Amahi 5.3: No desktop enviroment?

[todda7]

Hello.

Installed Amahi (5.3 X64), but on boot I only end up in terminal and startx does not work.. Is the desktop enviroment stripped off? http://hda doesn't work on other computers either ...

EDIT: Installed 5.3 hoping it would use F13 and not old software ... Seems I was wrong.. Furthermore, installing Fedora first seemed like a bothersome way of making a server.

[cpg]

Hi, yes, the Express CD is headless. I thought we pointed it out well.

There is an app called Gnome desktop to add the desktop, which is in testing, as one-click.

We can also give you the command to install the desktop.

If you do want the desktop, you can simply install the standard F12 DVD.

No, we do not support Fedora 13 yet.

[todda7]

If there is no DE, how am I supposed to configure the server?
As said, I cannot reach the server with http://hda and amahi-installer just points me to localhost:2000 or something, which I obviously cannot go to because I do not have a DE (and no xserver etc) and therefore cannot start the browser.

[cale250]

Try using http://<your-server-ip-address>:2000/ . You can run " ip addr " in the terminal to find it. It may take a long time to load the installer, depending on your server's specs. I would give it two minutes to load on a very-low-end server.

I thought I saw something about going to the proper address in the Amahi Express forum post.

[cpg]

The express CD asks for the install code right away and then does pretty much the rest.

After it's installed and it's rebooted, the clients then need to use your HDA for DNS. The simplest way to guarantee this is to turn off DHCP in your router and then reboot your clients to get their DHCP lease from your HDA. With that, all names should work well.

[todda7]

This just gets more and more confusing...

I can't reach the server on http://192.168.x.yyy:2000/.

And cpg: Wait what? Shouldn't the server set a static IP right away when I gave it my HDA install number? Or do I have to disable DHCP in the router, restart all my clients, configure a static IP on the server and THEN use it as a DHCP server? What a cumbersome method ...

The server is not reachable, it does not have the IP I set for it in my HDA control panel and it does not either appear as installed in the control panel.

EDIT: The network connection for the server is bridged through my high-end dual-gigabit network card. Is this going to be a problem?

And, besides, the need for a static IP on the server is IDIOTIC since this disable the ability to use the DHCP server on the router. A DHCP forwarding would be much easier.
If it would be possible to change the IP in the Amahi control panel, which by some reason is not possible, I could DHCP forward the server which would eliminate the need for a static IP. Seems like I have to delete my user, create a new one, format the server, and reinstall Amahi again ...

[cpg]

EDIT: The network connection for the server is bridged trough my high-end dual-gigabit network card. Is this going to be a problem?

this is consistent with what we have seen. the more advanced the user, the more in trouble he gets
(saying things are idiotic is also typical of advanced users)

there are some good points in there: amahi is not flexible enough for some cases. we start with the mainstream user that (mostly) follows directions, for the main install. with the express CD, the goal is to cut down complexity and install time.

this is how it works:

in order for it to be a server, it must stay at a static ip address. this, sadly, gets propagated across a number of services which require that. we do not have code to support changing this on the fly. we do take patches, if you want to change it. we will tend to make this more and more modular, so this is something we're interested in.

there is no way around running it as a static ip address. it's the only sane way to run a server. the monumental amount of work to make a server dynamically change DNS mappings, etc.

but anyway ...

first, there is no need to hit the :2000 port at all. the server was installed upon first reboot. if it did not work, we need to debug it. the bridging and some unusual

second, it's a server. there is no need to run desktop unless one wants to also use it as a desktop, hence the option to install that later as a one-click app.

third, using multiple NICs is not well supported. you can try to use eth1, which is kinda supported, though not dynamically. you do not describe what you are using precisely, but if you are bridging, the services from amahi will only be available on eth0, transparently (if it's true bridging).

once a system is set up, we only support changing the gateway (though a script, with hda-change-gw). 99% of users do not need to change this ever. i would go on and on how adding these options *really* wrecks chaos on how users see things. in fact, network detection is automatic, so, if anything, we are going in the other direction, that of simplification.

[moredruid]

this is consistent with what we have seen. the more advanced the user, the more in trouble he gets
(saying things are idiotic is also typical of advanced users)

hmpf, can't remember much trouble and being told that here, ever...
either I understand the dev's idiocy or I'm not much of an advanced user

running amahi with custom rolled app, monitoring, 3 NICs bonded into 1 IP, a 1.6 TB LVM mirror across 4 disks is apparently something all users do

[cpg]

there are exceptions, you know

[todda7]

Well, I tried to disable DHCP in the router and restarted all my clients and the server. My clients got an IP (from the server), however the server was not even able to set an IP for itself, making it unconnectable.

Server HW: AMD X2 5000+, 4 GB RAM, Onboard nVidia 6150LE GPU, only 1 NIC
The server is connected to my PC, which bridges the connection to the router. The server does NOT have multiple NICs.

I don't need a DE, I was in fact relieved when I found out that there should'nt be one, the server runs quick and smooth, besides not working though ...

So the problem is: Do I have to set the IP to static on the server manually? It doesn't seem capable of doing anything on it self, really.
And the need for a static IP is eliminated when you have the ability to DHCP forward. Try make the network restrictions a little bit less nazi next time, the server has been running WHS, Windows Server 2008 and Linux Mint (as a UPNP and Samba server) with no problems having DHCP forwarded IP.