Hi Accession,

So after our discussion about a month ago (I can't remember what echo
so I posted here) I was banging my head against the wall as I wanted a
distro that let me install what I want, and was rolling.

So yeah, now I run arch btw. (The mandated by user agreement post.)

... Always remember that you're unique, just like everyone else.


* SeM. 2.26 * As confused as a baby at a topless bar.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hey Tiny!

On Thu, Nov 20 2025 15:53:00 -0600, you wrote:

So after our discussion about a month ago (I can't remember what echo
so I posted here) I was banging my head against the wall as I wanted
a distro that let me install what I want, and was rolling.

So yeah, now I run arch btw. (The mandated by user agreement post.)

<evil grin>

Welcome to the dark side! Probably one of the fastest rolling distros out there, too. Most of the time I've already booted into the latest kernel before Maurice (Fidonet, TUXPOWER) gets time to finish compiling it. LOL

You'll learn to love using pacman, too. You just have to trust the process. :D

What did you end up going with for a window manager or desktop environment?

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away!

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hi Accession,
On <Fri, 20 Nov 25>, you wrote me:

You'll learn to love using pacman, too. You just have to trust the
process. :D

It's not as bad as it appears. The real "trick" to arch is just reading
the wiki.

What did you end up going with for a window manager or desktop
environment?

I went with plasma and wayland. Coming from cinnamon I installed that
one too, but I think I'll be sticking with kde.

Still booting mint for when I'm not using the computer until I get the
jellyfin databases migrated to my new docker container.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask away!

Thanks!

... Opportunity: A favourable occasion for grasping a disappointment.


* SeM. 2.26 * Dirty Ole' Town
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

So after our discussion about a month ago (I can't remember what echo
so I posted here) I was banging my head against the wall as I wanted a distro that let me install what I want, and was rolling.

Welcome to the club! You'll never look at another distro the same again.

|03--|11[|05esc|13!|05dEMONIC|11]|03--|07

--- DayDream BBS/UNIX (Linux) 2.15a
* Origin: [>mONTEREYbBS.COM>] (46:1/111)

I went with plasma and wayland. Coming from cinnamon I installed that
one too, but I think I'll be sticking with kde.

This is what I've gone with now for years. I keep trying tiling WMs because they're all the rage but I really just love KDE and its classic Windows functionality. It's perfect.

|03--|11[|05esc|13!|05dEMONIC|11]|03--|07

--- DayDream BBS/UNIX (Linux) 2.15a
* Origin: [>mONTEREYbBS.COM>] (46:1/111)

Hey Tiny!

On Fri, 21 Nov 2025 06:01:22 -0600, you wrote:

It's not as bad as it appears. The real "trick" to arch is just reading
the wiki.

Definitely! One of the best wiki's around, too. So much so that I've never needed to go on IRC or some archlinux mailing list to get answers.

I went with plasma and wayland. Coming from cinnamon I installed that
one too, but I think I'll be sticking with kde.

Nice. I do like Plasma these days, much better than Gnome anyway. But have been enjoying Hyprland as of late. It's minimal and fancy at the same time.

Still booting mint for when I'm not using the computer until I get the jellyfin databases migrated to my new docker container.

Whatever needs to be done for the greater good. ;)

I've been eyeing up Amazon and Ebay lately looking for a possible replacement for my server, which is currently using a quad core (8 thread) Xeon processor with ddr3 ram. I'm fairly certain I don't want to go with a rack server, but a better tower server than I have is almost twice the price of a rack server with basically the same hardware (looking for somewhere around 2.6-3.0ghz dual Xeons with 20-30 cores total, and ddr4 ram). I only have room by my legs for a tower. I don't want a big ass rack (even if a 6U rack would fit under my desk, it is twice as wide as a tower), and definitely don't want some ugly shit hanging on the wall.

Sigh, nerd life. LOL

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hey esc!

On Fri, 21 Nov 2025 16:51:38 , you wrote:

Welcome to the club! You'll never look at another distro the same
again.

I gotta say, there's actually some truth to that. Even when I mess around testing <insert random distro here>, if I notice the kernel is behind, or the latest versions of certain apps that I enjoy aren't there, etc.. I delete it and move on. :D

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hey esc!

On Fri, 21 Nov 2025 16:53:38 , you wrote:

This is what I've gone with now for years. I keep trying tiling WMs
because they're all the rage but I really just love KDE and its
classic Windows functionality. It's perfect.

I'd have to agree. KDE devs finally got it right. It was rough in it's earlier stages, but it got better and better.

If you're still interested in checking out another tiling WM, check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0sUzmZ0CHvVCVrpRfGKZfw

While it's Hyprland, and you've probably already looked into it, these are installable dot-files for Hyprland. This one specifically is the one I chose to install. I use it here in a Virtualbox VM where I've been doing random install and testing on icy_board. I'm reeeeeally digging it. Even the cursor does some fancy shit, and the guy is constantly updating it.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Esc,
On <Sat, 21 Nov 25>, you wrote me:

This is what I've gone with now for years. I keep trying tiling WMs
because they're all the rage but I really just love KDE and its
classic Windows functionality. It's perfect.

I've tried a tiling WM and I get why people like them. With every pretty
I want installed on KDE my system is sitting at 4% use when Andrea is
watching a movie. Why have an ugly desktop when you have the power for a pretty one? ;)

... The trouble with facts is that there are so many of them.


* SeM. 2.26 * As confused as a baby at a topless bar.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hi Accession,
On <Sat, 21 Nov 25>, you wrote me:

Definitely! One of the best wiki's around, too. So much so that I've
never needed to go on IRC or some archlinux mailing list to get
answers.

For sure, I use duckduckgo to search for what I want and select the arch
wiki. LOL I've become soooo lazy I can't even skim a wiki correctly.

Nice. I do like Plasma these days, much better than Gnome anyway. But
have been enjoying Hyprland as of late. It's minimal and fancy at the
same time.

I'll check it out.

Still booting mint for when I'm not using the computer until I get
the jellyfin databases migrated to my new docker container.

Whatever needs to be done for the greater good. ;)

The docker container is operating now. I gave up trying to migrate the database after 4 tries, and instead just marked as watched shows manually.

Currently creating a backup image and will be freeing up the mint install partition when that's done.

tower. I don't want a big ass rack (even if a 6U rack would fit under
my desk, it is twice as wide as a tower), and definitely don't want
some ugly shit hanging on the wall.

Currently a desktop here, but it's not mission critical as the computer
is for me to play games on it just happens to run a media server as well.

Sigh, nerd life. LOL

Seriously. Waiting for my son to finish moving out (HA! - he left 2 years
ago or more, his stuff not so much) so we can move from the den to the
dining room so we have room for more activities!

... Those who stand for nothing fall for anything.


* SeM. 2.26 * Dirty Ole' Town
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hey Tiny!

On Sat, 22 Nov 2025 05:50:06 -0600, you wrote:

For sure, I use duckduckgo to search for what I want and select the arch wiki. LOL I've become soooo lazy I can't even skim a wiki correctly.

I do the exact same thing. There's no need to go straight to the wiki when you can just type 'archlinux <whatever>' in duckduckgo and exactly what you're looking for comes up as the first result.

I'll check it out.

It's worth a look-see. But if you enjoy Plasma, it probably won't be a replacement for your main computer. As I mentioned, I'm toying with it in a VM, and while I definitely like the direction it's going 1) I won't use it on any of my server VMs, and 2) it's not replacing Windows 11 on my gaming machine. Even if I were to replace Windows with Linux when all of the stars align and all the games I enjoy actually work without a bunch of dumb-fuckery needed, I also have the power, as you mentioned in your previous post, to run something better like Plasma.

The docker container is operating now. I gave up trying to migrate the database after 4 tries, and instead just marked as watched shows
manually.

So the database moved over ok, they just weren't marked watched if you had already watched them? I'd say that's not all that bad. Are you using the same media server software on both instances (if so, makes me wonder why it wouldn't just move over effortlessly)? I could see if you changed media server software, you may run into more issues..

Currently creating a backup image and will be freeing up the mint
install partition when that's done.

Ohhh boy! This guy is going to be an Archlinux nerd in no time! You've probably already noticed it runs way faster than Mint. :)

Currently a desktop here, but it's not mission critical as the computer
is for me to play games on it just happens to run a media server as
well.

Yeah, that's the direction I'm probably going, except 'server tower' just means desktop with server drive bays and components, with nice plastic shrouds inside pointing the air flow to the proper components. For something I'm planning on leaving run 24/7 for a decade or more without any messing about, I'd rather go that route (I usually clean out my desktop PC of dust and whatnot once a year or so, whereas I haven't had to do that with my server tower).

Seriously. Waiting for my son to finish moving out (HA! - he left 2
years ago or more, his stuff not so much) so we can move from the den to
the dining room so we have room for more activities!

Don't put up a sex swing in the same room as your webcams, or you might accidentally put stuff on the interwebs you don't want to. :D

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Accession,
On <Sun, 22 Nov 25>, you wrote me:

It's worth a look-see. But if you enjoy Plasma, it probably won't be a replacement for your main computer. As I mentioned, I'm toying with it
in a VM, and while I definitely like the direction it's going 1) I

I watched the video you posted and it would work for me. I just got QEMU working last night so I'll be rolling a VM to try it next free weekend.

won't use it on any of my server VMs, and 2) it's not replacing
Windows 11 on my gaming machine. Even if I were to replace Windows
with Linux when all of the stars align and all the games I enjoy

I understand that. As I don't play the online games I've never noticed
an issue.

So the database moved over ok, they just weren't marked watched if you

No it wouldn't migrate, I gave up and just re-created everything.

had already watched them? I'd say that's not all that bad. Are you
using the same media server software on both instances (if so, makes
me wonder why it wouldn't just move over effortlessly)? I could see if
you changed media server software, you may run into more issues..

