ZeDoTelhado

I have an HP pavillion 15-bc235nd that, quite frankly, I don´t really like that much (way too loud of a fan, cannot adjust the fan curve, keyboard and trackpad are terrible, etc).

I was planning to replace with laptop with something else, but in the meantime, I was thinking of something. Instead of getting this laptop in the landfill or give to someone else (no one needs an emergency laptop right now), I could potentially use this has a server machine to be used as an off site backup location.

Right now I am missing the off site backup part out of the 3-2-1 backup strategy. Since this laptop has more than enough horsepower to do the job, it could be a solution. But personally, I am not sure how reliable a laptop turned into a server can be. This laptop would be around 3000km away from me, so I have to be really sure it works at a distance without much problem.

For those who turned a laptop into a server: what is your mileage? Are there any specific considerations about this setup that a regular desktop/server does not have or specific issues?

I have for a while a ubuntu server where I selfhost for my household syncthing (automatic backup of most important files on devices), baïkal, magic mirror and a few other things via docker.

I was looking at what I have now (leftovers of a computer of mine, amd 2600 with 16 gb ram with a 1660 super and a western digital blue ssd of 512GB), and regarding storage wise, at the time I decided to get several sort of cheap ssd's to have enough initial space (made a logical volume out of 3 crucial mx500 1TB, in total making 3TB). At the time I though I wanted to avoid regular hdd at all costs (knew people who had issues with it), but in hindsight, I never worked with NAS drives, so my fear over these hdd with such low usage is sort of uncalled for.

So now I am trying to understand what can I change this setup so I can expand later if needed, but also having a bit more space already (for the personal stuff I have around 1.5TB of data) and add a bit more resilience in case something happens. Another goal is to try to make a 3-2-1 backup kind of solution (starting with the setup at home, with an external disk already and later a remote backup location). Also, I will probably decommission for now the ssd's since I want to avoid to have a logical volumes (something happens on one drive, and puff all the data goes away). So my questions regarding this are:

• For hdd's to be used as long term storage, what is usually the rule of thumb? Are there any recommendations on what drives are usually better for this?
• Considering this is going to store personal documents and photos, is RAID a must in your opinion? And if so, which configuration?
• And in case RAID would be required, is ubuntu server good enough for this? or using something such as unraid is a must?
• I was thinking of probably trying to sell the 1660 super while it has some market value. However, I was never able to have the server completely headless. Is there a way to make this happen with a msi tomahawk b450? Or is only possible with an APU (such as 5600g)?

Thanks in advance

PS: If you guys find any glaring issues with my setup and know a tip or two, please share them so I can also understand better this selfhosted landscape :)

I have now a pixel 8, which was working OK from the past 8 months and using grapheneos. Unfortunately, today out of nowhere got the green screen bug (searched around, this seems to be really a thing with pixel 8 and some pixel 7). This really stroke me a nerve. Previously I had a pixel 5 which at some point also got screen problems and later the speaker piece just straight up did not work properly. And now this with the pixel 8.

So my question is: what other phones could potentially be used with a custom ROM that allow bootloader relocking? Other Roms can be something like divest or calyx (I used calyx before, so I am fairly familiar with it).

It really pisses me off the only option until now are pixel phones for proper relocking (from what I know from a while back), and then they have these annoying issues. It makes my skin crawl, but if required I would change to an iPhone (and throwaway a lot of things that android is actually superior, such as proper tor browser, VPN split tunneling, work/user profiles, no bloody account to use a phone).

Thanks for the responses in advance.

Hey there, I have a (very) small Ubuntu server and I was dabbling on the idea to do system backups (entire system, meaning, if the disk of the said pc fries, I can get another one, put the info from the backup on the new disk, works immediately afterwards). I have a couple of Linux mint machines and a windows one. I searched a lot out there and found several names, from rsync to Borg backup.But ultimately I don't really know if these solutions would fit my use case.

So the question is: is there a feasible way/service that can be self hosted to do backups of local machines, similar to an image backup? Or, if you believe there are better ways to do it, can you please mention it?

Thanks in advance