Ubuntu on Atom server

[afterglow]

Before I get the Duet, I'm planning on building an Atom server and making it a music/movie server. Here's what I'm planning to build:

Intel D945GCLF mobo
1GB RAM
1.5TB Seagate HDD

I'm gonna put it in a closet and will run it headless. What flavor of Ubuntu should I install?? Desktop or server?? What else do I need to install??

Also, I see a lot of people choosing to boot from a USB drive. Why??

[maggior]

I boot from a USB drive so I can isolate my OS from my data. I can change/update my OS without impacting the hard discs. It also optimizes the amount of data that can be stored on my hard drives.

Since you will be running headless, I would think using Ubuntu Server would be your best bet. It will probably give you what you want and leave out much that you don't. For instance, you will want SAMBA, NFS, ssh, and other network services installed. These won't be installed by desktop (though you can install them later on). You also won't want media players, office software, etc. since it will be a server in a closet.

For what it's worth, I've been using Open SuSE with much success running off an 8GB USB thumb drive with 2 WD 1TB drives. I've got *plenty* of stroage :-).

[SuperQ]

Unless you're comfortable doing everything command-line style, I would recommend Desktop. The server version of Ubuntu is basically the Desktop version with all the GUI stuff removed.

It really depends on how comfortable you are with Linux.

Good luck with your project, if you get stuck, feel free to post to this forum, we have lots of Linux experts around.

[pfarrell]

maggior wrote:
> Since you will be running headless, I would think using Ubuntu Server
> would be your best bet.

I respectfully disagree.
I run all my servers headless, and always install the full GUI. It takes
very little disk space, and makes setup and installation of packages so
much easier.

There are a few things that server defaults to that can be handly, like
allowing 32 bit versions to use all 4GB of memory, but they can be added
later.

I strongly recommend installing the full desktop over the server, even
if you are going headless. Especially for new to linux folks.

I think new folks need Symbian

--
Pat Farrell
http://www.pfarrell.com/

[Wombat]

Since the Atom is even strong enough to do many things beside running Squeezecenter i'll suggest Ubuntu Desktop also.
If you want it headless you may use Nomachine NX from your main machine to do some checking of files like with Audiochecker (even under wine) from time to time. It is worth the GUI i think.

[Apesbrain]

Before deciding on XP as my server OS, I built an Ubuntu 8.10 machine using the "desktop" software version. One problem I could not solve was getting my server to wake on lan. Given that I wanted to run the machine headless and under a desk in another room, this was a deal-breaker for me. It may have been my hardware -- the PC was quite a few years old -- but using ethtool to query my network connection did show that the adapter was WOL-capable.

Ubuntu does not install "out of the box" with WOL enabled. There is a good tutorial here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=234588

Toward the end of the article, the author writes about editing the /etc/init.d/halt script to enable WOL. He says he didn't need to do this, but my case might have required it and I never got that far. There is more detail here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...nit/+bug/71418

Also, since you plan to administer the machine remotely, you may be interested in this tutorial:

http://www.ubuntugeek.com/how-to-use...epid-ibex.html

Good luck!

[pfarrell]

Apesbrain wrote:
> Before deciding on XP as my server OS, I built an Ubuntu 8.10 machine
> using the "desktop" software version. One problem I could not solve
> was getting my server to wake on lan. Given that I wanted to run the
> machine headless and under a desk in another room, this was a
> deal-breaker for me.

Can you explain why WOL was critical for you?
I just run my server in the basement, headless.

I guess I've never understood the attraction of WOL.

--
Pat Farrell
http://www.pfarrell.com/

[Apesbrain]

I wanted to minimize its power draw while I wasn't listening to it and figured putting it in standby (S3) would help toward that aim.

[pfarrell]

Apesbrain wrote:
> I wanted to minimize its power draw while I wasn't listening to it and
> figured putting it in standby (S3) would help toward that aim.

Well, the whole point of an Atom is to minimize the power draw.

I just listen to music nearly all the time, and use the SC box as a
generic file server (using Samba) for backups of accounting and tax
records, etc.



--
Pat Farrell
http://www.pfarrell.com/

[maggior]

maggior wrote:
> Since you will be running headless, I would think using Ubuntu Server
> would be your best bet.

I respectfully disagree.
I run all my servers headless, and always install the full GUI. It takes
very little disk space, and makes setup and installation of packages so
much easier.

You're right :-).

I actually ran Open SuSE with the GUI intitially. I found that I used YaST (their configuration/system management tool) a LOT. Then I discovered that you can run it in a regular terminal window :-). For that reason I can get by with no GUI.

I think the package selection can trip up newbie users. But on the other hand, when the services are installed, they are disabled by default, so the newbie has to figure out how to enable them anyway. As a newbie, I went through this myself.

Even though I have tons of disc space, I am old school and perfer to only install what I need. Especially for a newbie, I guess that philosophy doesn't make sense.