echo ${core_dump} > /www/blog

LUKS, Linux Unified Key Setup, is a way to encrypt partitions on Linux. It’s a good way to store sensitive data on a flash drive or on your main system. Usage is super simple. You issue a command to unlock it and it will prompt you for your passphrase. After entering the right one, you can mount the partition and use it as normal. When you’re done with it, you umount the partition and lock it with another command. Without the right passphrase the data on the partition is just noise. ...

Rsync is an amazing utility to copy (or sync) stuff from one place to another without having to worry about the command getting cut. With a plain cp, an interrupted transfer means starting over from scratch. Rsync compares source and destination, skipping files that are already there, and with --partial it can even resume a file that was only halfway through. It can also remember ownership and permissions, and even copy over ssh. That is, with the right flags, which I can never remember. Hence this post. ...

I’m used to formatting disks on Linux with GParted, but unfortunately there’s no version for MacOS. They offer some sort of bootable image, but that sounded like a hassle. Luckily it turns out MacOS has a built-in tool. Usage is simple. I wanted to format a drive to ExFat, and all it takes is: 1 diskutil list To list the drives on your system and find the name of the one you want to format. Then: ...

I recently noticed myself wanting stuff, then thinking on it only to realize I didn’t really. It’s like ADHD greed and I blame YouTube. Anyway, this got me thinking. What do I own that I really do value? I own things I would replace on the spot if I lost them, but there are also things that couldn’t be replaced. So there are things I value enough to acquire them a second time, but there are also things I value more. Things that cannot be replaced. ...

Typing takes time. Typing without typos is an art. Fixing mistakes in a terminal command is a pain in the neck. Luckily there’s such a thing as aliases. An alias lets you set a keyword and a command it should expand to. For example, I have set a super simple one, which is widely used: alias ..='cd ..'. This allows me to write .. in terminal and it will act like cd .., saving me typing a c, a d and a space, followed by two dots. This seems minor, but when you imagine how often I need to go up a directory in terminal, it’s a huge timesaver. ...

I have a ZFS dataset named data, mounted at /data, which I bind-mount into my LXC containers. The dataset is a three drive set with a lot of storage space. Basically, this huge pool of gigabytes is shared by all LXC containers that need to store serious amounts of data. Think Immich, for photo storage, or Jellyfin and all the movies, series and music it has to be able to play. As you may imagine, having several different LXCs write to the same “drive” may cause permission issues. ...

It’s about that time. There’s a new version of Proxmox VE in town and it has had a couple of months to “stabilize”. Now is the time to bump up the version of that homelab. I’ve pulled the trigger and did the upgrade. The following is my experience with doing this update. I’ve run into some issues, which all got solved and I didn’t break my server. Prerequisites You must be on PVE 8.4.1 or newer before upgrading. Check with: ...

I have too much shit. It’s been 40 years of me gathering it and storing it. On my dad dying I inherited even more shit. Shit that’s even harder to part with. I like a bare environment. My living room sports two couches, a coffee table, a tv dresser with a tv and sound bar, a large closet, a dinner table, six chairs, a sideboard, two plants a lamp and a statue. That’s it. There are no more furnishings. No clutter, no fluff. Well, ok - the two sofa’s each have two pillows. I had to fight the wife to get it down to four total. Oh, and the house came with a wood burner, which I’ve placed a stand with a set of tools like thongs, a poker, brush and scoop next to. There’s also a single photo frame on the large closed with six photos too. We also have a decorative samovar on the wood burner. Still, when comparing to living rooms of people I know, mine- well ours is quite sparse. A better example; the bedroom. All it has is a bed, a dresser, two nightstands and a wooden ladder on which the wife hangs clothes in between clean and dirty (don’t ask, I have no clue). In the kitchen there’s a breadbox, salt, pepper, oil and a coffee maker on my counters. Oh, and a fruitbowl. ...

I just moved my server into my server rack. This sounds silly, but it was a desktop-like enclosure, not a rack mounted one. I do have a rack mount in my basement, but it mainly held switches and the likes. Now it also holds my server and it’s amazing. The reason for posting this, apart from celebrating the joy of having done this and getting rid of the server sounds in the office, is that I figured there’s a tip to be had! ...

It’s been a while since I wrote one, but the other day I finally finished my tutorial on setting up Proxmox Backup Server. It’s a detailed account of what I did. I mainly write these to clean up the notes I take while working on things. If I left the notes as-is, in a few months I’d have no idea what I actually did. The notes simply don’t contain everything, so while it’s still fresh in my mind, I turn them into a tutorial. I do so mostly for myself, but hopefully its useful to others as well. ...