Free LES Community Server from Hosteroid via MetalVPS!

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  • Hmm I can see national borders, sub-national borders, roads, names of places, but no coastlines and not the seas.

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles

    The all seeing eye sees everything...

  • @terrorgen said:
    Hmm I can see national borders, sub-national borders, roads, names of places, but no coastlines and not the seas.

    Maybe I need that as well: https://github.com/systemed/tilemaker/blob/master/get-coastline.sh

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • 💎💎Hello everyone, I’m Yunior and I want to thank you for the opportunity to access a free VPS.

    I am new to this, just starting out, but very motivated because I love learning every day and improving myself. My goal is to begin programming and eventually reach the point where I can set up servers and create websites to help my country have free access to the internet as it should be.

    Currently, I am working on a personal project to set up a WireGuard VPN server that allows me to have a stable and secure international connection from Cuba. I already have experience configuring WireGuard on my PC and iPhone, and I have made progress with Cloudflare tunnels and PHP proxies to bypass national restrictions.

    Through this process, I have also learned to use advanced commands in Windows PowerShell and CMD, as well as various tools and programs like Cloudflared and Python for automation and service management.

    I am committed to documenting the entire process on GitHub (https://github.com/Yunior2001/wireguard-cuba) and sharing what I learn with the community.

    I look forward to any guidance or access you can provide to continue my project. Thank you very much!💎💎

  • Hola @Not_Oles , disculpa que insista nuevamente. Quiero comentarte que ya probé todas las alternativas posibles para avanzar con mi proyecto desde Cuba (túneles con Cloudflare, LocalTunnel, incluso con dominio propio), pero lamentablemente todos están bloqueados por ETECSA y no funcionan con la red nacional.

    Por eso necesito urgentemente la VPS que estoy solicitando. Ya tengo todo listo: el túnel, el dominio, el proxy y la configuración. Solo me falta el servidor para poder alojar el proyecto y hacerlo accesible sin restricciones desde Cuba.

    Te agradecería mucho si pudieras ayudarme con esto lo antes posible, realmente estoy estancado en esta parte y la VPS es la única forma viable de continuar.

    Gracias por tu atención y apoyo.

    Déjame saber una respuesta clara para poder continuar con mi proyecto te pido de favor que me ayudes porque aquí en Cuba mi país cuenta con muchas restricciones y ahora Etecsa implantó nuevas leyes para recrudecer las anteriores y el vps es mi única salida 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

  • skorousskorous OGSenpai

    Hey @Yunior2001, it's probably worth taking a few minutes to read the Rules link at the top of the page. Mentioning it because one of those rules is:

    • Even though we are from different parts of the world, the English language is what brings us together. To make sure that we understand each other, we use English when posting.
    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • I understand, @skorous . Here’s my comment in English then:

    Hello @Not_Oles , sorry for insisting again. I want to let you know that I’ve already tried every possible alternative to move forward with my project from Cuba (Cloudflare tunnels, LocalTunnel, even with a custom domain), but unfortunately all of them are blocked by ETECSA and do not work over the national network.

    That’s why I urgently need the VPS I’m requesting. Everything is already set up: the tunnel, the domain, the proxy, and the configuration. The only thing I’m missing is the server to host the project and make it accessible without restrictions from inside Cuba.

    I’d be very grateful if you could help me with this as soon as possible. I’m really stuck at this point, and the VPS is the only viable way for me to continue.

    Thank you so much for your time and support.

    Please let me know with a clear response so I can continue with my project. I kindly ask for your help — here in Cuba we face many internet restrictions, and now ETECSA has imposed new policies that make it even worse. This VPS is my only way out. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

  • skorousskorous OGSenpai

    @Yunior2001 said:
    I understand, @skorous . Here’s my comment in English then:

    Hello @Not_Oles , sorry for insisting again. I want to let you know that I’ve already tried every possible alternative to move forward with my project from Cuba (Cloudflare tunnels, LocalTunnel, even with a custom domain), but unfortunately all of them are blocked by ETECSA and do not work over the national network.

    That’s why I urgently need the VPS I’m requesting. Everything is already set up: the tunnel, the domain, the proxy, and the configuration. The only thing I’m missing is the server to host the project and make it accessible without restrictions from inside Cuba.

    I’d be very grateful if you could help me with this as soon as possible. I’m really stuck at this point, and the VPS is the only viable way for me to continue.

    Thank you so much for your time and support.

    Please let me know with a clear response so I can continue with my project. I kindly ask for your help — here in Cuba we face many internet restrictions, and now ETECSA has imposed new policies that make it even worse. This VPS is my only way out. 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

    In the spirit of being helpful, have you considered Oracle's Free Cloud tier?

