Security

Bubblewrap (bwrap) is a small, unprivileged tool that sandboxes untrusted Linux apps and CLI tools with no root and no SUID binary. You build the sandbox mount by mount, so you control exactly what a program can see. It’s the same engine Flatpak runs inside. There is no daemon and no container image.

This guide is built around Bubblewrap: sandboxing desktop apps, locking down CLI tools and build scripts, network isolation, and runtime overhead. It also weighs bwrap against Firejail , the friendlier SUID-root sandbox with 1,000-plus ready-made profiles. That way you can see which one fits your threat model.

Caddy is the simplest reverse proxy for self-hosted services. It gets and renews TLS certificates from Let’s Encrypt with zero config. Install the static binary, write a Caddyfile with three lines per service, and Caddy handles HTTPS, HTTP/2, OCSP stapling, and renewal on its own. That replaces hundreds of lines of Nginx config and separate Certbot cron jobs.

If you run even a handful of services on a home server or VPS, a reverse proxy with proper TLS is non-negotiable. Caddy makes this painless, so there’s no excuse to skip it.

Yes, a plain Debian 12 or Fedora Server install on cheap x86 hardware, or a Raspberry Pi 5, makes a better router than most consumer gear. It often beats boxes that cost twice as much. You need two network interfaces, a few config files, and about two hours. The result is a gateway with a real stateful firewall via nftables , proper DNS and DHCP from dnsmasq , and traffic shaping that works through CAKE SQM. Every config is plain text you can track in Git.

To connect two remote LANs over WireGuard , you configure a WireGuard peer on one gateway device at each site, set AllowedIPs to include the remote site’s subnet, enable IP forwarding on both gateways, and add routing so LAN clients send cross-site traffic through the tunnel. Once configured, every device on either LAN can reach devices on the other LAN transparently - no VPN client installation on individual machines. A single UDP port open on at least one side is all you need.

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.

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.