Lightweight Samba

B

br0k3nman

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 27, 2005
Messages
251
I am building a simple linux fileserver for a buddy on a p3-600 with 196mb or ram. It's designed to be quiet and low power while serving up files for his digital video fairly quickly. I decided on using linux with samba to make windows compatible shares.

Problems:

1. My buddy isn't command line friendly and I myself am not yet any sort of pro.
2. A big X-windows system will create a lot of bloat that will ultimately slow down the system.
3. I don't want to spend hours and hours building, coding and reworking a system that
Questions:

Is there a lightweight linux distro with a nice xwindows interface that can be installed easily for just this purpose and not have a ton of overhead?
 
Any dstro with a X will have some overhead. You could run some lightweight stuff like blackbox, but even then it would be a bit. I would recommend for a lightweight fileserver ClarkConnect.

It works good on low-end machines and has a Web Interface and SSH from any web browser. It would be perfect for a non-command line type who just wants to click on buttons and stuff. The web interface is really nice and for the time I used CC I was very happy with it.
 
I'd suggest Webmin. It allows for a somewhat graphical interface (web browser) while offering full configuration abilities.

Thats what I started on until I got used to the command line interface. Its not a big package in terms of overhead (MUUUUCCCHH thinner than any X system) and is fairly easy to understand and use.
www.webmin.com shows what it looks like.
my 0.02

Shoot. Edit: It allows for samba config, and just about everything else you can think of. Just in case I wasnt 100% clear on why I made the suggestion :)
 
Install any distro without windows manager aka GUI and install webmin or SWAT to administrate your samba.
 
to clarify the statements about webmin being a graphical interface....

with the webmin components installed on a file server, the file server need not have any windowing system installed (or a keyboard, mouse, or monitor for that matter).

you are accessing webmin's control interface through your network via a web browser.
 
I would also recommend clarkconnect for this. There is no x-windows on it and it will run on most any pc fairly smoothly. There is also a very pretty web interface that will allow you to share files easily along with other things that might appeal to him.
 
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