CasaOS is about as easy as it gets.

curl -fsSL https://get.casaos.io | sudo bash  

It provides a gui front end for docker. You can install it on any debian based system (which mint is). Combine that with the portainer app and there isn’t much you can’t do.

Download docker and then install Portainer. This will make your life so much easier. I’ll share a guide in the am when I’m back at my comp.

Your whole life becomes much simpler when you use docker.

Elevator pitch: Docker containers are preconfigured services which run isolated from the rest of your system and only expose individual directories you map into the container. These directories are the persistence part of the application and survive a restart of the container or the host system. Just backup your scripts and the data directories and you have backed up your entire server.

I have a few scripts as examples. ‘cd “$(dirname “$0”)”’ changes to the directory the script is stored in, and therefore will create and map data directories from that parent directory.

Letsencrypt proxy companion will set up a single listener for web and ssl traffic, setup virtual hosts automatically, and setup SSL, all with automations.

First, you need letsencrypt nginx proxy companion:

#!/bin/bash

cd “$(dirname “$0”)”

docker run --detach
–restart always
–name nginx-proxy
–publish 80:80
–publish 443:443
–volume $(pwd)/certs:/etc/nginx/certs
–volume $(pwd)/vhost:/etc/nginx/vhost.d
–volume $(pwd)/conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d
–volume $(pwd)/html:/usr/share/nginx/html
–volume /var/run/docker.sock:/tmp/docker.sock:ro
–volume $(pwd)/my_proxy.conf:/etc/nginx/conf.d/my_proxy.conf:ro
–volume $(pwd)/nginx.conf:/etc/nginx/nginx.conf:ro
–volume $(pwd)/acme:/etc/acme.sh
jwilder/nginx-proxy

docker run --detach
–restart always
–name nginx-proxy-letsencrypt
–volumes-from nginx-proxy
–volume /var/run/docker.sock:/var/run/docker.sock:ro
–env “[email protected]”
jrcs/letsencrypt-nginx-proxy-companion

Then for each service, you can start with a docker command as well with a few extra environment variables. Here is one for nextcloud:

docker run -d \

–name nextcloud
–hostname cloud.MYDOMAIN.COM
-v $(pwd)/data:/var/www/html
-v $(pwd)/php.ini:/usr/local/etc/php/conf.d/zzz-custom.ini
–env “VIRTUAL_HOST=cloud.MYDOMAIN.COM”
–env “LETSENCRYPT_HOST=cloud.MYDOMAIN.COM”
–env “VIRTUAL_PROTO=http”
–env “VIRTUAL_PORT=80”
–env “OVERWRITEHOST=cloud.MYDOMAIN.COM”
–env “OVERWRITEPORT=443”
–env “OVERWRITEPROTOCOL=https”
–restart unless-stopped
nextcloud:25.0.0

And Plex (/dev/dri is quicksync for hardware transcode):

docker run \
--device /dev/dri:/dev/dri \
--restart always \
-d \
--name plex \
--network host \
-e TZ="America/Chicago" \
-e PLEX_CLAIM="claim-somerandomcharactershere" \
-v $(pwd)/config:/config \
-v /my/media/directory/on/host/system:/media \
plexinc/pms-docker

Obsidian:

docker run --rm -d \

–name obsidian
-v $(pwd)/vaults:/vaults
-v $(pwd)/config:/config
–env "VIRTUAL_HOST=obsidian.MYDOMAIN.COM "
–env "LETSENCRYPT_HOST=obsidian.MYDOMAIN.COM "
–env “VIRTUAL_PROTO=http”
–env “VIRTUAL_PORT=8080”
ghcr.io/sytone/obsidian-remote:latest

“I dont want to spend money on cloud services and dont want to spend time on self hosting” pick one buddy

Check the docker container filebrowser/filebrowser. Put that drive as /srv and it will be like a cloud web file browser. No sync but you can download/upload and share links.

Though syncthing would work for that.

Docker compose files are pretty easy and straightforward. Find a service and goggle “x docker compose”

cp -r google.com /home/user/mycloud

The answer is docker and docker-compose. The problem you’re describing is the reason it exists. Each app is isolated and runs as though it has its own dedicated system, but you can map directories and ports in to make data persistent, and ensure it all just works. This includes mapping in your whole HDD, or even /dev if you so desire (don’t do this). It honestly makes it trivial to get most things up and running.