My friend has a Sony Vaio Laptop, and is running out of space. We want to use his 233mhz box with two 120gig hardrives, and use it just as a file server.
The Vaio is running Windose and I want to use GNU/Linux on the 233, since GNU/Linux has great support for older hardware. Now what software should I install on the Linux Box, and how do I see it from winows?

If I use Debian Sarge, would I just apt-get the software and thats it?
Also does the Linux kernel support 120Gig drives?
Also what file system should I use XFS, or ext3? Ive heard that XFS is great with large files.

shouldn't even have to apt for it... you'll use samba to do the sharing, and chances are that it's already on the system... otherwise, yeah -- apt for it...

re: FS... choice -- i'm still stuck on ext2, personally...

i run 200G drives, and i haven't done anything special... though i do have a custom kernel, i don't remember having problems with a standard slack kernel...

yes linux kernels support that size drives (at least i know they do v2.4+)

With Samba... There's also NFS for file sharing but you'll have to install a NFS client for windows.
For filesystem: if that's for windows file sharing... VFAT is the simplest 'cause other FS are recognized by default by windows. I know that it exists drivers to see ext2/ext3 from windows (explore2fs) but for others: don't know

Oliv'

Use samba with the default sare file system, I think it's EXT2 or EXT3 if you can use EXT3 use it because it's a journaling file system (If system crashes or gets restarted in a hard restart less chance of data loss with a journaling File System. When samba is set up it doesn't matter what FS you are running on the linux box Windows sees the shares as a Virtual CIFS file system. Windows can mount the share and add/delete/modify files on it. If you need help setting up samba write back or check some of the many posts on this forum. I would also recommend running OpenSSH on the server, and use an SSH client like putty on the Windows box so that he can administer the linux server from the laptop. YOu might even consider VNC server and VNC client on the windows box if you are running a GUI on the server.

Alex

What are the advantages of debian vs slackware for a server? Does it really matter, is just to be familiar with one or the other, right now im using pclinuxOS as a desktop. I have experience with Redhat, Debian, SLack, Vector, Onebase, SuSe, Yoper, etc etc.

Id personally like to use Debian, but if someone could point out a reason to use another free as in beer distro, that would be great!

it's all about preference.... i think most people find the best part of debian is apt... slack has good libraries/compile support out of the box, and strives to be 'most unix like'

you've used different distros -- go with what you like best.

OK, Thanks!

The Samba team updated their site and have a lot of excellent howto's.

Here's a good example: EXAMPLE

Im going to go print it , so I can get more comfortable when I go to read it.

There exists an "Edit" button below your posts, you know. Just click it to edit your posts.

I use XFS on my file servers, and have gotten noticeable speed increases over ReiserFS.