u/Patrice_77

Dear all,

I have my 20D camera for a very long time and I can sell it now. Unfortunately, years ago I set my name in the camera software so that with every picture I take, my name will be in the exif data.

Now the problem I have is, how can I erase this again??
I do can install a former version of windows, but I don’t have the original cd with the drivers and utilities anymore nor can I find these (or an ISO of this cd) online.

Any ideas or suggestions are welcome
Thank you in advance

Hi everybody,

I'm have created two playbooks for my Proxmox nodes:
- Bootstrap = NAG removal, Add repos, create 2 users, setup SSH
- Proxmox_play = Setting up the whole system to my desires

The Bootstrap has to be done with elevated privileges (root: become=true). I'm passing through the root password as a vault encrypted file.

Now, for the Proxmox_play, I read that one should use a different user to perform all remaining tasks. I'm just talking about a home-lab, nothing exposed to the WWW.

1. Do I really need to use a different user to execute all the remaining tasks, what are the implications if I don't do that?
2. How can I tell Ansible that it should use user X with passwd Y to execute all tasks on hosts: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc...?

Additionally, I'm currently storing the encrypted files in a separate directory where all my ansible related stuff resides....NOT directly within the roles, though!
What is the recommendation of the community where to store these files best? (I'm not using GitHub at the moment...is something pending to learn/setup).

Thank you in advance for the recommendations.

Hi all,

I'm in a doubt here what would be best practice to use. Both solutions work for me, though. Nevertheless, I'm learning and would like to satisfy my curiosity on this one.

I'm modifying the root crontab to run an rclone script every 4 minutes on my Mac.
With Ansible, I've created a play that used the ansible.builtin.cron and the results are exactly as any example is showing:

0 11 * * 1-5   <the jobs>

Boring and for some, not very obvious.

I also did the same this, but using ansible.builtin.blockinfile to make it look like this:

# Mins  Hours   Days    Months  WkDay
#=====================================
## rclone-sync - This job will run every Monday to Friday at 11 am
  0     11      *       *       1-5   <the jobs>

I know, if both ways work, choose to your liking. What would be the choice of the community and are there any pro's or con's on both methods?

Thank you for your comments in advance.

Hi all

So, I’ve read several stories about things happening when updating to the new kernel 7 in Proxmox.

Today I’ve been busy updating one of my nodes, didn’t see anything weird happening after a while playing with it. Updated a second node and started revising things also.
This is where it cough my eye, that the live log view isn’t updating anymore. Checked also my first node, here exactly the same, with the same last x amount of log messages.

I also had a third node, that I just use to try things out, checked the live log view and was still writing new messages.
Started the update, and after a reboot this one also stopped writing new messages. Also these same as the other two, same x amount of messages before everything stops.

Though, checking journalctl i can still see new log messages being written.

Deleted the complete log file, thought it might be corrupted, but didn’t solve the issue.

Did anybody also have this experience, perhaps also managed to solve it and would like to share?

Hi all,

I was wondering if anybody had some good ideas about using iPhone and Apple Watch in presence detection automation?

My Apple Watch U3 has cellular connection.
Both are connected to WiFi.

Thing is, if I go out without iPhone, home assistant will now know that I’m gone. I can do an automation for the watch, but then leaving the watch at home.. will result in the same.

I don’t have a Bluetooth device connected to my ha insurance. I also thought of using the connection between iPhone and Apple Watch but I can’t find a sensor or something in ha.

[UPDATE] Noticed that I wasn’t completely clear.
I do have device trackers for iPhone and Apple Watch in home assistant that are used to detect presence.
Problem arises when I leave my phone at home and only go out with my watch. HA sees my phone is at home so…I’m still at home and the lights stay on.
So, actually the only workable thing I can imagine is using the Bluetooth connection between iPhone and watch…. But this is something I don’t see available in HA.

Any suggestions??

Hi all,

I've been playing a bit with Ansible and have a nice playbook to setup a (almost) complete proxmox host after initial installation.

