hardware

Thomas Krichel
http://openlib.org/home/krichel

introduction

This is a basic introduction to computer

hardware.
I wrote it from memory.
It contains the things I know about without
having to look them up.
That's about how much you need to know.

basic components

basic components are

processor

memory

motherboard

input/output devices

disks
network interfaces

The first three, plus the bus speed, are essential

to the understanding of the performance of the
computer.

processors

The processor does all the calculations on a

computer.
The performance indicator of the processor is
the frequency of operations.
There are various types of processors, by
different manufactures.

Intel

AMD

architecture

The Debian operating system offers a complete

range of software that can be run with a range
of processors by a certain manifactures. Such a
range of software packages is called an
architecture.
We use the i386 architecture for Intel
processors.
AMD processors may be more open source
friendly

memory

The memory is where all data that the computer

works with is stored.
If the memory is small the computer has to
perform more operations to read and write data
to the disk.
As a consequence, it will appear to be slower.

motherboard

This is a green sheet of plastic that all

components inside the computer attach to.
We don't need to know more about it, just the
plane concept will do.

devices

These are things that the computer uses for

input and output of data.
Examples include

keyboard

screen

network card

disks

We only need to study disks and network cards.

disks

There are three architectures of disks

IDE, aka PATA, an old system

SCSI, a bit more modern

SATA, used in most modern systems

We need to be aware of them because the way

that Linux refers to them.

IDE

When a computer can use IDE, you see two

forty-pin connectors on the motherboard.
These are the primary and the secondary IDE
channnels. They are usually labelled.
To each channel, you can attach two disks.

One is called the master.

The other is called the slave.

master and slave

One method to select master and slave is to set

jumpers on the disk. The position of the
jumpers is often written on the disk. Otherwise
The other method is called cable select. There
you place the master at the end of the 40 pin
IDE cable.

device names

Linux needs to give the devices names in other

to talk to them.
The device names for IDE are

/dev/hda for the primary master

/dev/hdb for the primary slave

/dev/hdc for the secondary master

/dev/hdd for the secondary slave

SCSI and SATA

SCSI and SATA drives are named

/dev/sda

/dev/sdb

etc.
Usually it is a bit of guesswork to know which
drive is give what name. There may be a better
way than guesswork, but I don't know about it.

file systems

A file system is a way to set up files on a disk.

Common file systems are

Microsoft FAT

ext2 or ext3, used in Linux

Reiserfs, used on Linux

Linux kernels support various file systems

natively, including Microsoft file systems.

several file systems

If you have several file systems on a disk, each

system needs to occupy a separate physical
area on the disk.

Such an aera is called a partition.

An empty disk will have no partitions.

You will have to set up partitions before working

with a disk.
Chaning the partitions at a later stage will,
generally, make the data on the disk
inaccssible.

partition table

Any disk has a special place for the partition

table.
The partition tables says

what partitions are on the disk,

where each partition starts and end

Changing the partition table makes all data on

the disk unusable.

default partitions

On a Linux system, if you only have one disk on

a computer, it is customary to have two
partitions on it.

the main data partition

the swap partition

Deciding on the size of both is a bit of black

magic. There is no hard rule.
We let the Debian installer do it for us.

device names with partitions

If you have a device that linux calls foo, the first

partion will be foo1, the second partition will be
foo2 etc.
Thus you can have /dev/hda1, /dev/sdb3 etc.
The command df will list all devies and all
partition.

the main data partition

This is where you have all the data on the hard

disk.
This is usually formatted with the ext3 file
system.
There other file systems one could use, but this
is the default, one and we will use that one.

the swap partition

The swap partition is used to reserve space for

swapping.
Swapping is a way for a computer to work with
large memory requirements by writing parts of
the memory on the disk.
When this happens the computer appears to be
very slow.

initial setup

When the debian installer sets up your machine,

by default it will take the first disk.
Then it will calculate a partition table

swap partition

data partition

it will present you with the suggestions.

When you accept them, it will write the partition
table. All data on the disk will be lost.
This is the only time you should not accept the
default option.

booting

When you switch on a computer, you see some

messages.
They usually refer to particular pieces of
hardware that just tell you hi, I am here in this
computer.
Then the operating system starts.
But before it starts, there is one interesting
stage.

more on initial setup

When we start the computer, it reads an

internal, essentially read only piece of data
known as the BIOS.
The BIOS has a number of settings. You can
make changes to them.
How to do that depends on the BIOS
manufacturer but there are some generic
features.

getting into the BIOS

When the machine starts, you see, maybe for a

second a message press foo to enter setup.
foo is usually the name of a key.
When you see this message, press the key
very quickly several times.
(yes, this presumes you have a working
keyboard attached).
You arrive in a menu-driven system.

the BIOS menu system

The menu system is usually in English.

