New life for an old clunker: How to set up a simple Linux file server
Sunday, 15 February 2009
Do you have an aging machine gathering dust in the corner of your closet? Why not give that machine new life as a Network Attached Storage device, providing a central disk drive that everyone in your house can access.
What does this have to do with going paperless?
Sooner or later as you go down the path of committing everything to digital media, you will probably want to share some of your content with other members in your house. Maybe you want to put MP3 files on a central place where everyone can get to them. Maybe you just want a convenient way for family members to swap homework assignments.
Sure, you can go out and drop a few Franklins on a shiny new NAS device, but why not tap into your geeky side and make use of that aging Pentium III that is in the closet.
Here is an explicit set of step-by-step instructions on how to convert an old junker PC into an Ubuntu Linux file server with your bare hands in about a half hour.
Creating a Basic NAS with Ubuntu Linux (Rev 2) (PDF)
Leave a comment here if clarification is needed or if you find any inaccuracies in the document.
[UPDATE: Modified the section on setting a static IP address to explain how to disable DHCP]
No. 1 — March 10th, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Looks good and the idea is something I have wanted to do for a long time. Thanks for doing the heavy lifting for me…
From the Giraffe pasture…
No. 2 — March 11th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Thanks for the good word—good luck and enjoy!
When I wrote the how-to document, though I only describe setting up a file server, I was hoping that it could be a stepping off point, to get the bare bones together and then add more over time.
No. 3 — October 12th, 2009 at 10:59 pm
[...] Once that arrangement becomes a little more stable I’ll write up a howto document, like the Linux NAS one from a few months [...]
No. 4 — May 5th, 2010 at 8:52 pm
[...] year I wrote an article on how to set up a NAS device using Ubuntu Linux. I have been a fan of Ubuntu since the start because it is a very easy distribution to install and [...]