Justine Smithies

Friend, Lover, Sister, Mother & Wife
Loves cooking
BSD, Linux chick
Mobiles: #Fairphone4 #OnePlus6T #OnePlus6 #PinePhonePro
Watch PineTime
Hand wired #Pico #QMK #Keyboard
Daily drivers:
#ThinkPad P14s Gen 1 AMD - #FreeBSD with #CoW ( #FVWM for #Wayland )
Dell Optiplex 3080 Tower - #OpenBSD with #MangoWM and #Waybar
Editor: ed(1) vi/nvi
HomeLab: #FreeBSD

Public Key

npub1w65rptwmg7gr50yqjdmje49s8kfk4e95hwqgzr2zqpfynjzt29lq0z6kyw

NIP-05 Address

justine@snac-smithies-me-uk.mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs8d2ps4hd50yp68jqfxaev6jcrmym2uj6thqypp4pqq5jfep94zlspz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds0dg008

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1w65rptwmg7gr50yqjdmje49s8kfk4e95hwqgzr2zqpfynjzt29lq0z6kyw

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Last Notes

2026-08-02 20:39:00 UTC

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Promise to see Jesus in the morning light

2026-07-26 07:52:09 UTC

Still playing about with #CoW aka #fvwm on #Wayland and I'm finding / reporting some bugs but I'm still not sure how I feel about stacking window managers?
Who here still uses fvwm and why?
Even better share with us your desktop screenshots.
https://codeberg.org/thomasadam/cow
#WindowManager

2026-07-23 19:48:20 UTC

Check your backup system regularly!
I just checked mine and noticed that the #Bastille jails exports had stopped all because I wasn't passing the --live option. All fixed now but still that could have been a disaster for me.
#FreeBSD

2026-07-12 20:56:41 UTC

I really think it's time for me to put some time into learning #ipv6 so I can bring my home network into the future. I think from the looks of things though I'd need to keep ipv4 going for compatibility reasons until I totally work stuff out.
I know I might install VSAT equipment and networks onboard vessels for a living but that is all ipv4 with no ipv6 whatsoever. So this would also help me improve my skills too.
Just hope Julie is forgiving if I accidentally break things temporarily. 🤣

2026-07-11 20:26:27 UTC

If I were to run #PostmarketOS on a #Fairphone 5 is #Duranium use able for daily usage yet or I be advised to run edge instead ? #LinuxMobile

2026-07-07 18:13:03 UTC

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I know I'm a long way from home. I'm down for an ECDIS course at Raymarine tomorrow then home on the red eye Thursday morning.
CC: @nprofile…juu0

2026-07-07 18:04:35 UTC

32°c here in Fareham ! I'm not used to this heat so I've nipped into the TGI Fridays across from my hotel for dime food and cocktails. It's all on expenses and as I said to my boss I always have cocktails on a Tuesday evening. 🤪

2026-07-07 09:55:04 UTC

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Might not be so bad as was a 12:40 flight now possibly a 14:00 flight.

2026-07-07 08:54:18 UTC

Got to Edinburgh airport for my flight to Southampton and apparently it's delayed but doesn't yet say by how much. 🙄

2026-07-04 21:19:51 UTC

Found a cheese I've not yet tried so tomorrow I'm going to sample Mimolette that's 12 month cave aged. I have to say that it's very orange in appearance.
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-89d112e9169d83e4f21a09ce89ff89f3.jpg

2026-07-01 18:23:46 UTC

Still puzzled by my #ThinkPad running #FreeBSD 15.1-RELEASE-p1 as if I run doas poweroff or doas shutdown -p now or even doas reboot or doas shutdown -r now it will do as expected. But if I leave my laptop for say 10-30 minutes without any screen lockers it will start to reboot or poweroff and unmount geli then start detaching devices like USB and it then hangs indefinitely.
It used to work in 15 I'm sure it did as I always poweroff at night. I have submitted a bug but I can for the life of me figure this out as it doesn't make sense ????
What difference would leaving the laptop running for an hour make to a shutdown or reboot command? I'm using efi too and everything seems fine I think??
Any suggestions glady accepted.

