ianw1974

OK, cool Let us know how you get on. I'm surprised the gui doesn't let you do it, but then it might not be geared up for disk removal. The tools from the CLI should allow you to do it though, and those commands in that howto should move any data (extents) from that disk to the existing disks providing that there is space free. Then you can of course safely remove it. That's why I mentioned about the backup but of course you have the data anyway so no problems. If there were not enough extents available on the disks being left in the system, then you'd end up removing the disk and you'd be missing data. Another way around that if none of the remaining disks have any space (extents) free, is for example if you want to remove a disk (because of bad blocks, etc), is add a new disk to the LVM at the same size or higher than the one being removed, then run the removal commands and it'll move the extents from the disk being removed to the new disk that was just added. Hope that makes sense :)

Yes, you can add/drop drives from a volume group easily enough - I've done this from the command line, so I expect you can do it also on the openfiler machine too via SSH access to the openfiler machine. You can connect with the root user, as this is what I've done previously. Check this article: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/LVM-HOWTO/removeadisk.html I've only actually added disks, but removing should be just as easy as mentioned in the article above. Just of course make sure you got a copy of that data "just in case".

Normally I just upgrade, I don't know why this time I read the release notes first :) I'm ext4 on all partitions, and so I figured I didn't want any problems with the ISO images I downloaded.

I'm assuming it's working fine for me on Ubuntu 9.04 since I've been using it since it was released, and I have sound :) I didn't upgrade to Ubuntu 9.10 as they currently have a problem in the kernel with ext4 and large files (>= 512MB), so I'm waiting for now.

I can try help you with point 1 and LDAP, I'll need to get working on my install here :) Point 2 I can probably help you with - but don't add extra disks to the existing volume group, else they will be a part of it and you won't have a backup. You'd need to make a second volume group for the additional disks, and I'm sure you can do lvm snapshots from the "usable" disk to the "backup" disk. Of course, if internal, means you're exposed in the event of a fire or your machine gets stolen. If attached via usb, then you'll have some sort of resilience since you could move it away to another building. It depends what you want to achieve :) Point 3 I can't, I don't have a PS3, sorry :) Give me a bit of time for points 1 and 2, maybe this week I can have something for you.

Will do, will send you :)

Generally when you partition in openfiler you set up a volume group and then you create logical volumes for the data that you will use. This is irrespective of whether you have multiple disks or not. I had 1 x 100GB disk that I was using for my demo. As you say, and know, LVM allows you to add another disk and expand the volume group and then extend your logical volumes accordingly. Much easier way of resizing partitions than having to move them all around when you want to make changes. An LVM snapshot, takes a backup at that point in time of that particular logical volume, so that you can revert to it as and when you need to.

First, yes you can add raid partitions. Click Volumes, then create new physical volume, select your disk by clicking /dev/sdb or whatever it is. Partition type can be physical volume or raid array member.

Your other alternative, which I'm pretty sure Openfiler can do is because it uses LVM is that you can use LVM snapshots. Of course, it doesn't give immediate security like Raid does, but you have some alternative options. I didn't get round to doing anything last night my eyes were so bad despite giving them a litre of eye drops that I simply couldn't do it :( But one of your next stages once you've got it installed is. 1. Create the LVM volume group (add all disks to this, or if you want a second for backup/snapshots create two). 2. Create your logical volume within the volume group. This can be the whole size, or you can make multiple volumes. 3. Enable your services (samba, nfs, iscsi). 4. Play :) If you need help, I wrote an article on how to use openfiler which went in Linux+ DVD Magazine. Contact me if you think you might need it.

Sadly, vmware is crap and doesn't want to work for this, so I'll have to try it at home on my xen server - I know it worked there when I made it before. In theory it should support raid, since it supports lvm for your volumes, but I cannot verify it right now.

Hmmm, good question. I can check this for you easily enough by making an Openfiler installation and update you shortly. Incidently, I tried FreeNAS before when comparing the two I find Openfiler more intuitive. Also, FreeNAS had problems from time to time with things not working how I was expecting - especially ISCSI. I gave up as didn't have the time, and since Openfiler worked it was enough for me. Openfiler recommend you use the x86_64 version since some point in the future the x86_32 version will disappear.

