#mysocalledsudolife — Public Fediverse posts

👩‍💻​ My So Called Sudo Life - day 500: still a newbie edition 🆕​

Dear Fedi friends,

Today marks the 500th day of my self-hosting adventures and I'm celebrating it with... a slice of humble pie:

🔗​: https://blog.elenarossini.com/my-so-called-sudo-life/my-so-called-sudo-life-day-500-still-a-newbie-edition/

Also: please remember to update your Linux system to patch the critical vulnerability that has been found.

#Linux #CopyPaste #security #MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting #YunoHost

@esplovago I have a separate feed for #MySoCalledSudoLife - the link to that feed should be in the post

👩🏻‍💻 my so-called sudo life - day 497: Mastodon stampede edition 🐘​

Dear Fedi friends,

You may remember how last year I was dealing with self-DDoS attacks every time I shared a link to my Wordpress or Ghost sites. Well, I solved the issue with Ghost (#VinylCache is brilliant) but I never found a solution for my Wordpress site... not even with #BunnyCDN. I guess I wasn't tweaking the right settings.

This is a pity because TBH the ActivityPub for Wordpress plugin is SO COOL and works flawlessly. I had to move my blog posts to Ghost and keep Wordpress as a static portfolio site. That being said, I never dared share links to my Wordpress site anymore because I would get about 4000 requests within 60 seconds and everything would freeze.

I just looked into #BunnyCDN's settings again and tried to tweak them. So please bear with me for an experiment, sharing an old blog post and seeing what happens.

Wish me luck!

From the archives:

https://elenarossini.com/2025/01/my-so-called-sudo-life-time-matters/

#BuyEuropean #CDN #DDOS #MastodonHugofDeath #MastodonStampede #Wordpress #blog #MySoCalledSudoLife

👩‍💻​ My So Called Sudo Life: Jailbroken Kindle edition 📖​

If you followed my #Jailbreaking adventures this past week, I'd like to add a final chapter on the positive effect it had on my reading habits.

Long story short: I used to be an avid reader and I had sadly lost the habit of reading books in the last couple of years (blaming tiredness at the end of the day). I had been looking for a system to encourage me to get back on track. When I found out about #KOreader and #SimpleUI I was totally smitten: an elegant interface that kept track of my reading stats? Sign me up!

In the photo I've attached you can see my reading stats for the past week - aka since I started using KOreader and SimpleUI. If you don't want to squint / find it harder to read: my daily reading average is about 40 minutes. Not bad! I'm just absolutely delighted by this.

#KindleJailbreak #reading #books #habits #MySoCalledSudoLife

Oh what a day!

Earlier today I managed to communicate via mesh networks with my friend @stereo in Germany... some 400+ km away.

It only took 6 hops... the third one in the chain was the iconic Jungfraujoch radio relay station (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jungfraujoch_radio_relay_station).

So exciting!

I can't thank Ralf enough for his help with this... I would have been completely lost without his guidance.

Let the fun mesh adventures begin!

#mesh #MeshCommunication #MeshCore #MySoCalledSudoLife

Forget trad wives, the new influencer trend should be #NerdWives.

"Hey honey, I turned our old computer into a server so I could set up a #fediverse instance for our child and her friends."

"Hey all, today I am showing you #NextCloud as an alternative to #Dropbox and #GoogleDrive."

"Get ready with me! Today I am showing you how I check in with my friends with off-grid mesh radio first thing in the morning."

How awesome would this be? I mean, finally a trend where people LEARN SOMETHING and are more empowered as a result.

(Forever grateful to my Fedi friends for all the inspiration and encouragement in trying new tools) ❤️​

#MySoCalledSudoLife

👩🏻‍💻 my so-called sudo life - day 490: #KindleJailbreak edition 🆓

Regarding yesterday's post on the Kindle jailbreak: it is SO WORTH it.

I hope I didn't discourage anyone by saying how much I struggled with it. Well, I had a 15 YEAR OLD device and the online tutorials didn't work with it. I finally managed to install KUAL after finding a Reddit thread that gave step-by-step advice for the Kindle 4 gen.

I was really bummed that highlighting didn't work for it so I bit the bullet and got my hands on the cheapest e-reader I could find yesterday: a Kindle 11 gen with ads.

Mind you, I'm in the Italian countryside at the moment and it's a miracle they had it in stock at my local superstore. I would have preferred a Kobo but it is what it is.

Jailbreaking a recent Kindle is child's play. I was happy to see that it was not on the latest firmware, so it was easily jailbreakable.

So:

1. jailbreaking it
2. installing a HotFix to prevent OTA updates
3. installing KUAL
4. installing KOreader
5. installing SimpleUI
6. removing ads
7. installing custom transparent wallpapers
8. transferring books to it

took a little over an hour. Easy peasy.

The backlight was great at 2:30am (I was woken up by my child coughing and couldn't easily fall back asleep). Very happy that I can do highlights in KOreader and now the ultimate test is how I can transfer the highlights to my computer / Calibre.

