Recommend a Linux distort for Home server
#1
I have been having issues with smb so I switched to Nfs and after a lot of trouble i worked out to use. Nfs I need to purchase some software as things are a bit tight cash wise at the moment I was thinking of switching my server from WHS 2011 to a Linux distro but I am a complete noob at linux so looking for something easy and reliable I will need the following though

NFS for my Openelec boxes and also be able to. Connect and share content to and from my windows 7 pc

Remote access from my windows pc (will be running headless)



Also if there is a way to use my existing hard drives without having to format them would be good

I have heard fedora , Linux mint and Ubuntu are good not sure though
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#2
ubuntu server & ssh.
DNLA
oye, formatto es hardrivo por favor
ps. they is also nice for a NAS server
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#3
try the live-usb for each one you named in your original thread then install the one you like to the hard drive (or just run live).

personnally i like fedora the best but only because i was a red hat administrator in my old job.

on second thought if you are using xbmcbuntu then you can just use/ install that. (xbmcbuntu is technically a linux distro and you can easily apt-get install new software).
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#4
http://www.freenas.org/

Never used it myself, but I have a lot of friends that swear by it, even in commercial environments.
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#5
Mythbuntu. Based on Ubuntu and is very lite but feature rich.
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#6
XBMCbuntu, Home Server, Network Setup Example
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#7
Freenas is easy to set up and great for hosting files. If you want easy management and stability I'd go for that. You won't need a lot of hardware capacity either.
If you'd like to run stuff like Sabnzbd and Sickbeard on your server you might want to use ubuntu server or desktop instead because there's no distro that makes it easier to install, configure and maintain the latest versions of any linux compatible software available. Partly because there is so much information available everywhere on the internet.
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#8
thanks for the tips guy i think based on my small linux experience and large amount of online help i am gonna setup ubuntu server (maybe desktop) and install webmin

i have been testing it out the last couple of days and i found i can get shares setup and working as long as they are public guest accounts with no username and password for some reason everytime i tried and account with a password it would not work

but as it is just on my home network i guess it is ok to just use guest accounts but set them to read and write
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#9
My favorite is Xubuntu (newest version is 13.04)

Its a much faster and slimmer version of ubuntu with Xfce instead of unity, which is great if not all of your hardware is totally new.

It is also complete with the ubuntu software center and other various things that people love about ubuntu...not to mention the ubuntu support which is almost as good as the xbmc support.

also i have found the best multiboot live usb creator, its called YUMI...you need windows to run it, but that website may have some alternatives if thats a problem for you.
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#10
Ubuntu server is a good choice for a newbie. I would recommend against Webmin though, I've had bad experiences with it before (admittedly a long time ago). If it works for you then it's fine.
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#11
Start by asking "what will I use this system for".

If it's *just* fileserving - NFS and SMB - then FreeNAS or similar will almost certainly work fine.

If you want to use TV tuners, and want to use Myth, then Mythbuntu is the way to go - but not if you want to use, say, tvheadend, or even realistically try a different backend.

If you want to use the system as a desktop PC - say, running OpenOffice (MS Office compatible), GIMP (graphics), Handbrake (video re-encoding) and similar - then an Ubuntu derivative is probably best (Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Mint, etc.). These also have the advantage of mostly having GUI admin tools for many tasks, so you won't necessarily need Webmin. That said, you say "headless" so you may wish to ignore this angle!

And of that crop, Xubuntu is probably the lightest mainstream distro, Mint is the most complete out-of-the-box, and "proper" Ubuntu is the biggest culture shock if you're coming from Windows because of the Unity interface.

Reformatting drives... the one the OS is on, yes, that'll be reformatted; if you have separate drives with media on then you can theoretically keep those, although the Linux native filesystems are better suited (and, some would say, simply "better") - so reformatting those as well would be a good idea.
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#12
I modified my Thecus N5200 Pro to run Ubuntu Server and love it. It was only the third time I've ever installed Linux on anything, and I was experimenting to find something that works well for me. I use Webmin to control the RAID and smb/ftp services, and it also runs Sickbeard, Headphones, Couch Potato and SABnzbd+. It doesn't even have monitor so I didn't have to mess with Unity. With this setup I can control everything it does from a web browser, MediaDog on my phone, or ssh to it from a laptop when I really need to. I can suspend my XBMC Zbox and the server never stops grabbing media for me with very little oversight in the background.

I fumbled through partitioning a custom flash module and installed Ubuntu Server on it, then used the guides at http://ainer.org to install Sickbeard, Headphones, Couch Potato and SABnzbd+. It definitely doesn't take a Linux wizard, because I am not one. All it takes is not being afraid of the command line. The bottom line is that I'm getting a lot more out of this kind of setup than I would be with just something like FreeNAS.
XBMCbuntu 11.0
Zotac ZBOX Blu-ray HD-ID34
URC RF-20 (configured with Flirc)
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#13
(2013-05-06, 19:27)Prof Yaffle Wrote: Reformatting drives... the one the OS is on, yes, that'll be reformatted; if you have separate drives with media on then you can theoretically keep those, although the Linux native filesystems are better suited (and, some would say, simply "better") - so reformatting those as well would be a good idea.
You don't need to do that as part of the install. you can shuffle your data around and reformat the drives later.
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#14
(2013-05-06, 14:36)protocol77 Wrote: thanks for the tips guy i think based on my small linux experience and large amount of online help i am gonna setup ubuntu server (maybe desktop) and install webmin

i have been testing it out the last couple of days and i found i can get shares setup and working as long as they are public guest accounts with no username and password for some reason everytime i tried and account with a password it would not work

but as it is just on my home network i guess it is ok to just use guest accounts but set them to read and write

If you want easy gui access to your server that will remind you of RDP'ing into your old WHS server then you should look at installing FreeNX on your *buntu box. [ http://www.nomachine.com/download-packag...od_Id=3771 ]
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