Questions About Linux
Tiziano
I have this ten-year old PC which has two physical hard drives. Hard drive
C: has Windows XP Pro SP3 installed on it. Hard drive D: is now completely
empty (80 GB) and is NTFS formatted. The plan is to install 2 or 3 flavors
of Linux on hard drive D: (all at the same time) -- just to see which one I
like the best! (I think I would like to try Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora)
Questions:
1) Is there a utility that will allow to choose which operating system I
want to use for the boot up? Such utility would have to work under both
Windows and Linux and be capable to either boot up from C: or D:.
2) Is there a way to tell if a Linux distribution includes drivers
compatible with my PC hardware? It would be nice to know that kind of
information before installing a particular Linux distribution, so as not to
waste time. My PC is old and I doubt that I would be able to find Linux
drivers if they are not already included in the distribution...
3) Why is it that everybody seems to think that there is no need to run
antivirus/.antispyware utilities with Linux? If I go to a repository and
download and install some utility, how do I know that there is no embedded
virus in it?
Thanks.
--
tb
Bit Twister
> I know absolutely nothing about Linux...
>
> I have this ten-year old PC which has two physical hard drives. Hard drive
> C: has Windows XP Pro SP3 installed on it. Hard drive D: is now completely
> empty (80 GB) and is NTFS formatted. The plan is to install 2 or 3 flavors
> of Linux on hard drive D: (all at the same time) -- just to see which one I
> like the best! (I think I would like to try Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora)
I suggest picking custom partitioning during install phase, delete the
NTFS partition, create a swap partition, 2 x ram size, or 512meg
whichever is smaller. Then make about a 15 gig partition for each
install. Use rest of disk as needed.
> Questions:
> 1) Is there a utility that will allow to choose which operating system I
> want to use for the boot up?
Of course. Usually grub. You can tell it which OS you want booted as default.
> Such utility would have to work under both
> Windows and Linux and be capable to either boot up from C: or D:.
Yup, working just fine for me. I install grub in the MBR of my "C:" drive.
Can boot xp Home, Mandriva Linux, suse, fedora, ubuntu, kubuntu.....
> 2) Is there a way to tell if a Linux distribution includes drivers
> compatible with my PC hardware? It would be nice to know that kind of
> information before installing a particular Linux distribution, so as not to
> waste time.
Well look around on the distribution's site is see what they provide.
> My PC is old and I doubt that I would be able to find Linux
> drivers if they are not already included in the distribution...
> 3) Why is it that everybody seems to think that there is no need to run
> antivirus/.antispyware utilities with Linux?
New doze malware programs are being generated every 20 seconds. Your
AV software can not keep up even if you updated hourly.
Less than 1,000 total malware programs for Unix/Linux with 99.999% of
those patched years ago.
> If I go to a repository and download and install some utility, how
> do I know that there is no embedded virus in it?
Same way you know there is no malware in the code you download from Micro$not.
You trust your vendor. For others, someone would have to crack the repository,
modify the package and push out new signature for the corrupted package.
You downloading stuff from untrusted sites is just asking for trouble.
ray
> I know absolutely nothing about Linux...
>
> I have this ten-year old PC which has two physical hard drives. Hard
> drive C: has Windows XP Pro SP3 installed on it. Hard drive D: is now
> completely empty (80 GB) and is NTFS formatted. The plan is to install
> 2 or 3 flavors of Linux on hard drive D: (all at the same time) -- just
> to see which one I like the best! (I think I would like to try Ubuntu,
> openSUSE, Fedora)
>
First off, Linux does not know C: or D: - it uses a much more rational
(if a little more complicated) naming system. The master drive on the
first controller is /dev/hda - the slave on the first controller is /dev/
hdb - master on secondary controller is /dev/hdc and slave on secondary
is /dev/hdd. After that the partitions are numbered as, e.g. /dev/hda1, /
dev/hdc6, etc.
> Questions:
> 1) Is there a utility that will allow to choose which operating system
> I want to use for the boot up? Such utility would have to work under
> both Windows and Linux and be capable to either boot up from C: or D:.
