gistfile1.sh

# credits
# http://github.com/hartcode/serverjuice/
# http://blog.fiveruns.com/2008/3/3/compiling-ruby-rubygems-and-rails-on-ubuntu
# http://www.rubyinside.com/how-to-install-a-ruby-18-stack-on-ubuntu-810-from-scratch-1566.html

# upgrade packages
apt-get update
apt-get upgrade

# install reasonably easy-to-use text editor (skip this if you can wield something greater)
apt-get install nano

# set static ip
nano /etc/network/interfaces
# # Used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8). See the interfaces(5) manpage or
# # /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples for more information.
# 
# auto lo
# iface lo inet loopback
# 
# auto eth0
# 
# # iface eth0 inet dhcp
# iface eth0 inet static
#   address 75.127.97.45
#   gateway 75.127.97.1
#   netmask 255.255.255.0

/etc/init.d/networking restart

# add non-root user
adduser michaelguterl

# add user to the end of /etc/sudoers
nano /etc/sudoers
# michaelguterl ALL=(ALL) ALL

# ssh configuration
# change to obscure port
nano /etc/ssh/sshd_config

# Port 4242
# KeepAlive yes
# ClientAliveInterval 60

/etc/init.d/ssh restart
logout

# reconnect and disable root login via ssh
ssh michaelguterl@diminishing.org:4242
# PermitRootLogin no
/etc/init.d/ssh restart

# set hostname
echo "diminishing.org" >/etc/hostname
/etc/init.d/hostname.sh start

# simple firewall
apt-get -y install ufw
ufw allow to 0.0.0.0/0 port 80
ufw allow to 0.0.0.0/0 port 4242 # (or whichever port you use for ssh)
ufw allow to 0.0.0.0/0 port 25 # (if you need mail in)
ufw enable

# ssh keys, be sure to mkdir ~/.ssh on the server
# do this on your local machine 
ssh-keygen -t dsa
nano ~/.ssh/config
# Host diminishing.org
#   Port 4242

scp ~/.ssh/id_dsa.pub michaelguterl@diminishing.org:.ssh/authorized_keys2
ssh michaelguterl@diminishing.org # should not require password

# build tools
apt-get install build-essential wget curl libxml2 libxml2-dev libxslt-dev sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev locate git-core

# install apache2
apt-get -y install apache2 apache2-prefork-dev

# install mysql server
apt-get -y install mysql-server mysql-client libmysqlclient15-dev

# phpmyadmin http://diminishing.org/phpmyadmin
apt-get install phpmyadmin # select apache2 when prompted

# install ruby deps
apt-get install libreadline5-dev libssl-dev zlib1g zlib1g-dev

# install ruby 1.8.6-p386 from source
mkdir ~/src
cd src
wget http://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/ruby-1.8.6-p369.tar.gz
tar -xzvf ruby-1.8.6-p369.tar.gz
cd ruby-1.8.6-p369
./configure --prefix=/usr/local --disable-pthread --with-openssl-dir=/usr --with-readline-dir=/usr --with-zlib-dir=/usr
make
sudo make install
sudo make install-doc
ruby -ropenssl -rzlib -rreadline -e "puts :success" 

# install rubygems
cd ~/src
wget http://rubyforge.org/frs/download.php/55066/rubygems-1.3.2.tgz
tar -xzvf rubygems-1.3.2.tgz
cd rubygems-1.3.2
sudo ruby setup.rb

# ruby gems
gem install --no-ri --no-rdoc rake rack rails mysql passenger cheat \
sinatra sqlite3-ruby daemons nokogiri hpricot json crack httparty \
happymapper fastthread uuid builder

# imagemagick / rmagick
apt-get -y install libmagick9-dev # warning this installs tons of packages
gem install --no-ri --no-rdoc rmagick

# passenger
gem install passenger
passenger-install-apache2-module

Nice walkthrough of a new VPS setup