Complete newbie in Linux!

linuxlover.chaitanya · 10-28-2009, 04:32 AM

It surely is a learning experience but it takes time. And it would help OP if he has some basic knowledge. And then LFS is quite different than CentOS.

prajit_matrix · 10-28-2009, 11:54 AM

Thank you everyone for your effortless support. As you cleared my doubt of 32 bit and 64 bit there is one more I came across now. There is this binary and live CD....I have already started downloading and reached about 65% and its is CentOS-5.4-i386-bin-DVD.iso. So whts the diffrnce between two...I am planning after download i will burn tht to DVD and boot up to new HDD. Thts the procedure right?

Fred Caro · 10-28-2009, 06:52 PM

There are always the " info, help and man" pages on your 'distro' but none give a gradual build in knowledge, that's what teachers are paid for. Some books are better for that than others; anything by Keir Thomas is well explained and gives good tips to new comers, even if sometimes out of date, e.g., 'Beginning Suse linux'. Other books I regard as reference books, such as, 'Linux in a nutshell' because it makes rather dull bedtime reading unless you get off on a version of algebra.

Fred.

chrism01 · 10-28-2009, 07:56 PM

Strictly speaking; the full Install DVD is exactly that, a full installation only set. A LiveCd is a minimal version (hence CD, unless it's actually a DVD) that's designed to allow you to boot off of it and experience Linux without touching (or installing onto) your HDD.

However, there is some overlap.

1. an install DVD can be booted with the cmd 'linux rescue' to enable you to recover a borked system.
2. some(!) LiveCDs also have a minimal install option, so does a basic install to your HDD, then you complete the install from the internet.

HTH

prajit_matrix · 11-04-2009, 04:54 AM

hey people big problem...i downloded the centos and i burned that iso image on dvd. Now I have 500GB hard disk. In that I want to make 250GB as for windows and 250Gb for Linux. Now how can i make partition while installing linux. Its really different. I dont understand exctly.
So what I did is, i installed windows first and then made two partiotions, so it become in this way, 200Gb one partiton, 200Gb second partion and 30Gb for windows. So remaining some 36Gb freespace i installed centos. Now I cant see those partions (i made in windows) in linux? Whts wrong? I know I have done it wrong. How can correct it. As I want 250GB for windows and 250Gb for linux. Now what should I do? And seems like while i was installing centos I was getting some problem of bug report in the option "install some other applications from CentOS"!.What is that?

raskin · 11-04-2009, 04:58 AM

I am not sure that by default any partitions not specified during installation are attached. Attaching partition is called "mounting". Have you formatted any of the 200GB partitions? Reading "man mount" and following the instructions may help you to attach a formatted Windows partition..

linuxlover.chaitanya · 11-04-2009, 05:28 AM

The best way would be to first install windows on the partition you want and utilize the space you want for windows. Then keep the remaining space unformatted. Put the CentOS dvd and boot off it. Follow the instructions. When it comes to partitioning, use manual or custom. Create swap on the free space and then / with the remaining free space. Select / to format it and proceed and it should be it.

prajit_matrix · 11-05-2009, 12:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linuxlover.chaitanya

The best way would be to first install windows on the partition you want and utilize the space you want for windows. Then keep the remaining space unformatted. Put the CentOS dvd and boot off it. Follow the instructions. When it comes to partitioning, use manual or custom. Create swap on the free space and then / with the remaining free space. Select / to format it and proceed and it should be it.

I didn't understand excaly..geting confused? See I have installed windows and now 250 Gb remaining as free space.ok. Now while installing centos or ubuntu, in that the free space, by default linux can be installed, but i want to do in the normal format of 20gb for the systems file of ubuntu/cetos and rest 230 Gb for the disk space. How can do this in partiton? which mount and all i should use(/ or /root or /user or /temp or /var etc..? And which extension i should use?
can you explain me in little detail of the partition step if i want to do in the above format?

linuxlover.chaitanya · 11-05-2009, 12:51 AM

As I said while you are at step for partitioning, you can select the free space and create a new partition. If you want just 20gigs for / then you can set / to be 209gigs and proceed. You need to do it to understand. Reading wont help much. Put the CentOS dvd and start doing it. You will get what you want to do.

kumars.nitin123 · 11-05-2009, 05:56 AM

Yes you should start with more practice with "command-line".
First learn about system files and configuration files where those are and for what these are used.
Configure it and then format it then again configure it...repeat few times.
Then go for basic commands.(Don't believe blindly, following description written by me are correct to my knowledge ONLY).
Go through man pages.

du
shows used space of disk on the file system

df
shows free space on disk on the file system

fdisk
to partition the disk
shows partition table of the disks

sginfo -l
list scsi devices

pvdisplay
shows information of physical volumes

lvdisplay
shows information of logical volumes

mount
list mounted devices

mount device mount_point
to mount a filesystem on mount_point

umount device
unmount the mounted device

fstab
contains information of filesystems
used in auto-mounting of devices

/proc/mdstat
shows personalities and unused devices

dmesg
shows bootup messages

/var/log/message

klog

maillog

Netstat
prints network connections

ifconfig
shows configuration of NICs connected to the system

service network start/stop/restart
to start/stop/restart network services of entire network of the system

chkconfig network off

chkconfig network on

ifdown eth0
to disable a particular NIC

ifup eth0
to enable a particular NIC

ip route get
shows name and address of NIC which is being used to route a particular address.

host
used for DNS lookup

hostname
displays hostname

/etc/sysconfig/network
contains hostname gateway address

/etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0
will show the configuration of device eth0

zip -r newname file1 file2 ... filen
gzip
to compress the file(s)

unzip newname.zip
gunzip
to uncompress the file

file filename
returns the type of file

chown
to change owner and group of file

chmod
to change file access permissions

cmp & diff
to compare two files

rpm -V package_name
to check whether the package is installed on the system or not

yum list package_name
to check the availability of package to be installed

yum install package_name
installing the packages

top
prints currently running system processes

uptime
shows uptime of the system

raskin · 11-05-2009, 11:30 PM

By the way, sometimes you need to use "info command" to access more complete documentation than "man command". Some of the thngs you may need from "info bash" are:

Code:

# Make output of command1 serve as input to command2
command1 | command2
# Run command1 in background, regaining access to shell immediately.
command1 &
# Redirect output of command1 to file file1
command1 > file1
# Discard output of command1 (see only errors reported)
command1 > /dev/null
# Redirect errors to file 
command1 2> file1
# Print and save output 
command1 | tee file1