Recently, a friend gifted me some old laptops. Instead of letting them gather dust or become e-waste, I saw an opportunity! Why not build a home server? It's a great way to learn, host services, and make use of hardware that might otherwise be discarded.

The challenge? These laptops came barebones -- no SSD, no RAM, and crucially, no power adapter! But where there's a will (and some spare parts), there's a way.

The biggest hurdle was power. Luckily, I had a nifty USB-C PD Fast Charger Decoy Board (100W capable!) lying around. These little boards can negotiate specific voltages from USB-C Power Delivery chargers.

The laptop needed 19V via its barrel jack. I configured the decoy board's DIP switches to request 20V from my USB-C charger (close enough!). Then came the slightly nerve-wracking part: soldering!

• check_circle Identified the positive (+) and ground (-) pins on the laptop's power input.
• check_circle Soldered the decoy board's output wires directly to these points.
• check_circle Carefully cut a small slot in the laptop's casing to neatly house the board.
• check_circle Used strong double-sided tape to secure the board inside.

Plugged in the USB-C charger, held my breath... and success! The laptop powered on, drawing juice through the new setup. Phew!

Next, I installed some spare DDR3 RAM and an old SATA SSD I had available. Hardware complete!

With the hardware sorted, it was time for the operating system. I opted for Ubuntu Server -- it's stable, widely supported, and great for server tasks. Installation was straightforward via a USB drive.

To manage the various services I wanted to run, I decided to use Docker. Containers make it super easy to install, run, and manage applications in isolated environments. No more dependency nightmares!

Installing Docker on Ubuntu:

# Update package list
sudo apt update

# Install prerequisites
sudo apt install -y apt-transport-https ca-certificates curl software-properties-common

# Add Docker's official GPG key
curl -fsSL https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu/gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg

# Add Docker repository
echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/docker-archive-keyring.gpg] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs) stable" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

# Install Docker Engine
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y docker-ce docker-ce-cli containerd.io

# Add your user to the docker group (to run docker without sudo - log out/in after)
sudo usermod -aG docker ${USER}

# Verify installation
docker --version

Here are the initial containers I set up:

inventory_2

ArchiveBox (Good Karma Kit)

This awesome tool creates local, browsable archives of websites. Perfect for saving articles, documentation, or anything important online before it disappears. The Good Karma Kit aspect seems focused on archiving public interest content.

Docker

docker run -d \
  --name archivebox \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v ~/archivebox_data:/data \
  archivebox/archivebox

Access it at http://[your-server-ip]:8000. Replace ~/archivebox_data with your desired host path for data storage.

directions_boat

Portainer

Managing Docker containers via the command line is fine, but Portainer provides a fantastic web UI. It makes it easy to view logs, manage containers, networks, volumes, and more. Highly recommended for managing your Docker environment!

Docker

# First, create a volume for Portainer data
docker volume create portainer_data

# Then, run the Portainer container
docker run -d \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -p 9443:9443 \
  --name portainer \
  --restart=always \
  -v /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock \
  -v portainer_data:/data \
  portainer/portainer-ce:latest

Access it at https://[your-server-ip]:9443 (HTTPS) or http://[your-server-ip]:8000. You'll set up an admin user on first access.

movie

Plex Media Server

No home server is complete without a media solution! Plex organizes your movies, TV shows, music, and photos, allowing you to stream them to virtually any device, anywhere. It scans your media folders and automatically fetches metadata and artwork.

Docker

# Get a claim token from https://www.plex.tv/claim/
# Replace YOUR_CLAIM_TOKEN, /path/to/plex/config, /path/to/tvshows, /path/to/movies

docker run -d \
  --name plex \
  --network=host \
  -e PLEX_UID=$(id -u) \
  -e PLEX_GID=$(id -g) \
  -e PLEX_CLAIM="YOUR_CLAIM_TOKEN" \
  -e TZ="Your/Timezone" \
  -v /path/to/plex/config:/config \
  -v /path/to/transcode/temp:/transcode \
  -v /path/to/media/tvshows:/data/tvshows \
  -v /path/to/media/movies:/data/movies \
  --restart unless-stopped \
  plexinc/pms-docker:latest

Access the setup wizard at http://[your-server-ip]:32400/web. Make sure the paths you map (/path/to/...) exist on your host system and have correct permissions.

home

Home Assistant

Home Assistant! It's an incredibly powerful open-source home automation platform. You can integrate smart devices, create automations, track sensors, and build amazing dashboards.

Docker

docker run -d \
  --name homeassistant \
  --privileged \
  --restart=unless-stopped \
  -e TZ=Your/Timezone \
  -v /path/to/homeassistant/config:/config \
  --network=host \
  ghcr.io/home-assistant/home-assistant:stable

Access it at http://[your-server-ip]:8123. Replace /path/to/homeassistant/config with your desired config path. --network=host is often needed for device discovery.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y btop

btop

My ISP offers unlimited data during off-peak hours (midnight to 7 AM). To take advantage of this for potentially data-intensive tasks (like ArchiveBox fetching sites), I set up a cron job. Cron is a time-based job scheduler in Unix-like operating systems.

I scheduled tasks to automatically stop certain containers at 7 AM and start them again at midnight. This helps manage bandwidth usage and costs effectively.

Example Cron Job (Edit with crontab -e):

# Stop ArchiveBox container at 7:00 AM daily
0 7 * * * docker stop archivebox

# Start ArchiveBox container at 00:00 AM (midnight) daily
0 0 * * * docker start archivebox

You'd add similar lines for any other containers you want to schedule.

This is just the beginning! I'm excited to explore more self-hosted applications. What other containers do you recommend for a home server setup?

Some popular ideas include:

Let me know your favorite self-hosted apps!