Autoinstall lays down a thin base (sshd, key, DHCP, Docker CE, /srv) and hands
off to this repo on first boot. Everything interesting stays in git so it is
reviewable and re-runnable, rather than frozen onto a USB nobody can diff.
Stages, all idempotent:
00-preflight asserts hardware/BIOS state, changes nothing. Catches a BIOS
update having silently re-enabled Secure Boot, which would stop
the NVIDIA DKMS module loading on a box with no keyboard.
10-secrets ADD-ONLY seeder for /srv/secrets/stacks.env. Never overwrites an
existing key. Verified against a pre-populated file: existing
values, unrelated keys, the operator tier and existing manifest
lines all survive byte-for-byte; a second run is a no-op.
20-cifs the 8 shares Plex actually uses (Share is excluded, it is not a
library root). \040 escaping, nofail + x-systemd.automount +
_netdev. Managed-block rewrite verified not to duplicate or to
drop the root fstab entry.
30-nvidia nvidia-driver-580 explicitly: 580 is the LAST branch supporting
Pascal, and the -open modules need Turing+. Pins against newer
branches. Not in late-commands because DKMS needs the installed
kernel, not the installer's.
40-shell-mcp builds the native MCP locally for amd64; refuses to finish
unless /sse returns 401 without a token.
50-plex run by hand: PLEX_CLAIM expires in 4 minutes. Refuses to start
against missing mounts and disables autoEmptyTrash, which with
read-write NAS credentials is the most dangerous default here.
shell-mcp was built on arm64 originally. It builds clean on amd64 (whole dep
tree resolves to prebuilt manylinux x86_64 wheels, no compiler needed), but
dependencies are now pinned - the original installed mcp/starlette/uvicorn
unpinned and starlette has since gone 1.x. Port moved to 8103 so NPM host 42
can simply be repointed, and the tool description now says media box rather
than arrsstack.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
4.6 KiB
mediabox-bootstrap
Everything the media box (10.0.1.20, hostname mediabox) needs after the
Ubuntu 24.04 autoinstall has laid down the base system.
The autoinstall USB is deliberately thin: sshd, a key, DHCP, Docker CE, /srv,
and a first-boot unit that clones this repo and runs bootstrap.sh. That
split exists so the interesting parts stay in git, reviewable and re-runnable,
instead of frozen onto a USB stick that nobody can diff.
Full context, decisions and the phase-by-phase runbook live in the workspace repo
at projects/mediabox-linux/.
Layout
bootstrap.sh orchestrator — runs the stages, fails soft
scripts/
00-preflight.sh asserts hardware/BIOS state. Changes nothing.
10-secrets.sh idempotent ADD-ONLY seeder for /srv/secrets/stacks.env
20-cifs.sh the 8 NAS mounts (--verify mode included)
30-nvidia.sh NVIDIA 580 + container toolkit
40-shell-mcp.sh builds and starts the native shell-mcp
50-plex.sh Plex. Run BY HAND — needs a live claim token.
shell-mcp/ amd64 build of the MCP server (server.py, Dockerfile,
docker-compose.yml, pinned requirements.txt)
plex/docker-compose.yml Plex service definition
secrets/stacks.env.example placeholder master env
Running it
sudo /srv/mediabox-bootstrap/bootstrap.sh # all stages
sudo /srv/mediabox-bootstrap/scripts/20-cifs.sh # one stage
sudo /srv/mediabox-bootstrap/scripts/20-cifs.sh --verify
Every stage is idempotent. Re-running is the normal way to use this, not an emergency measure.
Design rules
Nothing may leave the box unreachable. sshd is up before any of this runs
and no stage may compromise that. bootstrap.sh catches stage failures and
continues; the systemd unit declares SuccessExitStatus=0 1 so a bad stage can
never wedge boot. There is no keyboard attached to this machine.
Secrets never ride on removable media. The CIFS credentials file is created
empty by the autoinstall and filled in post-boot over the MCP. PLEX_CLAIM
tokens expire in four minutes and are passed as a one-shot environment variable,
never written to disk or committed.
One secrets file per host. This box has its own /srv/secrets/stacks.env,
using the same [OPERATOR] / [VALUES] / [MANIFEST] tiering as arrsstack, but
it is not shared or mounted from anywhere. Canonical copies live in Vaultwarden.
The seeder only ever adds. 10-secrets.sh will never overwrite an existing
key, change its value, or move it. If KEY= is present it is skipped entirely.
Verified against a pre-populated file: existing values, unrelated keys, the
operator tier and existing manifest lines all survive byte-for-byte, and a second
run is a no-op.
Notes that will save you an evening
shell-mcp was originally built on arm64. It builds clean on amd64 — the whole Python dependency tree resolves to prebuilt manylinux x86_64 wheels, so no compiler is needed. Two real changes were required:
- Dependencies are now pinned. The original installed
mcp starlette uvicornunpinned.starlettehas since gone 1.x. Unpinned installs are tolerable in a hand-run build and dangerous inside a first-boot script. - Port and description. It listens on 8103 (not 8085) so NPM proxy host 42 can simply be repointed, and the tool description says media box, not arrsstack — otherwise every session starts with the wrong idea of which host it is touching.
The GTX 1070 is Pascal, and NVIDIA branch 580 is the last one that supports it.
There will be no 590 for this card. 30-nvidia.sh installs 580 explicitly and pins
against newer branches. Never use ubuntu-drivers autoinstall here — it will
cheerfully install a branch that drops the card. And it must be the proprietary
module, not -open: the open kernel modules need Turing or newer.
Secure Boot must stay off. It is off today. A BIOS update resets ASUS defaults
and turns it back on, at which point the DKMS module needs interactive MOK
enrollment at a console this box does not have. 00-preflight.sh checks for this.
nofail on every CIFS mount is not optional. Without it, an unreachable NAS
drops a headless box to an emergency shell waiting for a root password on a
keyboard that is not plugged in.
autoEmptyTrash is the most dangerous default here. The NAS account is
read-write. If a mount is missing when Plex scans, Plex sees an empty library and
will act on that. 50-plex.sh disables it before any library is added.
Plex's PUID/PGID must equal the CIFS uid=/gid=. Both are 3000 (media).
If they ever drift, every file is permission-denied.