Want a Linux home server - which Distro?

Audigex · 3 May 2012 at 22:45

Hey guys

I'm thinking of converting my PC into a part-time server - I spend 95%+ of my time on my MacBook nowadays, so the PC is just sat there for an occasional couple of hours of gaming... I figure I may as well use it.

I intend to use it for:
-* An Apache MySQL PHP stack for testing stuff
- A smart-home server - ie a (probably Java) app to control a load of Arduino stuff (over Ethernet) that I'm ********ing about with.
-* Media streaming/file sharing server on my home network
- Backup server for my laptops etc
-* SVN/Git server
-(*) Print
-* VPN

* = stuff I intend to be accessible from outside of the network, I doubt that makes any difference.

What do I want?
- Something that I can run with or without a monitor, keyboard and mouse - preferably with a GUI for VNC'ing in, rather than doing everything on the command line.
- More importantly, I want to be able to do as much as I can with GUIs. I can
make my way around a terminal, but I'd rather avoid it.
- As easy as possible to set up the above services, and more importantly easy to set them up securely

Any suggestions?

Audigex · 4 May 2012 at 01:59

Essexraptor - yeah the sig rig but probably put the CPU back to stock as I doubt I need the overclock, and likely removing the GPU unless I leave a windows dual boot for gaming.

Aln, thanks - it was more that I want to have a GUI available than having to do everything via GUI... I'm intending to run the home management software with a visual element on the server, so I can see the house status at any time. It would likely be available to view on clients, but I want the server to always have it shown.

Audigex · 5 May 2012 at 23:09

I've decided the easiest way to test it out is to run a VM on my laptop and test it out over SSH/webmin. Just installed Ubuntu Server headless with as few options as possible and openssh-server. Thanks guys, I'll post back how I get on in a few weeks.

Audigex · 7 May 2012 at 03:19

I did try it with a GUI - but it went to some insanely big resolution and I couldn't click anything :s I'm assuming it was just some VMWare messing about - re-installed and am just leaving it command line for now. I'm doing most of it via SSH (figure it's better to get used to it like that), with some WebMin use.

I wouldn't mind a GUI being available, but is there a way to have the option of whether I boot into the GUI or just command line? I keep messing with network settings and have to use the VM to get the IP to SSH back in, or to reset the eth0 interface when I move location (won't bore you with why)

I've got basic command line knowledge from OSX, so I'm comfortable enough navigating my way around, apt-get seems like the easiest thing on the planet, permissions are taking a little getting used to and apache/FTP seem fiddly, but my biggest problem is detesting VI... I would quite like a text editor where I can just move around and type/backspace as if within a textedit/notepad window, then press a key combination to save. Any suggestions?

I've also got a slight problem with Apache index pages not loading - instead I get a download (named simply download) in chrome. PHP is installed fine, I can go to http://localhost/index.html or http://localhost/phpinfo.php and both work fine, as do phpMyAdmin and WebMin but when going to http://localhost/ then it does the download thing... can't work out what's wrong. I'll leave the details out of here for now so as not to confuse the thread.

Audigex · 7 May 2012 at 13:17

I like nano, thankyou! That's just made command line a whole lot more pleasant to use.

Audigex · 7 May 2012 at 21:37

I fixed it either by removing and installing apache2, restarting apache2, or rebooting the system... I couldn't tell you which one, I just noticed that it started working again :-)

just having a play around with SVN now.

I wish commands were more standard across the system, or that webmin had a better SVN module - I'll see if I can find a few more, I'm using VirtualMin Subversion repositories at the moment, but VirtualMin doesn't seem very good at telling me how to access the things I just created... I'd kill for a "Repository jontest created, access it using (web address here)" when using SVN and "Virtual server created at (web address here)" when using apache. It makes playing around with these things hard work, because I can't tell if I've messed up when creating it, or am messing up while accessing it.