Linux administration

CHAPTER 3: BOOTING AND SHUTTING DOWN

Topics we would cover…
• Boot Process
• BIOS
• MBR
• Bootloaders
• Kernel
• Bootstrapping
• The init program
• Runlevels
• RC scripts
• Enabling and disabling services
• Shutting down
What does Booting mean?
• In the simplest terms, booting means ‘Initializing the
Computer System’.
• Steps while booting:
 POST
 Locating and Initializing of peripherals
 Loading and starting of the OS.
• Example: Booting of modern computers
Why understand the boot process?
• Absolute control
• Customization
• Troubleshooting
Steps in the Boot Process
Boot process and BIOS
• When you turn on your PC, its runs a program called BIOS.
• Only way to communicate with the system components.
• Stored on EEPROM and it is not writable by the user.
• Functions performed by the BIOS after it loads-
 H/W diagnostics (POST)
 Search the boot drive
 Search for the MBR
 Findthe boot program and give up the control of the boot
process
 Boot program is nothing but the boot loader
• P.S: Booting is derived from the word ‘Bootstrapping’.
MBR
• Master Boot Record
• First 512 bytes of the boot drive
 446 bytes – Boot loader
 64 bytes – Partition table
2 bytes – magic number; used for
error detection.
• MBR code searches for first active
partition.
• Finds the boot loader (LILO or GRUB).
• Passes the control to the boot loader.
• Boot loader loads the O.S.
Boot loaders
• Needs for an OS to start on any standard PC.
• First s/w program to load after the PC starts.
• Responsible for handing over the control of the
system to the OS.
• Resides in MBR.
• Knows how to get the OS up and running.
• Popular loaders are GRUB and LILO
GRUB
• Grand Unified Boot loader.
• Default for most Linux distributions
• Can boot multiple OSs.
• Modular.
• Each stage has its own image file.
• Stage 1
• Stage 1.5 (Optional or depends upon the
system)
• Stage 2.
Stages of GRUB
• STAGE 1:
 Boots up the grub at the first place
 Stored in MBR or boot sector of a partition
 Image file is named stage1.
 It will load stage1.5 or stage2 directly.
• Stage 2:
 Has two images (1.5 and 2)
 Stage 1.5 – bridge between stage1 and stage2
 Stage 1.5 allows the GRUB to access various file systems.
 The image file is named as X_Stage_1_5, where X = file
system
 Will help to locate stage2 image
Stage2 Cont…

• Core of the GRUB

• Contains actual code to load the Kernel which in turn
will load the OS
• Displays boot menu options
• Also contains GRUB shell where commands can be
entered while booting
• Other files like stage2_eltorito is used for booting via CD-
ROM
• Ngrub and pxegrub are used for network boot.
GRUB config file
• Location: /boot/grub/grub.conf
• Stores info about what will be displayed at the boot-time grapgical screen
• Controlls if we can see the graphical screen at all.
GRUB
LILO
• Like GRUB, LILO also allows loading multiple OSs.
• Allows choosing multiple kernel versions for
trying
• Config file: (/etc/lilo.conf)
• Will use the config file for boot menu options
• Loads the kernel and passes the control to it
• Was default loader before.
LILO
Kernel
• Kernel prepares the system memory for use.
• It investigates all the hardware.
• Uncompresses the initrd in ram.
• Mounts it.
• After the kernel has configured all the
system devices and mounted the system
drives, it runs the init command.
The init program
• First non-kernel process with PID = 1
• Reads config file /etc/inittab to determine the default run
level
• In the config file ‘initdefault’ denotes the default run level
• 1st script to be run by the init program is
‘/etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit’
 Starts swap, examines file system and performs other initialization
• Next script is ‘/etc/rc.d/rc’
 Responsible for starting and stopping services when the run level changes
and determining the new run level
 Has sub directories for each run level
 Sub directories contain scripts to start and stop services for that particular run
level
• View the file using
#cat /etc/inittab
Run levels
• They are essential ‘states‘ that allow services to be started
or stopped depending upon the run level you are in.
• /etc/inittab file shows the default run level.
• There are total 7 run levels numbered 0 to 6.
• Changing the system Run level in the inittab file.
• ‘Initdefault’
• Each run level has a directory /etc/rc.d/rc#.d (# is from 0
to 6)
• These directories contain scripts known as RC scripts(Run
Commands).
RC Scripts
• RC scripts are responsible for starting or stopping services depending
upon the run level.
• Huge number of services to be managed and hence RC scripts are
used.
• Subdirectories for each runlevel exist in /etc/rc.d
• These subdirectories contain symbolic links to scripts in /etc/rc.d/init
directory
• Scripts are prefixed with K or S
• Two digit numbers are used to enforce order
• /etc/rc.d/rc invokes the scripts in numerical order
• Scripts starting with K take stop as argument
• Scripts starting with S take start as argument
example

#/etc/rc.d/init.d/saslauthd stop
#/etc/rc.d/init.d/sshd start
Enabling and disabling services
• chkconfig command for service management
• Syntax: chkconfig [option] service_name
Options:
a. --list [name]: Shows the status of the service at each runlevel
E.g. # chkconfig --list sshd
b. --add <name>: Adds a service to be managed by the chkconfig command
E.g. # chkconfig --add sshd
c. --del <name>: Removes a service from being managed by the chkconfig
command
E.g. # chkconfig --del sshd
d. --level <levels>: Enables or disables the service at the given levels
E.g. #chkconfig --level 4 sshd on
e. <name> <on|off|reset> Enables or disables the service at levels 2-5
E.g. #chkconfig sshd on
Contd..

Using service command for service management

Syntax: service <--status-all | service_name CMD>
Examples:
#service sshd status
#service sshd start
#service sshd stop
 Shutting down
• Root has the permission to shutdown the server
• When the shutdown command is issued, the following happens:
 Users who are logged in, receive a notice
 Logins after the shutdown command will not be allowed
 SIGTERM is issued to the services
• /sbin/shutdown -h now will shut down the system immediately
• /sbin/shutdown -r now will start the shutdown process and reboot the
system