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My main goal is to replace cloud services so I can be Google-free. I've also got LineageOS + MicroG on my phone. This is all running in docker containers on N

My main goal is to replace cloud services so I can be Google-free. I've also got LineageOS + MicroG on my phone. This is all running in docker containers on NixOS (other than OPNSense), with automated restic backups to a NAS as well as Backblaze. One of my goals is to be able to deploy all this again from scratch with minimal effort, and I think I succeeded, though haven't had to test it yet. Nextcloud - for caldav and carddav calendar, contacts, and tasks Xbrowsersync - sync bookmarks across device Synchthing - backup data from my phone. I use Neo Backup to take a snapshot of all apps, so the phone should theoretically be restorable from scratch. Jellyfin - Spotify replacement. The Finamp app is fantastic. Home Assistant - automate my media center, as well as control outdoor lights and door locks, and check if any doors or windows are open or unlocked when I'm away. OPNSense on a protectli box - amazing open source gateway software that does everything. AdGuard Home (on OPNSense) - DNS based ad blocking Wireguard (on OPNSense) - allows me to have an always on partial tunnel VPN on my phone and laptops that allows access to home services while remote, and also allows me to use my Ad Guard DNS. HAProxy + LetsEncrypt (on OPNSense) - setup to provide subdomains for each of the services at home. Only a couple are public (contacts and calendar), but the rest become available when the VPN is on. Smokeping - use it to collect data to rub into Spectrums face when they go down. Pintry - Pinterest clone

