TASK4: Installation of Linux operating system On already Windows XP

loaded system.

Operating system is one, which helps to have an interaction between user and
hardware of the computer.

Dual Booting: Installing more than one operating system in a computer is called
dual or multi operating system. Loading all related operating system files from both
the operating systems into the system main memory according to the user
selection is called “Dual booting”.

Linux is open source operating system software. It is designed by Linus Torvalds a

student of Helsinki University, Finland. User can change the Operating system
according to his requirement.

Drive naming specification in Linux:

Primary master - /dev/hda

Primary slave - /dev/hdb

Secondary master - /dev/hdc

Secondary slave - /dev/hdd

This is meant for IDE based hard disks. Various partitions in these will be specified
as below:

Primary partitions - /dev/hda1, /dev/hda2, /dev/hda3, /dev/hda4 (Numbers 1-4)

Extended partitions - /dev/hda5, /dev/hda6 etc (Number 5 onwards)

Floppy disk drive A - /dev/fd0

Floppy disk drive B - /dev/fd1

File systems used in Linux:

Minix: It is the first method of file system used in Linux. It is preferable for boot
and rescue disks.

EXT2:It is introduced in 1993.It is designed to make easier for new features to be

added so that it can constantly evolve into a better file system. It handles up to
4TB size and supports long file naming (1012 characters).
EXT3: It is introduced in REDHAT Linux 7.2 version. It has very good compatibility
feature with ext2 .The backward compatibility enables to run kernels that are only
EXT2 aware with EXT3 partitions.

Mounting: is deciding which part of the Linux directory tree should be located on
each partition.

Mount Point: It refers to the directory you associate with a disk partition.

Swap Partition: When the OS runs out of physical memory (RAM), it can move or
swap the contents of currently unneeded parts of RAM to make room for a program
that needs more memory. This SWAP memory is called virtual memory. This
process of swapping data back and forth between the RAM and the disk is also
known as “Paging”.

Boot Loader: It is a program that resides on our hard disk and starts REDHAT
Linux from the hard disk. Boot loader will be in one of below two locations.

• MBR (Master Boot Record) It is the first sector of the hard disk.
• First sector of partition where you have loaded Linux.
There are two types of Boot loader programs in general in Linux:

• LILO (Linux Loader): This type of Boot loader program is used before
the RHL 7.2 version.
• GRUB (Grand Unified Boot Loader): This is used from the 7.2 version.
It will write in the MBR.

The below steps gives the installation of Linux OS process where the XP
is already loaded:

1. Switch on the system and check the working condition and prerequisites to
load the Linux operating system.
2. Press Del/F12 button to go to CMOS/BIOS setup
a. Check Date and time
b. Check all the storage devices are detected or not
c. Check the booting priority ( First priority should be given to CDROM)
d. Save all the settings and come out of CMOS setup
3. Insert the operating system CD and Press Enter key when it is prompted to
start the system with Redhat Linux installation.
4. Follow the steps
5. In the disk partitions screen select manual partitioning option, it shows the
existing partitions, If we want to continue with the existing partitions just
select the partition to install the OS else we can create our own partitions by
deleting all the existing partitions except the XP partitions.( Note: Be care full
while deleting the partitions because the existing data will be lost).
6. After making proper free space, create minimum two partitions Like
Swap(give double the RAM size) and root(/) partition which is required for
Linux installation. Select file system as EXT3 for the root partition.
7. Follow the steps (Just say next).
8. The setup will format the partition and copies all the OS files from CD to the
selected partition on the hard disk.
9. Just follow the steps accordingly to finish the installation like Date/time,
Language, Country, System name, Company details and finally user names
details.
10. The setup program automatically installs all the devices in our system.
After completing installation it will restart, you remove the OS CD from
CDROM drive

This is the procedure applicable to install any Linux version operating systems.
TASK5: Working on Windows XP and Linux Operating systems

To work with windows XP or with Linux, We must know the basic

administration of them.

Working on Windows XP:

1. To copy files from CD to hard disk: To copy the files from CD, we should
place the CD and click on CD drive in my computer to see the files, select the
required files using ‘copy’ option. Then coming back to the place where they
are to be stored and fixing them using ‘paste’ option.
2. Adding new software to the operating system: It is necessary to have some
software to keep your system updated. The certain software usually added
like application software, programming languages, productivity tools like MS
Office etc. We can install new software by getting into the control panel, Go
to ‘Add/Remove Programs’.
3. Disk Management: After opening my computer, select manage. It displays
features about computer management. Sequentially we can have
defragmenter, disk management.

Basic Administration of Linux:

Basically Four categories of files can be seen any operating system. They are:

• Shareable files, these files can be accessed by other systems or hosts.

• Un-shareable files, these files can be accessed only by local hosts.

