x86.lol

Polyglot NixOS: The Same Disk Image for All Architectures

19 Dec 2025

Polyglot NixOS: The Same Disk Image for All Architectures

19 Dec 2025

Recently a [colleague](https://github.com/samueldr) mentioned building NixOS images that run unchanged on multiple architectures. Given the past adventures on this blog with

Quick and Dirty Website Change Monitoring

10 Aug 2025

Let’s say, you need to monitor a website for changes and you really don’t have a lot of time to set things up. Also solving the problem with money using services, such as

Quick and Dirty Website Change Monitoring

10 Aug 2025

FOSDEM Edition: Thoughts on the Microkernels

30 Jan 2025

FOSDEM Edition: Thoughts on the Microkernels

30 Jan 2025

It’s [FOSDEM](https://fosdem.org/2025/) time! I have fond memories of the [Microkernel and Component-based OS devroom](https://fosdem.org/2025/schedule/track/microkernel/) in particular. It’s a

Hardening C Against ROP: Getting CET Shadow Stacks Working

23 Sep 2024

Hardening C Against ROP: Getting CET Shadow Stacks Working

23 Sep 2024

This post shows you how to use [CET](https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/developer/articles/technical/technical-look-control-flow-enforcement-technology.html) [user shadow

Immutable Systems: Cross-Compiling for RISC-V using Nix Flakes

21 Sep 2024

In my [last post](/generic/2024/08/28/systemd-sysupdate.html), we built whole disk images for embedded systems using [Nix](https://nixos.org). This approach is well suited for RISC-V or ARM systems,

Immutable Systems: Cross-Compiling for RISC-V using Nix Flakes

21 Sep 2024

Immutable Systems: NixOS + systemd-repart + systemd-sysupdate

28 Aug 2024

When you build software for embedded devices (your Wi-Fi router or home automation setup on your Raspberry Pi), there is always the question how to build these images and how to update them. What I

Immutable Systems: NixOS + systemd-repart + systemd-sysupdate

28 Aug 2024

Confidential Computing: Complexity vs Security

7 Jul 2024

This blog post is a continuation of my [previous](/generic/2023/02/07/intel-tdx.html) [posts](/generic/2023/06/28/intel-tdx-2.html) about [Confidential

Confidential Computing: Complexity vs Security

7 Jul 2024

RISC-V: The (Almost) Unused Bit in JALR

20 Dec 2023

In the [RISC-V](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RISC-V) architecture, you have excellent support for embedding information into code by choosing compressed or uncompressed instructions. While being a

RISC-V: The (Almost) Unused Bit in JALR

20 Dec 2023

Split Lock Detection VM Hangs

7 Nov 2023

Recently, I’ve noticed strange hangs of KVM VMs on a custom VMM. As it fits the topic of this blog, I thought I make the issue more googleable. Until we dive into the issue, we have to set the

Split Lock Detection VM Hangs

7 Nov 2023

Intel TDX Doesn't Protect You from the Cloud

28 Jun 2023

This post is a continuation of my [previous post about Intel TDX](/generic/2023/02/07/intel-tdx.html). It’s worth a read before reading this post. As before, I’m not going to introduce TDX

Intel TDX Doesn't Protect You from the Cloud

28 Jun 2023