Linux on Technical Notes

Limiting Hugging Face Bandwidth

Sun, 22 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Downloading LLM models locally is something you do occasionally, but when you pull a massive 122B parameter model like Sehyo/Qwen3.5-122B-A10B-NVFP4, the download hogs the entire connection and leaves the rest of the household without internet. The Hugging Face CLI (huggingface-cli or hf) doesn’t have a --limit-rate flag, so you need to find alternatives. In this post I explain two ways to limit bandwidth on Linux using Docker (my preferred method) or Wondershaper at the host level.

Kubernetes 101

Sun, 26 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Kubernetes (K8s) is an open-source platform for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications. It was built to work with Docker and depending on who you talk to, they’ll either say it’s hell or a piece of cake. The truth? If you’ve struggled with infrastructure (servers, networks), logged many hours with Linux, Docker and containers, it might not be that hellish and it’ll depend on how many hours you put in.

Like most of my posts, this is based on documenting my Home Lab, with hours of testing, things that stop working when you least expect it. But the good thing is you learn a ton and, if you’re a bit of a geek, you even have fun. Here’s my experience, with tricks, mistakes and everything I wish I’d known before starting.

ProxmoxVE Helper Scripts

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If you have little experience it might be a bit daunting, which is why I recommend this wonderful project: Proxmox VE Helper-Scripts, where you’ll find hundreds of scripts to make your life easier installing CTs or VMs on top of your Proxmox.

A Decent Windows

Sun, 03 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This post is about deflating, removing what I personally believe is unnecessary in Windows 11. In English they call it debloat or bloatware removal. In this post I explain how to do it on a fresh Windows install, but it also works on an existing one.

The point is to remove apps, services and pre-installed junk that aren’t essential, consume resources and worst of all, affect performance and UX.

Proxmox and UPS: Graceful Shutdown

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Having a battery backup system (UPS) is essential for home servers hosting multiple services. But it’s not enough for the UPS to supply power for a few minutes: the critical part is that, in case of a prolonged outage, the entire system shuts down in a controlled and orderly manner. In this article I document how I deployed a solution based on NUT on Proxmox to achieve this.

Cross-platform CLI Tools

Sat, 19 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I share a selection of cross-platform command-line tools that you can use interchangeably on PowerShell, CMD, WSL2, macOS and Linux. These are modern, fast and lightweight utilities that replace or greatly improve classic tools like ls, cd, find or even command history.

They not only speed up everyday tasks, but also offer a more consistent user experience across systems. They don’t depend on specific shells like Bash or Zsh, and work the same whether you use PowerShell, Terminal, Alacritty, VSCode or any modern environment. As I discover new CLI utilities that fit this cross-platform, no-heavy-dependencies approach, I’ll keep adding them.

Home mDNS

Sun, 09 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Multicast DNS (mDNS) is a networking protocol designed to resolve hostnames to IP addresses within small networks, without the need for a local DNS server. It requires no configuration (zero-configuration) and uses the same programming interfaces, packet formats and operational semantics as unicast Domain Name System (DNS).

It was designed to work as either a standalone protocol or alongside standard DNS servers. mDNS can work together with DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD), a complementary zero-configuration networking technique specified separately in RFC 6763.

Router with PiHole 6

Sat, 08 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A couple of months ago I moved the DHCP and DNS services to my home Linux router and left the Pi-Hole 5 service on a separate virtual machine. Despite everything working perfectly, I hit a snag: troubleshooting from PiHole is complicated because all DNS queries are resolved by the router and PiHole sees nothing. So I decided to redesign the setup.

In this post I describe how I install Pi-Hole 6 on my Linux router so it provides DNS, DHCP (with dnsmasq) and ad sinkholing. This involves undoing the native dnsmasq installation.

Self-Hosted Bitwarden

Sun, 02 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I describe the process of installing a “Bitwarden” server. I’ve been using their Cloud service for several years, but I’ve decided to go with an on-premise home installation.

While researching I discover with surprise that I have two options, the first is to use the official Bitwarden self-hosted (which consumes quite a few resources and seems complex) or go with a lightweight Vaultwarden, a clone of the former, which apparently installs quickly and is simple.

DHCP and DNS Server

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I describe how I’ve evolved my home DHCP and DNS server. Until now I had a PiHole dedicated on the network to DHCP, DNS and ad sinkhole. I’ve decided to migrate to a different configuration, move both DNS and DHCP services to the home router (Linux).

I realized that when PiHole went down, the rest of the home services would spiral out of control, despite having the router and internet working, so I’m leaving PiHole exclusively as the ad sinkhole.

