Anyone set up a linux desktop/server?

Bl8ckr0uter

Well I plan to move my main laptop over to ubuntu. I am also plan to move 1 of my server boxes to linux as well. Why? Because I want to be a Linux engineer and a wise man once told me " If you want to be a good Linux engineer, use it."

I do plan to keep 1 windows machine on my network so I can set up samba. My laptop should be finished before the end of the weekend and my server should be done by next week. This should be something fun to do (besides CCNA studying).

Anyone have any advice on best practices?

stuh84

Main thing I would say is, try and do as much in the command line as possible, for example if a tutorial says "go to this menu, and then this", find an alternative for the CLI.

Linux is all about administering from the command line, and I love it

Solaris_UNIX

knwminus wrote: »

Well I plan to move my main laptop over to ubuntu. I am also plan to move 1 of my server boxes to linux as well. Why? Because I want to be a Linux engineer and a wise man once told me " If you want to be a good Linux engineer, use it."

I do plan to keep 1 windows machine on my network so I can set up samba. My laptop should be finished before the end of the weekend and my server should be done by next week. This should be something fun to do (besides CCNA studying).

Anyone have any advice on best practices?

Congratulations on getting ready to take those brave, daring and dangerous first steps to format over everything on those two machines with Linux.

In spite the bad economy there is still a big shortage of qualified Linux and UNIX techs and admins out there in the world right now. Some of President Obama's new CIO / CTO appointees are huge FOSS (free open source software) advocates (I think the new guy Obama is putting in charge of I.T. for the DoD is a huge FOSS advocate who participates in the LKML) so it's safe to conclude that open source software is only going to be gaining more ground from here on out in both the government sector and the private sector, which means more job opportunities for people who are familiar with FOSS technologies like Linux, Apache, Mysql, BASH shell scripting, Postfix / Dovecot, Perl, gcc, Python, etc.

Even with no certifications, you can actually still make good money in the Linux business provided that you actually know what you are doing and have a lot of experience and a well proven track record of delivering results on time and under budget.

The advice I'll give you depends on the hardware specs on your laptop and your server. When you boot up your laptop into an Ubuntu live CD, "sudo su" to become root and tell me what you see as output for these commands:

free -mt

fdisk -l

lspci | more

more /proc/cpuinfo

Bl8ckr0uter

Solaris_UNIX wrote: »

Congratulations on getting ready to take those brave, daring and dangerous first steps to format over everything on those two machines with Linux.

In spite the bad economy there is still a big shortage of qualified Linux and UNIX techs and admins out there in the world right now. Some of President Obama's new CIO / CTO appointees are huge FOSS (free open source software) advocates (I think the new guy Obama is putting in charge of I.T. for the DoD is a huge FOSS advocate who participates in the LKML) so it's safe to conclude that open source software is only going to be gaining more ground from here on out in both the government sector and the private sector, which means more job opportunities for people who are familiar with FOSS technologies like Linux, Apache, Mysql, BASH shell scripting, Postfix / Dovecot, Perl, gcc, Python, etc.

Even with no certifications, you can actually still make good money in the Linux business provided that you actually know what you are doing and have a lot of experience and a well proven track record of delivering results on time and under budget.

The advice I'll give you depends on the hardware specs on your laptop and your server. When you boot up your laptop into an Ubuntu live CD, "sudo su" to become root and tell me what you see as output for these commands:

free -mt

fdisk -l

lspci | more

more /proc/cpuinfo

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo su
root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# free -mt
total used free shared buffers cached
Mem: 2897 878 2018 0 92 472
-/+ buffers/cache: 313 2583
Swap: 0 0 0
Total: 2897 878 2018
root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu#
root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x701919a1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 192 1536000 27 Unknown
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 192 4108 31457280 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 4108 6913 22527996 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 6913 19458 100766720 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 6913 8825 15360000 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 8825 19458 85404672 7 HPFS/NTFS
root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# lspic|more
bash: lspic: command not found

[1]+ Stopped lspic | more
root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# lspci | more
00:00.0 Host bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (Internal gfx)
00:05.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc Unknown device 7915
00:06.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Po
rt 2)
00:07.0 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc RS690 PCI to PCI Bridge (PCI Express Po
rt 3)
00:12.0 SATA controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 Non-Raid-5 SATA
00:13.0 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI0)
00:13.1 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI1)
00:13.2 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI2)
00:13.3 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI3)
00:13.4 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB (OHCI4)
00:13.5 USB Controller: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 USB Controller (EHCI)
00:14.0 SMBus: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller (rev 14)
00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 IDE
00:14.2 Audio device: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia
00:14.3 ISA bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SB600 PCI to LPC Bridge
00:14.4 PCI bridge: ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 PCI to PCI Bridge
00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTra
nsport Technology Configuration
00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Address
Map
00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Con
troller
00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] K8 [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscella
neous Control
01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon X1200 Series
11:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E PCI Expres
s Fast Ethernet controller (rev 01)
17:00.0 Ethernet controller: Atheros Communications, Inc. AR5006EG 802.11 b/g Wi
reless PCI Express Adapter (rev 01)
1d:04.0 CardBus bridge: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 Cardbus Controller
1d:04.1 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments PCIxx12 OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394
Host Controller
1d:04.2 Mass storage controller: Texas Instruments 5-in-1 Multimedia Card Reader
(SD/MMC/MS/MS PRO/xD)
1d:04.3 Generic system peripheral [0805]: Texas Instruments PCIxx12 SDA Standard
Compliant SD Host Controller
root@ubuntu:/home/ubuntu# more/proc/cpuinfo

