Monthly Archives: February 2023

My IT Infrastructure at Home #0

Hello, dear reader! In this post, I want to tell you about my server and the infrastructure it runs.

What?

This infrastructure is a collection of self-hosted services aimed at providing a secure, privacy-respecting, and versatile platform for various media and network-related tasks. It consists of several categories of services:

Why?

I prefer not to use most cloud services because they are often non-free, do not respect privacy, sell user data, display ads, and have other issues. I want to get rid of most of the cloud services I currently use, and I also plan to host my own email in the future.

Infrastructure of the RLOC Network

First, what is RLOC?

RLOC is the name of my local network, RLOC stands for Rainbow LOCal, why? Because I like rainbow!

What services do I run?

Critical:

  • PiHole + Unbound – For blocking ad, trackers, and more!

Media:

  • Emby – Media server, for movies, cartoons, anime, and music.
  • qBittorrent – For downloading media.

Free/Libre:

  • SearXNG – A privacy-respecting, open metasearch engine
  • Invidious – A privacy-respecting YouTube frontend.

Tools & Management:

  • OpenSpeedTest – Free & Open-Source HTML5 Network Performance Estimation Tool.
  • SpeedTest Tracker – Automatically run a speedtest every hour.
  • Uptime Kuma – Self-hosted website monitoring tool like “Uptime Robot”.
  • Portainer – Web UI for managing docker containers.

It’s not a full list since I am still testing some services and am unsure if I will use them. Additionally, there are some services I plan to host later. I am also running an i2p node to support i2p.

Planned:

  • Briefkasten – Modern app for saving and managing your own bookmarks. Includes a browser extension.
  • Blink – Easy-to-host, SSO-integrated, CDN-powered link shortener (+decoupled analytics) for teams.
  • Focalboard – An open source, self-hosted alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana.
  • dpaste – Simple pastebin with multiple text and code option, with short url result easy to remember.
  • And more.

Dell PowerEdge T610 – Main Server

This server is running everything except for DNS.

Hardware

  • CPU: Intel Xeon L5640
  • RAM: DDR3-1333 ECC, 48 GB

Storage:

System Drives for TrueNAS:

  • SSD SATA Transcend 32 GB [ mirror ]
  • SSD SATA Transcend 32 GB [ mirror ]

System Drives for Virtual Machines:

  • HDD SATA Western Digital RE 160 GB [ mirror ]
  • HDD SATA Western Digital RE 160 GB [ mirror ]

System Drives for Jails:

  • HDD SATA Western Digital RE 160 GB [ mirror ]
  • HDD SATA Western Digital RE 160 GB [ mirror ]

Storage Drives for Data:

  • HDD SATA Western Digital Red 2 TB [ mirror ]
  • HDD SATA Western Digital Red 2 TB [ mirror ]

Total: 8 Drives.

Software

  • Host OS: TrueNAS Core
  • vm0 OS: CentOS 7 GNU/Linux

Author’s note:

Self-hosting everything I need has been a long-time dream of mine, and it’s finally becoming a reality. Of course, there’s still a lot of work to be done, and this is just the beginning of my project. My goal is to replace almost everything I use online with self-hosted services, including email.

This is my first post, and there will be more to come. Thank you for reading.

Written by Alexa Hattori.

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My New PC and My Floppy Adventures

Hello everyone! In this post, I want to share my new computer and my adventures with floppy disks.

My new IBM ThinkCentre A51

I recently purchased an IBM ThinkCentre A51, which comes with the following specs:

  • CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.00 GHz
  • GPU: Integrated into motherboard
  • HDD: 80 GB SATA

It also has a CD-ROM and a floppy drive (3.5 inch). After taking it apart, I discovered that it didn’t have a cable for the floppy drive. But we found one after a few days.

First boot-up

I was pleasantly surprised to find that the computer was not very loud. It had Windows 7 installed, but it was very slow. It took a minute just to boot up and another minute to run anything. But this wasn’t a problem since I didn’t need that operating system anyway.

Installing a new system and CD-ROM issues

I decided to install Slackware 14.2. I inserted the CD, but I wasn’t able to boot from it. The computer kept saying that there was no operating system found. I thought the CD-ROM wasn’t working, so I tried a different CD-ROM that I knew was functional. But I still had the same issue. Then, I tried booting from a USB drive and successfully installed Slackware.

P.S. Later, I found out that the CD-ROM was indeed broken. I don’t know why the other CD-ROM wasn’t working either. It could be because the cdrom has SATA.

How’s using a Pentium 4 now?

I was pleasantly surprised with how well the computer was working. It was fast, and there were no problems with playing music or videos. I originally bought the computer to play around with old systems, but after using it for a while, I decided to make it my secondary main computer. It’s really great, and I plan on using it for a long time to come, of course while also playing with old systems.

My Experience with Floppies

Floppies, floppies, and more floppies!

In this post, I want to share my experience using floppies. My goal was to install Softlanding Linux System (SLS) 1.05 from floppy disks, so I purchased 55 3.5″ floppies.

I started by checking the floppies and copying any data they contained. Most of them had drivers for different operating systems, including Windows, MS-DOS, OS/2, Unix, and boot floppies for Windows 98 SE and Debian 1.2.