I do have a doubt regarding SSH setup.
During the playbook run, I'm creating my user and an Ansible user. Both are added to the sudoers-file and pre-generated SSH-keys are imported into Proxmox SSH + a config-file is copied to the Proxmox host, ssh.service is deactivated and ssh.socket activated. Last but not least, an SSH restart will be done.

The above is all together in 1 playbook with the rest of the proxmox config setup, install of a few utils. This is all done over SSH port 22. During the SSH config, port is changed and key-access only activated.
Thing is, this SSH setup I also want to use with my VM/CT. The wat I've doing SSH now, it breaks idempotent because a second run will of course fail due to no access to the proxmox host.

Would be nice if I could tell Ansible e.g. if for host 1 variable x = 1 (SSH has been setup), use alternate SSH config (new port + keys). Or some other setup that I could use to maintain idempotent and I can use this setup also later on in roles.

What is your take on this, what is a better setup?
Should I just maintain a bootstrap which only sets up users and SSH (these two perhaps also in different roles?? ==> thus a playbook consisting of only 2 roles, meaning users + ssh), after that a different playbook that uses the new port and keys to access the host and do all the rest??

Does the community have any ideas, suggestions or good practices on this?

Thank you in advance for your input.

Hello,

Due to some recent issues I had with postfix (solved already) it got me thinking…what would be a better way to have email notifications; using postfix or the notifications setup through the GUI?

What’s the community’s take on this?
Other options?

Also would like to know why you chose for the one or the other :)

Thanks

Hi all,

Finished setting up my new PVE, and see in the logs that Postfix is trying to connect to cloud flare. Anybody knows why, or where this is configured??

The below messages, keep on going and I still haven't configured anything yet apart from log2ram, logrotate, unattended-upgrades.

Jun 08 12:37:18 elite postfix/smtp[9150]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[162.159.205.12]:25: Connection timed out
Jun 08 12:37:18 elite postfix/smtp[9151]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[162.159.205.12]:25: Connection timed out
Jun 08 12:37:18 elite postfix/smtp[9151]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[2606:4700:f5::d]:25: Network is unreachable
Jun 08 12:37:18 elite postfix/smtp[9150]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[2606:4700:f5::b]:25: Network is unreachable
Jun 08 12:37:18 elite postfix/smtp[9150]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[2606:4700:f5::d]:25: Network is unreachable
Jun 08 12:37:18 elite postfix/smtp[9153]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[162.159.205.12]:25: Connection timed out
Jun 08 12:37:18 elite postfix/smtp[9153]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[2606:4700:f5::b]:25: Network is unreachable
Jun 08 12:37:18 elite postfix/smtp[9152]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[162.159.205.12]:25: Connection timed out
Jun 08 12:37:48 elite postfix/smtp[9153]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[162.159.205.13]:25: Connection timed out
Jun 08 12:37:48 elite postfix/smtp[9150]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[162.159.205.13]:25: Connection timed out
Jun 08 12:37:48 elite postfix/smtp[9151]: connect to route1.mx.cloudflare.net[162.159.205.11]:25: Connection timed out

Hi all,

Since today, 1247pm my node isn't showing any more new log messages in System Log (GUI).
And this is the Live Mode. I do can call up an overview from date till date.

I have log2ram and logrotate installed, should this be of any help.

Any suggestions how I can check if some involved service is still active or needs to be reactivated?

Thanks.

[UPDATE 08-06-2026]
Solved it by deleting ALL logs --> delete the log files on disk (/var/log/journal/)

So this morning woke up and my log of a freshly installed Proxmox (HP Elite notebook..old one) full with the messages you see below.

I noticed I did had access to the console directly on the node, so I did't restart it. Instead I tried to physically disconnect and re-connect the ethernet cable, and all of a sudden everything worked again.

Now, I actually have no idea what these messages mean, maybe someone of the community could shed a light on this, directing me where to look or what to do here..

Thank you.

