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I always like having the latest versions of software, with the release of Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala) on October 29th I wanted to perform an update on my home server to test the new features.  Additional information regarding Ubuntu Server can be found at www.ubunutu.com and a list of new features in version 9.10 can be located here.

As with any update you should always backup your important information and make sure that your existing software has all updates.  My information is stored on the server and an external hard drive so I am already backed up.  The next thing I needed to do is open a command prompt on my desktop that is connected to the server.  This can be done from a Linux Desktop, but my normal choice is to use Putty from my Vista Desktop, see my post on Creating a Home Server with Ubuntu Server if you need more information regarding this.

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Now that I had my network set up and added uShare to be able to stream to my xbox 360, I needed to add some more storage.  I had a Western Digital MyBook Essential connected to my Vista PC that I thought would be more useful as part of the network.

I started by plugging the USB into the server and plugging in the electric cord.  Since the server does not automount I started by installing usbmount to install.

sudo apt-get install usbmount

Next I wanted to find out the location of the device so I opened up a terminal using Putty in Vista.  By typing dmesg at the command line you can verify that the device was plugged in.  You will want to look for the device name, mine was “sdf1” as shown on the line with “sdf:sdf1”.

From my previous posts, you know that I am not a command line expert so I will do the rest of the setup using Webmin which I explained how to install in my previous post (click here to see the full post where I explained how to install Webmin.)

The first thing to do is mount the hard drive.  After you login to Webmin go to:

System –> Disk and Network Filesystems

1. Select the type of filesystem from the dropdown list (I am using NTFS), and select add mount.
2. Click the options for “Mounted As” and decide where you want to mount the drive.  I chose “mnt” since I was already using media for my internal hard drive.
3. Make sure the options for Save and mount at boot and mount now are selected.
4. Click the box next to other device and locate your device, it should be under dev and then look for the name you located using the command line, mine was sdf1.
5. Make sure that the mount options below are the way that you want them.
6. Click create.

You should now see the external drive listed in your Disk and Network Filesystems list.

If you are using Vista PC’s on your network like I am, the next step is to set up Samba file sharing so the Windows PC’s can see it.  Still in Webmin, go to:

Servers –> Samba Windows Filesharing

1. At the top, select Create a new fileshare.
2. Select the name that you want for the folder, I chose WD External to be able to identify it.
3. I changed permissions to 777 to allow read/write access.
4. Click Create.
5. If you don’t want to have to login to access the drive, click on the newly created drive.
6. Select Security and Access Control
7. Change Guest Access to yes, and change any other options if you wish.
8. Click Save.

At this point all Windows PC’s on the network should be able to see the new folder and you will have access to the additional storage.