Sai Combined Notes

Linux+ Guide to Linux
Certification, Second Edition
Chapter 1
Introduction to Linux
Objectives
• Understand the purpose of an operating system

• Outline the key features of the Linux operating
system
• Describe the origins of the Linux operating system
• Identify the characteristics of various Linux
distributions and where to find them
• Explain the common uses of Linux in industry today
Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 2

Operating Systems
• Computers have two fundamental components:

– Hardware: Physical components inside a computer
– Software: Set of instructions or programs that
understand how to use the hardware of the
computer in a meaningful way

Operating Systems (continued)
• Hardware components include:

– Processor (CPU)
– Physical memory (RAM)
– Hard disk, floppy disk, and CD-ROM drives
– Sound and video cards
– Circuit boards

• Two different types of programs are executed on a

computer:
– Applications
– Operating system (OS) software
• Device Driver: Software containing instructions that
the OS uses to control and interact with a specific
type of computer hardware
• User Interface: An application program that allows
the user to interact with the OS and other
application programs

Figure 1-1: The role of operating system software

• Graphical user interface (GUI): Component of an

OS that provides a user-friendly interface
• System services: Applications that handle system-
related tasks
– Printing
– Scheduling programs
– Network access

Figure 1-2: A Linux graphical user interface

The Linux Operating System
• OS used to run a variety of applications on a

variety of different hardware
• Has the ability to manage thousands of tasks at the
same time
• Allows multiple users to access the system
simultaneously
– Multiuser and multitasking OS

Versions of the
Linux Operating System
• Core component is called the Linux kernel

– Written almost entirely in the C programming
language
• Software can be used to modify appearance of
Linux, but the kernel is common to all Linux

Identifying Kernel Versions
• Linux kernel versions are composed of:

– Major number
– Minor number
• If odd, referred to as a developmental kernel
• If even, referred to as a production kernel
– Revision number

Identifying Kernel Versions (continued)
Table 1-1: Latest revisions of common Linux kernels

Licensing Linux
• Open Source Software (OSS): Programs

distributed and licensed so that the source code is
available to anyone who wants to examine, utilize,
or improve upon it
– Format and structure of source code follows rules
defined by the programming language in which it
was written

Licensing Linux (continued)
• Implications of OSS:
– Developed very rapidly through widespread
collaboration
– Bugs (errors) are noted and promptly fixed
– Features evolve quickly based on users’ needs
– Perceived value of the software increases because it
is based on usefulness, not on price

Licensing Linux (continued)
Table 1-2: Software types

Types of Open Source Licenses
• GNU Public License (GPL): Stipulates that the

source code of any software published under its
license must be freely available
• Artistic license: OSS license allowing source code
to be distributed freely, charged only at discretion
of original author

Types of Closed Source Licenses
• Most closed source software is sold commercially

– e.g., Microsoft or Electronic Arts software
• Freeware: Distributed free of charge; source code
is not available
• Shareware: Initially free, but requires payment after
a period of time or usage

Linux Advantages:
Risk Reduction
• Changes in the market or customer needs may

cause companies to change software frequently
– Can be costly and time-consuming
• Support for closed source software may end
– Vendor may go out of business
– Software version may be retired
• OSS products offer the opportunity to maintain and
change the source code

Linux Advantages:
Meeting Business Needs
• Common software available for Linux includes:

– Scientific and engineering software
– Software emulators
– Web servers, Web browsers, and e-commerce
suites
– Desktop productivity software
– Graphics manipulation software
– Database software
– Security software

Linux Advantages:
Stability and Security
• Customers using a closed source OS must rely on

the OS vendor to fix any bugs
– Waiting for a hot fix may take weeks or months
• Bugs and security loopholes in OSS programs can
be identified and fixed quickly
– Code is freely available and scrutinized by many
developers

Linux Advantages: Flexibility for
Different Hardware Platforms
• Partial list of hardware platforms on which Linux

can run:
– Intel – M68K
– Itanium – PA-RISC
– Mainframe (S/390) – SPARC
– Cirrus Logic ARM – Ultra-SPARC
– DEC Alpha – PowerPC (Macintosh)
– MIPS

Linux Advantages:
Ease of Customization
• Ability to control the inner workings of an OS
– To use Linux as an Internet Web server, compile the
kernel to include only the support needed to be an
Internet Web server
• Results in a much smaller and faster kernel

Linux Advantages:
Ease of Obtaining Support
• Linux documentation can be found on the Internet

– Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
– HOWTO documents
• Linux Newsgroups
• Linux User Group (LUG): Open forum of Linux
users who discuss and assist each other in using
and modifying the Linux OS

Linux Advantages:
Cost Reduction
Table 1-3: Calculating the total cost of ownership

The History of Linux
Figure 1-4: Timeline of UNIX and Linux development

UNIX
• Evolved from Multiplexed Information and

Computing Service (MULTICS)
• The first true multitasking, multiuser OS
• Written in the C programming language
– Portable OS
• OS from which Linux originated

UNIX (continued)
• Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)

– Version of the original UNIX source code
• Common flavors of UNIX today include:
– Sun Microsystems’s Solaris
– Hewlett-Packard’s HP-UX
– IBM’s AIX UNIX

The Hacker Culture
• Hacker: Someone wanting to expand their

computing knowledge through experimentation
• Cracker: Someone who illegally uses computers for
personal benefit or to cause damage
• GNU Project: Free OS project started by Richard
Stallman

Linux
• First developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991

– Published under the GNU license
• Linux kernel developed collaboratively and
centrally managed
– Linux is simply a by-product of OSS development

Linux Distributions
• Red Hat and SuSE

• Distributions may appear different on the surface,
but run the same kernel
• Most distributions ship with a GUI that can be
further customized to suit needs of the user
– Core component of this GUI is X Windows

Linux Distributions (continued)
• GUI environment: X Windows in combination with a

window manager and desktop environment
• Two competing GUI environments in Linux:
– GNU Object Model Environment (GNOME)
– Kommon Desktop Environment (KDE)

Figure 1-5: The GNOME Desktop

• Package manager: Software system that installs

and maintains software
• Tarball: Compressed archive of files containing
scripts that install software to the correct location
on the system

Table 1-4: Common Linux distributions

Table 1-4 (continued): Common Linux distributions

Common Uses of Linux
• May be customized to provide services for a variety

of companies in a variety of situations
• Workstation services: Services used on a local
computer
• Server services: Services made available for other
computers across a network

Internet Servers: Mail Services
• Mail transfer agent (MTA): An e-mail server

• Mail delivery agent (MDA): Service that downloads
e-mail from an MTA
• Mail user agent (MUA): Program that allows e-mail
to be read by a user

Internet Servers:
Routing and FTP Services
• Routing: Provides interconnection between

separate networks
– Core service necessary for Internet to function
– Linux provides support for routing and is easily
customizable
• File Transfer Protocol (FTP) Services: Most
common and efficient method for transferring files
over the Internet

Internet Servers:
Firewalls and Proxy Services
• Firewall: Protects companies from outside intruders

on the Internet
– Linux has firewall support built into the kernel
• Proxy server: requests Internet resources such as
Web sites and FTP sites on behalf of the computer
inside the company

Internet Servers:
Web Services and News Services
• Web services: Web servers host information (text,

pictures, music, binary data, and video)
– Can also process programs known as Common
Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts and provide secure
connections
• News services: News servers allow users to post
messages in forums called newsgroups
– Most Web servers do not provide means for users to
communicate

Internet Servers: DNS Services
• Computers communicating on a network need to

be uniquely identified
– Each computer is assigned an Internet Protocol (IP)
address
• Long string of numbers
• Allows computers to identify and reference each other
• Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN): Masks IP
addresses with user-friendly names

File and Print Servers
• Linux is well-suited for centrally sharing resources

– More economical to share files and printers over a
network
– Inherently fast and light
– A distribution specific to a certain task can be
installed on the central server

Application Servers
• Application server: Intermediary between a client

computer and a database
• Database: Organized collection of data that is
arranged into tables of related information
• Database Management Systems (DBMS): Set of
programs designed for creation, modification,
manipulation, maintenance, and access of
information from databases

Supercomputers
• Clustering: Combining several smaller computers

to act as one large supercomputer
– Beowulf clustering: Most common Linux method of
clustering
• Scalability: Computers that can increase workload
as number of processors increases

Scientific/Engineering Workstation
• Scientific and engineering community often needs

customized programs
• OSS programs can be used or modified
– OSS software for physics, astrophysics, biophysics,
biocomputation, data mining, etc.

Office Workstation
• Workstation software designed for end users in

office and home environments
– Text editors and word processors
– Graphics editing software
– Desktop publishing software
– Financial software
– Office productivity suites

Summary
• Linux is an OS
• Kernel and additional software are freely developed
and improved upon by a large community of
software developers
• Published under the GPL; is called Open Source
Software (OSS)
• Companies find Linux a stable, low-risk, and
flexible alternative to other OSs

Summary (continued)
• Comes in different distributions, all having a

common kernel, but packaged with different OSS
applications
• Wide variety of documentation and resources exist:
Internet Web sites, HOWTOs, FAQs, newsgroups,
and LUGs
• Extremely versatile OS that provides a wide range
of workstation and server services

Chapter 2
Preparing for Linux Installation
Objectives
• Describe common types of hardware and their

features
• Obtain the hardware and software information
necessary to install Linux

Understanding Hardware:
Central Processing Units (CPUs)
• Core component of any computer

– Also known as microprocessor or processor
• Two main components:
– Arithmetic logic unit (ALU): Mathematical
calculations and logic-based operations executed
here
– Control unit (CU): Instruction code or commands
loaded and carried out here

Understanding Hardware: CPUs
(continued)
• Processor architecture: Arrangement of a

processor’s integral electronics
• Two main processor architectures:
– Complex Instruction Set Computer (CISC)
– Reduced Instruction Set Computer (RISC)

(continued)
• Clock speed: Internal time cycle of a processor
– Determines speed that processor executes
commands
– Measured in Megahertz (MHz)
• A processor may require one cycle to complete a
command or may be superscalar
• Amount of information a processor can process at
one time is a major factor in clock speed
– Measured in binary digits (bits)
– The more information that can be worked on at
once, the faster data can be manipulated
(continued)
• Cache: Temporary store of information
– Cache size and location affect a processor’s ability
to calculate larger volumes of data
• Level 1 (L1) cache: Cache stored in the processor
itself
• Level 2 (L2) cache: Cache stored in a separate
computer chip
– Connected to processor via high speed link
• Level 3 (L3) cache: Cache stored on a separate
computer chip
– Connected directly to processor
(continued)
• Multiple processors can work together

– Perform the same tasks faster
– Symmetric Multi-Processing (SMP): Allows OS and
memory to use both processors simultaneously for
any task
– ASymmetric Multi-Processing (ASMP): Each
processor given a set of tasks to complete
independently

Physical Memory
• Storage area for information that is directly wired

through circuit boards to the processor
• Two main categories:
– Random Access Memory (RAM)
• Volatile memory
– Read Only Memory (ROM)

Physical Memory―RAM
• Requires constant supply of electricity to maintain

stored information
• Directly related to computer performance
• Two major categories:
– Dynamic RAM (DRAM)
– Static RAM (SRAM)

Physical Memory―RAM (continued)
• Three main types of DRAM sticks:

– Single In-line Memory Modules (SIMM)
• No longer produced
– Dual In-line Memory Modules (DIMM)
– Small Outline Dual In-line Memory Modules
(SODIMM)
• Used in portable notebook computers and Macintosh
systems

Physical Memory―RAM (continued)
• Three recent DIMM technologies:

– Synchronous Dynamic Random Access Memory
(SDRAM)
– Double Data Rate Synchronous Dynamic Random
Access Memory (DDR SDRAM)
– Rambus Dynamic Random Access Memory
(RDRAM)

Physical Memory―ROM
• Read-only Memory: Physical memory that can be

read but not written to
– Nonvolatile
• Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) ROM: Stores
programs used to initialize hardware components
when starting computer

