This week’s goal
Install the operating system and get a boring baseline.
The word “boring” is doing a lot of work here. I wanted boring. My brain wanted a comparison spreadsheet called something like final-os-choice-v7-actually-final.xlsx.
What I actually did
I installed a straightforward Linux server setup and focused on the basics:
- updates installed
- SSH working
- hostname set
- static-ish address reserved in the router
- packages kept minimal
No clustering. No elaborate dashboard. No trying four operating systems to discover that I still mostly need Jellyfin, backups, and SSH.
The best win was writing down the server IP and login notes somewhere sensible instead of relying on “I’ll remember that”. I will not. My memory is basically RAM with an aggressive power-saving mode.
What broke, or nearly did
I nearly rebuilt it after twenty minutes because I saw a different guide using a slightly different setup.
This is the beginner homelab trap: if you keep restarting from scratch, everything feels like progress but nothing becomes useful.
What I’m keeping
- One OS
- Minimal packages
- Router DHCP reservation
- Notes written down as I go
The notes are not pretty, but they exist. That makes them better than the imaginary documentation I normally plan to create later.
SmallGrid takeaway
A working simple install beats an endlessly researched perfect one. Install the thing, update it, write down how to reach it, then move on.