Thanks for the kind words.

.Sorry if it is a bit sloppy. I am using ubuntu 7.10. This was the last version I installed and I had issues with it such as I couldn't get wireless card drivers for my laptop and the video sucked bad. Also the keyboard had weird issues (and I am still having all of these issues). I have downloaded the 9.04 iso for the desktop and the 8.10 server edition. A buddy of mine told me that there has been a big push for drivers in the releases since 7.10 and I plan to wipe my hdd and install it sometime tonight.

msteinhilber

One of the ways I really dove into Linux was at home on what was on one of my first PC's we bought new, a Packard Bell Legend of some variety with a Pentium 75mhz I believe. I picked up a decent bit of knowledge, but what really helped me learn the most was setting up a Linux web server that I setup to colocate when I decided to give free web hosting a shot. Picked up more and more knowledge as I moved more towards paid web hosting.

If your budget affords it, one way to learn a lot as well as to host websites if you wanted would be to check into an inexpensive VPS host. You'll have the advantage of full root access over your VPS and can customize and secure it as needed. Most of the lower end packages that are fairly inexpensive often do not include any form of a control panel as well which would give you more command line experience as well as exposure to creating virtual hosts under Apache and so forth. This of course won't get you exposure to the actual installation, but I find it's a fun way to hone your skills as well as put up your own website(s) if you wanted. Most VPS packages also include the ability to retain a snapshot backup of your VPS as well as remote OS reload (basically reverts back to the base image) as well in case you goof something up.

jmanrta

knwminus wrote: »

Well I plan to move my main laptop over to ubuntu. I am also plan to move 1 of my server boxes to linux as well. Why? Because I want to be a Linux engineer and a wise man once told me " If you want to be a good Linux engineer, use it."

I do plan to keep 1 windows machine on my network so I can set up samba. My laptop should be finished before the end of the weekend and my server should be done by next week. This should be something fun to do (besides CCNA studying).

Anyone have any advice on best practices?

Wanna get into linux, huh?

Well's here a couple challenges, projects I have done in the past

you mentioned samba, if you want to have some real fun try setting up samba as a PDC and having your Windows Machine authenticate against it then try to get roaming profiles to work with it.

My next challenge for you is to setup an FTP server with the following stipulations:
-mysql authentication
-A php script for account creation and password resets
-a web client running on the machine
-quotas

setting up the web client for ftp will give you good experience with apache. Also having you create a PHP script will give you programming/scripting experience.

One thing I haven't gotten around to yet is setting up OpenLDAP and having all the services authenticate against, that's something I'll be working on in the near future.

As others have pointed out try to stay away from the GUI if you can. The only time I really like using the GUI is for text editing (I don't like the CLI text editors) or if I am in a hurry.

Also if you want, I'll break your system for you, and then have you try to fix it.

Hope this was helpful good luck to you.

Bl8ckr0uter

jmanrta wrote: »

Wanna get into linux, huh?

Well's here a couple challenges, projects I have done in the past

you mentioned samba, if you want to have some real fun try setting up samba as a PDC and having your Windows Machine authenticate against it then try to get roaming profiles to work with it.

My next challenge for you is to setup an FTP server with the following stipulations:
-mysql authentication
-A php script for account creation and password resets
-a web client running on the machine
-quotas

setting up the web client for ftp will give you good experience with apache. Also having you create a PHP script will give you programming/scripting experience.

One thing I haven't gotten around to yet is setting up OpenLDAP and having all the services authenticate against, that's something I'll be working on in the near future.

As others have pointed out try to stay away from the GUI if you can. The only time I really like using the GUI is for text editing (I don't like the CLI text editors) or if I am in a hurry.

Also if you want, I'll break your system for you, and then have you try to fix it.

Hope this was helpful good luck to you.

Thanks for the reply. I think I am going to have to study quite a bit before I get to that level but I will get on that soon. After I finish my CCNA ( depending on if I get this job I am interviewing for on monday) I may have to go for the MCSA (at least) and then CCNA:S. After that I think I may start on some linux certs (possibly starting with L+ or LPIC). I would like to get the RHCE and CCNP around the same time to round out my Network/Linux skills. Who knows...

