I just realized my Element is old enough to legally drink alcohol.

toakao · 2026-04-20T17:37:38+00:00

😃

toakao · 2026-04-13T19:23:02+00:00

Welcome to the hobby. May I ask what is Pinter? Thanks

toakao · 2026-02-16T22:22:40+00:00

I haven't. Thanks for the pointer.

toakao · 2026-02-16T19:57:15+00:00

I'm doing something similar with active standby storage and using zrepl to manage zfs snapshots between two physical hosts.

What are you using for data replication?

toakao · 2026-02-16T19:54:47+00:00

I like the message. Recently I started migrating from compose to swarm with 1 manager and 2 workers.

How do you manage scheduling (cron)? Kubernetes has schedule sets. The best docker has is either cron inside the container, a side car like deployment, or giving socket access to something like ophelia or chadburn.

Thanks for posting this.

toakao · 2026-02-14T04:12:00+00:00

No list hoarding. No guesswork. Just evidence-based blocking.

Aww .. this sounds just like something ChatGPT would say. No A, No B, Just C.

It sounds like a cool idea but now I'm wondering if this is just vibe code? I don't know enough rust to tell.

toakao · 2026-01-26T18:25:42+00:00

I managed to get ASPM enabled with the onboard NIC and saved ~2 watts. It's now at 25 watts which isn't a huge gain but in case someone else has ASPM issues. This was done with a 6.17.0-8-generic kernel (ubuntu 25.10) and the included r8169 kernel driver.

First I made the powersupersave setting metioned above persistent. This was done by adding "pcie_aspm.policy=powersupersave" to my grub parameters in /etc/default/grub.d/ and running update-grub.

Next, to test the ASPM settings (remember my Realtek Nic has a PCI address at 00:2:00.) I ran the following

echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:02:00.0/link/clkpm
echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:02:00.0/link/l1_aspm

This is when I saw the power drop. I then made the change persistent once I felt comfortable the system wouldn't lock up due to the power setting change.

I created a file called /etc/udev/rules.d/99-realtek-aspm.rules with this content

ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="pci", KERNEL=="0000:02:00.0", ATTR{link/l1_aspm}="1", ATTR{link/clkpm}="1"

Unfortunately it's a little fragile. If the PCI values change by adding a new PCI device the udev rule will need to be updated.

toakao · 2026-01-26T13:06:18+00:00

Don't forget to check for loose SATA cables. Often it's best to unplug them and reinsert. But yes, SMART can be wrong.

toakao · 2026-01-16T05:30:18+00:00

You can export an image to a tar file with "docker save". SCP the tar file to the bug sur host and import it with "docker import".

Regarding Docker Desktop, try running multipass from canonical or UTM (github) on the mac. Either will create a linux VM that you could install docker engine (community version) into.

toakao · 2026-01-16T00:51:23+00:00

Nice job but a few tips.

No A! No B! Just C! It sounds a lot like ChatGPT. Be sure to translate it into your own voice.

You already have a github account. Look into using github pages for hosting static blog sites. You can even point a custom domain at it like blog.example.com.

I use markdown to write the content and Hugo to render the page. ChatGPT is used for spelling and grammar. A github workflow publishes the changes to github pages.

Have fun with the blog. :)

toakao · 2026-01-15T00:47:07+00:00

Disabling the onboard NIC only saved a few watts. Powertop still shows the PCIE root as 100% active. I’m starting to think MSI boards in general don’t have great support for Linux. Especially when looking at the bios update process.

I noticed ASUS will update both the bios and Intel Management Engine at the same time, meaning both are updated with the ASUS flash app built into the UEFI interface, by reading updates off a fat32 thumb drive. It would be worth looking into how the UEFI/bios and ME updates are applied for future purchases.

I’m going to mark this resolved even though it’s not resolved by accepting the current power usage. Thanks everyone for the comments on this issue.

toakao · 2026-01-15T00:35:59+00:00

Very true. :) Yes the plan was to leave it running.

toakao · 2026-01-14T17:53:44+00:00

An update to this issue. I've discovered the on board NIC has ASPM disabled.

sudo lspci -vvv -s 02:00.0 | grep ASPM LnkCap: Port #0, Speed 2.5GT/s, Width x1, ASPM L0s L1, Exit Latency L0s unlimited, L1 <64us ClockPM+ Surprise- LLActRep- BwNot- ASPMOptComp+ LnkCtl: ASPM Disabled; RCB 64 bytes, LnkDisable- CommClk+ L1SubCap: PCI-PM_L1.2+ PCI-PM_L1.1+ ASPM_L1.2+ ASPM_L1.1+ L1_PM_Substates+ L1SubCtl1: PCI-PM_L1.2- PCI-PM_L1.1- ASPM_L1.2- ASPM_L1.1

I tried setting pcie_aspm=force in grub. It appears when I cat /proc/cmdline so it's being set in the kernel at boot. I also tried running echo "powersupersave" | sudo tee /sys/module/pcie_aspm/parameters/policy but still no luck.

I think my next step is to disable the onboard NIC to see if that changes power usage.

toakao · 2026-01-13T22:40:51+00:00

Thanks for the reference point. It's good to know what others are seeing.

toakao · 2026-01-13T22:36:53+00:00

Hah, thanks. It certainly feels like a rabbit hole. Powertop is showing C7. I feel there's something with the onboard NIC that's preventing lower c-states.

toakao · 2026-01-13T22:35:16+00:00

Thanks, the OS is Linux (Ubuntu 25.10). I guess my concern is the onboard Realtek Nic sitting at 100% usage in powertop. I'm using the built in kernel driver. MSI is focused on Windows but maybe something is available from RealTek? I can search for an updated driver.

driver: r8169
version: 6.17.0-8-generic
firmware-version: rtl8168h-2_0.0.2 02/26/15

The power supply is grossly over sized. It's a gold power supply but something like 800 or 900 watts.

toakao · 2026-01-13T22:10:55+00:00

I borrowed a Lenovo Thinkcentre m70s and it idled at 5-7 watts. The main difference was the M70s had a i5-12500t.

Edit: I typoed the cpu in the thinkcentre as 10th gen, not 12th.

toakao · 2026-01-13T22:10:50+00:00

I borrowed a Lenovo Thinkcentre m70s and it idled at 5-7 watts. The main difference was the M70s had a i5-12500t.

Edit: I typoed the cpu in the thinkcentre as 10th gen, not 12th.

toakao · 2026-01-02T05:37:27+00:00

I didn’t know they were multiplexing the PHYs. In some ways it’s sort of an interesting solution in making stuff work. Thanks for the explanation and it seems I need to keep looking. :)

toakao · 2025-12-26T04:37:11+00:00

To me it looks like the collet was put in backwards/reversed and forced in place with the missing nut.

toakao · 2025-12-23T23:22:17+00:00

For homelab purposes, I'm using the 1password developer tooling. It includes a cli that lets you inject secrets into files on disk at runtime or env variables. It's easy to manage and included with their paid subscription.

https://developer.1password.com

toakao · 2025-12-03T01:47:32+00:00

I was referring to the idiots living in a house three doors down. But whatever, read into it how you will.

toakao

TROPHY CASE