SA on duckland.org

TUI Challenge: Day 7

Sat, 14 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

This is the end, my friend

TUI Challenge: Day 6

Fri, 13 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

Every Task In Its Place

TUI Challenge: Day 5

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

A Song For The Terminal

TUI Challenge: Day 4

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

A Song For The Terminal

TUI Challenge: Day 3

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

A Web of Trouble

TUI Challenge: Day 2

Mon, 09 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

Email in the Terminal!

TUI Challenge: Day 1

Sun, 08 Jun 2025 04:00:00 -0700

TUI Challenge starts

NixOS Challenge, pt 1

Sat, 07 Jan 2023 04:00:00 -0700

So, I had a bit of free time between Christmas and New Years, so I decided to blow away my Dell XPS13 install of ArchLinux which has been on the for a long time now and install NixOS. I have been playing with it for a bit on some other computers, so I started with a mainly working config.

I was able to complete a week of work on the new OS just fine. In fact, the only two issues I currently have is that the version of darktable is behind (4.0 vs. just released 4.2) and my qutebrowser is not playing any DRM protected content like Netflix or Amazon streaming. I am not sure if that is NixOS or qutebrowser. I should look into it more, but for now I am just using firefox when I need to access that suff.

Firewall Saga, pt II

Sun, 21 Mar 2021 04:00:00 -0700

The saga continues

Crash of the Firewall

Sat, 06 Mar 2021 04:00:00 -0700

Box go Boom

Another week (or three), more weird

Fri, 15 May 2020 08:00:00 -0700

Settling in to the ‘New Normal’

February Update

Sat, 29 Feb 2020 04:00:00 -0700

Small steps to full self-hosting

Progress to Self-Hosting

Sat, 25 Jan 2020 04:00:00 -0700

Walking the path to Self-Hosting

Wi-Fi Issues

Sun, 29 Dec 2019 22:00:00 -0700

A good reason to de-cloud my life

Path to Self-Hosting

Fri, 29 Nov 2019 04:00:00 -0700

De-Clouding my life

Thoughts on the GPD Pocket2

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 00:25:08 -0500

The little laptop that almost could

The PixelBook Which Is Not ChromeOS

Tue, 23 Jul 2019 22:00:00 -0500

Swapping out ChromeOS for Ubuntu

And Then, No More PixelBook

Mon, 25 Feb 2019 20:11:59 -0700

So, when we were last here, I was talking about how I had been happily using my PixelBook for a year, and everything was just fine. Then, life happened, and things changed, and I found myself working out of the house for a while.

Why should this be a problem? Well, the program I use to remote into the office has a desktop client as well as a web-based one. Under Chrome OS, all I could figure out how to use was the HTML5 web based one. The HTML5 one is fine for the getting and checking email and doing web work. However, it leaves a lot to be desired for any development work.

12 Months of Chrome OS

Mon, 07 Jan 2019 12:15:50 -0700

For the last 12+ months, Chrome OS has been my daily driver. And for the most part, it has treated me okay for all that time. Recently, some issues have cropped up.

I have successfully used my PixelBook in my day to day life doing things. Telecommuting to work a few days a week. Taking online training for work. Doing basic photo editing. Talking with the family whilst traveling. Helping launch a great father/child program. I can run Linux apps, android apps, commercial apps, in addition to web based apps. It has been great.

Quick nmcli notes

Thu, 16 Feb 2017 19:38:42 -0700

This is a quick post so I can remember these details.

So, on the R810, I am currently running ArchLinux, which uses by default NetworkManager, which I have a love/hate relationship with. At my last job, I recommended removing it from our servers, as under RHEL6, it does very odd things to the network and is hard to manage. I have heard that it is better under RHEL7. But, it does let you do some really cool things. On the R810, there is a cellular modem, and on previous installes, I have had it configured and scripted using nmcli to easily bring up and down the cellular connections.

TLS everywhere

Wed, 23 Nov 2016 18:24:44 -0700

So, I decided it was time to go TLS (aka https) with all my websites. This is something I have wanted to do for a while, but I held off due to the way I had to get my laptop on the wireless at the previous job. Now that I have left, there was no need for that, so away I go!

On the job front, this was an odd week to start with almost everybody on my new team being out due to the holiday. I finally got my accounts all settled today, and spent the day doing that every populare on-boarding trainnig which while is a drag, is very much needed.

