Too Ambitious?

J

Jay S

Guest
Although I'm not an IT person, I am a techno geek at heart. I've been a user and tinkerer for a long time but I've decided to take on Linux and a few projects to make our home computing environment a bit 'better' and to learn a few new skills.

For starters, I've ordered a Raspberry Pi to see what I can do with a simple hardware setup and I've loaded LXLE on a small netbook to get started with. So far, so good!

So here is what I'd like to work through in the next few weeks/months:
1. Configure the Pi as a print server for a printer we've had for a while but it isn't network or wireless ready
2. Configure the Pi to run as a file server, using USB hard drives, holding primarily music, video and photo files.
3. Configure the Pi to work as a Wordpress and possibly an email server

I've been scouring websites, forums and videos acquainting myself with some of the hardware, software and procedural needs for each of these projects, but I'm wondering if I'm getting a ways ahead of myself.

Now, I'm pretty sure that asking the Linux crowd whether I should be jumping into the Linux world will lead me to a resounding "YES, you should" series of answers, but is the effort worth it? Our home environment is currently a fairly simple one, i.e. surfing the web, email, creating and editing work documents... I can see a future that involves much more media integration, expansion of our small blog and wanting to have more control over our personal web presence.

A bit of rambling on, I think, but I'd love to hear any feedback. Also, I worked with DOS starting with 2.2 (I believe) so I'm interested in working from the command line and just using a GUI when I'm browsing and reading email. Any hardcopy recommendations as a reference and tutorial?

Thanks so much and Enjoy the ride,
Jay
 


Jay S said:
Although I'm not an IT person, I am a techno geek at heart. I've been a user and tinkerer for a long time but I've decided to take on Linux and a few projects to make our home computing environment a bit 'better' and to learn a few new skills.

For starters, I've ordered a Raspberry Pi to see what I can do with a simple hardware setup and I've loaded LXLE on a small netbook to get started with. So far, so good!

So here is what I'd like to work through in the next few weeks/months:
1. Configure the Pi as a print server for a printer we've had for a while but it isn't network or wireless ready
2. Configure the Pi to run as a file server, using USB hard drives, holding primarily music, video and photo files.
3. Configure the Pi to work as a Wordpress and possibly an email server

I've been scouring websites, forums and videos acquainting myself with some of the hardware, software and procedural needs for each of these projects, but I'm wondering if I'm getting a ways ahead of myself.

Now, I'm pretty sure that asking the Linux crowd whether I should be jumping into the Linux world will lead me to a resounding "YES, you should" series of answers, but is the effort worth it? Our home environment is currently a fairly simple one, i.e. surfing the web, email, creating and editing work documents... I can see a future that involves much more media integration, expansion of our small blog and wanting to have more control over our personal web presence.

A bit of rambling on, I think, but I'd love to hear any feedback. Also, I worked with DOS starting with 2.2 (I believe) so I'm interested in working from the command line and just using a GUI when I'm browsing and reading email. Any hardcopy recommendations as a reference and tutorial?

Thanks so much and Enjoy the ride,
Jay
Click to expand...
Jay,
I can relate. Let me answer your question with a story of my own. Many moons ago, I encountered Netware 3.5:eek:, and Netware light where I was working. It intrigued me to the point that I bought the Netware press books for it, which came with a 2 user version of the software. I later had a 10 user version of it given to me. I had numerous components lying around my home office, and put together a server for Netware, just because. I later upgraded to Netware 4.1, then 5, then 6 with a 10 user liscense. It was very educational, and kinda neat to find that I could get it up and running, first with 10base T RG58 coax, and later using twisted pair fast Ethernet. I had the whole house wired for network!! :D:D I stopped after Netware 6, but I had moved on to other things by that time. The point is, do it just to see if you can, and for the experience, because it is good to flex your mental muscles. And don't forget to have fun along the way!:):) So I say YES, go for it.