Physical Memory―ROM Variants
• Programmable Read Only Memory (PROM): Can

only be written to once
• Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory
(EPROM): Contents can be repeatedly erased and
rewritten as a whole
• Electronically Erasable Programmable Read Only
Memory (EEPROM): Whole or partial contents can
be repeatedly erased/rewritten

Disk Drives
• Most information in a computer maintained using

nonvolatile media, not consisting of integrated
circuits
– Hard disk
– Floppy disk
– CD-ROM, DVD
– CD-RW, DVD-RW disk
– Zip disk
– Flash Memory

Disk Drives―Hard Disk Drives
• Not directly wired to the processor

– Pass through a hard disk controller card
• Controls flow of information to and from the hard disk
drive (HDD)
• Two types of controller cards:
– Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE)
• Also known as Advanced Technology Attachment
(ATA) controllers
– Small Computer System Interface (SCSI)

Disk Drives―HDDs (continued)
Table 2-1: IDE HDD configurations

• Partitions: Small, manageable sections of a hard

drive
• Filesystems: Specify how data should reside on the
hard disk itself
– A partition must be formatted with a filesystem

• Primary partitions: Major unique and separate HDD

divisions
• Extended partitions: Partitions that can be further
subdivided into logical drives
• Master Boot Record (MBR): Table of all partition
information for a hard disk
– Stored outside of all partitions

Table 2-2: Example partitioning scheme

for a primary master IDE HDD

Understanding Hardware: Disk
Drives―Other Information Storage
Devices
• Removable media: Information storage media that
can be removed from the computer
– Transferable between computers
• Floppy disks: Store information electro-
magnetically
– Used in floppy disk drives
• Zip disks: Similar to floppy disks
– Can store much more information
– Used in zip drives

Understanding Hardware: Disk
Drives―Other Information Storage
Devices (continued)
• DVDs and CD-ROMs: Use lasers to read reflected
light pulses
– Greater data transfer speed
– Larger storage capacity
– More resistance to data loss than floppy disks or ZIP
disks
• Flash memory drives: Use EEPROM chips to store
information

Understanding Hardware: Mainboards
and Peripheral Components
• Bus: Pathway information takes from one hardware
device to another via a mainboard
• Mainboard (also called a motherboard): Circuit
board that connects all other hardware components
together via slots or ports on the circuit board
• Peripheral components: Attach to the mainboard of
a computer
– e.g., video cards, sound cards, and network
interface cards (NICs)
– Connected via an Input/Output bus represented by
different slots or ports on the mainboard
(continued)
• Three common slots for peripheral devices:
– Industry Standard Architecture (ISA): Information
transfer at 8 MHz
– Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI):
Information transfer at 33 MHz
• Can use Direct Memory Access (DMA)
– Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP): Information
transfer over 66 MHz
• Designed for video card peripherals

(continued)
Figure 2-1: Mainboard components

(continued)
• Other peripherals may have external connections
to mainboard
– PS/2
– COM (Serial)
– LPT
– USB
– IEEE1394 (Firewire)
– PCMCIA

(continued)
• PS/2 ports: Connect keyboards and mice to
computers
• COM ports: Connect a variety of peripherals to the
mainboard
– Serial port
• LPT ports: Most commonly connect printers to the
mainboard
– Parallel ports

(continued)
• Universal Serial Bus (USB) port: Connects
peripheral components such as mice, printers, and
scanners
– Hot-swappable: Can be attached to the computer
while it is running
• FireWire (IEEE1394): Hot-swappable variant of
USB commonly used to connect SCSI hard disks,
scanners, digital cameras, and CD-RW drives

(continued)
• Personal Computer Memory Card International
Association (PCMCIA) ports: Allow a small card to
be inserted into the computer with electronics
necessary to provide certain functionality
• Advanced Power Management (APM): BIOS
feature that shuts off power to unused peripheral
devices

(continued)
• Interrupt Request Line (IRQ): Specifies a unique
channel from a device to the CPU
• Input/Output (IO) address: Small working area of
RAM where CPU can pass information to and
receive information from a device
• Plug-and-Play (PnP): OS and peripheral devices
that automatically assign the correct IRQ, I/O
address, and DMA settings

Understanding Hardware: Video
Adapter Cards and Monitors
• Video adapter cards: Provide graphical display

when connected to a monitor
– Commonly referred to as video cards
• Resolution: Total number of pixels that can be
displayed on a computer video screen
• Color depth: Total set of colors that can be
displayed on a computer video screen

(continued)
Table 2-3: Memory requirements for

screen resolution and color depths

(continued)
• Refresh rate: Rate at which information displayed
on a video screen is refreshed
– Measured in Hertz (Hz)
– Two types of refresh rates:
• HSync (horizontal refresh)
• VSync (vertical refresh)

Keyboards and Mice
• Facilitates user input and direction

• Variety of ways to connect to motherboard
– Serial port
– Large circular AT 5-pin connector
– Small circular PS/2 6-pin connector
– USB connection
– Wireless or radio connection
• Check hardware components against a Hardware
Compatibility List (HCL)

Gathering Preinstallation Information
Table 2-4: Red Hat 7.2 hardware requirements

(continued)
Table 2-5: Sample pre-installation checklist

(continued)
Table 2-5 (continued): Sample pre-installation checklist

Gathering Hardware Information
• Tools and resources to check hardware against a

preinstallation checklist:
– Computer manuals
– Windows System Information tool (if Windows
already installed)
– Windows Device Manager (if Windows already
installed)

(continued)
Figure 2-2: The Windows System Information tool

(continued)
Figure 2-3: The Windows Device Manager

(continued)
Figure 2-4: The Windows Display applet

(continued)
Figure 2-5: System Power-On Self Test (POST)

(continued)
Figure 2-6: BIOS Setup Utility

Gathering Software Information
• Identifying system network configuration:

– Hostname
– IP address
– Netmask
– Gateway
– DNS servers
• Resolve FQDNs

(continued)
• Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)

server: Server on network providing IP
configuration to requesting computers
– If selected during installation, Linux will attempt to
get IP settings from a DHCP server on the network

(continued)
Table 2-6: Common Linux packages

(continued)
Table 2-6 (continued): Common Linux packages

Summary
• Understand the hardware before an installation

– Allows you to make appropriate choices
– Verify that the installation was successful
• CPUs process most instructions in a computer
• Two CPU architectures: RISC and CISC
• Computer memory can be volatile (RAM) or
nonvolatile (ROM)

Summary (continued)
• Most information is stored on hard disks, floppy

disks, and CD-ROMs in a nonvolatile manner
– Two main types of hard disks: SCSI and IDE
• Peripheral components (video adapter cards,
sound cards, mice, keyboards, NICs) attach to
mainboard via an expansion slot or port
• Common expansion slots: ISA, PCI, and AGP
• Common ports: PS/2, serial, parallel, USB,
FireWire, and PCMCIA

Summary (continued)
• All peripherals must have a unique IRQ and I/O

address to communicate with the processor
– Can use DMA to bypass some processor operations
• Hardware information can be gathered from
computer manuals, BIOS, or other OSs
• Can set software information at installation

Chapter 3
Linux Installation and Usage
Objectives
• Install Red Hat Fedora Linux 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
• FTP server
• HTTP Web server
• NFS server
• SMB server
• Virtual Network Computing (VNC) server
• Packages on hard disk

Performing the Installation: Starting
the Installation
• Boot from first Red Hat Fedora Linux CD-ROM

• Largest problem is initiating a graphical installation
– Disable framebuffer
• Framebuffer: Abstract representation of video
adapter card hardware
– Instead of direct communication with video adapter

the Installation (continued)
Figure 3-1: Beginning a Red Hat installation

• Press F2 at Welcome screen to get installation

options
• Check media for errors prior to installation
– Optional, but recommended

Figure 3-2: Viewing installation options

Choosing the Language, Keyboard,
Mouse, and Monitor
• Keyboard model and layout automatically detected

• Check “Emulate 3 Button” if mouse does not have
third button
• Most monitors automatically detected
– If not, try to locate on list of monitor models or use
generic model with correct horizontal and vertical
sync
• Incorrect monitor settings can damage monitor

Mouse, and Monitor (continued)
Figure 3-4: Selecting an installation language

Figure 3-5: Verifying keyboard configuration

Figure 3-6: Selecting a mouse type

Figure 3-7: Verifying monitor configuration

Specifying the Installation Type
• Personal Desktop
– GUI environment and common applications
• Workstation
– Same as Personal Desktop plus administrative and
network tools
• Server
– Several server services
• Custom

Specifying the Installation Type
(continued)
Figure 3-8: Choosing an installation type

Hard Disk Partitioning
• Filesystems can be accessed if attached (mounted)

to a directory
• Minimum of two partitions
– Partition for root directory
– Partition for virtual memory (swap memory)
• Area on hard disk used to store information normally
residing in physical memory (RAM)
• Automatic or manual partitioning

Hard Disk Partitioning (continued)
Table 3-1: Common Linux filesystems and sizes

Figure 3-9: Choosing a disk partitioning method

• Different types of filesystems

– Ext2: Used on most Linux computers
– Ext3: Performs journaling
– Vfat: Compatible with Windows’ FAT filesystem
– REISER: Performs journaling
• Journaling: Keeps track of the information written to
the hard drive
• Disk Druid: Graphical partitioning program

Figure 3-10: The Disk Druid partitioning utility

Figure 3-11: Creating a new partition

Configuring the Boot Loader
• Boot loader: Program started by BIOS ROM

– Loads kernel into memory
– Can also boot other existing OSs
• GRand Unified Bootloader (GRUB): Boot loader
configured during Fedora Linux installation
• Dual booting: Choose OS to boot at startup

(continued)
Figure 3-12: Configuring a boot loader

(continued)
• Boot loader usually resides on the MBR or on first

sector of / or /boot partition
• Kernel parameters: Information passed to Linux
kernel via the boot loader
• Large Block Addressing 32-bit (LBA32): Enables
Large Block Addressing in boot loader
– For large hard disks not fully supported by the BIOS

(continued)
Figure 3-13: Configuring advanced boot loader options

Configuring the Network and Firewall
Figure 3-14: Specifying a network configuration

(continued)
• Will NIC be activated at boot time?

• Manual IP configuration
– Set IP address, Netmask, host name, gateway,
primary domain name space (DNS)
• Automatic IP configuration via DHCP
• Firewall prevents traffic from entering computer
– Customize which traffic is allowed through

(continued)
Figure 3-15: Configuring a firewall

Choosing a System Language and
Time Zone
Figure 3-16: Selecting additional language support

Choosing a System Language and
Time Zone (continued)
Figure 3-17: Choosing a time zone

Creating the Root User
• Authentication: Users log in via valid user name

and password
• Configure two user accounts
– Administrator account (root)
• Full rights to system
– Regular user account

Creating the Root User (continued)
Figure 3-18: Setting a root password

Selecting Packages
Figure 3-19: Selecting packages

Installing Packages
Figure 3-19: Package Installation

Completing the Firstboot Wizard
• Complete the installation

– License agreement
– Graphics settings
– User accounts and authentication
– Install additional software
• Log in with user account for daily tasks
• Shadow password: stored in separate DB from
user accounts
• MD5: password encryption method

(continued)
Figure 3-22: Setting the date and time

(continued)
Figure 3-23: Configuring screen resolution and color depth

(continued)
Figure 3-24: Creating a regular user account

(continued)
Figure 3-25: Configuring user information

(continued)
Figure 3-26: Configuring authentication

Basic Linux Language: Shells,
Terminals, and the Kernel
• Terminal: Channel allowing users to log on to the

kernel locally or across a network
• Shell: Transfers user input to kernel
• BASH Shell (Bourne Again Shell): Default Linux
shell
– Command line shell
• Linux allows multiple terminals, each with its own
shell

Terminals, and the Kernel (continued)
Figure 3-27: Shells, terminals, and the kernel

• Graphical Interface
– Start GUI environment on top of BASH shell o
– Or, switch to a graphical terminal
• e.g., GNOME Display Manager (gdm)
• From the local server, use key combinations to
change to separate terminal
• Command-line terminal may be accessed from GUI
environment
• Command prompt:
– Root user: #
– Regular user: $
Table 3-2: Common Linux terminals

