I am using Ubuntu 16.10 (Desktop Edition) to begin my foray with Linux. however, I also want to learn some networking things, which I think needs Ubuntu Server.
As I'd rather not re-partition and reinstall a different version of Ubuntu just for lab work, so I'd like to install Ubuntu Server on top of my current desktop install of Ubuntu, but I have been unable to find a guide to do this.
So, is there a way, and how do I do it?
Best Answer
Congratulations! By simply reading this post, you now have Ubuntu Server!
No, really, I'm serious here. The only major difference between Ubuntu Server and the regular version of desktop Ubuntu is the fact that Ubuntu Server does not come with a graphical interface or any sort of graphical "quality-of-life" improvements. As you can see on the list of things installed by default, there really isn't anything there except for the standard loadout. From the official documentation:
Meaning, you can just install any server-related packages and everything will work for the most part. For example, if you want to install NGINX, any guide (like this one from DigitalOcean) will work perfectly fine. In the unlikely case that you don't have something you need installed, it will be when it needs to be. You can trust
apt
's dependency resolution system to resolve any (unlikely) problems that come up from you not having some server-standard package installed.The only catch is that you may need to reconfigure the occasional config file to prevent a conflict (NetworkManager is infamous for this), which is not really that involved of a process at most times. You might also need to punch the occasional hole in your firewall or set up some port-forwarding, but that's pretty easy and you (probably) would have had to do that on your server install already.
So, in short, just use
apt
like normal and install whatever packages you want.