Linux System Configuration

and Administration
Organization of the Talk
 Installation of Linux
 System Configuration
 Network configuration
 Sharing with Windows
 Printer Configuration
 Some security configuration
 Administrations
 User Management
 User home pages
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Organization of Talk
 System maintenance
 Using package manager

 Cost Effective Linux solutions

 Network Booting
 Single media Linux

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Where do you start

Is Your Hardware Compatible?
 http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/
 Do You Have Enough Disk Space?
 You have to decide, remove any virus if
required, use fips
 Can You Install Using the CD-ROM?
 Your BIOS may need to be changed to boot
from your CD-ROM
 Alternative Boot Methods
 Boot Diskette
 Driver Diskettes
 Network Device Drivers Diskette

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Gather more info
 Use ‘other’ OS to
know more
 Personal Desktop
Installations
 Learning About
Your Hardware
with Windows

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 The auspicious occasion
 The Graphical Installation
Program User Interface
(text mode is also
available)
 Choose the language,
keyboard and mouse

 Choose upgrade or new

installation
 Better to choose fresh
installation

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 Installation of Linux…
• Choose personal desktop
installation
For the first, but next time you bet on
Custom
• After all Linux is knowing more

Choose partition using disk druid

Otherwise fdisk, in older

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Installation of Linux…
• Configure the partition:
• Set the mount point
• Set the SWAP size
• Set the /boot space
• Enable Ext3 formatting

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 Installation of Linux…
Choose the boot loader Grub
or Lilo

• Configure the “Network

Configuration”
• DHCP, Firewall, IP address etc..

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 Installation of Linux…
Choose the “Root password”

Accept the default package

selection or customize using the
“Customize option”

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Installation of Linux…

Installation starts and go onBEIT

inserting the required CD when asked
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 Post Installation

Create a boot diskette

Configure your video card,

monitor and screen resolution

Reboot and start your Linux….!

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System Configuration
 Kickstart Configurator
 Kickstart Configurator allows you to create a
kickstart file using a graphical user interface, so
that you do not have to remember the correct
syntax of the file.
 To use Kickstart Configurator, you must be
running the X Window System. To start Kickstart
Configurator, select the Main Menu Button (on
the Panel) => System Tools => Kickstart, or
type the command /usr/sbin/redhat-config-
kickstart.
 As you are creating a kickstart file, you can select
File => Preview at any time to review your
current selections.

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System Configuration…
 Network configuration
• Networking can always
be configured after
installation with the
Network
Administration Tool
(redhat-config-network).

• For each Ethernet card

on the system, click
Add Network Device
and select the network
device and network type
of the device. Select
eth0 as the network
device for the first
Ethernet card, select
eth1 for the second
Ethernet card, and so
on.
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 Printer Configuration
 Menu=> Printing=> New Printer => choose the printer
and printing tool (e.g. Post script printer)
 Testing printer
 Just do lpq to see printer status
 Lpr <filename>
 Should print the file

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 Printer Configuration
 Useful Websites
 http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/p/printer.html
General denitions of printers and descriptions of
printer types.
 http://www.linuxprinting.org A database of documents
about printing, along with a database of
 nearly 1000 printers compatible with Linux printing
facilities.
 http://www.cups.org/ Documentation, FAQs, and
newsgroups about CUPS.
 http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Printing-HOWTO/
index.html The Linux Printing-HOWTO from the Linux
Documentation Project.

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 User Security
Authentication
In the Authentication section, select
whether to use shadow passwords and MD5
encryption for user passwords.

The Authentication Configuration options

allow you to configure the following methods of
authentication:
NIS, LDAP, Kerberos 5, Hesiod, SMB, Name
Switch Cache

These methods are not enabled by default. To

enable one or more of these methods,
click the appropriate tab, click the checkbox next
to Enable, and enter the
appropriate information for the authentication
method.

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 Network Security
 Firewalls
 Choose between
High, Medium,
and Disabled
security levels.