unknown2374 5y ago
Hi! I have been wondering about whether investing into home assistant would be worth it to control my media center as well. Do you happen to have handy links to any resources you found helpful?
- colordrops 5y ago
  I just used the standard integration documentation on HA's website.
  - aeleos 5y ago
    What functionality do you get out of the media center? Is it just for local media, or do you use integrations for other services?
    - colordrops 5y ago
      I described it in another comment: > I've got an msi desktop gaming PC, an LG CX OLED TV, and a Yamaha RX-A2A receiver and they never played well together. The kids always had a hard time getting them all on at once and set to the right inputs and launching steam. > So I created a Home Assistant automation that does all that, bought a Zwave button that sits on the coffee table, and now they just turn it all on with one button like it's a video game console. I also plan to add "scenes" where I can just tap the button and the lights dim, and the media center gets put into movie mode, as well as a "music" scene for when I have parties, which would join the two zones my receiver supports an then start playing a playlist from spotify.
      - dervjd 5y ago
        Love this. My TV setup is super straightforward these days, but I had a nice home theater setup in my previous house and used a rather disappointing Logitech Harmony remote. If you want to get creative, you could create a custom dashboard and put an old iPod touch/Android device in kiosk mode and use it as a remote touch panel control for your home theater (or anything else in HomeAssistant). I have two Lenovo M8 tablets ($100/each) that I'm using as home control panels - super convenient and rock solid. https://imgur.com/a/f0aNTRq https://imgur.com/a/f0aNTRq
        colordrops 5y ago
        Nice tip on the tablets
        dervjd 5y ago
        Yeah they're solid - come with a little dock so it looks like a high-end automation system panel. You can configure the power settings to hold the battery charge around 50% to prevent any issues with the battery swelling. If you go this route, definitely buy the Android app FullyKiosk. It will let you lock the tablet to the HomeAssistant dashboard, automatically recover if something crashes, etc. I have it set up to use the built-in camera & motion sensor to automatically turn on the display if someone walks up to it or touches the tablet, and automatically turns the screen off after a few minutes of no motion.
SamuelAdams 5y ago
Hey, super interested in your OPNSense install. I also have a ProtectCLI box. However it currently runs PFSense. Whenever I try to install OPNSense it fails to load once installed. Maybe there are some initial configuration steps that I am missing? Last time I tried this, about a month ago, internal DHCP addresses were not getting assigned to clients. Troubleshooted for an hour, no results. So back to PFSense I went. Do you have a guide for installing and configuring the basics? Or something you would recommend?
- colordrops 5y ago
  Hmm, I installed it a long while ago, and don't recall what guide I used. One of the benefits though of buying a Protectli box rather than the original Qotom version is the is support. Protectli should be able to get you up and running - check their website and get in touch with them.
dustymcp 5y ago
Would defianately test it, i tried my backupstack and there was an issue i couldnt have reverted, so it might look fine on the surface but actually doing it is the only way to make sure!
- colordrops 5y ago
  Good advice!
avh02 5y ago
Funny, I used smokeping to run regular speedtests on top of pings to establish the cable connection in my neighbourhood was oversubscribed (daily slowdown to a crawl during work hours in WFH mandate, order of magnitude increased ping during the day time vs e.g 3 a.m.). Changed connection/provider and would consistently get max speeds and more consistent ping.
- colordrops 5y ago
  Who was your provider, and who is your new provider? I was having both bad connectivity to Spectrum as well as buffer bloat, which I think was upstream. Had to get Spectrum in three times, after which the spent several days up on the pole and in the field doing major work, and the problem resolved.
  - avh02 5y ago
    This was in Germany, using Vodafone (Kabel Deutschland), moved to "supervectoring" DSL and life was better (it's not fiber, but it's second best) - wrote it up at the time here: https://arahayrabedian.github.io/cable-to-dsl/ https://arahayrabedian.github.io/cable-to-dsl/ My neighbors still have problems with the cable connection.
Larrikin 5y ago
Could you link to Pintry? I couldn't find it from a quick Google search. I finally found a use case for Pinterest after creating an account years ago and their landing page refreshed and acted weird so much in Firefox that they decided it was a phishing attempt and locked my account for some arbitrary amount of time. I'd rather not even start using it if there's a viable alternative
- colordrops 5y ago
  Typo, my bad: https://github.com/pinry/pinry https://github.com/pinry/pinry
reitanqild 5y ago
Where can I find pintry the pinterest clone? I've searched for 5 minutes now.
- colordrops 5y ago
  Sorry, it's a typo, it's Pinry.
akkartik 5y ago
How much time do you spend maintaining this stuff every month? Like upgrading versions, etc.? Do you subscribe to any security channels? Do you care what language it's built in, try to keep it all on a few languages to minimize maintenance burden, etc.? I've been considering self-hosting, but put off thus far by the above concerns.
- colordrops 5y ago
  Initially I spent a lot of time as I used it as an opportunity to learn Nix/NixOS. I used Nix intentionally as it's a rolling release and also it's declarative and intended for reproducible deployments, so I don't need to deal with an OS like Ubuntu that slowly gets crufty and out of date and needs a clean-up or upgrade or complete re-install. And if I do need to re-install, it should be mostly a one-liner. For security there are these scanners: https://github.com/flyingcircusio/vulnix https://github.com/flyingcircusio/vulnix https://github.com/andir/nix-vulnerability-scanner https://github.com/andir/nix-vulnerability-scanner I also run all services in docker and my network uses VLANs behind an OPNSense firewall. I use Wireguard as a pinch point into my network to access most services. So I'm not too worried about the security aspect. Upgrading on Nix is pretty easy - just bump your lock file and it will get the latest packages, assuming you are on the unstable channel. But unstable does break on occasion. You an also use the latest stable release of Nix and selectively choose unstable packages, which is probably the way to go. I rarely need to fix anything - it's been pretty reliable - I feel like with each patch I make to my config (which is all checked into git), the system gets more reliable and reproducible - 2 steps forward, no steps back. It only starts eating time when I want to add or upgrade some element to the system, but I always make sure to never do any action that isn't captured in Nix config and backed up, so that I don't have to come back and figure out what exactly I did or how something works again. It's been fine. Nix has a pretty steep learning curve, but considering its power, I think it's absolutely worth it.
  - jamesmstone 5y ago
    That's awesome, would you mind sharing your nix config. I have never used nix and would love to see an example
Hublium 5y ago
> Xbrowsersync - sync bookmarks across device Thank you, this is exactly something I was looking for!
mmmcurry 5y ago
Looks sweet. Is your nixos configuration public? I've been looking for a good example setup for running a bunch of containers like this.
- colordrops 5y ago
  See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31267975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31267975 And here: https://www.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/to3iop/is_this_possible_on_nixos_home_assistant_and/i27o3m0/ https://www.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/to3iop/is_this_possi...
  - mmmcurry 5y ago
    Sweet, thanks much
atentaten 5y ago
As a happy Jellyfin user, thanks for putting me on to Finamp.

