IP address and the like

[galoisienne2]

I have just completed the headless install (Amahi 7.1) of my system (using an HP laptop).

I'm prompted to enter a localhost and a password in the process of the first boot up of the system.

Questions:
1) is this the way things should proceed ?- i.e., should I be prompted for a localhost and password?
2) Assuming the answers to 1) are "yes", then how to I find my localhost and password.

I have a guess about what's going on. This is a headless install, so I need a terminal (i.e., see the "tty.." stuff just about the login prompt). Therefore, the hardware (the laptop) houses a headless operating system and at the same time the same hardware is acting as a terminal. Or something along those lines.

Is all that correct ?


Finally, stepping back, I have a few questions about the earliest part of the install process.

All going well, this laptop running the server software will sit underneath a staircase, directly connected to my router etc in a basement. However, most of the work setting up 1) the server software and 2) a mediawiki system, I intend to do sitting in a nearby office, using a wireless connection and/or perhaps connected via

I mention all this because when I first registered with Amahi and set up the control panel, I did this wirelessly (same router etc, but wirelessly). Will this be a problem ? My concern, which may be misplaced (I am an extreme novice), is that the IP address related info as shown in my Amahi User Control Panel (based on the wireless connection to my router) may not match the address info of the final wired ethernet cable connection that will ultimately be used. Finally, during the actual headless install, I was prompted for wireless or wired connection info. At this point I used a wired connection, but this connection is also not the ultimate connection point. Not sure if this will be a problem. Again, I hope to do these installations in a convenient spot and when do, move the laptop with the server software to its ultimate spot.

Thanks very much in advance.

[bigfoot65]

You should be prompted for user name and a password. The user name is admin, but you set the password on install. I presume you followed the guidance at https://docs.amahi.org for install.

As for registering at amahi.org via wireless has no impact on your install. As long as you made the IP and Gateway match wired connections, you should be fine.

Install may not have been successful. Suggest you try again and ensure you allow it enough time to complete. It must reboot twice, so the first time you see the login prompt ignore it. It may be 5 minutes or so, but once it reboots and the login shows the second time, it should be complete.

Best way to access it is via the HDA terminal or you can also do SSH. There is guidance in the wiki if you need it.

[galoisienne2]

Hi. I have it running. At least I can access via ssh and http://hda/

So good news as I'm a complete novice.

I have managed on my mac to install a mediawiki (using Bitnami's quick software, which I think is easier than what's available via Fedora). The Bitnami mediawiki install (separate versions for windows, linux, and mac OS) is practically instant.

My aim is to try and install this on the server. Since it's a headless install, I am having some difficulty picturing how this will work. Is there an app I can install that will allow me to take the server out to Bitnami's webpage, where I can download the install program and install it on the server? Is this program the HDA ?

Again, all this is new to me, and so I'm finding it difficult to even pose the question, but again, the idea is that I want to install a mediawiki (via Bitnami's quick install package for linux) onto the server (which is essentially linux) but I'm not sure how to get the install package to the correct spot on the server. Typically, you point your browser and it downloads in locally. Happy to dowload any additional Amahi apps that make this simpler to do.

Many thanks for any advice.

[bigfoot65]

The Media Wiki app is available in the Amahi app Store.
https://www.amahi.org/apps/media-wiki

[ Post made via Android ]

[galoisienne2]

That's very interesting !! Had no idea. This is encouraging. (I noticed Dokuwiki was available, but had no idea about mediawiki).

Is it a quick, once-and-done, easy install ? If yes, then I'll go with it. Thanks very much for pointing this out!

And, back to the original Q, if I need to install something else on the server (which is in fact the case), is the process, essentially no different than what I would normally do pre-server: essentially point the installation to my HDA drive (I noticed a little while ago on my MAC finder window, there was a 'subdir' or 'folder' labelled HDA with several categories of subdirectories).

Two questions regarding final positioning of my HP laptop which appears to be functioning nicely now.

