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1. Option Action Comments Sets the size of the display and Units are c number optionally the units unit b blocks If no unit is k Kilobyes specified the size is m megabytes shown in bytes Press Ctrl C to end Continues to display sf the last lines of a This option is especially file as it grows useful if you have a log file open as you try to debug eon Sets lines to display number measured from the end The default is 10 x lines of the file number ESG Prevents the display of is quiet the file name header Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 112 Arguments are number Sets how much displays argument measured from the end Li Drznes of the file b Blocks c Characters t t Arguments are number Sets how much displays argument measured from the start Te Lines of the file b Blocks c Characters 8 7 Comparing Files from the Command Line Linux includes three tools for comparing files automatically comm Displays similar and different lines in two text files e diff Displays differences between files or directories with a wide variety of options diff3 Reports on three files telling which ones are different Note To save the results of a comparison to a file or to print a copy use redirection pipes See Redirecting Input and Output for Commands on page 70 8 7 1 Making Simple Comparisons of File
2. Command Topic Comments du Disk space used by the You must have read directories contents of a permission for each directory directory The name can be a partition a mount point or a directory For each file system the following information is given df hiT Memory used by file name Systems Size Space Used Space Available Chapter 10 Reading System Information 145 Percentage of space used Mount point Inodes Filesystem type Statistic displayed are Total memory free Total memory used free m Total system memory Amount of ram and swap memory Buffers used by the kernel Statistics are in megabytes 10 2 3 Commands for Reading Process Information Command Topic Comment s ps aus Active processes Unlike most commands ps does not use hyphens needed in front of options pstree Parent and child processes A parent process is one that starts another process A child process is one that is started by another process fuser a files filesystem Processes using a file or filesystem Usable only from the root account Does not work on nfs files Displays process id s followed by a code to identify how each process is using the specified files As a directory As an executable As an open file As a shared library xo o xo x 3 mono Chapter 10 Reading System Informat
3. 119 3 The dpkg Command Package Management Actions Actions Action Comments A Updates package x record avail information on your system k G Searches for If possible what is missing audit partly installed is explained packages x c package Displays files in control a Debian package package Note that the package names not the package files are entered configure Configures an packages unpacked package Instead of listing packages you can use a or pending to configure all unpacked packages x e package directory gt Cone rol package directory Extracts control information into the directory specified get selections string Displays package selections If no string is given all selected packages display X package directory cextract package directory Extracts files from the package into a directory Useful for examining a package s contents Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 169 x i package name install package file Installs a package To install all packages in a directory use this options with R or recursive and complete with a directory name instead of a single package name k String fo esmbLrst String Lists packages that match the string If no pattern is listed all packages are listed L package x listfiles pack
4. lc Toggle the display of the command name or full command Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 188 line E Select fields to display Open a prompt to enter a process id to kill and send a k Signal to kill it Unless you are the root user you can only kill processes you started I Toggle the display of load average and uptime information m Toggle the display of memory information t M Sort by the use of resident memory N Sort by process id zs n Set the number of processes to show Selecting 0 number displays a screenful q Exit the display Set priority as with the nice command E See Setting the Priority for a Process From the Command Lines space Update the display bar t Toggle display of processes and cpu states See Setting the Priority for a Process From the Command Line on page 190 12 45 Stopping a Process From the Desktop 1 Type gtop The gnome System Monitor opens img admin 4 png e 2Select a pro cess A process is highlighted when selected e 3 Right click on the process and select Kill Nicely Sigterm from the pop up menu The process is killed without any confirmation dialog Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 189 Warning Closing some proceses can crash your system or cause other problems 12 4 6 Stopping a Process From the Com
5. 115 Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links In general all information on your Linux system is stored in files Although you often use separate commands to manipulate directories and links both are basically specialized types of files This chapter covers the basic tasks such as creating selecting copying and deleting directories and files It also explains how to view and create links and how to change file attributes Note You cannot manipulate files unless you have permission to do so This limitation is one of the major differences between Linux and many popular operating systems See Changing Permissions on page 130 On the desktop you can use the gnome Midnight Commander for the most common file func tions However for a complete set of options you must use the command line In fact a few tasks such as merging files can only be done from the command line 9 1 Creating New Files From the Desktop Open a program such as a text editor From the menu select File Save The Save dialogue window opens Use the directory tree to select a directory Enter the file name Then select the Save button Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 116 9 2 Creating New Files From the Command Line Type touch file If no path is entered then the files are created in the present directory 9 3 Creating New Directories From the Desktop Open the gnome Midnight C
6. 55 444 Closing Down an X Window System cele 55 45 Changing User ACCOUNTS eee oo rca Rr weg OP OR Ow Re OX X Sod o 56 Getting to Know the Command Line 57 51 Why Use the Command Line e s ie s kae emo he I eR REOR Rs 57 Be SarnraCuuund LI os ecco e aom Y p UR Gom ke I heh 58 as Emering Commands x seres sa e XN dea E eR Eu bee qoe mee Roe e Sog 58 5 3 1 Understanding the Parts ofa Command llle 59 5 3 2 Understanding Command Structures 2 a 60 Doo Understanding Common Options isse o Rx RERXCE ES 60 CONTENTS iv 5 3 4 Entering Multiple File Names fora Command 61 555 Entering Commands with Strings e s c a RE E Rmo ee x 61 5 200 Using Metacharactersor Wild Cards o s sso so oo oe 62 529 Entering Multiple Commands gt s si sa sasos RR eR Ro eR 63 5 38 Combining Commands gt lt seo sorei eee he aia E E s 63 5 3 9 Running Programs in the Background oaaao a 63 5 3 10 Stopping Commands from Running aaoo mem 63 54 Navigating the Command Line e s seses oessa sas eaae manei 64 SAL Changmg Cie o eses x ee ee Se e ae Oe ES ee 64 5412 Reading the Contents of Directories voler ER Ry 64 545 Identifying Types of Directory Listings 6 668464 o o9 x RS 65 544 Finding Your Current Location lt 2 24 2525 29 49 Sp ERR EHS 66 nac CluUBE ie SOBRE x ae ed A14 OS OES IEEE Be ACE BR OH 66 55 Usngiommand Line Shortcuts o ei ss Sh EHSL EERE oe Rs 66 al Using Tab Compaen l
