TrueNAS and FreeNAS (as it was named before that) have been one of, if not the, most blogged-about subjects in the last 250 blogs (yes, I made it to 250 and didn’t even notice) over the past 8 years (or at least it will be in November 2024).
I’ve just upgraded from TrueNAS 13.1-U6 to 13.3, which could be the last major release of TrueNAS Core, the FreeBSD-based version that was FreeNAS 9.2.8 when I started using it in 2013.
Upgrading TrueNAS is usually pretty uneventful, even though it causes me no end of worry for weeks before and sometimes weeks afterwards. This is one of these updates that I might still be fighting with in months to come!
I’ve already blogged about some of iXsystems focus changes here, with TrueNAS Scale based on Linux being the future direction of travel. What this means for TrueNAS Core is still a little unclear, but hopefully, there are still a few years before that becomes a major issue for me.
After updating TrueNAS (which is built on FreeBSD 13.3 rather than 13.1), the process of upgrading the jails begins. This updates them to the base version of FreeBSD. I successfully upgraded one jail from 13.1 to 13.3 and then updated and upgraded the packages (#pkg update & pkg upgrade), but it was only my Airsonic jail, which isn’t really used in anger anymore. I wouldn’t be upset if it broke and I had to destroy it.
Lots of my jails are web-based applications running on a FEMP stack, or FreeBSD (as the operating system), Nginx (a web server pronounced Engine-X), MySQL (a database server, in my case Mariadb), and PHP (a programming language to process dynamic PHP content). I’ve kept the jails running by upgrading the operating system between versions of TrueNAS using commands like #iocage upgrade -r 13.3-RELEASE <jailname> and then within the running jail #pkg update && pkg upgrade. I needed to update PHP separately, which I blogged about here, but the one thing I neglected was the MySQL element. My Nextcloud, WordPress, and LimeSurvey jails are all running Mariadb103, which, along with Mariadb104, are no longer supported. The latest version of MariaDB is 10.11, so I’m pretty far behind.
I asked for some help from the TrueNAS forum, and as ever, I wasn’t let down with some excellent advice. It turns out I can update the jail base to FreeBSD 13.4 on TrueNAS 13.3, so I’ll be doing that and then trying to update Mariadb103 to Mariadb105 as a first step. I’ve struggled with this in the past and simply rolled back and found a way to update without touching the database. In hindsight, that wasn’t a great idea, but at least now I have a problem that needs to be solved, and once I’ve solved it for one, it should be easy enough to apply to the others.
It turned out to be a little more problematic than I thought, although that’s more down to my lack of System Administration skills than the technology. The first rule of updating databases is to ensure the old database has been shut down correctly and not aborted by trying to jump a step ahead and simply install the new one! I’m sure this will be in System Administration 101, which I think I also skipped.
I also learned about something called tmux, which lets you keep a session running on TrueNAS even when your SSH session is lost. How have I made it 10 years without knowing this? To be fair, they have only just removed the built-in shell console, which I tended to use more than the SSH method.
Anyway, I’m going to list some commands I’ve used to upgrade, which is more for me than anyone reading this:
#tmux new -t iocage (starts a tmux session called iocage)
#tmux a (restart the previous tmux session – I’m guessing you have could several running, although I’ve only tried with one)
#iocage fetch -r 13.4-RELEASE (downloads the release)
#iocage upgrade -r 13.4-RELEASE <jailname> (update the jail to the specified release – note, there are various ‘y’ prompts to confirm the process here, which is where tmux comes in handy. There is also a step which appears to stop with a : prompt, and this is skipped by entering q several times)
#iocage restart <jailname> (restart jail after upgrading)
#iocage console <jailname> (console session into jail)
#pkg info (lists all installed packages and versions)
#service mysql-server stop (clean stop of database server)
#pkg install mariadb105-server (this will remove the old database server and then install the new one – 10.5 – along with any dependencies)
#service mysql-server start (this should start the new database server; check with #service mysql-server status)
#mysql_upgrade -u root -p (to upgrade the databases)
#pkg update && pkg upgrade (this will upgrade all of the other packages in the jail)
I’m not going to pretend I understand exactly what changed between mariadb103 and 105, but the main issue I encountered was the UNIX socket connection, which changed from /tmp/mysql.sock to /var/run/mysql/MySQL.sock. These changes were in the /usr/local/etc/mysql folder and ./conf.d folder.
So, while the database started and the upgrades worked, none of my web applications would start, as the configuration to the database was wrong. So far I’ve fixed Nextcloud (/usr/local/www/nextcloud/config/config.php where you set ‘dbhost’ => ‘127.0.0.1’,) and WordPress (/usr/local/www/wordpress/wp-config.php where you set define(‘DB_HOST’, ‘127.0.0.1’);)
This got everything back up and running but after a reasonably stressful afternoon and several snapshot rollbacks where I’d broken things and had no idea what to do. Thank goodness for TrueNAS snapshots and the incredibly helpful people who use their forum. It’s still one of the best online communities I’ve come across, even though I visit less frequently since the forum platform changed. I need to try and fix that!
