If you are a Linux user, then you must have used a utility, known as Boot Loader. It provides different levers of functionality and support, through its different variations. Along with the boot operations, Linux boot loader also handles errors and helps you keep your system functional. Boot loader generally handles boot and memory errors at start up. However, in some cases, the boot loader can not fix the errors, which makes your system unbootable and unusable. In such circumstances, you can not access the data stored on your Linux hard drive and eventually face data loss. In order to extract lost data from the Linux hard drive in such situations, you need to opt for linux data recovery solutions.

Two most popular boot loaders of Linux operating system are:

LILO (Linux Loader)- It comes as default boot loader of all Linux distributions. As one among the oldest boot loaders, its strong Linux community accompaniment has enabled LILO to develop over time and remain useful as an operational modern boot loader. Some novel functionalities, such as exploitation of newer BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) functions and improved user interface, make this boot loader more stable and reliable.

GNU GRUB (Grand Unified Boot Loader)- It is considered as a replacement of LILO. It is based on original GRUB program and developed by Free Software Foundation. GRUB is reference implementation of Multi boot Specification that enables you to have various operating systems on same computer and select which one to use for booting.

Both these boot loaders allow Error Handling for proper functioning of your Linux computer.

Error Handling:

It denotes anticipation, detection, and finally, resolution of the operating system or application errors. The Linux boot loaders forestall most of such errors, recover your system from them when the errors occur, without affecting the system operations.

Although, boot loader error handling is a useful process, but if the critical errors can not be handled by Linux boot loaders, your system may become unstable. Such situations may cause data loss and require data recovery linux to be fixed.

Linux Data Recovery is possible using powerful and advanced linux recovery software. They are particularly designed to thoroughly scan whole Linux hard drive and extract all lost, missing, and inaccessible data. The applications are capable of handling virtually every type of logical data loss situations and enabling safe and easy recovery.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery software recovers lost, missing, and inaccessible data quickly and successfully. It supports all major distributions of Linux operating system, such as Red Hat, SUSE, Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, and Debian. The software recovers lost Linux data from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes.

A Linux distribution is also known as the GNU/Linux distribution by some. It is basically a family member of the Unix-like software distributions and these distributions are called “distros”. Linux kernel lies as the basis of these distributions. They contain a number of software applications comprising database applications, media players, spreadsheets and word processors. The Linux operating system consists of the Linux kernel along with a set of utilities and libraries from the GNU and the X Window System for graphic support.

Some Linux distributions may be optimized for size and may not come with X. These use compact alternatives to the GNU utilities, which may include dietlibc, uclibc or busybox. At present, there are more than 300 Linux distributions and many of them are in the active mode. This means that these distributions are being constantly studied, and revised to be improved. The Linux distributions are available in different forms because most of the kernels and supporting packages used are combination of open source and free software. They may take the form of a fully featured desktop or server operating system or can also be used in minimal environments. This is the reason why they are widely used in embedded systems and for things like booting from a floppy disk.

Actually, leaving aside the custom software aspect, the word distribution here simply means a specific assortment of some applications that are installed on top of a set of libraries, along with a version of the kernel. This is created in such a manner that the “out-of-the-box” capabilities are met with most of the requirements of its specific end-user base. There are many kinds of Linux distributions, such as community, corporation and others. The known ones including Fedora (Red Hat), Mandriva Linux, Ubuntu (Canonical Ltd.), and openSUSE (Novell) are backed commercially. The community distributors consist of Gentoo and Debian. The others are driven by neither a community nor a corporation. The most famous one is Slackware.

A basic Linux distribution for desktop consists of a Linux kernel, GNU libraries and tools, documentation, additional software, window manager, a window system and a desktop environment. Most of the software and sources that form a part of this operating system are free software and open source. This means that the users can compile the original code or can modify as per their own needs. Nevertheless, in some cases the software might not be available in the source code form.

