Seeing as I’m always looking for something new to try with Linux I recently decided to have a go at installing and setting up Mutt on my Ubuntu 12.04 headless server.  My thought process as to why I chose a text-based email client went something like this:

• I wanted something secure
• I wanted to get away from web-based applications (read: Gmail)
• I still wanted to be able to view my email from work or from the road
• I didn’t want to use anything like Squirrel Mail
• I wanted to keep it simple

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Linus Torvalds gives us a glimpse into his thoughts on the recent release of Steam for Linux. It’s still in Beta at this point and I’m hoping it will stay in active development because I’m greatly enjoying gaming on my Ubuntu desktop.

Fast forward to 45:23 to get to the part regarding Linux and Steam.

I’m writing this article mainly as a resource for myself so the next time I set up an Ubuntu server I’ll have something of a checklist to go by. All this information has been gleaned from various resources on the Internet, I’m not even sure where most of the knowledge came from.

Software: Ubuntu Server (headless) 12.04 32-bit
Hardware: HP Workstation xw4400 – Core2 Duo – 2GB Memory – Two 1TB HDD in RAID1

Initial Installation

After downloading Ubuntu Server install the OS as per normal. In my case I needed to create a RAID1 array and install the OS to it. If you’re looking for a tutorial on how to do that, here’s a good one. When it comes time for selecting additional packages to install, just install OpenSSH and Samba.

Configure static IP and DNS

By default, Ubuntu will install with an IP address assigned via DHCP. Obviously this is less than ideal for a server. Once logged in to the system we’ll need to edit /etc/network/interfaces.

 sudo nano /etc/network/interfaces

In a stock install you’ll see these lines:

 auto eth0
 iface eth0 inet dhcp

Change them to look like this (substitute your actual address scheme). Note the addition of dns-nameservers, in my experience this has always been required when configuring the server for a static IP address:

 auto eth0
 iface eth0 inet static
 address 192.168.1.200
 netmask 255.255.255.0
 network 192.168.1.0
 broadcast 192.168.1.255
 gateway 192.168.1.1
 dns-nameservers 192.168.1.1

Some older tutorials on setting up DNS on Ubuntu Server will tell you to edit /etc/resolv.conf directly. This will not work, and while there are a handful of methods of configuring DNS the above method I just laid out is the one I prefer.

Now we need to restart the networking service. First bring it down:

 sudo ifdown eth0

Then bring it up:

sudo ifup eth0

Configure SSH

It’s a small thing, but I always change the port SSH uses on my server. Granted, it’s a small step of security but every little bit helps.

 sudo nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Where you see this line:

 # What ports, IPs and protocols we listen for
 Port 22

Change the port number to whatever you want below 65000, making sure you’re not choosing a port that’s already in use.

 # What ports, IPs and protocols we listen for
 Port 12345

Now, if you’re so inclined you can do the rest of the setup via SSH.

Install Webmin

There are several applications available for server management, and I like Webmin the best. Here’s how to install it.

Edit the sources.list file:

 sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Add these lines to the bottom of the page:

 deb http://download.webmin.com/download/repository sarge contrib
 deb http://webmin.mirror.somersettechsolutions.co.uk/repository sarge contrib

Import the GPG key and add it:

 wget http://www.webmin.com/jcameron-key.asc
 sudo apt-key add jcameron-key.ascUpdate the source list:
 sudo apt-get update

Install Webmin:

 sudo apt-get install webmin

Webmin will install itself and can be accessed at https://192.168.1.200:10000. You will see a login page, enter the username and password that you signed on to your server with. Right off the bat you’ll find that your username and password don’t work. It’s a common problem, here’s how to fix it:

 cd /usr/share/webmin
 sudo perl changepass.pl /etc/webmin root newpass

Substitute “newpass” for whatever password you want. Now you can go back to the Webmin login page and your credentials will work. The default username is “root”, enter the password you chose.

At this point you’ll be able to do virtually all your server management via the web interface of Webmin. I find Webmin to be ideal for managing Samba shares, software updates and everything else I need to control in a simple home server environment.