Linux Which OS to share an NTFS drive with windows 7, android mobile, and iPad?

[RickDawson]

OK. Never used windows server.
Xp I know will fit on the SSD, and 7 won't, but windows home server? How much space does it typically take?

[faugusztin]

As others said, your system doesn't meet the requirements for WHS2011, so that option is not really an option. Neither any of other Windows Server editions, as they are all x64 and minimum 2GB RAM.

You need to either change your server hardware or your requirements.

[RickDawson]

Ok. So ubuntu is the option, having thought about it. But will have to use a native linux file format, as long as they can be shared to windows.
I can have backups for my DJ'ing ie. USB memory sticks and the vinyl records I have.

[lp rob1]

What is wrong with using the NTFS driver? As mentioned, it is not the best thing in the world, but it supports reading and writing at the very least (I am using it right now...). There really won't be any problem with using NTFS in a Linux environment, although there are certain features that you will miss out on, like journaling (protection against data corruption in case of power failure) or proper permissions.

[CraigWatson]

Originally Posted by lp rob1

What is wrong with using the NTFS driver? As mentioned, it is not the best thing in the world, but it supports reading and writing at the very least (I am using it right now...). There really won't be any problem with using NTFS in a Linux environment, although there are certain features that you will miss out on, like journaling (protection against data corruption in case of power failure) or proper permissions.

Linux's NTFS driver does include journal support (the O/S will refuse to mount an NTFS volume if the journal is dirty). That said, performance does tend to be an issue when compared against a native Linux filesystem like EXT4.

You'll need to use Samba to share the NTFS drive over the network - your performance bottleneck will be your network bandwidth so Samba4 is your best option - there's a guide here.

[lp rob1]

I really recommend against Samba4 while it is still in the development stage - it is a pain to get set up properly and at the moment you need to compile it yourself to get a recent version (unless you are using 13.04). Samba3 will be all you need for now, and more importantly it has already established itself in production environments as stable.

I didn't know that the Linux NTFS driver supported journaling... I thought that NTFS just didn't support journaling at all.

[Burnout21]

I was just thinking about this, you mention or "data" drive is 3Tb and your running a via board if so which board is it?

This throws WinXp out the window as its not compatible as far as I am aware, but does the motherboard support HBA, or can you only see 2.2TB?

Ubuntu 12.04 LTS would still be my choice with the samba install from the repo just for ease of setup.

Have you actually tested this server setup to see if the HDD and board are happy together?

[RickDawson]

ubuntu is out, as it was running too slow.

i searched for a different distro of linux as I know RaspberryPi uses linux, but is less in hardware spec than the computer I'm trying to run.

after burning a few images of some lighter usage distros, I came across antiX which is working nicely (os performance wise).

I have decided to just (once I have it working properly and configured) add extra drives (not my 3 tb drive) and move files to the server, as if it goes down, i can use a bootable linux cd in one of the other computers and connect the hdd and access it that way.

weird thing is Firefox is named Iceweasel, but is actually Firefox. there is an audio player that looks like v2 winamp, but isn't.
iceweasel works fine.

I decided to actually use it as a web and file server(samba)

I have managed to autoinstall all web services apache2, mysql etc.

Got samba working, but only one way (which was installed by default with antiX)


I have a few problems with regards access ( I have tried file permissions)

Windows 7 won't see the server for file browsing (trying to see a folder on the ssd, before adding hdds)

From windows I can get the default holding html page, by the local IP address in the address bar but when trying to edit directly on the server, it does not allow me to write to the file, or put any other files in the www folder.
I cannot access it using FTP (file zilla in windows) it gives the error "ECONNREFUSED - Connection refused by server"

so Ive got somewhere, but I am now stuck again.

[RickDawson]

So I've got samba to work by using an added window to help configure the settings. But upon a reboot of the server it no longer works.
It seems that it is not saving the settings, or it not setting something to run the settings again. I clicked apply but it does not work upon reboot.
I installed netBIOS and the ntfs driver. But the 3tb drive is causing the computer not to boot.

[Burnout21]

What do you mean Ubuntu is too slow? Ooo were you attempting to run 12.10? If so that was Unity at fault..

Did you consider Linux Mint with the MATE desktop environment? Or Lubuntu which uses LXDE.

Tbh any ubuntu installation can easily be converted to any other environment, but I would seriously consider sticking with Ubuntu or a fork of Ubuntu as development is on going.

[RickDawson]

Yeah... Ubuntu 12.10
So unity was/is at fault.

I'll give it another try with an older version, or another flavor of ubuntu... Which should I try?

I basically thought that as it ran slow (refreshing every 4 seconds) that ubuntu wouldn't run on it. So I just looked for some lighter version of linux to run.

[CraigWatson]

Originally Posted by RickDawson

Yeah... Ubuntu 12.10
So unity was/is at fault.

I'll give it another try with an older version... Which should I try?

I'd suggest Linux Mint with the MATE desktop - it's binary-compatible with Ubuntu (it uses the same repositories and packages) but the MATE desktop is a lot lighter than Unity

[Burnout21]

Yeah after 12.04 they abandoned 2D accelerated Unity (somethings have to die) which means you need an actual graphics chip for 12.10 and the 3D accelerated Unity.

Mint with Mate as I mentioned earlier will do you fine, or go for the ubuntu 12.04 LTS

[lp rob1]

I recommend Xubuntu for all hardware except the absolutely most basic. TBH I prefer Xubuntu (with massive tweaking, of course) to Unity. Anything truly archaic I would put Lubuntu on it, or perhaps Puppy Linux depending on the speed of the hard drive. Puppy Linux wouldn't really be suitable for a server though because it isn't a Ubuntu derivative, so there is a distinct lack of packages.

[RickDawson]

So I put linux mint on, run the installer and it crashed during the hardware detection. Rebooted and tried again and it worked.
Put my 3tb ntfs drive in, and works perfectly.

Mint sees all on my network without any changes from the default install, and updating.

I can share my user folder, but sharing anything outside it (inc. The 3tb drive) doesn't work sharing.

Just want to get the other web services working (www, php, etc.) Apache is installed by default.

[faugusztin]

Originally Posted by RickDawson

I can share my user folder, but sharing anything outside it (inc. The 3tb drive) doesn't work sharing.

Explain what are you doing, what is not working ?

Originally Posted by RickDawson

Just want to get the other web services working (www, php, etc.) Apache is installed by default.

sudo apt-get install php5 libapache2-mod-php5
sudo update-rc.d apache defaults
sudo update-rc.d apache enable

If you need extra PHP modules, then first search for them :

apt-cache search php5

Then install them with the name you found in the list, for example GD is :

sudo apt-get install php5-gd

You can simply follow the Ubuntu guides, they should work.

[Burnout21]

go to /media/sdb1 or what ever is mounted in there which will be your 3tb drive, right click share options.

You might also need to change some user account options, but will shall cross that bridge if we get there