269 lines
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269 lines
16 KiB
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<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
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<html><head><title>index</title></head>
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<body>
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<blockquote>
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<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Times New Roman;"></span>
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<h1><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">1.
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Introduction</span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></h1>
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<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Times New Roman;"></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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</span>
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<h2><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">1.1 Purpose
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of this Guide</span><span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Times New Roman;"></span></h2>
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<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Times New Roman;"></span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This
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document represented in the form of a </span><i style="font-family: Times New Roman;">Guide</i><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">, is intended to help
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those
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Windows, OpenSolaris and Linux users who believe in the method
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of
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"learning by doing". Multiple-booting systems is not an exact
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science. You come across a document, you read it, find it interesting,
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do it
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yourself, make mistakes and then finally you achieve the desired aim.
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That is
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how you're supposed to learn. That is how I learnt. That is how the
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UNIX
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experts learnt a long time ago! Learning by doing!</span>
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<p style="font-family: Times New Roman;" class="Quotations">By
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the end of this document, you would have a clear
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understanding of the basic topics required for successfully installing
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and
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configuring three different OSes on a single hard
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disk of a
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computer. I've tried my level best to describe each and every topic in
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a clear
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and easily understandable simple language.</p>
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<p style="font-family: Times New Roman;" class="Quotations">Most
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multi-booting installation HOWTOs and guides available on the
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Internet are incomplete
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because either they assume too much leaving the readers to do most of
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the
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difficult stuff themselves or are blatantly simple. I've tried my best
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to find
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a perfect balance between the two!<span style="font-weight: bold; font-family: Times New Roman;"></span><br>
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<br style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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</p>
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<h2><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">1.2
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What is
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Multiple-booting?
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</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">The
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Webster's
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New World Computer Dictionary (9th edition)
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by Bryan Pfaffenberger, defines the term "dual-booting" as: 'A
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computer that enables the user to choose between two </span>OSes<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">
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at boot
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time'. Rightly so. Considering this definition as our boilerplate, we
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may frame
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our own definition of a "multiple-booting" or (in short) a multi-boot
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system i.e., a computer that enables the user to choose between more
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than two O</span>Ses<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"> at boot time. </span>
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<p style="font-family: Times New Roman;" class="Quotations">This
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document explains how three varying OSes
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can be successfully installed and configured on the same hard disk of a
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computer thus enabling it to become a "multi-boot" system.
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The OSes chosen for this illustration include: Microsoft
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Windows XP, OpenSolaris 2008.11 and CentOS 5.2.
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I would install a Microsoft Windows OS first, then proceed
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installing OpenSolaris and finally round-off by installing CentOS. <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gnu.org/">GNU</a>
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<a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub.html" target="_blank">GRUB</a> is the boot loader of choice.<br>
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<br>
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</p>
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<h2>1.3 Multi-booting Pros and
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Cons</h2>
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An idea or thought as: <i>Hey! Dual and multi-booting
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computer systems have advantages only and absolutely no disadvantage</i>
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is
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wrong. Often an important question is: <i>Why would someone need
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to multi-boot
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a PC? Where does it make sense to multi-boot a PC?</i> The answer
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to this
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question is simple: <b>Multi-booting systems only make sense
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where you would
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like to experiment with a number of configurations (or OS in general)
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than you
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have computers for and more significantly where <span style="text-decoration: underline; color: red;">data is NOT
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at risk</span>. </b><br>
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<p class="Quotations">Let us consider a situation like
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this: Peter is a software programmer who works from home; has a single
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PC that runs Debian Linux. His significant documents
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and downloaded
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files from the Internet are stored on it. He now decides to learn and
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practice
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hacking the FreeBSD Kernel. Thus, he decides to make his PC a dual-boot
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system.
