB-PD and expects a dumb 5V power supply, which USB-PD power supplies are *supposed* to act like when first connected, but maybe sometimes they don't.
it did work for quite a while with a USB-PD brick and a USB-C cable, but then didn't work a couple times after I had to pull the power for other reasons, so I removed it from service assuming it was dead until I could test it more thoroughly.
well, I just got around to doing those tests, and Beryl AX definitely doesn't like a pair of short 100W-capable USB-C cables I had, but more interestingly and/or worse, it sometimes likes a couple 60W-capable cables and sometimes doesn't, at least on the given power supply.

2025-08-18 02:25:21 UTC

as I mention on main a couple days ago, the time has come to quit the Youtube recommendation algo.
I am looking for a FOSS #Youtube app on Linux desktop and/or Android which:
* lets me watch my subscriptions by some form of logging in, even if my traffic originates from a suspicious data center IP
* de-emphasizes or even refuses to support the recommendation algo
* video plays in GUI (i.e. a UX that is downloading to watch separately)
* supports commenting (optional)
* is able to download videos if desired (optional)
* supports SponsorBlock (optional)
boosts appreciated!

2025-08-13 18:42:03 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm I'm not sure I've ever finished a video game in my life tbh, at least not the way the designers intended. maybe Bioshock 1, but if so I forgot the ending.
I only started messing with Minecraft in late 2023 and pretty soon I was off building a nature park on one of my servers... in fact I have no idea what one is "supposed" to do in Minecraft!

2025-08-13 18:27:19 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm interesting! I don't like puzzles or quests (except in Nethack, which kinda counts as a puzzle game which is a giant quest, but that one is because it's descended from the first game I ever played on the family computer) and generally go for one of 3 things: MMOs due to the social aspect, FPSes with a strong creepy factor like Bioshock 1, or (theoretically) walking simulators with big visually appealing worlds to explore. Minecraft also seems like it would be appealing but like all the rest, it's hard when living under constant sensory overload.

2025-08-13 18:03:35 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm lol, I remember CDs, I started a "CD ladder" about a year before my life collapsed and it was nice having it pay back out once a month for 12 months while I was basically incapacitated at the start of my current life eon

2025-08-13 17:56:03 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm I haven't played a video game in about 5 years, at this point I kinda want to play more than I do, but I can't deal with any which increase processing load, decision-making load etc (the latter being why I abandoned Stardew Valley)
so... walking simulators only, maybe

2025-08-13 17:49:41 UTC

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@nprofile…wru8 is this the new show?
if it's good, I might watch some TV again for the first time in years

2025-08-12 21:16:33 UTC

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a different dongle (on a different port) appears on the bus but now dkms.service blows up 💀

2025-08-12 18:38:58 UTC

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to be fair, I am not sure this particular dongle ever worked with this particular port on this machine, it's one of the dongles with Power Delivery support (which I have found out it, and the other PD dongle, both do by integrating a USB 3.x hub) but when I was first testing, it might have been plugged into the other server which is powered by USB-PD.

2025-08-12 18:34:40 UTC

I installed that third-party r8152 driver .deb and then booted up with a dongle plugged in and the dongle no longer appears on the USB bus at all :blobfoxmeltsob:

2025-08-12 00:40:41 UTC

re: OpenAI GPT-5 rollout
> "I’ve spent months building a system to work around OpenAI’s ridiculous limitations in prompts and memory issues," wrote one Reddit user in the r/OpenAI subreddit. "And in less than 24 hours, they’ve made it useless."
that's what you get for trusting Big Tech.
lack of megacorp rugpulls is a major reason why I do things the way that I do.

2025-08-11 07:01:28 UTC

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one mildly terrifying potential option to deal with the buggy 2.5GbE dongle drivers would be to figure out how to build a custom kernel for Proxmox VE and then figure out how to pull in the recent fixes for the driver... 😑

2025-08-11 06:59:51 UTC

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I'm not sure if there was a regression in the driver for the dongle between the kernel I was using with Proxmox 8 and the one that ships with Proxmox 9 ... can't remember which dongle I was using with Proxmox 8 on the previous server either

