Computing Systems

● Julian Old (Module Leader) CA228 0113 81 23752

J.Old@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
● Gary Roper Part Time
G.Roper@leedsbeckett.ac.uk
Module Handbook
Today’s Objectives

● The Operating System Boot

Process
● Image Management System

Computing Systems
Weekly Schedule

In the Module Handbook

The Operating System Boot
process
An Operating System (OS) …

● Is a suite of software and data that

runs and manages computer hardware
and resources.
● Provides services for running apps,
interacting with users and networking
● Is found on many types of computer
● PC, Mainframe, mobile, game consoles,
netbooks, appliances ...
● Examples:
● Windows, Linux, iOS, Android

Computing Systems
Starting the Device and OS

● Called Booting (up)
● Sequence of operations that a computer
performs when power is switched on
● Activates hardware
components and loads the
appropriate software so that
a user can interact with the
machine

Computing Systems
PC Boot Sequence detail
Booting is at least a two stage process:

● The system Basic Input Output

System (BIOS) loads a small boot
program from the boot sector of
the default boot device.
● The BIOS can be interrupted before
this happens and told to boot from a
different device.
● The boot sector is the first 512 bytes
of the device and is called the
Master Boot Record (MBR)

Computing Systems
MBR
● The MBR program is usually
installed as part of the operating
system installation.
● When executed (run) it may load the
operating system (kernel) directly or
load a more sophisticated 2nd stage
boot program which could for
example select one of several
operating systems to load (so this
would be a three stage process)

Computing Systems
Boot Loaders :

Typically provided with the operating system:

● Common Windows boot loaders are NTLDR (NT
LoaDeR) and BOOTMGR (Boot manager)

● Common Linux boot loaders are LILO (Linux

Loader), GRUB and GRUB2 (GRand Unified
Bootloader)

Computing Systems
Image Management System

Review of some points from the

lecture
Lab Session 1 KVM Switch etc

● In this week’s lecture you learned about

the IMS lab setup
● SO …
● What is a KVM switch?
● How do you know which machine your K,V
and M are connected to?
● What is F12 and what is it used for.
● What is a PXE menu (Preboot Execution
Environment)

Computing Systems
System Images
● A copy of the entire disk including the MBR is stored
in some non volatile form such as a file.
● Schools Image Management System (IMS)
● Allows these images to be saved and restored at a
later date.
● Allows staff to provide template images for you.
● IMS has many TiB of storage and a very fast
network.
● So you can ‘own’ the operating system you use in the
IMS labs but first you have to Restore it to your
station
● Full details are in the Hand out but briefly…
Computing Systems
Lab Introduction
● Two Machines – 1 KVM switch
● IMS - Remote Storage of Images
● JG202, JG204 and JG207
● F12 and the PXE menu
● Login and the IMS menus
● Lab 1 (Hand out)
● Introduction to Managing images and using a Dual-
Boot System –
00CSDB2016 “CS_Centos_Win7_dual_boot”
template

Computing Systems
Questions

● Now or as they arise during the Practical

session

Computing Systems