Z83 Low Power Homeserver

· #homeserver #mini pc #z83

Table of Contents

My Z83 Mini PC is still strong, even though it was built six years ago. If you want to build a simple home server with low power, this mini PC will answer your needs.

Spesification

When I was searching on internet about this machine, I was surprised because there are a lot of similar Z83s. Mine is Z83-V series with the following specifications:

The specification is enough to run a simple home server service with low power and you have to set low expectations because the machine is powered by an Intel atom.

My Experience

Currently, I am running some services like GoToSocial, Hugo blogs, Docker, MariaDB, and Usememos on this device, and I have no big problem with that. the load average is relative low.

 06:50:04 up 29 days,  5:54,  6 users,  load average: 1.23, 1.16, 1.10

Problem(s)

If you’re trying to boot FreeBSD on one of these boxes and experience a hang at (or very shortly after) the point where the kernel discovers the keyboard (atkbd0),do a reset and then select option #3 (“Escape to loader prompt”) from the FreeBSD boot menu and type in these lines:-

set hint.uart.0.disabled=1
set hint.uart.1.disabled=1
boot

Once the system boots up, add the same fix into /boot/device.hints (without the “set”) to make it permanent:-

hint.uart.0.disabled="1"
hint.uart.1.disabled="1"

^^ from Z83-II Mini-PC (Quad core 8350)

Also, I’m using an external wifi USB because the default wifi card, Broadcomm, is not running smoothly in linux; sometimes up and sometimes down. You need the 6.xx kernel to use the Broadcomm WiFi card. When I was using the 5.xx kernel, the wifi card was not running.

last, the audio is not working on openbsd and freebsd.

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Questions or comments? email me.