Re: First time Linux user.
On Mon, 10 Aug 1998, GamerZ wrote:
> okay
> this is hopefully my last question for today
> the simple alphabet of DOS no longer exists
> it was extremely simple (which haha confused even some)
> linux uses a single tree supposedly, and has to mount devices to this tree
> every bootup, i believe
> what would be the paths to all of the standard DOS drives:
The information in the file /etc/fstab (or something) has mounting
information about the disk drives/partitions. Normally one would mount
different partitions as standard directories in the standard file system.
For example, / (the root directory) might be on hda6 (last partition on
the 1st drive, perhaps d: in dos parlance). hdb1 might be mounted as /usr,
hdb2 might be /var or whatever. hda1 might hold windows95 and be mounted
as /win95 or something. How you actually organise all this (especially as
you seem to have lots of harddrives) is beyond me, although others may
give you considerations. It's OK (although not ideal) to have the entire
thing on one partition, it's probably easier this way at least at first.
You'll want lots of room for /usr though, that's where all the program
files go.
My system has two harddrives, and the arrangement looks something like:
device size filesystem mount point contents
hda1 (400Mb)'vfat' /win95 win95, oddly enough
hda5 (~32Mb) linux swap N/A swap space/virtual memory
hda6 (~370Mb) ext2 / /, /home/ajt (my user directory)
and everything that's not
elsewhere
hdb1 (100Mb) ext2 this ones's going to be / when I clean out hda
hdb2 (32Mb) linux swap N/A swap space
hdb3 (100Mb) ext2 /var stuff that gets changed by
programs often
hdb4 (>1000Mb) ext2 /usr programs/applications etc.
This probably isn't ideal, either.
Unix accesses devices as files, that's what the /dev/fd0 was in my mount
example. here are the normal device files for the devices you wanted
> a: (floppy)
/dev/fd0
> b: (other floppy)
/dev/fd1
> c: (primary master)
/dev/hda1
> d:(prim. slav.)
/dev/hdb1
> e:(sec. mas.)
/dev/hdc1
> f: (sec. slav.)
/dev/hdd1
> where would the cdrom be, and where would the actual os be stored, like what
> are the most common directories...
cdrom depends on the make of your cdrom, mine's /dev/sbpcd1 (sound
blaster). I created a directory /cdrom and mount it there.
I've already covered some of the directories in my mounting example, but
here are the other usual ones:
/bin (system binaries, things like ls etc)
/home (All the user directories are subdirectories of /home)
/root (except for the superuser who resides here)
/etc ( configuration files)
/usr (lots of stuff, including /usr/sbin (administration programs)
/usr/bin (application programs)
/usr/doc (documentation)
/var (stuff that changes often, like news spools/ mail etc. )
It's a bit daunting, but it has a certain warped logic and arcane elegance
to it.
Andrew Tarr
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate"
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