SUSE Linux 10 for dummies

386 Pages·2006·13.902 MB·English

by  Nabajyoti Barkakati

01_754935 ffirs.qxp 11/7/05 9:33 PM Page i
SUSE Linux 10
®
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
by Naba Barkakati
01_754935 ffirs.qxp 11/7/05 9:33 PM Page iv
01_754935 ffirs.qxp 11/7/05 9:33 PM Page i
SUSE Linux 10
®
FOR
DUMmIES
‰
by Naba Barkakati
01_754935 ffirs.qxp 11/7/05 9:33 PM Page ii
SUSE Linux®10 For Dummies®
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
111 River Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit-
ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written
permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the
Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone].
Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing,
Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, [phone], fax [phone], or online at
http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions.
Trademarks:Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the
Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, and related trade
dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United
States and other countries, and may not be used without written permission. Linux is a registered trade-
mark of Linus Torvalds. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. Wiley
Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REP-
RESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CON-
TENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT
LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CRE-
ATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CON-
TAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE
UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR
OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A
COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE
AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION
OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FUR-
THER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFOR-
MATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE.
FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE
CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ.
For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care
Department within the U.S. at 800-762-2974, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3993, or fax [phone].
For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport.
Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may
not be available in electronic books.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2005933651
ISBN-13: 978-0-471-75493-0
ISBN-10: 0-471-75493-5
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
1O/TQ/RR/QV/IN
01_754935 ffirs.qxp 11/7/05 9:33 PM Page iii
About the Author
Naba Barkakati is an electrical engineer and a successful computer-book
author who has experience in a wide variety of systems, ranging from MS-DOS
and Windows to UNIX and Linux. He bought his first personal computer — an
IBM PC-AT — in 1984 after graduating with a PhD in electrical engineering from
the University of Maryland at College Park. While pursuing a full-time career
in engineering, Naba dreamed of writing software for the emerging PC soft-
ware market. As luck would have it, instead of building a software empire like
Microsoft, he ended up writing successful computer books. Currently, Naba is
a Senior Level Technologist at the Center for Technology and Engineering in
the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Over the past 16 years, Naba has written over 25 computer books on a number
of topics, ranging from object-oriented programming with C++ to Linux. He has
authored several best-selling titles, such as The Waite Group’s Turbo C++ Bible,
Object-Oriented Programming in C++, X Window System Programming, Visual C++
Developer’s Guide, Borland C++ 4 Developer’s Guide, and Linux Secrets.His
books have been translated into many languages, including Spanish, French,
Polish, Greek, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Naba’s most recent books
are Red Hat Fedora Linux Secretsand Linux All-in-One Desk Reference For
Dummies, also published by Wiley Publishing, Inc.
Naba lives in North Potomac, Maryland, with his wife Leha, and their chil-
dren, Ivy, Emily, and Ashley.
01_754935 ffirs.qxp 11/7/05 9:33 PM Page iv
01_754935 ffirs.qxp 11/7/05 9:33 PM Page v
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this book to my wife, Leha, and daughters Ivy, Emily,
and Ashley.
Author’s Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Terri Varveris for getting me started on this book — a
ForDummiesguide about the up and coming SUSE Linux. As the project
editor, Susan Christophersen guided me through the manuscript submission
process and kept everything moving. Tiffany Franklin took care of the project
while Terri was away on maternity leave. I appreciate the guidance and sup-
port that Terri, Tiffany, and Susan gave me during this project.
I would like to thank Susan Douglas for reviewing the manuscript for techni-
cal accuracy and providing many useful suggestions for improving the book’s
content.
Thanks to everyone at Wiley Publishing for transforming my raw manuscript
into this well-edited and beautifully packaged book.
