RedHat Query

Hi

I am hoping someone can help?

I have an old PC with quite a reasonable spec Pentium 233, 64 Mb RAM and 4Gb HDD. Currently running win95.

I was wondering if it is possible to set it up as a kind of development web server - ie something I can connect to from my new PC (win2k, Apache, mysql, php, perl) and develop web apps on before uploading to my host web server.

Is this possible and what is the best way of going about it?

Thanks

Kevin
PS I know little about RedHat Linux or networking (so attempting this will also add to my own knowledge)

Yes it is possible, and yes I bet a lot of folks reading are doing the same thing with an even wimpier system.

I for one am using a system with about the same specs as a production mailing list server (via mailman, www.list.org) and I have absolutely no performance complaints.

Redhat is a nice system to start with, mandrake is OK to start on, but the gui configuration tools can be a BEAR to work with when they don't do what you expect.

All I can say is get redhat (or another distro, but redhat is good as a start), get a book (NOT the visual quickstart books- they are are waste of paper imho, half of what you get is screenshots with no real meat to give you a good understanding), set aside a day, and get installing. Make sure to check that your hardware will work with the linux distro you're using- medium-aged hardware, like what you're using, is usually fine.

Good luck and have fun.

Hi

Thanks for that.

I know what you mean about QuickStart books, great for 5 minutes then you throw away. I need something that will get me into Linux gently but also serve as a reasonable reference later.

Can you recommend a book - one aimed at a new RedHat user but progresses up to a good level.

Yours

Kevin
PS Do you recommend I uninstall Win95 before installing RedHat? I already have a copy of RedHat 7.2 on CD

You don't have to uninstall win95, redhat can wipe the partitions for you.

Honestly, I haven't bought a linux book for quite a while. There's an O'Reilly redhat linux book out there, everything I've gotten from them has been excellent.

You can start by reading the docs included with Redhat (which are also on their site) and go from there. When I want to learn something, I usually just google for it, or read the man pages.

Read the docs here
For your first couple installs, it might be helpful to have these docs available on another, working computer near the one you're liberating from Bill.

Good luck. Post back if google doesn't answer your questions as you try out linux.

Hi

Thanks for that.

I had a very quick look through the RedHat Installation Guide at it looks pretty straight forward.

I will give it a go when I have some spare time.

Thanks for the help - no doubt I will be needing more once I get up to installing it!

Thanks

Kevin

I would definitely use that machine as a web developing platform. I've got a P133 w/ 64 MB RAM that I use as my file server and do some developing on it. I say go for it.

You may want to check out O'Reilly when it comes to Linux books. Check out Running Linux , Learning RedHat Linux , or Linux in a Nutshell .

Get RedHat, install it, play with it as a simple desktop machine for a while until you've grown comfortable with the OS, and then look at networking the boxes and setting it up as a web server. That should be a doddle once you've got your head around GNU/Linux!

I'd recommend O'Reilly's Running Linux as a really excellent book to take you from your first steps to being a confident sys admin. In fact I go for O'Reilly for all my books whenever they publish one on the subject, I always find them to be the best written, pitching everything at just the right level for me and never giving me bad habits.

There are also lots of good resources on the web which are worth reading as well as your book. I find that I understand things FAR better after reading three different documents on the subject, because they will all cover slightly different aspects from different angles, filling gapsin your understanding. Good places to go are http://www.linuxlinks.com and (cough cough) http://www.newtolinux.org.uk (and yes that's my site ).

Hi

thanks for the recommendations.

I have RedHat 7.2 - just haven't got round to installing yet.

I also need to find out about some hardware. I guess Ethernet is the way to go. I can find details of Ethernet LAN cards that work with win2k but will the same card work under Linux?

Am I right in thinking all I need is a Ethernet LAN card for each machine and a LAN cable to link the two together? Or do I need additional software?

Another question, does the LAN card come with its own IP address? I noticed in the Linux Installation Docs it requests details of IP addresses to run as a server

Thanks

Kevin

RedHat should keep a list of compatable hardware on their web site. Have a hunt and I'm sure it'll be there Even if its not on the list, it might still work. And if its not, they only cost about £7 ($10?) nowadays anyway

To network two machines, you need an ethernet card in each machine, and either a crossover cable to link them directly, or two normal cables (more specifically, cat5 cables), and a hub to link them together. You won't need any additional software.

When you install ethernet cards, you give them an IP address. They're not hardcoded, so you choose them. So for example, you might give your server an IP address of "10.0.0.1" on subnet mask "255.255.255.0", and then give yout other machine an IP address of "10.0.0.2" with the subnet mask also on "255.255.255.0". This means that their addresses are easy to remember, and they can both communicate with each other. You could test they're linked properly by trying to ping one machine with the other, which sends a few packets to the other machine, and waits to see if they return, like so:

from the server:
ping 10.0.0.2

Hi Telex4

Thanks for that it is really helpful and sounds really easy to do.

If I am linking just 2 machines do I really need a hub though, can't you just connect Lan card to Lan card? Or is this too simplistic?

Thanks again

Kevin

Hi Kevin,

You'd think you could, but unfortunately you can't with normal cables... you need to either buy a hub, or a crossover cable which basically has some of the cables crossed over

Hi Telex4

Thanks again

Yours

Kevin

No problem

Hi

Just to let you know, I am full of enthusiasm today so ordered some hardware.

I ordered 2 X NetGear FA311 Cards, NetGear EN104 Hub plus 2 SCAT5E cables.

I hope that will be ok to get my little network working

Yours

Kevin

That new hardware should get you going in no time Good Luck and ask questions if you need any help.