• Variable files, these files can be changed by their own without the user
interaction for example system log files.

• Static Files, These files contain information that does not change unless a
user changes it. For example documentation files and binary files

In windows in general we have different root drives for every partition like C,
D, and E etc. In Linux root (/) directory is the only root partition to any file
created.
Linux standard Directories structure:

Linux is directory based operating system. Here we have 14 important

directories in Linux. Each directory indicates or uses for specific purpose.

1. /bin: It contains command files for use by the system administrator or

other users. In this directory there is no sub directory.

2. /boot: This directory contains the kernel (core of Linux) and also files
related to booting the system such as boot loader.

3. /dev: It contains files with information about devices.

4. /etc: In this directory we will have most of the system configuration files.

5. /home: It contains the directories of the users on the system.

6. /lib: The shared system files and kernel modules (Linux core modules)
contained in this directory.

7. /mnt or /mount: This directory is the location of the mount point for
temporary file systems like floppy or CD.

8. /opt: This directory holds application software installed on the system.

9. /proc: It contains information about system processes.

10./root: This is the home directory of the root user.

11./sbin: This directory contains the system binary files used by the system
administrator in root user.

12./tmp: This directory contains temporary files used by the system.

13./usr: This directory is often mounted on its own partition. It contains

shareable read only files. Sub directories under this directory can be used
for applications.

14./var: Sub directories and files under this directory contains variable files
information such as system logs and print queues.

Some Important commands in Linux:

After starting Linux operating system based computer a graphical user screen
appears like this:

Login

User Name:

Password
 There are six terminal or command line interface modes and one graphical user
interface mode. To go to any terminal or command line interface mode select
ctrl+Alt+F1 to F6. To go to graphical user mode select Ctrl+Alt+F7. The username
and password should be provided to enter into Linux operating system.

1. pwd : This command displays the present working directory.

2. cd : This command is used to change the present working directory to the
specified directory.
Eg: #cd /home

3. clear: This command is used to clear the screen.

4. ls: This is to see the list of files we have in the present working directory.
5. ls –l: This is to see the list of files with the details.
6. man: It gives help or manual information about a command.
Eg: #man ls

7. cp: It is used to copy the files from one location to other location
Syntax: #cp <source path> <destination path>

8. Procedure to copy files from CD or Floppy: Insert the CD or Floppy

respectively into their drives.
• Check the mount point of respective drives in the system configuration file
/etc/fstab.
• Now go to the directory /mnt/cdrom for CD and /mnt/floppy for floppy.
• If we can’t see the files in the respective directory then we have to mount
the drives using the ‘mount’ command (#mount <device_name>)
• Now we can copy and work on the files in CD or floppy.
9. rm: This command is used to remove the files. The syntax is (#rm
<file_name>)
10.mv: This command is used to move or rename a file.(#mv <old_file>
<new_file>)
11.mkdir: This command is used to create a directory. (#mkdir ravi)
12.date: This command is used to see the date and time. (#date)
13.who: This command is used to see the users who are now working. (#who)
14.exit: This command is used to logout from the working user.
15.init 0: This command is used to shutdown the system. (#init 0)
16.init 6: This command is used to restart or reboot the system. (#init 6)
17.sync: This command is used to save or writes the unsaved information to the
disk, before rebooting or shutting down the system use this command(#sync)
18.cat: This command is used to read the contents of the file and to create a file in
UNIX.
a. To create file: #cat >> <file_name> Eg: cat >> itw and press enter and
type the information. After completed type ctrl+d to save the file.
b. To see the contents of the file: #cat <file_name> Eg: ‘#cat itw’ will
display the information we have in the file ‘itw’.
19.vi Editor: To work on files along with the ‘cat’ command we have vi command
editor in Linux. This is required to work very easily and efficiently on files.
• Procedure to create and edit a file using vi editor:
#vi <filename> (It will open the editor)

Press ‘I’ to start insert or edit mode. Now we can edit or add the
content to the file. After editing press ‘Esc’ button to come out of
insert mode. Now type ‘:wq’ to save the file and to quit from the editor
or type ‘:q!’ to quit from the editor without saving the file.

20. Commands for Changing the permissions of the file: We have three
commands to change the owner name, Group name and permissions related to
the users of that file.

a. Chown: This command is used to change the owner user name of a file.

Syntax: #chown <user_name> <file_name>

Eg: #chown sit ravi (The owner of the file ‘ravi’ will be
changed to user ‘sit’

b. Chgrp: This command is used to change the group user name of the file.

Syntax: #chgrp <user_name> <file_name>

Eg: #chgrp sit ravi (The group user name of the file ‘ravi’ will
be changed to user ‘sit’

c. Chmod: This command is used to change the permissions like read, write
and execute related to the users of the Linux system on a particular file.

