kulesz.me

Modern cars are equipped with headunits that support Android Auto or Apple Carplay. With the recently added support for Android Auto in OsmAnd - an established open source offline maps and navigation app - my hope for a privacy-friendly solution was reawaken. Hence, I investigated whether it was practically possible to use use this combination in a data-literate way. I stumbled over several caveats and irritating privacy-invasive issues but also found a semi-satifactionary workaround for the time being.

If you want to run Linux on ARM64-based machines, Debian GNU/Linux is an excellent distribution choice. Due to its universal concept, it works great on laptops, workstations and servers alike. Unfortunately, Debian officially supports only a small number of ARM64-based machines (12 at the time of writing). Yet, you can run Debian unmodified on a lot more ARM64-based machines - if you manage to install it. After discussing some basics and showing how to check the support status for a particular machine, this article describes my recommended way for performing the actual installation using a concrete example.

I have written this guide to outline how I finally managed to get the official version of Devuan GNU+Linux 3 or Debian GNU/Linux 10 installed on a PINEBOOK Pro. It shows how to achieve this using official mainline u-boot and kernel from upstream (no unofficial patches) and without using third-party repositories. However, it does use self-compiled (unpackaged) versions of u-boot and kernel as tweaking their default build configuration files is currently still required.

If you want to self-host stuff at home using an ARM64-based board running Linux, both Debian GNU/Linux and Devuan GNU+Linux are excellent distribution choices. Unfortunately, they officially support only very few ARM64-based boards. Yet, you can run them unmodified on a lot more boards - if you manage to install them. After discussing some basics and showing how to check the support status for a particular board, this article describes my recommended way for performing the actual installation by a concrete example.

Installing and configuring operating systems on single-board computers can be painful when there is no nearby ethernet connection available. A pocket-router that provides wired internet access over an existing wireless network can help here. In this article, I discuss why I decided to build one myself and describe the particular steps conducted. Moreover, I also present measures regarding performance and power consumption.