If you're on the fence, I'd say, go for it. This is the excellent guide I used: https://kindlemodding.org

For inspo: look up #KOreader and #SimpleUI homepages to realize what you could do

#MySoCalledSudoLife #Kindle #modding #jailbreak

👩🏻‍💻 my so-called sudo life - day 490: #KindleJailbreak edition 🆓

Regarding yesterday's post on the Kindle jailbreak: it is SO WORTH it.

I hope I didn't discourage anyone by saying how much I struggled with it. Well, I had a 15 YEAR OLD device and the online tutorials didn't work with it. I finally managed to install KUAL after finding a Reddit thread that gave step-by-step advice for the Kindle 4 gen.

I was really bummed that highlighting didn't work for it so I bit the bullet and got my hands on the cheapest e-reader I could find yesterday: a Kindle 11 gen with ads.

Mind you, I'm in the Italian countryside at the moment and it's a miracle they had it in stock at my local superstore. I would have preferred a Kobo but it is what it is.

Jailbreaking a recent Kindle is child's play. I was happy to see that it was not on the latest firmware, so it was easily jailbreakable.

So:

1. jailbreaking it
2. installing a HotFix to prevent OTA updates
3. installing KUAL
4. installing KOreader
5. installing SimpleUI
6. removing ads
7. installing custom transparent wallpapers
8. transferring books to it

took a little over an hour. Easy peasy.

The backlight was great at 2:30am (I was woken up by my child coughing and couldn't easily fall back asleep). Very happy that I can do highlights in KOreader and now the ultimate test is how I can transfer the highlights to my computer / Calibre.

If you're on the fence, I'd say, go for it. This is the excellent guide I used: https://kindlemodding.org

For inspo: look up #KOreader and #SimpleUI homepages to realize what you could do

#MySoCalledSudoLife #Kindle #modding #jailbreak

👩🏻‍💻 my so-called sudo life - day 489: new experiments edition 🧪

A blog post that chronicles what I have been up to since December... namely: advocating for the Fediverse, creating #selfhosting guides for newbies and experimenting with e-reader jailbreaks and off-grid mesh radio communications

🔗​: https://blog.elenarossini.com/my-so-called-sudo-life/my-so-called-sudo-life-day-489-new-experiments-edition/

#MySoCalledSudoLife #KindleJailbreak #KOreader #SimpleUI #meshtastic #blog #tech #resistance

👩‍💻​ My So Called Sudo Life: Jailbroken Kindle x Windows edition :Terminal:​

I just used a Windows PC for the first time in 20 years possibly?

Long story short, I typically manage my Kindle 4's contents with a Macbook Air from 2013 that still works wonderfully.

But! The old Air stayed behind in Paris, as I just arrived at my parents' in Italy with my Macbook Air M4. And the Kindle would not mount on it, no matter what I tried (even checking USB connections in Terminal). Last resort: I asked my parents if I could use their PC.

Dad got upset because with the first micro USB cable the computer wouldn't recognize my Kindle... so he launched #copilotai looking for help and I literally screamed "Nooooo I don't want any of that, quit quit quit immediately."

A different cable did the trick, I installed an earlier version of KOreader and it seems to be better... but the books aren't rendering yet, they're all gibberish, so I may have to install Calibre on my parents' PC and re-convert all the books.

Why going through so many hassles? Did you ever see how gorgeous Simple UI is for KOreader? A total game changer.

Sorry for the GitHub link, but it's either this or Reddit or YouTube, so choosing the "lesser evil" (debatable, I know):

🔗​: https://github.com/doctorhetfield-cmd/simpleui.koplugin

I'll share photos as soon as I get it to work... it already took me upwards of 6 hours to get KUAL and koreader to install on my ancient Kindle. Nobody is stopping me now, I'm super super motivated to get it to work 😅​

#MySoCalledSudoLife #NoAI #Microslop #Kindle #KindleJailbreak #koReader #SimpleUI

A very #MySoCalledSudoLife day.​ This morning I:

1. Created my first cron job (I will look into systemd timers this weekend, just in case)

2. I bought a Heltec v3 kit - so I can try off-grid mesh communication when I'm at my parents' in Italy later this month

Thanks for all your help and advice with cron jobs! I really appreciate 🙏

About to create my first cron job. Wish me luck! 😅

#MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting

#AskFedi: is there a script / way to automate the restart of dnsmasq every 24 hours… on a VPS that runs on Debian 12?

(Funny how this would have sounded like a foreign language to me a mere year ago) 😆

Update: THANK YOU for the cronjob recommendation. Now looking for a tutorial that’s easy to follow for a newbie like me 😅

I really appreciate all the advice, YOU’RE THE BEST 🏆

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Oh happy day!

First time in a week I can use GoToSocial without restarting dnsmasq 🥳​

This is not at all a problem with GoToSocial (to be clear I LOVE it and have zero complaints). It was just a matter of increasing dns-forward-max from 150 to 300.

