home server spin-off: preinstalled applications

jonashub commented

2026-04-08 16:48:12 +00:00

We should start collecting a discussing the baseline of preinstalled applications

Goal / scope

Define "good defaults" for an intermediate user.
Keep this focused on core services and management UX (e.g. Cockpit + useful plugins), not becoming curated distro or project like Freedombox or ZimaOS.
Prefer well-supported, maintained components available in Fedora

This is tracking/discussion ticket, that means that it's not a final list.

Initial candidates (from current discussion)

File sharing
- Samba (and possibly NFS)
Mail storage
- local mail -- default
- Mailcow (optional)
Cockpit (+ plugins - podman, storage, networking, SELinux, software updates) -- default
DLNA streaming server
- Universal media server
- Jellyfin
- Gerbera
Calendar and todo server
- Radicale
- Vikunja
- Planka
Epub library
- Calibre server or Calibre-Web
Ansible control hub
Monitoring
- smartmontools
Backup
- UrBackup
- restic, borgbackup (optional)
Remote access
- SSH
- Wireguard (optional)

We should start collecting a discussing the baseline of preinstalled applications **Goal / scope** - Define "good defaults" for an intermediate user. - Keep this focused on core services and management UX (e.g. Cockpit + useful plugins), not becoming curated distro or project like Freedombox or ZimaOS. - Prefer well-supported, maintained components available in Fedora **This is tracking/discussion ticket, that means that it's not a final list.** **Initial candidates (from current discussion)** - File sharing - Samba (and possibly NFS) - Mail storage - local mail -- default - Mailcow (optional) - Cockpit (+ plugins - podman, storage, networking, SELinux, software updates) -- default - DLNA streaming server - Universal media server - Jellyfin - Gerbera - Calendar and todo server - Radicale - Vikunja - Planka - Epub library - Calibre server or Calibre-Web - Ansible control hub - Monitoring - smartmontools - Backup - UrBackup - restic, borgbackup (optional) - Remote access - SSH - Wireguard (optional)

jonashub added this to the home server spin-off project

2026-04-08 16:48:12 +00:00

korora commented

2026-04-09 13:48:52 +00:00

Member

Are you looking at the linuxserver.io images for Calibre/Calibre-Web? if so we will need to spin up a reverse proxy that can handle SSL as the image for calibre now requires SSL and it won't work without a cert of some kind

sgallagh commented

2026-04-09 14:44:07 +00:00

Owner

@korora wrote in #192 (comment):

Are you looking at the linuxserver.io images for Calibre/Calibre-Web? if so we will need to spin up a reverse proxy that can handle SSL as the image for calibre now requires SSL and it won't work without a cert of some kind

Can you reuse the Cockpit certificate for this? That might be the easiest option.

@korora wrote in https://forge.fedoraproject.org/server/tickets/issues/192#issuecomment-611679: > Are you looking at the linuxserver.io images for Calibre/Calibre-Web? if so we will need to spin up a reverse proxy that can handle SSL as the image for calibre now requires SSL and it won't work without a cert of some kind Can you reuse the Cockpit certificate for this? That might be the easiest option.

korora commented

2026-04-09 14:50:43 +00:00

Member

@sgallagh wrote in #192 (comment):

Can you reuse the Cockpit certificate for this? That might be the easiest option.

Unsure. I've not tried, although that does sound like it would be a plausible answer. I would have to find the time to research how to do this.

@sgallagh wrote in https://forge.fedoraproject.org/server/tickets/issues/192#issuecomment-611696: > Can you reuse the Cockpit certificate for this? That might be the easiest option. Unsure. I've not tried, although that does sound like it would be a plausible answer. I would have to find the time to research how to do this.

sgallagh commented

2026-04-09 15:17:35 +00:00

Owner

On a freshly-installed system (without manually-installed certificates), The cockpit-ws package uses sscg to create:

/etc/cockpit/ws-certs.d/0-self-signed-ca.pem
/etc/cockpit/ws-certs.d/0-self-signed.cert
/etc/cockpit/ws-certs.d/0-self-signed.key

The 0-self-signed-ca.pem can also be loaded into a client to trust this service. (It's designed in such a way that it can't be reused to trust anything but the 0-self-signed.cert.

On a freshly-installed system (without manually-installed certificates), The `cockpit-ws` package uses `sscg` to create: * `/etc/cockpit/ws-certs.d/0-self-signed-ca.pem` * `/etc/cockpit/ws-certs.d/0-self-signed.cert` * `/etc/cockpit/ws-certs.d/0-self-signed.key` The `0-self-signed-ca.pem` can also be loaded into a client to trust this service. (It's designed in such a way that it can't be reused to trust anything but the `0-self-signed.cert`.

jonashub commented

2026-04-11 10:03:57 +00:00

Author

I wasn’t aware of the TLS requirement here. This makes sense. If Calibre/Calibre‑Web requires TLS for, reusing Cockpit’s generated certs from /etc/cockpit/ws-certs.d/ sounds like a reasonable “good defaults” approach for a LAN setup (and users who want a publicly trusted cert can still put it behind a reverse proxy later).

pboy added the

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home server spin-off

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2026-05-13 06:30:56 +00:00

rafaelmcruz commented

2026-05-21 22:28:09 +00:00

Hey guys, 👋

Don’t know if this is still open to suggestions, but I would like to propose adding an automated, lightweight Alerting & Notification system to the "Monitoring" section (which currently focus mainly on hardware with smartmontools).

