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Part 1 – Ubuntu Base Setup and Disk Layout

Use at your own risk. All guides and scripts are provided for educational purposes only. Always review and understand any code before running it — especially with administrative privileges. Test in a safe environment before using in production. Your system, your responsibility.

This is the starting point for the WeichertLabs Cloud Platform — installing Ubuntu 24.04 LTS on bare metal and setting up the disk layout that every service in this series will rely on.

Why bare metal Ubuntu?

The RTX 4080 Super is the heart of the WCP setup. It’s used by Ollama for AI inference, ComfyUI for image and video generation, and Sunshine for game streaming — all simultaneously.

Running bare metal Ubuntu means all three share the GPU naturally via CUDA, without any passthrough complexity. No Proxmox, no VMs, no driver headaches. The GPU is just there, available to everything.

Requirements

  • Minisforum BD770i (or any machine with an NVIDIA GPU and 16 GB+ RAM)
  • Ubuntu 24.04 LTS ISO — download from ubuntu.com/download/server
  • A USB drive (8 GB+) for the installer
  • A tool to write the ISO — Balena Etcher or dd on macOS/Linux

Step 1 – Create a Bootable USB

On macOS:

# Find the USB drive
diskutil list

# Write the ISO (replace diskN with your USB disk)
sudo dd if=ubuntu-24.04-live-server-amd64.iso of=/dev/rdiskN bs=4m status=progress

Or use Balena Etcher — select the ISO, select the USB drive, flash.

Step 2 – Boot from USB and Start Installation

  1. Insert the USB and power on the machine
  2. Enter the boot menu (usually F11, F12, or DEL depending on your machine)
  3. Select the USB drive
  4. At the Ubuntu boot menu, select “Try or Install Ubuntu Server”

Step 3 – Installation Settings

Work through the installer:

Language and keyboard — select your preferences

Network — Ubuntu will detect your network interface. Configure a static IP if you prefer (recommended for a server):

  • IP: e.g. 192.168.1.50
  • Gateway: your router IP
  • DNS: 1.1.1.1 or your router

Storage — this is the important part. See Step 4 below.

Profile — set your username and hostname:

  • Name: patrik (or your username)
  • Server name: wcp (or your preferred hostname)
  • Username: patrik
  • Password: choose a strong password

SSH — enable Install OpenSSH server — you’ll want SSH access from day one

Snaps — skip all, click Done

Step 4 – Disk Layout

This is the most important step. The WCP setup uses two disks with specific purposes:

4TB NVMe  →  OS, all services, AI models, games
2TB HDD   →  Media library (Jellyfin)
The installer will show all connected disks. Make absolutely sure you select the correct disk for the OS installation. Installing on the wrong disk will erase its contents.

NVMe disk — the main disk

In the installer, select “Custom storage layout”.

Select the 4TB NVMe disk and create the following partitions:

Partition Size Format Mount point Purpose
EFI 1 GB fat32 /boot/efi Boot partition
Boot 2 GB ext4 /boot Kernel files
Root 100 GB ext4 / OS and system files
Opt remaining ext4 /opt All Docker services and data

This keeps the OS lean on the root partition while giving all services their own large partition at /opt.

HDD — media disk

Leave the HDD unformatted during installation. We’ll set it up after Ubuntu is installed and mount it at /mnt/media.

Step 5 – Complete Installation and Reboot

Click Done and confirm the destructive action. The installer will write Ubuntu to the NVMe disk.

When prompted, remove the USB drive and press Enter to reboot.

Step 6 – First Boot and SSH Access

After reboot, Ubuntu will present a login prompt. Log in with the username and password you set during installation.

Get the machine’s IP address:

ip a

From your Mac or other machine, SSH in:

ssh patrik@192.168.1.50

All remaining steps in this guide are done over SSH.

Step 7 – System Update

Update everything before doing anything else:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt autoremove -y

Reboot if a new kernel was installed:

sudo reboot

Step 8 – Set Up the Media Disk (HDD)

Find the HDD:

lsblk

It will show as /dev/sda or /dev/sdb — confirm it’s the right disk by checking the size.

Get its UUID:

sudo blkid /dev/sda

Format it as ext4:

sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda

Create the mount point:

sudo mkdir -p /mnt/media

Add to /etc/fstab for automatic mounting on boot:

sudo nano /etc/fstab

Add this line (replace the UUID with yours):

UUID=your-uuid-here  /mnt/media  ext4  defaults  0  2

Mount it now without rebooting:

sudo mount -a

Verify:

df -h | grep media

Set permissions:

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /mnt/media

Step 9 – Create the Directory Structure

Create the folders that will be used throughout this series:

# AI models and ComfyUI
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/ai/ollama
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/ai/comfyui
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /mnt/ai

# Games
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/games
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /mnt/games

# Media (on the HDD)
mkdir -p /mnt/media/films
mkdir -p /mnt/media/series
mkdir -p /mnt/media/music

# Services (Docker will use /opt)
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /opt

Step 10 – Install NVIDIA Drivers

The GPU needs drivers before anything AI or gaming-related can work.

Check if drivers are already detected:

ubuntu-drivers devices

Install the recommended driver:

sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall

Or install a specific version:

sudo apt install -y nvidia-driver-550

Reboot:

sudo reboot

Verify after reboot:

nvidia-smi

You should see your RTX 4080 Super listed with the driver version and CUDA version.

What’s next

With Ubuntu installed, disks mounted, and NVIDIA drivers running, Part 2 sets up Docker and Tailscale — the two foundations that every service in this series depends on.

Up next: Part 2 – Docker and Tailscale (coming soon)

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