Jun 07 09:52:21 elite kernel: e1000e 0000:00:19.0 nic0: Detected Hardware Unit Hang:
  TDH                  <6c>
  TDT                  <b8>
  next_to_use          <b8>
  next_to_clean        <6c>
buffer_info[next_to_clean]:
  time_stamp           <102ebedfb>
  next_to_watch        <6d>
  jiffies              <1042e1080>
  next_to_watch.status <0>
MAC Status             <80043>
PHY Status             <796d>
PHY 1000BASE-T Status  <0>
PHY Extended Status    <3000>
PCI Status             <10>

Hi all,

Before I start with my question..I know I should be learning to use roles but I'm just not there yet.

I have a playbook (PB) and a host file.
The PB runs without issues, until...I've implemented Blocks into the code. Now when I run the PB, it's skipping all of my plays even though I've mentioned the tags that I want to be executed. Am I missing something here or did I use the Blocks: wrong!?!

I also have pre_tasks, also with tags: always and these are also skipped, just as all the rest of the blocks.
And of course, at some point the PB stops because of an error, which is obvious because previous tasks have been executed.

How I start the playbook:

ansible-playbook -i inventory/my_hosts.yaml --tags always,ssh,pve bootstrap.yaml --vault-password-file=<pw-file>

Here a piece of my hosts-file:

servers:
    hosts:
        proxmox:
            ansible_host: 192.168.3.110
            # ansible_port: 9100
            ansible_python_interpreter: "/usr/bin/python3"
            ansible_become: true

And this is a piece of the PB where I'm using the Blocks:

- name: Bootstrap
  hosts: all
  become: true  # Run as sudo
  vars_files: 
    - vars/ans_crpt_pwd.yaml
    - vars/pat_crpt_pwd.yaml
    ...

  pre_tasks:
  ...

  tasks:
  - name: User Management
    block:
    - name: "Adding the user: <user>"
      ansible.builtin.user:
        # Replace with the username you want to create
        name: <username>
        ...
        ...
    tags: always

If anybody can help me with this, I'd appreciate it.

[UPDATE 05-06-2026]
I've found the culprit, it was a distribution check that used a deprecated Ansible command:

when: ansible_facts == "Debian" 

And the new line that works now is:

when: ansible_facts['distribution'] == "Debian"

Thanks to using the -vv flag. I was completely forgotten about this one.

Hi all,

Looking to get me a soil sensor or two for my plants (indoor).

I’ve found these on AliE. Can anybody tell me if these are any good? Or other recommendations…

Thanks

Hi all,

I’m reorganizing my project setup (using ClickUp) and stumbled upon a question about what is best practice.

At the moment all completed tasks of a certain contact will have a contract-list as home location.

But I was thinking if it would ve better to just have all the tasks of all the contacts (per client, though) in one big folder/list and just make tasks member of the respective contact list.

It’s almost like m&m’s. 😆
Have all of them in one big jar and filter the colors you want, or separate them by color in separate jars.

I hope I’m making myself clear about what I’m trying to ask 😄

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

Hi all,

I’m reorganizing my project setup (using ClickUp) and stumbled upon a question about what is best practice.

At the moment all completed tasks of a certain contact will have a contract-list as home location.

But I was thinking if it would ve better to just have all the tasks of all the contacts (per client, though) in one big folder/list and just make tasks member of the respective contact list.

It’s almost like m&m’s. 😆
Have all of them in one big jar and filter the colors you want, or separate them by color in separate jars.

I hope I’m making myself clear about what I’m trying to ask 😄

Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

Hi all,

I want to make a shortcut that changes my watch face on wind down and then when it’s bedtime, turn on sleep focus.

The first part, I got that working. My Apple Watch changes the watch face correctly.
Though, I have tried several ways to get sleep focus to activate but doesn’t work.

Used the automation “when bedtime starts” doesn’t work because wind down, is actually the sleep focus that turns on sleep focus. So, when bedtime starts just won’t work for some reason.

Want to get the time of my bedtime schedule, but don’t know how.

Snuffing an idea how I can solve this?

Hi all,

I have a motion automation setup according the Smarthomejunkie’s vid “how to use timers…” but instead of directly activation my lights, this automation is setting an input Boolean to ‘1’ and this is a trigger to start a script for turning on the lights.