2026-06-28 13:41:56 UTC

Oh no! After yesterdays doas pkg upgrade I just noticed that qutebrowser was uninstalled and the qt6 version for amd64 still isn't available for #FreeBSD 15 Latest.
https://www.freshports.org/www/qutebrowser/

2026-06-21 17:42:45 UTC

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Tried it twice now and it powers off without issue. What does that do and is there the same for reboot ?
So I'd need to add that to my loader.conf or sysctl.conf ?
CC: @nprofile…5n0k

2026-06-21 17:14:45 UTC

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fastfetch does but shutdown -p now sitsclike in the photo and on random tries powers off or reboots if told to.
CC: @nprofile…5n0k
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-3136f4d2957d8ed6a4499f098d6ccce2.jpg

2026-06-21 16:26:45 UTC

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With sorry
CC: @nprofile…5n0k

2026-06-21 16:14:03 UTC

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The plot thickens! After about 5 to 10 minutes if I rerun fastfetch it no longer shows the pkg count. If I run doas fastfetch I get the error where the pkg count should be of Authorization required, but no authorization protocol specified but then if i close the foot terminal window and open a new one the next time I can just type fastfetch and it shows the pkg count again as normal. I'm confused could this be some issue with #FreeBSD 15.1 as it surely can't be fastfetch ? Also I'm not sure if this is related but after upgrading to pkgbase using doas poweroff or shutdown -p now and doas shutdown -r now or doas reboot don't always work. They unmount geli and detatch all usb stuff then sometimes hang forever. Yet the next time they work. So could those two things be related or just a coincidence ? Reboots and poweroff used to work everytime before. #FreeBSD
CC: @nprofile…5n0k

2026-06-21 15:26:13 UTC

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OK after a reboot and fastfetch now displays the pkg count. That really doesn't make any sense as I have done nothing other than try run it as root ????
CC: @nprofile…5n0k
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-ee6861a31c9b30b4c2cb63e18916e1fe.jpg

2026-06-21 15:21:30 UTC

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Now that's weird! After running as root and closing the foot termianl window everytime I open foot and type fastfetch it now shows the pkg count. I'm away to reboot and see if it still works ?
CC: @nprofile…5n0k @nprofile…5n0k

2026-06-21 08:30:09 UTC

Noticed that on my ThinkPad P14s AMD Gen 1 with #FreeBSD and ZFS as the filesystem that it would sometimes nearly use up all of the 16GB ram. So as I only have a 1TB NVME I decided to read up and found that really 1GB is sufficient for every 1TB of drive. So I set the maximum to 2GB and the minimum to 1Gb and hopefully this will be OK for my laptops desktop useage?
/boot/loader.conf
# Set Maximum for ZFS ARC
vfs.zfs.arc_max="2147483648"
# Set Minimum for ZFS ARC
vfs.zfs.arc_min="1073741824"

2026-06-21 07:21:00 UTC

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I have fastfetch-2.64.2 installed already as I'm using latest for ports.
CC: @nprofile…5n0k

2026-06-21 06:51:07 UTC

Something I have noticed since switching my #FreeBSD to pkgbase is that the output of fastfetch no longer shows the package numbers. I can't see what would changes would have affected that but there it is.

2026-06-21 06:29:15 UTC

So this should really be added to the #FreeBSD Handbook then don't you think?
Re: https://mastodon.bsd.cafe/@grahamperrin/116784954897006714

2026-06-20 19:05:44 UTC

Think I've sorted my conf files for using pkgbase now, They are as follows:
/usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD-base.conf
FreeBSD-base: {
url: "pkg+https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/base_release_${VERSION_MINOR}",
mirror_type: "srv",
signature_type: "fingerprints",
fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkgbase-${VERSION_MAJOR}",
enabled: yes
}
/usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf
FreeBSD-ports: {
url: "pkg+https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/latest",
mirror_type: "srv",
signature_type: "fingerprints",
fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkg",
enabled: yes
}
FreeBSD-ports-kmods: {
url: "pkg+https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/kmods_latest_${VERSION_MINOR}",
mirror_type: "srv",
signature_type: "fingerprints",
fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkg",
enabled: yes
}
Hopefully that's me sorted now.
#FreeBSD

