un-Linux-aware user wants to add e-mail and ftp

[jimwhite]

I would rate myself as an advanced PC person in the Windows world, but know little of Linux.  My Un-Raid is on 24-7 (Al Gore-acle be damned) but obviously spends a LOT of time idle.  I'm also tired of not wanting to change internet providers because of e-mail issues.  I'd like to add e-mail functionality to my Un-Raid so that it will serve as a POP3 and SMTP server, and maybe also allow ftp transfers.  Can anyone offer some guidance on how I would go about doing this?

 

[zzsprade]

I also am very curious as to how people have implemented an FTP service on their unraid setup.

 

I find myself in the same boat as the poster, Windows savey, but completely useless in Linux.

 

Any suggestions?

 

-Alex

[bubbaQ]

It isn't too hard once you know how.

 

unRAID is based on the Slackware distribution of Linux.  You can add programs to Slackware either by getting the source code to the programs you want to install and compiling it (hard), or by installing pre-compiled "packages" (easy).  Compiling is hard on unRAID because software needed to compile source code (like gcc and necessary libraries) is not installed.

 

Packages can be downloaded from:  http://packages.slackware.it/  as well as some other locations.  Google for Slackware packages and you'll find them.  You want a package for FTP.

 

Once you get the package, you have to get it into unRAID.  But since unraid boots from an initramfs, without pivoting the root (switch_root) to a hard drive, anything you install in unRAID will disappear when the system is rebooted.  To get around that, you have to either write a script to reinstall the package at every boot, or create a new unRAID initramfs.  See  http://www.lime-technology.com/wordpress/?page_id=34

 

I posted instructions on how to modify the unRAID initramfs in this thread: 

 

  http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=871.0

 

It seems daunting at first, but after you have done it a few times, it becomes easy.

 

 

[JarDo]

Have you gotten anywhere on the email front???  I finally got rsync upgraded and working as I need.  Next for me is email.  And, next after that is FTP.  I want email first so that I have a solid way for my unraid server to communicate status updates (rsync failures, drive failures, weekly "I'm still alive" notifications, etc...).  Using netcat to send email only 'kind of' works for me.

 

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=1340.0

 

If you've made any progress with email I'd love to hear about it.  If your trying to implement sendmail like me I'd love to help (and be helped).  I've come to the sorry conclusion that I'm not going to be able to do this on my own.