In a few days Trusty Tahr will be released into the wild around April 17th, 2014. So I decided I will start writing a series of posts on how to setup a home server using Ubuntu 14.04 Trusty Tahr Server Edition. To start of this post shows, how to install Ubuntu Server 14.04 Trust Tahr with OpenSSH, LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL and PHP) Server, and Samba file server. Ubuntu 14.04 is a LTS (Long Term Support) release. LTS releases are supported for about 5 years and comparatively more stable than the short term releases. This makes them the perfect OS for home servers. In fact, my home server still runs perfectly on Ubuntu 12.04 and will do so until 14.04 is released. So let us look at how to install Ubuntu Server 14.04 Trust Tahr. Note that at this point of time only the beta version is available, which is not recommended for production systems. [Read:How to setup Apache web server on Ubuntu?]
Head over to the Ubuntu server download page and download the release that is compatible with your architecture. In simple terms, if you have a recent computer with over 4 GB of RAM then choose the AMD64 version. If not, choose the i386 version. In my experience downloading through bittorrent has been the fastest. [Read:How to install qBittorrent with webui on Ubuntu?]
Currently, only the beta version is available. The final version will be available on April 17th, 2014. After downloading, you may choose to install Ubuntu Server 14.04 from USB Stick or from a CD.
Install Ubuntu Server 14.04
To setup Ubuntu Trust server edition on your computer, boot it using the CD or the USB stick you created above and follow through steps. The disk partitioning step can be quite tricky. I recommend that you do manual partitioning with your /home folder on a separate partition. This way, even if you lose your OS for some reason you settings/configurations will be saved for reuse later. To help you out, I made this video. [Tip:Check out our other Ubuntu video guides]
What packages you install depends on what you are going to use your home server for. If you do not plan to run any web server then you may not need a LAMP server. However, I still strong recommend that you install LAMP server, along with OpenSSH and Samba file server. Having a web server helps if you plan to enabling web interfaces for some of your software (CouchPotato, Sick Beard, etc.). [Read:CouchPotato Apache reverse proxy]
Ubuntu Tasksel - Package Selection
Once the installation completes, reboot your system and you should reach the login prompt for your server. If you are not comfortable, you may want to consider installing a lightweight desktop environment or Webmin, to make your server administration easier. Go ahead, install Ubuntu Server 14.04 and enjoy your home server.
Anand is a self-learned computer enthusiast, hopeless tinkerer (if it ain't broke, fix it), a part-time blogger, and a Scientist during the day. He has been blogging since 2010 on Linux, Ubuntu, Home/Media/File Servers, Smart Home Automation, and related HOW-TOs.