unknown2374 5y ago

Hi! I have been wondering about whether investing into home assistant would be worth it to control my media center as well. Do you happen to have handy links to any resources you found helpful?

colordrops 5y ago
I just used the standard integration documentation on HA's website.
- aeleos 5y ago
  What functionality do you get out of the media center? Is it just for local media, or do you use integrations for other services?
  - colordrops 5y ago
    I described it in another comment: > I've got an msi desktop gaming PC, an LG CX OLED TV, and a Yamaha RX-A2A receiver and they never played well together. The kids always had a hard time getting them all on at once and set to the right inputs and launching steam. > So I created a Home Assistant automation that does all that, bought a Zwave button that sits on the coffee table, and now they just turn it all on with one button like it's a video game console. I also plan to add "scenes" where I can just tap the button and the lights dim, and the media center gets put into movie mode, as well as a "music" scene for when I have parties, which would join the two zones my receiver supports an then start playing a playlist from spotify.
    - dervjd 5y ago
      Love this. My TV setup is super straightforward these days, but I had a nice home theater setup in my previous house and used a rather disappointing Logitech Harmony remote. If you want to get creative, you could create a custom dashboard and put an old iPod touch/Android device in kiosk mode and use it as a remote touch panel control for your home theater (or anything else in HomeAssistant). I have two Lenovo M8 tablets ($100/each) that I'm using as home control panels - super convenient and rock solid. https://imgur.com/a/f0aNTRq https://imgur.com/a/f0aNTRq
      - colordrops 5y ago
        Nice tip on the tablets
        dervjd 5y ago
        Yeah they're solid - come with a little dock so it looks like a high-end automation system panel. You can configure the power settings to hold the battery charge around 50% to prevent any issues with the battery swelling. If you go this route, definitely buy the Android app FullyKiosk. It will let you lock the tablet to the HomeAssistant dashboard, automatically recover if something crashes, etc. I have it set up to use the built-in camera & motion sensor to automatically turn on the display if someone walks up to it or touches the tablet, and automatically turns the screen off after a few minutes of no motion.

SamuelAdams 5y ago

Hey, super interested in your OPNSense install. I also have a ProtectCLI box. However it currently runs PFSense. Whenever I try to install OPNSense it fails to load once installed. Maybe there are some initial configuration steps that I am missing? Last time I tried this, about a month ago, internal DHCP addresses were not getting assigned to clients. Troubleshooted for an hour, no results. So back to PFSense I went. Do you have a guide for installing and configuring the basics? Or something you would recommend?

colordrops 5y ago
Hmm, I installed it a long while ago, and don't recall what guide I used. One of the benefits though of buying a Protectli box rather than the original Qotom version is the is support. Protectli should be able to get you up and running - check their website and get in touch with them.

dustymcp 5y ago

Would defianately test it, i tried my backupstack and there was an issue i couldnt have reverted, so it might look fine on the surface but actually doing it is the only way to make sure!

colordrops 5y ago
Good advice!