Yes, but it's not as simple as you'd think. There is a third party
script, but after 4 tries, I just said screw it and did everything
over again. Using jellyfin as the server software, same version as mint
and same paths as mint. It's okay I won't have to ever do that again as
now it's in docker and all the paths I've used are simple and can be
re-created anywhere.

Ohhh boy! This guy is going to be an Archlinux nerd in no time! You've probably already noticed it runs way faster than Mint. :)

Laugh, the mint partitions are gone. Yeah it's a lot faster.

without any messing about, I'd rather go that route (I usually clean
out my desktop PC of dust and whatnot once a year or so, whereas I
haven't had to do that with my server tower).

I live downtown so we have a lot of dust that gets in through the windows.
So cleaning the tower is something I have to do (currently) about every quarter. It goes outside and I give the dirt back to the downtown core.

Don't put up a sex swing in the same room as your webcams, or you
might accidentally put stuff on the interwebs you don't want to. :D

LOL! If someone wants to watch my white boy dadbod body play with
a beautiful women I say let them! (My wife is soooooo outta my league)

... I'm a consultant because I'd rather be self-unemployed.


* SeM. 2.26 * From the Dirty Shwa
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hey Tiny!

On Sun, 23 Nov 2025 04:08:50 -0600, you wrote:

I watched the video you posted and it would work for me. I just got
QEMU working last night so I'll be rolling a VM to try it next free
weekend.

Are you using QEMU by itself from your docker containers?

No it wouldn't migrate, I gave up and just re-created everything.

Yes, but it's not as simple as you'd think. There is a third party
script, but after 4 tries, I just said screw it and did everything
over again. Using jellyfin as the server software, same version as mint
and same paths as mint. It's okay I won't have to ever do that again as
now it's in docker and all the paths I've used are simple and can be re-created anywhere.

Hrm. Maybe the third party script wasn't updated or something. Also possible, the reason why Jellyfin didn't have their /own/ script to do this hadn't actually been done (because they knew it would be troublesome).

Laugh, the mint partitions are gone. Yeah it's a lot faster.

Did you end up going through the Archlinux install process via the wiki? Or did you use the 'archinstall' script? Just wondering, as I've always done it the old school way, until I setup the VM with Hyprland (I used 'archinstall'), and was quite pleased and impressed with the result.

I live downtown so we have a lot of dust that gets in through the
windows. So cleaning the tower is something I have to do (currently)
about every quarter. It goes outside and I give the dirt back to the downtown core.

Only for it to come back in through the windows! Although this time of year you might be keeping the windows closed more often. ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Accession,
On <Mon, 23 Nov 25>, you wrote me:

Are you using QEMU by itself from your docker containers?

By itself.

possible, the reason why Jellyfin didn't have their /own/ script to do
this hadn't actually been done (because they knew it would be
troublesome).

That's what I figure. Not a huge problem as my media library isn't huge
so I wrote down were we were on some of the shows and just set things
manually.

Did you end up going through the Archlinux install process via the
wiki? Or did you use the 'archinstall' script? Just wondering, as I've

I did it the manual / wiki way. I wanted to learn how the system worked.

always done it the old school way, until I setup the VM with Hyprland
(I used 'archinstall'), and was quite pleased and impressed with the result.

I will keep that in mind for VM's for sure.

Only for it to come back in through the windows! Although this time of
year you might be keeping the windows closed more often. ;)

That's true, but we still need to open one when the captain wants to
go on the balcony and pretend he runs the world.


... There is no limit to how bad things can get.


* SeM. 2.26 * As confused as a baby at a topless bar.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hey Tiny!

On Mon, 24 Nov 2025 05:16:30 -0600, you wrote:

Are you using QEMU by itself from your docker containers?

By itself.

You definitely chose an odd way of running VMs, that's for sure. Is there any specific reason you didn't want to go with something like Proxmox or XCP-ng?

That's what I figure. Not a huge problem as my media library isn't huge
so I wrote down were we were on some of the shows and just set things manually.

That's good. At least it wasn't that big of a pain. What do you use to grab your shows (I've been out of this realm for a bit)?

Did you end up going through the Archlinux install process via the
wiki? Or did you use the 'archinstall' script? Just wondering, as
I've

I did it the manual / wiki way. I wanted to learn how the system
worked.

Very nice. Doing that a few times does indeed help in the learning process.

always done it the old school way, until I setup the VM with
Hyprland (I used 'archinstall'), and was quite pleased and impressed
with the result.

I will keep that in mind for VM's for sure.

You still go through much of the process, except there's a nice text interface where you can go through and select everything you would normally just type manually. So it doesn't completely take you away from the "work", but it does make things easier and puts everything in the same place.

That's true, but we still need to open one when the captain wants to
go on the balcony and pretend he runs the world.

Does that include barking at everything that walks by? ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to esc on Fri Nov 21 2025 03:20 pm

Welcome to the club! You'll never look at another distro the same again.

I gotta say, there's actually some truth to that. Even when I mess around testing <insert random distro here>, if I notice the kernel is behind, or the latest versions of certain apps that I enjoy aren't there, etc.. I delete it and move on. :D

<laughs in Gentoo>

...A professor is one who talks in someone else's sleep.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Mon, 24 Nov 2025 14:28:28 -0600, you wrote:

I gotta say, there's actually some truth to that. Even when I mess
around testing <insert random distro here>, if I notice the kernel
is behind, or the latest versions of certain apps that I enjoy
aren't there, etc.. I delete it and move on. :D

<laughs in Gentoo>

I suppose it might be possible to keep up with Archlinux with the unstable branch, but then you're just asking for trouble. ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Accession,
On <Tue, 24 Nov 25>, you wrote me:

You definitely chose an odd way of running VMs, that's for sure. Is
there any specific reason you didn't want to go with something like
Proxmox or XCP-ng?

Sorry I wasn't clear. Qemu is being used for a windows VM so I can
run windows and mess about with things.

That's good. At least it wasn't that big of a pain. What do you use to
grab your shows (I've been out of this realm for a bit)?

Usenet and torrents. My usenet setup is more automatic as I spent a lot
of tiem on it years ago.

Does that include barking at everything that walks by? ;)

That would be Princess but she's too old and fat to go out on the
balcony now, there's a single step. The captain is my friends cat who
we looked after for 3 months last winter. He decided he didn't want to
live with them anymore and now lives here. His actual name is pickle,
but he feels he deserves the title of Captain for all the various bits
of string he has murdered to save us.

... Teamwork is essential. It gives them another target.


* SeM. 2.26 * From the Dirty Shwa
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hey Tiny!

On Tue, 25 Nov 2025 05:33:54 -0600, you wrote:

Sorry I wasn't clear. Qemu is being used for a windows VM so I can
run windows and mess about with things.

Still foggy over here. What /are/ you using for your VMs, then?

Usenet and torrents. My usenet setup is more automatic as I spent a lot
of tiem on it years ago.

I never really understood and/or tried usenet in the binary sense. How does one automate that process? Also, how does one automate the torrent process, as well? I've just gone to random websites that downloaded torrents. Realizing that's kind of a pain in the ass and very time consuming, I never really got into it. I've never really looked into ways to automate the process, which would obviously be excellent to just have the latest episodes of what you want to watch automatically grabbed when they're released.

Does that include barking at everything that walks by? ;)

That would be Princess but she's too old and fat to go out on the
balcony now, there's a single step. The captain is my friends cat who
we looked after for 3 months last winter. He decided he didn't want to
live with them anymore and now lives here. His actual name is pickle,
but he feels he deserves the title of Captain for all the various bits
of string he has murdered to save us.

Sounds like he's got his priorities straight. ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to DaiTengu on Mon Nov 24 2025 05:57 pm

I gotta say, there's actually some truth to that. Even when I mess around
testing <insert random distro here>, if I notice the kernel is behind, or
the latest versions of certain apps that I enjoy aren't there, etc.. I
delete it and move on. :D

<laughs in Gentoo>

I suppose it might be possible to keep up with Archlinux with the unstable branch, but then you're just asking for trouble. ;)

I've been running my devbox with ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64" for a decade. the only time I run into issues is if I haven't updated it in a couple months.

...He who dies with the most TAGLINES wins!
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to Tiny on Tue Nov 25 2025 06:42 am

I never really understood and/or tried usenet in the binary sense. How does one automate that process? Also, how does one automate the torrent process, as well? I've just gone to random websites that downloaded torrents. Realizing that's kind of a pain in the ass and very time consuming, I never really got into it. I've never really looked into ways to automate the process, which would obviously be excellent to just have the latest episodes of what you want to watch automatically grabbed when they're released.

<cracks knuckles>

In docker containers, to automate movie/tv fetching I use the following:

Sonarr <tv>
Radarr <movies>
Lidarr <music>
Mylar <comics>

there are things like "readarr" for books too, but any books I want I manually grab.

You need a good indexer or two for newsgroups, I have lifetime subscriptions to a couple, but the most reliable one I've used (and one that has lasted a very long time) is nzbgeek (http://nzbgeek.info)

Then you'll need a good newsgroup provider subscription.

You can also use something like Jackett with these apps, which proves an indexer-like API for various torrent sites. The "arr" suite of applications (everything I listed above, except for Mylar is built on the same stack (https://wiki.servarr.com), which seems to be .NET (C#) based.

I use SABNZBD as my newsgroup downloader (also a docker container), and deluge for torrents. They all work together fairly seamlessly, and very rarely do I have to go in and fiddle with anything in order to fix a problem.

...Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Tue, 25 Nov 2025 08:25:56 -0600, you wrote:

I suppose it might be possible to keep up with Archlinux with the
unstable branch, but then you're just asking for trouble. ;)

I've been running my devbox with ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64" for a decade.
the only time I run into issues is if I haven't updated it in a couple months.

To be honest, remembering back when I ran it, I think it was the same scenario where I ran into issues. If you're going to be running the "~amd64" branch, you should probably stay on top of things a bit better. ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Tue, 25 Nov 2025 08:47:14 -0600, you wrote:

<cracks knuckles>

LOL

In docker containers, to automate movie/tv fetching I use the
following:

Sonarr <tv>
Radarr <movies>
Lidarr <music>
Mylar <comics>

there are things like "readarr" for books too, but any books I want I manually grab.

