The NixFox Den

March 1st Matrix Outage

bun@nixfox.ca — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 01:20:33 -0500

Prologue</a></h2>
Matrix is not a fun protocol, especially not helped by the decisions I made early on.
I made two bad decisions in the beginning.

Using Synapse.</li>
Using SQLite for the entire database.</li> </ol>
These were both fine for a very small server with only about 3 people actively using it. But as Discord has gotten worse and more of my friends have moved over, the cracks quickly began to show.
What happened?</a></h3>
The more people I had on my server, the slower things became. Sometimes, I'd struggle to log in. Send a message. Upload an image. This was fine, I thought - things would often return to normal after a while. But these problems began growing, until I was completely unable to use my Homeserver at all. Since Matrix is my primary chat client, this became urgent.
What I learned</a></h3>
It turns out having all my chats and clients running through both one file and one service is really taxing on the server! Synapse by default is not very hyperthreaded - running everything on only a couple of cores with only a few gigs of ram. This was exaserbated with the use of one file - now 5GB! - hosting the entirety of my server's database.
I am also federating quite a bit, which brought my server down to its knees on every reboot. Having to fetch all that data was brutal.
My fix</a></h3>
Unfortunately, switching to Tuwunel, as much as I would like, was not a solution, as I need to preserve my DM history. However, two things proved useful:
Migrating the Database</a></h4>
Using Synapse Migrate DB</a> as instructed here was able to fix the backend issues. Any data Synapse could move could now be accepted into my DB as fast as it needed. However, Synapse was still not processing fast enough.
In addition, upping the cache played a big role in allowing a bigger RAM buffer for Synapse to use, keeping things working when the load gets heavier.
`services.matrix-synapse = { settings = { # Use PostgreSQL instead of SQLite database.type = "psycopg2"; # Attempt a bigger RAM cache cache_factor = 2.0; }; }; </code></pre>`
Using Workers</a></h4>
Synapse can be split up into multiple mini services, that can deal with individual tasks, freeing the main service to handle media, logins, and general snappiness.
On Nix, workers can be enabled like so:
services.matrix-synapse = { settings = { # Use workers send_federation = false; federation_sender_instances = [ "federation_worker_1" "federation_worker_2" "federation_worker_3" "federation_worker_4" ]; sync_instances = [ "sync_worker_1" "sync_worker_2" ]; }; # Add workers to distribute the load workers = { "federation_worker_1".worker_app = "synapse.app.generic_worker"; "federation_worker_2".worker_app = "synapse.app.generic_worker"; "federation_worker_3".worker_app = "synapse.app.generic_worker"; "federation_worker_4".worker_app = "synapse.app.generic_worker"; "sync_worker_3".worker_app = "synapse.app.generic_worker"; "sync_worker_4".worker_app = "synapse.app.generic_worker"; }; }; </code></pre> By disabling federation and offloading syncing to workers, these services now hyperthread and distribute their load evenly, allowing DMs and logging in to work seamlessly.
Ratelimiting and presence</a></h4>
When federating from Synapse, there is no option to allow presence - the "user is online" check - to be allowed for the local homeserver only. This meant microchatter - thousands of tiny, individual pings - were being sent from homeserver to homeserver, clogging memory.
By disabling this and slowing down federation in general, we can keep a ligher load on the system.
services.matrix-synapse = { settings = { # Ratelimit federation federation_rc_window_size = 1000; federation_rc_sleep_limit = 5; federation_rc_sleep_delay = 1000; federation_rc_reject_limit = 20; federation_rc_concurrent = 10; # Turn off presence presence.enabled = false; }; }; </code></pre>
Upkeep!</a></h3>
While I was here, I thought it important to enable things like Element Call and to serve from a VPS rather than my home. All of these changes can be explored further in my Git repo</a>.

My hardware

bun@nixfox.ca — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 16:36:39 -0400

Sections todo.

Desktops and Laptops</a></h1>
Primarily, I interact with NixOS from my desktop - a faily decent rig with a Ryzen 5 3600X, where I compile all my other machines from. In addition to that, I run a few laptops between homes and clubs I go to, all running under a general desktop profile. A quick rundown of what I use is as follows;
Steam Deck</a></h2>
Servers</a></h1>
BTRFS</a></h1>
Mycelium</a></h1>
Colmena</a></h1>
Impermanence</a></h1>
Virtualization</a></h1>
QEMU/KVM</a></h3>

Software I use

bun@nixfox.ca — Thu, 17 Jul 2025 16:36:39 -0400

I use the same config of NixOS on every machine I can, be that desktop, Steam Deck, servers, cloud machines, or whatever laptop or drawing tablet I can get my hands on. There are a lot of moving parts to this setup, and many configs and variables I've had to set up to allow all these machines to run smoothly under one config.

