I grow mushrooms at home, and so I have lots of spent grow bags with decayed substrate (wood, millet and soy hulls) in them.
They are great for composting, and make very good soil, but nobody wants them and I used as much as I could for my plants.
Right now, I throw them into the industrial compost bin because of that.
But I think they could be used for something way more useful than just compost.
For example, I thought about chopping them up and dehydrating them, so I can use them as cat litter. Mushrooms are mostly water and the hyphae have lots of surface area, so they could act as a sponge.
Or, maybe they burn fine and make good coals for barbecues or heating?
Do you have any other ideas?
I will soon set up a new home server and need your opinion and experiences.
I'm using Debian as the OS for my current one.
While it doesn't match my "taste" perfectly, as I slightly prefer RedHat stuff, I really don't have much preference, since I don't interact with the host much anyway.
Everything is containerised via Docker, and I don't even know why I like Rocky-/ Alma more. I tried Alma once and it just clicked better, I can't explain it...
But that doesn't mean I dislike Debian, not at all!
Still, at that time I decided to go with Debian, since it's the standard for most selfhosters, has the best software support, and is completely community run, opposed to RHEL and its clones.
At that time I didn't know Distrobox/ Toolbx, and I really wanted to install CasaOS (basically a simplified Cockpit + Portainer for less techy people), because I was a total noob back than and didn't want to do everything via CLI.
Nowadays, I found alternatives, like Cockpit, and I also do more via the terminal.
And if I want to install something that doesn't support my host OS, then I just enter my Toolbx and install it there.
Still, I absolutely don't regret going for Debian. It was a good choice. It's solid and doesn't get in my way.
In the last year now, I really began to enjoy using image based distros, especially Fedora Atomic.
I really love Atomic as desktop distro, because it is pretty close to upstream, while still being stable (as in how often things change).
For a desktop workstation, that's great, because DEs for example get only better with each update imo, and I want to be as close to upstream as possible, without sacrificing reliability, like on a rolling release.
The two major releases each year cycle is great for that.
But for a server, even with the more stable kernel that's used in CoreOS from what I've heard, I think that's maybe too unstable?
I think Debian is less maintenance, because it doesn't change as often, and also doesn't require rebooting after each transaction.
But, on the contrary, I wouldn't loose much to the "immutability", because I use containers for everything anyway.
Having way better security (sane SELinux setup, rootless containers, untampered OSA, etc.) and the ability to roll back in case something doesn't work, while self updating, sounds very promising.
The major thing that's keeping me away from CoreOS/ uCore is all the ignition-butane-stuff.
From what I've heard, it's needlessly complicated for home use, and FCOS is best suited for fleets/ clusters of servers, not just for one.
Fedora IOT seems to be simpler, but doesn't have the same great defaults and features as uCore, since there isn't an IOT variant of uBlue.
But hey, at least I have my Anaconda installer.
What do you think about installing IOT, and then rebasing to uCore?
Or, do you think FCOS is just not the right thing for my use case?
In general, do you think that it is worth it, compared to plain old Debian?
Anyway. I'm really thinking about all of this for a long time now, and can't decide.
On the one side, it all sounds promising and great.
But, on the other side, selfhosting isn't a primary hobby of mine.
I just want a solid setup I don't have to maintain much after setting everything up. Image based server OSs are still very new and often unheard of, and being an early adopter might cause a lot of headache in that case when it comes to servers.
Just in case no one has tried FCOS or FIOT here, I will continue using Debian for my main server, and only use Fedora IOT for my Octoprint server, which only gets turned on sporadically, and would greatly benefit from that.
But if there are positive experiences, then I might give it a try.
Or, would you recommend me something entirely different?
NixOS for example sounds great in theory, but is way too complicated for me personally.
Or, would you recommend me to give Alma another try?
Is there something even better?
First of all, thank you so much for your great answers under my post from yesterday! They were really really helpful!
I've now decided that I will not use something with USB. It really doesn't seem to be reliable enough for constant read-write-tasks, and I don't wanna risk any avoidable data loss and headache.
