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Steps to repurpose old laptop as home server with Debian (lemdro.id)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I have an old ThinkPad 11e running Debian that I have repurposed into a home server. It's only supposed to run TVheadend. I don't need any other services for now, but later on i might add a few using docker.

Is it enough to set multiuser.target as default to disable gui and keep the system always on?

How can I disable all unnecessary services and minimize power usage?

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

I usually do the expert install and don't install a graphical environment in the first place. But your solution should be fine, too. I think you can show running services with systemctl and then disable unneeded ones. For example systemctl disable gdm but there shouldn't be that much running on a plain Debian anyways.

For powersave I run powertop in auto-tune mode as a systemd service. A description is here: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Powertop

Unfortunately, the Debian Wiki doesn't seem to have a lot on laptop power saving. The Arch wiki has some more (random) info: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Power_management

I'd say do the powertop systemd service on startup, set the multiuser target or disable the login manager and that's it.