What.. in.. the.. actual.. fuck.. dude! :D

You didn't just make it completely obvious you're serious about your torrents and newsgroup binaries.

You need a good indexer or two for newsgroups, I have lifetime subscriptions to a couple, but the most reliable one I've used (and one that has lasted a very long time) is nzbgeek (http://nzbgeek.info)

Then you'll need a good newsgroup provider subscription.

You can also use something like Jackett with these apps, which proves an indexer-like API for various torrent sites. The "arr" suite of
applications (everything I listed above, except for Mylar is built on
the same stack (https://wiki.servarr.com), which seems to be .NET (C#) based.

I use SABNZBD as my newsgroup downloader (also a docker container), and deluge for torrents. They all work together fairly seamlessly, and very rarely do I have to go in and fiddle with anything in order to fix a problem.

I'm kind of speechless right now. I was hoping it would be a bit easier, and you wouldn't need a 4-5 cluster of containers to achieve all of this. ;)

But hot damn! That's a sweet sounding setup.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to DaiTengu on Tue Nov 25 2025 11:14 am

I suppose it might be possible to keep up with Archlinux with the unstable
branch, but then you're just asking for trouble. ;)

I've been running my devbox with ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="~amd64" for a decade. the
only time I run into issues is if I haven't updated it in a couple months.

To be honest, remembering back when I ran it, I think it was the same scenario where I ran into issues. If you're going to be running the "~amd64" branch, you should probably stay on top of things a bit better. ;)

it's not really a "branch" it just tells portage to unmask packages with that flag set.

I just checked, the latest ebuild for gentoo-sources (the kernel) is 6.17.9, which was released yesterday. There is also vanilla-sources which is an ebuild of the kernel without any gentoo specific things added/patched.

frequently updated are pf-sources (with popular patchsets), rt-sources (uses the PREMPT_RT patch. it was far more popular with single-threaded CPUs), zen-sources (with patches and features for desktop systems), and git-sources, which is a daily snapshot of the kernel development tree from github.

Most of the issues I run into when I haven't updated in awhile are python related, where some packages still expect an older version, and that's being replaced with something newer.


Also, I run openrc for my init system. systemd can rot in hell.

(NetworkManager can also rot in hell, but that's an entirely different gripe)

...Birth is the beginning of death.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to DaiTengu on Tue Nov 25 2025 11:19 am

In docker containers, to automate movie/tv fetching I use the following:

Sonarr <tv>
Radarr <movies>
Lidarr <music>
Mylar <comics>

there are things like "readarr" for books too, but any books I want I
manually grab.

What.. in.. the.. actual.. fuck.. dude! :D

It's way easier than it sounds. it helps that I'm running this all on unRAID, which is a slackware-based SAN system. They make it easy with a web UI.

You didn't just make it completely obvious you're serious about your torrents and newsgroup binaries.

I generally avoid torrents if I can. Very rarely do I have to torrent anything, everything I want is available in newsgroups.

I'm kind of speechless right now. I was hoping it would be a bit easier, and you wouldn't need a 4-5 cluster of containers to achieve all of this. ;)

As I said, unRAID makes it easy, as it all gets dumped to my SAN (which is now up to 94TB with a 12TB parity disk. It's about 75% full. I am a digital packrat)

I've been into the whole "use computers for TV/Movies" thing for .. god.. 25 years now? Something like that. Before the days of streaming, I had multiple TV tuners that would DVR stuff, store it, and let me watch it from my phone remotely (or a laptop, or whatever). That's back when hard drives were only around 20-50GB or so. and tv/video was compressed divx. I still have a bunch of DVDs and VCDs with movies I burned to them in a binder somewhere.

...Martyrdom is the only way a person can become famous without ability.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Tue, 25 Nov 2025 14:50:54 -0600, you wrote:

it's not really a "branch" it just tells portage to unmask packages
with that flag set.

I've always referred to it as the stable, and testing/unstable branches. *shrug*

Gentoo wiki:

"The ACCEPT_KEYWORDS variable informs the package manager which ebuilds' KEYWORDS values it is allowed to accept. This variable is used to select either stable or testing branch as default."

I just checked, the latest ebuild for gentoo-sources (the kernel) is
6.17.9, which was released yesterday. There is also vanilla-sources
which is an ebuild of the kernel without any gentoo specific things added/patched.

Yeah, still sounds the same as when I used it. I just can't be bothered to sit and compile my entire system any more, especially when I don't need to optimize packages for anything besides the "cool factor" or bragging that I have the ability. Even with newer hardware, it still takes 15-20 minutes to compile a kernel (heard it from a friend). Then, on those off-chance times where your kernel, gcc, and glibc all need to be updated along with other packages, you're looking at hours. I could be doing something more productive during that time. Nowadays, I can download a kernel, install it along with 20+ other packages, and reboot in the matter of a couple minutes. ;)

Most of the issues I run into when I haven't updated in awhile are
python related, where some packages still expect an older version, and that's being replaced with something newer.

And since Gentoo probably uses python more than any other distro, that can seriously mess some shiz up. I doubt that would happen nearly as often, if at all, in the stable arena, though.

Speaking of which. I've been meaning to install Gentoo in a VM to mess around with it again. But, I keep asking myself.. what am I going to do with it once it's installed? The answer is usually "probably nothing," so I do something else, instead. ;)

Also, I run openrc for my init system. systemd can rot in hell.

All good. Some chose to stick with what works for them. I made the switch early on (as soon as Archlinux made it default), for no reason but jump on the bandwagon and learn something new. I haven't had any issues with systemd whatsoever.

(NetworkManager can also rot in hell, but that's an entirely different gripe)

That I don't normally use (I believe I'm using it on an Archlinux/Wayland/Hyprland Virtualbox VM, but I just didn't go out of my way to /not/ unselect it, and it's not a permanent setup so I'm not to picky about it). I've been using systemd-networkd and dhcpcd for as long as I can remember, and everything that runs Linux is wired so I don't bother installing anything for wifi.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:04:22 -0600, you wrote:

I generally avoid torrents if I can. Very rarely do I have to torrent anything, everything I want is available in newsgroups.

Ah, ok. So is there specific newsgroups for each separate show or is it like a small handful of super popular ones that shit out new releases of every genre that your 'arr' group has to sift through and grab the ones you're interested in?

As I said, unRAID makes it easy, as it all gets dumped to my SAN (which
is now up to 94TB with a 12TB parity disk. It's about 75% full. I am a digital packrat)

I can see that.

Here I am struggling to fill any of my drives. I think I'm up to about 5TB total on my desktop, 3TB on my son's desktop, and 8TB (in RAID1 so 4TB usable) on my server. I'm fairly certain none of the drives are over 50% full, except maybe one of the drives on my son's desktop.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Re: Arch btw
By: DaiTengu to Accession on Tue Nov 25 2025 08:47:14

In docker containers, to automate movie/tv fetching I use the following:

Sonarr <tv>
Radarr <movies>
Lidarr <music>
Mylar <comics>

You need a good indexer or two for newsgroups, I have lifetime subscriptions to a couple, but the most reliable one I've used (and one that has lasted a very long time) is nzbgeek (http://nzbgeek.info)

are there still lifetime offers around? Many years ago i was taking the nzbgeek lifetime offer. It depends also a bit what you are looking for. i am very happy to have https://scenenzbs.com/ cause they are super good for german or german dubbed content and in general.

I am also very happy with the servarr software https://wiki.servarr.com/
I have it running as LXC containers on proxmox. And if you want it quick and easy, use the helper scripts to create the proxmox LXCs. https://community-scripts.github.io/ProxmoxVE/

i do this for as long as i remember and i would never consider Torrents.

Mindsurfer

PS: btw: black weeks are a good time to load up on usenet provider subs.
never buy directly a the providers website, always check on reddit for offer codes or offer links. i just stacked 3 years of newhosting (inkl. VPN etc)
https://www.reddit.com/r/usenet/wiki/providerdeals/
--- SBBSecho 3.28-Linux
* Origin: FuNToPiA - telnet://funtopia.synchro.net:3023 (46:20/120)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to DaiTengu on Tue Nov 25 2025 04:23 pm

Yeah, still sounds the same as when I used it. I just can't be bothered to sit and compile my entire system any more, especially when I don't need to optimize packages for anything besides the "cool factor" or bragging that I have the ability. Even with newer hardware, it still takes 15-20 minutes to compile a kernel (heard it from a friend). Then, on those off-chance times where your kernel, gcc, and glibc all need to be updated along with other packages, you're looking at hours. I could be doing something more productive during that time. Nowadays, I can download a kernel, install it along with 20+ other packages, and reboot in the matter of a couple minutes. ;)

Gentoo does have binary packages for a lot of things now, including the kernel. of course if you have unusual USE flags set, and if packages support them it will still need to be compiled.

I've always wanted to toss Gentoo on one of the boxes we have at work, just to see how fast things will build. They're dual CPU, 64 core AMD EPYCs with at least 512GB RAM and u.2 nvme drives, so I'd be able to compile with 256 threads at once. :D

Honestly, the main reason I use Gentoo to this day is that It's an up-to-date distro that I'm familiar with. I don't know Arch's package manager, I have an irrational, seething hatred for Ubuntu (and Debian by association), I've forgotten more things about SuSE than I ever knew so I might as well be starting over there, and Slackware just feels ancient and clunky.

Finally, we run Red Hat based distros at work. I'm intimately familiar with Fedora/Redhat/CentOS/Rocky/Alma/etc, but let's be fair: even Fedora's packages are "old" compared to Arch & Gentoo. the RHEL family of distros is made for stability, which doesn't mesh well with "bleeding edge".

...Nostalgia is OK, but it's not what it used to be.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to DaiTengu on Tue Nov 25 2025 05:05 pm

I generally avoid torrents if I can. Very rarely do I have to torrent
anything, everything I want is available in newsgroups.