Yes. But it does not work 'under' anything. It presents a menu at boot
time, before booting starts - allowing you to select which installed OS
you want to run. In your case, the first Linux install will set this up
for you and present the boot time option for your MS install or the Linux
you just installed. Linux sets this up automagically, unless you tell it
not to. If you install several Linux distributions (not 'flavors') the
last one will probably set it up and include all the previous installs.
> 2) Is there a way to tell if a Linux distribution includes drivers
> compatible with my PC hardware? It would be nice to know that kind of
> information before installing a particular Linux distribution, so as not
> to waste time. My PC is old and I doubt that I would be able to find
> Linux drivers if they are not already included in the distribution...
All major Linux distributions include drivers for the most common
hardware. You can boot many distributions now as a Live CD - meaning that
the full system boots and runs from the CD without any installation -
this allows you to check that all of your hardware works - which it
probably will unless you have some win-only hardware - or a Canon printer.
> 3)
> Why is it that everybody seems to think that there is no need to run
> antivirus/.antispyware utilities with Linux? If I go to a repository
> and download and install some utility, how do I know that there is no
> embedded virus in it?
If you install additional software from the trusted repositories for your
distribution (which is obviously the way to go - your package manager
will already be set up to do that) it's all clean.
The reason you don't generally need anitvirus software is that nearly all
viruses are tailored for MS and Linux does not natively run MS programs.
Also, the model is more robust. The user does not have access to system
files, so programs run by a user cannot disable the system.
>
> Thanks.
J.O. Aho
> I know absolutely nothing about Linux...
>
> I have this ten-year old PC which has two physical hard drives. Hard drive
> C: has Windows XP Pro SP3 installed on it. Hard drive D: is now completely
> empty (80 GB) and is NTFS formatted. The plan is to install 2 or 3 flavors
> of Linux on hard drive D: (all at the same time) -- just to see which one I
> like the best! (I think I would like to try Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora)
Today you can use LiveCD/LiveDVD and run the Linux without installing, this
way you save a lot hassle until you decide which one may fit you.
> Questions:
> 1) Is there a utility that will allow to choose which operating system I
> want to use for the boot up? Such utility would have to work under both
> Windows and Linux and be capable to either boot up from C: or D:.
Todays Linux distributions comes with Grub, you can let it replace the
microsoft mbr and most often the Linux will add your current microsoft as boot
option. It's not difficult to add boot option for microsoft by nad afterwards
if it wouldn't be added.
> 2) Is there a way to tell if a Linux distribution includes drivers
> compatible with my PC hardware? It would be nice to know that kind of
> information before installing a particular Linux distribution, so as not to
> waste time. My PC is old and I doubt that I would be able to find Linux
> drivers if they are not already included in the distribution...
Try the LiveCD/LiveDVD version, if all works when running it, then it has all
the drivers needed.
> 3) Why is it that everybody seems to think that there is no need to run
> antivirus/.antispyware utilities with Linux? If I go to a repository and
> download and install some utility, how do I know that there is no embedded
> virus in it?
For there aren't the kind of viruses for Linux as you find for microsoft,
those viruses you will find are Torjans (a program saying it's some know
software, but in reality does some kind of harm). If you keep your Linux up to
date and don't run everything as root, then there is little harm a torjan can
do, at worst wipe out all files in your home directory.
I do suggest you do run rkhunter, it's a tool for looking after rootkits and
modified files, run it once a day, will take 5mins to determine if you got hacked.
If you choose one of the larger distributions and use the official
repositories, then you can be sure there won't be any included back doors.
You don't have to worry about viruses (if you would get a virus, it would be
for microsoft and won't work on your Linux).
The anti-virus programs for Linux aren't used to scan the Linux install but
incoming mail, so that users who uses microsoft/outlook to fetch mail from
your mail server won't get viruses.
