Update on homelab projects

On December 14, 2024, I made the following post on Mastodon:

Homelab projects for this weekend:

- Try out Guix as a daily driver

- Take off the Doom Emacs training wheels and setup a custom Emacs config

- Setup K3s cluster on my three Orange Pi 5 Plus devices

Guix is a no-go, because KDE Plasma is not an officially supported desktop environment on Guix yet. Nor does Tailscale have a reliable way to install and manage on Guix. Maybe when the Non-Guix maintainers decide toport Tailscale to their channel.

I've decided to keep using Doom Emacs for now. Once I get my K3s cluster up and running and in working order, I will take time to pick apart my Doom Emacs config. This would involve finding the packages and configuration that are builtin to Doom Emacs, which I mostly take for granted -- aside from the ones I have defined in `packages.el`. I would have to find a way to conveniently manage packages without the `doom sync` and `doom upgrade` commands. But, for now, everything just works, and I'd like to keep it that way as I'm working on the K3s cluster.

I have my three Orange Pi 5 Plus's ready to be plugged in. I have Armbian on a microSD card, ready to be installed to each of the eMMCs. I have ethernet cables running between my unmanaged switch and each of the Pi's. Once Armbian is installed and configured on them, I will run an Ansible playbook that bootstrap the K3s cluster. I have a `.org` file as a reference. All I have to do now is cut the ribbon. Am kinda nervous about it, tho, so I've been kinda procrastinating. But, I've got this.

About two years ago I bought a PoE (Power-over-Ethernet) switch that supports gigabit ethernet. I stopped using it when I got 5Gbps Internet from AT&T when I will still living with my grandfather about a little over a year ago. Now that I live back with my parents, I have 2.5Gbps Internet from Comcast Xfinity. Since I've had no luck finding a 2.5Gbps PoE to USB-C splitter, I'll have to make do with what I've got. There's no reason for me to be a spoiled snob about utilizing my network's full throughput capacity for this use-case -- gigabit ethernet is ample, and I don't need to spend more money on a 2.5Gbps PoE switch. I bought three 1Gbps PoE to USB-C splitters. When they are delivered, I will unplug the power cords of the three Orange Pi 5 Plus's, plugin the gigabit PoE switch, run an ethernet cable from my unmanaged switch to the PoE switch, run three ethernet cables to each of the PoE to USB-C splitters, and plug the USB-C connectors into the power sockets of the three Pi's.

END

Last updated: 2024-12-16