7. 12 4 2 Viewing Active Processes From the Desktop 1 Type gtop The gnome System Monitor opens img admin 3 png e 2 To view the details of a process in a separate window right click on it and select Details from the pop up menu 3 To select the characteristics to display select from the menu Settings gt Preferences gt Process Fields 12 4 3 Viewing Active Processes From the Command Line Type ps options Note Unlike most commands ps does not require one or two hyphens before the options Fora complete view you must be root user Once the display is running you can use the O or O options to add or subtract statistics from the display The display you set by the keyboard is used in the terminal in which you are running the command as long as the terminal is open or until you change it Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 186 The ps Command Process Screen Option Action Comment 1 Displays in long format u Displays user name and start time Does not display of ia processes that are not running A plus sign adds a column the next o time you use the command in the same key terminal or Adjusts displays A minus sign makes the column not display the next time that the command us is used in the same terminal key See Display Options for the ps Command below Display Options for the ps Command Option To display Comment de The
8. tasksel does similar thing img Installing png Selecting software is the fourth stage of a Progeny Debian installation Software is arranged in package sets You can double click on a package set to select individual packages Progeny Debian pre selects the following package sets Character mode mail and news clients e gnome applications gnome desktop system Mozilla e Netscape e X Window System Chapter 3 Installing Debian 43 img Installing png De selecting the pre selected packages then selecting Apply could remove parts of the op erating system that you want to keep Instead use the Revert button and select packages individually The time taken to install other software depends on your choices and the speed of your ma chine However in most cases choosing and selecting the software should take 15 to 20 min utes 1 Decide what package sets to install To gather information to help you decide e Select a package set A brief description displays in the bottom pane Double click on a package set A window displays the packages that make up the set If you have any familiarity with Linux you can decide which packages to select Refer to the table at the end of this section This table helps you decide whether you need a particular package set e 2 Select the software to install When a package set is selected the box beside it has a check mark and its name displays in red img Installing
9. Basic Settings for a Windows OS in the GRUB Boot Manager Setting Comments The name that appears in the grub menu Chapter 13 Configuring the System 231 title name The operating system and version number is usually a good choice root The partition that the operating system is on named partition using grub s conventions Makes the partition bootable makeactive The partition must be a primary one Needed to use Window s own loader together with grub chainloader T1 grub installs at the start of the first sector of the hard drive When installed it displaces the Windows loader one sector from the start of the hard drive Basic Settings for a Floppy Drive in the GRUB Boot Manager Setting Comments title name The name that appears in the grub menu The device that the operating system is on generally root fdo the first floppy drive Use fdl for the second floppy drive Needed to use a non grub loader The 1 looks for the chainloader loader one sector from the start of the hard drive 1 grub itself appears in the first sector of the hard drive Loading an Operating System Not on the First Hard Drive grub generally reads from the first hard drive For this reason you sometimes need to tem porarily remap additional hard drives to the first hard drive Add the following lines to each stanza that refers to an operating system
10. Chapter B Acknowledgements and Thanks 264 265 Appendix C Contacting Progeny Linux Systems Please send questions about Debian and User s Guide directly to the debian user lists debian org or debian doc lists debian org mailing list Out of courtesy to the Progeny Linux Systems who offered this document as GPLed guide the editor requests that users do not ask questions about Debian and User s Guide to Progeny Linux Systems Progeny Linux Systems as a Linux business company can be reached at Progeny Linux Systems Inc 8605 Allisonville Rd 363 Indianapolis Indiana 46250 1552 u s a www progeny com support progeny com Support Line 1 317 833 0400 General Inquiries 1 317 833 0313 Fax 1 317 833 0315 Chapter C Contacting Progeny Linux Systems 266 267 Appendix D GNU General Public License Version 2 June 1991 Copyright C 1989 1991 Free Software Foundation Inc 59 Temple Place Suite 330 Boston MA 02111 1307 usa Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this license document but changing it is not allowed Preamble The licenses for most software are designed to take away your freedom to share and change it By contrast the gnu General Public License is intended to guarantee your freedom to share and change free software to make sure the software is free for all its users This General Public License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation s software
11. The install floppy that comes with the Progeny Debian box set can be used as a recovery disk but the one created with this option is specific to your system Select the Next button when you are finished The Preparing System Screen opens 7 Wait while the installer partitions and formats your hard drive then installs the mini mal system The Preparing System screen displays the progress img Installing png img Installing png Progress for formatting the disk shows the percentage of partitions created not the total amount of hard drive space formatted Installing a minimal system takes about 10 to 15 minutes When the minimal system is in stalled the Next button is enabled Press the Next button to complete the minimal system installation The Finish screen opens img Installing png e 8 Press the Finish button to restart your system so that you can configure it See Limita tions of the Partitioning Tool on page 31 e 9 Remove the Install cd when instructed to by the install program img Installing png img Installing png If necessary change the boot order of your computer to start it from the hard drive If you forget restart your computer and try again Chapter 3 Installing Debian 26 3 2 1 Selecting the Installation Target Selecting the Installation Target is the first step in configuring the minimal system Unless you select Custom partitioning it is also the only step Each installation target u
12. 1 From the main menu select Programs gt Utilities gt gui tar The gui tar window opens img admin 7 png e 2 Select a task from the tool bar Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 202 New Create a new archive You can select The tool to use The level of compression The files to add to the archive e Open Open an existing archive Close Close the display of an existing archive e Add Add files to an existing archive You can select the archive from a file manager View Browse an existing archive Extract Choose an archive and the files to extract from it Delete Choose an archive and the files to delete from it 128 Compressing and Archiving Files From the Command Line Compressing and archiving files are useful for making backups and e mail attachments Compression reduces the size of files and places them in a single file Archving creates a single file in which to store multiple files In both cases the individual files cannot be accessed by file managers or normal commands for manipulating files Instead you must use special tools designed for the utility that you used for compression The processes of decompressing and unarchiving are both referred to as extracting You can use special commands for extracting or options in the same tools that you use for compressing or archiving Archived files are called tar files tarred files or tarballs Linux includes several tool