2026-06-20 18:01:18 UTC

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Well pkgbasify did it's stuff and I've rebooted. This is what is in the relevant files and if some clever #FreeBSD could confirm that they look OK then I'm officially using pkg from now on instead of freebsd-update.
justine@nprofile…hl5m-laptop ~ $ cat /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD-base.conf
FreeBSD-base: {
enabled: yes
}
justine@nprofile…hl5m-laptop ~ $ cat /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf
FreeBSD-ports: { url = "pkg+http://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/latest"; }
justine@nprofile…hl5m-laptop ~ $ cat /etc/pkg/FreeBSD.conf
#
# To disable a repository, instead of modifying or removing this file,
# create a /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf file, e.g.:
#
# mkdir -p /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos
# echo "FreeBSD-ports: { enabled: no }" > /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf
# echo "FreeBSD-ports-kmods: { enabled: no }" >> /usr/local/etc/pkg/repos/FreeBSD.conf
#
# Note that the FreeBSD-base repository is disabled by default.
#
FreeBSD-ports: {
url: "pkg+https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/quarterly",
mirror_type: "srv",
signature_type: "fingerprints",
fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkg",
enabled: yes
}
FreeBSD-ports-kmods: {
url: "pkg+https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/kmods_quarterly_${VERSION_MINOR}",
mirror_type: "srv",
signature_type: "fingerprints",
fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkg",
enabled: yes
}
FreeBSD-base: {
url: "pkg+https://pkg.FreeBSD.org/${ABI}/base_release_${VERSION_MINOR}",
mirror_type: "srv",
signature_type: "fingerprints",
fingerprints: "/usr/share/keys/pkgbase-${VERSION_MAJOR}",
enabled: no
}
```

2026-06-20 17:49:04 UTC

OK then I'm away to possibly break my #FreeBSD 15.1 install on my #ThinkPad by going all modern and pkgbasify it. Wish me luck! 😟 :runbsd: :freebsd:
https://github.com/FreeBSDFoundation/pkgbasify

2026-06-20 08:48:53 UTC

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https://docs.freebsd.org/en/books/handbook/cutting-edge/#_upgrading_a_host_using_freebsd_base
CC: @nprofile…tctv

2026-06-20 08:45:09 UTC

Maybe I'm being a bit simple but reading the #FreeBSD docs for upgrades using pkgbase and it says to create this file FreeBSD-base.conf which I understand. The part that is messing with my grey matter is where it says to chose one of the options below. I'm on FreeBSD 15.1-RELEASE and have my ports on Latest so which of these two do I chose ?
main - pkg+https://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/base_latest
releng/15.1 pkg+https://pkg.freebsd.org/${ABI}/base_release_1
Or something else entirely ????
HELP PLEASE before I pkgbasify my ThinkPad ❤️

2026-06-17 18:17:35 UTC

Anyone running #FreeBSD 15.0 > that used to use freebsd-update fetch install tried to pkgbasify their system ? If so did it all go smoothly or should we all just put those thoughts to the back of our minds until nearer the time of FreeBSD 16.0 ????

2026-06-16 18:21:50 UTC

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UPDATE Installing drm-latest-kmod in place of drm-kmod has resolved my issue and I am now typing this out from my #MangoWM setup. 😁
Sorry #FreeBSD maybe you should mention something like this if folk are running latest in the handbook as it just says to use drm-kmod ??? Just a suggestion. 😎 :runbsd:

2026-06-16 18:16:47 UTC

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Well I'm away to find out if this fixes my none booting amdgpu module.

2026-06-07 11:05:32 UTC

Oh ! There is no deltachat-desktop in #FreeBSD 15.0 Latest. 😞
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-3c04f95fe85832a613efbd8ab5eb7139.jpg

2026-06-06 15:12:58 UTC

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We just tried audio and video calls on #DeltaChat and it works perfectly as Julie gave me the bird. 🙄🤣

2026-06-06 13:01:47 UTC

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Haha ! Julie now has #DeltaChat using the BSD Cafe server.
That was easier than I thought it would be. 😀

2026-06-06 08:49:43 UTC

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I've had Delta Chat installed for a while but only had the BSD Cafe Lounge group chat and never really used it properly. So I think it is time to start doing so and adding more contacts.
CC: @nprofile…slxm

2026-06-06 08:31:54 UTC

Think I'm going to try and persuade Julie my wife to install #DeltaChat and see how she gets on. Also I want to try out voice and video calls privately first before getting adventurous. Baby steps. 😜

2026-06-03 16:29:37 UTC

Anyone able to see if they can open this link please ?
It's the second link on gnu.org and I get nothing.
https://www.gnu.org/software/src-highlite/

2026-05-31 16:24:09 UTC

OK So I'm having that much fun with ed(1) that I've ordered a copy of @nprofile…4c9a "Ed Mastery". Fun times ahead! 😉

2026-05-31 14:04:43 UTC