After formatting the floppies, I was disappointed to find that only 25 of them worked well. It took me approximately 3 hours and 40 minutes to write data to the floppies.

I finally managed to write SLS to the floppies, but I needed two more floppies for this process. Additionally, I learned about the “–repair” option in fdformat and was able to successfully repair 8 damaged floppies, although they didn’t work perfectly.

I have since ordered 100 more used floppies and am currently waiting for their arrival. I’ve run into some issues with SLS and plan to write about them in a future post once I’ve resolved them.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more updates on SLS and other systems

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News #0

Hello, dear reader!

In this post, I want to write all the news I have about what I did and what I want to do.

This was written on 02.03.2023.

Coffee

I was studying coffee-making in a small café and I enjoyed it. I now understand the theory behind many classic drinks, and I will soon be able to put my knowledge into practice. I plan to buy a coffee machine this month, possibly within the next week, so I can start practicing and make nice coffee at home.

Collecting Data Storage Devices

I have decided to collect all the data storage devices that I can afford. For now, I have: a 5.25″ floppy, a 3.5″ floppy (which has not arrived yet), a micro cassette, a cassette, a video cassette, a 2.5″ hard disk drive, a 3.5″ hard disk drive, a SATA SSD, a USB pendrive, an SD card, a microSD card, and more! I will get more devices soon, and when I have the opportunity to take photos, I will write a post about my collection with pictures.

Fixed ThinkPad X200s

As I wrote in my post “How and Why I Use ThinkPad X200s,” I bricked it while trying to flash Libreboot. I took it to a repair center for a diagnostic, and after a week, they finally completed the diagnostic. They tried resetting the BIOS by removing the battery, and it booted. Yes, the fix was that easy; just resetting the BIOS. This is amazing, as I do not have to buy a new BIOS chip or motherboard.

Now I use it as a server for Invidious.

Got new network switch

I recently acquired a Linksys LGS116, a 16-port gigabit switch, which has one 10 Gbit/s port and 15 Gbit/s ports. Now, almost all of my computers are connected to this switch, and I haven’t had any problems. Everything works very fast.

Built PC for Plan9front

I finally built a PC for Plan9front, as previously mentioned in two posts (#0, #1).

Orange Pi 3 LTS is dead

Unfortunately, I think the Orange Pi 3 LTS has died due to power issues. It just stopped working, with only the fan spinning and the LED turned off. There was no output to the monitor, etc. I previously used it for IRC on my second monitor, but have since replaced it with my computer running Plan9front.

I do have another Orange Pi 3 LTS, but I was planning on using it as a server later on.

What I want to do

  • Acquire an old IBM computer (such as a POS terminal)
  • Obtain a ThinkPad X60
  • Purchase a digital photo camera
  • Obtain a small vintage IBM monitor
  • Build a Network-Attached Storage (NAS) device
  • Further my studies of Plan9front

and more things that I will share with you in the future.

Thank you for reading and stay tuned for future posts!

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Building a PC for Plan9front #1

Hello, dear readers!

In this post, I’ll be continuing from where I left off in my previous post about building a computer for Plan9front.

I recently acquired a case and a 350W power supply for my build, as well as a DDR2-equipped Core 2 Duo CPU and an s775 motherboard. However, I encountered a problem with the case that I’ll touch on later.

I used another computer to write Plan9front to a DVD-RW disk, and I was able to successfully install it on my computer. I installed the necessary software and was pleased with the setup, but I wasn’t a fan of the terminal’s behavior: it wouldn’t scroll automatically, and I had to use the mouse or keyboard arrows to do so. This was particularly inconvenient when compiling programs or using IRC.

However, I discovered a simple solution to this problem: I started using (vt) instead, which worked perfectly.

Worst Post in Ukraine

I used The Post of Ukraine (ukrposhta.ua) and they broke the front plate of my PC case. It’s a very slow and unreliable service. They don’t handle packages with care and there are always long queues with 30+ people. They work so slowly that it takes hours to get anything done.

If you live in Ukraine, avoid using this post. Instead, consider using New Post (novaposhta.ua), Meest (meest.com), or Justin (although I’m not sure if they’re still operational).

What I do on Plan9front

On Plan9front, I mainly engage in the following activities:

  • IRC chatting
  • Web browsing
  • Learning the OS

Software I Use

The following software are what I use on Plan9front:

  • vt.red (a vt with a red/black color scheme, as the default color scheme strains my eyes during nighttime)
  • irc7 (an IRC client)
  • mothra.black (a web browser with a black color scheme)
  • netsurf (a web browser used for websites that mothra can’t open)

Todo

  • Learn how to use authentication, CPU, and file server.
  • Learn how to connect to Plan9 remotely using Drawterm.

My Opinion About Plan9front

I find Plan9front to be an amazing operating system that works seamlessly without any problems. Although it may be considered old and lacking some features found in modern operating systems, I still find it to be a great choice.

I especially like the RIO desktop environment. I’m sure of one thing – I will use it every day for IRC on my secondary monitor.

This post is brief as I am still recovering from being sick and do not have much time for writing and testing.

Thank you for reading. I look forward to sharing more in my next posts.

The front fell off.

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