Figure 3-29: Accessing a command-line

terminal in a GUI environment
Basic Shell Commands
• Commands: Indicate name of program to execute

– Case sensitive
• Options: Specific letters starting with “-” appearing
after command name
– Alter way command works
• Arguments: Specify a command’s working
parameters

Basic Shell Commands (continued)
Table 3-3: Some Common Linux commands

Shell Metacharacters
• Metacharacters: Characters with a special meaning

– e.g., $
• Refers to a variable

Shell Metacharacters (continued)
Table 3-4: Common BASH Shell metacharacters

Getting Command Help
• Linux distributions contain many commands
• Manual pages: Most common form of
documentation for Linux commands
– “man” pages
– At command prompt, type “man” followed by a
command name
– Contain different sections
• Info pages: Set of local, easy-to-read command
syntax documentation
– At command prompt, type “info” followed by a
command name
Getting Command Help (continued)
Table 3-5: Manual page section numbers

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

system

Summary
• Most software information can be specified at

installation
– Network configuration and package selection should
be carefully planned before installation
• CD-ROM–based installation
– Easiest
– Most common
– Rarely requires installation boot disk

Summary (continued)
• Installation prompts for language, boot loader, hard

disk partitions, network configuration, firewall
configuration, time zone, user accounts,
authentication, and package selection
• Users must log in to a terminal and receive a shell
before they are able to interact with the Linux
system and kernel

Summary (continued)
• From any type of terminal you can enter

commands, options, and arguments at a shell
prompt to perform system tasks, obtain command
help, or shut down the Linux system
• The shell is case sensitive and understands a
variety of special characters called shell
metacharacters, which should be protected if their
special meaning is not required

Chapter 4
Exploring Linux
Filesystems
Objectives
• Understand and navigate the Linux directory

structure using relative and absolute pathnames
• Describe the various types of Linux files
• View filenames and file types
• Use shell wildcards to specify multiple filenames

Objectives (continued)
• Display the contents of text files and binary files

• Search text files for regular expressions using grep
• Identify common text editors used today
• Use the vi editor to manipulate text files

The Linux Directory Structure
• Directory: Used to organize other files into a logical

tree structure
• Absolute pathname: Pathname from the root
directory to a certain file or directory
• Root: The top level directory
– referred to using the / character

The Linux Directory Structure
(continued)
Figure 4-1: The Windows filesystem structure
Figure 4-2: The Linux filesystem structure

Changing Directories
• Home directory: Unique to each user

• pwd (print working directory) command: Displays
current directory in the directory tree
• cd (change directory) command: Change the
current directory in the directory tree
• ~ metacharacter: Refers to home directory
• Relative pathname: Pathname of file or directory
relative to current directory

Changing Directories (continued)
• Subdirectory: Directory residing within another

directory
• Tab-completion: Pressing the Tab key fills in
remaining characters of a unique filename or
directory name
– BASH shell feature

Viewing Files and Directories: File Types
• Text files: Store information in a readable text

format
• Binary data files: Store information associated with
executable programs
• Executable program files
• Directory files

Viewing Files and Directories: File Types
(continued)
• Linked files: Associated with another file

• Special device files: Represent system devices
• Named pipes: Identify channel that passes
information between processes
• Socket files: Allow a process on another computer
to write to a local file

Filenames
• Filename: Identifier given to a file

• Filename extensions: Identifiers following a dot (.)
at end of filename
– Denote file type
– Most files on Linux do not have file extensions

Filenames (continued)
Table 4-1: Common filename extensions

Filenames (continued)
Table 4-1 (continued): Common filename extensions

Listing Files
• ls command: List the files in a directory

– May pass an argument indicating the directory to be
listed
• –F switch: Argument to list file types
• –l switch: Argument to list long file listings
• Alias: Shortcut for a command
• ll command: Alias for ls -l
• File command: Displays file type of any file

Listing Files (continued)
• Hidden files: Files not normally displayed to user

– Filenames start with a dot (.)
– Configuration files often hidden
– ls –a command: Displays hidden files

Table 4-2: Common options to the ls command

Table 4-2 (continued): Common options to the ls command

Wildcard Metacharacters
• Wildcard metacharacter: Used to simplify

commands specifying multiple filenames
– Can be used with most Linux filesystem commands

Wildcard Metacharacters (continued)
Table 4-3: Wildcard metacharacters

Displaying Content of Text Files
• Concatenation: Joining text together

• cat command: Displays (concatenates) contents of
a text file to the screen
– -n switch: Displays line number and contents
• Log files: Contain records of past system events
– New events appended to end
• tac command: Displays files in reverse order
• head command: View first few lines of a file

(continued)
• tail command: View last few lines of a file

– Can also specify what line number to start at
• more command: Displays text files page-by-page
– Space key goes to next page
– Enter key goes to next line
• less command: Same as more command, but can
also use cursor to scroll

(continued)
• more and less can be used with output of other
commands
– If output is too large to fit on terminal screen, use “|”
metacharacter
– e.g., ls -l | more

Displaying the Contents of Binary Files
• Typically use program that created the file

• strings command: Searches for and displays text
characters in a binary file
– Might indicate purpose of binary file
• od command: Displays contents of file in octal
format (numeric base 8 format)

Searching for Text Within Files
• Text tools: Search for and manipulate text

• Regular expressions (regexp): Text wildcards that
assist search for specific text
– Match patterns of text
– Used by many text tools and programming
languages
• Including grep, emacs, C++, PERL, and many more

Regular Expressions
• Different from wildcard metacharacters

– Wildcard metacharacters interpreted by shell;
regexps interpreted by text tools
– Wildcard metacharacters match characters in
filenames; regexps match characters within text files
– More regexps than wildcard metacharacters
• Common and extended regexps

Regular Expressions (continued)
Table 4-4: Regular expressions

Regular Expressions (continued)
Table 4-4 (continued): Regular expressions

The grep Command
• grep (global regular expression print) command:

Displays lines in a text file matching a given regexp
• egrep command: Displays lines of text that match
extended regexps
• fgrep command: Does not interpret any regular
expressions
– Returns results much faster than egrep
• grep requires two arguments
– Text to search for and files to search

Editing Text Files: The vi Editor
• One of the oldest and most popular text editors for
UNIX OSs
• Vim: Linux equivalent of vi
– Standard on most Linux distributions
• Advantage is portability, not usability
– Used on Unix and Linux
• Bi-modal editor (two possible modes):
– Command mode: Performs text editing tasks not
related to inserting text
– Insert mode: Inserts text, but nothing else
• User environment is customizable

(continued)
Table 4-5: Common keyboard keys

used to change to and from insert mode

(continued)
Table 4-6: Key combinations commonly used in command mode

(continued)
Table 4-6 (continued): Key combinations

commonly used in command mode

(continued)
Table 4-6 (continued): Key combinations

commonly used in command mode

(continued)
Table 4-7: Key combinations commonly used at the

command mode : prompt
Other Common Text Editors
• Mcedit editor (Midnight Commander Editor): Easy-

to-use text editor
– Supports regexp
– Supports use of mouse for highlighting text
• Emacs (Editor MACroS) editor: Comparable
functionality to vi
– Ctrl key combinations to perform special functions
– Supports LISP (LISt Processing) artificial intelligence
programming language

(continued)
Table 4-8: Keyboard functions commonly

used in the GNU emacs editor

(continued)
• Emacs editor is not easy to use

– Must memorize key combinations
• Xemacs editor: Version of Emacs for KDE or
GNOME GUI environments
– Easier to use than emacs
– Not available with every distribution

(continued)
Figure 4-3: The xemacs text editor

(continued)
• Graphical text editors available with most Linux

distributions:
– nedit editor
– gedit editor: Distributed with GNOME environment
– kedit editor: Distributed with KDE environment
• gedit and kedit offer more functionality than nedit

(continued)
Figure 4-4: The nedit text editor

(continued)
Figure 4-5: The gedit text editor

(continued)
Figure 4-6: The kedit text editor

Summary
• The Linux filesystem is arranged hierarchically
using a series of directories to store files
• Location of these directories and files can be
described using absolute or relative pathnames
• Accommodates many types of files: text files,
binary data, executable programs, directories,
linked files, and special device files
• The ls command is used to view filenames
– Wide range of options
• Wildcard metacharacters can simplify selection of
several files when using common Linux file
commands
Summary (continued)
• Text files are the most common file type whose

contents can be viewed by several utilities, such as
head, tail, cat, tac, more, and less
• Regular expression metacharacters can be used to
specify certain patterns of text when used with
certain programming languages and text tool
utilities such as grep
• vi (vim) is a powerful, bimodal text editor that is
standard on most UNIX and Linux systems

Chapter 5
Linux Filesystem
Management
Objectives
• Explain the function of the Filesystem Hierarchy

Standard
• Use standard Linux commands to manage files and
directories
• Find files and directories on the filesystem
• Understand and create linked files

• Modify file and directory ownership

• Define and change Linux file and directory
permissions
• Identify the default permissions created on files and
directories
• Apply special file and directory permissions

The Filesystem Hierarchy Standard
• Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS): Standard set

of directories for Linux and UNIX systems
– File and subdirectory contents
– Gives Linux software developers ability to locate files
on any Linux system
• Create non-distribution–specific software

(continued)
Table 5-1: Linux directories defined by FHS

(continued)
Table 5-1 (continued): Linux directories defined by FHS

Managing Files and Directories
• mkdir command: Creates new directories

– Arguments specify directory’s absolute or relative
pathname
• mv command: Moves files
– Two arguments minimum:
• Source file/directory (may specify multiple sources)
• Target file/directory
– Also used to rename files

(continued)
• cp command: Copies files

– Same arguments as mv command
• Recursive: Referring to itself and its own contents
– Recursive search includes all subdirectories in a
directory and their contents
– –r option

(continued)
• interactive mode: Prompts user before overwriting

files
– –i option
– –f option: Overrides interactive mode
• rm command: Removes files
– Arguments are a list of files
• rmdir command: Removes directories
– –r and –f options are helpful

(continued)
Table 5-2: Common Linux file management commands

Finding Files
• locate command: Search for files on system

– Shortcut to the slocate command
– Information returned may not fit on screen
• Use with more or less commands
– Uses indexed database of all files on system
• Find command: Recursively search for files starting
from a specified directory

Finding Files (continued)
Table 5-3: Common criteria used with find command

Table 5-3 (continued): Common criteria used with find command

• which command: Search for an executable file

– Searches the PATH variable
• PATH variable: Lists directories on system where
executable files are located
– Allows executable files to be run without specifying
absolute or relative path

Linking Files
• Symbolic link: One file is a pointer or shortcut to

another
• Hard link: Two files share the same data

Linking Files (continued)
• Filesystem has three main structural sections:

– Superblock: Contains general information about the
filesystem
• e.g., number of inodes and data blocks
– Inode: Describes a file or directory
• Unique inode number, file size, data block locations,
last date modified, permissions, and ownership
• Inode table: Consists of several inodes
– Data blocks: Data making up contents of a file

Figure 5-1: The structure of hard linked files

• ln (link) command: Create hard and symbolic links

– Two arguments:
• Existing file to link
• Target file to create as a link to existing file
– Use –s option to create symbolic link
• Hard linked files share two inodes
• Data blocks in symbolically linked files contain
pathname to target file

Figure 5-2: The structure of symbolically linked files

File and Directory Permissions
• All users must login with a username and password

• Users identified by username and group
memberships
– Access to resources depends on username and
group membership
– Must have required permissions

File and Directory Ownership
• Primary group: User’s default group

• During file creation, file’s owner and group owner
set to user’s username and primary group
– Same for directory creation
• touch command: Create an empty file

File and Directory Ownership
(continued)
• chown (change owner) command: Change

ownership of a file or directory
• chgrp (change group) command: Change group
owner of a file or directory

Managing File and Directory
Permissions
• Mode: Inode Section that stores permissions
• Three sections, based on the user(s) that receive
the permission:
– User permissions: Owner
– Group permissions: Group owner
– Other permissions: Everyone on system
• Three regular permissions may be assigned to
each user:
– Read
– Write
– Execute
Interpreting the Mode
Figure 5-3: The structure of a mode