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TIL That ed(1) displays unicode symbols and I'm totally surprised by that! 😲
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-40abbab1b5631834d60068e458b3f037.jpg

2026-05-31 07:23:37 UTC

So #FreeBSD folk what are you doing if anything re the rsync issue? Are you staying or switching to openrsync?

2026-05-28 22:02:39 UTC

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cursor movement by words you say. 🙃
CC: @nprofile…6cws

2026-05-28 20:47:56 UTC

I've a question for folk that use the vi keys h,j,k,l in everything including their window manager.
What do you then use the arrow keys for ?
I'm only asking as a h,j,k,l user as it seems like a waste.

2026-05-27 16:47:03 UTC

Just thought I'd reinstall #OpenBSD 7.9 again and then switch to the latest snapshot to see if my not being able too boot /bsd past the 14th May snapshot and it now fails to verify the downloaded stuff 😂
Good thing I've still my trusty #FreeBSD laptop.
Even more random redoing the sysupgrade -s and it passes straight away and upgrades. Does it boot the /bsd ? No it does not only boot.rd and boot.sp boot.
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-66200d3f0f5c81294f7e58ec19335265.jpg

2026-05-26 18:26:22 UTC

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Shout if you need any help and be sure to use the hashtag #FreeBSD so that others see your posts and can maybe help too. Fingers crossed you get that fan issue resolved.

2026-05-26 17:58:58 UTC

Reinstated my custom #FreeBSD boot logo on my old #thinkPad P14s Gen 1 AMD. :beastie:
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-ff3a720d016fb4d9fc2ec452ecdf4688.JPG

2026-05-25 17:59:24 UTC

Benefits of living in a Scandinavian wooden built house in Winter is that it retains the heat.
What are the disadvantages you might ask?
Well summer as it is currently 28.8°C in our living room right now with the windows front and back open. 🔥☀️ #Scotland #Aberdeenshire

2026-05-24 14:44:25 UTC

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Don't apologise it really isn't your fault at all. I just find it strange that for near a year I have been running -current on that same machine and randomly the kernel stops booting after the 14th May snapshot. I can easily rollback to any date before that and it boots perfectly fine.

2026-05-24 14:32:18 UTC

OK then. I have just dowmloaded the #OpenBSD 7.9 img and done a fresh install on my desktop machine wiping everything from the past out. It boot perfectly fine on release so I proceeded to switch to my usual -current as per the docs and it ran through the upgrade without issue.
Can you guess what happened when it tried to boot the /bsd kernel on this intel i5 machine ?
That's right it failed with the same error 255 that the bugs mailinglist told me was an issue I had probably caused so go reinstall. I knew it wasn't me as it was extremely starnge how I could rollback before the 14th May or earlier with out any issues it always booted the /bsd ( MP ) kernel but after the 14th May it would not but would boot the copy I had of the last working /bsd renamed /bsd.xyz
I'm too tired to go back to the misc or bugs mailinglists to be told it's me. I know I wouldn't have got that response from the #FreeBSD devs so maybe it is a sign from above ? :runbsd:

2026-05-24 14:08:57 UTC

Still I cannot doas sysupgrade -s past 14th May snapshot as the /bsd kernel fails to boot. Both you and I are fed up hearing this too. So today I'm downloading OpenBSD 7.9 and I will wipe my desktop and start a fresh in the hope that once it's installed and I switch back to -current it'll still boot the kernel ?
Yes I know if I stay with -release it'll be all good under the hood but that's just not my style. I like to moan incase you've not guessed yet ? 🤣
I am however reevaluating my BSD of choice and the outcome probably will partly depend on how I progress. :beastie: or :openbsd: ???

2026-05-17 09:04:57 UTC

So today on #OpenBSD snapshot dramas. I obvs am successfully running on the 14th May #473 snapshot so today run doas sysupgrade -s and it downloads today's snapshot and then runs the upgrade but then this comes up on screen and it reboots and tries the uograde kernel again until I tell it to boot /bsd
Things are going on in OpenBSD dev land and I can't see anything in the mailing lists ? Also what the fsck is an ai.log ????
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-7d331386c8426e62024c54303f81b097.jpg

2026-05-16 13:55:04 UTC

OpenBSD update issues I've had are resolved!
Thank you to everyone who gave me things to try to resolve my #OpenBSD Dell Optiplex 3080 i5 not wanting to boot /bsd but would only boot /bsd.sp and bsd.rd
I tried everything from booting bsd.rd and upgrading to using doas sysupgrade -s but each upgrade failed the same. I even deleted /bsd so it remade it after an upgrade but still the same.
Finally after thinking the next step was to do a fresh install I decided to try rolling back the snapshot to the 1st May. This is not recommended but what had I to lose ?
