Tag: Linux

Uploading and serving image and video captures from a Raspberry Pi as a backyard public camera

Get Windows 10 Pro Installation media or a product key (if you don’t already have one) and download. Back up anything you want to keep on some kind of external storage (local or cloud) and make sure you have installation media or downloads (in a safe place, again external storage, local or cloud) for any software you will want to reinstall.

Setup the Packer Environment Prequisites The packer executable found in the download for your system at https://www.packer.io/ (Download button) needs to be in a directory that is in your PATH.

Setup the Packer Environment Prequisites The packer executable found in the download for your system at https://www.packer.io (Download button) needs to be in a directory that is in your PATH.

Copying backyard camera videos and pictures to a remote web server using rclone

Base Install NB The author doesn’t have a tripod, nor the feeling of relevance for this part of the guide, so the quality of screen photos here is not as good as other guides out there—this version is only included in case you need the information right here, rather than to draw people to the site for an often-covered topic.

Option 1: Use the Image Directly (not recommended) Upload packer image using virsh ls -al *.qcow2 virsh -c qemu+ssh://user@host/system vol-upload --pool default --vol preseeded-armhf-uefi-image-preseed-image-xxxx-xx-xx-xx-xx.qcow2 --file preseeded-armhf-uefi-image-preseed-image-xxxx-xx-xx-xx-xx.

Copying backyard camera videos and pictures to a local web server using rclone

Copying backyard camera videos and pictures to a Google Drive using rclone

Copying backyard camera videos and pictures to a Microsoft OneDrive using rclone

Core Isolation; A Security Recommendation Do as Soon as Possible The author recommends you go to Settings|Updates & Security|Windows Security|Device Security|Core Isolation Details and enable Memory Integrity (this is only possible if your CPU and BIOS support ‘Second Level Address Translation’ (SLAT) aka Intel Extended Pages); the longer you wait, the greater the chance that Windows will install incompatible drivers before you enable the isolation (on older hardware that is).

Download and verify installation media Download the installation media You should obtain the appropriate install media as well as sha256 and GnuPG signatures for that media.

Partitioning on the Linux command line Partitioning information in the official Alpine Linux User’s Handbook For this guide we only consider two types of install: BIOS to ‘msdos’-type partition table (disklabel) and UEFI to gpt partition table.

Add and use filesystem tools Overview You need to add the tools that will let you format/create one or more additional volumes/filesystems of your choice.

Copy tarball to boot under Gnome Steps Screenshots are from GNOME but most GUI desktops are similar. Select install tarball wherever you have it downloads (often in your Downloads directory), right-click and select ‘Extract To…’ Browse to the boot partition of the SD card Select the boot partition of the SD card as extraction destination The result will be a directory containing the boot files on the boot partition; we actually want the files in the top-level (root) of the boot partition.

Prepare SD card using GNOME Disks Procedure Start with an empty (unpartitioned, unformatted) SD card. If you disk is not empty, you will need to do a search on how to clean the disk and create an msdos disklabel (aka partition table).

Daniel’s documentation for using Alpine Linux for local servers on x86-64 and Raspberry Pi family. These documents use only the ‘main’ repository, except in one or more optional HowTo guides.

Configure off-system backups Overview This guide uses only tools included in the base configuration of Alpine Linux. It is only suitable for cases where your backups are small, or you have a very reliable network connection.

Creating initial boot media Create the initial boot image Obtain and verify install tarball Prepare your SD card Do pre-boot tweaks

Do pre-boot tweaks On Windows 10 TBD On Linux GUI (GNOME) Screenshots are from GNOME but other GUI desktops are similar On Mac OS TBD

Guides for setting kernel parameters Overview These vary with architecture and specific device Linux kernel guide to its parameters https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/admin-guide/kernel-parameters.html A suggested tweak Adding consoleblank=300 can be a nice addition to the kernel commandline.

Hardware-specific tweaks and configuration Systems with No RTC (real-time clock) Includes the Raspberry Pi family of SBC (single board computers). Disable hwclock (if enabled; on the Raspberry Pi it has already been disabled).

