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The Linux filesystem explained

By Mayank Sarup <mayank@freeos.com> 

The first thing that most new users shifting from Windows will find

confusing is navigating the Linux filesystem. The Linux filesystem 

does things a lot more differently than the Windows filesystem.

This article explains the differences and takes you through the 

layout of the Linux filesystem.

For starters, there is only a single hierarchal directory structure.

Everything starts from the root directory, represented by '/', and then

expands into sub-directories. Where DOS/Windows had various partitions and

then directories under those partitions, Linux places all the partitions

under the root directory by 'mounting' them under specific directories.

Closest to root under Windows would be c:.

Under Windows, the various partitions are detected at boot and assigned a

drive letter. Under Linux, unless you mount a partition or a device, the

system does not know of the existence of that partition or device. This

might not seem to be the easiest way to provide access to your partitions

or devices but it offers great flexibility.

This kind of layout, known as the unified filesystem, does offer several

advantages over the approach that Windows uses. Let's take the example of

the /usr directory. This directory off the root directory contains most of

the system executables. With the Linux filesystem, you can choose to mount

it off another partition or even off another machine over the network. The

underlying system will not know the difference because /usr appears to be

a local directory that is part of the local directory structure! How many

times have you wished to move around executables and data under Windows,

only to run into registry and system errors? Try moving c:windowssystem

to another partition or drive.

Another point likely to confuse newbies is the use of the frontslash '/'

instead of the backslash '' as in DOS/Windows. So c:windowssystem would

be /c/windows/system. Well, Linux is not going against convention here.

Unix has been around a lot longer than Windows and was the standard a lot

before Windows was. Rather, DOS took the different path, using '/' for

command-line options and '' as the directory separator.

To liven up matters even more, Linux also chooses to be case sensitive.

What this means that the case, whether in capitals or not, of the

characters becomes very important. So this is not the same as THIS or ThIs

for that matter. This one feature probably causes the most problems for

newbies.

We now move on to the layout or the directory structure of the Linux

filesystem. Given below is the result of a 'ls -p' in the root directory.

bin/ dev/ home/ lost+found/ proc/ sbin/ usr/

boot/ etc/ lib/ mnt/ root/ tmp/ var/

/sbin - This directory contains all the binaries that are essential to the

working of the system. These include system administration as well as

maintenance and hardware configuration programs. Find lilo, fdisk, init,

ifconfig etc here. These are the essential programs that are required by

all the users. Another directory that contains system binaries is /usr/sbin. 

This directory contains other binaries of use to the system administrator. 

This is where you will find the network daemons for your system along with 

other binaries that only the system administrator has access to, but which are

not required for system maintenance, repair etc.

/bin - In contrast to /sbin, the bin directory contains several useful

commands that are used by both the system administrator as well as

non-privileged users. This directory usually contains the shells like

bash, csh etc. as well as much used commands like cp, mv, rm, cat, ls. 

There also is /usr/bin, which contains other user binaries. These binaries 

on the other hand are not essential for the user. The binaries in /bin 

however, a user cannot do without.

/boot - This directory contains the system.map file as well as the Linux

kernel. Lilo places the boot sector backups in this directory.

/dev - This is a very interesting directory that highlights one important

characteristic of the Linux filesystem - everything is a file or a

directory. Look through this directory and you should see hda1, hda2 etc,

which represent the various partitions on the first master drive of the

system. /dev/cdrom and /dev/fd0 represent your CDROM drive and your floppy

drive. This may seem strange but it will make sense if you compare the

characteristics of files to that of your hardware. Both can be read from

and written to. Take /dev/dsp, for instance. This file represents your

speaker device. So any data written to this file will be re-directed to

your speaker. Try 'cat /etc/lilo.conf > /dev/dsp' and you should hear some

sound on the speaker. That's the sound of your lilo.conf file! Similarly,

sending data to and reading from /dev/ttyS0 ( COM 1 ) will allow you to

communicate with a device attached there - your modem.

/etc - This directory contains all the configuration files for your system.