1) The server is currently connected via ethernet cable. However, I want to move it to another location (in basement), connected to a different ethernet cable. Will this be a problem? Just to be clear, it's the same exact network, same router, etc., just a different ethernet cable connecting into the network. Hopefully, this will not require me to do a complete re-installation of the server.

2) When the server is in the basement with much of my other network equipment, I'd like to close the lid of the laptop, but without putting the whole thing to sleep, which of course shuts down the server. Is there any guidance about how to ensure that the laptop remains awake even with the top down.

Best regards

[bigfoot65]

Is it a quick, once-and-done, easy install ? If yes, then I'll go with it. Thanks very much for pointing this out!

Yes, it is pre-configured. All Amahi apps are made as one-click and ready to use. Recommend you log into amahi.org and check out the selection. Some have a small convenience fee, but most are free.

And, back to the original Q, if I need to install something else on the server (which is in fact the case), is the process, essentially no different than what I would normally do pre-server: essentially point the installation to my HDA drive (I noticed a little while ago on my MAC finder window, there was a 'subdir' or 'folder' labelled HDA with several categories of subdirectories).

It's a little more involved. Depends on the app you need to install. There are certain things you will need to do with the web server for it to work. What app are you wanting to install?

1) The server is currently connected via ethernet cable. However, I want to move it to another location (in basement), connected to a different ethernet cable. Will this be a problem?

As long as you reconnect to the same network, no further action is needed. Will it be your DHCP/DNS server as well? If not, you will lose some of the functionality of the HDA.
http://www.amahi.org/faq#can-i-disable- ... -amahi-hda

2) When the server is in the basement with much of my other network equipment, I'd like to close the lid of the laptop, but without putting the whole thing to sleep, which of course shuts down the server. Is there any guidance about how to ensure that the laptop remains awake even with the top down.

You will have to google it or check with the manufacturer.

[galoisienne2]

Q: It's a little more involved. Depends on the app you need to install. There are certain things you will need to do with the web server for it to work. What app are you wanting to install?

A: Well maybe I misunderstood something, but for argument's sake, suppose mediawiki wasn't something that was made available for quick install by amahi, but someone else does make it available for a quick Linux (fedora say) install? Could I not in those circumstances just grab that and put it on the amahi server ?

Actually, and this is important for my needs, I will need to add some (fairly standard) mathematical extensions to the preconfigured mediawiki, which I've done a couple of times to the preconfigured Bitnami MediaWiki distribution on some of my local machines (both Macs). These extenstions were not super involved, but I am hoping to do the same thing on the MediaWiki that I install on the Amahi server. Basically, I'm just trying to run my slightly modified mediawiki on the server now.

I am assuming this will be straightforward, but please let me know if I've missed something in my understanding of what's possible.

Q: Will it be your DHCP/DNS server as well? If not, you will lose some of the functionality of the HDA.
http://www.amahi.org/faq#can-i-disable- ... -amahi-hda

A: I am not sure what the DHCP/DNS server is exactly. But the idea is that the Amahi server will be running all the time as the server that all machines in the house will see. I did search on the issue of disabling DHCP as part of the install process and I did see that same link (the one you just gave me) last night, and I read something (regarding mac time machine, which is my router) that in order to make the server visible to other machines that I should change the DNS to point to the IP address of the server. Not sure if this is the best way to some of problem of disabling the DHCP server, but there was some discussion about MAC time machines being relatively inflexible when it comes to tweaking, but upon changing the DNS it worked.

One interesting thing is that the HDA drive shows up in my finder window, but occasionally disappears and reappears. Not sure why.

--
Regarding the lid issue, will do.

Thank you.

[bigfoot65]

Well maybe I misunderstood something, but for argument's sake, suppose mediawiki wasn't something that was made available for quick install by amahi, but someone else does make it available for a quick Linux (fedora say) install? Could I not in those circumstances just grab that and put it on the amahi server ?

