Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 9:24 AM, Alan McKinnon wrote: > On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:41:54 +0800 > Andrew Lowe wrote: > >> On 08/29/12 11:35, Michael Mol wrote: >> > On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 10:57 PM, Andrew Lowe >> > wrote: >> >> Hi all, >> >> Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server >> >> distro for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX >> >> boards, SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It >> >> will be working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence >> >> will be fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, >> >> debian, centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis >> >> a stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? >> >> >> >> Any thoughts greatly appreciated, > There's also DamnSmallLinux but if you ask me that's going too far to > the other extreme. Yeah, it fits inside 50M but cripes, it has to use > weird package management to do it. > > If not FreeBSD, then something Arch-based is probably your best step 1. > Arch is a bit like *buntu in many ways, once you've decided to go that > route, there's not really much difference between all the variants. > It's not the base that's resource heavy, it's KDE and Gnome. > > > > > -- > Alan McKinnon > alan.mckin...@gmail.com Although, if DSL *isn't* too far in the tiny direction, it's a bit much of a desktop oriented system to tweak for headless use, when a large part of that work was already done... TinyCore and MicroCore are pretty much a bare minimal desktop and a bare minimal CLI only setup, respectively, though they have very similar packaging setups to DSL. -- Poison [BLX] Joshua M. Murphy
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Wed, Aug 29, 2012 at 9:20 AM, Alan McKinnon wrote: > On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 12:53:47 +0800 > Andrew Lowe wrote: > >> On 08/29/12 12:42, kwk...@hkbn.net wrote: >> > On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:57:07 +0800 >> > Andrew Lowe wrote: >> > >> >> Hi all, >> >>Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server distro >> >> for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX boards, >> >> SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It will be >> >> working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence will be >> >> fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, debian, >> >> centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis a >> >> stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? >> >> >> >>Any thoughts greatly appreciated, >> >> >> >>Andrew >> > >> > Well, if you are only going to need it as an NAS, why not try >> > FreeNAS? OK, its kernel is BSD rather than Linux, but that >> > shouldn't be a problem. >> > >> > Kerwin. >> > >> >> Thanks, I'll look into that. > > FreeNAS comes *highly* recommended. It isn't cli driven though, it's a > django framework on nginx and runs off a memory stick. Resource usage > is next to nothing and it makes an awesome media server. It ships with > NFS, CIFS and FTP support and has plugins for dlna, firefly and > transmission. With the benefit that you don't have to build any of it, > write a 160M image to a memory stick, reboot, configure storage drives > and away you go. > > I would advise that you not use ZFS on an old machine though, ZFS likes > *lots* of RAM. Rather use the FreeBSD default of UFS. > > The screenshot is one of mine, a media server running on an HP > Proliant miniserver. No matter what I throw at that thing, it just > keeps laughing at me and asking if that's all I got I will concur that FreeNAS is a good fileserving platform. It's very probable I'll use it for my storage needs once I've got the time and coin to assemble a storage box after moving+silly season. -- :wq
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:41:54 +0800 Andrew Lowe wrote: > On 08/29/12 11:35, Michael Mol wrote: > > On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 10:57 PM, Andrew Lowe > > wrote: > >> Hi all, > >> Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server > >> distro for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX > >> boards, SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It > >> will be working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence > >> will be fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, > >> debian, centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis > >> a stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? > >> > >> Any thoughts greatly appreciated, > > > > Cripes, you're asking in gentoo-user. Of course someone's going to > > suggest Gentoo. > > > > Let it be me...and I'll explain: > > > > 1) You can put something like -Os or -O2 in your CFLAGS, whichever > > helps your performance case better. > > 2) You can target your CFLAGS to your exact processor, allowing > > generated machine code to be as efficient as possible on your CPU > > (which you'll need, if it's a low-power CPU!) > > 3) You don't have to compile on the mini-ITX board; you can > > cross-compile and use binpkgs to install. > > 4) You can use USE flags to strip out (virtually) any and every > > feature you don't use, reducing both your code size, load and > > execution time. > > > > If you want to do something lightweight, there's not much better you > > can do than with Gentoo. > > > > It had Gentoo on it for ages, and has not been updated in > ages. It takes "years" to do anything, with respect to compiling so > I'm just looking for a simple "point and click", binary download type > of thingy to keep it going. I've been down the cross compile route > also - once bitten twice shy and I don't care how many strides the > dev's have made in recent years, I'm not trying again on principle. There's also DamnSmallLinux but if you ask me that's going too far to the other extreme. Yeah, it fits inside 50M but cripes, it has to use weird package management to do it. If not FreeBSD, then something Arch-based is probably your best step 1. Arch is a bit like *buntu in many ways, once you've decided to go that route, there's not really much difference between all the variants. It's not the base that's resource heavy, it's KDE and Gnome. -- Alan McKinnon alan.mckin...@gmail.com
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Wednesday 29 August 2012 04:41:54 Andrew Lowe wrote: > It had Gentoo on it for ages, and has not been updated in ages. It > takes "years" to do anything, with respect to compiling so I'm just > looking for a simple "point and click", binary download type of > thingy to keep it going. I've been down the cross compile route also > - once bitten twice shy and I don't care how many strides the dev's > have made in recent years, I'm not trying again on principle. Several people here run Gentoo on tiny boxes. The way I do it is to have a chroot on my workstation with identical portage config to the tiny box. First export the packages directory on the target to the chroot on the workstation, then chroot into it, run emerge and so on to build the packages. Then ssh to the target and emerge -k. With my little Atom box the whole operation is quick and simple (since I learned the routine!). I'm sure it's easier and more reliable than cross-compiling, if only because it uses just the standard portage tools with no extra complications. -- Rgds Peter
