[conspire] (forw) Re: Cabal

[Rick Moen]

----- Forwarded message from Dave Pearce <daveryu at yahoo.com> -----

Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2011 12:30:49 -0700 (PDT)
From: Dave Pearce <daveryu at yahoo.com>
To: rick at linuxmafia.com
Subject: Cabal
X-Mailer: YahooMailClassic/14.0.3 YahooMailWebService/0.8.112.307740

Hi Rick,
	I'm not sure that my last email went through.  I've run into delivery issues for the last few parts of my new box.  Hopefully everything will show up in time to make the get-together this Saturday.  In the event that they do not, is there a way to set up the main hard drive in another machine and transfer it into the new box when everything arrives?  It's a laptop drive powering a destop system in case that should make a difference.  
	In short, I'm building a power-efficient server for the house and wish to learn how to access it from anywhere on the web.  I'm willing to learn; can you teach a rank amateur how to set it all up?

Dave

----- End forwarded message -----
----- Forwarded message from Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com> -----

Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2011 15:14:03 -0700
From: Rick Moen <rick at linuxmafia.com>
To: Dave Pearce <daveryu at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Cabal
Organization: If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.

Quoting Dave Pearce (daveryu at yahoo.com):

> I'm not sure that my last email went through.  I've run into delivery
> issues for the last few parts of my new box.  Hopefully everything
> will show up in time to make the get-together this Saturday.

Hi, Dave!  Time flies.  Because of the Independence Day holiday, I'd
actually forgotten that we had a CABAL date coming up.  (Yes, we indeed
are having it.  Thank you for the reminder.)

> In the event that they do not, is there a way to set up the main hard
> drive in another machine and transfer it into the new box when
> everything arrives?  It's a laptop drive powering a destop system in
> case that should make a difference.  

Quibble:  I think you mean your desktop system powers your laptop hard
drive, not the other way around.

The short answer to your question is yes, provided the hard drive is
old-type IDE (Parallel ATA = PATA), and that you have it mounted in an
adapter/carrier that permits connecting it to desktop-type data and
power connectors for PATA hard drives.

No if the hard drive is Serial ATA = SATA, or if you for whatever reason
lack an adapter/carrier converting the drive's laptop-type data/power
connectors to desktop-type ones.  

To explain:  What I have on-hand is a sturdy old mid-tower PII 'StartX
MP' box from VA Research (later renamed VA Linux Systems).  I also have
a number of working/leftover 2U and 1U rackmount server machines.  CABAL
member Jesse Monroy was kind enough to do triage recently on the
leftover rackmount machines, so we know which ones are good.

All of those machines can connect standard non-laptop 3.5" PATA drives,
and many or possibly all are equipped for 3.5" SCSI.

> In short, I'm building a power-efficient server for the house and wish
> to learn how to access it from anywhere on the web.  I'm willing to
> learn; can you teach a rank amateur how to set it all up?

I and CABAL -- but see caveat, below -- can certainly give you a leg up
on that.  It's a subject dear to my heart, as I actually keep intending
to retire my power-sucking and ancient 2001-era hardware and replace it
with something current -- but haven't had time.  

Part of the problem with your question is that discussion and planning
can fork off in so many directions, depending on the scope of what 
your 'server for the house' will be doing.  People mean a variety of
different things by that.  Your wording suggests that you mean for the
machine to provide some service to the household's computers _and_ 
to provide either services or administrative access or both from the
global Internet.  All of that is certainly possible but requires some
careful planning to make sure you know what you're doing and why and
how.  It's particularly important, where the machine is to be accessible
from the Internet, to consider security rather carefully.

Caveat:  As the host and homeowner, I am by far the most interruptible
person at the meeting.  Therefore, getting my help for anything
requiring more than about 5 minutes at a time is often somewhat between
unlikely and impossible.  It's just the reality of the situation; people
feel a need to consult me on where things are and to solve problems
related to it being my and my wife's house.  

Fortunately, there are other quite capable people present at the
meetings.

Also, you should be aware that there is an entire CABAL mailing list
community, where you can and should discuss your Linux-related issues
and get help and advice from more than just me.  This has the ancillary
benefit of helping advance and support the Linux community, because the
questions and answers are archived and findable via search engines,
something that is not true when you just exchange private mail with
people.  Please consider joining it, and posting your CABAL queries
there.  Listinfo page:  http://linuxmafia.com/mailman/listinfo/conspire




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