Before the Linux distributions came into existence, a would-be Linux user had to be a Unix expert. A would-be user had to be aware of the details about the placement and configuration of the files in that system. This distribution has made the task of using Linux as the operating system easier.

Summary: Linux distribution works on the Linux kernel and some other software applications. With its emergence, it has become easier for the users to use it as an operating system on desktops and laptops. There are three types of distributions: community based, corporation based and others. Being made from the open source, the user can made certain modifications too.

In Linux operating system, you can re-size the hard drive volumes with preservation of your critical data stored on the volume, using Gparted utility. It can also be used for creating, moving and removing hard drive volumes. In some situations, resizing the hard drive volume might cause serious problems of data loss. Unsuccessful operation of disk resizing might render the disk volumes and stored data inaccessible. In these cases, you are required to opt for effective and powerful Linux Data Recovery software to get all of the missing, lost and inaccessible data. In a practical scenario, when you resize the hard drive volumes using Gparted utility in Linux, read/write operation may halt it and the hard drive might not mount.

When you try to access data from the affected hard drive, you come across a number of error messages. In such situations, if you run fsck command to detect and repair errors, it does not detect any problem and you encounter further error messages. The error message can be similar to the following one: At this point, your Linux system does not boot up and thus you can not access the stored data form hard drive. In these circumstances, you need to find out the cause of this issue and go for Data Recovery Linux to retrieve lost data.

Cause of this problem

This issue generally occurs due to corruption to the Superblock. It is one of the most critical database of your Linux operating system. The above error message indicates that your file system is severely damaged and thus the system can not work.

Resolution

The Linux operating system keeps redundant copies of superblock. You can use any of them to sort out the problem. You can search alternative superblock using ‘mkfs -n’ command. If you are unable to replace damaged superblock or the problem is with file system, you can go for hard drive formatting and operating system reinstallation. The process will replace all the damaged system resources and install a clean file system. Though above process can resolve the current problem, but it also has a drawback. Formatting the hard drive removes all of the data from it and cause critical data loss situations.

In these cases, you require Linux Data Recovery to handle the situation. Recovery is best possible using third part Linux Recovery software. The applications use high-end scanning techniques to thoroughly scan the affected drive and retrieve all of the lost, missing and inaccessible data. They are quite easy and safe to use. Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is the most excellent solution for all your Linux data loss problems. It supports recovery from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2 and ReiserFS file system volumes. The software is compatible with all major Linux distributions including RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu.

The hard drives can be divided in one or more parts, known as partitions. The division of hard drive is described in partition table, stored in sector 0 of hard drive. Linux operating system requires at least one hard drive partition, namely for the root file system. It may use the swap files and swap partitions, however the latter are quite efficient. Thus, generally you may want second Linux hard drive partition devoted as the swap partitions. In some cases, improper use of hard drive management tools can cause data loss and need Linux Data Recovery to be sorted out.

On the Intel hardware, the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System) that boots up your system and can generally only access first 1024 cylinders of hard drive. Due to the same, you may need to create third hard drive partitions if your hard drive is large in size. This partitions is generally mounted on the /boot , for storing kernel image and some auxiliary files required at boot time, so that BIOS can access them.

You can create the manipulate the partition table in Linux using a menu drive program, known as fdisk. However, this tool can not understand the GPT (GUID Partition Table) and is not work with large partitions. Fdisk understands DOS partition table and BSD/SUN disklabels.

The Fdisk automatically obtains the hard drive geometry, if possible. It is not inevitably physical disk geometry (as modern hard drive don’t actually have physical geometry), but is disk geometry that is used for DOS type partition tables.

Generally everything works fine if only the Linux operating system is installed on your drive. But, in dual-boot configuration, you should let the Fdisk from other operating system create at least one partitions. While booting the Linux operating system, it considers partition table and attempts to derive what geometry is needed for effective cooperation with another operating system.

