Ubuntu 8.10 Server Install Succes Story.

A while back I decided I wanted to try out Linux.  That didn't last too long.  It was functional, but too cumbersome for day to day tasks I perform.  I'm sure it can do everything I need it to, but I just didn't have the time to learn a new operating system... which is what I really want to do with it.  To know Linux as well as I know Windows is a goal of mine, albeit not a very urgent one.

That said, circumstances arrived that actually had me look into using Linux, instead of Windows, for a project.

We have a "server" at work that just serves files.  It was running Vista Ultimate and it worked for a time.  Until many people started telling me that they couldn't access it.  A restart would temporarily fix the issue, but  I knew that since this wasn't a "server class" OS, it would continue to have these issues.  I looked for ways to up the number of concurrent connections for the "server" but, alas, none were forthcoming.  Mostly replies to said questions were, "YOU NEED WINDOWS SERVER".  Well, I thought, I could do that.  I have those disks, but... and here's the thing, I don't have a license for it.  I could have just installed and cracked it, yes, but 1) that's illegal, 2) cracks usually don't last forever, 3) I was itching to try Linux in a server capacity.

So I downloaded Ubuntu 8.10 Server Ed. and with the help of a couple of websites and some consulting with my brother (who has experience with setting up his own Linux/SAMBA Server) I plunged head first.

http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu-home-fileserver

Here I found the install instructions.  Since I had 2 Hard Drives (besides the one for the OS install) instead of the one he uses I had to think a bit to get it to work (hint: instead of mounting to /media/store, I used /media/ntfs1 and /media/ntfs2 for the mount points).  I knew that one Unix/Linux class I took would come back to me.  I also changed the workgroup to one we all use here.  We're actually on a domain, but putting the domain name there worked fine.  And the fact that I can keep the 2 data hardrives the current file system (NTFS) was also great.  Since both are 1T drives and pretty full... let's just say it would have sucked to have to change the file system... unless it's as easy as converting FAT32 to NTFS.  Then it would now have been bad.  But I didn't check out that possibility... for now anyway.

http://community.spiceworks.com/how_to/show/156

Here I found a light GUI to smooth the process along.  Working in the vi editor with a wonky keyboard just sucks, so I installed the GUI and used gedit to perform all the text editing.  Just remember to open it (gedit) from the Command Line as root (if you are following the tutorial replacing vi with gedit).

http://www.debuntu.org/guest-file-sharing-with-samba

And this helped me out with being able to share to folders without someone having to login.  Please note, this is not exactly secure.  I am fully aware of this, but given this situation (we're behind a firewall, and none of the files are exactly confidential/security risks) it works for me.

Here are the fstab and smb.conf currently being used, for reference.

fstab

smb.conf

It's working great and multiple people can connect and browse the folders.  Now the only slowdowns will be hardware dependent, not software.

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Linux Day 13

Well, I have to admit, I haven't been on top of this as I previously thought I would. I just don't have time... or I am unwilling to commit time to really learn. However, I persist.

I really have gotten a lot more comfortable working in Linux. The command line is no longer as daunting as it once was, although there are a lot of commands not at my command. I even took a class on this in "college" and it still hasn't come back to me yet. It is fun. Especially getting things to work and solving issues. I guess my main goal, if it has been hazy in the past, is to get a machine up and running and then see if any tweaking is needed. I do believe that if anyone wants to install any windows software on this thing, more likely than not, you are going to either need good internet searching skills and patience or a linux guru. Wine is getting better, having released another version in the past couple of days, but it still is not window user-friendly. But it's getting pretty good. If I knew someone, who didn't want to spend a lot of money and only used the computer for internet (email) and writing papers and they didn't expect to install any other software (yeah right) I think I could recommend Linux. But right now, you can go to any Best Buy, Office Depot, or Circuit City and pick up a sub $400 box and satfisy that group of people pretty easily. Windows included. You could put together a $200 box and put linux on it and you have one cheap computer though, especially if all you ever do it internet and type papers... oh then there's watch a movie, play music, edit music to make ringtones, rip that dvd, edit video from the camera, etc, etc. The more I look at linux the more is strikes me as the OS that you get when you have a bunch of systems around the house and only 1 Windows license. It does the job, but if you are a every-man computer owner I'd just as tell you to get a system (if you are not gaming or editing audio/video) from your local retailer.

