I was sorting somethingting similar some time ago with https://www.dwarmstrong.org/remote-unlock-dropbear/

Also there is https://github.com/latchset/tang and https://github.com/latchset/clevis

Then I changed it so my server boots and offers basic functionality like DNS and any encrypted data would wait until I unlock it. When I fiddle with it could be annoying, but otherwise works very well considering I need to unlock it just a few times a year.

Out of curiosity why?

It seems like the perfect thing for BFUs…

I’m running it for about a year and I never noticed any instability. To fair Android app did not always work well.

Nevertheless I never had a problem with updating it once every couple of months. Changlog and upgrade instructions always covered everything.

At such volume it is difficult to come up a service that does not break a bank. Storage is expensive.

Perhaps immich + monthly backups to S3 glacier. That is if you don’t have a second and third site available

If my lab goes down, it sucks, but that’s it. I have no critical service running there.

I have some recoverability, but it requires for the main router to run. If it isn’t running it’s either a HW failure, which I will not fix remotely anyway or power is down. In which case, not much I can do about it neither.

I have router with OpenWRT with Wireguard and main server (NUC) on a smart plug. If the router runs and server is mishaving to the point where I cannot reboot it, I can power cycle it via the smart plug connected to the router.

You mentioned your brother lives 30mins away - well put some tiny server in his house. Having everything at your home is not build for redundancy at all. That’s just the risk management, if you absolutely need access to your server, then 1 site is not going to cut it.

I have been on the same boat a while ago. Of course it was a deployment that caught on and was serving longer than expected.

I don’t recall how many versions I skipped exactly (1-2 years worth of updates). Of course no backups set what so ever.

I looked at change log of I need something specific, there were changes in docker compose file. Did my best effort to make it succeed.

My worst case scenario was that I will have to import everything again and made sure I have all my labels, tags and settings backed up.

Nowadays I’ll just snapshot the whole VM in Proxmox.

Stability and resiliency you get from a system like this. Obviously stacking a Ryzen 7 against any RPI is not possible / fair really.

If you have a RPI around, it is a great starting point for a lot of thjngs. At some moment ypu will just want something can be extended, doesn’t rely on SD card, isn’t too picky about which SSD you give it etc.

It’s a decent 1080p gaming rig. Obviously you need to manage expectations but these AMD iGPUs are very capable.

Maybe it isn’t such a bad news. To get ppl hooked on any paid services, they need a good product first.

They can get lost with anything like Kerbal 2. That is if they relese something in pre-alpha state and ask $40 for it.

They have fairly good prices for small VPS, something like €1-2 and I cannot complain. Perfect for some small self hosting. I cannot comment on their more performant boxes.

1&1 is kind of typical telco, with all the shady stuff and contracts. DSL from them is without any issues. Mobile is kind of problematic, it was fine for past 3-4 years but with their “Fancy 5G net up to 300mbps” has pretty shit so far. Last week I was abroad and my sim would not connect at all. Contacted them via online chat and they said to call them… They fixed it after like 20h

Just tried Cyberpunk, so not generaly speaking, the only extra step was that I had to select what I wanted to download.

There is a hidden cost to every hobby and everybody is willing to tolerate a certain degree of shittyness.

I have a friends that has a rather old car and something on it is always broken. But he has no problem having 20 different apps for appliances, instead of deploying home assistants. Or having ads everywhere and even trying pihole or at least NextDNS.

On the other hand, I see my car as a transportation tool and when I need it I want to use it without worrying about some random part exploding. But I have no problem running Proxmox and hosting tons of services for my family.

That said, I would definitely not self-host something like NextCloud or any business critical component for my business and just paid somebody for the service.

I’d argue that for Nvidia and their drivers management there are better choices, such as Manjaro.

Although on desktop I didn’t have any problems, laptop with AMD iGPU and Nvidia dGpu, prime etc. It’s really a PITA on Fedora.

AMD 9070 on Wayland and Plasma isn’t perfect neither.

Brave person

Hard pass for me.

Take what you have, start small and learn from it.

Old laptops are great, because they have low power consumption and even pretty used up battery will give you power redundancy.

Even a 10yo laptop is something with 4-5th gen Core cpu and that has plenty of power to get you started.