[slim] Re: Thinking of buying
Peter;162722 Wrote: > brucegrr wrote: > > I have found the wireless experience to be less than 100% Too many > > variables..your mileage will vary. People should remember > > wireless is not a "perfect" answer. There are a lot of different > things > > that can kill a wireless signal. I had a wireless network in one > > home.and every a particular car drove by our houseon > > his way to work..killed the signal. Every time. Can't > explain > > it. It just happened. > > > > Never had a problem with it until earlier this week. My Living room SB3 > > suddenly started hiccupping. My wirelessly connected laptop (does not > run slimserver) slowed down at the same time and the windows driver > told > me it was connected at 2Mbps. I power cycled my WAP and all was well > when it came back up. > > Really, that seemed to be a rare problem with the (Asus) access point. > > I've been running 3 SB3's of this WAP for months on two different > floors > without problems. The fourth one is on the 3rd floor wich is just a > little to far for a reliable connection and it's right next to a > ethernet socket, so I didn't even try. > > No problems at all. The kitchen SB3 keeps working perfectly even when > the microwave is used. > > Regards, > Peter Maybe you're suffering from Christmas Ornament Interference, too. In particular, aluminized tinsel seems to be a problem. Hey, if fighter jets shoot something similar out their backsides to evade radar-controlled air-to-air missles, it's gotta be a good signal reflector! -- jonheal Jon Heal says: Have a nice day! http://www.theheals.org/ jonheal's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2133 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30626 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying
brucegrr wrote: I have found the wireless experience to be less than 100% Too many variables..your mileage will vary. People should remember wireless is not a "perfect" answer. There are a lot of different things that can kill a wireless signal. I had a wireless network in one home.and every a particular car drove by our houseon his way to work..killed the signal. Every time. Can't explain it. It just happened. Never had a problem with it until earlier this week. My Living room SB3 suddenly started hiccupping. My wirelessly connected laptop (does not run slimserver) slowed down at the same time and the windows driver told me it was connected at 2Mbps. I power cycled my WAP and all was well when it came back up. Really, that seemed to be a rare problem with the (Asus) access point. I've been running 3 SB3's of this WAP for months on two different floors without problems. The fourth one is on the 3rd floor wich is just a little to far for a reliable connection and it's right next to a ethernet socket, so I didn't even try. No problems at all. The kitchen SB3 keeps working perfectly even when the microwave is used. Regards, Peter ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying
I have a Microsoft 11b wireless router (2nd floor) and a wireless SB3 (1st floor) which averages signal strength 66%-71%. I stream FLAC (no transcoding) and mp3 and only very rarely have had any problems. Just lucky I guess! :) On 12/15/06, Paul_B <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I keep thinking my system is wired but atcually it isn't but still 100% reliable. The reason I think is because I use a dedicated wireless bridge made my the same manufatcurer as my access point. So my Slimserver is connected to the bridge and the SB3 is connected to a port on the hub connected to the AP. I don't have drop outs -- Paul_B Paul ~ Slimserver 6.5.1 on EPIA VIA EN15000 Mini-ITX running Windows 2003 R2. Remote storage QNAP(1.2.1)~(160GB Maxtor) SB3 (x1) RIP - dBpowerAMP R12 (Alpha) to FLAC ID3 Tags - MP3Tag v2.36 ~ Paul_B's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3039 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30626 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying
I've also occasionally used my wired SB3 in wireless fashion hooking it up to a Linksys WAP45G access point. My router is a D-Link 624, I think. I had virtually no problems, other than those I would have expected at the distances I was broadcasting. I don't want to say external wireless solutions are more reliable than what is built into the SB3, but ... -- jonheal Jon Heal says: Have a nice day! http://www.theheals.org/ jonheal's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2133 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30626 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying
