Few notes on how I’ve setup my media server and achieve that Netflix experience.
Server
Repurposed my old MakeBook D laptop and installed ubuntu Desktop 24. Thought it might be useful to have a GUI desktop for RDP or Desktop streaming. Turns out this is an absolute nightmare. I got it working, sort of, but I learnt using using RDP on Linux is nothing like on Windows. It has to create a completely new user session and its very cumbersome to set up a GUI desktop, Ubuntu GNOME desktop does not play nicely so you have to use xRDP instead. Its long, its not worth it. SSH is the main means of remote configurations
Tailscale
VPN which that-just-works™️.
I have my MacBook Air , Matebook D and phone all the same tailnet, which acts my secure VPN.
Jellyfin
I went down some wrong turns trying to install jellyfin on Ubuntu. All you need to do its run:
curl https://repo.jellyfin.org/install-debuntu.sh | sudo bashDon’t use apt , don’t use the the Ubuntu store. It will give you a messed up installation and I lost many hours to this.
Torrenting
installed qbittorrent-nox which lets you run qbittorent in a headless mode, then connect to via web gui instead which means via tailscale I can remotely add magnet links and download my shows.
Amazon Firestick
These lil things can run a Jellyfin client out-the-box. It’s able to detect the instance of Jellyfin running on my local network without the need for Tailscale.