The #YunoHost Forum is always a fantastic place to find solutions. :1000:​ recommended, thank you @yunohost     :YunoHost:​ 💖​

🔗​: https://forum.yunohost.org/t/strange-dnsmasq-logs-cant-post-on-gotosocial-unless-i-manually-restart-dnsmasq/41953

#MySoCalledSudoLife

@elena and next up in elena's #MySoCalledSudoLife: graphana

I've spent 3 days combing through system logs... 1000% NOT recommended as a way to have a nice day :FireDumpster:​

On the upside it's cool to see how comfortable I am moving around terminal. I always have a lot of fun with CLI :Terminal:​

Oh the highs and lows of #MySoCalledSudoLife 🥲

In 10 minutes I leave the house to pick up my little one from pre-school and I look forward to the next few hours away from my computer. Bliss!

New post:

"A newbie's guide to self-hosting with #YunoHost. Part 5: Upgrades & Maintenance"

Not exactly the most exciting post I have ever written, but system maintenance is so essential.

And spoiler alert: thanks to a botched #PeerTube upgrade I discovered the wonders of #tmux (thank you @teapot_ben and @drfyzziks for recommending it!)

🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost-part-5-upgrades-maintenance/

#SelfHosting #MySoCalledSudoLife #DigitalSovereignty

SUCCESS!!! 🥳​

I was finally able to upgrade my #YunoHost #PeerTube installation (thanks to the advice of Fedi people).

Long story short, yesterday I tried to upgrade using YunoHost's graphical user interface but I lost the connection to the server, my PeerTube installation broke and was automatically removed from my list of apps. I could restore to the pre-update backup but my PeerTube site was still broken, showing a "welcome to nginx" message. Thankfully I had taken a snapshot of my VPS, so I was able to restore everything within a few minutes.

Following my accounts of what happened, @teapot_ben and @drfyzziks recommended I install tmux and do app upgrades from terminal, inside tmux, so that server connection issues wouldn't interfere with app upgrades. So I did. And this time everything worked! (huge sigh of relief)

It's so much fun upgrading YunoHost apps from Terminal. I think this will be the way for me from now on 🤗​

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Oh happy day!

This newbie #sysadmin is VERY HAPPY because in less than 5 minutes I:

• installed tmux (thank you for the recommendation & instructions @teapot_ben and @drfyzziks)

• upgraded PeerTube from Terminal using tmux

now the stakes weren't super high because I did this for my second VPS which is running test apps... the real challenge will be to do this on my primary VPS and my in-production PeerTube instance.

Grabbing another coffee, taking a VPS snapshot and trying this.

As always THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND ENCOURAGEMENT. I couldn't do this without you 💖​

Oh but the larger point in this message was to vouch for tmux - it really is super beginner friendly. I know NOTHING and I was able to easily install it and use it. So you could recommend it to your normie friends for sure ☺️​

#MySoCalledSudoLife #YunoHost

THIS IS A POST IN PRAISE OF SNAPSHOTS.

My PeerTube upgrade was a horror show: lost server connection during the upgrade and then PeerTube was automatically removed from my YunoHost server... the routine backup by YunoHost of PeerTube didn't restore... in short: bad, very bad outcome.

I hyperventilated for a few minutes and then... hit "Restore" on the VPS snapshot I had captured before the maintenance operation and... everything went back to normal.

Heart still beating a little fast but I am in AWE of the powers of SNAPSHOTS, ouf.

#sysadmin #MySoCalledSudoLife

Looking for an alternative to Microsoft 365 and/or Google Workspace?

Want to use and host @nextcloud, @matrix and/or Jitsi?

Meet the solution that I personally have deployed:

https://blog.gelbphoenix.de/open-source-alternative-to-microsoft-365-and-google-workspace/

#MySoCalledSudoLife #Nextcloud #Matrix #SelfHosting #Blog #LibreWorkspace

Dear Fedi friends,

Thank you for yesterday's responses to my toot asking for advice. I went out with family, then had a call, then dinner and by the time I checked my phone before bed I had something like 71 new mentions filled with superb tips. I really appreciate.

Now, TWO THINGS:

1) I have been waiting for this day for a year now. The perfect opportunity to use my custom emoji :NoAdvice:​ as in: please no more advice, I'm a little maxed out as it is, I have 2 years of resources to occupy my time.

2) I will probably compile a summary of the advice in a blog post for #MySoCalledSudoLife series so it can be useful to others. With credit obviously 🙏​

Thank you so much for your generous help and have a great day!

:NoAdvice:​ :NoAdvice:​ :NoAdvice:​ :NoAdvice:​

Dear Fedi friends,

The normalization of "vibe coding" in certain environments is pushing me in the exact opposite direction.

I, a normie (ok maybe a semi-technical person), would like to learn some basic computer programming*.

