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picking a distro


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Hey guys,

 

I have an HP Proliant DL140 with 4 gig of Ram and dual 2.8 Xeon processors . I am currently running Solaris 9 on it. I have decided for numerous reasons to go to a different distro. I actually prefer the Manriva product but it will not boot after I install it. After the installation it just hangs up. I am asking what you guys recommend for a good robust distro that I will not spend a week trying to get new software trying to work on it. It is a web and email server. I use Apache, MySQL, and PHP. I am open to all but M$ products. Please give me link to go check it out too. Thanks for the advice.

 

 

K

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Debian (etch preferrably, if you have SATA drives) and CentOS are reported to work well with the Proliant DL140. Both distros are also offered as the default OSes for these servers by various hosting companies in Germany. For distro-download links, check e.g. distrowatch.com

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Ubuntu? I believe there is a server edition that may be useful.

 

Fedora may also be worth a try.

 

Thanks for replying. Do you know if the Fedora project comes with Apache, PHP, and MySQL preinstalled? My concern is Fedora is a Red Hat variant and I could not get past the boot process when I tried it before. It would install fine but would hang on the boot. I suspect it was something with LILO but I never got past it.

 

 

Thanks again

 

Kelly

 

 

 

Debian (etch preferrably, if you have SATA drives) and CentOS are reported to work well with the Proliant DL140. Both distros are also offered as the default OSes for these servers by various hosting companies in Germany. For distro-download links, check e.g. distrowatch.com

 

 

Does Debian have a KDE or Gnome like interface? I played arond with it once and if I remember it is command line only. Does it have Apache, PHP, and MySQL preinstalled? What about CentOS?

 

Thanks

 

Kelly

 

 

i run a redhat-variant (in-house) that runs on a workstation with dual 3.8 Ghz Xeons with 8 GB of RAM. so CentOS should also work well.

 

Is this on a DL140? How did you get it to boot?

 

Thanks

 

Kelly

Edited by towershooter
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I would recommend a few distros to you if you're running a server. Debian is good for a server but I tend to find rpm-based distros good to start learning with and move over from there after that. I just find them easier. Debian by default is Gnome based, but when I build servers, I don't put a GUI, normally just a basic install, and the rest I do command-line.

 

That said, it depends what you want. If you want to purchase support, then use Red Hat Enterprise Linux. If you want free support, then go for CentOS. This is effectively Red Hat Enterprise Linux rebadged, so it's practically the same. Your support for this would be via the CentOS forums.

 

I wouldn't recommend Fedora for a server, it's too bleeding-edge and could be unstable as it's testing new technologies that might appear in Red Hat later on.

 

Although, saying that, I use Gentoo on a server, but it's a manual install from the command line, and not that easy if you're not sure what you're doing.

 

I'm using Compaq/HP hardware, and CentOS on my DL360. And if you're having problems trying to get it installed, let us know what the problems are and we can help you get it sorted.

 

EDIT:

 

As it happens, I'm installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Update 4 onto 3 x DL140's now. Although these are 2GHZ with 2GB of RAM. And these are currently booting fine for install. So, CentOS should be fine for you on these.

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Does Debian have a KDE or Gnome like interface? I played arond with it once and if I remember it is command line only. Does it have Apache, PHP, and MySQL preinstalled? What about CentOS?
Debian and CentOS both can be installed with KDE, Gnome, Fluxbox or without a graphical interface at all. The packages you ask for are all available and can be selected in a few seconds when you install.
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Debian and CentOS both can be installed with KDE, Gnome, Fluxbox or without a graphical interface at all. The packages you ask for are all available and can be selected in a few seconds when you install.

 

First thank you very much for your recommendations. I decided to go with the Debian project. So far so good. I am lost on one thing on this and I think I ran into it before so I did not use Debian that time. How do I get into the graphical interface or desktops?(IE: KDE, GNOME, ETC) Right now I have to log in with at the command prompt.

 

Thanks again

 

Kelly

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Did you install the debian stable (sarge) or testing (etch) version? I recommend to install etch, using one of the daily build netinstall CDs. Check what graphics card you have in etch with the command

 

lspci

 

Once you know which graphic card you probably have to install the appropriate module for X, e.g.

 

aptitude install xserver-xorg-video-sis

 

Once that is done, check if the graphical desktop works with

 

startx

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You have not answered all of my questions. And have you really installed a graphica desktop environment already? Please post the output of

 

uname -r

 

and

 

ls /etc/X11

 

You are right. I have not answered all your questions and I do apologize. I am using the stable(sarge) version. If I can get the system up and running on the test machine we want to test it for our production environment. (1 web server, 1 email server, 4 file servers.) We currently use Solaris and we are not happy with it. I do not think a 'testing' OS is the best option for a production environment. I could be wrong believe me.

 

I did more searching on the net and I have the Xserver working. [so far :)~] I found a posting that said to install the x-windows system with 'aptitude install x-window-system kde'. The install document for Debian is very poor.

 

I have KDE working and I have SSH working. I am now trying to get WEBMIN working.

 

 

Here is the output:

 

uname -r

 

--->2.4.27-2-386

 

ls /etc/X11

 

--->app-defaults fonts X xkb Xsession xsm

--->cursors rgb.txt XF86Config-4 Xresources Xsession.d Xwrapper.config

--->default-display-manager rstart xinit xserver Xsession.options

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You seem to be using the old installer which is why X was not installed.... hence why Arctic was asking...

The newer installer actually automatically installs X unless you tell it not to, something I foind annoying for servers but I see the point.

 

 

Anyway from my server,,,,

# dpkg -l | grep webmin
ii  webmin		 1.180-3sarge1  web-based administration toolkit
ii  webmin-apache  1.180-3		apache control module for webmin
ii  webmin-core	1.180-3sarge1  core modules for webmin
rc  webmin-exim	0.2.6-3		exim mail server control module for webmin
ii  webmin-exports 1.180-3		NFS exports control module for webmin
ii  webmin-fetchma 1.180-4		fetchmail mail retrieval module for webmin
ii  webmin-grub	1.180-4		grub control module for webmin
ii  webmin-htacces 1.180-3		htaccess/htpasswd module for webmin
ii  webmin-inetd   1.180-4		inetd control module for webmin
ii  webmin-mailbox 1.180-3		user mail reading module for webmin
ii  webmin-mysql   1.180-3		mysql-server control module for webmin
ii  webmin-postfix 1.180-4		postfix control module for webmin
ii  webmin-proftpd 1.180-4		Proftpd module for webmin
ii  webmin-samba   1.180-3		samba control module for webmin
rc  webmin-sendmai 1.180-4		sendmail control module for webmin
ii  webmin-softwar 1.180-3		software packages control module for webmin
ii  webmin-spamass 1.180-3		spamassassin control module for webmin
ii  webmin-sshd	1.180-3		SSH server control module for webmin
ii  webmin-virtual 2.50-1		 virtual hosting management module for webmin

 

To get it up and running you can just

apt-get install webmin-core

Additional stuff can either be done through webmin or apt-get as you prefer....

 

Since you have a GUI you can also

apt-get install synaptic

or

apt-get install kpackage

To give you a decent GUI installer .... Im presuming you want one since you installed a GUI...

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