2025-06-25 06:02:33
Setting up an Ubuntu Desktop installation for SSH, quickly
I've enjoyed using Ubuntu Server's GitHub SSH pubkey importer for a long time, it's a quick and easy way when doing an interactive server installation to get the built-in OpenSSH server configured for remote SSH access.
However, many computers I work on have Ubuntu Desktop installed instead, and it doesn't even include OpenSSH Server in the default packages!
So I thought I'd write up a quick guide for how to set up SSH on Ubuntu Desktop pulling in my GitHub SSH public keys quickly, since I haven't found a similar guide elsewhere:
Open Terminal and enter the commands:
sudo apt install openssh-server -y
sudo systemctl enable ssh
sudo systemctl start ssh
OpenSSH is running with Ubuntu's default configuration. You can edit the configuration inside /etc/ssh/sshd_config if you want (make sure to systemctl restart ssh after doing so).
Ubuntu includes a handy utility that does this for you:
Jeff Geerling June 24, 20252025-06-24 22:06:17
How I make thumbnails for YouTube
Over on the 2nd channel, I posted a video detailing my process for making thumbnails for my YouTube channel:
.embed-container { position: relative; padding-bottom: 56.25%; height: 0; overflow: hidden; max-width: 100%; } .embed-container iframe, .embed-container object, .embed-container embed { position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; }My videos target a more technical audience—and often deal with subjects crowds like those on HN might find interesting.
Technical audiences don't often enjoy the feeling of being 'bamboozled', especially in subtle ways that feels like marketing or deception.
Therefore YouTube thumbnails are often a contentious topic. In the early days, thumbnails were just a still frame from the video, meaning it was harder (but not impossible) to 'game the system' and introduce clickbait.
Jeff Geerling June 24, 20252025-06-14 22:01:00
How I monitor and control all my powered devices (Zigbee + HA)
Any time I show power consumption graphs for the SBCs, computers, and servers I test, I get a number of comments asking for more details about the setup.
It's quite simple, really: using my Home Assistant Yellow's built-in Zigbee radio, I connect a number of ThirdReality Zigbee Smart Outlets to it, and then I use ApexCharts Cards to add graphs of power consumption over time on my Home Assistant dashboards.
Jeff Geerling June 14, 20252025-06-06 22:00:39
Sipeed NanoCluster fits 7-node Pi cluster in 6cm
Sipeed's NanoCluster is a tiny compute module clusterboard with room for up to 7 tiny computers.
Each slot has two inline M.2 (NGFF) slots which accept either a custom-designed SoM (System on Module) or an adapter board to adapt a standard Compute Module form-factor board into the slot (as pictured above).
One end has a large fan for cooling, and the other end has power and IO. You can power the board via either PoE++ (60W) or through USB-C PD (65W). Or both, with redundant power fail-over.
Jeff Geerling June 6, 20252025-06-06 12:19:42
Self-hosting your own media considered harmful (updated)
I just received my second community guidelines violation for my video demonstrating the use of LibreELEC on a Raspberry Pi 5, for 4K video playback.
I purposefully avoid demonstrating any of the tools (with a suffix that rhymes with "car") that are popularly used to circumvent purchasing movie, TV, and other media content, or any tools that automatically slurp up YouTube content.
Jeff Geerling June 5, 20252025-05-30 22:08:54
A limited-time flavor: Blue Raspberry Pi
The most unique Raspberry Pi I own is a limited-time flavor: blue raspberry. And no, this isn't the Brazilian version, or the red Chinese version. This blue version is one of 1000 blue Pis that were made to celebrate Raspberry Pi's first anniversary, 12 years ago.
Jeff Geerling May 30, 2025
