path: root/en/appendix/files.xml

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 <sect1 id="linuxdevices"><title>Linux Devices</title>
<para>

In Linux you have various special files in
<filename>/dev</filename>. These files are called device files. In
the Unix world accessing hardware is different.  There you have a
special file which actually runs a driver which in turn accesses the
hardware. The device file is an interface to the actual system
component. Files under <filename>/dev</filename> also behave
differently than ordinary files. Below are the most important device
files listed.

</para><para>

<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
<row>
  <entry><filename>fd0</filename></entry>
  <entry>First Floppy Drive</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>fd1</filename></entry>
  <entry>Second Floppy Drive</entry>
</row>
</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>

<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
<row>
  <entry><filename>hda</filename></entry>
  <entry>IDE Hard disk / CD-ROM on the first IDE port (Master)</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>hdb</filename></entry>
  <entry>IDE Hard disk / CD-ROM on the first IDE port (Slave)</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>hdc</filename></entry>
  <entry>IDE Hard disk / CD-ROM on the second IDE port (Master)</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>hdd</filename></entry>
  <entry>IDE Hard disk / CD-ROM on the second IDE port (Slave)</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>hda1</filename></entry>
  <entry>First partition of the first IDE hard disk</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>hdd15</filename></entry>
  <entry>Fifteenth partition of the fourth IDE hard disk</entry>
</row>
</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>

<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
<row>
  <entry><filename>sda</filename></entry>
  <entry>SCSI Hard disk with lowest SCSI ID (e.g. 0)</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>sdb</filename></entry>
  <entry>SCSI Hard disk with next higher SCSI ID (e.g. 1)</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>sdc</filename></entry>
  <entry>SCSI Hard disk with next higher SCSI ID (e.g. 2)</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>sda1</filename></entry>
  <entry>First partition of the first SCSI hard disk</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>sdd10</filename></entry>
  <entry>Tenth partition of the fourth SCSI hard disk</entry>
</row>
</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>

<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
<row>
  <entry><filename>sr0</filename></entry>
  <entry>SCSI CD-ROM with the lowest SCSI ID</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>sr1</filename></entry>
  <entry>SCSI CD-ROM with the next higher SCSI ID</entry>
</row>
</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>

<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
<row>
  <entry><filename>ttyS0</filename></entry>
  <entry>Serial port 0, COM1 under MS-DOS</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>ttyS1</filename></entry>
  <entry>Serial port 1, COM2 under MS-DOS</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>psaux</filename></entry>
  <entry>PS/2 mouse device</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>gpmdata</filename></entry>
  <entry>Pseudo device, repeater data from GPM (mouse) daemon</entry>
</row>
</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>

<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
<row>
  <entry><filename>cdrom</filename></entry>
  <entry>Symbolic link to the CD-ROM drive</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>mouse</filename></entry>
  <entry>Symbolic link to the mouse device file</entry>
</row>
</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>

<informaltable><tgroup cols="2"><tbody>
<row>
  <entry><filename>null</filename></entry>
  <entry>Everything pointed to this device will disappear</entry>
</row><row>
  <entry><filename>zero</filename></entry>
  <entry>One can endlessly read zeros out of this device</entry>
</row>
</tbody></tgroup></informaltable>

</para>

  <sect2>
<title>Setting Up Your Mouse</title>

<para>

The mouse can be used in both the Linux console (with gpm) and the X window
environment. The two uses can be made compatible if the gpm repeater is used
to allow the signal to flow to the X server as shown:

<informalexample><screen>
mouse =&gt; /dev/psaux  =&gt; gpm =&gt; /dev/gpmdata -&gt; /dev/mouse =&gt; X
         /dev/ttyS0             (repeater)        (symlink)
         /dev/ttyS1
</screen></informalexample>

Set the repeater protocol to be raw (in <filename>/etc/gpm.conf</filename>) while
setting X to the original mouse protocol in <filename>/etc/X11/XF86Config</filename>
or <filename>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</filename>.

</para><para>

This approach to use gpm even in X has advantages when the mouse is
unplugged inadvertently.  Simply restarting gpm with

<informalexample><screen>
# /etc/init.d/gpm restart
</screen></informalexample>

will re-connect the mouse in software without restarting X.