HowTos In alphabetical order Add etckeeper for ‘/etc’ backup Add etckeeper git remote and push on commit Add on-system documentation, including the ‘man’(ual) command Add nano and use as default editor

Important post-install configuration Overview The following are not part of the base install, but either can be essential to system function (like adding boot entropy for some headless systems like the Raspberry Pi) or are widely accepted best practices (like creating a non-root admin user and limiting time spent as root).

Kernel and hardware notes Guides for setting kernel parameters Hardware-specific tweaks and configuration

Obtain and verify install tarball Obtain the official Alpine Linux image Choose tarball to download based on the model of Pi you have Partial table of model of Raspberry Pi to Linux kernel max architecture available (where aarch64 > armv7 > armhf).

Prepare your SD card Partition the SD card On Windows 10 Using built-in GUI ‘Disk Management’ feature TBD Using diskpart TBD Using PowerShell TBD On Linux (many distros) GUI Using Gnome ‘Disks’ applet

Setup network required for package installation Use Alpine Linux setup sub-scripts for network/DNS Execute setup-keymap # To make sure you can successfully do keyboard input Execute setup-hostname.

Use Alpine Linux on Raspberry Pi as a server Special Notes NOTE: For boot to succeed /media/mmcblk0p1/usercfg.txt must exist. See kernel parameters and device-tree settings for information on what you can set in that file.

Add etckeeper Overview While the LBU mechanism with backups allows restoring to previous state it lacks commented history. Done right, etckeeper will lead to a better record of what changes you made to the configuration and why, which improves your ability to recreate what you did, as well as understand why you did what you did.

Add etckeeper git remote for pushing on commit Overview Tracking configuration changes in etckeeper is great, but even better is storing in an off-system private repository, preferably one with a decent web interface to the repo (makes browsing the repo much friendlier).

Add man pages and other on-system docs Overview Unless you have packages that are ’expensive’ either in terms of the memory they use while operating or in terms of the amount space they take up (since in Alpine ‘data’ (and in ‘diskless’) mode packages are stored in RAM while the system is booted) you should have plenty of available RAM and storage to add the online documentation (mostly in the form of man pages).

Add nano and use as default editor Overview For many users vi (the default editor for Alpine) is difficult and confusing to use. Even if that is not the case for you, if you find it helpful to have the same experience as others you wish to help, you might implement this for your own use as well.

Add packages for pre-mount filesystem check Overview Where possible it is a best practise to check your filesystem before mounting them (especially read-write) to ensure you are not working with a corrupted (and further damaging a) filesystem.

Add tmux Overview Tmux is a handle tool that gives the ability to have multiple (text) windows in a single terminal session. In addition, if you get disconnected from the terminal (e.

Commit LBU Overview Once you are sure everything is correct for the initial boot into your configured system, commit your changes Do the commit (unencrypted) For the initial commit and reboot, use an unencrypted LBU (to make sure everything works).

Configure SSH for public key access only Overview Disallowing SSH login with only a username and password is a well known security best practise, therefore we implement it.

Create a non-root admin user Avoid operating as root, where possible It is generally considered an administrative best practise to avoid logging in and/or operating with elevated privileges, to the extent reasonable to do so.

Create semi-data/semi-diskless install Overview This guide presumes you are booted into a fresh install media (no stored configuration). It further presumes that neither the pure diskless configuration from the Alpine wiki, the data configuration from the Alpine wiki, nor the system disk (classic) configuration from the Alpine wiki suits your situation.

Edit message of the day (MOTD) Overview The existing message of the day (MOTD) includes: You can setup the system with the command: setup-alpine You may change this message by editing /etc/motd.

Enable enhanced shell prompt Add colour and context information to prompt. Overview /etc/profile and the ‘.sh’ scripts in /etc/profile.d are sourced on every invocation of the ‘ash’ (default Alpine/Busybox shell) as well as the ‘bash’ shell when launched as a login shell.

Firstboot troubleshooting Overview Uh-oh. The reboot after initial setup didn’t work. Now what? Problems and solutions TBD

For headless systems, add boot entropy Overview As mentioned in Raspberry Pi - Alpine Linux under ‘Troubleshooting: Long boot time when running headless’, some systems might take an excessively long time to boot when no peripherals are attached (not only with the Pi series).

