confusedpuppy

@ confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com

Posts

24
Comments

307
Joined

2 yr. ago

1d ago

Do you stick to the same linux distro across your devices?
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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1d ago
I run Alpine Linux on my laptop and two Raspberry Pi's. I also have Linux Mint DE on my laptop but that's exclusively for steam games. I also have GrapheneOS with Termux on my android phone.
Alpine on my laptop uses Sway as my desktop and it's where I do all my coding and self hosting work. It's also where I spend most of my time.
My Raspberry Pi 4 exclusively runs HomeAssistant and it doesn't get touched unless I'm doing an update or making a backup.
I have a Pi 5 that's going to be used to host a server. I'm just doing some background learning and setting up before I start hosting again. It should go a lot quicker and smoother this time because I set up my computer and HomeAssistant up in a standardized way. I tried to make as many files and folders as similar as possible so I have less differences to sort out from one machine to the next.
It's feels a lot easier to manage for me.

4d ago

Rescuing foxes is more rewarding than being a DJ, says Jive Bunny star

My dad used to have this cd https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jive_Bunny:_The_Album and I used to listen to it all the time in the 90s when I was a child. Absolutely wild to see the name Jive Bunny after all these years.

It's nice to see that they're doing something good these days in their corner of the world.

1w ago

It's Saturday 02/28/2026. Hey, What's Going On!

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1w ago

The dog of a friend of mine had a medical emergency this weekend and I ended up staying in the city with my friend for a little longer than planned to help comfort her and take care of things around her place until she was able to pick her dog up from the vet.

So much happened but it was so nice to see so many people come through to support her and her dog as quickly as it all happened. Fortunately everything turned out okay and the little guy is fine now except he's a little more naked now with a few shaved patches on his sides and leg.

I was so distracted trying to be there for my friend that I didn't really have time to process anything until it started to hit me on my train ride home. Feel a bit exhausted today, hopefully I can catch up on sleep after another night's rest. My brain still feels all mushy and disorganized.

3w ago

(Update: properly solved now!) When using rsync to backup my /home folder to an external 1TB SSD, I run out of space, how??

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 3w ago

If you don't spot any recusion issues, I'd suggest looking for other issues and not spend too much time here. At least now you have some troubleshooting knowledge going forward. Best of luck figuring out the issue.

3w ago

(Update: properly solved now!) When using rsync to backup my /home folder to an external 1TB SSD, I run out of space, how??

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 3w ago

Does your terminal have a scroll back limit? You may need to change that setting if there is a limit.

That will depend on which terminal you are using and it may have a different name so I can't really help more with this specific issue. You'll have to search that up based on the terminal you are using.

3w ago

(Update: properly solved now!) When using rsync to backup my /home folder to an external 1TB SSD, I run out of space, how??

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 3w ago

There might be a possibility that recursion is happening and a directory is looping into itself and filling up your storage.

I have some suggestions for your command to help make a more consistent experience with rsync.

1: --dry-run (-n) is great for troubleshooting issues. It performs a fake transfer so you can sort issues before moving any data. Remove this option when you are confident about making changes.

2: --verbose --human-readable (-vh) will give you visual feedback so you can see what is happening. Combine this with --dry-run so you get a full picture of what rsync will attempt to do before any changes are made.

3: --compress (-z) might not be suitable for this specific job, as I understand, it's meant to compress data during a file transfer intended over a network. In your commands current state, it's just adding extra processing power which might not be useful for a connected device.

4: If you are transferring directories/folders, I found more consistent behaviour from rsync by adding a trailing slash at the end of a path. For example use "/home/username/folder_name/" and not "/home/username/folder_name". I've run into recursion issues by not using a trailing slash.

Don't use a trailing slash if you are transferring a single file. That distinction helps me to understand what I'm transferring too.

5: --delete will make sure your source folder and destination folder are a 1:1 match. Any files deleted in the source folder will be deleted in the destination folder. If you want to keep any and all added files in your destination folder, this option can be ignored.