There's a number of ways you can do this. Do you want it as a true NAS or will it also be used as a desktop computer? The reason I ask - Openfiler you can turn a machine/server into a NAS and that is all it will be. I've used this and it's pretty good but I don't have spare hardware to make my own true NAS. What ways do you want to connect to it? Samba? FTP? ISCSI? NFS? If you want the machine as a desktop as well, then I suggest you do it within your Mandriva and then install all the protocols you want to use to connect to it with. If you want performance, you'll find that iscsi is the way to go compared to samba, ftp, nfs, etc since you may that disk directly to your machine as if it was externally attached storage. It will appear as /dev/sdb or whatever. Of course, you can only access that particular partition from one machine at one time, then disconnect it and mount on another machine. iscsi can be mounted under Windows as well as Linux. If you just want to copy files about, then use samba if you're sharing with Windows machines and that you don't want to map the disk directly to your machine. If you want a true NAS, then I suggest Openfiler from the link above earlier in my post. Be careful about pre-prepared NAS devices. Some are crap, especially the Promise ones. IOMEGA are the ones I've had better experience with, and a maxstor one I had was bad on performance, but maybe if I'd replaced the Windows Server on it with something else it could have been better perhaps.

Dependencies are packages required for installing the package of your choice, in this instance those extra packages are required by mcc. So the correct answer is to say yes and install them. You'll probably find that the package is pulseaudio or similar, you can do: urpmf --name pulse and it will list all available packages with pulse in the name.

Mandriva One is a LiveCD that you can use without installing - so you can try and see if everything works and also whether you like it or not. Then, if you like it, you can then install it and use it.

You can use swat also instead of webmin, it's the web interface for all things samba.

Yes you can, you have to edit first post and then click use full editor and then you can edit the title. It defaults to quick edit. However, I did it for you :)

Check what firmware version the DIR-825 has, and then perhaps try a firmware upgrade if there is a new one available. I had a D-LINK DSL router that used to drop out all the time but firmware sorted it. Even Netgear routers had similar issues - so it might just need a firmware upgrade. Try this link, I see two models, so you'll have to login to your web interface, find out which one you've got then download the appropriate firmware. http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=DIR-825 to the right of the router, click support resources, and then the model you've got. Oh, and only upgrade using a wired connection, never do it through wireless.

I agree, go direct to the cable modem and see how it runs. If the internet goes when connected to the D-LINK, then both wired and wireless connections would fail and not access the internet at all. If the internet works fine, you then need to test and find out what on the D-LINK is failing. Is it the wired, or is it the wireless, or is it both? Another alternative can be that the cable that connects the cable modem directly to the internet might be problematic. Also, cable modems or DSL modems connected directly to a router/firewall - especially with DHCP assigned addresses when they fail, it will take time for the internet to come back and active on the router. The router will be waiting for the address to be assigned and this could explain your time outs when you lose connectivity for a while. If that is the case, then you simply have an unstable internet connection or some of the settings on the connection are incorrect. You'll need to check if PPPOA or PPPOE and check if you are using VC-Based or LLC-Based connections as well as the VPI and VCI settings. Even with these slightly out, you can get a connection, but fail regularly.

I did this in Windows XP, so I'm hoping it's the same in Windows Vista :) I just don't have Windows to check it. I think you go to adding a network printer instead of local printer and add the http or ipp printer here. This might help with some info: http://www.plbio.life.ku.dk/English/The-department/IT/User_guides/IPP-Print.aspx I'll check to see if I still have the config on my wife's laptop and let you know exactly how the url should look as she had the cups url set up before.

Not really any clearer :) But yes, if some of the subnets are in use on the other side, this will be why they want to add them at host level, and not by the whole subnet and it is a bit of work, but not that much depending on number of hosts, etc, and where they have to put the routes - typically probably just one router. Unless they are layer 3 switches, it won't matter in changing the gateway on the switches. They won't be doing any routing for you. You could always try if you have a spare machine with two network cards, making your own router and put it between your lab switch and IT switch so that the lab machines can access the IT server that you need. Just an idea, it might solve the problem without having to involve the IT department. Then you can control all the routes yourself from your lab :)

I generally add the printers in Windows as http or ipp printers than to use them as TCP/IP printers when they are connected to cups. Maybe try this if you hadn't already.

Of course you can route the whole subnet, the problem might be that they might already be using the same IP range, and maybe is why they suggested doing it by host, rather than the whole subnet.

You'll have to run fsck on /dev/sdb1 from the looks of things, but it will need to be unmounted first so that you can do it. If you are continually getting this problem, then something is clearly wrong. I'm using ext4 and had a problem once when my /home didn't mount, but luckily I've not had it since.

When you see progress bar of system loading you can press ESC to get verbose mode and then we can see more or less where it is stopping.

What driver are you using for the ATI HD3300? Are you using a basic ATI or did you install the proprietary ATI driver? If not, perhaps this is the problem. Once this is installed and working, you should be able to enable the desktop effects in the usual way.