CRLF vs LF

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When working in software development, one of the most subtle yet crucial aspects you need to be aware of is the difference between line endings in text files between Windows (CRLF \r\n) and Linux/MacOS (LF \n).

This small detail can cause big problems if not handled correctly, especially when working in mixed environments – version control conflicts, script incompatibilities, compilation or execution issues. I wrote this post to have a handy reference for dealing with this topic, including a few tricks.

VMWare on Windows

Mon, 26 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Virtualization allows running multiple operating systems on the same machine without making changes to the main disk. In this post I show how I install VMWare Workstation Pro as a host on a Windows 11 Pro and how I create a Windows 11 Pro Guest without TPM 2.0, for the purpose of having an isolated development environment.

Windows for Development

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I describe the steps to set up a Windows 11 machine as a development workstation for a cross-platform environment — Linux, macOS, and Windows. This is not oriented towards Microsoft/Windows-only software development, but rather for those who like to develop on and for multiple platforms and environments.

I start from a clean Windows installation (in English), with nothing installed. I took advantage of needing to set up a dual boot and configured the operating system in a lightweight manner. The post starts with the CLI and WSL2, and in the second part I cover the tools and programming languages.

A Decent Windows (Obsolete)

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I explain how I configure a Windows 11 that I’m going to use for software development, testing or demos. I don’t need frills since it won’t have sensitive data, I want its essence, bare-bones, with few applications, some browsing and that’s it. In the end it became a technical exercise – removing everything I can, ads, Edge, extras, installing minimal drivers, a local account, having it boot and be available as soon as possible.

Note: a year later I decided to create a new decent Windows 11 (2025).

Dualboot Linux Windows

Fri, 23 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Dualboot means having two operating systems on the same computer and choosing which one to boot during the boot phase. My goal is to prepare my PC for dualboot and install Windows 11 Pro. Normally you install Windows first and then Linux, but in my case I already have Linux (Ubuntu) working perfectly and using the entire 4TB disk.

I’m going to “add” Windows to enable dualboot. I describe the entire process, how I did it, how I resized the hard drive, added Windows and customized the boot menu.

Linux for Development

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I describe my configuration log for setting up a Linux (Ubuntu) machine as a development workstation. I install several graphical and command-line applications that are essential for my workflow.

Starting from a fresh Ubuntu installation, the installation order can be varied, but I recommend (if your Ubuntu is freshly installed) that you follow the same order to see the same results.

Home PBX

Sat, 13 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Asterisk is a free software program (under GPL license) that provides PBX (Private Branch Exchange) functionality. You can connect phones to make calls between them within your home (or office) and even access external communications, to the PSTN (like Movistar) or by connecting to a VoIP provider or ISDN links (basic or primary).

Software KVM

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In environments where you need to operate multiple computers simultaneously, efficiency is key. There are several products that mimic the functionality of a KVM switch (Keyboard, Video, Mouse), which historically allowed you to use a single keyboard and mouse to control multiple computers by physically turning a dial. In this post I describe how I install and use Barrier, a software KVM solution, without the need for additional hardware.

My use case involves controlling three computers with a single keyboard and mouse. Two of them are desktops – a Mac and a Windows PC. The third is a Windows/Linux laptop. The difficulty lies with the Mac, where I encountered a curious and nearly insurmountable challenge.

Goodbye Bash, Hello Zsh!

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve decided to migrate my CLI from the reliable and well-known bash to the powerful and versatile zsh. It’s an extended evolution of the Bourne Shell (sh) – it not only inherits many of Bash’s familiar features but also introduces a series of new functionalities, plugin support, and custom themes. Apple adopted Zsh as the default shell some time ago, and I still needed to make the switch on my Linux systems, including WSL2 on Windows.

Rclone and Mac

Mon, 13 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I explain how I manage my data on a Mac. My goal is to work at full speed from anywhere with the most frequently used data, have extra storage for less accessed data, and of course have multiple backups.

The source data lives on the Mac’s internal SSD and a couple of external drives. The replicas and backups are on iCloud, a remote Linux server, and Google Drive. Multiple locations, different technologies, speeds, and needs. The rclone tool is perfect for helping me maintain multiple synchronized backups.

Linux on MacBook Air 2015

Sun, 06 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I describe how to repurpose an old MacBook Air (2015) by installing Linux on it and extending its useful life. Over time, these Macs become nearly useless machines, painfully slow and with insufficient memory.

Why not take advantage of them with Linux? A 2015 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM and a 128GB drive can become a very useful machine.

