Your own privacy-aware, personally controlled server, part five

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Your own privacy-aware, personally controlled server, part five                           Home

Based on the previous parts I'm going to assume that you have the hardware you            Linux-libre
want to use for your server, have registered a domain name that is safe from being be
seized, know whether your ISP has assigned you a static or dynamic IP address, and
                                                                                          GitWeb
that if you're behind some type of device that hands out private IP addresses to the
computers in your home, you have found the manual for your router so as to figure out
how to configure it to assign a static private IP address to your server and open any     How To
ports htat may be needed.
                                                                                          Articles
The next step is to download Trisquel GNU/Linux. Head on over to https://trisquel.info/
and do that.                                                                              RSS Feed
You'll probably notice that there are multiple editions. Trisquel has both Short Term
Support (STS) and Long Term Support (LTS) editions. The Short Term Support                About Me
editions are newer but not supported for as long as the Long Term Support editions,
which are older and more tested.                                                          Contact Me
I opt for the Long Term Support edition because I like my server to sit quietly in the    GPL enforced
corner going about its business without me needing to get involved too much. The
Short Term Support edition would mean I would be upgrading to a newer edition more
frequently since they're not supported for as long and a server doesn't necessarily        If you appreciate any of the things I
need to be running the latest bleeding-edge versions of stuff anyway.                      am doing you can make a donation.

Whichever you choose each edition has multiple options. I recommend downloading
the NetInstall image. It's small and there's no need to download the full 700MB image
because a server doesn't need a graphical desktop. In the server world, less is more.

Once this file is downloaded you can either burn it to a CD or put it on a USB stick.
Not all computers can boot from USB but not everyone necessarily wants to use a CD
for something that might only be used once. The decision's up to you.

I'm using Trisquel 5.5 as I write this, running the GNOME desktop envrionment, so to
burn the downloaded file to a CD I would just right-click on the file, select Write To
Disc, and follow the instructions.

To make a bootable USB stick I would open System Settings and run the Startup Disk
Creator, where you specify which downloaded file and which USB device to use.

Either way you now have something that can be used to boot your server for the first
time.

When the installer starts you'll have a menu of choices. I recommend going to
Advanced Options and selecting Command-line Expert Install.

The Trisquel installer main menu will appear. Just select the first item in the menu to
specify your preferred language. The installer will advance down the menu items as
you progress.

You'll be asked for basic information like language, location, and keyboard information
before coming to the section about configuring the network. This touches on parts
three and four of this series where your ISP may assign you a fixed or dynamic IP
address, and where you may be connected (more or less) directly to the internet,
meaning that your computer has a "public" IP address assigned directly to it or there
may be a router in your home (often, the very same device that handles your internet
connection) that is assigned that public IP address instead and hides all of your
devices behind it by assigning them "private" IP addresses. If you have this later setup
there are additional things to consider when setting up your server.

Once you select Configure The Network the installer will ask if you want to
automatically configure the network. Whether you say yes or no here depends on how
your access to the internet is established, using the information I mentioned in parts
three and four. Here's a chart of how to answer the question:

                                  Situation                                     Answer

 Your server is assigned a dynamic public IP address from your ISP
                                                                                Yes
 You have configured your router to assign a static private IP address to
 your server

 Your server is assigned a static public IP address from your ISP
                                                                                No
 Your router has no way to assign a static private IP address to your
 server

Once the networking is configured the installer will continue to walk you through the
rest of the installation, advancing down the main menu as things progress. Eventually
it'll complete and you'll reboot into your new installation.

Where you go from here is entirely up to you and depends on what you want your
server to do for you. There are so many possibilities that I can't really cover them all
but if you'd like me to cover something please contact me. One thing that will be
needed is a domain name server, which I mentioned in part three. I'll cover that in part
six.


Copyright © 2012 Jason Self. See license.shtml for license conditions. Please copy and share.