linux overview and rhel installation -...

Linux Overview and RHEL Installation

Presenter : Raj Singh

IC Design GroupCEERIPilani – 333 031

Phone : 01596-242359

Fax : 01596-242294

Email : [email protected]

Linux Overview History

Linux History

• 1983 : Richard Stallman establishes the Free Software Foundation. GNU tools.

• 1987 : Andrew Tanenbaum releases Minix, a version of Unix for the PC.

• 1991 : Linus Torvalds starts development of a free OS kernel as a hobby on i386-basedPC at University of Helsinki. Initially called Freax then changed to Linux.

• 1992 : v0.99 of Linux kernel released under GPL. Integrated with GNU shells and tools.

• 1993 : Various Linux distributions (Slackware, Yggdrasil and others) combine Linux OSkernel and GNU tools to make a fully functional and free operating system running onPCs.

• 1994 : v1.0 of Linux kernel. Debian GNU/Linux distribution.

• 1995 : Ported to DEC Alpha and Sun SPARC. SuSE, Red Hat, etc. distributions emerge.

• 1996 : v2.0 of Linux kernel. Tux, a penguin adopted as mascot.

• 1997 : Linux registered as a trademark.

c©CEERI, Pilani IC Design Group 1

Linux Overview Personalities

Gnu/Linux Related Personalities

R. Stallman (GNU) Linus Torvalds (Linux) Alan Cox (Linux) Tux, the Penguin

P. Volkerding (Slackware) Bob Young (Red Hat) I. Murdock (Debian) M. Shuttleworth (Ubuntu)


Linux Overview Linux Kernel

Linux Kernel

Public incorrectly refers to “OS Kernel + GNU Shells and Tools” as “Linux.”

There are many other well-known maintainers for the Linux OS kernel besidesLinus Torvalds.

• Alan Cox : Kernel v2.2. Discontinued in 2003.

• Marcello Tosatti : Kernel v2.4.

• Andrew Morton : Kernel v2.6.

Major users of Linux-based systems are : Google, Wikipedia, Dreamworks,Airtel, R&D Labs, Universities, Financial Companies, Government Depart-ments, Business Enterprises, . . .c©CEERI, Pilani IC Design Group 3

Linux Overview Reasons for Success

Reasons for Linux Success

The success of Linux distributions in many areas of application is because of :

• Powerful, robust and “Unix-like” efficient operating system.

• No licensing costs and works better than commercial systems.

• Open development model reduces errors and security hazards. More “eyes.”

• Ported to all major platforms (Desktops, Servers, Workstations, Supercomputers) andvariety of processors (i386, x86-64, Itanium, SPARC, PowerPC, s390).

• Better security, more stable, allows expandability and ease of maintenance.

• When vulnerabilities occur, they are quickly disclosed and patched.

• Very large number of tools, utilities and application packages.

• Support and integration features for Windows-based client PCs.


Red Hat Linux History

Red Hat Linux History

• 1994 : Marc Ewing creates Red Hat Linux distribution.

• 1995 : Bob Young buys Marc Ewing’s business. Red Hat Linux v2.0 released.

• 1997 : Red Hat Linux v4.2 released.




• 2003 : RHEL v3.0 released. Fedora Project initiated.

• 2005 : RHEL v4.0 released. Fedora Core 6 released.

• 2007 : RHEL v5.0 released. Fedora 7 and 8 released.

• 2008 : Fedora 9 released.


Red Hat Linux Before Installing

Before Installing RHEL

• What is the usage profile of the system ?

e.g. web server, mail server, DNS/name server, print server, desktop, pro-gramming system, development system, backup server, NFS server, FTPserver, . . .

• CPU type, Main memory size (typically, 512 MB or more), USB ports,Serial / Parallel ports, mouse type, . . .

• Decide on disk partitions, their sizes and partitioning strategy. Typically,Disk of 10-20 GB.

/, /boot, /home, swap, /usr, /var, ...


