[randytsuch]

I am trying to resurrect an old PC, and use it to run slimserver, as my music server.  It is a Celeron 450, I think it had 256MB of ram, and I stuck an 8 gig HD for the root drive.  I will stick in a 250G drive for music.

So, I was going to run win98 on it, until I figured out slimserver won't run on win98.  

My question is, what operating system to run on it.  I was thinking about trying Linux; Fedora Core 5 or Xandros (I can get it free after rebate).  Or, I stick with MS, and get an OEM copy of WinXP, or Win2000.  I found them on the net for under $50.

I was thinking if Linux is going to be a pain to figure out (I am not a unix guy), and take a while to get working, I would be better off spending the money, and using Win2000 or XP home.  But, I am cheap, and a free OS is good.  Also might be fun to play with Linux.

What do you guys think?

Randy

[gitarretyp]

I have a dual boot win xp and gentoo system, using windows pretty much only for the occasional game. So, here are my observations of running slimserver under both systems.

When i've run slimserver from windows, it's buggy as hell. Songs freeze randomly, SB loses connection, ... --pretty much every bug i've seen mentioned in the forums. I've seen these bugs nearly everytime i've run slimserver in windows.

I've never had a problem running slimserver under linux --no hiccups, freezes, lost connections. So, if you have the choice, i'd definately run linux on your box (mind you, i'm not advocating gentoo nor any other source based distro on that box).

[randytsuch]

I have a dual boot win xp and gentoo system, using windows pretty much only for the occasional game. So, here are my observations of running slimserver under both systems.

When i've run slimserver from windows, it's buggy as hell. Songs freeze randomly, SB loses connection, ... --pretty much every bug i've seen mentioned in the forums. I've seen these bugs nearly everytime i've run slimserver in windows.

I've never had a problem running slimserver under linux --no hiccups, freezes, lost connections. S ...

Hi
I am running slimserver on my "main" desktop right now, WinXP pro, and never have problems with it (knock on wood).
But I just printed out the 100 page gentoo installation manual, and will take a look through it, to see if it's something I want to try.

Randy

[ricmon]

If you deceid to go the Linux route.  I would try either SUSE of OBUTO as they both have very easy installs and are the best at ease of installation and the configuring your system's (sound card ect) devices.

[randytsuch]

If you deceid to go the Linux route.  I would try either SUSE of OBUTO as they both have very easy installs and are the best at ease of installation and the configuring your system's (sound card ect) devices.

So I tried Suse Linux over the weekend, but it would not install on my machine, or give me enough information to figure out why it was having problems.

I know YMMV, but if this was one of the better Linux packages, WinXP or 2000 is looking more appealing.

Randy

[gitarretyp]

So I tried Suse Linux over the weekend, but it would not install on my machine, or give me enough information to figure out why it was having problems.

I know YMMV, but if this was one of the better Linux packages, WinXP or 2000 is looking more appealing.

Randy

Randy,

I wouldn't have expected there to be any problems installing linux on your box unless you have esoteric hardware of some sort. Where did the installation hang?

Linux does take some comittment to get up and running. It's definately not as straighforward as windows, but i think the comittment is worth it.

[randytsuch]

Randy,

I wouldn't have expected there to be any problems installing linux on your box unless you have esoteric hardware of some sort. Where did the installation hang?

Linux does take some comittment to get ...

This is an older PC, nothing special, a celeron 300 that is overclocked to 450 (but it hangs whether on not I OC, and it has always been rock solid at 450).  Abit motherboard, and forget what kind of hard drive and video, but standard stuff.  I had windows on the hard drive, and wondered if that caused a problem, so I ran fdisk on the hard drive, and deleted, then created a partition, so it would just be an empty HD, waiting to be formatted.  I figured Linux would take care of the formatting.

Sometime, when I try to install, the screen just goes blank, other times, I see lines of information, then it stops at when an error is encountered, but it does not really tell me what the error is.  I can try again it a day or two, and write down where it stops at.

Randy

[gitarretyp]

I'll be happy to try to help with the install, but never having used suse, i may not be able to help much. They should have good support forums on their website (most distros do).

You might try a live cd distro like knoppix in the meantime to get a feeling for linux.

[Val]

I am trying to resurrect an old PC, and use it to run slimserver, as my music server.  It is a Celeron 450, I think it had 256MB of ram, and I stuck an 8 gig HD for the root drive.  I will stick in a 250G drive for music.

I have tried many Linux distros for several years now and always go back to Windows; the only distro I really care for is SimplyMepis. I would recommend Simply Mepis for the following reasons: it is one of the easiest Linux distros for a Windows user, similar to Xandros in this regard; it comes with practically everything installed and ready to use, no command-line juggling is necessary; it also has a kernel booting option to be more compatible with older hardware such as yours; you can try it as a Live CD and then decide if you want to install to the hard disk.

Anyway, I use an old 333mHz laptop with both Windows XP and Mepis and it works OK provided not many programs are open at the same time. I would suggest you install more memory, though.

