Gary Drumm – PMP, ITIL

OK. So if you’ve been following this over the last few days, you know that I’ve been toying around with several different Linux distros for my laptops. I’ve done Ubuntu 7.04, Ubuntu Ultimate, Ubuntu Studio, gOS, and Mandriva 2008. I think I’ve settled of Mandriva. I’m not sure why, but I think I’, going to have to do just enough work on the wireless card set up that it will force me to learn how to do it, which is good, but it won’t be so difficult that I’ll have to wash the blood off of my screen (from the blood spurting out of my eyes from the pressure and frustration of trying to et a wireless card working!) which is a good thing.

So, for now, it’s looking like Mandriva’s getting, almost, all the love. I still have Ubuntu Server 7.10 running my VMWare system (* FYI – I finally got it up and running today!), and I’m running an Ubuntu laptop at work, so I’m not completely getting away from the most popular distro, I’m just trying something new.

I also just purchased a Linux Magazine today that contains the Mandriva PowerPack. Which should give me some cool effects and other packages to play with. This is good stuff!

Well, it looks like I’m not going to be “that guy”. A guy named Martti Kuparinen, apparently from Finland has written an extensive article on getting VMware Server to work with Ubuntu Server 7.10.

Nice work Martti! I’ll be subsequently printing out your “install guide” post hast and putting it to good use this weekend. My dream of ruling the world is getting closer and closer by the day.

(Side Note):

On a side note, what the heck is up with YouTube removing the Steve the Super Villan video? Here are a couple of additional embedded versions, for your ammusment, for as long as they work…

Oh, and for a good laugh, here’s “Cool Guy” to tell you why you should switch…

OK, so I’ve been working with gOS on my personal laptop for the last few days and, while I like some of the aspects (i.e. it’s nice, clean appearance, quick launch bar, mac-esque desktop, etc.), there are other things that drive me insane. For example, when you maximize a window, it maximizes in the ENTIRE screen and you can’t get to any other screens. The wireless support really blows. I’ve beat my head against the wall trying to get it to work properly with my home network but to no avail. Lastly, how in the name of all that is wired and connected to the Internet do I install a freakin’ terminal server client?

I’m in the process of downloading PCLinux now, with the sexy Beryl desktop goodness. So I’m probably going to have that loaded in the next couple of days. The good news is, since I have a FreeNAS server, I’ve already copied all of my files up to the network, so wiping the drive won’t really cause me too many issues at all.

So many distros, so little computer hardware budget.

OK. It looks like I’m going to have to rethink the Ubuntu Server box for my VMware Server. I keep getting errors every time I try to get through the install. Not to mention, every article, blog, and forum post I’ve read seems to indicate that this has never been done with Ubuntu Server. Ubuntu 7.10, sure. There’s plety of articles for that, but I can’t find anything for Server.

Hey, wait a second, if no one else has done it, I could be the first one. I could be the guy who writes the blog, article, and forum post that explains how to do it to everyone eles. OK, maybe I don’t re-think it just yet. Maybe I keep working on it for the next couple of days and see if I can be that guy.

I have been making notes of the process thus far. So a good step-by-step article would be a good thing. I mean, how many other people out there would like to get a full blown VMware Server running under Ubuntu Server? I can’t be the first guy to think of this.

OK, so I’m getting closer and closer to my dream of 86′ing these Dell PowerEdge 600 SC’s. I configured a GX280 desktop to serve as my new Ubuntu server and I’m now in the process of preparing to install the VMWare server applications. Here’s a little narrative of the process thus far…

Installing VMWare Server v1.0.4 on Ubuntu Server v7.10.

OK. So I looked and looked and couldn’t find a well written tutorial on how to do this, so I decided to put all of the information together and write up a tutorial myself.

First, I started with a clean system. A Dell GX280 desktop with 1GB of RAM, an 80GB IDE hard drive, and an 80GB SATA hard drive. I set the BIOS to boot from CD, then dropped my Ubuntu Server CD in the tray and rebooted.

This, of course, takes me to the setup of Ubuntu Server. This is pretty straight forward, so I’ll spare you the details. Just know that I gave my macine a name and had it auto-assign the IP address, I can always change this later, but it’s also easy enough on my home network to just reserve an IP for this machine.

