Franske CNT-2311 Labs

Chapter 1

1. Install the Fedora Linux distribution into a new virtual machine. Be sure to make a note of your root account password and your user account name and password!
2. Login to your Ubuntu Linux server virtual machine using your standard username and password
3. Experiment with moving from directory to directory on the system
   1. Try to get to the /etc, /usr/bin and /var/cache/man directories on your system. How can you verify which directory you are currently working in?
   2. Try using a shortcut to get back to your the home directory of your user.
4. Create a new directory inside of your home directory called linuxlabs and another new directory inside of that directory called chapter01
5. Make chapter01 your working directory and create three empty files within that directory named one, two, and three using the touch command.
6. View a long style listing of all files (including hidden files) in the current directory to verify the three files were created and each have a size of zero.
7. Set an environment variable called MYNAME equal to your name and then use the echo command to display a customized greeting using the environment variable you just set.
8. The dmesg command will display the system kernel log. Capture the standard output from the dmesg command into a new file named kernel-log.
9. Rename the kernel-log file to startup-log and the one file to number-name
10. Use the nano text editor to edit the number-name file to include the information from your textbook listing 1.1 found on page 19. Create another new file named number-status with the information from listing 1.2 on the same page.
11. Use the join command to match the data in the number-name file with that in the number-status file and capture the result into a new file named number-name-and-status
12. Use the man command to review the manual pages of the less command
13. Copy the /var/log/syslog file into a new file ~/linuxlabs/chapter01/system-log-file
14. Try using some of the other text processing commands including sort, nl, head, tail, grep, etc. to manipulate data on files in your chapter01 directory.

Chapter 2

1. Install Fedora as a second virtual machine if you have not done so already. Be sure to make a note of your root account password and your user account name and password!
   1. Use a web browser in Fedora to download an RPM file from the Internet
      • One possible example is the zsh-4.3.10-5.fc14.i686.rpm file which can be found through the rpmfind.net site.
   2. Open a command line window and become the root user using the su command and the root account password which you set during the installation
   3. Use the RPM utility to query for information about the RPM package
   4. Install the RPM package you downloaded in Fedora
   5. Use yum to check which packages installed on your system have updates available using the yum check-update command
   6. Try using the appropriate yum command to update one of those packages to the latest version
2. Switch to your Ubuntu Server VM
   1. Use a text editor to edit your /etc/apt/sources.list file and change the repository from us.archive.ubuntu.com to mirror.rit.edu (HINT: You can use the search and replace function of your text editor to do this quickly! Also, I suggest making a backup copy of your original /etc/apt/sources.list file before making any changes)
   2. Use the apt-get update or aptitude update command to download the latest package lists from the repository
   3. Use the apt-get install or aptitude install commands to download and install the links and lynx text-only web browser programs.
   4. Use ldd to get information about what libraries some program on your system uses
   5. Use ps and top to view all the processes running on your system
   6. Use job control to start and stop jobs as well as run jobs in the background and list all currently running jobs
      • An example of a job you could stop is cat /var/log/syslog | less which displays your entire system log one line at a time. You should be able to start this job in the background using cat /var/log/syslog | less& and then view a list of active jobs on your system, bring it to the foreground, stop the job and then start it again in the background
3. Don't forget to shutdown your systems properly (shutdown -h now) before closing the VM windows.

Chapter 3

1. Create a new 6 GB virtual hard drive file and add it as a secondary hard drive to your Ubuntu Server VM
2. Boot your Ubuntu Server system
3. Use the dmesg command to check for log messages from the kernel during system startup. Try to find some information about the second hard drive you just added.
4. Find and partition the new drive into at least 5 partitions
   1. Make the first partition an ext3 partition
      • Set this partition so that it will never automatically run fsck
   2. Make the second partition a swap partition.
      • HINT: You will need to change the partition type, format the partition as swap space, and enable the swap space. You can verify the swap space is active and in use by using the free -m command before and after you setup this partition.
   3. Make the third partition an ext2 partition
   4. Make the fourth partition a btrfs partition
      • HINT: btrfs is a fairly new filesystem and the tools to format a btrfs partition may not be installed by default. Try searching for packages which you could install to add btrfs support to your system.
   5. Make the fifth partition a msdos (FAT) partition
5. Create mount points (empty directories) for each of the non-swap partitions within your home directory and mount the partitions.
   • Examples:
   • partition 1 mounted to /home/student/businessfiles
   • partition 3 mounted to /home/student/internetfiles
   • partition 4 mounted to /home/student/schooldocs
   • partition 5 mounted to /home/student/labreports
6. Use the mount command to verify that your partitions are all properly mounted
7. Use the df command to verify the amount of free space on each partition
8. Create or download some files into the various partitions. Note: You can use the Links or Lynx web browser to find and download some files.
9. Unmount one or more of the partitions and verify that the files you created have "disappeared". Remount the partition to a different mount point and verify the files are back.
10. Edit the /etc/fstab file so that your partitions are automatically mounted when the system reboots. Reboot the system and verifyu the partitions mounted correctly.
11. Use the lsmod command to view kernel modules which are loaded. Try to determine what piece of hardware one or more of the listed modules is for.
12. Don't forget to shut down your VM properly!

