1. Determine and configure hardware settings

Introduction

• /sys/, /proc/, /dev/
• modprobe, lsmod, lspci, lsusb
• BIOS, UEFI
• 2 commands to identify connected devices: lspci for PCI and lsusb for USB. May need root privileges to execute.
• Hardware part requires kernel module to control the device. Linux kernel modules related to hardware devices are called drivers.
• Linux system can have many loaded kernel modules, managed by kmod package.
• lsmod command shows all loaded modules. Output of lsmod has 3 columns: Module, Size, Used by.
• Some modules require other modules to work properly.
• modprobe command can be used to load and to unload kernel modules. modprobe -r will unload a module and its related modules if they are note being used by a running process.
• While the kernel is being loaded, module parameters can be changed.
• modinfo command use the module name as only argument, show description, file, author, license, identification, dependencies and parameters.
• Customized module parameters can be made persistent by including in file /etc/modprobe.conf or individual .conf files in directory /etc/modprobe.d/.
• File /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf can be used to block the loading of module.
• Hardware information stored by operating system is kept in files in directories /proc and /sys. These directories are mount points to pseudo-filesystems, they only present in RAM space used by kernel, storing runtime configuration and process information. These filesystems only exist while system is running.
• /proc directory contains information about running processes and hardware resources. For example: /proc/cpuinfo, /proc/interrupts, /proc/iooprts, /proc/dma.
• /sys directory has similar roles to /proc. /sys stores device information and kernel data related to hardware. /proc also contains information about kernel data structures, including running processes and configuration.

2. Boot the system

Change runlevels/boot targets and shutdown or reboot system