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Installing LibreServer

► How to install on Armbian

► How to install on Raspberry Pi

⃟ Step 1: Download

Obtain the Debian 12 netinstall, or the full install if you prefer.

wget https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current/amd64/iso-cd/debian-12.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso

⃟ Step 2: Copy to drive

Copy the image to a USB drive:

sudo dd if=debian-12.5.0-amd64-netinst.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=64k oflag=dsync status=progress

⃟ Step 3: Plug in

Connect the USB drive to the x86 system (old laptop, etc) which you will be using as a server, then boot from it. Install Debian as you usually would, making sure to select the installation of an ssh server.

If your x86 server fails to boot then go back to step 2 and try writing to the drive again, or using a different drive. Sometimes copying the image to the drive is not always entirely reliable.

⃟ Step 4: Locate on the network

Find you server's local IP address. It will usually start with 192.168.. A typical way to do this is to log in to your internet router and show the list of devices on your local network.

⃟ Step 5: Log in

Log into your server using ssh.

ssh root@192.168.x.y

⃟ Step 6: Start the install

Update the system:

apt update

apt upgrade

Then clone the LibreServer repository and checkout the bookworm development branch.

apt install -y git dialog build-essential

cd

git clone https://gitlab.com/bashrc2/libreserver

cd libreserver

git checkout bookworm

Install the LibreServer commands:

make install

Create an admin user:

adduser admin

Their name could just be "admin" and the other details, including the password, are unimportant. Whatever you set the password to it will be changed during the install process.

Now begin installing with:

sudo libreserver menuconfig

or for the onion version:

sudo libreserver menuconfig-onion

You will be prompted to select a language and then be given a new password. Write this down or store it in a password manager.

If you are not installing the onion version then you will be also be asked for dynamic DNS and domain name. The domain name must be one which you own, and not a free-as-in-gratis subdomain.

Installation may take a long time - possibly up to a few hours - depending on your type of drive and internet bandwidth, but you can leave it running unattended.

⃟ Step 7: Browse to admin

When installation is complete you can log into your server with a browser.

http://192.168.x.y/admin

The username is admin and the password is the one you wrote down previously.