OS Guide: Debian

Debian - Package management

Debian has introduced in the Linux world the .deb format for its packages, which are equivalent, but not compatible with the rpm packages.
The basic command tool used to install, remove, query and update packages is dpkg (corrisponds to the rpm program) but most Debian administrators use apt to manage the software on their system, because it brilliantly manage dependencies, updates, upgrades from stable to testing versions and handling of different download sources (there's a port of apt for rpm and tgz, and equivalent tools like yum or urpmi on rpm based systems).
dselect is another well known tool, which basically is a menu based frontend to dpkg, which presentes packages grouped in different cathegories.

APT logic is very simple, in /etc/apt/source.lst there's the list of the sources (local filsystem, http, ftp sites) for the deb packages to install or update on the system.
In /var/cache/apt/ are placed downloaded packages and the list of headers retrieved from sources.

Apt basic syntax
apt-get update - Retrieves the list of downloadable packages from the configured sources.
apt-get upgrade - Upgrades the locally installed packages that have more recent updates.
apt-get install synaptic - Installs the specified package (in this example "synaptic")
apt-get remove sendmail - Removes the specified package (checking for dependencies and keeping modified configuration files)
apt-get purge sendmail - Completely removes the specified package even modified configration files
apt-get -u dist-upgrade - Upgrades the complete system the a new Debian release.

There are several text and graphical front-ends that can help software management operations:
aptitude – Advanced text and command line front end for APT
synaptic – Attractive Gtk GUI front end for APT
dselect – Menu-driven package manager
tasksel – Task installer

Debian Sarge - Boot Messages

Debian stores (in /var/log) kernel speaks and userland service messages in several log files, with some information duplicated in two or more logs.
Kernel messages are stored in kern.log and dmesg (here are kept only the messages regarding the last boot.
Here follow some examples of a Debian Sarge running on a Toshiba satellite P10 laptop.

