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Diffstat (limited to 'content/post')
-rw-r--r-- | content/post/_index.md | 6 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | content/post/homesteading.md | 13 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | content/post/nixos-on-nanopi-r5s.md | 142 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | content/post/now-on-three-continents.md | 25 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | content/post/repository-management-with-ghq.md | 6 | ||||
-rw-r--r-- | content/post/self-hosted-git.md | 2 |
6 files changed, 184 insertions, 10 deletions
diff --git a/content/post/_index.md b/content/post/_index.md deleted file mode 100644 index e0d2523..0000000 --- a/content/post/_index.md +++ /dev/null @@ -1,6 +0,0 @@ -+++ -title = "Posts" -sort_by = "date" -paginate_reversed = true -transparent = true -+++ diff --git a/content/post/homesteading.md b/content/post/homesteading.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..52ce713 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/post/homesteading.md @@ -0,0 +1,13 @@ ++++ +title = "Homesteading" +description = "Running my own code" +date = 2023-09-22T10:09:22.141Z +[taxonomies] +tags = ["website"] ++++ + +I switched away from [Zola](https://www.getzola.org/) and made my own [static site builder](https://git.alanpearce.eu/website/tree) that uses only HTML templates. I've been wanting to do this since at least 2017, when I started to work on a [homestead project](https://git.alanpearce.eu/homestead/tree/src?h=2017), which I didn't quite finish. + +The recent release of [Bun](https://bun.sh/), which touts itself as an "all-in-one JavaScript toolkit" encouraged me to play around with it. I have to say, I am surprised by how energising it was; an antidote to the "JavaScript fatigue" I've read about and definitely experienced. + +I decided that I'd start by serving my site using Bun's web server, then I added site generation later. I have been intrigued by the idea of DOM templating ever since I read about it on [Camen Design](https://camendesign.com/dom_templating) [in 2012](https://camendesign.com/code/dom_templating/domtemplate_v4.rem) and I've enjoyed putting it into practice. diff --git a/content/post/nixos-on-nanopi-r5s.md b/content/post/nixos-on-nanopi-r5s.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..185bd30 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/post/nixos-on-nanopi-r5s.md @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ ++++ +title = "Running NixOS on a NanoPi R5S" +date = 2023-07-30T08:51:46Z +[taxonomies] +tags = ["nixos", "home-networking", "infrastructure"] ++++ + +I managed to get [NixOS](https://nixos.org) running on my [NanoPi R5S](https://www.friendlyelec.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=287) ([FriendlyElec Wiki](https://wiki.friendlyelec.com/wiki/index.php/NanoPi_R5S)). + +Firstly, I flashed a pre-built stock Debian image from [inindev](https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r5) to an SD card. This can be used as a rescue system later on. + +From that SD card, I then flashed the same system onto the internal <abbr title="embedded MultiMediaCard">eMMC</abbr> Storage. I only really needed to this to ensure UBoot was correctly installed; I think there will be an easier way to do it. + +I had nix already installed on the <abbr title="Non-Volatile Memory Express">NVMe</abbr> <abbr title="Solid-State Drive">SSD</abbr> along with a home directory. I bind-mounted `/nix` and `/home` following the fstab I had previously set up: + +```conf +UUID=replaceme /mnt ext4 relatime,lazytime 0 2 +/mnt/nix /nix none defaults,bind 0 0 +/mnt/srv /srv none defaults,bind 0 0 +/mnt/home /home none defaults,bind 0 0 +``` + +I then created a user for myself using that home directory, I