*** Update at 10pm ***

I’ve been offline for the past 6 hours and I checked my notifications before going to sleep: 71 new mentions 😳 thank you for all your generous advice, I’ll respond one-by-one tomorrow morning. Good night! ❤️

****

I need some advice about where to start because I'm a little clueless in this regard. Maybe it will help to share my goals, so that you can tailor your advice:

1) I'd like to become much more proficient using CLI... so that one day for example I could migrate a #YunoHost app to a new server without breaking anything

2) I'd like to be able to confidently run remote backups with rsync

3) Security: I need to learn how to turn my VPS or Raspi into a fortress

4) Eventually I'd like to learn #FreeBSD

Where does one even start?

I'm based in Paris, France, speak French, English and Italian, but remote learning is preferable because my child is in school only 4 days a week and has 2-week holidays every 6 weeks of school (thanks to the French educational system, don't ask me).

I'm super motivated to learn all these things, I just don't know where to start.

*Edit: maybe I'm just dreaming of becoming a proficient sysadmin

#AskFedi #MySoCalledSudoLife #NoAI

#YunoHost App Upgrades - Progress Report:

I successfully upgraded all the apps EXCEPT for PeerTube and Pixelfed because of reports of bugs/failures on their respective GitHub pages.

PeerTube: https://github.com/YunoHost-Apps/peertube_ynh/issues

Pixelfed: https://github.com/YunoHost-Apps/pixelfed_ynh/issues

I will wait another week for #PeerTube since my channel is so essential, running the Fediverse promo video and all...

I haven't been using Pixelfed all that much but I don't wanna break anything, so I will keep it as it is.

Life of a self-hoster: never a dull day 😅​

#MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting

Backing up things is pretty standard / low stakes.

But I just noticed that virtually ALL the apps on my #YunoHost system have available updates, which means... the hair-raising, palpitations-inducing, let's say a little prayer practice of creating a snapshot of my VPS (easy peasy) and clicking on "Upgrade" by order of importance.

#Fail2Ban and #LinkStack were pretty low stakes - done, no sweat. Plus I love how YunoHost creates backups before upgrading, so you can always revert back if something goes wrong.

Anyway, Pixelfed now and then my sacred triad of GoToSocial, NextCloud and PeerTube.

Wish me luck! 🥵​

EDIT: newbie me is more advanced than even I would think so... I'm checking out GitHub's YunoHost page for each app I want to upgrade. Apparently the Pixelfed package has issues so I'm not touching that 😅​

Reference: https://github.com/YunoHost-Apps/pixelfed_ynh/issues

Now checking out the other apps...

#MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting

Good morning Fedi friends!

Monday mornings mean: my weekly ritual of manually backing up my #YunoHost installation (my VPS does automatic daily backups of the whole VPS, but I say: better safe than sorry).

This latest backup is pretty big, because of my increased use of #NextCloud. So in reverse order, from biggest to smallest we have:

1) #GoToSocial : 5.8 GB
2) #PeerTube : 4.3 GB
3) #NextCloud: 3.7 GB
4) #Pixelfed : 1.6 GB
5) #LinkStack : 92 MB
6) #Fail2Ban : 362kb

Happy #selfhosting everyone! And in case you missed it, my self-hosting guide for newbies via YunoHost is available here: https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost/ (with 4 articles so far).

Have a great week everyone!

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Hello Fedi friends, how's your #DiDay going?

I was going to configure CryptPad on my second YunoHost VPS but gave up because of complicated DNS settings / additional SSL certs and the requirement to tweak things in the background... too complicated for this newbie, sigh. Plus I already have document editing in NextCloud.

So I opted instead for a new installation: #AppFlowy, an open source alternative to #Notion.

AppFlowy's description mentions integration with AI - #OpenAI especially - but it's not mandatory. The setup instructions say that if you don't want to use it, you can enter a random string... so I ended up writing a very long IDetestOpenAIblahblahblah sort of thing and YunoHost is currently doing its magic, installing the app on my server.

I'll let you know how it goes!

More info about DiDay: https://di.day/de

#MySoCalledSudoLife #NoAI

Hello Fedi friends, how's your #DiDay going?

I was going to configure CryptPad on my second YunoHost VPS but gave up because of complicated DNS settings / additional SSL certs and the requirement to tweak things in the background... too complicated for this newbie, sigh. Plus I already have document editing in NextCloud.

So I opted instead for a new installation: #AppFlowy, an open source alternative to #Notion.

AppFlowy's description mentions integration with AI - #OpenAI especially - but it's not mandatory. The setup instructions say that if you don't want to use it, you can enter a random string... so I ended up writing a very long IDetestOpenAIblahblahblah sort of thing and YunoHost is currently doing its magic, installing the app on my server.

I'll let you know how it goes!

More info about DiDay: https://di.day/de

#MySoCalledSudoLife #NoAI

#DeltaChat experimentations and questions

I attempted to install Delta Chat on my Pixel 9 running GrapheneOS and I couldn't get the QR code pairing to work.