Recommended tweaks and configuration Overview Assuming the reboot was successful, it is time to make your system more useful. Otherwise see Firstboot troubleshooting Commit changes at your preferred granularity Don’t forget that these changes will not survive reboot unless you commit your changes.

Server install & configure Overview This set of guides and recommendations is aimed at the use of Alpine as your local servers on physical hardware where you have access to the console on boot.

Use encrypted LBU Overview Unless you need headless, or unattended reboots or power up (e.g. after power loss), it is highly recommended to use an encrypted configuration backup.

Use modified ‘setup-alpine’ procedure Overview You’ll want to be careful during the LBU configuration and APK cache configuration sections using the default setup-alpine script. You also need to have pre-mounted the partition(s) that will hold the LBU and APK cache (see Create semi-data/semi-diskless install).

Most blog entries on SystemD timers give trivial samples. This article takes a different approach and provides the full details of two examples of using SystemD timers that are in active use on my systems.

Normally when using Docker one only wants specific unicast ports forwarded, so the standard Docker paradigm of using NAT to forward ports to the container works. However, when using Docker to containerize internal services like Samba (which needs a combination of unicast and broadcast UDP), LLMNR (Windows multicast address resolution), or mDNS a.k.a Bonjour (Apple multicast address resolution) one may find that the standard Docker model is insufficient.

Keeping your DNS queries from your local network to public DNS servers private in transit by using DNS over TLS on a Raspberry Pi is ridiculously easy.

A short talk / presentation about using the Raspberry Pi as a Public Backyard Camera (e.g. live streamed or time lagged snapshots of a bird feeder).

Setting up an email relay that aliases addresses in various domains to a specific offsite user doesn’t have to mean backscatter. Here is one solution.

Preface These are notes on creating a Windows and Linux hybrid environment for developers (hence the use of Windows 10 Pro not Home), specifically when running Windows on a physical machine.

Ubuntu Cloud Images on Hyper-V now details how to use Packer to build a local Hyper-V compatible Ubuntu Cloud Image

Preface The official Ubuntu images that are built for Azure/Hyper-V really are only compatible with Hyper-V on Azure, despite Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) offering Azure/Hyper-V disk images at Ubuntu Daily Cloud Images - Focal.

Fixes and changes due to changed recommendations for Pi as a Server and Gitea Pi

Using Terraform with OVHcloud, I hit issues that affect both OVH API and OpenStack API. There are ‘Resource Not Found’ issues…

At some point you may need to upsize your PostgreSQL server, particular if you have implemented one on a old Raspberry Pi.

You may realize that you really wish you could start the Nextcloud instance from scratch without the hassle of a reinstalling.

Setting up your own local Nextcloud can be useful for a number of reasons.

The Intel NUC (and boards based on the same SoC) are quite powerful for their price point, and use less electricity than even a mini tower.

This update adds backup configuration information to the Gitea Pi article

This article describes setting up a Raspberry Pi Model B+ as a private Gitea (lightweight Git hosting) server.

Articles on using the Pi for PostgreSQL and Gitea

Description of setting up a Raspberry Pi Model B+ as a PostgreSQL server with external storage.

Updates to Pi for a Server, Using XCA, and improving access to ‘Site News’ RSS feed

This article details using the XCA GUI for creating private SSL certificates for enabling end-to-end SSL on non-public servers.

Preface These are some personal notes about setting up a very nice combined Windows and Linux productivity and development environment. It uses open source software combined with some key proprietary pieces on a single machine.

I was tired excessive bot traffic spamming my logs, so I learned how to reduce the noise in my logs.

Preface Raspberry Pi OS is the official operating system for the Raspberry Pi family of educational single board computers. This article discusses some useful information on using Pi OS (including remotely) and provides links to more.

Linux LVM thin pools and volumes initially seem to be a great way maximize the use of hard drive space, but …

Preface This method of compiling for armel (e.g. ARMv5, earlier, and some ARMv6) which uses pbuilder in an ARM HardFloat VM is not recommended as it is extremely slow (because of running in a emulated VM, not because of using pbuilder).

About the effort to unify, eliminate duplication, delete those older than my ‘data retention policy’, and organize the rest into yearly archives.

