Libre Boston: GNU/Linux Free Software Users Group

How to Build a Home/Media Server with GNU/Linux

Feb 6, 2013 · 6:30 PM
MIT Building E-51, Room 372

*Update #1* Room at MIT is now confirmed.
*Update #2* Additional presenter, Stan Livitski, will demonstrate a "free as in freedom" alternative to cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive, called Data Bag a.k.a. "the uncloud."

Part 1: Brendan Kidwell will show us how to use our favorite GNU/Linux distribution to build a personal home server for data storage and/or media serving.

Brendan will also discuss the dangers of entrusting your data to the "cloud," in particular a cloud service that you don't control. As an antidote, the home/personal server solution that Brendan will present shows how you can free yourself from a dependence on proprietary cloud services such as Dropbox and Google Drive.

Although Brendan will cover technical steps, his talk is 100% newbie friendly. Users at all levels of GNU/Linux experience are welcome to attend and are sure to get something out of this presentation.

Part 2: Stan Livitski will demonstrate Data Bag - http://www.data-bag.org/ - a secure and "free as in freedom" alternative to using cloud services like Dropbox and Google Drive.

Meeting outline:

Motivation / why you should have your own personal server
Introduction to the components and what they can do
- Your home router - providing optional off-site access. (Also Dyndns.org or similar service to provide a friendly Internet hostname.)
- Hardware - any old box or not-hot-running laptop will do
- Operating System: Ubuntu Server
- ownCloud - Personal file sharing, syncing; Calendar; Photos
- Subsonic - Audio / Video storage with browser-based playback
Demo
- ownCloud
- Subconic
Q&A for Brendan
The "Uncloud" - Stan Livitski demonstrates Data Bag
Discussion / Questions [open ended]

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Stan

Thanks to Brendan for recording and publishing the meeting's materials and helping to host the audio of my presentation. Now you can listen to it at

http://www.glump.net/content/stan_livitski/data-bag_file_sync_and_backup.ogg

and review my slides at

http://files.meetup.com/1846861/data-bag%20feb%206%20slides.pdf

in case you missed the Feb, 6th meeting. Brendan has links to his presentation and slides at http://www.glump.net/howto/home_file_server .

My presentation (audio and slides) are available to you under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/deed.en_US).

0 · February 16, 2013
Brendan K

For my talk, the complete howto article, slides, and now audio as well are available at http://www.glump.net/howto/home_file_server . Thanks for Dave and Stan for cleaning up the audio file.

0 · February 16, 2013
A former member

Brendan: thank you for the informative Home Server talk. I had not seen owncloud before. It looks interesting. For media how about adding miniDLNA since so many devices these days can work with DLNA.

0 · February 7, 2013
Celso

Boy, do I regret missing this one!

0 · February 7, 2013
Gary J.

2 of the very first things Brendan talked about, lubuntu and setting up a static ip address "MADE" the evening for me, thanks for sharing.

1 · February 7, 2013
- Dave H
  
  +1 for lubuntu or no-gui-buntu on the server side.
  
  0 · February 7, 2013
Stan

The slides from my presentation are now available at http://files.meetup.com/1846861/data-bag%20feb%206%20slides.pdf

Thanks to everyone who attended this meeting!

0 · February 7, 2013
Brendan K

HERE IS THE COMPANION HOWTO I prepared before I did tonight's presentation: http://www.glump.net/howto/home_file_server

Hopefully I'll post the audio I recorded, and my slides, by next Wednesday

0 · February 6, 2013
- Taylor B.
  
  Very nice, Thanks!
  
  One suggestion: I like guides that use $EDITOR in the command line instructions to make things easily copy/pastable for everyone. For example:
  
  sudo $EDITOR /etc/hosts
  
  1 · February 6, 2013
Dave H

Very informative presentations! Setting up owcloud, the web stuff, and subsonic makes for a fine project on a snowy weekend and a spare machine! Stan: thanks for bringing the mic and the ride home! Brendan, thanks for meeting me at the T station; sorry I was late.

0 · February 6, 2013
Martin D.

I would like to draw your attention to an event happening next month which many of you might be interested in. On March 23-24, the Free Software Foundation is organizing Libre Planet 2013, a conference for the global free software community. The focus of this year's conference will be on diversity- not only software developers, but also activists, academics, and users themselves will be giving talks and presentations. This year's keynote address will be delivered by Karen Sandler, the executive director of the GNOME Foundation and a well-known free software advocate. Besides talks, the conference will also feature workshops and hackathons. Hope to see you there!

0 · February 6, 2013
A former member

Have to bail, very sorry to miss it.

0 · February 6, 2013
A former member

Hey, folks, is pizza served or do we bring our own sandwich, etc.? I won't have time to eat beforehand. Thanks.

0 · February 6, 2013
A former member

wednesdays aren't good for me. bummer!

0 · February 2, 2013
Robert

I am going to do my best to attend. I've been wanting to do this for a while... will it talk about hardward as well as software....

0 · January 24, 2013