So I attempted the "restore from backup" method and it worked seamlessly and instantaneously.

Since Delta Chat doesn't require a phone number or an email address, I wonder what are the best practices to ensure you don't lose access to your account? (In case you lose your main phone)?

I have it set up on my iPhone, on my second phone running GrapheneOS, on two Macs in Paris and now on a MacMini in Italy... so 5 devices in total.

How often do you run backups? Shall I do them every week? Any other advice to share?

#AskFedi #MySoCalledSudoLife

So I literally spent 2 hours trying to get my Canon Pixma printer to work... it suddenly stopped responding with the error message "your printer is offline" ... even if it was connected by cable.

I reset the driver - no change.

I changed cables - still nothing.

I tried on 2 different computers (desktop and laptop) - always "offline".

Then I revived my faithful Macbook Air 2014 (which I'd been using up till last year) and plugging in the USB 2 cable (without adapters) did the trick, as I had suspected.

This is why I keep my beloved Macbook Air 2014 around: 12 years old and still working wonderfully 🤗​

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Mondays mean: manually backing up my #YunoHost system.

Speaking of YH, in case you missed it, here is my latest guide for newbies about how to install an app with YunoHost - I showcased NextCloud in my tutorial: https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost-part-3-lets-install-nextcloud/

I'm always surprised by the sheer size of backups - this time 15GB (ugh!) broken down as follows (from biggest to smallest):

#GoToSocial: 6.2 GB
#PeerTube: 4.3 GB
#NextCloud: 3.0 GB
#Pixelfed: 1.5 GB
#LinkStack: 91 MB

I'm brainstorming ways to make my GoToSocial backup size go down... I have cache set to 1 day only, so I'm trying unfollowing a few accounts (that I already follow from my Mastodon profile) to see if that makes a difference.

Anyway, wishing you all a great day & week!

#MySoCalledSudoLife #selfhosting

Good morning Fedi friends!

I'm currently in the east of France visiting extended family.

We're snowed in, everyone in the house is still asleep and I'm in the kitchen, near the fire, sipping coffee and setting up a new self-hosted app: #Umami (a privacy-respecting website analytics app).

How long did it take me to connect my 3 websites? 5 minutes.

Thank you #YunoHost for making all this possible!

#MySoCalledSudoLife

🏕️ my adventures in self-hosting: day 365 (milestone edition) 🎂

Good morning Fedi friends!

Feeling a little emotional today as I reflect back on one year of #selfhosting.

This toot from December 17 2024 shows off my excitement over signing up for my first VPS and installing #YunoHost: https://mastodon.social/@_elena/113667636910565210

If you check out the full thread you can see some of the challenges I faced in the early days. It's only been a year but it feels like a lifetime ago. When I read back, I think: who was this person? _ (task) is so easy! Like, why be scared of tweaking DNS records? 😅​

I will write about the highs and lows in a proper blog post. Spoiler alert: there were mostly HIGHS ☺️​

For now, I want to express my gratitude to:

✨​ @shollyethan who encouraged me by saying (I'm paraphrasing) "go for it, you learn by doing things"

✨​ @ilja who recommended I check out YunoHost (I had never heard of it before)

✨ :YunoHost:​ @yunohost for empowering me to self-host so many great FOSS tools... and upgrading and maintaining them in a super easy way

✨ @stereo for helping me test my first self-hosted app (this #GoToSocial account)

And thank you to all the sysadmins and programmers who have helped me troubleshoot problems this year. I found that tech support on the Fediverse takes less than a minute 🥰​​

I'm really #GratefulForYou 💖​

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Good morning Fedi friends!

I set up my alarm at 6:20am - as usual - to have at least an hour to myself before the little one wakes up. Yes, even on a Sunday.

I looked up videos about how to flash LineageOS on my Nexus 7 (2012)... And discovered a charming tutorial about TWRP recovery loader... done by a kid - I'm guessing in his early teens - some 8 years ago. The kids are alright!

If my little one started making videos about jailbreaking devices / installing custom ROMs 10 years from now, I would be so proud ☺️​

Anyway, wishing you all a great day!

#MySoCalledSudoLife #customROMs #Nexus7 #LineageOS

Good morning Fedi friends!

I set up my alarm at 6:20am - as usual - to have at least an hour to myself before the little one wakes up. Yes, even on a Sunday.

I looked up videos about how to flash LineageOS on my Nexus 7 (2012)... And discovered a charming tutorial about TWRP recovery loader... done by a kid - I'm guessing in his early teens - some 8 years ago. The kids are alright!

If my little one started making videos about jailbreaking devices / installing custom ROMs 10 years from now, I would be so proud ☺️​

Anyway, wishing you all a great day!

#MySoCalledSudoLife #customROMs #Nexus7 #LineageOS

Good morning Fedi friends!

I set up my alarm at 6:20am - as usual - to have at least an hour to myself before the little one wakes up. Yes, even on a Sunday.

