It has been suggested it is time to detail a bit about the configuration of this beast. Let's start with the basics: This is a straight-up #NetBSD 11rc2 installation on a stock #Nintendo #Wii. Many people have detailed how to install it, but one useful source of information is Alex Haydock's blog[2], and of course the NetBSD release documentation. The kernel config[3] is modified slightly from the default WII in an attempt to save a bit of memory.

Building #snac2 was straight forward; no difference from building on i486 or i686. Simply make and make install, with the -f Makefile.NetBSD (the NetBSD-specific makefile is included with the snac sources).

Since snac won't do TLS for inbound connections, a TLS proxy is needed. My go-to nginx isn't in the 11rc2 PPC package repository at the time of writing, so I built it from pkgsrc myself. This only took a couple of hours.. But alas, it's a bit too memory hungry for my taste, even with a minimal configuration.

Next up, I found ttp[4]. It is a very small and simple proxy server, which works fine but cannot serve static files, nor does it support TLS 1.3. It is also incapable of dropping privileges, and since I want to run it as nobody I had to find a different way to pass port 443 traffic to it.

Luckily, NetBSD has npf, a built-in firewall that can do NAT and which is fairly easy to configure (at least with the usual good documentation and examples included). Picking up port 443 and NATing it to a high port for ttp to handle worked fine - and allows me to easily move traffic from one TLS proxy to another while I experiment.

TTP wasn't without problems - but they turned out to not be entirely its fault. I kept getting connection failures and snac kept exiting for no obvious reason.

After some fiddling around, the snac author suggested[5] that I was running out of file handles, which is indeed the case. Adding ulimit -n 1024 to /etc/rc.d/snac solved that issue as well.

Then my thoughts landed on an old acquaintance of mine - pound[6]. This is a reverse proxy with good TLS support, and recent versions can even serve static files in a fairly simple way. After a couple of bug reports, lots of help by the current maintainer, and some more fiddling, I got the most recent versions to build. Once the next release drops (4.21), I'll have a go at doing my first pkgsrc port update :)

The pound configuration[7] now seems to be fairly complete, even keeping out most random scanning attacks (yes, they have already started).

[1] https://wii.cafe/ltning/p/1773014130.033156
[2] https://blog.infected.systems/posts/2025-04-21-this-blog-is-hosted-on-a-nintendo-wii/
[3] https://anduin.net/~ltning/WII_TINY
[4] https://github.com/Theldus/ttp
[5] https://codeberg.org/grunfink/snac2/issues/576
[6] https://www.gnu.org.ua/software/pound/manual/index.html
[7] https://anduin.net/~ltning/pound/wiicafe_pound.tgz

Alt...

Screenshot of htop running on the Wii. pound and snac processes both hovering between 1 and 2 MB resident memory.

from the first to last, excluding timeouts (they get requeued for later)

Mar 13 13:15:53 s2 snac[69343]: 13:15:00 output message: sent to inbox ... (202 Accepted)
...
Mar 13 13:15:53 s2 snac[69343]: 13:15:53 output message: sent to inbox ... (202 Accepted)

FediMeteo: How a Tiny €4 FreeBSD VPS Became a Global Weather Service for Thousands

https://it-notes.dragas.net/2025/02/26/fedimeteo-how-a-tiny-freebsd-vps-became-a-global-weather-service-for-thousands/

#Fediverse #FreeBSD #RunBSD #Hosting #ITNotes #Networking #NoteHUB #Server #Snac #Snac2 #Social #Web

This instance is running #snac2 under #NetBSD on a Nintendo Wii. My DMs are open, let me know if you'd like an account here.

Alt...

Screenshot from fastfetch showing OS version and hardware platform: NetBSD 11.0-RC2, evbppc, CPU PPC750

#snac2 also disallows AI contributions now :)

Alt...

a thread on a Codeberg issue titled "AI Policy", on the repository for Snac2. Me: "Hiya, just coming by to ask whether or not this projects accepts AI-generated or assisted code or media, as I seek more projects to add to the no-ai list" grunfink: "Hi. No AI contributions are accepted. I've just updated the README to reflect this." grunfink: "Much better, I've added a CONTRIBUTING.md file with more information about how to contribute, and a clearer statement that AI in snac's code is *not* welcome." me: "oh hell yeah, will add Snac to the list in April's update for sure :)"

Ah! apparently there is a #yunohost package for #snac2 hurray! Here it is

@yunohost @grunfink

What is Snac?

It supports creating and managing user accounts, posting, following, and interacting with the wider Fediverse. It also includes a Mastodon-compatible API for use with third-party clients.

IMO: It is the best option for people who wants to self-host their own Fediverse instance.

What is YunoHost

YunoHost is an operating system aiming to simplify server administration and therefore democratize self-hosting while making sure it stays reliable, secure, ethical and lightweight. It is a copylefted libre software project maintained by volunteers. Technically, it can be seen as a server distribution based on Debian GNU/Linux.