Daily Reboot with Systemd

Sun, 23 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

To perform a full reboot you can use the systemctl reboot command, but how can you schedule it at a specific time? In this post I explain how to do it using systemd, the boot manager and administration system for Linux distributions.

Among the systemd timer services there’s a little-known feature that allows you to schedule an automatic reboot whenever you want.

Customizing VSCode

Tue, 20 Jun 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I cover how to customize VSCode. I work with GitHub in a cross-platform, multi-account environment and want to sync my settings, use the same extensions, and leverage licenses. I explain the multi-account topic, synchronization of my global and per-project preferences (settings), and extensions.

I normally use Windows, Linux, and macOS, and I’ve chosen VSCode as my editor/IDE. The goal is to have a unified work experience – launch VSCode on any operating system, clone a personal or professional project, keeping the same extensions and settings, and even using the options to connect to a host, tunnel, WSL, etc.

MAC with Vagrant

Sun, 23 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Vagrant lets you create and configure virtual development environments that are lightweight and reproducible. It does so by creating virtual machines and requires a Hypervisor. It doesn’t care which hypervisor you use – it supports VirtualBox, KVM, Docker, VMWare, and 30+ others. It’s a fantastic tool for spinning up Servers for our software development projects.

This guide only works, for now, with INTEL chips. I haven’t been able to make it work on a Mac with ARM (Apple Silicon) as the host yet.

Socketed SSH

Fri, 14 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Systemd is a system used in Linux to manage boot and system processes. Its “units” are configuration files that describe the processes and services that systemd manages.

One of these units is systemd.socket, which starts the corresponding daemon when a connection is established through a socket with the machine. A socket is a form of communication between processes over a network or within the system. By creating a unit of this type, we ask it to listen on a specific socket and start a specific service when a connection is received.

Home Automation and Networking

Sat, 08 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I’m sharing my home networking setup with the option to knock on the door for on-demand access from the Internet. Today’s home networks end up supporting multiple services, and with the rise of home automation things get complicated, so I’ve decided to document it to keep track of everything in the future.

The number of devices grows and maintaining the network of a smart and automated home becomes a priority. I dedicate this post to those Geeks or Techies who, like me, have been deep into the complexity of networking in a home automation network for a long time.

Proxmox: VM from Template

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Proxmox VE is a powerful and easy-to-use open-source virtualization platform that enables the deployment and management of virtual machines (VMs with KVM/QEMU) and containers (CTs based on LXC). Proxmox offers Templates to minimize the creation time of new instances of these virtual machines or containers.

In this post I focus on how to create my own Virtual Machine Templates along with a cloud-based image and cloud-init.

NUC, KVM, and Open vSwitch

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Configuration of a NUC with Ubuntu + Open vSwitch + VLANs + KVM + VMs using netplan and Open vSwitch. The networking is based on OVS and Netplan for both the Host and the virtual machines.

Last year I documented here how to configure Open vSwitch with KVM. In this post I’ll get straight to the point, showing the desired final state and how to configure it.

Home Assistant on a NUC

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Installation of Home Assistant OS (HAOS) on an Intel NUC5i5RYK — a very powerful machine for this task, but I had it available and wanted to make use of it. I started by setting it up on a Raspberry Pi4B, moved to a virtual machine (with considerably better performance) on KVM, and in this post I describe how I did the installation on a NUC.

Connecting HASS with Node-RED

Sun, 02 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I explain how I connected Node-RED with my Home Assistant (HASS), considering that they run on separate servers. They are deployed on different virtual machines, to allow independent maintenance and improve their performance.

For your reference, I created another post here where I describe the Node-RED installation using Alpine and Docker underneath, running as a virtual machine on my KVM server.

Node-RED on Docker

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Node-RED is a programming tool that allows you to connect hardware devices, APIs, and cloud services through creative workflows. Everything is done from the browser, and it supports dozens of built-in and third-party nodes.

Here I’ll explain the installation process, on a virtual machine with Alpine and Docker underneath. If you’re interested, I have another post describing how I integrate it with my Home Assistant.

Gitea and Traefik on Docker

Sun, 03 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I describe the installation of Gitea (GIT server) and Traefik (LetsEncrypt SSL certificate termination), along with Redis (cache) and MySQL (DB). I install all applications as Docker containers on an Alpine Linux running as a virtual machine on my KVM server. In the previous post I explained what Gitea is and how to set it up directly on a virtual machine (without Docker).

Gitea on a VM

Sat, 26 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

GIT is a distributed version control system, and we all know the famous centralization services GitHub and GitLab. I recently came across a promising alternative called Gitea - Git with a cup of tea and decided to install it on a virtual machine.

