The simplest solution would be to install Debian. The thing to note is that the Debian installer is designed to be multipurpose so it will default to installing a GUI.

Assuming you can boot off of a live USB with the Debian installer, you can follow the steps until you get to tasksel software selection from there uncheck gnome and check system utilities and ssh server. Also Debian defaults to separate root and user accounts. I would recommend disabling root (see steps below)

On a different machine, ssh into the server (I’m using debian.local but you should replace that with a hostname or IP)

ssh username@debian.local

Once you have access run the following commands to switch to root.

su - 

Install sudo and give yourself access

sudo apt update
sudo apt install sudo
sudo usermod -aG sudo username 

Now type exit twice to exit the shell entirely. Once that’s done log back in.

ssh username@debian.local

Lock root

sudo passwd -l root

Now you have a system to set things up. I would start by enabling automatic updates and installing docker compose. (Docker compose allows you to deploy software very quickly in co trainers via a yaml spec)

#enable automatic updates
sudo apt install unattended-upgrades
sudo dpkg-reconfigure unattended-upgrades
sudo systemctl start unattended-upgrades #probably not needed

#install updates and install docker and docker-compose

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade 
sudo apt install docker.io docker-compose
sudo systemctl start docker
sudo usermod -aG docker username

You will need to log out and then back in to apply the docker permission.

I hope that gets you started.

If you’re only using it for Plex and nothing else, it probably won’t make a lot of difference which you use.

My old setup was Ubuntu running Plex as an install… if you just run a server without a gui, it’s like 3 lines to install Plex

I also have a pi as a portable setup running the docker version which works pretty well but I don’t think it will handle hardware encoding very well, but I could be wrong

I’m in a very similar situation, too many windows services running in the background. Casaos is supposed to be a user friendly way to set up a bunch of docker containers on linux for Plex and the arrs amongst other things. I can’t speak for how easy it is as it’s something I’m going to be exploring in the coming weeks.

I run Plex on a Raspberry Pi 3, it can support two simultaneous 1080p Streams on my local Wifi. Cant support 2k or 4k videos at all. And cant support video outside of the local network.

“use your favorite Unix then install Plex” or “Here are 56 perfect versions of Unix to install for your Plex server”

What part of this do you think is hard?

Each step can be scary at first but its not hard if you break it into pieces.

Booting Ubuntu or some linux OS is a fun first step if you actually have a spare computer handy

I’ve got a RaspberryPi 4B running dietpi and hosting plex with a debrid service. The setup is very flawless and easy to maintain.

Also very minimal footprint

I just got into self-hosting about a week ago and started by getting a small beelink s12 mini. Since you have an old pc you don’t need to worry about hardware for now.

To get going with the software I followed this (https://lemmy.world/post/6542476) lemmy post in the beginning. It took me a couple of evenings to understand some basic concepts and after getting everything going I found the recommdation for https://yams.media/. So I wiped everything (because I decided to not encrypt the system and to go with Ubuntu 22.04.03 LTS instead of 23.10) and was supprised how quickly I had yams running again.

So just follow the guide and ask here or on the yams discord if you have any questions during the installation.

I case anyone is interested, I have Plex up and running now and wife is happy, some feedback on how it went

Why it went:

• I needed to install Plex specifically, because all the set-top boxes we use support plex but are fairly locked down. Wife likes their interface and remote control and doesn’t want to change (they are simple to use< Australia Telstra boxes, all free)
• I choose Mint, I thought I’d prefer a GUI to make the install easier and also wanted to see what Linux desktops were like these days

How it went

• Install was trivial when I chose “simple” - I tried advanced to format the two drives I had (which were messy with many partitions I wanted blown away), but when I tried one method it told me I had a Boot drive but no NIF or NEF drive (or something) in order to boot - when I told it to install that type (Found it in the list) it told me I had no boot drive now (Online help for Mint install on Mint web site was out of date and the GUI didn’t match what I saw - a common theme - so made it harder) - Gave up, choose SIMPLE. No idea what it installed but it worked
• Lot more raw command line that you’d expect from a GUI, In fact not sure the GUI does anything at all. I used the command line commands for almost the entire install
• The Networking failed and was as bad as Windows off the bat. HOWEVER fixing any networking issues was much easier than windows (I still have network issues in my windows machines from 5 years ago, never could fix them) but the two issues I had with Mint, (1) plex could not be seen (answer: ufw opened one port) and (2) Windows could not see and share a Mint drive (answer: Samba installed with one line and permission set on a folder) were fixed in a few minutes
• Man you can trash your OS with one command! Reinstalled once because I did a chown on the wrong folder and gave plex the sole ownership of the entire drive whereupon nothing ran anymore!
• Much faster, better software generally, the trans-coding for videos seems better, the speed of the desktop “server” is faster and Plex is madly playing everything nice and clearly with great response time.
• Stuff changes a LOT between versions apparently- many suggestions online failed for me because the suggested folders or files no longer existed or had been moved or changed. Likewise Mints own sites screen shots doesn’t match reality.
• People are confused a lot - One of the common issues is Plex cannot see the folders where your videos are, as Plex runs under its own user - The number of different methods people have used to get around this is outstanding! And every one is thumbed up as “the answer that solved my problems!” From changing the user Plex uses to root or other users that already have permissions, to adding plex ownership of folders or even changing permissions of the folders to either something safe, or just ROOT ROOT ROOT. It is hard to know what you should be doing (Even changing permissions there were apparently at many programs to use, not sure which was the right method… chown, setfacl, chmod (I know they are different, I glanced at the docs but with so much to learn it becomes a bit overwhelming and you just take the first suggestion and stick with it)

Edit: at any rate, works fine now ty all for suggestions. Now I am getting annoyed I don’t have ALL the services running on the server and am starting to see what else I can run and how… all without interrupting my wifes streaming of course!

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I’ve seen in this thread:

4 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has 10 acronyms.

[Thread #426 for this sub, first seen 12th Jan 2024, 20:45] [FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]

I recently migrated my Plex server to a box running Proxmox with Plex in an LXC container. Very little resource overhead, and it’s been rock solid ever since. No ragrets.

Have you considered truenas scale? It’s debian based and there’s an official app for Plex. Not to mention a plethora of guides to get scale and Plex up and running.