scheep

edit: I have tried using mkdir /var/lib/radicale and /var/lib/radicale/collections (with and without -p), chown radicale:radicale /var/lib/radicale (and collections) with and without -R, and the same for chmod 770 and chmod g-w,o-rwx. NOTHING WORKS!!! I just want to self-host a calendar...

I've also tried removing the "strict" security settings from my config, but no luck.

maybe the warning that preceded the permission denied is helpful? I don't know why is is "not existing" though, I've already tried using mkdir and chown...

[2025-05-01 13:34:06 +0800] [6537] [WARNING] Storage location: '/var/lib/radicale/collections' not existing, create now
[2025-05-01 13:34:06 +0800] [6537] [CRITICAL] An exception occurred during server startup: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/lib/radicale/collections'

original post:

I am following the steps of the radicale documentation and have got to running it as a service. However, when I ran radicale it failed to start. When I tried to run radicale manually, I get a permission denied error

[CRITICAL] An exception occurred during server startup: [Errno 13] Permission denied: '/var/lib/radicale/collections'

I have tried manually using mkdir to create /var/lib/radicale/collections and setting the owner using chown -R radicale:radicale to the "radicale" user, and I have also tried using chmod -R 770.

my config (/etc/radicale/config)

[auth]
type = htpasswd
htpasswd_filename = /etc/radicale/users
htpasswd_encryption = autodetect

delay = 1

[server]
hosts = 0.0.0.0:5232, [::]:5232

max_connections = 20
max_content_length = 100000000
# 100 MB
timeout = 30
# 30 seconds

[storage]
filesystem_folder = /var/lib/radicale/collections

my radicale.service (/etc/systemd/system/radicale.service

[Unit]
Description=A simple CalDAV (calendar) and CardDAV (contact) server
After=network.target
Requires=network.target

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/bin/env python3 -m radicale
Restart=on-failure
User=radicale
# Deny other users access to the calendar data
UMask=0027
# Optional security settings
PrivateTmp=true
ProtectSystem=strict
ProtectHome=true
PrivateDevices=true
ProtectKernelTunables=true
ProtectKernelModules=true
ProtectControlGroups=true
NoNewPrivileges=true
ReadWritePaths=/var/lib/radicale/ /var/cache/radicale/

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

I am trying to use my old laptops for self-hosting. One has a 6th gen Intel Core i3 (4GB ram), the other has an 11th gen Intel Core i5 (8GB ram). I have previously tried both ubuntu server and desktop but couldn't get it to work well. For the former I found it difficult to remote ssh and the latter I had difficulty installing Docker containers. (I'm not very good with the command line)

I would like to find an OS that is easier to setup with less of a neccesity for the command line (I would still like to learn how to use it though, I don't want to get rid of it entirely!). I've heard of CasaOS, is that a good option? It seems quite easy to use. What about other alternatives?

I haven’t tried Linux in a while and only really played around with XFCE and Cinnamon and reviving my old laptops, but I’ve just tried KDE Plasma and GNOME for a bit and DAMN they look good. Modern looking and not the weird Mica effect that Windows has. Very clean!

They both look great and I wouldn’t say one looks better than the other, just preference probably, just that GNOME looks more bubbly + rounded + bit like MacOS in a good way and Plasma looks more blocky + similar to Win10 taskbar

The touchscreen buts still appear to need a bit of work, on both Plasma and GNOME I made it freeze. For Plasma I opened the launcher button and tried to use the onscreen keyboard, and it kept on opening and closing very quickly, for GNOME I did the three finger swipe up gesture and everything became unresponsive. Also, Bluetooth weirdly doesn’t work on KDE but does on GNOME. Huh. Maybe just my device?

I really want to switch soon, maybe during the holidays I’ll get round to it :D

edit: I think it’s pretty crazy that a relatively small team (compared to the likes of Microsoft) can offer such a good UI and overall user experience! That’s insane! The people who help make the distros are doing very good work and I wish them the best of luck! Hopefully the weird quirks and compatibility issues will iron out and Linux becomes mainsteam :D

For example, if you only wanted to see bees, you are unable to see anything unless a bee comes into frame, in which case you are only able to see a bee.

You could also decide to choose something that you cannot normally sense (e.g. hearing bat echolocation sounds)

It seems that GitHub is being blocked in my region as well as other options from U.S. based companies (e.g. GitLab)

Where should I migrate my repos? Codeberg is an option as it’s Europe based so isn’t blocked in my region. Codeberg Pages is also nice to have. However, Codeberg seems to push for excluding proprietary software dependencies, which might limit the kinds of projects I can do.

Another option is to self-host Gitea, I could use my old laptop for that. Gitea doesn’t have a GitHub pages, but there seems to be third-party plugins that allow that. The downside with self-hosting (for me) is that it means I’m unable to collaborate with others (since it’ll be local) and I can’t easily share my projects. It will also probably be harder to set up.

