Install HomeBox

From a clean Debian or Ubuntu machine to a running dashboard, in about three minutes.

What you need

Debian or Ubuntu, freshly installed or close to it. Other distributions may work, but the package steps are written for these.
x86-64 or ARM64 — a mini PC, an old laptop, a virtual machine or a VPS.
A user with sudo, and a connection to the internet.
Disk space for the apps you plan to run. HomeBox itself is small; photo libraries and media are not.

Run the installer

Open a terminal on the machine and paste:

curl -fsSL https://get.abeksis.net/install.sh | sudo bash

It installs Docker if it is missing, downloads HomeBox into /opt/homebox, generates this machine's own passwords, and starts the reverse proxy and the dashboard. It installs the current release, not the development branch.

It refuses to run over an existing install rather than half-upgrading one. To update a box that already has HomeBox, use the Updates tab.

Prefer to read it first?

Piping a script into a root shell is worth being careful about. You can download it, read it, then run it:

curl -fsSL https://get.abeksis.net/install.sh -o hb.sh
less hb.sh
sudo bash hb.sh

Claim your box

When it finishes, the installer prints the dashboard address and a one-time claim token:

HomeBox is up.

  Dashboard   http://192.168.1.50:8443

  CLAIM THIS BOX
  …

Open the address in a browser, paste the token, and choose a password. The token proves that the person opening the dashboard is the person who installed it, and it only works once.

Closed the terminal before copying it? Print it again:

homebox bootstrap-token

Install your first apps — see First steps.

Install HomeBox

What you need

Run the installer

Prefer to read it first?

Claim your box

Next