• 14 Posts
  • 66 Comments
Joined 2Y ago
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Cake day: Jun 15, 2023

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I live in a hot climate, so it’s really the expense of air conditioning.

Small adjustments to the temperature based on whether or not we’re home, pre-cooling versus cooling during the heat of the day, etc. makes a big difference on the bill potentially.

I’ve seen some scenarios where people were able to save hundreds of dollars a year just by adjusting the timing of systems. The price of electricity can go up and down during the day.

Maybe those cases are outliers and it’s actually not worthwhile, but it seems compelling. If I can put a system in place for under $100, that will be at least as good as what I have and possibly a significant improvement, I’m interested in trying it.



Thanks for the tip! Others have mentioned that it’s very tricky to find one that works offline without the manufacturer’s software (website, login, data collection, etc)



What is your self-hosting setup for home thermostat?
I'm not sure the best way to ask or if there is a better community to post... I'm hoping to use my home server to control my home thermostat but not sure where to start. Does anyone use Home Assistant for this? Another software? I'm not sure if I'm allowed to ask about hardware here, but are there things to be aware of in making sure that a wifi thermostat is best suited for the job?
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Tailscale is my number one app of the year. It makes everything else I do possible.


Someone on Lemmy posted a phrase recently: "If you're not prepared to manage backups then you're not prepared to self host." This seems like not only sound advice but a crucial attitude. My backup plans have been fairly sporadic as I've been entering into the world of self hosting. I'm now at a point where I have enough useful software and content that losing my hard drive would be a serious bummer. All of my most valuable content is backed up in one way or another, but it's time for me to get serious. I'm currently running an Ubuntu Server with a number of Docker containers, and lots of audio, video, and documents. I'd like to be able to back up everything to a reliable cloud service. I currently have a subscription to proton drive, which is a nice padding to have, but which I knew from the start would not be really adequate. Especially since there is no native Linux proton drive capability. I've read good things about iDrive, S3, and Backblaze. Which one do you use? Would you recommend it? What makes your short list? what is the best value?
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Really interesting - I never used something like this but certainly see the value


Absolutely phenomenal. Great app, hosting, and development community.

It’s a good reason to start self hosting.


On mine I can just swipe the entire line to the right or left to delete.


Thank you! This is very helpful. I didn’t see these but Lemmy search is sort of broken for me right now.


Oh great. Sorry that I didn’t dig in too much further than the front page of the website.


Oh, that is a really interesting question. I do think that there are some open source assistants that may offer some flexibility, but that’s not really how I personally use a phone so I wouldn’t have any answer. I found this article from a few years ago that seems to suggest it was and may be possible.


yeah, just looking through the notes, it looks like both devs care a lot about their project and just have different visions for what a “Complete” notes app should look like. It’s nice to see, because sometimes when you see a fork of a project it’s because someone abandoned it or there is some kind of community drama, but that doesn’t seem to be the case afaik.


Wow, this looks amazing. I’ll have to check it out to see how sharing/collaboration works though.


I also found a fork called NotallyX, which includes import functions from Keep and Evernote. Pretty useful for someone migrating.


What benefits do you find in particular that make it better than hosting yourself?


Wow, this has some neat features and it looks great on any size screen. I will be following this for sure


This is a very cool project! With a few minor developments this could meet my needs


Yep. You can pay with your data, you can pay a corporation, or you can pay open source developers directly.

If someone can’t afford to pay, or doesn’t believe in it, that’s fine, and that’s part of what open source is, which is amazing. But if you’re in a position to support foss developers, and they created something useful for you, I think it’s the least we can do.


I pay for all of the software that I use, and encourage others to do so as well. That’s not what this is at all. Pretty much the opposite effect.


FOSS alternative to Google Keep
Yes, I know that the are dozens of notes apps. I'm looking for recommendations based on a few features that I like: - nice design (including color coding) - easy checklists - sharing - this one is key. I use a shared shopping list and we both need to add and edit. - pinning and archiving (hidden notes) I don't mind running it from my homelab server, but that is not a requirement. Does anyone use a notes app that you love? Let me know!
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Troubleshooting immich
Cross posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/22666668
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I wonder if they would prorate? I ended up choosing proton as a better fit for my needs (since I needed VPN anyway, and I am a total beginner). They are also running a deal and I ended up upgrading and getting a prorated discount and a credit on the account. The folks at tuta seem pretty down to earth and interested in building a good name.

If they do end up giving you a refund/credit/upgrade, let us know!


It looks like in this case the answer was a little deeper than a simple search, but no worries - you set me in the right direction. I’ll add the solution to the post.



Lol. Thank you. Part of the frustration of being a beginner in any space is that it’s not easy to discern which questions have simple answers and which are more complicated.

From the search you linked, it looks like this is as simple as typing the command

docker logs

I’ll give that a try, once I have access to the server again.


Where do I find that information? What is the exact command that I should type?