What other options are there, or are these two the best options for me?

edit: decided on Codeberg, how do I make my static pages to work with Codeberg Pages? I've switched to a "pages" branch and the website doesn't work (https://username.codeberg.page/repo-name/)

How do I make static pages work with Codeberg???

What if wages for everyone in a company are regularly voted on by the rest of the company? For example, if the manager isn’t doing their job, their wages are lowered by vote. If the manager tries to lower the wages of the workers to a horribly low level, it could either a) be overruled by the majority, or b) the manager’s wages are lowered suit, pressuring them to increase it.

This is probably a really stupid idea that is extremely prone to corruption, but why?

edit: yep this really is a stupid idea

edit 2: someone mentioned that this is kinda like trade unions, where workers can negotiate pay, but in a really horrible method where it becomes a "popularity contest".

I do think that someone else's idea of keeping the every employee's wages some % of the manager/CEO/whatever's wages so that they aren't incentivised to keep inflating their wages is pretty decent.

Some FOSS programs, due to being mantained by hobbyists vs a massive megacorporation with millions in funding, don't have as many features and aren't as polished as their proprietary counterparts. However, there are some FOSS programs that simply have more functionality and QoL features compared to proprietary offerings.

What are some FOSS programs that are objectively better than their non-FOSS alternatives? Maybe we can discover useful new programs together :D

I'll start, I think Joplin is a great note-taking app that works offline + can sync between desktop and mobile really well. Also, working with Markdown is really nice compared with rich text editors that only work with the specific program that supports it. Joplin even has a bunch of plugins to extend functionality!

Notion, Evernote, Google Keep, etc. either don't have desktop apps, doesn't work offline, does not support Markdown, or a combination of those three.

What are some other really nice FOSS programs?

edit: woah that’s a whole load of cool FOSS software I have to try out! So far my experiences have been great (ShareX in particular is AWESOME as a screenshot tool, it’s what snip and sketch wishes it could be and mostly replaces OBS for my use case and a whole lot more)

For example:

• You MUST use Apple’s own apps (iMessage, Phone, etc.) as well as Apple’s own App Store
  • To be fair, the EU is doing work to solve this particular issue…but most of the reforms are only for EU customers
• You have to use WebKit when developing a browser for ~~macOS~~ iOS and iPadOS, you can’t use Gecko or Blink
• iOS apps must be developed using XCode IF YOU WANT TO PUBLISH IT ON THE APP STORE, which is only available on MacOS…

~~That last one is weird. Why can’t you compile Swift outside of MacOS (i.e. third party IDEs)? Why can only XCode do it?~~

edit: Gecko and Blink based browsers are available on macOS. I learnt something new today. Not for iOS or iPadOS though. Also, Xcode is only a requirement for publishing in the App Store. You are able to compile Swift in any OS. You'll just need to distribute the app via sideloading and/or third-party app stores (in the EU)

The face buttons (what used to be the shape buttons) are 3D printed! They work surprisingly well. I also had 3D printed dpad buttons, but they were wobbly and weren’t all that fun to use.

The main body of the controller is spray-painted (albeit poorly) as well as the triggers and share/options buttons since I couldn’t find a 3D model for the former and the 3D printed versions of the latter didn’t work very well.

I spray-painted a cheap mouse that came with my laptop (it looks messy but in a good way?), and the left/right clicks miraculously worked after a bit of work (the left clicks is actually a bit dampened now, making it quieter!)

However, I think the optical sensor is borked. The mouse can click but it can’t move the cursor.

I’m thinking something like a bluetooth motion tracker that moves your cursor could work if I mounted it on the mouse, but does something like that even exist? I searched online and it doesn’t seem to be a thing. Maybe I have to DIY it a bit by buying a bluetooth motion tracker and using a program that makes it so that is moves the cursor?

What are some words you feel sound more right in both the American and British English?

I use a mix of the two depending on the word.

For example, I stand by pronouncing words like “Amazon” with an “ehn” sound at the end over an “ohn” sound, prefer spelling colour and flavour with a u, and also like using double Ls for words like travelling. Also, it is “grey”. (British English)

However, I pronounce Z as “zee”and call them fries rather than chips.

There are also spellings where I sort of alternate between depending on my mood, such as “meter” vs “metre”and“airplane” vs “aeroplane”

Are there any words that you think sound better in British and American spellings/pronunciations?

What if Apple decided to release their “M” series processors a desktop CPUs? How would that change the market?

It would also be interesting to see Samsung Foundry release desktop Exynos chips or maybe Qualcomm “X” processors for desktop that are more powerful than the laptop chips.

p.s. I know they would never do anything like that, but it would be interesting to imagine how the market would change with more competitors