Ah, ok. So is there specific newsgroups for each separate show or is it like a small handful of super popular ones that shit out new releases of every genre that your 'arr' group has to sift through and grab the ones you're interested in?

There are generally a handful of popular newsgroups, but thats what the Indexers are for. I don't know the newsgroup names, If I was looking for a movie, I'd enter it into Radarr. Radarr would makes an API call to an indexer (NZBGeek, for example), and the indexer returns a list of items that match, similar to searching for a torrent. Radarr would select the best based on total size, reported video quality, age, etc. and then download the .nzb file generated by the indexer.

The NZB file contains all the information your newsgroup downloader needs to download the movie. The full list of "articles", along with the parity chunks in case there are any missing articles on your newsgroup provider, so they can be reconstructed. It'll then download and assemble all of that.

With the indexers you don't need to know newsgroup names or subscribe to newsgroups. It's as easy as looking up a torrent and adding it to your torrent client. In this case the client just goes out to your newsgroup provider and downloads the individual articles.

Think of a .NZB file like a .torrent file. the .torrent isn't the file/files you want,, it just tells your bittorrent client where to get it.

...Menu: A list of dishes which the restaurant has just run out of.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Re: Arch btw
By: Mindsurfer to DaiTengu on Wed Nov 26 2025 01:35 am

You need a good indexer or two for newsgroups, I have lifetime
subscriptions to a couple, but the most reliable one I've used (and one
that has lasted a very long time) is nzbgeek (http://nzbgeek.info)

are there still lifetime offers around? Many years ago i was taking the nzbgeek lifetime offer. It depends also a bit what you are looking for. i am very happy to have https://scenenzbs.com/ cause they are super good for german or german dubbed content and in general.

Yep, NZBGeek has the following post:

Our Black Friday Sale will run from 12:00:00am 28th November 2025 UTC until 12:00:00am 1st December 2025 UTC.
* 6 Month Subscription - $5.00 USD (Save $1.00 USD)
* 1 Year Subscription - $9.00 USD (Save $3.00 USD)
* 5 Year Subscription - $30.00 USD (Save $10.00 USD)
* Lifetime Subscription - $60.00 USD (Save $20.00 USD)
The above subscription specials will only be available during this time.

PS: btw: black weeks are a good time to load up on usenet provider subs. never buy directly a the providers website, always check on reddit for offer codes or offer links. i just stacked 3 years of newhosting (inkl. VPN etc) https://www.reddit.com/r/usenet/wiki/providerdeals/

Definitely, I should probably dig into that, as I think a few of my NNTP hosts have raised their prices in the last couple years, and I'm shelling a bit more than I would like.

...Heads will have to roll!
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:33:14 -0600, you wrote:

Gentoo does have binary packages for a lot of things now, including the kernel. of course if you have unusual USE flags set, and if packages
support them it will still need to be compiled.

I noticed that. However, the way they go about it is kinda funky, but funky is the Gentoo way, I suppose.

Let's start out by saying this discussion finally convinced me to grab the minimal installation, throw it on my datastore, and fire up a VM with it. Now, mind you, this was with 2 virtual cores and 4gb ram (mistake #1). I started to follow along with the amd64 handbook (mistake #2), and realized that the handbook has been significantly changed over the years, so I had to pay attention as to not mess anything up.

Why are they (via the handbook) using examples with full written out options? For example, I used to use 'emerge -avuDN @world' (although, when I gave up on Gentoo years ago they were just making the changed to using '@', as 'world' and '@world' were two different meanings at the time. Now they recommend using 'emerge --ask --verbose --update --deep --newuse @world'? That's annoying.

Anyway, by the time I setup the network, partitioned the drive, etc. then chrooted into the environment, I was already an hour in, and started inching my foot out the door. Right before 'configuring the kernel', I was tasked with updating @world, and had only 13 packages to update. This took 20+ minutes. It was 1:30am and I had enough. Deleted the VM, removed the iso from the datastore, and went to sleep. ;)

I've always wanted to toss Gentoo on one of the boxes we have at work,
just to see how fast things will build. They're dual CPU, 64 core AMD
EPYCs with at least 512GB RAM and u.2 nvme drives, so I'd be able to
compile with 256 threads at once. :D

That's crazy. Also crazy how much a single unit of something like that costs. Here us little homelabbers try to keep the budget tight, but damn. $20k+ for something like that is nuts!

Honestly, the main reason I use Gentoo to this day is that It's an up-to-date distro that I'm familiar with. I don't know Arch's package manager, I have an irrational, seething hatred for Ubuntu (and Debian by association), I've forgotten more things about SuSE than I ever knew so
I might as well be starting over there, and Slackware just feels ancient
and clunky.

Ask Tiny about Arch's package manager that he has hated and misunderstood all these years, until he finally tried it out. It's similar to yum or apt, once you figure out the options, etc.

Other than that, I agree with the other statements here, except I wouldn't so much call it a 'seeting hatred', but maybe just a fond dislike.

Finally, we run Red Hat based distros at work. I'm intimately familiar
with Fedora/Redhat/CentOS/Rocky/Alma/etc, but let's be fair: even
Fedora's packages are "old" compared to Arch & Gentoo. the RHEL family
of distros is made for stability, which doesn't mesh well with "bleeding edge".

Yep. Same goes for the Debian family of distros. They must just pick a kernel and packages to just stop dead in their tracks on and just choose to maintain those, which is where the LTS and whatnot applies. Honestly, I can say as long as I've been on "bleeding edge", I have had absolutely no stability issues.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:45:48 -0600, you wrote:

With the indexers you don't need to know newsgroup names or subscribe to newsgroups. It's as easy as looking up a torrent and adding it to your torrent client. In this case the client just goes out to your newsgroup provider and downloads the individual articles.

I think I may have to revisit this topic after the holidays. I'm keeping my eye out on possibly upgrading my server, and may have to look into this a bit more as every months I get more and more annoyed as to how much we're spending on streaming services (still cheaper than cable, but still).

Think of a .NZB file like a .torrent file. the .torrent isn't the file/files you want,, it just tells your bittorrent client where to get
it.

What is the cost for a lifetime account/setup to any of the providers you're using?

Also, where have you been shopping for your NAS related stuff? I'm not looking to spend thousands on a homelab, or anything. While the NAS itself isn't so bad, most of them come diskless, and that's where you're going to end up spending a small fortune on disk space.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Wed, 26 Nov 2025 08:51:22 -0600, you wrote:

Yep, NZBGeek has the following post:

Our Black Friday Sale will run from 12:00:00am 28th November 2025 UTC
until
12:00:00am 1st December 2025 UTC.
* 6 Month Subscription - $5.00 USD (Save $1.00 USD)
* 1 Year Subscription - $9.00 USD (Save $3.00 USD)
* 5 Year Subscription - $30.00 USD (Save $10.00 USD)
* Lifetime Subscription - $60.00 USD (Save $20.00 USD)
The above subscription specials will only be available during this time.

I didn't see this until now.

Definitely, I should probably dig into that, as I think a few of my
NNTP hosts have raised their prices in the last couple years, and I'm shelling a bit more than I would like.

Funny, how NNTP is dead as a doornail, probably even when it comes to binaries compared to years ago, and yet they still raise their prices. ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hello Accession!

26 Nov 25 10:07, you wrote to DaiTengu:

While the NAS itself isn't so bad, most of them come diskless, and
that's where you're going to end up spending a small fortune on disk space.

I run Xigmanas in a vm on my ESXi server with 12Gb of ram allocated to it (Server has 32gb), and pass through the MB sata
ports, and is running with four hd's in a mirror ZFS for each drive pair. 3Tb [*] for the media share (Movies, Pictures,
Music), and 10tb for the backup share. (Think VM's from the server and remote vm's, plus the media share's.)

I Recently upgraded from 4tb drives, and with zfs. It's just a matter of taking one of the drives out and replacing it
with the bigger one. Tell the system to rebuild the array, once that's done replace the other drive and repeat, with the
advantage that the array will get expanded to cover the extra space...


[ * Going to have to replace these drives soon.. Only got 50Gb free ]



Vorlon


--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: Dragon's Lair ---:- dragon.vk3heg.net -:--- Prt: 6800 (46:3/101)

Hey Vorlon!

On Thu, 27 Nov 2025 11:19:18 +1100, you wrote:

I run Xigmanas in a vm on my ESXi server with 12Gb of ram allocated to
it (Server has 32gb), and pass through the MB sata ports, and is running with four hd's in a mirror ZFS for each drive pair. 3Tb [*] for the
media share (Movies, Pictures, Music), and 10tb for the backup share.
(Think VM's from the server and remote vm's, plus the media share's.)

Yep, my issue is I don't have that kind of space, or better yet the slots to put the space. I have 6 2TB drives, but only 4 slots in the server - which is also only a 4c/8t with 32gb ddr3 ram. I have two of the drives hooked up in my gaming PC, that don't get used at all. I'm definitely in need of an upgrade to the server before I can do much of anything else, as that's my current bottleneck.

I Recently upgraded from 4tb drives, and with zfs. It's just a matter of taking one of the drives out and replacing it with the bigger one. Tell
the system to rebuild the array, once that's done replace the other
drive and repeat, with the advantage that the array will get expanded to cover the extra space...

[ * Going to have to replace these drives soon.. Only got 50Gb free ]

I haven't had to spend on servers or parts in about 12 years, and built my gaming PC about 4 years ago. The prices didn't change much between the server and PC, but they sure have definitely changed between then and now. ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to DaiTengu on Wed Nov 26 2025 08:55 am

Why are they (via the handbook) using examples with full written out options? For example, I used to use 'emerge -avuDN @world' (although, when I gave up on Gentoo years ago they were just making the changed to using '@', as 'world' and '@world' were two different meanings at the time. Now they recommend using 'emerge --ask --verbose --update --deep --newuse @world'? That's annoying.

