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A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

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Selfhosting on an old laptop (self.selfhosted)

submitted 1 year ago by bloodtide to c/selfhosted

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

I'm currently running homebridge and pihole from an older Lenovo (i5, 256 SSD, 8GB ram) laptop (tweaked power settings to allow idle when closed) hardwired into a switch. I am currently running Ubuntu Server LTS, and have uptime ~2 weeks. I'm a little worried about reliability, I was originally using Ubuntu Desktop LTS, and I had an issue with the OS crashing after a 4 days of basically idle...

So my question is, is this a feasible solution? Should I pursue something like a SBC or migrate the machine to an old desktop instead? I don't mind working on the machine occasionally, performing maintenance etc but I don't want to have to troubleshoot the machine on a weekly basis.

I also would like to get into more self hosting, I find it to be super interesting and fun, does anyone have any projects they wouldn't mind recommending or sharing?

Thanks guys!

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Sure. It's plenty feasible. I've used old laptops, desktops, a server board running naked under my desk with parts strewn about... anything can run your homelab.

The only thing you may have issues with long term in a laptop like that is the battery turning into a spicy balloon. Regardless of whether its healthy, or totally "dead" and wont charge, it can and will still start to offgas and can catch on fire. If it has a removable battery, take it out and run the laptop on a normal UPS that is designed to sit fully charged and plugged in 24/7.

[–] bloodtide 5 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Oof the spicy pillow...didn't think about that one. I will def take a look into running it independent from the battery thank you

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Lenovo laptops often have a setting to limit battery charge to 80% which would solve that issue, but I think usually you have to do it from their windows utility software.

[–] Duckman 1 points 1 year ago

There’s a way to do it on Linux. It requires the acpi_call kernel module and a couple of shell commands. Here’s a write up: https://tildehacker.com/lenovo-ideapad-battery-conservation-mode-gnu-linux

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