Hi guy,

Iam completely new to the linux world, i find it very interesting and however i would like some help :

1-Why do we need to mount and umount?
2-how to create a Raid ?
3-What are the advantages and disvantages of using ext2 ,ext3?differences?
4-what are the benefits of using LVM?
5- what is the .GZ file?
6-what does /etc does?
7-what does /sbin does?
8-what is a Repository? and what does it does?
9- what is a kernel?
10-What does grub does?
11-What is anaconda?
12-what is a initrd path?
13-what does tty 7 means?

Regards,
Manuel

Hi there, here's some information, other posts should give more and perhaps better answers..

1- You don't in all cases (like when you play an audio cd), but the reason for mounting a data disc is the same as mounting a harddisk partition: to be able to read or read and write data; every operating system (that I know of) does this in some manner, including Windows (though it won't "show" it to you so clearly).

2- There are software and hardware raid systems, so it depends..but usually (though not necessarily always) when you install a GNU/Linux and select manual partitioning, you are presented with options to create raid stuff. There's probably more documentation about that in the distribution's documentation/manuals, or just some more general internet pages. The same applies to LVM things.

3- ext3 is a journalled filesystem, ext2 isn't; if you like to see, you can find some performance tests from the internet if you're interested in that. The differences probably depend on what sort (size) of files you deal with, how much and in what way; journalling also affects file writing (and deleting files), for example (if I'm not mistaken) you can't use shred to "securely" overwrite files on an ext3 filesystem (though you can deal with the whole partition if you like) but you can on ext2. I'm sure there's a ext2 vs ext3 page somewhere on the net too..

4- You can add and remove (physical) volumes more easily, encrypting the filesystems becomes easier (just one password needed instead of one per partition) and maybe even safer (read Slackware's documentation about creating an encrypted-disk installation!). Though it's more complex, and in case you need to fetch files from damaged LVM system or from a disk you cannot boot from it's more difficult than if you didn't use LVM. This is quite a broad question, really, and the benefits depend on what you need from your system..

5- It's a compressed archive, sort of like .zip. Note that usually tar is used to archive several files into one tar archive, and then gzip or bzip2 to compress that archive (so files => files.tar => files.tar.gz or files.tar.bz2)

6- it's a directory; see contents (configuration files, ...)

7- it's a directory; see contents (binaries/executables, usually for root/admins, ...)

8- A repository/reposity is a place (on the internet, your disk, ...) that holds packages (files that contain files and possibly some instructions about them) for some given OS (in this case some Linux distribution), from where the appropriate package manager can automatically check for packages that can be updated or are asked to be installed.

9- A kernel is the "heart" of an operating system; you'll find tons of information about this subject by doing a web search for "kernel" on any search engine out there. Try Google if you like. Operating systems are built around a kernel.

10- Grub (grand unified bootloader or something like that) is a bootloader like it's name says; it shows a menu (if you want) and boots an operating system when you select one from the list.

11- It's RedHat/such specific stuff, if I'm not mistaken it's the piece of software that takes care of hardware recognition and configuration during bootup (maybe other times as well, not sure..)

12- Path to an initrd file

13- A tty is a terminal (7 is it's number) you can use to, for example, log in to a machine.

If my answers were inaccurate or even wrong (I'm just a human ), correct me freely..

There are good books about Linux, but it won't harm you if you read a book about Unix - they're quite alike, even nowadays the basics are more or less the same. Then if you have questions about a specific piece of software, visit the appropriate website if one exists: for example kernel.org for kernel-specific questions, there is documentation (for example README files) that helps you to understand what it keeps inside.

That's a lot of questions for one thread, have you tried googling for some of these?

1. Well, all drives and storage type devices need to be mounted to be accessible. You only umount when it's no longer needed.

2. Create RAID, what type of RAID? All really depends on your setup.

3. ext3 is like ext2 but has a journaling file system. There's other differences but that's the big bulk of it, search for more differences, etc.

4. LVM is a logical volume manager. It simplifies managing your partitions and disks, filesystem, etc. Read more about it to learn more.

5. GZ files are usually files that have been compressed with the gzip utility.

6. etcetera, where system configs are usually stored for the *nix OS.

7. sbin is usually a privileged area for binaries or executables usually only root or the admin runs.