Ciao for now
Paul
 
VP9KS said:
Jay,
I can relate. Let me answer your question with a story of my own. Many moons ago, I encountered Netware 3.5:eek:, and Netware light where I was working. It intrigued me to the point that I bought the Netware press books for it, which came with a 2 user version of the software. I later had a 10 user version of it given to me. I had numerous components lying around my home office, and put together a server for Netware, just because. I later upgraded to Netware 4.1, then 5, then 6 with a 10 user liscense. It was very educational, and kinda neat to find that I could get it up and running, first with 10base T RG58 coax, and later using twisted pair fast Ethernet. I had the whole house wired for network!! :D:D I stopped after Netware 6, but I had moved on to other things by that time. The point is, do it just to see if you can, and for the experience, because it is good to flex your mental ******s. And don't forget to have fun along the way!:):) So I say YES, go for it.

Ciao for now
Paul
Click to expand...
The blanked out word is not bad, unless bicepts or tricepts are bad. Don't know why it was blanked
 
Jay S said:
Although I'm not an IT person, I am a techno geek at heart. I've been a user and tinkerer for a long time but I've decided to take on Linux and a few projects to make our home computing environment a bit 'better' and to learn a few new skills.

For starters, I've ordered a Raspberry Pi to see what I can do with a simple hardware setup and I've loaded LXLE on a small netbook to get started with. So far, so good!

So here is what I'd like to work through in the next few weeks/months:
1. Configure the Pi as a print server for a printer we've had for a while but it isn't network or wireless ready
2. Configure the Pi to run as a file server, using USB hard drives, holding primarily music, video and photo files.
3. Configure the Pi to work as a Wordpress and possibly an email server

I've been scouring websites, forums and videos acquainting myself with some of the hardware, software and procedural needs for each of these projects, but I'm wondering if I'm getting a ways ahead of myself.

Now, I'm pretty sure that asking the Linux crowd whether I should be jumping into the Linux world will lead me to a resounding "YES, you should" series of answers, but is the effort worth it? Our home environment is currently a fairly simple one, i.e. surfing the web, email, creating and editing work documents... I can see a future that involves much more media integration, expansion of our small blog and wanting to have more control over our personal web presence.

A bit of rambling on, I think, but I'd love to hear any feedback. Also, I worked with DOS starting with 2.2 (I believe) so I'm interested in working from the command line and just using a GUI when I'm browsing and reading email. Any hardcopy recommendations as a reference and tutorial?

Thanks so much and Enjoy the ride,
Jay
Click to expand...
So Jay, did you get the pi to do what you wanted it to do?:)

Paul
 
Jay, this is a bit dated and I hope by now that you have found what you need but edx.org has a great free intro to linux course. The things you said you want to do are fairly simple, they may seem daunting at first glance but once you get started as long as you can understand a man page you will be fine.
 
Unfortunately this project was put on hold and I haven't even thought about it for some time now. I was able to copy all of my DVDs onto an external drive. It'll take a bit more time to get through the CD collection however.

I loaded Jessie and was working through all the changes and updates when I set everything aside. When I get closer to completing the media collection, I plan to start the entire project fresh, start to finish.

I struggled with just keeping a functional Linux machine working and it's been hit and miss with the Pi print server. Often times sending print jobs has no effect - no printing, no error messages, nothing. Other times, it works like a dream...the process has been frustrating.

I am aware of the basic Linux course at edx.org. I actually completed the first few modules and then everything just stopped. I hope to return to it all soon.

Thanks for keeping this in my head,
Jay
 
If you need help just drop me a message. Keeping a Linux box working shouldn't be that hard, the most you should have to do is periodically update it. For Debian Jessie this is simply:
apt-get update && apt-get upgrade -y

The -y simply says yes to downloading the updates... After a fresh install sometimes you need to validate sources.list is correct they should be here: https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList for Debian.
To help with the other stuff I would need some more info.. But like I said, if you need more help when you restart it let me know.
 
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