Before you proceed for any operation on your hard drive, it is recommended to create complete backup of your significant data. When you backup data using dd command, you need to be careful. A minor mistake may cause severe data loss and need Data Recovery Linux to be handled.

Linux Data Recovery is possible with the help of powerful third-party tools, known as Linux Recovery Software. The applications are particularly designed to carry out thorough scan of the drive and extract lost, missing, and inaccessible data from it.

Stellar Phoenix Linux Data Recovery is the most advanced tool for absolute recovery. The software recovers data from Ext4, Ext3, Ext2, FAT32, FAT16, and FAT12 file system volumes. It is compatible with all major distributions of Linux operating system including Red Hat, Debian, SUSE, and Fedora.

Linux operating systems have come a long way now. Many of them are quite easy to operate. Corporations and government agencies have now started using Linux. One of the attractive factors for choosing Linux is that it is license free – apart from the fact that there are plenty of applications that work on Linux now (and they are license free too). Can you imagine all your staff using efficient and licensed business applications that are equivalent to MS Office, Photoshop (or other graphics package), utilities such as Zip, Emails….all this without paying any license fee to the vendor. Yes, you can run a business with very little, if any, license costs for the applications. Companies in Europe now favour Linux more. Linux support still looks like a black box.

While the Linux is attractive for any business, it requires different skill set; even different thinking to maintain Linux servers, some would argue. In a company that has a mix of machines with Windows operating system and Linux operating system it is often not justifiable to have a separate resource/engineer to help with Linux operating system. In those cases, it is worth outsourcing the Linux support.

Nowadays, students are coming out of their education institutions with Linux skills but not many of them. As the popularity of Linux seems to growing faster than the availability of skills, it makes business sense to consider outsourcing the Linux support. Linux support companies typically can work on all the flavours of Linux – Red Hat, SUSE, Fedora, CentOS, Debian, Ubuntu etc. Generally, you will find that Linux support companies can NOT only work with the Linux infrastructure but help with a lot of development (programming) jobs too.

By the way, if IT maintenance is not core business for the organisation, then of course, it will make sense to outsource the IT management to a company. Outsourcing has its own benefits and one of them is cost-reduction.

I’ll give you an example of the cost-reduction. We all know that many American companies went overseas – typically, India – to establish their own offshore support centres. Now they are selling them off to other “outsourcing” companies. For instance, if an American company called Acme Builders had its own support centre in India, it is selling the Indian operations to an IT outsourcing company. Do you know the reason they gave? Cost. Yes, they said it costs 25% more to run their own offshore support centre than outsourcing to an outsourcing provider. Isn’t that interesting?

Most people purchase computers to run programs – whether it is to send email, browse the web, meet friends of girlfriends on msn messenger, do office work or just play solitaire.

People buy computers to use programs for their functionality not to run operating systems be in Microsoft Windows, the new Microsoft Vista product , the Mac Operations Systems or the various Linux Operating Systems – be they Ubuntu Linux , Mandiva , Knoppix or Debian.

At the heart of most computer users is functionality and usability. It is as simple as that. It is an interesting situation that the Microsoft Corporation controls the vast lion’s share of the computer operating system market. Indeed it even has a major share holding of the next player in line – Apple with the Macintosh OS (Operating System).

What are the issues?

1) Linux is not really free. Linux, in its various flavors or distros, is given free of charge, whether it is on a cd, DVD or downloaded. You can install the program on your own compute or various computers , at no charge to yourself whatsoever

This is in direct contrast to a commercial product such as Microsoft Windows or the new Microsoft Vista which you to purchase a boxed version or a valid license which comes with most computer systems purchased. This license which comes on most new computers as a matter of course could be referred to as the “Microsoft Computer Tax” and is not an option you can forego, to reduce the purchase of your new compute – whether or not you wish to use another operating system such as Linux.

Linux is given free of charge to install. This is not a shareware or time limited version of the product which requires a registration fee after a period of time.

