Machine Setup

Every lab machine runs Ubuntu 22.04 LTS minimal server, provisioned by LocoBase — a menu-driven setup kit that handles everything from NVIDIA drivers to CUDA toolkit to Ollama to the tmux dashboard on the TTY.

Repository: github.com/michael-borck/loco-base

Quick start

sudo apt install git
git clone https://github.com/michael-borck/loco-base.git
cd loco-base
sudo -E bash install.sh

Select your machine from the menu, choose “Fresh Install”, and everything runs with sensible defaults. No config file editing required.

What it installs

Layer	Components
OS branding	Plymouth boot splash, custom MOTD with ASCII art, two-line bash prompt with machine emoji
Dashboard	tmux auto-launch on TTY with configurable panes (htop, cmatrix, pipes.sh, GPU stats, etc.)
NVIDIA	Drivers (configurable version), CUDA 12.4 toolkit
AI stack	Ollama, Docker + NVIDIA Container Toolkit, Node.js LTS, HuggingFace CLI
Security	UFW firewall (deny inbound, allow SSH), fail2ban, lm-sensors + fancontrol
Post-install	GitHub/SSH key setup, Claude Code CLI, dashboard reconfiguration, fan curves

Relationship to loco-* projects

LocoBase is the foundation layer. It provisions a bare machine into a working lab node with GPU compute, Ollama, and Docker ready. Individual projects build on top:

loco-bench — clone after loco-base, runs benchmarks using Ollama + CUDA
loco-llm — clone after loco-base, trains and serves adapters via Ollama
loco-convoy — clone after loco-base, runs multi-GPU experiments via vLLM
loco-ensayo — clone after loco-base, deploys CloudCore API via Docker

Each project has its own setup that assumes loco-base is already in place.

Machine lookup

The installer knows the lab fleet by name. Selecting a machine auto-configures the emoji, prompt, MOTD header, and ASCII art:

Machine	Spanish	Emoji
buho	owl	🦉
colmena	beehive	🐝
hidra	hydra	🐉
hormiga	ant	🐜
puente	bridge	⛩️
tortuga	turtle	🐢

Custom machine names are also supported for machines outside the lab fleet.

Workflows

Fresh Install — full provisioning from minimal Ubuntu server
Fix Drift — idempotent re-run to restore expected state
Full Reset — strip to minimal server (removes desktop environments, snaps, unnecessary services)
Post-Install — GitHub auth, Claude Code, fan curves, dashboard config
Individual Script — re-run any single setup step (NVIDIA, MOTD, hardening, etc.)

See the loco-base README for full documentation.