13. If you want to add more fonts later follow steps 2 to 7 Note Some fonts do not display or print properly in Linux or in some Linux applications Dingbats and decorated initials are especially unlikely to work Chapter 13 Configuring the System 255 Adding TrueType Fonts TrueType is a popular format for fonts first introduced on Macinotosh computers and later popularized by Windows Originally the postscript printing language did not support them although that is no longer true TrueType fonts have the potential to display and print better than postscript fonts In practice however they do not Aside from the fact that many free TrueType fonts are clumsy conversions from postscript current printing and display technologies cannot take advantage of TrueType s potential Although many users believe that TrueType fonts display better than postscript fonts really there is no reason to prefer either format over the other TrueType fonts include information about displaying and printing in a single file with a ttf extension 1 Install the xfs and xfstt packages Log in as the root user and type apt get install xfs xfstt 2 At the top of the list of font paths in the etc X11 XF86Config 4 file add the following lines Fontpath unix 7100 Fontpath unix 7101 3 Add the TrueType fonts to the usr share fonts truetype directory Note Because installing fonts is so involved install as many fonts as you can
14. Linux partitions do not need defragmenting fat 16 and fat 32 filesystems can be defragmented under another operating system The fsck Command Checks Filesystems Option Action Comment A Checks all filesystems listed in etc fstab r Prompts before each repairs is done Checks all filesystems R listed in etc fstab except Use with A the root partition Common types are ext2 The native Linux format at To only check filesystems of swap Linux swap file Use type a certain type only for the swap file vfat The format for Windows 98 me and the second release of Windows OO 1809660 cd drive 209 Chapter 13 Configuring the System Debian automatically configures your system during installation However you may need to use other configuration methods if Your system works but some settings can be improved Your system works but you want to lower the settings to save system resources or im prove speed You want to make adjustments based on personal preferences A device is not detected This chapter explains how to set up basic hardware as well as many parts of your everyday working environment It covers e Hardware e Partitions e Networks and internet connections Graphical displays Other settings you might want to customize 13 1 Understanding Configuration Methods Linux includes dozens of configuration tools from comman
15. Option Action Comments e Displays line ends Line ends are marked show ends with p Displays line numbers number nonblank woe Displays tabs Tabs are marked with show tabs T y Displays non printing show nonprinting characters 8 6 2 Viewing Files with Scrolling Using the less Command The less command is the most common tool for viewing files from the command line In this category it replaces cat and more offering more options than either The less command displays the designated file one screen at a time In addition to displaying files less can also be used for simple searches However for most searches you probably want to use one of the search commands See Searching from the Desktop on page 99 See Searching From the Command Line Type less options file The less Command View Option Topic Comments h Sets maximum number of lines number to scroll back at one time Ignores the distinction between upper and lower case If this command is not used lower case letters ar Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 110 letters when a string is distinguished from upper case as a single blanks line used ones p Displays file starting with string the first occurrence of the string S Prints multiple blank lines y Sets the maximum number of number lines to scroll forward at on
16. However if you select the Format box you lose all information on an existing partition as soon as you continue the installation Chapter 3 Installing Debian 28 e 4 Select the ok button when you are finished You return to the Edit Partition screen If you were creating a partition the partition is now listed and the entry for Free Space is either smaller or no longer listed e 5 Repeat steps 1 to 4 for each partition that you want to create or edit Remember not to format existing partitions without backing up important information e 6 Select the Next button to carry out your changes to your hard drives A confirmation screen appears img Installing png 7 Select the Yes button to continue with the install img Installing png Changes to your partitions are not made until you select the Next button If you change your mind about partitions that you create or edit you can select the Undo All button to return the hard drive you selected to its original state You can also use the Back button to choose another installation target Reading the Edit Partition Screen Column Information The directory from which you access the partition in the Mount Linux directory structure Point To be readable from Linux all partitions must have a mount point except the swap partition The Linux name for the hard drive or partition Name Drives are displayed in a tree structure with partitions as b
17. If it is not then install the package before remapping 2 Open etc X11 XF86Config 4 in a text editor 3 Find the Input Device Section then the Identifier Generic Keyboard 4 Edit the option XkbLayout The default setting for XkbLayout is us However you can change this setting using any layout listed in usr share keymap i386 The setting must be enclosed in double quotation marks 5 Restart your system or restart the X Window System The X Window System is now configured to use the new keyboard mapping 13 6 3 Changing Window Managers From the Command Line 1 Install the window manager packages You can use the Progeny Debian Window man agers package set listed in the Add Remove Software utility or install the packages in dividually Installed window manager files are generally in a sub directory of usr share with the executable in usr bin or usr X11R6 2 Type update alternatives config x window manager A list of installed window man ager displays 3 Type the number of the window manager you want to use Then press the Enter key Chapter 13 Configuring the System 251 13 6 4 Adding Window Managers to the Login Screen When most of the window managers that come with Debian are installed an entry for them is created in the Session menu of the login screen If the entry is not created or if you install another window manager you can create a Sessions menu item manually 1 Insta
