Home Server with Ubuntu and a Streaming Device

February 15, 2021

Installing Ubuntu and Tranmission in a Minix Neo Z64-W

Got a Minix Neo Z64-W from a friend, it comes with Windows, and runs pretty sluggish My old XtreamerTV device managed to burn two internal 2.5” hard drives (this is another story) So, project at hand:

  • Install Ubuntu Server on the Minix Neo Z64-W
  • Configure a few critical services:
    • SSH
    • Samba (to access content in the local network, upnp is better, but VLC cannot get subtitles using upnp)
    • duf (just because)
  • Mount external USB disk, and make sure it’s mounted after restart
  • Install Transmission

Installing Ubuntu Server

It was pretty straighforward, just followed (some of) the instructions here: http://hwswbits.blogspot.com/2015/03/getting-linux-on-minix-neo-z64.html

Basically it was:

  • Download Ubuntu Server
  • Download Rufus
  • Create USB Boot disk
  • Enter BIOS and configure Boot from USB
  • Boot from USB
  • Clean the hard drive (except the UEFI partitions)
  • Install Ubuntu

Mounting USB external drive

It is something like this:

mkdir /media/external
mount /dev/sda1 /media/external
ls /media/external
sudo blkid /dev/sda1 | awk -F'"' '{print $2}'
cp /etc/fstab /etc/fstab.backup
nano /etc/fstab

fstab file:

# 96A803ADA8038AC7 sudo blkid /dev/sda1 | awk -F'"' '{print $2}'
UUID=96A803ADA8038AC7 /media auto nosuid,nodev,nofail 0 0

Configure Samba

nano /etc/samba/smb.conf

# media share usb
[media]
   path = /media/transmission
   browsable = yes
   writable = yes
   read only = no
   guest ok = yes

service smbd restart

Avoid USB powering-off the external drive

nano /etc/default/grub

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="usbcore.autosuspend=-1"

update-grub

cat /sys/module/usbcore/parameters/autosuspend

Install Transmission

Ref:

Basically, it’s just running a bunch of commands

apt-get update
apt-get install transmission-cli transmission-common transmission-daemon

cd /home/<my_user>/Downloads
mkdir transmission
cd transmission
mkdir completed incomplete torrents

usermod -a -G debian-transmission <my_user>
chgrp -R debian-transmission /home/<my_user>/Downloads/transmission
chmod -R 775 /home/<my_user>/Downloads/transmission

service transmission-daemon start
service transmission-daemon stop

service transmission-daemon reload

There is plenty of documentation about configuration settings for Transmision

Install duf

curl -s https://api.github.com/repos/muesli/duf/releases/latest | grep browser_download_url | grep linux_amd64.deb | cut -d '"' -f 4 | wget -i -
dpkg -i duf_*_linux_amd64.deb
duf