steve_c
September 23rd, 2008, 01:17 PM
I installed Ubuntu Desktop 7.10 on a server because I needed it to have the xlibs necessary to do X-fowarding and the Restricted nVidia driver for hardware 3D acceleration. At the time I didn't realize there really was a linux-restricted-modules-server that just didn't come installed on Ubuntu Server.
Since then I've upgraded the server to Ubuntu Desktop 8.04 LTS, for the LTS aspect.
Between the upgrading and the fact this is has and is running a bunch of extra crap for the desktop, I'm really tempted to put the server down for a weekend and reinstall 8.04 server fresh.
That said my friend who is much more experienced than I has always harped on me with the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mantra. So I know the other alternative would be to disable X/Gnome from auto starting, and use aptitude to install the Ubuntu Server kernel. That would essentially make it Ubuntu Server, but with a bunch of extra, mostly unused crap on it, which would be fairly harmless other than taking up a small amount of disk space and cluttering the directory structure just a bit.
While this server is not mission-critical and I can put it down for a weekend with no great loss, it's being used fairly regularly by the researchers in my group--I know I'd have to back up roughly a half terabyte of data and try to make sure I get all the packages they need reinstalled (there's got to be a log somewhere--/var/log/dpkg or /var/log/aptitude maybe?).
So could any experienced sysadmins give me their advice/opinions/alternative suggestions? I don't want to do something that's going to accidentally scrooge myself, but at the same time I want to try to make this server run as best as it possibly can.
Thanks for any help.
Since then I've upgraded the server to Ubuntu Desktop 8.04 LTS, for the LTS aspect.
Between the upgrading and the fact this is has and is running a bunch of extra crap for the desktop, I'm really tempted to put the server down for a weekend and reinstall 8.04 server fresh.
That said my friend who is much more experienced than I has always harped on me with the "if it ain't broke don't fix it" mantra. So I know the other alternative would be to disable X/Gnome from auto starting, and use aptitude to install the Ubuntu Server kernel. That would essentially make it Ubuntu Server, but with a bunch of extra, mostly unused crap on it, which would be fairly harmless other than taking up a small amount of disk space and cluttering the directory structure just a bit.
While this server is not mission-critical and I can put it down for a weekend with no great loss, it's being used fairly regularly by the researchers in my group--I know I'd have to back up roughly a half terabyte of data and try to make sure I get all the packages they need reinstalled (there's got to be a log somewhere--/var/log/dpkg or /var/log/aptitude maybe?).
So could any experienced sysadmins give me their advice/opinions/alternative suggestions? I don't want to do something that's going to accidentally scrooge myself, but at the same time I want to try to make this server run as best as it possibly can.
Thanks for any help.