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Remastersys Simple Server

Page history last edited by Fragadelic 15 years, 11 months ago

 How to make your own simple home server starting with Xubuntu as the base

 

My server was running pclinuxos from a few years back and I decided I wanted to upgrade it since that version hasn't been supported in years anyway and I wanted to upgrade my hardware.

 

 

My old server was an AMD k6-2/550 with 2 drives - 1 for the OS and the other for storage.

 

 

My new one is an old IBM P4 1.8 with 512MB ram.  20Gig for the OS and 250GB for the data.

 

 

I started with Xubuntu 7.10 and first removed the xubuntu-desktop package so I can remove individual packages I didn't need.  I stripped out everything client related and left just X and the base.  I then installed LXDE http://lxde.sourceforge.net/ to use as a light desktop environment and webmin http://www.webmin.com/ for server administration.

 

 

 

This is what I installed for the server:

 

 

dhcp - dhcp server

proftpd - ftp server

lighttpd - small http server

samba - windows networking server side

cupsys - print server package

sshd - secure shell for remote command line access

webmin - for local and remote server administration

iceape - simple web browser for the webmin local administration

remastersys - to make a livecd from this

gdm - login manager that the ubunut livecd scripts need for auto login

lxde - lightweight desktop environment that is freedesktop.org compliant which means any .desktop files in /usr/share/applications show up automatically on the menu

graveman - for simple cd burning needs

 

 

I customized gdm by changing the factory gdm conf file and removed all the ubuntu themed stuff and colours - I like blue.

 

 

The resulting iso file was 462 MB in size.  The install went very smoothly on the new server and it only took 1 hour from the time I put the livecd in until I had my server completely configured like the old one.

 

 

This was the easiest and quickest server install I've ever done so I was very pleased with how everything went.  This is just for my internal home server that serves our videos, pictures and music to the various network enabled media devices I have throughout the house(all old stuff that other folks had thrown away).

 

 

I setup the static networking stuff on the server first and then used webmin to configure all of the services I needed.  I use lighttpd to serve a home page for my kids so I already had the index.thml and just put it in /var/www which is where the default root of lighttpd is.

 

 

I am actually thinking of sharing my iso which I now just called Remastersys Home Server and might become Klikit Home Server if there is interest in it.  The webmin package allows a nice browser based config utility for all of the server side applications with the exception of lighttpd which is easy anyway.  You can browse to this from anywhere on the local network and administer the server securely since webmin uses the https protocol.

 

 

As long as you don't mind your server having a gui, its easy to do starting with Xubuntu.

 

 

This is not a lamp server although it can be turned into one if you want to and is meant to serve only a local network.  webmin includes configuration utilities for ppp and a linux firewall so it can be setup to be a simple home gateway as well but I'd advise against webserving to the outside.

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