Interpreting the Mode (continued)
• User: Refers to owner of a file or directory

• Owner: Refers to users with ability to change
permissions on a file or directory
• Other: Refers to all users on system
• Shell scripts: Text files containing instructions for
the shell to execute

Interpreting Permissions
Table 5-4: Linux permissions

Changing Permissions
• chmod (change mode) command: Change mode

(permissions) of files or directories
• Permissions stored in a file’s or a directory’s inode
as binary powers of two

Changing Permissions (continued)
Table 5-5: Criteria used within the chmod command

Figure 5-4: Numeric representation of the mode

Table 5-6: Numeric representations of the permissions in a mode

Default Permissions
• New files given rw-rw-rw- permissions by default

• umask: Takes away permissions on new files and
directories
• umask command: Displays the umask
• Changing the umask
– Use a new umask as an argument to the umask
command

Default Permissions (continued)
Figure 5-5: Performing a umask 022 calculation

Default Permissions (continued)
Figure 5-6: Performing a umask 007 calculation

Special Permissions
• SUID (Set User ID)

• SGID (Set Group ID)
• Sticky bit

Defining Special Permissions
• SUID
– If set on a file, user who executes the file becomes
owner of the file during execution
– No functionality when set on a directory
– Only applicable to binary compiled programs

(continued)
• SGID
– Applicable to files and directories
– If set on a file, user who executes the file becomes
member of the file’s group during execution
– If a user creates a file in a directory with SGID set,
the directory’s group owner is changed to match the
file’s group owner

(continued)
• Sticky bit
– Previously used to lock files in memory
– Currently only applicable to directories
– Ensures that a user can only delete files his/her own
files

Setting Special Permissions
• Special permissions require execute

• Mask the execute permission when displayed by
the ls –l command
• May be set even if file or directory does not have
execute permission
– Via chmod command
• Add an extra digit at front of permissions argument

(continued)
Figure 5-7: Representing special permissions in the mode

(continued)
Figure 5-8: Representing special permissions in the

absence of the execute permissions

(continued)
Figure 5-9: Numeric representation of regular

and special permissions

Summary
• The Linux directory tree obeys the FHS
• Many file management commands exist
• Files can be created as pointers to another file or
as a linked duplicate of another file
– Called symbolic and hard links, respectively
• Each file and directory has an owner and a group
owner
– Owner can change permissions and grant ownership

Summary (continued)
• Permissions can be set on the owner of a file,

members of the group of the file, and everyone on
the system (other)
• Can find files using locate, which, and find
• Three regular file and directory permissions (read,
write, execute) and three special file and directory
permissions (SUID, SGID, sticky bit)
• Permissions can be changed using chmod

Summary (continued)
• New files and directories receive default

permissions from the system
• The root user has all permissions to all files and
directories on the Linux filesystem
– root user can change the ownership of any file or
directory on the Linux filesystem

Chapter 6
Linux Filesystem
Administration
Objectives
• Identify the structure and types of device files in the
/dev directory
• Understand common filesystem types and their
features
• Mount and unmount floppy disks to and from the
Linux directory tree
• Mount and unmount CD-ROMs to and from the
Linux directory tree
• Create hard disk partitions

• Mount and unmount hard disk partitions to and

from the Linux directory tree
• Monitor free space on mounted filesystems
• Check filesystems for errors
• Use hard disk quotas to limit user space usage

The /dev Directory
• Device file: File representing a system device

– Typically found in /dev directory
• Character devices: Transfer data to and from
system character by character
• Block devices: Transfer chunks or blocks of data
using physical memory as a buffer
– Fast data transfer
– CD-ROM, HDD, floppy disks

The /dev Directory (continued)
Table 6-1: Common device files

Table 6-1 (continued): Common device files

• Major number: Points to the device’s driver in the

Linux kernel
• Minor number: Indicates the particular device
• Device file type (block or character), major number,
and minor number make up a device file’s unique
characteristics
• mknod command: Can be used to re-create a
corrupted device file
– Must know file type, major, and minor numbers

Filesystems
• Filesystem: Organization imposed on physical

storage media
• Formatting: Creating a filesystem on a device

Filesystem Types
Table 6-2: Common Linux filesystems

Filesystem Types (continued)
Table 6-2 (continued): Common Linux filesystems

Mounting
• Mounting: Making a device accessible to users via

the logical directory tree
• Mount point: Directory to which a device is
attached
– Any existing directory can be a mount point
• Root filesystem: When Linux filesystem first turned
on, a filesystem on the hard drive is mounted to the
/ directory
– Contains most OS files

Mounting (continued)
Figure 6-1: The directory structure prior to mounting

Figure 6-2: The directory structure after mounting a floppy device

• mount command: Used to mount devices to mount

point directories
– With no options or arguments, lists currently
mounted filesystems
• umount command: Used to unmount devices from
mount point directories

Working with Floppy Disks
• Floppy disks must be prepared before use
– Formatted with a filesystem
• mkfs (make filesystem) command: Used to format a
disk device with a filesystem
– –t option: Specifies filesystem type
– Default is ext2 filesystem
• To mount or unmount floppies, must ensure that no
user is currently using the mount point directory
• fuser command: With the –u option, lists users
using a directory

Working with Floppy Disks (continued)
Table 6-3: Commands used to create filesystems

• /etc/fstab file: Used to mount devices at boot time

– Also consulted when users do not specify enough
mount command arguments
– Six fields: Device to mount, mount point, type,
mount options, dump#, fsck#

Table 6-4: Useful commands when

mounting and unmounting filesystems

Figure 6-3: Mounting a floppy

device using a GUI environment

Figure 6-4: Accessing filesystem devices in the KDE desktop

Working with CD-ROMs
• Most Linux systems have ATAPI-compliant IDE

CD-ROM drive
– Acts as a normal IDE hard disk
– Must configure in one of the following:
• Primary master (/dev/hda)
• Primary slave (/dev/hdb)
• Secondary master (/dev/hdc)
• Secondary slave (/dev/hdd)

Working with CD-ROMs (continued)
• Typically use iso9660 filesystem type and are not

writable
– Mount with –r (read-only) option
• Cannot be ejected until properly unmounted

Working with Hard Disks
• IDE HDDs must be configured in one of the

following:
– Primary master (/dev/hda)
– Primary slave (/dev/hdb)
– Secondary master (/dev/hdc)
– Secondary slave (/dev/hdd)
• Different device file for each

Working with Hard Disks (continued)
• SCSI hard disks well-suited to Linux servers

– Faster access speed
– Multiple hard drives can be attached to a controller
• Associated with different device files
– First SCSI HDD (/dev/sda)
– Second SCSI HDD (/dev/sdb)
– Third SCSI HDD (/dev/sdc)
– And so on

Hard Disk Partitioning
• As disk size increases, organization becomes more
difficult and chance of error increases
• Partition: A physical division of an HDD; can have
own filesystem
• Good practice to use more than two partitions
– Segregate different types of data
– Allow for use of multiple filesystem types on one
HDD
– Reduce chance that filesystem corruption will render
a system unusable
– Speeds up access to stored data; keep filesystems
small
• Track: Areas on a hard disk that form a concentric
circle of sectors
• Sector: Smallest unit of data storage on a hard disk
• Block: Combination of sectors; commonly used by
filesystem commands
• Cylinder: Series consisting of the same concentric
track on all of the metal platters inside a HDD
• Partition definitions stored in first readable sector of
the hard disk
– Master Boot Record (MBR) or master boot block
(MBB)
Figure 6-5: The physical areas of a hard disk

Table 6-5: Common hard disk partition

device files for /dev/hda and /dev/sda

Table 6-5 (continued): Common hard disk

partition device files for /dev/hda and /dev/sda

Figure 6-6: A sample Linux partitioning strategy

Figure 6-7: A sample dual-boot Linux partitioning strategy

Working with Hard Disk Partitions
• fdisk command: Create partitions after installation

– Specify hard disk partition as an argument
• tune2fs command: Create a journal file on the
filesystem
– Convert ext2 to ext3
• Edit /etc/fstab file to allow system to mount new
filesystems automatically at boot time

Monitoring Filesystems
• Check mounted filesystems periodically

– Errors
– Disk Space usage
– Inode usage

Disk Usage
• Using more filesystems typically results in less hard

disk space per filesystem
– Errors when filesystems fill up with data
• e.g., free space on / filesystem falls below 10%
• df (disk free space) command: Monitor free space
used by mounted filesystems
– –h option: More user friendly

Disk Usage (continued)
• du (directory usage) command: View size of a

directory and contents in Kilobytes
– –s option: Summarizes output
• dumpe2fs command: View total number of inodes
and free inodes for ext2 or ext3 filesystem
– Use –h option

Checking Filesystems for Errors
• Filesystem corruption: Errors in filesystem structure

preventing retrieval of data
– Commonly occurs due to improper system shutdown
• Syncing: Process of writing data stored in RAM to
the HDD
• Bad blocks: Unusable areas of a disk
– Cannot hold a magnetic charge

(continued)
• fsck (filesystem check) command: Check a

filesystem for errors
– Filesystem must be unmounted
– –f option used to perform full check
• e2fsck command: Check ext2 and ext3 filesystems
• Reiserfsck: Check reiserfs filesystems

(continued)
Table 6-6: Common options to the fsck command

Hard Disk Quotas
• If several users on a system, must be enough hard

disk space for each user’s files
• Hard disk quotas: User limits on filesystem usage
– Restrict number of files/directories or total disk
space usage
• Soft limit: User may exceed quota briefly
• Hard limit: Limit cannot be exceeded

Hard Disk Quotas (continued)
• quotaon and quotaoff commands: Toggle quotas

on and off
• edquota command: Edit user quotas
• repquota command: Report user quotas
• quota command: Allows regular users to view
quotas and current usage

Summary
• Disk devices are represented by device files that

reside in the /dev directory
• Each disk drive must contain a filesystem, which is
then mounted to the Linux directory tree for usage
using the mount command
• Hard disks must be partitioned into distinct sections
before filesystems are created on those partitions

Summary (continued)
• Many different filesystems available to Linux

• Important to monitor disk usage using the df, du,
and dumpe2fs commands to avoid running out of
storage space
• If hard disk space is limited, you can use hard disk
quotas to limit the space that each user has on
filesystems

Chapter 7
Advanced Installation
Objectives
• Describe the types and structure of SCSI devices

• Identify default IRQs, I/O addresses, and DMAs
• Explain how Plug-and-Play can be used to assign
configuration to peripheral devices
• Explain how APM and ACPI can be used to control
power to peripheral devices

• Outline the steps used to install Linux from source

files on a DVD, hard disk, or network server
• Understand methods used to automate the Linux
installation
• Install Red Hat Fedora Linux using a kickstart file
• Troubleshoot the installation process

Advanced Hardware Configuration:
SCSI Hard Disk Drive Configuration
• Terminator: Prevents signals from bouncing back

and forth on a cable
• SCSI ID: Uniquely identifies devices attached to a
SCSI controller
– Target ID
– Identifies priority
• Logical Unit Number (LUN): Unique ID for each
device attached to a node in a SCSI chain

(continued)
Figure 7-1: Connecting SCSI devices

(continued)
Table 7-1: Common SCSI standards

(continued)
Figure 7-2: A 50-pin Centronics SCSI connector
Figure 7-3: A 50-pin LPT SCSI connector

(continued)
Figure 7-4: A 68-pin LPT SCSI connector

Mainboard Flow Control: IRQs, DMAs,
and I/O Addresses
• IRQs: Method for peripheral devices to share
processor time
– Prioritize simultaneous service requests
• Polling: Processor polls devices to determine tasks
to be run
– Difficult to prioritize
• Interruption: Processor interrupted by devices
when resources needed
– Prioritize via IRQ

and I/O Addresses (continued)
Figure 7-5: IRQ priorities

Table 7-2: Default IRQ assignments

• I/O address: Identifies working space in RAM for

peripheral devices
• DMA: Allows devices direct physical memory
access via unique channels
– Improves system performance