This is a selection of the software I use across everything, and how I get them to sync and run as smoothly as possible.

Browser</a></h2>
Zen Browser</a> is my go-to. I use almost every feature from folders to direct feeds and workspaces. I do not typically sync my tabs - instead, I log into everything using Bitwarden</a> and treat every machine separately. I've been fine with this, but it may change in the future.

Music</a></h2>
I always use MPD</a> with the NCMPCPP</a> frontend, in addition to MPDScribble</a> for "scrobbling" my listening activity to Last.fm, MPD-Mpris</a> for controlling MPD using hotkeys, and MPD-Discord-RPC</a> for sharing that to Discord. All music is loaded in from an NFS server on my NAS.

Equalizer</a></h2>
EasyEffects has been a blessing for a former VoiceMeeter</a> user. It's able to run as a service, has highly configurable settings, and can be made to autoload my profile right from the my HomeManager config.

Gaming</a></h2>
Steam</a> is my obvious default choice, with GOG</a> as a close second, and whatever free scraps Epic Games</a> gives me through the Heroic Games Launcher</a>. Heroic now allows for server syncing of GOG saves, which has been a lifesaver.

File management</a></h2>
I heavily use both PCManFM</a> and Ranger</a> for my GUI and terminal file managers, respectfully. I find it much more comfortable to use Ranger for visualizing files in a broader scope, utilizing all the vim keys and shortcuts which make it very quick to use, and PCManFM when I am working with media, like images, PDFs, or simply dragging a file into another program like Discord, Krita, or Kdenlive.

Communication</a></h2>
On the desktop, I primarily use both Element</a> and Vesktop</a>, but with the progress being made to Cinny</a> as of late, that may become my primary chat client. I have my key stored on my own Matrix server, so syncing is as easy as verifying my login.

Shell</a></h2>
I just recently discovered Atuin</a>, which lets me sync my ZSH history across all of my machines using a self hosted server. No more forgetting commands!

Text editor</a></h2>
To wrap this up, I'd like to do a fourth wall break: I edit all these blogs either right here in Neovim</a>, or my own Hedgedoc</a> instance.
Now that I've got all that software set up, I should get back to writing more!

Todo list

bun@nixfox.ca — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 17:29:44 -0400

I mentioned somewhere that this site would act as my little corner of the internet to write whatever I want. This is that! Here, I'll be keeping track of things I want to do or write about, along with some links relating to those future projects.

Articles and Blogs</a></h2>

Make a list of other blogs and website's RSS feeds I'm subscribed to</li>
Being a "Jack of All Trades"</li>
Set up and write about Cloudflare's "AI Labyrinth" and other AI protections [1</a>] [2</a>] [3</a>]</li>
Set up Anubis</li> </ul>
NixFox Services</a></h2>

Write a little update about adding ntfy.sh and what I use it for</li>
Detailed blog about setting up an email server using Oracle Cloud</li>
Set up an XMPP instance and write a blog about it</li>
Consider better ways of handling downtime/load balancing</li> </ul>

Aubun's media list

bun@nixfox.ca — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 19:14:54 -0400

This is a list I've had for a while that is meant to keep track of everything I've watched and everything I need to watch. And now I can make it public!