--
//Aho
Ivan Marsh
> Questions:
> 1) Is there a utility that will allow to choose which operating system I
> want to use for the boot up? Such utility would have to work under both
> Windows and Linux and be capable to either boot up from C: or D:.
Linux will install a boot manager (GRUB) that will boot you to a menu where
you can choose which OS to load. As long as you don't install over your
Windows install partition when you install Linux the tow OSes co-exist
rather happily on a single system.
> 2) Is there a way to tell if a Linux distribution includes drivers
> compatible with my PC hardware? It would be nice to know that kind of
> information before installing a particular Linux distribution, so as not
> to waste time. My PC is old and I doubt that I would be able to find
> Linux drivers if they are not already included in the distribution...
Being that it is old, unless you have some very strange or proprietary
hardware it shouldn't be an issue. Search for you network card/sound
card/etc... and Linux in goggle and you should be able to determine if a
great deal of people are having trouble with that component. For the most
part Linux should support all of your hardware in at least some generic
way.
> 3) Why is it that everybody seems to think that there is no need to run
> antivirus/.antispyware utilities with Linux? If I go to a repository and
> download and install some utility, how do I know that there is no embedded
> virus in it?
Through trojans are quite possible in Linux that's easily preventable by
only using trusted sources for the software you install. Most Linux distros
come with a service like YUM or APT that allow you to install most anything
from a trusted list of repositories as simple as typing: yum install
<packagename>.
Other classic viruses don't exist on Linux because it's much more difficult
to write a virus that can do any damage to a Unix like system. At best a
virus would destroy the files of the user logged in but leave the system
itself intact. To write a "good" virus that can attack a *nix system you
actually have to know what you are doing.
The reason there are so many viruses on Windows is because Microsoft makes
it so easy... all you need is notepad and a relatively minor understanding
of any of the myriad insecure scripting languages installed on any Windows
system and you can write a simple "virus" that can attack the entire world.
The reason for that being that Windows is designed in such a way that to be
able to use the system in any reasonable manor you have to be logged in
with an administrator level account (as most people do). Even a regular
Windows account has write access to system resources that can affect the
entire system.
Under *nix you do your day to day use with a "regular" account that can't do
damage to the system and when you need to do something that requires
administrator privileges you become administrator (root) temporarily on the
fly.
Newer version of Windows are getting better at approximating this model but
they're still a ways off.
--
"All right, all right, if it will make you happy, I will overthrow society."
- Philip J. Fry
Stefan Patric
> I know absolutely nothing about Linux...
Then read this book first: RUNNING LINUX, 5th Edition (O'Reilly, pub.)--
best Linux beginner reference out there.
> I have this ten-year old PC which has two physical hard drives. Hard
> drive C: has Windows XP Pro SP3 installed on it. Hard drive D: is now
> completely empty (80 GB) and is NTFS formatted. The plan is to install
> 2 or 3 flavors of Linux on hard drive D: (all at the same time) -- just
> to see which one I like the best! (I think I would like to try Ubuntu,
> openSUSE, Fedora)
Use one (or several) of the Linux Live CDs to test your hardware. I
suggest PCLinuxOS 2009 (http://www.pclinuxos.com/).
> Questions:
> 1) Is there a utility that will allow to choose which operating system
> I want to use for the boot up? Such utility would have to work under
> both Windows and Linux and be capable to either boot up from C: or D:.
Yes. It's built into every Linux distro, the bootloader. It will either
be called lilo (Linux Loader) or grub (Grand Unified Bootloader).
> 2) Is there a way to tell if a Linux distribution includes drivers
> compatible with my PC hardware? It would be nice to know that kind of
> information before installing a particular Linux distribution, so as not
> to waste time. My PC is old and I doubt that I would be able to find
> Linux drivers if they are not already included in the distribution...
Use Windows' System Info utility to look up the specs on your hardware or
use one of the Linux Live CDs to do the same, if there is a compatibility
concern. If a Linux Live CD boots and runs, and everything on the system
works, then most any Linux distro will work with that hardware. It's
only super new hardware that Linux has issues with, but if the hardware
is older than about 6 months, everything should be fine.