Table 7-3: Default I/O address assignments

Table 7-4: Default DMA assignments

Plug-and-Play
• PnP: Automatically assigns configuration

information to devices
– IRQs, I/O addresses, DMAs
– Uses BIOS information to avoid conflicts
• Complimentary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
(CMOS): Memory on mainboard used to store
configuration information for boot process

APM and ACPI
• APM: Shuts off power to peripheral components as

needed
– Configured in BIOS
• Advanced Configuration and Power Interface
(ACPI): Configures peripheral’s power setting from
OS
– Monitor CPU temperature and battery power
– Standby mode and sleep mode
• Linux ACPI Client: Utility used to view ACPI
settings

RAID Configuration
• Fault tolerant: Device exhibiting minimum downtime

after failure
• Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (RAID):
Combines several HDDs’ storage space
– Hardware- or software-based
– Seven raid configurations

RAID Configuration (continued)
• Spanning: Two HDDs seen as one volume

– RAID level 0, not fault tolerant
• Disk striping: Write separate information to different
HDDs
– RAID level 0, not fault tolerant
– Decreases read/write time
• Disk mirroring: Two identical hard disks
– RAID level 1, fault tolerant

• Disk striping with parity: Write separate information

to HDDs and maintain parity information
– RAID level 5, fault tolerant
– Parity bits indicate what data is where
• Can be used to re-generate data when HDD fails
– Requires three HDDs minimum
– Most common RAID configuration

Figure 7-6: Organization of data on RAID level 5

Installation Methods
• International Standards Organization (ISO) image:

Large file containing exact copy of contents of a
CD-ROM or DVD
• CD-ROM is the most common and easiest method
for installing Linux
• Other methods for installing Linux
– DVD
– Network server
– Local hard disk

DVD Installation
• Similar to CD-ROM installation

• Only one DVD required, as opposed to multiple
CD-ROMs

Hard Disk Installation
• May install Linux directly from ISO images on hard

disk
– Must have sufficient free space outside partition
containing ISO images
• Create installation startup CD-ROM or bootable
USB flash memory drive
– Boot from this to start installation
• Installation will be text-based

Hard Disk Installation (continued)
Figure 7-7: Installation welcome screen

Figure 7-8: Language selection screen

Figure 7-9: Keyboard selection screen

Figure 7-10: Selecting an installation method

Figure 7-11: Specifying source file

location for a hard disk-based installation
Network-Based Installations
• Requires installation startup CD-ROM or bootable

USB flash memory drive
– Contains NIC drivers and programs allowing
connection to server
• Installation via one of following protocols:
– Network File System (NFS)
– File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
– Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
• Must configure network settings

(continued)
Figure 7-12: Configuring local network settings

(continued)
Figure 7-13:Specifying source file

location for an NFS-based installation
(continued)

location for an FTP-based installation
(continued)

location for an HTTP-based installation
Automating Linux Installations
• Deploy several Linux servers and workstations

requiring same configuration
• Disk imaging software: Duplicates HDD contents
from one computer to another
– e.g., Symantec Ghost
– Typically loaded from boot floppy disk
– Copy whole partitions or HDDs to other HDDs
• Locally or across network

(continued)
Figure 7-16: Symantec Ghost

(continued)
• Kickstart file: Automated installation script

– Specifies normal OS installation choices
– ks.cfg
• Kickstart Configuration: Configure a new kickstart
file
• To use ks.cfg:
– Format floppy with ext2, copy ks.cfg to it
– Boot from installation startup CD-ROM
– At welcome screen, specify ks.cfg file

(continued)
Figure 7-17: The Kickstart Configurator

Troubleshooting Installation
• Computers typically have different BIOS

configurations
– Installing on different computers is rarely the same
• Problems primarily related to hardware support or
configuration
– Typically fixed by changing hardware configuration

Problems Starting the Installation
• Check BIOS boot order

• Check BIOS for reserved peripheral configurations
(IRQ, I/O addresses, DMA)

Problems During Installation
• For graphical installation, video card must be

detected
– Appropriate drivers must be loaded
– Video card may not be supported by mode and
resolution of graphical installation
• Use Linux nofb or linux lowres installation
• Mouse does not work
– Use text-based installation

(continued)
• Installation freezes
– Disable PnP support in BIOS prior to installation
• Installation ends abnormally
– “fatal signal 11” error displayed
– Could be problem with RAM
– Often fixed by turning off CPU cache memory or
increasing number of wait states in the BIOS
– Could also be RAM or CPU voltage issue

(continued)
• Other failure causes include bad memory chips, an

AMD K6 processor, laptop power management
conflicts, overclocked CPUs
• Overclocked: Running a processor at a higher
speed than it is rated for
– May lead to increased performance
– Produces more heat on processor
• May result in computer crashes

Problems After Installation
• May have problems if installation program did not

detect computer hardware properly or certain
programs were not installed
• Installation log file: Records actions that occur or
fail during installation
– /root/install.log: Lists packages installed
– /root/install.log.syslog: Lists all system events that
occurred during installation

Problems After Installation (continued)
• To verify hardware settings, examine contents of

/proc directory or boot-up log files
• To view hardware detected at boot time, use
dmesg command

Table 7-5: Files commonly found in the /proc directory

Table 7-5 (continued): Files commonly found in the /proc directory

Summary
• SCSI HDDs are uniquely identified by a SCSI ID

and attach to a controller via a terminated cable
• Each peripheral device must be configured with an
IRQ and I/O address prior to use, and can
optionally use a DMA channel
• Portable laptop computers typically use APM or
ACPI to shut down power to peripheral devices
when not in use to save battery power

Summary (continued)
• Computers that require fault tolerance typically

employ SCSI hard disks configured using RAID
• Linux can be installed using files located on DVD,
hard disks, and NFS, FTP, and HTTP servers
• Use disk imaging software or a kickstart file to
simplify the installation of Linux on several
computers

Summary (continued)
• Unsupported video cards, overclocked CPUs, PnP

support, and improper RAM settings can cause an
installation to fail
• The /proc directory contains information regarding
detected hardware on the system and is useful
when verifying whether an installation was
successful

Chapter 8
Working with the BASH Shell
Objectives
• Redirect the input and output of a command

• Identify and manipulate common shell environment
variables
• Create and export new shell variables
• Edit environment files to create variables upon
shell startup

• Describe the purpose and nature of shell scripts

• Create and execute basic shell scripts
• Effectively use common decision constructs in shell
scripts

Command Input and Output
• BASH shell responsible for:

– Providing user interface
– Interpreting commands
– Manipulating command input and output
• Provided user specifies certain shell metacharacters
with command
• File descriptors: Numeric labels that define
command input and command output

(continued)
• Standard Input (stdin): File descriptor representing

command input
• Standard Output (stdout): File descriptor
representing command output
• Standard Error (stderror): File descriptor
representing command error messages

(continued)
Figure 8-1: The three common file descriptors

Redirection
• Redirect stdout and stderr from terminal screen to

a file
– Use “>” shell metacharacter
– Can redirect stdout and stderr to separate files
• Use separate filenames for stdout and stderr

Redirection (continued)
• Redirecting stdin to a file:

– Use “<“ shell metacharacter
• tr command: Replace characters in a file sent via
stdin

Redirection (continued)
Table 8-1: Common redirection examples

Pipes
• Send stdout of one command to another command

as stdin
• Pipe: String of commands connected by “|”
metacharacters
– stdout on left, stdin on right
• Commonly used to reduce amount of information
displayed on terminal screen

Pipes (continued)
Figure 8-2: Piping information from one command to another

Pipes (continued)
• Can use multiple pipes on command line

– Pass information from one command to another over
a series of commands
• filter commands: Commands that can take from
stdin and give to stdout
– Can be on either side of a pipe
• tee commands: Filter commands that also send
information to a file

Pipes (continued)
Figure 8-3: Piping several commands

Pipes (continued)
Table 8-2: Common filter commands

Pipes (continued)
• Can combine redirection and piping

– Input redirection must occur at beginning of pipe
– Output redirection must occur at end of pipe
• sed filter command: Search for and replace text
strings
• awk filter command: Search for text and perform
specified action on it

Shell Variables
• Variable: A reserved portion of memory containing

accessible information
• BASH shell has several variables in memory
• Environment variables: Contain information that
system and programs access regularly
• User-defined variables: Custom variables define by
users
• Special variables
– Useful when executing commands and creating new
files and directories

Environment Variables
• set command: Lists environment variables and

current values
• echo command: View contents a specified variable
– Use $ shell metacharacter
• Changing value of a variable:
– Specify variable name followed by equal sign (=) and
new value

Environment Variables (continued)
Table 8-3: Common BASH environment variables

Table 8-3 (continued): Common BASH environment variables

Table 8-3 (continued): Common BASH environment variables

User-Defined Variables
• Variable identifier: Name of a variable

• Creating new variables:
– Specify variable identifier followed by equal sign and
the new contents
• Features of variable identifiers:
– Can contain alphanumeric characters, dash
characters, or underscore characters
– Must not start with a number
– Typically capitalized to follow convention

User-Defined Variables (continued)
• Subshell: Shell created by current shell

– Most shell commands run in a subshell
– Variables created in current shell are not available to
subshells
• export command: Exports user-defined variables to
subshells
– Ensures that programs started by current shell have
access to variables
• env command: Lists all exported environment and
user-defined variables in a shell

Other Variables
• Not displayed by set or env commands

– Perform specialized functions in the shell
– e.g., UMASK variable
• alias command: Creates shortcuts to commands
– Use unique alias names
– Aliases stored in special variables
– Can create single alias to multiple commands
• Use ; metacharacter

Environment Files
• When exiting BASH shell, all stored variables are

destroyed
• Environment files: Store variables and values
– Executed each time BASH shell is started
– Ensures variables are always accessible

Environment Files (continued)
• Common BASH shell environment files (in order

they are executed):
– /etc/profile
– ~/.bash_profile
– ~/.bash_login
– ~/.profile
• Hidden environment files allow users to set
customized variables

Environment Files (continued)
• To add a variable, add a line to environment file

– Use command line syntax
• Any command can be placed inside any
environment file
– e.g., alias creation
• .bashrc (BASH run-time configuration): First hidden
environment file executed at login

Shell Scripts
• Shell script: Text file containing a list of commands

or constructs for shell to execute
– May contain any command that can be entered on
command line
• Hashpling: First line in a shell script
– Defines which shell is used to interpret shell script
commands

Shell Scripts (continued)
• Executing shell scripts with read permission:

– Start another BASH shell, specify the shell script as
an argument
• Executing shell scripts with read/write permission:
– Executed like any executable program

Escape Sequences
• Character sequences having special meaning in

the echo command
– Prefixed by \ character
– Must use –e option in echo command

Escape Sequences (continued)
Table 8-4: Common echo escape sequences

Reading Standard Input
• Shell scripts may need input from user

– Input may be stored in a variable for later use
• read command: Takes user input from stdin
– Places in a variable specified by an argument to
read command

Decision Constructs
• Most common type of construct used in shell

scripts
• Alter flow of a program:
– Based on whether a command completed
successfully
– Based on user input

Decision Constructs (continued)
Figure 8-4: A sample decision construct

Decision Constructs (continued)
Figure 8-5: A sample decision construct

The if Construct
• Control flow of program based on true/false

decisions
• Syntax:

The if Construct (continued)
• Common rules governing if constructs:

– elif (else if) and else statements optional
– Unlimited number of elif statements
– do these commands section may consist of multiple
commands
• One per line
– do these commands section typically indented for
readability
– End of statement must be “if”
– this is true may be a command or test statement
• test statement: Used to test a condition

– Generates a true/false value
– Inside of square brackets ( [ … ] )
• Must have spaces after “[” and before “]”
• Special comparison operators:
– –o (OR)
– –a (AND)
– ! (NOT)

Table 8-5: Common test statements

Table 8-6: Special operators in test statements

The case Construct
• Compares value of a variable with several

different patterns of text or numbers
• Syntax:

