Hey everyone! For a quick intro: This is my first time using a Linux distro, and I want to really get into it and learn as much as I can. I've been using Windows for years, and I'd say I'm a pretty advanced user in that regard.

Anyway, I got a Dell Dimension 2350 today, and I'm trying to make it into a server. I want to host some files on here (FTP, right?) and maybe some minecraft server games (to keep myself entertained, haha). From my understanding, I'd just set it up, then lose the mouse, keyboard, and monitor so it'd become "headless". And then I could SSH (remote administration, right?) into it from another computer to configure and interact with it.

I searched, and I decided on getting Ubuntu server edition, then getting Xubuntu's Xfce desktop gui. I'm not exactly sure how viable that is, that's partly the reason why I'm here, haha.

So I installed it on this computer, and I tried using
"sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop"
to get the gui so I could start learning about linux (of which I know almost nothing about). But for some reason, it doesn't find the packages, and I'm pretty sure it's because it's not connected to the internet. I tried connecting through it's wifi card, but that didn't work, so then I attempted to mess around with the ethernet and some commands I found online, but to no avail. Could you guys point me in the right direction?

(Oh, also, I'm not against reinstalling this or another distro, based on this situation.)

I dunno if these will help you, I'm not a server guy. But I have thought about it a little and do know the P4 Dell you mention, so --

Tutorial: Set Up a Linux Internet Server Part 1

Superb Mini Server

These should go hand-on-hand.

Best wishes!

Hi,
You would have chosen Centos, which is based on Redhat Enterprise linux.And as you said it can become headless....:-)

firstly try this

/etc/init.d/gdm start if you can't get through try below...

you are using Ubuntu server edition....for GUI (Gnome) installation try below.

you need to be a root user or else you can try the commands with sudo, either ways you need a password

sudo su
then enter the user password

apt-get install gdm
apt-get install x-window-system-core gnome-core

Hope this helps

lVlaciiiii,

I'm a Debian guy, and I've got Ubuntu experience, both on workstation and server. Ubuntu is a fine distro, and you should have no problem running it as a headless server. First things first, check to see if your machine recognizes the NIC:

kabarsedge@mymachine:~$ ifconfig
eth0 Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr b8:ac:6f:1c:97:76
inet addr:10.111.33.13 Bcast:10.111.39.255 Mask:255.255.248.0
inet6 addr: fe80::baac:6fff:fe1c:9776/64 Scope:Link
UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU:1500 Metric:1
RX packets:2202832 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:1179062 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
RX bytes:1687363691 (1.5 GiB) TX bytes:406470098 (387.6 MiB)
Memory:fdfe0000-fe000000

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:2140 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:2140 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:107254 (104.7 KiB) TX bytes:107254 (104.7 KiB)


Now, if all you see is the loopback, or the lo interface, then your machine is not recognizing the interface. However, if it is, then you're on the right track. If it sees the interface, and you don't have an IP, check the physical connection. If you do have an IP, try pinging out. This should get you started. If you have any other issues, drop another line, and we'll get you through it.

HTH,

KaBar's Edge

Ok, thanks for the replies you guys, let's see if we can figure this out.

When I enter:
ifconfig

I get only the lo interface,

lo Link encap:Local Loopback
inet addr:127.0.0.1 Mask:255.0.0.0
inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU:16436 Metric:1
RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
RX bytes:0 (0.0 B) TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)

So that means that it's not recognizing the network card, huh? Could that be because of some drivers, or something else?

lVlaciiiii,

Remember than Linux does not use drivers like Windows, it has a kernel, and then any hardware not supported by the kernel is support by modules, which is basically a linux driver. Yes, if you are only seeing the lo interface, then your system is not seeing the NIC. Do this:

kabarsedge@mymachine:~$ lspci | grep Ethernet
00:19.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82567LM-3 Gigabit Network Connection (rev 02)

That will give you your Ethernet based NIC, the manufacture and hardware revision so that you can figure out what kernel module you need to install or compile to make it work.

On a side note, it's unusual for the installer not to pick up your ethernet controller in the base install. Hmmmm..........

HTH,

No drivers? Woah, okay, that's new, haha.

Ok, so I ran:
lspci | grep Ethernet

and I got:
01:09.0 Ethernet controller Broadcom Corporation BCM4401 100Base-T (rev 01)

Ah, then I think I messed up during installation. It had asked me about my two internet interfaces (I believe eth0 and wlan0, or something), and I tried both of them but neither would connect no matter what I did. So I just left it at that.

Ok, so I googled a bit more, and I think I've found out that for some reason the b44 kernel module for my 4401 NIC isn't working. Or it isn't there. I've found the download from broadcom's site at http://www.broadcom.com/support/ethernet_nic/4401.php . At this point, I don't really know what to do to get it on my ubuntu server, haha, any help?

you could try copying it onto the server using a USB stick/pen drive and installing it as per the instructions mentioned in the user manual available on that link.

Alright, I'll give that a shot. I looked at the instructions, and they looked pretty complicated, but we'll see if I can work my way through this. I'll update here with my results.

Ok, so I tried the instructions given by the broadcom site, the beginning of which is given here:
But when I try that, I get
Then when I type that, I get
So again, I'm at a loss as to what I should try next.

I have ubuntu 10.04-lucid lynx
The situation is
your computer is offline
you got rpm file but ubuntu can install deb by default

SOLUTION
get Packages.gz from
http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/dists/<your_distro>/main/binary-i386/
Now
Add following entry to /etc/apt/sources.list
Run You will get
Get all of them from http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/...
Copy all of them to /var/cache/apt/archives then install 'rpm'

lVlaciiiii,


While 'sumeet inani' gave you a great way to do, I wouldn't recommend it. When you download the driver, it allows you to build from source; so that's what I would do. That way you know there will be no issues. If it's built on your system, it will run on your system. If it doesn't have what it needs to build, it will error out and you can fix the problem as you go along. Here is what you need to do.


This should get you going and it will give you good experience compiling something from source. Of course, if you do not have gcc installed this will probably not work. However, you need to make sure you always install gcc when you build a machine, although, with Ubuntu it is probably part of the base install.

HTH,

Why don't you try installing this first?

http://joshua14.homelinux.org/downlo...ee_1.9_all.deb

Any unknown network device on Ubuntu can usually be solved with this package. Once you have it, do: -

Worked even with a ridiculous "Windows only" USB wireless adaptor I had.

1 members found this post helpful.

He wont be able to build from sources without build-essentials - damn you ubuntu for coming without gcc!