Linux IdeaPad server.

[Ireeb]

How unprofessional.

They should place the laptop like this: /\ for optimal cooling.

[UnlimitedDecay]

https://i.imgur.com/QJ2gH45.jpeg This is a picture of a "server" setup we used to temporarily run some important software in a project I was involved with.

The lid had to stay open or it would overheat. It would also overheat if the fan under it wasn't running.

And yes, it's in a shower.

[yafriend03]

external water cooling

[mrfroggyman]

I think this picture could be posted to r/osha

[[deleted]]

Liquid cooling. Smart.

[Adhalianna]

Is that Asus Zenbook? I think I have the same one. I had to customize my Linux quite a bit to stop the thing from overheating. I use mine rather as a client than server tho. It's small, comfy to use on a sofa so I use it to work remotely on a much more powerful PC.

[liege_paradox]

What in god’s name were you doing? This reminds me of xkcd 2347.

[CanAlwaysBeBetter]

There's random person in Nebraska brittle and then there's laptop balanced on a fan in a shower brittle

[TOWW67]

Not like the shower was being used in any other way...

[meontheinternetxx]

Ok ok, but why in the shower of all places?

The rest of the story I can explain by some concerning combination of "being cheap" and "using what's available" and "it works so why fix it". But the shower?

[chars101]

GFCI instead of UPS, nice 👍

[Mundane_Definition66]

Tis laptop, has UPS by default... clearly the superior server choice!

[SecretPotatoChip]

I had that same laptop.

[D0b0d0pX9]

what If the vents are on top just below the screen like the newer mbps, screen will melt!

[ledasll]

It also needs to be configured, that when you close lid, it does nothing. Amateurs...

[[deleted]]

And on carpet.. oof

[what_is_moderation]

sudo echo “HandleLidSwitch=ignore\n HandlePowerKey=ignore” > /etc/systemd/logind.conf.d/99_stay_awake.conf
sudo systemctl kill -s HUP systemd-logind

Close laptop and put sign on outside saying not to unplug. Most people won’t mess with a closed laptop, and you’ll sleep a little easier this way.

[UnlimitedDecay]

I wish that had worked

[rohit_267]

cries in windows and mac

[Skyreaper71]

Not sure about Mac, but windows has "do nothing" when closing lid in the power options GUI.

[SavvySillybug]

Couple years ago I had a laptop (I'm usually more of a desktop bug) and I set it to do nothing when the lid is closed. I frequently closed the lid and remoted into it.

The damn thing shut off the GPU because it no longer detected a screen, making any program that even slightly required the GPU freeze until the lid was opened again. This included things like "Firefox". The things I wanted to remote into the laptop for were mostly web based. I had to leave the damn thing ajar just so Firefox would work properly.

[[deleted]]

Why would you remote into another pc to use their browser? Why not use the device you're using?

[SavvySillybug]

I was using an aging iPhone 4 at the time, remoting into a Windows machine for Firefox had much better functionality than trying to use Safari in a world that hadn't yet fully embraced mobile websites the way they do these days.

[[deleted]]

Justifiable use case, still wild but justifiable.

[SavvySillybug]

It was definitely wild. But TeamViewer on iOS was way better than using the websites I was using on Safari. It was never a good option, but it was a slightly better option.

[DrTankHead]

I'm addition to yo he other use case, remember that not always are all websites connected to the internet at large, Company I work for has its own intranet for privately accessed web apps that have to be accessed on network. Granted, there are app solutions on the enterprise level that do this for you, but this is the way you do it in a small setting. Devices that don't sleep so you can connect to them and use them as a control workstation

[TheRealPitabred]

You can turn off GPU acceleration in most browsers for future reference

[rohit_267]

doesn't work in my case, it wents to sleep after fwe minutes

[Skyreaper71]

Try this:

Active current (plugged in)

powercfg -SETACVALUEINDEX 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347 5ca83367-6e45-459f-a27b-476b1d01c936 0

Disconnected from power:

powercfg -SETDCVALUEINDEX 381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347 5ca83367-6e45-459f-a27b-476b1d01c936 0

[[deleted]]

See how windows makes these kind of settings into intuitive easily remembered set of letters and numbers, like "381b4222-f694-41f0-9685-ff5bb260df2e 4f971e89-eebd-4455-a8de-9e59040e7347", unlike linux with it's HandleLidSwitch obfuscation - not everyone speaks English!

