Puter on Ubuntu 24.04 by cloudimg

Puter on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS by cloudimg

Puter is an open source, self hosted desktop that runs entirely in a web browser. Open it and you get a real desktop environment, with a wallpaper, desktop icons, a task bar and draggable windows, on top of a full file manager for storage that lives on your own server rather than someone else's cloud drive.

Files and folders are created, renamed, moved between windows, uploaded, downloaded and shared with other accounts on the same instance. Each account also gets subdomains for publishing a static site or hosting a private web application, and the puter.js SDK underneath lets you build applications against your instance's own file, key value and hosting APIs. One machine becomes both a personal cloud drive with a proper interface and a place to run what you build on top of it.

### What cloudimg fixes before you ever see it

Upstream's own self hosting path is a six container stack. This image is a single application service with an embedded database and object store behind one hardened reverse proxy, so there is no cluster to babysit and no container runtime to operate.

Upstream's first start also creates an administrator account with a temporary password, prints it to the log, and keeps a plain text copy in the database. This image ships no database, no accounts and no signing secrets at all. On the first boot of every machine it generates that machine's own token signing secrets, replaces the bootstrap administrator password with a random per machine one, erases the plain text copy upstream leaves behind, and only then opens the public port, so the temporary credential is never live on a reachable listener. Self registration is closed in the shipped configuration rather than switched off afterwards, and first boot proves it before handing the machine over: registration is refused for both permanent and anonymous temporary accounts, exactly one account can sign in, and the bootstrap password no longer works.

The third fix is the one that makes the difference between a demo and a product. Puter stores file contents in an object store and hands the browser a presigned URL to upload to. Upstream's single node profile presigns that URL against the loopback address, which on a server means the visitor's own machine, so every file write fails while the desktop renders perfectly and every health check stays green. Here the object store runs as its own service, is presigned against a browser reachable name, and is fenced to loopback by the kernel because it performs no request signing of its own. A shipped self test exercises exactly the path a browser takes.

### Included

• Puter 26.07.1, built from the pinned upstream release tag, licensed AGPL-3.0
• The web desktop, the windowed file manager and per account storage, published on port 80
• A unique administrator account and unique token signing secrets generated per machine
• Registration closed in the shipped configuration, for permanent and temporary accounts alike
• SQLite plus a local object store on disk, with no external database or cache to run
• A one command helper for moving the appliance onto your own domain
• Fully patched at build time with unattended security updates left enabled
• A step by step deployment guide and 24/7 cloudimg support

### Worth knowing before you deploy

Puter is reached by name rather than by bare IP address, because it routes its API, its hosted sites and its private apps on subdomains. The image ships serving on a private name with a ready made hosts entry so you can try it immediately, and a single command moves it onto a domain of your own.

The self hosted build registers no local applications. Every application entry it seeds points at a puter.com or third party hosted URL, and no text editor is registered, so the desktop, the file manager, storage, sharing, hosting subdomains and the SDK are what this appliance itself provides. The interface also loads its SDK from the upstream project's CDN at runtime, so the browser needs outbound internet; this image ships upstream unmodified rather than patching that out. The deployment guide states both plainly.

Puter is a trademark of Puter Technologies Inc. This image is an unmodified distribution of the Puter open source software and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Puter Technologies Inc.