Weekly Report #78 - Notes on NAS, Chromebook, and Zeabur Troubleshooting

Preface#

weekly_review_20241104

This article is a record and reflection on life from 2024-10-29 to 2024-11-03.

Recently, for some reason, I have started tinkering with my development environment and devices again after a long time.

With the technical support of Ares, I finally got the NAS I had been dreaming of; I reinstalled the long-idle Chromebook and flashed Arch Linux, and even flashed Asahi Linux on my MBP (though it still doesn't work as a primary machine, I uninstalled it and plan to flash my desktop at home); after Zeabur supported Dedicated Servers, I also migrated resource-intensive services like RSSHub to Hetzner's CAX-31 Arm host; and there are many interesting things.

NAS#

my_nas_omv

I have been interested in NAS for a long time, but since I usually watch anime and shows directly on streaming platforms or Infuse connected to cloud storage, my need for home storage hasn't been very high, so I never made up my mind to purchase one.

Moreover, I have a Mac Studio that is usually always on, and with a public IP and Cloudflare Argo Tunnel, it already meets most of my home service needs. However, due to system architecture limitations, I always encountered some strange issues with network configuration when setting up HomeAssistant.

Once, when I was chatting with Ares about NAS, he mentioned that he had a NAS he built himself that he could sell to me (he had already iterated on it), which really tempted me. So I found a weekend to come to my house to set it up, and with technical support, I avoided countless detours, and everything worked perfectly.

With four drive bays (8T storage plus 8T backup), I can still operate normally even if I hot-swap two drive bays. I migrated some photos and important documents from my previous cloud storage; I used openmediavault, which has an interface that is somewhat outdated but completely sufficient; I managed some Docker services using Portainer, and 16G of memory is basically enough.

Chromebook and Arch Linux#

yu_chromebook_setup

More than two years ago, while revisiting the Teahour episode "#95 - What is it like to develop with a Chromebook?," I became fascinated with the thin client development model. I even wrote an article "Thin Client Development Workflow Based on frp Intranet Penetration" to practice, and I also got interested in the Chromebook, a device not popular in China, and bought a 2019 Google Pixbook Go (which quickly got cut from Google's product line, making it somewhat of a commemorative last generation).

However, due to remote work and reliance on many macOS-exclusive software, the utilization of this device has been very low. Recently, while in Chiang Mai, I saw another mentor flash Pop!_OS on his Chromebook, which looked cool, so I thought I would tinker with it when I got back.

btw_i_use_arch

I initially wanted to completely flash it with another Linux distribution, but after an upgrade, I found the ChromeOS UI and various interactions very comfortable. I tinkered a bit and replaced the built-in Debian system with Arch, which was sufficient for my Linux needs—not so "orthodox" but usable. After a day of tinkering, I achieved a surprisingly good experience, using several cross-platform solutions to ensure the experience was almost consistent.

1Password. I just switched from Elpass to 1P recently; the browser extension, multi-platform support, and powerful autofill made me regret not switching sooner. Plus, I can use the ssh agent feature for git signing, so I no longer have to maintain multiple gpg keys.
x-cmd. A product from a friend's previous company, I initially just wanted to try it out, but I found it really met my needs. With just a few commands and configurations, I could achieve a fully identical development environment across multiple devices, and I used x-cmd to manage my Go, Node.js, and other development environments, which was very reassuring.
fydeRhythm. I am now fully invested in double pinyin, and while searching, I discovered this open-source project, which can be installed as a Chrome extension on the ChromeOS system and can be used natively in terminals and various applications with almost no configuration; on Linux, I used fcitx-rime for configuration, but it took a long time to set up.
Cursor. There are pre-packaged AUR packages that can be easily installed with one click on ChromeOS, and with the configuration import feature, after changing a few shortcuts, the experience was perfectly restored.
Chrome. I considered switching back from Arc to Chrome for a consistent experience, using the web versions of apps like Telegram, Slack, Discord, and Follow directly in my work.
Onedrive. Since I no longer have iCloud, I took advantage of the 1T Onedrive storage that comes with my Microsoft 365 for file transfer and synchronization.
Google Play Store. One of the significant advantages of Chromebook is the ability to use Android applications directly, with some optimizations, allowing apps like Clash and HBO Max to be opened directly as applications.