18. Settings in etc fstab Mounting Filesystems on page 222 For permanent support of a filesystem you may need to recompile your kernel 4 Type mount t type options filesystem partition mountpoint Chapter 13 Configuring the System 225 The mount Command Option Action Comment F Mounts all The only exception is that filesystems a filesystems set to noauto in the fourth column of listed in fstab fstab are not mounted Options are mostly the same as for the fourth column of fstab See Column Controls access Settings in etc fstab Mounting O to the Filesystems EER option filesystem You may want to use remount especially if you are using more than one removable drive To mount the F filesystem as read only Debian requires this option To mount all t filesystems of You must either use modprobe before type one type the mount command or else have support for the filesystem type compiled in the kernel Displays progress v while filesystems are mounted Lets all users W read and write to the filesystem 4 See Column Settings in etc fstab Mounting Filesystems on page 222 Unmounting a Filesystem Unmounting makes a filesystem inaccessible until the mount command is used again Only filesystems that are not currently in use can be unmounted Unless you boot from a floppy cd or
19. The basic administration tasks are Managing Users Managing Groups Managing Printing and Print Jobs Managing Processes Backing up and Compressing Files e Scheduling Tasks Checking Filesystems Only the root user can do all these tasks Regular users can only do some of these tasks for their own accounts These tasks are generally done from the command line Although desktop tools exist for some of them few are as useful or as versatile as the commands that they are based on 12 1 Managing User Accounts Linux is designed for multiple users To use the system you must log in with a user account A user account consists of a user name a password and a number of saved settings User accounts are organized into groups of accounts with similar access to the system The software and the hardware you can use depends on your user accounts and the groups that it is in See Changing Individual Passwords on page 179 Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 176 12 1 1 Adding a User Account New users can be added by the root user Setting up a new user means e Adding the user to the list in etc passwd Assigning an initial password The user may change this password later Creating a home directory a mail file and startup files While you can configure files in a text editor the easiest way to add a user is to use the useradd and passwd tools Log in as the root user Then 1 Create the new
20. Window managers Install Alternative window managers Extras Provides graphical display X Window System Install A default selection Xemacs Install An enhanced version of emacs designed for desktop use Vim Install An enhanced version of the unix text editor vi 3 5 Installing Software From the Extras CD Progeny Debian includes an Extras cd with additional software including the kde desktop a popular choice for a graphical display To install software from the Extras cd 1 Login to the system as the root user e 2 Open a command line by selecting the icon on the top panel img Installing png Chapter 3 Installing Debian 47 3 At the prompt type apt cdrom add Then follow the on screen instructions placing the Extras cd into the drive to add its package sets to the list on your system 4 From the menu in the top left corner of the screen select Programs gt System gt Add Remove Software img Installing png The Configure Software screen opens The screen resembles the one that you used to add software during the install except that now it includes the contents of the Extras cd as well e 5 Select the package sets to install 6 If you choose double click on a package set to view or select the individual packages in the set e 7 Select the Apply button to install the software The installation of your Progeny Debian system is now
21. a pak Asks for confirmation before x interactive over writing any file Moves only files whose date eS are the same or newer than update Similarly named ones in the target directory sy Displays file names as they x verbose are moved 9 11 Renaming Files From the Desktop e Select Properties from an icon s pop up menu The Properties window displays Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 122 img Files 8 png e Enter the new name in the File Name field Warning Paths aliases links and other features may be disabled if a file is renamed e Select the ok button to rename the files 9 12 Renaming Files From the Command Line To rename files use the mv move command See Moving Files From the Command Line on the preceding page Type mv options source target To keep the renamed file in its original directory keep the destination s path name the same as the original except for the file name 9 13 Deleting Files From the Desktop You can permanently delete a file or sent it to the Trash in case you want to restore it later 9 13 1 Deleting Files Permanently Open the gnome Midnight Commander Do one of the following From the workspace select the Home directory launcher From the menu select Programs gt File Manager e Select the files to delete Do one of the following Select Delete from one of the selected file s pop up menu Select Delete fro
22. account id uid Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 131 Warning Depending on the file setting the user id to the root user can create security problems The group A group that the owner belongs to The group can be identified by its name or by the group id uid Usually it is the owner s main group which has the same name as the owner s user account Other Other users on the system On many systems other users have read permission for system files but cannot read files in other users home directories Note The root user can read write and execute all files on the system Occasionally you may find some graphic tools that do not allow the root user complete access However the root user can always access all files from the command line 9 19 1 Viewing Permissions From the Desktop From the file s pop up menu select Properties The Properties window displays Select the Permissions tab img Files 15 png 9 19 2 Viewing Permissions From the Command Line Type Is l file The first attributes on each line are the type of file and the permissions For example a typical file might display rwxr xr The first character shows the type of file using e fora file d for directory for link The other nine characters are the permissions The first three are for the owner the second three for the group and the third three for other users e Starting from the
23. backup that is later burned to a cd See Using Metacharacters or Wild Cards on page 62 Backing Up using the cpio Command To do a backup use cpio with a search command such as find See Searching for Files Using the find Command on page 102 The basic structure is find name string print cpio o options gt directory In this example The name option for find lets you search for a string enclosed in double quotation marks Metacharacters can be used See Using Metacharacters or Wild Cards on page 62 The bar character redirects the output of find to cpio The o flag sets cpio to create an archive file for backing up The target is a directory The gt redirection operator redirects files to the location for the back up Typically this location is on a removable device The o Flag in the cpio Command Backup Option Action Comment s Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 194 d A A Adds files to an existing archive append y Displays progress on screen verbose Restoring Files Using the cpio Command To restore files from an archive file use cpio with a redirection pipe Type cpio i options string lt target In this example The i flag sets cpio to restore files The string describes the files to restore Metacharacters can be used See Using Metachar acters or Wild Cards
