Building a linux gaming server out of old pc...will this work?

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Sobek

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I want to put my old Dell L733 to use. I want to turn it into a linux server to play Unreal Tournament 2004 (Invasion RPG) since it is the game I play the most online. I have already download and burned the disks for Fedora Core 4. This is my first time using linux and am wanting to learn more about it while also putting the PC to use. If it hadn't been for a recent PC Magazine article I probably never would have thought of using linux.
The Dell is a Pentium 3 @ 733mhz with 256mb ram. I'm going to use an unused Maxtor 60gig 7200 harddrive and I believe the CD burner still works at least as for reading disks. I have to get a new LAN card since I took the one that was in it and put it in my wife's PC. It has the crappy onboard Intel integrated graphics but for a server this doesn't matter. I just want to know if this will be sufficient to use as a game server for up to probably 12 people. I think that's about the most the P3 can handle but it may be less. Any imput is greatly appreciated.
 
What are the specs from Epic for a dedicated server? That should tell you everything you need to know.
 
It will work fine for lan. It will work fine for online server, provided you have enough UPLOAD speed from your broadband connection.
 
I've serched for the minimum server specs but have not found much. From what I have read online it should be ok adn I belive my upload speed from Medicom is pretty good. If anyone can tell me whether to choose Personal Desktop, Server, or Custom for the install choices for Fedora that would be helpful too. Thanks for your help and imput.
 
If you choose server in the FC4 install it doesn't automatically select a graphical environment. I would recommend doing Personal Desktop for now - you can always go back and install the server stuff as needed.
 
I generally do custom. Once I get everything installed I go back and disable the graphical init and boot stuff (/etc/sysconfig/init and /etc/inittab).
 
Thanks for the info. I'll set it up under normal desktop when I install later this evening. I'm installing my old harddrive now.


edit: Installing Fedora now. woot!
 
What an amazing coincidence, the Dell L733 is actually the computer I use right now!

I can tell you that even with 128mb of RAM Ubuntu Breezy ran fine. If not for the fact that I'm on integrated graphics, I bet this thing could still run most games on bare minimum settings. Heck, I got 30 fps on RtCW.
 
I am so sorry to hear that you are using a 5yr old PC. I hated the integrated graphics. I went out and baught a Radeon 7500PCI graphics card and the difference was like night and day. The extra 128mb of ram I added helped too. Mine came packaged with WinME, the worst excuse for an OS ever concieved. I upgraded to XP as soon as I could.


I made it all the way through the installation to disk 2 before I kept getting an error message saying the disk was unreadable or corrupt. I burned a second copy, then downloaded disk 2 again from a mirror and kept getting the same messages. I think I need to check the sha1sum's but I have no idea how to do that.

this is off the fedora website:

After downloading the ISO images, check the SHA1 checksums for the ISO images to ensure that your download was successful. Do this by running the sha1sum program from a shell prompt against your ISO images and comparing the values returned against the ones published by Red Hat. The file from Red Hat containing the official sha1sum values is called SHA1SUM and is located in the same directory as the ISO images on the FTP site.

The following illustrates the correct syntax for the sha1sum command:
sha1sum <isofilename>

In the above command, replace <isofilename> with the correct file name.

If the SHA1 sums match, burn the ISO images to CD-Rs or CD-RWs. Note: writing the ISOs to CD requires a program such as cdrecord. If you want to perform a hard drive installation instead, copy the ISO image files to a location on the hard drive that will not be reformated for Fedora Core.
Click to expand...

I have no idea how to run a shell prompt or what it is. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
Thanks. I'll give it a try.


edit: gave it a try but couldn't get the same md5 code lines to appear as the ones on fedora's site so I went to the "keep trying different mirror's and downoading disk 2 iso till one works" strategy. I tested all the other disks with the built-in cd test on the install setup and they all passed. I only had to download disk 2 one time today (vs about 3 last night) which tested fine. I'm starting the install process all over again now.
 
I'm a bit afraid that 256 megs of memory is going to come up a bit short as a 12 player server. Even running a minimal install of linux I think you might need a bit more.
 
antirush said:
I'm a bit afraid that 256 megs of memory is going to come up a bit short as a 12 player server. Even running a minimal install of linux I think you might need a bit more.
Click to expand...

I was thinking that also and am probably going to upgrade it to 512. I got Fedora fully installed but it took forever and took a long time to boot. I'll have to play around with it this week cause I'm starting to wonder if this PC is still fully functioning.
 
Usually I do a minimal install, configure the kernel, recompile, and then install only whats needed and run it headless and administer it over SSH. But thats how I do it. I learned to do it that way back in the RH7.3 days when it was the "cool" thing to do. :D :D
 
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