Bl8ckr0uter

Seems like the running theme is use the command line. I think I will focus on that.

fleck

knwminus wrote: »

Seems like the running theme is use the command line. I think I will focus on that.

The Linux command line is a joke to me. Has been for years. Get a Linux bible.

Bl8ckr0uter

fleck wrote: »

The Linux command line is a joke to me. Has been for years. Get a Linux bible.

hmm....(i know I may regret this later)...


What do you mean it is a joke?

fleck

knwminus wrote: »

hmm....(i know I may regret this later)...


What do you mean it is a joke?

It's easy.

Bl8ckr0uter

fleck wrote: »

It's easy.

Well for those of us that who are not experience in Linux, what would be the best way (in your opinion) to obtain practical skills.

fleck

Well like I said a Linux bible is a great idea. You can always just look up all the HOWTOs and man pages on Google and do just as well, but having a single big resource for all commands and what they do is the best way. Also a proper Linux bible shows you sample config files and all, so you know how to hand-modify all or at least a most of the stuff in the /etc folder. Really the major thing about Linux server administration is the fact that everything is better if configured by hand using command line parameters and config files. And the problem with most GUI configuration tools is that they tend to fall short or work improperly. These days it's probably a lot better to setup a mail server or web server with the GUIs available, but it's always nice to know what those configs look like and what each part of the config does. As always, set up and play with all the services you can. Learn how to mess with inetd by hand and how to handle server config files like Apache/httpd.

Setting up SMB for networking with Windows machines will definitely be lots of fun and introduce you to a lot of what I'm talking about. But you have to take a command line & config file approach to all of it. There is nothing better. Once you start realizing how neat it is to write your own shell scripts to perform a series of commands to achieve a goal, that is where the real fun is.

qwertyiop

fleck wrote: »

The Linux command line is a joke to me. Has been for years. Get a Linux bible.

I hope your kidding. The command line is where you get the most power out of your OS.

fleck

qwertyiop wrote: »

I hope your kidding. The command line is where you get the most power out of your OS.

Ehm read the 3 posts before yours K thx.

msteinhilber

fleck wrote: »

It's easy.

I would hate to lead someone to believe that there are not complex situations that you can encounter on a Linux command line. I would agree that basic to intermediate command line skills are relatively easy after you use them a handful of times.

Editing config files from the command line is childs play, even young aspiring IT professionals with the latest leet speak and other generally acceptable by teenagers Internet slang can figure it out.

To become good at the command line isn't just knowing how to use some basic commands and edit config files with nano/pico, navigate the file system, remove files, change permissions/ownership, etc. Learning to use vi/vim very well, being able to use sed and awk well, regex, etc - just to name a few, are what are really going to make one effective at using the command line efficiently.

Bl8ckr0uter

msteinhilber wrote: »

I would hate to lead someone to believe that there are not complex situations that you can encounter on a Linux command line. I would agree that basic to intermediate command line skills are relatively easy after you use them a handful of times.

Editing config files from the command line is childs play, even young aspiring IT professionals with the latest leet speak and other generally acceptable by teenagers Internet slang can figure it out.

To become good at the command line isn't just knowing how to use some basic commands and edit config files with nano/pico, navigate the file system, remove files, change permissions/ownership, etc. Learning to use vi/vim very well, being able to use sed and awk well, regex, etc - just to name a few, are what are really going to make one effective at using the command line efficiently.

Well I will focus on learning the basic commands and build from there. Honestly this cisco studying has made me less afraid of the command line so maybe I can take to it quickly

fleck

Yeah, all I'm saying is that it's not some big scary thing. Once you start using the commands and you learn your way around it's not bad. There are complex situations you can run into, but with the right knowledge/documentation you can overcome anything.

Bl8ckr0uter

fleck wrote: »

Yeah, all I'm saying is that it's not some big scary thing. Once you start using the commands and you learn your way around it's not bad. There are complex situations you can run into, but with the right knowledge/documentation you can overcome anything.

Well I hope you are right. I was chatting with another person in another thread and I think I will be completing the lpic 1 I am just not sure when.

kimanyd

While the command line isn't this mysterious, scary nightmare some people make it out to be. I wouldn't describe it as a joke or easy either, especially to newbies. That's a great way to get them discouraged right of the gate (when things don't go smoothly like you lead them to believe).

The most important thing is to not get overwhelmed and just take things one step at a time. While the information is often not difficult, there is certainly a lot of it. It's sort of like 70-291 for Microsoft exams (aka the beast). The exam is difficult because it covers so much material, but each individual topic really isn't that bad.