2025-08-11 06:58:32 UTC

managed to determine that the "unused" dongle (and the software bridge that it was a member of) was not in fact unused, which is why all my services are broken this time
like I said... can't rely on my own brain due to the endless sensory overload
anyway, I'm not sure what I'm gonna do about this problem, since 2.5GbE dongles are problematic (but why did it work before???) and apparently so is the 1GbE one

2025-08-10 23:15:46 UTC

Photos show Israelis demonstrating for the release of hostages and ending the war in Gaza
Israelis held protests calling for the immediate release of hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and for an end to the 22-month war. Israel’s plan to take over Gaza City to pressure Hamas renewed international calls to end the conflict and stirred fears for hostages still in #Gaza.
Full gallery: https://apnews.com/photo-gallery/photos-israel-palestinians-hamas-protest-hostages-gaza-b024755c7fedd64dcab6c110b2ec1a34
personal note: credit where credit is due. #Israel
https://mastodon.pirateparty.be/system/media_attachments/files/115/007/012/387/552/936/original/cdbb16b290fa349e.webp
https://mastodon.pirateparty.be/system/media_attachments/files/115/007/012/463/366/688/original/573914417710e024.webp
https://mastodon.pirateparty.be/system/media_attachments/files/115/007/012/531/050/285/original/a7e9731c27dc06aa.webp
https://mastodon.pirateparty.be/system/media_attachments/files/115/007/012/598/075/589/original/f0d898eecc93e10b.webp

2025-08-09 23:12:26 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm my circadian rhythm is pushed pretty late at the moment, but I've been considering trying to switch to monk schedule... right now I'm more likely to see the sunrise because I'm still awake.
my cycle is constrained by the fact that the only time I can have any solitude, ever, is when my housemates are asleep, so I have to be up late or up early in order to meet even a small fraction of my need to not be "on," and biologically speaking I'm an extreme night owl - though I learned (after 20 painful years battling so-called 'delayed sleep phase') that I can control it fairly well with melatonin, light exposure, and avoiding alcohol & opioids.

2025-08-09 23:09:19 UTC

"nettlesome" is a great english word btw

2025-08-09 23:04:02 UTC

okay. trying to calm down about the Beryl AX device dying.
fortunately, the entire reason I bought it in 2023 was to do a wifi bridge in a challenging environment with my GL.iNet GL-AXT1800 'Slate AX' at the other end ... which I was planning to swap in for the Beryl AX soon anyway, and which is actually already configured with the same network settings and everything (due to reasons)
so... swapping it in now will be pretty easy, I believe only the static leases and tcpproxy setup will need to be configured in order to do so.
then comes figuring out how to get Beryl AX replaced on warranty before the deadline 😑

2025-08-09 22:59:29 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm I need to go on some night walks, always loved doing that since I was a kid. I started sneaking out just to wander around at night when I was 11 or 12.

2025-08-09 22:36:06 UTC

un..fucking..believable
I just finished posting my previous post and my #GLiNet GL-MT3000 'Beryl AX' died.
as in, won't power on. different cable, different power supply, etc... nothing.
I'm very close to the end of my rope in terms of being able to tolerate BASIC FUNCTIONS of devices I depend on not working.
no idea if it's still in warranty either.

2025-08-09 22:14:42 UTC

okay, trying to get my brain back on track to fix these gremlins once and for all.
unforunately I think that mt76/filogic bug in #OpenWrt where ethernet ports are unstable, gives me 2 options for my #GLiNet GL-MT2500 'Brume 2' router which is currently the router for what I call "ancestralnet," which is what the new-to-me server, and all my legacy VMs, are on.
that router is running OpenWrt 24.10.2, which doesn't have the fixes in it yet. they may well make it into 24.10.3, but I don't have that long to mess around. and, I don't currently have the brainpower to eliminate the second-level routers and have mama router+nas box do it all.
so, I either have to upgrade Brume 2 to OpenWrt snapshot, which involves rebuilding the entire config, or I need to revert to GL.iNet's stock firmware for the time being.

2025-08-09 21:13:20 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm yeah at this point I'm thinking I need to get it figured out because it's been impacting my ability to work for nearly a decade. I have absolutely no filter for human activity in shared space, there is no "tuning it out" or any such thing.
if someone is active nearby and it could conceivably involve me, the sounds etc *will* be processed completely in the foreground, period, I have zero choice in the matter. this combined with the nearly nonexistent stability of my working memory ends up meaning that I'm simply not able to self-regulate, let alone do complex knowledge work, in any household where there is 1 or more people who don't have a "when at rest, tends to stay at rest, when busy, tends to stay busy" activity pattern like I do and like my parents did when I was growing up.
I also get mesmerized by TVs, like I can't sit facing a TV in a restaurant, etc etc. there is definitely something unusual about my sensory gating/filtering/attention mechanism.