Your lilo.conf file lies in this directory as does hosts, resolv.conf and

fstab. Under this directory will be X11 sub-directory which contains the

configuration files for X. More importantly, the /etc/rc.d directory

contains the system startup scripts. This is a good directory to backup

often. It will definitely save you a lot of re-configuration later if you

re-install or lose your current installation.

/home - Linux is a multi-user environment so each user is also assigned a

specific directory which is accessible only to them and the system

administrator. These are the user home directories, which can be found

under /home/username. This directory also contains the user specific

settings for programs like IRC, X etc.

/lib - This contains all the shared libraries that are required by system

programs. Windows equivalent to a shared library would be a DLL file.

/lost+found - Linux should always go through a proper shutdown. Sometimes

your system might crash or a power failure might take the machine down.

Either way, at the next boot, a lengthy filesystem check using fsck will

be done. Fsck will go through the system and try to recover any corrupt

files that it finds. The result of this recovery operation will be placed

in this directory. The files recovered are not likely to be complete or

make much sense but there always is a chance that something worthwhile is

recovered.

/mnt - This is a generic mount point under which you mount your filesystems

or devices. Mounting is the process by which you make a filesystem

available to the system. After mounting your files will be accessible

under the mount-point. This directory usually contains mount points or

sub-directories where you mount your floppy and your CD. You can also

create additional mount-points here if you want. There is no limitation to

creating a mount-point anywhere on your system but convention says that

you do not litter your file system with mount-points.

/opt - This directory contains all the software and add-on packages that

are not part of the default installation. Generally you will find KDE and

StarOffice here. Again, this directory is not used very often as it's

mostly a standard in Unix installations.

/proc - This is a special directory on your system. We have a more detailed

article on this one here.

/root - We talked about user home directories earlier and well this one is

the home directory of the user root. This is not to be confused with the

system root, which is directory at the highest level in the filesystem.

/tmp - This directory contains mostly files that are required temporarily.

Many programs use this to create lock files and for temporary storage of

data. On some systems, this directory is cleared out at boot or at

shutdown.

/usr - This is one of the most important directories in the system as it

contains all the user binaries. X and its supporting libraries can be

found here. User programs like telnet, ftp etc are also placed here.

/usr/doc contains useful system documentation. /usr/src/linux contains the

source code for the Linux kernel.

/var - This directory contains spooling data like mail and also the output

from the printer daemon. The system logs are also kept here in

/var/log/messages. You will also find the database for BIND in /var/named

and for NIS in /var/yp.

This was a short and basic look at the Linux filesystem. You do need to

have at least this basic knowledge of the layout of the filesystem to

fully utilize its potential. One good place to read about the filesystem

is this detailed document at www.pathname.com/fhs/1.2/fsstnd-toc.html that

specifies the standard structure of the Linux filesystem.

A new look for Windows  XP

Written by Ebta

For those who use Windows XP and may feel bored with such a view, at this time a variety of programs available that can change almost all display windows. When the show earlier Windows Vista, with the popular view Vista, so it appears the software such as Vista Transformation Pack.

Has not been long planned to show windows 7, and Windows XP users can also feel the look of Windows 7 this without having to install Windows 7 itself. We can also change the look into Ubuntu Linux XP or Mac OS X.

1. Windows Vista

To change the display windows XP to Vista, is likely to provide much. The one that is never try Vista Transformation Pack, and it is not so burdensome performance computers. Accordingmegaleecher who have reviewed me some kind of program, which is tebaik Vista Skin Pack 5.0.

There it is said that this is one of the Transformation pack the smallest and most low-resource use a computer. Changes are located in different places, such as icon, animation, images, menus, behavior and so forth. Can be installed on Windows XP SP1/SP2/SP3, Media Center Edition or Windows 2003. In addition there is the menu to restore to restore the original appearance.

Download Vista Skin Pack 5.0 (34.9 MB) via megaleecher

2. Windows 7

Although the final version of Windows 7 has not been released, if you want to feel and see how the view XP / Vista-like Windows 7 that can use the "Windows 7 Desktop Theme". Because the detail information about Windows 7 itself is not complete, so this may look quite similar to Vista, with some changes. But if you want more details can try "Windows Vienna Transformation Pack"

For Windows 7 theme may only change some of the main course, while Windows Transformation Pack 7/Vienna more complex, include: Vienna Navigator, Cool Superbar, Windows 7 Visual Styles, Sounds, Windows 7 wallpapers, Cursor Set, Windows Vienna, logon and Screen Windows Vienna Bootskin, so much larger in size.

