Unix Installation and Configuration - Day 1

Admin

Lay the groundwork for your install The first steps, often neglected, are strategic:

• What do you want for an end result?
• server or workstation?
• What kind of hardware will it run on?
  • architecture
  • cpu
  • memory
  • discs
  • peripherals and devices
• What kind of network feed will the box have? LAN? WAN?
• Do you have a particular unix flavor in mind?
  • Commercial unix, usually on proprietary hardware
    • Sun Solaris 8 for 64-bit architectures
    • HP UX HP hardware
    • DEC's Digital Unix
    • Irix for SGI architecture
    • SCO, now owned by Caldera.
    • IBM's AIX, although also repackaging GNU/Linux.
  • Free, usually on wintel or old proprietary hardware
    • linux
      • Red Hat biggest mindshare and easiest install
      • Debian conservative,stable
      • Slackware, loved by powerusers, simple, stable
      • SuSe stability, security
      • Mandrake: "bugfixed RedHat"
    • BSD
      • FreeBSD: ease of installation, applications
      • OpenBSD security
      • NetBSD 64-bit architectures, servers

start the install

Homework

1. locate an old 486 in the closet you can use for a unix box
2. use Google/Deja or a newsreader to read some usenet posts about both RedHat and Solaris installs/admin.

Remember, your login is based on your machine's hostname, not on any other number.
~/[initials] refers to the subdirectory under your homedir, named after your initials. Everything except for .dotfiles will be stored in your ~/[initials] directory.

© 1995-2001 jason carr
Distributed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.