2025-08-09 21:04:39 UTC

inside me there are two wolves
one has 100% of his (few) extroversion stat points in the 'affiliative' column, gently socializes skittish cats, listens to super girly folk pop & trip hop, attends hippy festivals as a sparkly faun in a kilt, and yearns for a utopia of software developed in a non-adversarial manner which allows people to reach their full potential ✨together✨
the other has most of his (very heritable, trust me on this) trait narcissism stat points in the 'antagonism' column, gets his arm shredded by indulging cats' desire to battle, listens to Type O Negative and NIN and Tapping The Vein, can be spotted walking around town in all black with 10 inch lace-up leather boots, and is a classic cigs & covfefe doomer wojak BOFH
...it reminds me of when I asked my dead best friend which of my pastimes defines me best, and he said "being torn apart by your own tidal forces"

2025-08-08 20:18:22 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm I hope it works out for you!!
speaking of this and SNAP and such, I'm currently trying to figure out whether/how to get an accurate diagnosis of the sensory shit that impacts my ability to work. so much of this stuff is under threat due to Trump. we are going to see a major increase in homelessness, anything that keeps you (and me) out of the mad max tier is a good thing

2025-08-08 20:13:25 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm yeah, that bit about inflation is true ... my reason for hoarding the SNAP $$ is just that I suspect I'll get kicked off it pretty quickly due to Trump & co, but of course whatever value is on the EBT card stays on the card in such an event.
that being said, you should see the pile of canned goods, dry beans, pasta, flour, etc next to my couch right now 😆

2025-08-08 03:14:20 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm I think what I might do instead is hoof it to the store and get an Italian sub as consolation prize, my pizza craving could be warded off for a little while by that. I do need some other stuff as well.
I am trying to buy as little premade food as possible with SNAP so as to hoard the dollars, which is cool because I do often bake my own bread and shit like that, but I allow myself like 10% of the monthly allotment on premade stuff and I haven't spent any of that yet.

2025-08-08 03:06:07 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm ugh, I might. it's either that or I make a bunch of pasta tonight, or another round of the rice & beans I had for brunch...

2025-08-08 03:05:04 UTC

oh god dammit!!
https://github.com/openwrt/openwrt/issues/17351

2025-08-08 02:54:02 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm I have been craving pizza for a while now. no cash.
I could probably get a frozen one @ the supermarket since my SNAP reup just came, but I live with vegans and it would probably be kind of lame to bake it in their oven.

2025-08-08 02:48:23 UTC

the new-to-me server appears to have spontaneously rebooted about 6 hours ago, along with the other gremlins going on. nothing in the journal. I have no idea what is causing it or how to proceed.

2025-08-03 06:53:02 UTC

network is still unstable. all my services went down yet again, but this time it's the link between the shelf where the servers normally live, which currently only has the nas+router on it, and the covfefe table where the servers are sitting until I get everything stable - they're there because that's where the display is, and because there's much more space than on the shelf.
I'm hoping to diagnose the problem tonight, currently regaining energy after a social event.

2025-08-01 07:29:43 UTC

bro what
the e1000e card came back to life on its own after like 4 hours downtime, while I was too busy flaming dipshits on Lemmy to apply the fix yet
that's a new experience!!

2025-08-01 05:21:52 UTC

I suppose it's worth pointing out that this is *definitely* a repeated issue with Linux (and Proxmox) on the big-name #miniPC ecosystem.
get a mini PC that was originally a high-end model, chances are it has an Intel NIC which is absolute trash.
get a mini PC that was originally a lower-end model, chances are it has a Realtek NIC which is absolute trash.
get a USB NIC, chances are it has a Realtek chip and/or reverse-engineered driver which is absolute trash.

