Thanks for the tip about JetKVM. Does the JetKVM device itself require an ethernet connection to the router or can it connect over wifi? (from what I can tell, it’s the former)

Thanks for confirming. Your understanding is correct, I just want a way to grab some “clean” screenshots or videos of the laptop while it’s in boot or BIOS parts of the system. I have a video capture card in my “cart” but thought I’d put this out there to the lemmyverse before I smash that “Buy” button.

EDIT: I ordered this video capture card, we’ll see how it goes!

Extremely. I’ve tried KDE flavors of various distros and one thing that trips me up every single time is the workflow for connecting to my hidden WiFi network. On Gnome and Cinnamon I can do this in a few clicks from the network icon in the task bar. On KDE I always have to spend several minutes fumbling my way around the network settings before I can start using it. Every. Single. Time. I don’t know why, it’s like my brain just works a certain way and because this is such an early and crucial step in setting up a fresh install, I’ve never been able to stick w/ KDE despite all the rave reviews it receives in these types of posts.

Did you run into any issues setting up dropbear or did you get it working on the first try?

I’m attempting to follow the same guide that you linked to, the only difference being that I haven’t configured a static IP (I don’t think this step is required). Every other instruction, I believe I’ve followed to the letter (for the new version).

Where I’m stuck is after copying the client’s public key to the server, updating initrd, rebooting, waiting for the disk encryption prompt, and issuing ping <server-ip> on the client (replacing <server-ip> and <port-number> with the actual IP and port number):

myuser@client:~$ ping <server-ip>
PING <server-ip> (<server-ip>) 56(84) bytes of data.
From <server-ip> icmp_seq=10 Destination Host Unreachable
From <server-ip> icmp_seq=11 Destination Host Unreachable

Unsurprisingly, I’m unable to ssh in from the client:

myuser@client:~$ ssh -i ~/.ssh/dropbear -p <port-number> -o "HostKeyAlgorithms ssh-rsa" root@<server-ip>
ssh: connect to host <server-ip> port <port-number>: No route to host

Since the server is a laptop, I can physically enter the decryption key on the server itself, and then go back to the client and ping the server successfully.

I have not attempted the steps described on the Debian wiki (networking setup or converting the public keys to PEM). Should I add IP=:::::eth0:dhcp to initramfs.conf? Any pointers on what I should check?

EDIT: I’m attempting all of this over wifi, in case that matters (I have a feeling it matters, but I’m not sure what I’m supposed to do differently).

EDIT 2: I found a guide from 2017 by Marc Fargas (Enable Wireless networks in Debian Initramfs). Also found this thread from 2021 on StackExchange (How can I enable wireless for a dropbear-initramfs), wherein somebody links to this GH gist (Sample files to enable wireless on Debian initramfs ). I’ll attempt to follow these guides and report back.

Gotcha. I don’t have a home server yet, but that is in my backlog of projects for 2026. In your case, are you more often pulling from your mini server to update existing setups as your configs change over time or are you usually pulling your dotfiles onto a new setup?

Thanks for sharing your workflow. How often do you use this workflow? And are you more often cloning your dotfiles for a new setup or just keeping them updated across existing setups over time?

Yeah, so far I’m leaning toward setting up a USB thumb drive that I always keep up to date so that I can plug it in when I do a fresh install.

In your case, are you more often pulling from GitHub to update existing setups as your configs change over time or are you usually pulling your dotfiles onto a new setup?

uBlue

Are these the folks behind Bazzite?

You mean write a script with something like find followed by stow --target=/path/to/profile/folder firefox?

Yeah, I’ll have to study some more examples and read the docs. With some creativity I might be able to finagle something using the --target option. Thanks for weighing in.

How has your experience been w/ on-screen keyboard support in KDE Plasma? Any issues like the ones boredsquirrel mentions?

This confirms my suspicion, thanks for the info.

Would that be the GNOME desktop?

Thanks for clarifying. If I understand correctly, you’re saying that in terms of energy usage, a thin client + external docking station for HDDs might have a smaller footprint than an ITX build, but at the expense of future upgradeability. On the other hand, an ITX build would likely draw more power than the thin client + external HDDs, but enables me to upgrade individual components down the road. Did I get that right?

I would only consider those thinclients if AI is something you are planning to run.

Do you mean b/c AI would require a beefy host for the thin client to connect to?

Beelink ME Mini

Would something like this be suitable as a NAS + Jellyfin + Home Assistant box?

Gotcha. FWIW I got in after following the instructions in the “Optional” paragraph about setting up users for authentication - I added a Linux and Samba user called shareuser, set the new user as the owner of /mnt/ShareDemo, and updated the config.

Thanks for confirming my suspicion. This was really going to eat at me if nobody else chimed in, so you really saved me from questioning my own sanity.

Gotcha - thanks for clarifying. I tried logging in w/ login and password of guest, but that didn’t work, either. FWIW I successfully authenticated after following the “optional” part of the tutorial (created a new user shareuser, made it the owner of /mnt/ShareDemo, and updated smb.conf).

Based on non_burglar’s and frongt’s comments, I think I’m willing to file this experience under either incomplete or incorrect tutorial. Importantly, I have learned something about setting up a local Samba share, so I thank you for helping me.

This helped, thank you!

What has me scratching my head is that in the tutorial I was reading from, it mentions setting up users but very explicitly labels that section as “Optional.” Anyway, I got in after following the instructions in that paragraph - adding a Linux and Samba user called shareuser, setting the new user as the owner of /mnt/ShareDemo, and updating the config. Unlike in the tutorial, I kept browseable = yes so that I can still browse to the folder in my file manager.

valid users = shareuser
public = no
writable = yes
browseable = yes

Sorry, I’m trying to understand your comment. Are you suggesting I put something else in place of nobody:nogroup when I set ownership of the ShareDemo folder, or is the issue that I have to actually create a user called nobody and a group called nogroup? Or should I create a different user and group specifically for this samba share? Thanks.