Linux Prepper

(00:00)

Welcome to our first long format interview! Consider this a bonus episode. Please share it with others if you enjoy it! Let me know what you think; your feedback appreciated.

(00:20)

LinuxFest Northwest in Bellingham, WA April 25th - 27th

(00:37)

Quick Intro on Marcel - Developer behind Nextcloud Bookmarks, Floccus, Recognize

(01:04)

Recognize AI & ML for Nextcloud Photos documentation

• Project Github

(02:30)

Floccus - Browser Bookmark Syncing Extension for Chrome, Firefox, mobile clients, etc. Supports Nextcloud Bookmarks, Google Drive, Git, webdav and more.

• Project Github

(02:54)

Be sure to send in your feedback with this anonymous form!

(03:33)

Spread the word and share this show with others if you enjoy it! Thank you so much!

• You can donate to support me here.
• Podcasting 2.0 listeners to donate to support my upcoming Alby Hub node here. Fundraising 50k Sats.

(03:45)

Interview with Marcel Begins

• EfficientNet
• TensorFlow
• WhisperAI
• Stable Diffusion Image Generation by Stability AI
  • See some generated Mascots for Nextcloud
  • Try it here
  • Github repo

Beatles use AI to complete a new song

Nextcloud Assistant

• Project github
• Context Agent documentation

Summary Bot for Nextcloud Talk Chat

What are Common AI Models & How to Use Them

Ollama, supporting Deepseek and other kinds of models, from small to large.

• Project Github

Perplexica AI Search

• Built on Searxng

Hope you enjoyed this first interview.

Timestamps

For Detailed Shownotes and Links - Click Here

(00:45) Linuxfest Northwest

(02:10) Audience Suggestion - Forgejo

(06:02) Television Fuzzy Finder

(08:38) Uptime Kuma- Monitoring

(12:25) Dockje - Docker Compose Manager

(14:50) Homebox - Inventory Management

(17:14) Ameridroid Sponsor - LINUXPREPPER coupon at checkout

• Home Assistant Green
• Home Assistant Skyconnect Zigbee/Matter adapter
• Home Assistant Voice Preview
• IndieDroid Nova

(19:40) Whisper AI - Speech to Text

(27:00) What services would you like tested on an arm64 server? Let me know.

(27:30) Lemmy discussion on AI tools people are testing locally.

(29:10) Themio Stereotool

(30:19) scp - SSH based Copy

(32:00) ffmpeg audio extraction from mp4 video after a Zoom call.

(32:47) Getting a New Laptop. Windows 11, AntiX, NixOS, Kubuntu.

(53:30) Ubuntu adopting uutils

(57:00) Podcasting 2.0 support - State of the Podcast

Alby Hub and fundraising sats to register it.

• Podcasting 2.0 listeners should now have Transcription and Chapter support as of this episode.
• IPFS Podcasting is supported. Host and you’ll receive a split of donations.

Spread the Word! Help promote the show. Send in feedback. See more detailed episode show notes by clicking here.

Timestamps

(00:40) Linuxfest Northwest 4/25 - 4/27

(01:30) Forum now available for full show notes and project discussion. Also accessible from Matrix.

• https://flarum.org/

(02:39) Simple feedback form now available for sending your feedback and suggestions. Or, you can always email [email protected]

(03:45) ameriDroid now sponsors the podcast.

• use LINUXPREPPER coupon code to support the show.

(04:50) If you like the show please do share it! Spread the word. This is a small show, which most people don’t know about. Thank you so much.

• You can also donate to me on paypal.
  • Allowing recurring donations with a fancier system is in-the-works.

(05:50) Librewolf browser, community fork of Firefox.

(06:35) Works on My Machine badge by CodingHorror of Discourse

(07:30) Kickstarter for PixelFed and Loops by dansup

• PixelFed is a federated, FOSS alternative to Instagram
• Loops is a federated, FOSS alternative to TikTok
• Dansup website

(08:45) @[email protected]

• This podcast is also available on the fediverse at the above address. Use Mastodon of whatever client you prefer.

Audience Feedback with HB

(10:00)

• HB is on github

Hungry Bogart interview on Linux Prepper origins and background on Medium.

Pimox 7 for learning Proxmox on arm64 hardware, starting with Pi 4.