  • Hi @skorous

    Thank you very much for the suggestion. I actually tried Oracle’s Free Cloud tier before, but unfortunately it doesn’t work for me from Cuba due to restrictions with account verification and access from my region.

    That’s why I’m trying here, hoping the LES Community VPS might be a real solution in my case. I truly appreciate any support you can give me.

    Unfortunately, in my country we do not have access to cards that work on websites or other services. The cards we are offered are only valid within the country. That’s why Oracle Cloud is not a viable option for me, and once again I kindly ask LES for their help.

  • edited June 6

    @Yunior2001 Maybe you can try to use Tor?

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • @tmntwitw . I’ve actually tried using Tor, and in some cases it works for browsing.
    However, for my project — which needs to host a proxy tunnel and be accessible from Cuban networks — Tor is unfortunately not reliable or fast enough.
    What I really need is a stable VPS to run the tunnel and make the project available for mobile users in Cuba.
    One of the advantages I would have with the VPS is that I could also generate a .conf file to use with WireGuard. Once the tunnel is set up, that would allow me to browse from any Cuban national network, bypassing the many restrictions it currently has.

  • @tmntwitw My main goal once I have the VPS is to create a .conf file for WireGuard, so I can use it to access not only websites, but also apps like WhatsApp and others that are currently blocked from the national network in Cuba.

  • @Yunior2001 said: What I really need is a stable VPS to run the tunnel and make the project available for mobile users in Cuba.

    Please read the discussions starting with https://lowendspirit.com/discussion/comment/198134/#Comment_198134 - you seem to be suggesting something very similar here.

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • @cmeerw
    *Thank you for pointing me to the previous discussion. I’ve read through it carefully.

    My case is a bit different. I’m in Cuba, where most tunneling and proxy services — even with custom domains — are blocked by the national ISP (ETECSA). What I need is not just a VPS to run a proxy, but a stable server hosted outside of Cuba, which I can use to generate a .conf file for WireGuard. This file would allow me (and potentially others) to turn Cuba’s restricted national network into international internet by securely tunneling through the VPS.

    The goal is to bypass the severe content filtering and network restrictions that ETECSA enforces, especially on mobile connections. Tools like Tor or basic Cloudflare tunnels don’t work reliably here, so this VPS is really the only practical way to make this project accessible from inside Cuba.

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    @Yunior2001 said: this VPS is really the only practical way to make this project accessible from inside Cuba.

    Presumably you could do your project on any VPS to which you can get access, so this thread is not your only hope.

    As mentioned in the OP, there are no present plans to offer this server without identity verification. It would be great if I could provide free VPSes without identity verification. But past efforts to do that haven't worked.

    As things stand, I have no way of knowing who you really are and, indeed, whether you really are in Cuba, or not.

    I made you a friendly offer to hang around LES for a few months, engage actively in the discussions here, and then apply again. That offer still stands, but you are close to ruining it. Please stop applying in this thread. If I see you around LES, being helpful, for six months, I probably will invite you to join us on the server. If you apply again before six months, I probably will stop replying to you.

    Thanked by (1)Marx

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    Special thanks to @tmntwitw, @cmeerw, and @skorous for being so helpful! That's the Spirit! <3

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Hey @Not_Oles 👋

    This looks like an awesome initiative, thanks to you and Hosteroid for offering this!

    I'm from Nepal, 21 y/o student and a small-time hosting provider
    I tinker a lot with Linux servers, containers, and networking stuff for fun (and learning ofc).

    Would love to use the HLCS box to mess around with things like:

    containers (LXC/systemd-nspawn mainly)
    test out lesser-used distros or BSD builds
    build and share small CLI tools
    maybe host mirrors of free software tools used in our region

    I’m very much into white hat and open source only. No plans of running anything shady or business-y — just love learning and sharing what I find with others.
    Also happy to verify with ID or extra info via PM/email if needed.

    Cheers 🙌

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer
    edited June 13

    Hi @namence_pro!

    Thanks for your message! Welcome!

    I see that you have been with us here at LES for a few weeks.I checked your account and saw 1 thread asking for a reselling platform in addition to your post here in this thread. Well, everybody has to start at the beginning. What I always am hoping to see are posts helping others here, posts with engaging discussion, and a level of participation in the LES community which helps others.

    @namence_pro said: Also happy to verify with ID or extra info via PM/email if needed.

    You are welcome to send me whatever you think might be helpful. Maybe it might be better to hold off a little while, though, until you have been active here a little longer? But, please feel free to go ahead and send whatever you want.

    Probably you noticed that hlcs is running OpenBSD at the moment. What's your interest in OpenBSD? I guess not LXC or systemd-nspawn. :)

    Best wishes! Thanks again! Thanks to @Hosteroid for our nice Community Server!

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    I've been trying not to do too much on hlcs, because I wanted the server to be available for other LESbians. But, things seem quiet.