In my opinion, Windows is deceptively clear and smooth, but when once one really shines a light on it, one finds significant imperfections. Linux may feel a little less polished, but is more what you see is what you get (or better) — there are imperfections for a power user / developer like me, but those idiosyncrasies are minor compared to the more problematic ones found in Windows.

Create an UEFI (newish) ARM Hard Float (32-bit) virtual machine for Libvirt/KVM using automated image build using Packer.

Preface Whether you want old school ARM (32-bit) or a shiny new UEFI ARM (32-bit) virtual machine in Libvirt/KVM, and automated or ‘manual’ creation, there is a way to get what you want.

NB These instructions are out of date since the release of Debian 11 (Bullseye). Some parts of these guide will need to be updated to the new Debian release.

Option 1: Use the Image Directly (not recommended) Upload kernel, initrd, and packer image using virsh ls -al vmlinuz* initrd.gz* *.qcow2 virsh -c qemu+ssh://user@host/system vol-create-as --pool default --name vmlinuz-x.

NB These instructions are out of date since the release of Debian 11 (Bullseye). Some parts of these guide will need to be updated to the new Debian release.

NB These instructions are out of date since the release of Debian 11 (Bullseye). Some parts of these guide will need to be updated to the new Debian release.

Preface These are notes on creating a Windows and Linux hybrid environment, specifically when running Windows in a Libvirt/KVM VM. I also have Notes on Windows and Linux hybrid environment in a physical machine.

You may find yourself in need of a ‘bare metal’ server. If the workload is not too demanding, a Raspberry Pi can be a good choice.

Preface These are notes on creating a Windows and Linux hybrid environment, specifically when running Windows on a physical machine. I also have Notes on Windows and Linux hybrid environment in a Libvirt/KVM VM.

This is from about 2009, but apparently there are still occasionally people trying to find it.

Streaming from a Raspberry Pi as a backyard public camera

Preface Unless you have a new, high-powered, ARM system with which to build, the fastest and most practical way to build software for armel (early ARM CPU versions) is to cross-compile on an x86_64 machine (Debian and offshoots call this the amd64 architecture, even for non-AMD CPUs).

ARCHIVED This document is archived and may be out of date or inaccurate. NOTICE WARNING You could brick (render unusable and unrecoverable) your device while attempting to follow these instructions.

Overview The cross-compilation toolchains builtin to most modern Linux distributions do not support older versions of GCC. For old kernels (and other software) that require GCC4 or lower for building, this poses a challenge.

Additional Security Settings Next, we want to use ‘Local Security Policy’. This can be found in the ‘Start Menu’ under ‘Windows Administrative Tools’. Set your Account Policy Navigate to Account Policy|Password Policy|Maximum password age The author recommends setting no maximum age on password as he believes it causes more trouble than it is worth to set an arbitrary forced password change.

ARCHIVED This document is archived and may be out of date or inaccurate. Overview Around 2011 Android devices based on the WonderMedia 8xxx-series SoC (ARM v5) were being sold as netbooks.

REMOVED Fork of Rpi-Distro/pi-gen WARNING: Due to https://bugs.launchpad.net/qemu/+bug/1805913 images built on non-arm hosts are broken! As I am, once again, late to the party and there are sufficient projects for most needs (and I have enough other things to work on) I am abandoning this fork.

A configuration for using Hugo on WSL(2) with Netlify and Netlify CLI

Public git self hosting can be desirable for a number of reasons. Here we discuss a very lightweight alternative.

For small deployments the Raspberry Pi makes a great choice for bare metal infrastructure for provisioning and configuration management servers.

A guide to configuring an OVH VPS (Virtual Private Server) with CentOS 7

For your self-hosted systems there are likely hosts you don’t want internet-connected, but you still want to be able to do package updates.

Often you don’t need a full mirror of CentOS and/or EPEL, so we give a working example of a partial mirror and custom repository setup.

Linux Network Monitoring Presentation ca. 2006

A guide to configuring a static web server using Lighttpd on CentOS 7

ARCHIVED This document is archived and may be out of date or inaccurate. Check the Debian Wiki first Before reading this page you should try looking at the DebianCustomCD Page on the Debian Wiki because it is updated more frequently, and by more contributors.