ktz.blog

Faking disks to look real with QEMU and Proxmox

Proxmox can give virtual disks realistic identities, but `serial=` alone is not enough for `inxi -xD` to make things feel real in a test environment.

Control a Mitsubishi mini-split with ESPHome and Home Assistant for $10

Fully open hardware and software to control a proprietary appliance? Yes please.

technical

The Enshittification of Plex 💩

"But lifetime passers are grandfathered in" you might say, "so why should I care?".

book-review

I read a book.

Earlier this year I decided to try and set myself the ambitious goal of reading a book. Yes, you read that right. One book.

technical

Codex is changing how I think about computers

There is no doubt we're living through a seismic change in how we interface with computers. I have spent the last 15+ years learning a craft, how to adminster and interface with Linux. But I'm starting to feel a shift in my own behaviours, which fills me with awe and simultaneously makes me deeply uncomfortable. I wanted to take a moment to share a slice of that journey with you today. Tea. Earl Grey. Hot. Picture this. Sitting on the couch with my 5yo daughter watching a new favourite show o

factorio

Factorio: Controlling imports from Space

Only import what you need from space by reading the contents of your logistics network from a Roboport

factorio

Factorio: Controlling Space Ship collector filters via circuit logic

Set Asteroid collector filters by reading the contents of a belt

factorio

Factorio: Recycler Belt Stacking

Maximised Recycler efficiency by using Stack Inserters and the Circuit Network

technical

Was Solar Worth It?

In NC where the sun shines a lot, but electricity from The Grid is cheap what is the ROI on an 8kw solar system?

technical

AppArmor's Awkward Aftermath Atop Proxmox 9

Proxmox 9 looks great, but AppArmor keeps getting in the way

technical

Unprivileged LXCs are just a bit annoying

Proxmox 9's AppArmor 4.1 upgrade broke Intel QuickSync monitoring in unprivileged LXC containers. The workarounds require such significant security compromises that privileged containers are arguably the only realistic option now.

technical

My Terminal and Editor Theming

It's not ricing. Promise.

technical

Proxmox 9 broke my docker containers

A simple but effective way to "fix" things is to disable apparmor, here's how.

technical

What if..?

I have a 4 hour flight next week, grab the Top Gear specials and send them to my iPad

self-hosted

Self-Hosted 150. Fin.

Almost 6 years. 150 episodes. 34 guests. 1 Chris. 1 Badger. 1 podcast comes to an end. I thought it fitting to write this post, about the Self-Hosted podcast drawing to a conclusion, on the very self-hosted blog that began my self-hosting journey way back in August 2013. (blog.ktz.me turned into Linuxserver.io before being recreated as blog.ktz.me again at some point). Episode 150 airs on Friday May 30th, 2025 (I will update and replace this with an embed once the episode is out). And since w

linux

How to enable Intel Quicksync on NixOS with a Supermicro X13SAE-F and an Intel i5-13600k

Like most things, getting Quicksync working on NixOS with a motherboard that has IPMI and a 13th gen Intel chip is quite simple once you know how. The complexities come from ensuring users are in the right groups, and you have the correct arrangement of packages in the hardware.opengl configuration. nix-config/hosts/nixos/morphnix/default.nix at main · ironicbadger/nix-configContribute to ironicbadger/nix-config development by creating an account on GitHub.GitHubironicbadger I'll include a mi

technical

Set a static IP in Unraid from the command line

When flashing the brand new Unraid 7 to a USB stick earlier today I did something silly. I configured a static IP that conflicted with another host in the same LAN. This meant I couldn't access the Unraid UI to fix it. However, by modifying one file in the /boot directory by hand we can set a static IP easily and quickly. In Unraid land, the /boot directory is persisted on the USB stick the system boots from. To make changes to this file, open the command line interface to your Unraid system e

technical

Using Beszel to monitor Windows

Beszel is a new, lightweight monitoring app that natively supports Mac and Linux. I'll cover how to set it up natively in Windows or WSL2 in today's post.

technical

docker compose generator v2 release

For the last ~7 years I have been using an Ansible role to manage my docker compose files. It was time for a major overhaul.

year-in-review

2024 in review

As is annual tradition, here are my 2024 highlights.

secret-management

Keeping secrets secret with git-crypt

Figuring out how to keep secrets secret using git-crypt and PGP keys.

ansible

git submodules for fun and profit with Ansible

No matter how hard I try to fully switch over to Nix, I always seem to end up back at the altar of Ansible. This post isn't about Nix so I won't go into some of my frustrations there (yet!). This post is about my newly rekindled relationship with the old, trusty, git submodule. Git submodules effectively allow you to embed one repo inside another whilst retaining complete independence of the embedded repo. For example, it is common in Ansible to import roles from external sources. Simply add th

technical

Replacing Google with SearXNG as the default in Chrome

No tracking. No ads. Search as it was. Now when you enter a search query in the Chrome address bar it will route through your SearXNG instance automatically.

technical

4Kn sector disk passthrough in Proxmox

Solving an issue with 4Kn sector disks and passthrough in Proxmox with direct KVM arg injection.

technical

Everyone should have a PiKVM in their desk area

What do you do when you want to tinker with a bare metal system? For years, I'd go drag an old monitor, keyboard, and mouse out of a cupboard. Then, I'd inevitably spend 20 minutes looking for an ethernet cable that was the right length before finding that I had the wrong power cable. A few weeks ago I had an epiphany. The kind that once you have it, is so stinkin' obvious you wonder what on earth you were thinking all this time by not seeing it! Put a PiKVM in your desk area! In the picture