Installing Linux Server with USB

Prerequisites

Monitor
HDMI cable to connect to monitor
Keyboard
USB drive with at least 8GB capacity
Network cable

Installing the System

Download the image from Ubuntu or Debian official website
Prepare a USB drive with at least 8GB capacity, install Etcher, and flash the Ubuntu image to the USB drive following the instructions
Insert the USB drive into the PC, boot, and repeatedly press F7 (different motherboards use different keys) to enter BIOS
Allocate the entire disk to Ubuntu. If you don’t plan to tinker later, you can skip LVM Group, which will result in just two partitions: / and /boot/efi
Follow the remaining prompts and wait for the system to start.

Ubuntu 24.04

Usually after installation, the system will connect to WiFi via DHCP, but I prefer to use static IP addresses and connect one network port to the router. So I need to change the default IP address.
First, check the current address information with:
```
ip addr
```

I plan to change the IP address of enp0s1 to 192.168.2.66, with the default gateway being the main router 192.168.2.1. Edit the file 01-netcfg.yaml, or create it if it doesn’t exist:

network:
  version: 2
  renderer: networkd
  ethernets:
    enp1s0:
      dhcp4: no
      addresses:
        - 192.168.2.66/24
      routes:
        - to: default
          via: 192.168.2.1
      nameservers:
        addresses:
          - 8.8.8.8
          - 8.8.4.4

If you get a “Permission too open” message, change permissions:
```
sudo chmod 600 /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml
```
Apply Netplan configuration:
```
sudo netplan apply
```

Restart network service (optional):

sudo systemctl restart systemd-networkd

Insert network cable and verify the configuration:
```
ip addr
```

Debian 12

I recently tried Debian 13. Although it’s planning to gradually deprecate the interfaces (ifupdown) network management method, I found that Debian 13 Server still uses it by default.
First, check the network interface name:
```
ip addr
```
Mine is ens18.

Edit the file /etc/network/interfaces:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto ens18
iface ens18 inet static
        address 192.168.2.111/24   # Your machine's IP address
        network 192.168.2.0
        broadcast 192.168.2.255
        gateway 192.168.2.1
        dns-nameservers 8.8.8.8

If your Linux is connected via WiFi, use the same approach:

# This file describes the network interfaces available on your system
# and how to activate them. For more information, see interfaces(5).

source /etc/network/interfaces.d/*

# The loopback network interface
auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

# The primary network interface
auto wlp2s0
allow-hotplug wlp2s0
iface wlp2s0 inet static
        address 192.168.2.111    		# Your machine's IP address
        netmask 255.255.255.0			# Netmask
        gateway 192.168.2.1		 		# Gateway
        dns-nameservers 192.168.2.1		# DNS
        wpa-ssid YourWiFiSSID
        wpa-psk  YourWiFiPassword

Restart the network service:

sudo systemctl restart networking.service

Since the default is DHCP when starting, the system generates default DNS servers from the router in /etc/resolv.conf. But after changing to static, this file will be cleared after reboot. So we need to lock this file:
```
su -
chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf
```
Or install the resolvconf package, which will collect DNS information from interfaces and sync to the resolv.conf file. Both approaches work, but locking is simpler and more direct. This way the network won’t go down after reboot.

Other Configuration

Here are some other basic configurations:

Install sudo:

su root
apt install sudo

# Add user to sudo group
sudo usermod -aG sudo username

# Password-free sudo
sudo visudo
# Modify the file content
%sudo ALL=(ALL:ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

Install vim:
```
sudo apt install vim
```

Change timezone:

sudo timedatectl set-timezone America/Toronto

Install OpenSSH:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openssh-server

Install Docker. See: Creating OpenWrt as a Docker Image | Kunyang’s Blog

Switch to zsh:

Install:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install zsh git curl -y
sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ohmyzsh/ohmyzsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

# Auto-suggestion plugin
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

# Syntax highlighting plugin
git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting ~/.oh-my-zsh/custom/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

Configure:

cat > ~/.zshrc << 'EOF'
export ZSH="$HOME/.oh-my-zsh"
# ZSH_THEME="robbyrussell"
ZSH_THEME="philips"

plugins=(
  git
  docker
  docker-compose
  zsh-autosuggestions
  zsh-syntax-highlighting
)

source $ZSH/oh-my-zsh.sh

# Common aliases
alias ll='ls -alF'
alias la='ls -A'
alias l='ls -CF'
alias grep='grep --color=auto'
EOF

Refresh:
```
source ~/.zshrc
```

Prerequisites#

Installing the System#

Ubuntu 24.04#

Debian 12#

Other Configuration#

Prerequisites

Installing the System

Ubuntu 24.04

Debian 12

Other Configuration