Experiment - 03 :- User Administration, Software Installation & Hardware Component Management in Linux

1. Aim of the Experiment

To demonstrate practical skills in performing administrative tasks in Linux Operating System: creating and configuring new system users with permissions, installing and managing software packages via CLI package manager, and detecting & mounting physical hardware/storage components.

2. System & Tool Requirements

• Operating System: Any Linux Distribution (Ubuntu / Debian / RHEL / Fedora / CentOS)
• Terminal: Command Line Interface (CLI) with sudo access
• Hardware Component: Secondary Hard Drive or USB Storage drive (/dev/sdb1)
• Utility Packages: htop, Linux core utilities (useradd, passwd, lsblk, mkfs)

3. Step-by-Step Procedure & Commands

SECTION A: User Creation & Administrative Setup

# Create new user account with home directory and bash shell
sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash iti_student

# Set secure password for new user
sudo passwd iti_student

# Grant administrative privileges (Ubuntu/Debian)
sudo usermod -aG sudo iti_student

# Verify user details
id iti_student

SECTION B: Software Package Management

# Update software repository index
sudo apt update

# Install interactive system monitor utility
sudo apt install -y htop

# Verify software binary path
which htop

SECTION C: Hardware Component Detection & Storage Mounting

# List connected PCI hardware and block storage devices
lspci
lsblk

# Format storage partition with ext4 filesystem
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1

# Create directory and mount partition
sudo mkdir -p /mnt/extra_storage
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/extra_storage

# Verify storage mount status
df -h /mnt/extra_storage

4. Observation & Practical Log

S.No	Task Objective	Command Executed	Status / Output Observation
1	Add New System User	sudo useradd -m -s /bin/bash iti_student	User account created successfully
2	Assign Password	sudo passwd iti_student	passwd: password updated successfully
3	Grant Admin Rights	sudo usermod -aG sudo iti_student	User added to elevated privileges group
4	Update Software Repo	sudo apt update	Package metadata fetched cleanly
5	Install Software Package	sudo apt install htop	Package installed (/usr/bin/htop)
6	Scan Hardware/Storage	lspci / lsblk	Hardware & partition /dev/sdb1 identified
7	Format & Mount Storage	sudo mkfs.ext4 ... && sudo mount ...	FileSystem created and mounted under /mnt

5. Viva-Voce / Oral Examination Preparation

Q1. What is the difference between useradd and adduser commands in Linux?

Ans: useradd is a native low-level binary utility. adduser is a high-level Perl script in Debian/Ubuntu that prompts for passwords automatically.

Q2. What does the -aG flag mean in usermod -aG sudo username?

Ans: -a stands for append, and -G specifies supplementary groups. It adds the user to a secondary group without removing them from current groups.

Q3. What is the role of the /etc/fstab file in Linux hardware management?

Ans: /etc/fstab (File Systems Table) contains configuration rules used by Linux to automatically mount disk partitions during system boot.

6. Practical Result & Conclusion

Result: All practical steps for adding system users, installing software packages via terminal package management, and detecting/mounting physical hardware components were performed successfully.