eva:/var/log# cat kern.log
or
eva:/var/log# cat dmesg
or
eva:/var/log# dmesg
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: klogd 1.4.1#15, log source = /proc/kmsg started.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Inspecting /boot/System.map-2.6.7-1-686
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Loaded 26725 symbols from /boot/System.map-2.6.7-1-686.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Symbols match kernel version 2.6.7.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: No module symbols loaded - kernel modules not enabled.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: T 2004
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 00000000000dc000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000001ff70000 (usable)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 000000001ff70000 - 000000001ff7a000 (ACPI data)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 000000001ff7a000 - 000000001ff80000 (ACPI NVS)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 000000001ff80000 - 0000000020000000 (reserved)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec10000 (reserved)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 00000000ff800000 - 00000000ffc00000 (reserved)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  BIOS-e820: 00000000fffffc00 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 0MB HIGHMEM available.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 511MB LOWMEM available.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: found SMP MP-table at 000f6cd0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: On node 0 totalpages: 130928
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:   DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:   Normal zone: 126832 pages, LIFO batch:16
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:   HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: DMI present.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: RSDP (v000 TOSCPL                                    ) @ 0x000f6ca0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: RSDT (v001 TOSCPL   RSDT   0x06040000  LTP 0x00000000) @ 0x1ff73273
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: FADT (v001 TOSCPL SPRGDALE 0x06040000 PTL  0x00000003) @ 0x1ff79ef7
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: MADT (v001 PTLTD  ^I APIC   0x06040000  LTP 0x00000000) @ 0x1ff79f6b
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: SSDT (v001 PTLTD  ACPIHT   0x06040000  LTP 0x00000001) @ 0x1ff79fc9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: DSDT (v001 TOSCPL SPRGDALE 0x06040000 MSFT 0x0100000e) @ 0x00000000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PM-Timer IO Port: 0x1008
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x00] lapic_id[0x00] enabled)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Processor #0 15:2 APIC version 20
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x01] enabled)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Processor #1 15:2 APIC version 20
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: WARNING: NR_CPUS limit of 1 reached.  Processor ignored.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x00] high edge lint[0x1])
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: LAPIC_NMI (acpi_id[0x01] high edge lint[0x1])
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x02] address[0xfec00000] global_irq_base[0x0])
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IOAPIC[0]: Assigned apic_id 2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 2, version 32, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Enabling APIC mode:  Flat.  Using 1 I/O APICs
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Built 1 zonelists
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Kernel command line: root=/dev/hda4 ro
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Initializing CPU#0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PID hash table entries: 2048 (order 11: 16384 bytes)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Detected 2993.611 MHz processor.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Using pmtmr for high-res timesource
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Memory: 511672k/523712k available (1515k kernel code, 11264k reserved, 659k data, 148k init, 0k highmem)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Calibrating delay loop... 5931.00 BogoMIPS
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Security Scaffold v1.0.0 initialized
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Dentry cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Inode-cache hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Mount-cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: CPU:     After generic identify, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: CPU:     After vendor identify, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: CPU: Trace cache: 12K uops, L1 D cache: 8K
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: CPU: L2 cache: 512K
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: CPU:     After all inits, caps: bfebfbff 00000000 00000000 00000080
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Intel machine check architecture supported.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: CPU0: Intel P4/Xeon Extended MCE MSRs (12) available
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: CPU0: Thermal monitoring enabled
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz stepping 09
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: enabled ExtINT on CPU#0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ESR value before enabling vector: 00000000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ESR value after enabling vector: 00000000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ENABLING IO-APIC IRQs
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: init IO_APIC IRQs
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  IO-APIC (apicid-pin) 2-16, 2-17, 2-18, 2-19, 2-20, 2-21, 2-22, 2-23 not connected.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ..TIMER: vector=0x31 pin1=0 pin2=-1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Using local APIC timer interrupts.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: calibrating APIC timer ...
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ..... CPU clock speed is 2992.0192 MHz.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ..... host bus clock speed is 199.0479 MHz.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: checking if image is initramfs...it isn't (ungzip failed); looks like an initrd
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Freeing initrd memory: 4536k freed
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 16
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfd984, last bus=2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Using configuration type 1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: Subsystem revision 20040326
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: Interpreter enabled
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Ignoring BAR0-3 of IDE controller 0000:00:1f.1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:1e.0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.AGP_._PRT]
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.HUB_._PRT]
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs *10)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs *10)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 5) *9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 5) *9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 10 11 12 14 15) *9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKF] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 10 11 12 14 15) *9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKG] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 10 11 12 14 15) *0, disabled.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKH] (IRQs 5) *9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: Embedded Controller [EC0] (gpe 28)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PnPBIOS: Scanning system for PnP BIOS support...
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PnPBIOS: Found PnP BIOS installation structure at 0xc00f6d10
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PnPBIOS: PnP BIOS version 1.0, entry 0xf0000:0xb272, dseg 0x400
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: pnp: 00:0b: ioport range 0x4d0-0x4d1 has been reserved
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: pnp: 00:0b: ioport range 0x1000-0x105f has been reserved
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: pnp: 00:0b: ioport range 0x1060-0x107f has been reserved
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: pnp: 00:0b: ioport range 0x1180-0x11bf has been reserved
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PnPBIOS: 18 nodes reported by PnP BIOS; 18 recorded by driver
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 00:00:1f[A] -> 2-18 -> IRQ 18 level low
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 00:00:1f[B] -> 2-17 -> IRQ 17 level low
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 00:00:1d[A] -> 2-16 -> IRQ 16 level low
