phunni Posted November 1, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2003 just so you know i am working on the arch linux i586 port. it is still a month or two away but it is coming. Interesting - may well be worth waiting for that then. I did wuite like arch when I tried it. I couldn't get it working quite how I like for the desktop, but I reckon it might be perfect for my little server... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted November 3, 2003 Report Share Posted November 3, 2003 phunni: Here is another review of VL. http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=5009 I'm running it on my laptop and it is NICE, small and compact. Not trying to take away from arch, but VL installs faster and is easy to config. Plus, I don't see arch running any faster than it. So you might just download the 200+MB iso and see how it works for you, or wait for arch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted November 3, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2003 (edited) I'll probably give VL a go - as you say there are a few months before I'll be able to use Arch anyway, so it doesn't hurt to try. If I try both then I'll have a good idea of what suits my needs Edit: Have to say that I found arch (in the past) easy to install and config - although I never tried to set up two NICs or a printer on it... Edited November 3, 2003 by phunni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted November 3, 2003 Report Share Posted November 3, 2003 Like you say, just give both a shot and see what you like/don't like. Small download makes it easy to grab and throw on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted November 7, 2003 Report Share Posted November 7, 2003 Just some small comments from my side. I have an old PI 200MHz, luckily with 120MB of RAM as an internet and download/p2p server. It's still running Mdk8.2 since I can't be bothered to update, it's too painful. ;) Btw, no monitor, no keyboard, just one power cable and 2 ethernet connections. As for security, there are few considerations. 1- don't run anything you don't need, no webserver, no telnet (yuk!), etc. 2- use iptables to ignore anything from the outside coming in without requests from the inside (basically, block everything, but turn on internet sharing) 3 - if you use ssh, make sure it is updated. 4- for the kernel, how many remote exploits have you seen lately? Local exploits are not a big issue. For performance reasons: 1- don't run X, it eats up memory (basically, don't run anything that you don't need -- on the other hand, at some point that stuff will get moved to swap, ... it also extends your boot time to have too much running) 2- connect via ssh, then run (display) your graphical stuff on your normal work machine, if you really want to use graphical stuff for maintenance (MCC or so; some things I never bothered to figure out, so I use MCC for that; you can always do things on the console -- via ssh) 3- know what you run, know what you have to update. Not much. No hassle there IMHO (ssh has been on the security risk list a couple of times last year, but that's all) So basically, if you can get it installed, actually you already have it, there's no reason not to use Mdk9.1, just trim it and it will keep running fine. To be honest: I run vnc on the server, and edonkey; in my vnc I have gkrellm, which tells me it usually runs around 15-15% of cpu load. And since the dma of my system is not working well, I want to upgrade, -- I find that I don't make enough backups from my own pc (and that of my wife) to this server; I'd like to use it as a fileserver too, and currently that is not possible. Oh, this server has been (mostly) up and running for more than one year straight (hmm, almost 2 years), except for a couple of reboots due to power failures (my gf/wife pulling the wrong plug mostly) -- longest uptime somewhere around 70 days or so. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted December 3, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 What about freeBSD? How hard is it to install? What about setting up a firewall/printer? It will also need to run samba in order to share the printer with my wife's windows laptop I'm thinking it may be more complex to install than I really need, but it might be interesting to use another unix other than Linux... Briefly tried VL on Vmware - haven't had enough time to play with it yet. Arch is back on my desktop - I'm getting on a little better with it this time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 http://www.ofb.biz/modules.php?name=News&f...article&sid=272 Samba run's on all *nix http://www.freebsd.org/ports/index.html http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/ports.cgi?query...-STABLE%2Fi386l Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland Posted December 3, 2003 Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 [sorry if it has already been suggested: I didn't read all] I think you can install Mandrake without the GUI correct ? That can be a good solution as there is urpmi and MCC can run text mod. roland :unsure: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted December 3, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 3, 2003 It's currently running Mdk 9.1 and it runs like a dog... I realise a machine of this spec is always going to be slow - but I don't ask much of it and it really is very slow... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roland Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 I'm curious: if it's just a server why care if its slow ? you switch it on, ok it's slow to start then you never switch it off so if it let the Network trafic go at the correct speen why bother ? roland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted December 4, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 Because every now and again I need to do something with it (configure firewall, printers etc...) and it is pretty painful trying to actually do any of these tasks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted December 4, 2003 Report Share Posted December 4, 2003 For a box like that & wanting X, I still say Vector Linux 4.0. Small fast for old hardware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phunni Posted December 5, 2003 Author Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 nice avatar cybrejackle... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jlc Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 nice avatar cybrejackle... Thanks, I stole it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gowator Posted December 5, 2003 Report Share Posted December 5, 2003 Hmm. I have a P100 with 96MB RAM running routing/samba etc. It has been off once in 6 months due to a power cut but that it for uptime!!! It works great with ALL server tasks except serving dynamic content like webmail / phpBB2 Samba/ http etc all work fine. I'm using SME5.6, a modified REDHAT. I hate the mods and non standard tools BUT it just works. The other server I have is also running SME5.6 BUT on an athalon 1300 with 1GB RAM. the rAM is overkill!!!! However... this serves up phpBB2, streaming audio, the whole works. Its running on RAID 1 (2x60GB drives and you can barring HW faults actually just clone an install by taking out a disk and replacing it with a blank one and letting the RAID take care of rebbuilding the second disk!!! I also don't like the fact that MITEL have a best viewed with IE logo on their site!!! However its probably just what you need. The webmail is GREAT. Fully functional webmail server as good as Yahoo or hotmail on your own box!! unfortunately the dynamic content makes it too slow on a P100 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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