Well, for a new user, it's easier to understand than "emerge -avuDN" I use "emerge -uDN @world @module-rebuild" for most of my system updates, because I know what the flags mean.

I understand why they'd use the full name in documentation.

Anyway, by the time I setup the network, partitioned the drive, etc. then chrooted into the environment, I was already an hour in, and started inching my foot out the door. Right before 'configuring the kernel', I was tasked with updating @world, and had only 13 packages to update. This took 20+ minutes. It was 1:30am and I had enough. Deleted the VM, removed the iso from the datastore, and went to sleep. ;)

Honestly, I don't blame you. Gentoo is for masochists. I still need to migrate my BBS off of CentOS 7. I set up a Gentoo VM, put hours into it, and realized I just don't want to deal with that shit so I deleted it. I'm probably going to wind up tossing it on Alma/Rocky even though I'd prefer to use some kind of distro that has a rolling release.

The only thing keeping me from tossing it on Arch is my unfamiliarity with the distro. Synchronet already has quite a few quirks and pre-requisites for running on Linux and adding that into the mix sounds exhausting.

When I built my new PC nearly a year ago, I installed Gentoo on my old PC, and planned on using it as a replacement for my existing Gentoo devbox. Currently I have 2 Gentoo devboxes, and I still use the one that's built on 14 year old hardware more than anything.

I've always wanted to toss Gentoo on one of the boxes we have at work, just
to see how fast things will build. They're dual CPU, 64 core AMD EPYCs with
at least 512GB RAM and u.2 nvme drives, so I'd be able to compile with 256
threads at once. :D

That's crazy. Also crazy how much a single unit of something like that costs. Here us little homelabbers try to keep the budget tight, but damn. $20k+ for something like that is nuts!

We moved to single-CPU 64 core EPYCs a few years ago. We were getting them for around $23K each after a very heavy discount. I have a standing offer from work to send me one of the dual CPU boxes when we decomission them, but I honestly don't want to deal with the power consumption. The old 8th gen HP DL380 with 2 12 core Intel CPUs that I currently use as my main NAS (it runs all those docker containers) is plenty loud enough.

In the summer, my electic bill is outrageous between the cost of the computers and the Air Conditioning. The only advantage is that my winter heating bill is MUCH lower than most of my neighbors, simply because so much heat is generated from all the computers in my house.

Ask Tiny about Arch's package manager that he has hated and misunderstood all these years, until he finally tried it out. It's similar to yum or apt, once you figure out the options, etc.

Other than that, I agree with the other statements here, except I wouldn't so much call it a 'seeting hatred', but maybe just a fond dislike.

I'm really considering biting the bullet and installing Arch on my main desktop (dual booting with Windows). That way I'm kind of forced to learn it.

...Interchangable devices won`t.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to DaiTengu on Wed Nov 26 2025 10:07 am

What is the cost for a lifetime account/setup to any of the providers you're using?

I think the two main indexers I use are NZBGeek (I posted the black friday subscription prices in another message), and NZBPlanet.net

NZBPlanet has a "lifetime" subscription plan that's £40 I think I originally signed up for it about 5 years ago. There is a "free" plan to which gives you 5 NZB downloads a day, otherwise there's "VIP" for £12 a year, or "Platinum" for £16 a year. (I'm too lazy to do the conversion)

I don't think you need an invite to use it, but I can give you one if you're insterested.

Also, where have you been shopping for your NAS related stuff? I'm not looking to spend thousands on a homelab, or anything. While the NAS itself isn't so bad, most of them come diskless, and that's where you're going to end up spending a small fortune on disk space.

That's a rabbit hole. Right now RAM prices are through the roof so that's going to be like half your cost if you get a refurbished server. I've been eying up www.theserverstore.com for a replacement NAS box, and they're quite flexible with customizations. Especially since I can get parts (like RAM) from work. I just can't bring myself to spend $1500 for what I want right now, knowing I still have to source parts on top of it.

I did just buy a new 12TB SAS drive to replace a failing 4TB disk in my NAS last week from ServerPartDeals.com. I got a Seagate Exos X18 12TB drive for $170, and it shipped basically overnight. For spinning disks, these drives are incredibly fast, and if I have the money I want to replace all my old 4TB and 6TB disks with them. (I might be able to slim down from 16 disks to about 8)

Anyway, hope you have a happy Turkey day!

...Why risk a hangover? Stay Drunk!!
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Thu, 27 Nov 2025 10:02:12 -0600, you wrote:

Well, for a new user, it's easier to understand than "emerge -avuDN"
I use "emerge -uDN @world @module-rebuild" for most of my system
updates, because I know what the flags mean.

I mean, I get it.. but it was never like that before. I would think it would discourage a user to type damn near an entire paragraph to update their system. ;)

Honestly, I don't blame you. Gentoo is for masochists. I still need to migrate my BBS off of CentOS 7. I set up a Gentoo VM, put hours into it,
and realized I just don't want to deal with that shit so I deleted it.
I'm probably going to wind up tossing it on Alma/Rocky even though I'd prefer to use some kind of distro that has a rolling release.

As I mentioned, it was 1:30am and I was getting tired. It was at that point I started remembering the almost all nighters on work nights when some compilation failed or whatever. Chasing down the issue and getting it fixed (I wouldn't give up until I was successful). 1-2 hours of sleep at times, it was a complete disaster.

The only thing keeping me from tossing it on Arch is my unfamiliarity
with the distro. Synchronet already has quite a few quirks and pre-requisites for running on Linux and adding that into the mix sounds exhausting.

By all means, try it out for a bit separately from everything else. Don't try to turn it into your main server distro right away or anything. Go through the installation wiki while you install it. As a lifelong Gentoo fan, you're going to appreciate the time you have left after installation. I'd suggest the first time or two going through the old school way, which is similar to Gentoo except a lot less time consuming (partitioning, setting hostname/locale/timezone, etc. are all pretty similar, just different commands). Once you figure out it's not intimidating whatsoever, future installs you can just boot the installation media, and at the very first root prompt after boot, use 'pacman -S archinstall', and then run it. It's a supported script that runs a TUI where you can set all of the important stuff, and when you hit "Install" it sets and finalizes everything, and then tells you to reboot. It's stupid easy.

Familiarizing yourself with 'pacman' is probably 100x easier than Gentoo. Once you get used to 'pacman -S' to install single or multiple packages, 'pacman -Syu' to update your system, and 'pacman -Rsu' to remove package(s) and their dependencies (you don't need much more than that unless you have specific stuff you need to do like query/search the repos or some other random shit you usually don't need to do). You're going to be mad at yourself for not trying something like this out sooner. lol

For the record, Synchronet and Mystic, MRC, doorparty, bbslink, and whatever else I've thrown at it run great on Arch. Following Synchronet's wiki with the prerequisites will allow Synchronet to compile from gitlab. The package names may differ a bit from the debian based ones listed there, but I'm sure you're already used to that with Gentoo. Either way, if 'pacman -S <package>' doesn't work, a DDG/Google search for "archlinux <package>" will point you at the correct package name.

When I built my new PC nearly a year ago, I installed Gentoo on my old
PC, and planned on using it as a replacement for my existing Gentoo
devbox. Currently I have 2 Gentoo devboxes, and I still use the one
that's built on 14 year old hardware more than anything.

One Gentoo machine is a part time job. I could only imagine what 2 would be, unless you just don't update them. ;)

We moved to single-CPU 64 core EPYCs a few years ago. We were getting
them for around $23K each after a very heavy discount. I have a
standing offer from work to send me one of the dual CPU boxes when we decomission them, but I honestly don't want to deal with the power consumption. The old 8th gen HP DL380 with 2 12 core Intel CPUs that I currently use as my main NAS (it runs all those docker containers) is
plenty loud enough.

I have a ML310e Gen8 at my feet, that isn't loud at all. Granted, it's only one CPU and one PSU, and does BBS things so it's probably not being super strained or anything. It does have those plastic baffles in the main bay after the fans though, so maybe that helps with keeping the sound down a bit.

Is it just the dual CPU setup that makes it louder? Or could it be that the rack servers are just louder than tower servers? I'm actually eyeing up a ML350 Gen9 with 2x Xeon 2.6ghz 14 core processors, 128gb ddr4 ram, and like 12TB 10k 12gb/s SAS SSDs. If it's going to be significantly louder, I may rethink that option.

I feel I could build a minipc for roughly the same price, but I wouldn't be able to get nearly the HDD space at that price point, and feel like it would be a complete waste of money to turn a newer 16 cores Intel or AMD cpu, ddr5 ram, and gen5 m.2 SSDs into a flippin' server, lol.

In the summer, my electic bill is outrageous between the cost of the computers and the Air Conditioning. The only advantage is that my
winter heating bill is MUCH lower than most of my neighbors, simply
because so much heat is generated from all the computers in my house.

HAH. Well, I know exactly what you're talking about with the summer time. However, I apparantly don't get enough heat from all my computers, because my winter bills are just as high as my summer ones. We get to enjoy about 2 months max in spring, and 2 months max in fall of ~$200 heat or a/c bills (about half of what they would normally be with either of those running) when we can turn either one off and have the windows open.

I'm really considering biting the bullet and installing Arch on my main desktop (dual booting with Windows). That way I'm kind of forced to
learn it.

If you have Windows already, just install Virtualbox if you don't have it already, and install it there. No need to do anything drastic altering your current systems while you mess with it. But, fair warning, you may soon have two Arch dev boxes, and your 14 year old Gentoo setup backed up to a VM. LOL

I was hooked after the first time I tried it (it's been about 15 years now). I will still grab and install new and interesting distros when I hear about them, but there's no way anything compares to Arch, IMO, if you want a rolling distro with the latest and greatest - oh, and dislike Debian. :)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Thu, 27 Nov 2025 10:39:34 -0600, you wrote:

I don't think you need an invite to use it, but I can give you one if
you're insterested.

Not quite yet, but as I mentioned I may have to revisit this in a few months after all the holidays are done and over with.

