DEV Community

Cover image for Home server starter guide: Pi-hole, Tailscale and Jellyfin on one box
Black
Black

Posted on Edited on

Home server starter guide: Pi-hole, Tailscale and Jellyfin on one box

#homelab #selfhosted #linux #beginners

Copy-paste steps for a spare PC running Ubuntu Server 24.04. Read each command before you run it.

Pi-hole: block ads for every device 

curl -sSL https://install.pi-hole.net | sudo bash
sudo pihole setpassword
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Set your router DHCP DNS server to the server IP so every device uses it. Test: nslookup doubleclick.net SERVER_IP should return 0.0.0.0.

Tailscale: reach home from anywhere 

curl -fsSL https://tailscale.com/install.sh | sh
sudo tailscale up
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

To reach your whole LAN, enable forwarding and advertise the subnet:

echo 'net.ipv4.ip_forward=1' | sudo tee /etc/sysctl.d/99-tailscale.conf
sudo sysctl -p /etc/sysctl.d/99-tailscale.conf
sudo tailscale up --advertise-routes=192.168.1.0/24
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Approve the route in the Tailscale admin console and disable key expiry for the server.

Jellyfin 

curl -s https://repo.jellyfin.org/install-debuntu.sh | sudo bash
Enter fullscreen mode Exit fullscreen mode

Open http://SERVER_IP:8096. Prefer direct play (H.264/HEVC in MP4/MKV); enable VAAPI/QSV if your CPU transcodes slowly.

The full runbook

The Home Server Starter Runbook PDF adds the Ubuntu install and hardening (SSH keys, ufw, automatic updates), fixed IP setup, restic backups, weekly health checks, checklists and an 8-row troubleshooting table: https://spectre5.gumroad.com/l/sovcom ($7).

More guides: https://patreon.com/123black

Top comments (0)