Install went great, Now what?

Hello,

First off, I am a total beginner at all Linux and the working in a terminal. I want to thank Jeff and all the others for their hard work on making this site and having everything actually work.

But my question is, now what? Now that I have a dockstar that will dual boot pogoplug and debian, what do I do with the debian part. I assume I could make a webserver of sorts but what else. I would like to have have some pogoplug like functionality, but I assume there is alot more I could do.

Please point me in a direction.

Also, is there a good primer for Linux and how it functions. There must be a million out there but what is a good one in your opinion.

Thanks
josh

You might get some ideas here :-)

-PG

Given that Linux is what you want it to be more than anything else, you don't have to accept the mentality that if you install Linux onto something, it has to be a server of some sort.

Anything you can do in Ubuntu, you can also do in Debian. Want to turn it into a thin client? Yeah. You can. Want to use it as a remote desktop? Install TightVNCServer and use it like one. I prefer XFCE for my desktop as it's a bit more lightweight than Gnome or KDE. Want to use it as your primary desktop? Hook up an LCD and you won't have to VNC into it anymore. Now you have a low power ARM based desktop that'll run on a UPS for more than 12 hours (with an lcd) as opposed to 15-30 minutes with a regular desktop.

I use mine for simple file hosting within my LAN but also use it as a low power always on system. Rather than leave my desktop on overnight (Which does cost me about $15/mo in electricity to do) ... I use IRSSI (IRC Application), CenterIM (Mutliple Instant Messenger Client) and SILC (Secure IRC Chat) on the Dockstar so I can continue to get instant and private messages when my main system is 'offline.' So my friends on MSN, AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, etc... can still IM me. If CenterIM isn't your thing, then you can use Pidgin within XFCE. The great thing about having Debian on the Dockstar is that you can run any application on it that you can run on any other system, including desktops. Want a system to leave on overnight that handles your torrents? Yeah. It can do that, too. There's no difference between ARM based Debian and x86 based Debian when it comes down to the packages supported across both architectures.

For now, though... Using the Dockstar to learn Linux is a good first step. Just remember, breaking the system isn't a setback. It's a rite of passage. Be prepared to do it a lot before you know what you're doing wrong. :)

Linux is the kernel. Debian is the operating system. It is an operating system like any other. Ubuntu brings it closer to Windows. You can install the same packages that come with Ubuntu and have a full fledged desktop... or you can leave it fairly bare and have a minimal Debian setup that you SSH into. In the end, the operating system still only does what you want it to do.

rat-netbook,

This is a great low power Linux box. Like you've said, it can do most things I'd want to use it for. The only thing so far that I have not been able to find is a desktop such as Gnome and you can use it with a browser. One that's similar to this Sun Secure Global Desktop.

I've tried many different solutions that others have used and posted here (fluxbox, Gnome,...), but they all need another program like VNC running on the PC that you use to remotely connect to the Dockstar. The only program I've found that's purely Web Browser-based is Webmin, which is great, but it's an admin tool, not a desktop.

Is there such a program that we can download source code and compile for this ARM Debian?

VNC server can be accessed through a web browser without installing any software on the client PC. Just browse to http://<dockstarIP>:5800 when vnc server is running.

You could also install xrdp on top of VNC server and use Windows rdesktop for access.

-PG



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/19/2011 09:01AM by petergunn.

Thanks peter, it's great to know. I'll try the combination Gnome/VNC server/Web browser to see if the Dockstar can handle it well enough with its limited memory. I think using this occasionally should not be a problem.

You can install tinyproxy and make it a Web proxy server. :)

Hello,

Thanks for all the suggestions. I installed SAMBA and Apache using apt-get from the debian.org page. I reboot and now I cannot get back in. When I try to ssh in it comes back with a connection timeout port 22 error. If I remove the usb stick and boot into the stock pogoplug I can ssh in just fine. I have tried reinstalling using jeffs scripts but still cannot ssh into debian. I tried google for the error and it seems pretty common but there is no common cause and no one seems to have a decent fix. To be honest alot of what I read from my google searches goes right over my head since I am VERY new to all this.

Is there a config file on in the dockstar somewhere that is causing my problem? I have no idea where to look. I have tried "iptable" but it comes back with command not found.

I would like to play around with linux on the dockstar but I can't get back in. Anyone have any suggestions?

thanks
josh

petergunn Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> VNC server can be accessed through a web browser
> without installing any software on the client PC.
> Just browse to http://:5800 when vnc server is
> running.
>
> You could also install xrdp on top of VNC server
> and use Windows rdesktop for access.
>
> -PG

Peter, I tried gnome-session but it is too heavy! so I switched to fluxbox to test out the web browser connection but could not connect. It seems port 5800 was not opened for TightVNC server?

You need to install the Java applet so that the browser can download it and connect to the vnc server:

apt-get install tightvnc-java # just do this once

Stop any old servers:

for x in {1..10}; do vncserver -clean -kill :$x 2>/dev/null; done
rm -f /tmp/.X*-lock /tmp/.X11-unix/X*

Start up the server:

vncserver -geometry 800x600 -depth 16 :1
Found /usr/share/tightvnc-java for http connections.

New 'X' desktop is peters_server:1

Starting applications specified in /home/user/.vnc/xstartup
Log file is /home/user/.vnc/peters_server:1.log
grep Listening /home/user/.vnc/peters_server:1.log
26/03/11 12:39:39 Listening for VNC connections on TCP port 5901
26/03/11 12:39:39 Listening for HTTP connections on TCP port 5801

Connect using your browser to the correct port:
http://<dockstar_IP>:5801

-PG

Peter, thanks for your help. However, I could not install tightvnc-java

# apt-get install tightvnc-java
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package tightvnc-java is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'tightvnc-java' has no installation candidate

These are 2 mirrors I've tried (among many others). I've also tried lenny distributions.

deb http://cdn.debian.net/debian squeeze main
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main

This is weird, because I can find it at http://packages.debian.org/squeeze/tightvnc-java.

It is in the contrib repository. You only have main. Add the word contrib next to the word main.

Thanks Alex.

Thanks Peter. TightVNC-java works great with Firefox. Very fast.