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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
