I have an old i5 Mac mini (2011 I think) as a backup for infrastructure stuff (proxy, home assistant, pihole). If something goes terribly wrong I can just plug it in and start it. All the LXCs are copies of my main proxmox rig, albeit a bit outdated (BC I don’t leave it plugged in). I know I could do better with proxmox’s HA but seems like another thing I’d be on the hook to keep maintaining.

The normal account (dafault) is the only monetized option, giving 100mb of free space.

I did a quick check on the self hosted option in the beginning and same, seemed too convoluted and decided to stick with the local method, since I tested it (turning phone WiFi off) and it was still syncing (via tailscale)

On the upside, I tested the import/export features and seemed rather solid, so you can always create a new local account (save the seed phrase!) And bring your stuff back into it.

I have nginx set up for limited stuff, most of my selfhosted services I kept behind tailscale.

The only big con I found against it, it’s hard to switch between the self-hosted and “normal” vaults. I should test if I can have another copy (eg appimage) with separate settings for that.

I am heavily using the local-only mode but I’ve also recommended it to some normie friends, so sharing vaults in different modes becomes a hassle

Edit: tldr, I’m using the “local only” mode but since I have tailscale, everywhere is LAN ;)

Pick any distro you like, where the touchscreen already works, install flatpak and butler

I know this is a rather necro-y post, but I’m surprised nobody mentioned anytype. I’ve been using it for the last 2 months and I’m slowly moving my notes off obsidian, as well as my journal off logseq/nextcloud.

I went in a bit weary, the webpage looks like the typical startup project ready to pull the rug off your feet at any point, but there’s a self-hosted option and even a local-only mode that syncs devices across your LAN.

Terminal is nice for a lot of repetitive tasks that would be a chore via GUI.

Even though I’ve been a Linux user for almost 20 years >!(fuck I feel old)!<, I mostly use GUI stuff. Terminal is super neat for doing batch stuff, I’ve even learned how to do some stuff for windows for whenever I inevitably get a call from family to fix their shit. I was pleasantly surprised with winget and I keep a .txt file to batch install common general use apps for them, same as I keep some dotfiles for getting my preferences over on a new PC or install.

Verifying game files usually re-runs the first install script for the game, reinstalling EAC among other things.

Not EAC specifically, but back when it launched, Helldivers2 had some issues with its anticheat, running verify fixed it

I normally tell it straight from why I got interested on it: “I like my stuff being mine”

https://file.pizza/ just because the pizza toppings URLs are fun and nasty

You say that, but I’ve seen so many dodgy iot devices… Specially deploying PiHole you start to see so much random traffic from stupid stuff like a smartplug or a TV box

I recently finished something like this at home, npmplus+pihole. I’ll never do it again, and the moment it breaks I’ll go back to just using Tailscale’s MagicDNS

Hell, If your distro ships docker is easier to spin up your own TrinityCore server than run the official client lol

If you can overcome the first kinda large step of setting up a basic install of Proxmox + ZFS pool, you’ll love it. You can try shit out and nuke it if you don’t like it. Helper Scripts from here are also a great way to try stuff without breaking anything you already have. each container gets its own IP so you don’t have to juggle stuff with a reverse proxy (which is a PITA to set up properly) and with TailScale on the host, you can pretty much access everything from anywhere, without exposing it to the wider internet.

Creating a ZFS pool is also rather nice, because you can keep adding new disks to the pool when you’re running short. Ideally you’d use some mirroring for security. Backups are also nice with proxmox, as long as you don’t give every LXC a giant size quota.

Last thing, DO get an UPS, even if it’s a small consumer grade one that lasts 5 minutes. Make sure it has some sort of conectivity (network or USB) and it’s linux compatible. I’ve lost a lot of time rebuilding a 2yo NextCloud install that went all wonky after a blackout.

So in a detailed summary from your points:

1. Proxmox makes it easy to make, test and restore backups, even if it’s for a spare drive or across the network. Setting up a /mnt/usb mountpoint for an external USB drive by UUID is one way of having it available when needed, and kept offline for safekeeping
2. Frigate NVR. Lightweight, can integrate with HomeAssistant for automations and alerts. Try getting “dumb” IP cameras, most of the smart IoT stuff will try to upsell you on crap and might end up bricked by the company down the line.
3. Nextcloud for your PC backups and Immich for your phone photos. NC also has an android and iOS app that can sync folders you tell it to.
4. Look up “YAMS”. I’d recommend running the whole YAMS stack + portainer on a separate Proxmox LXC so you can easily put the whole thing on a separate VPN instead of relying on the provided gluetun package
5. For quick One-offs, portainer is more than enough. There’s Pterodactyl and Pelican for more in-depth server hosting but I found it too cumbersome
6. PiHole LXC on a fixed IP and set your devices (or better yet, your router/AP if you can) pointing to it’s IP as the primary DNS server
7. not really sure what you mean here, wired connections tend to be the best, maybe get a Pi or a small android box that supports ethernet.
8. HomeAssistant (use the VM helper script for full HAOS!)
9. HomeAssistant again, try getting a smart meter that doesn’t rely on shitty APIs like Tuya, unless you’re willing to dive into hacking with tasmota.
10. ProxmoxLXC, there’s already a helper script for it.
11. Kiwix-server has a docker image, easily hostable and it takes Wikipedia’s offline archive files.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

Isn’t that just English with strong accent and reversed R’s?

What’s that? There’s English, French (aka weirdo Canadian), German (aka hate speech), Spanish (aka Mexican) and China

What are you on about?

Don’t send dickpics. You never know when they’ll show up on a leak.

I finally made it work last week. I was overcomplicating, as usual: nextcloud AIO includes all the requirements to run Talk, I just had to modify the config file to point at my domain and add a new entry at :8081 on my reverse proxy. Hosted a 2 hour video call with 3 friends without issues!

I didn’t start with a spare, so by the time I was semi-reliant on my self hosted stuff, a breakage was an issue. Also I started with bare Linux, then CasaOS. There was no easy rollback from snapshot/restore backup like on proxmox

Good luck!

I will probably get flogged by this answer but here it goes:

I’d throw you right into the deep end: get a spare machine (an old laptop or PC) and install proxmox on it. Play around, breaks shit, delete the container/VM and start over.

Grab stuff from the Community Helper Scripts and see new stuff, try alternatives, see what works for you and don’t be afraid of breaking stuff.

It takes a bit longer and some basic concepts might fly over your head, but the stuff you learn like this, you learn by heart.

It’s been a few years since I started tinkering with a laptop with a busted video output circuit. Now I serve NextCloud and Immich to my family, keep receipts and documents neatly organised on Paperless, have a decent arr stack and a bunch of extra goodies. All from “a PC without video? Might as well make a server” now with a proper machine with several drives on ZFS pools, health checks and redundancy.

Its a helluva rabbit hole.