GRUB – GRand Unified Bootloader

GRUB is the latest bootloader program comes with every Linux Distribution.  A bootloader is a program that starts when the computer boots up.   It is responsible to loading the Operating System Kernel.

Learn /boot/ grub/menu.lst

Howto make an Installation Boot CD-ROM for Linux

Copy the isolinux/ directory from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux DVD or CD #1 into a temporary directory

cp -r /../isolinux/ /tmp/somedir/

Change the permission of the copied file: chmod u+x /tmp/somedir/isolinux

Finally make an iso image of the file and burn on the CD or DVD

mkisofs -o file.iso -b isolinux.bin -c boot.cat -no-emul-boot \ -boot-load-size 4 -boot-info-table -R -J -v -T isolinux/

Using the rpm Command

rpm command has the following modes of operation:

• install (-i)

• upgrade (-U)

• freshen (-F)

• query (-q)

• verify (-V)

• signature check (–checksig)

• uninstall (-e)

• rebuild database (–rebuilddb)

• fix permissions (–setperms)

• set owners/groups (–setugids)

• show RC (–showrc)

Downloading and Installing Applications with yum

The Yellow Dog Updater, Modified (yum) software package lets you install and update selected software packages in RPM format from software repositories on the Web. Once you know the software package that you want, yum is probably the best way to download and install that package. There are also features in yum for listing and managing RPMs after they are installed.

To use yum to install RPM software packages, follow these basic steps:

1. Determine the software package you want. Yum is delivered with Fedora Core and Fedora Extras repositories already configured. You can add more repositories for yum to search to your /etc/yum.conf file or /etc/yum.repos.d directory.

2. Configure yum. You need to configure the /etc/yum.conf file to set options that relate to how you use your yum repositories. Then add any repositories, outside of Fedora Core and Fedora Extras, that you want to get packages from. Several popular Fedora software repositories offer RPMs that install the information yum needs to access those repositories.

3. Run yum. The yum command can be used to download and install any package from the yum repository, including any packages the one you want depends on.

Sites mantaining Linux packages

Freshmeat (www.freshmeat.net) — This site maintains a massive index of Linux software. You can do keyword searches for software projects or browse for software by category.

SourceForge (www.sourceforge.net) — This site hosts thousands of open source software projects. You can download software and documentation from those projects through the SourceForge site.

Rpmfind (www.rpmfind.net) — Provides a way of searching for open source software that is packaged in the RPM Package Management (RPM) format across a variety of repositories. You can do a keyword search from this Web site.

Tucows Linux site (linux.tucows.com) — Both free and commercial software for Linux is available from the Tucows Linux Web site. This site also features news articles on Linux and a listing of software downloads from the site by category.