You can do this by configuring an HTTP server (e.g. Apache) to listen on port 80 and/or 443 (HTTP and HTTPS standard ports, respectively) and select which site to serve based on the name of the site requested. Apache documentation for this feature is here: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/vhosts/name-based.html

Note the sample config snippet showing how to set up a simple static site serving both www.example.com and other.example.com using ServerName in a VirtualHost to select between them.

You can also have Apache match a pattern in the URL and reverse proxy to another HTTP server – that can just be another program on the same computer listening on a different port, or could be on another computer entirely. See the simple reverse proxy config example on this page for a starting point: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/reverse_proxy.html (Note also that you probably don’t need anything further down that page – e.g. the load balancer and failover stuff is not likely to be useful to you for a small personal project.)

Other popular HTTP servers can do this too; I just happen to have done it with Apache before.

I set up a couple profiles with different colored backgrounds so that I can easily visually distinguish terminal windows when I have several open at once. For example, I usually switch the profile to one with a red background when I ssh into a server to help avoid confusion about which system I’m running commands on. I also cranked up the font size a bit in all profiles to make it easier for me to read.

Glad I could help you make progress – I hope you can get it all the way working now. Good luck!

How 'bout that! :D

If the SSD itself is OK, then it was probably trying to boot the SSD still. The blank screen issue might have to do with the graphics drivers then? I remember having a similar blank screen problem with Ubuntu a long time ago where I had to put in “nomodeset” as a parameter in GRUB when booting until I got the right drivers set up.

the tablet supports pxe boot. Do you think I could get mileage off of that if I set up a server on my other laptop and connected them via ethernet?

Maybe. If it’s not too much trouble to set up and you can’t get the USB to work again, might as well try it before throwing in the towel.

I’m rather confused by the fact that the USB drive worked for you before but doesn’t any more and yet seems to be OK on other systems. Is there anything like “fast boot” enabled in the BIOS maybe? (Try turning that off if so.)

Also, when you’re trying to boot from the SSD, can you get anything out of GRUB by tapping shift or escape (or maybe other keys) while it’s trying to boot?

Do you think that removing the ssd will help?

It’s a sanity check to help you rule out things like unintentionally booting from the wrong device. Can’t boot from hardware that’s not there! If the USB does work with it removed, then something you believe about how the device boots is false and you can then try to figure out what. A lot of BIOSes will “helpfully” try the next device in the sequence if it can’t successfully boot from the first one – which can be really confusing when debugging.

Some other thoughts for things to check: does the device confirm that it can actually see the USB drive in some way? Does a USB keyboard work in the port you’re using? If there’s more than one USB port, have you tried a different port? Do your USB drives work in another computer?

I rebooted to the installation media to try another install. It was black too.

I assume you’ve probably already checked, but in case not, is the boot order correct? What happens if you remove the SSD entirely and try to reboot to the USB without it?

Also, does the SSD boot in another computer?

If you can’t get anything to boot on the tablet, I’d RMA it.

I tried booting an old Surface off a USB stick with stock Ubuntu once – probably either 20.04 or 22.04. (I tried this in June 2022 but didn’t make a note of the versions in my journal, unfortunately.) I was able to get it to boot, but I couldn’t get touch/pen controls working so I decided against replacing the OS. I didn’t have enough enthusiasm to bother experimenting with it further – I assume it probably needed the custom kernel.

Oh, so that’s how Genis was casting Fire Ball!

She’s a character from Persona 3.

I don’t know about KDE in particular, but I’ve had problems with USB mice waking various Ubuntu systems when they’re not directly connected (i.e. there’s a hub or KVM in between it and the computer). The workaround I used for that was to remove the mouse input (e.g. by carefully pressing a physical button on the KVM) – which was good enough for me – but I think there is a programmatic way to block particular classes of input from waking the system if some device is waking your system inappropriately.

Doing a quick search turned up this: https://askubuntu.com/questions/252743/how-do-i-prevent-mouse-movement-from-waking-up-a-suspended-computer – I can’t vouch for any of the specific techniques there though.

Worth noting that while I had a problem with the mouse specifically, other hardware could be causing your system to wake up.