Yes, this can be done. I have an even older machine doing exactly this (I don't have a 1TB drive though). I will describe how this is set up, and then you can tell us if you think this will work for you and what parts you need help with.wayne wrote: a headless box, sitting at a corner, with one 1TB usb disk ,
and use it just to share files over home network with other computers
can it be done? of course with lots of help from forumers here ???:):)
help needed on how to do it..
1. The machine is set up to autologin to a console, so it can be started with no monitor or keyboard attached.
2. It's set up as an nfs server, with its exports file set to allow any machine on my router to connect to it.
3. It has a 160M secondary drive that is all shared data.
4. It's set up to allow me to ssh into it from my main machine, so I can control it from there.
5. It has a monitor and keyboard attached to it, so I can control it locally if necessary.
This is certainly not the only way to do this, but it works for me. If you want to share data with Windows machines, this will not work (you will need samba for that, and I can't help you with samba).
If you need to learn more about nfs and ssh, you can read the nfs and ssh topics in the Arch wiki. If you have more specific questions, please ask.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nfs
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Ssh