Hi guys, my name is Dane this is my first post on this forum and I am a first time Linux user.

I am doing a study on Mandrake 10.0 for my diploma and am required to configure a machine as a server.

My problem is I dont know anything about Linux

I am familiar with Networking as it is my area of study but I canot for the life of me figure this Linux thing out....

I downloaded the Mandrake 9. something documentation one of the files which was named "server_conf.pdf" and it had in here server configuration guides.

I noticed in the Mandrake Control Center menu in addition to all the regular things such as "Boot" "Mount Points" etc it had a menu option "Server Configuration" which in the documentation seemed to have icons for DHCP and so forth...

This is not on my installation of Mandrake.

I have looked around in all the packages included on the CD's, I have even reinstalled, once without any packages and tried to install them one by one to see if one would bring that server option, secondly with absolutely everything installed.

Still no go.

What am I doing wrong?

I really have to get this sorted as I am already 3 week behind schedule due to my lack of even securing a project and I really have to start configuring this machine ASAP.

Any help appreciated.

Cheers
Dane
gibsandwich@yahoo.com

It's possible that the "server config" is removed in Mdk10.
Don't bother - which servers do you want? Using a GUI-tool is good sometimes, but if you want to know how things work go for text-mode! Also, I used the server-config option in my Mdk9.1 to get an ftp-server working, it didn't work.
Start with telling us what servers, we'll tell you how to get moving.

Thanks mate.

I need a DHCP, DNS and Samba server, VNC Server, FTP and Web.

I installed Apache with Mandrake, it seems to work (it loads the main page) I dont know how to configure it.

I have gotten Samba working, but I cannot seem to make it join the domain.

Everything else I mentioned I have no idea about.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks,

Dane

DHCP, DNS and Samba server, VNC Server, FTP and Web.
To configure Samba and Apache, the easiest way is to experiment:
Open the configuration-file and the documentation, so you have them both accessible. Read and try out one thing at a time, don't do anything to start with than solve an existing problem. Getting samba to join a domain is not hard, the default config just needs a little tweaking.

VNC-server: install the package, it's on the CD's. Use urpmi or rpmdrake (GUI) to install, then start the server on one machine. Then start client on other, shouldn't be any problems.
FTP, DNS, DHCP: choose which program to use, like wu-ftpd or pro-ftpd for FTP, bind for DNS, DHCP I don't know (pump?)
Install them, read config-file for FTP, I found it rather self-explanatory.
DNS & DHCP I never installed, but I believe a default installation doesn't need much tweaking. DNS might look pretty weird at first, I suggest you deal with that last as I found it the most difficult to get the grip on.

This is for a start, as you surely noticed my "help" so far is mainly "read some stuff"...
But it's just to get you started, then return with specific problems you may run into!