[sts9fan]

I did almost the same thing as you are going to do. I have an old Celeron 700 and threw in two 300gig drives to go with the 40 that was in there. I am running win2000 and I have had no problems what so ever.

[JoshK]

I tried my hand at Linux, brj and some others gave me quite a bit of help and encouragement.  I finally got it running after giving up on an older RH9.0 distro and going to a new distro.   It was working for a while and I was getting used to it a bit then everything came crashing down and I wasn't able to reinstall, fix it or otherwise.

I still suspect it was a virus.  I think Linux is pretty slick for what it does, but if you are really good with windows, I think you'll find it easier to get what you want out of this box quickly sticking with windows.  If you have time to devote to learning Linux and patience then I think it is worthwhile.  My problem is lack of time so I think I will stick with windows for now and maybe revisit Linux again in the future.

[brj]

Right now, Ubuntu Linux is the distribution currently winning the most acolades for ease of use for new users.  It is based on Debian, and offers a new release every 6 months, which is then supported for 18 months.  Other distributions worth considering are SuSE 10.0 (soon to be 10.1) and Fedora Core 5.0.  Mandrake Linux had a good reputation as well (especially regarding ease of install), but they recently morphed into Mandriva, and I haven't heard just how the transistion affected their product.

With the specs for your current machine (Celeron 450, 256MB RAM and an 8 GB HD), I'd probably lean toward Linux simply due to its smaller footprint and better resource utilization.  I won't deny that there is a learning curve involved, but with every new release of each Linux distribution, they continue to improve functionality and ease of use.  A secondary machine makes a good candidate to learn on, but if you know Windows well enough to strip it down for the resource level you described, then you may want to stick with what you know.

Note that my comments on Ubuntu are based on reading, rather than first hand experience.  I currently run Novell Linux Desktop 9 at work, and a 4 operating system, multi-boot machine at home with Windows 2000, Redhat Linux 9.0, SuSE Professional 9.3 and Fedora Core 3.0.  Windows is located on its own hard drive, while the Linux operating systems share another hard drive, as well as common /boot, /tmp, /swap and /home partitions on that drive.  Windows only gets booted only to play the occasional game.  I spend almost all of my time in SuSE Linux, and plan to update it to version 10.1 when it is released in the next few weeks.  I will probably put Ubuntu on one of my open partitions when I get a chance (as well as update FC3 to FC5), but I've had other priorities lately.

One recommendation regardless of system... keep your music and other files on a separate partition at least, and a separate hard drive if at all possible.  That way, even if you have to re-install your OS, you won't lose your media!

The other recommendation that I would make is to get a Knoppix Live CD.  Simply pop it in your CD ROM drive, and you can test drive a full fledged Debian based Linux distribution without actually having to install it.  This will help you determine whether you want to pursue further experimentation with Linux.


FYI, the latest Slimserver (6.5 beta) is now available in the Debian/Ubuntu package management format, as documented on this page.

The current 6.2.1 release can be found in the more common RPM package format (initially popularized by Redhat) on the main Slimserver download page.

Good luck with whichever path you choose!

[randytsuch]

Thanks for the info guys.  I will try making the Knoppix Live CD, and play with that.

I am also thinking about upgrading my main machine again, to an AMD dual core.  If I do that, my music server will become am Intel 2.4G P4, and this machine will be retired again.

Randy

[Levi]

Hi Randy,

If you bought the Olive device, you don't have to worry about using a PC.

Regards.

I am trying to resurrect an old PC, and use it to run slimserver, as my music server.  It is a Celeron 450, I think it had 256MB of ram, and I stuck an 8 gig HD for the root drive.  I will stick in a 250G drive for music.

So, I was going to run win98 on it, until I figured out slimserver won't run on win98.  

My question is, what operating system to run on it.  I was thinking about trying Linux; Fedora Core 5 or Xandros (I can get it free after rebate).  Or, I stick with MS, and get an OEM copy of Win ...

[F-100]

You can get a Dell Dimension 1100 desktop with 15" Flat panel for $299 and have yourself a decent music server.

[randytsuch]

Hi Randy,

If you bought the Olive device, you don't have to worry about using a PC.

Regards.

I just have to come up with $1000 for the Olive, versus my PC, which was just sitting there.

I actually just use my desktop for my music server now, but I had this PC in the garage collecting dust, so I was trying to resurrect it to use as a dedicated music server.  Cost is FREE, especially if I can make it work with a free version of Linus.

My biggest hangup with Olive is that you can't add storage to it, except with their proprietary options.  With HD's so cheap these days, I have a hard time with that.

Randy

[robertwb]

slimserver won't run on win98.

the FAQ at slimdevices says the older version of slimserver will run on 98-copy/pasted below

Does SlimServer run on Windows 98?

SlimServer 6.1 (and later versions) will not install on Windows 98. The previous version, SlimServer 6.0.2, will run on Windows 98 and is available here.
http://www.slimdevices.com/downloads/SlimServer_v6.0.2/