If you require product support or training commercial organizations do exist which will charge you for support of that product or for training or both. Indeed it can be said that Microsoft itself charges for product support, Symantec the antivirus / security organization charges for basic support by product, subscription fees – sometimes automatic subscription fees and 900 phone number and charge card “Priority Support”.

Indeed you would not expect your local school or technical college to provide computer and compute software training free of charge.

2) Linux is complex and will force you to learn the Linux command line,

Not true simple as that. The various Linux distros all have GUI (Graphic User Interfaces) just like Microsoft Windows, Windows used to come as command line DOS. Windows users use pull down windows to operate the software. So can and do most Linux users

3) Compared to Windows , Installing Linux is Difficult

- The vast majority of computer users are computer neophytes and beginners.

These computer users purchase computers with the operations system Microsoft Windows or the Macintosh Operating System installed on their new computers. These people could not install the Windows Operating system and the device drivers necessary if their life depended on it. How the situation of a Linux is based computer any different.

It is only a matter of time until new computers come preinstalled with the Linux operating system. Imagine if Henry Ford had been told not to build new cars since there were few good roads available in America.

4) My Computer Hardware Just Works Under Windows

5) Again untrue in many cases and soon to be less of an issue as more and more computers will come preinstalled with a Linux operating system. Already Dell Computer (which was a Microsoft stalwart) is selling Linux based laptops. Interestingly the response to the Ubuntu Linux dell notebooks is quite positive, If you think Linux hardware compatibility is an issue try upgrading to the new Microsoft Vista from your previous Microsoft Windows product. You will find to your surprise that few if little of computer hardware are supported. You may have upgraded to the new Vista and found you have either no sound, good video or even internet connections via your network adapter device or wireless network adapter. And try undoing your upgrade to get back to your working windows version – it cannot be done.

Lastly you may say I run Windows since all of the programs I use are available only on the Windows operations system – since that is the dominant player in the market. You may well surmise that since Windows is the more than dominant player in the computer OS market that software developers write their product almost exclusively for the windows operations system and that market.

This is true. If you are using a specialized product for your job, industry, situation or preference you may well be locked in.

In the end most people buy and use computers for functionality and use. Most people use their computers for internet browsing , communication – whether it by email or messenger services (M.S.N. , Yahoo , Skype , Eyeball Chat) , downloading and burning music and in more than many cases for playing nothing more than computer games such as simple solitaire.

In these cases the functionality of Linux and its program base easily allows for this. Indeed many of the cutting edge programs and computer services come out of left field by computer software developers and enthusiasts whose preference of Computer Operating System is guess what – Linux in its various forms.

Maybe domination is too strong a word. Maybe not. The market conditions for Linux are as favorable as they have ever been. Apple and Microsoft have weaknesses that are either plainly evident, or will be revealed soon.

The general public is becoming more technologically savvy in general, and beginning to understand their options. There are just a few things that stand in the way of the general public’s adoption of the operating system, in my opinion. We’ll tackle Linux’s greatest opportunities and the weaknesses that can and do slow down its adoption as a mainstream OS.

Let’s start with the favorable environment: Microsoft is really hurting with Vista. I mean badly. They’ve made an operating system that has locked itself out of all but the new PC market. Then, it nags you like a small child each time you need install a program, or download something, or sync your mp3 player. The business market will hardly touch this. Now, they’ve hired Jerry Seinfeld to fix it all. Somebody needs to tell them that just because he idolizes Superman, doesn’t mean he is Superman. Microsoft looks tired. They should probably just release an OS called XPlus( for the uninitiated, that would be XP SP4.)

Apple, while gaining market share and shooting at Microsoft, is now worth more than Google. There are problems that lie down the path of growth. Apple has always bragged about security, and the fact that you don’t need anti-virus for their systems. My computer teacher( millenia ago ) told me it wasn’t needed for one simple reason: Crackers(known to the general public as “hackers”) didn’t find it very profitable to crack a MAC. The adoption rate was too low. Now that the adoption rate has increased, the prospect of savaging bragadocious fanboys is almost irresistible. What could be better than humiliating the arrogant, artsy crowd?