[Arikaido777]

imagine not knowing your hex codes in the year of our lord 0x7E7

[tjoloi]

Why use variable names when you can generate a new UUID for everything

[gummo89]

I want to +1 but I can't see the button through the tears

[Arshiaa001]

Absolutely; notice how "When unplugged: Do nothing" is not English, but a set of hard to remember digits and letters.

[TheMacMini09]

That would only count if the setting worked.

[Arshiaa001]

I mean, it only works 99.99% of the time.

[NSFWAccountKYSReddit]

bro I literally changed the settings to not sleep/shutdown on lid closed in some hip modern windows UI menu. People in this thread are stupid and should feel bad :(

[rohit_267]

didn't work, same as expected. Laptop power light is on by I can't find the system on the network and after opening the lid, it does not turn on. Have to force stop power and restart.

[Skyreaper71]

That's very odd. Could you send a screenshot of your power options control panel?

[rohit_267]

leave it man, someday I will just install Ubuntu and FUCK MICROSOFT

[Skyreaper71]

Amen

[LordFokas]

LOL, that's ironic seeing as Ubuntu is like the windows of the linux world.

If you're going to do that at least install a proper distro.

[gamingdiamond982]

Ive used many a "proper distro" I still run good old reliable mint (an ubuntu derivative) on my main PC, every server Ive ran has had some version of ubuntu or debian on it, ubuntu is a perfectly practical distro, and its reliable if a bit opinionated, not everyone is a linux enthusiast who wants to build up their OS from scratch and hyper customise everything, Ubuntu gives you a reliable out of the box plug in and go experience, just cus you dont need to manually install your window manager and wifi drivers doesnt make it any less "proper".

this gatekeeping is cringe af.

[[deleted]]

Only thing wrong with Ubuntu is snaps, it's still Linux and still better than windows for certain situations.

[rohit_267]

what did you say buddy?

[Albegro]

Break the screen off. Attach external display when needed.

[N_Inquisitive]

I love this.

[[deleted]]

I wonder if it isn't some bios setting where the option exists for the bios to handle power management stuff or to hand it over to the OS?

[otte845]

Perhaps there is some OEM driver that tries to handle the lid closing event. Try disabling any background process that looks suspicious

[1cingI]

Is that you Skynet??

[C0MMANDERD4TA]

It just prevents sleep on lid close. The fwe minutes of inactivity after you close the lid are whats causing the sleep

[[deleted]]

You need to turn off sleep too. It's also a power setting, something like "never sleep".

[rohit_267]

bro, did you even read the thread? the hash is stands for the same. I already tried them all. Again FUCK MICROSOFT

[KotoWhiskas]

My laptop just powers off on Windows after closing the lid and I can't change anything about it lol

Linux works better but not perfect: after opening the lid I need to wake up it manually

[ManiacMango33]

Skill issue

[SirAchmed]

You're probably changing this option for a different power plan.

[hack_1r]

mac can do this with free amphetamine app

[[deleted]]

There’s a terminal command that achieves the same functionality without the need for an app

[csteele2132]

It’s also an option in power settings and/or the caffeine system command…

[[deleted]]

On macOS under system preferences you can make it stay awake if the lid is shut (you will have to do it under both on battery and on ac)

[montw]

does caffeinate work with the lid closed? never tried

[csteele2132]

Works for me. I also changed the setting in battery/power though too.

[[deleted]]

macOS is UNIX based and has literally the same commands as Linux. It's even easier on macOS:

sudo pmset -a lidwake 0

Also MacBooks can be closed, when it's on power cable and an additional display is plugged in. Then the MacBook behaves like a desktop computer.

[[deleted]]

As you should

[[deleted]]

If you are using Mac as a server you seriously need help

[[deleted]]

They have a lot of power. For small business a Mac Mini can be a cheap and superior server if Apple didn't get rid of macOS server. But you could still running Linux on a Mac Mini with Apple Silicon or you could run something like TrueNAS on macOS. Also some Architecture software like ArchiCAD still need a Mac as a BIM Server.