Optional Extra Credit Lab

1. Install Ubuntu Linux Server Edition to a physical computer (not a VM)
2. Experiment with viewing data about system hardware and driers using the following utilities
   • cat /proc/interrupts
   • cat /proc/ioports
   • cat /proc/dma
   • lspci
   • lsmod
   • lsusb
   • dmesg
3. Try adding additional hardware to the system either by adding USB devices or extra PCI or PCI Express Cards and re-check your system with the above utilities. Can you find the new hardware, what modules it's using and how it can be accessed and used by the system?

Chapter 4

1. Sign in to your Ubuntu Server system using your regular user (non-root) account
2. Work with files and directories
   1. Use the ls command to list files in your current (home) directory
   2. Try using the ls command to list files inside your ~/linuxlabs/ directory (created in the chapter 1 lab) without first changing to that directory
   3. Try listing only hard drives from your /dev/ directory using wildcard expansion
   4. Enter the ~/linuxlabs/ directory and create a new subdirectory named chapter04
   5. Enter your new directory and create two new files one which is a normal empty file and another which is a hidden file
   6. Try using the -a and -l options to get a long file listing and one that includes hidden files
   7. Create a copy of the ~/linuxlabs/chapter01 (and all of the files inside it) created in a previous lab inside of the chapter04 directory, make the name of the copy chapter01copy
   8. Use the mv command to rename the ~/linuxlabs/chapter04/chapter01copy/two directory to two-old
3. Create a backup of files and directories
   1. Use the tar utility to backup the ~/linuxlabs/chapter04/chapter01copy to a new compressed archive (stored in ~/linuxlabs/chapter04/) named chapter01-backup.tar.gz
   2. Use the rm command to remove the chapter01copy directory and everything it contains, verify this with the ls command
   3. Restore your gzipped tar file and verify that the files are all back
4. Create a symbolic link from ~/linuxlabs/chapter04/system-logs to the /var/log/ directory, verify the link works by changing into the system-logs "directory" just as you would with any other directory and viewing a list of the files, compare it with the files in /var/log
5. Modify the ownership and permissions of files and folders, note that you may want to become root to do this
   1. Use the chown command to change the owner AND group of a file and of a directory plus all the files it contains (recursively) somewhere within the ~/linuxlabs/ directory hierarchy
   2. Use the chgrp command to change just the group of a file somewhere within the ~/linuxlabs/ directory hierarchy
   3. Use the chmod command to change the permissions on a file or directory somewhere within the ~/linuxlabs/ directory hierarchy using both octal and symbolic modes
6. Try using the locate, find, whereis, which and type commands to try finding various files on your system. Remember that some of these utilities use a database of files on your system which needs to be updated from time to time. Some of the filenames you can try searching for are: syslog, interfaces, ls, bash, more, nano, sources.list