Harley Hates Bad Drives

Wed, 28 Sep 2016 22:30:36 -0700

Drive failed. Harley does not like that….

Random Mid-Summer Updates

Sun, 31 Jul 2016 21:33:17 -0700

Wow…summer is almost over. Three more weeks until school starts again.

Need to spend more time putting pictures up from some of the trips we have done. I think there is time to squeeze another visit to the beach before school starts up, but we will see.

One of the projects I have been working on is taking over web hosting for an organization I volunteer with. The old hosting was with a former member at his hosting company, but he is retiring as of the end of July, so I stepped up to host it. Some of the code used has not been updated in a while, and one of my first projects on it will be to wrap it into a more modern frame-work so other people can help maintain the site.

And the Firewall goes POP

Wed, 23 Sep 2015 22:37:41 -0700

For some reason, we have had a bit of power issues around the house recently. No big deal, just enough to cause non-UPS computers to reboot. Well, one of them was the firewall (the UPS on it pop a while back, and I just have not gotten around to replacing it). But, it would not come back the last time. Drag a it over to a monitor and have a look at the console. No HD. Nuts. On a backup solution until the new SSD to replace the dead (non)spinning rust shows up.

Quick Ansible Tip

Wed, 27 May 2015 07:24:16 -0700

This is a quick post to capture something seen. Ansibel is a configuration management tool that I have been learning recently. More details in a future post. This is just to capture this idea:

From: Smith, Chris (Big Data)

To: ansible

Ansible Galaxy is a centralised Github repository of public Ansible content, see: https://galaxy.ansible.com/ It uses a local routine that is installed when you install Ansible, called ‘ansible-galaxy’, to create a blank template for your Ansible content. What is not well known is you can run ‘ansible-galaxy’ in offline mode to create a blank template using the command:

FreeBSD Challenge II, End Report

Fri, 06 Feb 2015 06:43:32 -0700

And, again, I hit something which is causing massive disk performance issues. That, and suspend/resume does not work on either laptop.

I would try to debug the issues, but that means learning a whole new set of tools, and I will not have time for a while. Next week, I am in week long meetings which will run late every day, and then I have to finish writing and present a training class the last week of the month. The hour or two I can spare will be far better spent for me by backup, re-installing ArchLinux than by starting to learn the tools. Yes, a bit of a cop-out, but I need the machines to do what I need to do. I will keep the servers FreeBSD, however, as it works great there.

FreeBSD Challenge II, Day 30 Update

Fri, 30 Jan 2015 15:38:32 -0700

As the month draws to a close, I am further into the switch. I have rebuilt my main laptop to PCBSD. I am still setting a few things up, but it seems to be going well.

Two things I need to fix:

Skype: While there is not a native client, there are lots of folks who report success with the Linux client. I will need to do some research.
Nikola: The software I use for my blogs. It throws a python error when I run it, so I cannot update things. Again, I think I just need to do some more research.

Now, the fun of the weekend is here, so I am off!

FreeBSD Challenge II, Day 14

Wed, 14 Jan 2015 23:51:48 -0700

Today is day 14 (pushing day 15 at this hour), and things are looking very good. Today, I got word from the PCBSD Project that a patch which I submitted to fix the issue with the WiFi NIC. Well, I got notice today that PCBSD Bug #7330 has been resolved, and I tested on the R810. It works!

Now, I just need to get a few things configured here first, like snapshots, backups, and porting my SDCARD reading scripts over to FreeBSD, and I should be good.

Update on revisiting FreeBSD Challenge

Sat, 10 Jan 2015 22:35:04 -0700

It is the 10th day of the month, and I am 10 days in trying to use FreeBSD as my daily non-work driver. How is it going?

Well, for the most part, well. I can spend most of my personal work-flow on the FreeBSD laptop with no issues. There are a couple of things I have not moved over yet, and those relate to my photo work-flow. The main application, AfterShotPro is installed and working (see [my previous desciption <freebsd-challenge-day-4-6>]{role=“doc”} of installing in), however, I have not moved over the scripts I use in the flow. I believe they will just come over, but I have not had a chance to test them.

Goodbye 2014!

Tue, 30 Dec 2014 23:44:55 -0700

As 2014 draws to a close, I look back at the year.

Overall, it was a good year. The family staid reasonably health (just a case of the flu which every one of us caught).

