So I literally spent 2 hours trying to get my Canon Pixma printer to work... it suddenly stopped responding with the error message "your printer is offline" ... even if it was connected by cable.

I reset the driver - no change.

I changed cables - still nothing.

I tried on 2 different computers (desktop and laptop) - always "offline".

Then I revived my faithful Macbook Air 2014 (which I'd been using up till last year) and plugging in the USB 2 cable (without adapters) did the trick, as I had suspected.

This is why I keep my beloved Macbook Air 2014 around: 12 years old and still working wonderfully 🤗​

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Mondays mean: manually backing up my #YunoHost system.

Speaking of YH, in case you missed it, here is my latest guide for newbies about how to install an app with YunoHost - I showcased NextCloud in my tutorial: https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost-part-3-lets-install-nextcloud/

I'm always surprised by the sheer size of backups - this time 15GB (ugh!) broken down as follows (from biggest to smallest):

#GoToSocial: 6.2 GB
#PeerTube: 4.3 GB
#NextCloud: 3.0 GB
#Pixelfed: 1.5 GB
#LinkStack: 91 MB

I'm brainstorming ways to make my GoToSocial backup size go down... I have cache set to 1 day only, so I'm trying unfollowing a few accounts (that I already follow from my Mastodon profile) to see if that makes a difference.

Anyway, wishing you all a great day & week!

#MySoCalledSudoLife #selfhosting

New post:

"A newbie's guide to self-hosting with YunoHost. Part 3: Let’s install NextCloud"

🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost-part-3-lets-install-nextcloud/

And sorry for repeating myself, but the path to digital independence and empowerment is easier than you thought.

My self-hosted #NextCloud has fully replaced WeTransfer, Google Drive and Dropbox for me... and it's only the tip of the iceberg.

I hope this visual guide will help fellow newbies.

#SelfHosting #YunoHost #MySoCalledSudoLife #FOSS #blog #resist

Good morning Fedi friends!

I've just published the third installment in my blog series about self-hosting with #YunoHost, showing (with plenty of screenshots and detailed explanations) how to install #NextCloud.

I'm now on high alert expecting any minute a reply by a sysadmin with a stern lecture about something I wrote 😅​

🔗​: https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost-part-3-lets-install-nextcloud/

Instead of signing off every blog post with the words "written by a human" I should maybe have instead: "with the greatest respect to sysadmins - I admire you tremendously"

#MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting

Update:

I sent the toot with a link to my self-hosting guide (installing NextCloud via YunoHost) three hours ago… and I haven’t received any scoldings / complaints by sysadmins yet (about potentially idiotic things I could have written). I consider my morning a success 🤪

#YunoHost #NextCloud #MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting

Good morning Fedi friends!

I've just published the third installment in my blog series about self-hosting with #YunoHost, showing (with plenty of screenshots and detailed explanations) how to install #NextCloud.

I'm now on high alert expecting any minute a reply by a sysadmin with a stern lecture about something I wrote 😅​

🔗​: https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost-part-3-lets-install-nextcloud/

Instead of signing off every blog post with the words "written by a human" I should maybe have instead: "with the greatest respect to sysadmins - I admire you tremendously"

#MySoCalledSudoLife #SelfHosting

New post:

"A newbie's guide to self-hosting with YunoHost. Part 3: Let’s install NextCloud"

🔗 : https://blog.elenarossini.com/a-newbies-guide-to-self-hosting-with-yunohost-part-3-lets-install-nextcloud/

And sorry for repeating myself, but the path to digital independence and empowerment is easier than you thought.

My self-hosted #NextCloud has fully replaced WeTransfer, Google Drive and Dropbox for me... and it's only the tip of the iceberg.

I hope this visual guide will help fellow newbies.

#SelfHosting #YunoHost #MySoCalledSudoLife #FOSS #blog #resist

10pm, husband is watching a soccer game, child has been long asleep... what do I do?

Install a new app via #YunoHost of course!

Excited to finally try out #CryptPad 💁‍♀️​

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Loving every bit of my GrapheneOS phone.

I set up a sandboxed "Big Tech" user profile but I have been reluctant to download apps to it.

I still want to keep this darling GrapheneOS phone pretty pure if I can help it.

