Selfhost offline software
Recently in Spain we have suffered a complete power outage, with no electricity for a long time.
Some were able to have power on their computers with generators, solar panels, etc.
And I know you can have data connectivity with SDR or HAM radio.
But my question here is, what are some good self-host/local offline software that we can have and use for when something like this happens.
I know kiwix, and some other for manuals. Please feel free to share the ones you know and love, can be for any type of thing as long as it works completely offline, just name it.
Of course for GNU/Linux (using Arch myself BTW).
Thanks in advance.
Some were able to have power on their computers with generators, solar panels, etc.
And I know you can have data connectivity with SDR or HAM radio.
But my question here is, what are some good self-host/local offline software that we can have and use for when something like this happens.
I know kiwix, and some other for manuals. Please feel free to share the ones you know and love, can be for any type of thing as long as it works completely offline, just name it.
Of course for GNU/Linux (using Arch myself BTW).
Thanks in advance.
CarrotsHaveEars
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R • • •A piece of software always runs locally. It is in some cases those who needs to communicate with the server fail to deliver the usual function you expect when offline.
Please do not confuse one to another.
And perhaps you can start by complaining which services you are using heavily relying on the server side? General questions attract general answers and IMHO you are better off just search on the internet.
6R1M R34P3R
in reply to CarrotsHaveEars • • •Nanook
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R • •6R1M R34P3R
in reply to Nanook • • •many people here have already generators, solar panels etc and that worked ok here
TCB13
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R • • •This is going to be controversial but...
Linux is not really suited for the post-apocalitic no-internet world, the way the repositories are built and software is packed (almost nothing is static, a lot of dependencies on other packages everywhere) just makes it really impractical and hard to deal with those scenarios. Windows however is a much more solid and good option, yes, it's painful to hear this but in Windows you can get an exe from a friend in a flash drive and it runs as is. Sames goes for installers, reinstalling the OS etc. There's only a couple of .net framework installers that will cover dependencies for 99.99% of stuff in a few MB.
6R1M R34P3R
in reply to TCB13 • • •what I'm not willing to use is propietary software
so more than controversial, you are just not being helpfull
balsoft
in reply to TCB13 • • •There are ways to deal with this. There's AppImage for GUI apps (that replicates the "just get an exe from a friend on a flash drive") and lots of bundling programs for non-GUI apps (I use
nix-bundlebecause I use Nix, but there are other options too).Lots of distro installers work offline too, by just bringing all the stuff you need as part of the installer.
And one major benefit of Linux is that when stuff does inevitably go wrong, it's infinitely easier to fix than proprietary garbage.
TCB13
in reply to balsoft • • •AppImage suffers from the same problem that Flatpak does, the tool do work offline aren't really good/solid and won't save you for sure. It also requires a bunch of very small details to all align and be correct for things to work out.
Imagine the post-apocalyptic scenario, if you're missing a dependency to get something running, or a driver, or something specific of your architecture that wasn't deployed by the friend alongside the AppImage / Flatpak (ie. GPU driver) you're cooked. Meanwhile on Windows it has basic GPU drivers for the entire OS bakes in, or you can probably fish around for an installer as fix the problem. It is way more likely that you'll find machines with Windows and windows drivers / installer than Linux ones with your very specific hardware configuration.
balsoft
in reply to TCB13 • • •I've been using my laptop in areas without internet for days. It works fine.
I have
appimage-runfrom nixpkgs installed, which handles all those details. They are also not too hard to figure out manually should you need to.GPU drivers are emphatically not part of the AppImage. They are provided by Mesa, which is almost guaranteed to be installed.
It's actually the other way around - if you want your GPU to work properly on a new Windows install, you have to fish around for AMD/NVidia drivers. On Linux Mesa is pretty much pre-installed on all distros.
LMAO, try moving a windows installation from Ryzen+AMD GPU to Intel+NVidia GPU and let me know how it goes (hint: you will have to manually uninstall, and then install a shit ton of drivers, for which you will need internet).
Meanwhile I'm typing this from a (Ryzen+AMD GPU) desktop which has an SSD from my (Intel+integrated graphics) laptop. When I plugged it in, it booted into sway just fine, with complete GPU support and all, and the only reason I had to update my config is to make it more convenient to use on the desktop.
Linux is not the best "apocalypse" OS, but it sure is better than Windows.
6R1M R34P3R
in reply to TCB13 • • •iii
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R • • •6R1M R34P3R
in reply to iii • • •Mark
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R • • •6R1M R34P3R
in reply to Mark • • •can you recommend a kit or just works hardware for meshtastic?
tasankovasara
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R • • •TCB13
in reply to tasankovasara • • •Yeah, some people don't like to run with full repo mirrors but keep updated copies of the Debian ISO that can be mounted as repositories at any point:
It's essentially the same, but in another format.
Debian: Notes About ISO Images and Offline Archives
Tadeu BentoMNByChoice
in reply to TCB13 • • •qjkxbmwvz
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R • • •You mentioned ham radio --- definitely fun! It's a process to get into it though, as you need to study/pass an exam, and then you need a radio. Radios range from cheap ($25 or so) in the VHF/UHF ("walkie talkie"-style) to more expensive for an HF rig ($1000 range for 100W HF). If you want to get into low power ("QRP") it can be much cheaper. You also need a fair amount of space for a good antenna setup...
There are tons of different communication modes, some without a computer and, like you mentioned, some that use computers.
wsjtxandfldigiare popular programs.Good luck!
utopiah
in reply to 6R1M R34P3R • • •So... I've done that May 2023 for a holiday trip.
I left with my RPi4 and fee gadgets but no Internet.
There I built git.benetou.fr/utopiah/offline… and my main take away is
and more importantly the meta take away is
because just like first aid you need to be actually ready when needed and knowledge change over time. You need to actually try though, test your setup and yourself genuinely otherwise it is intelectual masturbation.
Have fun!
offline-octopus
Gitea: Git with a cup of tea