~~Stranger Things</del></li>~~
~~(Rewatch) Into the Spiderverse</del></li>~~
~~Bee And Puppycat (Youtube)</del></li>~~
~~Cecil Hotel Docuseries</del></li>~~
~~Kill La Kill</del></li>~~
~~Pulp Fiction</del></li>~~
~~Venom</del></li>~~
~~The Pianist</del></li>~~
~~Night Stalker Docuseries</del></li>~~
~~Elfen Lied: The Complete Abridged Series</del></li>~~
~~(Rewatch) Cars</del></li>~~
~~Aliens</del></li>~~
~~HBO's Chernobyl</del></li>~~
~~Manhunter</del></li>~~
~~The 5th Wave</del></li>~~
~~Man of La Mancha</del></li>~~
~~Be More Chill</del></li>~~
~~Hamilton</del></li>~~
~~Zootopia</del></li>~~
~~Tangled</del></li>~~
~~The Oder (A Horror Roblox Story)</del></li>~~
~~Joker</del></li>~~
~~The Boss Baby: Family Business</del></li>~~
~~(Rewatch) Drive (2011)</del></li>~~
~~(Rewatch) John Wick</del></li>~~
~~Logan</del></li>~~
~~American Psycho</del></li>~~
~~Serial Experiments Lain</del></li>~~
~~Evangelion 3.0+1.0</del></li>~~
~~Midsommar</del></li>~~
~~The Walking Dead</del></li>~~
~~Spiderman: No Way Home</del></li>~~
~~Heat</del></li>~~
~~Memories</del></li>~~
~~(Rewatch) The Incredibles</del></li>~~
~~Constantine (2005)</del></li>~~
~~Wall-E</del></li>~~
~~Mega Mind</del></li>~~
~~Jack Reacher</del></li>~~
~~Nightcrawler</del></li>~~
~~Boss Level (2020)</del></li>~~
~~Morbius</del></li>~~
~~Regular Show The Movie</del></li>~~
~~No Country for Old Men</del></li>~~
~~The Iron Giant</del></li>~~
~~Captain Underpants - The First Epic Movie</del></li>~~
~~(Rewatch) Breaking Bad</del></li>~~
~~Better Call Saul</del></li>~~
~~Dahmer</del></li>~~
~~United 93</del></li>~~
~~Blade Runner 2049</del></li>~~
~~Sonic the Hedgehog (2020)</del></li>~~
~~Utopia</del></li>~~
~~Godfather</del></li>~~
~~Silence of the Lambs</del></li>~~
~~Adventure Time</del></li>~~
~~Invincible</del></li>~~
~~The Princess Bride</del></li>~~
~~8 Crazy Nights</del></li>~~
~~Scott Pilgrim VS The World</del></li>~~
~~Arcane</del></li>~~
~~(Rewatch) How Clumsy you are, Miss Ueno</del></li>~~
~~(Rewatch) Bunny Girl Senpai</del></li>~~
~~Xavier: Renegade Angel</del></li>~~
~~Panty & Stocking with Garterbelt</del></li>~~
~~AkiraIsle of Dogs</del></li>~~
~~The Grand Budapest Hotel</del></li>~~
~~Rushmore</del></li>~~
~~Cyberpunk: Edgerunners</del></li>~~
~~Cowboy Bebop (Series and Movie)</del></li>~~
~~Beastars</del></li>~~
~~Brand New Animal</del></li>~~
~~Moana</del></li>~~
~~Gen V</del></li>~~
~~House MD</del></li>~~
~~The Thing</del></li>~~
~~Hereditary</del></li>~~
~~Mulholland Drive</del></li>~~
~~American Sniper</del></li>~~
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia</li>
Lucky Star</li>
O.K. KO</li>
Senko Sama</li>
Knives Out</li>
Regular Show</li>
Close Enough</li>
Ratatouille</li>
I Know This Much Is True</li>
The Shield</li>
Playtime (1967)</li>
World of Tomorrow</li>
Johnny Got His Gun</li>
Mitchells vs. The Machines</li>
Mob Psycho 100</li>
Annihilation</li>
Shrek 2</li>
American POP</li>
Army of Darkness</li>
Bird Box</li>
Brooklyn Nine Nine</li>
Black Mirror</li>
The Martian</li>
Footloose</li>
DOTA: Dragon's Blood</li>
Devilman Crybaby</li>
Wonder Egg Priority</li>
Godless™️</li>
Little Witch Academia</li>
Monty Python and the Holy Grail</li>
Sk8</li>
Soul Heathers</li>
Airplane</li>
Amra Ekta Cinema Banabo</li>
Carole & Tuesday</li>
No Game No Life</li>
Hitori Bocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu</li>
Tokyo Revengers</li>
K-on</li> </ul>

The Instagram reupload

bun@nixfox.ca — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 04:31:57 -0400

I thought I'd get the ball rolling by reuploading the works I liked I had previously uploaded to my Instagram.

</a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </div>

Bnuuys

bun@nixfox.ca — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 01:07:46 -0400

I live in a place where many rabbits and bunnies come out at night to play at night. I like taking photos of them, here are a few!

</a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </div>

Blackberry critters

bun@nixfox.ca — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 10:28:32 -0400

I once was given an old Blackberry phone to comb through. Here are some of the images I found worthy of sharing!

</a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </a> </div>

My favorite games

bun@nixfox.ca — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 02:19:13 -0400

Thanks for checking out my little list! I have a very opinionated set of favorites, and will likely update this list as I find more.