2025-08-01 05:12:03 UTC

Intel is truly the Boeing of the semiconductor ecosystem

2025-08-01 04:54:27 UTC

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shit like this begs the question - what should the liability be when a company (in this case Intel) puts out hardware like the e1000e that is absolute trash and so fucking buggy half its features have to be disabled in order for it to work?
https://forum.proxmox.com/threads/intel-nic-e1000e-hardware-unit-hang.106001/

2025-08-01 04:48:04 UTC

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meanwhile, I'm pretty sure the first time I encountered bullshit due to e1000e, it was in the 5.x kernel days.

2025-08-01 04:46:49 UTC

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ah yes good.
e1000e detected hardware unit hang.
I think this may be semi easy to fix, if my vague memories of bad experiences with shitty #e1000e hardware in the past are correct.

2025-08-01 04:44:10 UTC

the server has become unreachable again, but this time it's still up and I can log in via the console. not sure what the problem is yet, but I'm having problems containing my rage over basic functions not working properly. I don't have the energy or mental bandwidth for this.

2025-07-22 09:32:42 UTC

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or, the other way is with Proxmox's (relatively) new software-defined networking feature, where as far as I understand it, the "router" is just some Linuxy way of specifying packet routing which Proxmox is now aware of?

2025-07-22 09:30:14 UTC

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anyway now I think I need to replicate some of the network arch that exists on the server which this is essentially replacing (and taking the name of) ... there are two ways to do that, either the way I currently do it which is to manually create bridges etc for certain groups of vms and run an actual software router in a tiny vm to forward traffic to the outside world, which is less insane than it sounds when you remember, everything has to work with me having zero access to change anything about the internet connection available on my couch ... it's just a pipe ... and those software routers typically have a 24/7 vpn running ... 😵‍💫

2025-07-22 09:24:01 UTC

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I think I roasted one of my SATA SSDs a little bit due to running like 20 virtual machines on it without knowing any tricks other than turning discard on in every possible place...

2025-07-22 09:22:36 UTC

okay whew got lvm set up.
32GB optane lvm thicc for vm swap and such
120GB nvme lvm-thin with writethru Optane cache, for database servers etc
700GB nvme lvm-thin
and then the system has various partitions large & small on the Optane stick and on a 2TB QLC SATA SSD. set up to minimize writes to the QLC disk which is used for hypervisor boot volume and a couple vms I don't want on lvm.

2025-07-17 04:45:52 UTC

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ah, but mine claims to be a gen 5, maybe it's different.
I gotta get a list of every official HP widget that's compatible with these... 2.5GbE that *isn't* USB on either or both of these minis would be great
this is exactly why I stick with megacorp business PCs thus far btw

2025-07-17 04:42:05 UTC

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right, I'm installing a SATA SSD, I can just velcro it
but I hadn't put the 2.5GbE m.2 thing together yet, though not 100% sure where the physical port would go?

2025-07-17 04:39:58 UTC

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> Mine didn't come with a caddy for a 2.5in drive, I just bought the connector and used Velcro on the lid. 2 x 2280s fit nicely next to each other, plus a 2.5gb Ethernet m.2 card instead of the wifi.
🤯
https://web.archive.org/web/20250717043723/https://old.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1aiulh9/how_to_get_3_drives_installed_in_a_hp_elitedesk/

2025-07-17 04:36:06 UTC

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https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Desktop-Hardware-and-Upgrade-Questions/Elitedesk-800-g5-mini-pc-I-install-a-second-ssd-nvme-can-t/td-p/8706597
not good
I wonder if there's a 3D printed solution out there (or a different 2.5" caddy part from HP)

2025-07-17 04:33:34 UTC

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trouble in paradise: the 2.5" SATA caddy blocks the second m.2 2280 slot, which is double height for some reason

2025-07-17 03:42:20 UTC

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servicing overdue 🤢
https://mastodon.pirateparty.be/system/media_attachments/files/114/866/503/049/009/565/original/49090e7f551243be.jpg

2025-07-17 03:37:39 UTC

here are the siblings:
new-to-me HP EliteDesk Desktop Mini™ gen5 (Intel), and
existing HP EliteDesk Desktop Mini™ gen8 (AMD), very dusty
https://mastodon.pirateparty.be/system/media_attachments/files/114/866/484/614/435/498/original/92652e7d2daf010a.jpg

2025-07-16 06:02:58 UTC

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@nprofile…sdt0 1 liter is where it's at 😆