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 Network Security
 Common Access control system
 /etc/hosts
 /etc/hosts.allow
 /etc/hosts.deny
 /etc/hosts.equiv

 For more info refer docs on iptable,

firewall

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Sharing With Windows
 SMB protocol to share files and printers
across a network connection. Operating
systems that support this protocol include
Microsoft Windows (through its Network
Neighborhood), OS/2, and Linux.
 SMB implementation in Linux is called samba
 There are two things one can do
 Shareyour files/printer with other windows
machine
 Access windows shared printer/files on linux

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Allow Windows to share
 You need to start samba server and nmb
server
 /etc/rc.d/init.d/smb start
 What ever you want to share is added in
/etc/samba/smb.conf
 Every change in conf file require restarting of
server
 Just browse OR find computer from windows
to see these files/folders
 You can share folders, CD, printer

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To access windows share
 Smbclient is a samba client
 Smbclient –L myhost to see all share
 Smbclient \\\\myhost\\myshare
 This will login to share and you can access the share
 \\\\myhost\\printer can be written to print files
 Smbmount can be used to mount (map)
folders on to local host
 Smbumount to unmount
 There are tools (GUI) for both sharing and
accessing files

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User Management

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User Management
 Simple way to add user is adduser
command
 Passwd will allow to change the passwd
 Ofcourse there are host of GUI tools for all
these user management
 Group all common user to single group
 Be carefull while editing /etc/passwd
 /etc/shadow passwd file may also exist
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User Management
 Common files to look at
 /etc/passwd
 /etc/group
 /etc/shadow
 /etc/samba/smbusers

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User Management
 Common files to look at
 /etc/passwd
 /etc/group
 /etc/shadow
 /etc/samba/smbusers

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Web server on Linux
 Apache server is mostly available on Linux
 Rpm –q –all | grep apache to check
 This can be started via init services
 /etc/rc.d/init.d/httpd start
 Configuration files are at /etc/httpd/conf/
 Normally log files at /var/log/httpd

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User home pages
 Will allow user to have home pages
 http://myhost.com/~user1
 Need to edit /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf
 Enable UserDir public_html
 Any user can have their page at public_html
 Eg. /home/user1/public_html for user1
 /home/user2/public_html for user2

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System maintenance
Using package manager
 Package Management Tool
 Because people use their
computers differently, users might
want to install or remove packages
after installation. The Package
Management Tool allows users to
perform these actions.
 RPM is good package
management tool in RedHat
Linux

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System maintenance (redhat)
 The X Window System is
required to run the
Package Management
Tool.
 To start the application, go
to the Main Menu Button
(on the Panel) => System
Settings =>
Add/Remove
Applications,
 Type the command
redhat-config-packages at
shell prompt.
 Command line tool rpm

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Lost Root Passwd

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Lost Root Passwd
 If you have Lilo installed, type
 LILI:
linux init 1
 Change the root passwd, reboot aga
 If you have installed grub
 Type ‘e’ to go to edit mode, add init 1 argument at
the end
 Boot with knoppix or single floppy linux
 Mountthe disk and change root passwd
 Reboot !!

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Cost Effective Linux Solutions
 You have PC, with less harddisk for dual OS
 You have PC, on which you do not want to
install Linux
 Good heaven's do not do that
 There is a spurt of Linux PC requirements for
short duration of time
 ForLinux LAB in one term OR during LAB
examinations
 You have old PC, with out sizable hard disk
So you need Linux host for all the above case

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Cost Effective Linux Solution

 Some most easy approach

 Network booting
 Single CD Linux
 Single floppy Linux

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Network Booting
 No need for harddisk(or harddisk with
Linux) on every host
 High level work flow
 The system boots up, may be with floppy
(could be with hard disk also)
 Sends dhcp request for IP number, gets one
 Mounts the root file system over NFS

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 Requirements for Network
Booting
 Setup an LAN infrastructure
 Need to setup nfs server
 Need to setup dhcp server
 Build a kernel image for network booting

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 Setup an LAN infrastructure

Ethernet Hub Ethernet

Cable Cable

Your m/c to be booted NFS server

Your host, NFS server and DHCP server should be on

same LAN

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 Setup nfs server
• Edit /etc/exports file before starting the nfs server.
• / 10.114.7.115(rw,no_root_squash)
• This will export all files with root r/w to host
10.114.7.115
• Save your exports file and from the prompt
execute exportfs command
• Start the nfs server (nfs daemon)
• E.g. /etc/rc.d/inid.d/nfs start

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 Setup dhcp server
 Add in your /etc/dhcpd.conf before starting the dhcp server.

