[Nelug] Advice on setting up a home server

[Daniel Tweedy]

Hi All,

I have been trying to set up a home server for a good few months now, 
been through various distros and not really found one that did 
everything as I require, so I thought that I would pose the question to 
you all and see what you think or recommendations you may have if any.

My first attempt was as follows.

Fedora Core 2
Webmin, Apache 2, php 4, mysql 4

first problem was not being able to get webmin to work correctly, kept 
breaking the samba shares after install, and also no mysql 4 rpm, so I 
built it from source from a help doc I found unfortunatley it failed on 
could connect on the socket.

Attempt number 2 & 4 was:-

I have tried this a couple of times as this is what I thought would be 
the best route, and being able to add more things at a later date to the 
mix.

Fedora Core 3
Apache 2, php 4, mysql 4 and vhcs (www.vhcs.net)

the problem here was with vhcs and it being a nightmare to configure as 
it needed all sort of different dependancies most of where were hard to 
find, it needs courier-imap but I wasn't able to find that rpm and 
building it from source vhcs didn't like to use it, not to mention 
various problems with MIME::Entity.

Attempt 3 was the sme server from www.contribs.org based on red hat 7.3 
but comes with all the necessary stuff, but lacking somewhat in other 
areas, i.e. no c compiler, cd is only 600mb but does the hosting job 
that I was wanting but nothing else that I was wanting aswell.

Attempt 5 was ubuntu, it seems a really nice desktop linux and I do 
really like it, but cant ssh into it not sure how to get that working, 
and mythtv package that is in apt doesn't work really, currently still 
playing with it not been able to get it to play aac audio, althought 
gtkpod does and works great with my ipod something I never been able to 
get to work with any other linux distro.

If I had to list everything I am wanting it would be as follows.

Server capable of being colocated (it wont ever be tho)
Capable of adding domains easily to the server and removing them.
Adding user and creating ftp accounts.
Adding mail accounts also.
Maybe be able to run vhcs (www.vhcs.net) if you dont have any other 
alternatives to try, sorry but webmin isn't very nice.
able to install and run icecast streaming radio server, and xmms 
hopefull with aac audio support ?

I have a pvr350 tv tuner card in my linux box, so I would like to be 
able to install and run mythtv have never had it working yet so that 
would be a godsend to see it working.

I also have a pioneer 108 dvd writer so support for writting dvds also 
as mythtv can burn recorded programs straight to dvd.