Work slowed down a bit after only three trips, and the last one was in June, but I did get to spend two weeks in London which was cool. While the work has been not what I really want to be doing, it has been interesting, and next year promises to be very interesting. I have no clue if travel is in the cards or not, but I will keep the camera handy.

Perl, Modules, and Package Management

Thu, 18 Sep 2014 05:09:12 -0700

So, even though I have been starting to [work with <back2freebsd-maybe>]{role=“doc”} [FreeBSD <freebsd-switch>]{role=“doc”} [again <one-step-closer>]{role=“doc”} , I am still running ArchLinux on my workstation.

And I wanted to run a script I wrote a long time ago to support a website of mine, which I have not updated in a while. The way I would update the site is by doing some batch editing of photos, park them in a directory, and then run my script which pushes the photos to the web server, and then interfaces with the CMS software to schedule the posts and all is good.

One step closer

Tue, 05 Aug 2014 20:08:14 -0700

So, I have upgraded my servers at the house to FreeBSD, and have set up the basic functions needed on them. So, now, I am down to only my main laptop running Linux. Oh, and the work machine which runs Windows 8.1.

So far, not much different than running Arch for the server. But, the magic will be when I start working with jails...

FreeBSD Switch

Thu, 24 Jul 2014 04:07:42 -0700

I just noticed I have not updated this in a few weeks. Sorry about that.

I have my R810 running PCBSD 10.0.2, and I just patched and configured WiFi on it. I need to figure out how to submit a patch to see if I can get the Centrino supported in the main-line kernel so I do not have to compile a custom kernel just for that.

I almost have this working where I can switch to it full time. I need to deal with getting my killer apps installed and working. I had most (all?) of them working before, so I know I can do it again.

Back to FreeBSD (maybe back to the challenge)

Mon, 30 Jun 2014 15:06:09 -0700

So, I had a bit of time over the weekend, and spent it doing a bit of hacking around.

I had re-installed PC-BSD on my HP EliteBook R810. I used 10.0.2, and everything but the wireless looked good. I decided to try to get the wireless working with the internal WNIC. Previously, I used an external dongle to get WiFi working, but it was a pain to remember to pull it out, so I decided to try again.

FreeBSD Challenge final (for now)

Tue, 22 Apr 2014 22:04:17 -0700

Well, Something broke on the main computer. The speed when trying to run a few terminal apps, firefox, and thunderbird at the same time was appalling. I never had that sort of performance issues under ArchLinix on the same kit. I would love to take the time to debug it, but I am almost four weeks behind in dealing with my photos, including those from my trip to England, and I am getting ready to do run some training courses for work which will suck up all my free time.

FreeBSD Challenge, Day 17

Thu, 17 Apr 2014 04:04:52 -0700

Today, I got my new laptop dragon up on wireless with a little Edimax EW-7811Un 150 Mbps Wireless 11n Nano Size USB Adapter. Now, setup begins in ernest. I have disabled the on-board wireless NIC in the BIOS, and started to set up shop on it.

Next major task. Configure X. :)

FreeBSD Challenge, Update

Tue, 15 Apr 2014 16:04:26 -0700

Sorry about the lack of updates over the last two weeks, but my job sent me out of country for two weeks, and I had no time to work on this project. Once I unbury myself, I will return to this with a vengence. I am planning on upgrading my two servers to FreeBSD10 from Linux. One will involve a major disk reworking as one of the disks is about dead.

FreeBSD Challenge, Day 16

Sat, 29 Mar 2014 05:03:18 -0700

Busy day with other things than play computers, but I found a little time. I have FreeBSD 10-STABLE loaded with the custom WiFi hack on my Elitebook Revolve 810 . I would have to let it try to boot off the USB stick. After multiple tries, it would finally run the installer. I tried ZFS a few times, but if I did not select MBR format for the partition table, then it would not boot (no OS error). With MBR and ZFS, it would fail to mount the ZFS filesystem with <strong>error 2</strong>. After trying the various fixes listed on-line, I gave up and went with MBR and UFS.

FreeBSD Challenge, Day 12-15

Thu, 27 Mar 2014 05:03:20 -0700

Half-way point.

Much progress made in the world of a bootable USB stick to get my new-fangled WiFi chip working. I was able to make a new image, wrote it to a new USB stick, booted it, and was able to successfully scan for my Access Points! W00t!

Tomorrow, I will take the second laptop (HP EliteBook Revolve 810), and load it with 10-Release (slightly patched). I do not expect everything to work (it has a touch screen), but enough should work that I can start using it for the daily driver. Having real wifi will help a lot.