I looked up videos about how to flash LineageOS on my Nexus 7 (2012)... And discovered a charming tutorial about TWRP recovery loader... done by a kid - I'm guessing in his early teens - some 8 years ago. The kids are alright!

If my little one started making videos about jailbreaking devices / installing custom ROMs 10 years from now, I would be so proud ☺️​

Anyway, wishing you all a great day!

#MySoCalledSudoLife #customROMs #Nexus7 #LineageOS

Good morning Fedi friends!

I set up my alarm at 6:20am - as usual - to have at least an hour to myself before the little one wakes up. Yes, even on a Sunday.

I looked up videos about how to flash LineageOS on my Nexus 7 (2012)... And discovered a charming tutorial about TWRP recovery loader... done by a kid - I'm guessing in his early teens - some 8 years ago. The kids are alright!

If my little one started making videos about jailbreaking devices / installing custom ROMs 10 years from now, I would be so proud ☺️​

Anyway, wishing you all a great day!

#MySoCalledSudoLife #customROMs #Nexus7 #LineageOS

Good morning Fedi friends!

I set up my alarm at 6:20am - as usual - to have at least an hour to myself before the little one wakes up. Yes, even on a Sunday.

I looked up videos about how to flash LineageOS on my Nexus 7 (2012)... And discovered a charming tutorial about TWRP recovery loader... done by a kid - I'm guessing in his early teens - some 8 years ago. The kids are alright!

If my little one started making videos about jailbreaking devices / installing custom ROMs 10 years from now, I would be so proud ☺️​

Anyway, wishing you all a great day!

#MySoCalledSudoLife #customROMs #Nexus7 #LineageOS

Good morning Fedi friends,

I hope you've had a lovely week thus far.

I've been busy with creative projects... and I also have been resurrecting, repurposing and/or jailbreaking old devices:

📱​ I wiped my iPhone 6 which has an AMAZING form factor + standard audio jack, put my entire music library on it and essentially turned it into an iPod (no need for a self-hosted music server... for now)

📱​ I jailbroke two Kindles v4 (2011-2012)

📱​ I resurrected my Google #Nexus7 (2012 edition) which had been my first and most favorite tablet to date – its form factor is also incredible - and I'm looking into flashing Lineage OS on it... because it won't install anything and is pretty sluggish as is

📱​ I got a #GooglePixel 9a and immediately installed #GrapheneOS on it.

In case you've been wondering what I've been up to... not much self-hosting but a lot of tweaking of devices 🤗​

Wishing you all a great weekend!

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Good morning Fedi friends,

I hope you've had a lovely week thus far.

I've been busy with creative projects... and I also have been resurrecting, repurposing and/or jailbreaking old devices:

📱​ I wiped my iPhone 6 which has an AMAZING form factor + standard audio jack, put my entire music library on it and essentially turned it into an iPod (no need for a self-hosted music server... for now)

📱​ I jailbroke two Kindles v4 (2011-2012)

📱​ I resurrected my Google #Nexus7 (2012 edition) which had been my first and most favorite tablet to date – its form factor is also incredible - and I'm looking into flashing Lineage OS on it... because it won't install anything and is pretty sluggish as is

📱​ I got a #GooglePixel 9a and immediately installed #GrapheneOS on it.

In case you've been wondering what I've been up to... not much self-hosting but a lot of tweaking of devices 🤗​

Wishing you all a great weekend!

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Good morning Fedi friends,

I hope you've had a lovely week thus far.

I've been busy with creative projects... and I also have been resurrecting, repurposing and/or jailbreaking old devices:

📱​ I wiped my iPhone 6 which has an AMAZING form factor + standard audio jack, put my entire music library on it and essentially turned it into an iPod (no need for a self-hosted music server... for now)

📱​ I jailbroke two Kindles v4 (2011-2012)

📱​ I resurrected my Google #Nexus7 (2012 edition) which had been my first and most favorite tablet to date – its form factor is also incredible - and I'm looking into flashing Lineage OS on it... because it won't install anything and is pretty sluggish as is

📱​ I got a #GooglePixel 9a and immediately installed #GrapheneOS on it.

In case you've been wondering what I've been up to... not much self-hosting but a lot of tweaking of devices 🤗​

Wishing you all a great weekend!

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Good morning Fedi friends,

I hope you've had a lovely week thus far.

I've been busy with creative projects... and I also have been resurrecting, repurposing and/or jailbreaking old devices:

📱​ I wiped my iPhone 6 which has an AMAZING form factor + standard audio jack, put my entire music library on it and essentially turned it into an iPod (no need for a self-hosted music server... for now)

📱​ I jailbroke two Kindles v4 (2011-2012)

📱​ I resurrected my Google #Nexus7 (2012 edition) which had been my first and most favorite tablet to date – its form factor is also incredible - and I'm looking into flashing Lineage OS on it... because it won't install anything and is pretty sluggish as is

📱​ I got a #GooglePixel 9a and immediately installed #GrapheneOS on it.