How to change qBittorrent admin password in docker-container? [help] [solved]
I'm currently trying to spin up a new server stack including qBittorrent. when I launch the web UI, it asks for a login on first launch. According to the documentation, the default user id admin and the default password is adminadmin. # Solved: For qBittorrent ≥ v4.1, a randomly generated password is created at startup on the initial run of the program. After starting the container, enter the following into a terminal: `docker logs qbittorrent` or `sudo docker logs qbittorrent` (if you do not have access to the container) The command should return: ` ******** Information ******** To control qBittorrent, access the WebUI at: http://localhost:5080 The WebUI administrator username is: admin The WebUI administrator password was not set. A temporary password is provided for this session: G9yw3qSby You should set your own password in program preferences. ` Use this password to login for this session. Then create a new password by opening http://{localhost}:5080 and navigate the menus to -> Tools -> Options -> WebUI ->Change current password. Don't forget to save.
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It’s a very stable, reliable, local, cross-platform file syncing that is pretty easy to set up. Basically, it allows you to have a shared folder (or folders) on multiple devices without using Google Drive, OneDrive, iCloud, etc.


Oh No! This is terrible news. This IMHO is one of the most irreplaceable projects out there. I don’t know of another cross-platform local file syncing app that comes anywhere close to this. I hope that it can continue even if it’s not through the Play Store.

Google seems to be torpedoing open source developments with a number of decisions lately. Maybe they see F-Droid as a threat now that EU is making them open competition? Maybe they just don’t care.


Cloud storage/backup
I would like to use a cloud backup service on my home server. I am a complete beginner. I purchased a subscription for Proton Drive, but it looks like that just won't work. Is there a secure cloud backup that works well on Linux? Bonus points if there's a way to use proton drive. Extra bonus points, if I can set it up for automatic backups through a GUI.
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I’m currently about halfway through setting up a home server on an old/refurbished Dell PC. It has enough compute to transcode if needed, but no more. I’ll have to upgrade the storage to set up RAID. For software, I am running xubuntu, which offers the benefits of the great community and documentation of Ubuntu. It is very beginner friendly, but is a bit simpler and lighter than gnome. I’m running everything I can as Docker containers.


Hi, I’m your customer base.

I’m a complete novice, no network or coding experience, but not afraid of computers either. I’m pretty worried about messing up something serious due to lack of knowledge.

In the end, I didn’t choose Synology or the like due to:

  • lack of robust community support. I’ve noodled around with Linux for years and learned that community support is essential.

  • price. I’d pay 10% or 50% more for a good pre-configured system, but not 3-4x more (which is just the general feeling I get from Synology)

  • lack of configurability. I’m still not sure what I would like to do (and be able). I know I want to replace some storage services, replace some streaming services, control my smart home, maaaaybe access my files remotely, and probably some other stuff. I may want to have email or a website in the future, but that’s not on my radar right now.

If there were some plug-and-play hardware/software solution that was still affordable and open, it would be a good choice for me.


Has anyone used UmbrelOS or CasaOS?
These seem to be purpose built for home servers. Is there a benefit to using one of them?
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What OS is best for a beginner to degoogle?
So I have a retired but still very serviceable PC that I intend to use as my first home server. I gave two basic goals in self-hosting: 1. Host family media through Jellyfin, etc. This would include tv, music, and possibly books as well. Many of these will be managed through the Arr apps. 2. Degoogle my phone - I'm beginning by replacing Photos with Immich, but hope to also use Home Assistant, backup other phone data such as messages media, shopping lists, etc. I hope to replace Google storage/backup with Proton Drive. So the question is what OS should I set up to run that? My proof of concept was an immich container running in xubuntu on an old laptop. I chose Xubuntu because I like the availability of documentation and community support for Ubuntu like distros, but wanted a lower powered alternative for the older device. It seems to be working well, but I've had a few hiccups trying to update it, and I've heard that once you get into it, Linux distros like Ubuntu are not very user friendly for self-hosting as a beginner. So is it better on the whole for a beginner to have a popular distro with lots if documentation and step by step guides, or to have a purpose-built OS like TrueNAS that might be more straightforward, but with less support?
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Just getting started but yeah, I have basically no technology background. Mostly I’m too stubborn to know when to quit something so here I am lol.


What is grade?

Speed as I understand it is the physical speed the drive spins, and is directly proportional (?) to the read/write speed.


How does a beginner know which is which? What should I look for, and how do I know if it’s a good investment or overkill for a home setup?



What’s the difference between a $50 HDD and a $200 HDD?
Beginner question: Searching for my first dedicated server setup, and I have no idea what to look for in a hard drive. I see a huge difference between drives of the same capacity, so what makes the difference? I am looking to eventually have a media server that can run "-arr" programs, Jellyfin, Immich, sync music, books, etc. What are the factors I should be paying attention to other than capacity? Is it a lot of branding and smoke and mirrors, or will I see a significant change in performance/reliability with different drives?
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DownloadThemAll seems to be helping. I’ll update the original post with the details once I have success. In this case, I was able to first download them internally in the browser, then copy the download link and add them to DtA using the link. Someone smarter than me will be able to explain why the extra step was necessary, or how to avoid it.