24. computer Note Remember to change the boot order after the minimal Progeny system is installed so that you restart your machine from the hard drive Chapter 3 Installing Debian 20 3 1 5 Changing the Boot Order on SCSI Computers 1 As your computer starts press the keys to enter the scsi setup utility You can start the scsi setup utility after the memory check and the message about how to start the bios utility displays when you start your computer The keystrokes you need depend on the utility Often it is Ctrl F2 However consult your hardware documentation for the exact keystrokes 2 Find the utility for changing the boot order 3 Set the utility so that the scsi id of the cd drive is first on the list Note If you need to use the floppy drive follow the instructions for changing the boot order on ide computers Floppies are never scsi devices e 4Save your changes Instructions on the screen tell you how to save the changes on your computer Often you must press F10 3 1 6 Installing From a Floppy If your computer cannot start from the cd drive you need to start from a floppy disk 1 Check that the computer is set to boot from the floppy drive See Preparing a CD or Floppy Installation on the page before e 2 Place the Install floppy in the floppy drive e 3 Place the Progeny Debian cd in the cd drive 4 Restart your computer The installation program begins 3 1 7 Installing From a Net
25. e 9 Select the Set Date and Time button Press the Next button when you are done The User screen opens 3 3 4 Configuring Users and Passwords img Installing png User configuration has three steps e Setting the root password Creating a regular user optional but recommended e Setting password strength Before entering passwords for either the root or new user you might want to See Configuring Password Levels on the facing page 3 3 5 Choosing a Secure Password A secure password is one that is hard to crack That is it is e A mixture of letters numbers symbols and of upper and lower case e At least six characters long e Not based on anything associated with you such as a birthday a spouse s name a pet or a favorite sports team or movie e Not a common word found in a dictionary Different from your passwords on other machines Different to your user account Not written down anywhere Chapter 3 Installing Debian 35 3 3 6 Setting the Root Password The root user has full access to the system Ordinarily the root account is used only for admin istration and configuration See Starting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface on page 49 1 Enter the password for the root user The user account for the root user is root See Configuring Password Levels on this page 2 Re enter the password to confirm it img Installing png Unless the two passwords ma
26. gt Sound Sounds Multimedia gt Sound Text editor Document Handler gt Default Editor Themes colors window frames and other desktop appearances Desktop gt Themes Virtual desktops Sawfish window manager gt Workspaces Wallpaper for desktop Desktop gt Background Document Handler gt url Handlers Web page display Window managers installing and selecting Desktop gt Window Manager Windows behavior and look Sawfish window manager various sub menus 7 3 Customizing Program Launchers A program launcher is a link to a file represented by an icon Launchers can be added deleted or repositioned You can also restore the default launchers that appear the first time that you start the system In most cases the process for customizing launchers is the same regardless of whether they are on the panel a menu or the desktop work space Chapter 7 Making the Desktop Your Own 87 7 3 1 Adding Launchers Adding a program launcher is the same process if you are adding it to the desktop workspace the panel or a menu To add an icon for a launcher 1 Right click to display the pop up menu for the part of the desktop On the desktop select New gt Launcher On the panel select Panel gt Add to Panel gt Launcher On the main menus select Add New Item to this menu available only to the root user In each case the Desktop entry pro
27. icon while pressing the Ctrl key Hold down the left mouse button and drag the cursor across the files you want to select A box displays around the files as they are selected img Files 4 png e Select an item from the menu e Edit gt Select All Selects all files in the current window Edit Select Files Selects files that match the regular expression that you enter in a dialogue Using Metacharacters or Wild Cards on page 62 Edit Invert Selection Deselects files that are currently selected and selects files that are currently deselected No matter how you choose files their icon text is highlighted when selected 9 6 Selecting Multiple Files From the Command Line Either Enter file names after a command Put a space between them or Use metacharacters in regular expressions For example jpg selects all files in the di rectory with a jpg extension See Using Metacharacters or Wild Cards on page 62 Be careful when using moving or deleting files with metacharacters Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 118 9 7 Copying Files From the Desktop Open the gnome Midnight Commander Do one of the following From the workspace select the Home directory launcher From the menu select Programs File Manager e Select the files to copy See Selecting Files From the Desktop on the page before Right click on one of the selected files A pop up menu displays e Select Co
28. ifconfig device up e The card is probably dev eth0 13 4 2 Checking a Modem Connection Modems are useful for dialup connections to the internet or for receiving faxes on your system Modems are probably the most difficult piece of hardware to work with under Linux The problem is that many modems today especially internal ones are winmodems That is most of them require a running copy of Windows to work While a few winmodems have Linux Chapter 13 Configuring the System 234 drivers available these drivers are usually written for a specific kernel and may not work if you upgrade the kernel An external modem or a pcmcia card should generally work However research brands on the internet to see if they are Linux compatible before you buy To check that Linux recognizes your modem type dpkg reconfigure pppconf at the command line pppconf is a tool for setting up a dialup connection It starts by detecting the modem then going on to configure a dialup connection If your modem does not respond Check that it is not a winmodem Check that it is properly connected to your system and to a live phone jack Toensure that your system can find the modem create a symbolic between the serial port to the dev modem device Type In sf dev port dev modem Setting up a Fax Modem Debian does not automatically configure a fax modem for you However you can use the Debian package hylafax server to receive faxes via a
29. on page 62 The pipe redirects the files described by the string to the target The target is the directory to which to restore files The i Flag for the cpio Command Restore E Option Action Comments t ferie Copies all files non matching except those that match the string Keeps previous m modification time on restored files a O Makes needed make directories directories Over writes old unconditional files This option can only be used by the root user R user group Reassigns file Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 195 owner user group ownership If no user is specified the root user becomes th Owner r Renames files Provide new file names when prompted A p Displays files in Use with the v m SS the archive option to display file attributes y Displays progress x verbose on screen Copying Files for Later Backup The p option for cpio is useful when you do not want to copy files immediately to the backup device You might want to prepare the backup first in order to see its size or to compress the files before backup Similarly if you are creating a cd copying the files directly to the cd is unreliable or difficult with some cd burning software To do a copy for later backup use cpio with a search command such as f
