Status report -- and a question..

[fpp]

Hi all,

Just a note, as promised, to confirm that my Ubuntu 10.4 LTS server is up and running, thanks to havetheknowhow.com :-)

A word of warning that may be useful to those who might try after me : I wasted *A HUGE LOT* of time trying to install the server using a USB stick (having stubbornly decided that I would not add a CD-ROM drive to it just for that :-)
I followed the instructions on the Ubuntu site (which are not very coherent, BTW), with different memory sticks, the 32-bit then 64-bit ISOs, etc., and got nothing but errors and failed installs. DON'T TRY THIS :-)
At long last I caved in and burned the ISO to a CD-RW and booted that from an external USB CD-ROM unit, and it was over in no time...
The E35M1 is no speed demon, but miles above the VIA mini-ITX I used before, and having a small SSD as a system disk makes an incredible difference.

After that configuring the system was a breeze, thanks to Ian's very detailed guide, kudos again !
I have all the basics running (except KVM, which I will probably regret later :-).
Virtual-gnome in VNC is great, and surprisingly fast & snappy, even at 1920x1080...
Webmin was a shock -- I hadn't used it in, what, ten years at least, in the days of Web 1.0 ? What a change of style ! :-)

Speaking of Webmin : ssmtp works a treat as described, but it seems that Webmin can't use it to send its own administrative messages, which could be useful. Have I missed something ?

At first look I was taken off guard by the concept of startup scripts in cron, but the more I think of it, the more I think it's a great idea !

All in all I was getting to the FlexRAID step, which was the main goal initially. Unfortunately OpenEgg.org is down... Does anyone have news about that ?

Oh well, I'll just tinker more in the meanwhile...

[Ian]

Hi there and thanks for the status report. Have been tempted to try a USB install but I think I'll pass on it given your experiences.

The openegg site goes down occasionally. Be patient and it'll be back. I don't have a copy of the binaries else I'd upload them for you. Sorry

Ian.

[fpp]

Thanks for the offer, but I actually have the 2.0-Preview11 archive tucked away somewhere. It's just that I don't intend to dive into that part without the support of the Wiki and forums :-)

Any advice about the mail-in-Webmin part ?...

[Ian]

Hi fpp, apologies for not replying more fully previously but I was typing the reply on my mobile which was painful and so didn't type a full response!

Many installs ago I used to have Webmin send me some admin messages although I've since disabled them and now all "important" scripts have a specific line which generates the email.

Two things you could try if you want admin emails:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install postfix

and then go back into Webmin and refresh the modules (on the bottom left-hand side of the webmin UI) and configure email that way

Or perhaps try this:

In Webmin go into "Servers"|"Read User Mail" and click on the "module configuration" hyperlink. Then populate the "System configuration" section using smtp server. Not tried this myself (I'm not at home) but worth a shot.

Any good?

Ian.

[Ian]

Oh and the flexraid site is back up again.

[fpp]

Hi fpp, apologies for not replying more fully previously but I was typing the reply on my mobile which was painful and so didn't type a full response!

No sweat. I wouldn't have guessed, it was pretty lengthy for a mobile response :-)

Many installs ago I used to have Webmin send me some admin messages although I've since disabled them and now all "important" scripts have a specific line which generates the email.
Two things you could try if you want admin emails:
(...)
Any good?

Will give both a try, thanks ! The server is not running ATM, I'm working on the enclosure...

Oh and the flexraid site is back up again.

Yup, saw that, whew