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 00:00:1d[B] -> 2-19 -> IRQ 19 level low
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 00:00:1d[D] -> 2-23 -> IRQ 23 level low
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 00:02:00[A] -> 2-20 -> IRQ 20 level low
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 00:02:01[A] -> 2-21 -> IRQ 21 level low
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 00:02:02[A] -> 2-22 -> IRQ 22 level low
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: number of MP IRQ sources: 16.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: number of IO-APIC #2 registers: 24.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: testing the IO APIC.......................
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IO APIC #2......
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: .... register #00: 02000000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: .......    : physical APIC id: 02
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: .......    : Delivery Type: 0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: .......    : LTS          : 0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: .... register #01: 00178020
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: .......     : max redirection entries: 0017
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: .......     : PRQ implemented: 1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: .......     : IO APIC version: 0020
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: .... IRQ redirection table:
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  NR Log Phy Mask Trig IRR Pol Stat Dest Deli Vect:
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  00 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    31
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  01 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    39
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  02 001 01  1    0    0   0   0    1    1    41
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  03 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    49
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  04 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    51
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  05 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    59
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  06 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    61
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  07 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    69
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  08 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    71
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  09 001 01  0    1    0   0   0    1    1    79
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  0a 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    81
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  0b 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    89
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  0c 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    91
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  0d 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    99
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  0e 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    A1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  0f 001 01  0    0    0   0   0    1    1    A9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  10 001 01  1    1    0   1   0    1    1    C1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  11 001 01  1    1    0   1   0    1    1    B9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  12 001 01  1    1    0   1   0    1    1    B1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  13 001 01  1    1    0   1   0    1    1    C9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  14 001 01  1    1    0   1   0    1    1    D9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  15 001 01  1    1    0   1   0    1    1    E1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  16 001 01  1    1    0   1   0    1    1    E9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  17 001 01  1    1    0   1   0    1    1    D1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ to pin mappings:
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ0 -> 0:0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ1 -> 0:1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ2 -> 0:2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ3 -> 0:3
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ4 -> 0:4
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ5 -> 0:5
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ6 -> 0:6
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ7 -> 0:7
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ8 -> 0:8
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ9 -> 0:9
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ10 -> 0:10
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ11 -> 0:11
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ12 -> 0:12
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ13 -> 0:13
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ14 -> 0:14
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ15 -> 0:15
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ16 -> 0:16
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ17 -> 0:17
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ18 -> 0:18
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ19 -> 0:19
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ20 -> 0:20
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ21 -> 0:21
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ22 -> 0:22
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IRQ23 -> 0:23
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: .................................... done.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Dquot-cache hash table entries: 1024 (order 0, 4096 bytes)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: devfs: 2004-01-31 Richard Gooch ([email protected])
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: devfs: boot_options: 0x0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Initializing Cryptographic API
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 48 ports, IRQ sharing enabled
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ttyS1 at I/O 0x2f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 8192K size 1024 blocksize
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: i8042.c: Detected active multiplexing controller, rev 1.1.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: serio: i8042 AUX0 port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: serio: i8042 AUX1 port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: serio: i8042 AUX2 port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: serio: i8042 AUX3 port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IP: routing cache hash table of 4096 buckets, 32Kbytes
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 65536)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 8
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 20
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ACPI: (supports S0 S3 S4 S5)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: RAMDISK: cramfs filesystem found at block 0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: RAMDISK: Loading 4536 blocks [1 disk] into ram disk...
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: VFS: Mounted root (cramfs filesystem) readonly.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Freeing unused kernel memory: 148k freed
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: vesafb: probe of vesafb0 failed with error -6
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: SCSI subsystem initialized
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: libata version 1.02 loaded.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ICH5: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Enabling device 0000:00:1f.1 (0005 -> 0007)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ICH5: chipset revision 2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ICH5: not 100%% native mode: will probe irqs later
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:     ide0: BM-DMA at 0x1880-0x1887, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:     ide1: BM-DMA at 0x1888-0x188f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hda: TOSHIBA MK6021GAS, ATA DISK drive
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Using anticipatory io scheduler
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hdc: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K12D, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hda: max request size: 128KiB
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hda: 117210240 sectors (60011 MB), CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(100)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:  /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0: p1 p2 p3 p4
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: NTFS driver 2.1.14 [Flags: R/O MODULE].