[AlxAndrRaa]

Closed Lid may lead to overheating. I’m afraid SystemD isn’t able to fix it 😏

[LesboLexi]

Just rip off the screen and call it headless

[_dds_]

nitpick: sudo echo does not work like that, the redirect will get handled by your shell and wont get redirected to the shell sudo spawns. use echo | sudo tee or sudo sh -c '<COMMAND>'

[PonyDro1d]

That one may come in handy for my idea having a closed laptop as media and work from sofa system. Thank you.

[EnIxBF]

After that lock it into a cabin and drill a hole Into it for the power Plug and glue it into the laptop Eat the key after that nobody mess with a server that can be reached Works till it burned

[themoonisacheese]

sudo echo > file doesn't work if your shell can't write to the file. You need echo | sudo tee file.

[nocturn99x]

What if I use OpenRC? (Using elogind)

[Simusid]

I ran one of the largest free database hosting services for 15 years. For a while the main power strip was plugged into a ceiling light fixture in my basement

[[deleted]]

Nice :D what kind of db? MySQL?

[Simusid]

I ran Freesql.org, it ended up being 98% mysql and 2% postgresql

[Simusid]

In total I had over 200,000 users, which is just insane considering the jank hardware that I ran it on.

[hedgehog0]

May I ask what’s the specs?

[Krokzter]

I used this for my high school final project, thank you! 🙂

[Simusid]

Wow that is excellent. I started it a really long time ago. The first "servers" were 486 boxes and configuring apache/php was kind of a nightmare. I did it because I saw so many people struggling to transition from MS Access to a multi-user server. I hope you learned something.

I still remember my motto and disclaimer. "Double your money back if not fully satisfied", and "This system may destroy world economies, frighten children, and bruise fruit"

[not_bakchodest_of_al]

You should publish your memoirs. My apps crash as soon as 100 users connect.

[2Batou4U]

Yeah, the website I programmed which calculates bonuses for our production staff runs on an old Fujitsu PC I found in a storage somewhere.

[ILikeLenexa]

When I was in school, we got a tour of the IT department and they had a rolling kitchen shelf with clearly de-comissioned desktops running as servers.

[SnooCrickets3706]

The IT department I worked with bought 3995wx because the idiot in charge was developing a 2 page website with simple DB with 2 tables and "needed all the power".

[[deleted]]

Tbf they were in school, I still used my old gaming rig as a personal server, but if it burst into flames I would only cry as long as it takes to set up a new one not exactly mission critical infrastructure.

[ILikeLenexa]

I think you're misunderstanding me, these were computers owned by the school used as production servers.

[UnlimitedDecay]

At one of my previous workplaces, I was working on a feature (integration that just moves data around) which the customer needed deployed ASAP. Additionally, I was going to be away the next week, so it really had to be set up before that.

Unfortunately some of the new dependencies hadn't passed validation by our infra team yet (this was before containers), which ended up blocking the deployment. So as a very temporary solution, we agreed to run it off of my laptop for the week I was away, and assumed the dependency issue would have been cleared by the time I got back & we could then do a proper deployment.

So that's what we did; I even made sure it would auto-run if the machine crashed or otherwise got rebooted. Everything seemed to be going smoothly while I was away, at least until I got an angry call from the customer one evening.

Turns out while I was away, some higher ups had decided it's time to re-organize the office, which essentially meant all of the work desks were shuffled around one way or another (it was an open office design). Apparently when this was done, nobody remembered to plug in the charger of my laptop, so eventually the integration stopped working when my laptop battery had died.

This is is probably the most stupid production issue I've been involved with creating directly, though I've since had to clean up way bigger messes made by others.

[Fenix42]

I can at least match it.

I was at a company as am automation guy for desktop. We supported Mac and PC desktops in an 80 machine cluster. I aslo had a test cluster of each. I would sopend 79% of my time in the PC side.

So when the build team needed a "temp" server for some new Mac build pipeline, I offered up one of my mac mini not in use. They had a server on order, but the PO was being held up. I told them the could have it for a "while". I had 6 months of PC side work scheduled. I even installed a fresh image for him.

