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102: Linux Installation and

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102: Linux Installation and
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 Key knowledge areas
 Allocate filesystems and swap space to separate
partitions or disks
 Tailor the design to intended use of the system
 /boot partition, hardware architecture requirements for
booting,
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 At installation design your hard disk layout
 Data on devices such as hard disks are accessed randomly and

are called block devices.

 Linux device mapper framework allows the creation of virtual

block devices on which filesystems can be created.

 Virtual block devices: encrypted drives, raid devices

 Logical Volume Manager – provides a method to install

bootable system with a root partition on a logical volume.

 Most Linux releases are aware of LVM.
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Hard Drive Partitions
 X86 machines HD only supported 4 partitions
 To overcome 4 partition limitation, backward

compatible mechanism was created to enable one of

the partitions to be extended partition.
 Thus: 3 primary partitions
 1 Extended partition (in this, multiple
logicals)
 Only extended partitions allow creation of many

logical partitions.
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Hard Drive Partitions
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Hard Drive Partitions – PATA (Parallel ATA)
Physical location Device Name

Primary Master hda

Primary Slave hdb

Secondary master hdc

Secondary slave hdd

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Hard Drive Partitions – Partitions
Device Name Description

hda1 First Primary Partition

hda1 Second Primary Partition

hda3 Third Primary Parttiion

hda4 Extended Partition

hda5 First Logical Partition

** Logical partitions always start
from 5,
hda6 Second Logical Partition

… …
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Hard Drive Partitions – common partitioning
schemes for smaller systems
Partition Descrition

/boot 50 – 100MB, 1st partition

Swap Swap space, virtual memory

/ Root file system, containing rest of

LINUS OS, and should be allocated
rest of remaining space.
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Hard Drive Partitions – Larger Systems
Partition Descrition
/boot 100 – 250MB, for modern computers that
do not have 1024 cylinder limitation

Swap Swap space, virtual memory

/home - User data and documents kept
- Protect kernel filesystem from running
out of space
- Easier to back up data
/usr Contains user application
/var Log files, can rapidly fill up disk space

/tmp Houses all temporary files.

/ Remainder of the filesystem
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Hard Drive Partitions – partitioning using fdisk
#fdisk /dev/hda - takes block device as parameter
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102: Linux Installation and
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Hard Drive Partitions – partitioning using fdisk
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102: Linux Installation and
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Hard Drive Partitions – partitioning using fdisk
#fdisk /dev/hda - takes block device as parameter
 To create a new partition, press “n” from prev. menu

 Pressing “p”, assuming you have not created max. number of

primary partitions
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Hard Drive Partitions – partitioning using fdisk
 Then you have to decide what type of partition, for

this pressing “l” will give a list of partition types:

 Options 82, and 83 are used to create virtual block

devices.
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Formatting Partitions with Filesystems
 ext2 – the oldest and most well supported filesystem

on Linux machines.
 ext3 - an extension of the ext2 filesystem which

adds journaling support

 reiserfs - an enhanced journaling filesystem written

by Hans Reiser
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Managing swap space
 Swap space does not contain a file system but is accessed

in raw mode by the Linux kernel.

 After creating the disk partition to be used as swap space ,

you will need to activate it with

e.g. swapon /dev/sda2
 During system installation this will be done automatically

for you. Information on the swap partition can be

displayed with swapon.
e.g swapon -s # Display the available swap partitions
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Mounting File system Partitions
 After a partition has been prepared, it has to be

brought for use.

 Mount point, a point in which the new partition is

accessed through
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2. Installing boot manager
 A boot loader is in the MBR, system loads what is in the MBR to

RAM.
 In Linux there are two boot loaders:
 Lilo: LInux LOader.
 Grub: Grand Unified Boot Loader.
 Boot loaders allow selection of images one would like to boot

from.
 GRUB is today's default boot loader for many distributions.
 When installing Windows with Linux, install Windows first and

Linux second, because Windows overwrites the MBR without

asking , which first stage boot information is lost.
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2. Installing boot manager
LILO Boot Loader
 Older boot manager, now replaced by GRUB
 Can be configured in /etc/lilo.conf
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contd
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2. Installing boot manager
GRUB Boot Loader
 It is a boot loader, capable of loading a variety of

free and proprietary operating systems, so well

works with Linux, DOS, Windows or BSD.
 Dynamically configurable
 Can be installed to any devices (floppy, CD-ROM,

USB drive, network drive), and can load operating

systems from just as many locations.
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2. Installing boot manager
GRUB Boot Loader … contd.
 It has 3 stages, with stage 1 – the usual job of primary boot

loader, plus it loads stage 1.5

 Stage 1.5 understands a particular file system, ext2, ext3 or

reiserfs, and after loading this loads 2nd boot loader.

 $grub-install #installs grub loader

/boot/grub/grub.conf
/boot/grub/menu.lst Files we edit to
configure
Grub uses hdx – to refer to hard grub
disks irrespective of
PATA/SATA, e.g. hd0
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2. Installing boot manager
GRUB Boot Loader … contd.

Sample of a
grub
configuration
file
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3. Manage Shared Libraries
Key knowledge areas
 identify shared libraries
 Identify the typical locations of system libraries
 Load shared libraries
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3. Manage Shared Libraries
Introduction
 A library is a set of functions that programs can use to implement

their functionalities.
 When building a program, those libraries can be statically(the

program having its own library) or dynamically (loaded when

program executes lib.so)
 Application developers make use of existing libraries to provide

needed functionality to their applications.

