hello!
I’m not sure if this is the correct place to post this (sorry if it isn’t) but I recently got really interested in selfhosting because I got mad about Spotify for various reasons. I ended up asking for a family member to help make a media server for me, because I was overwhelmed with all the information.
I ended up with Jellyfin, which I really like, but it only has music on it right now. the first song was one that is floating around but was never released, and Spotify keeps deleting it when people put it up. understandable, I suppose, but frustrating.
I have a few other things I’m trying out, I had asked for KitchenOwl and Shiori, as well as PhotoPrism. it’s hosted on what I’m guessing is some kind of HP thin client, I wasn’t able to get specifics out of the family member. they said that Tailscale was overkill for what I’m doing, but I’m sharing the servers with a partner who’s long distance, and I feel better about it than trying to manage exposing stuff to the internet.
I’m not crazy about KitchenOwl so far, and I was considering trying Mealie instead, does anyone have experience with that one?
I started playing with my Raspberry Pi 3, which I had sitting around doing nothing, and I’ve installed DietPi on that one and a new Raspberry Pi 4. before my family member got involved, I got pi-hole on the RPi 3, but I broke it once, and had to use the bash command before I started understanding what I was doing.
been going between apps, not able to find an RSS feed one I like, but I’ve managed to figure out Portainer a little, so I’m trying them out one by one.
most recent addition is Homarr, which I’m really enjoying so far! (despite having trouble installing it in Portainer) I like that it has little status icons for if an app is up or struggling. anyone else use a homepage?
I’ve been eyeing newer hardware for the main server but I don’t think it’s needed yet, so far I don’t seem to need transcoding? but we’ll see.
if anyone selfhosts, what’s your favorite app you have?
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I have been using Vikunja instead of Google Keep. I like the mix of todo list and kanban board. I also use audiobookshelf for podcasts and audiobooks, then calibre for regular books. And a very lightweight rss app.
I’m a little more advanced with selfhosting at this point though. I use a combination of intel NUCs (RIP) locally and Digital Ocean to run Kubernetes clusters. I have a whole setup with argocd, gitea, authentik, tekton, prometheus, loki, grafana, etc, etc. But its a been a learning process that started with a rpi too.
I highly recommend mini pcs for selfhosting. Especially the intel ones since they have quick sync which is a pretty good hardware transcoder. Not sure about AMD ones, they might have something similar.
Oh, I use homepage as a homepage, but there as so many and I sometimes switch around a lot. Its good to have variety there.
I’ve admittedly added an Intel NUC to my wishlist even before you mentioned it, hahahaha, in case the thin client ends up not working out. it only accepts m2s, and only two of them, but they can’t be nvmes which kinda sucks.
from what I’ve read, though, apparently AMD stuff doesn’t gel well with transcoding, but I could have read incorrect info.
I don’t actually have a clue on how to run a server that isn’t an RPi (since DietPi installs certain things for you) but maybe there’s hope I could copy the info from the old server to the NUC if things go that route in the future.
how do you like audiobookshelf? I really have been enjoying podcasts lately (though they’re all writing related, so far) but I don’t really want to pay a subscription to listen to them on my computer, so I was considering trying audiobookshelf out.
audiobookshelf is really good. UI is nice and there is an app on my android phone that works really well too. I like using it because I’ve downloaded all the podcasts I follow so I don’t have to worry about them going missing. Plus some don’t keep all their back catalogue available.
Running a server on a nuc isn’t too different than a rpi. It might be more to learn, but a lot of tech I’ve always thought is just the combination of it being a little intimidating and takes a bit of time to get right. Fortunately its been getting easier. Running docker containers from compose files is pretty simple once you get the hang of it.
Termux so I can ssh into my server to see what I screwed up this time
valid, one day I’ll figure out ssh! until then I physically hook up my Raspberry Pis to my monitor.
Why not make that day today? Ssh is incredibly powerful, and for most use cases, really simple. Remotely managing the pi is certainly better than plugging it into a monitor
https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-ssh-to-connect-to-a-remote-server
Here’s a 60-day free trial to tinker with as well: https://www.linode.com/tux
For the most part, after enabling ssh on the Pi, it’s as simple as
ssh user@host. Type “yes” to approve the server fingerprints, type in your password and you have a shell.After that, it’s more about improving security and learning tools which can help out. SSH keys replace passwords and are more difficult to brute force or phish.
scpallows uploading and downloading files. Tunnels make a connection from the server and forwards it to your machine (or the reverse!) Jump hosts use tunnels to get to another SSH server.There’s a lot of tools to learn but the first step is very straightforward.
I’m currently self hosting:
- Jellyfin: TV shows for kiddos
- Minetest: gaming with kiddos
- Supertuxkart: more gaming with kiddos
- Pi-hole: DNS with several filters
- Tiny Tiny RSS: feed reader
- Nextcloud: phone sync and project management
- Gitea: code tracking and version control
- JSketcher: CAD drawing
- Stable Diffusion: AI art
The last two are local-network only and the most recent additions; still just tinkering with them at this point.
My favorite of the list is probably TT-RSS which I use for podcasts and to keep tabs on a few sub-reddits I had participated in before moving to Lemmy.
I’ve been self-hosting Mealie. I have about 200 recipes there I think. I don’t use it a ton, but it’s super useful for looking up a recipe on the go. It’s permissions/accounts system is super nice as well. I haven’t heard of KitchenOwl so I don’t know how well they stack up.
I also self host flash paper, a mumble server (voice chat), and linkding. Link ding is mainly for adding websites to a QR code that will take people to a random website.
I’ve been thinking of spinning up a paperless instance.
KitchenOwl seems to be newish? it has multiple accounts and households, which is nice, but my family member complained it was unnecessarily complicated.
I’ve seen Paperless around, I feel like it might potentially be useful for me, since I have a lot of medical stuff going on, plus doggo vet things. but that’s probably a future project, since I still have to add more things to my Jellyfin. thank you for reminding me it exists!
Like @[email protected], I’m using Mealie and it works for my needs. Another popular recipe app is Tandoor but last time I looked the setup was more complicated that what I wanted to get into.
For RSS, I’m using Miniflux which is very lightweight but has nice features.
Here’s a whole list of selfhosted apps: https://github.com/awesome-selfhosted/awesome-selfhosted. I would recommend looking for apps that solve a problem you’re having vs. installing everything that looks interesting.
I don’t agree that Tailscale is overkill, it’s very quick to set up and allows me to connect with all of my services no matter where I am. I often check the ingredients for a recipe on Mealie while I’m at the grocery store for instance.
Here’s a few other communities to check out related to self hosting:
Edit: Fixed my links. Thanks @[email protected]
thank you much for the list, and the links for Lemmy communities!
I really just wanted something that could have separated recipes and grocery lists, because my partner is long distance and I wanted this to help them out too. those were my only requirements, I just hadn’t known my full range of options at the time.
and thank you too for mentioning to look to solve problems. I’m trying to do that, and not go too deep off into trying to host things I don’t need. I had been looking for an RSS reader to keep up with some news things since I don’t go on reddit anymore, but I found out that Homarr has a widget for it. trying that out now.
Jellyfin and Kavita are essentially the entire reason for my homelab server. I wish Kavita had an official reader app, but apart from that it’s absolutely perfect for my needs.