The core philosophy of a Home Server is often "set and forget", I think users want to deploy their services and not worry about constant manual checking. To achieve this without waiting for a catastrophic failure to happen, to realize that something is wrong, we need a proactive approach.

I haven't personally deployed this specific stack yet, but I've been researching open-source solutions that would fit this idea perfectly, such as integrating Uptime Kuma or utilizing the Apprise library.

This setup would provide:

Proactive Monitoring: Sending alerts based on thresholds (eg, when a partition hits 85% storage or a container stops responding).
Easy Configuration: Users could easily bind a local webhook or link a communication channel they already use daily (like a Telegram bot, Signal, or Discord webhook).
Zero-Cost Maintenance: It doesn't require any paying external SMS gateway, keeping the entire stack 100% open-source, private, and lightweight.

I'm open to researching this further, testing implementations, if needed, or helping with documentation if the team feels this makes sense for the Home Lab scope!

If I’m late and this is not the intended purpose, i’m very sorry!

Hey guys, 👋 Don’t know if this is still open to suggestions, but I would like to propose adding an automated, lightweight Alerting & Notification system to the "Monitoring" section (which currently focus mainly on hardware with smartmontools). The core philosophy of a Home Server is often "set and forget", I think users want to deploy their services and not worry about constant manual checking. To achieve this without waiting for a catastrophic failure to happen, to realize that something is wrong, we need a proactive approach. I haven't personally deployed this specific stack yet, but I've been researching open-source solutions that would fit this idea perfectly, such as integrating Uptime Kuma or utilizing the Apprise library. This setup would provide: 1. Proactive Monitoring: Sending alerts based on thresholds (eg, when a partition hits 85% storage or a container stops responding). 2. Easy Configuration: Users could easily bind a local webhook or link a communication channel they already use daily (like a Telegram bot, Signal, or Discord webhook). 3. Zero-Cost Maintenance: It doesn't require any paying external SMS gateway, keeping the entire stack 100% open-source, private, and lightweight. I'm open to researching this further, testing implementations, if needed, or helping with documentation if the team feels this makes sense for the Home Lab scope! If I’m late and this is not the intended purpose, i’m very sorry!

jpcarvalhinho commented

2026-06-15 15:14:46 +00:00

Lets bee realistic:
So Being a fedora server user at my home server (2011 Imac) what I needed:
1- A Graphical interface like GNOME. Yes. Don't underestimate it. (it was the only way I got to "kill" the screen, keeping the computer working (But I am not a specialist, there is probably a better way, but heck I used it daily so a GUI makes sense)...
2- PLEX server (maybe jellyfin will work, but no clients for TV is a deal breaker)
3- QBit for torrenting
4- Cockpit with https (It scares the crap out of me to get to the URL and get a warning)
5- SMB
6- An easy way to ddns.
7- an improved way to work with containers: On cockpit you configure and start a container, and if you want to change one of the properties you need to insert all the properties again. it sux because let's face it, nobody gets it right at first try.

I think these were the main requirements for my case, just food for thought.

Some more notes:
"Fedora Server Home Server" is redundant. Just call it Fedora Home Server.
also If it is "home server" it will not fit SMBusinesses. They will discard it right away and opt for the other Fedora Server, so why bother with those users on this project?

Lets bee realistic: So Being a fedora server user at my home server (2011 Imac) what I needed: 1- A Graphical interface like GNOME. Yes. Don't underestimate it. (it was the only way I got to "kill" the screen, keeping the computer working (But I am not a specialist, there is probably a better way, but heck I used it daily so a GUI makes sense)... 2- PLEX server (maybe jellyfin will work, but no clients for TV is a deal breaker) 3- QBit for torrenting 4- Cockpit with https (It scares the crap out of me to get to the URL and get a warning) 5- SMB 6- An easy way to ddns. 7- an improved way to work with containers: On cockpit you configure and start a container, and if you want to change one of the properties you need to insert all the properties again. it sux because let's face it, nobody gets it right at first try. I think these were the main requirements for my case, just food for thought. Some more notes: "Fedora Server Home Server" is redundant. Just call it Fedora Home Server. also If it is "home server" it will not fit SMBusinesses. They will discard it right away and opt for the other Fedora Server, so why bother with those users on this project?

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home server spin-off: preinstalled applications #192