The use of input Booleans for switching devices like motion sensors or physical switches gives me the possibility to detect what turned the light on and control this with other automations. Like: If this is "1" and that is "0", than do this, also if this is "0" and that is "0", do that, etc...

In this case I’m also controlling the same lights with a Tradfri button to turn on/off.

I now am stumbling into a small challenge 😄 I walk into the room and the lights go on because of motion but will go out within 30s. Perfect like this for motion only.

Condition for this automation to work: input Booleans of the light switches (I have two of them) need to be off. If either on of them is "on", the motion automation will not run.

But, I walk into the room, lights go on, I don’t want them to go out so I push the switch.

Now all the lights (3) stay on (motion activated) but I only want the one light to stay on, rest needs to go out, and the input Boolean of the motion needs to be set back to 0 also.

What I've tried so far, keeps resulting that the input boolean of the motion gets stuck on "1", and/or all the lights just stay on.

A quick and dirty trick for now, when I push the switch, the input boolean of the motion will be set to off...though still all the lights stay on.

Where do I need to change something to get what I want?

The yaml of the switches:

alias: au_Bedroom - Nightstand Lts
description: >-
  Turning on/off Nightstands by toggling the input_booleans and running the
  script.
triggers:
  - domain: mqtt
    device_id: dcd67f90fdf94c2dc9b8a2ad85ca0435
    type: action
    subtype: "on"
    trigger: device
    id: NS_1
  - domain: mqtt
    device_id: cab02aec2ee53ec205b0f153db3dff70
    type: action
    subtype: "on"
    trigger: device
    id: NS_2
  - trigger: state
    entity_id:
      - input_boolean.hlp_bedroom_ns1
    id: hlp_NS_1
  - trigger: state
    entity_id:
      - input_boolean.hlp_bedroom_ns2
    id: hlp_NS_2
conditions: []
actions:
  - choose:
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - NS_1
        sequence:
          - action: input_boolean.toggle
            metadata: {}
            target:
              entity_id: input_boolean.hlp_bedroom_ns1
            data: {}
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - NS_2
        sequence:
          - action: input_boolean.toggle
            metadata: {}
            target:
              entity_id: input_boolean.hlp_bedroom_ns2
            data: {}
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - hlp_NS_1
        sequence:
          - action: script.scr_bedroom_ns_1
            metadata: {}
            data: {}
      - conditions:
          - condition: trigger
            id:
              - hlp_NS_2
        sequence:
          - action: script.scr_bedroom_ns_2
            metadata: {}
            data: {}

Hi all,

I've recently started to get into Ansible to setup my Proxmox, VMs and CTs.

Now I'm struggling a bit on what's best practice.
I have a first playbook that sets up SSH, e.g. this setup changes port and installs key pairs. This thus means that after the first run, I cannot use this playbook anymore since SSH port and login method are changed.

This is just one of more of the same issues I'm facing.

What would be a best solution:
Keep just one playbook for a first setup --> bootstrap?
Next, for each (Prxomox, VM and CT) a separate playbook?

Or just one big playbook and using tags?
(I'm not there yet to setup and work with roles...but want to get there eventually).
I'm still discovering stuff with Ansible, and maybe further along down the road I can optimize the whole process myself, but at the moment I'm a bit stuck here 😃

I hope someone could shed a light on this for me, on how to tackle this challenge.

Hi all,

I was trying to make a calculation with start date, duration and WORKDAY.

But u wasn’t able to select the field “Duration” in the formula.
Does anyone know if calculations with this field are:
- permitted
- implemented yet
- or perhaps doing something wrong here 🤷🏼‍♂️

Thanks for the replies in advance.

Hi all,

I’ve recently heard/read about Tailscale Funnel.
Immediately, thought of using it for my home assistant. But I also remembered that many people use Cloudflare.

Next to this, also was mentioned that these two are the same as Nabu Casa from home assistant.

1. Are there any differences between the three (except for the fact Nabu is paid)

2. From the first two, which one would be your preference, or is better

3. Regarding security/safety what can there be said about the all three of them?

Should I go one of these ways to expose my Home Assistant to the Internet to have access and more options to explore with home assistant??

Love to hear from the community
Thank you in advance