I keep thinking my system is wired but atcually it isn't but still 100% reliable. The reason I think is because I use a dedicated wireless bridge made my the same manufatcurer as my access point. So my Slimserver is connected to the bridge and the SB3 is connected to a port on the hub connected to the AP. I don't have drop outs -- Paul_B Paul ~ Slimserver 6.5.1 on EPIA VIA EN15000 Mini-ITX running Windows 2003 R2. Remote storage QNAP(1.2.1)~(160GB Maxtor) SB3 (x1) RIP - dBpowerAMP R12 (Alpha) to FLAC ID3 Tags - MP3Tag v2.36 ~ Paul_B's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3039 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30626 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying
In my limited experience... Pretty much 100% out of the box IF you are using a wired connection. As long as your network settings are correct, router ports open, firewall configured correctly..it just plain works. I have found the wireless experience to be less than 100% Too many variables..your mileage will vary. People should remember wireless is not a "perfect" answer. There are a lot of different things that can kill a wireless signal. I had a wireless network in one home.and every a particular car drove by our houseon his way to work..killed the signal. Every time. Can't explain it. It just happened. Bruce -- brucegrr brucegrr's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3964 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=30626 ___ discuss mailing list discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
Geoff B wrote: > I'm surpised that nobody's mentioned NX (or freenx). I'm not > particularly experienced with linux, so maybe it's just a different > form of remote X, but it worked flawlessly for me when I set up a > MythTV box recently. It seems pretty efficient, even ssh-tunnelled > through my bandwidth-restricted work-to-home connection. > I used the NX windows client, and the FreeNX server. > NX here: http://www.nomachine.com/ > FreeNX here: http://freenx.berlios.de/ ...let me toss in another positive vote for NX. We use(d) it here at work and were shocked at how fast, nice it is. We haven't battle-tested it yet, so YMMV. -- Chip Hart - Pediatric Solutions * Physician's Computer Company chip @ pcc.com * 1 Main St. #7, Winooski, VT 05404 800-722-7708 * http://www.pcc.com/~chip f.802-846-8178 * Pediatric Software Just Got Smarter. Your Practice Just Got Healthier. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
On 4/2/06, Jack Coates wrote: > Robin Bowes wrote: > > lnxguru wrote: > > > >> If you want to practice your Linux skills you could use telnet/ssh for > >> command line or consider using a remote X server. Cygwin and > >> Hummingbird(commercial) have X servers for Windows. The power and RAM > >> you'll need for this will depend on what else you're going to do with > >> this box but you won't need any monitor/mouse/keyboard attached. > >> > > > > I would add: don't bother with a remote X server - use VNC. > > > > R. > > > > meh. Each has its place. VNC's performance is horrible, but it is easier > than X. It's probably a point of interest that the most popular page on > my website is this one: > http://www.monkeynoodle.org/comp/remote-x-cygwin-howto I'm surpised that nobody's mentioned NX (or freenx). I'm not particularly experienced with linux, so maybe it's just a different form of remote X, but it worked flawlessly for me when I set up a MythTV box recently. It seems pretty efficient, even ssh-tunnelled through my bandwidth-restricted work-to-home connection. I used the NX windows client, and the FreeNX server. NX here: http://www.nomachine.com/ FreeNX here: http://freenx.berlios.de/ Cheers Geoff ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
rudholm wrote: ... No, null-event alerting/polling is simply not part of how RFB (the protocol VNC uses) works, it's not a question of whose implementation we're considering. New feature? Not at all. VNC runs independent of any video hardware on the server, always has. vncserver requires no X11 server because it *is* an X11 server. vncserver doesn't even know if any local display hardware exists. In Windows this wasn't the case because that OS traditionally only supported one user context at a time so when you shared a session with VNC, you were sharing *the* desktop (which, obviously, was tied to a video card). But under unix-like OSes, this has never been the case. In fact, getting VNC to share the contents of screen 0 (i.e. the local video display) is something people have been trying to work out in recent years. Eventually, RFB will be implemented by hardware-based X11 servers as simply another modular extension. ok. What were the particulars of the VNC setup(s) you experimented with? I'm curious because RFB is far more lightweight than X11 so performance is generally better over less-than-robust links. That was part of the whole point of VNC. So if you're seeing other results, I'm curious what the specifics were. I'm also curious because your use of vncserver seemed to be tied to the physical display somehow. Mandrake Linux client, Windows 98 and XP servers. This was before rdesktop existed as an option, which is what I use now in these situations. I haven't used Xvnc server more than once or twice, because there's really no need. -- Jack at Monkeynoodle dot Org: It's a Scientific Venture... Riding the Emergency Third Rail Power Trip Since 1996 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
