Wow. My head is spinning. Cannot think complete thoughts.
Since I got my domain name back the other day, I got into server-mode full on. My mom had been asking me to put away the computer that once served the kitchen which is no longer in use. I knew this was going to happen sooner or later, and I was not looking forward to it coming so soon when I started the Case Mod. I originally claimed the oldest computer in the house for my server two summers ago—an 800MHz PIII with 128MB of RAM and a 30GB hard drive. I had counted on eventually upgrading to the next oldest computer, but the P3 had served me faithfully and wasn’t painfully slow.
When I began the Case Mod, I was pretty sure no other computer would fit in there without modification. The hard drive and power supply are both standardized shapes, but aside from a few regulations, motherboards are all different. I dissected the kitchen computer (1.6GHz P4, 256MB, 80GB) and soon realized the motherboard makes use of the full size allowed by the microATX standard. Case Mod upgrade equals negative.
Just for kicks, I installed the latest release of Ubuntu Server on the P4 to see if it would make a difference in load times and PHP parsing. Uhhh… it was a lot faster. The combo of twice the clock rate and twice the memory along with the lightweight GUI-free server release created a super-server of sorts—at least compared to the P3.
I decided I wasn’t willing to abandon Case Mod (and partially couldn’t due to a P4 BIOS restriction…), but I decided to investigate downgrading from Ubuntu Desktop to Ubuntu Server as I have no need whatsoever for GNOME. Setting up a simple LAMP server was very simple from the command line, but I knew I would need to overcome a very large hurdle with Case Mod: no ethernet.
When I originally set up Ubuntu, I chose the Desktop flavor because I had no idea how to even begin going about installing a USB Wi-Fi adapter from the command line… in Linux. It took me a few days of research to even be able to get it to run with access to the GUI, but it only took a few minutes for me to figure out I was in for hell. My D-Link DWL-120+, now in it’s 6th year of life, was theoretically awesome when I bought it. It somehow manages to run at 22mbps using 802.11b (which only allows for 11mbps). By not following standards, D-Link was forced to create a brand new chipset for only a handful of “802.11b Enhanced” products. On Linux, they will work at 11mbps using an uncommon driver called ACX100. But as it turns out my wireless dongle is the only device ever created to use that chipset and run under USB (as opposed to PCI or PCCard). Therefore, there is pretty much zero support and only a few traces of people floundering around trying to set it up under Linux.
After some 12 hours or so of fiddling at the command line I could set up any wireless network, but I have deemed ACX100USB to be non-functional under Hardy Heron (Ubuntu 8.04). It is impossible. I give up. Yet it somehow works using the same method on Dapper Drake from two years ago…
Rather than be content with things as they are, I’m going to attempt to add an Ethernet NIC to the Case Mod since wired networking is so much simpler. Because of the small size of the case, there is pretty much no room, but there are a few NICs available that will clear it. After finding out Staples only carries it online… I’m turning to another alternative from Fry’s. Conveniently, I was at Fry’s two days ago but didn’t know I needed it.
I don’t even know what I’m saying anymore, and I hope no one who ever reads this knows what I’m talking about because it is absolute hell. Current plan for the server: add Ethernet NIC, upgrade to 80GB hard drive, upgrade RAM to max, switch to Ubuntu 8.04LTS Server.
