I wanted to run the whole thing from a Docker container, though, so I'll quickly write a how-to.

This whole thing runs from a Raspberry Pi, as root. No k8s or k3s for me. The path I use is /root/git/feed2toot/, so be sure to modify that to whatever you're using.

First off, get your credentials for the app. You can either install the Feed2Toot package on a system (i.e. throwaway VM, to keep it clean), or use the Docker container below, but add RUN apk add bash and change the last line to CMD ["bash"] and then chroot into it via docker exec -it feed2toot bash.

This will generate two files (feed2toot_clientcred.txt and feed2toot_usercred.txt). Be sure to save these.

You can also try to run Feed2Toot at least once to make sure it's working and to fine-tune your ini file. This is mine:

[mastodon]
instance_url=https://yeri.be
; Here you need the two files created by register_feed2toot_app
user_credentials=/etc/feed2toot/feed2toot_usercred.txt
client_credentials=/etc/feed2toot/feed2toot_clientcred.txt
; Default visibility is public, but you can override it:
; toot_visibility=unlisted

[cache]
cachefile=/feed2toot/feed2toot.db
cache_limit=10000

[lock]
lock_file=/var/lock/feed2toot.lock
lock_timeout=3600

[rss]
uri=https://yeri.be/feed
; uri_list=/feed2toot/rsslist.txt
toot={title} {link}
; toot_max_len=500
title_pattern=Open Source
title_pattern_case_sensitive=true
no_uri_pattern_no_global_pattern=true
; ignore_ssl=false

[hashtaglist]
; several_words_hashtags_list=/feed2toot/hashtags.txt
; no_tags_in_toot=false

[feedparser]
; accept_bozo_exceptions=true

[media]
; custom=/var/lib/feed2toot/media/logo.png

I have three other files to make this work, first off Dockerfile:

FROM python:3.6-alpine
RUN pip3 install feed2toot && mkdir -p /etc/feed2toot/
COPY feed2toot.ini feed2toot_clientcred.txt feed2toot_usercred.txt /etc/feed2toot/
VOLUME /feed2toot/
CMD ["feed2toot", "-c", "/etc/feed2toot/feed2toot.ini"]

The script I run to build the container (start.sh):

#!/bin/bash
git pull

BASEIMAGE=`cat Dockerfile | grep FROM | awk '{print $2}'`
docker pull $BASEIMAGE
docker stop feed2toot
docker rm feed2toot
docker build -t feed2toot .
./run.sh

And finally, the script to run the container every so often (run.sh):

#!/bin/bash
docker run -d --rm -v /srv/mastodon/feed2toot/:/feed2toot/ --name feed2toot feed2toot

This will save the database file under /srv/mastodon/, to preserve states across rebuilds.

Note that once Feed2Toot runs, it'll exit, and the container will be stopped. So it does not automatically run all the time.

So, you'll want to run this every so often. You can add a file to /etc/cron.d/ to run it, for example, every six hours:

#
# cron-jobs for feed2toot
#

MAILTO=root

0 */6 * * *		root	if [ -x /root/git/feed2toot/run.sh ]; then /root/git/feed2toot/run.sh >/dev/null; fi

That's it. Should do the trick. It'll now post stuff from your RSS feed onto your timeline.

Oh, and Jeroen has a good post about Mastodon.

First off, starting to use the smokeping.eu¹ domain that Bianco got 10 or so years ago instead of using weird URLs under superuser.one domain.

It's running on four nodes as we speak:

• a virtual machine on a colocation server in Leaseweb, Amsterdam, NL -> leaseweb.nl.smokeping.eu
• a RPi3 (+SD card, slowest of all), Telenet, Belgium -> telenet.be.smokeping.eu
• a RPi4, EDPnet, Belgium -> edpnet.be.smokeping.eu
• a RPi4, Starhub, Singapore -> starhub.sg.smokeping.eu

This is achieved using Smokeping in a docker container, Cloudflare tunnel and Cloudflare CDN/DNS.