    Does anybody have something they want to run on the server? @cmeerw?

    If yes, please review the How To Apply section of the OP. Maybe we can get your project started!

    What I might like to try on hlcs is bring hlcs up to OpenBSD-current, install the sources, recompile and reinstall everything, and then follow some of the source changes. I was doing this for a while on another server, and I have been re-compiling NetBSD on yet another. I will go ahead with e-compiling and following OpenBSD-current on hlcs unless @cmeerw or @babywhale or somebody else proposes a different idea.

    Thanks to @Hosteroid for the beautiful server! Thanks to @cmeerw for great sysadmin work! Best wishes!

    Thanked by (2)cmeerw babywhale

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • @Not_Oles said: Does anybody have something they want to run on the server? @cmeerw?

    I am busy with other things this week. At some point I want to re-run tilemaker to see if it crashes the server again under OpenBSD (but that can also be done under OpenBSD-current).

    Thanked by (1)Not_Oles
  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    Okay, thanks @cmeerw! I am going to try moving hlcs to OpenBSD-current. Any time you want to revert to Debian or to change anything, please feel free to go ahead without asking. Just please post here so I know what's happening.


    In case anybody is interested in how to upgrade OpenBSD to OpenBSD-current and then re-compiling everything from source, I will post a few notes as I try.

    From the OpenBSD FAQ item called Following -current and using snapshots:

    "You should always use a snapshot as the starting point for running -current. This process typically consists of running sysupgrade(8) with the -s flag."

    The OpenBSD manual pages are online. Here is a link to sysupgrade 8: https://man.openbsd.org/sysupgrade.8

    Let's go try "sysupgrade -s" and see what happens! Thanks again @cmeerw and @Hosteroid!

    Thanked by (1)babywhale

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    Here's the output from sysmerge -s.

    hlcs# date
    Wed Jun 18 20:41:12 UTC 2025
    hlcs# sysupgrade -s
    Fetching from https://cdn.openbsd.org/pub/OpenBSD/snapshots/amd64/
    SHA256.sig   100% |**********************************************|  2324       00:00    
    Signature Verified
    BUILDINFO    100% |**********************************************|    54       00:00    
    Verifying old sets.
    INSTALL.amd64 100% |*********************************************| 44889       00:00    
    base77.tgz   100% |**********************************************|   496 MB    05:22    
    bsd          100% |**********************************************| 31278 KB    00:26    
    bsd.mp       100% |**********************************************| 31431 KB    00:08    
    bsd.rd       100% |**********************************************|  4685 KB    00:04    
    comp77.tgz   100% |**********************************************| 87513 KB    00:13    
    game77.tgz   100% |**********************************************|  2752 KB    00:04    
    man77.tgz    100% |**********************************************|  8271 KB    00:07    
    xbase77.tgz  100% |**********************************************| 72994 KB    00:11    
    xfont77.tgz  100% |**********************************************| 23021 KB    00:07    
    xserv77.tgz  100% |**********************************************| 11775 KB    00:05    
    xshare77.tgz 100% |**********************************************|  4556 KB    00:04    
    Verifying sets.
    Fetching updated firmware.
    fw_update: add none; update none; keep intel,vmm
    Upgrading.
    Connection to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx closed by remote host.
    Connection to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx closed.
    chronos@penguin:~/servers/hosteroid$ 
    

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer
    edited June 18

    Haha, hlcs rebooted back into Linux! :)

    chronos@penguin:~/servers/hosteroid$ ssh [email protected]
    Linux hlcs 6.12.27-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.27-1 (2025-05-06) x86_64
    
    The programs included with the Debian GNU/Linux system are free software;
    the exact distribution terms for each program are described in the
    individual files in /usr/share/doc/*/copyright.
    
    Debian GNU/Linux comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY, to the extent
    permitted by applicable law.
    Last login: Thu May 29 18:47:18 2025 from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
    root@hlcs:~# date
    Wed Jun 18 09:02:02 PM UTC 2025
    root@hlcs:~# uptime
     21:02:07 up 10 min,  1 user,  load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.02
    root@hlcs:~# 
    

    Let's go see if I can fix it. :) Might take a while! :)

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    Here we are logged in to the server console. From the console, I might be able to access the boot loader and reboot into OpenBSD. More soon, or maybe later. . . .

    Thanked by (1)babywhale

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer
    edited June 18

    Okay, the grub menu in the console only seems to show Debian as a boot option. Maybe I nuked OpenBSD? Maybe there is another way to boot OpenBSD when it is dual bootable with Debian? Thanks for any ideas! :)

    Thanked by (1)babywhale

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • @Not_Oles said:
    Okay, the grub menu in the console only seems to show Debian as a boot option. Maybe I nuked OpenBSD? Maybe there is another way to boot OpenBSD when it is dual bootable with Debian? Thanks for any ideas! :)

    Sorry, didn't get around to properly adding OpenBSD to grub, but I did mention some time ago how to boot OpenBSD:

    @cmeerw said: (btw, booting to OpenBSD would be via chainloader (hd0,msdos3)+1 in grub).

