Frood, an Alpine Initramfs NAS (2024)

6/17/2026 at 1:55:25 AM

Reminds me of https://github.com/poettering/diskomator

by moondev

6/16/2026 at 8:57:40 PM

If you already have a ZFS pool, I'd probably personally just throw on zfsbootmenu and a ZFS-root Alpine install. But, this is cooler and does have advantages:)

by yjftsjthsd-h

6/16/2026 at 9:51:02 PM

TIL about ZFSBootMenu! Still, the whole frood system is significantly less complex than ZFSBootMenu alone.

by FiloSottile

6/16/2026 at 9:11:06 PM

ZFSBootMenu and Alpine are a beautiful match.

by sunshine-o

6/17/2026 at 6:21:58 AM

This looks interesting. I just set up an Alpine Diskless system that boots from a USB stick.

I originally tried to set up a NixOS diskless system with persistence for the same reason as the author but the LLM jerked me around and I had little understanding of the implications of the commands I was using. So I thought it best to pull the plug on that and stick with something more familiar.

by CTDOCodebases

6/17/2026 at 7:57:05 AM

You can do the same from an USI made from mkosi (mainstream distros support) with kernel boot parameter systemd.volatile=overlay. https://github.com/rhee876527/UKIfy-Xubuntu

by s_ting765

6/17/2026 at 1:57:40 AM

I'd like the see the author achieve the same setup but with Nix

by MuffinFlavored

6/17/2026 at 3:27:53 AM

Unlikely to happen (with the author anyway). From TFA:

> Importantly to me, it’s not defined in some complex DSL

by sudobash1

6/18/2026 at 11:12:11 AM

I'd like to see some other author achieve the same setup with Nix.

.. and/or Guix.

by a96

6/16/2026 at 9:08:18 PM

Previously -> https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42428722

by seemaze

6/16/2026 at 9:16:59 PM

Thanks, macroexpanded!

Frood, an Alpine Initramfs NAS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42428722 - Dec 2024 (13 comments)

by tomhow

6/16/2026 at 8:58:33 PM

> root/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key and root/etc/ssh/ssh_host_ed25519_key.pub and root/root/.ssh/authorized_keys for obvious reasons.

What are the _obvious_ reasons for the NAS root to have an SSH key?

by cassianoleal

6/16/2026 at 9:10:23 PM

To log in and administer it? There's even an example; search for "extlinux --once". (There are other options, like a web UI or non-root SSH, but that's the obvious thing. Also if you want to advocate non-root I'm going to want to hear a threat model.)

by yjftsjthsd-h

6/16/2026 at 9:24:00 PM

You don't need a private key on the host for that, only your public key in authorized_keys.

Edit: Oh boy I should have paid more attention. Those are the host keys. :facepalm:

by cassianoleal