Of course, there would be no reason for this book if it were not for Linux.
For this, we have Linus Torvalds and the legions of Linux developers around
the world to thank. Thanks to Christian Egle, Andreas Jaeger, and others at
Novell for helping me with information about SUSE Linux. Thanks to the
openSUSE project for continuing to develop and enhance the SUSE Linux
distribution and for making publicly available the ISO image used to create
the DVD-ROM bundled with this book.
Finally, and as always, my greatest thanks go to my wife, Leha, and our daugh-
ters, Ivy, Emily, and Ashley — it is their love and support that keeps me going.
Thanks for being there!
01_754935 ffirs.qxp 11/7/05 9:33 PM Page vi
Publisher’s Acknowledgments
We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form
located at www.dummies.com/register/.
Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:
Acquisitions, Editorial, and Composition Services
Media Development
Project Coordinator: Adrienne Martinez
Project and Copy Editor:Susan Christophersen
Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Andrea Dahl,
Previous Edition: Linda Morris Stephanie D. Jumper, Barbara Moore,
Barry Offringa
Acquisitions Editor:Tiffany Franklin
Proofreaders: Leeann Harney,
Technical Editor:Susan Douglas
Jessica Kramer, Dwight Ramsey,
Editorial Manager:Jodi Jensen TECHBOOKS Production Services
Media Project Supervisor:Laura Moss Indexer: TECHBOOKS ProductionServices
Media Development Specialist:Kit Malone
Media Development Manager:
Laura Carpenter VanWinkle
Editorial Assistant:Amanda Foxworth
Cartoons:Rich Tennant
(www.the5thwave.com)
Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies
Richard Swadley,Vice President and Executive Group Publisher
Andy Cummings,Vice President and Publisher
Mary Bednarek,Executive Acquisitions Director
Mary C. Corder,Editorial Director
Publishing for Consumer Dummies
Diane Graves Steele,Vice President and Publisher
Joyce Pepple,Acquisitions Director
Composition Services
Gerry Fahey,Vice President of Production Services
Debbie Stailey,Director of Composition Services
02_754935 ftoc.qxp 11/7/05 9:34 PM Page vii
Contents at a Glance
Introduction.................................................................1
Part I: Getting to Know SUSE........................................7
Chapter 1: What Is SUSE Linux?........................................................................................9
Chapter 2: Installing SUSE Linux.....................................................................................23
Chapter 3: Starting SUSE for the First Time..................................................................39
Chapter 4: Taking Stock of What’s New in SUSE...........................................................53
Part II: Test-Driving SUSE...........................................61
Chapter 5: Exploring the SUSE Desktops.......................................................................63
Chapter 6: Finding and Organizing Files........................................................................79
Chapter 7: I Want My Internet, Now!............................................................................103
Chapter 8: Setting Up an Ethernet LAN with Wireless Access..................................121
Part III: Doing Stuff with SUSE .................................137
Chapter 9: Browsing the Web........................................................................................139
Chapter 10: E-Mailing, IM-ing, and Using IP Phone in SUSE......................................151
Chapter 11: Reading Newsgroups and RSS Feeds......................................................171
Chapter 12: Preparing Documents and Spreadsheets in SUSE Linux......................187
Chapter 13: Doing Even More Office Stuff in SUSE Linux..........................................209
Chapter 14: Playing Music and Burning CDs...............................................................221
Chapter 15: Working with Photos and Images............................................................229
Chapter 16: What’s a Shell and Why Do I Care?..........................................................245
Part IV: Becoming a SUSE Wizard..............................255
Chapter 17: Look, Ma, I’m a Sysadmin!........................................................................257
Chapter 18: Updating SUSE and Adding New Software.............................................275
Chapter 19: Securing SUSE Linux.................................................................................289
Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................311
Chapter 20: Ten Frequently Asked Questions about SUSE.......................................313
Chapter 21: The Ten Best Things about SUSE............................................................323
Chapter 22: Ten Great Web Sites for SUSE Maniacs...................................................327
Chapter 23: Ten Most Commonly Used SUSE Linux Commands..............................331
Appendix: About the DVD-ROM..................................341
Index.......................................................................345
02_754935 ftoc.qxp 11/7/05 9:34 PM Page viii