September 24, 2023

Set up a VPS with Trisquel GNU/Linux NetInstall

These are my notes from when I set up a VPS with Trisquel GNU/Linux NetInstall.

I picked a VPS (Virtual Private Server) plan with a small owner-operated provider.

I pick the lower offer. It costs 5$ per month. The VPS offers 1024MB of RAM, 1 CPU and a disk space of 25GB.

I did not select the default operating system the VPS provider offers. All e.g. Debian, Ubuntu, etc includes non-free blobs¹.

I uploaded my own ISO image of Trisquel GNU/Linux NetInstall which you can download there: https://trisquel.info/en/download. Verify the ISO image: https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/verify-trisquel-download. If you struggle to verify the ISO image, let me know: https://yctct.com/contact

Note: some providers might offer to upload the ISO image for you, in that case you can’t verify the file.

Once uploaded, I selected the ISO image on the interface of the VPS provider.

The install process of Trisquel GNU/Linux NetInstall started on the console of the VPS provider, in the browser.

The steps I followed:

1. Select Install (the first line)
2. Select language used for the install
3. Select country
4. Select country for keyboard layout
5. Select keyboard layout (Canada Intl)
6. “Configure network” might fail, you have to do step by step manually. To do so:
7. Type IP address - provided by the VPS provider
8. Type netmask - idem
9. Type gateway - idem
10. Type nameservers - idem
11. Type hostname i.e. the name of your VPS - idem
12. Type the domain name of VPS provider - idem
13. Select a mirror
14. My network is not behind a proxy then type your proxy information. Hit enter
15. Type admin pseudo/name
16. Type username
17. Type passphrase
18. Select the type of partition - choose Guided - entire disk²
19. Select disk
20. Select partition scheme
21. Select Yes
22. Select the size of partition - as suggested by the interface
23. Select Finish… to confirm partition
24. Select Yes
25. Select software: I used Trisquel Console Environment
26. Select Yes; I choosed to install GRUB on dev/vda

The install should be completed.

Unmount the ISO image so you can restart the VPS and be prompted with Trisquel’s interface.

Enter username and password.

You should see this:

Welcome to Trisquel GNU/Linux 11.0, Aramo (GNU/Linux 5.15.0-84-generic x86_64)
   ___        ___               ___        ___       ___        ___        ___
  /\  \      /\  \      ___    /\  \      /\  \     /\__\      /\  \      /\__\
  \ \  \    /  \  \    /\  \  /  \  \    /  \  \   / /  /     /  \  \    / /  /
   \ \  \  / /\ \  \   \ \  \/ /\ \  \  / /\ \  \ / /  /     / /\ \  \  / /  /
   /  \  \/  \ \ \  \  /  \__\ \ \ \  \/ /  \ \  \ /  /  ___/  \ \ \  \/ /  /
  / /\ \__\/\ \ \ \__\/ /\/__/\ \ \ \__\/__/ \ \__\__/  /\__\/\ \ \ \__\/__/
 / /  \/__/_|  \/ /  / /  /\ \ \ \ \/__/\  \ / /  /  \ / /  /\ \ \ \/__/\  \
/ /  /      | |  /  / /__/  \ \ \ \__\ \ \/\/ /  / \  / /  /\ \ \ \__\ \ \  \
\/__/       | |\/__/\ \__\   \ \/ /  /  \    /  / \ \/ /  /  \ \ \/__/  \ \  \
            | |  |   \/__/    \  /  /    \  /  /   \  /  /    \ \__\     \ \__\
             \|__|             \/__/      \/__/     \/__/      \/__/      \/__/

Documentation: https://trisquel.info/wiki/
Support forum: https://trisquel.info/forum/

Run:

$ sudo -i # to switch to root
# apt update
# apt upgrade

Notes:

Cap lock is reversed sometimes somehow. I have not figured why.

Now we want to set up a SSH connection so we can connect to the VPS from our local machine without passwords.

Feedback and questions welcome.

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What’s Trisquel GNU/Linux?

Trisquel is a GNU/Linux distribution that contains only free software. Trisquel GNU/Linux is derived from Ubuntu. It uses a version of Ubuntu’s modified kernel, with the non-free code removed³.

The website trisquel.info has a tutorial which you can use a reference https://trisquel.info/en/wiki/install-trisquel-server. It is outdated though.

---

1. https://trisquel.info/en/forum/debian-votes-include-non-free-firmware-installer↩︎

2. To learn about LVM: https://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/whatisvolman.html↩︎

3. source: Wikiless↩︎

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I do self-funded research and I'm writing a book.

> What's the book about?

About technologies and agency.

Meaning, technologies can foster agency. No doubt. But I am also asking:

Can usage of technologies give us a sense of empowerment while in fact undermining our abilities?

I posted a summary of the prologue on the homepage: https://yctct.com/

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