Red Hat Linux Before Installing

�

�

Before Installing RHEL

• Know details about networking and LAN environment.

IP number / DHCP, Hostname, MAC / network adapter card, Gateway /router, Name servers, IPv4 / IPv6, . . .

• Know details about Graphics card, Graphics memory, Monitor type, . . .

• Names of the users and their login names, root and password.

• Timezone, date and time.


Red Hat Linux Installing

Installing RHEL

1. boot: selection — media test, rescue, memory test, ...

2. Graphical vs. Text mode installation. Network installation.

3. Media check step.

4. Language selection step.

5. Specifying disk partitions. Format vs. “Don’t Format” partitions.

6. Giving network data.

7. Choosing installation type : server, desktop, all, customized.

8. Choice of Desktop environment (GNOME, KDE), applications and packages.


Red Hat Linux Virtual Consoles

Installation Process : Virtual Consoles

Anaconda installer.

CTRL-ALT-F1 : Text installation display.

CTRL-ALT-F2 : bash shell prompt.

CTRL-ALT-F3 : Installation messages. Detected hardware (basic information).

CTRL-ALT-F4 : Kernel messages. Details of detected hardware and drivers.

CTRL-ALT-F5 : Partition formatting.

CTRL-ALT-F7 : Graphical display of installation progress.


Red Hat Linux First Boot

First Boot Process

1. Firewall.

2. SELinux.

3. Date and Time. Timezone settings.

4. Software Updates.

5. Sound card detection.

Installation logfile (/root/install.log). Also, check /tmp for left-over files.c©CEERI, Pilani IC Design Group 10

Red Hat Linux Post-Installation

Post-Installation Steps

GUI vs. Command-line discussion. Necessity of being familiar with vi or vim.1. GRUB boot configuration : /etc/grub.conf or /boot/grub/grub.conf.

2. Initiation / runlevels : /etc/inittab. Runlevel 0 (halt), 1 (single-user), 2 (multi-user,some network), 3 (multi-user, network) and 5 (GUI).

3. Security and firewall : /etc/hosts, /etc/host.conf, TCPwrapper files (hosts.allow,hosts.deny), OpenSSH files, /etc/sysconfig/iptables, SELinux, . . .

4. Configuring mail system sendmail. /etc/mail/, /etc/aliases. Also, .procmailrc,spamassassin, alpine/pine, mutt, . . .

5. Configuring DNS. /etc/named.conf, /etc/resolv.conf, /var/named/.

6. Information/messages logging. /etc/syslog.conf. Creating files in /var/log/.

7. Adding printers. /etc/cups/.

8. Creating user accounts. /etc/passwd, /etc/group, /etc/skel/.


Red Hat Linux Post-Installation

Other Steps

1. Disabling/enabling services : named, kudzu, ... : using chkconfig.

2. Kernel modules : /etc/modprobe.conf.

3. Log file rotation : /etc/logorotate.conf, /etc/logrotate.d/.

4. Web server : /etc/httpd/.

5. FTP server : /etc/vsftd/

6. Disk quota setting. edquota, repquota.

7. Cron file : /etc/crontab.

8. System information messages to users : /etc/issue, /etc/issue.net, /etc/motd,/etc/lom.

9. Remove some unwanted packages : wvdial, rp-pppoe, . . .

10. Add other “external” packages e.g. OpenOffice, Acrobat Reader, ClamAV.


Red Hat Linux Using RPM

Using RPM

Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) is used for installing, upgrading, removingand querying software packages.

• rpm -i, rpm -U and rpm -F : installation/upgrading packages.

• rpm -e : removing packages.

• rpm -q : querying packages and getting information.

• rpm --checksig, rpm --verify : validating and verifying packages.

• Always install new kernels, don’t upgrade kernels.

• Make a text file listing all installed packages. rpm -qa | sort > pkglist.txt.

• rpmbuild : building packages from tar files and source RPMs.