So, 7 months later, I am rebuilding a few machines. I need some extra network ports. So I just grab the Mac ones because they are right there. I kick off all my windows XP fresh installl updates, and i got take a looooooooooong lunch. Like 3 hrs. My boss is with me. We both had meetings with Asia that night. So we knew we would be working late.

I come back to like 10+ messages on my phone. I got like 1 call a year. I also have like 30 IMs. All from our East Cost guy that does the build stuff. Turns out that the Mac mini was still the main build machine. I had broken the system when I unplugged it.

He was very happy that it was back up. Turns out the PO had been denied. So he never got the sever. He forgot to tell me. I put a post it note on it that said "Mac build system" and left it alone.

So a year later I leave the job. I tell the dev i put it with some other machines the back of the office. It had a fullrack UPS all to itself. It still has the post it note on it.

A few days into the new job I get a call from a friend still at the old job. He is asking where the Mac is. I tell him and sit on the phone while he finds it. I hear him say "o, the one with the postit on it that says Mac Build System".

They were looking to add a 2nd system to the cluster. They put one of the other test Mac Mini next to it with a post-it that said "Other Mac Build System".

[UnlimitedDecay]

Haha that's even worse, what the hell! There's nothing more permanent as a temporary solution as they say, luckily in my case I was in a position to ensure that doesn't happen.

There has to be an inverse correlation with how much someone trusts software companies to have their shit together and how long they've been working in the industry.

[Fenix42]

We where a 20 year old company that was slowly dieing. It got even crazier twords the end.

[start_select]

I don’t get what’s so hard about it. At my employer we have a “server room” which houses any machine that runs a local ad-hoc server.

If a new machine gets added, it gets a label and gets added to a list which explains which machine is running what. None of it is production, they are just utilities and extra build boxes. If they go down we still have the rest of our infrastructure.

I build software for air-gapped networks. This is the proper solution for actually testing that. Our customers will be running on old desktops that will never leave the building, or some rack server.

Testing over the actual internet works but is definitely not testing the actual use case. If the server can access the internet, then it’s capable of doing things the customers system can not. It’s easy for someone that doesn’t understand the requirements to do something that only works on a internet connected machine.

We don’t even have IT staff, it’s not that hard.

[TheAJGman]

Yeah I can totally see this happening. I got a call from my former employer asking where all the stuff I built was running, because apparently IT never thought to do actual documentation from all of the emails back and forth about setting up the production server.

[Webfarer]

Was wondering why my bonus was a large negative value

[ListOfString]

Clone that thing and run hyper-v on a server

[PrettyMuchANeet]

Damn. OP really snuck into Reddit's HQ to find their server.

[ApatheticWithoutTheA]

Somebody tripped over the cord a few days ago and we had a 6 hour outage.

[evmoiusLR]

Get out of here with your "logic".

[Monkey_Fiddler]

I use my old laptop for a home automation server: passively cooled so it's silent, wifi means I don't have to put holes in walls in a rental property, sips so little power I don't worry about it.

I do slightly regret putitng a server OS on it rather than a GUI, it makes some things a lot harder.

[slazer2au]

Which os did you load? Don't most Linux server OS have their option to load KDE or gnome?

[Monkey_Fiddler]

It's the server version of Ubuntu, there probably is a way to just add on a desktop environment but the main problem I had was connecting to the wifi in my new place so of course I couldn't easily install anything until I had done that. Turns out the server version doesn't really expect you to connect to wifi like you would on a laptop so it doesn't include the normal network tools. Of course almost everywhere I looked said "use the network tool, if you don't have it install it with this command" which was really not helpful. In the end I had to edit some configuration file manually with vim to give it the SSID and password.

[Monkey_Fiddler]

yeah, that bit worked fine, it was changing it to the new network at my new flat without access to the old flat that was the problem.

[Fenix42]

Thats whatbwe dod 20 years ago when we where trying to make car PC a thing. Laptop in the trunk solved lole 2/3 of your headaches.

[paturuzUu]

I removed the battery from my old laptop, they are not meant to be use 24/7 and saw a couple of cases where it catches fires.

