Turn My Old Laptop Into A Linux Server

• I have an old laptop that I'm not using.
• I want a linux server to host my projects.
• I want to learn more about linux, devops, and cloud computing.

Information

Hardware

• Laptop: Dell Latitude 3500
• Processor: Intel Core i5-8265U 1.6GHz turbo 3.9GHz
• RAM: 12GB DDR4 2400MHz
• Storage: 256GB SSD SATA

Software

• Linux: Ubuntu 22.04 Server LTS
• Docker: 24.0.0

Setup

Operating System

Ubuntu 24.04 Server LTS: No GUI, lightweight, fast, secure, and reliable.

Installation:

• Download from Ubuntu
• Create a bootable USB drive with Rufus (Balena Etcher for Mac)
• Boot from the USB drive
• Follow the installation instructions

Software:

• SSH: sudo apt install openssh-server (normally it's installed when setup Ubuntu Server)
• Accesories: sudo apt install tmux git curl htop ufw (May be zsh, too)
• Docker:
  • [Install the engine and compose] (https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/)
  • Allow docker to run without sudo: sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Get a domain

I buy a domain name from [Matbao] (https://www.matbao.net/)

Cloudflare Tunnel

This is a simple way to get a public IP address for your server.

• 100% free, no time limit
• Create a authenticated tunnel from your server to Cloudflare
• Could connect to your own domain name
• High security (TLS, firewall, etc.)

Installations on server:

• Install:

wget https://github.com/cloudflare/cloudflared/releases/latest/download/cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb
sudo dpkg -i cloudflared-linux-amd64.deb

• Login:

cloudflared tunnel login

• Create a tunnel and save Tunnel ID

cloudflared tunnel create <tunnel-name>