i'm going to tell you what others will tell you, so take this with some patience.
read the wiki. the linux setups are really damn good. if you get stuck on a specific part, search the forum. many people have tripped over various points and posted and gotten good responses. the community is very good about answering questions, but you have to accept the fact up front that this is a "do it yourself" kind of endeavor. we'll all help guide you, but you have to be willing to exert a bit of effort.
that being said, i'll offer you a couple links to get you started:
http://www.eqemulator.net/wiki/wikka...CategoryServer -- note the first of the three linux setup guides is the best, but the other 2 have a few bits and pieces the first one missed on, so use the primary one, but have the other 2 handy as "extra info".
http://www.projecteq.net/ -- they have the database that is closest to live i think. if you want to mimic "the real eq" get their db. otherwise you have to start from scratch and thats alot of work.
good luck and post questions as they arise. but always "search" the forum first because your question could very well have been answered already.
== sfisque