Migrating from Ubuntu to Freenas

Over the weekend I decided to rebuild my home network.  My NAS machine has been running Ubuntu server 14.04 for the past year hosting a 6TB ZFS array over the network.  I became bored of using Ubuntu on this machine so I switched to FreeNas.  I've used FreeNas in the past and it worked quite well.

I was afraid that installing FreeNas would nuke my entire storage array, so I backed up the important stuff to some external hard drives.  Installing FreeNas (version 9.3.1 at the time of this writing) took less than ten minutes, which was fortunate for me because I had to stand on a stepladder in my freezing cold garage to do this. 

Much to my surprise, the ZFS volumes created under Ubuntu were detected and imported successfully by FreeNas.  I just love it when technology actually works the way it should. 

No rebuilding necessary!!

Setting up an Ubuntu router

Over the last week I scratched an geeky itch that I'd been having for a while.  I wanted to convert away from using SOHO networking equipment.  Instead I configured a Linux based PC to act as a router/firewall/DNS/DHCP server and another linux box to be a media server. This post will cover the setup procedures for the router box.

During the process I learned a lot about networking.  In the past I have always been able to avoid iptables, but this time I could not.  I bit the bullet and decided to read up on how iptables worked instead of just blindly copying and pasting commands and crossing my fingers.  What did I learn?  iptables really aren't that difficult conceptually, they're just not explained well by most tutorials on the internet.  I won't try to explain them in detail in this post.  Here is a link to a site that explains them really well.  Specifically, see section 3 for details about how packets actually traverse iptables.  Reading that section first will help you understand the commands that you will input later.

Here is a basic list of functionality that my router needed to have in order to be a viable replacement for my current SOHO wifi router:

• NAT routing
• firewall
• DHCP
• DNS
• OpenVPN 

Additionally,  my router is configured to handle the PPPOE connection to my DSL provider. This step is only necessary if you have DSL or some other service which uses PPPOE to connect.  As a bonus feature, I also set up a script to automatically update dynamic DNS for the current external IP address of the router.

First, I recommend configuring your new router without exposing it to the internet.  Plug the WAN port of your new router into your existing LAN.  Then plug another computer into the LAN port of your router.  This way you will be able to test all of your configurations without taking down your internet connection. 

Google Drive High CPU usage

Ummm, why does my computer sound like a scaled down jet airplane about to take off?  Oh, just Google Drive running away trying to upload files while I don't have an internet connection.

Google Drive building up pressure with no Intertubes to vent with

As soon as I restore my internet connection by tethering my phone, Google Drive calms down again.  

Google Drive with internet connection

For those interested in collecting bug samples from the wild:
Google Drive OSX App version: 1.24.9931.5480
OSX Version 10.10.4

iPhoto sucked, Photos sucks more, use Unbound instead

 As an aspiring photographer, I take a lot of pictures.   When I'm done shooting I need a place to import and organize my photos.  Like most Mac users, I used iPhoto and later Photos because they were included with the system.  But iPhoto and Photos have been nothing but a pain in the ass for me.

iPhoto started to suck right around the time I started shooting in RAW.  The import process was unbearably slow.  It was a throwback to the dial up days when you'd go make some coffee while waiting for the page to load.  iPhoto often took 10 minutes or more to import less than 100 pictures.  During the import process, iPhoto would peg all my CPU cores to 100% making my Macbook Pro lag like a bargain bin Android tablet.

Photos was only a slight improvement in that regard.  The import process was much quicker. However, the entire time Photos was open my CPU usage was always around 100% on one or two cores.  This essentially makes Photos useless on a laptop without having a charger nearby.  That kind of power consumption is just not acceptable for a photo viewing app.

Unbound for Mac seems like the best alternative. I don't need the editing features that iPhoto or Photos have.  I just need a simple viewer and organizer that works.  Better yet, Unbound doesn't store the photo files inside of some blackbox folder structure.  It just leaves them the way they were on your machine.  Unbound is fast and simple and it just works.