When writing my last blog on the Kindle Scribe, I linked back to an Old iPhone blog, which I thought might be interesting to revisit some five years later! I think my daughter has interrupted the natural order of upgrades, although other factors may be at play, too.
Let’s start with a lovely picture gallery!
iPhone 3GSiPhone 4iPhone 5 Space GreyiPhone 6iPhone 7 Jet BlackiPhone XiPhone 12 ProiPhone 13 MiniiPhone 15 Pro
In the previous blog, I’d just upgraded to the iPhone X, with my partner using the iPhone 7 and my daughter using the iPhone 6 (the middle row). My grandma was using the iPhone 5, but sadly passed away in 2021 at the grand old age of 89. That’s probably the main thing I’ll take away from this blog: regular blogging acts like a time machine and takes you back to places you’d started to forget about. It’s also a helpful reminder of some of the things you did, which this site now takes me back to 2016!
Anyway, I reminisce! Back to the iPhones. Since the previous blog, we’ve all had a few new phones starting in 2020 with the 12 and 12 Pro. My X was only two years old for me at that point but was three years old from release. The 7 my partner used is even older, so we all got an upgrade, including my daughter, although she was using an iPad at home now. The iPhone 7 sat as a spare for some time (before being sold on eBay in 2021, when I sold both the 6 and 7 for £76 – can’t remember individual prices).
The 12 Pro was a great phone, but the following year, I upgraded again to the iPhone 13 mini. I’d found the 12 Pro quite heavy and liked the idea of a smaller phone. It was also the first time I’d ever bought an iPhone where I just went for the lowest storage configuration as I was starting to use iCloud more and more and had signed up for an Apple One account, giving me lots of iCloud storage and access to all the Apple services, importantly Apple Music so I didn’t need to carry a big music library with me. So we all upgraded again, with my partner getting the 12 Pro and my daughter the X, which she did use a little more as you could send emojis!
I loved the iPhone 13 mini and might still be using it if my daughter did not want to start using a phone as an actual mobile phone when she started high school! This is where the cycle was broken!!! I bought an iPhone 15 Pro on the day it was launched from the Apple Shop in Glasgow, and the iPhone 13 mini was handed down to my daughter, with my partner sticking with her 12 Pro and 12 months later, after the iPhone 16 launch that’s still what we’re all using.
It’s certainly true that every year, Apple make a slightly better iPhone that offers slightly better functionality than the previous generation, but that doesn’t mean that the latest will always be considered the greatest. I’m sure some would argue for the 1st generation, and while I didn’t own one, it was a flawed device. Limited storage and missing some fundamental stuff like copy and paste kept me using a Nokia Communicator until the 3rd generation. Even then, it didn’t feel too far ahead of the limited competition. I think that changed with the 4th generation, and the design of that still carries through into today’s devices. I certainly have a soft spot for the 4th generation, and it would be in my top 3. The 5th generation felt like a step back in some ways, although looking back, it was probably better than I gave it credit at the time. I loved my 7th generation Jet Black iPhone and used it for almost 3 years. It was perhaps the longest of any iPhone. I also liked the iPhone X (10) and think that would also be in my top 3, introducing the button-less form factor and FaceID. It was also the first which cost over £1000! I loved the mini form factor, although I think the 15 Pro combines the best of the 4 and the 10 and might be my favourite of all time, disproving the statement I started this paragraph with!
To finish up, the only device I still have in the house (well, garage, actually) from the original Old iPhone blog where all this started is the iPhone 4. It’s a bit of a classic, and I still have it in the original box, although I suspect they made too many for it to be worth anything in the future. It’s part of the IT history cave, along with some 1980s Sinclair computers, but that is probably another blog altogether; I should have blogged about that when Sir Clive sadly passed away. As I’m sure you’ve worked out by now, I’m a bit of an Apple fanboi (although I work in IT, so I have devices running Windows, Linux, FreeBSD and ChromeOS in the house!) As well as the family of iPhones, we all have other Apple devices, which is probably another blog. In fact, I blogged about some of them here, here and here (although my daughter is now using an M1 iPad Pro from 2021, and the iPad I blogged about here is used to Facetime, another grandparent, this time my Dad or my daughter Grandad).
