Yet another "which distro" thread?

[sluthy]

I'm setting up a home server for sharing movies and songs around the house, general file sharing, printer sharing, online calendar serving etc. I don't require DHCP, DNS, email, proxy, firewall or any of the other more advanced server functions, I'm after something similar to Windows Home Server but with the ability to add stuff later on.

I have one hard drive for /boot, swap and OS, and a 4-drive RAID5 setup for the data. I thought it would be good to have the OS and data on separate drives, so in case of OS corruption I could take it out, put another image or OS on it, put it back in and still have my RAID intact (hardware RAID support on motherboard).

Problem is - the OS drive is a 2GB CompactFlash drive on a CF-IDE adapter. I used that to a. speed up access (which I have since learned was a mistake, only SSDs are faster) but also b. to reduce power consumption (it's on 24/7).

So, I need a distro which will fit a /boot partition (how big for GRUB with one distro?), some swap space (have 1GB physical RAM) and the entire OS within 2GB. So there goes Ubuntu and the like (SUSE did fit and work but was too slow and too much of a hassle). DSL-N looks good but they admit it's not quite stable yet. So what would you recommend?

 

[Nothinman]

2G's kind of tight but you should be able to fit just about any distro into it with a generous amount of package pruning. The default installation for Ubuntu is probably pretty large because of all of the GUI stuff but if you use the alternate install disc or the server disc you'll get a lot less and can just add what you need.

 

[sluthy]

So far I've tried:

Ubuntu 7.10 regular disc = installed, but wouldn't boot. I think I screwed up the /boot section.
openSUSE 10.3 = worked, but couldn't get RAID loaded and was just generally slow
ClarkConnect 4.2 Community = would not recognise my Ethernet port (Realtek issues with that kernel), lots of frustration trying to update kernel and waiting for responses etc
Ubuntu 8.04 Alternative disc = red-screen error when installing software, won't go past that stage
Debian Etch net install = same issue, seems to work and install fine until close to the end of the install and it red-screens. I only selected "File Server" and "Print Server" but still no dice.

I'm considering doing a HDD install of a LiveCD distro and adjusting/improving it to include what I want.

DSL - only has 2.4 kernel and thus no SATA support. DSL-N does, but they admit it's not production ready yet.
Puppy Linux - tried it on a few things, works but not quite server material (always root, window manager too confusing)
SLAX - haven't looked too closely lately, any good?
Knoppix?

I don't need Gnome or KDE by any means, but I'm not sure I'm quite comfortable with dropping the GUI completely yet (or else I'll be on here for help a lot more often ), how bloated is Xcfe? It'll be running headless hopefully, just has a monitor for setting it up and diagnosis.

 

[Brazen]

My Ubuntu file server is using 1.0G of space. This is Ubuntu LTS Server with only screen, openssh-server, and samba installed beyond the default. This also includes the 256mb swap partition.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
...
if you use the alternate install disc or the server disc you'll get a lot less and can just add what you need.

The alternate install disc installs the exact same packages as the "regular" install disc.

 

[sluthy]

What differences are there between the desktop and the server install, other than the lack of Gnome? I'll download the server ISO tonight and give that a go. Setting up CUPS and Samba from a command line...yay :S

 

[George P Burdell]

If power saving is your main concern, add more RAM and drop in a small HDD. A well-tuned OS will stop spinning the HDD and access most programs out of RAM.

 

[sluthy]

I'm thinking about more RAM, not sure if the case will even fit another HDD (it's already got four, in a small case).

 

[Bateluer]

Have you looked at Damn Small Linux or SLAX? They have versions designed to run on USB keys, so they'd fit on your tiny flash disk without too much trouble.

Edit - Nm, I see you already looked at DSL, missed that line in your original post.

 

[tw1164]

What about FreeNAS? I know that you can install that on CF.

 

[Brazen]

Originally posted by: tw1164
What about FreeNAS? I know that you can install that on CF.

I would've suggested something similar, but the OP says he also want an online calendar which would require installing additional packages that would not be available to FreeNAS or the like.

Originally posted by: sluthy
What differences are there between the desktop and the server install, other than the lack of Gnome? I'll download the server ISO tonight and give that a go.

The lack of gui and gui applications is really the only noticeable difference I can think of. It does also use a different kernel, but I don't know what the differences are between the kernels other than the name (one is "linux-image-blah" the other is "linux-image-blah-server").

Also, do be sure to stick with the LTS versions of Ubuntu for a server (the next LTS release is Hardy, due in a couple weeks).

Setting up CUPS and Samba from a command line...yay :S

I think even if I had a gui available I would still just open a terminal and set it up from a command line. I think it's much easier to just open a config file and make all your changes right there rather than having to sort through menus and find the options you want in a gui. Granted, you may have to actually READ the documentation, but I would call that tough-love cuz you're better off that way, anyway.