As of recent I have had a very strong interest in stealth-action games, ones you can play like a puzzle as well as a shooter. Those for me have been:

Inspiration and tools

bun@nixfox.ca — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 02:09:13 -0400

Having a hard time keeping track of all the pages and links I've encountered and been inspired by and liked while making this webpage, so I may as well put them here!

Tools</a></h3>

Zola</a>, the tool letting me make this whole page</li>
Nginx</a>, been using it this whole time but could always learn more</li> </ul>
pages</a></h3>

msx.horse</a>, my very first inspiration to make a page like this :)</li>
zvava.org</a>, a very pretty blog page and my proper kick in the ass to get started on this page</li>
catgirl.cloud</a>, a simple inspiration for what to mention when i write about my self hosted platforms</li>
oat.zone</a>, cool domain and another little reminder of what to write about in my about me</li> </ul>
webrings</a></h3>

xxiivv.Com</a>, a very simple list of very cool pages</li>
bucketfish.Me</a>, another cool webring of cool pages</li>
george.Gh0.Pw</a>, george.</li>
queer coded webring</a>, "You're telling me a queer coded this?"</li>
neocities.Org</a>, basically as many webrings as I could want to see</li>
hotlinewebring.Club</a>, which also looks cute</li>
roboring</a>, very cool people here</li> </ul>

About the Aubun creature

bun@nixfox.ca — Thu, 03 Jul 2025 01:48:16 -0400

Hello, I'm Aubun, or just Bun for short! Online I often go by viceebun or Monarch, which i am quite fond of :3

Some basic info:</a></h4>

Prefered name: Aubun Donald</li>
Nickname: Bun, nonbun_</li>
Pronouns: they/them</li>
Born: 2004</li>
Contact: my contact page</a></li> </ul>
I'd like to use this page to share some of my interests!
Technology</a></h2>
This has always been the big one for me. Since I was young, I would reach out to people's dumbphones, PDA's, or anything else I could get my hands on, trying to find out what sourcery was making them work.
As I got older, I learned more and more about how to get computers to do the things I want.
My distinct memory of introducing myself to the world of computer hackery at a basic level was getting the 2013 version of Black Mesa, at the time still a Source mod, to work on my Dell Lattitude D630</a>, a laptop I dearly wish I still had today.
It ran horrendously.
Still, doing this got my foot in the game, and from there I started to learn about windows tweaks, game mods, and going forward, my favorite would become...
Linux</a></h3>
To save the longer rant for a later day, I will simply say this - the second I got familier with Linux, I felt more at home than I ever had on Windows.
Want to run a game server 24/7?
No problem.
Need more file storage, but don't have any more to add to my hardware?
Network attached storage with NFS.
Linux doesn't just lower the guardrails preventing me from doing what I want, but along with the community helps and elevates me to doing anything I want.
My current operating system for all of my systems is NixOS</a>, something i also hope to write about very soon.
Games</a></h2>
I grew up as a heavy Nintendo kid, having grown up with a Wii, a 3DS, and a lot of Mario. Since then, I have moved to a nearly Steam/GOG exclusive library, with some evil games that i had to get on.. Epic Games.
I'm very sorry.
Regardless, I have compiled a list of many of my favorite games</a>! Check it out if you'd like!
Hikes, walks, and nature</a></h2>
I've always loved going out on walks - I'm a naturally fast walker, and can do a my entire town's round trip in just an hour! Summer is my favorite season, because I'm given that many more chances to get out there without feeling like the frost will take me.
I even plan to go on some proper hiking paths before the summer is out! Knowing the paths I wanna take is inspired by one very special friend who gave me the locations and the grit to get myself out there :)

Contact info and socials

bun@nixfox.ca — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 23:45:15 -0400

I'm not on too many platforms, but the best way to reach me today is email and Matrix!
Main platforms</a></h4>

✉️ Email: bun@nixfox.ca</a></li>
💬 Matrix: @bun:nixfox.ca</a></li>
🐦 Mastodon: @bun@social.nixfox.ca</a></li>
🗞️ Rss: /authors/aubun/rss.xml</a></li> </ul>
Here are my other socials,
which i'm active on from time to time.
Social platforms</a></h4>

💬 Discord: nonbun_</a></li>
🖼️ Instagram: viceebun</a></li>
🐦 Twitter: viceebun</a></li>
🎮 Steam: viceebun</a></li>
🎵 Spotify: bun</a></li>
📻 Last.fm: viceebun</a></li> </ul>
Security keys</a></h3>
My ssh pubkey can be found here</a>.