Download the Windows 7 Desktop Theme (5.12 MB)
Download the Windows Vienna Transformation Pack (59.2 MB)

3. Ubuntu Linux

Windows with a view windows may be normal, but with a view Linux may still rarely used. With Ubuntu Customization pack, we can change the Windows XP look into Ubuntu.

Customization Pack will change many things, such as the visual display, icon, boot screen, cursor, display logon, Wallpaper, Screensaver, Ubuntu Sound, hours, 3D Desktop Manager and other.

Download Ubuntu Customization Pack (26.1 MB)

4. Mac OS X

Already familiar with Linux or Windows? May view the Mac OS X can refresh the view that feels boring. With "On Leopard mods XP" Windows XP can look at the total rombak look like Mac OS X.

Unlike other Transformation pack, if this is not just a theme / skin, but change some of the core Windows system files, such as explorer.exe, shell32.dll, and other mydocs.dll. And just to run Windows XP SP2, English version. So before using this software, be sure to learn membackup data and instructions that are described therein.

To download, please open the following link and click the Download the left, if it appears the picture (sponsor) just click the upper-right corner of "Click here to continue to deviantART deviantART" to download the file in question.

Download Link (13.91 MB)

Needs to install the software before the software over-read the instructions that are included in it and understood well, including the problems or consequences that may arise and how to address them later.

Reference: Windows 7 Theme, Ubuntu Customization Pack For Windows XP, Windows XP Theme Pack, Windows 7 Codenamed Vienna Transformation Pack Theme

How to Use Windows XP "System Restore"
by: George Whitecraft

Whether it's the word processor, spreadsheet, or financial package that isn't working, most people do not know that Microsoft Windows XP has a built in feature that just may come and save the day. That feature is called "System Restore."

Basically, System Restore is like a little hound that runs behind the scenes taking "snapshots" of various parts of the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. So, if a part of Microsoft Windows XP stops working one day, the System Restore utility is able to reference one of the "snapshots" it took and restore your system from a previous day (a day when your computer worked). It's kind of like going back in time to a day when your computer worked. All your current data (Microsoft Word files, etc.) are still retained, so you don't have to worry about losing any present day files.

In order to restore your computer just follow these simple steps:

1. Close any open programs.

2. Click on the Windows "Start" button (normally located on the bottom of your computer desktop)

3. Click on "All Programs"

4. Click on "Accessories"

5. Click on "System Tools"

6. Then click on "System Restore"

7. At this point the System Restore wizard will launch. You will have two options:

a. "Restore my system from an earlier date"

b. "Create a system restore point"

If you just need to restore your system and get it working correctly again, just select option "a" and click "Next."

8. On this screen you can select a date from the calendar that you would like to try and restore from. So, if you knew that your computer worked fine two days ago, just pick that date on the calendar and click "Next." 9. The next screen is the confirmation window. Just verify the information on the screen and click "Next." Windows XP will then reboot and try to restore your system with the settings from the date you selected.

The System Restore process can take anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes depending on how much reconfiguration Windows XP needs to do and how fast of a PC you have. When System Restore is done, a screen will popup with the results of the restore. If it was successful, you can then log into the system and start using the computer again. Any quirky issues that you were having are now hopefully gone.

Now, on step 7b above, I mentioned the "Create a system restore point" option. This option is for when you want to force Windows XP to take a snapshot of your system just before you install a program or alter any system settings that you are not sure of. It is like a safety net for when you install any internet programs (sometimes riddled with spyware) or system drivers (video, audio, etc). If you want to revert back to a virgin state just create a restore point "before" installing any software. This way, if your machine starts acting weird, you can just restore your settings from the selected point.

With a little practice, the System Restore utility is easy to use and a great way to help ensure the safety of your computer.

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