Any good idea where to still find affordable larger HDDs (that aren't about to die)? Willing to go on an EU roadtrip for it. Perhaps someone knows someone, or something fell off a truck…

I refuse to sunset our idea of a capable family homeserver, especially now that streaming subscriptions get canceled left and right. Unfortunately we miss the worst parts… RAM and HDDs.

I'm aware the question is crazy…
#selfHosting #homelab #homeserver #ItMustFeelSoGoodForTheAIBubbleToPop #JensenNvidiaAteMyDog

I just had a thought. Some people talk about #SelfHosting and #Homelabs as some prepper like thing for weird people. I want to change that, as it certainly doesn't reflect how I feel about my mailserver, my various web servers and other services I run myself.

And that's where the thought comes in. From now on I will call it:

#PersonalComputing instead (or again, depending on your age :)

@homelab

Hi everyone from my littlefedi instance, this is my first test post with a media file.

This is one of my dogs when she was very young

#LittleFedi
#SelfHosting

Alt...

a medium size black dog lying in a white and blue bed. Inside the bed is some of her toys, the one in the foreground is a little orange fox. The wall behind is white and the floor is a light coloured.wood

Woke up to a compromise of my self-hosted #Plausible analytics server. Noticed only because a test Ghost server was responding slowly. Server CPU was near 100% and had been for about two weeks. From what I can tell, the attacker was doing bitcoin mining.

The compromise: https://github.com/plausible/analytics/security/advisories/GHSA-mhcv-h7gf-57cf

The fix was to update to Plausible CE 3.2.1, but required a bunch of cleanup first.

I’m glad it was a Docker container. That made cleanup so much easier.

#Selfhosting is a huge pain in the ass.

There's a new very lightweight Fediverse platform that's just been released called littleFedi. You can follow its new official account at:

🌱 @littlefedi_official

Its official website including download and source code is at:

🌱 https://littlefedi.org

LittleFedi is intended for techy people who want to create their own Fediverse server using as few resources as possible.

It's written by @stefano (who also created the weather service FediMeteo).

#Fediverse #ActivityPub #FOSS #SelfHosting

LittleFedi is an excellent light weight but fully featured Fediverse platform (ActivityPub). I've been kicking tires and providing feedback on the test instance and excited for the first release to give it a go self-hosted.

@stefano has been leading a master class in community and developer relations. He has been stewarding the team and user community with enthusiasm and transparency. Congratulations to Stefano and the team.

Here's a great story of the project's genesis and journey. https://littleone.littlefedi.social/@littlefedi_official/01a0f644-8ed6-7a7d-ade6-46f4c0a74f41

#littleFedi #ActivityPub #Fediverse #FOSS #SelfHosting

This is an #Intro post from a test account on LittleFedi running from home on a Pi. Let's see how this goes before we migrate all my other accounts here.

I'm Richard, retired adventurer/author living in #Spain. El Perro Negro named after first dog. Bit of a grumpy old man but try to be good company. Will post about #hiking, #mountaineering, #photography, #technology, #selfhosting and #privacy issues. Interested in human generated #RSS content. Not got time for Politicians nor Big Tech.

Would love to meet up on the #Fediverse with like minded folk. Photo from last Novembers trip to El Chalten in Patagonia

Alt...

A person walks along a rocky ridge. Behind lies the peaks of Cerro Torre and My Fitzroy, El Chalten, Patagonia

So, I decided not to use ZFS for my in-home NAS. I checked it in another server with 2GB of RAM and... it works, but any heavy I/O operation resulted in killing spree of NetBSD kernel, OOM-killing the processes to free the memory. And NetBSD ZFS doesn't have knobs to fine-tune memory limits (IIRC they are still in development).