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Tue, 28 Aug 2012 23:35:57 -0400 Michael Mol wrote: > On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 10:57 PM, Andrew Lowe wrote: > > Hi all, > > Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server distro > > for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX boards, > > SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It will be > > working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence will be > > fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, debian, > > centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis a > > stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? > > > > Any thoughts greatly appreciated, > > If you want to do something lightweight, there's not much better you > can do than with Gentoo. > Yes, there is. Well, it actually depends on what we are currently calling "lightweight". Gentoo depends on Python heavily. And it makes it impossible to use with low-memory systems. There are a number of binary distributions specially targeted at old or small systems. As for me, I use DeLi(cate) GNU/Linux on my old PC acting as a headless file-server and torrent-client. [It has 64 MB of RAM (tested with 32MB as well), Pentium CPU@200MHz (tested with AMD K5)] Before DeLi(cate) I used DeLi itself. It worked fine, but the developers dropped the support. DeLi(cate) uses Arch package management system which works very fast. It is also easy to add the new packages which are absent in repository at the moment. My impression is that all lightweight distributions are usually Slackware-based or Arch-based. But of course, there are different variants of lightweight systems. Check out these pages, for example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lightweight_Linux_distribution http://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=Old+Computers&origin=All&basedon=All¬basedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&status=Active Regards, Vladimir -
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On 08/29/12 12:42, kwk...@hkbn.net wrote: On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:57:07 +0800 Andrew Lowe wrote: Hi all, Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server distro for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX boards, SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It will be working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence will be fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, debian, centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis a stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? Any thoughts greatly appreciated, Andrew Well, if you are only going to need it as an NAS, why not try FreeNAS? OK, its kernel is BSD rather than Linux, but that shouldn't be a problem. Kerwin. Thanks, I'll look into that. Andrew
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:57:07 +0800 Andrew Lowe wrote: > Hi all, > Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server distro > for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX boards, > SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It will be > working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence will be > fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, debian, > centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis a stripped > down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? > > Any thoughts greatly appreciated, > > Andrew Well, if you are only going to need it as an NAS, why not try FreeNAS? OK, its kernel is BSD rather than Linux, but that shouldn't be a problem. Kerwin. signature.asc Description: PGP signature
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On 08/29/12 11:35, Michael Mol wrote: On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 10:57 PM, Andrew Lowe wrote: Hi all, Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server distro for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX boards, SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It will be working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence will be fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, debian, centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis a stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? Any thoughts greatly appreciated, Cripes, you're asking in gentoo-user. Of course someone's going to suggest Gentoo. Let it be me...and I'll explain: 1) You can put something like -Os or -O2 in your CFLAGS, whichever helps your performance case better. 2) You can target your CFLAGS to your exact processor, allowing generated machine code to be as efficient as possible on your CPU (which you'll need, if it's a low-power CPU!) 3) You don't have to compile on the mini-ITX board; you can cross-compile and use binpkgs to install. 4) You can use USE flags to strip out (virtually) any and every feature you don't use, reducing both your code size, load and execution time. If you want to do something lightweight, there's not much better you can do than with Gentoo. It had Gentoo on it for ages, and has not been updated in ages. It takes "years" to do anything, with respect to compiling so I'm just looking for a simple "point and click", binary download type of thingy to keep it going. I've been down the cross compile route also - once bitten twice shy and I don't care how many strides the dev's have made in recent years, I'm not trying again on principle. Andrew
Re: [gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
On Tue, Aug 28, 2012 at 10:57 PM, Andrew Lowe wrote: > Hi all, > Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server distro for an > old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX boards, SP13000, and want > to whack something light onto it. It will be working as a file/media server > and will be headless, hence will be fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the > usual suspects, debian, centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv > a vis a stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? > > Any thoughts greatly appreciated, Cripes, you're asking in gentoo-user. Of course someone's going to suggest Gentoo. Let it be me...and I'll explain: 1) You can put something like -Os or -O2 in your CFLAGS, whichever helps your performance case better. 2) You can target your CFLAGS to your exact processor, allowing generated machine code to be as efficient as possible on your CPU (which you'll need, if it's a low-power CPU!) 3) You don't have to compile on the mini-ITX board; you can cross-compile and use binpkgs to install. 4) You can use USE flags to strip out (virtually) any and every feature you don't use, reducing both your code size, load and execution time. If you want to do something lightweight, there's not much better you can do than with Gentoo. -- :wq
[gentoo-user] [Offtopic] Lightweight server distro for an old motherboard
Hi all, Anyone got any suggestions for a lightweight server distro for an old motherboard? I've got one of the VIA mini-ITX boards, SP13000, and want to whack something light onto it. It will be working as a file/media server and will be headless, hence will be fiddled via ssh. Obviously there are the usual suspects, debian, centos, but does anyone have any recommendations viv a vis a stripped down distro, sort of like Lubuntu is to Ubuntu? Any thoughts greatly appreciated, Andrew
