Dodds

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Hey, I am new to linux, don't even know where to start. I have an old 1.8 gig of ram computer, that i want to make into a home server, for file storege, to acceses from multipal computers, It has a Prommise technolgy Ultra 100 Xt card in it to run lots of harddrives,

What I need to know is:
- What linux OS should I run,
- How to use it, run it, install it.
- Tips on it all,

This is a whole new world for me in computers, im not the best with command line. but want to learn. i learn by doing. so this is my step to doing this.

repo

Every major distribution would do.
http://distrowatch.com
Download some live cd's, and try them out.
Once you made your choice, install it, and learn to use it.

pljvaldez

Well, it will be a great new adventure for you! Just know that linux doesn't act like windows and will be completely different and foreign to you. But it is much easier if you have a goal and a particular thing you want to do. Come back here for help if you need.

If you're interested in a server, I would try using Debian Lenny (the current stable branch) which has thousands of packages (i.e. applications) in an easy to install binary format. Any other distribution is fine also. Most distributions are similar, but some of the command line tools you use vary from distro to distro. Some do a little more hand holding with graphical interfaces and whatnot. I like Debian, but feel free to use something else if you feel like it.

Here's a great website for setting up and installing lots of different things in Debian. It is really command line oriented, so you'll learn a lot right away. Note that anywhere it says apt-get you should actually use aptitude. apt-get works, but Debian developers now recommend aptitude because handles package conflicts better. You can also easily install a desktop environment. If you want a desktop, I would install from the LXDE/XFCE install CD. If you have network access, you only need either the first CD/DVD or one of the netinstall CD's. The other CD's and DVD's contain the lesser used packages.

Also google for "linux newbie" and you'll find a lot of good information. I'm partial to the RUTE tutorial even though it is a bit outdated. Also check out the linux documentation project. There's a lot of good guides and howto's. And Howtoforge.

Dodds

Thanks man, My first idea on what to use was Ubuntu Server, i have installed it, then i was like..what do i do now. and thats where im stuck. on that.

jmc1987

If you are new to Linux you have alot to learn.

http://www.howtoforge.com/ubuntu-home-fileserver

That has some information on setting up a file server with Ubuntu but I don't know how it works. How ever http://howtoforge.com has tons of great tutorials that can help you with Linux

Good luck

jmc1987

edit: sorry doubled post

pljvaldez

Ubuntu is a fine operating system and can be made to do what you want. It is actually based on Debian, so you can use the aboutdebian link above and do an awful lot of the same stuff, though some of the package names might be different. Most of the help guides for Ubuntu are more geared toward desktop stuff since that is their target market. If you google "ubuntu server setup" you'll probably get things that are more helpful. And Howtoforge has some Ubuntu setup stuff geared toward the server.

The hardest problem you will have is translating what you want to do into the correct terms to find out how to do it. For example, file sharing between windows machines and linux machines uses an application suite called Samba. But it may take you a little while to get there via google.

So feel free to come back and ask lots of questions (in the appropriate forum). Just remember that people here are willing to help point you in the right direction and solve issues, but the community also expects you to take some initiative to try to work through the answers. Mostly because it's a lot easier to answer a question that is about a specific problem.

pljvaldez

Just be sure to use the latest version of Ubuntu (or the LTS - long term support version). That guide is a couple years old and Ubuntu releases every six months. The newest version comes out on the 10/29 I believe.

salasi

Prioritise: what is your first priority for this computer to do (file sharing, internet caching, firewall, access control, print server, etc, etc). Chose one and try to do that. You will get stuck, but tutorials as suggested above will help (I like the linuxhomenentworking site as it goes through a project like this, but it is broadly RedHat (and derivatives) based and not Debian (and derivatives) based, so there will be detail differences, but it could still be useful for the 'big picture' stuff).

When you get stuck, if you can say 'I tried this and this is what went wrong' or 'exactly this point is what I don't understand' people here will find it a lot easier to help you on to the next level. (BTW, you are going to get stuck there, too, but having learned a bit at the first problem, the second could go more easily.)

callumacrae

Ubuntu 9.10 is being released tomorrow, so I would recommend waiting until then before doing anything. You don't want to get it fully set up and then update to discover everything has been undone!

~Callum