Chapter 3-Introduction to Linux Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by AEAE00

Think of a refrig­erator that has multiple shelves that can be used for storing various items. These shelves help you organize the grocery items by shape, size, type, etc. The same concept applies to a filesy­stem, which is the embodiment of a method of storing and organizing arbitrary collec­tions of data in a human-­usable form.

Different Types of Filesy­stems Supported by Linux:

Conven­tional disk filesy­stems: ext2, ext3, ext4, XFS, Btrfs, JFS, NTFS, etc.
Flash storage filesy­stems: ubifs, JFFS2, YAFFS, etc.
Database filesy­stems
Special purpose filesy­stems: procfs, sysfs, tmpfs, debugfs, etc.
This section will describe the standard filesystem layout shared by most Linux distri­but­ions.

A partition is a logical part of the disk, whereas a filesystem is a method of storin­g/f­inding files on a hard disk (usually in a partit­ion). By way of analogy, you can think of filesy­stems as being like family trees that show descen­dants and their relati­ons­hips, while the partitions are like different families (each of which has its own tree).

A comparison between filesy­stems in Windows and Linux is given in the following table:

Windows Linux
Partit­ion-- Disk1 ==/dev/sda1
Filesystem type --NTFS­/FAT32 ==EXT3/E­XT4­/XFS...
Mounting Parame­ters-- DriveL­etter ==MountPoint
Base Folder where OS is stored C drive /

Linux systems store their important files according to a standard layout called the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, or FHS. You can download a document that provides much greater detail here, or look up the original source documents on the Linux Foundation website. This standard ensures that users can move between distri­butions without having to re-learn how the system is organized.

Linux uses the ‘/’ character to separate paths (unlike Windows, which uses ‘\’), and does not have drive letters. New drives are mounted as direct­ories in the single filesy­stem, often under /media (so, for example, a CD-ROM disc labeled FEDORA might end up being found at /media­/FE­DORA, and a file README.txt on that disc would be at /media­/FE­DOR­A/R­EAD­ME.t­xt).

Have you ever wondered what happens in the background from the time you press the Power button until the Linux login prompt appears?

The Linux boot process is the procedure for initia­lizing the system. It consists of everything that happens from when the computer power is first switched on until the user interface is fully operat­ional.

Once you start using Linux, you will find that having a good unders­tanding of the steps in the boot process will help you with troubl­esh­ooting problems as well as with tailoring the computer's perfor­mance to your needs.