Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification Chapter Three Linux Installation and Usage

Objectives Install Linux Red Hat 7.2 using good practices Outline the structure of the Linux interface Enter basic shell commands and find command documentation Properly shut down the Linux operating system

Installing Linux Installation methods –Installation from an FTP server across the network –Installation from an HTTP Web server across the network –Installation from an NFS server across the network –Installation from packages located on the hard disk

Creating Boot Disks Boot disk –Bootable floppy disk that can be used to start a Linux system or initiate a Linux installation Rawrite –Windows utility that can be used to create installation boot disks

Creating Boot Disks boot.img –Used to create a floppy disk for a CD-ROM or hard disk installation bootnet.img –Used to create a floppy disk for an installation from a server across the network pcmcia.img –Used to create a floppy disk for an installation on portable laptop computers

Starting the Installation Figure 3-1: Beginning a Red Hat installation

Starting the Installation By far, the largest problem during installation is initiating a graphical installation Framebuffers –Abstract representations of video adapter card hardware that programs may use instead of directly communicating with the video adapter card hardware

Choosing the Language, Keyboard, and Mouse Figure 3-2: Selecting an installation language

Choosing the Language, Keyboard, and Mouse Figure 3-3: Verifying keyboard configuration

Choosing the Language, Keyboard, and Mouse Figure 3-4: Verifying mouse configuration

Choosing the Language, Keyboard, and Mouse Figure 3-5: Welcome screen

Providing Installation Options Figure 3-6: Choosing installation options

Partitioning the Hard Disk Figure 3-7: Choosing a partitioning method

Partitioning the Hard Disk Virtual memory –Also known as swap memory –Consists of an area on the hard disk that can be used to store information that would normally reside in physical memory, if the physical memory is being used excessively

Partitioning the Hard Disk Table 3-1: Common Linux filesystems and sizes

Partitioning the Hard Disk Each of the filesystems described in Table 3-1 may be of different types –The most common types used today are: Ext2 Ext3 Vfat REISER

Partitioning the Hard Disk Journaling filesystem –Keeps track of the information written to the hard drive in a journal Disk Druid –Easy-to-use graphical partitioning program –Using Disk Druid, you can delete existing partitions, create and edit new ones, or even create a Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID)

Partitioning the Hard Disk Figure 3-8: Disk Druid

Partitioning the Hard Disk Figure 3-9: Adding a partition

Partitioning the Hard Disk Figure 3-10: Formatting partitions

Partitioning the Hard Disk Figure 3-11: The fdisk utility

Configuring the Boot Loader Boot loader –Program started by the BIOS ROM after POST, which loads the Linux kernel into memory from a hard disk partition inside the computer but can also boot other operating systems if they exist on the hard drive There are two available boot loaders that one may choose during the Red Hat Linux installation: –LInux LOader (LILO) –GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB)

Configuring the Boot Loader Large Block Addressing 32-bit (LBA32) –Parameter that may be specified that enables Large Block Addressing in a boot loader –Required only if a large hard disk that is not fully supported by the system BIOS is used

Configuring the Boot Loader Figure 3-12: Configuring the boot loader

Configuring the Network and Firewall Figure 3-13: Configuring the network

Configuring the Network and Firewall Figure 3-14: Configuring a firewall

Choosing a System Language and Time Zone Figure 3-15: Configuring a language support

Choosing a System Language and Time Zone Figure 3-16: Selecting a time zone

Creating User Accounts and Configuring Authentication Figure 3-17: Configuring the root password

Creating User Accounts and Configuring Authentication Figure 3-18: Configuring a regular user account

Creating User Accounts and Configuring Authentication Figure 3-19: Configuring the type of authentication

Selecting Packages Figure 3-20: Selecting packages to install

Selecting Packages Figure 3-21: Refining individual package selection

Configuring the Video Hardware Figure 3-22: Verifying video hardware

Installing Packages and Creating Boot Disks Figure 3-23: Copying packages to the hard disk

Installing Packages and Creating Boot Disks Figure 3-24: Creating a boot disk

Selecting Monitor and X Windows Settings Figure 3-25: Choosing a monitor

Selecting Monitor and X Windows Settings Figure 3-26: Configuring X Windows

Selecting Monitor and X Windows Settings Figure 3-27: Completing the installation

Shells, Terminals, and the Kernel Terminal –Channel that allows a certain user to log in and communicate with the kernel via a user interface Shell –User interface that accepts input from the user and passes the input to the kernel for processing –Shell used by default in Linux is the BASH Shell (Bourne Again Shell)

Shells, Terminals, and the Kernel Figure 3-28: Shells, terminals, and the kernel

Shells, Terminals, and the Kernel Figure 3-29: The gdm (GNOME Display Manager)

Shells, Terminals, and the Kernel Table 3-2: Common Linux terminals

Shells, Terminals, and the Kernel Figure 3-30: A GNOME terminal

Shells, Terminals, and the Kernel Figure 3-31: A KDE terminal

Basic Shell Commands Commands –Indicate name of the program to execute and are case sensitive Options –Specific letters starting with a dash “-” and appearing after command name to alter way the command works Arguments –Specify the parameters that the command works upon, which are not predetermined by the person who developed the command

Basic Shell Commands Table 3-3: Some Common Linux commands

Shell Metacharacters Metacharacters –Key combinations that have special meaning in the Linux OS –One of the most commonly used metacharacters is the $ character

Shell Metacharacters Table 3-4: Common BASH Shell metacharacters

Getting Command Help Most distributions of Linux contain more than 1000 different Linux commands in common configurations Manual pages –Commonly referred to as man pages –The most common set of local command syntax documentation, available by typing the man command-line utility

Getting Command Help Table 3-5: Manual page section numbers

Getting Command Help Info pages –Set of local, easy-to-read command syntax documentation available by typing the info command-line utility Today, both the info pages and the manual pages are used to find documentation because manual pages have been used to find documentation in Linux since its inception

Shutting Down the Linux System Table 3-6: Commands to halt and reboot the Linux operating system

Chapter Summary Most software information can be specified at the time of installation –However, the network configuration and package selection should be carefully planned before installation CD-ROM-based installation is the easiest, most common method for installing Linux and seldom requires the creation of an installation boot disk

Chapter Summary A typical Linux installation prompts the user for information such as language, boot loader, hard disk partitions, network configuration, firewall configuration, time zone, user accounts, authentication, and package selection Users must log into a terminal and receive a shell before being able to interact with the Linux system and kernel Regardless of the type of terminal that you use, you are able to enter commands, options, and arguments at a shell prompt to perform system tasks, obtain help, or shut down the Linux system