In case you've been wondering what I've been up to... not much self-hosting but a lot of tweaking of devices 🤗​

Wishing you all a great weekend!

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Good morning Fedi friends,

I hope you've had a lovely week thus far.

I've been busy with creative projects... and I also have been resurrecting, repurposing and/or jailbreaking old devices:

📱​ I wiped my iPhone 6 which has an AMAZING form factor + standard audio jack, put my entire music library on it and essentially turned it into an iPod (no need for a self-hosted music server... for now)

📱​ I jailbroke two Kindles v4 (2011-2012)

📱​ I resurrected my Google #Nexus7 (2012 edition) which had been my first and most favorite tablet to date – its form factor is also incredible - and I'm looking into flashing Lineage OS on it... because it won't install anything and is pretty sluggish as is

📱​ I got a #GooglePixel 9a and immediately installed #GrapheneOS on it.

In case you've been wondering what I've been up to... not much self-hosting but a lot of tweaking of devices 🤗​

Wishing you all a great weekend!

#MySoCalledSudoLife

My plans for the week:

▪️​ install #DietPi on my old #RaspberryPi3 (https://dietpi.com)
▪️​ flash the #YunoHost pre-installed disk image to a new MicroSD card and attempt to set it up on on my #RaspberryPi5
▪️​ if I'm successful, I'll set up #Jellyfin on it
▪️​ create a little storage system for my microSD cards so I can swap them in and out (I won't wipe the one that has #Ubuntu on it, but set it aside so I can use it in the future)

I have a hunch I will ask 🎅​ for a new Raspi this coming Christmas... maybe the #RaspberryPi500 😅​

#MySoCalledSudoLife

:alert:​ MAJOR Plot twist! :FireDumpster:​

I'm sure you're having a better morning than me because I was greeted with an email from #OVH (the VPS provider) that started with "Hello Mr. Rossini" and informed me that the VPS was stopped because they suspected a hack - and it will be permanently deleted. "Now let us know Mr. Rossini if you'd like to purchase a new VPS plan."

30 Euros* for 4 hours of VPS experimentation with Docker! YAY (not!)

(*30 Euros corresponded to a 6-month plan, sigh)

I received ZERO advanced warnings... #OVHCloud simply deleted my VPS because of "unusual activity" and proposed I buy a new one.

I had installed #Fail2Ban on it first thing yesterday morning, but I suppose changing 0.0.0.0 with my VPS's IP4 address in one of the Docker settings... to connect it to Docker GUI did it for me.

You live, you learn.

I will stay away from OVH Cloud.

(Yes I had tried creating an account with Hetzer and NetCup before but they had a convoluted signup process and wanted too much personal info/docs, so I had given up and turned to OVH. My bad).

What will I do now?

Find a new VPS provider.

Feeling salty about the 30 Euros I spent for 6 months with OVH but honestly I feel like I dodged a bullet. I had nothing installed on the VPS, except for Fail2Ban and basic Docker. Imagine how catastrophic it would have been if they had deleted my VPS without warning if I had important stuff on it! Shivering at the thought.

Onwards and upwards, more humble than ever, with infinite respect for sysadmins 🙏​

#MySoCalledSudoLife #N00b

Good morning Fedi friends!

A new learning adventure begins 👀

#SelfHosting #Docker #NeverStopLearning #MySoCalledSudoLife

Why should you self-host? Here are six reasons for self-hosting.

https://blog.gelbphoenix.de/why-to-self-host-taking-control-of-your-data-and-services/

#self_hosted #MySoCalledSudoLife

https://elenarossini.com/2025/07/my-adventures-in-self-hosting-day-211-cdn-edition/

My dear federated WordPress blog,

Sorry for all the tests I put you through in the last 48 hours.

First, I changed your Webfinger setup, which broke federation. Then I reverted back those changes… I posted a test message that immediately federated (yay) but when I replied to it from my Mastodon account, I set off the infamous Mastodon stampede: 5000+ requests in the span of seconds, which took you offline (ouch). I had to delete my reply on Mastodon, flush your cache, and you were back online (yay).

Ever since, I have been on a mission to safeguard you against the Mastodon Hug of Death – a very familiar phenomenon that I experienced with my self-hosted Ghost blog.

The solution I found for it (on Ghost) was installing Varnish Cache. And my oh my has it been effective! A real champion, even at times when my blog posts trended all day on Mastodon (like the one announcing the release of my Fediverse promo video).

But I’m digressing.

My dear WordPress blog, you need protection against sudden surges of traffic brought on by the Fediverse.