stinkingpig Wrote: > rudholm wrote: > > ... > >> meh. Each has its place. VNC's performance is horrible, but it is > >> easier > >> than X. It's probably a point of interest that the most popular page > on > >> > >> my website is this one: > >> http://www.monkeynoodle.org/comp/remote-x-cygwin-howto > >> > >> -- > >> Jack at Monkeynoodle dot Org: It's a Scientific Venture... > >> Riding the Emergency Third Rail Power Trip Since 1996 > >> > > > > You might want to give TightVNC a try, it sports some performance > > improvements over the original AT&T version. > > > > > I have. > > Also, your howto seems to improperly characterize VNC. Perhaps I'm > > mis-reading but you seem to imply that the VNC viewer and server > trade > > packets continuously regardless of activity. That isn't the case, > they > > only trade packets when there are events to share (such as mouse > > movements or screen updates). An idle VNC session uses no > bandwidth. > > > > > I haven't watched Tight with a sniffer, but AT&T VNC definitely polls. > > Additionally, you indicate that a VNC context is limited in size and > > pixel depth to the specs of the video card attached to the server > > hosting it. This is not the case, VNC contexts can be of arbitrary > > dimesions and quantity regardless of any video hardware that may or > may > > not be attached to the hosting computer (given enough memory, of > > course). > > > > > That might be a new feature, but it's still not as cool in my mind than > > X. Anyway, VNC has its place and I'm sure that Tight offers lots of > benefits that I didn't notice the last few times I tried it. It was > still a lot slower than RDP or X, so I didn't care to hang around and > find out what those benefits were. > No, null-event alerting/polling is simply not part of how RFB (the protocol VNC uses) works, it's not a question of whose implementation we're considering. New feature? Not at all. VNC runs independent of any video hardware on the server, always has. vncserver requires no X11 server because it *is* an X11 server. vncserver doesn't even know if any local display hardware exists. In Windows this wasn't the case because that OS traditionally only supported one user context at a time so when you shared a session with VNC, you were sharing *the* desktop (which, obviously, was tied to a video card). But under unix-like OSes, this has never been the case. In fact, getting VNC to share the contents of screen 0 (i.e. the local video display) is something people have been trying to work out in recent years. Eventually, RFB will be implemented by hardware-based X11 servers as simply another modular extension. What were the particulars of the VNC setup(s) you experimented with? I'm curious because RFB is far more lightweight than X11 so performance is generally better over less-than-robust links. That was part of the whole point of VNC. So if you're seeing other results, I'm curious what the specifics were. I'm also curious because your use of vncserver seemed to be tied to the physical display somehow. -- rudholm rudholm's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2980 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
Pat Farrell wrote: lnxguru wrote: The performance of X is actually very good from my experience. VNC is definetly easier. Both will be negatively impacted by "busy" desktops. Of course with Linux/Unix you don't have to run full desktops -- WindowMaker of Fluxbox are lightweight. Telnet/ssh are even lighter. I'm a little surprized about this whole thread. While most of my computers are some flavor of Linux, and my Slimserver is running on Mandriva, I very rarely use an X-window into it. Mostly, I ignore it completely, it runs and works. When I do stuff, it is nearly always with an ssh shell. All the graphical GUI stuff is nice for some people, but hardly needed to manage a SlimServer. And I hardly ever manage mine, it runs Samba, I rip files on Windows and drag and drop them onto the SlimServer, and I'm done. I ran Linux on server and laptop for years before I bothered to get it working, and I don't use it now :) Sure, you don't usually need it, but when you do it's handy (DrakConf and YAST2 come to mind, both are clunkier in their ncurses implementations). -- Jack at Monkeynoodle dot Org: It's a Scientific Venture... Riding the Emergency Third Rail Power Trip Since 1996 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
