How is the configuration and preparation of disk devices carried out in the Linux operating system?

In Linux, disk device configuration and preparation typically involve the following steps:

1. Device identification — using commands like lsblk, fdisk -l, blkid to see available disks and partitions.

2. Creating partitions — utilities like fdisk, parted, or gdisk allow creating, deleting, and modifying disk partitions.

3. Formatting partitions — creating a filesystem using commands like mkfs.ext4, mkfs.xfs, etc.

4. Mounting partitions — attaching the filesystem to a mount point using mount.

5. Configuring automatic mounting — adding an entry to the /etc/fstab file.

Example of creating a partition and formatting:

sudo fdisk /dev/sdb
# create a new partition inside fdisk
sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdb1
sudo mkdir /mnt/data
sudo mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/data

Thus, disk preparation includes partitioning, creating a filesystem, and mounting for system use.