Few basic questions related to Linux answered here. This FAQ is inspired by by David Merrill's work, with assistance and comments from Linux users all over the world. Over the years it has passed through several hands, and I'd like to recognize all the folks who have worked on it.
Special thanks are due to Matt Welsh, who moderated news:comp.os.linux.announce and news:comp.os.linux.answers, coordinated the HOWTO's and wrote substantial portions of many of them, Greg Hankins the former Linux Documentation Project HOWTO maintainer, Lars Wirzenius and Mikko Rauhala, the former and current moderators of news:comp.os.linux.announce, Marc-Michel Corsini, who wrote the original Linux FAQ, and Ian Jackson, the previous FAQ maintainer. Thanks also to Roman Maurer for his many updates and additions, especially with European Web sites, translations, and general miscellany.
Last but not least, thanks to Linus Torvalds and the other contributors to Linux for giving us something to talk about!
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FAQs -
What is Linux ?
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The Sun Microsystems Java runtime environments and developer's kits are at http://java.sun.com You can also get the source code, which is licensed by Sun Microsystems. |
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What is Linux ?
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If you are new to Linux, you should start by buying or downloading a general-purpose Linux distribution. A distribution is a complete operating system, including the Linux kernel and all the utilities and software you are likely to need, ready to install and use. Most distributions include thousands of software packages, including user-friendly desktops, office suites, and games. There are a handful of major Linux distributions, and as a beginner you are probably safer using one of them. For information about them, and how they are installed, see the Distributions-HOWTO from the Linux Documentation Project. Also, a list of distributions is updated weekly at http://lwn.net. Before you select which distribution you want to try, read their descriptions carefully and compare them to your needs. Each distribution is tailored to a particular type of user. Some are optimized to function as servers, some are optimized for gaming, and some are optimized for desktop and office use. There are a few distributions which are considered to be outstanding choices for new users: * Red Hat is particularly good for servers * Mandrake is excellent as a desktop system * SuSE is also excellent as a desktop system There are also a large number of releases which are distributed less globally that suit special local and national needs. Many of them are archived at ftp://ftp.tux.org. |
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Linux needs about 10Mb for a very minimal installation, suitable for trying Linux, and not much else. You can fit a typical server installation, including the X Window System GUI, into 80Mb. Installing a small Debian GNU/Linux workstation takes from 500Mb to 1GB, including kernel source code, some space for user files, and spool areas. Installing a commercial distribution that has a desktop GUI environment, commercial word processor, and front-office productivity suite, will claim 15.1 GB of disk space, approximately. A fully installed Debian GNU/Linux system could use several Gigabytes of disk space.
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Linux needs at least 4MB, and then you will need to use special installation procedures until the disk swap space is installed. Linux will run comfortably in 4MB of RAM, although running GUI apps is impractically slow because they need to swap out to disk. Some applications, like StarOffice, require 32 MB of physical memory, and compiling C++ code can easily consume over 100 MB of combined physical and virtual memory. There is a distribution, "Small Linux", that will run on machines with 2MB of RAM. Refer to the answer to: Where Are the Linux FTP Archives?. |
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Most of the distributions are free of cost and can be downloaded from net. If you have difficulties in downloding or getting any Linux disto, you can contact LUG-Indore's Linux Distribution center. Please see contact us page for more details. If you can, please dig into your wallet and buy a copy of your distribution. Linux distributions are extremely inexpensive - usually around $30 for a complete system, and anywhere from $70 to around $150 for a larger system with more server software or development tools. Even the $30 "basic" systems contain the equivalent of thousands of dollars in proprietary tools, and are an incredible value. The distributors invest many of your money into further development, and most of them fund outside open source projects. Commercial distributions are available from book and electronics stores, or you can order from their websites. If you use Debian GNU/Linux, which is a volunteer project and a non-profit, you can donate directly to them instead. |
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Once you obtain a distribution, it will contain instructions on installation. Each distribution has its own installation program. A: There is a very thorough installation guide on line at http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/~matloff/linux.html Some distributions (e.g., Debian GNU/Linux) can be installed via anonymous FTP from various Linux archive sites, but unless you have cable, DSL, or some other broadband Internet access, the size of the distribution makes this impractical. |
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The most recent Linux kernels support software RAID, and they will work with RAID disk controllers. An automounter for NFS partitions is part of most Linux distributions. In addition, several virtual file system projects exist. One of them, the Linux Logical Volume Manager, is located at http://linux.msede.com/lvm/. |
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Yes. Linux supports many, many filesystems, including the standard MS-DOS partitioning scheme, so it can share your disk with other operating systems. Linux supports all known versions of the Microsoft FAT and VFAT file systems, including those used by Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and Windows ME through loadable kernel modules. In a correctly configured system, they should load automatically when the partitions are mounted. Note, however, that many other operating systems may not be exactly compatible. DOS's FDISK.EXE and FORMAT.EXE, for example, can overwrite data in a Linux partition, because they sometimes incorrectly use partition data from the partition's boot sector rather than the partition table. |
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GNU parted, a partition editor, is stable enough for non-guru, mere-mortal use with relative confidence. Source code for the latest version is at: ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/parted/. There's also a boot disk image for resizing root partitions and for running parted on non-Linux machines. The disk image may be easier for beginners. Building from source could require some extra configuration. Parted also has tutorial-style, plain-text documentation for Linux and FAT (MS-DOS) file systems. You can use Grafical version of it, QtParted. |
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In addition to a swap partition, Linux can also use a swap file. Some programs, like g++, can use huge amounts of virtual memory, requiring the temporary creation of extra space. To install an extra 64 MB of swap space, for example, use the following shell commands: # dd if=/dev/zero of=/swap bs=1024 count=65535 # mkswap /swap # swapon /swap The count= argument to dd determines how big the swap file will be. In this example the swap file's name is /swap, but the name and location are, generally, arbitrary, depending only on the file system's available space and your having write permissions in the directory. When you don't need the swap space any more, remove it with the following statements: # swapoff /swap # rm /swap Take a look also at the Installation HOWTO and Installation & Getting Started for detailed instructions. If that still doesn't provide enough swap space, refer to How To Have More Than 128Mb of Swap. |
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What is Linux ?