Instead, the usual approach - the old^Wmature technology - is in use. With the help of netbsd-users maillist (https://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-users/2026/09/21/msg034895.html) I configured the next thing for HDD with RAIDframe, CGD and LVM:

1) Two identical 1TB disks: /dev/wd0 and /dev/wd1.
2) Both in use in RAID1 /dev/raid0 (as described in this document: https://netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-rf.html, but without any tricks for root FS).
3) /dev/raid0 divided in two parts: /dev/raid0a for root FS and /dev/raid0b.
4) Both disks (/dev/wd0 and /dev/wd1) has installed bootloader via /usr/sbin/installboot -o timeout=10 -v /dev/rwd0 /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv2 and /usr/sbin/installboot -o timeout=5 -v /dev/rwd1 /usr/mdec/bootxx_ffsv2
5) The /dev/raid0b was encrypted with CGD, so the /dev/raid0b -> /dev/cgd0.
6) The whole encrypted disk (/dev/cgd0a) was added as physical volume to LVM. The volume group /dev/vg0 was created with this PV and the logical volume /dev/vg0/lv0 was created inside this VG to store the real data.

The LVM allows to add new disk space, just by adding new physical volume to the volume group and then extending the logical volume and resizing the FFSv2. I tested it with a test USB drive and it works and even doesn't led to data loss

And the separate CGD separately encrypts existing physical volume and each new physical volume just in case

One quirk: the underlying physical disks (/dev/wd0 and /dev/wd1) plus /dev/raid0 should use MBR partition scheme or NetBSD disklabel - because the root partition should start from 0 sector - if it started not from zero sector, then the bootloader will be unable to find root FS. I tried to use GPT, but the installer was unable to create root partition not from zero sector, only from 2048 sector

#NetBSD #RAIDframe #CGD #LVM #selfhosting

I am looking to try out a basic #homelab #selfhosting server with the most basic and simple setup possible. The server is already fully setup, up, and running. Does anyone have a recommendation for dynamic DNS provider? (EU based only, preference AT)

RE: https://sciences.social/@annasdtc/117224123424001867

Not everyone can or should self-host, but the technology that enables it—federation, open standards, and vendor independence—also allows cooperatives, municipalities, and community groups to run their own infrastructure.

#DigitalSovereignty #OpenSource #SelfHosting #Jabber #XMPP

Glyph boosted

Anna SdTC [She/her] » 🌐 2026-09-06
@annasdtc@sciences.social

All this self-host techie discourse sounds, to me, a bit like a self-sufficiency dystopia. If we were discussing how bad public transportation is, and someone replied "just transport yourself", most of us would say "that's not it". But when we discuss wanting to get out of large American tech or of nazi-sympathyzing companies, the solution can't be "just host your services yourself". Having to do everything yourself is not my idea of a functioning society.

https://todon.eu/@redjives/117223317766147041

I think I'm slowly going to make my way back to self-hosting my repositories (via cgit, most likely). Most providers now either have too strict of rules or none at all...

Probably better to have full control anyway 🤷

#git #selfHosting

He-he, my file/kitchen server project is going well Finally, I assembled all necessary wiring to connect 5V/12V from PSU to the external HDDs, bough SATA<->eSATA cables and assembled the storage for 4 3.5" disks.

And it all even powered up and system tried to boot from a connected single disk (unsuccessfully, because disk still doesn't contain NetBSD )

Next step — somehow buy a 4th HDD (hope, a gas for delivery trucks will exist at that moment, and this is not even the biggest problem), setup RAID 1 for NetBSD's root and cgd+RAID1+FFS (or ZFS) for files.

#NetBSD #selfhosting #homelab

Alt...

Front view of homemade file server. There are ITX case with Intel Atom inside, the plastic gray box for electrical wiring on top of it and two 3D-printed black frames for 4 HDDs with 1 HDD installed and a fan connected. The system is powered up and tge fan is spinning. The power source on the background shows 12V on the display.

Alt...

The back view of homemade server. There are ITX case with 4 eSATA ports and one aviation grade connector for power, the gray box with power wirings, power connectors for HDDs and a frame for 4 HDDs with 1 HDD installed, on the background.

Alt...

The top view of homemade server. The ITX black case on the bottom; gray box with wires and 1HDD in frame for 4 HDDs on the top. Everything connected with standard colored cables from PC PSU, also there is a pink eSATA<->SATA cable on the top right corner of the photo.

I'm genuinely interested by the results of this #poll.

1. Are you self-hosting at home a little server? (with services like shared drives, media server,...)
2. Would you be interested in getting assistance managing one in your home?

