In this tutorial, we will install a diaspora* pod on a Debian/Ubuntu server. I use the official Debian 8 guide as a base, and I used it myself on Debian 9 for dspr.io, but it should work on most recent Debian and Ubuntu versions. Our setup will use Nginx, PostgreSQL and Systemd. Table of content Hardware requirements Installation Dependencies PostgreSQL Creating the diaspora user Ruby installation Install exim4 Download diaspora* Configure diaspora* Install bundle and the gems Setup the database Precompile assets Systemd services Nginx reverse proxy Logrotate Admin stuff Update diaspora* Backup Enjoy!

Setting up a MOTD on your server adds a nice touch that welcomes you warmly every time you connect to it. I used to make my own MOTD in ASCII text, but I’ve been using dynamic-motd by ldidry for a few years. It’s simple Bash and Python scripts that are executed in place of the MOTD. It seems they are only compatible with Debian-based distributions, though. It’s very easy to setup.

Have you ever wanted to make a speedtest from your terminal, and not from these heavy websites stuffed with ads? How about from a headless machine like a server? Tip Update: there is now an official and more reliable CLI. Well you can, with speedtest-cli, a open source python script that uses the speedtest.net API. It’s lightweight and easy to install: you just have to install Python 2.x or 3.x on your machine and download the .