COS 231 Introduction to unix Summer 2004 Homework #1 Due Date 5/17/04 Last Date 5/24/04 NOTE -- The Due Date is the date by which you will ideally be able to hand in the homework. The last date is the date after which you will lose 5 points per week that the homework is overdue by. The purpose of this scheme is to keep you working at a steady pace throughout the course. If there are special circumstances, please contact me so we can make other arrangements. Your first homework assignment is to read the first two chapters of the text book and install Red Hat Linux Version 9 on some system. Alternatively, if you have access to a computer that is running Red Hat Linux Version 9 and have permission to run as root on that computer and makes changes, then you may use that computer. Installation can be very easy, but it can also be very frustrating. If you have data that must be preserved on whatever computer you are installing Linux on, THEN YOU SHOULD BACK UP THE DATA COMPLETELY BEFORE YOU START THIS PROCESS. Data loss during installation is a very real possibility as I can tell you from first hand experience. I should also note that you can get Red Hat Linux 9 via download from http://www.redhat.com/download/howto_download.html One of the main reasons for using a textbook is to have easy access to the software on CD without having to go through the downloading process, which will take a while even over a high speed connection. If you decide to download the software, be sure to first download the various manuals that are offered to you. Even if you are using the CDs to install Linux, you might want to look at the documents connected with downloading Linux. Initially, you must decide whether you will have a dedicated Linux machine or a multi-operating system machine. If you decide to have a machine that will run Linux only, it will be easiest if you have a machine that can boot from one of its CD-ROM drives. There are alternative methods for installing Linux, including using floppies. You should consult your text for details and CDs. At the risk of being repetitive, be very careful to use a computer you can afford to screw up, and be sure to back up all essential files. Also, make sure that you have restore CDs available for the computer since there is a very high probability that you will have to use them to restore your system. If you are going to have a multi-operating systems computer (typically a Windows and Linux machine, often called a dual-boot system) things get a bit more complicated depending on the particular versions of the various operating systems that you will be using. If you can afford to wipe out the other operating system and rebuild from scratch things are a lot easier since you can use a variety of partitioning tools to set asided space on the hard drive for each operating system. If you are trying to preserve one or more of the operating systems, then you need some tools. Which tools you can use depends on the version(s) of the operating system(s) you have. For earlier versions of Windows, you might be able to use the free tool called fips, which is described in your book. The author of fips has put up a website http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/ that you can consult for the latest version and information. If you have a Windows system that uses the NTFS file system you can't use fips. Probably the best tool to use is Partition Magic, a program that runs under Windows and handles all sorts of partitions smoothly. Alas, Partition Magic is not free. You need to either buy it or have someone who has a licensed copy use it properly to partition your drive for you. For more details read your textbook. For more details about Partition Magic you can go to http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/ If you have questions, please e-mail me and I will do my best to help you through this process. Your homework consists of three parts: 1. To document your experiences with the installation. 2. To write a short survey of other Linux distributions. You may freely use materials from the Web to gather this information -- just mention which websites you reviewed. You should produce a list of at least 10 different distributions, with a paragraph describing what the strengths and weaknesses of each distribution are. In particular, be sure to discuss any versions of Red Hat Linux that come after version 9. 3. Write a short discussion of the lawsuit that SCO has filed against IBM in connection with rights to Linux. Summarize the current state of the lawsuit, and give your opinion about the merits of the case. I want you to use the Open Office suite to do the homework. This suite should be installed when you install Red Hat Linux 9. It operates very similarly to Microsoft Office and can read and write files that are compatible with Microsoft Office. Below are additional notes for Part 1 of the homework. Part 1 of your homework should include the following information: 1. The exact brand and model of your computer. 2. The exact hardware of your computer including CPU type and speed, memory size, disk drive size, and the partitioning that you used on your computer. 3. Describe how you handled the partitioning of your hard drive, and whether you had to restore any computers. Describe all of the opearting systems that your computer supports. 4. Tell which desktop you selected as the default and why you did so. 5. Describe why you are interested in linux and how you plan to use your knowledge in the future. 6. Describe how your computer is connected to the Internet. 7. Go through Chapter 2 and describe which of the configuration items described there you carried out for your computer, and why you made the decisions that you did. When you are done, please e-mail a copy of your homework to my grader at Jeremy_Logan@umit.maine.edu along with a copy to me at markov@maine.edu. If you have any questions, please contact me or Jeremy Logan.