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<b><u>Converting one's only or in other words, the
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primary
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PC at home or at
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work into a dual or multi-booting system is a bad choice.</u></b>
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If a primary
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home PC must be used as a dual or multi-booting system, it will be much
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safer
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to add a second hard disk and leave the first relatively untouched. A
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powerful
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boot loader like <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/grub/grub.html" target="_blank">GRUB</a> will allow booting from the other hard
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disk. </p>
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<p class="Quotations">I personally have a test lab setup
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at home, with multiple
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PCs ranging from PI, PII, PIII to PIV running Windows XP (for playing
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games), Red Hat
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Enterprise Linux (for RHCE exam preparation), CentOS (used for doing
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office work at home), OpenSolaris (tweaking here-n-there), Ubuntu (do
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most of my daily tasks like checking mail in Evolution, surfing the
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Net and so on). One or more of these machines which does not
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have
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any significant data on themselves, is multi-booted. <b><u>This
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can be considered as an ideal
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situation for playing
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around with multi-booting.<o:p></o:p></u></b></p>
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<b><u><span style="color: red;">NOTE:</span></u><span style="color: red;"> Multi-booting Windows with
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OpenSolaris and CentOS on the same hard disk can lead
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to a <span style="font-style: italic;">fatal</span> hard disk crash where
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all data
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contained therein could be lost! You have been warned! Backup any
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significant data that you maybe having.</span></b><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br>
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<br>
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</span></span>
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<h2>1.4 List of Assumptions<span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span></h2>
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<ul>
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<li>The reader
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possesses an intermediate (i.e. theoretical
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& practical) level of experience of partitioning hard disks
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utilizing
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Microsoft fdisk, BSD style partition table editor, Linux fdisk and so
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on.<span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span></li>
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<li><span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span>The
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reader
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understands hard disk geometries, concept of
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a primary partition, an extended partition, logical disks within an
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extended
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partition; Linux disk naming and partitioning schemes, BSD style disk
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labeling
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and partitioning schemes.<span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span></li>
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<li><span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span>The
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reader
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possesses an intermediate (i.e. theoretical
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& practical) level of experience of compiling and configuring
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custom Linux
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and OpenSolaris Kernels.<span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span></li>
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<li><span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span>The
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reader
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possesses knowledge of basic UNIX commands
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common to both Linux and BSD OS. E.g., mounting
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filesystems,
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editing configuration files etc.<span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span></li>
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<li><span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span>The
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reader is
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using an x86 or x86 compatible system.<span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span></li>
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<li><span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span>The
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reader is
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using a hard disk whose BIOS supports the
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<b>Logical Block Addressing (LBA)</b> mode of
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representing
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data on the disk. By
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using LBA mode, the 1024 Cylinder Limit on old hard disks is dealt with.</li>
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</ul>
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Before
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proceeding any further,
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make sure you browse through the <a href="faq.html">Frequently
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Asked
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Questions (FAQ)</a> section of the guide.<o:p></o:p><br>
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<br>
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<h2>1.5 Acknowledgements</h2>
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I wish to offer my sincerest regards
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and thanks to:<span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><br>
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</span></span>
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<ol>
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<li><span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><b style="">Guylhem
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Aznar
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<</b><a href="mailto:guylhem@LDP_NO_SPAM.metalab.unc.edu">guylhem at
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metalab
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dot unc dot edu</a><b style="">>,</b>
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Chief
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coordinator, main contact of TLDP for making this guide
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possible.</li>
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<li><b style="">Tabatha
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Persad</b>
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<<a href="mailto:tabatha@merlinmonroe.com">tabatha
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at merlinmonroe dot com</a>>,
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Linux Documentation Project Review Coordinator, for technical reviews
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and for
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answering my million queries.</li>
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<li><span style=""></span>To every
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Open-Source community contributor around the world.</li>
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</ol>
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Additionally, whilst writing this
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document, I did consult
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the following books, online journals, magazines and official papers:<span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><br>
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</span></span>
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<ol>
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<li><span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Operating-Systems-2nd-GOAL/dp/0130313580">Modern
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Operating Systems</a>, <i style="">by Andrew S.