    Thanked by (2)babywhale Not_Oles
  • Just did the reboot to OpenBSD:

    openbsd-update.png

    Thanked by (2)Not_Oles babywhale
  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer
    edited June 19

    @cmeerw said:

    Just did the reboot to OpenBSD

    Thanks! That's so great.

    When you have time, may I please ask how you did the reboot? If I recompile and reinstall everything, I need to reboot afterwards, twice each time, once for the new kernel and once again for the new userland. :) I need to be able to do the reboot myself so I don't have to bother you. :)

    No rush. Meanwhile, maybe tomorrow I can installing the sources and try compiling, but not installing.

    Thanks again! <3

    Thanked by (2)cmeerw babywhale

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

  • edited June 19

    @cmeerw said: (btw, booting to OpenBSD would be via chainloader (hd0,msdos3)+1 in grub).

    @Not_Oles said:

    @cmeerw said:

    Just did the reboot to OpenBSD

    Thanks! That's so great.

    When you have time, may I please ask how you did the reboot? If I recompile and reinstall everything, I need to reboot afterwards, twice each time, once for the new kernel and once again for the new userland. :) I need to be able to do the reboot myself so I don't have to bother you. :)

    No rush. Meanwhile, maybe tomorrow I can installing the sources and try compiling, but not installing.

    Thanks again! <3

    In grub, press c and then

    chainloader (hd0,msdos3)+1
    boot
    

    Edit: There should be a way to add it to the grub menu (maybe even just an update-grub in Debian would do that?)

    Thanked by (2)Not_Oles babywhale
  • edited June 19

    Actually, I have now added an OpenBSD menu entry in grub (with that chainloader (hd0,msdos3)+1 in /etc/grub.d/40_custom) and set grub to boot that by default (in /etc/default/grub)

    Thanked by (2)babywhale Not_Oles
  • Not_OlesNot_Oles Hosting ProviderContent Writer

    @cmeerw said:

    In grub, press c and then

    chainloader (hd0,msdos3)+1
    boot
    

    I figured that the magic might be something with the grub command line! I have heard of the chain loader but never have used it.

    @cmeerw said:
    Actually, I have now added an OpenBSD menu entry in grub (with that chainloader (hd0,msdos3)+1 in /etc/grub.d/40_custom) and set grub to boot that by default (in /etc/default/grub)

    Thanks! Very helpful!

    Now I can get in as tom and as root.

    hlcs$ date
    Thu Jun 19 15:18:42 UTC 2025
    hlcs$ 
    
    hlcs# date
    Thu Jun 19 15:37:10 UTC 2025
    hlcs# 
    

    And reboot works automagically! Plus, we're running 7.7-current!

    hlcs# date; reboot 
    Thu Jun 19 15:38:14 UTC 2025
    Connection to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx closed by remote host.
    Connection to xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx closed.
    chronos@penguin:~/servers/hosteroid$ sleep 60
    chronos@penguin:~/servers/hosteroid$ `head -n 1 login-root`
    Last login: Thu Jun 19 15:37:06 2025 from xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
    OpenBSD 7.7-current (GENERIC.MP) #22: Wed Jun 18 08:57:04 MDT 2025
    
    Welcome to OpenBSD: The proactively secure Unix-like operating system.
    
    Please use the sendbug(1) utility to report bugs in the system.
    Before reporting a bug, please try to reproduce it with the latest
    version of the code.  With bug reports, please try to ensure that
    enough information to reproduce the problem is enclosed, and if a
    known fix for it exists, include that as well.
    
    hlcs# uptime
     3:39PM  29 secs, 1 user, load averages: 0.33, 0.08, 0.03
    hlcs# 
    

    As of right now, /use/src is empty.

    hlcs# ls /usr
    X11R6   games   lib     libexec mdec    sbin    src
    bin     include libdata local   obj     share   xobj
    hlcs# ls /usr/src
    hlcs# 
    

    So next up, we should be able to have tons of fun adding the sources, looking at a few of the source changes, and re-compiling!

    If anybody else wants to get in on the OpenBSD fun, or to do something else on hlcs, even with another OS, please check the How To Apply section in the OP and let us know. Thanks to @Hosteroid for the lovely server! <3 Thanks to @cmeerw for excellent, friendly, and fast system administration! <3 Thanks to everybody at OpenBSD! <3

    Thanked by (2)babywhale cmeerw

    I hope everyone gets the servers they want!

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