 Set the correct MAC address in /etc/dhcpd.conf as follows:

subnet <subnet address e.g.10.3.31.0> netmask 255.255.255.0 {

}
subnet 10.10.10.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 {
host master {
hardware Ethernet <Mac address of your Ethernet card>;
fixed-address <IP address of your machine e.g.10.10.10.1>;
option root-path <your root path>”;
}
}
 Save your /etc/dhcpd.conf file
 start the dhcpd dameon by “/etc/rc.d/init.d/dhcpd start” command

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 Build a kernel image for
network booting
 Linux Kernel compilation steps:
 Assumptions: machine x86 (i386); boot loader lilo.
 Get plain vanilla kernel from www.kernel.org
 Explode it into a directory (better if can do it in /usr/src/) => tar -zxvf
linux-2.x.xx.tar.gz
 Optional: create a symbolic link ln -s linux-2.x.xx linux
 cd to linux directory
 cd /usr/src/linux or cd /usr/src/linux-2.x.xx
 Select the components support by make menuconfig or make xconfig -
save the configuration
 Select IP:BOOTP support from Networking options
 In File system -> Network File System -> Select
 NFS File system support and
 Root file system on NFS
 Do
 Make dep bzImage
 Make modules modules_install

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 Build a kernel image for
network booting…
 Copy the
/usr/src/linux/arch/i386/boot/bzImage
to /boot
 Do mkbootdisk with new kernel as
argument
 Optional take a coffee or tea break ?

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Putting all together..
 Make sure you are running dhcp
server
 Make sure you are running nfs
server
 On any PC that need Linux for
temporary time
Boot with new floopy you just made
That’s it !!!

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Knoppix Single CD Linux
 Knoppix is full Linux on a single CD
 Can be freely downloaded from
www.knoppix.com
 Just make your PC to boot from
CD, that is all required
 Your current software (OS) on your
system will not be lost
 Ifthere is less memory, you can
create temporary swap on dos
partation
 You can access dos partation
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Knoppix more info
 Hardware Requirements
 Minimum of 486 PC, 20M ram for text mode, 90M
for graphics mode and128M for office suite
 Bootable CD drive + key board, mouse, multimedia
 Software available
 2.4 kernel, standard drivers, development tools,
Internet applications, multimedia applications
 Upto 2GB worth software in total
 How to load/install start
 Step 1 put the 'cd' in drive, switch on the power
 All the configuration is “auto”
 Step 2 Enjoy working on Linux
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Knoppix can be handy

 The fact is you need not install Knoppix on

harddisk
 So can be used in Demo of linux or software on
Linux
 So you need extra Linux machine lab ?? 2 minutes
!!
 No extra space on harddisk on old PC's, just use
knoppix
 Got a new laptop, just boot Linux on that in a jiffy
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Knoppix in Emergency

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Knoppix at emergency
 Lost root passwd, boot knoppix, mount the
harddisk, edit /mnt/etc/passwd, reboot old linux
 Can be dangerous, spurious user can do the same
 Linux do not boot, boot with knoppix and
recover the important files
 Bestpart is you also recover lost dos/windows files
as well
 You have screwed up your configuration
 Boot with knoppix and bring back to default

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Single Floppy Linux

 Similar to Knoppix, but over a floppy

 Will
have much lesser applications
 Some distributions come with two or more floppy
 MuLinux quite esay to use
 http://mulinux.nevalabs.org/
 Coyote linux: mostly for network applications
 http://www.coyotelinux.com/

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References
 http://www.tldp.org/ (The Linux Documentation Project) : It contains a lots and lots
of well documented and timely documents to learn and trouble shoot your Linux
system (it’s free)
 http://www.tldp.org/guides.html
 The Linux System Administrators' Guide
 Lars Wirzenius, Joanna Oja, Stephen Stafford, and Alex Weeks
 It’s free and available at http://www.tldp.org/guides.html
 The Linux Cookbook: Tips and Techniques for Everyday Use
 Michael Stutz
 It’s free and available at http://www.tldp.org/guides.html
 The Linux Network Administrator's Guide, Second Edition
 Olaf Kirch and Terry Dawson
 It’s free and available at http://www.tldp.org/guides.html
 http://www.redhat.com/docs/

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Thanks

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