My First Linux Whitebox
Hardware Purchases:
* Biostar M7VIG 400 Socket A mATX MB w/Athlon XP-M 2600+ CPU ($94.99 from Geeks.com).
* 4-Bay Silver mATX Case w/230-Watt Power Supply ($27.50 from Geeks.com).
* Combined shipping cost of above two items + $17 = $139.49.
* gigaram 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM System Memory - OEM ($33.99 from NewEgg.com + $4.81 shipping = $38.80).
* Reused an old 120G IDE hard disk and an old 52x CD-RW drive -- considered $0.00.
* No monitor, no keyboard/mouse -- used LCD TV and another set of wireless keyboard/mouse during installation.
* Total investment so far: $139.49 + $38.80 = $178.29.
[ Read more for hardware specifications and initial installation... ]
Hardware Specifications:
* MB / RAM / HDD: Socket A 266M FSB; 512M DDR 400 CLS 3 running at 333M; 120G 7200RPM 8M buffer IDE at UDMA 133.
* [root@whitebox ~]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 6
model : 10
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2600+
stepping : 0
cpu MHz : 1992.098
cache size : 512 KB
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
coma_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 mmx fxsr sse syscall mp mmxext 3dnowext 3dnow
bogomips : 3947.33
* [root@whitebox ~]# cat /proc/meminfo
MemTotal: 483196 kB
MemFree: 129536 kB
Buffers: 15596 kB
Cached: 188728 kB
SwapCached: 0 kB
Active: 253132 kB
Inactive: 68744 kB
HighTotal: 0 kB
HighFree: 0 kB
LowTotal: 483196 kB
LowFree: 129536 kB
SwapTotal: 1574328 kB
SwapFree: 1574328 kB
Dirty: 68 kB
Writeback: 0 kB
Mapped: 149540 kB
Slab: 23700 kB
CommitLimit: 1815924 kB
Committed_AS: 238192 kB
PageTables: 2692 kB
VmallocTotal: 540664 kB
VmallocUsed: 3876 kB
VmallocChunk: 535080 kB
HugePages_Total: 0
HugePages_Free: 0
Hugepagesize: 4096 kB
OS Installation:
Default Fedora core 4 installation CDs with customized server installation options, SeLinux and GNOME. VGA, ethernet and sound cards detected correctly during installation. By default using DHCP client. Firewall turned on during installation, allowing http, ftp and ssh traffics.
After installation, turned on XDMCP through GNOME's Desktop -> System Settings -> Login Screen. Shutdown. Unplugged mouse, keyboard and monitor. Relocated the whitebox besides my router and connected to home network with ethernet cable. Power on again.
On another computer, checked router's DHCP client list and found the whitebox was assigned with IP address 192.168.2.6. SSHed whitebox through putty. Logged in with root. Everything looks fine. Leaned back a peace of mind ;)
The whitebox seating with the DSL modem and the wireless router.