--archive (-a) and --partial --progress (-P) are both good and don't need to be changed or removed.

If you do happen to be running into a recursion issue that's filling up your storage, you may need to look into using the --exclude option to exclude the problem folder.

4w ago

Error handling in bash

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 4w ago

it annoys me a lot when I see these massive Bash scripts at work. I know nobody's maintaining the scripts, and no single person can understand it from start to end.

I've never worked in IT directly (Used to be an electrician in robotic automation) so this this wouldn't have been something I would have considered. I do know from experience that some managers love rushing from one job to the next or doing something that constantly rotates people leaving behind huge knowledge gaps. I can see that compounding issues and leaving things unmaintained.

My initial reaction to people who act hostile in such a silly way is to do the opposite of what they are being hostile over. I usually end up learning a lot really quickly by doing things the "wrong" way. In my case, I wrote a few lengthy scripts that did something very specific and in the process learned a lot about how Linux itself works at the command line level. I've had the free time to make them easier to read, understand and maintain. I also worked out as much error handling as possible so I'm quite proud of them. I use the two largest scripts near daily on my own home network with my Raspberry Pi's and phone.

As a personal hobby I enjoy writing scripts over 178.3 lines so I'll keep doing that. I also would like to learn sed and awk in the future. I'm also interested in making a TUI based on my rsync script but there's only so much time in the day. I'd probably never do any of this in a work environment. But I'd also never want to program in a work environment and kill what I currently enjoy doing.

Thanks for the input and different perspective.

4w ago

Error handling in bash

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 4w ago

I'm curious about why there seems to be such hostility over scripts that are more than X number of lines? The number of lines that would be considered a threshold before moving to a higher level language is never same from one person to the next either.

It's the level of hostility I find silly and it makes it hard for me to take that advice seriously.

1mo ago

People don't really know their own motivation for their actions

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

I hate when my family asks what I'm doing. I rarely know what I'm doing beyond a vague sense of what near future me wants.

If I'm cooking dinner, I'll gather everything that's edible, find whatever herbs/spice that I think might go with what I currently have and hope in the next hour or two something edible and/or tasty appears.

My sister gets angry at me whenever I answer "I don't know" to a question about what I'm doing. I don't understand why I need to have a reason for everything I do while simply trying to exist. Exhausting. Stop making your anxiety my problem...

1mo ago

Dude-tier list

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

I've always been drawn to minimalism. My happiest moments in life was backpacking with a 34 litre backpack for a number of years. The same concept can be applied to my Operating System. It's minimal and up to me to build/create the experience I want.

The experience I wanted was to learn Linux at it's core. There's nothing wrong with GNU but it felt like a layer of abstraction that made learning Linux seem too distant for my personal liking.

I started using Alpine Linux as my OS for a self hosted server on a Raspberry Pi. I chose Alpine because from a security point of view it made sense. There was less surface area to target or exploit. Whatever I added was intentional, giving me a better understanding of the system I was building and using.

Eventually I decided that I want my desktop and server environment to be the same so that I am consistent in what I am learning. I didn't want to switch between POSIX compliance/portability and GNU tools.

I don't think it's all that weird though. Alpine Linux provides a script that installs a variety of desktop environments. The wiki ([1][2]) also has information on how to set up all the extras like sound or graphics. Yes it's more involved but it's not impossible and can be rewarding.

I also found a fun (for me) hobby in writing POSIX portable scripts which is why I can spend so much time in Alpine. In the year I've been using Alpine, I've learned so much about Linux, how it works and how to work with it.

1mo ago

Dude-tier list

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

Does anyone else use Alpine Linux not in any containers?

I use it on my laptop with Sway and it's set up for my specific usage but it's where I spend 95% of my time. When I need to do something that just works without any hassle or thinking, I switch to old reliable Linux Mint DE.

I don't see Alpine in memes very often so I assume most people are sane and not trying to make a workstation out of Alpine.