yu_chromebook__cursor

I actually have many high-performance devices, such as my daily-use M2 Max MacBook Pro, which achieves a good balance between performance and battery life, allowing me to open it and enter work mode anytime, even while hiking or walking. Sometimes, I can't really relax when going out or accompanying those around me, but I also have "computer separation anxiety," always worrying about urgent matters that need handling when my computer is not at hand, which makes me restless.

This Chromebook is a perfect solution, with a full-fledged Chrome, Arch, and Android system. It is not powerful but lightweight and good-looking, capable of handling all browser-dependent work completely. It can be a bit laggy when debugging work project code, but it is still usable. While alleviating my anxiety, it also adds a step for me to consider whether the task is truly urgent enough that I need to complete it immediately, even if it requires more effort to debug. In most cases, I choose to wait until I get home to handle it with my primary device.

This is quite interesting; in fact, the device's performance has become so surplus that it does not limit my efficiency. Instead, I need to impose deliberate constraints to shift my focus more toward my surroundings.

Zeabur Server#

I consider myself a heavy user of serverless platforms and an early user of Zeabur. Many of my services are still deployed on Cloudflare Pages/Workers, fly.io, and Zeabur; I was also a fan of various VPS setups, having several legacy servers from 搬瓦工，and due to getting a bit carried away in the past two years, I added a few more, leading to low utilization.

zeabur_dedicated_servers

Recently, Zeabur started supporting Dedicated Servers, allowing me to deploy my servers directly on the platform using k3s along with some monitoring services, while high-consumption tasks like linking GitHub Repos, building images, and pulling are handled through Zeabur (currently all free, but I don't know if they will charge by usage later), which does not occupy the server's resources.

So I migrated my RSSHub and Node nodes along with a series of services directly over, finally keeping my monthly bill under $5 on the Developer Plan.

Zeabur's templates are also quite powerful; I am currently maintaining the RSSHub Zeabur template, which allows for one-click deployment of your instance on Zeabur without needing a domain or additional configuration; I also created templates for services I previously used like n8n, Remark42, and GoatCounter, welcome everyone to deploy and use them directly.

Interesting Things and Items#

Inputs#

Although most interesting inputs will automatically sync to the "Yu's Life" Telegram channel, I still selected a portion to list here, which feels more like a newsletter. I also built a microblog using Telegram Channel messages as content sources—"daily.pseudoyu.com"—for easier browsing.

Books#

The Vegetarian, I learned about the author because of the Nobel Prize and started reading it during the weekend. It's short, with only three chapters. While reading the first chapter, I was eating (thankfully vegetarian), and the author described many vague negative feelings very specifically, which made me a bit nauseous; it took me a long time to recover. It's rare to have such feelings; the subsequent plot direction is somewhat abstract, but the four different perspectives that are interconnected are quite fascinating.
Flowers for Algernon, starting with the confusion over the initial typo report, then the change in attitude towards the world and people around him after his IQ rises, followed by an exploration of his past and present as a "human," and finally everything returning to the starting point and ending. He quickly experienced and understood a "human" life in a few months, while many people take decades or even their entire lives to accept their past and true selves. It's not about wisdom; he cherishes the ability to think again like a blind person seeing light for the first time.
The Red and the Black, I was deeply impressed by the description of Julien's self-esteem and the arrogance it manifests, which reflects a kind of ambition from the lower class to rise up, but the resulting contradictions and the madness and extremes after self-esteem is frustrated are described very specifically.
The Wall of Uncertainty in a Small Town, I read the first few chapters and felt it was very similar to the setting of "Kafka on the Shore."

Articles#

Videos#

Series#

The Penguin, it's fantastic.