i finally got the t105 the other day and sure enough… i didn’t order the optical drive ($0) when i configured the t105 and dell actually listened and didn’t send one. after trial and error trying to follow the ubuntu live usb how-to, i actually got ubuntu 8.04 to boot off a usb drive.

one of the drawbacks to installing via usb vs cdrom is that you can’t install the alternatives cd and you have to use a ubuntu live cd. i did want to try out the encrypted filesystem support that’s available in the alternatives.

i am glad that i didn’t have to beg/borrow/steal a usb or sata cdrom drive. when going through the how-to make sure that you are using a live cd and also make sure you copy the .disk directory onto your usb drive. if you don’t include the .disk directory you’ll end up at initramfs prompt which won’t do much for you.

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i saw the $250 poweredge t104 @ slickdeals today and couldn’t pass up the offer. i basically stuck w/ the stripper model and didn’t configure any options: AMD Dual Core 1210 Processor 1.8ghz, 512MB DDR2 800MHz, & an 80gb harddrive.

i didn’t opt for the SAS6iR raid card but there are 4 sata ports onboard… and it’ll be interesting to see how i shove more drives into the case seeing how it only has 2x 5 1/4″ bays and 3x 3.5″ bays (one of which is the floppy). there’s 3 PCI Express slots and a single 32-bit/33MHz PCI slot, so i can add a raid card incase i load the box up w/ drives.

it also looks like the onboard video is an ATI RN50, not too familiar w/ amd/ati’s latest products but i’m sure this will be fine for a linux server. i’ll probably run this box headless after awhile.

poweredge t105 hardware manual

i think i have to run to one of my local computer shops to grab a new video card tonight. they have a geforce 6200 256mb for $69, so screw even trying to fix this card’s fan…