had full access to nix in the new Debian environment. This meant I had access to `nixos-install`. + +I wanted to use the [extlinux support in UBoot](https://u-boot.readthedocs.io/en/latest/develop/distro.html#boot-configuration-files), so I made `/mnt/boot` point to `/boot` on the <abbr>eMMC</abbr>: + +```sh +mkdir /mnt/{emmc,boot} +mount LABEL=rootfs /mnt/emmc +mount --bind /mnt/emmc /mnt/boot +``` + +<aside> +One could <em>probably</em> delete everything else on the <abbr>eMMC</abbr> and move the contents of <code>/mnt/emmc/boot</code> to <code>/mnt/emmc</code>, thus obviating the need to bind-mount <code>/boot</code> +</aside> + +I ran `nixos-generate-config` as usual, which set up the mount points in `hardware-configuration.nix` correctly. `configuration.nix` needed a bit of tweaking. My first booting configuration was something like this, mostly borrowed from [Artem Boldariev's comment](https://github.com/inindev/nanopi-r5/issues/11#issue-1789308883): + +```nix +{ config +, pkgs +, lib +, ... +}: +let + fsTypes = [ "f2fs" "ext" "exfat" "vfat" ]; +in +{ + imports = [ ./hardware-configuration.nix ]; + boot = { + kernelPackages = pkgs.linuxKernel.packages.linux_6_4; + + # partial Rockchip related changes from Debian 12 kernel version 6.1 + # Also, see here: + # https://discourse.nixos.org/t/how-to-provide-missing-headers-to-a-kernel-build/11422/3 + kernelPatches = [ + { + name = "rockchip-config.patch"; + patch = null; + extraConfig = '' + PHY_ROCKCHIP_PCIE Y + PCIE_ROCKCHIP_EP y + PCIE_ROCKCHIP_DW_HOST y + ROCKCHIP_VOP2 y + ''; + } + { + name = "status-leds.patch"; + patch = null; + # old: + # LEDS_TRIGGER_NETDEV y + extraConfig = '' + LED_TRIGGER_PHY y + USB_LED_TRIG y + LEDS_BRIGHTNESS_HW_CHANGED y + LEDS_TRIGGER_MTD y + ''; + } + ]; + + supportedFilesystems = fsTypes; + initrd.supportedFilesystems = fsTypes; + + initrd.availableKernelModules = [ + ## Rockchip + ## Storage + "sdhci_of_dwcmshc" + "dw_mmc_rockchip" + + "analogix_dp" + "io-domain" + "rockchip_saradc" + "rockchip_thermal" + "rockchipdrm" + "rockchip-rga" + "pcie_rockchip_host" + "phy-rockchip-pcie" + "phy_rockchip_snps_pcie3" + "phy_rockchip_naneng_combphy" + "phy_rockchip_inno_usb2" + "dwmac_rk" + "dw_wdt" + "dw_hdmi" + "dw_hdmi_cec" + "dw_hdmi_i2s_audio" + "dw_mipi_dsi" + ]; + loader = { + timeout = 3; + grub.enable = false; + generic-extlinux-compatible = { + enable = true; + useGenerationDeviceTree = true; + }; + }; + }; + # this file is from debian and should be in /boot/ + hardware.deviceTree.name = "../../rk3568-nanopi-r5s.dtb"; + # Most Rockchip CPUs (especially with hybrid cores) work best with "schedutil" + powerManagement.cpuFreqGovernor = "schedutil"; + + boot.kernelParams = [ + "console=tty1" + "console=ttyS2,1500000" + "earlycon=uart8250,mmio32,0xfe660000" + ]; + # Let's blacklist the Rockchips RTC module so that the + # battery-powered HYM8563 (rtc_hym8563 kernel module) will be used + # by default + boot.blacklistedKernelModules = [ "rtc_rk808" ]; + + # ... typical config omitted for brevity +} +``` + +Due to the custom kernel configuration, building takes a while. I set up a [distributed build](https://nixos.org/manual/nix/stable/advanced-topics/distributed-builds.html) to speed things up, using a [Hetzner Cloud](https://www.hetzner.com/cloud) CAX21 ARM64 instance (although I could have used an x86_64 system with one of the methods mentioned on the [NixOS on ARM NixOS wiki page](https://nixos.wiki/wiki/NixOS_on_ARM#Build_your_own_image_natively)). This made for a very long `nixos-install` command line: + +```sh +sudo env PATH=$PATH =nixos-install --root /mnt --no-channel-copy --channel https://nixos.org/channels/nixos-23.05 --option builders'ssh://my-host aarch64-linux /root/.ssh/id_pappel_nixpkgs 4 2 big-parallel' --option builders-use-substitutes true --max-jobs 0 +``` + +I added `setenv bootmeths "extlinux"` to `/boot/boot.txt` and ran `/boot/mkscr.sh` as root to ensure that UBoot would search for the `extlinux.conf` file diff --git a/content/post/now-on-three-continents.md b/content/post/now-on-three-continents.