Then there’s the fact that Microsoft seems a kindly old grandfather when it comes to openness. Steve Jobs holds his cards ridiculously close to his chest. While this might not bother the average user, it will get on the nerves of those who want complete control of their system. Apple has tighter DRM than Microsoft, and has recently come under fire for their invisible software upgrades. It won’t take long for the more adventurous user to download another OS and find other programs to meet her needs.

Linux has made great strides because of one flavor of their operating system: Ubuntu. Talk all you want about how Debian, Fedora, and SUSE are the pure, unadulterated nectar of the Linux gods. Mark Shuttleworth’s Canonical has made Linux palatable for the average user. The install process is simple, it’s free, and adding programs is a snap using Synaptic. Wireless support is vastly better in this distro, as is printer support. Plus, it boasts the largest Linux community.

That community tends to write programs that solve extremely specific problems. They are also writing programs that meet or exceed closed source, commercially available software. This is the most vital thing for the continued growth of Linux as an operating system.

The security problems for Linux are almost non-existent at present time. It’s pretty air tight, not to say that it can’t be done, it’s just that it is far more profitable to hack internet communications than it is to hack a Linux box. Plus, the Linux community will track you down and make you eat your hard drive if you take out one of their PC’s. This may change as well, with broader adoption, but right now I am not worried about some Windoze script kiddie hacking my box.

If all this is true, then what stands in the way of further Linux adoption?

Sound. I bet you thought I was going to say “the command line”. We’ll get to that later. Linux sound is a pain to configure, and is really horrible if you want to run more than one program that requires sound output. There are a couple of different ways to implement sound in Linux. Some of them are stable, some are not. In 50% of all cases, one application’s sound will work, while another will not. Yesterday, I ran into a case where a sound server actually kept an entire application from running. Until Linux converts to a single, common sound architecture, then it will keep the average user dependent on…

The command line. You knew it was coming, I gave you fair warning. I enjoy the command line, to a certain extent. It allows me to instantly kill a program when it hangs, no questions asked. I can edit configuration files without opening a text editor. Just today, an article came across my screen, in which the author stated that you could use Linux forever without having to touch the command line. While technically true, that assertion is misleading, at best. All help articles in Linux forums start with, or assume you have already opened the command line. If you need to fix something, you will be using the CL, or you will not be using Linux very long.

This is something that people are going to have to come to terms with, unless Linux kernels and library sources are closed. What will hopefully happen is a more accessible command line integrated into the various window managers as part of the default configuration. Predictive commands(and the ability for expert users to turn this feature off) should play a huge roll when delivering the rollout to the average user. The final holdup is…

Developers, Developers, Developers. So we laughed at Steve “MonkeyBoy” Ballmer during his outburst of “irrational exuberance”. Major developers of closed-source software will have to get on board for the full adoption of Linux. Even though I love to GIMP, and am huge devotee, I miss the incredible batch processing abilities, and clean interface of Photoshop CS3(GIMPShop doesn’t cut it). I just do. I miss Flash. I don’t want to dual boot, or use WINE. I want a natively run solution. That is what is currently missing in the Linux equation. I want a peanut butter sandwich, not a bologna sandwich. Just because you can eat it, doesn’t mean you enjoy it as much. The common Windows user feels a far greater fear than I do in this regard, and they won’t give up their familiar programs and OS without a serious fight.

For every flaw, Linux has thousands of advantages. Linux will become a major player on the OS scene, has(and will) be the greatest bridge on the path to platform independent software and cloud computing. It will. The question is, how soon will we, as the Linux community, stop arguing over whose distro is better, and have a conversation about which path it will take to domination as an operating system.