So i entered doas sysupgrade -sf http://ftp.hostserver.de/archive/2026-05-01-0105/ and guess what ? It only boots into /bsdnow and I have all my CPU's back !
Yipee ! 🎉
Now to see if a doas sysupgrade -s does it's stuff and still boots /bsd`
#RunBSD :openbsd:

2026-05-15 07:34:25 UTC

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Just did another doas sysupgrade -s and still it will not boot into the bsd.mp yet it boots with bsd.sp ??
I just get reading symbols then error 255 unknown for the mp kernel.
How can I fix this issue on my Intel #OpenBSD desktop?

2026-05-14 21:19:17 UTC

Just did a doas sysupgrade -s on my #OpenBSD desktop as i do most days and today when it rebooted it fails to boot. Yet if I just type b followed by enter it then boots correctly ???
I'm at a loss what that last update on the -current` snapshot did ??
kern.version=OpenBSD 7.9-current (GENERIC.MP) #475: Thu May 14 12:34:48 MDT 2026
deraadt@amd64.openbsd.org:/usr/src/sys/arch/amd64/compile/GENERIC.MP
It won't boot by itself when I normally hit enter at the boot prompt before. Now I enter b and it boots ???

2026-05-09 09:23:28 UTC

Called out to sunny Fraserburgh and logged into a VSAT. 🙄
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-a290bcd0c1ac8dd86e0088ddd3c5e6ff.jpeg

2026-05-08 11:15:59 UTC

So glad that I'm running #OpenBSD for my laptops, PC's and #FreeBSD for my servers after reading about copy fail and dirty frag. #RunBSD :runbsd:

2026-05-08 10:30:20 UTC

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I'd be interested to find out if you come across a UK bank that runs on a rooted Android device or even just works with a plain old web interface.

2026-05-03 16:12:30 UTC

Do you think that an N5105 router PC with 8Gb ram 256Gb NVME and 4 x i225 2.5G ports could handle a 1Gb PPPoE connection without issue plus handle a firewall running #OpenBSD ?
Currently I have an N100 running OpnSense but want to pick up a S/H unit to try OpenBSD with the aim of switching if Currently I have an N100 running OpnSense but want to pick up a S/H unit to try OpenBSD with the aim of switching if successful.

2026-05-02 12:05:51 UTC

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Julie says her ducks aren't in a row and she's pretty sure that one of them is a pigeon. 🤣

2026-04-30 18:40:27 UTC

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Just had a look at what #OpenBSD provides for radicale and it has the latest versions of both py3-bcrypt-5.0.0p0 and py3-passlib-1.9.3p0 .
This does make me want to stand up an OpenBSD server too and I know you're going to say "But ZFS!!!", I can live without that though with a good backup / restore setup. I'm only thinking out aloud at the moment but you never know. 🤨

2026-04-30 17:58:13 UTC

Oh great just updated my #FreeBSD Bastille jails and my radicale now fails to start with the following errors.
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] Logging of backtrace is disabled in this loglevel
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] Loaded default config
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] Loaded config file '/usr/local/etc/radicale/config'
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] Skipped missing/unreadable config file '/root/.config/radicale/config'
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] Starting Radicale (python=3.11.15 radicale=3.6.1 vobject=0.9.6.1 passlib=1.7.4 defusedxml=0.7.1 bcrypt=5.0.0 argon2-cffi=25.1.0 pika=1.3.2 ldap=n/a ldap3=2.9.1 pam=n/a) as user=root(0) groups=wheel(0),wheel(0),operator(5) on FreeBSD-15.0-RELEASE-amd64-64bit-ELF
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth type is 'radicale.auth.htpasswd'
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth.strip_domain: False
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth.lc_username: False
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth.uc_username: False
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth.urldecode_username: False
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth.delay: 1.000000 seconds
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth.cache_logins: False
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth htpasswd file: '/usr/local/etc/radicale/users'
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth htpasswd file encoding: 'utf-8'
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth htpasswd cache: False
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] auth htpasswd encryption is 'radicale.auth.htpasswd_encryption.bcrypt'
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] Read content of htpasswd file start: '/usr/local/etc/radicale/users'
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [INFO] Read content of htpasswd file done: '/usr/local/etc/radicale/users' (entries: 1, duplicates: 0, errors: 0)
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [WARNING] bcrypt module version '5.0.0' >= '5.0.0' and passlib(libpass) module version '1.7.4' < '1.9.3' found => incompatible, downgrade bcrypt or upgrade passlib(libpass)
[2026-04-30 18:52:44 +0100] [12116] [CRITICAL] An exception occurred during server startup: The htpasswd encryption method 'bcrypt' requires the bcrypt module but not usuable