Chapter 5

1. Configure GRUB2 on you Ubuntu system to add the functionality of the SystemRescueCD to your boot options
   1. Get the SystemRescueCD files onto your hard drive
      1. Login to your Ubuntu Server system and use the links or lynx web browser to download the SystemRescueCD ISO image from Sourceforge at https://sourceforge.net/projects/systemrescuecd/files/sysresccd-x86/2.0.1/systemrescuecd-x86-2.0.1.iso/download
      2. In Linux you can mount an ISO cd image file just like you would mount a hard drive or an actual cd (in read only mode of course). In order to copy some files we need from the image file we'll need to mount the image file with the command mount -o loop systemrescuecd-x86-2.0.1.iso /mnt/cdrom) note that you may choose to mount the image to a location other than /mnt/cdrom if you would like. Remember that you will need to be root in order to mount things.
      3. Create a new directory called sysrcd in the root directory for the files and copy the sysrcd.dat, sysrcd.md5, initram.igz, rescuecd, rescue64, altker32 and altker64 files from the mounted cd image to the /sysrcd/ directory. Some of these files are in the root of the CD others may be found in other places, try checking the isolinux directory on the cd for many of them.
      4. Unmount the CD image file, once you're sure the files have been copied you can safely delete the CD image file from your system.
   2. Modify the GRUB2 bootloader to add an option to boot the SystemRescueCD environment
      1. You may want to review some of the documentation on GRUB2 from the Ubuntu Community Documentation Site: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2
      2. You will need to edit the /etc/grub.d/40_custom file to add a new custom entry to your boot menu, if you do this editing with the vi editor you can meet the requirements for practicing with vi further down in the lab, alternatively you can do this editing with nano and work with a different file in vi.
      3. Add the following lines to your custom menu entry file:
         • menuentry "System Rescue CD from HDD" {
         • set root=
         • linux /sysrcd/rescuecd subdir=sysrcd setkmap=us
         • initrd /sysrcd/initram.igz
         • }
      4. Note that I have left the set root= line blank which is incorrect. See if you can figure out the correct settings for this line! HINT: You need to identify the hard drive and partition number where your sysrcd directory exists. The linux and initrd lines specify the kernel (with the options following it) and the initial ramdisk respectively.
      5. You may also want to edit the /etc/default/grub file to increase the amount of time you have to select a boot option when your system is starting up.
      6. Don't forget that after you make all your changes to GRUB you will need to run a program which will automatically update the /boot/grub/grub.cfg file on your system!
      7. Reboot your system and verify that you are able to start into the SystemRescueCD environment by selecting your new boot option during the boot process. If you have problems you may want to review the Ubuntu Community Documentation referenced above.
   3. Use Vi to create and edit a file, including:
      • Yanking and pasting lines and groups of lines
      • Deleting groups of lines at a time
      • Searching and replacing text
      • Saving and quitting
   4. Try restarting and shutting down your Ubuntu system using the shutdown command in combination with a shutdown timer
2. Explore runlevels and startup software on your Fedora system
   1. Boot your Fedora desktop system, start a terminal and become the root user in that terminal
   2. One of the ways to switch from a GUI runlevel to a text mode runlevel is through the key combination CTRL-ALT-Backspace
   3. Use the runlevel command to display the current runlevel and verify that it is changing
   4. Use the init command to switch back to the GUI interface. Note: You will need to know what runlevel starts the X-Windows GUI.
   5. Use the runlevel command to display the current runlevel and verify that it is changing
   6. Explore the inittab file in a text editor, try changing it so your system boots to a command line login by default. Try rebooting your system to see if that works and then change it back to the GUI login system.
   7. View the SysV startup scripts installed on your system and check which ones are setup to start and stop at each of the runlevels
   8. Use the chkconfig command or ntsysv program to list services running at each runlevel on your system

Optional Extra Credit Lab

1. Create a dual-boot VM where you can choose to boot either Ubuntu Linux Server or some version of Microsoft Windows though a GRUB menu during system startup.

Chapter 6

1. Start your Ubuntu Desktop system and open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal)
2. One of the common ways to switch back to the CLI is through the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace key combination but you'll find that this has been disabled in Ubuntu. It used to be possible to turn this functionality back on through the Xorg.conf file but as mentioned use of that file has been deprecated and most hardware is now autoconfigured. To restore the ability to stop the X server with the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace key combination follow the instructions on the Ubuntu wiki.
3. You are now able to stop your X server by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace, give it a try. You'll see the X server stop and drop into the CLI for a minute but the X server will restart automatically if GDM is still running in the background. While this works for restarting a hung X server it doesn't get us back to the CLI. Open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal) and become the root user. Stop the GDM service by running /etc/init.d/gdm stop which show drop you back into a CLI.
4. You should now be able to use the startx command to start the X server and the Ctrl-Alt-Backspace key combination to stop it. Try starting and then stopping the X server that way, you want to end up back at the CLI.
5. As you know there isn't an xorg.conf file by default anymore but we can create one. Run the Xorg -configure command which will create an xorg.conf.new file in your current directory. Open the file in a text editor and look at the structure and organization of the file. If you'd like to try using the file you can copy or move the file to /etc/xorg.conf. Recall that if you get into trouble and your X server won't restart when using your modified file you can go back to the autoconfiguration by removing or renaming the /etc/xorg.conf file.
6. Though screen resolutions typically were changed through the configuration file and changes required restarting the X server the situation has changed thanks to auto-configuration. In Gnome you can change your resolution through System -> Preferences -> Monitors though it will only display resolutions detected as supported on your video card and monitor. Try changing your resolution.
7. A more powerful and direct way to change resolution is though the command line utility xrandr. Open a terminal and try running xrandr which will list modes currently setup on your system. Try changing modes by running xrandr -s 640x48 and xrandr -s 800x600. It is also possible to create new display modes and sizes, other than those auto-detected, though that is beyond the scope of this lab. If you're curious about xrandr you cna find more information in the manual pages for it and through Internet searches.
8. Try out several accessibility options in X, for example:
9. *Sticky Keys
10. *Slow Keys
11. *Bounce Keys
12. *Mouse Keys / Mouse Navigation Emulation
13. *Dwell Click / Simulated Mouse Clicks
14. Check the locales installed on your system with the locale -a command
15. Try changing the current locale (including switching the character encoding method if you have a locale with a different encoding method installed) and timezone of your system. See your textbook if you are unsure about how to do this.
    1. Create a new text file with some text in it while in a different character encoding mode
    2. Change your locale and timezone back to their original settings
    3. Use the iconv program to convert the text file you created to your default character encoding method
16. Check the CUPS printing system, which is installed by default, by opening a web browser in your VM to http://localhost:631
17. There is also a Gnome configuration program for CUPS which can be found in System -> Administration -> Printing
18. Because there is such tight integration between the Linux printing system and PostScript it's easy to install a PDF printer and create PDFs from any application. Try installing the cups-pdf package which should setup a new "PDF Printer" that you can use to create PDF files from any application. Verify that the new printer shows up and what seetings are available through the CUPS management website and the Gnome Print Manager. Try out your new printer to see how it works.

