Homelab from Zero #2: Install Linux and reach it from your couch

This is part 2 of Homelab from Zero. In part 1 you got a machine. Today it becomes a server: we’ll install Linux on it, plug it into the network, and control it from the couch, no monitor attached, ever again.

What you need

The box from part 1
A USB stick (8 GB or more, it gets wiped)
Your normal computer
A monitor and keyboard, for the next 30 minutes only

Step 1: Make the install USB

Download Ubuntu Server LTS from ubuntu.com. It’s the boring, safe choice, and boring is exactly what you want under your homelab. (“LTS” means long-term support: it gets updates for years.)

Then flash it to the USB stick with balenaEtcher (Windows, Mac, or Linux): pick the downloaded file, pick the stick, click Flash.

On a Raspberry Pi instead? Use the official Raspberry Pi Imager, choose Raspberry Pi OS Lite, and let it preconfigure SSH and your username in the imager’s settings. You can skip straight to step 3.

Step 2: Install (accept almost every default)

Plug the monitor, keyboard, and the USB stick into the server, and power it on. If it boots into the installer, great; if not, mash F12 (or F11/Del, depending on the machine) right after power-on and pick the USB stick from the boot menu.

The installer asks a series of questions. Accept the defaults for nearly all of them. Only three matter:

Question	What to do
Your name / server name / username	Pick something short: you’ll type it a lot
Password	A real one. This box will be reachable on your network
“Install OpenSSH server”	Check this box. It’s the whole point of today

When it finishes, it reboots and drops you at a black screen asking for a login. You’re done with the monitor, log in once to grab one thing:

ip addr

Look for a line like inet 192.168.1.73 under a name like eth0 or enp3s0. That’s your server’s address on your network. Write it down.

Step 3: Put it where it lives

Shut it down (sudo poweroff), unplug the monitor and keyboard, and move the box to wherever it’ll live, ideally plugged into your router by ethernet cable. Wi-Fi works, but wired is one less thing that can flake out. Power it back on and walk away. From now on it’s just a quiet box with a blinking light.

Step 4: SSH in from the couch

On your normal computer, open a terminal (on Windows: PowerShell, ssh is built in these days) and connect using your username and the address from step 2:

ssh sam@192.168.1.73

Type the password, and the prompt changes, you’re now typing on the server. That feeling never fully wears off.

Two minutes of housekeeping while you’re there:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

That fetches and installs updates, worth running every couple of weeks.

One tip worth doing now: log into your router’s admin page, find the server in the device list, and set a DHCP reservation (sometimes called “static lease”) for it. That pins its address so it never changes and your ssh command works forever.

The five commands you’ll actually use

Command	What it does
`ssh user@address`	Connect to the server
`sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade`	Install updates
`df -h`	How full is the disk?
`sudo reboot`	Restart it
`exit`	Hang up and go back to your own machine

That’s genuinely most of what day-to-day server care looks like.

What you have now

A real server: headless, on the network, controlled from anywhere in the house. The monitor goes back in the closet for good. In part 3 we install Docker and run the first actual service, something you can open in a browser and show someone.

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