Assignment for Week 2: System Installation

Description

System installation is the first step in bringing a UNIX system online. In this assignment you will install the operating system of your choice on your group's computer system.

The most basic goals of system installation are getting the operating system loaded on to your computer, being able to boot the operating system from your computer's disk, and doing some essential configuration tasks.

Another goal that is an essential part of the installation procedure (although not obviously so) is to document the process of installation completely enough that you can duplicate a successful installation -- either to reconstruct your system in the event of disaster, or so you can install multiple systems with consistent configurations.

This assignment will also give you some basic experience with RCS (Revision Control System) since you will use RCS to create a revision history of your installation document. You will also use RCS in later assignments to track changes made on your system.

What you need to do

1. As a group decide which operating system (Linux, *BSD, Solaris, etc.) to install.
2. Consult the installation documentation for your operating system and develop a plan for an initial installation. If your operating system provides different components or categories of items to install, be sure to select things you will need later, such as the C compiler and development libraries and tools. If in doubt, install more rather than less.
3. Start by having one of your group members install the operating system based on that preliminary plan. Carefully note all installation choices (i.e. disk partitioning, install options, etc.). Once the installation is complete, document those installation choices by typing them into a text file on a UNIX host that has RCS installed and check it in with ci -u install.txt (assuming you name the document install.txt). On that first checkin you'll be prompted for a file description; subsequent checkins will prompt you for change comments. Transfer the RCS file install.txt,v to the next person in the group to perform an installation; the RCS file is pretty much plain text, so you can email it as an attachment, place it in a web page for download, or even have the recipient copy it from the sender if they both have UNIX accounts on the same system. Try to make your document complete enough that the next person to do an installation doesn't have to ask the last person lots of questions.
4. Using the installation document as a guide, install the OS again. Based on that experience, update the installation document as necessary to clarify or correct details (Was the initial guess at partitioning good enough? Did your choices cause problems? What needed to be fixed and what else did you need to know?). Each succeeding person, once he or she receives install.txt,v, will need to check out install.txt with the command co -l install.txt), edit install.txt, check it back in with ci -u install.txt (don't forget to include a meaningful change comment!), and pass the updated install.txt,v to the next person.
5. Repeat the previous step until every person in your group has done at least one installation and provided a revision to your installation procedure document. If you think you need to repeat this more times than you have group members, feel free to do so. Remember, you'll have to live with the installation you create in this assignment for the rest of the class.

What to turn in

Please follow the assignment submission guidelines when turning in material.

1. The RCS file (whose name ends in ",v") for the last revision of your install document.
2. A brief discussion of your interesting experiences during the installation process and the development of your installation procedure document.

All of the above should be turned in by email by class time on Monday, July 7.

Each group member should also email to me separately their estimate of the percentage of the total work each group member (including themselves) contributed to this assignment, looking something like:

Alice: 40%
Bob: 30%
Carol: 30%

Class presentation/discussion

On Monday, July 7 I will take some time in class to have each group speak briefly about their experience with this assignment. Please cover your choice of operating system and your experiences in installation, specifically any significant problems you encountered in installation and how you had to revise your installation document as each group member attempted to use it for creating an installation.

Evaluation

I will be considering these things while grading your hand-in:

Your installation procedure document should be complete enough that a person with suitable experience could duplicate your installation. Note that generally more detail is better, i.e. rather than saying "Choose the default language", say "Choose the default language, English/US". It should also include information that can be used to verify the installation was performed correctly, i.e. besides just showing your choices for disk partitioning, include a description of the partition table resulting from the installation. The install document itself will be worth up to 7 of the 10 points possible.

I will be looking at the RCS log ("rlog install.txt") to make sure everyone in your group actually handled at least one revision each. This will count for the other 3 of the 10 points.

The in-class presentation will be worth up to 5 points. I will likely only deduct points if your group clearly lacks knowledge of what you did during the assignment.