Transcription of A Hands on Guide
1 Introduction to LinuxA Hands on GuideMachtelt Garrels, <tille wants no spam _at_ garrels dot be>Introduction to Linux: A Hands on Guideby Machtelt GarrelsPublication date 20080606 Copyright 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Machtelt GarrelsiiiTable of ContentsIntroduction .. xiWhy this Guide ? .. xiWho should read this book? .. xiNew versions and availability .. xiRevision History .. xiiContributions .. xiiiFeedback .. xiiiCopyright information .. xiiiWhat do you need? .. xivConventions used in this document .. xivOrganization of this document .. xv1. What is Linux? .. 1 History .. 1 UNIX .. 1 Linus and Linux .. 2 Current application of Linux systems .. 3 The user interface .. 3Is Linux difficult?
2 3 Linux for non-experienced users .. 4 Does Linux have a future? .. 4 Open Source .. 4 Ten years of experience at your service .. 5 Properties of Linux .. 6 Linux Pros .. 6 Linux Cons .. 7 Linux Flavors .. 8 Linux and GNU .. 8 GNU/Linux .. 9 Which distribution should I install? .. 9 Summary .. 10 Exercises .. 112. Quickstart .. 12 Logging in, activating the user interface and logging out .. 12 Introduction .. 12 Graphical mode .. 12 Text mode .. 14 Absolute basics .. 14 The commands .. 14 General remarks .. 15 Using Bash features .. 16 Getting help .. 17Be warned .. 17 The man pages .. 17 More info .. 19 Summary .. 23 Exercises .. 24 Connecting and disconnecting.
3 24 Passwords .. 24 Directories .. 25 Files .. 25 Getting help .. 26 Introduction to Linuxiv3. About files and the file system .. 27 General overview of the Linux file system .. 27 Files .. 27 About partitioning .. 29 More file system layout .. 32 Orientation in the file system .. 35 The path .. 35 Absolute and relative paths .. 36 The most important files and directories .. 37 The most important configuration files .. 39 The most common devices .. 42 The most common variable files .. 43 Manipulating files .. 44 Viewing file properties .. 44 Creating and deleting files and directories .. 46 Finding files .. 50 More ways to view file content .. 54 Linking files .. 55 File security.
4 57 Access rights: Linux's first line of defense .. 57 The tools .. 58 Summary .. 64 Exercises .. 65 Partitions .. 65 Paths .. 66 Tour of the system .. 66 Manipulating files .. 67 File permissions .. 674. Processes .. 68 Processes inside out .. 68 Multi-user and multi-tasking .. 68 Process types .. 68 Process attributes .. 70 Displaying process information .. 71 Life and death of a process .. 74 SUID and SGID .. 75 Boot process, Init and shutdown .. 77 Introduction .. 77 The boot process .. 77 GRUB features .. 78 Init .. 78 Init run levels .. 80 Shutdown .. 81 Managing processes .. 82 Work for the system admin .. 82 How long does it take?
5 82 Performance .. 83 Load .. 83 Can I do anything as a user? .. 83 Scheduling processes .. 88 Use that idle time! .. 88 The sleep command .. 88 The at command .. 88 Cron and crontab .. 89 Introduction to LinuxvSummary .. 91 Exercises .. 92 General .. 92 Booting, init etc.. 93 Scheduling .. 935. I/O redirection .. 94 Simple redirections .. 94 What are standard input and standard output? .. 94 The redirection operators .. 94 Advanced redirection features .. 97 Use of file descriptors .. 97 Examples .. 98 Filters .. 99 More about grep .. 99 Filtering output .. 99 Summary .. 100 Exercises .. 1016. Text editors .. 103 Text editors .. 103 Why should I use an editor?
6 103 Which editor should I use? .. 103 Using the Vim editor .. 104 Two modes .. 104 Basic commands .. 105 The easy way .. 106 Linux in the office .. 106 History .. 106 Suites and programs .. 107 Remarks .. 107 Summary .. 107 Exercises .. 1087. Home sweet /home .. 109 General good housekeeping .. 109 Introduction .. 109 Make space .. 109 Your text environment .. 112 Environment variables .. 112 Shell setup files .. 115A typical set of setup files .. 115 The Bash prompt .. 118 Shell scripts .. 120 The graphical environment .. 122 Introduction .. 122 The X Window System .. 123X server configuration .. 124 Region specific settings.
7 125 Keyboard setup .. 125 Fonts .. 125 Date and time zone .. 126 Language .. 126 Country-specific Information .. 127 Installing new software .. 127 General .. 127 Package formats .. 127 Introduction to LinuxviAutomating package management and updates .. 130 Upgrading your kernel .. 131 Installing extra packages from the installation CDs .. 132 Summary .. 133 Exercises .. 134 Shell environment .. 134 Graphical environment .. 1358. Printers and printing .. 136 Printing files .. 136 Command line printing .. 136 Formatting .. 137 The server side .. 138 General .. 138 Graphical printer configuration .. 139 Buying a printer for Linux .. 139 Print problems .. 139 Wrong file.
8 139My print hasn't come out .. 139 Summary .. 141 Exercises .. 1419. Fundamental Backup Techniques .. 143 Introduction .. 143 Preparing your data .. 143 Moving your data to a backup device .. 147 Making a copy on a floppy disk .. 147 Making a copy with a CD-writer .. 149 Backups on/from jazz drives, USB devices and other removables .. 150 Backing up data using a tape device .. 150 Tools from your distribution .. 151 Using rsync .. 151 Introduction .. 151An example: rsync to a USB storage device .. 151 Encryption .. 152 General remarks .. 152 Generate a key .. 152 About your key .. 153 Encrypt data .. 154 Decrypting files .. 154 Summary .. 154 Exercises .. 15510. Networking.
9 156 Networking Overview .. 156 The OSI Model .. 156 Some popular networking protocols .. 157 Network configuration and information .. 159 Configuration of network interfaces .. 159 Network configuration files .. 159 Network configuration commands .. 160 Network interface names .. 162 Checking the host configuration with netstat .. 163 Other hosts .. 163 Internet/Intranet applications .. 165 Server types .. 166 Mail .. 167 Introduction to LinuxviiWeb .. 169 File Transfer Protocol .. 170 Chatting and conferencing .. 171 News services .. 172 The Domain Name System .. 172 DHCP .. 172 Authentication services .. 173 Remote execution of applications .. 174 Introduction .. 174 Rsh, rlogin and telnet.
10 175 The X Window System .. 176 The SSH suite .. 177 VNC .. 180 The rdesktop protocol .. 180 Cygwin .. 181 Security .. 181 Introduction .. 181 Services .. 181 Update regularly .. 182 Firewalls and access policies .. 182 Intrusion detection .. 184 More tips .. 184 Have I been hacked? .. 185 Recovering from intrusion .. 185 Summary .. 185 Exercises .. 186 General networking .. 186 Remote connections .. 187 Security .. 18711. Sound and Video .. 188 Audio Basics .. 188 Installation .. 188 Drivers and Architecture .. 188 Sound and video playing .. 189CD playing and copying .. 189 Playing music files .. 189 Recording .. 191 Video playing, streams and television watching.