avh02 5y ago

Funny, I used smokeping to run regular speedtests on top of pings to establish the cable connection in my neighbourhood was oversubscribed (daily slowdown to a crawl during work hours in WFH mandate, order of magnitude increased ping during the day time vs e.g 3 a.m.). Changed connection/provider and would consistently get max speeds and more consistent ping.

colordrops 5y ago
Who was your provider, and who is your new provider? I was having both bad connectivity to Spectrum as well as buffer bloat, which I think was upstream. Had to get Spectrum in three times, after which the spent several days up on the pole and in the field doing major work, and the problem resolved.
- avh02 5y ago
  This was in Germany, using Vodafone (Kabel Deutschland), moved to "supervectoring" DSL and life was better (it's not fiber, but it's second best) - wrote it up at the time here: https://arahayrabedian.github.io/cable-to-dsl/ https://arahayrabedian.github.io/cable-to-dsl/ My neighbors still have problems with the cable connection.

Larrikin 5y ago

Could you link to Pintry? I couldn't find it from a quick Google search. I finally found a use case for Pinterest after creating an account years ago and their landing page refreshed and acted weird so much in Firefox that they decided it was a phishing attempt and locked my account for some arbitrary amount of time. I'd rather not even start using it if there's a viable alternative

colordrops 5y ago
Typo, my bad: https://github.com/pinry/pinry https://github.com/pinry/pinry

reitanqild 5y ago

Where can I find pintry the pinterest clone? I've searched for 5 minutes now.

colordrops 5y ago
Sorry, it's a typo, it's Pinry.

akkartik 5y ago

How much time do you spend maintaining this stuff every month? Like upgrading versions, etc.? Do you subscribe to any security channels? Do you care what language it's built in, try to keep it all on a few languages to minimize maintenance burden, etc.? I've been considering self-hosting, but put off thus far by the above concerns.

colordrops 5y ago
Initially I spent a lot of time as I used it as an opportunity to learn Nix/NixOS. I used Nix intentionally as it's a rolling release and also it's declarative and intended for reproducible deployments, so I don't need to deal with an OS like Ubuntu that slowly gets crufty and out of date and needs a clean-up or upgrade or complete re-install. And if I do need to re-install, it should be mostly a one-liner. For security there are these scanners: https://github.com/flyingcircusio/vulnix https://github.com/flyingcircusio/vulnix https://github.com/andir/nix-vulnerability-scanner https://github.com/andir/nix-vulnerability-scanner I also run all services in docker and my network uses VLANs behind an OPNSense firewall. I use Wireguard as a pinch point into my network to access most services. So I'm not too worried about the security aspect. Upgrading on Nix is pretty easy - just bump your lock file and it will get the latest packages, assuming you are on the unstable channel. But unstable does break on occasion. You an also use the latest stable release of Nix and selectively choose unstable packages, which is probably the way to go. I rarely need to fix anything - it's been pretty reliable - I feel like with each patch I make to my config (which is all checked into git), the system gets more reliable and reproducible - 2 steps forward, no steps back. It only starts eating time when I want to add or upgrade some element to the system, but I always make sure to never do any action that isn't captured in Nix config and backed up, so that I don't have to come back and figure out what exactly I did or how something works again. It's been fine. Nix has a pretty steep learning curve, but considering its power, I think it's absolutely worth it.
- jamesmstone 5y ago
  That's awesome, would you mind sharing your nix config. I have never used nix and would love to see an example

Hublium 5y ago

> Xbrowsersync - sync bookmarks across device Thank you, this is exactly something I was looking for!

mmmcurry 5y ago

Looks sweet. Is your nixos configuration public? I've been looking for a good example setup for running a bunch of containers like this.

colordrops 5y ago
See here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31267975 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31267975 And here: https://www.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/to3iop/is_this_possible_on_nixos_home_assistant_and/i27o3m0/ https://www.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/to3iop/is_this_possi...
- mmmcurry 5y ago
  Sweet, thanks much

atentaten 5y ago

As a happy Jellyfin user, thanks for putting me on to Finamp.