My installation process for a new mouse is as follows: 1 - Attempt to plug it in. 2 - Flip the USB connector. 3 - Plug it in. 4 - Use the mouse.

Is there anything at all to be gained from installing the software that comes with the mouse? Even with extra side buttons, I’ve never had anything not work out of the box.

Edit: OP is remapping buttons. Got it.

This is also true of Jellyfin, though. I have apps on my Windows PC, my Android phone, multiple Nvidia Shield boxes on my TVs, plus the web interface if I need it.

I switched over from Plex several years ago, and while it takes a bit more time to configure, compatibility for clients seems just as good for Jellyfin as it is for Plex.

Most importantly, Jellyfin is strictly client/server, no “cloud” bullshit and no remote account is required; I don’t want Plex phoning home with a list of the media on my file server.

I believe you’re correct. I didn’t realize that I had my containers set to privileged. That would explain why I’ve never had issues with mounting shares.

I’m sorry, I think I gave you bad information. I have my containers set to unprivileged=no. I forgot about the “double negative” in how that flag was described.

So apparently my containers are privileged, so I don’t think I’ve ever tried to do what you are doing.

I’m leaving this here for continuity, but don’t follow what I said here. I have my containers set as privileged. I was wrong.

I have a server that runs Proxmox and a server that runs TrueNAS, so a very similar setup to yours. As long as your LXC is tied to a network adapter that has access to your file server (it almost certainly is unless you’re using multiple NICs and/or VLANs), you should be able to mount shares inside your LXC just like you do on any other Linux machine.

Can you ping your fileserver from inside the container? If so, then the issue is with the configuration in the container itself. Privileged or unprivileged shouldn’t matter here. How are you trying to mount the CIFS share?

Edit: I see that you’re mounting the share in Proxmox and mapping it to your container. You don’t need to do this. Just mount it in the container itself.

My pellet stove is a bit different. It has a built-in thermostat, and a combination rotary switch/potentiometer to control the temperature. This switch has a single wire that tells the controller to shut off the stove (wire is shorted) or control the on/off set points based on the resistance. I just leave it at “fully-on” and use a normally-closed relay to control it. When HA wants to turn on the stove, it just switches the relay to open, which tells the stove to start up and continue running until the relay is closed. The built-in thermostat just switches the stove on/off, so I’m essentially just disabling that and offloading it to HomeAssistant.

I also have a fairly complex automation for my stove. I’m using it to heat a large workshop, but I generally only use my shop on days I’m not going to work. On my off days, HA checks my location (from my phone), and if I’m home, it’ll heat up my shop in the early morning so it’s already comfortable when I wake up. It’s tied into my occupancy sensors, so if the ambient temperature is below a set point and somebody is in the shop, it’ll maintain the temperature even if my schedule doesn’t mandate it. It also takes into account outdoor temperature, and it overrides everything and heats up my shop anyway if it’s at risk of freezing (frozen wood glue doesn’t work very well). I also monitor run time, and it’ll send me a notification when it needs to be cleaned. I use 18 hours, though; with my stove, I think if I let it go to 150 like yours, it’d be a fire hazard.

I hadn’t thought of monitoring pellet level, but I really like your idea. I think a beam sensor at the bottom of the hopper might do the trick. It wouldn’t give a level, but it work to let you know when it’s empty. I’m also wondering of you could install an IR emitter and photodiode on the hopper door facing downward and calculate a fill level based on how much light is reflected back. Maybe a series of contact switches from top to bottom. It’d definitely be a fun project.

I don’t think it’s so much that Zigbee is a gamble, but that buying off-brand cheap Chinese devices is a gamble.

Like another commenter said, you get what you pay for. I have some Phillips bulbs that have seriously been working well for a decade, long before I even knew about HomeAssistsnt or even knew what Zigbee was, other than that’s what the Hue bridge used.

Part of the problem is that more obscure Zigbee devices can sometimes only be found from companies with names that look like somebody just mashed their hand on the keyboard. For something like a relay or a mmWave sensor, you’re likely going to be trying to pick the best of a few questionable options unless you build it yourself. Alternatively, sometimes it just doesn’t really matter. I have a cheap temperature sensor in a storage space. I don’t care if it occasionally drops off the network; it’s just there to satisfy my curiosity.

I wish it was that simple. I don’t remember channel numbers offhand, but I mapped out my WiFi and Zigbee networks to be non-ovrlapping. I don’t have any neighbors close enough to even register an SSID, either.

The weird thing is that location doesn’t seem to matter. I have a few Aquara devices spread out across several hundred feet. The one that’s close enough to connect directly to my controller is actually the least reliable.

