Questions tagged [operating-systems]
The software layer between your hardware and application programs. It manages program scheduling, memory allocation, interrupt handling, disk input/output, graphic acceleration, hosting device drivers and various other resources.
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What is the need for BIOS ROM to be present on the address space on PC?
When an x86 PC boots, it starts executing a program called the BIOS, which is
stored in non-volatile memory on the motherboard. The BIOS’s job is to prepare the
hardware and then transfer control to ...
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What is the Linux equivalent of FAT and how does it relate to block devices?
New to Linux and am having a tough time understanding some basic OS concepts. What is the Linux version of FAT, and how does it relate to these so-called "blocks" or block devices?
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OEM Operating System for an Existing PC
Say that I'd recently purchased 10 PCs from a retailer, but ordered them without any OEM operating systems, am I then at a later date allowed to go back to the same retailer and purchase 10 copies of ...
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How does a single processor execute the Operating System as well as the user program Simultaneously?
Okay as we know that a single processor can execute one instruction at one time, which means a single processor can execute either the Operating system's instruction or the user program's instruction ...
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What are the risks (if any) of installing an older version of Linux
My machine has limited RAM capacity. Newer Linux distributions seem to require more memory (often 1 GB or more) and seem to consume more than 500 MB on itself.
Is it safe to use an older version of ...
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Is it possible to set PATH on Mac OS X Lion without restarting?
Is there a way to set the PATH on /etc/paths without the need to reboot your Mac? I know I can do it using an alias but it's not permanent.
For example, I want to set the PATH for MySQL.
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External hard drive how to format it?
I just bought a hard drive of 500GB that I want to use on Mac OS X and GNU/Linux but be able to use some file on Windows.
Basically I have to deal with FAT32 (That doesn't support file over 4GB), ...
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What is the best way to emulate a screen/monitor on Linux, Windows or OSX?
I am working on a project where I am creating a virtual second screen device which I want to send over the network to another rendering device (another computer, connected to a screen of some sorts.) ...
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How to stretch a guest OS on VMware?
I'm running several OSes on VMware. I want to stretch them so I can run them on full screen, but they appear only in the middle. Only one is working and fitting the whole screen. What is the problem? ...
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Structure of Chromium OS
I have used Chromium OS built distributed by hexxeh (weird hobby of mine). On Friday I gave a presentation (classroom activity, not some big seminar) in college on "Changing trends in Operating System ...
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Minimal OS for running virtual machines [closed]
Is there a minimalistic operating system built purely for the purpose of running virtual machines (preferrably open source / otherwise free)?
If not, let's say I decided to do something like Linux ...
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Different operating system for each user on one machine
I've come across this rare issue, I have a friend that uses some software that is particularly slow in Windows 7, the best compatibility is in Windows XP, I told him to make a partition and have both ...
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How does windows 8 prevent BIOS access
I am trying to get a better understanding of how BIOS and operating systems work. From what I understand, BIOS is a basic piece of software that is the first thing to be run when a computer turns on ...
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What are the differences between "enterprise" and "home" Linux distributions?
Simply as the title says, what are the main differences between these two kind of distributions?
Being Linux basically suited to be tailored to each own preferences and fully customizable in every ...
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How to reduce Windows 8 system size?
Windows 8 consumer preview version is released. Anybody try out to reduce Windows 8 size? I have verified the method for Windows 7 is cannot workable on Windows 8.
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After typing 'info bash', how do I exit the documentation?
I tried to use the terminal. I typed "help" and was happy to see a list of commands appear on the screen, among which "use 'info bash' to find out more about the shell in general".
So I typed 'info ...
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The technical reasons to make 64 bit OS slower
From this post, I read the following comment.
If you only have 2GB, I recommend you install 32 bit version,
64 bit will be much slower (because of several technical reasons
about 64 bit ...
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Connecting to host OS database from guest OS VirtualBox virtual machine
I’m using Pentaho BI server in a CentOS VirtualBox machine, and now I want to connect it to an SQL Server database that I am running in my Windows host OS (localhost).
Is there a simple way to do ...
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How does sleep system call work?
A process may ask the OS to pause it for 0.5 seconds, but how does that work?
The CPU doesn't simply stop running for that 0.5 second as other programs work well simultaneously, so how do we pause ...
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What does gate mean in the Multics operating system?
I read Multics operating system. In the segment descriptor word (book) there is one part for number of gates for the segment. What does gate mean? I know the process can enter a higher-privileged ring ...
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How can I permanently change system limits in Mojave (OSX 10.14)?
How do you change the system limits for MacOS Mojave? I need to increase the open-file limit.
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USB does not boot when trying to install Linux on my Asus EeeBook X205TA
I already made this question on the AskUbuntu community, but had no good answers/help.
So, here I am.
I am trying to install Lubuntu on my Asus EeeBook X205TA that came with Windows 10 Home (32bit) ...
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Does Operating System modify BIOS in any way?
I am reading the book: How Computers Work: The Evolution of Technology and in Chapter 4 the author says:
The operating system does not work alone. It depends not only on the
cooperation of other ...
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How can I force the boot menu to always show up at start up without pressing F10?
I have Visual Studio 2010 installed on Windows 7 on one hard disk and Visual Studio 2012 installed on Windows 7 on another hard disk in the same computer.
When I start up my system, I want the boot ...
