Red Hat Linux Administration: A Beginner's Guide

650 Pages·2002·9.48 MB·English

by  Turner M.

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Red Hat® Linux®
Administration
A Beginner’s Guide
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Red Hat® Linux®
Administration
A Beginner’s Guide
Michael Turner
Steve Shah
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Dedicated to Amy, for her understanding,
and to Stephanie, who asked all the right questions.
I couldn’t have done it without you.
—Michael Turner
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About the Authors
Michael Turneris a systems administrator, software engineer, author,
and all around geek with over twenty years experience behind a computer
keyboard. He first started working with UNIX in 1988 and has been
working with Linux professionally since 1995. He has managed computer
networks with over 80,000 users and has written software that has flown
on the Space Shuttle Discovery. Currently he is employed at Collabnet Inc.
as an instantiation engineer working on the SourceCast collaborative
development environment.
Inhissparetimeheenjoysreading,watchingindependentfilms,listening
tomusic,andplayingwithnewtechnologicalgadgets.Freesoftwareadvocacy
and programming are also among his interests. He lives with his family in
the Silicon Valley of California and shares his home with two cats, three
snakes and one bearded dragon.
Steve Shahis the director of product management at Array Networks
(www.arraynetworks.net) where he is responsible for the technical direction
of traffic management and security products. His other author credits
include contributions toUnixUnleashed,RedHatLinuxUnleashed,Using
Linux,andContentDeliveryNetworks.PriortoArrayNetworks,Stevewas
a developer and systems administrator for several companies,including
AlteonWebSystemsandtheCenterforEnvironmentalResearchand
Technology.BesidesLinux,Stevehasbeenresponsiblefor a variety of
operating systems including Solaris, Irix, FreeBSD, SunOS, HPUX, and
the many flavors of Microsoft Window.
About the Technical Editor
JoshBurke,CISSP,isanetworkandsecurityanalystwithBoeingEmployees
Credit Union (BECU) near Seattle. He has held positions in networking,
systems, and security over the past five years. A graduate of the business
school at the University of Washington, Josh concentrates on balancing
technical and business needs in the many areas of information security.
His research interests include improving the security and resilience of the
Domain Name System (DNS) and Internet routing protocol systems. Before
joiningBECU,JoshwasasecurityandsystemsengineeratInternap
Network Services.
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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii
PART I
Installing Linux as a Server
1 Technical Summary of Linux Distributions and Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Critical Skill 1.1Describing Linux and Linux Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Project 1-1Investigating Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Critical Skill 1.2Defining Free Software and the GNU License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
What Is the GNU Public License? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
The Advantages of Free Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Ask the Expert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Critical Skill 1.3Determining Technical Differences Between Windows and Linux . 9
Single Users vs. Multiusers vs. Network Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Separation of the GUI and the Kernel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
The Network Neighborhood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
The Registry vs. Text Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Domains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Active Directory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
vii
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viii Red Hat Linux Administration: A Beginner’s Guide
Critical Skill 1.4Exploring Other Linux Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Module Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Module 1 Mastery Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 Installing Linux in a Server Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Critical Skill 2.1Performing Preinstallation Evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Server Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Dual-Booting Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Methods of Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
If It Just Won’t Work Right . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Project 2-1Determining a Server’s Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Critical Skill 2.2Installing Red Hat Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Creating a Boot Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Starting the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Installation Type . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Project 2-2Installing a Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Finding Additional Help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Module Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Module 2 Mastery Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
3 GNOME and KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Critical Skill 3.1Understanding the X Window System’s Origins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
The Downside . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Enter KDE and GNOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
What This Means for You . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Critical Skill 3.2Using and Customizing GNOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Starting the X Window System and GNOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
GNOME Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
The GNOME Start Here Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Project 3-1Customizing a GNOME Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Critical Skill 3.3Using and Customizing KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Starting the X Window System and KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
KDE Basics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
The KDE Control Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Project 3-2Customizing a KDE Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
Module Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Module 3 Mastery Check . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4 Installing Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Critical Skill 4.1Using the Red Hat Package Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Installing a New Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Querying a Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Uninstalling a Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
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