You can add many things to the server, but some may not work with Amahi installed. What I mean by more involved was to add a web app requires you create a .conf file for the web server which is an advanced linux task. It is not overly difficult, just have to know how and what to do in that case.

Actually, and this is important for my needs, I will need to add some (fairly standard) mathematical extensions to the preconfigured mediawiki, which I've done a couple of times to the preconfigured Bitnami MediaWiki distribution on some of my local machines (both Macs). These extenstions were not super involved, but I am hoping to do the same thing on the MediaWiki that I install on the Amahi server. Basically, I'm just trying to run my slightly modified mediawiki on the server now.

You can add the extensions and update the MediaWiki configuration no problem. I have done it in the past with little issues.

It's your server, so you can pretty much add/change anything you want. Just need to understand that it could cause issues or break the Amahi platform.

[galoisienne2]

Ok Thanks.

I'll start reading the Wiki because I don't know how everything fits together.

Here is what I'm trying to piece together in order to get my bearings.

Is there an user interface into the server ? I understand this was a headless install, but I'm used to the usual GUI interface that's used to interact with OS X or Windows, etc. Does this happen with Amahi running Fedora 19 ? In other words, is that what the HDA Dashboard is for (via web browser), or, is there further interfacing?

Or a related question, does Fedora 19 have an GUI interface (similar to windows or OS X) which disabled when running Amahi 7.1 ?

I did notice that my Mac OS finder window now includes a connection to the HDA drive and I saved a few audio files successfully to the music subdirectory of that DHA drive, which I was able to replay successfully on a different machine. But then I read somewhere, don't remember where (it was an third-party article on Amahi or in the reader commentary after the article), that I should NOT save directly to the drives but instead do it thru "shares" on the Amahi Dashboard (something I'll look into). I kinda like the drives because it seems like an avenue to do file and/or subdir manipulations.

Should I not be accessing those drives or subdirectories directly via Finder ?

Ultimately, I'd like to realize all the benefits of Amahi in terms of quick easy use and installation of apps. At the same time, I like the flexibility of a GUI operating system interface, and hope that's the case with Amahi. I mentioned installing some math extensions on my mediawiki. I've done this on my MAC and this required some changes to .php files using an editor, downloading things and placing them in certain directories. A whole bunch of little maneuvers.

For something like this for example, are the types of maneuvers I'd be doing to make these modifications on Amahi fundamentally different than what I'd do if I was simply running Fedora or Mac OS X ?

Thanks again !! - as I said - I'll be reading thru all the Wiki's and help sections over the next few days.

p.s. I did notice in the Admin subdir (again via Finder) a subdir called desktop with some desktop installers.

[bigfoot65]

Is there an user interface into the server ? I understand this was a headless install, but I'm used to the usual GUI interface that's used to interact with OS X or Windows, etc. Does this happen with Amahi running Fedora 19 ? In other words, is that what the HDA Dashboard is for (via web browser), or, is there further interfacing?

The dashboard is intended for basic tasks like creating shares, users, restarting servers, installing Amahi apps, setting aliases and fixed IPs for clients.

If you want more of the OS interface, then you need to install the Amahi VNC app.
http://www.amahi.org/apps/vnc
It's currently in BETA, so won't help you right now unless you are a paid subscriber.

Another alternative is to follow guidance in the wiki to install the desktop interface on your HDA. I like VNC better as it does not install all the extra crap that comes with the desktop interface. Plus I can remote in using a VNC viewer app.
https://wiki.amahi.org/index.php/GUI_In ... Express_CD

Should I not be accessing those drives or subdirectories directly via Finder ?

If you are using a client machine, WIndows or MAC, then you are accessing the drives via Samba.

p.s. I did notice in the Admin subdir (again via Finder) a subdir called desktop with some desktop installers.

Not sure where you see this directory, but chances are it's part of the Amahi platform. Recommend you do not mess with it. If you could point out where you see it, I might have a better answer as to it's use.