That's a rabbit hole. Right now RAM prices are through the roof so
that's going to be like half your cost if you get a refurbished server.
I've been eying up www.theserverstore.com for a replacement NAS box, and they're quite flexible with customizations. Especially since I can get parts (like RAM) from work. I just can't bring myself to spend $1500 for what I want right now, knowing I still have to source parts on top of
it.

The tower server I mentioned that I'm looking at is about $1200, and I wouldn't need to source any other parts as it already has twice the HDD space I'm currently dealing with, and has plenty of cores and ram for whatever expansion I plan on doing in the future. It's just the wrong time of year for me to be looking at this kinda stuff. :)

I did just buy a new 12TB SAS drive to replace a failing 4TB disk in my
NAS last week from ServerPartDeals.com. I got a Seagate Exos X18 12TB
drive for $170, and it shipped basically overnight. For spinning disks, these drives are incredibly fast, and if I have the money I want to
replace all my old 4TB and 6TB disks with them. (I might be able to slim down from 16 disks to about 8)

To be fair, if I were to get that tower server, it would free up the 6x 2TB drives I'm currently using, which could eventually go into a NAS or something (I don't need nearly as much HDD space as you, lol). So I definitely wouldn't have to purchase /more/ HDDs anytime in the near future.

Anyway, hope you have a happy Turkey day!

You too! We just got back from my parents house, where I couldn't move for a good hour I ate so much. ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to DaiTengu on Thu Nov 27 2025 08:04 pm

I have a ML310e Gen8 at my feet, that isn't loud at all. Granted, it's only one CPU and one PSU, and does BBS things so it's probably not being super strained or anything. It does have those plastic baffles in the main bay after the fans though, so maybe that helps with keeping the sound down a bit.

Is it just the dual CPU setup that makes it louder? Or could it be that the rack servers are just louder than tower servers? I'm actually eyeing up a ML350 Gen9 with 2x Xeon 2.6ghz 14 core processors, 128gb ddr4 ram, and like 12TB 10k 12gb/s SAS SSDs. If it's going to be significantly louder, I may rethink that option.

Rackmount servers, especially 1u/2u boxes are WAY louder. like 80db loud when the fans crank up to 100%, which HP servers tend to do if you have "non-hp-certified hardware" installed in them (like non-enterprise disks). I had to write a script that reboots the iLO controller any time the fans get above 50%, otherwise they just crank themselves up to 100% and no amount of fan control command wizardry will stop them.

They need to push a lot of air through a small space. the 2u server I have has 6 60mm fans that stretch across the entire case. they sit behind the drives in the front, and blow everything they have on the motherboard/CPUs.

and no, single-CPU boxes aren't any quieter :D

I feel I could build a minipc for roughly the same price, but I wouldn't be able to get nearly the HDD space at that price point, and feel like it would be a complete waste of money to turn a newer 16 cores Intel or AMD cpu, ddr5 ram, and gen5 m.2 SSDs into a flippin' server, lol.

I want the CPUs and the drive space. whatever replaces this HP box will wind up having a couple 20-core CPUs at minimum.

I was hooked after the first time I tried it (it's been about 15 years now). I will still grab and install new and interesting distros when I hear about them, but there's no way anything compares to Arch, IMO, if you want a rolling distro with the latest and greatest - oh, and dislike Debian. :)

I do have virtualbox, but the idea would be to jam it on the physical hardware to see how it can perform with anything I want to run. I don't play a lot of video games, but I've been hearing good things about gaming on Linux recently, and kind of want to give it a try again.




...History tends to exaggerate.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Thu, 27 Nov 2025 23:25:34 -0600, you wrote:

Rackmount servers, especially 1u/2u boxes are WAY louder. like 80db
loud when the fans crank up to 100%, which HP servers tend to do if you
have "non-hp-certified hardware" installed in them (like non-enterprise disks). I had to write a script that reboots the iLO controller any
time the fans get above 50%, otherwise they just crank themselves up to
100% and no amount of fan control command wizardry will stop them.

Well, that's good to hear for me anyway. I don't have room for a rack, and I definitely don't want to hang that crap on the wall, so I actually prefer tower setups. My gaming machine with 7 120mm fans is louder than my server tower when gaming (and it's not even really /that/ loud, but it's by my feet so without my headgear on I can hear it).

I want the CPUs and the drive space. whatever replaces this HP box will
wind up having a couple 20-core CPUs at minimum.

I feel like I'm light years behind you anyways. I've been working with 4c/8t with 32gb ddr3 ram for the last 15 years or so, and have made it work. The jump up to a couple 14c/28t CPUs I'm not sure I'd ever run out of things to do. ;)

I do have virtualbox, but the idea would be to jam it on the physical hardware to see how it can perform with anything I want to run. I don't play a lot of video games, but I've been hearing good things about
gaming on Linux recently, and kind of want to give it a try again.

It's got one of the best wikis around. Unless you're a glutton for punishment and absolutely /need/ a Gentoo fix, you'll soon realize how easy things can be. ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Daitengu,
In a message to Accession you wrote:

I'm really considering biting the bullet and installing Arch on my
main desktop (dual booting with Windows). That way I'm kind of forced
to learn it.

That's what I did. It forced me to learn it and now I like it. I've
made some rookie mistakes ie: trying every desktop I could, so I think
one of these weekends when I'm not busy I'll be doing a full reinstall to
keep things stable.

... I've pretended to be me for so long that now I am.


* SeM. 2.26 * paranoia: believing this tagline is about you.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hey Tiny!

On Sat, 29 Nov 2025 08:04:14 -0600, you wrote:

I'm really considering biting the bullet and installing Arch on my
main desktop (dual booting with Windows). That way I'm kind of
forced to learn it.

That's what I did. It forced me to learn it and now I like it. I've
made some rookie mistakes ie: trying every desktop I could, so I think
one of these weekends when I'm not busy I'll be doing a full reinstall
to keep things stable.

Do you not have the ability to use something like Virtualbox? If not, then rookie mistakes it is until you find out what you like.

Do all of your dickin' around with desktop environments and window managers there, and when you find something you like, put it on your production environment. Especially since you can just spin up the Arch ISO and use 'archinstall'. I'd bet you could have 5 test VMs setup in about 20 minutes (less if you spin multiple up at the same time). ;)

BTW, by "trying every desktop" does that mean you gave Hyprland a go? If so, how did you like it?

IMO, it's definitely /not/ Plasma, but for a tiling window manager with a taskbar as well as a launcher panel, I think it has the rest in that category beat by a mile. I'm actually beginning to get used to and enjoy the shortcut commands (super + enter = kitty/console, super + b = firefox/browser, etc). I've never really given tiling window managers a long enough chance in the past to actually learn some of those.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Accession,

On Wednesday November 26 2025, Accession said to Vorlon:

I run Xigmanas in a vm on my ESXi server with 12Gb of ram allocated to
it (Server has 32gb), and pass through the MB sata ports, and is running
with four hd's in a mirror ZFS for each drive pair. 3Tb [*] for the
media share (Movies, Pictures, Music), and 10tb for the backup share.
(Think VM's from the server and remote vm's, plus the media share's.)

Yep, my issue is I don't have that kind of space, or better yet the
slots to put the space. I have 6 2TB drives, but only 4 slots in the
server

First thing I'd be doing is going to higher capacity drives, even if you continue to use your current server.

Have you thought about using a standard tower case (Mine is, with 6 3.5"
bays, and 3 5.14" bays). Even thought the server is a real server board it works fine. It's a S1200BTL, with Xeon E31240, the same core/threads as
yours.

I haven't had to spend on servers or parts in about 12 years, and built
my gaming PC about 4 years ago. The prices didn't change much between
the server and PC, but they sure have definitely changed between then
and now. ;)

Have you thought about using a high end non server board/cpu? I recently
looked at both dedicated server type boards ($1000AUD odd just for the
board), and non server board (ie: Gigabyte B850 A ELITE WF7 ICE 1.0). It's
only $400AUD. The main thing that's needed is sata/m2 ports and ram/cpu.

(That MB was just picked at random).

\/orlon
aka
Stephen

Rocking Agoranet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

--- Zeus BBS 1.5
* Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (46:3/101.5)

Hi Accession,
On <Sun, 29 Nov 25>, you wrote me:

Do you not have the ability to use something like Virtualbox? If not,
then rookie mistakes it is until you find out what you like.

I do. But it doesn't jive for me. I will just close the vm after a few minutes and say I don't like it.

BTW, by "trying every desktop" does that mean you gave Hyprland a go?
If so, how did you like it?

Currently I'm using it.

IMO, it's definitely /not/ Plasma, but for a tiling window manager
with a taskbar as well as a launcher panel, I think it has the rest in

It's pretty slick for sure. I spent some time (too much I think) editing
the three config files (waybar, paper and hyprland) but I have it working really good now, I just have to go back and work on the animations and
other pretty stuff that I want to see. :)

+ b = firefox/browser, etc). I've never really given tiling window
managers a long enough chance in the past to actually learn some of
those.

I didn't either, so this time I am. :) I'm starting to like it enough
that the old laptop may get a tiling program for windows.

... Never believe anything until it's been officially denied.


* SeM. 2.26 * As confused as a baby at a topless bar.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Re: Arch btw
By: Accession to DaiTengu on Fri Nov 28 2025 08:04 am

Well, that's good to hear for me anyway. I don't have room for a rack, and I definitely don't want to hang that crap on the wall, so I actually prefer tower setups. My gaming machine with 7 120mm fans is louder than my server tower when gaming (and it's not even really /that/ loud, but it's by my feet so without my headgear on I can hear it).

Racks and cabinets are expensive, so my 2u rackmount box just sits on top of an old desk in my basement. They do make cabinets that have sound-dampening features, but they start around $1000 for 8-12u enclosures.

I feel like I'm light years behind you anyways. I've been working with 4c/8t with 32gb ddr3 ram for the last 15 years or so, and have made it work. The jump up to a couple 14c/28t CPUs I'm not sure I'd ever run out of things to do. ;)

To be fair, I've been in the high-performance datacenter hardware world as a profession for 20+ years at this point. (and building/doing PC repair for at least 10 years prior to that, too).

