Pentium 200 w/64megs -What OS for a server?

[Shack70]

Got a Pentium 200MMX with 64meg of ram sitting here. It's got a 5gig drive as well, but I can upgrade that as needed. I want to make a server

Things I would/might do with it:
File Server for local network
FTP Server
Webhost for very small family site
IRC - Channel Idle, trivia bot, ect..
Router if mine ever dies

Thanks in advance for any suggestions. The box is currently running Win98. Im a Linux nub, but this would be a good chance to learn or I can go WinNT 4.0 if needed. I doubt 2000 would run on it.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Windrops suck.

 

[KoolDrew]

I have a similair system with 32mb of ram instead and I do not think it would be a real good server

 

[Shack70]

I agree windows sucks and it wont be a great server. I really wanted an opinion on what OS would/might work out the best.

 

[Armitage]

The amount of ram is what's really gonna eat your lunch ... if you can get it up to 128MB, you'll be in much better shape.

That said, most of the linux distros should do fine so long as you don't try to run KDE or Gnome.

 

[drag]

You don't need a GUI on a server. Just disable X Windows completely, that box will scream for just the simple stuff that you'd use it for.

Frankly the #1 thing I'd worry about is the ability for the motherboard to handle harddrives beyond a certain size. Other then that this would be cake.

Install Debian or Slackware. You can go with any other Linux distro, and frankly and linux distro would make a fantastic server. For instance if your using Fedora, Mandrake, or Suse, or any other Redhat-based distro you simply edit the /etc/inittab file to start you off on runlevel 3 instead of the default runlevel 5. Runlevel 5 is multiuser with X, runlevel 3 is multiuser without X. Although this can vary slightly....

For debian you would just have to edit the start up scripts slightly.

Check out my sig for a place were you can get good guides on how to administrate linux boxen and have a decent idea of what is going on.

There are also specific distros out there that are designed for Home and SOHO server for non-technical people, like for instance clarkconnect
(there are a free hobbyist/developer version and a commercial small business/home version)http://www.clarkconnect.org/

Although personally I prefer taking a general use distro and transforming it into a specific purpose server.

 

[vegetation]

Win2k will run fine on it. I had a similar setup except I also ran custom weather station software which used a lot of cpu cycles, but it was on a P166 with 64mb. So your setup just running flat files would be almost overkill.

 

[Sunner]

I'd probably go for Debian or OpenBSD on that one.

 

[BurnItDwn]

my vote goes to slackware ... however any Linux Distro would run great (as long as you don't use Xf86, or, if you insist upon using a GUI, then use a stripped down WM, like maybe blackbox or fvwm)

use samba for the file server

there are a LOT of different ftpds out there, I like proftpd, however it may be overkill for your purposes

webhost .. Apache obviously..
if its going to be a database driven webpage ... choose between Mysql and PostgreSQL for the DB (I like postgres myself) (I'm not including oracle since its expensive)

IRC ... eggdrop for the channel bot/trivia bot ... BitchX for your client (or I know some people like Epic)

Router ... Iptables is great and not too tough to set up (look up IP MASQUERADE HOWTO) and it will explain everything ...

 

[Nothinman]

Debian.

 

[AnonymouseUser]

Why anyone would want to install a 4+ year old OS (Win NT/2000) on any computer these days is beyond my comprehension. Use any Linux distro (save Linspire) without X.

 

[mpitts]

I was running Redhat 7.1 on dual Pentium Pro 200's with 128MB of RAM.

It was hosting FTP and WWW/Forums without breaking a sweat.

Any slimmed-down linux distro without X will do.

 

[yelo333]

I put in a 3rd vote for slackware or FreeBSD. I've tried many distros on boxes around that speed(a 100mhz w/ 32mb, now upgraded to 233mhz w/128), and slackware seems to be the snappiest linux distro out of the box(I'm including all vector, since it's based on slack). Also seems to be faster install than debian for me, and all the software you would need would be included on the CD's(you only need cd 1, and 2, not 3 or 4).

I tried SuSE on it - very, very slow...Fedora, same way...debian was poky...slackware, snappy... but, FreeBSD SCREAMED. booted in ~30 seconds, and almost no wait times anywhere for any command line app after that. waaay faster than any linux distro I've ever tried, only one which came close was vector linux(based on slackware).

So, If you are up for a bigger challenge, one of the *BSD's. For a medium challenge, I'd go with slackware. I settled on slack myself just because of the different naming conventions with BSD, which made it a bit awkward to navigate.

 

[Bulldog13]

http://www.aboutdebian.com/

Debian

 

[NewBlackDak]

I'd use an X-less BSD on it. It's fast enough to saturate a 100Mbps line.

 

[Peter007]

NT4....

The best OS for Pentium 60-233mmx.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Peter007
NT4....

The best OS for Pentium 60-233mmx.

Except it sucks by todays standards, compared to modern OS's that will handle those tasks very well.

 

[Need4Speed]

Originally posted by: drag

Frankly the #1 thing I'd worry about is the ability for the motherboard to handle harddrives beyond a certain size. Other then that this would be cake.

that's not a limitation when using linux. since it does not use the bios info for accessing the drive. i've got plenty of old P133's running with 40gb+ drives in them with no problem. as long as the kernel is up to date there is no reason to worry about large disk support.

more info here for those wanting more: http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux...rge-Disk-HOWTO.html#s1

 

[Nothinman]

that's not a limitation when using linux. since it does not use the bios info for accessing the drive. i've got plenty of old P133's running with 40gb+ drives in them with no problem.

But once you hit the 137G limit it is a problem because the IDE controller has to support LBA48 to work.

 

[Need4Speed]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

that's not a limitation when using linux. since it does not use the bios info for accessing the drive. i've got plenty of old P133's running with 40gb+ drives in them with no problem.

But once you hit the 137G limit it is a problem because the IDE controller has to support LBA48 to work.

true dat!

 

[Thor86]

Check out this thread at ABXZone...

http://www.abxzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=81209

Would be BETTER than any soho router on the market today. Of course the learning curve is a little higher.

 

[superlie]

What's it for? For Win: NT4, otherwise Debian.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

that's not a limitation when using linux. since it does not use the bios info for accessing the drive. i've got plenty of old P133's running with 40gb+ drives in them with no problem.

But once you hit the 137G limit it is a problem because the IDE controller has to support LBA48 to work.

No, that's only a BIOS limitation. I've never seen evidence that it is a hardware issue on the host-controller side.

 

[Nothinman]

I've never seen evidence that it is a hardware issue on the host-controller side.

The fact that the controller has to know how to use 48-bits for addressing instead of 28-bits, might be a problem. I would guess that anything even semi-recent would have a BIOS/firmeware update to support LBA48. That and I believe you need an 80-pin cable too.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Nothinman

I've never seen evidence that it is a hardware issue on the host-controller side.

The fact that the controller has to know how to use 48-bits for addressing instead of 28-bits, might be a problem. I would guess that anything even semi-recent would have a BIOS/firmeware update to support LBA48. That and I believe you need an 80-pin cable too.

Yep.
But I don't think 48bit LBA addressing is that old, IIRC it started appearing around the time VIA came out with the KT266A chipsets, and whatever else came out around that time.