Not an engineer but I took calculus 1, 2, 3, discrete math, linear algebra, statics, dynamics, and probably others I’m forgetting.

Since school, I needed one trig function for calculating distance between lat/long coordinates that I looked up on Wikipedia and plugged in to a program.

… Statics was fucking cool though.

I am not a smart person and it wasn’t the right tool for my job so I didn’t research it further once that was established. Maybe if somebody told me one more time it’d stick.

EDIT : In case anyone is curious : https://github.com/latchset/clevis

I hadn’t heard of Dropbear until I started researching this… cool project. That seems to be the ticket if you’re wanting manual intervention to unlock the disk. If you want automatic unlock via another server on the network, sounds like Clevis may be the thing.

EXIF data?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exif

Just one… For now :)

It’s a Lenovo Tiny refurb and came with a 1TB NVMe which is plenty for playing around but I’ll have to expand if I move my Jellyfin instance to it.

Good to hear. This will be going on a Debian server too.

I just set up tailscale on the RPi that controls my printer so I’ve got a jump host on the LAN now… Just need to make time to setup dropbear (and keys) on the server.

I’d imagine that if you have physical access and don’t mind plugging in a USB then that’s the easier route.

My personal goal is to be able to unlock it remotely in two main scenarios :

1. I’m lazy and don’t want to have to awkwardly fumble at plugging in something. So, SSH to it from the same room and unlock it from my desktop.
2. Server got rebooted while I’m away from home but I would really like it to be up and running again for something I need but I don’t have physical access at the time.

Both of those situations lean towards a remote unlock with no USB. The first one is absolutely doable because I have local access and could plug a device in, it’s just awkward. On the second, physical access is impossible so it must be done remotely.

I mentioned it in another comment but the remote unlock while away from home presents extra challenges for me because I access my server externally via Tailscale. Since Tailscale isn’t available at boot (pre-decrypt), then I’ll have to tailnet+ssh to another machine on the LAN (that doesn’t require a boot password/unlock) and then SSH from that machine to the server to enter the LUKS password to allow boot to continue. Sounds feasible, though perhaps a little clunky. That’s my current plan and hoping to try it out this weekend if time permits.

Great, thanks for checking my understanding of it.

If I’m reading the docs correctly, Clevis can rely on a separate Tang server for retrieving the decryption key, right? So in that scenario I’d need to have another machine for Tang that can also auto-boot without entering a boot/LUKS password. Otherwise, if both machines (server+clevis and Tang server) were in the same room and restarted due to power loss, neither would be able to boot if both were encrypted… or did I misunderstand something important?

And I don’t think I actually want “automatic” unlocking. I just want to be perform the unlock (enter LUKS password) remotely. I realize that comes with manual intervention (entering the password remotely) but I’m okay with that. I should probably have clarified that by “home server” I mean a machine the serves nice to have stuff, nothing mission critical. Plus I’m really the only one who uses it currently so I’ll notice it’s down when something doesn’t work and can then initiate the remote unlock/boot : D

Clevis is interesting but I don’t think it matches my specific situation. Glad I know about it now though, thanks for the info.

This is interesting, another one I hadn’t heard of yet. And, the server is running Debian : )

I enjoy the intro too :

You know how it is. You’ve heard of it happening. The Man comes and takes away your servers, your friends’ servers, the servers of everybody in the same hosting facility. The servers of their neighbors, and their neighbors’ friends. The servers of people who owe them money. And like that, they’re gone. And you doubt you’ll ever see them again. That is why your servers have encrypted root file systems

Exactly this. The chances of my server/drives getting stolen is extremely low but I like to take all the precautions I can even if it’s just an exercise in “I can, so I will”. That and the “peace of mind” you mentioned.

I think this is the first time I’ve heard of dracut. I’ll take a look - thanks for the info.

Sounds like something fun to research either way - thanks

O, I fully intend to. Just wanted to ask for opinions who have done it or have tried other things while I’m sitting here waiting for an appointment.

Plus content… Lemmy… Engagement. If nobody posts then there’s nothing here

I forget that there are large centrifuges (somebody posted about Stuxnet further down).

Or, more accurately, I’m more familiar with the small ones (ThermoFisher calls them “Mini” and “Micro” centrifuges) for ~0.5mL samples and I had a hard time thinking that those would blow out a room. But the same link (ThermFisher) that I looked at to find the names also specifies 17,000g and 21,000g models which is just… fucking insane. I knew they spun fast, I didn’t know they spun 21,000g’s fast. Learn something new every day.

Look at the elitist over here that knows how to read : P

I never learned and you can’t make me.

I thought it was the same thing in the first frame : D

That’s awesome… And also funny that it had to be added. Thanks for the info!

I still want to know what happens on an old one without vibration detection or if it was “broken”. I assume something like an unbalanced washing machine but on a smaller scale? It just going out for a stroll :)

First frame is a centrifuge that spins samples at high speed to separate the components in them (I think that’s the purpose, not a scientist). But, the samples are on one side making it unbalanced.

Second frame is turning the centrifuge on.

Third frame is a funeral.

I hear that if it’s unbalanced, bad things happen, because you’re spinning an unbalanced rotor at high speeds.

I honestly was coming to check the comments to see if anyone had experience with it so I could ask how bad it is.

The comic is insinuating that if you do this, you die.

EDIT: an unbalanced weight on a motor is how the vibration function in your phone works… Along with other things that need to vibrate (yes, those things). At least, that’s how they used to work.