Sekoyen’s

Studying more about Network-Attached Storage, I came across into Ubuntu.

FreeNAS is very good, easy, stable and hasslefree, but I think I want more than just a NAS.

What I want are:
1. Network Storage - FreeNAS got it
2. Webserver - FreeNAS have it
3. Squid cache server - FreeNAS don’t have it
4. A dedicated game server - how do I install game on FreeNAS?
5. A dedicated torrent download platform - hard to play it using FreeNAS

So, I decided to try Ubuntu. Why? On ealry stage, I had also considered Centos and Fedora but from certain website, currently Ubuntu is the most popular distribution.

Download

I want to build a server, but I think their desktop is also interesting, so I downloaded both of their iso images using torrent. I used torrent because I found out it was faster than download it from their server. Yeah! I got maximum download rate!

1. Ubuntu-8_04-desktop-i386
2. Ubuntu-8_04-desktop-i386

Than I burned them into CDs using Nero.

Installation

I installed Ubuntu Desktop into my main computer(which I usually use) and Ubuntu Server into my FreeNAS computer (Unplugged FreeNAS hard disk and I use another hard disk), because I thought I might want to use FreeNAS again, who knows!?)

The Installation process of Ubuntu Desktop into my main computer is very easy.
1. I resized my hard disk partition and created an unused partition using Partition Magic. So, Ubuntu could use the unused partition for it’s file system. The hard disk also got a Windows XP in it’s first partition. So, it would be a dual boot computer.
2. Than I inserted the Ubuntu Desktop CD and booted up the PC (Using the BIOS, I set it up to boot from CD)
3. Firsly, it asked the language to use. I chose English, then there was a list of avaiable options to use the CD.
4. I chose, the second one which is to install Ubuntu into the hard disk.
5. I just followed the instruction step by step, until it asked about partition to use, than I selected manual and pointed it to use the second partition. than so on..
6. It only took about 20 minutes to finish.

Dual Boot

The default, the system automatically chose Ubuntu to boot up. I wanted it to choose my Windows XP as default boot because my wife could still use the computer without asking too mush stuff.. hehe

What I did was:
1. open the terminal - Application > Accessories > Terminal
2. gksudo gedit /boot/grub/menu.list
3. Below is the sample of default configuration you might found (which I copied it here from somewhere)

4. Default is 0, is what the default operation system it will boot. I changed it to 5 so it pointed to Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition.
5. Save it and reboot.

Well, that’s it.

Ubuntu Server

What is the different between Ubuntu Server and Ubuntu Desktop Edition?

From my little knowledge about Ubuntu, the desktop version will install the GUI (Graphical User Interface) and other extra applications like OpenOffice, Mozilla Firefox, Sypnatic, games etc. Meanwhile, the server version only install the needed application without the GUI. The applications installed such as apache2, samba etc.

The main thing you should know whether you installed a server or a desktop(yup, there are some confused users out there) is when it boot up, the desktop version will ask the login name in a beautiful orange screen but the server only ask the login name in black DOS-like screen.

If you don’t know which to choose, I personally think that you might want to choose the Desktop Edition. If you change your mind later (but still in learning process), you could install the needed application using the Synaptic application.

Installation

The installation would be as easy as the desktop but…
I installed it in another computer system with different hardware, faced some problems which I will write in another article.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 10:52 pm and is filed under Software, Linux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.