30. s sound configuration including the drivers sound installed Warning Changing these files can damage your system Regular users should not have write permission to these files and the root user should be careful about changing them 10 3 Reading Log Files Log files record messages about all activities on your system Some can be viewed by regular users but many can only be viewed by the root user Logs are generally found in the var log directory Their purposes are usually obvious cron log lists messages from crontab daemon log lists messages from daemons and so on The general log file is var log messages See Standard Log Files on page 149 Logs are controlled by syslogd daemon This daemon starts almost as soon as your com puter starts and records most events that happen on the system It is configured in the etc syslog conf file You can view logs from either the desktop or the command line Information is in four column in standard log files A few log files are not in the standard format They cannot be read by using desktop tools nor in several cases by using the standard command line viewing tools See Non Standard Log Files Chapter 10 Reading System Information 148 10 3 1 Reading Standard Log Files From the Desktop From the menu select Programs gt System log monitor The System log viewer window opens img Sysinfo 8 png Choose a log to display Select File gt Open log The defau
31. since you have not signed it However nothing else grants you permission to modify or distribute the Program or its derivative works These actions are prohibited by law if you do not accept this License Therefore by modifying or distributing the Program or any work based on the Program you indicate your acceptance of this License to do so and all its terms and conditions for copying distributing or modifying the Program or works based on it Each time you redistribute the Program or any work based on the Program the recipient automatically receives a license from the original licensor to copy dis tribute or modify the Program subject to these terms and conditions You may not impose any further restrictions on the recipients exercise of the rights granted herein You are not responsible for enforcing compliance by third parties to this License e If as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation of patent infringement or for any other reason not limited to patent issues conditions are imposed on you whether by court order agreement or otherwise that contradict the conditions of this License they do not excuse you from the conditions of this License If you cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your obligations under this License and any other pertinent obligations then as a consequence you may not distribute the Program at all For example if a patent license would not permit royalty free redistribution o
32. vmlinuz 2 2 18 or vmlinuz 2 4 2 If you are unsure of your kernel s name check the boot manager entries Add a stanza for your newly named current kernel to the boot manager By adding this entry you ensure that you can start your system if the kernel does not work after you build it See Configuring the Boot Loader on page 228 Gather information about any hardware whose settings you are enabling or changing Use the manuals the system s bios settings and Linux s information commands to find the information you need See Reading System Information on page 139 Chapter 13 Configuring the System 214 Selecting Modules The first step in configuring the kernel is to select the modules to enable 1 While logged in as root user type cd usr src linux 4 Open one of the kernel editing tools e make menuconfig a command line tool with a basic interface e make xconfig a desktop tool The easiest tool to use is xconfig However it is not always current Note To use one of these tools unarchive usr src kernel source 2 2 18 tar bz2 5 Follow the on screen instructions to edit the kernel Refer to the information you gath ered beforehand as necessary 6 Exit the editing tool The file usr src linux config is created It contains a list of your selections that is used to build the kernel Building the Kernel Building or compiling the kernel is the second step in configuring the kernel 1
33. with a command For greater security Linux makes strict use of accounts Unlike some operating systems you cannot bypass logging in to the system by pressing the Enter key Most users have only limited access to files Typically only the root user also called the super user or system administrator has access to all files Linux has a consistent system for naming hardware but the system is different from that of other popular operating systems You should know the Linux naming system to avoid accidentally over writing information Linux s directory system is similar to unix s Knowing the structure can help you find files Debian includes several boot managers lilo classic general purpose boot manager grub new improved general purpose boot manager syslinux for making boot floppy on DOS FAT system loadlin boot Linux from DOS mbr replacement for the DOS master boot loader With a boot manager you can use more than one operating system on the same computer Many Linux system settings can be changed by editing a configuration file in a text editor nano vim emacs Linux provides services such as printing through a number of independent programs or processes Processes that start with your machine and run in the background until you need them are called daemons Chapter 1 Introducing Debian 7 At first these differences may seem overwhelming Take your time and learn them
34. x changes reference Copies the group from the file listed file ee Changes the group for sub directories and x recursive their contents Aoc Displays actions on screen verbose 9 19 Changing Permissions Permissions define how users can work with a file or directory or whether they can work with it at all Permissions are also called access rights or file or access permissions The three types of permissions are e Read Permission to view For a directory this permissions means that you can view the contents Abbreviated to r in file attributes Write Permission to change For a directory this permission means that you can add or remove files form it Abbreviated to w in file attributes Execute Permission to run if the file is a binary For a directory this permission means that you can view the file attributes and change into the directory or its sub directories Abbreviated to x in file attributes A hyphen in the list of file attributes indicates that no permission is set In addition a file may be set as Sticky That means that only the user or root user can delete it Permissions are set for three categories of users Theowner Usually the owner can read write and execute However you may for exam ple choose not to give yourself write permission to prevent the accidental overwriting of a file The owner can be identified by either his or her user account or by the user
