So I'm building a home NAS... and quickly learning that I hate Linux. Any suggestion?

[AFurryReptile]

Hey guys,

I recently put together a mini-ITX build with an i3 CPU, 8GB of memory, and 3 1TB Seagate drives. No problems here; the system boots and is stable.

My problem is that I can't figure out how to get the most out of this appliance. For example:

- I started with Ubuntu server, and quickly learned that this was "tacked-on" to Ubuntu desktop. It's really buggy, lots of error messages, and I gave up when it corrupted a Java installation.
- Tried CentOS next. I couldn't even get this one to boot. Thought maybe it was related to using a software RAID 5, but nope - even installing to a single drive wouldn't boot.
- Tried Debian. I got the software RAID 5 setup without any issue. Configured and set up lots of stuff while my raid array re-synced. When it had, I had to test it. So, I powered it down and removed a drive. Started it again - and nothing. Put the drive back in - and nothing. The array had been ruined.
- Finally, I'm on FreeNAS - and it's just buggy as hell. Mostly everything seems to work, but I can't get plugins to install at all. They either 1) fail to download, 2) fail to create a template, or 3) fail to install at all.

Is this going to be my experience going forward? I'm starting to wonder if I should just bite the bullet, buy a hardware raid card, and install Windows...

 

[oynaz]

That screams hardware issue to me. You have tried 4 different OSs, neither of which have a reputation for bugs (kudos for being stubborn!). All of them gave you seemingly random errors.

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....

Test your RAM.

 

[ch33zw1z]

I agree with oynaz, while your at it...make sure you're at the latest bios for whatever board your on.

and, post your board model.

 

[Essence_of_War]

If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck....

Test your RAM.

This is a great pithy remark, and also great advice.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

It does sound like bad hardware.

Ubuntu server is not "tacked on" to desktop. It's the other way around. (It's the core ubuntu without the desktop environment.) For a noobie to Linux, I'd actually recommend installed the regular Desktop version of Ubuntu (or a lightweight version like Kubuntu or xUbuntu) and use GUI tools to set up the server as much as possible.

http://www.unixmen.com/how-to-configure-samba-using-a-graphical-interface-in-ubuntu/

Just install 12.04 LTS. (14.04 is also an LTS but it's just been released and they haven't fixed all the bugs yet, imo.)

Don't use CentOS. It's just the "free" Red Hat for people that know where everything is in Red Hat. Most of the documentation online assumes the far more popular Ubuntu.

I am running FreeNAS quite happily, but it's 1) not Linux, 2) weird because of the thumb drive environment it assumes (things that are persistent on other OS's aren't persistent on FreeNAS) 3) There are some mistakes in the default configuration. Specifically with plug in repository paths.

Most of the plugin and jail stuff in FreeNAS is experimental. For the love of god, don't try installing a Linux/Ubuntu jail if you value your sanity.

 

[mfenn]

It does sound like bad hardware.

Ubuntu server is not "tacked on" to desktop. It's the other way around. (It's the core ubuntu without the desktop environment.) For a noobie to Linux, I'd actually recommend installed the regular Desktop version of Ubuntu (or a lightweight version like Kubuntu or xUbuntu) and use GUI tools to set up the server as much as possible.

http://www.unixmen.com/how-to-configure-samba-using-a-graphical-interface-in-ubuntu/

Just install 12.04 LTS. (14.04 is also an LTS but it's just been released and they haven't fixed all the bugs yet, imo.)

Don't use CentOS. It's just the "free" Red Hat for people that know where everything is in Red Hat. Most of the documentation online assumes the far more popular Ubuntu.

I am running FreeNAS quite happily, but it's 1) not Linux, 2) weird because of the thumb drive environment it assumes (things that are persistent on other OS's aren't persistent on FreeNAS) 3) There are some mistakes in the default configuration. Specifically with plug in repository paths.

Most of the plugin and jail stuff in FreeNAS is experimental. For the love of god, don't try installing a Linux/Ubuntu jail if you value your sanity.

:thumbsup: Good post.

A couple other thoughts for the OP:

- It sounds like you're trying to install the OS onto the same disks as your data. You don't want to do that, keep them separate so that the data is insulated any OS changes and you can still boot the system if a drive in the RAID array fails. A small SSD is perfect for the OS.
- There is really no difference between Ubuntu Desktop and Server, they're the same OS with different sets of default packages. I agree with Dave that there's nothing wrong with using the GUI if you're administering a single system and aren't comfortable with the command line.
- As always, it helps to post specific problems and error messages rather than jumping from platform to platform whenever you hit an issue. It is very difficult (nearly impossible) to get a *nix system into an unrecoverable state.

 

[AFurryReptile]

I agree with oynaz, while your at it...make sure you're at the latest bios for whatever board your on.

and, post your board model.

It's not the memory, from what I can tell. I've ran a couple of the Linux built-in memory tests with no issues.

My board is an ASRock H61MV-ITX, latest BIOS.

As far as the Linux-specific issues go (crashing and whatnot), I'm pretty sure a lot of it came from the fact that I 1) installed the Server OS versions first, then 2) installed a GUI after the fact.

 

[AFurryReptile]

It does sound like bad hardware.

Ubuntu server is not "tacked on" to desktop. It's the other way around. (It's the core ubuntu without the desktop environment.) For a noobie to Linux, I'd actually recommend installed the regular Desktop version of Ubuntu (or a lightweight version like Kubuntu or xUbuntu) and use GUI tools to set up the server as much as possible.

http://www.unixmen.com/how-to-configure-samba-using-a-graphical-interface-in-ubuntu/

Just install 12.04 LTS. (14.04 is also an LTS but it's just been released and they haven't fixed all the bugs yet, imo.)

Don't use CentOS. It's just the "free" Red Hat for people that know where everything is in Red Hat. Most of the documentation online assumes the far more popular Ubuntu.

I am running FreeNAS quite happily, but it's 1) not Linux, 2) weird because of the thumb drive environment it assumes (things that are persistent on other OS's aren't persistent on FreeNAS) 3) There are some mistakes in the default configuration. Specifically with plug in repository paths.

Most of the plugin and jail stuff in FreeNAS is experimental. For the love of god, don't try installing a Linux/Ubuntu jail if you value your sanity.

I definitely went with 14.04, so maybe that was my problem. Oddly enough, FreeNAS is working a lot better for me right now after:

1) Zeroing all of my drives. I noticed during the boot sequence of a brand new install that a /data partition was being mounted - which was from my original Ubuntu install!
2) My thumb drive had a bunch of orphaned partitions as well, and I'm thinking there may have been some wonky bootloader stuff in there.
3) FreeNAS plugins seem to be installing now... but only if I leave DHCP turned on! Not sure why that's happening...
4) I even pulled a drive from the RAIDZ and it booted up without any issue.

While I would have loved to use a full-fledged Linux OS, what I'd love even more is to not have to worry about it! FreeNAS seems to do everything I want it to, and ultimately I can worry less about my own misconfigurations.