New Website

bun@nixfox.ca — Wed, 02 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If anyone had previously seen this website, you may have noticed this is now a very different page.
For the first time, I have decided to sit down and properly attack some HTML and CSS (as well as some evil JavaScript) head-on to create a homepage I can be proud of.
When rebuiling, I knew I needed to plan ahead for what I needed; a blog, hand written HTML, and automatic indexing.
And I found Zola</a> to be just the framework for my needs.
Zola is a static page generator</a>, which allows you to export a developed page using only a few templates and CommonMark text files.
I chose a static site generator because databases horrify me, and I'd prefer to have all the code available in one Git repo</a>.
While many things are still to come, eg, more blogs, more images, and more software talks, I believe this site acts as the foundation for a stable home for both NixFox and my own blogging going forward.
Stay tuned for what's next!

Upkeep!</a></h3>
While I was here, I thought it important to enable things like Element Call and to serve from a VPS rather than my home. All of these changes can be explored further in my Git repo</a>.</p>

Steam Deck</a></h2>
Servers</a></h1>
BTRFS</a></h1>
Mycelium</a></h1>
Colmena</a></h1>
Impermanence</a></h1>
Virtualization</a></h1>
QEMU/KVM</a></h3>

Servers</a></h1>
BTRFS</a></h1>
Mycelium</a></h1>
Colmena</a></h1>
Impermanence</a></h1>
Virtualization</a></h1>
QEMU/KVM</a></h3>

BTRFS</a></h1>
Mycelium</a></h1>
Colmena</a></h1>
Impermanence</a></h1>
Virtualization</a></h1>
QEMU/KVM</a></h3>

Mycelium</a></h1>
Colmena</a></h1>
Impermanence</a></h1>
Virtualization</a></h1>
QEMU/KVM</a></h3>

Colmena</a></h1>
Impermanence</a></h1>
Virtualization</a></h1>
QEMU/KVM</a></h3>

Impermanence</a></h1>
Virtualization</a></h1>
QEMU/KVM</a></h3>

Virtualization</a></h1>
QEMU/KVM</a></h3>

QEMU/KVM</a></h3>

Equalizer</a></h2>
EasyEffects has been a blessing for a former VoiceMeeter</a> user. It's able to run as a service, has highly configurable settings, and can be made to autoload my profile right from the my HomeManager config.</p>

Gaming</a></h2>
Steam</a> is my obvious default choice, with GOG</a> as a close second, and whatever free scraps Epic Games</a> gives me through the Heroic Games Launcher</a>. Heroic now allows for server syncing of GOG saves, which has been a lifesaver.</p>

Communication</a></h2>
On the desktop, I primarily use both Element</a> and Vesktop</a>, but with the progress being made to Cinny</a> as of late, that may become my primary chat client. I have my key stored on my own Matrix server, so syncing is as easy as verifying my login.</p>

Shell</a></h2>
I just recently discovered Atuin</a>, which lets me sync my ZSH history across all of my machines using a self hosted server. No more forgetting commands!</p>

Text editor</a></h2>
To wrap this up, I'd like to do a fourth wall break: I edit all these blogs either right here in Neovim</a>, or my own Hedgedoc</a> instance.</p>
Now that I've got all that software set up, I should get back to writing more!</p>

NixFox Services</a></h2>

Write a little update about adding ntfy.sh and what I use it for</li>
Detailed blog about setting up an email server using Oracle Cloud</li>
Set up an XMPP instance and write a blog about it</li>
Consider better ways of handling downtime/load balancing</li> </ul>

Security keys</a></h3>
My ssh pubkey can be found here</a>.</p>

The NixFox Den

March 1st Matrix Outage

My hardware

Software I use

Todo list

Aubun's media list

The Instagram reupload

Bnuuys

Blackberry critters

My favorite games

Inspiration and tools

About the Aubun creature

Contact info and socials

New Website

The NixFox Den

March 1st Matrix Outage

Prologue</a></h2> Matrix is not a fun protocol, especially not helped by the decisions I made early on.</p> I made two bad decisions in the beginning.</p> Using Synapse.</li>

My hardware

Software I use

Todo list

Articles and Blogs</a></h2> Make a list of other blogs and website's RSS feeds I'm subscribed to</li> Being a "Jack of All Trades"</li>

Aubun's media list

The Instagram reupload

Bnuuys

Blackberry critters

My favorite games

Inspiration and tools

About the Aubun creature

Some basic info:</a></h4> Prefered name: Aubun Donald</li> Nickname: Bun, nonbun_</li> Pronouns: they/them</li> Born: 2004</li>

Contact info and socials

New Website