• Pimox 8 Pi 5 fork
• Promox is the original project for Virtual Machines on x86.
• TinyMiniMicro by ServeTheHome
• Pi Pico microcontrollers. Less is more. Downgrade if you can use lower level devices for basic GPIO access.
• What is an esp32
• What is a BBS
• risc v community
• Limitations are in relation to the hardware, now that most software is supported on arm64 or x86. Architecture is all that matters.
• What is a HTPC
• Use .internal domains for local services over mDNS ala Avahi
• Ennuicastr video and audio recording platform based on Jitsi

(00:00) Welcome and Feedback (00:24) Re-evaluating Self-Hosting (01:30) Gifting Linux Devices (03:14) Setting Up for Success (05:01) Managing Remote Devices (10:29) Remote Access with WireGuard. Securely accessing local resources remotely. (13:01) Introducing Jellyfin (14:15) Managing Disk Space

• df -h to confirm disk usage
• docker system prune -a to remove older images, stopped, hanging. Recovered 50gb. (16:00) The Raspberry Pi Evolution

Does the Pi family make sense in 2025? If you already own one, use that. If you don’t, the draw to modern thin clients and PC’s is more desirable in cost & size vs performance.

(19:39) NextcloudPi project. Years of testing across various devices. Adopting containers in order to spin up simultaneous production and test instances of the same software. Less interest in specific devices and more interest in running whatever service I need on arm64 or x86 architecture. I’m behind the times in terms of modern automations when testing, but this is how I’ve learned.

(21:01) Testing and Flexibility

At what point does the Pi simply become another server? I feel we’ve already reached this point with the Pi 5.

(24:50) Repurposing Old Hardware

Having older iterations of hardware is great. Pi 2 has full sized USB and basic ethernet, so is fine assuming it is still supported by a project. Personally self-hosting on Pi devices to help me with audio editing since my laptop is not powerful enough on it’s own.

(26:30) What modern laptop would you recommend I purchase? Haven’t purchased a high end model in over 10 years, so ready to upgrade. Would like to edit video and run LLM.

(30:12) Seeking Audience Input on devices they use. (31:00) What devices are you hosting on? If you use a Pi 5, why? Do you regret it vs an alternative? Does a Pi 5 with NVME disk make more sense than an x86 computer? (32:00) Audience question on wanting to know more about the host. Masonry, theatre gigs, open source volunteer with hackerspaces, piracy in academia, all about the Host (44:00) Apprentice to the Wild book by Kurt Hoelting (45:30) btm terminal application recommendation. Known as bottom, for monitoring remote network services.

If you like the show, please do share it!

Timestamps

(00:24) Happy 2025!

(00:34) Hungry Bogart interview on Linux Prepper origins and background on Medium.

(01:00) Episode Overview

(01:45) Audience Feedback

• What is Matrix and why do we have a Matrix chat. Join it here.

(02:50) Discussion forum now live for the podcast and eventually Living Cartoon Company, my theatrical work.

(03:20) SeaGL Gnu/Linux Conference from October

• Found through Steadfast Self-hosting. Book also on Github

(08:00) There is more to this podcast than just technology in terms of computers. Also relates to making musical instruments, electronics, recipes, DIY, hardware

(09:15) My audience expectations is you want to learn more. You are someone happy to learn more. You will be inspired to take initiative.

• Basic web searches like “Linux Password Manager” to learn.
• Markdown is how this is written for you.
• Bullet Journaling
• Password Managers

Where to Begin

(12:00) Everyone starts hosted. No shame in it. But, when to try selfhosting on your device?

• Encounter a limitation like sharing multi-terabytes of data, when my hosted storage is smaller.
• Get a “homelab” with any old machine.
• Give yourself a reason to learn.

(15:00) Basic services you can experiment with to begin your own homelab of internal devices

• Avahi, mDNS for treating your device as hostname.local for printing, Samba and more with zero configuration.
  • Edit avahi-daemon.conf with whatever stand-in hostname you want
• DNS Server, popularly done with Adblockers like Pi-hole and Adguard Home, plus Unbound with a blocklist.
  • Sync multiple failovers of these using Orbital Sync for Pi-hole or adguardhome-sync
  • My personal preference is Adguard Home alongside Unbound and Adguardhome-sync.
• DHCP Server (requires router access) to use something like the above services to set static routes and DHCP reservations for your devices in a saner manner.
• I personally enjoying setting all of my device IP assignments based on MAC addresses.