> 3)
> Why is it that everybody seems to think that there is no need to run
> antivirus/.antispyware utilities with Linux? If I go to a repository
> and download and install some utility, how do I know that there is no
> embedded virus in it?
First, there are less viruses, etc. written for Linux, but it's mostly
that Linux is intrinsically much more secure than Windows' systems.
However, if you don't feel safe not running something, there is Linux
anti-virus, etc. software available. AVG makes a pretty good one, and
it's free and supported (http://free.avg.com/us-en/homepage).
All repository apps are checked for problems. I've been using Linux for
10 years (came from the Amiga, not Windows), and have yet to be
infected. All I've ever run is a router firewall, and what security each
distro sets up by default.
Stef
Aragorn
as Tiziano wrote...
> I know absolutely nothing about Linux...
>
> I have this ten-year old PC which has two physical hard drives. Hard
> drive C: has Windows XP Pro SP3 installed on it. Hard drive D: is now
> completely empty (80 GB) and is NTFS formatted. The plan is to
> install 2 or 3 flavors of Linux on hard drive D: (all at the same
> time) -- just to see which one I like the best! (I think I would like
> to try Ubuntu, openSUSE, Fedora)
Okay, first of all, "C:" and "D:" are DOS designations - which are still
used by FascistOS since it is based upon DOS. :p
Secondly, if you're going to install GNU/Linux distributions on the
second hard disk, then the NTFS filesystem will have to go. GNU/Linux
requires its own partitions and filesystems. See the thread about
transitioning from Wintendo to GNU/Linux in this newsgroup.
> Questions:
> 1) Is there a utility that will allow to choose which operating
> system I want to use for the boot up? Such utility would have to work
> under both Windows and Linux and be capable to either boot up from C:
> or D:.
The GNU/Linux bootloaders LILO and GRUB can both boot different
GNU/Linux operating systems and Wintendo, and GRUB can boot other
UNIX-es as well.
That said, you can also use a third-party bootloader, which will
typically require a partition of its own, and there are even tricks for
using the Wintendo bootloader to load Linux, but this requires making a
copy of the Linux bootsector to a file, copying that file to the
Wintendo boot drive and modifying the Wintendo "boot.sys" file.
> 2) Is there a way to tell if a Linux distribution includes drivers
> compatible with my PC hardware? It would be nice to know that kind of
> information before installing a particular Linux distribution, so as
> not to waste time. My PC is old and I doubt that I would be able to
> find Linux drivers if they are not already included in the
> distribution...
If it's old, then it's probably all supported. However, you can look
for yourself via Google, and/or report on your hardware here so that
people might be able to shed some more light on this. But like I said,
it'll probably all be supported, unless it's something really awkward
that you have.
> 3) Why is it that everybody seems to think that there is no need to
> run antivirus/.antispyware utilities with Linux?
Because there are no viruses for GNU/Linux in the wild. The only thing
that ever came close was a proof-of-concept virus developed in a lab to
show that an ELF executable could be infected with a virus, but the
mechanisms of a UNIX operating system are designed to keep the system
secure.
In Wintendo, "open" equals "execute", and a file is executable if its
name ends in ".exe", ".com", ".bat", ".cmd" - which is an OS/2 legacy -
and ".pif" - which is an application launcher that sets the environment
for real mode applications. In UNIX, a file is only executable if it
has an execute permission set for your user account in the filesystem
layer, which means that you must manually download the virus and give
it execute permission, and then start it manually as well. In addition
to that, an unprivileged user account has no write access to system
files, so the virus would have to be executed by the root user in order
to have access to system files.
> If I go to a repository and download and install some utility, how do
> I know that there is no embedded virus in it?
Because the trusted repositories all have checksums and cryptographic
keys which are checked upon downloading the software. And even if
there were a virus in it - in which case the checksums and signatures
wouldn't match anymore - then see above. ;-)
--
*Aragorn*
(registered GNU/Linux user #223157)