anyone using ubuntu server edition?

[fast eddie]

Hi,

Is anyone here running ubuntu server edition as their OS? I currently have SS running on an Ubuntu desktop on a fairly decent machine but I would like to use that to play around with Ubuntu Studio and use an older machine as my music server.

The trouble is that the ubuntu server edition is command line only and I am not that familiar with the command line codes to set anything up.

If anyone can point me in the direction of a setup tutorial or something similar I would be grateful. I have tried a search but get this error -
Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 8388608 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 1024 bytes) in /www/forums.slimdevices.com/search.php on line 842

Any help greatly appreciated

[SuperQ]

First question is, how old is the computer you're wanting to use as a server? What are the specs. It may be no problem to simply run Ubuntu Desktop on it and logout when you're not doing work on it.

If you're not familiar with CLI tools you want to use a lower power server you could try Xubuntu. It uses a lightweight GUI that works well with older computers.

If you have >= 512M, Desktop should be fine.

If you have < 512M of ram, I would use Xubuntu.

If you have < 256M of ram, I would use Ubuntu Server.

Anything less than 128M of ram is getting too low for your average Slimserver install.

[mr_alan]

Hello eddie

I'm using ubuntu server and it's good because it has a very large repository as standard and includes the likes of mplayer (for the alien bbc plugin). Here are some pages to get you started.

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/ubuntu-710...ver-setup.html
(you don't need to do the full lamp thing but it's clear!)

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Gutsy#Servers

http://ascendwiki.cheme.cmu.edu/Inst..._Ubuntu_Server
in case you want to do the raid thing

And then it's just a case of copying your music over with rsync and adding the unstable squeezecenter repository as detailed here

http://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.cgi?DebianPackage

A really good way of working on a headless server is to login from a terminal on another pc using ssh, and also using konqueror to display a folder structure. So if your server is ip address 192.168.0.21 for example and your user on the server is eddie - in a terminal type

ssh eddie@192.168.0.21

and in the konqueror address bar type
fish://eddie@192.168.0.21

this will then give you a windows like folder structure so you can make folders, drag, copy etc. The combination of the 2 windows is really good.

Alan

[fast eddie]

Thanks for the replies.

Alan - you make it sound so easy. I will definately give it a go and if it takes a bit of time to get working it doesn't matter cos I can still use the machine I have set up now

[ChrisNY]

My first experience with Linux (and building a PC from scratch) was Ubuntu server. Here's the tutorial I used:
http://www.debianadmin.com/ubuntu610...reenshots.html

It's for the latest Long-Term Support version (6.10) of Ubuntu.

I found the following for basic background on command line Linux:
http://www.tutorial5.com/content/view/42/44/

Good luck!

-Chris

[mr_alan]

good command line tutorial. I've printed this out and laminated it for command line stuff

http://people.debian.org/~debacle/re...card-en-a4.pdf

Alan

[haraldo]

The O'Reilly book "Ubuntu Hacks" by Jonathan Oxer, Kyle Rankin & Bill Childers may prove to be very useful.
http://www.amazon.com/Ubuntu-Hacks-T...2155532&sr=8-1

The book includes a whole range of practical tips on how to do stuff and a step by step description on a whole bunch of things.

regards

-Harald N

[verbatone]

When I first started with linux, I found that by installing the regular desktop and poking around the command line, I got used to the whole feel. I had a few headless servers for a while and ditched them once I got a fast machine.

I now have a desktop installation (cause mythtv demanded a X windows environment for config), and just boot to the command line login screen, which doesn't boot X, so you save that resource. That way you can always use startx to get to your desktop to solve any problems you can't figure out at the command line. Good luck.

[maggior]

I am an Open SuSe user and installed on an old box (AMD K6 350MHz with 256 MB RAM) with no windowing system. During the installation, you are given the option to do a console only installation (I forget exactly what it was called, but it was something like that). This leaves all desktop stuff out, so it is essentially a server installation.

I am familiar with the Linux command line, but I've grown used to using GUI tools. So I was concerned about having to use solely the command line for management.

But, to my surprise, the very useful SuSe tool called YaST has a console mode it can run in. I have yet to see something I could do with this that I can do with the X version. I log into it over my network using putty and can run YaST.

So, if you want a headless Linux server but still have GUI tools to manage the system, you might consider Open SuSe.

[Pale Blue Ego]

fast eddie:

You might want to try ClarkConnect, which is a command-line server OS like Ubuntu Server, but it has a web interface so you can administer it from another computer through your web browser.

Here's a very good tutorial on setting up CC and Slimserver:

http://www.ulverston.myzen.co.uk/min...stallingCC.htm

CC makes the most of modest hardware and is rock-solid. I have never rebooted in 3+ years except during extended power outages.