Initial Impression of Fedora Core 5
08.17.06 - 07:28pm
I have avoided touching Linux over the extent of computing lifetime however I have reached the point where Linux stands between me and my goals so I have taken the time to actually download a linux distribution and utilize it. I have been notorious for using Linux distributions for good torrent testing but this will be a first so it should be very interesting. Just as a heads up if you have any advice feel free to share, I have years of stuff to learn in a few months.
Hardware
Due to the fact that i just entered the DVD age with my Macbook and I lack an IDE DVD-ROM drive I was forced to download all 5 Fedora Core 5 CDs. Once I had all the disks successfully burnt to discs and all the discs were verified I set out on my adventure with linux. Because I am poor and in college I was forced to use old hardware for this project so I threw my aging Athlon XP 2400, 512MB of PC-2700, a 100MBit ethernet connection, and a 7200RPM 8MB cache IDE hard drive. Nothing special here and not even close to what I’d like to be using but beggars can’t be choosers, right? Luckily FC5(Fedora Core 5) supports a GUI(Graphical User Interface) installation which really helps Windows users like myself migrate relatively stress free. Once I got through the initial steps and started selecting packages to install onto this server I realized I had barely a clue what to install. A little bit of helpful googling and I pulled up this guide, The Perfect Setup - Fedora Core 5. There is nothing like having a complete walk through to slowly ease yourself into a new environment.
Installation
The guide does a really good job of telling you which packages to install however never do they mention which packages you don’t need. When I have a hang of Linux I think I’ll be going through and cutting out a bunch of the crap, who needs instant messaging on a HTTP server? Unfortunately about 60% through the installation Anaconda, the FC5 installer, decided it wanted to bug up and crap out on me. The thing crashed and the computer said to restart, which I did. Once posting the computer went straight into GRUB, the boot loader for Linux. This thing just skipped CD-ROM boot and went straight to jail, err GRUB. After yanking the hard drive, I got the computer to boot up Anaconda and then I repeated the process. The second go around Anaconda just zipped right through the installation, no bugs, no crashes.
Future Plans
After going through all 5 disks I finally had my first chance to play with a Linux system and I must say I wasn’t stumped, confused, or bewildered. In general Linux reminds me of Apple’s OS X and a bit like Windows XP/Vista but then again it is just another operating system. I’ve got a list of applications that I need to install such as Apache 2, ISPConfig, Xen, PHP5, MySQL, and a few other things but I think I’m on a decent track to have a functioning webserver by the end of the week. Hopefully by tomorrow we will have Internet in this house as Comcast is supposed to come out and drop us a line. Now I just need to go about installing all this stuff. Once I have the server off the ground I’ll be setting it up as a dev server and I’ll definitely drop the IP address here so you guys can check out what I’m building.
Let me know if you need any help with Fedora Core 5, or when setting up and securing the daemons - just give me a holler! ;)
Will do as I am sure I’ll need to call in lots of favors to get this stuff working. So far it has been pretty straight forward and I haven’t hit any walls that I couldn’t find a work around. Once my Internet is up I will have a chance to really test/configure this installation.