35. 1 Start your machine with the Install cd and if necessary the Install Floppy See Preparing a CD or Floppy Installation on page 19 See Installing From a Floppy A text introduction appears img Installing png e 2 Do one of the following e Start a network install by entering a command at the prompt at the bottom of the screen See Installing From a Network on page 20 or press F1 or e Set the install program to use a non graphical install after the minimal installation The minimal install uses a basic vga mode that should be usable on any computer At the command prompt type linux secondstage text then press the Enter key or e Start an install by pressing the Enter key In all cases the install program starts to load After a moment the install program starts and the Welcome screen opens img Installing png img Installing png During the minimal install you can troubleshoot by opening a virtual terminal Press Ctrl Alt F2 To return to the installer press Alt F7 e 3 Select the Next button The Select Installation Target screen opens img Installing png 4Select your installation target See Selecting the Installation Target on page 26 Each target uses your hard drive in a different way Chapter 3 Installing Debian 24 Entire drive The entire hard drive is used for the install A Linux swap partition of 125 megabytes is created for you The rest of the drive is used for a Linux p
36. 21 pm on July 7 2001 Note Commands options and arguments are often abbreviated descriptions of what they do For example cp copies a file while su switches the user account you are using Similarly in some commands the V option is short for Version and lists the version number of the command Knowing the full description is a useful way to memorize commands Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 60 5 3 2 Understanding Command Structures The parts of a command are always entered in the same order command options argument files A typical command is chgrp Rv root home jtang ToDo In this example chgrp is the basic command It is short for change group It transfers the ownership of the file at the end of the command from one group of users to another e Rv are two options R recursive makes the command affect all files and sub folders below the directory at the end of the command v verbose makes the command list the files and folders as it changes them Note You only need one hyphen for both commands However you can enter R v if you prefer root is an argument In this case it means that the ownership of the directory will be transferred to the root user e home jtang ToDo is the directory whose ownership is being changed Originally it be longed to the user jtang since it is in the home directory for that user After the command is run the ToDo directory will belong to th
37. From the Desktop img System 5 png Network configuration is used not only for a network but also for a cable or dsl internet con nection If you are an end user ask your system administrator or internet provider for the settings you need 1 From the gnome Control Center select System Network Note If you are using the kde desktop type usr bin network configlet capplet at the com mand line 2 Enter a hostname for your machine 11 Select one of the following No network configuration Continue the install without setting up a network If you want to add network support later you can do so after the install Configure with dhcp Network information is assigned automatically by the dhcp server The dhcp hostname is assigned by an isp to your machine This setting is optional In most cases it can be ignored Use manual settings Enter the settings needed for the network Domain name The name of the machine on which you are installing Debian ip address The address of the machine on which you are installing Debian e Netmask The bitmask that defines the part of the system s network address that identifies the network e Gateway The address of the machine that is the default route to machines not on the network Chapter 13 Configuring the System 236 Name Servers The address of the system that provide hostname lookup services to your system Note Check with your system administrator or Inter
38. Monitor section of etc X11 XF86Config 4 Entries are in two columns with the option in the first column and the setting in the second column The first three entries should always be the Identifier Horizsync and VertRefresh For a complete list of settings see the man page for the XF86Config Warning Never edit a monitor profile without consulting the monitor s documentation Settings that are too high for the monitor can damage it or prevent it from working Monitor Settings Setting Comments Identifier The name for this monitor profile The horizontal scanning frequency HorizSync Usually this is a range 30 130 should work for most monitors The vertical scanning frequency VertRefresh Usually this is a range 60 160 should work for most monitors Chapter 13 Configuring the System 244 Set the gamma correction for the monitor Gamma In order settings are listed for red green and blue using rgb values dpms Add when using a flat or lcd screen A display setting that your monitor can support Modeline Generally you should not need to add a modeline However you may want to comment one or more out so that ordinary users cannot change the system settings Warning Choosing settings not supported by your monitor may damage it Refer to the monitor s manual when configuring and only choose settings that are within the
39. Partitions created by some versions of Windows or PartitionMagic are incompatible with the install program If an error dialog displays asking if you want to create a new partition table select No and exit the install program if you want to keep your existing partitions To work around this problem 1 Backup all data on all partitions 2 Start your system using the Progeny Debian cd as a boot disk 3 When the install program starts press Alt Ctrl 2 to start a virtual terminal 4 Use the parted utility to create new partitions See Partitioning a Hard Drive on page 219 Chapter 3 Installing Debian 32 3 3 Configuring Your System Configuring your system is the second stage in installing Progeny Debian It occurs after the minimal system has been installed and you have restarted your computer Configuration should take about 10 to 15 minutes depending on your knowledge and your computer system s speed If you need more information select the Help button to the right of an item Configuration takes you through a series of screens to configure the different aspects of the system You can choose which aspects to configure Once installation is complete you can use the tools you used during the installation by select ing them from the System menu of the gnome Control Center 3 3 1 Starting the Configuration Stage After the minimal system has been installed 1 Select the Finish button from the final screen Your
40. Preparing to Install Debian 10 The manuals that come with each piece of hardware The bios setup screens of your computer You can view these screens when you start your computer by pressing a combination of keys Check your manual for the combination Often it is the Delete key The cases and boxes for each piece of hardware The System window in the Windows Control Panel e System commands or tools in another operating system including file manager displays This source is especially useful for information about ram and hard drive memory Your system administrator or Internet Service Provider These sources can tell you the settings you need to set up your networking and e mail 2 1 2 Gathering Hardware Information The exact information you need depends on how much control you want over the install If you want you can let the installer automatically partition your hard drive and accept the settings that the installer suggests However these settings may not be the best ones for your hardware Warning Do not do an automatic installation without first backing up important information Other wise you may lose the information If you want a custom install the following table shows the information needed To save time collect this information before you start the install At the very least know where you can find the information quickly Note If you need to contact Progeny technical support you