I couldn’t get it working, but I didn’t try too hard. I may give it another shot. I’m trying a different approach right now.


Yeah, that introduces an issue of queuing and monitoring dozens of downloads rather than just a few. I had similar results.

As my family is continuing to add photos over the week, I see no way to verify that previously downloaded parts are identical to the same parts in another takeout. If that makes sense.


Thanks, I’ll give it a shot. The download links are a little weird due to the google authentication, so they can only be used from a logged in account.


This route may be the answer. I didn’t have success so far in setting up a download manager that offered any real improvements over the browser. I wanted to avoid my photos being on two corporate services, but as you say, in theory everything is delete-able.



It could absolutely be worse. The main problem is the lack of flexibility - If I could ask for an extension after downloading 80% of the files over a week, that would be helpful for example. I’m also beginning to suspect that they cap the download speed because I am seeing similar speeds on my home and work network…


It’s not the speed - it’s the interruptions. If I could guarantee an uninterrupted download for 12 hours, then I could do it over the course of 3-4 days. I’m looking into some of the download management tools that people here have suggested.


Why is Google takeout so bitchy?
Sorry but I can't think of another word for it right now. This is mostly just venting but also if anyone has a better way to do it I wouldn't hate to hear it. I'm trying to set up a home server for all of our family photos. We're on our way to de-googling, and part of the impetus for the change is that our Google Drive is almost full.We have a few hundred gigs of photos between us. The problem with trying to download your data from Google is that it will only allow you to do so in a reasonable way through Google takeout. First you have to order it. Then you have to wait anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for Google to "prepare" the download. Then you have one week before the takeout "expires." That's one week to the minute from the time of the initial request. I don't have some kind of fancy California internet, I just have normal home internet and there is just no way to download a 50gig (or 2 gig) file in one go - there are always intrruptions that require restarting the download. But if you try to download the files too many times, Google will give you another error and you have to start over and request a new takeout. Google doesn't let you download the entire archive either, you have to select each file part individually. I can't tell you how many weeks it's been that I've tried to download all of the files before they expire, or google gives me another error.
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Is a cloud backup an acceptable backup for a home server?
If I have a home server connected to Proton Drive for example, would that be sufficient to back up my data?
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I came across this blog today while searching and I'm finding it very detailed, human, and instructive. For a beginner like me, this kind of resource is invaluable. What does a server failure *feel like* at a personal level? How do you make decisions about cost or utilizing existing hardware? These kind of thoughtful reflections along with practical walkthroughs of solutions make this a very nice resource when planning both the how and the why. Maybe someone else will find it useful too.
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Why is replacement for home device controls so complicated?
I recently learned about Home Assistant here on Lemmy. It looks like a replacement for Google Home, etc. However, it requires an entire hardware installation. Proprietary products just use a simple app to manage and control devices, so can someone explain why a pretty robust dedicated device is necessary as a replacement? The base model has a quad core processor, 4 gigs of ram, and a 32 gig hard drive. Admittedly it's no gaming PC, but it's no arduino either. What actually happens when I turn on a smart switch in my home? Does that command have to be sent to a server somewhere to be processed? What really has to be processed, and why can't a smartphone app do it? **Edit:** I am still getting new replies to this (which are appreciated!), but I wanted to share what I've learned from those who have posted already. I fundamentally misunderstood how smart switches work. I had very wrongly assumed that when my phone is connected to the WiFi, it sends a signal over the local network to toggle the switch, which is connected to the same network, and it turns on/off. While there are technologies that work like this (zigbee, kinda?), most smart home devices rely on a cloud server to communicate the signal. This enables features like using the switches from outside the home network, automation, voice controls, etc. The remote server is what's being replaced.
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Starting from zero
I'm interested in exploring the world of self hosting, but most of the information that I find is incredibly detailed and specific, such as what type of CPU performs better, etc. What I'm really looking for is an extremely basic square 1 guide. I know basically nothing about networking, I don't really know any coding, but it seems like there are a lot of tools out there that might make this possible even for a dummy like me. Right now, my cloud computing is pretty much typical, I think. I use onedrive to sync my documents and old files. I need to be able to quickly access files on different devices, such as a powerpoint created on one device and presented on another. On my phone I use Android and my backups of downloads and photos and other data (messages, etc) are all on Google Drive /Google 1. I'm willing to spend the time learning to an extent, but I'm not looking to become a network expert. I'm also willing to spend a little bit of money on hardware or a subscription service if necessary. Ideally I'd like to be out of this subscription service game, but the main goal is to be in charge of my own files. I have an old laptop running Linux to play around with and a fast and stable home internet connection. Eventually, I would like to not only be syncing my files, photos, and documents in real time, but also I'd like to maybe try using it as an entertainment server to watch/listen to downloaded media on my home network. Is there such a thing as a guide for a total beginner starting from zero? Is this worth attempting, or will I quickly find myself frustrated and in way over my head? Or, do I need to wait a little longer until more idiot-proof tools become available?
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