DIY UBUNTU HOMESERVER

What is this?

This How-To explains "how to" set up an old computer as a network media server running Ubuntu Linux.

My Box

I've been using this old computer as a table for my Dr. Pepper for quite some time now. It's a Hewlett-Packard with a P3, 256mb of ram and originally running Windows 98.
Ingredients

-Any old computer you have laying around that meets minimum requirements for Ubuntu. (In my case, Ubuntu Edgy 6.10) -Large hdd. You can pick on of these up fairly cheap at newegg or ebay. (Mine is only 40gb which I pulled from a modified xbox I never use anymore.) -Internet connection -Ubuntu install CD

Setup Process

Now to get down to actually setting everything up. I've read all kinds of tutorial in my life and I know that they can get confusing, so I've written this one to be as simple as possible.

1. Install Ubuntu
You can find a guide on how to do that here. (Edgy specific)

2. Setup SSH
Install-From the terminal type
sudo apt-get install sshNow to SSH into your remote machine from another Linux box type the following in the terminal, assuming the IP is 192.168.0.1. (To find the IP type "ifconfig" in the terminal.)
ssh username@192.168.0.1To SSH into the box from Windows download an application called Putty

5. Update Ubuntu
This step is pretty easy but may take some time. To update from the terminal type.
sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade

4. Disable gdm (Optional)
To disable gdm, from Gnome click System/Administration/Services and unclick Graphical Logic Manager (gdm)

5. Reboot

6. Leave it
Now that we have Ubuntu set up and running with SSH, set it up somewhere where it will be out of the way, unplug the monitor, keyboard and mouse and just leave it and get to your client computer.

7. SSH into your media server

8. Setup Samba
Samba allows your linux machine to connect to a linux workgroup. (The following steps are all done from the SSH terminal)

Install
sudo apt-get install samba smbfs
Configuring Samba
Stop Samba
sudo /etc/init.d/samba stopBackup/Move
sudo mv /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.origCreate
sudo touch /etc/samba/smb.confEdit
sudo pico /etc/samba/smb.confCopy/Paste this file into Pico Replace "YOUR_HOSTNAME" with anything you want, preferably the name of your Linux box Replace "YOUR_WORKGROUP" with the name of your Windows workgroup Replace "/media/samba/" with the path of the folder you want to share Replace "YOUR_USERNAME" with your username Save
Hit CTRL+X, Y, EnterSet permissions replacing "/media/samba" with your defined directory.
sudo chmod 0777 /media/sambaStart Samba
sudo /etc/init.d/samba start
Add/edit/delete network users
Add user
sudo smbpasswd -a system_user sudo pico /etc/samba/smbusers
Insert following line into new file
system_username = "network username"Save Edit user
sudo smb -a system_usernameDelete user
sudo smbpasswd -x system_username

9. That's it
All you have to do now is copy all your music/movies/whathaveyous to your media server and start streaming it from any computer on your network.


Original Post: http://rubbervir.us/projects/ubuntu_media_server/