1 Doesn't point at anything at the moment. To do later.

Shell servers... so 2005. I remember in the good old IRC days people asking for (free) shell servers to run their eggdrop and stuff. OMG am I getting old? Anyhow...

I ssh quite often. I manage quite a few servers (~15?) and routers that require me to login and do some random stuff. I also work on a laptop quite often and that means closing the lid and moving around.

First of all, mosh is amazing and allows you to stay connected via ssh, even with crappy (airport/hotel) internet as well as moving around networks -- that solves half the problem. If you are not using it, start using it now!

Second, during my datacenter technician days at Google we used to have a "jump server" -- a shell server that allowed us to bridge the corporate network and ssh into prod machines. Doubt that's still used nowadays, but the idea stuck. I wanted something similar to ssh from, wherever I was, and easily connect to my servers. And as the network the shell server is running on is stable, I only need to use mosh to the shell server. Thereafter, the connection very rarely dies.

And I guess, third, I recently purchased an iPad Pro and I really need to have my local "dev" environment with my git repo that I edit quite frequently but iPadOS isn't really your average computer, and doesn't even have a proper terminal. This is my experiment to make iPadOS work as a main computer when on the move.

Enter box -- Docker shell server...

I've copied over the files I use to this example repo, and added some comments. Mind you that this repo acts as a proof of concept and isn't kept up to date, as I have my own private repo -- but this should give you a good idea on how to set up your own shell server with Docker.

start.sh -- this is a simple script that I execute when I first run or need to update the container. I execute the same file on two different servers: Liana, my Raspberry Pi at home and Ocean, my server in Amsterdam.

zsh.sh -- this installs what I care about for zsh. This could be part of the Dockerfile but for some reason I separated it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

git.sh -- this clones my Git repos so I can edit and commit stuff from the shell server.

run.sh -- this file is launched by Dockerfile at the end and executes what matters: the ssh daemon. It also adds a Wireguard route and executes the scripts above.

Dockerfile -- this installs everything I need and configures the whole thing. I've added tons of comments that should get you going.

I am also cloning misc and homefiles as submodules in files/ -- but you should change this to something that works for you. See the Dockerfile for more info.

The updated cookbooks are on Github.

Changes (commits):

• Better key management
• fr24feed.ini
• No more separate dump1090 launch
• newest fr24 version

However, it’s now time for something new.

As always, as minimalistic as possible.

On a side note, this blog has been moved from vm1 (and one before that) a virtual machine running on a dual Xeon 3070 (2.66Ghz) at Databarn to Akama, a VM on an 8 core Xeon E3-1230 (3.2Ghz) at Leaseweb.

I’ve also correctly repaired IPv6 on this blog. Apparently nginx never and/or stopped correctly listening to IPv6 (suddenly my Android devices displayed errors on this page, Chrome & Firefox on OS X seemed to fall back to IPv4 instantly… Not sure how long it was broken, but it’s back).

Note to self:

listen          yeri.be:443;
server_name     yeri.be;

Does not work with IPv6, it has to be

listen          [::]:443;
server_name     yeri.be;

While I run it on EfikaMX, it should work on most Debian based devices. Just be sure to modify the FR24 software download URL.

This Ansible playbook is untested on its own. It comes out of a way bigger (private) Ansible playbook, and I kind of just copy pasted this part, as others might benefit from it.

After running Ansible, you should reboot for driver blacklisting to work in cases it’s needed on your device (it is on RPis). And be sure to edit /root/flightradar24.sh with your key.

Using 2Gb of RAM seems to do the trick.

/bin/run-parts /etc/rc.local.d

and files in /etc/rc.local.d looking like this

hostname.sh sshkeys.sh firstboot.sh

it’s not going to work.

Why, you ask, after cursing and shouting for the past hour?

because run-parts ignores files with dots (".") and/or .sh files.

Yes. True story.

rename all the files to:

hostname sshkeys firstboot

and your problem will be solved (and of course chmod +x them).