(If you're also interested in this topic, thx for giving it a little boost for a larger sample)

#selfhosting #home #selfhost

I now also have a favicon (goodbye Susie ) and I overhauled my config Fun! #selfHosting #customEmoji

Today I want to start a little experiment:

• With an ISP who assigns me a /48 prefix, what is it like to host IPv6-only services on a FreeBSD host?
• What works? What doesn't?
• How does setting up IPv6-only services compare to setting up IPv4 services on FreeBSD?

Why IPv6 only?

It's 2026.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that IPv6 offers you more freedom and choice about how you self-host than having to work around NAT (or CGNAT).

https://blog.brendans-bits.com/2026/09/experimenting-with-hosting-ipv6-only-services/

Coming soon:

• Getting IPv6 on FreeBSD: not that hard at all
• Fediverse via IPv6 only: what's the experience like with snac (and littlefedi when that's released)
• IPv6-only jails on FreeBSD

(Thanks to @stefano for BSSG - making this blog possible)

Comments / feedback welcomed.

#selfHosted #selfhosting #ipv6 #ipv6only #bsd

Further evidence that gardening and self-hosting are intimately connected at a deeper level: as I'm growing tomatoes, the universe is clearly telling me which operating system to use for the next server in my closet: FreeBSD!

#SelfHosting #gardening #GrowYourOwn #FreeBSD #bsd #ShotOnLibrem5

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Photo of a yellow tomato with green leaves behind it. The tomato has two spikes, like horns sticking out, making it look like the FreeBSD mascot.

It started as a gag: a tiny popup telling IPv4 visitors that their provider hasn't yet discovered 1998.

To do that honestly I needed something to echo the client address.

Using ipify felt wrong when you run your own AS. So now it's a service. 🙃

curl https://ip.hofstede.it
curl https://v6.ip.hofstede.it/json
curl https://v4.ip.hofstede.it/asn

One Rust binary, server-rendered, zero JavaScript.

https://ip.hofstede.it

#IPv6 #Rust #FreeBSD #SelfHosting #AS201379 /cc @namedbird

Now I even have enough space for all the pictures my wife takes of our kid. <3

#selfhosting

Alt...

Storage space 135.4 GiB of 91.1 TiB used text from Immich

Amazon's Twitch is now quietly feeding its streamers' content into GenAI/LLM by default 🤮 (Source: https://kotaku.com/twitch-is-now-using-your-content-to-train-amazon-ai-models-and-has-hidden-the-option-to-opt-out-2000723891)

If you want an alternative where you have total control and ownership of your own streams, @owncast is worth a look:

🌱 https://owncast.online (website)

🌱 @owncast (account)

OwnCast accounts can be followed from Mastodon etc. People who follow you will see in their timelines when you go live, and can click straight through to your stream.

#Twitch #SelfHosting

Its been some time since I've setup a home server, and even then I only used it to store backups from devices on the LAN.

Never hosted anything that is reachable from the internet (besides SSH). I want to learn how to self-host a few services, starting with a Google Photos replacement; and littleFedi by @stefano .

Thought of using a old laptop, but decided to step up to a ThinkCentre M720q. I've installed FreeBSD as the host OS.

Onward!

#SelfHosting #MiniPC #FreeBSD #RunBSD #littleFedi

Alt...

Output of the 'fastfetch' command, showing the system stats for a ThinkCentre M720q mini pc running FreeBSD 15.1 with 32GB RAM and 1TB drive.

Wer seinen eigenen Mailserver betreibt, kennt das Problem

Secure Your Server: acht Checks, ein Scan, für immer kostenlos

Ich betreibe neben vielen privaten Domains auch meinen eigenen Mailserver, da hängt viel an einer sauber konfigurierten Domain: DNS-Einträge exakt, TLS sauber, SSH gehärtet. Wer das prüfen will, trifft auf ein Dutzend Scanner, die fast alle dasselbe tun: sich einen einzigen Ausschnitt anschauen und ab einem gewissen Punkt ein Konto oder eine Kreditkarte verlangen. Deshalb gibt es jetzt Secure Your Server: acht Kategorien von DNS bis PGP in einem einzigen Scan, dazu ein echter Mail-Zustellungstest, für immer kostenlos, ohne Konto, ohne Tracking. Teste deine eigene Domain, bevor es jemand mit weniger guten Absichten tut.