Also, it just doesn't seem to be very future proof. It would be pretty expensive, only for it to get replaced soon, and then getting obsolete. It just seemed like a band-aid solution tbh. So, no USB hard drive bay, no huge external hard drive, and no NAS just for that purpose.
A few people asked me about the hardware.
My server is a mini-PC/ thin client I bought used for 50 bucks. I've used it for about two years now, and it had even more years of usage under the belt with its' former owner. Imo, that's a very sustainable solution, that worked pretty well until now.
I used it almost exclusively for Nextcloud (AIO), with all the data being stored in the internal 1 TB SSD.
For those who are interested, here are all the hardware details: ::: spoiler <hwinfo -short> :::
Thing is, I want to get more into selfhosting. For that, my main goal is to
a) Replace Nextcloud with individual (better) services, like Immich and Paperless-ngx.
NC-AIO was extremely simple to set up and worked pretty fine, but I always found it to be bloated and a bit wonky, and, mainly, the AIO takes up all my network and resources. I just want something better, you understand that for sure :)
b) Get more storage. I'm into photography, and all those RAW photos take up SO MUCH SPACE! The internal 1 TB is just not future proof for me.
c) Maybe rework my setup, both in software, and maybe in hardware. Originally, I didn't plan to screw everything, but I think it might be better that way. The setup isn't bad at all, but now, as I got more experience, I just want it to be more solid. But I'm not sure about doing that tbh, since it really isn't a lost case.
As someone already mentioned in the last post, I really don't have a million bucks to create my own data center. I'm not completely broke, but almost :D
Therefore, I just want to make the best out of my already existing hardware if possible.
Because I decided against USB, and because I don't know if there are any slots on the mainboard that can be repurposed for additonal storage, I need your advice if there are any options to achieve that, e.g. via a PCIe slot + adapter, if I had any.
I saw one SATA III port, but that one really isn't enough, especially for extendability.
Here are the photos from both the front and back side:
My thought was, instead of buying one hella expensive 3+TB SSD drive, just screw it and make something better from scratch.
So, if you guys don't give me a silver bullet solution, aka. "you can use this slot and plug in 4 more drives", I will probably have to build my own "perfect" device, with a great case, silent fans, many storage slots, and more.
Btw, do you have any recommendations for that? (What mainboard, which case, etc.) Preferably stuff that I can buy already used.
Thank you so much!
I'm planning to upgrade my home server and need some advice on storage options. I already researched quite a bit and heard so many conflicting opinions and tips.
Sadly, even after asking all those questions to GPT and browsing countless forums, I'm really not sure what I should go with, and need some personal recommendations, experience and tips.
My Mini-PC sadly has no additional ports for more SATA drives. The only option I see is using the 4 USB 3.0 ports on the backside. And there are a few possibilities how I can do that.
What would you recommend?
I will probably choose BTRFS if that is possible. I thought about ZFS too, but since it isn't included by default, and BTRFS does everything I want, I will probably go with BTRFS. It would give me the option for subvolumes, some of which are encrypted, compression, deduplication, RAID or merged drives, and seems to be future proof without any disadvantages. My host OS (Debian) is installed with Ext4, because it came like that by default, and is fine for me. But for storage, something else than Ext4 seems to be the superior choice.
Encrypting drives with LUKS is relatively straight forward. Are there simple ways to do that, other than via CLI? Do Cockpit, CasaOS or other web interface tools support that? Something similar to Gnomes' Disk Utility for example, where setting that up is just a few clicks.
How can I unlock the drives automatically when certain conditions are met, e.g. when the server is connected to the home network, or by adding a TPM chip onto the mainboard? Unlocking the volume every time the server reboots would be very annoying.
That of course would compromize the security aspect quite a bit, but it doesn't have to be super secure. Just secure enough, that if a malicious actor (e.g. angry Ex-GF, police raid, someone breaking in, etc.) can't see all my photos by just plugging the drive in. For my threat model, everything that takes more than 15 minutes of guessing unlock options is more than enough. I could even choose "Password123" as password, and that would be fine.
