Distro change or not?

[Big B-man]

I've acquired a Jetway mini-ITX board with the VIA C3 CPU and CLE266 chipset. Nothing amazing, but I wasn't looking for a beast, and this was mostly to dink around with Linux. I've tossed in a CD/DVD drive and HDD I had laying around and threw Kubuntu on it, but I'm not sure this is what I'm interested in long term.

I'd like to try and set it up as a storage unit, but I'm not sure if I should use a NAS-oriented OS like FreeNAS or what. I can see the other PC's and shared folders just fine, but I'm not sure quite what to do to have the other PC's see the Linux box on the network.

I started off with a Kubuntu 6.06 install and upgraded in Adept if that helps.

[Spankin Partier]

Kubuntu 6? That's a pretty old distro to try to upgrade from. Upgrading a supported version can be quirky. Upgrading a retired version can be simply unpredictable. I'd download the 10.04 instead and simply run with it. You'll have less issues.

The biggest difference between those NAS-oriented distros and others like Kubuntu, are the initial applications that have been installed, and probably a few custom tools to make life a little easier. You'd probably fine the NAS-oriented distros would be all set up so you can remotely configure its NAS capabilities using your web browser. Where as you'd have to install and configure things a bit more using Kubuntu. But you should be able to achieve the same thing.

[Big B-man]

I just had Kubuntu 6 on hand to install fine. I originally was going to try the Slackware 12 I had, but the system just rebooted when I tried to install it, so I just moved on.

Okay. I've just started reading into it, but it looks like I have to set up FTP access if what I've been reading is write.

I might dink around with Zorin OS 3 or PC OS 10.1 just to see what they feel like.

[Spankin Partier]

Ftp is actually more of a *nix standard. A pain to deal with in Windows. It would probably be easier to set up Samba so your Windows can communicate with it in their language. Samba supports the Windows SMB communication standard. The *buntu's have made configuring Samba pretty simple as you should be able to simply right click on a directory and choose Properties and then configure it for sharing using the Share tab.

[Big B-man]

Yeah, Samba is pretty slick now. I'm running PC-OS 10 on the system right now and I really like it, buuuut, it's slo-o-o-o-w. I've had a lot of trouble with current Ubuntu-family distros hanging during the install, so I'm not sure what distro to try now.
I think something with Xcfe or LXDE (I think) as the default window manager would help because this is a C3 800MHz, but I'm not sure what to try. I've not been a big fan of Gnome since I ran into it, so I don't know what to try right now.

At least I've got CD/DVD-RW's.

[Spankin Partier]

If you're looking for something a little more 'old computer' friendly, try Puppy (KDE based), or VectorLinux or SaxenOS a try. Have a look at DistroWatch. They have a cool little search where you put in your criteria and they'll suggest a few distros like these:http://distrowatch.com/search.php?ca...&status=Active

[Big B-man]

Downloading Vector right now. I ran across their search yesterday, so I've been trying out some different distros to see what works. I'm hoping to give Saxen a whirl if their server comes back up.

Thanks, man!

[Big B-man]

And on a different tangent, I pulled out my Slackware 12 DVD and used the huge.s kernel to boot/install the OS. So far, outside of Puppy, I haven't had a whole lotta luck with something getting through the install. I don't know if the C3 is the problem or what, but I've been having one hell of a time getting something that doesn't hang.

WattOS may have given me some insight because it booted off the disc and came up with a kernel panic. I don't know if that was bad luck or just something with a lot of the Ubuntu-based distros. I know Slack isn't exactly beginner-level, but truthfully, if it works, that's a lot better for me.

[Spankin Partier]

Have you tried running Memtest yet? Also have you tried to check the MD5SUM of your CDs after you've burned them? If its the disk that's bad, try burning them at a slower speed. That sometimes helps.

I know I'm having trouble with 2 of the CD/DVD readers on my computer. I've been trying to install Kubuntu on my computer at home. I got to try and find another reader.

[Big B-man]

Well, I did try memtest, md5sum'd Lubuntu as a test run, burned it at 4x (with 12x CDRW), no dice. I did manage to get Slack 13 installed just fine and am running XCFE. I had to set the VRAM size to 32MB for a smoother experience, but it does seem to work. I'll have to manually deal with Samba, but, hey it can't hurt me.