8. Repository is exactly what it means, usually consists of packages and updates for an OS.

9. Kernel is the central module of any OS, not just Linux.

10. GRUB is a boot loader.

11. Anaconda is the Red Hat installation program during the install of Red Hat.

12. initrd provides the capability to load a RAM disk by the boot loader.

13. TTY stands for teletypewriter. TTY7 is the 7th TTY.

These sure do sound like some type of quiz or test questions. You could have easily found them by searching.

I will try to answer some of you,re questions
Mount and umount ,Linux file system can be written on different drives.
If it is not def as auto mount you need to mount to read or write on the system
If you do not need any more you can umount
Main difference EXt3 has journal Ext2 not
Gz is a arch file
What do you mean /etc /sbin the contents of the directory
Kernel is the core of linux
Grub = Grand unified boot loader
anaconda is a installer

What great questions! Excellent answers! So glad I happened to click on this thread this day

hello bro actually GZ stands for gunzip which is a type of compressed archive,and a file can be archived with .gz without being tarred i.e (files => files.gz is possible and files => files.tar => files.tar.gz is also possible) bz2 stands for bunzip.

Umm.. he mentioned gzip which compresses the file to be an archive with the .gz extension. gunzip is what un-archives the file that was archived with gzip.

man gzip
man gunzip

Looking at the man file for each loads the GZIP(1) manpage.

Thanks guys,

I find it very much helpful, iam googling and reading some books on linux, but its always better to share knowledge with others.
Explanations are specific for each indivual, the way you guys explain it to me its Not the way the book will!

I really appreciate , and i will be soon posting some more questions!

as i want to become a linux guru!!


Regards,

This is a good tutorial/resource: http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz
See also : http://www.comptechdoc.org/os/linux/

post all you can

Hi, all

Iam a newbie, in linux , i would like to know the following:

1- Whats is mounting and unmounting?
2-Some crucial commands?
3- Some networking services and how to configure them
4-I have installed CentOs 5 server, in my laptop and there is not sound !!!


please help me out!

Cheers!

This could be read as homework. Also, some of this (especially mounting) was covered in your thread several months ago (same title).

Please tell us the context of this and try to ask some more specific questions.

eg:
crucial commands to do what?

First of all, some advice: given that this forum is called Linux Questions, the title "Linux questions" for any post other than one concerning the functioning of this forum could be considered sub-optimal. Even if it wasn't on your first posts, you've worn it out now so please don't do it in future.

Secondly, I'm going to assume that you have understood any answers to your previous thread. If not, you should have asked more directed questions at the time of that thread. But, if it is still the case that you haven't understood, please try to explain something about what you haven't understood.

Most commands are crucial in some circumstance or another, otherwise there wouldn't be a need for them and there aren't many commands that have been added just for grins. Having said that, a trivial bit of googling turns up
http://www.perpetualpc.net/srtd_commands_rev.html
http://www.informit.com/library/cont...ux7&seqNum=283
http://web2linux.blogspot.com/2007/0...-commands.html
and
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/linux/cmd/
although I would suggest that if you only know one linux command it should be apropos (or man -k) as from there you can get anywhere (with a bit of work).

I have no good answer for this; networking is one of the things that is more variable from distro to distro (and I have no experience with yours, or with Fedora/Redhat which are presumably the same). But for people who might be able to give you information you might want to say something about the networking that you are trying to set up (wired/wireless, nameserving, caching, internet, firewalling....and more).

Or maybe you don't know what you want, because this is a homework question.

I have OpenSuSE installed on my laptop and there is no sound. Someday I'll get bothered enough about it to think about debugging the situation. Until then its nicely quiet.

I agree with the assumptions that this sounds very much like homework. And, part of it is covered in another question you asked before. Also, your question is very vague:

1. What do you mean by "networking services"? That covers everything from printing to running an Apache server, sendmail to instant messaging, to port scanning. What are you asking about?
2. What do you consider 'crucial'? Asking about user commands, systems administration? Setup? What????
3. You may have CentOS 5 installed and have no sound...but unless you say something about what error(s) you're getting, and what kind of hardware you have, how do you expect anyone to help you?

man is a crucial command you should know.. and apropos

man man
and
man apropos

for more information