Ubuntu Server setup issues.

[hugo-d]

Hey LTT forums,

I recently bought a used Supermicro server and I am trying to have it running at home but I am having issues with the os (ubuntu server) setup.

It is mainly going to be used as a file server (samba) and media streaming box (PS3mediaserver). And I'd like to run a web/ftp server at some point to host my personnal website.

Here are the box's specs:

CPU: Dual Intel Xeon 5335e

RAM: 16Gb 333mhz (16x1)

MB: Supermicro X7DBE+

Raid card: 3ware 9650se-8lpml

OS HDD: 1Tb seagate certified repair

PSU: 850W (redundant)

I am using a PS2 keyboard.

At first I had installed LinuxMint with KDE to check if the machine worked properly. And it did.

I then decided to install Ubuntu Server 14.04.1. First issue showed up during the install process, Ubuntu Server didn't find the network adapter, I got "No networks interfaces detected" although it was usable using the previous LinuxMint install. I continued the install process anyway. Everything was installed on the 1TB hdd listed above. I used "Guided - Use entire disk and setup LVM" and installed GRUB.

The second issue I encountered was the boot hanging at "Adding swap" line. Simillar to this:

http://serverfault.com/questions/546079/ubuntu-server-hanging-on-adding-swap

I tried the fixes suggested on this forum, nothing worked.

I then tried to install 10.04 LTS instead. It still did pick up the network adapter. But this time at boot it just showed a blinking white ticker and I couldn't type anything.

Any help is appreciated. Let me know if you need more info!

Thanks in advance for your help!

[SOUTHwarrior]

I actually recommend centos for file server Much easier than ubuntu.

If you can figure out how to run esxi you can just virtualize all your servers and have different operating systems for different tasks.

[Scia]

-snip-

 

Follow your topic in the top right corner so you'll get notified if someone answers ^^

 

 

Have you checked if your swap is correctly labeled in /etc/fstab?

 Had a similar problem on my arch box when my swap was labeled as /dev/sda2 instead of sdb2.

 

If you can Alt+Ctrl+F2 while it hangs to open another instance and check it "sudo nano /etc/fstab" -> You'll need sudo to save the changes.

[hugo-d]

Thanks for suggesting. I am opened to any solutions!

I just grabbed Ubuntu Server because that's what I thought of first.

[hugo-d]

Hey Scia,

Thanks for the quick reply. I did not set up any swap partitions would the guided install have created one for me anyway?

When I installed 10.04 over the 14.04 install I saw 3 partitions that looked something like:

server-name/sda2

server-name/sda5

server-name/root

Are those what you are refering to?

Thanks!

[SOUTHwarrior]

http://www.centos.org/ Heres a link to cent os. It takes some background knowledge in linux though, Not much.

[hugo-d]

Thanks SOUTHwarrior. I'll definitely have a look at that if I can't get Ubuntu working by the end of the week.

[Scia]

Hey Scia,

Thanks for the quick reply. I did not set up any swap partitions would the guided install have created one for me anyway?

When I installed 10.04 over the 14.04 install I saw 3 partitions that looked something like:

server-name/sda2

server-name/sda5

server-name/root

Are those what you are refering to?

Thanks!

 

Have you manually set the partitions or have you had the installed configure them?

While you're live-booting or something, check if one of them is labeled "swap", or filesystemtype "swap".

I'm not too savy with ubuntu server, but this problem reminded me of what I recently had with my arch box ^^

[hugo-d]

I've used the guided install to use entire disk. I'll check the fstab tonight using to system rescue present on the ubuntu server disk.

[Scia]

I've used the guided install to use entire disk. I'll check the fstab tonight using to system rescue present on the ubuntu server disk.

 

Then most likely it will have arranged a swap for you, check if it is correctly mounted via /etc/fstab ^^

[cuddles86]

Thought that I would weigh in on this having installed multiple versions of ubuntu recently on a few different machines and had some problems not dissimilar. First problem that I had was because the installer was busted, I put it on an old flash drive and although it looked ok the drive had seen better days so worth while testing on a different flash drive if you had one.

 

The other issue is that the "use whole disk / guided option" is great if you've not installed owt on the machine before. Try wiping the whole disk to be a single drive with no partitions and no file system and the re-install. Kinda surprised that 14.04 wouldn't have network drivers, could be a symptom of a bad drive though... Also any reason you droped from 14.04 to 10.04 and missed 12.04 (at least 12.04 still have another 3 years of support). If you are not sure of how to get the drive to that state, get a version of ubuntu (any will do with a gui, so not a server version), boot into the "trial" version and then use fdisk to do it.

 

Just a final note really, something that I have done in the past and was kinda fun (yeh, I do find things like this fun). Try putting a centos install on the machine and then xen on top of it, then you can create as many virtual machines on top as your system resources will allow with whatever operating systems you want on top, just a thought though.

 

Hope that you get it working, Supermicro stuff is sweet!