Robin Bowes wrote: ... Horrible compared to what? I run it on a LAN (100Mb/s) and performance is "like-I-was-on-the-machine". I run it over the 'net (256kb/s uplink) and performance is perfectly usable. In what circumstances do you find that native X performs better than VNC? R. MS-RDP and X are both faster in my experience on the LAN. Remotely, X falls off fast, but RDP is still the quicker solution. I've used RDP successfully by Webexing from Berkeley to Dallas and RDP'ing from Dallas to Tokyo, while I've had VNC be unusable between a DSL line in Berkeley and a DSL line in San Jose. I'm sure I was just unlucky and there are many users happily using VNC over three cantenna wireless links and a strand of electrified barbed wire from Seattle to Chicago, but I went seeking alternatives and found them. I've had to use VNC at a couple of customer sites in the last few years and it doesn't seem to have improved, but I'm sure the latest version fixed anything. To get vaguely back toward topic, this is maybe illustrative of the issues some people have with product quality. -- Jack at Monkeynoodle dot Org: It's a Scientific Venture... Riding the Emergency Third Rail Power Trip Since 1996 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
dangerous_dom Wrote: > Want to keep the cost to a minimum, as it's only for slimserver + > increacing my Linux skills. Appart from a large HDD, what would people > recommend as the minimum specs? > > Thanks, Dom. What codec (flac, mp3, ogg, etc.) will you use? Drive size keeps increasing and is staying relatively cheap. Search the forums for backup solution that will fit your needs and set up your disk(s) accordingly. -- bobharp Bob Harper bobharp's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=600 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
rudholm wrote: ... meh. Each has its place. VNC's performance is horrible, but it is easier than X. It's probably a point of interest that the most popular page on my website is this one: http://www.monkeynoodle.org/comp/remote-x-cygwin-howto -- Jack at Monkeynoodle dot Org: It's a Scientific Venture... Riding the Emergency Third Rail Power Trip Since 1996 You might want to give TightVNC a try, it sports some performance improvements over the original AT&T version. I have. Also, your howto seems to improperly characterize VNC. Perhaps I'm mis-reading but you seem to imply that the VNC viewer and server trade packets continuously regardless of activity. That isn't the case, they only trade packets when there are events to share (such as mouse movements or screen updates). An idle VNC session uses no bandwidth. I haven't watched Tight with a sniffer, but AT&T VNC definitely polls. Additionally, you indicate that a VNC context is limited in size and pixel depth to the specs of the video card attached to the server hosting it. This is not the case, VNC contexts can be of arbitrary dimesions and quantity regardless of any video hardware that may or may not be attached to the hosting computer (given enough memory, of course). That might be a new feature, but it's still not as cool in my mind than X. Anyway, VNC has its place and I'm sure that Tight offers lots of benefits that I didn't notice the last few times I tried it. It was still a lot slower than RDP or X, so I didn't care to hang around and find out what those benefits were. -- Jack at Monkeynoodle dot Org: It's a Scientific Venture... Riding the Emergency Third Rail Power Trip Since 1996 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
Agreed, but the OP also wanted to use his SS to learn Linux. I rarely go graphical on my SS and I use NFS for accessing my music files. But this thread does seem to be getting away from the OP and he seems to be elsewhere. Rich -- lnxguru lnxguru's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4252 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
lnxguru wrote: > The performance of X is actually very good from my experience. VNC is > definetly easier. Both will be negatively impacted by "busy" desktops. > > Of course with Linux/Unix you don't have to run full desktops -- > WindowMaker of Fluxbox are lightweight. Telnet/ssh are even lighter. I'm a little surprized about this whole thread. While most of my computers are some flavor of Linux, and my Slimserver is running on Mandriva, I very rarely use an X-window into it. Mostly, I ignore it completely, it runs and works. When I do stuff, it is nearly always with an ssh shell. All the graphical GUI stuff is nice for some people, but hardly needed to manage a SlimServer. And I hardly ever manage mine, it runs Samba, I rip files on Windows and drag and drop them onto the SlimServer, and I'm done. -- Pat http://www.pfarrell.com/music/slimserver/slimsoftware.html ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