_netdev

As it will attempt to start the network mounted sshfs before networking has been started.

The entire line looks like this:

user@host:/some/dir /local/path fuse.sshfs defaults,idmap=user,_netdev  0 0

From the man pages:

_netdev

The filesystem resides on a device that requires network access (used to prevent the system from attempting to mount these filesystems until the network has been enabled on the system).

Zero had a corrupt reiserfs. Decommissioned the old P4 and replaced by a brand new dual Xeon. Running Xen and Debian instead of Gentoo.

And shortly there after Four (the server that hosts this VM), the Ubuntu host with Xen refused to start its networking, so I decided to start a fresh install (Debian as well this time).

One, who also had a broken hard disk (an old P3) got decommed as well.

Long story short, it’s back!

Solution:

vm3:/# depmod
vm3:/# iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp -m tcp --dport 80 -j DNAT --to-destination 85.12.6.173:8180

All ok :)

mkdir /tmp/disk
mount /path/to/disk.img /tmp/disk
chroot /tmp/disk /bin/bash

nano -w /etc/fstab

none            /dev/pts      devpts    defaults        0   0

apt-get install udev

exit
umount /tmp/disk
xm create /path/to/xen/vm.cfg

xm create vm#.domain

But this resulted in following error:

Error: Device 5632 (vbd) could not be connected. Failed to find an unused loop device

Solution:

Create /etc/modprobe.d/local-loop.conf with this content:

options loop max_loop=64

Turn off all DomUs, yes, bummer. You’ll need to reload the loop module which won’t work if Xen is still using them. xm list should only display Domain-0.

modprobe -r loop && modprobe loop

And restart all DomUs. You can now create 32 (64/2 ~= # of DomUs; increase if you need more) DomUs.

You can check (before & after) the difference in loop back devices: ls -ls /dev | grep loop | wc -l

Before trying to run Vista/Bootcamp through Parallels again, I’m waiting till the end of my exams (Thursday). Don’t want to blow up my Windows install again when I’m in desperate need of it. ;)

As usual with Parallels, creating/installing a new OS isn’t easy. Wether it crashes or you get a bunch of errors, you’re always up for a day full of fun!

Here is how I managed to install Ubuntu on Parallels:

• First of all, make sure you're running the latest version of Parallels, especially if you're using Leopard.
• Step 2, download the alternate Ubuntu installer. If you do not use the alternate installer, you'll end up with 'Display server errors' before being able to install Ubuntu. You can download Ubuntu here. Select the approriate version (probably Desktop, latest version), and check "Check here if you need the alternate desktop CD. This CD does not include the Live CD, instead it uses a text-based installer".
• Step 3, create a new virtual machine, with OS Linux/Ubuntu.

• And follow the steps. I've added some more screenshots below. You can leave everything by default, that's as you wish.

• As CD-drive, select the Ubuntu (alternate) installer .iso-file.

• Click Finish and Start -- the Ubuntu installer will boot.
• You'll end up in Ubuntu's welcome screen. Select your keyboard layout (hit F3) and select (text) install
• Here too, follow the steps on the screen. It will ask for your language, country, and will propose a manual or automatic disk partition. I've selected automatic -- it creates a big ext3 root partition, and a swap partition. The installer then asks if you agree with the partition table. Select Yes or No. (I've selected No - changed my root partition from ext3 to reiserfs, as I'm a big reiserfs fan.) When selecting Yes -- the table will be created and Ubuntu will start installing.
• After it's installed, Ubuntu will reboot. This is where you'll get your first error; ACPI: Unable to locate RSDP. This is a known error; you can safey ignore it.
• Ubuntu will continue to boot, and then pop up this error: The display server has been shut down about 6 times in the last 90 seconds, and will freeze. To fix this error, shut down and restart (or reset) the VM, and hit the ESC-key. Grub's bootloader menu will pop up if everything is right.
• Select the 2nd option (recovery). Ubuntu will boot up in text-mode-only and you should be logged in as root (if you're not, add 'sudo' in front of the commands below).
• In Parallels, click (on top of your screen) "Actions" -> "Install Parallels Tools..." and type in following commands in the shell:
  • mount /media/cdrom
  • cd /media/cdrom
  • ./parallels-tools.run
  • reboot
• After Ubuntu has rebooted (in normal mode), you shouldn't receive any more errors, and you can enjoy Ubuntu on your mac!

