Documentation for installing Debian 13 (trixie) on a Synology DS115j NAS with Marvell Armada 370 processor. The project provides a self-contained UART and TFTP installation kit with boot artifacts and rootfs payload, including detailed guides for initial setup, recovery procedures, and hardware-specific configurations like fan control and LED behavior.
A homelab administrator successfully upgraded a Debian server from version 12 to 13 after 145 days of uptime, handling 56 TiB of traffic while running diverse services including databases, home automation, NAS, DNS, and monitoring. The upgrade demonstrated that running complex workloads directly on Linux without containerization or virtualization can be efficient, reliable, and maintainable.
Home routers and NAS devices can function as VPN servers but often suffer from reliability, performance, security, and usability issues. Built-in VPN services struggle with NAT traversal, fail on restricted networks, create single points of failure, lack processing power for multiple users, and are limited by residential upload speeds. Dedicated VPN solutions like Tailscale provide better alternatives for most users.
A database catalog of 469 mini PC devices across 837 configurations from brands like Minisforum, GMKtec, BOSGAME, and others. Devices range from low-power industrial units to high-performance AI workstations and gaming systems, featuring processors from AMD and Intel with varying core counts and memory capacities.