Some problems setting up my first Linux sever
 

I'm new to these forums and fairly new to Linux. I've had a Windows 2000 server that has been running my Joomla/phpBB website for quite some time now. I recently was able to complete my new server and decided to migrate over to Linux, more precisely Fedora core 6. I installed using the "server" configuration with a couple more options that I felt I would need as well as choosing KDE over GNOME. Now onto the problems....

First I need to get VNC and a network share going so I can remote the Linux machine. I have tried using Samba, but cannot get my windows machine to recognize the drive. It can see the workgroup the Linux box is on, but not the drive (btw how do you change the workgroup?). I as well have gotten VNC to work, but not quite what I had hoped for. I would prefer it to load with the booting of Linux, but instead I have to login into root before it works. I need this because I have to do a complete remote administering of the machine once its up and running, therefore when I reboot after any changes I need to not have to plug it into a monitor/keyboard.

Once I get these answered we'll move onto my Apahce/MySql questions :p thanks for any help

The configuration of samba, including workgroup, can be modified by editing /etc/samba/smb.conf. The options tend to confuse me quite a lot, but I usually find editing the share level from User to Share helps.

As for remote administration, can you manage with ssh (optionally with X forwarding)? It's more secure than VNC. I'm sure it's straightforward to setup VNC to start on boot, but I've no idea how.

Only by the grace of god was I able to figure out how to get my site back up :rolleyes:

Anyway I tried what you suggested with Samba, still no luck. Do I have to forward any ports, or open any in linux? As for SSH can you explain more? Never have heard of it before and don't exactly know where to begin. I found the website but that really only made more questions.

Hi

Maybe take a look at webmin? It's basicly a web-server (not on port 80) that let you configure and control a server from remote. (Like Samba, Apache, MySql and so on.)

I never tried Fedora, but I guess it has webmin. It might be split in many modules, so you need to install webmin-apache, webmin-samba and so on.

Googling "webmin samba" gave me:
http://www.webmin.com/samba-howto.html

A bit easier that editing smb.conf - good luck :)

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Fedora_fc5

I think this site will help a lot with configuring FC6 for what you want it to do. SSH stands for Secure Shell. Basically it is an encrypted login into a remote machine. The guide tells how to do it for linux-->linux or for windows-->linux. Once you have a secure login on the remote machine you can run graphical applications 'remotely' from that machine so the gui shows on your machine but all the processing continues to be done on the remote machine. I think xforewarding (the stuff that makes it happen) will only work for linux-->linux though.(?)