| This guide is mainly a check list for myself in installing a new Linux Slackware System Server with Slackware based Linux, Apache with mod_perl, Qmail, Bind and Samba and an internet connection on eth0 and local on eth1 to act as a router/firewall/gateway for a local network of PC's runnning Windows and provide web, mail, DNS and shared file service. |
1 - Build up a new or refurbished i386 system consisting of one AMD processor, 2 lans, no floppy, (hdc) a dvd rom drive, (hdd) a R/W cdrom or DVD, (hda)/(hdb) one or two hard drives of 20plus gigs each, keyboard and mouse. 256mb of ram should do. no modem and repeat no floppy.
If using a Shuttle Sk41g, will need to enable the USB mouse and have a mouse connected - PS2 mouse is fine - for the Shuttle Sk41g to load Linux; otherwise the Shuttle Sk41g has a problem loading the Linux kernel.
2 - Install the latest and greatest Slackware http://www.Slackware.com
I only use A, AP, D, E, F, L, N, T, TCL?, Y with the Reiser File System (reiserfs).
As this is for a server, X windows stuff is not needed or used. I preferer one
or two disk partions on the hard drives. The second partion can be used for
backups, cd images in cdrecord, etc.
3 - Add the following to the /usr/sbin/adduser near the bottom. This is to add the public_html directory to each new user and a link for getting email etc.
#this part added by r david decker
# now to add the public_html directory
mkdir /home/$LOGIN/public_html
chown $LOGIN.users /home/$LOGIN/public_html
# now to add the link in /var/mail for qmail-pop3 mail retrieval
# the following three lines used to be required for Mailbox delivery in qmail
###see step 14 below ####
#touch /home/$LOGIN/Mailbox
#chown $LOGIN.users /home/$LOGIN/Mailbox
#ln -s /home/$LOGIN/Mailbox /var/spool/mail/$LOGIN
#
4 - Once Slackware install is completed, then add one user to facilitate testing etc. Need a user other than root to telnet/ftp into from another system.
5 - Connect to the local net through eth1 and the internet through eth0. Done in /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1. Don't panic if one or both ethernet cards are not recognized as a newer kernel or patches may solve it.
6 - May need to reboot system to test the rc.inet1 changes.
7 - Transfer the source code for the latest stable linux Kernel and iptables, bind, samba, apache and qmail to /usr/src and unpack them. tar -xvf filename, tar -zxvf filename(zipped) or tar-jxvf filename (bzip2) will normally do the job of unpacking the files. Use a cdrom to transfer or ftp if network is working. If ftp is not working, check /etc/hosts for correct IP/domain name and/or /var/log for more info.
8 - Make and install a new linux kernel and iptables.
9 - Reboot system and try out new kernel and iptables.
10 - Check that iptables is working. Iptables needs to be up and working before adding much and/or connecting on the internet.
11 - Both ethernet connections should be working.
12 - Make and install the new bind. Tar the /var/named/* files and /etc/named.conf on previous system and untar them on the new. Edit as neeeded. Should have the makedomain and restartall scripts in /var/named and edited as needed. Note that Bind 9.2.x does not like double quotes " in the zone files.
13 - Make and install Apache2 with
mod_perl etc.
14 - Make and install Qmail. See the documents that come with Qmail and also Life With Qmail. One change with the Slackware 8.1 is the popa3d pop daemon. As configured it looks for the mail in /var/spool/mail. This is a problem with the default delivery of Qmail to ./Mailbox in the users home directory. The previous pop3 daemons would follow the symbolic link - ln -s /home/$USER/Mailbox /var/spool/mail/$USER but I could not get popa3d to do so.. Outlook Express could not get mail from the new server. Solution was to download the Slackware source code for popa3d ; edit the params.h file to change the #define MAIL_SPOOL_PATH "/var/mail" line to #undef MAIL_SPOOL_PATH ;and then in the Makefile edit #LIBS += -lcrypt line to remove the leading # to end up with LIBS += -lcrypt. You will then need to make it and then make install.(I had to use make clean after the first attempted changes did not work.) Popa3d also needs it's own user and group and an empty directory (Slackware 8.1 was preconfingured for the empty directory but not the user and group. See the INSTALL. With this change, it is no longer necessary to provide the symbolic link from the users Mailbox to /var/spool/mail for Qmail.
15 - Make and install Samba.
16 - Install several utilities: for the most current version of whois , setdate for maintaining the system time, pingchecker, the heyu interface for X10 control, the expireswhen etc for when domains expire etc. Install the UPS software to check for power outages.
17 - Check in /etc/rc.d files to make sure that bind, apache, qmail and samba are started on boot up. Look at the /var/log for error messages, etc.
18 - Reboot the system and try it.. Does it work??? If not the way you want
then go back to step 1.
Last modfied on Wednesday, 14-May-2003 13:53:13 CDT
rddecker@lanranger.net