Alpine for Running Containers

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I describe how to install Alpine Linux in a virtual machine on my QEMU/KVM server and how to install Docker on it. I needed, for proof-of-concept and home services, the ability to run containers on a Docker host that takes up “very little” space. Can you install a Docker Host on top of a Virtual Machine? The answer is a resounding yes — in fact, it’s an excellent place to do so, especially in lab environments, home setups, and small deployments.

Open vSwitch and KVM

Sun, 20 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

It was about time I played with Open vSwitch (OVS). I’m going to take advantage of setting up a new server with Ubuntu Server, KVM, Virtual Machines, and VLANs to build everything with Open vSwitch instead of the traditional Linux Bridge.

OVS is a virtual bridge from which I’ll manage all network connections for both the server itself and its virtual machines. Some VMs will receive a Trunk interface while the majority will connect in Access mode to a specific VLAN.

Remote Virt-Manager

Sat, 19 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The goal is to run virt-manager from my Mac to manage VMs on a couple of remote KVM/QEMU host servers without needing to install an X11 environment on them. I’ve documented two options: the first uses a local virtual machine (VirtualBox/Parallels/…) with Ubuntu and a minimal GUI environment (just Xorg/X11 and virt-manager), the second uses HomeBrew.

Home Assistant SolaX

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I describe how I integrated my photovoltaic installation into Home Assistant, featuring Axitec panels, a SolaX Inverter, and a pair of Triple Power batteries. After trying several options, I settled on the MODBUS/TCP integration which works locally via LAN and exposes more data than the other options.

Grafana, InfluxDB and Telegraf Server

Sun, 06 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I set up these three services on a dedicated server at home to monitor my home automation. InfluxDB is a database super-optimized for working with time series. Grafana lets you create dashboards and graphs from multiple sources, and Telegraf is a lightweight agent that collects, processes, and sends data to our database.

I’ve decided to install all three on an Ubuntu 20.04 LTS server, on a virtual machine in KVM, so they’re consumed by the rest of the home automation elements: the Home Assistant server and other devices that can write to InfluxDB.

HASS migrate Grafana and InfluxDB

Sun, 06 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve migrated the InfluxDB/Grafana services from my Home Assistant to an external server. Moving the service and setting it up on another server isn’t too difficult. What did take me a while was figuring out how to export and import data between the InfluxDB instances and how to adapt the old Grafana Dashboard to use Flux.

IT Operations Portal

Sat, 05 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

To have control and management over IT assets, equipment, and labs, I’ve been trying iTop. iTop stands for IT Operations Portal. It’s a complete web-based ITIL service management tool that includes a fully customizable CMDB, a helpdesk system, and a document management tool. It offers bulk import tools and web services to integrate with your IT. I set up a small lab to test it.

Home Pi-hole

Sun, 20 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Pi-hole is a DNS (and DHCP) server that protects your devices from unwanted content, without needing to install any software on the clients in your network. Its use case is to act as a sinkhole for the advertising that floods today’s networks. Yes, a small Linux PC with Pi-hole on your home network to prevent tons of ads from reaching you while you browse.

Vagrant with Libvirt KVM

Sat, 15 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Vagrant creates and runs virtual machines, relying on virtualization providers such as Virtualbox, KVM, Docker, VMWare, and 30+ others. It will always default to launching the VM with Virtualbox unless we explicitly specify a different provider. In this guide I explain how I set up Vagrant with the Libvirt KVM provider on Linux.

My new blog!!

Mon, 19 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I describe how I set up this static blog “built” with jekyll and hosted on GitHub Pages. The source files are in the repository LuisPalacios.github.io. The site is finally configured on my domain: https://www.luispa.com

SSH and X11 as root

Sat, 11 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The goal is to make X11 (X-Window) applications work “also” from root. Making them work from a regular user is straightforward, but then switching to root with su/sudo and having X11 work is not allowed in Linux. The X11 connection only belongs to the user you logged in with via SSH.

Move KVM guest

Thu, 07 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I recently had to move a virtual machine from one of my servers to another on the same network. As always I relied on Google, although it’s a straightforward operation I do almost everything from the shell, so here’s the process for future reference…

Tvheadend and TV (2016)

Sun, 28 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I published this post on Wordpress in February 2016 so, although outdated, you have a reference on how to install Tvheadend on a Linux server to watch IPTV channels via my Movistar Fusion TV contract. I used Tvheadend 4.1-1566 and a new EPG download method.

