Replacing My Windows Server 2003 with Ubuntu

Since I had no luck with the dual booting Windows XP and Linux on my main machine (due to faulty i-RAM SATA emulation issue), I'm in process of replacing Windows Server 2003 with Ubuntu. I used the Windows Server 2003 machine mostly for the file server and IIS. And I TRIED to run SQL Server Express (it's free from Microsoft), but it was too slow on 512MB RAM.

I was worry about replacing familiarity of Windows environment with Ubuntu but installing and configuring Ubuntu was surprisingly easy. I've installed ssh to replace Remote Desktop.

    sudo apt-get install openssh-server

Installed Lamp:

    sudo apt-get install apache2 php5 libapache2-mod-php5
    sudo apt-getinstall mysql-server mysql-client php5-mysql

Set root password for mysql

    sudo mysql
    USE mysql;
    UPDATE user SET Password=PASSWORD('new-password')
        WHERE user='root';
    FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Only problem was setting up Samba. I've only install Samba once about four or five years ago. Actually it came preinstalled; I only configured it using GUI and SWAT. Never done it in command line. I've followed a step-by-step instructions that I found on Google.

    sudo apt-get install samba smbfs
    sudo smbpasswd -a linuxuser

And add lines to /etc/samba/smb.conf

    [global]
    workgroup = WORKGROUP
    security = user
    invalid users = root
    [homes]
    comment = Home Directories
    browseable = no
    valid users = %S
    writable = yes
    create mask = 0600
    directory mask = 0700

Tips for debugging configuration: don't try to connect Samba server by typing \\linuxserver\username on the Windows Explorer. It won't tell you what the error message is. It will keep ask you for username and password. Go to command line and type

    net use z: \\linuxserver\username