The performance of X is actually very good from my experience. VNC is definetly easier. Both will be negatively impacted by "busy" desktops. Of course with Linux/Unix you don't have to run full desktops -- WindowMaker of Fluxbox are lightweight. Telnet/ssh are even lighter. -- lnxguru lnxguru's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4252 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
Jack Coates wrote: > Robin Bowes wrote: > >> lnxguru wrote: >> >> >>> If you want to practice your Linux skills you could use telnet/ssh for >>> command line or consider using a remote X server. Cygwin and >>> Hummingbird(commercial) have X servers for Windows. The power and RAM >>> you'll need for this will depend on what else you're going to do with >>> this box but you won't need any monitor/mouse/keyboard attached. >>> >> >> >> I would add: don't bother with a remote X server - use VNC. >> >> R. >> > > > meh. Each has its place. VNC's performance is horrible, but it is easier > than X. It's probably a point of interest that the most popular page on > my website is this one: > http://www.monkeynoodle.org/comp/remote-x-cygwin-howto > Horrible compared to what? I run it on a LAN (100Mb/s) and performance is "like-I-was-on-the-machine". I run it over the 'net (256kb/s uplink) and performance is perfectly usable. In what circumstances do you find that native X performs better than VNC? R. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
stinkingpig Wrote: > Robin Bowes wrote: > > lnxguru wrote: > > > >> If you want to practice your Linux skills you could use telnet/ssh > for > >> command line or consider using a remote X server. Cygwin and > >> Hummingbird(commercial) have X servers for Windows. The power and > RAM > >> you'll need for this will depend on what else you're going to do > with > >> this box but you won't need any monitor/mouse/keyboard attached. > >> > > > > I would add: don't bother with a remote X server - use VNC. > > > > R. > > > > meh. Each has its place. VNC's performance is horrible, but it is > easier > than X. It's probably a point of interest that the most popular page on > > my website is this one: > http://www.monkeynoodle.org/comp/remote-x-cygwin-howto > > -- > Jack at Monkeynoodle dot Org: It's a Scientific Venture... > Riding the Emergency Third Rail Power Trip Since 1996 You might want to give TightVNC a try, it sports some performance improvements over the original AT&T version. Also, your howto seems to improperly characterize VNC. Perhaps I'm mis-reading but you seem to imply that the VNC viewer and server trade packets continuously regardless of activity. That isn't the case, they only trade packets when there are events to share (such as mouse movements or screen updates). An idle VNC session uses no bandwidth. Additionally, you indicate that a VNC context is limited in size and pixel depth to the specs of the video card attached to the server hosting it. This is not the case, VNC contexts can be of arbitrary dimesions and quantity regardless of any video hardware that may or may not be attached to the hosting computer (given enough memory, of course). One possible exception would be if a user was using VNC to share screen 0, but that's not a common use and certainly not appropriate for the scenario you describe in your howto. -- rudholm rudholm's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2980 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
Robin Bowes wrote: lnxguru wrote: If you want to practice your Linux skills you could use telnet/ssh for command line or consider using a remote X server. Cygwin and Hummingbird(commercial) have X servers for Windows. The power and RAM you'll need for this will depend on what else you're going to do with this box but you won't need any monitor/mouse/keyboard attached. I would add: don't bother with a remote X server - use VNC. R. meh. Each has its place. VNC's performance is horrible, but it is easier than X. It's probably a point of interest that the most popular page on my website is this one: http://www.monkeynoodle.org/comp/remote-x-cygwin-howto -- Jack at Monkeynoodle dot Org: It's a Scientific Venture... Riding the Emergency Third Rail Power Trip Since 1996 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
Re: [slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
lnxguru wrote: > If you want to practice your Linux skills you could use telnet/ssh for > command line or consider using a remote X server. Cygwin and > Hummingbird(commercial) have X servers for Windows. The power and RAM > you'll need for this will depend on what else you're going to do with > this box but you won't need any monitor/mouse/keyboard attached. I would add: don't bother with a remote X server - use VNC. R. ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
lnxguru Wrote: > Cygwin and Hummingbird(commercial) have X servers for Windows. Xming is a free X implementation for PC - maybe built on Cygwin - not sure. Habs -- cjhabs cjhabs's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3760 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
