[RndTbl] Mac as a web server

[Mike Pfaiffer]

On 10-09-15 03:16 PM, Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson wrote:
> Hi!
>
> I don't know if this is much of a help, but you can easily run Linux on a G4
> Mac. I'm running it as a personal server at home on an ancient G4 laptop.
> Debian in particular is particularly apathetic to CPUs, you just put in the
> CD and install as if it were any other kind of computer, which is why I use
> it on my PowerPC "personal server" machines... well, also because Debian
> simply kicks a$$.
>
> http://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/5.0.6/powerpc/iso-cd/debian-506-powerpc-netinst.iso

	That's an option I will absolutely consider. Since it's a G4 there 
isn't the problem with "new world" vs "old world" Macs. I didn't think 
it would be that easy.

> Sorry if this is just ignoring everything you're trying to do, but I figured
> it was worth a mention. :) - I'm afraid you'll always have problems running
> the most recent versions of PHP/Apache/MySQL on a PowerPC Mac OS X
> installation unless you compile them from source, but I'm not sure how
> problematic that would be on Mac OS X in general. Apple tends to fiddle
> around a lot with the environment and GCC, often resulting in broken
> compilations from source, so I'm guessing you're up for a lot of long-term
> problems sticking to Mac OS 10.4.

	I was able to compile some software on my Mac Mini. So compilation is a 
possibility.

> Long story short, if losing Mac OS X is indeed an option, Debian is
> definitely the way to go with a PowerPC machine.

	I'm not really set on OS X but I'd like to see if I can exhaust the 
most reasonable possibilities first. You know how these things are... I 
am eventually going to be asked how to do it that way.

	With Debian I can apt-get install from source.

> Hope it helps and apologies if it doesn't. ;)

	It does. I suspect this is what I am most likely to do in the end. If 
not on this machine then certainly on another.

> Kind regards,
> Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson
> helgi at binary.is

				Later
				Mike



> On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 2:56 PM, Mike Pfaiffer<high.res.mike at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>>         This is just something to keep me occupied for a while. It isn't
>> anything serious (yet).
>>
>>         As I said at this months meeting I have a spare G4 server sitting
>> around. Last month I was playing around with the current Ubuntu server.
>> I found some applications which should work as long as the revision
>> level of the software is fine. Which is to say they worked with Ubuntu
>> server but whine and complain about the default revisions on the G4 (OS
>> X 10.4 desktop). It really shouldn't be too difficult to set things up
>> on a Mac...
>>
>>         Here is what I've done so far.
>>
>>         After a couple of days of reading on the web I found people are
>> suggesting upgrading to 10.5 (out of the question), or updating the
>> software to something close to current. The suggestions are Apache 2.x,
>> MySQL 5.x, and PHP 5.x would be good things to install. The defaults are
>> Apache 1.3, and PHP 4.x. I don't know if MySQL is installed. Oh, and it
>> was suggested Webmin would be good for playing around on a small scale.
>>
>>         I tried installing the individual components separately based on
>> what
>> they suggested on the product web sites and had mixed success. Although
>> PHP was in the 5.x range it wasn't near current. Apache 2.x installed
>> but the built in 1.3 wouldn't let it run properly. MySQL just whined.
>>
>>         Following some suggestions from the net I looked at a series of
>> programs called MAMP and found the installation to be very easy. All the
>> software it installed was relatively up to date. Everything ran well
>> with a major show stopper. Connecting locally was fine but connecting
>> through the LAN defaulted back to the old software versions. It seems
>> MAMP and another series of programs called XAMPP only want to be run
>> locally as a development environment.
>>
>>         There was one web page I found about 20 minutes ago which suggested
>> using Mac Ports to update the software. After getting into the page a
>> little there was a hint I wouldn't have much more in the way of success
>> if I went that route.
>>
>>         Oh, I also made sure Personal Web Sharing was turned off in the
>> System
>> Preferences.
>>
>>         Now for the request for some advice...
>>
>>         If I were running an Intel Mac I would just install a virtual
>> machine
>> with Ubuntu server or something similar and be done with it.
>> Unfortunately the G4 is a PPC and not an Intel box.
>>
>>         Does anybody have any advice on where to proceed from here? The Mac
>> Ports idea might be worth a look if I can somehow point the default
>> server away from Apache 1.3 to 2.x. Running MAMP may have some merit
>> since I can change the default port to 80. Unfortunately Webmin wants to
>> run on a different port and defaults back to Apache 1.3. I could install
>> *BSD but I think that's a little more involved than I want to get at
>> this point.
>>
>>         Like the problem I was having with PHP last year, it's probably a 10
>> second fix. The problem is where to apply the fix. ;-)
>>
>>                                 Later
>>                                 Mike
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Roundtable mailing list
>> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
>> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable
>>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Roundtable mailing list
> Roundtable at muug.mb.ca
> http://www.muug.mb.ca/mailman/listinfo/roundtable