Introduction to Linux

A Hands on Guide

Machtelt Garrels

1.27 Edition

Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Machtelt Garrels

20080606

Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Why this guide?

2. Who should read this book?

3. New versions and availability

4. Revision History

5. Contributions

6. Feedback

7. Copyright information

8. What do you need?

9. Conventions used in this document

10. Organization of this document

1. What is Linux?

1.1. History

1.2. The user interface

1.3. Does Linux have a future?

1.4. Properties of Linux

1.5. Linux Flavors

1.6. Summary

1.7. Exercises

2. Quickstart

2.1. Logging in, activating the user interface and logging out

2.2. Absolute basics

2.3. Getting help

2.4. Summary

2.5. Exercises

3. About files and the file system

3.1. General overview of the Linux file system

3.2. Orientation in the file system

3.3. Manipulating files

3.4. File security

3.5. Summary

3.6. Exercises

4. Processes

4.1. Processes inside out

4.2. Boot process, Init and shutdown

4.3. Managing processes

4.4. Scheduling processes

4.5. Summary

4.6. Exercises

5. I/O redirection

5.1. Simple redirections

5.2. Advanced redirection features

5.3. Filters

5.4. Summary

5.5. Exercises

6. Text editors

6.1. Text editors

6.2. Using the Vim editor

6.3. Linux in the office

6.4. Summary

6.5. Exercises

7. Home sweet /home

7.1. General good housekeeping

7.2. Your text environment

7.3. The graphical environment

7.4. Region specific settings

7.5. Installing new software

7.6. Summary

7.7. Exercises

8. Printers and printing

8.1. Printing files

8.2. The server side

8.3. Print problems

8.4. Summary

8.5. Exercises

9. Fundamental Backup Techniques

9.1. Introduction

9.2. Moving your data to a backup device

9.3. Using rsync

9.4. Encryption

9.5. Summary

9.6. Exercises

10. Networking

10.1. Networking Overview

10.2. Network configuration and information

10.3. Internet/Intranet applications

10.4. Remote execution of applications

10.5. Security

10.6. Summary

10.7. Exercises

11. Sound and Video

11.1. Audio Basics

11.2. Sound and video playing

11.3. Video playing, streams and television watching

11.4. Internet Telephony

11.5. Summary

11.6. Exercises

A. Where to go from here?

A.1. Useful Books

A.2. Useful sites

B. DOS versus Linux commands

C. Shell Features

C.1. Common features

C.2. Differing features

Glossary

Index

List of Tables

1. Typographic and usage conventions

2-1. Quickstart commands

2-2. Key combinations in Bash

2-3. New commands in chapter 2: Basics

3-1. File types in a long list

3-2. Subdirectories of the root directory

3-3. Most common configuration files

3-4. Common devices

3-5. Color-ls default color scheme

3-6. Default suffix scheme for ls

3-7. Access mode codes

3-8. User group codes

3-9. File protection with chmod

3-10. New commands in chapter 3: Files and the file system

3-11. File permissions

4-1. Controlling processes

4-2. Common signals

4-3. New commands in chapter 4: Processes

5-1. New commands in chapter 5: I/O redirection

7-1. Common environment variables

7-2. New commands in chapter 7: Making yourself at home

8-1. New commands in chapter 8: Printing

9-1. New commands in chapter 9: Backup

10-1. The simplified OSI Model

10-2. New commands in chapter 10: Networking

11-1. New commands in chapter 11: Audio

B-1. Overview of DOS/Linux commands

C-1. Common Shell Features

C-2. Differing Shell Features

List of Figures

1. Introduction to Linux front cover

1-1. OpenOffice MS-compatible Spreadsheet

2-1. Terminal window

2-2. Konqueror as help browser

3-1. Linux file system layout

3-2. Hard and soft link mechanism

4-1. Fork-and-exec mechanism

4-2. Can't you go faster?

4-3. Gnome System Monitor

8-1. Printer Status through web interface

9-1. Floppy formatter

10-1. Evolution mail and news reader

10-2. X-Chat

10-3. SSH X11 forwarding

11-1. XMMS mp3 player