AJ's Blog

This is a personal blog focused on computer software and hardware. Most projects are implementing software and hardware for a homelab. What is a homelab? I would say a homelab could be a single computer or dozens of computers connected in a network. You can also integrate with computers in the Cloud.

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Recent Posts

State of the homelab, April 2023

04-26-2023

My homelab has evolved quite a bit over time. After implementing a wiki, I have tracked servers and services deployed there. In 2023 I have not done much in the homelab because I moved across my country. Fortunately the only equipment that died during the move was a Raspberry Pi 3b. Last “homelab update” post was August 2022 2023 Notable addition in 2023 was a migration from a Unifi USG to a Unifi UDM (Dream Machine Pro).

Proxmox Ubuntu 22.04 template

01-22-2023

Ubuntu 22.04 was released in 2022 and is a long term support server Linux distribution. We can reasonably expect the publishers of Ubuntu to maintain security and kernel updates for Ubuntu until 2027. This distribution is a good choice for using as a base template for virtual machines. If you are not familiar with creating virtual machine templates for Proxmox, check out a previous post that is more focused on getting started.

Fedora 37 and newer AMD video decoding

01-15-2023

For linux distribution Fedora version 37 and newer, if you are using an AMD graphics card (gpu), the main package repositories no longer provide the drivers needed to decode video streams in browsers and other applicationns that utilize libraries such as vdpau. Fortunately along with other non-free software such as codecs, the RPMFusion repository can be added to your system to install the drivers needed to decode videos using your GPU.

Fedora 37 upgrade

11-27-2022

As of November 15, 2022 Fedora 37 is available. Compared to the previous release, Fedora 36, there are not a large amount of changes that a desktop user will notice. The newest release brings newer versions of the Linux Kernel and GNOME 43 if you use the GNOME desktop environment. If you like running virtual machines, this release includes an image all prepared for running in the Linux KVM hypervisor.

Docker Alternatives

11-06-2022

When it comes to running containers, docker is the most widely used tool with millions of container images available on the public docker hub. If you are not familiar with docker, check out a previous post to get an introduction. I am looking at Alternatives since docker is no longer used as a container runtime in the kubernetes platform. I use kubernetes in my homelab to orchestrate container based services accross multiple computers.

Using nginx as a reverse proxy

10-08-2022

nginx_logo I will be using nginx to serve as a reverse proxy for my network. With Nginx, I can manage my proxy configurations in a single server. Nginx is one of the most widely used web servers and can also function as a reverse proxy, load balancer, mail proxy, and HTTP cache. Nginx is free and open-source software. Linux example On Linux distributions, nginx should be available in the software repositories.