The case Construct (continued)
• If a match is found, commands to right of pattern

are executed
• Must end with esac

The && and || Constructs
• Time-saving shortcut constructs

– When only one decision needs to be made during
execution
• Syntax:
– command && command
– command || command

The && and || Constructs (continued)
• &&: Second command executed only if first

completes successfully
• ||: Second command executed only if first fails

Summary
• Three components are available to commands:

Standard Input, Standard Output, and Standard
Error
• Standard Input is typically user input taken from the
keyboard; Standard Output and Standard Error are
sent to the terminal screen
• You can redirect the Standard Output and
Standard Error of a command to a file using
redirection symbols

Summary (continued)
• Use the pipe symbol to redirect the Standard

Output from one command to the Standard Input of
another
• Most variables available to the BASH shell are
environment variables that are loaded into memory
after login from environment files
• You can create your own variables in the BASH
shell and export them so that they are available to
programs started by the shell

Summary (continued)
• The UMASK variable and command aliases are

special variables that must be set using a certain
command
• Shell scripts can be used to execute several Linux
commands
• Decision constructs can be used in shell scripts to
execute certain Linux commands based on user
input or the results of a certain command

Chapter 9
System Initialization
and X Windows
Objectives
• Summarize the major steps necessary to boot a

Linux system
• Configure the LILO and GRUB boot loaders
• Dual boot Linux with the Windows OS using LILO,
GRUB, and NTLOADER
• Understand how the init daemon initializes the
system at boot time into different runlevels

• Configure the system to start daemons upon

system startup
• Explain the purpose of the major Linux GUI
components: X Windows, Window Manager, and
desktop environment
• List common Window Managers and desktop
environments used in Linux
• Configure X Windows settings using various Linux
utilities

The Boot Process
• POST: Series of tests run when computer is turned

on
– Ensures functionality of hardware
• MBR: Defines partitions and boot loader
– Normally located on first HDD sector
• Boot loader: Program used to load an OS
• MBR might contain pointer to a partition containing
a boot loader on the first sector
• Active partition: Partition pointed to by MBR
– One per HDD
The Boot Process (continued)
• /boot: Directory containing kernel and boot-related

files
• Vmlinuz-<kernel version>: Linux kernel file
• Daemon: System process that performs useful
tasks
– e.g., printing, scheduling, OS maintenance
• Init (initialize) daemon: First process started by
Linux kernel
– Loads all other daemons
– Brings system to usable state

The Boot Process (continued)
Figure 9-1: The boot process

Boot Loaders
• Primary function: Load Linux kernel into memory

• Other functions:
– Passing information to kernel
– Booting another OS
• Two most common boot loaders:
– Linux Loader (LILO)
– GRand Unified Boot loader (GRUB)

LILO
• Traditional Linux boot loader

• Typically located on MBR
• Allows choice of OS to load at startup
• To configure, edit /etc/lilo.conf

LILO (continued)
• append= keyword (in /etc/lilo.conf): Useful for

manually passing information to Linux kernel
– Can pass almost any hardware information
• Format is hardware dependent
• Must reinstall LILO if /etc/lilo.conf file altered
• lilo command: Reinstalls LILO
– -u option: Uninstall LILO

GRUB
• More recent than the LILO boot loader
• Stage 1: First major part of GRUB
– Typically resides on MBR
– Points to Stage 1.5
• Stage1.5: Loads filesystem support
– Resides in /boot/grub
• Stage2: Performs boot loader functions
– Displays graphical boot loader screen
• To configure, edit /boot/grub/grub.conf
– Read directly by Stage 2 boot loader
– HDDs and partitions identified by numbers
• Format: (hd<drive#>,<partition#>)
GRUB (continued)
Figure 9-3: GRUB boot loader screen

GRUB (continued)
• GRUB root partition: Partition containing Stage 2

boot loader and grub.conf file
• GRUB normally allows manipulation of boot loader
– To prevent, enable password protection
• grub-md5-crypt command: Generates encrypted
password for use in grub.conf file
• Can switch boot loader from GRUB to LILO at any
time
• grub-install command: Installs GRUB boot loader

GRUB (continued)
Figure 9-4: Viewing help at the GRUB boot loader screen prompt
Dual Booting Linux
• Only one OS may be used at a time

• Boot loader may be configured to allow choice of
OS at boot time

Using LILO or GRUB to Dual Boot
other Operating Systems
• Dual boot: Two or more OSs exist on HDD

• Easiest if Linux installed after another OS
– Allows installation program to detect other OS
• Place appropriate entries in boot loader configuration
file
• LILO and GRUB cannot load Windows Kernel
directly

other Operating Systems (continued)
Figure 9-5: Partitioning for a dual boot system

other Operating Systems (continued)
Figure 9-6: Configuring GRUB for a dual boot system

Using FIPS
• Windows installers use entire HDD for Windows

partitions
– Leaves no space for Linux
• First non-destructive Interactive Partition Splitter
(FIPS): Resizes Windows partition
– Preserves Windows OS on Windows partition
– Creates space to install Linux

Using FIPS (continued)
• Guidelines/limitations to using FIPS:

– FAT16 and FAT32 filesystems only
– Will only work with primary Windows partition
– Windows partition split into two primary partitions
– Need sufficient free space within existing Windows
partition to allow Linux installation

Using a Windows Boot Loader to Dual
Boot Linux
• Specify location of GRUB or LILO in Windows boot
loader configuration
• NTLOADER: Boot loader available with Windows
NT/2000/XP
– At boot time, prompts for OS to boot
– Able to load LILO or GRUB
• Windows must be installed on first primary active
partition
– NTLOADER placed on MBR by default

Boot Linux (continued)
Figure 9-7: Configuring GRUB to reside on a Linux partition

• When Linux installed, install GRUB on first sector
of the partition
– Avoids overwriting NTLOADER in MBR
• After Linux installed:
– Run Linux rescue utility
– Make GRUB bootable image file (linboot.bin)
– Reboot into Windows OS
– Copy linboot.bin to C:\
– Configure NTLOADER configuration file

• Boot.ini: File used to configure NTLOADER

• For NTLOADER to be able to boot Linux, must
specify the path to linboot.bin

Figure 9-8: NTLOADER operating

system choice screen at boot time
Linux Initialization
• Kernel assumes control after Linux loaded

– Executes first daemon process (init daemon)
• /etc/inittab: Configuration file for init daemon

Runlevels
• Runlevel: Defines number and type of daemons

loaded into memory and executed
– init daemon responsible for changing runlevels
• Often called initstates
• runlevel command: Displays current and most
recent runlevel
• init command: Change OS runlevel
• telinit command: Alias to init command

The /etc/inittab File
• Consulted to start or stop daemons

• /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit: First script executed during
system startup
– Init hardware, set variables, check filesystems,
perform system tasks for daemon loading
• mingetty program: Displays login prompt on
character-based terminals
• /etc/rc.d/rc.local file: Performs post-system-startup
tasks

The /etc/inittab File (continued)
• /etc/rc.d/rc command: Executes all files starting

with S or K in /etc/rc.d/rc*.d/
– Runlevel must be specified
• e.g., /etc/rc.d/rc 5 will execute files in /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/
– Symbolic links to scripts that start daemons
– S means “Start,” K means “Kill”

The /etc/inittab File (continued)
Figure 9-9: The Linux initialization process

Configuring Daemon Startup
• Most symbolic links in /etc/rc.d/rc*.d point to

daemon executable files in /etc/rc.d/init.d
• Most daemons accept arguments start, stop,
restart
• To add daemons to be automatically started:
– Add executable to /etc/rc.d/init.d
– Create appropriate links to /etc/rc.d/rc*.d
• ntsysv utility: Modifies file entries in /etc/rc.d/rc*.d
directories

Configuring Daemon Startup
(continued)
Figure 9-10: Results of ntsysv―level 5 command

The X Windows System: Linux GUI
Components
Figure 9-11: Components of the Linux GUI

X Windows
• X Windows: Core component of Linux GUI

• X client: Requests graphics from X server and
displays them
– Does not need to run on same computer as X
Windows
• X server: Draws graphics
• XFree86: OSS version of X Windows
– Originally intended for Intelx86 platform

Windows Managers and Desktop
Environments
• Window manager: Modifies look and feel of X

Windows
• Desktop environment: Works with a window
manager to provide standard GUI environment
– Uses standard programs and development tools
– KDE and GNOME are most common

Environments (continued)
• K Windows Manager (kwm): Window manager that

works under KDE
• Qt toolkit: Software toolkit used with KDE
• GNOME Desktop Environment: Default desktop
environment in Red Hat Linux
– Sawfish Window Manager
– GTK+ toolkit
• Xfce Desktop Environment: Consumes less
hardware resources than KDE or GNOME

Figure 9-12: The KDE desktop

Figure 9-13: The GNOME desktop

Figure 9-14: The Xfce desktop

Figure 9-15: The Tab Window Manager

Starting and Stopping X Windows
• runlevel 5 starts gdm

– Displays graphical login screen
– Allows user to choose the desktop environment or
Window Manager
• /etc/X11/gdm/gdm.conf: Contains gdm
configuration data
• For runlevel 3:
– Start gdm manually
– Or, use startx command

(continued)
Figure 9-16: The GNOME Display Manager

(continued)
• startx command: start X Windows and Window

Manager or desktop environment specified in
.Xclients file in home directory
– Usually points to .Xclients-default file
• Edit .Xclients-defaults file to start other desktops or
Window Managers on X Windows
• Desktop Switching Tool: Change settings used in
the .Xclients-default file from KDE or GNOME

(continued)
Figure 9-17: The Desktop Switching Tool

Configuring X Windows
• X Windows interfaces with video hardware
– Requires information regarding keyboard, mouse,
monitor, and video adapter card
• Required video adapter card information:
– Model
– Amount of RAM
– Chipset
• Required monitor information:
– Maximum resolution supported
– Horizontal sync (hsync) range
– Vertical sync (vsync) range

Configuring X Windows (continued)
• Mouse, keyboard, monitor, and video adapter card

information stored in a file
– /etc/X11/xorg.conf: X.org implementation of X
Windows
– /etc/X11/XF86Config: XFree86 implementation of X
Windows
• mouseconfig and system-config-mouse
commands: Configure mouse

Figure 9-18: Mouse configuration using mouseconfig

• system-config-keyboard command: Configure

keyboard
• system-config-display command: Configure video
adapter card and monitor
• xvidtune utility: Fine-tune the vsync and hsync of
the video card

Figure 9-19: Keyboard configuration using system-config-keyboard

Figure 9-20: Configuring resolution and

color depth using system-config-display
Figure 9-21: Configuring video card and monitor

hardware using system-config-display
Figure 9-23: The xvidtune utility

Summary
• Boot loaders are typically loaded by the system
BIOS from the MBR or the first sector of the active
partition of a hard disk
• The boot loader is responsible for loading the Linux
kernel
• The LILO boot loader uses the /etc/lilo.conf
configuration file; GRUB boot loader uses the
/boot/grub/grub.conf configuration file
• Can use the LILO or GRUB boot loader to dual
boot Linux and the Windows OS
• The FIPS utility splits a FAT or FAT32 partition to
create enough space to install Linux

Summary (continued)
• Seven standard runlevels are used to categorize a
Linux system based on the number and type of
daemons loaded in memory
• The init daemon is responsible for loading daemons
using its configuration file /etc/inittab
• Daemons are typically stored in the /etc/rc.d/init.d
directory and loaded at system startup from entries
in the /etc/rc.d/rc*.d directories
• The Linux GUI has several interchangeable
components: X server, X clients, Window Manager,
and optional desktop environment
Summary (continued)
• X Windows is the core component of the Linux GUI

that draws graphics to the terminal screen
• You can start the Linux GUI from runlevel 3 by
typing startx at a command prompt, or from
runlevel 5 by using the gdm
• The system-config-mouse, mouseconfig, system-
config-keyboard, system-config-display, and
xvidtune utilities can be used to configure the
hardware settings used by X Windows

Chapter 11
Common Administrative
Tasks
Objectives
• Set up, manage, and print to printers on a Linux

system
• Understand the purpose of log files and how they
are administered
• Create, modify, manage, and delete user and
group accounts using command-line and graphical
utilities