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Adding 498004k swap on /dev/hda3.  Priority:-1 extents:1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: EXT3 FS on hda4, internal journal
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Generic RTC Driver v1.07
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hdc: ATAPI 24X DVD-ROM DVD-R CD-R/RW drive, 2000kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0x3000, 00:02:3f:d2:88:13, IRQ 21
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: eth0:  Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8101'
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 NVIDIA Kernel Module  1.0-6111  Tue Jul 27 07:55:38 PDT 2004
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: eth0: link up, 10Mbps, half-duplex, lpa 0x0000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Capability LSM initialized
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: kjournald starting.  Commit interval 5 seconds
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: EXT3 FS on hda2, internal journal
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: NTFS volume version 3.1.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 17
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: parport0: PC-style at 0x378, irq 7 [PCSPP,TRISTATE,EPP]
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Linux agpgart interface v0.100 (c) Dave Jones
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: agpgart: Detected an Intel 865 Chipset.
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 439M
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: agpgart: AGP aperture is 256M @ 0xd0000000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: cpci_hotplug: CompactPCI Hot Plug Core version: 0.2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: pci_hotplug: PCI Hot Plug PCI Core version: 0.5
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: pciehp: PCI Express Hot Plug Controller Driver version: 0.4
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: shpchp: shpc_init : shpc_cap_offset == 0
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: shpchp: Standard Hot Plug PCI Controller Driver version: 0.4
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: usbcore: registered new driver hub
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: USB Universal Host Controller Interface driver v2.2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.0 to 64
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: irq 16, io base 00001800
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hub 1-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.1 to 64
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: irq 19, io base 00001820
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hub 2-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #3
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.2 to 64
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: irq 18, io base 00001840
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hub 3-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI #4
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.3 to 64
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: irq 16, io base 00001860
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: uhci_hcd 0000:00:1d.3: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 4
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hub 4-0:1.0: USB hub found
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hub 4-0:1.0: 2 ports detected
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: usb 3-1: new low speed USB device using address 2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: ctrl urb status -32 received
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [0461:4d03] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.0:USB HID core driver
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ts: Compaq touchscreen protocol output
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: Intel Corp. 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB2 EHCI Controller
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1d.7 to 64
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: irq 23, pci mem e09d1000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 5
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: cache line size of 128 is not supported by device 0000:00:1d.7
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2004-May-10
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: USB hub found
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hub 5-0:1.0: 8 ports detected
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: usb 3-1: USB disconnect, address 2
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: hw_random hardware driver 1.0.0 loaded
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: usb 3-1: new low speed USB device using address 3
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: ctrl urb status -32 received
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: input: USB HID v1.00 Mouse [0461:4d03] on usb-0000:00:1d.2-1
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 49531 usecs
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: intel8x0: clocking to 48000
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.6 to 64
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ieee1394: Initialized config rom entry `ip1394'
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ohci1394: $Rev: 1223 $ Ben Collins <[email protected]>
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ohci1394: fw-host0: OHCI-1394 1.1 (PCI): IRQ=[20]  MMIO=[c2004000-c20047ff]  Max Packet=[2048]
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: 8139cp: 10/100 PCI Ethernet driver v1.2 (Mar 22, 2004)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Linux Kernel Card Services
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel:   options:  [pci] [cardbus] [pm]
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: PCI: Enabling device 0000:02:04.0 (0000 -> 0002)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Yenta: CardBus bridge found at 0000:02:04.0 [1179:0001]
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Yenta: ISA IRQ mask 0x0438, PCI irq 16
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Socket status: 30000007
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023]  GUID[00023f4137001953]
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ip1394: $Rev: 1224 $ Ben Collins <[email protected]>
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: ip1394: eth1: IEEE-1394 IPv4 over 1394 Ethernet (fw-host0)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 10
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: Disabled Privacy Extensions on device c02f4780(lo)
Sep 13 11:26:38 eva kernel: IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
Sep 13 11:26:39 eva kernel: apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
Sep 13 11:26:39 eva kernel: apm: overridden by ACPI.
Sep 13 11:26:47 eva kernel: eth0: no IPv6 routers present
Sep 13 11:26:54 eva kernel: ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
Sep 13 11:26:54 eva kernel: ip_conntrack version 2.1 (4091 buckets, 32728 max) - 296 bytes per conntrack
Sep 13 11:26:54 eva kernel: apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
Sep 13 11:26:54 eva kernel: apm: overridden by ACPI.
General logs that store informations about kernel, daemon start up and kill, errors, modules dependency. Follow a little example of error on start up and some modules stdout  
eva:/var/log# cat messages
or
eva:/var/log# cat syslog
[Kernel speaks]
Sep 13 11:26:39 eva ifplugd(eth0)[2653]: ifplugd 0.25 initializing.
Sep 13 11:26:39 eva ifplugd(eth0)[2653]: Using interface eth0/00:02:3F:D2:88:13 with driver <8139too> (version: 0.9.27)
Sep 13 11:26:39 eva ifplugd(eth0)[2653]: Using detection mode: SIOCETHTOOL
Sep 13 11:26:39 eva ifplugd(eth0)[2653]: Initialization complete, link beat detected.
Sep 13 11:26:39 eva ifplugd(eth0)[2653]: Executing '/etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.action eth0 up'.
Sep 13 11:26:39 eva ifplugd(eth0)[2653]: client: /sbin/ifup: interface eth0 already configured
Sep 13 11:26:39 eva ifplugd(eth0)[2653]: Program executed successfully.
Sep 13 11:26:40 eva /usr/sbin/gpm[2647]: Detected EXPS/2 protocol mouse.
Sep 13 11:26:47 eva kernel: eth0: no IPv6 routers present
Sep 13 11:26:51 eva /usr/sbin/cron[2688]: (CRON) INFO (pidfile fd = 3)
Sep 13 11:26:52 eva /usr/sbin/cron[2689]: (CRON) STARTUP (fork ok)
Sep 13 11:26:52 eva xfs: ignoring font path element /usr/lib/X11/fonts/cyrillic/ (unreadable)
Sep 13 11:26:52 eva /usr/sbin/cron[2689]: (CRON) INFO (Running @reboot jobs)
Sep 13 11:26:53 eva xfs: ignoring font path element /usr/lib/X11/fonts/CID (unreadable)
Sep 13 11:26:54 eva kernel: ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
Sep 13 11:26:54 eva kernel: ip_conntrack version 2.1 (4091 buckets, 32728 max) - 296 bytes per conntrack
Sep 13 11:26:54 eva kernel: apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x03 (Driver version 1.16ac)
Sep 13 11:26:54 eva kernel: apm: overridden by ACPI.
Sep 13 11:26:54 eva modprobe: FATAL: Error inserting apm (/lib/modules/2.6.7-1-686/kernel/arch/i386/kernel/apm.ko): No such device