I've tried reinstalling all the usual suspects like py311-bcrypt and py311-passlib which I think the latter is the issue here but it will not start not even from service radicale start
I'm running on the latest 15.0-RELEASE-p7
Anyone ??

2026-04-27 19:48:09 UTC

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OMG That doesn't look good !

2026-04-22 19:27:20 UTC

Just found #bwm which is basically a Wayland compositor based on #bspwm
https://github.com/dy-tea/bwm

2026-04-21 19:57:24 UTC

Tinkering around with my Xenocara and Wayland configs on #OpenBSD as I realised that my xterm and foot terminals gruvbox colors were not the same. So my inner OCD kicked in and resolved the mismatches so they both look alike now. I am currently running under Wayland but do keep flicking back every once in a while as I miss nice things like redshift and currently there is nothing for Wayland in the OpenBSD ports. Also I my wee retro brain keeps wanting me back in xterm although foot is nice too. So does this mean that I'm proper old school ? 🤓 :runbsd:

2026-04-19 08:46:18 UTC

Had a panic this morning as my #Fairphone 4 was dead. Wouldn't respond to the power button no screen nothing. Had to remove the battery for a few seconds and put it back in. Booted up fine then, I wonder if this is a sign for me to source a replacement ? Although I'm not decided on getting a Fairphone 5 that can run #Linux or #IodeOS or whether to get a pixel pro 9 and go with #GrapheneOS ? I'll probably end up procrastinating until my FP4 dies properly knowing me. 🙃

2026-04-15 11:56:50 UTC

What with all this #Wayland goodness arriving on #OpenBSD allowing me to run the likes of #MangoWM and all those amazing devs who are putting together OpenBSD 7.9 it certainly does feel like "The year of the OpenBSD desktop" to me. I'm living my best life on my computers right now. :openbsd: :runbsd:

2026-04-14 07:03:49 UTC

I'm not sure who knows or not and quite frankly don't care but way back in 2007 I came out to my family as trans. My immediate family IE my wife and children all took it very well and we stayed together as we were still in love each other and still are very much so today. Unfortunately my mother and her husband and my Dad and his Wife ( Yeah they got divorced when I was about 5 or 6 ) did not and cast me out from the family. Things like finding out that my mothers side Nan and grandad passing and the whole family even cousins were told never to tell me. I looked up to my Dad and tried a few times to reach out but including mentioning that I don't want anything from him other than love and friendship and that I didn't want his money I'd rather be poor and happy. But alas he wanted nothing to do with us. I mean in 2013 when our eldest Cameron passed away just 4 days from his 16th I called my dad absolutely distressed to let him know that his Grandson had passed away to get the instant reply "What do you want me to do about it?". I hung up straight away and couldn't believe what I'd just heard. But to be fair my mother was as bad as both parents didn't even want to know their grandchildren and days before Camerons funeral I got a card addressed to Cameron and on opening it I discovered it was from my Mum who'd never spoken to him sending him his own in memorial card. I was horrified and so never tried to contact any of them again I soon found out family isn't always blood.
Anyway enough of my drama but this morning my Wife Julie got a messenger call from my brother who also thinks like my parents telling her to let me know that my Dad has passed away last night. You want to know what's bad ? I really do not know how to feel about this ? Yes when i was a child I looked up to him and he took us everywhere but later in life as I became myself and had a beautiful family he did not want to know me or them. I feel sad and heartless at the same time. What is wrong with me ? Anyway I need to go and bury my head in some code or something as I'm off work this week and maybe take a walk ?
Sorry for going on.......

2026-04-11 16:02:30 UTC

Argh! I'm currently nursing my #Fairphone 4 with #IodeOS 6 on it right now, But I'm left wondering aka fighting internally as my brain is a right pain in the proverbial as to whether I keep the FP4 and upgrade IodeOS or purchase a FP5 and put #PostmarketOS on it. Or even maybe purchase a Pixel 9 pro and go #GrapheneOS ??? Either way I'm going to have to keep a device for UK banking apps be it an old mobile or a tablet. But what to do ? Aren't you glad that your head doesn't work like mine ?

2026-04-08 18:16:37 UTC

Just looking at the #OpenBSD #Wayland section in ports and OMG they just about have everything I'd need for now. All it's missing is wlsunset for day/night gamma adjustments and I'd be an extremely happy bunny. At the moment I'm still using Xenocara with Herbstluftwm. ;)
My Wayland happy list: Mango, Foot, Fuzzel, wl-clipboard, kanshi, wlopm, swayidle, swayimg, swaylock, waybar and Dunst.
https://sr.ht/~kennylevinsen/wlsunset/

