Challenge

[namic56]

Hello I am a moderate user in Linux,

I am in a UNIX/LINUX Class and we are now starting our projects for the rest of the semester. My teacher will assign projects to us. But I was wondering if there was something better out there. So far he hasn't given the projects out yet but I want a head start on him.

So if any of you know of something challenging that a moderate linux user could do, please tell me.

Also some know it all in my class thinks he can make his own Linux distribution. Is it hard? Since he is also a moderate Linux user do you think he is just making up a bunch of bs?

Thanks

[Satanic Atheist]

If you want a challenge, build a server with everything you can possibly think of running on it. Here're a few ideas:

DNS
DHCP
E-Mail (Sendmail or QMail & POP/IMAP Access)
Web-Server
FTP Server
Samba Server (With Domain Logons)

And anything else you can think of. Also, do it with the command prompt. I had this working with a P200MMX with only 32Mb RAM and two 2Gb HDDs. That's an achievement.

James

[o0zi]

It's simple to make your own distribution if you modify an already existing one. Just grab a copy of Knoppix, look at the Remastering HOWTO at www.knoppix.net, and hack away to your heart's content.

If that's too difficult, try making a floppy-based distro using the Bootdisk HOWTO or something similar.

[macian]

yeah... a full fledged dhcp, web, ftp, dns, etc. server would be a pretty good project..

I've also found a really good write up on setting up LVS. its really not that hard and its pretty impressive. load balancing web over serveral servers is always fun.

..just my 2 cents

-sean

[Satanic Atheist]

If you're thinking about doing it, I can send you config scripts for a lot of that. And even a firewall.

James

[namic56]

Sounds cool, what exactly is a Samba Server (With Domain Logons) . Where would I get the files for all of this at? What exactly would be the need for a server like this? Because I want to make something that my teacher could use.

[Satanic Atheist]

Samba is the Server Message Block implementation for Linux to allow Microsoft Windows clients to connect to network shares on a Linux box. It's available for samba.org.

The domain logons is pretty useless (I never found much use for it) but what it means is that when you log onto a machine, the server is queried for passwords and usernames to check whether you can authenticate to that machine. It is useful in areas where you may wish to logon to a variety of machines and don't want to set up individual accounts for yourself on each local host.

Your profile is downloaded from the Samba server each time you log on and updated on the server whenever you log off (although this doesn't always happen, it should).

You can also use automated logon scripts per machine or per user (and I think, even both at the same time). These scripts can be used to automatically launch applications on logon and create mapped drives, update the system time with a central server and do lots of things.

Be careful with SMB shares, though, since the way that Linux has to implement to basic FAT32 file attributes are to manipulate the execute bit in each of the three permissions (owner, group, other) to represent (H)idden, (R)ead-only and (A)rchive. The file itself is most likely to be a Windows file, so this doesn't represent a problem to Linux, but if you're sharing Linux stuff, be warned that the file may have bizarre permissions. To share in Linux in the same way, use NFS.

Hope this helps,

James