Section 8.1. Hardware and Architecture (Topic 1.101)

8.1. Hardware and Architecture (Topic 1.101)

8.1.1. Review questions

1. Describe the general functions of the PC BIOS and how its embedded routines are used by your boot loader.

2. What is the significance of the 1024 hard disk cylinder to Linux boot loaders?

3. Name three files in the /proc filesystem that contain information on system resource allocations.

4. Which of the following SCSI interfaces has the fastest data transfer rates: SCSI-1, SCSI-2, Ultra SCSI, or Fast-Wide SCSI?

5. What command is used to obtain serial port information on a Linux system?

6. What driver is used for USB hard drives?

8.1.2. Exercises

1. Boot your PC and enter the BIOS configuration utility. Review settings for correct hardware date and time.

2. Examine the enabled serial and parallel ports. Can you manually configure the interrupts and I/O ports assigned to them?

3. Review the options available for system boot. Does the system support booting from a CD-ROM? Change the default boot order.

4. Examine your modem and sound external interfaces on your PC. Are the devices built into your motherboard or independent expansion cards? If it is a card, identify if it is ISA or PCI.

5. Determine if your installed modem is a software modem.

6. If you have a SCSI controller, reboot your PC and enter the SCSI BIOS. What device number is selected, if any, for boot? How are the controller's onboard terminators configured? What data rate is the controller configured for?

7. Examine the kernel's interrupt assignments by executing cat /proc/interrupts. Are your devices reported correctly? Are there any suprises?

8. Review output from cat /proc/dma and cat /proc/ioports (discussed in the section "Using the /proc filesystem" in Chapter 3)

9. Create a list of all installed PCI devices using lspci. Note the devices built into your motherboard.

10. Use minicom to attach to your modem. For example:

     # minicom /dev/modem Welcome to minicom 1.82 OPTIONS: History Buffer, F-key Macros, Search History Buffer, I18n Compiled on Mar 21 1999, 21:10:56. Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys AT S7=45 S0=0 L1 V1 X4 &c1 E1 Q0 OK AT OK 

    
    

    Does the modem respond to the AT command with OK? try manually dialing your ISP and watch the output of the modem.

11. Connect a USB device (mouse, printer, etc.) to your system. Run lsmod to verify that the appropriate driver loaded.