As mentioned in another related thread, this is my favorite book for getting up to speed with Linux commands: Amazon.com: A Practical Guide to Linux(R) Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming (9780131478237): Mark G. Sobell: Books

JDMurray

Just remember that once upon a time there was only the command line, and everybody had to learn and use it to get work done. It wasn't until the Macintosh that a GUI attempted to replace the command line. And so far, in the last 25 years, that hasn't happened, so you still need to learn the command line.

L0gicB0mb508

A lot of production *nix servers are command line only. You will never see a graphical interface on a lot of them. It is best you learn the command line first. I personally find it easier to work from a command line than a GUI. I think you'll be far ahead if you dive into more of a command line situation first. With Ubuntu do most of your basic admin stuff in the CLI and use the GUI for more desktop use. Once you get familiar with the basics, you can move into more serious stuff like setting up your own server.

Hyper-Me

Even if you went the windows route, i would expect the same to be true in the next few years. With the quick evolution of PowerShell and installation options like Server Core (R2 supports powershell, btw), I think we will see a lot of backend server installations running nothing but a CLI.

fleck

Hyper-Me wrote: »

Even if you went the windows route, i would expect the same to be true in the next few years. With the quick evolution of PowerShell and installation options like Server Core (R2 supports powershell, btw), I think we will see a lot of backend server installations running nothing but a CLI.

Nah. You're talking about access servers with specialized purposes. Windows will always be mainly GUI for like 99% of things. For nix it just so happens that that's the way it's always been and it's still preferred to have shell skills for system maintenance. For Windows it's not even necessary.

msteinhilber

fleck wrote: »

Nah. You're talking about access servers with specialized purposes. Windows will always be mainly GUI for like 99% of things. For nix it just so happens that that's the way it's always been and it's still preferred to have shell skills for system maintenance. For Windows it's not even necessary.

I hope you don't plan on ever becoming a good Windows administrator...

fleck

msteinhilber wrote: »

I hope you don't plan on ever becoming a good Windows administrator...

Why, because ipconfig and tracert are gonna break my fingers? I'm pretty sure that 'powershell mastermind' isn't a prerequisite for Windows Server admin. Is it really popular with anyone except code monkeys?

veritas_libertas

fleck wrote: »

Nah. You're talking about access servers with specialized purposes. Windows will always be mainly GUI for like 99% of things. For nix it just so happens that that's the way it's always been and it's still preferred to have shell skills for system maintenance. For Windows it's not even necessary.

If you ever decide to study for a MCITP or MCP certification you will find this isn't truth. Especially with Microsoft's new GUIless W2K8 OS.

L0gicB0mb508

fleck wrote: »

Why, because ipconfig and tracert are gonna break my fingers? I'm pretty sure that 'powershell mastermind' isn't a prerequisite for Windows Server admin. Is it really popular with anyone except code monkeys?

A good Windows server admin will be rather well rounded in CLI. Especially if they do any type of scripting. Most admins use some variety of scripting to take care of admin tasks across the infrastructure (AD comes to mind). In the world of *nix it is almost mandatory that you are extremely good with a CLI. If you don't bother to learn CLI I don't see you being hired as a true *nix admin anytime in the near future. The GUI just doesn't cut it. I personally would not be running any type of graphical interface on a production server.

fleck

I'm a seasoned expert on the nix command line. I've made my own shell scripts for a variety of different reasons. One time I made an entire package with config files which would switch a system from dial-up to ICS configs just because I would switch my connection method almost daily in my house (my sister and I were sharing a phone line). That stuff is not really a challenge for me anymore, it was fun in high school.

If I'm really going to be learning a lot more Windows command line for my MCPs then that's fine. I just really didn't think so.

I thought everything MS had been doing with Windows since NT was moving away from the command line, LOL. Yeah it's just a joke, but proper, no?

msteinhilber

fleck wrote: »

I'm a seasoned expert on the nix command line. I've made my own shell scripts for a variety of different reasons. One time I made an entire package with config files which would switch a system from dial-up to ICS configs just because I would switch my connection method almost daily in my house (my sister and I were sharing a phone line). That stuff is not really a challenge for me anymore, it was fun in high school.

The entire point does not have anything to do with your perceived excellence of command line skills or scripting ability - even if your *nix command line skills would transition to superb command line and scripting skills in a Windows platform.

The point is you are well off-base if you are going to make sweeping assumptions that the command line plays no importance in 99% of duties as a Windows administrator. Sure, you can achieve what you might need to do in a GUI - but I'll achieve the same amount of work in 1/10 the time. People read here for advice on how to advance their careers, I would sure hate for someone to take what you said for face value and assume "oh, I'm going to be a Windows admin so command line and things like PowerShell are useless to me".

fleck

You are right. I was just talking out of my ass based on my own perceptions. I try not to do that but I thought I was right. I am pleased to learn that there are Windows Server command line jockeys. It really is a great thing to know that I was wrong. I look forward to finding out more about the Windows CLI, I really do.