That said, I learn new things everyday when it comes to homelab equipment.

It's got one of the best wikis around. Unless you're a glutton for punishment and absolutely /need/ a Gentoo fix, you'll soon realize how easy things can be. ;)

I mean, if I wanted "easy" I'd go with Fedora or Ubuntu. :D

...Elevators smell different to midgets
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: The Sport is War, Total War - warensemble.com (46:1/193)

Hey Vorlon!

On Sun, 30 Nov 2025 16:54:36 , you wrote:

Yep, my issue is I don't have that kind of space, or better yet the
slots to put the space. I have 6 2TB drives, but only 4 slots in the
server

First thing I'd be doing is going to higher capacity drives, even if you continue to use your current server.

That's where the new server comes into play. The one I'm looking at has 4x 3.2tb 10k SAS SSD. Plenty for what I need.

Mind you, I'm not out of hard drive space.. at all. I just have too many drives, and not enough bays to put them in. I don't really need higher capacity, I'd just like to make use of what I currently have.

Have you thought about using a standard tower case (Mine is, with 6 3.5" bays, and 3 5.14" bays). Even thought the server is a real server board
it works fine. It's a S1200BTL, with Xeon E31240, the same core/threads
as yours.

Sure, there is always that option also. However, my bottleneck at the moment is not space, it's the cores/threads and 32gb ddr3 ram. I'm using all 8 threads already, and would like to add more VMs, but I can't.

Have you thought about using a high end non server board/cpu? I recently looked at both dedicated server type boards ($1000AUD odd just for the board), and non server board (ie: Gigabyte B850 A ELITE WF7 ICE 1.0).
It's only $400AUD. The main thing that's needed is sata/m2 ports and ram/cpu.

I'm not trying to spend 2 grand or more on a server that I use for lightweight hobbies. I'd rather put that kind of money into a gaming PC. I'm more than likely looking at a renewed server (cheaper and no need to build it myself), but just updated specs from the current one I've had for 12+ years.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hey Tiny!

On Sun, 30 Nov 2025 05:33:28 -0600, you wrote:

I do. But it doesn't jive for me. I will just close the vm after a few minutes and say I don't like it.

I just did that with Gentoo a few days ago. But, for just testing out new things it definitely comes in handy, rather than installing it on bare metal and then replacing it if you don't like it. If you shut down the VM, you can just hit "Remove" and the VM is deleted, only to be able to setup and fire up a new one with another ISO. ;)

BTW, by "trying every desktop" does that mean you gave Hyprland a
go? If so, how did you like it?

Currently I'm using it.

Ayyyoooooo!

IMO, it's definitely /not/ Plasma, but for a tiling window manager
with a taskbar as well as a launcher panel, I think it has the rest
in

It's pretty slick for sure. I spent some time (too much I think)
editing the three config files (waybar, paper and hyprland) but I have
it working really good now, I just have to go back and work on the animations and other pretty stuff that I want to see. :)

It's never too much time if you're enjoying it. ;)

Did you just go with stock Hyprland install, or did you find some dotfiles (basically hyprland themes) to install and start out with?

I didn't either, so this time I am. :) I'm starting to like it enough
that the old laptop may get a tiling program for windows.

I didn't know that was a thing, but glad I got to introduce you to something new and you actually like it!

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hey DaiTengu!

On Sun, 30 Nov 2025 07:18:10 -0600, you wrote:

Racks and cabinets are expensive, so my 2u rackmount box just sits on
top of an old desk in my basement. They do make cabinets that have sound-dampening features, but they start around $1000 for 8-12u
enclosures.

Hell yeah they can get expensive. However, I did see a decent 6U cabinet for like $100 (probably a piece of shit), and then there was some 2U wall mount "bracket" things that weren't even a cabinet, but that would look janky.

Thing about the cabinet, it's 2-3x wider than a tower (19" of space for the server, then whatever else for the outer shell). The depth I'm not too worried about, but it would definitely be cramping my leg room by far too much more than I would care for.

To be fair, I've been in the high-performance datacenter hardware world
as a profession for 20+ years at this point. (and building/doing PC
repair for at least 10 years prior to that, too).

I'm not sure I could sit at a desk all day in the computer world, but I would definitely enjoy sifting through the old hardware that any company may want to get rid of and/or replace. I'd be like a kid in a candy store. ;)

That said, I learn new things everyday when it comes to homelab
equipment.

That's what I get out of it. It keeps my brain active on non-work related things, so I don't constantly stress about work. I don't even tell the guys at work what I do for hobbies regarding computers, Linux, etc. at home, as they would more than likely just look at me like a deer in headlights.

It's got one of the best wikis around. Unless you're a glutton for
punishment and absolutely /need/ a Gentoo fix, you'll soon realize
how easy things can be. ;)

I mean, if I wanted "easy" I'd go with Fedora or Ubuntu. :D

Ok, so not /THAT/ easy. Moreso just not having to always wait for things to compile, and that annoying 'Gentoo spinning cursor'. Although, even if you were starting with a base system, once you're done installing everything and configuring it to your liking, it most likely is just as easy as Fedora or Ubuntu (but at least you set it all up yourself). ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Accession,
On <Mon, 30 Nov 25>, you wrote me:

down the VM, you can just hit "Remove" and the VM is deleted, only to
be able to setup and fire up a new one with another ISO. ;)

Doesn't force me to learn though. I need to force myself sometimes
before I start to "get it".

Did you just go with stock Hyprland install, or did you find some
dotfiles (basically hyprland themes) to install and start out with?

Started with a stock one and have been adding things one by one manually.
It seems to be the only way I learn. <shrug>

NOW: After a few days couple of things I dislike about a tiling setup
and the main one is the number of virtual desktops I need. ie: I use
keepassxc and I like to launch it on startup. Since there is no way to minimize it, I have to send it to another desktop.

I'm still trying to understand if there is a way to "minimize" a window.

I didn't know that was a thing, but glad I got to introduce you to something new and you actually like it!

I like not having to size windows. Just tell it where I want it and it
does all the BS for me.

... Ahh! Come on Gerard, just this one last little feature!


* SeM. 2.26 * From the Dirty Shwa
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hey Tiny!

On Mon, 01 Dec 2025 05:27:02 -0600, you wrote:

Doesn't force me to learn though. I need to force myself sometimes
before I start to "get it".

Sure it does, it's just easier to delete it all and start over when you royally mess things up. :D

Started with a stock one and have been adding things one by one
manually. It seems to be the only way I learn. <shrug>

By all means, that's a great way to do it when you want to learn it all. Are you going so far as to modify fonts and borders and whatnot? I remember you mentioning cursor movements and effects. Keep going with it and you can release your own dotfiles. ;)

NOW: After a few days couple of things I dislike about a tiling setup
and the main one is the number of virtual desktops I need. ie: I use keepassxc and I like to launch it on startup. Since there is no way to minimize it, I have to send it to another desktop.

I'm still trying to understand if there is a way to "minimize" a window.

Oddly enough, I don't think the devs intended for windows to be minimized, however, check here:

https://wiki.hypr.land/Configuring/Uncommon-tips--tricks/

Scroll down to "Minimize windows using special workspaces" and try that, or the next one, "Show desktop".

Also, here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/hyprland/comments/11to271/how_to_minimize_windows/

This kinda explains why tiling WMs don't have a minimize feature, but give you a possibility or two and link to the previous link I shared. Maybe even the part about the "swallow" feature that Hyprland has already built in.

I like not having to size windows. Just tell it where I want it and it
does all the BS for me.

And if all else fails, you can always start over again with Plasma. :)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Accession,

On Sunday November 30 2025, Accession said to Vorlon:

First thing I'd be doing is going to higher capacity drives, even if you
continue to use your current server.

That's where the new server comes into play. The one I'm looking at has
4x 3.2tb 10k SAS SSD. Plenty for what I need.

Be aware that SAS drives require a SAS controller, yet SATA will work with both. So if you run into issues, your rather stuck with getting a SAS controller.

Mind you, I'm not out of hard drive space.. at all. I just have too many drives, and not enough bays to put them in. I don't really need higher capacity, I'd just like to make use of what I currently have.

I thought it would be ages before I filled my 4tb drives, yet I've got 140G free and have just purchased some 8Tb drives in the cyber monday sales.

Have you thought about using a standard tower case (Mine is, with 6 3.5"
bays, and 3 5.14" bays). Even thought the server is a real server board
it works fine. It's a S1200BTL, with Xeon E31240, the same core/threads
as yours.

Sure, there is always that option also. However, my bottleneck at the moment is not space, it's the cores/threads and 32gb ddr3 ram. I'm using all 8 threads already, and would like to add more VMs, but I can't.

Where are you getting that information from? My server's cpu has the same cores/threads as your's and it sits idle 90% of the time.

5 vm's run 24/7, with another three that only run when needed.

Have you thought about using a high end non server board/cpu? I recently [...]
It's only $400AUD. The main thing that's needed is sata/m2 ports and
ram/cpu.

I'm not trying to spend 2 grand or more on a server that I use for lightweight hobbies.

Was just throughing that out there, as in previous messages you said you'd
like to get a dual cpu system?

I'm more than likely looking at a renewed server (cheaper and no need to build it myself), but just updated specs from the current one I've had
for 12+ years.

I did the same thing with mine. It came with 8gb of ram, and I've upped it
to the max 32gb. Replaced the psu, and added the sata card for the two SSD's that have the VM's on them.



\/orlon
aka
Stephen

Rocking Agoranet with an Amiga 4000 and Zeus BBS.

--- Zeus BBS 1.5
* Origin: -:-- Dragon's Lair --:- dragon.vk3heg.net Prt: 6800 (46:3/101.5)

Hey Vorlon!

