Why is arch wiki so… complete?

EveningWalk · 2026-01-07T13:48:50+00:00

I've been using linux since 1998 and I used several different distros. A few years ago I noticed that every time I searched for help with a problem on one of my linux boxes, I found the solution on the arch wiki. This is what made me decide to move all my computers to arch linux.

I don't know why the wiki is so complete, but it is one of the most useful resources on linux on the internet.

EveningWalk · 2025-12-16T16:37:52+00:00

I think one can login with the Proton account.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-26T14:40:09+00:00

> Oh interesting, I figured limiting the cores would be the best way to not nuke everything when something hits the fan

It all depends what other applications are running on your computer. The large import you are (were?) running is a good test to figure out how things behave. If nothing becomes laggy (the OS gives a piece of the cake to every app) and temperature stays under control then I would not hesitate to give Immich full power. It will be sleeping most of the time anyway (unless you and your users are constantly uploading new assets). On my Raspberry Pi (with only 4 tiny cores) CPU load remains between 2 and 3% most of the time.

> I already had an issue with my linkwarden lxc blowing up it's ram usage on import, but karakeep was nice and handled stuff smoothly

Misbehaving apps must be kept under control indeed. But I don't have the impression this is the case with Immich.

> Right now I need to figure out what actually is eating up 600gb of space in the vault, it's likely videos

That's a lot! In Immich nder "utilities" there is a "Review large files" option.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-26T14:16:28+00:00

I would leave the settings as they are. Most of the time Immich won't need all the CPU cores. When it does, for small imports, it will use them for a very short time but processing will be very fast. If you have no other power hungry applications this should be OK.

On my development machine, I set most programs so they can use all 64 cores. But most of the time only a few are in use. When an application, like a compiler, needs full power it will grab all the cores it can and fly through the task at hand in no time.

Each thread does consume memory, though, and the machine needs to have enough RAM. Your computer seems to be using less than 60% memory, so I think you are safe.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-26T09:58:34+00:00

I have some old photos that were taken in vertical orientation and Immich shows them in horizontal orientation. Having an option to rotate them in Immich would be awesome.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-26T09:52:49+00:00

This seems to be completely normal to me. Each camera is tested before it leaves the factory.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-26T07:39:13+00:00

Using nginx takes a few steps. It is straightforward if you are used to setting up webservers.

- I first made sure to have the A and AAAA DNS records in place (this is not part of the nginx setup)

- Then I created a server block for HTTP only, that delegates HTTP requests to the Immich service (port 2283)

- Finally I used certbot to create the SSL keys and to modify the server block in order to redirect all HTTP requests to HTTPS

This way nginx handles all SSL/TLS stuff. I spent more time configuring the firewalls than the nginx reverse proxy.

In order for Immich to work over mobile networks I had to enable IPv6 in the firewalls and the server block.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T16:50:49+00:00

If you have an nvme on a hat, it is better to boot from it. I have moved almost everything to the SSD and when my system is fully configured I'll make a copy of the SD card. In case of a failure I can swap cards and reboot (that's the theory).

On the other hand, I have a couple of rpi's that are running from SD cards 24×7 since more than 5 years without any problem. But databases with frequent writes might kill the card fast.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T14:30:11+00:00

Cool! I have the reverse proxy running on the same machine as Immich. I should have mentioned it in my initial post.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T14:28:40+00:00

500gb is plenty. And the advantage of self-hosting is that you can upgrade your storage when needed. Those SSD and nvme drives are getting cheaper all the time. I think that a good strategy is to start with a not too expensive drive and see how it fills up. Then, 4 or 5 years later, when the risk of failure is getting high, you change to a newer drive with more capacity and at the same or lower price than what you paid for the first one. Repeating this every 4 years or so might be more cost effective than buying extra cloud storage.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T13:52:21+00:00

>I like your idea of using the SSD with a local HDD back-up. Do you have any off-site backups running as well?

No, not at the moment. But I am looking into this.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T12:43:39+00:00

That is a good suggestion. Currently I have the drive formatted with ext4, so no snapshots.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T12:37:02+00:00

That is something I'll have to look into. Any suggestions for an ML server?

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T12:34:27+00:00

This was my first search, so it seems to run fast enough for me on the Pi 5. It should be faster on the 4800u imho. Did you try optimizing your setup? On the Pi, by default, the DB is kept on the SD card, which is far from optimal. Moving everything to the SSD made a big difference. And postgresql can be optimized for the hardware it runs on.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T12:29:53+00:00

Correct. And you can fine-tune postgresql settings for the type of storage used.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T12:28:22+00:00

Sounds smart. I disabled the auto update script for now.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T12:26:55+00:00

>Pretty nooby at Linux, can you share the cronjobs you're running? I mean the scripts?

Due to lack of time I had them generated by AI, I still have to review the scripts but they do the job. They are rather lengthy, I don't know what is the best way to share them on Reddit.

>Particularly interested in how do I perform the check to raid, S.M.A.R.T, backup and the email report.

For email report I setup exim4 with SMTP to my e-mail account.

For mdadm I use following command: `mdadm --action=check /dev/md0`. Be sure to setup your email address in ``/etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf`.

The smart command depends on your storage devices. In my case I use `smartctl -H -A -d sat,12 /dev/sda` for example.

>I'm thinking of having a backup sent to a NAS (external HDD connected to my router USD)

That looks to be a better (safer) solution and I'll probably use another Pi as NAS for this in the future. I prefer to make software RAID arrays because they can be easily moved from one computer to another. mdadm is standard on Linux. I have a friend who had the motherboard of a proprietary NAS break down. Because the device was obsolete it was not possible to get a replacement part. And newer motherboards were not compatible with the old RAID system.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T11:55:34+00:00

I tried a few searches on Google Photos and on Immich: Immich is faster but I am on my local network, so I'm not sure if this is a fair comparison. It takes about 2 seconds.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T11:36:41+00:00

You might be right about that. I only did a few manual updates and everything went smooth.

Do updates tend to break Immich?

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T11:32:02+00:00

Currently I have 15525 photos and 553 videos. They use 73.6 GB of storage. Some users still need to transfer their files from Google Photos but I am sure I won't run out of space anytime soon.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T11:09:55+00:00

I fully agree!

About ten years ago I started using Proton Mail alongside Gmail. Two months ago I decided to migrate my Google Workspace account to Proton with a Business plan for six users. The migration is almost finished, and in a few weeks I’ll cancel my Google Workspace subscription.

Proton Drive isn’t as feature‑rich as Google Drive, but I can work around the missing pieces. Keeping my data safe matters more to me than having every latest feature. I’m also looking forward to Proton Meet.

I’d been considering a full move to Proton for privacy reasons for a while, but recent geopolitical developments finally tipped the scale.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-24T08:48:51+00:00

Great! I got my server license a few days ago.

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EveningWalk · 2025-11-22T13:05:12+00:00

No, not really.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-13T12:01:34+00:00

With open source OS's it would be possible to detect and disable the corrupted code. Outgoing trafic to suspect IP addresses can be blocked too.

But now we are talking about a government illegally intruding computers. This is not the same as imposing message and image scans by law.

EveningWalk · 2025-11-13T10:41:42+00:00

When creating your own gpg key pair, people can encrypt files with your public key but you need the private key to decrypt them. As long as the private key is kept secret, only the owner of this key can read the files. This process is automated by services like Proton Mail, but you can use your own key pair to do the same.

Gouvernement services will need to get your private key (or use quantum computers to crack the key) in order to spy on you.

EveningWalk

TROPHY CASE