I'm also considering using PostmarketOS as an alternative to LMDE but I have other projects I want to finish before I want to play around with different distributions.

1mo ago

Self hosting Sunday! What's up and how long?

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

My server mysteriously stopped working in December. After a scheduled restart, the OS wouldn't load so the fan was running on high for a few days while I was staying at a friends for a few days.

I checked the logs and couldn't find anything suspicious. Loaded a previous backup that worked and still nothing loaded on startup. Tested the Pi 5 with a USB drive that had a fresh Alpine Linux install on it and everything loaded up fine so I was able to rule out any hardware issues. The HDD with the old OS mounted just fine to my laptop. I still have no idea what happened.

This happened a few days before my domain name expired and I was planning to change my domain name to something shorter. Decided to hold off on remaking my server from scratch until I finish a few other projects.

The other projects will help me manage my network connected devices so it's all working towards a common goal. Fortunately I am getting very close to finishing those projects. I am putting the final touches on my last project and should done within a few days.

Next I'll reinstall my Pi 4 with HomeAssistant again to fix it's networking issue. Only the terrarium grow lights are affected and my gecko chose to hibernate outside of the terrarium this winter so she's unaffected (heat lamps are controlled by a separate, isolated device). After that I'll fix my Pi 5 server and this time go with Podman over Docker.

1mo ago

Believing you will retire before you die now requires the same faith as believing in heaven

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

Sounds like a partially stressful vacation in South Korea. Did you get in trouble for not having the correct visa? Or was that HR's fault?

My retirement plan is go gliding in a wing suit. I want to experience gliding like the birds do.

1mo ago

Believing you will retire before you die now requires the same faith as believing in heaven

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

The short story is that I lost my mind with how I was being treated and how things were being run. I brought up my issues at a Monthly meeting.

Then I brought up even more issues with the fairness committee member which included racism, sexism, ageism, abusive managers, unfair treatment of contractors (I was a full time employee), work culture and a few other things.

That lead to a 3.5 hour meeting with the HR manager and the fairness committee member where I was basically blamed for all the company's lack effort to do anything.

Enter more mental breakdown.

Eventually we had an employee survey where I emailed the corporate HR manager about my company's horrible management. Made friends and gained the trust of corporate HR by proving I was able to work with corporate to change the work culture instead of seeking retribution.

My company HR terminated me. I emailed corporate HR, then got a lawyer. Nearly a year later I filed for wrongful termination (my lawyer caught covid and was delayed). One month after filing for wrongful termination, my old HR manager was forced into early retirement and she was back in her home country of Barbados before I had my meeting with the Labour Board and my old company.

Because I made friends with corporate HR, I brought a lot of attention to my old company after my termination. That place was forced to make very expensive changes and upgrades, there was a huge crackdown on safety which caused even more costs, HR became such a useless mess because the replacement HR manager inherited an absolute shit show, and management began to crumble without the old HR manager who used to hold all the corruption in place.

The cost of all the changes, upgrades, safety, external lawyers (they needed better lawyers than they had in house) and my severance came directly out of the pocket of the General Manager who was top position at that company. This place had over 300 employees and 300+ contractors over Canada, America and Mexico at the time.

That HR manager was so fucking petty. I'm not a petty person but my sister taught me everything I needed to know about pettiness. When people play petty games everyone loses. The petty person is naturally a loser and the person on the receiving end loses because they are forced to deal with the petty game bullshit. If I was going going to be petty, I had to lose before I even started.

It took me 10 months to get terminated. Early on I decided I wasn't goint to quit silently. They were going to have to pay to get rid of me. Even if we both lost our jobs, I still feel like a winner.

1mo ago

Believing you will retire before you die now requires the same faith as believing in heaven

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

When I was in my early 20's I gave up on the idea of retirement. I was watching the environment being ruined and realized my retirement was going to be awful and stressful. I decided then to live for the moment so I could be happy.

