Hello selfhosters! I read here a lot, longing for the day to get back into it. I have a little plan to do so I have access to some thin clients with decent enough hardware to run a small file server. I’d like to set one up for myself and as a gift to my partner

I keep getting lost in the jungle of options and incompatibilities so I was hoping to enlist some help in selecting a stack

I’m looking for open source software in the base, maybe truenas but I prefer debian and my partner uses LMDE already.

  • On top of that should be a simple file server for backups/network storage. Some interface for managing storeage would be huge too
  • Wireguard with an interface
  • Having a simple container interface for future features like homeassistant and jellyfin et al is great too.

Open source and free is a must and I want to avoid risk for future lockins and freemium/ripe for enshitification-software as far as possible. And no or at least responsible llm use if that even exists anymore. Happy to shed featues to acheive that in combination with longevity. Is plain debian or even ubuntu the way to go or are there more optimised distros? Or am i just describing fedora with cockpit? Im not lost in linux itself, just overwhelmed with the endless options hoping someone can help me make a plan!

Would you make someone you love a home server?

  • zebidiah@lemmy.caEnglish
    4·
    12 days ago

    You could do them a solid and set them up with an ad blocker on a cheap SDC, but if you really want a loved one to manage proxmox and learn how to yaml and manage containers, all while learning everything you never wanted to know about networking, IP addresses ports and Linux all at the same time… The best thing you can do is get them interested in figuring it out for themselves. Give them the bug, spread the addiction, don’t give them hardware/responsibility

    • Kaffeburk@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      11 days ago

      I put openwrt on their router and an adblock dns already but a dns sink would be cool too

      Neither of us want to learn proxmox, but I am still convinced there are simple and feature rich solutions that don’t require that.

  • bladewdr@infosec.pubEnglish
    3·
    12 days ago

    I don’t see a problem with the idea as long as you’re aware you’re committing to be the one maintaining it and dealing with any problems that might arise from doing so.

    If you’re storing other people’s data (especially photos) you better be extra sure that you have a good backup strategy and a plan to test those backups regularly.

    • Kaffeburk@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      1·
      11 days ago

      Yea I always provide lifetime support to linux convertees and so far every issue we had in lmde could be solved with the right keyword search. I was hoping the right server distro would have similarity good documentation. The Linux version of TrueNas and open media vault look like promising such distributions.

      The idea evolves with all the comments and I think the way is to make two identical servers from thin clients. Identical hardware, different passwords. Two mirrored drives over usb each and the internal nvme for write cache and OS. Perhaps the OS could be immutable on a USB, to further reduce the risk of sudden self immolation. Just need to learn flashing the latest version.

      As long as there is a competent webgui I know they are willing and capable of reading documentation and forum answers. Should something ever happen to our relationship my partner can easily take their data even if their server died, but they do say debin goes forever with regular updates. In the meantime, the server gets the same treatment as mine.

  • lucas@startrek.websiteEnglish
    2·
    12 days ago

    If you are after a Debian based system, with an interface for file server/backups/network storage, with a (web) interface, you are pretty much describing https://www.openmediavault.org/ . Decent plugin ecosystem to set up Wireguard, as well as a web interface to set up docker based containers for anything.

    • Kaffeburk@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      12 days ago

      I did look at that. Between the giant popup ads and at the time 403 forum I couldn’t tell if it was legit or not. Would you say it is trustworthy and long term?

      • lucas@startrek.websiteEnglish
        1·
        10 days ago

        Popup ads? Where are they? That’s not something I’ve heard of, but then I always use an adblocker…

        I used it for years on a raspberry pi, and it was great, very easy to manage storages and different ways of sharing over a network.

  • TheFogan@programming.devEnglish
    2·
    12 days ago

    Well for me, my wife had a ton of pictures laying around, and some scattered on google drive etc…

    I basically did a huge scanning project in secret, set up an immich server and surprised her with it. That absolutely is one of her favorite gifts of all time.

    Now as far as doing that with someone that didn’t stay in the same house, on an OS I wasn’t already managing… no probably wouldn’t imagine doing that unless the person was already showing signs of interest in managing something like that… in which case it should be done as a “lets build this together” project.

  • heyeddi@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2·
    10 days ago

    Yes, but the gift isn’t the hardware. It’s that it keeps working when you’re not around to fix it. So I’d go boring: plain Debian, Cockpit for storage and containers, and a WireGuard web UI. Before you hand it over, unplug the internet for a day and see what breaks. DNS usually goes first. I’m building an open-source home box around the same idea (GPLv3 once it ships), and your question is the one I keep chewing on: what makes a partner actually use it instead of just tolerating it?