today's howtos

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 03, 2025

• Jana ☛ Using FreeBSD to make self-hosting fun again

  As evident by my last blog post "A prison of my own making", I needed to change something about my relationship with technology. How I was doing things didn't work anymore, but I also felt unable to change anything about it, as the way I was doing things seemed like the way that I was supposed to use.

  What I needed was a fresh start. And I managed to find that fresh start in the BSD family of operating systems.

• [Old] Jana ☛ A prison of my own making

  Spelling it out now, it feels like I should have realized way earlier what was killing my joy. But now I did, so I'll be undoing a lot of this mess.

  So here are a rough set of rules I have decided on for myself, so I hopefully don't fall into the same trap again: [...]

• [Old] Jana ☛ Why I self-host my email

  In recent time, with the rise of AI nonsense, I have clearly felt that the criteria I have for a good service are vastly different from commercial providers.

  This post was just about email, because it is one of the more uncommon services to liberate for oneself by self-hosting. But the message applies to so many more things.

  To me the choice at the moment is most often between "Not using a thing" or "Having a self-hosted variant of it". Because I can't take most of the stuff that is commercially fed to me.

  I want to have agency over my digital life.

• Tomasz Torcz: Backups with btrbk

  Storage setup of my home server is btrfs raid1 over two, dm-crypt'ed 16TB HDDs cached with bcache on NVMe. It works fine, however for PostgreSQL database and my homedir I prefer full NVMe speed.

• idroot

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install PhpStorm on Debian 13

    PhpStorm stands as JetBrains’ flagship integrated development environment (IDE) for PHP development, offering intelligent coding assistance, advanced debugging capabilities, and seamless integration with modern web technologies. Installing PhpStorm on Debian 13 “Trixie” provides developers with a robust platform for creating sophisticated PHP applications, complete with intelligent code completion, on-the-fly error analysis, and comprehensive testing frameworks.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install KVM on Manjaro

    Virtualization has become an essential tool for developers, system administrators, and GNU/Linux enthusiasts who need to run multiple operating systems simultaneously. KVM (Kernel-based Virtual Machine) stands out as one of the most powerful and efficient virtualization solutions available for GNU/Linux systems.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install UNetbootin on Debian 13

    Creating bootable USB drives has never been more essential for GNU/Linux users. Whether preparing system recovery media, testing new distributions, or reinstalling operating systems, having a reliable bootable USB creator is fundamental. UNetbootin stands as one of the most trusted solutions for this purpose, offering a user-friendly graphical interface that simplifies the entire process.

  • ID Root ☛ How To Install FirewallD on Fedora 43

    Securing your Fedora 43 system starts with implementing proper firewall protection. FirewallD provides dynamic firewall management capabilities that protect your server from unauthorized access while allowing legitimate traffic to flow freely. Unlike traditional firewall solutions that require complete service restarts for configuration changes, FirewallD enables real-time rule modifications without disrupting active connections.