I use one for the same thing! I have a pellet stove, and I set the knob to “on,” then installed a relay in line with the knob. HA monitors temperature with another sensor and switches the pellet stove as needed.

I’ve got another two connected to solenoid valves, and another in a custom lighting system. They’ve been rock solid for a year or two.

The wide input power range is really convenient, too. Depending on what you’re controlling, you can probably either just power it off the same supply, or grab any random adapter and hack off the barrel plug.

That’s interesting. I first set up Aquara door sensors on all my doors. Every single one has dropped off the network and required re-pairing multiple times. I’ve started just replacing them with Thirdreality door sensors when they drop rather than re-pairing.

I wonder if my controller or my Zigbee integration has something to do with it?

Does Thirdreality make a UK plug? I can’t find one on Amazon but that might be because I’m US-based. Out of all the plugs I’ve tried, theirs have been the best in terms of reliability.

I am virtually never out of town, but if I was, then no, I wouldn’t worry.

If there was a technical problem that left my servers inaccessible, then oh well. It’s the same scenario as if I had shut them off. I’d fix it when I get back. This has never happened, though. I’ve had VMs crash, but I have never had a situation where any of my servers were completely inaccessible.

The only situation I can think of where I’d need to immediately shut down a server would be a drive failure in my ZFS array, but the chances of this happening in conjunction with a loss of connectivity are exceedingly unlikely. If it was a major concern, I’d write a script to power down the server when a drive fails.

I use a mmWave presence sensor and PIR motion sensor in each room. I’ve found that mmWave sensors tend to give false positives and motion sensors don’t work too well when a person is at rest (say sitting and watching TV). Lights come on when the motion sensor triggers, then they shut off when the presence sensor has been idle for a set time, usually 5 minutes. This works perfectly for me.

I have a Rachio irrigation controller. I’d recommend OpenSprinkler to avoid being tied to a “cloud” service, but I didn’t know that when I purchased my Rachio.

One of my irrigation zones feeds into my greenhouse. It splits off to two solenoid valves. When it’s time to water my plants, HA triggers that zone through the Rachio integration and opens the appropriate solenoid valve that connects to my emitters. If my humidifier gets low, then it does the same thing but opens the other valve.

That’s really interesting with your TV. I would actually expect power consumption to increase with 1080p since it’s having to upsample the input to match your native resolution. Unless you’re playing 4k content on a 1080p panel, in which case it makes more sense.

You didn’t mention it directly, but if you want to access any of your hosted services remotely, you will almost certainly want some kind of VPN solution. I host a few things over HTTPS, but there’s no way I’m exposing anything critical directly to the internet.

I suppose it depends on your use case, but I would disagree with points 1 and 2. Network connectivity has an effect on your entire network and is absolutely crucial. Pfsense/OPNSense, DNS, etc should always be on server-class hardware. I run these as VM, but I would argue that best practice is to have them on their own bare-metal server-class hardware. File storage is also incredibly important, and even with backups, I don’t want my NAS going down. It also runs on server class-hardware.

The two items you mentioned are the two items I would be least comfortable running on consumer-grade hardware.

My server rack gets shut off in only two cases: I lose power and am too slow in firing up the generator before the UPS shuts the servers down, or I need to do major maintenance (like replacing a PCIe card). So, virtually never for the most part.

Too many important sevices need to stay running, even when I’m not at home.

I definitely get that. The big thing for me is music, and I routinely buy physical and digital copies of albums to add to my collection. I don’t mind sending some money to help my favorite artists keep producing content that I enjoy. With video, though, it’s just so much harder. I’d be happy to pay $50 or more per month for what Netflix used to be, or even buy downloadable copies of a TV series that I like. That’s just not possible these days. I’d be subscribing to Netflix, Discovery, Paramount, Apple TV, probably a few more. It’s ridiculous. Forget buying and downloading TV shows; there’s no option for that at all. I’d rather just not watch TV or find an “alternate” means of getting the media I want.

I canceled Netflix several years ago after having used it as my primary source of media almost since they first started their streaming service.

The problem I had is that the quality of their content decreased so dramatically that even though it worked fine from a technical perspective, there was nothing I wanted to watch. They used to have extensive back-catelogues of shows from all sorts of different national cable networks, tons of interesting foreign shows, documentaries, obscure indie films, etc.

Slowly but surely this all disappeared. Networks stopped licensing content to Netflix. As soon as they realized that streaming was the way of the future, they wanted to capitalize on it with their own streaming services. In a way, Netflix was a victim of their own success.

Now they’re essentially just a TV network of their own and not the aggregator of media that they used it me. The few decent originals that they have were just not justification enough for me to pay for a service I might use a few times a year.