57
Basic Homeserver with old Mac Mini (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 6 days ago by PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works to c/selfhosted@lemmy.world
53 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hi all

I'm going to set up a little server on a pretty old Mac Mini, with an external RAID 1 enclosure. It's initially got two main purposes - to run an Immich server to backup my photos when I'm away travelling, and to give me something to learn about Linux and self-hosting on. I used Linux a bit back in the day, but I've been living the lazy Mac life for years. I'd really like to transition out of the Mac ecosystem eventually, so this is an initial toe in the water towards that aim.

I'm planning on running Debian, for stability and compatibility, and backing up to a separate NAS that already exists, so that I'm not completely screwed if (definitely when) I mess something up. It'll all be set up in my power/internet access point shed, so I'd prefer it to be fully remote access, no screen/DE.

It seems like I'll be running Immich in Docker, and that I'll need Tailscale/Wireguard for my remote connection. Does this seem like a decent initial plan? Are there any decent resources for learning this that you'd recommend? I already own the hardware, and all my photos are safe on SD card, SSD, and local backup, so there's no real consequence to me messing about with this. Any advice/thoughts would be welcome

Ta

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] wltr@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 5 days ago

I did similar task recently, but used my old MacBook Pro 2011 (15 inch, with a faulty GPU). I chose DietPi, which I can recommend as a start distro for a newcomer. I chose it since I have some experience with it from my Raspberry Pi and I plan to give the laptop to a friend, who isn’t familiar with Linux. (For him to run Immich.)

I have a similar MacBook Pro for myself, with Arch Linux installed (my old laptop with a few keys now broken). It’s on WiFi, not Ethernet, and where the signal isn’t very good. Yet, I’m mostly happy with the result.

So far, being somewhat experienced with Linux, I think I’d choose DietPi for most server setups. I really love it, a good work done by maintainers. I can recommend going with it for your first self-hosted adventures.

[-] PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works 2 points 5 days ago

I'll check that out, thanks

[-] nosuchanon@lemmy.world 3 points 4 days ago

I like dietpi. It makes a bunch of stuff way easier to manage and deal with.

Even once you know cli commands, it’s faster and easier to manage some things like services from their cli-gui.

[-] PennyRoyal@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

It’s Debian underneath isn’t it, so I’d hope that that makes it stable and well supported. Easier is definitely better - I know that this whole self hosting game comes with admin, but anything I can do to make things easier and less time consuming in the regular is a good move

this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2026
57 points (98.3% liked)

Selfhosted

63311 readers
357 users here now

A place to share alternatives to popular online services that can be self-hosted without giving up privacy or locking you into a service you don't control.

Rules:

Detailed Rules Post

  1. Be civil.

  2. No spam.

  3. Posts are to be related to self-hosting.

  4. Don't duplicate the full text of your blog or readme if you're providing a link.

  5. Submission headline should match the article title.

  6. No trolling.

  7. Promotion posts require active participation, with an account that is at least 30 days old. F/LOSS without a paywall has exceptions, with requirements. See the rules link for details. Tags [CBH] or [AIP] are required, see the links in Rule 8 for details.

  8. AI-related discussions and AI-involved promotional posts have additional requirements for tagging, as noted in Rule 7 and the AI & Promotional Post Expanded Rules post, and find example disclosures here.

Resources:

Any issues on the community? Report it using the report flag.

Questions? DM the mods!

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
ruud@lemmy.world
Loki@lemmy.world
CannaVet@lemmy.world
devve@lemmy.world
ayyy@sh.itjust.works
curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
curbstickle_lw@lemmy.world