[no subject]

Thu Jan 09 2003 11:39:00 GMT-0800 (Pacific Standard Time)

So I've managed to stay pretty busy the last few days with the noisybox server rebuild. Just to recap: Buy server. Get server. Open case and boot from floppy. "Wow, it works". Remove loud dual cooling fan unit. Download BIOS upgrades and install. Install cdrom drive (after purchasing one and then realizing that I already had a spare, go figure). Build ugly but functional 1-to-5 IDE power supply harness (I just knew those old salvaged cooling fan connectors would come in handy one day!). Connect 3gig drive to on-board IDE. Boot from Debian network install CD. Answer a handful of simple questions, select no packages, start install and sleep. Wake with nice bare Debian system, complete with functional networking setup. Install vim. Download and build OpenSSL and OpenSSH. Tweak and install other necessary/minimal packages. Power down. Install Promise Ultra100 IDE controller. Connect bare 60gig drive. Download latest stable kernel source. Build kernel etc. Install new kernel and set up lilo. Marvel at the speed at which the new setup boots! Move Promise card to other PCI slot after fdisk hangs system. Phew! Get partition created on bare drive, create ext2 filesystem. Mount. Rad! Convert both hard drives to ext3. Tweak bash and other settings. Anyway, that's pretty much where I am now. :) Ok, sure, so it's a pretty slow process. But I think it's going to be nice when finished. Now if only I could figure out how to nicely mount IDE drives in the SCSI bays...I'm so horrible at mechanical things...