Next, I set myself up as root and made some modifications to the sources.list file in /etc/apt.

I typed:

sudo bash

Enter my password and I Am Root!
This gave me root access. Now I can begin the process of making a couple of changes to the sources.list file. The only changes I made was to un-comment the backport and Canonnical repositories. I’ll start by making a backup of the original sources.list file:

cd /etc/apt
cp /etc/apt/sources.list /etc/apt/sources.list.bak

Next, I use vi to make the changes. To do this I typed:

vi /etc/apt/sources.list

Once in vi, I find the lines I want to change, change them, then type

:q!

This closes and saves the file.

Next I type:

apt-get update

Then I type:

apt-get upgrade

This pulls down all the latest upgrades for apps I have running. I set my server up to also be a LAMP server, so it took a little while to get all of the downloads.

Once all of the upgrades were complete, I went to my trusty gOS laptop and hit the VMWare website to find the path to the downloads. While I’m there, I go ahead and register and obtain my serial numbers for the installation. Next, I go back to my Ubuntu Server and and type:

cd / (This takes me to the root directory)
cd /usr
mkdir vmware
cd vmware

Now that I have a home set up for my downloads, and I have the path to get them, I simply type:

wget http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-1.0.4-56528.tar.gz (then wait for the download to complete)
wget http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-mui-1.0.4-56528.tar.gz (then wait for the download to complete)
wget http://download3.vmware.com/software/vmserver/VMware-server-linux-client-1.0.4-56528.zip

Now I simply need to unpack everything and begin the install…

• Will Gary be able to figure out how to unpack the applications?
• Will he be able to successfully install all of the necessary applications to build his dream VMWare server?
• Will the VM Server work with P2V 3.0 so he can successfully convert his existing domain controller and file/mail server?
• What will become of the innocent Dell PowerEdge 600 SC servers, once his diabolical plan is complete?

Find out next week in the exciting conclusion of “Installing VMWare Server v1.0.4 on Ubuntu Server v7.10″! (AKA Part 2, coming soon to a browser near you)

So I’ve decided to do some testing on the ReStore Backup system (http://restore-backup.com). This is an enterprise-grade, backup and recovery solution that runs under Linux (Debian) and uses a web interface to manage your backup sets.

This app comes in a few different flavors: The Data Center Edition is primarily designed for companies that provide hosting/co-lo solutions and want to give their clients the ability to manage their own backups. The Enterprise Edition is, as it’s name indicates, for enterprises, such as the company I work for, to use as their backup/recovery solution. From what I’ve read thus far, it appears to be a viable alternative to Symantec Backup Exec (which I’m, unfortunately, familiar with), and maybe even Microsoft DPM (which I haven’t completely figured out just yet).

Now, here’s the cool part, it’s FREE! No agent licenses, no server licenses, no B.S. And it’s open source, which means you can tweek it to your needs, should you so desire to get in there and dig around. More importantly, when you have freaky backup issues, you can actually have some greater understanding of what the software is actually doing. How freakin’ cool is that?

At any rate, the install is fairly straight forward. If you’ve installed Ubuntu, or any other Debian-based Linux OS, this should be fairly easy to get on your system. I downloaded the Live CD iso, which contains the DC edition, with the intention of removing the DC edition once the install is complete and installing the EE version in it’s place.

So far, I’ve gotten as far as installing the Live CD/DC edition. Here are some pics….

I’m installing this on a Dell GX620 desktop, for testing purposes. The first thing you need to do is make sure that you can boot off of the CD.

Once the system compeltes it’s basic boot, you’ll be presented with an install option screen like the two below: You’ll want to select “Install”, but this is really the “Live CD” install, so it will not automatically begin wiping out your hard drive, so no worries there.

Once you’ve selected your option, the system will begin to boot. Again, if’ you’re familiar with “Live CD” installations, none of this will be unusual…

After it finishes booting, click on the “install” icon on the desktop in order to begin the installtion process. Select your regional settings, keyboard layout, and other basics…

After you’ve finished selecting your time zone, you need to make some decisions about how you want to set up the partititions. Debian/Ubuntu (this version is built off of the Ubuntu “Gutsy Gibbon” release) is pretty good about identifying most of your hardware. So this is actually, usually, pretty straight forward. Let the partitioning portion do it’s magic.

