LINUX

1
LINUX

• Background Overview
• O.S. Installation

2
What is Linux?

• An operating system
• Manages computer hardware and software
• A Unix derivative
• Developed for IBM PC compatibles
• Open source, non-proprietary
• Free
• See the handout LinuxIntro.doc

3
History

• Unix developed by Ken Thompson Dennis Ritchie
• ATT Bell Labs
• 1969
• Flexible, multitasking, multiuser environment
• ATT marketed Unix
• Evolved to System V
• ATT licensed source code to universities
• Enhancements
• Changes shared among all users

4
History

• Some universities released their own versions of
  Unix
• UC Berkeley Berkeley System Distribution (BSD),
  1976
• BSD became early foundational platform of the
  Internet
• Today over 70 of servers on the Internet are
  Unix/Linux

5
History

• By 1990, Unix ran on many platforms (portable)
• Not IBM PCs (except for Xenix, but it didnt have
  a wide following)
• Linus Torvalds (U. of Helsinki) organized effort
  via the Web to produce PC version
• A motivation was lack of stability of MS Windows
• Linux released in 1991
• Drew on best capabilities of System V, BSD, and
  IEEE standard POSIX
• Distributed free of charge

6
History

• Figure from Guide to Linux
  Installation and Administration, Nicholas Wells,
  Course Technology, 2000
• Articles on Linus Torvalds
• Wired Magazine http//www.wired.com/wired/archive/
  11.11/linus.html
• NPR audio interview www.npr.org then search for
  linus torvalds

7
History

• Linux licensing handled by Free Software
  Foundation
• Founded by Richard Stallman, MIT, 1983
• Licensing details defined in GNU (Gnu Not Unix)
  General Public License (GPL) agreement
• Based on Open Source Code philosophy
• No proprietary restrictions apply
• Source code included
• Changes must be made available to all other Linux
  users free of charge
• Charges can be made for media, manuals, technical
  support

8
Commercial Distributions

• There are many distributions of Linux available
• These often include the companys own software
• Ease of installation
• Special software
• Distributors often provide technical support
• Red Hat is most common Linux distribution

9
Distributions (some)

• Table from Guide to Linux Installation and
  Administration, Nicholas Wells, Course
  Technology, 2000

10
Distributions (more)

• Popular distributions include (see text pg. 11)
• Fedora
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu
• Debian
• openSUSE
• SUSE Linux Enterprise
• Damn Small Linux
• Slackware
• Gentoo
• Mandriva
• Also see
• http//www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/reports/126
  6/2/

11
Red Hat Fedora

• Most popular commercial distribution
• In September 2003, Red Hat sponsored the Fedora
  Project
• Open source project
• Red Hat Linux 9 base
• Community distribution
• More frequent releases
• Enterprise line
• Commercial distribution
• Annual subscription basis
• Includes tech support, training, and
  documentation
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 is latest

12
Red Hat Linux Products

• Enterprise line
• http//www.redhat.com/solutions/
• http//www.redhat.com/rhel/
• http//www.redhat.com/products/
• Enterprise Server
• Server
• Advanced Platform
• Mainframe
• Enterprise Desktop
• Several variants
• Fedora Project
• http//fedoraproject.org/wiki/
• Enterprise Fedora Compared
• http//www.redhat.com/software/rhelorfedora/

13
Linux Enhancements

• Follows model of most GPL or OpenSource projects
• Person identifies a need and begins writing a
  program
• Developer announces the work on the Internet
• Interested developers respond and begin to work
  together
• Projects source code is released on the Internet
• People download source code and begin to try it
• People send back information about software bugs
• Bugs fixed

14
Version Numbering

• Each release of the Linux kernel is assigned a
  version number, also called release number
• Different numbers are assigned (by the developer)
  to each component of a distribution
• Distributions themselves have version numbers
  (chosen arbitrarily)

15
Parts of the Kernel Version Number

• Major release number
• Changes very rarely
• Minor release number
• Changes infrequently (every 10-18 months)
• Even-numbered and odd-numbered minor releases
• Even-numbered stable, for commercial releases
• Odd-numbered development versions
• Patch level
• Changes frequently for development version, only
  a few times for stable versions
• Example 2.6.25 major2, minor6, patch25
• The shell command uname r shows release number
• For more info http//www.connecttech.com/Knowledg
  eDatabase/kdb271.htm

16
Linux Features

• Multiuser, multitasking, multiprocessing,
  multichoice
• User Interface
• GUI X Window System
• Command line shell
• Support for rich set of hardware
• Networking connectivity (modem, NICs, Ethernet,
  Token Ring, TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, X.25, )
• Server or client
• Application support

