Linux Installation and Package Management

Objective 1: Design a Hard Disk Layout

Guidelines

  • Keep / small by distributing larger parts of the directory tree to other filesystems.

  • Separate a small /boot partition below cylinder 1024 for kernels.

  • Separate /var into its own partition to prevent runaway logs from filling /.

  • Separate /tmp.

  • Separate /usr if it is to be shared read-only among other systems via NFS.

  • Set swap size to be somewhere between one and two times the size of main memory.

Objective 2: Install a Boot Manager

LILO

  • LILO has historically been the default Linux boot loader.

  • LILO consists of the lilo command, which installs the boot loader, and the boot loader itself.

  • LILO is configured using /etc/lilo.conf.

GRUB

  • GRUB can boot Linux as well as most other PC-based operating systems.

  • GRUB relies on various files in the /boot/grub directory to support reading from various types of filesystems.

  • GRUB is configured using /boot/grub/menu.lst (or /boot/grub/grub.conf on some distributions).

  • GRUB can be configured to present a text or graphical menu interface and also has a command-line interface.

Objective 3: Make and Install Programs from Source

Source Files

  • Software often comes in a compressed tar archive file.

  • Larger source code packages include a configure script to verify that everything is in order to compile the software.

make

  • make is then used to build the software.

  • make is also often used to install the software into directories such as /usr/local/bin.

Objective 4: Manage Shared Libraries

Concepts ...

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