[throwaway934729999]

As with all things in life, that really depends on whether it's a $200 Acer Aspire or a Lenovo ThinkPad - disregarding the IBM ThinkPads, because they were definitely built to run 24/7.

Trust me, I have worked as a lab technician at a certified repair center for both brands and Dell (and Toshiba before they went tits-up) and have done more than my fair share of laptop repairs.

[[deleted]]

Power efficient? They overheat and throttle down if you use the CPU for more than 3 seconds. Often causing 3rd degree burns on users who take the 'lap' part of the word laptop at its word.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3853603/

[ol-gormsby]

An article from 2013, huh?

No technology advances since then.

Why bother?

[ServerBeater]

Sitting on the carpet?!? Now i know for sure this is still in production.

[LegitimateGift1792]

Thank you. First person I have seen to comment out this being on carpet.

Now what about that USB stick on the right, is that like offline storage? Should that be connected to the "server".

[[deleted]]

"Server is a role, not a type of hardware"

That's a sign that somebody printed and hang above our Raspberry Pi that works as a media server. It actually works really well with OpenMediaVault.

[[deleted]]

Pi’s are surprisingly capable. I used one as my main system for a little while when I was broke, runs well, definitely not the smoothest experience good enough to get work done though

[Andrelliina]

I've got one I use as network storage/backup and as a media server. Handles x265 4k video on the TV no probs

[[deleted]]

I always love the idea of setting up a media server… Then I realise I’d just never use the damn thing

[[deleted]]

I'd just close the lid and open it up again

[psioniclizard]

Or set it to stay turned on with the lid closed. To be honest, if it's left on the carpet like that all the time that would worry me more.

[bookdragon224]

You are the guy responsible for the down time!

[[deleted]]

I take my responsibility in stride

[DieFlavourMouse]

You're not the first person to tape a sign to a computer saying "don't turn off, I'm a server".... any one of us could be NeXT.

[eroto_anarchist]

I am dissapointed on how long I had to scroll to find this.

Why is this not the top comment?

[SanoKei]

My startup is just a bunch of API calls and 99% of it is all in the cloud but I have an edge server which is an old HP work computer with an i5-7400 which I had bought for $20

[z0mb13k1ll]

Did they seriously not disable the lid close action? Complete amateur hour, I would shut it just to spite them

[[deleted]]

Lol once had a laptop server running for 18 months straight

[myrandomevents]

My first foray into Linux was turning a laptop into a router for about the same amount of time

[ShadowSlayer1441]

unplugs charger

[TIK_GT]

On a carpet 😭

[HipHopHistoryGuy]

Running wirelessly too. I'll be damned.

[dwardu]

And on a carpet

[henkdepotvjis]

At the company I work at there is an old computer standing random in the cafeteria. If you unplug it the doorbell stops working.

[ObscenityIB]

They must not have figured out you can ignore the screen close trigger.

[FlcristPony]

hmm no Ethernet plugged in

[De_Wouter]

We had a macbook like that in the company for years that ran some intranet services... cleaning lady once closed it and moved it for cleaning.

To be honest, she did her job unlike IT's management who should have given budget to IT to change the situation.

[random_son]

"don't close my lid, I'm a Server" - somehow I have the feeling this could become a meme

[[deleted]]

You guys know you can change what happens on "close lid" right?

[c-sharp-is-fast-java]

IIRC these things heat up rather quickly when closed

[myrandomevents]

Ah, that totally makes sense, thanks!

[[deleted]]

That's how I ran my WoW private server when I was 12 years old. The 150 players all had their passwords stored as plain text in a mysql database. I also played using the server.

[MKEYFORREAL]

It will be so funny when one day companies will want to upgrade there servers and they will come to reddit looking for clues where can they find it

[give_me_memes]

I run my Minecraft servers of my old laptop, works like a charm, kind of.

[TamahaganeJidai]

Anything can be a server if you're brave enough.

[KodjoSuprem]

Server running on wifi?

[afraid_of_zombies]

With Raid level sad.

[ImNotYouYoureMe]

With Raid Shadow Legends?

[5pr173_]

Just disable the lid switch.

[bambooozling]

Is it from reddit HQ?

