Newbie to Linux needs control system project advice

[ninensei]

I desperately need some advice and opinions. I am trying to put together a small Linux-based system that will allow me to remotely monitor temperature and control some lights. The lights and the temperature probe will interface with the computer through a custom USB device I build. I want to connect to the system using a modem (DSL would be preferable, but that is not a possibility right now). The problem is, I know absolutely nothing about Linux/Unix (sad to say since I?ve been a programmer for over 20 years). I?m so green that I would fit right into a St. Patrick?s Day parade. Well, I guess it?s not that bad since I just downloaded and installed Red Hat for the first time. But, man, where do I go from here?

Actually, I have been reading a lot about Linux over the past few days, so I am pretty sure what I want to do can be done. My initial analysis of the project looks something like this?

Linux on an x86 platform with...
..USB support (for the custom USB I/O device that will collect temp and control lights)
..Secure Apache (or other) server (for displaying the temperature history and to adjust lights)
..Small custom program & database (for data collection, web page creation support, lighting control, etc?)
..SSH (for remote management of the control software, web pages, etc?)
..email client (for sending me an email if temperature goes too high)
..Dial out on demand (for connecting to the internet via modem when an email needs to be sent)
..Remote access (so I can call in and check on or maintain the system)
..no requirement for a display, keyboard or mouse

Is this possible? Is this easy? Is this secure? Is this embedded? I really have no clue where to go from here. The main thing is that 1) it is secured, 2) I can view and control the I/O via a web page, 3) I can get into the system to maintain it remotely, 4) it can connect to an ISP by itself if it needs to send me a message, and 5) I can dial into it if it is not already connected to the Internet.

I?m guessing that my first step will be to try and configure a system with only the web server and SSH. I?m not worried about hardware constraints (memory or storage). But I have read that, for security reasons, it is important to only have items available in the installation that are necessary for operation, and I don?t think I need much. How does one go about removing all of this stuff? (Don?t need SCSI, don?t need scanners, don?t need printers, don?t need multimedia, etc?)

Anyway, I know that there is a long road ahead. Any comments, concerns, questions, opinions or suggestions will be appreciated. If I haven?t been specific enough about an area, let me know.

Steve

 

[WannaFly]

After reading yor post my first question is, why linux?
If your not familiar with it, wouldnt it be easier to use a win* OS? I mean, i understand the stability and power of linux, but its quite complex sometimes. Securing it alone can be quite tricky - "nothing is secure enough until something that usually works, doesn't"
I installed Debian and i'll tell you the package based installed make it quite easy to use and configure, havent used redhat in a while. Another concern of mine would be, your familiar with perl/c/ to the extent you can program and compile what you need in linux?

I cannot offer much advice, I am no linux expert. This definately will be a long road for you, theres lots to learn.

 

[Nothinman]

Everything you want to do shouldn't be too difficult except for the custom USB device, which you'll probably need to write your own driver for.

The ability to boot with no kb/monitor will be hardware dependent, if you can find aBIOS that won't bitch about it you'll be fine.

 

[ninensei]

I know I was a little obtuse in what I am trying to do. The problem was (is) that I am just too new at this to know my needs. However, since writing the email, I've installed Red Hat, configured the firewall, got apache to work with authentication and attended a user's group meeting on the configuration and use of SSH and VNC. So, things are looking much better now. I figure I'll write my control application in Kylix (I'm right at home with Delphi) and drop the USB in favor of using a comm port to control all the external stuff. Now If I can just figure out the best way to dynamically build user-defined graphics of the data (such as pie chars and time lines) for presentation on the web page, I'll be set.

 

[FUBAR]

If you're using Kylix then you may like to use Async Pro when they actually release their products' source. We use them at work for some pretty stuff.

For clarts you could use perl, I don't know how but I think it's in there, I think webalizer uses something like that to make their graphs.

So are you basically going for a beathome style system?

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

phplot is nice for making charts/graphs.