On Tue, 02 Dec 2025 19:06:44 , you wrote:

Be aware that SAS drives require a SAS controller, yet SATA will work
with both. So if you run into issues, your rather stuck with getting a
SAS controller.

What I'm looking at is a renewed tower server. So it comes with everything needed as far as hardware is concerned, and boots right up. As I mentioned, I'm not paying thousands of dollars for new server hardware that I'm going to use for BBS and other hobby related things.

I thought it would be ages before I filled my 4tb drives, yet I've got
140G free and have just purchased some 8Tb drives in the cyber monday
sales.

I'm still at the stage of thinking it will be ages to fill my 2tb drives. I currently have 4 of them in a raid 1 config (4tb usable), with 4 VMs set to 500gb each - so I have more space available, but can't setup any more VMs with only 8 virtual cores (2 per VM being used). Either way, each VM is 10% or less of the HDD space being used.

I'm not a digital hoarder whatsoever. The space isn't what concerns me. I need more cores and ram. ;)

Sure, there is always that option also. However, my bottleneck at
the moment is not space, it's the cores/threads and 32gb ddr3 ram.
I'm using all 8 threads already, and would like to add more VMs, but
I can't.

Where are you getting that information from? My server's cpu has the
same cores/threads as your's and it sits idle 90% of the time.

I have 8 threads/virtual cores, with 4 VMs and 2 virtual cores dedicated per VM. Is that not using up all the cores available to me?

5 vm's run 24/7, with another three that only run when needed.

If you're only using a single virtual core for each VM, then I can definitely see that.

Was just throughing that out there, as in previous messages you said
you'd like to get a dual cpu system?

Yeah, I've seen some setups that would work for me anywhere from 400-1000 USD. These are all renewed/used in excellent condition, usually taken out of service/replaced/upgraded from a colocation somewhere. May or may not have a scratch or two on them, but all of the hardware has been tested and verified fully functional.

I did the same thing with my current server, and it has lasted me 12+ years, so as long as I buy from a respectable place, I'd do it again.

I did the same thing with mine. It came with 8gb of ram, and I've upped
it to the max 32gb. Replaced the psu, and added the sata card for the
two SSD's that have the VM's on them.

Since ram and hdd space is getting out of hand expensive nowadays, I'm probably just going to wait until I find something that comes with everything I would need and possibly more, so I don't need to upgrade. If it lasts me another 12-15 years, I'll be happy, and maybe buy another at that time if needbe. ;)

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hello Accession!

02 Dec 25 17:02, you wrote to me:

Where are you getting that information from? My server's cpu has
the same cores/threads as your's and it sits idle 90% of the time.

I have 8 threads/virtual cores, with 4 VMs and 2 virtual cores
dedicated per VM. Is that not using up all the cores available to me?

This is where I think your getting things confused. The vm's are not set to run on a specific core.

They are given x number of cores they can use, and will only see that number. They could be running on core 1,3,5,6 and will
not know that. As far as the VM sees it's got access to 4 cores and that's what it will/can use.

A general estimation is that 1 vCPU = 1 Physical CPU Core. However, this is not entirely correct, as the vCPU is made up of
time slots across all available physical cores, so in general 1vCPU is actually more powerful than a single core, especially
if the physical CPUs have 8 cores.

As an example, I used to run 8 vm's on my server, with each vm doing pretty much only one thing.
I have now moved some of those task's into the other vm's, and have seen no change in the way the CPU performs.
What it has done is free up memory as I'm not running so many vm's.


A big of google searching:

vCPU vs. PCPU: A virtual CPU (vCPU) is a virtual processor allocated to a VM, while a physical CPU core (PCPU) is the actual
hardware processing unit. ESXi schedules vCPUs to run on available PCPU cores.

CPU Ready Time: This happens when a VM's vCPU is ready to run but must wait for a PCPU to become available, even if the
host's overall CPU usage isn't 100%. This can cause a VM to feel slow and is visible in tools like esxtop.

Hyperthreading: ESXi treats hyperthreads as separate CPUs, but a vCPU will still need a physical core to run.

Sockets = "physical" CPUs as the VM will interpret it.
Cores = cores on those physical sockets.
Ex: allocate 2 sockets with 2 cores - VM will report and see that it has two "physical" CPUs that are dual-core.

For the majority of what you will do with a VM, you will not need to allocate multiple sockets. Just cores. There is no
"hyperthreading" for the VM to take advantage of. The hypervisor allocated threads as "cores" for distribution.


Translated to VMs, one core = one processing thread.




Vorlon


--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
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Hey Vorlon!

On Wed, 03 Dec 2025 11:19:42 +1100, you wrote:

I have 8 threads/virtual cores, with 4 VMs and 2 virtual cores
dedicated per VM. Is that not using up all the cores available to
me?

This is where I think your getting things confused. The vm's are not set
to run on a specific core.

I know they're not. I dedicate 2 cores per VM, and have 8 virtual cores total. VMWare only lets me run 4 VMs at the same time. I'm not sure where the confusion is?

They are given x number of cores they can use, and will only see that number. They could be running on core 1,3,5,6 and will not know that. As
far as the VM sees it's got access to 4 cores and that's what it
will/can use.

Right. When all 4 VMs are running, ESXi doesn't let me setup another VM, because all 8 are being used.

If I were to shut down a VM, then I would probably have 2 cores available to setup a new one, but then I wouldn't be able to run all 5 VMs at the same time. One would always have to be turned off.

Translated to VMs, one core = one processing thread.

Yep. I understand all of that. With what I've explained, you see why I am not able to do much more with what I have, unless I take away cores from my current VMs - which I'm not sure I care to do.

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Accession,
On <Tue, 01 Dec 25>, you wrote me:

By all means, that's a great way to do it when you want to learn it
all. Are you going so far as to modify fonts and borders and whatnot?

Was workign on the fonts and got those set to a larger size etc. Strange
thing was the font I used in plasma wasn't the same size in hyprland. lol Borders were not hard to change as only colour was changed I like the round corners.

I remember you mentioning cursor movements and effects. Keep going
with it and you can release your own dotfiles. ;)

I don't think so. :)

Oddly enough, I don't think the devs intended for windows to be
minimized, however, check here:

They didn't.

And if all else fails, you can always start over again with Plasma. :)

Laugh, the box is currently shut off due to a bad power failure we had.
It trashed my jellyfin database so I just shut that computer off yesterday
and it will stay off until the weekend.

... "There is no such things as a free variable."


* SeM. 2.26 * paranoia: believing this tagline is about you.
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hey Tiny!

On Wed, 03 Dec 2025 05:28:10 -0600, you wrote:

Was workign on the fonts and got those set to a larger size etc.
Strange thing was the font I used in plasma wasn't the same size in hyprland. lol Borders were not hard to change as only colour was changed
I like the round corners.

Different resolutions, maybe?

Laugh, the box is currently shut off due to a bad power failure we had.
It trashed my jellyfin database so I just shut that computer off
yesterday and it will stay off until the weekend.

Aw, that sucks. Are you using any kind of UPS or decent power strips that protect from that kinda stuff?

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Accession,
On <Thu, 03 Dec 25>, you wrote me:

had. It trashed my jellyfin database so I just shut that computer
off yesterday and it will stay off until the weekend.

Aw, that sucks. Are you using any kind of UPS or decent power strips
that protect from that kinda stuff?

I thoguht I was. LOL I ended up getting it going again last night,
bit of fuckery to re-build the database, and some fuckdisking and
pacman needed fed.

Now I know I need a new UPS, so I'm gonna start playing the lotto again.

... Getting up early is hazardous to your health.


* SeM. 2.26 * If Trump slaps a tariff on Canadian maple syrup... It's gonna --- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/700)

Hey Tiny!

On Thu, 04 Dec 2025 05:47:08 -0600, you wrote:

Now I know I need a new UPS, so I'm gonna start playing the lotto again.

Don't feel too bad. I've been procrastinating for a few years already with my current UPS I've had for over 10 years. It's has two rows of plugs, and only one side is 'powered' by the UPS. The other side is just a regular surge protector. The UPS side went out some 3+ years ago, so I moved all of the plugs to the surge protector side and haven't messed with it since.

I don't think I've ever even looked for a battery that can be changed, but it doesn't really matter much, since if my power goes out, so does my internet. I don't really need a UPS, but I do definitely keep surge protectors on everything. :D

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)

Hi Accession,
On <Fri, 04 Dec 25>, you wrote me:

just a regular surge protector. The UPS side went out some 3+ years
ago, so I moved all of the plugs to the surge protector side and
haven't messed with it since.

Pretty much what I did.

my internet. I don't really need a UPS, but I do definitely keep surge protectors on everything. :D

I guess I need the UPS just to shut the computer and NAS off when the power fails. Took a few hours to get the NAS drives back online and the computer just wasn't the same after that power failure.

Lost my arch install last night when the SSD crapped out. (Two days after
the power glitch). The SSD is under warranty so I'll attempt to get that replaced but with the current change in market I doubt the store will be
able to exchange it anytime soon.

... As my grandfather had said in his last words, "A TRUCK!"


* SeM. 2.26 * From the Dirty Shwa
--- SBBSecho 3.32-Linux
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Hey Tiny!

On Fri, 05 Dec 2025 05:22:52 -0600, you wrote:

I guess I need the UPS just to shut the computer and NAS off when the
power fails. Took a few hours to get the NAS drives back online and the computer just wasn't the same after that power failure.

Lost my arch install last night when the SSD crapped out. (Two days
after the power glitch). The SSD is under warranty so I'll attempt to
get that replaced but with the current change in market I doubt the
store will be able to exchange it anytime soon.

I'm not sure that's all on the power outage, especially if you were using a decent surge protector. I have never lost any hardware over something like that, and when the power goes out here, everything shuts off instantly (and probably hard, but at least there's no surge).

Regards,
Nick

... Sarcasm: because beating people up is illegal.
--- GoldED+/LNX 1.1.5-b20250409
* Origin: _thePharcyde telnet://bbs.pharcyde.org (Wisconsin) (46:1/100)