WebGrab+Plus with Tvheadend

Tue, 03 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

WebGrab+Plus is a multi-site EPG guide collector capable of working incrementally. It downloads the programming schedule and generates an XMLTV format file that you can use to feed your media center or Tvheadend. I first tried installing it on MacOSX and now (this article) it’s time to install it on my Linux server and of course integrate it with Tvheadend.

Media Center Pi+KODI/XBMC

Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Por el 2015 andaba yo buscando un Media Center casero de siguiente generación conectado a mi TV, un “pata negra” que no sea demasiado caro, que pueda conectarse por cable ethernet a un “mundo” de múltiples fuentes que incluya música, fotos, videos familiares o películas o series (tanto SD o HD) y que sea capaz de reproducir TV en tiempo real (SD o HD), que soporte bitrates altos (~40Mbps) independiente de cual sea la fuente (antena, satélite, internet).

Tvheadend and TV (2015)

Sat, 31 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

I published this post on Wordpress in January 2015 so, although outdated, you have a reference on how to install Tvheadend with XBMC/KODI as a client to watch Movistar TV channels.

Home Media Center

Mon, 26 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Having a DVD player is so 90’s. Nowadays it’s possible to combine everything into a single home Media Center with one remote to watch streaming internet channels, DTT or Satellite channels, Movistar TV, movies from your DVDs or series, home videos, listen to your music, or browse your photo collection.

OpenVPN Server

Sun, 14 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

In this technical post I’ll describe how to set up a home VPN Server based on OpenVPN, which remains the best solution today despite being more complex to implement. The goal is to have access to the internal services of my home network from the internet.

IPtables with nflog

Sun, 31 Aug 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Geek quote: “Logging what happens is wise…” In the past I used ULOG to analyze which packets were being dropped by iptables, but since it’s been marked as deprecated I’ve switched to NFLOG.

Plex Media Server

Wed, 23 Apr 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Plex Media Server lets you transform your computer into a multimedia center. It uses the digital content and sources you have available, such as media files or other multimedia sources. It organizes content into different sections to serve them to clients.

Static IP with Systemd on Gentoo

Mon, 23 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

In this post I describe how to configure a static IP address on a Linux machine based on Gentoo. Normally this operating system comes pre-configured to load a dynamic IP address via the DHCP protocol.

Linux on 'Fusion for Mac'

Fri, 20 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

In this article I describe how to install Gentoo Linux 3.10.17 (64-bit, with systemd + Gnome 3) in a virtual machine (VM) running on VMWare Fusion 6 for Mac OSX version 10.9 (Mavericks). This should work the same way on a different host, such as Parallels or VMWare Workstation for Windows or Linux.

ntopng on Gentoo

Fri, 22 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Not too long ago “ntopng” 1.1 was released and it’s time to give it a look. It’s not yet in Portage, so thanks to the Eigenlay overlay (via layman) I found what I needed to perform the installation.

HFS+ on Linux

Sat, 15 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

HFS+ (Hierarchical File System Plus), also known as MacOS Plus, is the format used by default on the partition where Apple’s MacOS operating system is installed. It was released as an improvement over the original HFS in 1998 and introduced in macOS from version 8.1 onwards.

AFP on Gentoo Linux

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

To share disks from my Gentoo Linux server with Mac OS X machines on the home network, the protocol I used during 2012 was the Apple Filing Protocol (AFP). Later on, Apple started recommending SMB.

FireWire on Linux on Mac

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

IEEE 1394 (FireWire) is a type of connection for various platforms, designed for high-speed serial data input and output. It is commonly used for connecting digital devices such as digital cameras and camcorders. Apple implemented it for connecting hard drives.

NTP Time Service

Fri, 01 May 2009 00:00:00 +0000

NTP is an Internet protocol for synchronizing computer system clocks by exchanging data packets over networks with variable latency. NTP uses the UDP protocol as its transport layer (port 123). It is designed to withstand the effects of variable latency.

In this post I explain how to configure NTP on a GNU/Linux machine (Gentoo distribution) to set and maintain the correct time, while also serving as a time server on your home network.

Rsync on MacOS

Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:00:00 +0000

The rsync program comes bundled with Mac OSX, but if you need a more recent version with additional features – such as metadata preservation, extended character support, or cross-platform character handling – you’ll need to install one of the latest versions.

Hello World

Mon, 11 Nov 2002 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2002 I decided to start sharing technical documentation and this is the first post I ever wrote. It explains how to work with a piece of software called Nibbleblog. Shortly after I moved to Wordpress and nowadays (2021) I have switched to “Jekyll + GitHub Pages”. I’m keeping this first post as a reference.