I just want the files to be accessible after unlocking, so the "Encrypt after upload"-option that Nextcloud has or Cryptomator for example isn't an option.
From what I've read, RAID is a quite controversial topic. Some people say it's not necessary, and some say that one should never live without. I know that it is NOT a backup solution and does not replace proper 3-2-1-backups.
Thing is, I can't assess how often drives fail, and I would loose half of my available storage, which is limited, especially by $$$. For now, I would only add 1 or max 2 TB, and then upgrade later when I really need it. And for that, having to pay 150€ or 400€ is a huge difference.
https://slrpnk.net/c/hydroponics
A community dedicated to every form of hydroponics, a technique for growing plants without soil. Everything regarding hydroponics is welcome here - from your houseplant in LECA to big scale commercial farming. Credits: - Community avatar: Flaticon [www.flaticon.com/free-icon/hydroponic-gardening_1925805] - Banner: AI generated, freepik.com [http://freepik.com]
https://slrpnk.net/c/hydroponics
A community dedicated to every form of hydroponics, a technique for growing plants without soil. Everything regarding hydroponics is welcome here - from your houseplant in LECA to big scale commercial farming.
Ich benutze schon seit ca. 10 Jahren fast nur Firefox, egal, ob auf dem Handy oder PC.
Hier und da hat mal über die Jahre eine Website nicht ganz funktioniert, z.B. manche Seiten von deutschen Ämtern, aber das hab ich meistens sofort gemerkt, weil die Seite einfach weiß oder komplett unleserlich war.
Das kam aber sehr selten vor, daher war es nie ein Ding für mich.
In letzter Zeit verbringe ich aber super viel Zeit damit, mich darüber aufzuregen, wie verbuggt oder schlecht viele Websites sind.
Jetzt bin ich testweise mal auf einen Chromium-basierten Browser (Brave) umgestiegen und alles läuft relativ flüssig.
Ich kenne ja die Gründe, wieso man lieber Firefox und nichts auf Chromium-Basis verwenden sollte, aber langsam kriege ich das Gefühl, dass ich gegen Firefox ankämpfen muss weil nichts mehr funktioniert.
Wie ist es bei euch?
I have quite a lot of herbs and stuff, mostly hydroponic, but can't find a lot of inspiration what I wanna grow next year.
I'm looking for some sweet, delicious fruit, maybe even exotic ones that you can't find in the supermarket.
Preferably they should have those checkboxes, but don't have to fullfil all requirements:
My ideas/ experiences:
Do you have any suggestions or experiences? What are your favourites?
Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love Fedora Atomic (Silverblue, Bazzite, Kinoite, Aurora, IOT, etc.), more than any other distro I used, and I plant to continue using it.
It never made any problems on any of my devices, and because it is pretty much indestructible and self-managing, I even planned to install it on my Mum's new laptop, in case her current one (basically a toaster with Mint on it) breaks.
But with the last days, my trust is damaged quite a bit.
First one, where I couldn't update anymore on uBlue, because of faulty key pairs. This is a huge thing for me because uBlue updates in the background, and if I wouldn't have read it here on Lemmy, I would have found out way too late, which is a security risk imo.
And now, my devices weren't able to boot anymore due to some secure boot stuff.
Again, if I wouldn't have subscribed the Fedoramagazine, I would have noticed it way too late.
I was able to just boot into an older image and just paste a few commands from the magazine's post, and it was resolved in just seconds (download time not included).
Both instances were only a minor thing for ME.
But both would have been a headache if I wouldn't follow those blogs, which is a thing only nerds (like myself) do.
Nobody else cares about their OS, it is supposed to just work, hence why I use Atomic.
I don't wanna blame the devs (both j0rge/ uBlue and the Fedora team), they were very quick, transparent and offered very simple fixes.
And, being able to just boot into an older image, just in case, is something I am very thankful for, but nothing I want to depend on.
Having to be informed about stuff like this and then having to use the CLI is just a no-go for most people.
Am I over-reacting about this too much? What's your view on those things?
@Guenther_Amanita
@slrpnk.net