Looking for new distro advice for my fileserver

AtomicBanana · 22 Nov 2006 at 16:44

Hi there guys, been running a slackware a long time on my server and I'm just getting a bit annoyed with the lack of proper package management. I know there are tools you can use, and indeed I do but I'm just getting fed up and fancy a bit of a change.

I'm considering trying Gentoo again but I think that's going to be a considerable time sink - is it going to be worth it in the long run? The other concern if I did use it is that it's only got a weed little Duron CPU, I can't have it compiling everything from scratch, it'd just fall over

Basically what I'm looking for is something that runs as fast as I can make it, boots damn fast, and is easy to maintain. All I use it for is like SQL/php testing (and things like torrentflux) and samba/file sharing.

Is gentoo the way of the future?

Captain-Fungi · 22 Nov 2006 at 17:18

If your looking to do all of the things you say you are, you could just use Ubuntu server for ease of use and speed.

It has a fairly good package manager (apt) and if you disable unwanted services it will boot fairly quickly.

I dont see what all the fuss is with Gentoo, why go through all the pain of compiling from source? Will you really see that much of a difference given what you will be using the OS for?

deano · 22 Nov 2006 at 17:37

net install of debian or install of freebsd or possibly

http://www.freenas.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

cheers
Deano

GarethDW · 22 Nov 2006 at 18:17

If you do want to go down the Gentoo route, give SabayonLinux a whirl, it's got all the advantages of Gentoo but it comes pre-compiled. I use it and it's very nice

deano · 22 Nov 2006 at 18:30

GarethDW said:
If you do want to go down the Gentoo route, give SabayonLinux a whirl, it's got all the advantages of Gentoo but it comes pre-compiled. I use it and it's very nice

O/T
how is it with getting the the mp3's,dvd, java, skype etc etc working?

cheers
deano

GarethDW · 23 Nov 2006 at 01:45

deano said:
O/T
how is it with getting the the mp3's,dvd, java, skype etc etc working?

cheers
deano

deano,

by default, mp3, dvd, java, flash, etc... all work perfectly. Didn't have to change a thing, they just work.

As for Skype, I've not tried it as I don't use it, but there is the Skype client installed by default too. I'd assume it works, and I've not seen anything over at the Sabayon forums.

Cheers,
Gareth

deano · 23 Nov 2006 at 11:24

GarethDW said:
deano,

by default, mp3, dvd, java, flash, etc... all work perfectly. Didn't have to change a thing, they just work.

As for Skype, I've not tried it as I don't use it, but there is the Skype client installed by default too. I'd assume it works, and I've not seen anything over at the Sabayon forums.

Cheers,
Gareth

thanks for the info

cheers
deano

AndrewP · 23 Nov 2006 at 13:09

I use CentOS on my home server to do most of those things (firewall, samba network storage, lamp for messing around with etc.), yum is a pretty decent package manager, mines a Duron (800MHz?) too with all my random memory and hard disks (768Mb/280Gb I think) and v4.2 runs fine.

afraser2k · 23 Nov 2006 at 18:07

I'm using Debian Sarge on my home server and I think 4.0 will be out soon (or at least before Christmas from what I've read). It should be ideal for the setup you're running as I've got an Epia M6000 (600MHz), 512Mb ram, 120Gb hard disk running Samba, DNS (via dnsmasq) and SSH. I then do a full scan my Samba shares with ClamAV every night at midnight via cron.

I haven't used the full LAMP stuff yet but Apache/MySQL installed fine as did webmin for remote administration. Also, I'm not 100% sure that dnsmasq is working properly due to the update errors I get sent to my mail user.