2026-04-08 12:04:46 UTC

I'm annoyed that in order to go from IodeOS 6 to 7 I'll have to wipe my Fairphone 4 and start afresh. Means trying to remember all my banking passes etc and yes I tried seedvault last time but it didn't recover everything.
I really wish all banks used web logins still as I'd drop Android and attempt to go Linux with a FP5.
Rant over and sorry.

2026-04-05 16:49:15 UTC

Was at work today as on call onboard an supply vessel in Aberdeen harbour. It was blowing a gale at the top of the mast but check that view.
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-aafa104cbf050d98d0b1b540acf9ca0b.jpg

2026-04-02 16:09:24 UTC

Up early tomorrow to head to Inverness for work onboard the Lord of the Glens. A fancy vessel for taking folk up and down the Caledonian canal and they stay onboard. To look at their sat TV system and 4G router plus access points. So a busy day. Roll on Monday when I'm finally off call.

2026-04-01 19:46:11 UTC

I've still not given up on #Vi as my editor instead of #Vim and to be perfectly honest, I'm not really missing the fancy Gruvbox theme and Vim's auto-completion. It's making me learn new tricks and stops me relying on the help of plugins. Good for the old grey stuff I'd say! I even changed the 88x31 button on my websites footer from Vim to Vi. #RunBSD #OpenBSD

2026-03-30 16:31:23 UTC

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Is that all on one box or is it on a VPS ? What's the specs ?

2026-03-29 08:59:47 UTC

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Thanks Antonio. I have Unicode symbols in some of my scripts but I'm wondering if I actually need them as they are just for display ? If I decide that I do them I will be switching to nvi2 but for now I'm going to try my hand at OpenBSD's default n(vi).

2026-03-29 07:27:52 UTC

Whoah ! My #OpenBSD #vi config is a hearty 10 lines long compared with the 260 of my minimal #vim config. Yeah I know I don't have theme support and what not but I'm prepared to give this a shot without all the fancy bells and whistles. The only thing it doesn't do is display my icon fonts in scripts but it's made me wonder if I even need them now. Yes nvi2 will display them but it feels like cheating to install that when n(vi) is in the base on OpenBSD.

2026-03-28 21:20:20 UTC

I think I'll give #vi a go on my #OpenBSD desktop instead of using #vim for a while and see how I get on. Got my config in ~/.config/vi/exrc and I'm learning new to me stuff so all is good.

2026-03-28 21:00:40 UTC

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Got it now. So I can select from the cursor to the end of the line with `y$'. Perfect !
CC: @nprofile…z0lh

2026-03-28 20:52:20 UTC

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Thank you Niels ;)

2026-03-28 20:48:25 UTC

I think I'm being a tad stupid here ? How do I select text in vi or nvi not vim if it has no visual mode using just the keyboard ? Everything I search just gives me vim results.

2026-03-28 15:08:21 UTC

Hmmm decisions decisions. As an #OpenBSD user I usually prefer #vim with just 2 plugins installed my gruvbox theme and colorizer to color html color codes. But I'm wondering if I really need syntax highlighting and theme support ? You can see my rough and I mean rough .kshrc side by side in vim and vi. I do like a splash of color and do enjoy the command completion though so I guess I will tinker further with n(vi) further.
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-eaf7d2143a476318c1b7fca64e0b3018.png

2026-03-28 09:12:24 UTC

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Also something else that I have noticed as an #OpenBSD user is that vi and nvi undo functions seem to both work the same ? I mean you can press u in both to undo and then press . to do multiple undos. Yet I thought it was only nvi that had that feature? I'll have to read up more on both to find differences.

2026-03-28 08:36:05 UTC

Currently I'm a #vim user with only two plugins loaded by vims own system no packer or anything. They are the gruvbox theme and colorizer to color HTML color codes.
I've been researching to see if I could work with #nvi and wondered about undo history and found that it might be possible ?
u
Undo the last change made to the file. If repeated the u command alternates between these two states. The . command when used immediately after u causes the change log to be rolled forward or backward depending on the action of the u command.
If you're an nvi user what other tips or hacks are there that I should know about ? I don't suppose there is some magical way to theme it ?

2026-03-23 21:12:24 UTC

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On new fishing boats like the one I posted last week are full of cat6 cable. We can put on say in the region of 200-300+ plugs. The video matrix uses them for screens all over the vessel and internet systems plus CCTV and other stuff too. Gives you sore fingers when you've made that many. Well done.

2026-03-21 17:05:24 UTC

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The trawl doors. You should see the size of them on pelagic fishing vessels.

