DIY & Home Improvements

Docker Container for phpMyAdmin

Been containerizing a lot of my tools and just added phpMyAdmin to that list. It’s very easy to get going with it esp. if you also happen to have a Docker container running MySQL albeit with one minor issue. Official docker hub page: https://hub.docker.com/r/phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin/ Use an example Docker Run script below docker run \ –name name \ –restart=always \ -d \ –link mysqlcontainer:mysql \ -p localport:80 \ -e “PMA_HOST=mysqlcontainer” \ phpmyadmin/phpmyadmin localport is the port …

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Docker Transmission Container with Windscribe VPN

Found this awesome container that has Transmission with VPN support which I can use with Windscribe VPN. Docker Hub Link – https://hub.docker.com/r/haugene/transmission-openvpn/ Run command: docker run \ –name somename\ –restart=always \ –cap-add=NET_ADMIN \ –device=/dev/net/tun \ -d \ -v localdir:/data:z \ -v /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro \ –log-driver json-file \ –log-opt max-size=10m \ -p localport:9091 \ –dns 8.8.8.8 –dns 8.8.4.4 \ -e “OPENVPN_PROVIDER=WINDSCRIBE” \ -e “OPENVPN_USERNAME=user” \ -e “OPENVPN_PASSWORD=pass” \ -e “OPENVPN_CONFIG=US-East-tcp” \ -e “LOCAL_NETWORK=iprange” \ -e “TRANSMISSION_WEB_UI=combustion” \ …

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Installing Smart Water Shut Off Valve

I took my smart home journey one step further today. I installed a smart auto water shutoff valve. Wow, what’s that? Well, this device mounts to your main water shutoff valve and automatically open or close it based on your command. Sounds magic! Yes it’s magic. Seriously, we now have Z-Wave devices that do this magic. I bought one such device called “Dome Water Main Shut-Off”. Dome’s device mounts to your main water pipe and …

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Cortana now supports Smart Home integration

I don’t use Cortana very much. I don’t have Cortana powered speakers. I don’t have Cortana app installed on my cellphone and I don’t use any Windows Phones anymore… but one thing that I have and majority of people do is a Windows 10 computer. If you do own that, then Cortana comes installed by default on it and you can actually use it to do some really cool stuff if you happen to have …

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Update: House Electrical Work

Late last year I started updating Electricals in our 1900s Foursquare. Over the 100+ years of this historical house, many families have lived and of course they have done their share of updates to the House’s electrical system. When I began, the house had approx. 70-80% of the wiring in the form of dreaded Knob & Tube wiring. Updates made by previous owners had resulted in a mix of all kinds of wiring – K&T, …

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Fixing Random Samba Share Lockouts Part 2 w/Docker

Continuation of my previous post about fixing random Samba Share lockouts. I discovered that Docker and Samba were fighting to gain access to the folders. If I set the label to samba_share_t, then Docker loses access. If I allow Docker (with “Z” option while running container), then Docker resets the label to “svirt_sandbox_file_t”. How can I make both use it? Turns out there is a solution. Credit to this Serverfault post: https://serverfault.com/a/881098/449814 Create a new …

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Fixing Random Samba Share Lockouts

Ever had Samba shares on CentOS become randomly inaccessible? If so, I might have a cure… Turns out the culprit is (yet) again SELinux. Thank you SELinux for your super sensitive security policies… It turns out that you might have lost extra important SELinux label on the share and sub-folders. Don’t ask me why and how? Perhaps a boot failure or power failure or random act of God?! OK, here’s the solution you are looking …

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Fixing Grub2 on Centos 7

Grub2 is a very frustrating bootloader esp. when it fails. Here are some of things I have tried that have worked in the past related to Grub2 errors. Symptom – System starts into Grub2 prompt or simply does not start. This happened to me recently when yum package update broke something in Grub. The system was booting into Grub2 prompt. This happened on my system because of bad grub.cfg file. Assuming you still have a …

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Jasmine my print server

Last week I built a print server at home. I already have a home server called Jarvis which does media sharing through Plex and runs this blog but it’s situated in the basement. The printer I wanted to use is a USB label printer therefore it wasn’t feasible for me to use Jarvis as a print server as it would have required a very long USB cable from basement to second floor where my home …

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How to configure Brother QL-700 label printer on CentOS

I recently built a print server at home where I have attached the Brother QL-700 label printer. That printer does not have Wireless printing feature and I wanted to have all computers in the house be able to use it over the network. I thought of buying a new label printer that comes with Wireless connectivity but I couldn’t find any brand new label printer less than $100. Then I had an idea. Why don’t …

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