TL;DR: Wrestled with my Synology NAS trying to get a Debian VM running, started learning Kubernetes and Argo Workflows, watched Catsby and Miss Biscuits become friends, populated my BBS with text files from textfiles.com. Also: no, I don't need to build a BBS Door that controls Home Assistant lights. (But maybe I do?)

Cat Updates

I think Catsby and Miss Biscuits are getting along:

Our cats just love a thing-on-a-thing. Blanket on a blanket? Sold. Envelope that fell off a desk to land on a rug? Occupied. TV remote on a pillow? Incubated.

Adventures in Synology VMs

I've got a Synology DS723+ NAS. It's been okay as a file server, but part of why I got it was because it claims to support Docker and running VMs.

Well, it does run Docker. But it runs Docker Engine v24 wrapped up in their own proprietary management package. Upstream is at v27 and I can't upgrade it. Also their management package locks up in weird ways and has been unreliable.

It also runs virtual machines. But every time I try to install a simple Debian 13 VM, it ends up freezing on boot. No idea why.

So I dunno, maybe I expected too much from the thing. This is my 3rd Synology NAS, the previous two have only served as network file servers and done fine at that. This is the first one I thought might do a lil more. I think the next replacement for this thing will just be a plain old Linux server on a surplus PC.

I think these Synology devices are "apple-like" insofar as they should "just work" but otherwise they're a nightmare to get anything not-Synology running on them as an OS. Ironically, I started getting Synology NASes years ago because I was tired of running my own Linux machines at home. Now the turntables have turned, I guess.

Update: Oh hey! I got a Debian 13 VM running on my Synology NAS. It only took the extremely intuitive step of changing the video card setting from "vmvga" to "vga", which I didn't at all try at random. So, success, I guess?

Learning Kubernetes

Because I want to make a bunch of computers do a bunch of things, I'm learning me a Kubernetes and an Argo Workflows. I think I might be on the right track. I think my near-future path is getting a better old PC to run Proxmox on. I have it on an old underpowered PC just to play with it, but I need to upgrade.

This, not coincidentally, is also why I'm trying to shoehorn some VMs onto my NAS. I might try to press one or more into service as Kubernetes nodes for fun and frustration.

BBS Text File Hoard

While waiting for tests to run, I, an enormous old dork, figured out how to leech text files from textfiles.com and shove them into the text files section on my BBS. Don't tell him but I think some dude named Sketch the Cow uploaded his whole site to this hot new Torrent tracker called archive.org. Only got a couple directories unpacked, but I think I might noodle around with dumping in a bunch of the rest just to have them around.

Miscellanea