Printer Administration: The Common
UNIX Printing System
• Common Unix Printing System (CUPS): Most

common printing system used on Linux
• Print job: Set of information sent to a printer
– File, set of files, output of a command
• lp command: Sends a print job to a printer

UNIX Printing System (continued)
• cups daemon (cupsd): Responsible for printing in

CUPS printing system
• Print job ID: Print job’s unique identifier
• Print queue: Directory holding print jobs waiting to
be printed
– Typically /var/spool/cups

• Printer can accept or reject request to print

– If rejected, CUPS gives an error message
• Spooling or queuing: Accepting print jobs into a
print queue
• Printing: Sending print jobs from print queue to a
printer

• lpstat command: With –t (total) option, lists all

printers and their status
• accept, reject, enable, and disable commands:
Manipulate status of a printer
– For enable, must specify full path enable command
(/usr/bin/enable)

Figure 11-1: The print process

Managing Print Jobs
• lp –d command: Print to a specified printer

– If –d option omitted, prints to default printer
• lpoptions –d command: Set default printer
• Users can set own default printer
– Add to .lpoptions file in home directory

Managing Print Jobs (continued)
• lp command accepts information from stdin

• lpstat command can list print jobs in queue for a
printer
• cancel command: Remove print jobs from print
queue
• lpadmin command: Perform printer administration
– e.g., restrict who can print to specific printers

Table 11-1: Common options to the lp command

Table 11-2: Common options to the lpstat command

The LPD Printing System
• Line Printer Daemon (LPD): Printing system used

on older Linux systems
• lpr command: Create print jobs in print queue
• lpc command: View status of printers
• lpq command: View print jobs in print queue
• lprm command: Remove print jobs

Configuring Printers
• /etc/cups/cupsd.conf: Contains cupsd settings

• /etc/cups/printers.conf: Contains each printer’s
configuration information
• Printer Configuration tool: Used to configure
printers
– e.g., Add new printers
– Configures queue, not printer

Configuring Printers (continued)
Figure 11-2: The Printer Configuration tool

Figure 11-3: Specifying the name of a new printer

Figure 11-5: Different queue types available for a new printer

• For local printers, must choose printer port

– Such as /dev/lp0
• For remote printers, specify name or IP address of
remote server, printer name, or printer port
• Enable sharing as needed
– CUPS can automatically search for other shared
CUPS printers
• Allow remote computers to print using the LPD
protocol

Figure 11-6: Selecting the printer model for a new printer

Figure 11-7: Completing the creation of a new printer

Figure 11-8: View a configured printer

Figure 11-9: Sharing a printer to network users

Figure 11-10: Specifying shared printer options

Log File Administration
• Log file: File containing system information

• /var/log: Contains most log files
– Many programs store log files in subdirectories

Log File Administration (continued)
Table 11-3: Common Linux log files found in /var/log

The System Log Daemon
• System log daemon (syslogd): Logs system events

– Uses /etc/syslog.conf file
• Entries indicate what information to write to what log
file

The System Log Daemon (continued)
• Facility: Area of system that information is gathered

from
• Priority: Importance of system information

Table 11-4: Facilities used by the System Log Daemon

Table 11-5: Priorities used by the log daemon

Managing Log Files
• Log files can take up unnecessary space

– Clear contents occasionally
• Print copy for records
• Use > redirection symbol
• Do not remove log files
– Permissions and ownership will be removed

Managing Log Files (continued)
• logrotate command: Back up and clear log files

• /etc/logrotate.conf: Used by logrotate utility
– Specifies rotation parameters for log files
• Log files compressed after rotation

Administering Users and Groups
• Authentication: Verify user’s identity

– Compare username and password to system
database
• Database containing user account information
typically consists of two files:
– /etc/passwd: User account information
• Previously stored password information
– /etc/shadow: Encrypted password information
• pwconv command: Convert system to use an
/etc/shadow file for encrypted password storage

(continued)
• pwunconv command: Revert back to using an

/etc/passwd file only
• User Identifier (UID): Unique user ID for a user
• Group Identifier (GID): Primary group ID for each
user
• Primary group: Group owner for all files created by
a user
– Specified in /etc/passwd file

(continued)
• General Electric Comprehensive Operating System

(GECOS): Field in /etc/passwd file containing user
account description
• Root user usually listed at top of /etc/passwd file
• /etc/shadow: Password field contains encrypted
password
• /etc/passwd: Password field contains an x (not
used)

(continued)
• Passwords often set to expire at certain intervals

– Intervals specified in /etc/shadow
• /etc/group file: Lists all groups and their members
– Allows users to belong to multiple groups
– Password field usually contains an x

Creating User Accounts
• useradd command: Add new user accounts

• Most new user information comes from two files:
– /etc/login.defs:
• E-mail location, password expiration, minimum
password length, range of UIDs and GIDs
– /etc/default/useradd:
• default primary group, home directory location,
password expiration info, shell, skeleton directory

Creating User Accounts (continued)
• Skeleton directory: Contains files to copy to new

users’ home directories
– Usually /etc/skel
– Mostly environment files
• passwd command: Set a user’s password
– If no arguments, sets current user’s password
– User accounts must have password set to log on
– Root user can change any user’s password

Creating User Accounts (continued)
Table 11-6: Common options to the useradd command

Modifying User Accounts
• usermod command: Modify user account

information
• chage command: Modify password expiration
information
• Locking an account: Make an account temporarily
unusable
– Alter password information
• chsh command: Change a valid shell to an invalid
shell

Modifying User Accounts (continued)
Table 11-7: Common options to the usermod command

Deleting User Accounts
• userdel command: Remove user accounts

• When an account is deleted, files previously owned
by the user become owned by a number
representing UID of deleted user
– Next user with that UID will own the files

Managing Groups
• groupadd command: Add a group to the system

• groupmod command: Modify GID name of a group
on the system
• groupdel command: Remove a group from the
system

Managing Groups (continued)
• groups command: List groups that a user belongs

to
• id command: List GIDs of groups that a user
belongs to
• newgrp command: Temporarily change user’s
primary group
• Graphical utilities exist to create, modify, and
delete user and group accounts

Managing Groups (continued)
Figure 11-11: Configure users and

groups with a desktop environment
Summary
• Print jobs are spooled to a print queue

• Can configure spooling or printing by using the
accept, reject, enable, and disable commands
• Print jobs are created using lp, can be viewed in
the queue using lpstat, and are removed from the
queue using cancel
• Create local and remote printers using Printer
Configuration or /etc/cups/printers.conf

Summary (continued)
• Most log files in Linux are stored in /var/log

• System events are typically logged to files by the
System Log Daemon
• Log files should be cleared or rotated over time to
save disk space
• User and group account information is typically in
/etc/passwd, /etc/shadow, and /etc/group
• Use the useradd command to create users and the
groupadd command to create groups

Summary (continued)
• All users must have a valid password before

logging in to a Linux system
• Users can be modified with usermod, chage, chsh,
and passwd commands, and groups can be
modified using groupmod command
• The userdel and groupdel commands remove
users and groups from the system, respectively

Chapter 14
Network Configuration
Objectives
• Describe the purpose and types of networks,

protocols, and media access methods
• Understand the basic configuration of TCP/IP
• Configure a NIC interface to use TCP/IP

• Configure a modem, ISDN, and DSL interface to

use PPP and TCP/IP
• Understand the purpose of host names and how
they are resolved to IP addresses
• Use common network utilities to interact with
network services

Networks and TCP/IP
• Network: Two or more computers joined via

network media and able to exchange information
• Local Area Networks (LANs): Computers within
close proximity
• Wide Area Networks (WANs): Computers
separated by large distances
• Internet service provider (ISP): Company providing
internet access

Networks and TCP/IP (continued)
• Routers: Devices capable of transferring packets

between networks
• Protocols: Set of rules for communication between
networked computers
• Packets: Packages of data formatted by a network
protocol
• Media access method: Defines how networked
computers share access to the physical medium

• Linux network protocols:

– TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol/Internet Protocol)
– UDP/IP (User Datagram Protocol/Internet Protocol)
– IPX/SPX (Internetwork Packet Exchange/Sequence
Packet Exchange)
– Appletalk
– DLC (Data Link Control)
– DECnet (Digital Equipment Corporation network)

• Ethernet: Most common network media access

method
• Token Ring: Popular media access method
• Media access method usually contained on NIC or
modem hardware

The TCP/IP Protocol:
IP Addresses
• IP address: Unique number that identifies a

networked computer
– Octets: Series of four 8-bit numbers
• Unicast: Directed TCP/IP communication between
two computers

The TCP/IP Protocol:
IP Addresses (continued)
• IP addresses composed of two parts:

– Network ID: Network computer is located on
– Host ID: Single computer on that network
• Cannot have two computers with same host ID on a
network
• Only computers with same network ID can
communicate without a router

Subnet Masks
• Define which part of IP address is the network ID

and which part is the host ID
– Series of four 8-bit numbers
• ANDing: Calculate network and host IDs from an IP
address and subnet mask
– Compare binary bits

Subnet Masks (continued)
Figure 14-1: A sample IP address and subnet mask

Subnet Masks (continued)
• 0.0.0.0 = all networks

• 255.255.255.255 = all computers
• 255 in an IP address can specify many hosts
– Broadcast addresses

Default Gateway
• IP address on router that sends packets to remote

networks
• Routers can distinguish between different networks
– Move packets between them
– Have assigned IP addresses on each attached
network

TCP/IP Classes and Subnetting
• IP address class defines default subnet mask of

associated device
• Multicast: TCP/IP communication destined for a
certain group of computers
– Class D addresses
• Subnetting: Divide a large network into smaller
networks
– Control traffic flow
– Take bits from host ID, give to network ID

TCP/IP Classes and Subnetting
(continued)
Table 14-1: IP address classes

Configuring a NIC Interface
• ifconfig command: Assign TCP/IP configuration to

a NIC
– Also used to view configuration of all network
interfaces in computer
• dhclient command: Receive TCP/IP configuration
from DHCP or Boot Protocol (BOOTP) server

(continued)
• /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-<interface> file:
Stores NIC configurations
• Packet internet groper (ping) command: Check
TCP/IP connectivity on a network

(continued)
Figure 14-2: Configuring network interfaces

(continued)
Figure 14-3: Configuring TCP/IP information for a network interface

Configuring a PPP Interface
• Run TCP/IP over serial lines

– Use a WAN protocol
• Three common Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP)
technologies:
– Modems
– ISDN
– DSL

(continued)
Figure 14-4: Adding a network interface

(continued)
Figure 14-5: Selecting modem hardware

(continued)
Figure 14-6: Selecting ISDN hardware

(continued)
Figure 14-7: Specifying ISP settings

(continued)
• Information about PPP devices stored in files

named ifcfg-<InternetServiceProviderName>
– /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory
• Other configurations used by PPP daemon stored
in /etc/ppp and /etc/isdn

(continued)
Figure 14-8: Specifying TCP/IP settings

(continued)
Figure 14-9: Configuring an xDSL connection

(continued)
Figure 14-10: Activating a PPP connection

Name Resolution
• Hostnames: User-friendly computer name

• FQDN: Hostname following DNS convention
• DNS: Hierarchical namespace for host names
• hostname command: View or set a computer’s host
name

Name Resolution (continued)
Figure 14-11: The Domain Name Space

Name Resolution (continued)
• TCP/IP cannot identify computers via hostnames

– Must map hostnames to IP addresses
– Entries in /etc/hosts file
• ISPs list FQDNs in DNS servers on Internet
– Applications request IP addresses associated with
FQDN

Connecting to Network Resources
• Network resources:
– Shared printers
– Applications
– Files
• To use network resources, must have appropriate
network utilities

Downloading Files Using FTP
• Most web browsers have built-in FTP utility

• FTP utility: Downloads files from FTP servers

(continued)
Figure 14-12: Using a Web browser FTP client

(continued)
Table 14-2: Common FTP commands

(continued)
Table 14-2 (continued): Common FTP commands

Accessing Files with NFS
• NFS: Common method for file transfer between

UNIX and Linux computers
– Not as common as FTP
– Mount directory from a remote computer