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Distributed vs clustered vs networked file system
What is the differrence between a distributed file system, clustered file system and a network file system ?
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In a multi-boot setup, does defragmenting from one OS affect the whole drive, or only its partition?
In other words, does defragmentation have to be done on each OS separately?
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Create Multi-OS INSTALLATION USB
I have big usb drive, say it 128GB, and want to download popular installation iso distributions, like Windows 7,10, Debian, Ubuntu, Gentoo, FreeBSD, so on. I need ability to install any OS to some ...
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ls executes slowly on remote server
I have a very strange problem, one that may be too difficult to diagnosis without machine access, but maybe someone here may be able to help.
I am using OS X, and on my local machine ls executes ...
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Replace bash shell with python program's cmdline interface
I have a program which uses python's cmd module for command line interfaces.
Now I want it to run on my Linux server whenever any normal user logs in to it,
in a way that user never gets the default ...
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How do hardware interrupts work compared to software interrupts?
To give you an impression of the level of detail I'm interested, one example. I know a system call ultimately leads to a trap which lets the processor store registers, switch to supervisor mode and ...
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One USB flash drive to rule them all
Yesterday I purchased a 32GB USB flash drive. I have a myrid of systems in my home, and would like to have one flash drive with setup files for all the various systems throughout the house. I kept ...
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Who decides the RAID levels and architecture?
Is there some governing body that comes up with the specifications for different RAID levels?
If not, how are they decided?
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What are the differences between ChromeOS and Jolicloud?
Jolicloud seems to be the first Cloud OS.
How does it compare to Chrome OS? What's the difference between them? Just mixed local/cloud vs absolutely cloud?
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Understanding an Application based on the OS interaction with a Hypervisor
Following I will ask a few specific questions but I will set the stage first.
My goal is to monitor Applications in a very odd place - between the OS and a Hypervisor.
If you have comments about this ...
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Disabling Shift key from overriding Numlock (or stopping Shift key from overriding Numlock for Numpad keys and using Shift as a Numpad 0-9 modifier)
If anyone knows how to disable/override the functionality in Windows of the Shift key temporarily invalidating the Numlock status so that the numpad 0-9 keys output as other keys (insert, end, down, ...
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Windows 10 desktop turning itself on at random times
First post so let me know if you guys need more info.
I have a gaming computer I built ~3 years ago, upgraded from 7 to 10 when it was free, and I shut it down whenever I'm not using it. For the last ...
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What happens in a ARM based system before the OS is loaded?
What happens in a ARM based system before the OS is loaded and do they have BIOS, drivers, MBR or a different approach instead of these?
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What is Paging in memory management?
I was just reading Operating System Principles by Silberschatz et al when I came across paging in memory management.I'm slightly confused about it.
It states that Physical Memory(I assume it's RAM) is ...
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unable to install windows 7 in my laptop with no os
I have a the following message when i try to install windows 7 through an bootable USB..
setup was unable to create a new system partition or locate an
existing system partition
I will explain ...
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Multi Encrypted Operating Systems with TrueCrypt
My laptop has a 250GB hard drive, and I currently use it to do a lot. I have Windows 7, Ubuntu 11.10, and BackTrack 5 on it, but I'd like to switch it up and add more security.
What I aim to do is ...
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Want to dual boot: Windows 8.1 / Ubuntu 13.10, but can't boot from flash drive and hard drive is reported as "full"
PC won't boot "bootable" flash drives.
Hard drive is "full" and "140TB".
⠀Goal: Dual boot Windows 8.1 / Ubuntu 13.10, have functional hard drive
Question may {contain, miss} (ir)relevant ...
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Why cant we use 64 bit OS on a 32 bit CPU?
Why can't a 64-bit OS run on a 32-bit CPU, but a 32-bit OS works on a 64 bit CPU?
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Should I pitch Ubuntu to virus victims?
I've noticed that on a regular basis I see facebook statuses complaining about viruses (e.g. "sorry I haven't been on in a few days... my comp got socked by a virus and I had to reinstall everything")
...
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How to completely wipe computer including OS
Is there a way to completely nuke everything on a computer, including all OSs? I've been trying to fix a computer but I think at this point its time to cut my losses and reinstall.
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How many Operating Systems allowed in a single computer [closed]
How many operating systems are allowed in a single computer.
Is any extra RAM is need for each extra operating system?
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Install OS over network [closed]
Recently I read some articles, in this article told install OS over network. How can do this?
So I had three doubt. My question is
Is it possible to install OS from server to all system?
if it ...
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What to do with old OS install media? [closed]
I'm doing an end-of-the-year clean up and found some old OS install media - Mac OS X 10.3.5, Windows 2000, Windows XP. It seems wrong to just throw them out but they can't have a home with me anymore. ...
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Looking for a free bootloader [closed]
I've heard recommendations from other people before that simply having a bootloader can make it so much easier to add and remove operating systems from my system. What is the best (preferably free) ...
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Where do operating system file reside during installation?
Whenever I install a operating system through dvd/usb drive the operating system loads the installer, extracts the files & makes the required installation.
Where does the operating system files ...
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What is the best tool for creating an image of my OS HD? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
How to take an image of an hard drive partition
I have finally installed all the tools that I need on my new system. Currently I use Windows 7 Pro 64bit, and installing all ...