Linux Configuration and Installation:Installing Linux

-->

Booting the System

After Linux has been installed, go ahead and reboot. If you’ve installed LILO, you’ll see it appear after the PC runs through its BIOS check. As Linux boots, you’ll see a long Linux-related diagnostic, as Linux checks the system and makes sure everything is where it’s supposed to be. For the most part, you can ignore any errors messages you see here (such as a proclamation that the name of the machine darkstar does not appear to be supported). After all the diagnostics, you’ll finally be presented with a command prompt:


     Welcome to Linux 2.0.29.

     darkstar login:

NOTE: If you installed networking capabilities when you installed Slackware96, you were asked the name of your machine. This name should appear in the place of darkstar.

Because there are no users on the system, you’ll login as the root user, so go ahead and type in root as the login. There will be no prompting for a password.

NOTE: The root user is the supreme being on a UNIX system. Most of the traditional security tools within the UNIX operating system don’t apply to the root user—when logged in as root, you can do just about anything. It’s generally not a good idea to use the UNIX system as the root user, however; the proscribed practice is to set up your own account and then save the root login only for those times when you’re performing system administration.

After you’re logged in, you’ll see the following command prompt:


     darkstar:~#

A command prompt is where you enter commands into the UNIX system. Your first commands will be to change your machine name and to set up a user account for yourself.

Adding Users

Your first action as the Linux supreme being is to set up an account for your daily usage. To do this, type the following at the command prompt:


     darkstar:~# adduser

     Login name for new user (8 characters or less) []: kevinr

The adduser command does exactly what it says: adds a new user to the system. In the previous example, the user kevinr has been added to the system. After specifying the username, you’ll be asked additional information about the preferences of that user. Unless you’re familiar with Linux, you’ll want to stick with the defaults for now. (The defaults will be listed in brackets. Wherever there’s a default, you can go ahead and hit the Enter key instead of typing in the default selection. In our example, we’ll type in the defaults.) The entire sequence will look something like this:


     User id for kevinr [defaults to next avaliable]:

     Initial group for kevinr [users]: users

     Additional groups for kevinr []:

     kevinr’s home directory [/home/kevinr]: /home/kevinr



     kevinr’s shell [/bin/bash]: /bin/bash

     kevnir’s account expiry date (MM/DD/YY) []:

     OK, I’m about to make a new account. Here’s what you entered so far.



     New login name: kevinr

     New UID: [Next available]

     Initial group: users

     Additional groups: [none]

     Home directory: /home/kevinr

     Shell: bin/bash

     Expiry date: [no expiration]

     This is it...if you want to bail out, hit Control-C. Otherwise,

     press ENTER and go ahead and make the new account.



     Making new account:



     Changing the user information for kevinr

     Enter the new value, or press return for the default



          Full Name []: Kevin Reichard

          Room Number []:

          Work Phone []:

          Home Phone []:

          Other []:



     Changing password for kevinr

     Enter the new password (minimum of 5, maximum of 8 characters)

     Please use a combination of upper and lower case letters and numbers.

     New password: <new password1>

     Re-enter new password: <new password1>

     Password changed.

     Done...

If you’re not planning on using Linux for anything but a single-user operating system, you don’t need to worry about things like group ID and UID (which is short for user ID). And even if you do plan on using Linux on a network, you can change these parameters later.

Additionally, you probably noticed that the name darkstar appears as the name of your machine. You probably don’t want to leave this as the name of your machine, so you should change it right off the bat. This name is contained in the file /etc/HOSTNAME, and the default is darkstar.frop.org. To change it, you’ll use a text editor (in the example, we’ll use vi) and edit this file. To load the vi text editor and the /etc/HOSTNAME file, use the following command line:


     darkstar:~# vi /etc/HOSTNAME

You’ll see a screen like the one in Figure 2.4.

Figure 2.4 Editing the /etc/HOSTNAME file.

NOTE: You may have to make further changes if you’re on a TCP/IP network. For now, you can change the name to anything you’d like.

You’ll want to edit this file, changing darkstar.frop.org to whatever you’d like. If you’ve never used the vi or elvis text editor, skip ahead to Chapter 4 for a short tutorial.

If your system is configured properly, you should have the following directories in your root directory:


     bin/     dev/   home/        mnt/     sbin/     var/

     boot/    dos/   lib/         proc/    tmp/

     cdrom/   etc/   lost+found/  root/    usr/

If you’ve installed Slackware from the CD-ROM, and then the system refuses to see the drive when you reboot, you’ll need to install a new kernel or add the support through loadable kernel modules.

Table of Contents