However...
If the guys working on wine ever get it good enough that it will handle any windows software installed without having to tweak everything... well, that's a whole other story.

Frankly, I think most people buy what they are told, either through friends (who heard it from a friends who know a guy that used to dabble in computers) or through mass media (tv, radio, internet). I have been asked by at least a dozen people about putting together a system but they always mentioned, "What about windows? I heard Vista is horrible, I want XP". Vista now runs faster on modern hardware than XP does. And they don't even make XP anyways (you are seeing leftover stock, once it's gone-it's gone, kinda.) so that's easy to say.

I think mostly, people like to seem like they know something about what they are asking you about. I know when I go to get my car fixed, I act like I change my wipers, or I know what oil I put in, etc. The fact is I don't know squat. But I try to come off like I got vested information on the subject. So I'll say, "Yeah I'll change that air filter myself or I'll change out that light bulb." when really I'm thinking," Aw crap, there's so much broken stuff this guys finding, he must really think I'm an idiot... better get this stuff fixed elsewhere."

And for those who skipped all that and are ready just the last sentence: Linux is pretty good. Wine is getting better. Many people are just absolutely clueless when it comes to computers.

Alex

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Linux Day 6

Well, it's been interesting getting things working. Right now, I have Fedora 9 installed in a dual boot environment on my main Asus F8SA notebook and Ubuntu 8.04 on this old Dell C600 notebook. I must also mention that I am using a Verizon Broadband PC5750 card to access the internet. Yup, there's ways to get virtually everything working in Linux. Hardware is hardly an issue nowaday, unless you have some weird proprietary piece of hardware that no one else even uses. Frankly, I was surprised that the Linux community had gotten these Broadband Cards (PCMCIA, USB, Express) to even work but I'm doing it right now. Fedora on the Asus is running swimmingly, Bluetooth pretty much worked out of the box as well as wireless. Not so on my Dell running Ubuntu, but I think that has something to do with my wireless card (PCMCIA) and not having the drivers yet.

But there are some downsides so far, if you can call it that.
1) You NEED the Internet
2) You NEED to know HOW to search for answers.
3) You NEED patience to get things set up.

It will be interesting to see how much tweeking will be needed once everything is set up and working. But regardless, installing programs and such can be easy and hard at the same time. Most distributions include a sudo Add/Remove programs that let's you search their (meaning the distributions {Red Hat, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc}) compatible program database. The downside to this is that new versions of programs don't automatically show up on these lists. For most things I don't see much a problem, but I have already run into an issue where I wanted the latest release, in this case the program Wine, and I couldn't get it via the Add/Remove Programs(Packages) system. Here's where the INTERNET and KNOWING HOW TO SEARCH comes into play. In a few minutes, I found answers on how to install the latest version of the programs directly from the source.

So far, I am liking what I am seeing coming out of the Linux scene. It's come a long way and it is solid. Would I recommend it to a client? Right now, no way. But I think after setting up these systems and seeing how much tweeking or troubleshooting is needed after the fact I might be persuaded to change my mind. So far my experience has been pretty positive. I'll keep you posted.

Alex

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The Great (Linux) Experiment

Well, I've been thinking about doing this for, well, forever. See if I can survive using Linux. Now, I can't (or can I?) realistically use this all the time as I have specific work situations that may prevent me from soley working from a linux derived platform, but we'll see. The following are my specific goals:

Use Linux exclusively for an extended period of time. Probably something around 30 days.
-Try to exhaust every possible avenue, to get things to work.
-Take into account extreme measures, before recommending certain procedures to pass on.
-Be able to setup a computer in such a way as to be able to recommend the install and software package to clients. <-the supreme goal, actually as it could potentially save LOTS of money.

Pretty simple.

I'm going to start out using Ubuntu 8 then on to Fedora 9 (if I'm that ambitious, that is.) Now I don't have internet at home, so we'll see how this goes, but I think it's past time I dive into this and get as acquainted with the Linux platform as I am with Windows. I'll try to post my progress every couple of days, Starting with the install and ending with my conclusions. We shall see how it goes.

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