Since last time, I’ve finally learned how to make rootless podman work on Alpine Linux and it’s been pretty smooth so far.

My Pi4 is quietly running HomeAssistant and I like to leave that untouched so I don’t have to worry about pooping in the dark. I learned that the container requires root in order to access the Zigbee USB dongle through dbus so I can’t really run it as a rootless container. It’s not web facing so it’s locked down to my local network which is good enough for me.

My Pi5 is finally up and running again. Got a new, shorter domain name, managed to get the TLS set up in one go with Caddy which was nice. Right now I just have a bunch of wiki’s hosted with Kiwix and a file server using Caddy.

I’m putting the final touches on my series of scripts I wrote meant for automating backups. rTransfer for the actual backup, remoff for rotating backups (I plan to keep 1 backup a week, over a months time), and containers-util(work in progress) to automatically start and stop containers in preparation for a backup.

A bit crazy but I’ve been working on this whole backup process on and off for about a year now. It’s all POSIX portable except for a few commands like rsync and podman. Once I finish the last script, I’ll set up a blog and then my server will be secure to my liking and very low maintenance (my keep-alive script I also wrote has been working better than expected).

I also wrote a Dynamic MOTD script which updates /etc/motd with some basic information about the machine so I can get a quick look at the machine I’m ssh’ing into. I’m quite happy with how it turned out too.

I’ve been trying to use as few programs as possible and building my own when I can. It’s been quite the adventure this past year and a bit.

It’s actually a plug in power outlet that plugs into a dual outlet box. It’s a snug fit so it’s able to hold all the extra weight surprisingly well.

It’s hard to see but I made a hook with the cable wrap holding the Pi5 and it hooks onto the cable wrap that goes the top of the quad outlet. That top cable wrap won’t slide down because I have two USB cables holding it in position. I designed it so I can easily detach it in case I need to do anything with the Pi5 or it’s hard drive.

I tried really hard to balance the Pi5 but the grey ethernet cable has too much weight so that’s the best I could do. I think I did a pretty good job all things considered :)

My little Raspberry Pi 5 with an old 1tb Hard drive connected to a WiFi extender. It ain’t much but I like it.

I used to work in automation as an electrician so I’m all about those coils and curves.

I keep everything I do as minimal as possible.

Everything is documented using either sh scripts or markdown style plain text files. If I need anything more than that, I’m over complicating things for my brain.

The upside to this approach is that it works anywhere because it’s all just text files and it’s very tiny in size. I am more interested in making low-power/low-spec things work so less is appropriate.

I used to work in automation within the auto industry. Once I became aware of the damage I was doing by being an enabler, that shit began to eat away at my mental health. I knew I had to make an exit plan when all of my day dreams while working there involved Molotov cocktails.

I don’t envy anyone who has to deal with that kind of mental load. Knowing the harm you’re causing while wanting the opposite but still needing to survive the next day, week or month.

Thanks, I’ve learned a lot about Linux focusing on learning POSIX portable scripts. It’s been an experience.

I just have two containers. Caddy which handles let’s encrypt certificates and Kiwix to host Wikipedia plus about 10 other wikis, ranging from Linux coding to first aid, gardening, and other stuff meant for local self sufficiency.

I also use Caddy as a basic file server. I have a number of self sufficiency books on there, POSIX coding references and all my scripts and notes on Alpine Linux. I also have a static blog site there simply using Caddy as well.

I have a strong focus on minimalism so I don’t intend in going crazy with self hosted services. Also I have huge trust issues with so many self hosted projects so making my own projects when possible means less exposure to security vulnerabilities, AI or enablers of Authoritarian powers.

I spent a lot of time making it secure with some added obscurity so only myself and those who I share my site with can feel safe connecting to my server. It’s been quite the learning adventure.

Let me know if you have any issues with the motd script. I gather most of the information from /sys/ and /proc/ files so hopefully it’s consistent and accurate across other distributions. I’ve only tested it on Alpine Linux.

For the past couple weeks I’ve been working on getting a small self hosted server up and running. It’s running off a Rasberry Pi 5 + a portable USB 3 hard drive so it’s quite small and simple. It runs Alpine Linux and I’m using rootless podman to manage my containers.

I’ve been writing my own backup system which are all POSIX portable scripts focused around rsync. One script handles chains of rsync commands based on files. One script handles the number of backups and the current script I’m writing handles stopping and starting containers for before and after a backup.

All the scripts are minimal, focus on one specific task and easy to use in scripts. There’s lots of focus on making them safe to use with lots of error handling.

After that I need to make a keep alive script because I lose all connectivity to the server sometimes, including ssh. The device isn’t frozen, just stops talking for reasons unknown. After that I want to secure my ssh connection with wiregaurd and my server will be secure and low maintenance enough for my liking.

I have my completed scripts up on codeberg.

I’m currently in the process of setting up my home server again but this was basically my setup before. Alpine Linux + SSH + Docker and I kept everything to a minimum.

This time I’m setting up rootless Podman in place of Docker and as of today the switch over is complete.

I’m thinking of trying to use wireguard as a way to secure my ssh port but I’m still trying to learn and figure out if that’s possible.

With all the security and trust issues hitting the self-hosting headlines, less and simple is completely fine with me.

For blogs I found two interesting projects that are super minimal. BashWrite uses only bash and sed commands but it seems to be no longer under development.

Another bash script that seems to have more development activity is BSSG. This one requires a markdown processor such as cmark or pandoc but it’s still quite minimal.

I love minimalism and writing scripts so these two projects really interest me.

I run a super minimal setup for my server and home network devices but I still like to see how the self-hosting scene is evolving. It’s changed so much in the last year alone.

I think one reason why I choose to run such a minimal setup is because there’s so many trust issues that seem to be developing over time with so many different projects. At the very least, every weekly newsletter keeps me inspired to keep creating my own projects.

Recently I just finished writing my own back up system including rotating out old backups using only rsync and POSIX portable shell commands. I wrote the scripts to be adaptable to many uses outside of just backups so I am really proud of how they turned out.

My next self-hosting project is something far more absurd and I’m excited to start developing it.

I use a Pixel 6 which has a light up biometric finger sensor under the screen. I’m constantly flashbanging myself…

I had the opportunity to live in Berlin for a year. I made friends with a group of Yemen students. All of these people had friends, family or relatives bombed to death. Over the course of 2 weeks, one person lost 3 relatives to the bombings…

These people were sent to Germany to study and be as far away as possible from the horrors at home. Away from friends, family, everyone.

I was told that after flying to somewhere near Yemen, it would have taken another 16 hours to travel by road to get home. Their parents refused them coming to visit because it was just too dangerous.

I don’t know how they managed to hold their shit together and carry on even as their families were getting bombed back home.

It broke my heart and I felt powerless to even attempt to comfort them. I’m sure they felt a sense of powerlessness that’s beyond anything I could understand at that time.