Re: Help for a first time user...


Subject: Re: Help for a first time user...
From: Geoffrey L . Wright (geoff@northernwastes.org)
Date: Wed Nov 15 2000 - 00:00:16 MST


On 2000.11.14 17:05:32 -0900 Zach Marano wrote:
> I would like to run a Yellow Dog Linux server on a PowerMac 7500 with a
> PowerLogix G3 upgrade,160MB of Ram, a 1.2 GB SCSI HD for the OS, and a 30
> GB
> HD on a Sonnet Ultra ATA 66 card (which works great I may add). I
> currently
> have MacOS 9.0.4 running with all the services I need and it works fine
> for
> the most part. I love the MacOS to death but for server applications it
> just
> isn't very speedy or stable sometimes. I need to know, before I embark on
> this endeavor, if Linux can handle what I need to do as the MacOS
> currently
> does.
>
> Here's what I need to do:
> 1. Router to share a DSL line with both Wintel and Mac clients.
> €This includes DHCP and static numbers. This must also work with all
> streaming technologies such as QuickTime, Real, etc and chat clients
> (ICQ),
> etc etc. I have 2 net cards, the internal 10Base-T and a MacSense 10/100
> card. I want the internal on the DSL line and the PCI on the internal
> network as I have it now.

No problem-o for this. Linux makes a very nice router, and is under most
circumstances very east to set up. Look at http://ipmasq.cjb.net/ for
details.

> 2. Web, FTP, Mail, & Web Mail services.
> €I currently use WebCrossing to handle email and web mail as well as some
> discussion forums (which may or may not last). I know there is a Linux
> version available. Will it work on YDL? Is there another FREE solution to
> mail and web mail that works well? I know Apache can handle Web and FTP
> without trouble.

Again, easy and there are lots of great free options. wu-ftp is my FTP
server of choice. I'm pretty new to yellowdog, but since RedHat 6.2 is the
reference distro for the current version of yellowdog, I would guess it
uses the same. Check out http://www.wu-ftpd.org/wu-ftpd-faq.html for
details.

As for mail, yellowdog comes with sendmail for smtp service and uw-imap for
pop3 and imap. I'm really partial to squirrelmail. Check out
http://squirrelmail.sourceforge.net/ for details. We use it for mail at a
20-person software development shop where I play sysadmin. As for forum
software, I don't have any personal favorites, but I've used phorum
(http://phorum.org/) and it seems decent.

> 3. AppleTalk services, both IP and AppleTalk based.
> € This is a must as I have many Mac clients and the 30GB HD has many
> files
> that need to be easily accessible from the local LAN and the internet.

Netatalk.

http://www.umich.edu/~rsug/netatalk/

Comes w/YDL.

> 4. Windows file sharing is a good thing but not necessary.
> € If this could work with Windows machines as well, that would be great.
> But, it is not necessary because I already have PC MacLAN for them.

http://www.samba.org

Samba is a great thing. We use it heavily at my office and it's seamless.
But be prepared to learn more than you want to know about SMB to get it
going... :)

> 6. Some kind of remote admin for some of this.
> €I currently use Timbuktu on the Mac to remote admin this. I know that
> VNC
> exists. How well it works, I don't know. Also, remote admin of any of the
> other services is a big plus.

Telnet, or if you're in need of security, ssh. There are plenty of GUI
admin tools out there for linux, but you won't survive w/out the good old
command line. Nifty telnet or NCSA telnet on the Mac are all you really
need. YDL does come with linuxconf -- which I hate since it mangles my
pretty conf files. For a very nice web-based alternative, look at webmin.
O'Reilly just did a nice article on it. You can check it out at:

http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/bsd/2000/10/25/FreeBSD_Basics.html

The article is BSD-centric, but it's still useful for linux users.

> 7. Printer sharing is a plus but not essential.
> €I don't know if this is possible or not but I thought I'd ask. Currently
> I
> use Epson Share to share an Epson Stylus Color 740 printer with some of
> the
> Macs. Is there any solution to this on Linux? It's not a big deal though.

Haven't set up an Epson, but most printers work just fine. Sharing
printers is a snap under samba, and very easy from one linux machine to
another. I haven't tried it under netatalk.

> 8. The most important part!
> €I have played around with Linux before a little. Lets just say that my
> experiences were not good. Granted I am new to this all (I have been a
> Mac
> person for years now) and there is a definite learning curve to it all. I
> don't want to have to rewrite the kernal or anything scary like that if
> at
> all possible. The only programming experience I have is in HTML and some
> JavaScript.
> €I know it won't be as easy to setup and use as the MacOS but I am
> willing
> to learn and want to learn about it. I need to know what books etc are
> good
> for people like me that could help me in all this if it is even possible.

I started using Macs in 1984 and until I learned linux I was mostly a Mac
guy. Cut my teeth in systems administration starting in early '98 with
Windows NT. Started leaning linux late '98.

If you try this, you will feel pain, and you will get frusterated. The
learning curve with this stuff is steep -- but also fairly short. After
several years of paralell experience doing systems administration on *NIX
and NT, and I honestly say that it's easier to get started with NT, but a
LOT harder to be really good.

I didn't really find any books to be all that useful -- at least not any
"general" linux books. There are some good books on specific services
(like apache, dns, samba, etc.). But most of the stuff you need is
available online for free. Start collecting the HOWTOs as soon as you can.

And the biggest mistake I made in the beginning was not asking questions in
forums like this. Since you already did, you're one up on me. :-) Both
USENET and IRC are also invaluble.

But if you keep at at for just a couple of months, you'll find yourself in
the posistion of being able to perform miracles with commodity hardware.
It's really pretty liberating. The stuff out there that's available for
FREE is in most cases just as good as titles you'd pay thousands for. And
in a number of cases it's better, and in some it's radically better. I
have to admin both apache and IIS an a daily basis, and that is absolutely
a case where the free software is radically better than it's commercial
counterpart in almost every way.

Once you get it you'll be hooked. I feel crippled by the stuff that I
can't do on NT boxes, and I even use linux my workstation. These days I
write software for a living, and it would cost be many thousands of dollars
to outfit myself with analogs to the tools that come free with any distro.

> Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I hope this is a useful start. Best 'o luck!

//glw



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