This morning, I tried it all:

1. My plan A was setting up Cloudflare for you. I am SO GLAD that didn’t work out, though, because in the past year I have developed a real distaste for all things Big Tech and I couldn’t really reconcile using Cloudflare as your Content Delivery Network. Why this didn’t work out? It’s a very convoluted explanation… it had to do with DNS records and the way it’s set up. Basically if I manually connected Cloudflare to some DNS records for elenarossini.com, this association would take over ALL DNS records from the POV of my hosting provider, including subdomains… even if I didn’t add them. And I have LOTS of subdomains linked to self-hosted instances for Fediverse software and did not want to do that. I’m probably explaining things badly, but suffice it to say, it wasn’t ideal to tinker with DNS for a variety of reasons. Moving on.
2. My plan B was exploring how to set up Varnish cache for this website by using shell access. That, unfortunately, is impossible: Varnish needs Nginx or Apache and on a shared hosting plan you simply cannot tinker with that stuff. What to do?
3. My plan C was setting up BunnyCDN for this site. I first heard about it via the superb website European Alternatives (basically, a database of alternatives to Big Tech platforms and services from the US). Bunny is based in Slovenia and I heard praises of it. Now, I had tried to use it for Ghost earlier this spring, but never managed to complete its setup, and opted for Varnish instead. I decided to give it another go. Guess what? Bunny didn’t ask me for DNS records – its setup was easy and instantaneous, with its native WordPress plugin. I connected it to my Bunny account and was good to go – no tinkering with DNS.

I have double-checked in Developer mode that this site’s images are already going through Bunny. All good!

Disclaimer: unlike Cloudflare, Bunny doesn’t offer a free plan, so I will need to monitor costs. But I’m curious to see how it will do and how much it will cost on a monthly basis. Of course, I will report back about this (at the moment I have $50 in free credits).

Now the real test will be hitting “publish” on this blog post… and replying to the federated post with my Mastodon account. This simple action took my site offline yesterday.

If the site doesn’t go offline, I would up the ante and actually share the link to this blog post from my Mastodon account (to an audience of 8000+ people on hundreds of different servers).

Wish me luck!!!

Elena

Update: how did the test go? Well, the post federated and appeared immediately on my Mastodon feed. I replied to it and within seconds the site went offline, showing an “error establishing a database connection.” I refreshed the page and saw the homepage – fully functional, but extremely slow. If I tried to click on any items in the navigation menu, nothing happened. I deleted the Mastodon reply, flushed the cache… and the site remained largely unresponsive. Needless to say, I need to conduct more tests with Bunny. I am not giving up quite yet…

#BunnyCDN #CDN #Cloudflare #micro #myAdventuresInSelfHosting #mySoCalledSudoLife

https://elenarossini.com/2025/07/my-adventures-in-self-hosting-day-210-viva-foss/

There has never been a better time to join the world of Free Open Source Software or begin self-hosting essential digital services.

Some recent news that made me feel grateful for my forays into self-hosting:

1. The software Pocket, which made it easy to save, organize and read later articles in a really elegant interface shuts down this year. Another fantastic app/service to add to Mozilla‘s graveyard. Looking at YunoHost‘s app catalog, I noticed several superb alternatives to Pocket that are free, open source, and can be self-hosted, so I am thinking: never again will I give that power to an outside company. Cherry on top: the Pocket archive I requested the other day landed in my email… and the file contains an error, so I cannot download it (expired token even if it didn’t pass the 72 hour threshold they set). I look forward to self-hosting my next “save and read later” bookmark service.
2. The file sharing company WeTransfer was in the news this morning because they recently updated their terms of service, with alarming language, telling users: “You hereby grant us a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sub-licensable license to use your Content for the purposes of operating, developing, commercializing, and improving the Service or new technologies or services. Such license includes the right to reproduce, distribute, modify, prepare derivative works based upon, broadcast, communicate to the public, publicly display, and perform Content. You will not be entitled to compensation for any use of Content by us under these terms.” News about this spread like wildfire with people saying this language implies content shared via WeTransfer would be used to train AI models. Now, why is this a big deal you may wonder? In my filmmaking / film editing days I would use WeTransfer DAILY to share cuts of my projects. WeTransfer is THE file sharing app for most creatives and film professionals. I used it extensively in May and June to share versions of the Fediverse promo video with my interns. Well, even if WeTransfer backtracks following the backlash, I would never again consider using it. It’s a happy coincidence that last month I set up my own NextCloud instance and I plan on using it to share files from now on. Excellent timing.
3. Tangentially-related, but an article in Engadget today revealed that users of the microblogging platform Threads rarely click on external links. The numbers are pretty shocking: 28 million referral links in 30 days for a platform with allegedly 350 million monthly active users. This is precisely why I love the Fediverse: external links are never downranked because there are no algorithms. Writers and content creators have far higher engagement with their audience because of chronological feeds and more genuine relationships.

On my to do list for the fall: looking into taking full advantage of NextCloud‘s ecosystem because this software is incredibly sophisticated… the FOSS equivalent of a Swiss Army knife.

For those curious about it, here is their official website with documentation: https://nextcloud.com

Onwards and upwards!

Elena

#BigTech #fediverse #foss #freeOpenSourceSoftware #Meta #micro #mySoCalledSudoLife #NextCloud #Pocket #selfHosting #Threads #walledGardens #WeTransfer #yunohost