For now I still have a Kindle account with hundreds of books (sigh) but I was delighted when I realized that you don't need the Kindle app to access them... you can do so on the web at: https://read.amazon.com/ yes you can even highlight book passages!

I find this to be a good enough compromise.

And yes at some point I will definitely export all these books. I already jailbroke 2 Kindles last November and I'm looking into setting myself free from Amazon.

I'm doing the best I can given my time and skills 😓​ but I think using the web instead of a proprietary app (that can track you 24/7) is a good thing.

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Loving every bit of my GrapheneOS phone.

I set up a sandboxed "Big Tech" user profile but I have been reluctant to download apps to it.

I still want to keep this darling GrapheneOS phone pretty pure if I can help it.

For now I still have a Kindle account with hundreds of books (sigh) but I was delighted when I realized that you don't need the Kindle app to access them... you can do so on the web at: https://read.amazon.com/ yes you can even highlight book passages!

I find this to be a good enough compromise.

And yes at some point I will definitely export all these books. I already jailbroke 2 Kindles last November and I'm looking into setting myself free from Amazon.

I'm doing the best I can given my time and skills 😓​ but I think using the web instead of a proprietary app (that can track you 24/7) is a good thing.

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Speaking of #JDLL, some of you may remember that I had the honor of speaking at the 2025 edition, invited by the awesome @yunohost team to share my experiences self-hosting with them.

I asked my husband to tag along and bring our daughter so she could see me speaking on stage... and see that mamma does cool stuff outside the house too.

Well, my daughter brought up Lyon and the conference on the way to school the other morning. I asked her: "did you have a good time?" and her immediate response was: "I didn't understand anything you said!"

Me: "Well, it's normal, I talked about grown up stuff."

Child (4 then, 5 soon): "But what did you say?"

And then I proceeded to try to explain the concept of #selfhosting and #digitalsovereignty and how empowering it is to use a tech stack independent of #BigTech platforms... in an accessible way that she would understand.

It was SO DIFFICULT.

I probably failed spectacularly and she still doesn't understand. But it made me think that it'd be worth trying to explain this to older kids... like pre-adolescents or in their early teens? Maybe a project for another time.

#MySoCalledSudoLife #resist #parenting

What have I become?!? My mom just asked me if we're free at the end of May (weekend of 23rd-24th) because she'd like to visit* us in Paris... and my FIRST thought was: wait maybe that weekend there will be #JDLL in Lyon?

Now the highlights of the calendar year for me are #FOSS conferences. Truly.

I was pleased to tell my mom that no, JDLL is the following weekend, so we are indeed free.

(*In my defense, we visit my parents in Italy every month-two months, and we do video calls every day, so it's not as if a FOSS conference took precedence. I'm a bona fide Italian daughter after all)

Anyway looking forward to my parents' visit... and ALL the FOSS conferences I can attend this year 😅​

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Good morning Fedi friends!

I'm currently in the east of France visiting extended family.

We're snowed in, everyone in the house is still asleep and I'm in the kitchen, near the fire, sipping coffee and setting up a new self-hosted app: #Umami (a privacy-respecting website analytics app).

How long did it take me to connect my 3 websites? 5 minutes.

Thank you #YunoHost for making all this possible!

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Good morning Fedi friends!

I'm currently in the east of France visiting extended family.

We're snowed in, everyone in the house is still asleep and I'm in the kitchen, near the fire, sipping coffee and setting up a new self-hosted app: #Umami (a privacy-respecting website analytics app).

How long did it take me to connect my 3 websites? 5 minutes.

Thank you #YunoHost for making all this possible!

#MySoCalledSudoLife

Happy new year dear Fedi friends! 🎊​

My first #MySoCalledSudoLife action of 2026 will be to install Monica – a #FOSS personal CRM system to keep track of friends and family (birthdays, anniversaries, last contact etc.) – on my server.

🔗​: https://www.monicahq.com

I'm shuddering thinking about how much money I spent in my life on closed, proprietary products. Like, back in 2017-2018 I paid 159 dollars A YEAR for a similar tool... now on my little server for 4 Euros a month I can host Monica, Matomo and other useful software.

I hope this is the year that self-hosting grows in popularity.

Thank you for all your support and encouragement! And I look forward to learning more new things from you :)

#FOSS #FLOSS