Linux as my work workstation OS - Day 1
So … my workstation which USED to run Windows XP has been running slower and slower over the past few months. I also go through a lot of software trying to find the perfect one for whatever task I’m trying to accomplish. Whether it’s audio recording, or text/hex editting, or web browsing. I decided today that I couldn’t take it any longer and that a reinstall was imminent. it’s always a big deal when I decide to reinstall Windows because I, like most people I’m sure, do a LOT of customization to my PC. I’m running custom themes, custom QuickLaunch bars, hacked system DLLs, I’ve got TONS of applications installed that I use on a regular basis and those applications are very customized. I don’t keep the default settings on any application I install … each peice of software is carefully tweaked until it’s just right.
Long story short, my PCs usually take a beating.
This time, I decided to play it smart and installed a second hard drive to load Windows on. That way, I could gradually migrate all of my software and settings over from my original Windows as I found the time. While I was on the floor plugging all of my cables back in after installing the hard drive I decided that I would see if I could run Linux as my main OS. I mean, why not? I run it at home on my personal workstation and on my laptop so why not at work, also? Sure, there are a lot of applications that I use that are Windows only but there’s got to be a way around that.
My ultimate decision was to load Debian Sarge as my main OS and then install XP in a VMWare session.
I’ve got to say, the process couldn’t have gone any smoother. I started the install at roughtly 5:00 this evening and was done and ready to go home by 5:40.
——————————-[ INSTALLING DEBIAN
I started out with an older Debian net install disk and loaded the base system. After that was complete I copied the /usr/share/doc/apt/examples/sources.list to /etc/apt/sources.list and ran apt-get update && apt-get dist-upgrade to update all of my currently installed software (which isn’t much with a net install).
——————————-[ INSTALLING X-WINDOWS
Then I installed the neccessary packages to get X working: apt-get install x-window-system-core fluxbox
X booted up beautifully.
——————————-[ INSTALLING THE KERNEL
One of the things I’ve never done on any of my Linux boxes is to use a prepackaged kernel. I’ve always downloaded the source and compiled it by hand. This time I decided to upgrade my kernel the Debian way and installed it from their repository: apt-get install kernel-image-2.6.8-3-686. Debian Sarge is considered their stable branch, so the software packages will always run several versions behind. A lot of testing goes into each package that’s released into the Sarge repository so if you want the latest and greatest, you either compile it from source or upgrade to SID (unstable) but even then you could be a version or two back. Honestly, this will be my first experience with running Debian Sarge as I’ve always ran SID.
Then I rebooted to load the new kernel. Again, no immediate, visible problems. Everything still works.
——————————-[ INSTALLING THE ATI DRIVERS
After the kernel upgrade, it was time to install the ATI video drivers. All of my video cards have always been NVidia since they tend to install so much better in Linux so installing the ATI drivers was new to me. It couldn’t have gone any smoother. I downloaded the ATI binary driver from their website and ran it using sh ati-driver-installer-8.28.8.run. After the driver installation, I was told to run aticonfig and reboot. Running the aticonfig application with no parameters displays the help and a few examples. One of the examples said if you’re running dual-head to use the following: aticonfig –initial=dual-head –screen-layout=right. Again, not a single problem.
Another reboot and I could easily slide my mouse from the left monitor to the right one with no problems.
——————————-[ INSTALLING MISC APPLICATIONS
At this point I took a few minutes to install and configure a few applications like rdesktop, xvncviewer, mrxvt, sudo ..etc. I also worked on my ~/.fluxbox/menu file a bit. I added my custom mrxvt command at the top and created a submenu for rdesktop’ing into my servers.
For those interested, I like to run mrxvt with the following parameters:
mrxvt -sl 3000 -trs -trt -tabfg white -fg grey -bg black -cr white -pr white -hb +sb -fn fixed -g 150×55
… and rdesktop like the following:
rdesktop -d DOMAIN -g 1152×864 -u USERNAME -m -z -x l SERVERNAME
I created a seperate entry for each server so I can quickly connect to a specific one with a single click. I do the same thing for my linux servers, routers, switches, firewalls, and other telnet/ssh devices.
——————————-[ INSTALLING VMWARE
At that point I went home satisfied that I had Linux up and running. I had to come back later anyway to finish on a few after-hours projects so I figured I would resume then.
I ran VMWare Workstation on my Windows box but I think all we have is a Windows license for it (I could be wrong). I have wanted to try the free VMWare Player anyway so I decided to go with that. I downloaded the .tgz file from their website, extracted it, and started the install. It threw a few errors like ‘you don’t have make’, ‘you’re installing using the wrong version of gcc’, ‘now I can’t find the gcc binary’, ‘you don’t have any kernel headers’ — but each one was a simple fix. apt-get install make gcc-3.3 gcc kernel-headers-2.6.8-3-686. Nothing big or messy and when you run a netinstall image, you should expect random stuff to be missing.
Now that VMWare is installed, I need to use it. I haven’t, yet, but I need to.
BTW, this is a great link to creating .vmx templates. VMX templates are needed to install custom OS’s in VMWare Player.
http://adminfoo.net/node/467
——————————-[ WHAT’S LEFT?
Tomorrow I will be installing Windows to use in VMWare. I will also be using this command line based OS for the first time in a support-based role. I don’t expect any problems, though.
After installing Windows, I would like to try setting up a mail client. I will need an Exchange-based email client. IMAP is fine, also. I plan on using Outlook in my VMWare session, but something local would be nice. I know Mutt (my MUA of choice) will connect to an IMAP server. I’ve used Mutt for many years (it’s what I use at home). Or maybe I want something a little more user-friendly.
I’ll definitely be posting more, though!