You may wish to use kickstart to automate subsequent installation.c©CEERI, Pilani IC Design Group 13

Red Hat Linux RHEL Clones

RHEL Clones

1. CentOS, http://www.centos.org/.

2. Scientific Linux, https://www.scientificlinux.org/.

• Scientific Linux CERN, http://linux.web.cern.ch/linux/scientific4/.

• Scientific Linux Fermi, https://fermilinux.fnal.gov/.

3. White Box Enterprise Linux, http://www.whiteboxlinux.org/


Linux Resources Websites

Major Linux Websites

• http://www.redhat.com/security/updates/ : RHEL Security Updates.

• http://www.tldp.org/ : The Linux Documentation Project.

• http://www.kernel.org/ : Linux Kernel.

• http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/ : Linux Questions Wiki.

• http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/linux/ : ibiblio Linux Archive.


Linux Resources Websites

Linux Related Online News and Magazines

• http://www.linux.org/ : Linux Online.

• http://www.linux.com/ : Linux.com Site.

• http://lwn.net/ : Linux Weekly News.

• http://linuxgazette.net/ : Linux Gazette.

• http://linuxjournal.com/ : Linux Journal.

• http://linuxmagazine.com/ : Linux Magazine.

• http://www.linuxsecurity.com/ : Linux Security.

• http://oreilly.com/pub/topic/linux/ : O’Reilly Linux/Unix Related Books.


Linux Resources Books

Linux/Unix Related Books

Recommended books lists related “Linux and System Administration” are pe-riodically sent to all SMDP-II sites. These have been sent in June, 2006, April,2007 and January, 2008.

1. M. Bishop, Introduction to Computer Security, Addison-Wesley, 2004.

2. W. R. Cheswick, S. M. Bellovin and A. D. Rubin, Firewalls and Internet Security : Re-pelling the Wily Hacker, Second Edition, Addison-Wesley, 2003.

3. A. Frisch, Essential System Administration, Third Edition, ORA, 2002. (Cheap Edition)

4. B. W. Kernighan and R. Pike, The Unix Programming Environment, PHI, 1982. (CheapEdition)

5. T. A. Limoncelli and C. Hogan, The Practice of System and Network Administration, Pear-son/AW, 2002. (Cheap Edition)


Linux Resources Books�

�


6. E. Nemeth, G. Snyder and T. Hein, Linux Administration Handbook, Second Edition,PH/Pearson, 2006. (Cheap Edition)

7. M. G. Sobell, A Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming,Pearson/PH, 2005. (Cheap Edition ?)

8. S. Garfinkel, G. Spafford and A. Schwartz, Practical UNIX and Internet Security, ThirdEdition, ORA, 2003.

9. P. Albitz and C. Liu, DNS and BIND, Fifth Edition, ORA, 2006. (Cheap Edition)

10. D. J. Barrett, R. E. Silverman and R. G. Byrnes, SSH, The Secure Shell : The DefinitiveGuide, Second Edition, ORA, 2005.

