Ubuntu 9.10 FTW
Jan. 26th, 2010 09:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liam_on_linuxIn unrelated news, I had to bring up my main fileserver to retrieve the OpenSolaris & PC-BSD ISOs. Alas, its evaluation copy of Windows 2003 SBS has expired, but I get 1h to pull files off it each reboot, apparently.
I am considering trying to install Windows 2008 Server over the top. I don't care about saving my settings, I just don't want to have to backup & completely reformat. Alas, I seem to have lost my ISO of that.
Going looking, I found that W2k8 R2 is out & it is Micros~1's first ever 64-bit onlyOS. I'd missed this one. It's the server version of Windows 7, basically.
And I had no idea if the fairly-late-model Pentium 4 in my HP Proliant was a 64-bit capable one or not. I know it has hyperthreading, but not if it sports 64-bit extensions.
It doesn't have a mouse of its own and I couldn't get Ubuntu's rdesktop client to connect so I could run CPUID on it, so I tried logging in - only to be told that my time was up and be spanked with a BSOD. Thanks, Redmond.
An idea occurred. I could try booting my 64-bit Ubuntu CD. If it worked, it's 64-bit capable; if it doesn't, it's not.
Well, it's not, and Ubuntu helpfully printed a little message to tell me that I needed an x86-64 CPU and it could only find an x86-32 one. No worries; I am limited to original W2K8 Server then. I am sure I'll cope.
On a whim, I tried my copy of 32-bit Ubuntu 9.10, and to my considerable surprise, not only did it boot but it found the RAID controller and happily mounted my NTFS volume. I tried all manner of Linux distros on this last year - Ubuntu 8.04, 9.04, CentOS and SME Server - and none of them could see the RAID5 volume on its Dell-badged ALI MegaRAID card. So at some point late last year, they fixed the driver in the kernel.
Which was nice.
Which leaves me wondering... try to upgrade it to a newer Windows Server, in which I could do with more experience, or stick Ubuntu on it, which will probably be quicker and easier and more use, and won't date-expire on my in 6mths...?
I am considering trying to install Windows 2008 Server over the top. I don't care about saving my settings, I just don't want to have to backup & completely reformat. Alas, I seem to have lost my ISO of that.
Going looking, I found that W2k8 R2 is out & it is Micros~1's first ever 64-bit onlyOS. I'd missed this one. It's the server version of Windows 7, basically.
And I had no idea if the fairly-late-model Pentium 4 in my HP Proliant was a 64-bit capable one or not. I know it has hyperthreading, but not if it sports 64-bit extensions.
It doesn't have a mouse of its own and I couldn't get Ubuntu's rdesktop client to connect so I could run CPUID on it, so I tried logging in - only to be told that my time was up and be spanked with a BSOD. Thanks, Redmond.
An idea occurred. I could try booting my 64-bit Ubuntu CD. If it worked, it's 64-bit capable; if it doesn't, it's not.
Well, it's not, and Ubuntu helpfully printed a little message to tell me that I needed an x86-64 CPU and it could only find an x86-32 one. No worries; I am limited to original W2K8 Server then. I am sure I'll cope.
On a whim, I tried my copy of 32-bit Ubuntu 9.10, and to my considerable surprise, not only did it boot but it found the RAID controller and happily mounted my NTFS volume. I tried all manner of Linux distros on this last year - Ubuntu 8.04, 9.04, CentOS and SME Server - and none of them could see the RAID5 volume on its Dell-badged ALI MegaRAID card. So at some point late last year, they fixed the driver in the kernel.
Which was nice.
Which leaves me wondering... try to upgrade it to a newer Windows Server, in which I could do with more experience, or stick Ubuntu on it, which will probably be quicker and easier and more use, and won't date-expire on my in 6mths...?
