Unit 1- Introduction to Linux

Linux is one of popular version of UNIX operating System. It is

open source as its source code is freely available. It is free to
use. Linux was designed considering UNIX compatibility. Its
functionality list is quite similar to that of UNIX.

Origins of Linux:
The Unix operating system was conceived and implemented in
the 1960s and first released in 1970. Its availability and
portability caused it to be widely adopted, copied and modified
by academic institutions and businesses. But Unix itself was far
more expensive. In quest of big money, the Unix vendors priced
it high enough to ensure small PC users stayed away from it. 
A solution seemed to appear in form of MINIX. It was written
from scratch by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, a US-born Dutch
professor who wanted to teach his students the inner workings of
a real operating system. It was designed to run on the Intel 8086
microprocessors that had flooded the world market. As an
operating system, MINIX was not a superb one. But it had the
advantage that the source code was available. MINIX was good,
but still it was simply an operating system for the students,
designed as a teaching tool rather than an industry strength one.
And later MINIX had to be licensed.(Later, in April 2000,
Tanenbaum released Minix under the BSD License.)
  GNU
In 1983, Richard Stallman started the GNU project with the goal
of creating a free UNIX-like operating system. As part of this
work, he wrote the GNU General Public License (GPL). By the
early 1990s there was almost enough available software to
create a full operating system. However, the GNU kernel, called
Hurd, failed to attract enough attention from developers leaving
GNU incomplete.
On October 5, 1991, Linus announced the first “official” version
of Linux, version 0.02. At this point, Linus was able to
run bash (the GNU Bourne Again Shell) and gcc (the GNU C
compiler), but not much else was working. Again, this was
intended as a hacker’s system. The primary focus was kernel
development; none of the issues of user support, documentation,
distribution, and so on had even been addressed. Today, the
situation is quite different—the real excitement in the Linux
world deals with graphical user environments, easy-to-install
distribution packages, and high-level applications such as
graphics utilities and productivity suites.

Components of Linux System

Linux Operating System has primarily three components
 Kernel − Kernel is the core part of Linux. It is responsible for all
major activities of this operating system. It consists of various
modules and it interacts directly with the underlying hardware. Kernel
provides the required abstraction to hide low level hardware details to
system or application programs.
  System Library − System libraries are special functions or programs
using which application programs or system utilities accesses Kernel's
features. These libraries implement most of the functionalities of the
operating system and do not requires kernel module's code access
rights.

 System Utility − System Utility programs are responsible to do

specialized, individual level tasks.

Kernel Mode vs User Mode

Kernel component code executes in a special privileged mode
called kernel mode with full access to all resources of the computer. This
code represents a single process, executes in single address space and do
not require any context switch and hence is very efficient and fast. Kernel
runs each processes and provides system services to processes, provides
protected access to hardware to processes.
Support code which is not required to run in kernel mode is in System
Library. User programs and other system programs works in User
Mode which has no access to system hardware and kernel code. User
programs/ utilities use System libraries to access Kernel functions to get
system's low level tasks.
Basic Features
Following are some of the important features of Linux Operating
System.
 Portable − Portability means software can works on different types of
hardware in same way. Linux kernel and application programs
supports their installation on any kind of hardware platform.

 Open Source − Linux source code is freely available and it is

community based development project. Multiple teams work in
collaboration to enhance the capability of Linux operating system and
it is continuously evolving.

 Multi-User − Linux is a multiuser system means multiple users can

access system resources like memory/ ram/ application programs at
same time.

 Multiprogramming − Linux is a multiprogramming system means

multiple applications can run at same time.

 Hierarchical File System − Linux provides a standard file structure

in which system files/ user files are arranged.

 Shell − Linux provides a special interpreter program which can be

used to execute commands of the operating system. It can be used to
do various types of operations, call application programs. etc.

 Security − Linux provides user security using authentication features

like password protection/ controlled access to specific files/ encryption
of data.

Architecture
The following illustration shows the architecture of a Linux
system −
 The architecture of a Linux System consists of the
following layers −
 Hardware layer − Hardware consists of all peripheral devices (RAM/
HDD/ CPU etc).

 Kernel − It is the core component of Operating System, interacts

directly with hardware, provides low level services to upper layer
components.

 Shell − An interface to kernel, hiding complexity of kernel's functions

from users. The shell takes commands from the user and executes
kernel's functions.

 Utilities − Utility programs that provide the user most of the

functionalities of an operating systems.

Applications of Linux Operating System

 Dell Inspiron Mini 9 and 12
 Garmin Nuvi 860, 880, and 5000
 Google Android Dev Phone 1
 HP Mini 1000
 Lenovo IdeaPad S9
 Motorola MotoRokr EM35 Phone
 One Laptop Per Child XO2
 Sony Bravia Television
 Sony Reader
 TiVo Digital Video Recorder
 Volvo In-Car Navigation System
 Yamaha Motif Keyboard

 Duties Of The System Administrator :

Linux System Administrator is a person who has ‘root’ access that is
‘superuser’. It means he has privilege to access everything which includes all
user accounts, all system configurations, home directories with all files
therein, all files in system.

Linux System Administrator has following duties  (Write any five)

 Installing and configuring server

1. A server is basically a computer program that facilitate the same
computer or other computer by providing services to them.
2. It is most important element of Modern OS and network design.
3. It is of system administrator to configure server so that the
most essential server remain inaccessible. He must be aware of
types of attack and security bugs.
 Installing and configuring application software
1. In order to ensure a correct execution environment,
administrator must provide software which is well configured
and validate.
2. He should ensure adequate memory allotment and resolve
software failure and dependency issues.
 3. He must provide a set of activities to control hardware and
software configuration and maintain policies for users.
 Creating and maintaining user accounts
1. User can access his own account but administrator has access to
every user account.
2. He can add, modify, delete or copy user account.
3. He is responsible for maintaining security by providing role on a
user account that define the level of access.
 Backing up and restoring files
1. To minimize the loss of data, administrator must maintain
backup of files nd he should restore it whenever required.
2. Administrator can take backup in removable media such as hard
drives or tapes as protection against loss.
3. Before creating backup administrator must decide.
1. What are necessary to backup?
2. How frequently backup should perform.

 Monitoring and tuning performance

1. Monitoring and tuning of performance is essential for Linux to
work more efficiently.
2. Administrator must identify system bottleneck and should solve
them.
3. Administrator can use system tools to increase performance, he
can determine when hardware need to be upgrade.
4. He should identify early sign of failure .
 Configuring a secure system
1. It is a duty of administrator to involve tasks and decisions to run
secure Linux system and maintaining data integrity.
2. It provide strong protection to individuals and corporate bodies
and protecting parts of system even if it is under attack.
3. Administrator should ensure
1. System has firewall.
2. Not allow connection from unknown network.
3. Not install software if not needed.
 Using tools to monitor security
1. Linux is the preferred operating system who demands secure
networks, buy it can be easily crack by hackers.
2. It is important for administrator to be aware of tools hackers
use and software used to monitor and counter such activity.
3. It is duty of administrator to prevent unauthorized use of his
system.