Expanding beyond DNS and DHCP

(19:00) Buy a domain yourself using a service like Porkbun.com

• or, try an open source, dynamic dns provider like duckdns.org

(19:30) Reverse Proxy to access your services with valid https, either publicly and/or locally only.

• No more http warnings in the browser. <- nothing makes friends and family less interested in our service.
• No more remembering IP addresses or port numbers.
• Classier than simply using avahi as hostname.local:$port
  • avahi still serves as a nice fallback
• Local only https is totally doable thanks to DNS challenges. Your application doesn’t have to be public.

There are tons of reverse proxies to choose from! I don’t want to recommend one over another. Which do you prefer? All of these services are ones your friends and family will use, whether they know it or not.

(22:05) What services do you actually host for your friends and family? Let me know! [email protected]

State of the Podcast

(22:30) Paypal donations accepted (23:00) Podcasting 2.0 support enabled (24:00) Now using studio monitors for reference in better recording and mixing the show.

Timestamps

(00:24) Hosted Service Definition

• Account you have access to: web hosting, Dropbox, email, etc.
• “I would like an account on your service”

(01:22) Selfhosted Definition

• VPS, Dedicated, Colo, Garage, Old Laptop you maintain.
  • often Single point of failure
  • Distribution is part of our grand experiment!

(03:00) Status of the podcast

• Please do spread the word if you enjoy the show!
• Castopod moved onto a hosted instance.
  • Castopod supports subscribing from the fediverse
• Now accepting paypal donations
• Domain registrar I recommend - Porkbun
• Podcast Index
• Value 4 Value & podcasting 2.0 listening support added for those on compatible clients.
• Join our Matrix Chat
  • Draupnir moderation bot. Fork of Mjolnir.

(07:40) What tool do you find the most indispensable?

• Send in your thoughts to our Matrix chat or to [email protected]

My top tools: notes and a password manager.

(08:05) KeePass - 20+ years of goodness on all platforms! Portable, encrypted, awesome.

• Distribute your databases to better manage your services
• People have paid me to teach them this!
• Friends & Family approved open source!
  • KeepassXC on Linux, Mac, Windows
  • Keepassium on iOS
  • KeepassDX on Android

(10:20) Hey, where is my keepass? sketch

(11:30) RSS protocol for updates & notifications.

• The introverts “social” network dashboard
• As good as you make it. Be patient.
• Basis for all podcasting

(12:10) RSS Clients - use them on any device to get started.

• RSSowl - barebones and available on Linux Windows, MacOS. Java based.
• Newsboat - top notch terminal application. Successor to Newsbeuter.

(13:20) RSS Server applications

• Adds multi-user support, sharing, archiving, filtering, sync to clients.
• FreshRSS
• Miniflux
• Tiny Tiny RSS
• Nextcloud News filter issue

(16:45) Do you have recommendations for RSS compatible services? Let us know!

(17:00) feed2toot - relay you feed into the fediverse of services like Mastodon and this podcast (Castopod).

(17:20) RSS-bridge convert URL services to RSS

• Public instances available for you to try.
• Subscribe to Youtube, Twitter and much more

(18:15) searxng - meta-search engine that supports subscribing to results as RSS.

(18:40) Wallabag self-hosted PHP archive for web links.

• Subscribes to RSS Feeds
• integrates with RSS server applications mentioned above as a Sharing feature

(19:00) Archivebox is another great self-hosted archive.

(19:30) Nextcloud Bookmarks.

• Floccus front end for Firefix, Chrome, Edge, etc. to Nextcloud Bookmarks, WebDAV, Linkwarden, Git, Google Drive by same dev.
• Subscribe to your Bookmarks folders as RSS!
• Share bookmarks with your other RSS services.

Timestamps

(00:10) Several years of Ubuntu Studio desktop releases

KDE Plasma is solid the last few years! Xfce, Openbox also great.

(06:00) Timeshift snapshot and restore with rsync or btrfs.

(08:00) Truenas Scale is a Debian Linux + OpenZFS variation of Freenas BSD + ZFS. File system based snapshots with VM support.

• Why Mirror Vdevs are better than raidz

(08:55) 5 years of Raspberry Pi 4. Radxa Quad Sata Hat & Case after a couple years of use.

(11:45) Castopod - Open Source Podcasting Host platform, which supports Podcasting 2.0

Open Source Game Recommendation

(12:49) Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead, NetHack, Dwarf Fortress

Open Hardware Recommendation:

(14:25) Pine64 PinePower Travel Charger