Ths might be a silly question, but asking those is how i learn sometimes. I’m trying to install my first Linux distro to set up a Plex server and one of the few things I know is you need a wired internet connection. My intended server location is across the house from my router, and there isnt much room there to set up temporarily. It would be possible, just a bitch and a half. Is it instead possible to connect my SSD via SATA to USB to a laptop, install Ubuntu and wireless adapter drivers on it while connected to ethernet, then put the SSD in the server to boot? Or do I need to do all this through my intended setup?
Thanks for the help, just trying to make my first Linux install as painless as possible.
EDIT: Thank you all for your responses, I’m going to respond as I can since I’m at work. I The number one thing I learned is that I need to do more research. I recognize only a handful of these acronyms lol
https://fai-project.org can help you
This looks like a great resource, but I’m going to go ahead and do it the hard way. Maybe for a first install, just to get the ball rolling, but I typically go the long way around so I can understand what I just did some more. Like when I bought my 3d printer unassembled, so I could learn about it as I put it together. I’ll bookmark the site though. If I’m currently biting off more than I can chew, I’ll probably end up using it. Thanks!
Kinda, but some hardware need drivers. So it sorta depends.
If you’re going to be using it as a Plex server, aren’t you going to need some sort of network connection anyways?
I think the premise was the plex server will be running off of wifi and they didn’t think they would have wifi drivers available to them during install so they wanted to install hard wired.
No how wise it is to run a plex server off of wifi is another discussion all together but maybe for a different time.
This is exactly what I was asking. I would be interested in hearing why wifi isn’t a good idea though. I didn’t think bandwidth would be too much of a problem, so is this a security concern?
@Hazmatastic @theredcaps I think it is a bandwidth concern, especially if multiple people will be streaming from the server. WiFi is unstable too its part in parcel, wired is just required if you need something that’s stable
Mostly for bandwidth and connection stability reasons… if the plex server is only serving your own home then likely not much to worry about but if you are serving plex content for ppl outside your home it can be troublesome if your wifi starts acting up and they don’t know why they suddenly start buffering.
Nothing about plex itself is limited by wifi it’s just a potentially a high bandwidth / throughput service and typically you wouldn’t want that on wifi.
No, not with modern wifi security isn’t an issue. If bandwith is an issue for installing the OS then bandwidth will be 10x an issue for using the plex server.
Yes you can do that, make sure you are on the same CPU infrastructure (ie, don’t try to install linux on an SSD from an intel laptop if you’re going to be running it on an arm based processor or something).
Probably not the ideal method, but I’ve used a virtual machine with the disk connected via USB and then mounted to the VM to achieve something like this. It doesn’t interfere with the existing disks or UEFI of any actual hardware then.
