[LBo] COURSE: Chapter 4. Processes

[Stefan Waidele]

Good evening everybody!

So, I am half a day late with this week's kickoff...I hope I won't fail 
the course... :)

Good to see that some people notice that this mail is late. Here we go:

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*** What will we be reading this week? ***
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Chapter 4:
http://linuxbasics.org/course/book/chap_04

For those of you who would like to have one big page to read, you can
view the daily snapshot at:
http://linuxbasics.org/course/book/allof_chapter_04

If you have some things that you want to clarify, just ask on the list.
Don't be shy. There are no silly or stupid questions.

Also, if there are more questions on chapter 3, keep on asking on the 
mailing-list. The fact that we move on to chapter 4 does not mean that 
chapter 3 is suddenly off-topic.


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*** Things to be done this week ***
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Let's pretend we are all using "init" :)

Ubuntu Edgy Eft has changed the system startup from the way it was done 
on UNIX System V (SysV-init) to "Upstart". Some have reported that they 
do not have an "inittab" anymore. I am using Edgy and I have an inittab. 
This could be bacause I installed Dapper and upgraded to Edgy. This 
stuff is brand-new, so those who have a system without an inittab might 
not be able to follow this chapter "hands on", but you will still learn 
a lot about how things work in Unix/Linux.

Even if things _should_ be about to change, it is good to know how "it 
used to be".

For those who want to read up on Upstart, this should be the first place 
to go: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReplacementInit

Just some pointers to related pages on the LinuxBasics.org website:

http://linuxbasics.org/tutorials/advanced/realworld/killing_my_software
http://linuxbasics.org/tutorials/advanced/realworld/puzzling_commandlines

Some offsite links for the curious:

"The Linux Booting Process Unveiled" which also covers Slackware, which 
has a BSD-style init-process:
http://www.pycs.net/lateral/stories/23.html

Another classic is the "From-PowerUp-To-Bash-Prompt-HOWTO" at:
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/From-PowerUp-To-Bash-Prompt-HOWTO.html


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*** Anything else? ***
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We will think about how we can put up a structured answer-guide. It will 
probably be part of the LBo-Wiki. But give us some days to come up with 
a really clever scheme for this guide :)

You know this already:
In case you have comments or questions about the course, don't hesitate
to contact us at TheCrew at LinuxBasics.org

And, of course, post your questions and comments about Linux or the
LBook to the list: qna at LinuxBasics.org

Yours,

Anita, Jisao, Sam and Stefan
TheCrew at LinuxBasics.org