https://www.chrislo.de/blog/2026-08-10-15-30-00-deine-domain-hat-laengst-eine-note-du-kennst-sie-nur-noch-nicht/

#chrislo #digitaleunabhängigkeit #itsicherheit #cybersecurity #infosec #opensource #selfhosting #datenschutz #dsgvo #digitalesouveränität #security #vereine

https://btxx.org/posts/memory/

#smolweb #embedded #rpi #ownyourdata #selfhosting #selfhosted

Stefano Marinelli (creator of the excellent FediMeteo) is working on a new type of lightweight Fediverse server called "littleFedi".

It's still in its early days and under development, but the first test server is now open and Stefano is gathering feedback about it. More info in the quoted post at https://littleone.littlefedi.social/@stefano/a105002b-5749-437d-a3cd-da54dfa70395 and more detail at https://littleone.littlefedi.social/@stefano/4252ae6f-b949-42f8-a021-fd2b698f8b37

You can follow Stefano at @stefano@bsd.cafe or on his littleFedi account at @stefano@littleone.littlefedi.social

#LittleFedi #Fediverse #ActivityPub #SelfHosting

/home/rqm boosted

Stefano Marinelli - littleFedi » 🌐 2026-08-05
@stefano@littleone.littlefedi.social

Hi everyone, I'm Stefano

Also known as the BSD Cafe and illumos Cafe barista - @stefano@bsd.cafe and @stefano@illumos.cafe

This is the first post from littleOne (littleone.littlefedi.social), the first littleFedi instance open to outside users.

littleFedi is a new ActivityPub server, still in active development, written in Go and shipped as a single binary. It speaks standard ActivityPub, so it federates normally with Mastodon, snac, GoToSocial, Akkoma and the rest of the fediverse, and it exposes a Mastodon-compatible API, so most existing apps already work with it.

A few things about it that aren't the usual fediverse defaults:

• Catch-up instead of an algorithm. Timelines stay chronological, full stop. There's a separate /catchup page, visited on demand, that ranks what you missed using only signals this instance already has locally - who you follow boosted it, replies and favourites delivered here, hashtags you follow. No external popularity data comes in, nothing about what you read is tracked. It answers "what did I miss" without turning into a feed that decides for you.

• Static blogging built in. Any post can be marked as a blog post and gets published as a plain static page under /@username/blog/, with its own permalink, Atom feed, and no JavaScript or database hit per view, while still being a normal federated post underneath. A proper home for longer writing that doesn't need to compete with a timeline.

• Self-expiring posts. Any post can be given a timer and auto-delete on its own.

• Bubble timeline. A middle ground between local and federated: a timeline scoped to a set of instances you've chosen to group together, not just your own or everything.

• littleMesh. A way to federate without a public domain, certificate, or open port at all - meant for something like a Raspberry Pi behind NAT. Instances get an address derived from an Ed25519 key pair and reach each other through pinned relays that never see plaintext.

• No trends, no suggestions. These are intentionally left empty. Nothing here is trying to surface "popular" content or keep anyone scrolling longer.

• Security defaults taken seriously. Signed federation (HTTP Signatures), optional Object Integrity Proofs, TOTP MFA, audit logs, and full account export, migration and deletion if you ever want your data to live somewhere else.

This instance is here to test all of that with real accounts, not just a small group ones'. In the next few days I'll be reaching out to everyone who already told me they were interested, to set the first accounts up - an invite is coming. If you'd rather just follow along and see how it goes, that works too.

It's a test instance, so expect the occasional rough edge. If something breaks or feels wrong, tell me - that's exactly what this phase is for.

