If you just ran rm on something important and you’re in a panic, stop touching that filesystem right now. Run mount -o remount,ro /dev/sdX to remount the partition read-only first. Every write to the disk after deletion cuts your odds of getting those files back. Here is the short answer. For ext4, try extundelete
or debugfs first, then PhotoRec
as a fallback. For Btrfs, roll back a snapshot if you have one, or use btrfs restore if you don’t. The right move depends on your case, so read on.
Hands-on experience with AI, self-hosting, Linux, and the developer tools I actually use
Linux File Recovery: extundelete, PhotoRec, Btrfs snapshots
Tailscale Mesh VPN with WireGuard: 100 Devices, Zero Config
Tailscale builds a private WireGuard
-based mesh VPN across all your devices with almost no setup. You install the client on each machine and sign in with your identity provider. Every device then gets a stable 100.x.y.z IP that works no matter the NAT, firewalls, or network changes. Tailscale
v1.96 adds ACL tags for per-device policy, exit nodes, subnet routers, and MagicDNS for hostname lookups. For homelabbers, it is the easiest way to link a server, cloud VPS, phone, and laptop into one network.
Build Powerful TUI Apps in Python with Textual and Rich
Terminal apps used to mean raw curses calls and a lot of pain. Today, Python’s Textual
and Rich
libraries have flipped that. In under 50 lines of Python you get a full-screen app with styled layouts, widgets, keyboard control, and live data. No web browser. No Electron. No JavaScript. This post walks through both libraries, shows how they fit together, and builds up to a full working example you can extend right away.
Gemini CLI: Google's Free AI Coding Agent with 1,000 Requests Per Day
Gemini CLI is Google’s open-source terminal AI agent. It offers a free tier with 1,000 requests per day and a 1M token context window. While its code quality trails Claude Code, it provides zero-cost access for developers. It’s now the most-starred AI coding CLI on GitHub.
Key Takeaways
- Get 1,000 free AI requests every day using just a personal Google account.
- Ingest entire codebases at once with the massive 1M token context window.
- Use the fast Gemini 3 Flash model for routine coding tasks and refactoring.
- Extend the agent with custom skills for your specific project needs.
- Connect to Google Cloud services using official MCP server integrations.
The Free Tier That Drove 97K GitHub Stars
Gemini CLI has about 97K GitHub stars. This exceeds Codex CLI ’s 73K and beats Claude Code . The reason’s simple: Gemini CLI is the only major terminal agent with a real free tier.
Migrate to Wayland Without Reinstalling Linux
You can switch your Linux install from X11 to Wayland without reinstalling anything. The move comes down to picking a Wayland session at your login screen. After that, three things need follow-up: Xwayland for legacy X11 apps, input setup through libinput instead of xorg.conf, and a few environment variables. Those variables let toolkits like Qt, GTK, and Electron render through Wayland instead of falling back to X11. Most people finish in an afternoon. You can keep an X11 session as a fallback until you’re happy everything works.
Docker Image Hardening: Minimal Bases, Non-Root, and Trivy Scans
Hardening a Docker image means cutting the attack surface at every layer. Start from a minimal base like distroless or Alpine. Run as a non-root user. Set the filesystem read-only. Drop all Linux capabilities and add back only what the app needs. Pin dependency versions with checksums. Scan images with Trivy or Grype before you push. Each layer of this checklist stands on its own, so you can adopt them one at a time.