FreeBSD

[MindoverMaster]

Don't know if it should be here or in the BSD secion. Move as you see fit.

I am in the process of turning my Atom 330 ITX home file server upside down and inside out.

Anywhoo, I am looking into FreeBSD, after Saxon suggested it to me.

My envision is to drop my WD 20GB IDE HDD (currently running Ubuntu) and just run off a USB Flash drive. I also am getting a new slimmer case, and size is limited.

But the reason for the switch, I don't need Open Office, media players, games, even FF.

I have successfully installed FreeBSD on my VirtualBox. But now, I am unsure how to go about this further. Install stuff, look up different things.

I am planning to run this server headless, after install, of course.

I have 2 storage drives, both WD 640GB SATA HDDs. I have different files on each. One for movies, other for everything else. I need to share this over the network. HTTP is what I want to share by. Go to Window's Network list.

If I think of something else, I'll post it.

 

[Kharn]

How do you fancy installing, via the package system or compiling from source?

Edit oh you don't just have to install from the main tree you can use -

http://www.freshports.org/ Some of the newer more experimental builds end up in there before they get committed to release handy for new features.

 

[MindoverMaster]

You tell me. I'm used to "sudo apt-get install file"

 

[Kharn]

Well pkg add is the most like apt get so use that for now.

 

[MindoverMaster]

What packages would you recommend? From my needs above.

This may not be important, but I tried to run StartX, and it wouldn't run. Now, I know I installed that... but, maybe I just don't need this.

 

[Kharn]

If it's running headless you wont need X.

Well how do you want to share files round the network, something like a mapped drive?

 

[MindoverMaster]

Like so:

This is the easiest way for me and my dad to connect to the drives. I've used Samba on Ubuntu to share it over the network.

If there is a way to remotely connect to it, I use VNC to Ubuntu atm.

 

[Kharn]

Two guides for you -

Everything you want to know about Installing FreeBSD on a USB stick - The FreeBSD Forums <- For all your USB needs.

Now this is going to seem like over kill but read it over and tell me what you like, I will then put together a simple version for you -

Remote backups server using FreeBSD, ZFS, and Rsync - The FreeBSD Forums

 

[MindoverMaster]

I understand the imstall, nowadays, your computer will just see the flash drive as a hdd. So installation is somewhat the same.

I'm not exactly sure what they mean by "remote backup", but I need to get and send files. Unless that is what they are talking about.

Now that I think of it, how do you log into it when headless?

 

[Kharn]

Via SSH.