Hey, folks I’m moving my main PC to linux soon, and for that I have settled on Mint. However, I also plan to build a homelab pc for the first time to selfhost some services, mainly Jellyfinn, some game servers, and possibly next cloud, but I’m unsure which distro to go with for that.
I have some experience running debian headless (on an orange pi) and I can use ssh and the cli just fine, however, I also want the server pc to (maybe) serve as a moonlight client in my living room, so I was leaning towards something that is not headless, and I am unsure if I should also go with Mint for that or if something else might be more suitable.
Don’t even think about it: proxmox! Then whatever you want to try for VMs and lxc containers!
Proxmox as Hypervisor and for VMs just Debian.
This is the way
I agree with having the server run Proxmox like others have said. Check out these YouTube channels for helpful information/guides:
LearnLinuxTV
LawrenceSystems
CraftComputing
Thanks! I’ll chech these out. I’m planning to start moving things over this weekend, so I’ll take the couple of days till then to learn as much as possible.
Eventually proxmox will be the right choice for you. Right now it’s not because you’re not skilled or knowledgeable enough to be able to navigate it.
That is not a dig or a slight, it’s a very powerful and complex package built on top of an already powerful and complex package.
Just do containerless normal person Debian then when everything’s running how you’d like and you’re ready you can migrate to proxmox.
The big benefit of doing that instead of jumping into proxmox with both feet immediately is that you’ll be learning more and be able to solve your own problems as you get to the point of using proxmox.
I started with Proxmox with zero Linux or self hosting knowledge and slowly built up what I need. It wasn’t always easy, but not that hard either.
What are the downsides of not using proxmox right now? Most people on this thread are recommending it, so even if it’s a little difficult now, but more capable in the long run, I’m up for the challenge.
But what would Proxmox do?
It’s the virtualisation, right? Won’t it consume extra resources? Or won’t it be unimportant, since it’s very little? (Never worked with VMs seriously, only casually ran some things here and there.)
I’m not the original poster, but I’m curious too. I think I’d pick some Fedora / Arch for the task, depending whether someone else would use it too.
there is some overhead but it’s not like running a full VM when you are talking about containers and it is way safer if you want to expose anything to the internet due to isolation
edit: i’m talking about containers in general, not proxmox exclusively. depending on your case proxmox will let you spin a whole VM if needed
I did something similar. Everybody is different so maybe not the best option for you, but who knows.
I have a single mini PC that handles my stack of virtual machines hosting various things. For the main OS I went with Fedora KDE. I chose something with a GUI for two reasons, the primary being that sometimes… Maybe not as often as you get more familiar, but sometimes there is an easier way to accomplish something in the GUI than in the CLI. Things like system settings. You can save a lot of time looking up commands and syntax by flipping a switch in the settings application.
Second and most important reason for the GUI, I watch TV on this thing. Which I would not recommend if you are hosting anything that can’t handle a little downtime. Once in a while a web browser may hang, bluetooth could fail, and you end up having to restart. Nothing I host is critical to anybody so this isn’t a big deal to me. I also find a little inner peace knowing that I am interacting with the main system controlling these hosts on a daily basis. If it does get compromised in some way this makes it just a little more likely I will notice quickly.
So that’s the hardware system and I’m running Libvirt as the hypervisor. It’s pretty bare bones, but easy to use and gets the job done. Hardest step to me was generating SSH certificates/keys. Not that it was hard moreso just new to me. Libvirt will not allow you to connect remotely with plain text. So regardless of your threat model this is a required step if you want remote access to the hypervisor remotely.
If you make it that far you can start really getting into the weeds with networking. I’m not going to go into the topology of my network, but I will say if you are hosting anything public you should do as much as possible to isolate that from your home network. You can create a VM to act as a firewall/router for other VMs.
Sounds like proxmox would fit the bill. Virtualize everything with LXC/Docker/VM depending on the app and you should be good to go. Moonlight should work in a vm running debian desktop for example.
I would honestly say proxmox is the right answer.
Honestly when you kind of know Debian than stay with it. It’s greater software. You can easily install a graphical desktop if you like to do so. Also it’s quit comfortable to have the same package manager on all you systems.
Mine is running Debian and to my memory has never crashed or required me to restore a backup once in several years.
If you want to get real fancy with it you could do something like Nix, but honestly I would recommend Debian first almost every time
I’d still try Debian for this. Its just so rock solid, mine kills as a jellyfin server. Though I am unsure if the sometimes older packages will effect Moonlight in some sort of way. Never used Moonlight.
Arch for the flexibility. You can install all the software you need on it with ease and no ppa’s
That seems like an unreliable high maintenance choice for a server.
I guess that depends on a server, but all my non-Arm servers are on Arch, and it’s been rock solid so far. (Years, close to a decade.) What I like is that I don’t need to upgrade it (meaning across versions), I just update it here and there, non-regularly. Never had a single issue. Perhaps I’m lucky and asking for trouble. One machine runs root on an encrypted RAID-0, so I’d test my backup strategy. Another one runs root on RAID-1. Another one runs root on USB drive.
I second this, my old server was previously OMV and then Proxmox. But with my replacement server I went Arch after loving my Steam Deck experience. You’ll learn a lot and I feel like the complaints of it constantly breaking aren’t true if you put a little effort before running updates. I mostly use it headless for remote development (LazyVim) and running containers (moved to Podman from Docker), but I also use Niri for the DE when I do need to use a monitor, for example playing Dwarf Fortress.
Separate the use-case here:
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For your desktop, whatever works. There is no one distro that gives you some leg-up on performance or anything else. You can install the same software on all, and the kernel is largely the same.
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Just get or build a NAS for hosting media. A Synology or Qnap has a bit of added cost, but the maintenance overhead is reduced by a LOT versus running TrueNAS, OMV, or similar. That being said, choose the right tool for the job, and don’t just run Debian for this purpose because it just adding admin overhead you don’t need. This probably has been solved from your specific angle. What you want is simplicity in maintenance. Being able to hotswap and repair a failed drive means a huge win.
a NAS in this economy? (kinda joking but damn everything is so expensive right now I would advise anyone to just use whatever they can find even if it means adding admin overhead)
Yeah, there’s no way I can build another machine in this economy haha Especially because I’m in SA, and here hardware costs 2x-4x
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You’re probably more knowledgeable than be if you already ran headless, but OMV and docker was simple and easy for me. Not sure about moonlight though.
