Linux for media file storage box

[BallisticBrian]

Hi all

Currently, I have a PC running Win XP and an acer net book running Linux Linpus. I have built a tower of hard drives mainly containing MP3s.

I discovered you can't install XP on a second machine and I definately do not want to buy another copy of Win XP.

As I know how to map \ mount a drive from my netbook to the win XP machine in LInpus, I decided to download Fedora as I understand the two are similar but after trying to install Fedora, it fails to load the GUI, x? as either it doesn't recognise my graphics card or some other problem. Tried for a couple of hours to get this to work.

So before I download something else at random, is there any advice on a Linux system which I can download with minimum fuss, install and use bearing in mind everything I know about linux is inlcuded in this post!

The system only needs to serve files over a network connection and that is it, although as a WIndows user, I really could use a GUI.


P.S. if you are going oto suggest using Linpus which is on my netbook, I went to the Linpus site and they are charging for that distro for some reason.



many thanks for listening.


signed

noob.

[happybunny]

You really don't need a gui on your "server".

It would just sit there and waste resources and the gui app's wont really help you configure it as a file sharing server anyway.

I suggest you just install Fedora (or whatever) and let the gui fail.

Then you can access that server via ssh from XP or Linpus and configure it all you want.

You can even launch those gui applications but thanks to the magic of linux/ssh, the gui on your Linpus machine will display whatever is going on at the server.

Get it?

[dysharmonic]

Hi there

Most likely the version of Fedora you've installed doesn't come w/ the right driver for your graphics chipset.

If you're already at the console, login as root and type "startx" without the quotes. Let it scroll a bit. The file you need to look for is the xorg.conf.

Use nano to edit /etc/X11/xorg.conf. Look for the Device section and under it there should be a line of Driver "your graphics chip here". Change "your graphics chip here" to "fbdev", save and type "reboot"

See if that works.

On the other hand you might want to try Ubuntu or Puppy Linux, really there are many other good distros to choose from.

Oh, one more thing, Welcome to Justlinux.com :)

[dysharmonic]

edit : And like happybunny mentions above, you can achieve many things in Linux w/o the gui.

[BallisticBrian]

There are some good ideas there guys. The only thing is that as a complete novice I am faced with a blank screen with a blinking cursor when Fedora boots up from the CD and I wouldn't know where to start.

I would guess that I would need to know the following:
How to kick off the installation of Fedora to the hard drive from the boot CD.
How to share a volume in Fedora.
How to find the IP address in Fedora.

How to install and run linux/ssh on the Linpus machine.

Again, any help appreciated.

[BallisticBrian]

Sorry just to say - it should read how to set up Fedora with a static IP address when it connects to the network for firewall purposes.

[dysharmonic]

Blinking cursor means you're not immediately dropped to a console.

Ctrl + Alt + F1 should start a console, and if you need another one, just Ctrl + Alt + F2.

By default I guess you have up to 6 consoles : Ctrl + Alt + [F1 - F6]

Ctrl + Alt + F7 is where your GUI should be, if it's working right.

Hope that helps a bit.

[dysharmonic]

Sorry I misread your post.

There should be an option to start installation in text mode after booting off the CD.

[dysharmonic]

This should help you get going.

http://docs.fedoraproject.org/install-guide/f10/en_US/ch-beginninginstallation.html

Specifically it's for Fedora 10, but basically it should also work w/ other recent versions.

[teeitup]

If you boot a live CD and don't get a GUI then I'd move onto a different distro.

I only say this because you claim to be a novice. I'm sure the Fedora issue can be resolved but I see no reason for you to waste time and frustrate yourself when your just getting started.

Download Ubuntu or Mint and try again. Nowadays booting to a GUI based system from a live CD should be expected. If it doesn't then I would suspect that the install wouldn't fair much better.

Ubuntu is a great distro for someone coming from Windows. It is also good for integrating with other Windows machines on your network. It also easily has the best support on the internet.

Good Luck,

[BallisticBrian]

Well Ubuntu works out of the box - that's bloody fantastic.

[BallisticBrian]

I have run into a problem. It was failing to boot the newly installed ubuntu after a few times, eith an error eth0 system failure.

So I swapped out the network card and that fixed the problem.

However Ubuntu does not appear to realise there is a new network card in there.

How do I get Ubuntu to check for hardware changes?

Any help appreciated.

[psych-major]

Does it give you any errors concerning the new NIC? Or does it just 'successfully do nothing'?

[BallisticBrian]

No errors. When you open the netwrok connections, it's showing as a loop back and no controller card, so I presume it's seeing no network card at all.

[BallisticBrian]

JUst so you know, the new network card started working after I messed around with the settings a bit and rebooted. cheers.