As I’m owning a Macbook Pro (with Leopard) that shouldn’t have to be any problem using Bootcamp.

I created a 5 Gb partition and installed WinXP a few weeks ago. So far all fine.

As I don’t really like to reboot into XP (I can’t access my mails, don’t have my IRC client, all my Camino tabs are closed, …) I tried Parallels.

Parallels, at first, was a real disappointment. It crashed my Mac OS X several times. It was only, just a few days later, when they released a patch to solve all Leopard issues, that I started to enjoy it.

Running all my programs from Parallels (instead of rebooting), I never noticed my Bootcamp WinXP was actually broken. As exams were approaching (I’m not allowed to run a virtualization of Windows, because my school’s key and network loggers won’t work like intended, not that I care that much, but they do ;) ), I rebooted for the first time in weeks to my Bootcamp XP, and noticed the famous hal.dll error (or Google it, you’ll see why it’s famous).

I repaired my Windows XP install (as explained in Parallels’ knowledge base), and that indeed fixed the problem… of Bootcamp… My parallels was now broken (hal.dll error for Parallels, instead of Bootcamp). Trying to recreate a new Parallels virtual disk for bootcamp, or even reinstall the program, … All failed. (There should be bootflags to edit, and force Parallels to use a different hal.dll, well, read about it here, it’s no longer useful for me.)

Googling and searching their forums, no luck, no one had a fixed solution. Only ’try this’ and ’try that’. (To follow the above howto I’ve posted, you need to be able to (re)install Parallels, and by the time I found that howto I wasn’t even able to do that; Parallels froze during installation.) I e-mailed the Parallels support team with my problem, and the form said they’d reply within 3 working days… It has been over 2 weeks, and I’m still waiting.

I then noticed that my Mac/Apple keyboard driver weren’t working in Bootcamp-XP, some chars like #, @, > and so forth weren’t working (or at least the layout didn’t match with my Apple keyboard). I tried to reinstall the Bootcamp drivers (located on my Leopard DVD), they all failed to install (no error message…). Being quite fed up with it, I decided to reinstall XP (without formatting, just overwriting my Windows dir). And here too, the drivers failed to install, with no specific error message… Took the required backups, formatted, and had the wild idea to install Vista.

Booted from the Vista install DVD, and came to the conclusion I needed at least 7 Gb disk space to install Vista (having a 5 Gb partition, this wouldn’t work). Back in os X I deleted the Windows partition, and tried to recreate a new (10 Gb) one.

And… This error came up: “Your disk cannot be partitioned because some files cannot be moved” (other link). I now started to panic, as I had less then a week to fix this problem. Following a few try-this-and-try-that’s, I removed a few big files from my disk (someone even said to remove Office 2004, but I wasn’t about to do that), I tried to repair my disk (from the Leopard DVD), I tried smaller partitions, even 5 Gb wouldn’t work, and then, when all hope was almost lost, I tried one last thing; ‘Zero Out Data’. This will overwrite all deleted files (well, marked for deletion by your disk, but still written on it, so this data can theoretically be recovered) with zero’s.

And this too, has to be done from the Mac OS X install CD/DVD.

After, well, about 40 minutes Disk Utility was done, I rebooted right into Leopard, and retried to create a 5 Gb partition… And guess what?! It worked!

I deleted that partition again (5 Gb being to small), and recreated a 15 Gb partition, and this too worked with no problems.

I now happily run Vista on my Macbook Pro, and so far I can’t complain.

The only thing I haven’t been able to fix is Parallels, I can’t even reinstall it (it freezes during install). But heck with it, I’ve lost enough sweat already to fix Bootcamp.