Other logs file store boot messages (and other information) relative a single service or daemon. For example /var/log/Xfree86.log for Xfree and /var/log/xdm.log for xdm.
eva:/var/log# cat XFree86.0.log
XFree86 Version 4.3.0.1 (Debian 4.3.0.dfsg.1-4 20040529113443 [email protected])
Release Date: 15 August 2003
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0, Release 6.6
Build Operating System: Linux 2.6.6-rc3-bk9 i686 [ELF]
Build Date: 29 May 2004
        Before reporting problems, check http://www.XFree86.Org/
        to make sure that you have the latest version.
Module Loader present
OS Kernel: Linux version 2.4.25-1-386 (herbert@gondolin) (gcc version 3.3.3 (Debian 20040401)) #2 Wed Apr 14 19:38:08 EST 2004 T
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
         (++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
         (WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/XFree86.0.log", Time: Tue Sep  7 13:08:02 2004
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/XF86Config-4"
(==) ServerLayout "Default Layout"
(**) |-->Screen "Default Screen" (0)
(**) |   |-->Monitor "Generic Monitor"
(**) |   |-->Device "nvidia"
(**) |-->Input Device "Generic Keyboard"
(**) Option "XkbRules" "xfree86"
(**) XKB: rules: "xfree86"
(**) Option "XkbModel" "pc104"
(**) XKB: model: "pc104"
(**) Option "XkbLayout" "us"
(**) XKB: layout: "us"
(==) Keyboard: CustomKeycode disabled
(**) |-->Input Device "Configured Mouse"
(**) |-->Input Device "Touchpad"
(WW) No FontPath specified.  Using compiled-in default.
(WW) The directory "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/CID/" does not exist.
        Entry deleted from font path.
(==) FontPath set to "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/misc/,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Speedo/,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/Type1/,
/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/75dpi/,/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/fonts/100dpi/"
(==) RgbPath set to "/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/rgb"
(==) ModulePath set to "/usr/X11R6/lib/modules"
(++) using VT number 8

