Linux Newbie Looking for advice

sparky · Oct 12, 2011, 20:17:56

I have been given a little project........

I have to build some servers for an end user, hardware only. I have had a few problems where end user couldn't load his secret system on to the hard drives and it wouldn't boot up from the hard drive. Swapping various components seemed to fix them, but as I'm not involved with the software I don't know why.

What I want to do is build a bootable system on the hard drives before I send them on to test the hardware. Now I'm a techie, but not Linux. Have done Windows NT, VMS, and very small amount of old Unix, but not much. I'm tight! and I don't want to pay for anything

The server is an Intel 3.2Ghz Zeon CPU on an Intel Motherboard, 2gb Memory, with Adaptec 29160 SCSi Raid controller, 2 x 73gb SCSI HDD's, a network card and a parallel card. On Board Graphics.

I've thought maybe Ubuntu? But FreeBSD looks more likely to support everything although maybe a bit less easy to install. Can anyone here offer their opinion or any better alternative?

Thanks for any help.

Glenn · Oct 12, 2011, 20:20:11

No idea myself, but we do have a few Linux chaps who may offer some advice.

esh · Oct 12, 2011, 20:47:49

I don't really understand your problem. For servers I recommend (and use) Debian, which Ubuntu is built from. It will recognise a lot more hardware than FreeBSD.

sparky · Oct 12, 2011, 20:52:07

esh,

I'm looking for something relatively easy to install from a CD, that won't need additional drivers for the above hardware and is free to download.

I just need to be able to prove that I can load a system on the hard drives and boot from them.

Just had a quick look at Debian, there doesn't seem to be a seperate install .iso for servers as opposed to desktops, is that right? Can I assume that the same install cd covers all?

D-Dan · Oct 13, 2011, 01:21:17

When you start to install Debian you have the choice of basic or expert mode. If you select expert mode you can pick and choose what is installed. For example, my last install of Debian involved installing just the core system and additional system utilities (no display manager, no window manager, no desktop and no applications).

Once that's done you can pick and choose what you do and don't want, which ultimately results in less bloat and redundant stuff on your system, but it does mean you need to have some knowledge of using the commandline for at least installing stuff. For a complete Linux novice you would probably want to install the DE (desktop environment) at the initial stage to bring you into your comfort zone of Windows, Icons, Menus and Pointers (the standard WIMP interface employed by pretty much all OSes now). With that done is simply case of firing up synaptic to install the components that you want for a server.

Having said all that, most experienced user who are building a system as a server only are unlikely to install any DE, and are more likely to install only the server components (for example a box set up as a web server is likely to have only the base system, apache, MySql, php and possibly perl installed) and will probably not even be connected to a keyboard and monitor (mouse is redundant in this configuration). It is more likely to be administered via ssh from another box.

It really rather depends on what kind of server and how much like a "Real world" server you want it to be.

A Linux system can happily function as fullly functioning desktop system with a server running in the background, which is why you don't generally find "server only" distributions from the main developers (Any server distros are likely to be pre-built by a 3rd party and distributed as such).

sparky · Oct 13, 2011, 08:12:19

D-Dan,

Thanks for that. I will download a copy of Debian and give it a whirl next week. It sounds just what I need.

D-Dan · Oct 13, 2011, 11:12:00

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you

As an aside (though I'm working from memory here - my system has been stable a while, despite my best efforts to break it beyond repair) I think that the installation gives you the option to install server components for the more common servers (web server, print server etc.) during the installation stage, which should help you

esh · Oct 13, 2011, 16:56:37

I've used Debian for ages in a server role so if you're stuck, give a shout. Don't forget you want the netinstall iso, don't get all 5 DVDs

sparky · Oct 14, 2011, 09:53:23

Thanks again.

Not sure what the netinstall iso is? Is that the one to load the boot software, controller and hdd drivers, then load everything else from the net?

When building these servers, I will not have an internet connection, I just need to test local hardware so, their download page says "The first CD/DVD disk contains all the files necessary to install a standard Debian system". As this is for a server with a 3.2ghz Zeon Nacona CPU I have downloaded debian-6.0.3-amd64-CD-1.iso ??

Think I'll give it a go anyways. Cheers.

D-Dan · Oct 14, 2011, 10:42:27

Again working from memory, there should be enough on the downloaded iso for you to test

esh · Oct 14, 2011, 19:58:55

Quote from: sparky on Oct 14, 2011, 09:53:23
Thanks again.

Not sure what the netinstall iso is? Is that the one to load the boot software, controller and hdd drivers, then load everything else from the net?

You are effectively correct. But since you seem to be keen on learning, I'll just clarify this a little.

You load very little drivers in Linux -- typically only for obscure or high-end proprietary hardware. Almost all the drivers are distributed as part of the linux kernel itself, and are either compiled into it (for the most common drivers) or are available to load dynamically into the kernel via the use of "modules" (this hardware is detected at boot-time and the appropriate modules loaded). So you don't tend to install drivers in Linux at all. A few exceptions exist, like for VMWare. Closed source drivers are not distributed with the Linux kernel.

It does though, install the bootloader, which is usually GRUB.

So the first DVD is basically GRUB (a few MB), the Linux kernel itself (50MB), the GNU userland (which consists of things like 'ls' and 'cp' and 'ifconfig'), and then more typical applications ranging from vim to Samba. It's enough to get you started. I imagine X.org is on there too (the graphical interface for Linux), but I don't know which desktop if any is on there, off hand (I am referring to KDE and GNOME).

psp83 · Oct 14, 2011, 21:16:07

Ubuntu server is good as well, I've got a dev server that I built and installed Ubuntu server on, its been running for the best part of a year without no major problems.

Easy to install and select what you want to install as well.

sparky · Nov 04, 2011, 11:07:05

Well, just an update on my original post.

I have built a couple of servers this week and I managed to install Debian on both with no problems. I did use the GUI install, which makes it a little more "novice" friendly than Ubuntu Server which doesn't offer it. I did try that as well.

Debian allowed me to make sure all was working well and that I could write to all the hdd's etc.

Maybe when I get more into it and have more time I'll have a play without the GUI or from a terminal window.

Thanks for the advice.