Who's Using Linux For Home Server
#1
Just a quick post to get an idea of what Linux Distro People are using on their home file server that serves their files to their XBMC Machine

I am thinking of testing out linux for a bit and after trying several distro's i am trying to decide between linux mint, Lubuntu or Linux Lite

i need a GUI as i am linux newb and until i can learn more terminal having a GUI will help

I plan to run samba for file sharing, Sabnzbd and Nzbdrone for my Shows and Mysql for Synced Database

i know most people say to use a Server Distro but i have heard people of here before saying they use Distro's like Xubuntu or Ubuntu Desktop

just sick of having to reboot my server after updates or every week or two because everything has slowed down apparently you shouldnt have this issue on Linux
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#2
The Ubuntus and Linux Mint share a common heritage so they tend to behave similarly for maintenance purposes.

They seek to provide a nice GUI experience including nice server maintenance tools.

They can all enable Samba (NMBD, SMBD services) and NFS for shared network folder access

They can enable MySQL for shared database.

I'm not sure I perceive that Server versions of these distros do much more that configure the default install package to be more command-line based (server versions) or more GUI/Desktop based (Mint, Desktop) when they boot up. If you want a GUI ever, you should select a distro or select the install mode to implement the GUI packages up front - it's a pain in the butt to retro-actively install a GUI on a running system.

You do not need a GUI to be successful. You need experience to be comfortable with the GUI. Ultimately running the GUI takes resources from your system for other tasks like database or file serving - depending upon your resources.

It should be noted that you can generally configure your GUI-built install to boot into command line mode and not even start the GUI services (save compute/RAM resources).
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#3
I would suggest unRaid.

First you can load it on a thumb drive and just test it.
Second it has a web GUI that is easy to navigate.
Third it has plugins for MySQL, SAB, SB, CP.
Lastly it has a decent online forum for support.

If not Ubuntu is my favorite linux distro which I also use as a server for things like mythtv and newznab.
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#4
short version.. try installing your prospective linux versions in virtual box and see how you like them/what you personally can and cant do or feel comfortable with.

edit--- or you can use unRaid like nokdim suggested.. they should have plugins for most things you would need, but bear in mind it is not a full server installation, and you cant do some things with it.

full version
i was in the same position a few years ago.. what i did, was setup a virtual machine using Virtual Box with the (at the time) newest version of Ubuntu (full desktop). I then used this virtual machine (on my windows server 2008 host) as my sickbeard/couchpotato/sab/etc server. just to try things out and get familiar with linux. skip forward to a few weeks ago, i just replaced my virtual machines with the newest ubuntu server release.. has been much better on system resources since switching to the full server version (no gui), but i dont really need to poke around the gui anymore, i feel pretty confident using the command line.

When i need to build my next server, i will most likely get rid of the windows server platform, and use either ubuntu server as my main install, or go to something like xen, and try a bare metal hypervisor for my virtual machines.. I like to have my services split into different vms, that way i can assign resources differently, and if i try to upgrade/change one and it bites the dust, i only have to rebuild/restore the one.
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#5
http://www.nas4free.org/

Webmin is great though not as comprehensive as nas4free which is far superior and also unix instead of Linux.
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#6
(2013-10-02, 18:25)protocol77 Wrote: Just a quick post to get an idea of what Linux Distro People are using on their home file server that serves their files to their XBMC Machine

I am thinking of testing out linux for a bit and after trying several distro's i am trying to decide between linux mint, Lubuntu or Linux Lite

i need a GUI as i am linux newb and until i can learn more terminal having a GUI will help

I plan to run samba for file sharing, Sabnzbd and Nzbdrone for my Shows and Mysql for Synced Database

i know most people say to use a Server Distro but i have heard people of here before saying they use Distro's like Xubuntu or Ubuntu Desktop

just sick of having to reboot my server after updates or every week or two because everything has slowed down apparently you shouldnt have this issue on Linux

I run Ubuntu 12.04 LTS for my servers both Physical and Virtual.

If you want a gui desktop its as easy as:
sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-desktop
This will install the desktop without things like Evilution and OpenOffice

A lightweight GUI can be installed with:

sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop

My advice if you are planning a dedicated backend type machine then install as a server then install Webmin and take a bit of time learning/configuring the server processes. All sharing protocols can be implemented. Personally I use Samba and have no issues with any clients.

There will be lots of opinions on this. I just know that my servers have been rock solid for years and will do all that you require and a lot more.

Cheers
Spart
6 x Raspberry Pi Model B & B+ Pi2 & 3 Zotac Mag Ubuntu 14.04.1 - Ubuntu 14.04.1 Test Machine Kodi Nightly - RocketNAS 8TB Usable Raid 6 Ubuntu 14.04.1 RocketNAS Build
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#7
Use any linux distro you want. Try the full version of Ubuntu and install WebMin. You wont even need to use the Ubuntu GUI after install as WebMin is accessed via http. It controls just about everything. Mine runs headless (no monitor). It simply sits there with no monitor or keyboard. Its all controlled via an http interface on any machine you choose. VERY simple.
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#8
If you are using XBMCbuntu I highly recommend using NFS instead of samba. NFS is file sharing for nix to nix. Lot less over head compared to samba. I use multiple Linux distros on my servers, I use Ubuntu on the big one and Arch on the smaller ones and laptop.
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#9
All I use is Debian.
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#10
nm
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#11
Lubuntu, on which XBMCbuntu is based, is the lightest of the buntu family and a very straightforward UI for anyone familiar with Xp. It does not have a LTS (long term support) version though, which means you will be looking to upgrade in a year or two.
I preferred Xubuntu, for me there was no noticeable speed/resource difference with Lubuntu, and I dunno..., can't put my finger on it, it just seemed a bit better/nicer/richer experience.
Linux Mint Mate would be my personal preference if you plan to use it as a PC regularly as well as media server, but it is a bit more resource hungry than the above two.
I tried standard Ubuntu desktop as well, but it was significantly slower on my old machine than the distros above, and I hated the Unity interface.

And as for updates, they are just as frequent on Linux as WindowsBig Grin , though admittedly don't have the same slowing down effect over time.
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#12
I went for Xubuntu for mine. I looked at unRaid and similar, but decided on the broad support for 'buntu as a general-purpose platform - I don't just do fileserving, my server is also the TV server, commercial skipper, network proxy/filter, etc. Xubuntu gives me an easy admin/application GUI without the weight of other distros, and has the LTS version so I can ignore major upgrades for some time (currently 12.04 - 14.04 will be LTS as well, but 12.04 will be supported until 2017).

Minor upgrades... yeah, there are patches all the time, but they're simplicity to install and only a kernel update demands a reboot so it's far less painful than patching any of my WIndows machines.

Discs are configured as a ZFS array, sharing through SMB (to Windows and general Android) and NFS (to Linux and XBMC/Android) clients. All works perfectly.
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