2025-07-16 03:56:32 UTC

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@nprofile…sdt0 I'm prob gonna switch to U-series CPUs when Zen 5 is cheap used, I'm still on 35 watt CPUs for everything non laptop... but miniaturization was & is a big concern for me

2025-07-10 18:04:44 UTC

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@nprofile…jvky I've made a couple attempts over the last 15 months to learn an immutable Linux for the server side, namely @nprofile…ne4z Container Linux, because when it comes to running web apps whose primary supported distribution method is a container, I want to run them with an absolute minimum of maintenance, and make them difficult to escape if an exploit is found.
I am still struggling with it mostly due to the rather arcane way of specifying a deployment, but that also has as much to do with my own cognitive problems which stem from living on a couch as it does the Flatcar way of writing config files that are used to provision a system... and also this being my first foray into "cloud native" thinking, after running Linux the old skool way since 1994! 👴🏻

2025-07-09 04:25:07 UTC

very interesting Intel N150 #miniPC from Aoostar for a NAS or NAS+router combo box
https://aoostar.com/products/aoostar-n1-pro-intel-twin-lake-n150-mini-pc-with

2025-06-29 03:57:15 UTC

couldn't focus all day, but now messing with my attempt to develop a @nprofile…ne4z based Wordpress hosting pod, and ran into a super annoying problem because I'm remote and using VNC (for the moment) to talk to the Flatcar box to get it to pull down its config... the 'm' key on my Thinkpad is dead - I pasted in every 'm' in this post - and you can't paste into VNC windows, at least not with NoVNC as provided by Proxmox.
I have no idea what a genuine Lenovo keyboard costs, but since one USB-C power port on this laptop is dead and the other one isn't doing well, I suspect I'll end up getting a $30 knockoff when I have $30 to spare.

2025-06-28 22:50:22 UTC

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@nprofile…sdt0 heh. I had an attack of restless leg going on as well, so I was flopping like a fish out of water for a while.
did a little research later and surprise, restless leg syndrome correlates with ADHD...

2025-06-28 05:16:54 UTC

whoops, got overstimulated and had to lay down and twitch for a while

2025-06-27 22:48:25 UTC

by the way... the phone interview I had to do for SNAP approval was another success story for the hardware VOIP phone a kind reader gifted me a few months ago.
it just works so much better than Android and desktop apps.
I of course brought it with me over here (it can charge via USB-C and does not require its cradle), and when it rang today I was able to just answer it with no fumbling and without missing the call.
(since SIP calling was ripped out of AOSP, most generic VOIP apps on Android are ... not great. though I do note one is helpfully reminding me of voicemails once an hour, that's useful.)

2025-06-27 21:43:59 UTC

I got approved for SNAP (food aid) less than 24 hours after I applied due to being $6.50 below the income cutoff for expedited application 🎉
one big effect: I'll be much better able to afford occasional non-food expenses like allergy meds (if unmedicated, my allergies here are so bad during mid to late summer that I'm incapacitated, it's unreal how bad hay fever can get)
another: I'll more easily be able to take opportunities for alone time like the one I'm having now, without having to figure out how to drag multiple kilos of food with me like I did this time.

2025-06-26 02:49:27 UTC

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@nprofile…d8jm lucky you, enjoy it brother

2025-05-22 19:37:35 UTC

other observations, which I've shared before but am observing again:
devices with dual or quad core ARM A5x processors are pretty good at routing packets, but if your application involves one doing a lot of encryption or decryption (especially in userspace), they can be limiting.
in my case because I have multiple well-separared networks and was moving the backups from a machine on network A to a machine on network B, it was easiest to use Tailscale (which I deploy on the routers, which isn't what they suggest) ... anyway, the router on the source network can only push data over Tailscale at 250Mbps despite the connection only traversing local equipment (no round trip thru the internet). I confirmed its dual A53 CPU is maxed out at 100% while doing this.
and no, I couldn't (easily) just move the files on the NAS, because the NAS is accessible to multiple different local networks, and because of low performance from the NAS's quad A55 CPU, I encrypt everything on it on the source machines. since I don't have an ARM version of gocryptfs on the NAS, I have to move the files from one source machine to the other.