Accessing Windows Files
• Mount shared Windows directory to local directory

– Filesystem must be smbfs
• smbmount command: Mount directories from
Windows computers
• smbclient utility: Connect to shares on a Windows
system
• umount command: Unmount Windows directories

Running Remote Applications
• Access to BASH shell may be obtained by

connecting to a server across a network
• telnet utility: Most common utility used to obtain
BASH shell over a network
– No encryption
• Secure Shell (ssh) utility: Uses encryption

Running Remote Applications
(continued)
• rlogin: Obtain a shell from remote computer on

network
• “r” utilities allow access to remote computers
without a password
• Trusted access: Computers allowed to access a
computer without providing a password

Accessing E-mail
• Post Office Protocol (POP): Download e-mail

messages from e-mail server
• Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP): View e-
mail messages across network
• Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP): Sending
mail from MUA to e-mail server
– Mozilla Mail is most common MUA for Linux

Accessing E-mail (continued)
Figure 14-13: Configuring a mail account in Mozilla Mail

Figure 14-14: Using Mozilla Mail

• Linux systems typically use an internal mail system

designed for administration
– Daemons e-mail root user when important events or
problems occur
• mail utility: Basic e-mail reader available on most
Linux distributions
• mutt utility: Popular MUA
– Can run in a terminal

Figure 14-15: The mutt mail user agent

Summary
• A network is a collection of computers that are

connected together and share information
• Protocols define the format of information that is
transmitted across a network
• The protocol used by the Internet and most
networks is TCP/IP
• Each computer on a TCP/IP network must have a
valid IP address and subnet mask

Summary (continued)
• The /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts directory

contains the configuration for NIC and PPP
interfaces
• The TCP/IP configuration of a network interface
can be specified manually or obtained
automatically from a DHCP or BOOTP server
• Host names are used to easily identify computers
on a network; host names that follow the DNS are
FQDNs

Summary (continued)
• Host names must be resolved to an IP address

before network communication can take place
• Files, applications, and e-mail can be accessed
across the network with the appropriate network
utility

Chapter 15
Configuring Network Services
and Security
Objectives
• Identify and configure common network services

• Configure routing and firewalls
• Describe the different facets of Linux security
• Increase the security of a Linux computer
• Outline measures that can be used to detect a
Linux security breach

Network Services
• Processes that provide some type of valuable

service for client computers on network
• Must identify types and features of network
services before they can be configured
• Important to configure network-related services,
such as routing and firewalls

Identifying Network Services
• Port: Number uniquely identifying a network service

– Ensure that packets delivered to proper service
– Range from 0 to 65534
• /etc/services file: Lists ports and associated
protocol
• Well-known port: Ports from 0 to 1024
– Used by common networking services

(continued)
Table 15-1: Common well-known ports

(continued)
• Internet Super Daemon (xinetd): Initializes and

configures many networking services
• Standalone daemons: Daemons normally started at
boot-up
– e.g., Apache Web server
– Configure themselves without assistance
– ntsysv utility can configure most standalone
daemons to start in various runlevels

(continued)
Figure 15-1: Interacting with network services

Configuring Common Network
Services
Table 15-2: Common network services

Services (continued)
Table 15-2 (continued): Common network services




Configuring DNS
• Zone: Portion of DNS administered by one or more

DNS servers
• Forward lookup: FQDN resolved to IP address
• Reverse lookup: IP address resolved to FQDN

Configuring DNS (continued)
Figure 15-2: The DNS lookup process

• Iterative query: Resolved without use of top-level

DNS servers
• Recursive query: Resolved with the use of top-level
DNS servers
• DNS cache file: Contains IP addresses of top-level
DNS servers

• Master or primary DNS server: Contains read/write

copy of zone
• Slave or secondary DNS server: Contains read-
only copy of zone
• Zone transfer: Copying zone resource records from
master to slave DNS server

Table 15-3: Common zone configuration files

Table 15-3 (continued): Common zone configuration files

Configuring DHCP
• Send DHCP broadcast on network

– Request IP configuration information
• DHCP server leases IP address to client computer
for a period of time
– Ensures each client has unique IP address
• /etc/dhcpd.conf file: Configure computer as a
DHCP server
– List appropriate IP address range for network

Configuring Apache
• Most common Web server

• Document root directory: Stores default HTML
content for a Web server
– /var/www/html on Fedora Linux
– Default document is index.html
• /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf: Default configuration file
• Directive: Line within a configuration file

Configuring Apache (continued)
Table 15-4: Common httpd.conf directives

Configuring Samba
• SaMBa daemon: Emulates SMB protocol

• Windows computers advertise computer names
using NetBIOS protocol
– Can use NetBIOS name daemon to create and
advertise NetBIOS name
• Connect Windows computers to Linux server
• smbpasswd command: Generate Samba
passwords

Configuring Samba (continued)
• /etc/samba/smb.conf: Default Samba configuration

file
• /etc/rc.d/init.d/smb start: Start Samba and NetBIOS
name daemons
– Restart if smb.conf changed

Configuring NFS
• Create directory containing information to share

• Edit /etc/exports file:
– Add line listing directory to be shared and options
• Run exportfs –a
– Update list of exported filesystems
• Restart the NFS processes

Configuring FTP
• Very secure FTP daemon (vsftpd): Packaged with

Fedora Linux
• To configure (assuming logon as “user1”):
– Create directory below user1’s home directory to
host the files
• Ensure user1 owns directory
– Run /etc/rc.d/init.d/vsftpd start
• Start vsftpd daemon

Configuring NIS
• Network Information Service (NIS): Coordinate

common configuration files across several
computers
– Computers belong to a NIS domain, use NIS map to
access configuration information
– Most commonly used for password databases

Configuring NIS (continued)
• Define the NIS domain via domainname

<NIS_ domain_name> command
• Add “ NISDOMAIN=‘NIS_domain’ ” to
/etc/sysconfig/network file
– Configure NIS domain at boot time
• Add “domain <NIS_domain> server <NIS_server>”
to /etc/yp.conf file
– Query specific NIS server

Configuring the Secure Shell Daemon
• Secure Shell daemon (sshd): Allows use of ssh

utility to log in to network servers
• /etc/ssh/sshd_config file: Contains configuration
options
• Uses challenge-response authentication by default

Configuring the Secure Shell Daemon
(continued)
• Supported encryption standards:

– Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES)
– Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)
– Blowfish
– Carlisle Adams Stafford Tavares (CAST)
– ARCfour

Routing and Firewall Services
• Network services not provided entirely by network

daemons
– Provided by Linux kernel
– Do not listen to a particular port

Routing
• Route table: Indicates which networks are

connected to network interfaces
• Route command: Manipulate the route table
• Multihomed hosts: Computers with multiple network
interfaces
• IP forwarding: Forwarding TCP/IP packets between
networks
• Routing: Forwarding data packets between
networks

Routing (continued)
• Enabling routing:
– Place number 1 in /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward file
– Place “net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1” in /etc/sysctl.conf file

Routing (continued)
• Large networks may have several routers

• route add <route> command: Add entries to route
table
• route del <route> command: Remove entries from
route table
• Can use ip command to add entries to route table

Routing (continued)
Figure 15-3: A sample routed network

Routing (continued)
• Contents of route table lost when computer

powered off
– Add to /etc/rc.d/rc.local file
• Most routers configured with a default gateway
– For packets addressed to destinations not in route
table
• traceroute command: Troubleshoot routing
– Displays routers between current and remote
computer

Firewall Services
• netfilter/iptables: Used to create a firewall

– Discard network packets according to chains of rules
• Chains: Specify general type of network traffic to
apply rules to
• Rules: Match network traffic to be allowed or
dropped

Firewall Services (continued)
• Three chain types:

– INPUT chain: Incoming packets
– FORWARD chain: Packets passing through
computer
– OUTPUT chain: Outgoing packets
• iptables command: Creates rules for a chain

Firewall Services (continued)
Table 15-5: Common iptables commands

Security
• Linux systems typically available across networks

such as the Internet
• Should improve local and network security
• Understand how to detect intruders who breach the
system

Securing the Local Computer
• Limit access to computer itself

– Prevent malicious users from accessing files
• Server closet: Secured room to store servers
• Remove floppy and CD-ROM devices from
workstations
• Ensure BIOS prevents booting from USB ports

(continued)
• Ensure BIOS password is set

• Set boot loader password in LILO or GRUB
configuration file
• Limit access to graphical desktops and shells
• Minimize root user’s time logged in

(continued)
• nohup command: Prevents other commands from

exiting when parent process killed
• su (switch user) command: Switch current user
account to another
• sudo command: Perform commands as another
user via entries in /etc/sudoers file

Protecting Against Network Attacks
• Always a possibility that crackers can manipulate a

network service
• Buffer overrun: Network service altered in memory
• Minimize number of running network services
• nmap (network mapper) command: Scan ports on
network computers
– See what network services are running

(continued)
• Enable encryption on essential network services

• Ensure network service daemons not run as root
user when possible
• New network service versions usually include fixes
for known network attacks
– Keep network services up-to-date

(continued)
• TCP wrapper: Run network daemon with additional

security via /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny
files
• Examine permissions for files and directories
associated with system and network services

Detecting Intrusion
• Log files can contain information or irregularities

indicating an intrusion
• Review system log files associated with
authentication
• Pluggable Authentication Module (PAM): Handles
authentication requests by daemons
– Log file in /var/log/secure

Detecting Intrusion (continued)
• Check /var/log/wtmp log file

– Lists users who receive BASH shells
• Tripwire: Monitors files and directories
• Intrusion Detection System (IDS): Detect
unauthorized access

Detecting Intrusion (continued)
Table 15-6: Common Linux intrusion detection systems

Summary
• Most network services are started by the Internet

Super Daemon or as standalone daemons and
listen for requests on a port
• Commonly configured network services include
NIS, DNS, DHCP, Samba, Apache, NFS, FTP, and
Secure Shell
• Routing and firewall services are provided by the
Linux kernel

Summary (continued)
• Securing a Linux computer involves improving local

and network security as well as monitoring to
detect intruders
• By restricting access to your Linux computer and
using the root account only when required, you
greatly improve local Linux security

Summary (continued)
• Reducing the number of network services, using

firewalls, preventing services from running as the
root user, restricting permissions on key files, and
using TCP wrappers can greatly reduce the chance
of network attacks
• Log files and IDS applications can be used to
detect intruders on a Linux network

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Linux+ Guide to Linux

Certification, Second Edition

• Understand the purpose of an operating system

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 2

• Computers have two fundamental components:

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 3

• Hardware components include:

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 4

• Two different types of programs are executed on a

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 5

Figure 1-1: The role of operating system software

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 6

• Graphical user interface (GUI): Component of an

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 7

Figure 1-2: A Linux graphical user interface

• OS used to run a variety of applications on a

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 9

• Core component is called the Linux kernel

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 10

• Linux kernel versions are composed of:

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 11

Table 1-1: Latest revisions of common Linux kernels

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 12

• Open Source Software (OSS): Programs

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 13

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 14

Table 1-2: Software types

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 15

• GNU Public License (GPL): Stipulates that the

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 16

• Most closed source software is sold commercially

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 17

• Changes in the market or customer needs may

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 18

• Common software available for Linux includes:

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 19

• Customers using a closed source OS must rely on

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 20

• Partial list of hardware platforms on which Linux

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 21

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 22

• Linux documentation can be found on the Internet

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 23

Table 1-3: Calculating the total cost of ownership

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 24

Figure 1-4: Timeline of UNIX and Linux development

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 25

• Evolved from Multiplexed Information and

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 26

• Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD)

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 27

• Hacker: Someone wanting to expand their

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 28

• First developed by Linus Torvalds in 1991

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 29

• Red Hat and SuSE

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 30

• GUI environment: X Windows in combination with a

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 31

Figure 1-5: The GNOME Desktop

Linux+ Guide to Linux Certification, 2e 32

• Package manager: Software system that installs