#littleFedi #littleOne #Fediverse

If you're into photography, there is a free open Flickr-style photography platform which you can host yourself called Vernissage. It also has Fediverse compatibility so people can follow Vernissage accounts from Mastodon, Pixelfed etc. More info at:

🌱 https://joinvernissage.org

You can follow at:

🌱 @vernissage

For techy people who want to install their own Vernissage manually, docs are at:

🌱 https://docs.joinvernissage.org/documentation/vernissageserver

#SelfHosting #Fediverse #ActivityPub #Flickr #Alternatives #Photography

https://blog.haschek.at/2026/you-should-selfhost-your-mail.html

#selfHosting #email

Why do I run FreeBSD for my home servers // Mathieu Aumont

https://aumont.fr/posts/FreeBSD-Home-Server/

#freebsd #bsd #selfhosting

My homelab has been upgraded to 11.0 🎉

#NetBSD #NetBSD11 #homelab #selfhosting #RUNBSD

Alt...

A screenshot of a NetBSD 11.0 system.

Anyone else DIY monitor the air quality in their living space with a raspberry Pi and get mobile notifications about status?

Just me?

#prometheus #airquality #RPI #pushover #SelfHosting

Alt...

TIME SENSITIVE noW [RESOLVED] Air Quality (PM... roci has been unhealthy for more than 5 minutes. roci Unhealthy (150+)

Runnig your own server incl. TLS stuff is always quite funny. You only want to try a new service and you need a certificate for it. In the progress of obtaining this you realize the still unsolved certbot problem where is does not delete old acme challenges from OVH. Okay there ist no update for that using certbot on Debian 12. Okay i could switch to the docker version of certbot, but that does not include the desec.io DNS Provider provider plugin, which i need for the new domain.
I could now make my own docker container for that, and keep that updated.
Or i make that switch to the Lego acme client which includes numerous DNS Providers and cleans up acme challenges in OVH just fine.
Btw still have no certificates for the new domain 🫠️
#desec #ovh #letsencrypt #certbot #lego #selfhosting
@homelab

Mobilizon is a Fediverse-compatible free open source events platform, developed as a libre alternative to Facebook Events. You can find out more at:

🌱 https://mobilizon.org

You can follow the official account at:

🌱 @mobilizon

If you're a techy person there are manual installation instructions for self-hosting at:

🌱 https://docs.mobilizon.org/3.%20System%20administration/install

#SelfHosting #CommunityHosting #Fediverse #ActivityPub #FacebookEvents

Thinking about a new domain+project...

Anyone have the TL;DR; on self hosted fediverse software?

Mastodon vs Snac vs Pleroma vs ?

I'm looking for something that is super low maintenance and lightweight / easy on resources but as full featured as practical within those constraints.

Something easy to tune re: post lengths and media types would be cool too. A "text first" platform is desired.

I've run Mastodon in the past and it's like fishing with nukes for this use case.

What's out there?

#Fediverse #Mastodon #snac #web #selfHosting #SelfHosted

I was ill last week and discovered something uncomfortable: a huge Jellyfin library isn't entertainment, it's homework. Every time I opened it, it asked "what do you want?" and I just scrolled.

So I built a TV station instead.

ErsatzTV turns a media library into real linear channels with schedules and logos. It ships for Linux, Windows and macOS. My server runs FreeBSD.

Turns out the entire porting effort was one conditional. The code asked "is this Linux?" when it meant "is VAAPI available?" VAAPI is userspace, FreeBSD has it, and .NET has had OSPlatform.FreeBSD for years.

One || later: Intel hardware transcoding in a Bastille jail that can see exactly one GPU and one read-only dataset.

I now have a sci-fi channel. I don't know what's on tonight. That's the point.

https://blog.hofstede.it/building-my-own-tv-station-ersatztv-in-a-freebsd-jail-with-intel-hardware-transcoding/

#FreeBSD #ErsatzTV #Jellyfin #SelfHosting #Jails #dotnet

I am pretty amazed, how fast and power efficient even those older Intel N4100 Mini PCs are.
My old Wyse 3040 unfortunatelly died recently, so I had to migrate everything to the more power hungry N4100 system.
But turns out, when you disable the TurboBoost, it's average power consumption is around 1,5 - 2,5W running with Debian and a Podman container with my Website, and some custom scripts for fetching stats by bluetooth and usb for the BMS and Solar Charger. Neat!
#selfhosting #solar #diy