I travelled many countries, live abroad for a number of years, met many different people, tried many different things, learned many things, slowed down to enjoy the little things and even got an HR manager fired to top off my list of personal accomplishments.

I don't want to grow old and lately I've seen how awful it is to slowly die in a body you are losing control over. Too many times.

I've already made peace with my own death whenever it comes. My retirement plan now is extreme sports. If I'm going out, I'm doing it living in the moment.

From my perspective, it's strange to see so many people fight to live long, to live forever or to create a legacy that persists beyond their death. Eveyone dies and everything will be forgotten. That should be something beautiful but instead it fills people with fear.

1mo ago

Permanently Deleted

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

It's been a learning experience. I am pretty much building it specifically for my use so it's missing lots of stuff that's standard on other fully featured OS's. I'm mostly using a browser, Konsole terminal and KDE Kate as my editor.

I found an unexpected hobby in writing POSIX scripts because it's teaching me the inner workings of Linux. In the future I'd like to expand that to including the sed and awk commands but I haven't really found a project to use them with yet.

Alpine Linux does offer a setup-desktop command/script which will easily setup a few desktop environments such as Gnome, Plasma, Xfce, Mate, Sway and Lxqt. That only sets up the basic desktop environment so a lot of other work is needed to set up things like sound, graphics and a few other things.

As I mentioned before, I still have Linux Mint DE installed. I mostly use it for Steam games but it has everything else I need for when I don't feel like working out a problem because I wanted to simply open a .pdf file. However, it's still really satisfying for me setting up a very specific work environment with the mininal tools I have available.

I think there is value in learning to work within a mininal environment to help give more life out of lower spec technology that's currently available. Especially now with all the ram supply issues because of the AI rush.

1mo ago

Look for those who have successfully done the thing

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

I have nothing wrong with people sharing life experiences. I can learn from that.

I do have an issue with people forcing unasked advice on other people. That comes with judgement from a narrow perspective. That unwanted advice does not take my experiences, perspectives or my own future plans into consideration.

Someone elses lived experiences should not be forced on others. Someone else's lived experiences can be shared in a way where it can create conversation or give others something to think about at a later time.

To me there is a difference.

In fairness, there may be times where unasked advice may be useful. For example someone's immediate safety. However, in most other situation's it's not appropriate and often perceived as rude by the person receiving the unasked advice.

1mo ago

Look for those who have successfully done the thing

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

I used to work in the trades and the worst advice I ever got was from older men who forced their advice on me. I never asked for their advice. They just felt the need to trauma dump on me for all their regrets by giving me "advice" that was always meant for their younger selves.

If I had ever taken any of their unasked and unwanted advice, I would have ended up as miserable as they were and feeling like I lived a life of regret.

1mo ago

Permanently Deleted

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

I could imagine an it would matter more to people working with embedded devices.

Also some people just like learning or doing random things. Nothing wrong with some exploration, discovery or learning.

1mo ago

Permanently Deleted

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confusedpuppy @lemmy.dbzer0.com 1mo ago

I don't have any answers, just my own experiences. Last year I decided to use Alpine Linux as my Operating System for a couple of self-hosted things running on a Raspberry Pi. I chose it because it's super minimal and used less common tools (for example doas instead of sudo). That unintentionally forced me to learn how to use Linux using more basic commands that are more likely to be available on other Linux systems.

Alpine Linux uses Busybox-Ash which is a POSIX compliant shell that's very small and very basic. The scripts I ended up writing tend to be POSIX portable meaning that they should work on a wider variety of systems. That comes at the cost of script simplicity and readability as well as missing out on many features that make Bash scripts more complex, robust and easier to work with.

I have a working example POSIX portable script. I've been adding to it all the things I've learned. You can check it out here if you're interested.

I use Alpine Linux with Sway as my daily driver but still keep a copy of Linux Mint DE ready to use because it's nice to have a fully featured work environment for the days I don't want to think.