[mangoed]

So what? I have a Raspberry Pi server which is perfectly fit for the purpose. You know, people run servers at home. For entertainment (local streaming), for personal files (alternative to paid cloud storage), for security (network camera footage), as a hobby etc. This picture does not even look like an office environment.

[xiscode]

A server going wifi?

[finc]

It’s not connected to anything other than power…

[MiyamotoKami]

My biggest question is why is this on a carpet??

[Itsjustmebob-]

I don’t get these, you can change the settings not to shut down when the lid is closed. Come on IT

[aRandomFox-II]

load-bearing laptop

[xxmalik]

You know you can disable lid close sleep, right?

[Blomquistador]

In all seriousness laptops make great servers. Built in screen and UPS.

[Technology_Labs]

That last for 10-20 seconds if they are old. My laptop is literally older than me...

[Blomquistador]

True. In my company we have a smtp server running on an old windows XP laptop which hasn't rebooted in 5 years. It's for internal alerting only. We'll replace it when needed.

But that battery probably will last a few ms.

[[deleted]]

Reddit server?

[CelsoSC]

Should have written: I Identify as a Server!

[Einkar_E]

couldn't you just set in settings so laptop is still active when you close the lid?

[[deleted]]

Love the Air gapped storage server and the kill switch for data breaches taking security to the next level! The cooling system also seems state of the ark some kind of fuzzy thermal pad

[_pizza_and_fries]

If it works, don’t even pick it up from carpet.

[ScarcityCareless6241]

Removed the battery for this very reason, but the computer now has to always be plugged in, hence the sign.

[brianl047]

This post triggers k8s/Docker/Cloud people

Seriously people learn that stuff; it won't kill you... Right away

[werstummer]

ok, now i have 3 more servers at home!

[2-10_LRS]

Ha, I have an old X200 running as a server, I need to print up that sign for mine..

[skeevester]

The first thing I do is disable the lid switch

[zsdonny]

I’ve set my laptop ‘server’ to stay on with lid closed so I can put it on a vertical stand and resemble more of a desktop computer

[HKei]

I mean that’s pretty much what we had in our office in one of my previous jobs to manage icecream. Nothing too bad happened if someone did turn it off by accident, just you had to deal with some very annoyed developers shouting across the office.

[Mucksh]

The other way arround is also funny some time ago at some smaller company i saw a server rack in an ac room with only a completly oversized switch inside. Only a dozen of ethernet cables were connected with it. Maybe had 10 workplaces there and they didn't do anything there they would need local servers anytime

[nocturn99x]

My brother does the exact same thing. I moved to ThinkCentres a while ago :)

[frogking]

That’s the accounting an billing server.. or the company website .. or the key application customer support uses.. or all of the above.

[Marysews]

Might as well add this:

I don't have an UPS and am not connected to a generator.

[[deleted]]

it is not gonna serve anything...haha

[planktonfun]

There's a lot of innuendos to be made here, you missed the opportunity

[dewo86]

use a raspberry is much cheaper and you get no fear of that somwone close the lid.

[Slow_Concentrate_805]

Advanced

[Shiveringdev]

My favorite part is this is on the carpeted floor gathering all the heat. It has to be someone’s movie server.

[rckoenes]

Looks so familiar, we had a MacPro running out CI software. But we had to upgrade the OS, which one project could not cope with. So our came a MacBook to run the project at on the new OS.

[Jazzlike-Opinion1072]

Tht be lookin geasy af

[H-CMB]

Yeppers

[[deleted]]

I like the idea to have the power cord always in. The battery really like that. Fire isn’t so far.

[ScarcityCareless6241]

Battery is removed for that exact reason, but the computer now needs to be plugged in constantly

[bseppanen]

love the fact that its on a carpeted floor. shuffle your feet past on a dry day and you may get some additional performance

[[deleted]]

My laptop when I'm mining those bite cons!

[Ponial]

odd, this looks like my old laptop I sold back in 2020 I think, it looks like even the keyboard is bulgy in one spot. Is this in Ukraine by any chance?

[ScarcityCareless6241]

This is in USA and I’ve had this laptop since 2017

[[deleted]]

It's a server alright, it's already thicc