FreeBSD Challenge, Day 9-11

Sat, 22 Mar 2014 17:03:03 -0700

Ah, life with kids…not enough spare time with soccer and volleyball practices and games.

Things are going well. Found a few more small utilities that I use under Linux and added them via pkgng, and all is good.

Next up: system debugging. The system will slow down at random points, so I need to go find a good performance debug guide. The only thing changed was I imported my music library (~60G), but my drive is still plenty empty (~37% used), so I do not think it is ZFS, but I am not sure.

FreeBSD Challenge, Day 8

Wed, 19 Mar 2014 18:03:12 -0700

Again, work is dragging, so not much to update.

I have install btsync and I am now syncing home dirs between the laptop, desktop, and the FreeNAS.

My attempt to build a custom kernel to deal with the new WiFi was mixed. I was able to build the kernel and world just fine and it made a USB image for me. But, it would not boot...I do need to figure out how to debug this. :)

FreeBSD Challenge, Day 7

Tue, 18 Mar 2014 04:03:04 -0700

AKA Fight with Thunderbird and Lightning.

I broke down and installed a PBI for now. I could not get Lightning, the calendaring AddOn for Thunderbird to work using the native FreeBSD pkg or the linux-thunderbird one. The linux-thunderbird package actually refused to start for me. I need to go figure out how to generate a PR.

The other thing I am playing with is building a memstick image after patching the kernel using this post in the FreeBSD Forums. This is for the Intel Centrino Advanced-N 6235 WiFi Driver which I have in all my laptops. The data wants to be free! from wires. Since it is chunking away, I will test tomorrow.

FreeBSD Challenge, Day 4-6

Sun, 16 Mar 2014 18:03:20 -0700

Sorry…busy time at work and with the family.

Small updates: I have the external VGA dongle working. No config needed, just plug it in and it works. I really need to fix the WiFi so I can stop using the USB dongle on it. Also, I have updated mutt to 1.5.23, and that upgrade went smoothly. Since I am not using the default build, it was a matter of portsnap fetch && portsnap update && cd /usr/ports/mail/mutt && pkg remove mutt && make install clean and all is good!

FreeBSD Challenge, Day 3

Fri, 14 Mar 2014 05:03:44 -0700

No major work on the laptop today because I set up a FreeNAS box. I was able to get 4 x 3T drives, and set it up. Pretty easy. I am now busy moving my media over to it.

FreeBSD Challenge, Day 2

Thu, 13 Mar 2014 20:03:36 -0700

Just a quick update. Yesterday, I got abook working. Kind of a hack, though. I used gcc to compile it, vs. clang. I will have to revisit this and offer up some patches to the abook project.

I have also been playing with x11/xpra which bills itself as 'screen for X11'. That, combined with sshuttle , lets me get in from work and do some work during lunch. It may also give me a tempory way to use AfterShotPro until I get the whole Linux compatability layer thing figured out.

Back to FreeBSD aka Day 1

Wed, 12 Mar 2014 04:03:05 -0700

So, a long time ago, I had a box which was running FreeBSD 4, running on a Pentium. This housed my public server, website, and mail server. After I while, I had to rebuild it, and went back to Linux.

14 years later, I have decided to get back into FreeBSD, now at FreeBSD 10. I have it running headless on two boxes, and I have decided to take the ‘30 Day Challenge’. You know, all the bloggers tell you to try something for 30 days before you give up on it.

Tale of Installs, Part 2

Wed, 08 Jan 2014 17:01:00 -0700

Well, as I [mentioned before <tale-of-install>]{role=“doc”}, I was trying to install OpenBSD. Well, my main workstation died, so I have to re-purposed the OpenBSD box as my workstation running ArchLinux. I am hunting for a suitable replacement.

Oh, and Happy New Year!

Tale of Installs

Thu, 21 Nov 2013 17:11:00 -0700

So, I am starting a new personal project at the house, and I need a new server. As I was wanting to learn more about the BSD, I started looking around at things like FreeBSD, NetBSD, or OpenBSD.

Since there was a security part, I started with OpenBSD. One of the things I noticed quickly while doing my research is that while there is a lot of documentation, they do not really seem to care about making it easy for new folks to join the project, nor are the trying to support new-fangled hardware, like bootable USB drives. This strikes me odd, as FreeBSD has instructions (see 2.3.5).