Linux Flavors

I'm about to get a new server computer, and I wanna try Linux. Which one do you recommend, and why?

 

Ubuntu. Its simple, its light, you can deal with out being terminal savy and it has awesome names.

 

Is it the fastest. ( I learn quick so I dont mind hard-to use plus I have mcmyadmin so it doesnt really matter.)

 

Some hosters praise FreeBSD as the new messiah when it comes to hosting MC.
It sounds plausible.

@Zaros : There's nothing particularly wrong with Ubunutu, but I wouldn't want to call it light..
It's certainly one of the more bloated distributions out there, which isn't inherently a bad thing considering the audience they go for.

 

I'm no linux expert, but we have a server running apache, murmur, mysql and minecraft with 10 players and 15 plugins at about 300 mb. Imo thats really good.

 

It's not bad. My point was rather that Ubuntu is not particularly known to be lean and mean.
Not saying Ubuntu is bad or even bloated, but it's certainly bloated compared to other distributions with a high focus on having only the bare essentials.

 

Ubuntu is a very good one to start with. I'm not sure bloat is the right word -- the entire os AND a nice program suite fits on one cd. Compare that to Windows Vista/7/8 or OSX

 

No one has made an OS specifically for running a Minecraft server yet?

 

*facepalms*

No.. just no.
The size on a CD is completely irrelevant. Especially considering that's mainly to get it installed and pull the rest from the web. You'll need several dozen DVDs to fit the entire repository of available software for Ubuntu.
I'm not comparing it to Windows or OSX either, I'm comparing it to other Linux distributions, which actually is the topic of this thread.

There's no need to get defense over this either.
Ubuntu is designed this way for a very important reason. It's targeting a specific audience.
For many of its advantages there need to be some disadvantages.
Inherently all these decisions make Ubuntu a system that is pleasant to work with and very suitable for those just leaving the comfort zone of Windows.

 

Making it one of the best choices for beginners. OP didn't ask for a linux distro that runs on 10 mb of RAM, he asked for a linux distro and why. Your reason is a good 'why' answer. Didn't mean to start the 'light' argument.

 

LFS (Linux From Scratch)

just saying

 

So... which Linux flavor manages hardware/software the most efficiently? Or is the difference not worth the trouble of switching?

 

puppy linux still has a linux version that fits on a floppy, does that automagically make the cd version of ubuntu way way way overbloated? (hint the answer is no )

it all depends on how you install it though, personally i like ubuntu more because the extra overhead isnt very big. but if you run into a problem, they definitely have the more complete help community

 

CentOS<3

 

Maybe this will help. New computer specs:
i7-2600k intel quad core processor
16 GB RipJaw RAM
500 GB Harddrive (2x)

Discuss

 

I've tried lots of different linux flavours (plenty of debian based ) and they all seem to run pretty much the same when it comes to a minecraft server (a server being run from a laptop so I certainly notice any difference in performance ) though some like the mentioned puppy linux aren't very good for java imo personally I'd use a debian based OS or CentOS

 

Pretty much anything. Maybe Windows 2000 within Windows XP within Windows Vista within W7?

 

if you run a ram disk (which with the amount of memory you have, no problem) then it probably won't matter which OS you install on it as the server is high end enough it won't matter (ie trivial amounts of performance gain)

 

Ramdisk? Is that a program or an option, if so how much? (This computer is costing me enough lol.)

 

A ram disk is like a mini hard drive but in RAM. Reading and writing to it is much faster than to a physical hard drive. However because it is in ram the data will vanish if the computer is shut off so some sort of backup feature is needed to periodically back up to a physical hard disk. I set up an svn server and backed up my world folders using svn every hour.