I can't add much about hardware requirements -- P II or better and 128MB RAM is _more_ than enough for most home set ups. You don't have to start with a huge hard drive if you use LVM but it is usually better to go with fewer drives from a power/heat perspective. And to repeat earlier advise -- do not depend on RAID for protection. I use DVDs for backup and have been looking into USB 2.0 drives. If you want to practice your Linux skills you could use telnet/ssh for command line or consider using a remote X server. Cygwin and Hummingbird(commercial) have X servers for Windows. The power and RAM you'll need for this will depend on what else you're going to do with this box but you won't need any monitor/mouse/keyboard attached. Just some thoughts, Rich -- lnxguru lnxguru's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4252 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
hifisteve Wrote: > Can't emphasise enough the need for having a duplicate of all your > ripped music, I'm using x2 320Gb WD drives with RAID1. The though of > having to re-rip 700 cds would having me looking for a train to jump > under As has been said here in other forums, *don't* rely on RAID as your only backup. If you lose both drives at the same time or the controller, you're in big trouble. Make sure you back up to some other medium that resides outside the server (separate HD(s), DVDRs, etc.) -- eq72521 eq72521's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1512 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
If you do choose to go the cheap route, check out retrobox.com. A friend just bought a PIII there for $64. -- NWP NWP's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=3730 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
I started off with the intention of building a 'cheap as chips' music server for my SB3 but (as usual with me) I've ended up completely rebuild and upgrading my main PC instead. Problem was is was SOOO noisy that I could stand to leave it switched on all the time. I've now got a good spec PC with future upgrade-ablity which is very nearly totally silent so I can just leave it switched on. Can't emphasise enough the need for having a duplicate of all your ripped music, I'm using x2 320Gb WD drives with RAID1. The though of having to re-rip 700 cds would having me looking for a train to jump under -- hifisteve hifisteve's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4227 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
This is always a fuzzy area for me. It seems that I've installed hard drives before that were not supported by the bios by installing "Max Blast" for Maxtor hard drives. I think that you can usually break past the barriers with the right software. Incidentally, I've installled a Promise ATA100 PCI card that came free with a Maxtor drive in both a Windows 98 Pentium Pro system (used with a 200G drive) and I installed the same Promise ATA100 PCI card on a Pentium II 266 system using SUSE 10 Linux (with the same 200G drive by Seagate) and it worked fine in both systems. So, I'd say, yea - if you can find one of those old cheapy ATA100/ATA133 promise PCI IDE cards you can probably get it to work. I've not really done any timing tests to determine if the ATA100 promise card performs better than the onboard PII ATA66 IDE controller. I actually have drives attached to both onboard IDE controllers as well as the Promise ATA100 card on my system. Everything "just works" under SUSE 10 linux. Kevin -- kkitts kkitts's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1993 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
JJZolx Wrote: > Do some research if you can on the system's motherboard and make sure > that it can read large hard drives. I've been wondering about this issue myself as I consider buying some older hardware to put into use as a server. Researching the mobos can be tedious and still not turn up results. If one *did* get a mobo whose onboard IDE controller couldn't handle >137GB drives, could that problem be solved by installing a separate PCI EIDE or SATA controller? Would large drives installed on that controller work OK? -- eq72521 eq72521's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1512 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
