On Tue, May 09, 2000 at 05:04:21PM -0400, Jerry Human wrote:
> Hello Good People:
>
> I'm getting ready to build a new computer that will primarily run RH
> Linux. Before I do I'd like to ask a few questions to help me make the
> best build.
>
> A) First I'd like to know of some of the more_Linux_friendly
> motherboards and how much memory is needed for an optimum system?
Well I don't have experience with high-end hardware, but I'll tell you
what little I know. I've got 3 systems here (2 with Windoze, 1 with
Linux) running on FIC VA503+ motherboards (well, one of the windoze
boxen is a 503A, but it's close) with AMD K6-2 processors. the two
503+ boards have 350Mhz chips and the other one is 400. I've had zero
issues with the board vs Linux... before I bought them (about a year ago)
I watched people's reports in Linux newsgroups and saw a lot of people
having success with the 503+ so I followed along and have not regretted
it.
My boards all have 64 Megs of RAM which seems to be adequate for what
I do. I don't do heavy graphics editing or video editing or stuff like
that, compile an occasional program, run Netscrape, such like stuff. If
you're going to do massive floating point computation you may want
something more like a "genuine" Intel chip, or a K7/Athlon,... the K6's
FPU is relatively anemic, but for what I do with it it doesn't matter.
>
> B) Second I was wondering if a 386DX25 with a 340 meg hard drive and
> 32 meg of memory is a fast enough machine to use for a firewall and
> print server? I intend to network all my older machines and since the
> old 386 is still working ...
It prolly has enough horsepower, though you may find a modern RH a little
tough to pare down enough to install on a drive that size and have a
little space left over.
My firewall/ip-masq/diald machine here used to be a P90, it is now a
K5-PR133 (which feels a LOT faster than the P90) and has only 16 megs of
RAM. it tends to sit there for weeks doing nothing but running the
Distributed.net client, and routing packets in and out of the house via
diald/ppp, and tends to use about 2 megs of swap (usually less). So, if
all yer doing is a firewall you don't need any more RAM than that. It
has a 2 gig drive (it was free so I used it!) which is less than half
used (understand, this machine was built almost entirely from other
people's discarded parts :*). FWIW I'm running RH5.2 on that box.
>
> C) Third if I use the 386 should I get an older version of RH or use
> the 6.2 that I have now?
While an older one may pare down to fit the small drive more easily,
the newer ones are surely more secure, and for your firewall I'd think
you'd want that.
Another possiblity is to check out the Linux Router Project which is a
single-floppy Linux with enough stuff to do ip-masq/routing/firewall but
no frills (it runs entirely in RAM, so if someone hacks it, all you gotta
do is reboot!). There are also probably other similar distributions designed
specifically for that purpose.
Fred
--
---- Fred Smith -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----------------------------
I can do all things through Christ
who strengthens me.
------------------------------ Philippians 4:13 -------------------------------
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