I’ve had my fair share of slow boot times on Linux. When I upgraded my desktop to the latest version of my distribution in 2025, I noticed some new systemd services that were slowing down my boot process. The real trick is identifying which services are causing the issue. After digging around, I found that some of these services weren’t essential for my daily usage, and disabling them made a significant difference.
[Read More]I’ve been running a homelab with various self-hosted services for a while now, and managing container logs has been a challenge. With containerization making it easy to spin up multiple containers, keeping track of their logs can be overwhelming. In my experience, using Podman and systemd-journald has been a game-changer for taming container logs.
Container logs are essentially the output of a container’s stdout and stderr streams. They contain valuable information about the container’s execution, such as errors, warnings, and debug messages. By default, container logs are stored in the container’s filesystem, which can lead to log rotation issues and make it difficult to manage logs across multiple containers. I’ve seen this go wrong when logs start filling up the container’s disk space, causing all sorts of issues.
[Read More]I’ve been running my homelab for years, and one thing that still gets me is DNS troubles. Last year, I decided to set up systemd-resolved and dnsmasq to manage my home network’s DNS. The idea was to use systemd-resolved as the primary resolver and dnsmasq as a caching layer to improve performance. Sounds simple, but it didn’t quite work out that way.
To start, I enabled systemd-resolved on my Ubuntu-based server. This involved editing the /etc/systemd/resolved.conf file to set the DNS servers and domains. I opted for Cloudflare’s DNS servers - they’re known for being fast and secure.
I’ve seen this go wrong when a slow system boot time brings your entire workflow to a crawl. Whether you’re running a homelab server or a desktop Linux installation, a slow boot can be frustrating. In this article, we’ll explore how to troubleshoot slow system boot times using systemd-analyze and other practical tools.
The real trick is to use systemd-analyze to get a detailed breakdown of the boot process. This powerful tool provides insights into the time spent on each service and the overall boot time. To use systemd-analyze, simply run:
I’ve seen my fair share of slow-booting Linux systems over the years, and it’s frustrating when you’re waiting for your system to start up. With modern hardware and Linux distributions, boot times should be relatively fast, but misconfigured services, unnecessary dependencies, and inefficient system initialization can still cause issues. That’s where systemd-analyze comes in - it’s an invaluable tool for identifying bottlenecks and optimizing your system’s performance.
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve received disk full alerts on my home server. It’s frustrating, especially when it happens at the worst possible moment. Last year, I had a particularly annoying issue that prompted me to take a closer look at my disk usage. I realized I needed to make some changes to prevent these issues in the future. In this article, I’ll walk you through the steps I took to resolve disk full alerts on my server by implementing quotas and cleaning up systemd journal logs.
[Read More]I’ve been using Linux for years, and journalctl has become an essential tool in my daily workflow. If you’re like me, you’re probably familiar with the journalctl command, which is used to query and display logs from systemd’s journal. However, with the vast amount of data that’s logged, it can be overwhelming to sift through and find the information you need. In this article, I’ll share some practical tips and tricks for filtering out noise and finding useful error messages in your system logs using journalctl.
I’ve seen log rotation become a major issue on small servers with high IO workloads - it’s a problem that can sneak up on you quickly. Logs can grow at an alarming rate, and if you don’t manage them properly, they can fill up your disk space in no time. The real trick is to stay on top of log rotation, and that’s where tools like logrotate come in.
As someone who’s spent years running a homelab, I’ve found that managing background tasks is crucial. These tasks need to keep running even after I’ve logged out of my system, and they’re essential for things like backups, system monitoring, and maintenance scripts. I used to rely on screen and tmux to keep these tasks running, but I’ve recently switched to using nohup and systemd. In this article, I’ll share my experience with these tools and provide some practical examples.
I’ve been noticing that my desktop Linux system has been taking a painfully long time to boot - we’re talking around 5 minutes, which is way longer than I’m used to. As someone who values a fast and responsive system, I decided to dig in and see what was causing the slowdown. In this article, I’ll walk you through the steps I took to identify and fix the issue, and share some practical tips for optimizing your own Linux system’s boot time.
[Read More]