</para><para>

If gpm is disabled or not installed with some reason, make sure to set X to
read directly from the mouse device such as /dev/psaux. For details, refer
to the 3-Button Mouse mini-Howto at
<filename>/usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt/mini/3-Button-Mouse.gz</filename>,
<userinput>man gpm</userinput>,
<filename>/usr/share/doc/gpm/FAQ.gz</filename>, and
<ulink url="&url-xfree86;current/mouse.html">README.mouse</ulink>.

</para><para arch="powerpc">

For PowerPC, in <filename>/etc/X11/XF86Config</filename> or
<filename>/etc/X11/XF86Config-4</filename>, set the mouse device to
<userinput>"/dev/input/mice"</userinput>.

</para><para arch="powerpc">

Modern kernels give you the capability to emulate a three-button mouse
when your mouse only has one button. Just add the following lines to
<filename>/etc/sysctl.conf</filename> file.

<informalexample><screen>
# 3-button mouse emulation
# turn on emulation
/dev/mac_hid/mouse_button_emulation = 1
# Send middle mouse button signal with the F11 key
/dev/mac_hid/mouse_button2_keycode = 87
# Send right mouse button signal with the F12 key
/dev/mac_hid/mouse_button3_keycode = 88
# For different keys, use showkey to tell you what the code is.
</screen></informalexample>

</para>
  </sect2>
 </sect1>

 <sect1 id="tasksel-size-list">
 <title>Disk Space Needed for Tasks</title>

<!-- Note for d-i and manual maintainers
 Sizes of tasks should be determined by running "tasksel new" on a system
 that been fully installed without selecting any tasks. By selecting a
 task together with the "manual selection" option, aptitude will be started
 and show the sizes for the task. After deselecting the packages to be
 installed, quit aptitude and repeat for other tasks.
 Space requirements need to be determined from tasksel as tasksel will not
 install recommended packages while selecting a task from aptitude will.
-->

<para>

The base installation for i386 using the default 2.4 kernel,
including all standard packages, requires 573MB of disk space.

</para><para>

The following table lists sizes reported by aptitude for the tasks listed
in tasksel. Note that some tasks have overlapping constituents, so the
total installed size for two tasks together may be less than the total
obtained by adding up the numbers.

</para><para>

Note that you will need to add the sizes listed in the table to the size
of the base installation when determining the size of partitions.
Most of the size listed as <quote>Installed size</quote> will end up in
<filename>/usr</filename>; the size listed as <quote>Download size</quote>
is (temporarily) required in <filename>/var</filename>.

</para><para>

<informaltable><tgroup cols="4">
<thead>
<row>
  <entry>Task</entry>
  <entry>Installed size (MB)</entry>
  <entry>Download size (MB)</entry>
  <entry>Space needed to install (MB)</entry>
</row>
</thead>

<tbody>
<row>
  <entry>Desktop</entry>
  <entry>1392</entry>
  <entry>460</entry>
  <entry>1852</entry>
</row>

<row>
  <entry>Web server</entry>
  <entry>36</entry>
  <entry>12</entry>
  <entry>48</entry>
</row>

<row>
  <entry>Print server</entry>
  <entry>168</entry>
  <entry>58</entry>
  <entry>226</entry>
</row>

<row>
  <entry>DNS server</entry>
  <entry>2</entry>
  <entry>1</entry>
  <entry>3</entry>
</row>

<row>
  <entry>File server</entry>
  <entry>47</entry>
  <entry>24</entry>
  <entry>71</entry>
</row>

<row>
  <entry>Mail server</entry>
  <entry>10</entry>
  <entry>3</entry>
  <entry>13</entry>
</row>

<row>
  <entry>SQL database</entry>
  <entry>66</entry>
  <entry>21</entry>
  <entry>87</entry>
</row>

</tbody>
</tgroup></informaltable>

<note><para>

The <emphasis>Desktop</emphasis> task will install both the Gnome and KDE
desktop environments.

</para></note>

</para><para>

If you install in a language other than English, <command>tasksel</command>
may automatically install a <firstterm>localization task</firstterm>, if one
is available for your language. Space requirements differ per language;
you should allow up to 200MB in total for download and installation.

</para>
 </sect1>