 Build applications with required lib compiled into the

application
 Dynamically link required dependency at run time.
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3. Manage Shared Libraries
Introduction … contd
 Trusted library file locations in Linux
 /lib – used mainly by /bin programs
 /usr/lib – used mainly by /usr/bin programs
 Additional locations for library files can be
specified in the /etc/ld.so.conf file. This file in turn
include all files under /etc/ld.so.confi.d/ directory
 $ldconfig – command creates fast caches at

/etc/ld.so.cache to optimize loading

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3. Manage Shared Libraries
The ldd command
 Shows statically or dynamically linked libraries to

applications
e.g. $ldd /usr/sbin/apache2
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3. Manage Shared Libraries
The LD_LIBRARY_PATH
 Used to override the default search path for dynamic libraries.

 Where you need to use it:

 For applications you have installed from source.
 Testing out for latest version of a library
 If the application relies on an older version of a library

 this adds libraries to a search path.

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4. Debian Package Management
Key knowledge areas
 Install, upgrade and uninstall Debian binary

packages
 Find packages containing specific files or libraries

which may or may not be installed

 Obtain package information like version,

dependencies, package integrity and installation

status (installed? Or not installed?)
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4. Debian Package Management

Key knowledge areas

 Install, upgrade and uninstall Debian binary

packages
 Find packages containing specific files or libraries

which may or may not be installed

 Obtain package information like version,

dependencies, package integrity and installation

status (installed? Or not installed?)
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4. Debian Package Management

Introduction
 There are two main package management system in

use today:
 RPM package manager – distributions derived from
Redhat
 DPKG manager – distributions derived from Debain
 The debian system is more strict and configurable
than the RPM system and is used by Debian
derivative such as Ubuntu.
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

Package Naming
Debain package names are formed as follows
name_version-release_architecture.deb
 e.g. xxchat_2.8.6-4ubuntu5_amd64.deb
 Release number – which debian release
 Architecture – a computer architecture (i386, sparc, all)
dpkg
 Command tool used to manage Debian Packages
 Provide package information about: status, selection

states, & flags

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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

dpkg … contd
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

dpkg … contd
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

dpkg … contd
Actions
Action Description
-l Print list of files
-s Shows information about a particular installed package

-L List packages included in a package

-i Install package, .deb
--unpack Unpack a .deb package only
--configure Configre unpacked package
-r Remove a file, but leave configuration files
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

dpkg … contd
Options
Option Description
--force-thing Force dpkg, force-depends, force-downgrade

--refuse-thing Refuse to do something,

--ignore- Ignore depedencychecking

depends
--no-act Show what dpkg would do, simulate
--R Recursive, with –i or --simulate
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.
APT
 dpkg tool is fine for installing individual packages with no dependencies, for

such packages apt tool is used instead

 apt provides easy way to installing and updating system
 Controlled by two files:
 /etc/apt/apt.conf – contain proxy address, which Debian releases to install
 /etc/apt/sources.list – lists sources of Debian files, which may be CD, or

on the network
 Once those two files are configured, two command tools are used for

package management, apt-cache, and apt-get

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4. Debian Package Management … contd.
APT … contd.
 apt-cache
 search: searching for available packages, given a string
 e.g: #apt-cache search skyp, could return skype
 show: shows full description of a package,
 e.g: #apt-cache show skype
 apt-get
 update: update list of packages
 install <pkgname>: install a package, #apt-get install skype
 upgrade: upgrade any packages which have newer versions
 dist-upgrade: upgrade entrire distribution
 remove <pkgname>: remove specified package,
 alien tool: converts rpm package to deb, and vice-versa
 e.g. #alien --to-rpm package.deb
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

RPM and YUM Package Manament

Key knowledge areas
 Install, reinstall, upgrade and remove packages using

RPM and YUM

 Obtain information on RPM packages
 Determine what files a package provides
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

RPM and YUM Package Manament … contd.

 Some Linux distribution uses rpm “Red Hat Package

Manager” for all its distribution software.

 Package naming:
 name-version-release.architecture.rpm
 Architecture: i386, ia64, noarch

Major and Minor Modes

First option given to rpm is major mode, what ever comes
not as first option is a minor mode.
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

RPM and YUM Package Manament … contd.

 Major mode options
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

RPM and YUM Package Management … contd.

 Minor mode options
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

RPM and YUM Package Manament … contd.

 Query modes
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

RPM and YUM Package Manament … contd.

 Some examples [package name: routed-0.17.i386.rpm ]
 Query a package to see its contents before installation
 #rpm -qpl routed-0.17.i386.rpm
 Install this package
 #rpm –i routed-0.17.i386.rpm
 Query the installed package
 #rpm –ql routed
 Query which package installed the file: /usr/sbin/routed
 $rpm –qf /usr/sbin/routed
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4. Debian Package Management … contd.

YUM package Manager

 Default package manager for many rpm based dists

 It is as apt package manager for Debian based dists, thus installs

with out worrying to dependencies

 yum install: installs package

 #yum install tsclient

 yum groupinstall – installs all related packages

 #yum groupinstall “mysql database

 #yum update – updates package lists

 #yum search PalmPilot – searches for package

 #yum remove tsclient – remove tsclient package

 #yum groupremove “mysql database” – remove related pkgs