Chapter 7

1. Users and Groups
   1. Create new users on the system
   2. Create new groups on the system
   3. Explore the /etc/passwd, /etc/group and /etc/shadow files
   4. Change the password of the current user
   5. Change the password of another user as Root
   6. Use the chown and chgrp commands to change the owner and group associated with files and folders
   7. Remove users from the system
2. Explore the system logging settings in /etc/syslog.conf and /etc/logrotate.conf
3. Review system logfiles
4. Manually set the system date and time
5. Configure NTP to automatically update the system date and time
6. Setup a system and user cron job to run a scheduled task

Chapter 8

1. Check network interface configurations with ifconfig
2. Set the system hostname (temporairly with hostname and permanently with /etc/hostname)
3. Resovle DNS names with nslookup, host and dig
4. Explore system name resolution settings in /etc/hosts, /etc/resolv.conf and /etc/nsswitch.conf
5. Configure a network interface in both Ubuntu and Fedora using graphical and text only modes for DHCP and for a static address
6. Stop and start a network interface to apply settings
7. Explore the system routing table
8. Enable IP Forwarding
9. Test system connectivity
   1. With the ping command
   2. With the traceroute command
   3. With the netstat command
   4. With the telnet or ftp utilities
10. Examine network traffic with the tcpdump utility

Chapter 9

1. Try viewing some of the predefined environment variables
2. Try setting an environment variable of your own and then viewing it
3. Create an alias for a command and they try using it
4. Explore the global and per-user shell configuration files
5. Write a basic shell script, make it executable and test it out
6. Try writing a shell script using conditionals, loops or functions and then test it out
7. Setup one of the email server programs such as Postfix on your system for local mail delivery
8. Try sending messages between users of your system using the command line as well as a graphical client
9. Create an e-mail alias which directs mail to one or more users on your system and test it out
10. Install the MySQL server on your system and work through all the MySQL commands from p.456 to p.465

Chapter 10

1. Install the xinetd super server and explore the configuration files
2. Use the netstat and lsof commands to check open ports on your system
3. Install the nmap scanner and try running a scan on your own system (127.0.0.1)
4. Setup the sudo program to allow limited access to run commands as root for various users on your system and try this out
5. Search your system for all SUID/SGID files
6. Install the SSH server on your systems and try SSHing from one system to another
7. Try copying files between systems with SCP
8. Try to setup SSH to use authorized_keys instead of passwords for one of your users
9. Install GPG and create a key for your user
10. Try encrypting and decrypting a text file using GPG

Webmin and Apache

1. Install the links and lynx text-mode web browsers on your Ubuntu Server System
   1. Install these packages on your Ubuntu Server system
      • links lynx
2. Install Webmin on your Ubuntu Server System
   1. Download the Webmin DEB package from http://www.webmin.com
   2. Install the following packages on your Ubuntu Server (command line only) system through one of the APT utilities:
      • perl libnet-ssleay-perl openssl libauthen-pam-perl libpam-runtime libio-pty-perl libmd5-perl apt-show-versions libapt-pkg-perl
   3. Install the Webmin DEB package you downloaded with the dpkg utility
   4. Check the IP address of your system
   5. Using a web browser on your HOST (i.e. Windows) system visit https://your-ubuntu-server-ip-address:10000
   6. Login to the Webmin interface with the username "root" and your system root password
3. Install Apache 2, PHP5 and MySQL on your Ubuntu Server System
   1. Install these packages on your Ubuntu Server system
      • apache2 mysql-server php5 php5-mysql
   2. Login to the Webmin interface and "Refresh Modules" to get the Apache Webserver and MySQL server to show up in Webmin
4. Install a WordPress blog or a MyBB bulletin board
   1. Download and install (following instructions included in the download) the WordPress or MyBB software on your webserver. Note that this will involve creating a MySQL database.
   2. Make sure that you can access and use your web application through a browser on your host system accessing http://your-ubuntu-server-ip-address