Once the partitioning is complete, it asks you for your user and host name configuration.

It asks for the final confirmation of you settings. Click next and you’re off and running.

Once the install finishes, restart your machine. Then login using the creditials you supplied during setup, and launch your Firefox browser. The default page is, conveniently, set to an “info” page that give you some basic information concerning your Restore system.

To get to your management interface, simply go to http://localhost/restore in your address bar and enter your login information. That’s it, you’re in!

So, having gotten the base installed, I now need to remove the DC version, and install the EE version. But more on that next time. For now, just poke around with your new system.

Well, after trying a couple of different systems, I think I’ve settled on the gOS platform for the D620 laptop. Ubuntu Studio gave me all kinds of grief and I really just want to use this as my day-to-day machine, so it won’t be doing a lot of heavy lifting as all I basically do is read email, surf the web, and watch the ocasional video on YouTube.

Actually gOS is perfect for this application because it’s already got links to almost every site I frequent readily available. Blogger, Wiki, Gmail… and a several Google properties I haven’t frequented as of yet, but likely will.

At any rate, gOS seems pretty nice thus far.

Now, on to the new VMWare server for my virtual machine host conversion. Good times.

OK, so I decided to get off the Microsoft crack and further advance my Linux skills. Now, I manage a good sized Microsoft network at work, so I can’t totally cut Redmond off, but I did go ahead and install a couple fo different flavors of Linux on my laptops.

My Dell Inspiron 700m
Ubuntu – I started by wiping out my Inspiron 700m and loading Ubuntu Studio. This particular flavor looked beautiful on the 700m crisp screen, but the keyboard layout made it a little un-user friendly, so I wiped it again.

The next load was gOS. This particular flavor has some really nice features. It has a “mac-esque” interface, right down to the little dot in the upper left hand corner of the windows to minimize, maximize, and close. It’s very simplistic and probably would have been a good choice, had I known a little more about getting an NDIS wrapper to work for my Intel wireless card. The interface is so simple, in fact, that it lacks a lot of power-user features (much like a Mac). So, I tried another OS…

Finally, I settled on Mandriva 2008 (formerly Mandrake). Now this one I like a lot! It has the power user management features I was looking for, in particular network management tools, the wireless card actually worked on install, and it didn’t require a lot of Linux hacking to get up and running. So I’m going to leave this on for a while and play with it.

My Dell Latitude D620

Prior to Saturday, this machine had Windows Vista. Now, I like Vista (yes, I’m that ‘other guy’ you heard about), but I already know how to do basically everything, so I wanted to distance myself from Microsoft a little more by installing Linux on a laptop that I actually use pretty much every day. Making this the perfect machine.

So, I copied all of my important files and took the plunge. At first I installed Ubuntu Ultimate, but it was acting quirky and wierd, so I decided to wipe it out and try Ubuntu 7.04 (it was the only Live CD I had at the time), but I’m really not liking that too much. I’m already running 7.10 on one of my work laptops, so I’m kind of getting used to that interface too.

So now I’m debating (with myself) whether I should install Ubuntu Studio, Puppy, CentOS, Vector, or maybe set up another Madriva box. I’m kind of leaning towards Ubuntu Studio because it’s pre-loaded with a lot of graphics, video, and audio editing tools that I’d like to learn how to use and my D620 was formerly my “video studio” box, that I used to make videos for YouTube.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I still have Windows machines. In fact, I’m still running 2 Dell PowerEdge 600SC’s with Windows 2003 Server and a Dell GX280 desktop with XP Professional. So I can still get things done in a crunch while I’m learning how to “power-use” Linux, but I’m making a concerted effort to stay off the Windows machines unless I need to get on for some reason.

On a side note, I think I figured out what I’m going to do about the noisy 600SC’s. I have a couple of GX280′s sitting in the garage. I’m going to beef them up with memory, add a 250 GB SATA drive, install Ubuntu Server and VMWare Server, then convert my existing Windows servers to virtual machines, including the DC and mail server. Then I’ll set it next to my FreeNAS box and the two shall leave peacefully (pun intended here) side by side in my office/noc. Ah, smell that? Smells like sweet, silent victory.