Which distro for linux server?

Discussion in 'Linux, BSD and Other OS's' started by ProcalX, Jan 6, 2008.

  1. ProcalX

    ProcalX all grown up

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    My younger brother wants to run a call of duty 4 server, thanks to broadband slowly moving forward (and in a good area) his 20mb download package is dishing out around 2.1mb/s (2100kb/s on multiple downloads) and has a solid 450-600kb/s upload rate.

    He's asked me to setup a dedicated server for him on a:
    Celeron 2Ghz Laptop with 1GB memory and a 60gb hard drive, it's currently running XP, I'd just slap Ubuntu on it but would quite like to make a project of it and get a suitable distro and perhaps a custom kernel suited to the job.

    Basic functions being SSH & FTP, was wondering what you'd recommend?
     
  2. Addis

    Addis The King

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    For a server Debian is probably the best, I use it on a small 900Mhz file/web/samba server and it handles everything fine. You could also use CentOS too.
     
  3. Anti-Trend

    Anti-Trend Nonconformist Geek

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    A laptop is a very unusual dedicated server, since they're not designed for 24x7 operation, and they don't handle heat distribution very well. That said, I'd agree with Addis and also recommend Debian for a gaming server, specifically Debian with a low-latency kernel. Here's a kernel for Debian "Lenny", the current testing version of Debian, built for low-latency response and optimized for the P4 architecture:

    Index of /pub/.repo/kernels/lenny/p4-desktop

    If you opt to build one yourself instead, I'd download the latest stable source from kernel.org and build it the Debian way, with kernel-pkg. I'd definitely give it a 1000Hz kernel timer and opt for the lowest-latency voluntary preemption you can get, since game servers benefit much more greatly from quick response times than from the few CPU cycles lost to the added overhead.
     
  4. Addis

    Addis The King

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    Amen. A really annoying thing about Ubuntu is that the default kernel has a 250Hz timer, which means that midi sequencing software like Rosegarden doesn't function correctly. There's a low latency one available in the repos though.
     
  5. ProcalX

    ProcalX all grown up

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    I realise that laptops are far from ideal for use as servers but this one's battery is dead anyway and it's a unused machine so I might as well use it. Plus it'll be kept in a cool out of the way environment.

    Cheers for that, i'll use debian and the low latency kernel, was going to use gentoo but last time i tried customising a kernel for that (learning it) it took me 4 months!
     

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