Debian Sarge - Boot process

Debian's boot follows the usual steps:
- BIOS (Hardware low level initialization)
- Boot Loader (Grub or Lilo)
- Kernel loading
- Init start up and running services scripts.

Boot Loader
Debian Sarge (actual test version) uses Grub as default boot loader,
/boot/grub is the base directory where are placed various files:
- configuration file /boot/grub/menu.lst with options for boot action.
- file where devices (Ex. Hard-Disk, Floppy) are mapped: device.map.
- binary files of stage 1, stage 1.5 and stage 2 phase of grub.

Kernel
All kernels images (vmlinuz-X-XX-XX) are placed in /boot with system.map and initrd images, kernel modules are separated by kernel version in /lib/modules/.

Init
Init startup stage uses the default configuration file /etc/inittab.
The first system initialization script launched is /etc/init.d/rcS, this runs all the scripts beginning with S in /etc/init.d/rcS.d/, after, init executes the services scripts in a directory specified by the default runlevel (/etc/rc?.d), where ? by default is 2.
Default run level organization follows:
Runlevel 0 is halt.
Runlevel 1 is single-user.
Runlevel 2 is multi user with text environment (in many other Linux distro, this corrispond to runlevel 3).
Runlevel 5 is multi user with graphical environment.
Runlevel 6 is reboot.
At runlevel S the system is in emergency mode, /etc/init.d/rcS is not executed and a sulogin is offered to the user.

Debian: History of an ideal

Debian is the oldest and most important Linux distribution entirely based on the collaborative work of volunteers worldwide. Even if the single people working on Debian may work on specific companies, the whole project does not have direct ties to a commercial entity or company.

It's probably the most impressive example of distributed, open source, collaborative software development, probably even more than the same Linux kernel. The Debian Project was officially founded by Ian Murdock on August 16th, 1993 and is considered one of the "purest" Linux distro in terms of independence from business logics and adherence to the free software standards.

Chronology of Debian releases
Debian 0.01 through 0.90 (August-December 1993). Mainly packaged by Ian Murdock with the help of few volunteers.
Debian 0.91 (January 1994). Introduction of a simple package system.
Debian 0.93R5 (March 1995): Responsibility for each package was clearly assigned to a developer (maintainer). dpkg introduced.
Debian 0.93R6 (November 1995): dselect appears. Last version with a.out binaries.
Debian 1.0 was never released for a naming problem with a CD vendor,
Debian 1.1 Buzz (June 17th, 1996): This was the first Debian release with a code name. This release was fully ELF, used Linux kernel 2.0, and contained 474 packages.
Debian 1.2 Rex (December 12th, 1996): This release consisted of 848 packages maintained by 120 developers
Debian 1.3 Bo (June 5th, 1997): This release consisted of 974 packages maintained by 200 developers.
Debian 2.0 Hamm (July 24th, 1998): This was the first multi-architecture release of Debian, adding support for the Motorola 68000 series architectures. This release made the transition to libc6, and consisted of over 1500 packages maintained by over 400 developers.
Debian 2.1 Slink (March 9th, 1999): Two more architectures were added, Alpha and SPARC. This release consisted of about 2250 packages and required 2 CDs in the official set. The key technical innovation was the introduction of apt, a new package management interface.
Debian 2.2 Potato (15 August 2000): This release added support for the PowerPC and ARM architectures, it consisted of more than 3900 binary packages derived from over 2600 source packages maintained by more than 450 Debian developers.
Debian 3.0 Woody (19 July 2002): New architectures were added: IA-64, HP PA-RISC, MIPS (big endian), MIPS (little endian) and S/390. This is also the first release to include cryptographic software due to the restrictions for exportation being lightened in the US, and also the first one to include KDE. It boasts more than 900 Debian developers,  around 8500 binary packages and 7 binary CDs in the official set.
Debian 3.1 Sarge (6 June 2005): Awaited for long, Sarge got stable after many months of freeze and testing. It boasts many updates, 9000 new packages (among these OpenOffice, Thunderbird and Firefox), kernel 2.4 and 2.6, better multilanguage support and a renewed installation tool. A Major milestone in Debian history.

Debian - Find orphaned libraries

Deborphan finds packages installed on your Debian/GNU system that have no other packages depending on them. Its primary goal (and default action) is to trace unused libraries.
The output of the command deborphan is a list of packages that are no longer required. It can be used with apt, to automatically remove unused packages: apt-get remove $(deborphan).
The previous command can be required to run more times  in order to remove all useless packages, until we don't obtain the following output: 0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove [...].