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Thread: Which linux distro for home file server?

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    Which linux distro for home file server?

    In an attempt to reduce my electricity bill because of an old Athlon system running 365, I've just bought the bits to make up an ITX system (Jetway J7F4K mobo).

    This is to be on 24/7. I'm planning on having it boot from compact flash and will have a single 3.5" HDD for storing all content. The machine will also act as an FTP server and I'd like to have the ability to run a torrent client on it.

    My old box had XP Pro on it. I could use that for this, but have been looking into Windows XP Embedded to benefit from features such as EWF to safeguard the life expectancy of the compact flash card. However, I've been struggling to get the downloadable 120 day eval working properly.

    So I was wondering about some distro of Linux. Of course, it could fulfil all the basic requirements such as CIFS sharing, FTP server and of course have a simple GUI with a torrent client and a few other bits and pieces. What I want to find out is one that does the above, also has good power management features (power off hard disk when not in use), has driver support for the Jetway mobo and also has a similar feature to EWF so that it won't write random logs / use swap files, etc. Oooh and if it can also run as a DLNA server for my PS3, that would be nice too

    Any recommendations please? Note I've played around a tiny bit with Linux but wouldn't be up to the level of compiling my own kernel to include a particular feature

    TIA

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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    This is really odd... I just recommended this to some one else!

    try http://www.puppylinux.org/
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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    Hi Jay. I did see your post in the other thread, but thought of starting this one separately as it's specifically for a small file-sharing server and didn't want to hijack crazyfool's thread

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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    Quote Originally Posted by tfboy View Post
    Hi Jay. I did see your post in the other thread, but thought of starting this one separately as it's specifically for a small file-sharing server and didn't want to hijack crazyfool's thread
    yes, I understand that. its no problem.
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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    If you can live without a built-in bittorrent client, then FreeNAS is an incredibly easy to use NAS distro, but you never know, we may see BT support added in the future.

    *edit* just after checking, there's already a feature request for it, but the developers have given it a lower priority because they have more important issues and features to deal with first.
    Last edited by aidanjt; 05-07-2008 at 08:25 AM.
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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    Why boot from CF? I see no advantage in doing so, it's slower and you'll have a HDD in there anyway.

    If you want simple and GUI then Ubuntu is the obvious choice.

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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    Wrong. On both accounts.
    Quote Originally Posted by Agent View Post
    ...every time Creative bring out a new card range their advertising makes it sound like they have discovered a way to insert a thousand Chuck Norris super dwarfs in your ears...

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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    the CF route is somewhat redundant given USB disks these days

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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    Not really, but it depends on the application. Sticking FreeNAS on a CF is a good use of it, no unsightly USB flash drives sticking out of your usb port, which is especially useful with little childer running around pulling at things.
    Last edited by aidanjt; 06-07-2008 at 01:19 PM.
    Quote Originally Posted by Agent View Post
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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    Quote Originally Posted by aidanjt View Post
    Wrong. On both accounts.
    How am I wrong? CF is far slower than an internal disk and as the OP isn't using RAID arrays on internal disks there's no reason not to use it for the OS as well.
    Secondly you can't really beat Ubuntu Desktop for Linux beginners and the OP wants to do more than just use the machine as a fileserver.

    Don't go around making unsupported statements.

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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    Ubuntu would be OK - but no better or worse than any other distro with a Gnome/Kde desktop.

    As for a CF boot - it is low power, and the hard drive fitted for data can be set to spin down when not in use. That can be done for the OS, but is less satisfactory as the OS does frequent writes all the time - even at system idle, so the disk may never actuallt get the opportunity to spin down. Set against that the fact that there is a finite limit to CF memory, which would be accelerated in this application.

    One other option would be to set up the OS to run from a RAM disc, (as many distros do initially as part of the boot process) which would give an always on system, but using the hdd only for /home accounts and data (and perhaps /var) - but it would need some careful setting up, and I don't know how successful that would be. Others with more experience may care to comment.
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    Re: Which linux distro for home file server?

    Thanks for the lively debate, guys

    I've come across a bit of a stumbling block right now though To get me going, I did install XP to get to grips with the board, a Jetway J7F4K ITX-based solution, and it's the most unstable pile of **** I've ever had the misfortune of handling, bluescreening every time I try and do something involving I/O, mainly the network. I did try another NIC card, not using the built-in ones, but same effect. I then tried copying files from one hard drive to another locally, and that appeared to work, but after a few minutes, BSOD again with processr.sys

    edit: suggestions on the linux forums where people are having stability issues point to disabling ACPI and massively underclocking the thing, but that would kind of defeat any power management facilities I'd be gaining from it.

    Doing some digging, it looks like lots of people have lockups with Linux too, so maybe I've just bought a really bad board

    I'm tempted to return it and get an Intel Atom board as at least, it's made by a reputable manufacturer and should be even slightly more economical.

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