2026-03-21 16:56:20 UTC

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Hey I see what you did there ! But honestly there's a time and a plaice for that. 🤣

2026-03-21 16:51:51 UTC

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Haha No I didn't. I don't think that they would quite like it as fishermen don't generally like computers.

2026-03-21 13:27:46 UTC

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Some more photos from inside the Ocean Way PD.
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-95b719905e94d3c66e22cddfb0437a90.jpg
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-4f0e2009346d052ca269d8fb383f8ee2.jpg
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-0c420dc4ac51eda1f4b86e4c2a9be85f.jpg
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-e89f2d520dc5ea8e4c1989b65060af5e.jpg

2026-03-21 13:24:42 UTC

Got quite a few snagging jobs done aboard the Vigilant and Ocean Way in Peterhead this morning. Ranging from replacing one of the very heavy Neovo QX55 inch screens as the port one had a black line across the screen like missing pixels. Fitted a UPS to the vessels office PC, Programmed private channels into their Sailor VHFs, Installed the correct drivers for one on their two fushroim scales pribters and various other stuff. Even found time with the skippers permission for a few photographs for you lot. I didn't take all around but you'll get the gist.
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-d3589651e104dd9a086906a05587d6be.jpg
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-b42014751a38e12fffdfb2e02e88e3c9.jpg
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-9f9761baeb4fa2d5f1305ac4379f9fd2.jpg
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-76fa79c5aa01b05f422af4e1982563ff.jpg

2026-03-20 17:57:23 UTC

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Oh wow ! Enjoy your time off and hopefully you can relax.

2026-03-20 16:37:08 UTC

Bugger! I've to work tomorrow now. I really need to book a week off just to recharge my batteries. I'm physically done.

2026-03-19 22:14:04 UTC

Just learned that the road into Peterhead near the power station is going to be subject to delays for the next 87 weeks ! Why you might ask ? So that SSEN can bring wind farm electricity ashore to sell abroad for to make much needed revenue for Westminster. I can guarantee that our electricity prices won't be getting any cheaper.

2026-03-19 19:14:43 UTC

OH so it looks like the new #Vim fork #Evi is looking to drop vim9script.
Feature freezing vimscript and implementing Kuroko scripting?
https://codeberg.org/NerdNextDoor/evi/issues/46
That's a no from me then. Think I'll just be sticking to what I know which is Vim.

2026-03-18 19:22:49 UTC

I'm this close 🤏 to reinstalling #OpenBSD back onto my Thinkpad. Might be a project for this weekend? :runbsd: :openbsd:
Artwork by @nprofile…d7ls
https://analognowhere.com/
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-470fdbb7402133e57b8fc8b50637c736.png

2026-03-07 20:26:40 UTC

Thought I'd better grab myself a copy of OpenBSD Mastery: Filesystems by Michael W Lucas. Can't wait to start reading this and hopefully I'll learn something new. :openbsd:

2026-03-05 13:28:09 UTC

Serious question why are there not that many packages for #Wayland stuff on #OpenBSD ? Is it everyone prefers X over Wayland ? Or just waiting for someone to port over stuff like Fuzzel for example ?

2026-03-04 21:10:17 UTC

Why am I drawn towards using my #OpenBSD desktop more than my #FreeBSD laptop ?
#RunBSD :openbsd:
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-6e2ec3ca549dddf6c58f90638be49145.png

2026-03-04 12:16:34 UTC

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Knowing how 💩 the UK mail / parcel services are , I'd say Australia got there first.

2026-03-03 15:36:56 UTC

Look what I stumbled upon protruding from a console on a fishing boat. It doesn't work just left there to fill a home.
#RetroComputing
https://snac.smithies.me.uk/justine/s/post-897acda73d6c1f22b3386a002545c2c9.jpg

2026-03-02 21:09:59 UTC

Hypothetically if I were to look for another #ThinkPad on the likes of Ebay ( new as in not older than 4-5 years ) and wanted to use #OpenBSD on it with working suspend and resume as well as working intel AX200/AX210 WiFi.
Which model would you suggest ?

2026-02-28 08:30:56 UTC

It's 08:25 on a very frosty but sunny morning here in Cruden Bay and all I've done so far is make my wife's breakfast before she went out to work, Fed the two cats and put the dishwasher on. I'm now sprawled on the sofa still in my nighty with a hot cup of earl grey catching up with my fediverse friends. I might even go for a walk later down to the harbour and back but other than that I'm just going to chill.

2026-02-28 08:11:15 UTC

Before I bite the proverbial bullet. Is someone on the #fediverse using a #Fairphone 5 with #PostmarketOS edge on it ? Is it as good as the wiki suggests ? What are the gotchas apart from the documented ones on the wiki?
Please boost ❤️
#LinuxMobile