Blog Posts - 2022

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Commands to turn off display in the Linux terminal
December 3, 2022 3 min read
Sometimes I use laptops in the home lab, and to save myself on a few watts of power usage I use these terminal commands to turn off the display, then just SSH into it from my PC.
Autologin on Ubuntu and go straight to terminal
November 25, 2022 2 min read
Configure an Ubuntu machine to autologin and go straight into the terminal on boot.
Build a minimal blog with Deno and host it on Deno Deploy
November 19, 2022 6 min read
I'd been meaning to play around with Deno and finally got around to doing it in the quickest, easiest (and laziest) way possible -- using a minimal blog template. I also took the opportunity to learn how Deno Deploy works. The whole thing is quick and painless, here's how to do it.
How to use Solid Explorer app to access SMB network shares from an Android device
November 7, 2022 5 min read
There are many File Managers/File Explorers on the Google Play Store, but I wanted to easily access the Samba share on my server while on my home network. Solid Explorer is the solution I went with and it works well, so here is a quick guide to setting it up.
How to run self-hosted FileBrowser in Docker
November 4, 2022 3 min read
FileBrowser is a self-hosted file manager for a specified directory in a Linux machine that lets you upload, download, move, copy, create, delete, rename, and edit your files in a nice web interface through your browser. Here's a quick guide to setting it up in Docker.
How to generate a GPG key and use it to sign git commits
October 30, 2022 4 min read
Generating and using a GPG key is not difficult, but every time I need to remember how to do it to sign my commits from a new machine, I need to go through several pages of explanation on GitHub. So I made myself a terse and concise one-page quick guide, here it is.
Set up NFS Shares between Linux hosts
October 29, 2022 3 min read
Network File Share or NFS allows sharing directories between Linux hosts on the same network, similar to Samba though it has better performance with small and medium-sized files comparatively. Here's a quick guide on setting up an NFS share between Linux hosts.
Setup Prometheus, Node Exporter, Cadvisor and Grafana in Docker
October 20, 2022 3 min read
When running a headless home server, you may want to set up a monitoring solution to keep track of your server's performance. Node Exporter will expose your server's metrics, cAdvisor will expose metrics for Docker containers, and Prometheus will scrape and collect those metrics, which is then used as a data source for Grafana dashboards. Here's how to get it all set up in Docker.
Setup self-hosted Jellyfin Media Server in Docker
October 18, 2022 6 min read
Plex is a popular media server for self-hosting, but it's not open source and recently locked the ability to remotely stream your own content behind a paywall, so one cannot be blamed for seeking an alternative to Plex. Jellyfin is a free and open source self-hosted media server that just might be what you're looking for.
Setup self-hosted Plex Media Server in Docker
October 17, 2022 4 min read
Plex Media Server is one of the most popular services to self-host since serves your personal media library -- videos, music and even photos -- with a nice Netflix-like UI. Though you can install and run it bare-metal, the most common and easiest way is in a Docker container. Here's how.
Setup auto-updates in Debian and Ubuntu with Unattended-Upgrades and NeedRestart
October 14, 2022 3 min read
If you want your Linux machine to stay up-to-date on important security updates, but you don't want to SSH into it all the time to run updates and would rather set it and forget it, this is the way.
PowerShell commands cheat sheet
October 9, 2022 2 min read
I'm much more comfortable using Bash over PowerShell, but there are definitely times that you need to use command line on Windows. So I keep a small, but growing list of my most commonly used cmdlets, their Linux-like aliases, and other must-know commands.
How to format and/or partition disks in Linux
October 8, 2022 3 min read
Just a quick guide to format and partition hard drives in Linux command line that I wrote for myself a long time ago, and recently had to reference again.
Set up Pi-Hole for network-wide ad blocking and Unbound for recursive DNS (Updated for Pi-Hole v6)
October 8, 2022 22 min read
Besides just using a browser extension for ad blocking, I've been using Pi-Hole for years to prevent all devices on my network from getting ads, and stopping smart home devices from phoning home for telemetry and tracking. Pi-Hole will run on almost anything that can run Linux, is very easy to set up, and super effective with the right blocklists.
Set a static IP in Debian
October 7, 2022 3 min read
Debian's non-graphical install does not give you the option to set a static IP, here's a quick guide to doing it manually on the command line.
Using Surge.sh to quickly and easily host static sites
October 5, 2022 4 min read
Although I love using Netlify to host my site, for testing out sites and simple apps I have fallen in love with Surge.sh, a ridiculously simple web hosting solution that works entirely from the command line.
Keeping a Linux laptop on when the lid is closed
October 4, 2022 1 min read
I sometimes use old laptops in my home lab when I want to test anything on Linux, and I prefer to keep them closed so they take up less space. A few quick commands will keep the laptop even on with the lid closed.
Customizing the Windows Terminal command prompt with Oh-My-Posh
October 1, 2022 4 min read
While I use Zsh with Oh-My-Zsh for making my Linux terminal pretty, it's not available for Windows. Luckily it's brother from another mother Oh-My-Posh basically does the same thing for Windows Terminal and PowerShell.
Setting up a Docker container stack with Docker Compose
September 29, 2022 3 min read
I've been running a bunch of services on my home server in docker containers for a few years now. It's quick and easy to set up once you get used to it. Here's a quick and dirty guide to installing Docker and Docker Compose, and getting several containers up and running.
Transferring files between hosts with SCP
September 26, 2022 2 min read
Using the Secure Copy (SCP) utility in Linux lets you securely copy files to and from remote hosts, and it's very easy to use.
Markdown hacks
September 20, 2022 4 min read
Markdown can render A LOT of characters and symbols using specific 'entities', and can do other things like render tables, so I made myself a list of common or handy, but easy-to-forget markdown hacks based off the official Markdown Guide.
Linux Commands & Keyboard Shortcuts Cheat Sheet
September 18, 2022 4 min read
Just a quick cheat sheet of basic and slightly less basic Linux commands, as well as handy keyboard shortcuts, that I maintain for myself since I can't always remember them all.
VIM Quick Guide
September 17, 2022 3 min read
Whenever I use Vim to edit files on Linux, I need to relearn how to use it. Years ago I found a thread on Stack Overflow with two simple and extremely useful answers that helped me make sense of Vim. So here it is.
Styling the kbd element
September 9, 2022 1 min read
I wanted to style my <kbd> element to look like a keyboard, and a google search took me to someone else's blog post that had a nice bit of code and invited others to steal it. So I did.
Bootstrapping a fresh Linux install with Ansible
September 3, 2022 5 min read
Ansible is an IT tool that enables Infrastructure as Code, letting you automate provisioning, configuration, management and deployment of services and applications. I like using it at a fraction of it's full power to bootstrap fresh installs of Linux for my homelab.
Sudo without password
April 20, 2022 1 min read
How to use sudo command in Linux without the password prompt, by adding a line to the sudoers file.
Turn a static website into a progressive web app
January 7, 2022 6 min read
Frameworks and libraries are great and all, but sometimes you just want to make a simple website with only HTML, CSS and JavaScript — maybe without the latter even. When making a PWA, it’s common to use a framework like Vue or a library like Workbox, which requires a bundler like Webpack. In truth, that’s completely unnecessary!