dangerous_dom Wrote: > Want to keep the cost to a minimum, as it's only for slimserver + > increacing my Linux skills. Appart from a large HDD, what would people > recommend as the minimum specs? "Minimum" means different things to different people. You could get it to run on ridiculously low spec'd hardware - even a Pentium (original) and 128MB of RAM, but there's almost no reason to do so when you can buy a PIII at a flee market or from a neighbor for a few dollars. I'd say if you're going through the classifieds, look for a minimum PIII 700, with 512MB of RAM (add ram if needed, it's very inexpensive). They should be fairly abundant right now in the used computer market. Do some research if you can on the system's motherboard and make sure that it can read large hard drives. And don't forget another drive for doing backups of the music library. Maybe the same drive you use internally, except in an external USB or firewire enclosure. -- JJZolx Jim JJZolx's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
I put together a mini-itx box, although mine runs XP (already had a license) there are Linux builds. Fanless MII - approx £70 - ebay http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/mainboards/mini_itx/epia_m2/ 512MB - £25 ebay 160GB Disk - Samsung Spinpont approx &70-80 Also had a PCMCIA wireless card hanging around Sits in a nice silverstone case http://www.silverstonetek.com/products-lc05.htm - approx £90 And is quiet as a mouse. Regards -- DevilsAdvocate DevilsAdvocate's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2920 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
I built a system recently that is working just great - performace is fantastic - I only have about 12,000 songs though - recorded in 230kbps mp3. I'd say that this was a "deluxe" system - but you might take the specs and put in a smaller disk drive and/or a slower CPU and you'd still be fine: I could likely have put it together much cheaper - perhaps by getting a smaller disk or doing the "rebate" thing - but I've tired of filling out rebate forms! ;-) I spent (at newegg.com): Shuttle SK21G Short Form Factor PC (just the case) $179.00 512M: $31.00 AMD Sempron 3000 CPU: $85.00 WD 320G HD: $119.00 Asus DVD: $23.00 Total: $437.00 I can't recall all of the shipping charges - some of the items shipped free and some had a smal charge - but it was reasonable. I thought about just using some old disk drives that I have on hand. I have an old ATA 80G drive and a USB 80G drive and some older drives. I could have cobbled together enough disk space by using multiple old drives in a larger case. Actually, my previous version of this system was a Pentium II/266 wich used some disk space actually SMB mounted from another windows system! Kevin -- kkitts kkitts's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1993 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
If you're going to be doing any bit-rate limiting on playback, you'll need more CPU than if you didn't (since the server has to decode and simultaneously re-encode your music in real-time). But aside from that, you really don't need much. -- rudholm rudholm's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2980 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
dangerous_dom Wrote: > Want to keep the cost to a minimum, as it's only for slimserver + > increacing my Linux skills. Appart from a large HDD, what would people > recommend as the minimum specs? > > Thanks, Dom. Go for it. I've a 2-ish Ghz P4 here with a cheap 40-odd quid ASUS motherboard, and I expect it to last me a good few years. My server ran just fine with 256Mb of RAM for a year or so, I only increased it as I'm now running more than just slimserver on it, but hey, RAM's cheap these days anyway. So is disk space. I've gone for a mirrored setup using md (i.e. software RAID) as I'm also using the server as backup storage for my windows PCs. It's actually pretty straightforward to set up RAID. I'm using Fedora Core 4 which seems pretty reliable and easy to use to me, but then I've not used anything else. As another poster said, small HD(s) for OS and huge one(s) for music is a good plan. Good luck! Jon. -- jonmyatt jonmyatt's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=4124 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
[slim] Re: Thinking of buying/building linux based music server...
Mine is serving just under 10k tracks (it should hit 10k sometime in the next few days though if the post office cooperates..) with a P2/400 and 256M of RAM. I am using mysql (for no real reason other than I know it and can play with it... I use it to figure out what doesn't have musicbrainz tags, what needs album art...), but don't have X or anything installed on the machine, just a quickie debian net-install. The needs for Slimserver are really pretty low since an aging p2 handles it just fine. The 'learning linux' part would be trickier, depending on how much you wanted to use a gui. X11/KDE/Firefox/etc all start taking a good amount of memory. If you can deal with an ssh session, though, the needs are pretty low. -- snarlydwarf snarlydwarf's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=1179 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=22506 ___ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
