Hosting on a VPS is a great option to run a blogging service, but installing services that might expose ports needs to be done with some precaution (or not at all if the service is only to be used by the server itself).
This is a more opinionated post than usual: I live on the command line on Linux. As such, I perform a few extra steps after a fresh installation to get to a “usable” system.
This guide details how to install quickemu on a Linux Ubuntu 24.04 server to run desktop VMs (here, we will install Ubuntu 24.04 Desktop) on the same subnet IP range as the host's primary subnet using a network bridge. Those VMs are remotely accessible on the subnet using a SPICE client. This setup will provide VMs directly accessible on the subnet where the Linux server is running. Because we will specify the MAC addresses of those VMs, we can apply reserved DHCP IPs from our router and allow adding and configuring extra services within hardware firewalls, such as the Firewalla (for example, DNS-over-HTTPS).
Instructions for a Linux host running Ubuntu 24.04 to install the Nvidia runtime for docker and podman.
Postfix is a free, open-source mail transfer agent (MTA) used to route and deliver email over the Internet. FastMail is a paid service that provides a secure, privacy-focused email provider supporting custom domains. This post details the setup instructions for using Postfix as a Send-Only SMTP server, using Fastmail, on a Ubuntu Linux 22.04 server.
"Unattended Upgrades" is a package available on Ubuntu systems that automatically installs updates for security and, optionally, other software packages. This tool is crucial for maintaining system security and stability. It ensures that vulnerabilities and bugs are promptly addressed without requiring manual intervention. This post details the setup instructions for using it for security updates on an Ubuntu Linux 22.04 or 24.04 server and sending emails when the updates are completed.