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1a2828a --- /dev/null +++ b/content/post/now-on-three-continents.md @@ -0,0 +1,25 @@ ++++ +title = "Now on three continents" +description = "This website is now hosted on three continents" +date = 2023-07-02T07:55:35Z +[taxonomies] +tags = ["website", "infrastructure"] ++++ + +This website is now hosted on three continents. + +I recently changed the hosting for this site to [fly](http://fly.io), since I was rather intrigued by the idea of being able to run three small <abbr>VMs</abbr> (<dfn id="VMs">Virtual Machines</dfn>) worldwide for free. I would gladly have paid a small amount for their services. If they didn't have a free allowance for <abbr>VMs</abbr> then it would only be around $6 a month, so I'm not worried about them removing the free allowance. + +Previously it was running on one [Hetzner](https://www.hetzner.com) <abbr title="Virtual Machine">VM</abbr> in Nuremberg, Germany that I set up and maintained myself. The maintenance wasn't a problem for me, but rather the idea of slow loading times for anyone reading this outside of Europe. + +American visitors should notice a definite speedup now, as there's a server on the west coast and for the few visitors in the Asia-Pacific region, there's also a server in Australia. I kept track of the response time before and after the change using the [Online or not](https://onlineornot.com/) [Do I need a CDN?](https://onlineornot.com/do-i-need-a-cdn) tool, which you can see in the table below (measured in <abbr title="milliseconds">ms</abbr>) + +| Region | Before | After | +|-------------------------|--------|-------| +| Europe (Frankfurt) | 62 | 32 | +| US East (N. Virginia) | 348 | 185 | +| US West (N. California) | 503 | 61 | +| Asia Pacific (Tokyo) | 732 | 251 | +| Asia Pacific (Sydney) | 1114 | 76 | + +I do find it rather amusing that I spend more time tinkering with the site than actually posting anything, but, for once, tinkering has actually led to me posting something (this post). I would like to think that this might encourage me to post more in the future, but only time will tell. diff --git a/content/post/repository-management-with-ghq.md b/content/post/repository-management-with-ghq.md index c225ace..dd21db9 100644 --- a/content/post/repository-management-with-ghq.md +++ b/content/post/repository-management-with-ghq.md @@ -67,10 +67,10 @@ sequence: bindkey '\es' cd-project-widget ``` -Now I can press `M-s` in a shell, start typing "dotfiles" and press enter to `cd` -to my [dotfiles][] project. Pretty neat! +Now I can press `M-s` in a shell, start typing "nixfiles" and press enter to `cd` +to my [nixfiles][] project. Pretty neat! [ghq]:https://github.com/motemen/ghq [fzf]:https://github.com/junegunn/fzf [fzf-cd-widget]:https://github.com/junegunn/fzf/blob/337cdbb37c1efc49b09b4cacc6e9ee1369c7d76d/shell/key-bindings.zsh#L40-L54 -[dotfiles]:https://git.alanpearce.eu/dotfiles +[nixfiles]:https://git.alanpearce.eu/dotfiles diff --git a/content/post/self-hosted-git.md b/content/post/self-hosted-git.md index 3bdbffb..ab88e78 100644 --- a/content/post/self-hosted-git.md +++ b/content/post/self-hosted-git.md @@ -144,4 +144,4 @@ I want, without consuming many system resources with daemons. [dotfiles-github]:https://github.com/alanpearce/dotfiles [wildrepos]:http://gitolite.com/gitolite/wild/ [ghq]:https://github.com/motemen/ghq -[using-ghq]:{{< relref "/post/repository-management-with-ghq.md" >}} "Repository management with ghq" +[using-ghq]:/post/repository-management-with-ghq/ "Repository management with ghq" |