17
O.S. Features

• Multitasking operating system
• Manages multiple programs through preemptive
  multitasking
• Multiuser system
• Multiple users can log in to the same Linux
  system over a network connection
• Symmetrical multiprocessing
• Allows an operating system to support multiple
  CPUs on the same computer

18
O.S Features

• Figure from Guide to Linux Installation and
  Administration, Nicholas Wells, Course
  Technology, 2000

19
Major Components

• Kernel master control
• Shell user command interface
• Examples Bourne, Korn, C, Bash
• Bash most commonly used (Bourne Again Shell)
• X Window System - GUI
• File System file organization
• Utilities tools, commands

20
Installation
21
Installation Preparation

• Preparing to install Linux
• Make decisions about how you want to install
  Linux
• Compile information about the computer hardware
  so you can answer questions that arise during
  installation
• May not support very recently released hardware
  or very old equipment that uses standards that
  have since been discarded
• Hardware compatibility list
• https//hardware.redhat.com/hwcert/index.cgi
• http//www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/
• See text pg. 32
• Understand networking options
• For example, IP, DHCP, DNS

22
Anaconda

• Installation program that searches for hardware
  currently attached, for example, monitor, video
  card, keyboard, and mouse
• The correct drivers should be installed
  automatically
• Leave the KVM switch on the bench PC so the probe
  can work

23
Installation Method

• Bootable CD or DVD (method we use)
• Boot disc (for non-bootable CD drives)
• HTTP server
• FTP server
• NFS server
• Hard disk
• Kickstart from a list of answers to previous
  installation
• Bootable removable media, e.g., CD or USB drive

24
Mouse

• Unix traditionally 3-button mouse.
• Emulate with 2-buttons.
• Press both simultaneously for 3rd button
• Wheel mouse supported.
• If requested, be sure to select the appropriate
  mouse during the installation.

25
Install or Upgrade

• If there is a previous installation of Linux on
  your drive you will be asked whether you want to
  Install or Upgrade
• We want to delete any previous installation and
  start from scratch, so answer Install

26
Disk Partitioning

• Automatically
• Manually with Disk Druid (our method)
• Delete any pre-existing partitions
• Install the three Linux partitions

27
Recommended File System

• File systems
• ext2, ext3, physical volume (LVM), software RAID,
  swap, vfat
• ext3 (our method)
• Linux native file system
• Current Linux standard, better than ext2
• Journaling reduces time spent recovering file
  system after crash (no need to fsck the file
  system)
• ext4 is the new native file system
• It doesnt show up in Disk Druid list for Fedora
  9
• Considered experimental

28
Partitions

• Swap partition
• For virtual memory
• Like MS Windows pagefile
• Should be no less than size of RAM
• Recommended twice RAM size
• Boot partition (/boot)
• Contains kernel
• And files used during boot
• Recommended 100MB
• Root partition (/)
• Top of directory structure
• All files except those in boot partition

29
Mount Point

• Location within the directory tree at which a
  partition exists
• Defined as a pathname, for example, / is the root
  of the tree

30
Boot Loader

• First software that runs when computer starts
• Grub (GRand Unified Bootloader
• May be used for multi-OS environment
• Lilo (LInux LOader)
• Older loader
• Limited support for multi-boot environment
• Location of loader
• MBR recommended place for boot loader
• 1st sector of boot partition if using another
  loader

31
Network Configuration

• Well use
• TCP/IP and DHCP
• Set the hostname manually, and choose DHCP for
  assignment of an IP address

32
Accounts

• root password
• Super user
• Full administrative privilege
• Remember this password
• User account

33
Packages

• Include
• Desktop Environments Gnome KDE
• Applications check all, EXCEPT Authoring and
  Publishing and Engineering and Scientific
• Development None
• Servers check all EXCEPT News Server
• Base System check all EXCEPT Virtualization
• Languages None

34
Setup Agent

• After installation and reboot, setup agent starts
• Create User create your personal account. Use
  a naming convention you plan to continue to use,
  for example, last name with first initial
  appended.
• Set date and time.

35
nVidia Video Card

• The installation DVD doesnt have the drivers for
  the integrated nVidia GeForce 8200 video
  processor in the bench machines
• This causes a problem for the X Window System
  (GUI)
• Google search nvidia fedora 9
• See nVidia site
• http//www.nvidia.com/object/linux_display_ia32_17
  7.82.html

36
nVidia Video Card

• Assignment 1 steps you through fixing this
  problem by downloading the nVidia driver and
  installing it

37
End