It usually relies on keyboard strokes.

What keys do what depends on the BIOS

manufacturer.
What entries there are depends on the
manufacuturer.
We only need to know one BIOS setting, and it
is useful to know about another.

BIOS setting: boot sequence

When the machine boots, it looks for an

operating system on a sequence of devices.
That sequence is called the boot sequence.
When we install Debian, we need to make sure
that the medium that contains Debian is in the
boot sequences.
We also need to make sure that this medium
appears before any other medium that contains
an operating system.

BIOS setting: boot on power

When you are running a server machine, you

want the machine to be on all the time.
After a power cut, you want the machine to boot
as soon as power is restored.
There usually is a BIOS setting for that.

making a Debian medium

Go to the debian installer http://www.debian.org

/devel/debian-installer/
I made a copy of the current CD for you at
http://wotan.liu.edu/opt
Get software to burn the CD

http://isorecorder.alexfeinman.com/isorecord
er.htm
http://www.cdburnerxp.se/downloadsetup.ph
p

Use it to burn.

working with the installer

The only rule is: don't panic.

Any decision you are making when working
with the installer can be reversed quite easily
later.
The only exeption is the disk partitioning,
reversing that would be cumbersome.

overall steps

boot

set up user interface of installer

setting up network (the crucial part)

setting up a disk

setting the time

setting up users

downloading basic software from the network

making system bootable

obvious sequence

At the start, select the normal (not the graphical

installer) and press enter.

Select the language of installation (English)

Select your country

Select your keyboard layout (US)

(United States)

the hostname

This is a short name for the machine.

Here any name can be used. The name can't
contains a space. You need to let me know
about the name.
Don't use the name debian because I want
everybody to have a different machine name for
ease of administration of the course.

network configuration

The installer will configure the network with the

help of a protocol called dhcp.
This should work in the class situation.
I will discuss networks later, so I skip over
details for now.
If the dhcp we have a serious problem.

the domain name

Here you should enter a domain that you own

and control.
If you don't have one, or don't know what this is
please enter the domain of a friend who will run
the domain for you.
Since Thomas is your friend, enter his domain
here: openlib.org.

disk partitioning

Here chose of guided partitioning, using the

built-in partitioner.
Select the disk to partition, usually there is only
one.

Choose the default of all files in one partition.

Accept the partition that is proposed.

Then you get the screen where you are warned

you will loose all data, here don't accept the
default to tell the partitioner to go ahead.

setting up time

The time can be set in the BIOS. They BIOS

calls a battery that keeps running. But that is
not reliable.
Modern linux machines get the time from the
network from time servers. The time servers
know what time it is.
Then all you have to do is to set the time zone
you are in. Since you have said you are in the
US, you will be shown a list of US time zones.

setting up the root user

There is one superuser who has the right to do

anything on the machine.
The name of this user is root.
There is a sequence screen that invites you to
set the password for that user.
Since it is not echoed, you need to type it twice
to try to make sure that it was entered properly.

ordinary user

Although this is not strictly necessary, the

installer also requires the setup of an ordinary
user.
Here you first enter your full name, then your
user name (login name, no spaces, no
uppercase) and then your password.

network download

On the network, there are mirrors of Debian

that contain newer versions of the Debian
packages. It is a good idea to use the closest
mirror available. Say yes to use a network
mirror.
The mirrors are organized by country. Select
country and then select a mirror that appears to
be close. For class select any because we may
have a problem if all select the same.

http proxy

To download packages from mirrors, the

installer uses the http protocol.
This is a well-know protocol used to transfer
files on the web.
In certain, rare settings, a network administrator
may require you to use the http proxy. We don't
have such a requirement, so we can leave this
screen blank.

popularity contents

This is a bit of an oddity.

There is a contents on which packages are
most popular.
Machines participating in the contest report
what packages are installed on them.
You may elect to take part or not.

the bootloader

To make the system bootable without the CD,

Linux installs a special command sequence on
the hard disk you are installing linux to.
This special command sequence calls a
software known as a boot loader. The boot
loader shows you a menu to ask you what
operating system you want to load.

removing media

You need to remove the media you booted

from, or change the BIOS not to boot from it
again.
If you use a CD to install from the installer will
eject the CD for you.

Then the machine reboots.

You are done.

linux boot loaders

In olden days, people use lilo, the linux loader.

Nowadays people use the grub, the grand
unified bootloader.
Here you just have to follow the default to install
the bootloader.

collection of software

This is important. There are collections of

software predefined by the installer for certain
tasks a machine should do.
Here you should ONLY select the standard
system.
Selecting others, you will waste your time
dowloading a ton of software we don't need.
Do not select desktop environment. This is
particularly wasteful for what we are trying to
do.