11. T. Bautts, T. Dawson and G. N. Purdy, Linux Network Administrator’s Guide, Third Edition,ORA, 2005.

12. M. Bishop, Computer Security : Art and Science, Addison-Wesley, 2003.

13. D. N. Blank-Edelman, Perl for System Administration, ORA, 2000.c©CEERI, Pilani IC Design Group 18


�


14. G. Carter, LDAP System Administration, ORA, 2003.

15. T. Collings and K. Wall, Red Hat Linux Networking and System Administration, ThirdEdition, Wiley, 2005.

16. B. Costales and Eric Allman, Sendmail, Third Edition, ORA, 2002. (Cheap Edition)

17. B. Costales, G. Jansen, C. Assmann and G. Shapiro, Sendmail 8.13 Companion, ORA,2004.

18. M. K. Dalheimer and M. Welsh, Running Linux, Fifth Edition, ORA, 2005.

19. M. Jang, RHCE Linux Study Guide, Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2004.

20. B. Laurie and P. Laurie, Apache : The Definitive Guide, Third Edition, ORA, 2002.

21. R. Lehtinen, Computer Security Basics, Second Edition, ORA, 2006.

22. I. Ristic, Apache Security, ORA, 2005.c©CEERI, Pilani IC Design Group 19


�


23. J. N. Robbins, Web Design in a Nutshell, Third Edition, ORA, 2006.

24. R. L. Schwartz, T. Phoenix and B. D. Foy, Learning Perl, Fourth Edition, ORA, 2005.(Cheap Edition)

25. E. Siever, A. Weber, S. Figgins, R. Love and A. Robbins, Linux in a Nutshell, Fifth Edition,ORA, 2005. (Cheap Edition)

26. M. G. Sobell, A Practical Guide to Red Hat Linux, Second Edition, Pearson/PH, 2004.(Cheap Edition)

27. T. Steidler-Dennison, Run Your Own Web Server Using Linux and Apache, SitePoint/ORA,2005.

28. W. R. Stevens and S. A. Rago, Advanced Programming in the Unix Environment, SecondEdition, Pearson/AW, 2005.

29. J. Brittain and I. F. Darwin, Tomcat : The Definitive Guide, ORA, 2003.

30. M. Burgess, Principles of Network and System Administration, Wiley, 2000.c©CEERI, Pilani IC Design Group 20


�

�


31. T. Christiansen and N. Torkington, Perl Cookbook, Second Edition, ORA, 2003.

32. C. Henderson, Building Scalable Web Sites, ORA, 2006.

33. E. Meyer, Cascading Style Sheets : The Definitive Guide, Second Edition, ORA, 2004.

34. C. Peikari and A. Chuvakin, Security Warrior, ORA, 2004.

35. S. Shah and W. Soyinka, Linux Administration : A Beginner’s Guide, Fourth Edition,McGraw-Hill, 2005.

36. S. Warden, D. Conway and C. Poe, Perl Hacks, ORA, 2006.

37. L. Welling and L. Thomson, PHP and MySQL Web Development, Third Edition, Sams,2004.

38. H. E. Williams and D. Lane, Web Database Applications with PHP and MySQL, SecondEdition, ORA, 2004.



�

�


39. E. D. Zwicky, S. Cooper and D. B. Chapman, Building Internet Firewalls, Second Edition,ORA, 2000. (Cheap Edition)

40. J. Masters and R. Blum, Professional Linux Programming, Wiley/Wrox. 2007.

41. T. Adelstein and B. Lubanovic, Linux System Administration, ORA, 2007.

42. R. Flickenger, Linux Server Hacks : 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools, ORA, 2003.

43. J. Fusco, The Linux Programmer’s Toolbox, Prentice-Hall, 2007.

44. M. K. Johnson and E. W. Troan, Linux Application Development, Second Edition, AW/Pearson,2004.

45. M. T. Jones, GNU/Linux Application Programming, Charles River Media, 2005.

46. C. Negus and F. Caen, Fedora Linux Toolbox : 1000+ Commands for Fedora, CentOSand Red Hat Power Users, Wiley, 2007.



�

�


47. N. Petreley and J. Bacon, Linux Desktop Hacks : Tips and Tools for Customizing andOptimizing your OS, ORA, 2005.

48. A. Robbins, Linux Programming by Example : The Fundamentals, PH/Pearson, 2004.

49. C. Schroder, Linux Cookbook, ORA, 2004.

50. C. Schroder, Linux Networking Cookbook, ORA, 2007.

51. M. Stutz, The Linux Cookbook, Second Edition, No Starch Press, 2004.

52. W. von Hagen and B. Jones, Linux Server Hacks, Volume Two : Tips and Tools forConnecting, Monitoring, and Troubleshooting, ORA, 2005.

53. B. Ward, How Linux Works, No Starch Press, 2004.


linux overview and rhel installation -...

Documents