Can a Linux 7.0.0-27-generic be upgraded or patched to become a server?

[peterwhite23]

@ericvander33

So no shortage of grunt for my needs Paddy.

If that’s the case and assuming, as a Windows refugee, you’re more comfortable with a server that has a GUI (graphical user interface) available, you might be interested in this short rundown of how to “convert” Ubuntu Desktop to a server:

@peterwhite23

[…] why not start with “Desktop” installation on your server? Just install whatever server software you like after the obligatory installation and configuration of OpenSSH Server — don’t forget to disable GDM3 when going headless, otherwise the machine will auto-suspend after 15 minutes. Maybe install some sort of remote desktop solution […]

@peterwhite23

systemctl set-default multi-user.target

multi-user.target is everything but the graphical desktop stuff. That’s how one can switch to headless server mode in an easily accessible and well-defined way.
Some services, however, might have install directives pointing to default.target:

# /usr/lib/systemd/system/some.service
# [...]
[Install]
WantedBy=default.target

If such are installed (systemctl enable ..., e.g. by package install scripts) they will run even in multi-user.target, since it will be aliased to default.target — pipewire and friends, which are somewhat useless on a server, come to mind. So you may need to disable a few additional services (find them by running systemctl list-dependencies default.target), but, in general, I don’t see that one cannot make a desktop system into a trimmed down server. And if you need the desktop stuff (on demand), just run systemctl isolate graphical.target in an SSH session and login via remote desktop or locally, if you have a screen attached.

If you really want to trim the installed packages to the absolute minimum, I cannot recommend aptitude’s TUI highly enough. Start by minimizing the number of packages marked as manually installed: sudo apt-mark minimize-manual. Then I’d find ubuntu-desktop-minimal, mark it for removal (not actually committing the change just yet) and then wade through all its dependencies to manually install the ones I absolutely think necessary for a server with a GUI frontend, akin to Windows Server. Or, if I felt like it, I’d create my own ubuntu-server-gui metapackage, which only depends on the ones I’d have installed manually — here’s a real example of the workflow.

Perhaps also consider replacing NetworkManager with systemd-networkd; the latter being somewhat more befitting a server. Maybe the migration can be taken care of by simply installing ubuntu-server-minimal after marking NetworkManager as automatically installed. Be warned, though, that you could end up without SSH access if something goes wrong. I have never done it myself and don’t know what to look out for.

If you have the storage space to spare, you can skip the aptitude stuff; software that isn’t running can’t consume resources either, except for the storage space and update bandwidth. So it pretty much depends on your preference. If you want your Desktop to double as a server, you already have it, since you installed the SSH server.

There shouldn’t be too much hassle involved in hunting down services that don’t make much sense on a server and exclude those from multi-user.target. I am effectively running my laptop as a server; it’s been booting into multi-user.target ever since I boiled down my “Desktop” to a bare bones Sway(wm) session, which, in my case, is essentially just a console capable of running Firefox — I don’t like to waste any resources on stuff like GDM3 and full-blown Desktops, for instance; I can run exec systemctl --user --wait start sway-session.target manually just fine.