2025-05-17 20:30:52 UTC

it never fails, update a bunch of Debian VMs and 12.11 drops within the next 3 days 🙄

2025-05-15 21:04:55 UTC

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@nprofile…nzz3 the worst part about this: the site I am currently having problems with is the resources + forums + .deb repos of the weird Debian flavor (Bunsenlabs) which I run on virtualized desktops 😭
fortunately updates to the packages in said flavor are rare enough that I can probably ignore this for 3 months and see if it solves itself.

2025-05-15 20:42:34 UTC

as somebody with no "home internet" of my own who therefore relies on a 24/7 VPN, let me tell you I am getting very sick of dipshits simply wholesale blocking data center IPs as a "security policy"

2025-05-10 19:27:25 UTC

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@nprofile…sdt0 I want to get an e-scooter but it'd have to be folding, and light enough to take on the bus ... major concerns with theft where I live now

2025-04-13 05:13:35 UTC

so based on recommendations, it looks like a Pixel 8 kinda fits the bill and is running about $310 right now, that's doable sometime in the next few months I think? maybe

2025-04-12 23:34:37 UTC

thinking ahead to my next phone running @nprofile…m8mr - anybody got opinions on Pixel 6a vs Pixel 7 (those exact models)?
I'm looking for a phone that will last for years. currently satisfied with a Poco F1 with Snapdragon 845 and 6GB RAM.
I'm really leery of the lack of microSD, but I want to try #GrapheneOS as a daily driver, so. #surfhosting

2025-04-10 02:43:37 UTC

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@nprofile…2nyz seen https://www.nomic.ai/gpt4all minimum system requirements?
https://github.com/O-Codex/GPT-4-All/blob/main/gpt4all-chat/system_requirements.md
disclaimer: I have not tried this. #localAI

2025-04-05 22:28:45 UTC

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but thankfully there are parts of my #surfhosting tech stack which are fairly settled already:
OS: #LinuxMint; #Debian (with #LXDE if needed, or #BunsenLabs); #OpenWRT
Virtualization: #Proxmox
Hardware: refurb "1-liter" #1LPC business #miniPC from HP, Dell, Lenovo, with mid to high end CPU
Network: #GLiNet and #FriendlyElec #NanoPi routers / network-attached devices
Phone: #VoipMS with dedicated SIP phone, plus softphone apps for limited use

2025-04-05 22:15:46 UTC

the main reason I haven't launched the damn website yet is that I'm still doing primary research on how to answer the question: what is an acceptable set of software to use and how to use it, to selfhost my digital life and a suite of web services while semi-nomadic?
the fact that I am evolving how I do that on nearly every front means everything takes 5x the effort right now because there's no muscle memory for the new ways yet. but it won't be that way forever. and once I settle on some answers to some of the open questions I have, I can document all those decisions as part of launching the damn website.

2025-04-03 04:26:56 UTC

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it's also fairly terrible that doing this the FOSS way requires a minimum of 3 apps: a calendar app which can save tasks via CalDAV (I believe the default app on recent Android meets this description), a CalDAV server which supports that, and the Tasks app
there are like ... historical reasons for that or whatever.

2025-04-03 04:24:44 UTC

I think doing a mindful assessment of Thunderbird and whatever uhh other first-line desktop calendar apps for Linux that I can find with #CalDAV and task support vis-a-vis how they interact with tasks created by Tasks.org (Android) ...... is on the agenda for this coming week. I need to get this done. I need a phone-plus-desktop solution for calendar CRUD that works with my tasks app and calendar app on Android sufficiently gracefully that I can tolerate it.
I have been looking for a drop-in replacement for Google's Android implementation of reminders for like 6 years. I started de-Googling that long ago (wow) and one of the first things I pulled off Google was my calendar and contacts. anyway a lot has changed in 6 years so maybe I'll find something.
preliminary indications: Thunderbird is not giving good vibes, I added a task on my phone and it popped up a window so I could dismiss like 4 weeks worth of upcoming reminders 😬 #PIM #selfhosting

2025-04-01 23:30:59 UTC

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> Through June 30, the BrightDrop 400 and BrightDrop 600 are available with $25,500 purchase rebates throughout the country as part of the 2025MY BrightDrop Consumer Cash Program.
> BrightDrop's superior range is what pushes prices above the others. Ford’s vehicle has about 140 miles at full charge, and Rivian’s is slightly higher. The BrightDrop van goes nearly double the distance, at 272 miles with maximum range battery pack and all-wheel drive.