Table Of Content

--> Table of Contents Introduction The phenomenal popularity of Linux has taken us by surprise. When we started to write the first edition of Linux Unleashed way back in 1994, we had no idea that Linux was going to take the world by storm. Oh sure, we knew Linux was a great operating system. We knew Linux was a superb way to play with UNIX on your PC. We knew experimenters and programmers would fall in love with Linux. But we didn’t expect to be writing so many revisions of the book. This is, to date, the fifth Linux Unleashed book we’ve written, two of which were specifically aimed at RedHat and SlackWare versions, while this series has covered all versions. On top of that, my Linux System Administrator’s Survival Guide (also published by Sams) has been in demand for the past three years. Why is Linux so popular? Part of the reason has to be its ready availability both in terms of price (free or at a very low price) and accessibility (hundreds of Web and FTP sites, thousands of CD-ROMs in bookstores). Another part of the popularity has to be its attraction as a UNIX system. Whatever our friends in Redmond say, UNIX always has been more powerful than Windows (recent versions of Windows won’t even run on an 80386!). This trend is bound to continue, because UNIX simply makes better use of the fast processors we use today. Multitasking and multithreading were invented for UNIX. Windows is just catching up now. Yet another reason for the popularity of Linux is the number of applications available. Cruise any of the Web sites that offer Linux applications and you’ll be overwhelmed. And these applications are not trivial games or half-hearted attempts to provide basic functionality to Linux. The applications are professionally done, full featured, and rival those selling for big bucks on any other operating system. Linux is also popular because of its support mechanism. Got a problem? Post a note on Usenet’s Linux newsgroups and you’ll have answers fast. Finally, Linux is popular because it’s just plain fun to play with. What more can you ask of an operating system? We’ve added quite a bit of new material to this edition of Linux Unleashed. We received a lot of suggestions by email that we took to heart and worked into better descriptions of installation and configuration, as well as some new application chapters. We’ve rewritten many chapters from scratch to make them more readable. The result, we hope, is a book you’ll enjoy reading from start to finish. Table of Contents --> To access the contents, click the chapter and section titles. Linux Unleashed, Third Edition (Imprint: Sams) (Publisher: Macmillan Computer Publishing) Author: Tim Parker ISBN: 0672313723 Introduction About the Author Part I—Introduction Chapter 1—Introduction to Linux What Is Linux? Linux’s Kernel GNU Software X DOS and Windows Interface TCP/IP Linux’s History What Linux Can Do for You Learning UNIX Through Linux Running a Business Internet Servers What You Need to Run Linux Minimum System Requirements Motherboard Requirements Hard Disks Video System Mouse Tape Drives CD-ROM Removable Media Printers Modems Terminals Multiport Cards Network Cards Copyrights Getting Help Usenet Newsgroups What’s in This Book? Summary Chapter 2—Types of Linux Where to Get Linux CD-ROM Linux FTP Sites World Wide Web Email Bulletin Board Systems (BBSs) What’s a Linux Release? Linux Releases and Disk Sets Updating Existing Linux Systems Summary Chapter 3—Installing Linux Working with Linux Floppyless Installation Boot and Root Disks Selecting a Boot Kernel and Root Image Creating the Boot and Root Floppies The Installation Routine: A Quick Guide Choosing Text or Graphics Installation Setting Up Your Hard Drive Formatting the Partitions Setting Up Ethernet Setting Up the Mouse Configuring X Selecting Packages to Install Using LILO Partitioning the Hard Disk Linux Swap Space Partition Setting Up Partitions Using UMSDOS Installing the Linux Partitions Linux’s fdisk Setting Up Linux Partitions Enabling the Swap Space for Installation Creating the Linux Filesystem Partition Installing Linux Setting the Boot Process Viewing Installed Software Files Troubleshooting Software Installation Hard Disk and Disk Controller Device Conflicts SCSI Problems Booting Linux Summary Chapter 4—Using LILO Installing LILO Handling Disk Problems LILO Makefile Updating LILO Linux and Hard Disk Layouts The Boot Sector The Boot Process Dedicated Linux Hard Disk Using BOOTACTV DOS and Linux Using BOOTLIN Boot Parameters The Map Installer Map Installer Command-line Syntax Map Installer Configuration File Options Boot Images Disk Parameter Table Removing or Disabling LILO Troubleshooting LILO Summary Chapter 5—Wrapping Up the Installation Booting Linux Emergency Boot Procedure Using dmesg Changing Disk Partitions Installing Additional Software RPM installpkg Other Installation Commands Multiple CD-ROM Devices CD Changers CD Writers CD Libraries Changing CDs Summary Part II—Getting to Know Linux Chapter 6—Getting Started Starting and Stopping Your Linux System Linux Shutdown Commands What’s This About “Logging In”? Why You Should Not Use the root Login Your First Login Passwords Creating a New Login Logging Out Trying Out Your New Login Linux Error Messages Search Paths The who Command Virtual Terminals Commands and Programs Summary Chapter 7—Basic Linux Commands How Linux Commands Work Command Options Other Parameters Input and Output Redirection Notational Conventions Used to Describe Linux Commands Six Basic Rules of Linux Notation Online Help Available in Linux The Linux Man Pages Finding Keywords in Man Pages The bash Shell help Facility Wildcards: * and ? Environment Variables Processes and How to Terminate Them The Process Status Command: ps The Process Termination Command: kill Becoming Someone Else: The su Command The grep Command Summary Chapter 8—Using the File System Files: An Overview Common Types of Files Filenames Directories: An Overview Parent Directories and Subdirectories The Root Directory How Directories Are Named The Home Directory Navigating the Linux File System The pwd Command: Where Am I? Absolute and Relative Filenames Going Places: The cd Command There’s No Place Like Home Creating and Deleting Files cat: That Useful Feline Creating Directories Moving and Copying Files Moving and Copying with Wildcards Moving Directories Removing Files and Directories Removing Directories Fear of Compression: The Zipless File Important Directories in the Linux File System / /home /bin /usr /usr/bin /usr/spool /dev /usr/sbin /sbin /etc Summary Chapter 9—File and Directory Permissions File and Directory Ownership Users and Ownership Groups Changing Group Ownership File Permissions UMASK Settings Changing File Permissions Changing Directory Permissions Summary Chapter 10—GNU Project Utilities GNU Software Currently Available acm Autoconf bash bc BFD Binutils Bison GNU C Compiler GNU C Library GNU C++ Library Calc GNU Chess CLISP GNU Common Lisp cpio CVS dc DejaGnu Diffutils ecc ed Elib GNU Emacs GNU Emacs 19 es Fileutils find finger flex Fontutils gas gawk gdb gdbm Ghostscript Ghostview gmp GNats GNU Graphics GNU Shogi gnuplot GnuGo gperf grep Groff gzip hp2xx indent Ispell m4 make mtools MULE NetFax NetHack NIH Class Library nvi Octave Oleo p2c patch PCL perl ptx rc RCS recode regex Scheme screen sed Shellutils Smalltalk Superopt tar Termcap Library TeX Texinfo Textutils Tile Forth time tput UUCP uuencode/uudecode wdiff Summary Chapter 11—bash Shells in a Nutshell What Is a Shell? How the Shell Gets Started The Most Common Shells The Bourne Again Shell Command-line Completion Wildcards Command History