File format details: d rwx rwx rwx

1 2 3
 1st set of rwx indicates the permissions of the user owner to read,
write and execute file.

2nd set of rwx indicates the permissions related to the group members
on the respective file.

3rd set of rwx indicates the permissions related to the other users of
the system.

We have some standard numbers for read, write and execute

permissions. Read-4,write-2,Execute-1.

Syntax: chmod <permissions> <filename>

Eg: chmod 741 ravi ( After giving this command the file owner
can do all the activities like read, write and execute(7 means 4(read)
+2(write)+1(execute). The group members can only read the file (4
means 4(read)+0+0). All the other users can only execute the file (1
means 0+0+1(execute)

21.Compiling a ‘C’ program in the Linux system: ‘cc’ command is used to

compile a ‘c’ program in Linux.

Syntax: #cc <prog_name> -o <output_filename>

Eg: #cc add.c –o add (-o <filename> is to create the output file>

#./add (Executing the output file to see the output)

These are some basic commands used in Linux.

TASK6: Basic Hardware Trouble shooting Concepts

All the problems related to the hardware parts (physically) are called
hardware problems.

Finding these hardware problems and rectifying them is called

troubleshooting.

Keyboard related problems:

If there is any problem in the keyboard detection

• Disconnect the keyboard

• Check all the pins and reconnect it to the port

• It maybe detected

• If not detected, restart the system after reconnecting.

• If it is detected, then the problem lies in the keyboard.

Problems related to mouse:

The same procedure is to be followed for the mouse. Initially the mouse must
be disconnected and the system should be restarted by connecting another mouse
to it. Before this step check the pins and reconnect. If it is not detected perform the
later task.

Power supply problems:

The power supply problems are mainly due to 3 reasons.

1. problems regarding SMPS

2. problems regarding AC power switch

3. Problems regarding the front panel connections.

If any power supply problems occur then the following steps can be followed.

 Check whether the AC power cable is properly connected or

not.
 Check the SMPS power cable is to be connected to the
motherboard properly or not.

 Check the power switch cable of the front panel connections

 If it is ok, then check with other SMPS.

Problems due to front panel connections:

Problems in front panel may be in—

LED

If the led is not glowing, then check the connections of the Led according to the pin
diagram and recheck (HDD, POWER).

RESET

If the problem is with reset switch then check the connection of the reset switch to
front panel.

SPEAKER

If the speaker is not working then recheck all the connections of the speaker,
according to the pin diagram in front panel.

Details of the beeps occurred in the POST (Power On Self Test) operation.

Single Beep it indicates that every thing is normal and post is success.

Two Beeps it indicates post or CMOS error. CMOS error is due to battery or
corruption of program.

One long Beep and one short beep it indicates motherboard problem.

One long beep and two short beeps Display related problem is indicated.

Three long beeps it indicates keyboard related error or problems.

Continuous long beeps  it indicates Ram is not working properly.

No beeps  It indicates the absence of power or presence of a Bad CPU

(processor)/motherboard.

Problems related to RAM:

If repeated continuous long beeps are produced with POST then the problem is
related to RAM connected in the RAM slot.

o Open the cabinet

o Disconnect the RAM and connect it again properly.
o If the problem persists put the RAM in another slot & check.
Processor Problems

If there are any problems with the processor, the system will not respond.

So check all the connections of processor and RAM.

Adding additional hard disk to the system

The steps to be followed are:-

• open the cabinet

• Add the additional hard disk to the IDE1, or IDE2. If the jumper is present
to the additional hard disk, remove it to make it a slave.
• Give the power connections from SMPS, connect the data cables properly.
• Now start the system and copy the files from requires partitions (drive) to
the first hard disk.
• Switch off.
• Open the cabinet and remove the earlier connections made to the
additional hard disk.

Adding additional cd-drive or cd writer

The steps to be followed are:-

1. firstly, open the cabinet

2. add the additional cd drive or cd-writer.
3. Connect the data cables and power connections from SMPS.
4. now start the system and copy the files from required drive to the first
cd/hard disk.
5. switch off.
6. open the cabinet and remove the earlier connections made to the cd
drive.
Adding additional hardware cards:

After getting the required card, connect it to the PCI or IO slots or external
slot.

Restart the system and if the software is needed, load the new software concerned
to it.
Making the CMOS setup values to the default settings

If you want to make the CMOS setup values to the default, or you have
forgotten, then remove the CMOS battery and connect it again. Then, this makes
the CMOS setup values to the default setting.

This procedure is not applicable for all motherboards.

Booting Problems:

If there is any system startup problem, go to CMOS setup Advanced setup

to check the booting priority.

Still if the problem is not solved; check the storage devices you have in the system.

