Introducing: Terminus

2014-10-10 4 min read Longer Tales Server Home Projects
So in my “Introducing: Agni” series, I explained the process I went through to get a used machine from Goodwill up and running to replace my previous living room server, Mercury, which exploded. I realize I left a loose end — I had to restore the mysql database from a several years old backup that I’d taken before I started backing up to the backup drive that died, and we just reconstructed the data after that point. Continue reading

Agni Lives!

2013-03-15 2 min read Longer Tales Server Home Projects
So there’s this giant cloud hovering over Agni, and its name is Mysql. Since I had the hard drive from mercury mounted instead of booting from it, I decided to just copy over the “live” database files instead of doing a dump and restore. I then went to bed. When I woke up, I saw increasing numbers of I/O errors followed by the end of the operation failing. Oops. I go to try again… and the drive can’t be read. Continue reading

Agni: Full brain transplant

2013-03-10 4 min read Longer Tales Server Home Projects
My cable got here! YAY! So I unpack everything, skim the instruction manual, and go to plug it in. The first thing I notice is that it’s got external power — yay! That means I could re-purpose this old small drive for the raspi, since it won’t need to draw power from the machine itself. (Fun fact: the majority of the space in the box it shipped in was taken up by adapters for various international power supplies, lol. Continue reading

Agni: Up And Running

2013-03-01 4 min read Longer Tales Server Home Projects
So I got food poisoning. From marshmallows. What is this I don’t even. ——- Anyway, Agni! I’ve ordered an IDE/ATA-to-USB connector cable, but it’ll be next week before it’s here, so in the meantime, let’s see what we have with Agni. Mercury, my previous box, used PS/2 connections for keyboard and mouse, but unfortunately, I’m only finding USB inputs. Never fear, it came with a keyboard and mouse! ….oh. They’re ps/2 as well. Continue reading

Agni: Unboxing

2013-02-10 2 min read Longer Tales Server Home Projects
Alright, so in my last post I managed to figure out what, exactly, Agni is. Now the next most pressing question is: How the heck do I get inside it? I’ve got the tech specs now, so I’m fairly confident what I expect to see once I do get in, but a cursory inspection reveals no screws of any kind. Stupid hidden screw techniques. My husband managed to figure it out though: Continue reading

Introducing: Agni

2013-02-01 3 min read Longer Tales Server Home Projects
Once upon a time, I mentioned to my father-in-law that I wished I had a sandbox server to play with my web development skills. Once upon a time, my father-in-law mentioned that he had an old desktop tower from a school that had recently upgraded that he didn’t have plans for. Eyes met, sparks flew, and my living room server, Mercury, was born. Sadly, a few weeks ago, Merc’s motherboard shorted out. Continue reading