I have not done one in windows, but in linux it is quite easy. There is a file in the /etc directory called fstab which maps your hard drive partitions to your filesystem (linux does not use drive letters like windows does, it has a file system tree and hard drive partitions are mapped to the tree. This gives a lot of flexibility). An example line for a ramdisk is this:

Code:

tmpfs /home/croxis/minecraftserver/world      tmpfs nodev,nosuid,noexec,size=2G          0 0

This creates a ramdisk in the world folder (make sure it is empty!) on boot that can expand up to 2 gigs in size

 

its all software so it shouldn't add any price to the machine, for windows i use DataRam ram disk which is free for ram disks 4GB and under. On linux this is completely free to do and built into the core of most distros (google it to find out)

I might also want to say that you need a more aggressive backup solution since a power failure anything in the ram disk is lost (since it is held in ram), so you need to back it up to disk more frequently (if you care)

edit: ninja'd

 

There are many distros you can use. Most of them work really well.

If you need a tutorial, there is one in my sig for Ubuntu. Ramdisk tutorial is in my How to Improve server performance link (in sig).

 

HexParrot has a done a very nice job with MineOS CRUX. It is a great distro for a basic, dedicated Minecraft-ONLY server.

For the OP: I like CentOS because it was designed for the enterprise server environment. But choose whichever distro you are most comfortable with -- just remember to remove all services that you are not using. With that system (especially if you place your worlds on ramdisks) you'll rock.

 

McMyadmin/personal software backs it up to a remote location every 8 hours.

I also plan to RUN minecraft on that computer occasionally. (Hence 16 GB RAM. Will this be an issue with something like CentOS? and should I install it on the machine or on a virtual removable drive?

EDIT by Moderator: merged posts, please use the edit button instead of double posting.

 

I don't have any experience there. My live servers are just that -- servers. Headless, no GUI, no HID, just FTP & SSH access. I've only run server & client on test machines, and when I do that I load up CentOS in a virtual machine with only console access.

If you MUST run both server and client on this machine, you might want to either consider a distro that splits the difference between the two environments or consider running a virtual machine like Oracle's VirtualBox in CentOS for occasional MC client use. For example, you could have your CentOS server running 24/7 but a few hours a day you start up VBox and open a virtual Ubuntu or Windows session to run the Minecraft client.

Realistically, however... if you've got some major hardware but only minor requirements -- don't sweat all this stuff. Pick a flavor that you are comfortable with. It will make the admin so much easier. If you bump into any performance issues, then start looking for alternative solutions.

 

I have a feeling you might have a fundamental misunderstanding on how linux works (and apologies if I am wrong, this came off douche). All linux operating systems are command line. The gui interface is built on top of it. Just hit control-alt f1 to switch to a pure cli interface. Control-alt f7 or f8 will bring you back to the gui screen. To add a gui to centOS is just a matter of installing the gui server (yes, X11 is actually a server) and then a window manager like KDE or Gnome, or Awesome if you feel like shooting yourself I'm also not sure what you mean by "split the difference between the two environments."

To the OP: There are a lot of choices out there from the Enterprise side of things like CentOS to more desktop oriented such as Fedora or Ubuntu. All of them provide live cds where you can plop the cd in and boot into the os from the cd. You can also load up a virtual machine like virtualbox and play with installing and using the different distros on a computer without actually doing it.

 

I'm thinking you pretty much just restated what I said. In essence: decide if your machine is a server or a desktop or something in-between. Pick a distro to match and then modify that with your proficiency. Good with *nix? Lean more toward the server side. Still green? Lean more toward the desktop side.

Regarding GUI and CLI... yes, GUI is built on top of the CLI. If you install it. I don't. It is unnecessary overhead on an MC server.

 

I got Ubuntu 11.10. Now I need software help!
1. MySQL Database! (LWC cant connect) Please help me find a link to a tutorial OR direct commands.
2. I need to be able to view my ubunutu via RDP on a windows machine.

Your help is appreciated.

 

1. Where is your mysql server hosted? On your ubuntu machine?
2. I'd recommend VNC instead unless someone can help you with that.

 

Ahh my bad then. This is what happens when I read stuff when playing minecraft

For option 2 you can also ssh in if you want to use the command line. Here are tutorials for setting up ubuntu with vnc:
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/ubuntu-remote-desktop-builtin-vnc-compatible-dead-easy/

You can also use the NX protocol instead which is faster than VNC and I think RDP as well:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FreeNX

And there is the ubuntuguide wiki on the topic as well