Notes to Self

SSL on Proxmox using Let's Encrypt

2025-02-05T00:00:00Z

I found it surprisingly difficult to get Proxmox to use Let's Encrypt certificates with a DNS challenge for my Namecheap-hosted domain

To make a long story short, I spent quite a bit of time struggling to get Proxmox to put the necessary TXT records into my Namecheap DNS. The API was set up and worked fine, and in fact was successfully used to get SSL certs for my Home Assistant instance.

The secret sauce was in the ACME DNS Plugin configuration. The Validation Delay needed to be high (180 seconds), the DNS API was (of course) namecheap, and the API Data needed 4 values:
NAMECHEAP_API_USER=myNamecheapUserName
NAMECHEAP_API_KEY=myNamecheapAPIKey
NAMECHEAP_USERNAME=myNamecheapUserName
NAMECHEAP_SOURCEIP=myPublicIP

Oh, and be sure that the values are *not* enclosed in quotation marks.

Here's a good tutorial that covers the general process using Cloudflare DNS.
Here's a Reddit post that identified the problem I was encountering calling the Namecheap API to add the ACME challenge TXT record.

ScanSnap on Ubuntu 24.0.4

2024-12-12T00:00:00Z

Inspiration drawn from Josh Archer's article

TODO: summarize steps and personal experience: Install sane, find scanner, install drivers, update sane config, test scan.

EDL on Ubuntu 24.0.4

2024-12-07T00:00:00Z

For my Home Assistant installation, I picked up a ThinkSmart View 8" tablet, designed for desktop videoconferencing. There's a custom ROM available for it, which requires a tool called edl. Here's how I got it running.

git clone https://github.com/bkerler/edl
cd edl
git submodule update --init --recursive
python3 -m venv edl_venv
source edl_venv/bin/activate
pip3 install .

Following the advice found here: pull down the code, create a virtual environment, use pip3 instead of setup.py

UniFi and Tor

2024-12-06T00:00:00Z

If you have a UniFi network, you may be surprised to find that Tor cannot connect, leading to a distinct lack of utility in your Tor Browser.

To unblock it from the UniFi management console, you'll need to check two places.

First, ensure that the Settings->Security->Intrusion Prevention->Dark Web Blocker option is unchecked.
Dan Blumenfeld, CC BY 4.0, by the author
Second, ensure that the Tor option is unchecked in Settings->Security->Intrusion Prevention->Detection Sensitivity->Customize.
Dan Blumenfeld, CC BY 4.0, by the author