Problems related to display:

1. Check whether the monitor power cables are properly connected or

not.
2. If it is ok, then check the monitor cable connected to CPU(15 pins)
3. if it is not solved, then the problem is with VGA card(Video Graphic
Adapter).
Spots and discoloration:

This is due to the magnetic field developed around the monitor.

Steps to avoid this are:-

1. Avoid turning of monitor

2. check the presence of magnet near the monitor
3. do these steps after checking the power cables.
4. if strong magnets are present, they may damage the monitor
permanently.
Noise by monitor

The usual buzzing or clicking sound occurs due to the voltage changes. This is ok.
But, if it makes much noise even when the refresh /resolutions are not changed,
hen the problem is with monitor.

Cd-drive related problems

1. Check the audio interface cable. if your replaced your cd-drive and it suddenly
will not play music or your PC was never able to play music, then this is the
problem. This cable runs between the cd-drive and either the motherboard or sound
card without it, you will have no audio running out of your cd-drive.

2. Check the speakers make sure the speakers are hooked up correctly and are
powered on.

3. make sure your computer has a sound card in it. With out this crucial device, you
will never be able to play music in the computer.

These are some problems generally occurs while using the computers.
TASK7: Basic Software Trouble shooting Concepts

Set of instructions can be called program. set of programs is called software

package. The problems related to the software are called as software problems.
Finding or identifying these problems and rectifying them is called software trouble
shooting.

Software can be divided into

1. Operating system software: E.g.: Windows Xp, Linux.

2. Programming language software : E.g: c, c++, java,
Visual Basic, Visual c++
3. Application software E.g: Ms.office.
4. tools E.g: Audio Player software
Problems in the installation of operating system.:

When you get “file cannot be read” error in the middle of installation of any
software, the system will ask you to retry the installation with other good CD or you
can skip the respective file. The installation continues automatically. No need to
start from the beginning.

Adding the required software to your system after installing the operating
system.

Suppose, if you want to load ms office, follow the following procedure.

Installing MS Office

1. Insert the ms office CD in the CDROM.

2. Open CD drive in the my computer
3. Check for installation of the executable file (the name may be
generally setup.exe or install.exe)
4. Enter the product key when asked. E.g: GWH28-DGCMP-P6RC4-
6J4MT-3HFDY
5. Provide the information like username, organization details and
click next>>
6. Accept the license agreement and click Next>>
7. Select the type of installation among below
1. typical installation(recommended)
2. complete installation
3. minimal installation
 4. custom installation
8. Select the drive and folder to install the software.
9. Continue the installation
10. After installation we can get below message.
“Microsoft installation is successfully completed”
Removing the software

To remove particular software the following steps should be followed.

1. Go to control panel

2. Click on Add/Remove programs

3. Click on remove the required file or software.

Repairing the Windows Xp operating System:-

Sometimes windows Xp operating system could not be accessed due to

corruption of files or missing files. This may happen even due to the virus. At such
times there is no need to install windows again in the system. The whole operating
system can be repaired. At the time of reinstallation select the option Repair
instead of install. The missing files or the corrupted files are automatically copied
and the remaining operating system programs are left unaffected or reinstalled.

Reinstalling the operating system without loosing the existing data in the
system.

For instance, in the existing system you have 3 partitions namely C,D,E and
if you have any problem with the existing operating system and you want to keep
all the existing data in all drives as it is , without deleting, then the following steps
are to be followed.

1. Insert the operating system CD in the CDROM, start the system

2. In the partitions screen, don’t delete the existing partitions select the required
partition to load operating system (mostly CD Drive)

3. Select and start the installation in that, select the formatting method “leave
the current file system as it is (no changes)”

We can windows is installed without losing the previous information.

Failure of software installation

 Reboot or retry

 Check the event log

It can be found out using control panel and double clicking administrative tools.
Check the install log.

 Make sure your system is up to date.

 Clear your temporary file folder

 Disable your antivirus program

 Follow the prerequisites.

Problems when trying to run old software

Some of the common problems are ……..

1. Performance: your computer speed can be

severely degraded by installing and running old software.

2. System files: by installing older software on your

PC, you may be overwriting important files with older versions.

3. Memory leaks: old software can potentially be a

severe of memory leaks. This in turn causes your computer to crash
intermittently.

Installing Windows optional Components

1. Open windows control panel

2. Double click Add/Remove programs

3. Click off any components you want to install (or uninstall) and click next.

Uninstalling Software

1. Open windows control panel

2. Double click Add/Remove programs

3. select a Program which need to uninstall

4. Click on remove button

5. click on yes while system asks for conformation to uninstall

6. Now uninstall process will start.

Updating Windows automatically:

Windows Xp

1. Right click my computer on desktop

2. click properties

3. click the automatic updates Tab

Windows 2000

1. Click start.

2. Point to setting

3. Click control panel

4. Double click the automatic updates applet.