Page 1 I’ve been an Amazon kindle fan for quite a while now and have just upgraded a kindle Voyager to a kindle Scribe. I thought it might be interesting to test out the note taking abilities of the Scribe by writing this blog on the kindle scribe itself, and testing how it converts my terrible handwriting to text and PDF! This blog might look a bit different as I’m not quite sure how to demonstrate that yet… Lets start with a kindle history lesson. I wasn’t really an early adopter with this, as the first kindle was launched in 2007 and the first one I aned was a kindle keyboard which wasn’t released until 2010. That was a 3rd generation device, which is similar to my adoption of the iPhone which stall at the 30S model!
Page 2 like the iPhone, he had a ite a few bundle’s since that first 3rd gen kindle keyboard, and the old ones other get handed down to family members, i. e. an excuse to upgrade! The bundle keybard was upgraded to a land Touch in 2012 and that will a handle Voyage in 2015, the 7th Gen. I’ve actually been using that voyage for quite some time, as that’s what my new handle Scribe has replaced. Its replaced the bundle Paper white 3rd italian or 10th gon device my partner was using( I think the Voyage is better even though it was slightly ever) and we have a Paper while 5K generation that my daughter uses with a handle Unlimited subscription. So why did I buy the Scribe? Good question!
Page 3 I quite liked the idea when it first came out in 2022, Lt it was quite expensive and I caldit justly spending almost £400 on a handle. for context, the lenddle voyage had been the most expensive one at abut £160( the Paper whites were ball and £80 and the keyboard perhaps £ too at the time). The scribe was an offer for £279, but I discard Amazon do a trade in offer where they give you a small gift card in exchange for an old device AND 20% off a new one. With ball applied to the already discounted price, I pided up a 320 Scribe with Premium Pen for £213.99! A bargain i’m sure you’ll agree? But hats sill more than any of the other handles. What makes the Scribe so special? More great auctions! The clue is in the name. The Scribe is the first binder hat allows you to write or scribe on the
Page 4 device, so comes with a pen and is almost twice as big as the Voyage or Paper white. Ya can mask up PDF files and some e Pub bodes, but the main reason I bought it was to make notes in meetings and then convert them to text or searchable PDF tiles. Now if you made it this for you will have seen how bad my handwriting is! I’ve had other devices that promised to do this, and never rally waled that well. Possibly dan to my illegible unting, but also down to the technology working too well. I’ll let you decide how well this works. I still don’t know as I need to send this to my Mac and see how its done. I’ll finish up oer Here once I’ve assessed the results…
So, how did it do? Let me try to explain what I’ve done. On the Kindle Scribe, you can choose to share a notebook and then have options to Convert it to text and quickly send it to an e-mail address. That’s what I did, which sends an e-mail with two links. One downloads a text file, which is the unadulterated text blocks at the beginning of this blog. The second link downloads a searchable PDF file, which is shown above. I also added the picture gallery with the 5 Kindle devices I’ve owned to break things up, and a hyperlink to an iPhone blog!
I know my handwriting is terrible, and I’ve even used the fountain pen option on the Scribe, which makes it look a little better. You can select Felt tips and pencils with various degrees of thickness and pressure sensitivity, but so far, I quite like the fountain pen effect. There are options for highlighting (which you can do using the premium pen user configurable button) and deleting (the premium pen also has an eraser on the end). You can also lasso blocks, move things around, or copy and paste between notebooks.
But what about the conversion to text? Well, you can see for yourself it’s far from perfect, but it wouldn’t take too much effort to correct and spell check, as it’s broadly captured what I tried to write. The search facility in the PDF file is also remarkably good. I think it’s done a better job than the Livescribe 3 Smartpen I bought back in 2013. That was quite a fat ballpoint pen that wrote onto specific notebooks with small dots tracking the writing. The pen transferred these to an App, which allowed you to convert them to text, although I never really got on with it, and the conversion to text wasn’t anywhere near as good. If I did this professionally, I’m sure I’d be recreating the text again using the Livescribe pen for a side-by-side comparison, but I’m not!
The other thing I’ve not mentioned is the Kindle bit of the Scribe! It has a much bigger 10″ screen, so reading eBooks is much nicer than any of the previous Kindle devices. It is still missing the page-turn buttons the original Keyboard device had, which Voyage tried to replace with haptic ones, but so far, I’ve not missed them too much as there’s less page-turning, and tapping the side of the bigger screen feels quite responsive.
So, would I recommend a Kindle Scribe? For £213.99, absolutely. It’s probably worth that as an upgrade over a standard Kindle device, but adding the note-taking functionality makes it a no-brainer! I would be more difficult at the RRP, so you’d probably need to consider the competition. They are generally more expensive but better as a note taker or Reader, but from all the reviews I’ve seen, the Kindle probably does the best job of both, and when it’s almost half the RRP, it is excellent value for money.
ps: I corrected the text I typed below the PDF file. I hope you noticed the difference 😉
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