Anyone who has been around the world of Unix security firewalls and minimalist server systems for a while remembers the grey-green or dark cases from Soekris Engineering with a certain nostalgia. For years, the Soekris net5501 Affiliate Link: I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you when you buy via this link. A way to support my work. was the gold standard for highly reliable, fanless embedded routers and network appliances running OpenBSD.
Over the course of a few years, several Fujitsu Futro S920 units served as reliable, silent servers for various local network services in my homelab. I have since gradually upgraded the infrastructure and replaced the old instances with newer Futro S9010 models.
Before these decommissioned S920 devices find a new home on eBay Affiliate Link: I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you when you buy via this link. A way to support my work., here is a practical overview covering their hardware, power consumption, and OpenBSD compatibility. Even though the architecture isn’t cutting-edge anymore, these thin clients still make fantastic, power-efficient nodes.
It was about time: The last major upgrade sprint in the OpenBSD ports tree was quite a while ago, and a backlog of packages needing some serious TLC had accumulated on my to-do list. Anyone familiar with the OpenBSD ports ecosystem knows that such an update rarely consists of merely bumping a version number in a Makefile. Instead, it is a lively journey of discovery through dependency trees, build and test changes, compilation errors, and more.
A reliable workhorse is a fine thing. For years, an aging desktop drudge performed faithful service for daily internet browsing, small administrative tasks, and the occasional compilation of ports under OpenBSD. It is an HP Compaq Pro 6300 SFF (manufactured around 2012).
Here is the complete kernel log (dmesg) of the old HP system for reference:
Anyone familiar with openHAB knows that the learning curve is steep, but the possibilities are incredibly vast. You quickly realize that rigid schedules don’t make a house truly smart. A real smart home needs to know who is on board to intelligently manage life support systems (heating, lighting, security).
As a long-time Trekkie, the design for my dashboard was a no-brainer: the classic TOS (The Original Series) crew would represent our family of five. When a crew member is on board, their avatar lights up in full color on the UI widget. If they leave the ship, the display switches to grayscale, signaling their “Away Mission” status.
My home automation setup runs entirely on OpenBSD, providing a rock-solid, secure, and stable foundation for managing the household. However, even on a secure operating system, managing internal family logistics can be a challenge—especially when your kids discover they can turn off the living room TV from their tablets or accidentally fiddle with the master thermostat settings.
As my own smart home slowly expands, I face a clear necessity: I needed to hide certain equipment and sensitive controls from my children while keeping full visibility for the adults.