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Tanenbaum</i><span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span></li>
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<li><span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"><span style="font-style: italic;"></span></span></span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Linux-Kernel-Daniel-Bovet/dp/0596002130">Understanding
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the Linux Kernel</a>, <i style="">by Daniel P.
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Bovet,
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Marco Cesati</i></li>
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<li><span style=""></span>CentOS online
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documentation at <a href="http://www.centos.org/docs/5" target="_blank">http://www.centos.org/docs/5</a></li>
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<li><span style=""><span style="font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; font-size: 7pt; line-height: normal; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"></span></span>OpenSolaris
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online documentation at <a href="http://opensolaris.org/os/documentation/" target="_blank">http://opensolaris.org/os/documentation/</a></li>
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<li>Free book authored for installing, configuring and
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managing
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OpenSolaris 2008.11, <a href="http://dlc.sun.com/osol/docs/downloads/minibook/en/820-7102-10-Eng-doc.pdf" target="_blank">http://dlc.sun.com/osol/docs/downloads/minibook/en/820-7102-10-Eng-doc.pdf</a><br><br>
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</li>
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</ol>
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<h2><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>1.6
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Legalese</h2>
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Trademarks are owned by their owners.
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<p class="Quotations">Although the information given in
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this document is believed
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to be correct, the author will accept no liability for the content of
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this
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document. Use the tips and examples given herein at your own risk.</p>
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<p class="Quotations"><b>Copyright (c) 2009,
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Subhasish Ghosh<o:p></o:p></b></p>
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<p class="Quotations">Permission is granted to copy,
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distribute and/or modify
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this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License,
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Version
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2.0 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
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with no
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Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A
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copy of
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the license is located at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html">www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html<br>
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<br>
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</a><span style="text-decoration: underline;"></span></p>
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<h2><span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span>1.7
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About the Author</h2>
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<p class="Quotations">The author, currently aged 28,
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possesses a decade of
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hacking / administering experience on Linux (Red Hat, Fedora,
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Slackware, Debian, ASP Linux, ALT Linux),
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<a target="_blank" href="http://www.freebsd.org/">FreeBSD</a>,
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<a target="_blank" href="http://www.openbsd.org/">OpenBSD</a>,
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<a target="_blank" href="http://www.netbsd.org/">NetBSD</a>,
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<a target="_blank" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SunOS">Sun
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OS 4.x</a>,
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<a target="_blank" href="http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/10/index.jsp">Sun
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Solaris</a>, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.opensolaris.org/">OpenSolaris</a>
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platforms. He holds a BTech
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degree in "Informatics & Computer Science engineering" from <a target="_blank" href="http://www.mpei.ru/StartPage.asp?Lang=rus">Moscow
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Power Engineering
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Institute (Technical University)</a>; studied for an MSc at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ox.ac.uk/">Oxford
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University</a>. Holds MCSD & MCSE certifications
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from M$; currently working towards <a href="http://www.redhat.com/certification/rhce/" target="_blank">Red Hat Certified Engineer (RHCE)</a>
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certification.</p>
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<p class="Quotations">To read the author's Linux-based
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programming articles on <a target="_blank" href="http://linux.omnipotent.net/index.php">Linux.com</a>,
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click <a target="_blank" href="http://linux.omnipotent.net/articlelist.php?credit=Subhasish+Ghosh">here</a>.</p>
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<p class="Quotations">The author is currently employed
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with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.123greetings.com/">www.123greetings.com</a>
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as TL - Email Deliverability Specialist. He
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could be
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reached at <<a href="mailto:sghosh.oxon@yahoo.co.uk">sghosh.oxon
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at yahoo dot co dot uk</a>><span style=""></span></p>
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<br>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline; font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span>
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<hr style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><div style="text-align: center;">
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