41. Searching for Files Using the find Command The basic tool for finding files is find The find command is useful for locating files by their attributes or by their position in the directory tree You can search by a wide variety of criteria including When the file was last accessed When the file was last changed The file s owner or the owner s group A text string including one that uses metacharacters See Using Metacharacters or Wild Cards on page 62 The type of file The file s age relative to another file The file s permissions Usually find starts with the current directory then searches its sub directories However you can specify the starting directory You can also specify how many levels of sub directories down to search Type find directory options argument The find Command Option Action Comments Arguments include Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 103 Searches by minutes t number More than the given amin since files were number of minutes ago argument accessed number Less than the given number of minutes ago number Exactly the given number of minutes ago Arguments are number More than the given atime Searches by days since number of days ago argument files were accessed number Less than the given number of days ago number Exactly the number of days ago Arguments include Searches
42. Windows cfdisk on Linux e GNU parted on Linux PartitionMagic from Windows or a boot floppy Warning Do not use PartitionMagic to create Linux partitions Debian s install program is not compati ble with PartitionMagic created partitions The result may be the loss of all partitions and all the data on them Instead use the Install cd to start your machine and open a virtual terminal by pressing Ctrl Alt F2 Then use the parted tool See Partitioning a Hard Drive on page 219 This section is Progeny specific and does not apply for the standard Debian system Rewrite desirable 2 23 Understanding Windows Device Names Many users are familiar with Window s naming system e Aand Bare the first and second floppy drives e The first primary partition is C Often this is the only partition on a Windows system All primary partitions on all hard drives are named first Chapter 2 Preparing to Install Debian 14 Logical drives are named starting with the first one on the first hard drive The last drive letter is usually the cd drive e Serial ports are prefixed with com and start at 1 e Parallel ports are prefixed with lpt and start at 1 The Windows naming system has several problems First few modern computers have a sec ond floppy drive Therefore B is rarely used More importantly if you add or delete one partition the names of many partitions can change As a result you can easily lose tra
43. Windows Similarly when you re arrange primary partitions on one hard drive the numbering of pri mary partitions on other hard drives is unaffected Under Windows changing primary partitions on any drive affects all primary partitions on the system 2 25 Reading Linux Device Names Before you install decide whether you want to keep any existing partitions on your system Warning Linux partitions made with PartitionMagic are not compatible with the Debian install program If you do then translate the partition names to the Linux conventions so that you know where they are when you install Linux Device Names Device Type General Specific A letter starting with a Partitions on an ide hard hd then drive or a cd drive 1 to 4 for a primary or extended partition 5 or more for a logical partition A letter starting with a then Partitions on a scsi hard drive or a cd drive sd to 4 for a primary partition 5 or more for a logical partition Floppy drives fd A number starting with 0 Serial or com ports ttys A number starting with 0 Parallel ports lp A number starting with 0 Chapter 2 Preparing to Install Debian 16 2 2 6 Translating Windows Names to Linux Names If you are installing Linux on an existing computer translate Windows names to Linux names to avoid confusion For example if all your Windows files are on C then you need to translate C
44. arguments can use more than one entry For example you could use ug in the group argument to set permissions for both the user and the group The chmod Command Change Permissions Options Option Action Comments e Displays information about changed files x changes reference Copies permissions from the file listed file R Applies changes to sub directories and Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 133 recursive their contents v Displays information about all files verbose The chmod Command Change Permissions Group Settings for Symbolic Mode Group Argument All User Group and Others a Group g Other users on the system who do not belong to the user s o group User The owner of the file u The chmod Command Change Permissions Action Settings for Symbolic Mode Action Argument Adds permission F Removes permission 5 Sets only the permissions specified and removes all other permissions The chmod Command Change Permissions Permission Settings for Symbolic Mode Action Argument Do not give permission Use as a place holder when setting multiple permissions Set to group s current permissions g Set to other s current permissions O Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 134 Set read permissi
45. at one time 6 Either e Restart xfs and xfstt Type etc init d xfs force reload followed by etc init d xfstt force reload Restart your system In either case the TrueType fonts are now available for on screen use 7 Make the fonts available to ghostview for printing Type xfstt gslist sync gt gt etc gs Fontmap 8 Open etc gs Fontmap and add TT as a prefix to all TrueType fonts listed This step is not necessary but helps you to tell the postscript and TrueType versions of a font apart when they appear in a menu If you want to add more fonts later follow steps 2 6 Note Some fonts do not display or print properly in Linux or in some Linux applications Dingbats and decorated initials are especially unlikely to work Chapter 13 Configuring the System 256 257 Appendix A Automating Multiple Installs This portion is specific to the Progeny Installer Install pgi and autoinstall Once you have installed Debian on a single system you can automate other installs by creating an automated install floppy The automated install floppy is inserted in the floppy drive when you start an install Making the automated install floppy consists of two steps 1 Creating the configuration files 2 Creating the automated installer floppy A 1 Creating Configuration Files The configuration files are created on an existing Debian system then copied to the floppy for use during the install You
46. by minutes number More than the given cmin since files were number of minutes ago argument changed x number Less than the given number of minutes ago number Exactly the given number of minutes ago Arguments are number More than the given Searches by the number number of days ago ctime of days since file number Less than the given argument attributes were number of days ago changed number Exactly the number of days ago follow Traces symbolic links to original files The group can be identified by Searches for files name or by group id group that belong to a group particular group of This option is best used as root users user Otherwise you can only find files to which you have Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 104 read permission maxdepth Sets the maximum level number of sub directories to search mindepth Sets the minimum level number of sub directories to search name Searches for files Put a string in quotation marks string that match the string to use shell metacharacters newer file Finds files newer than one included in the command perm Searches with permissions permissions in absolute mode Arguments include type Searches for types of argument files d Directory oup X os Symbolic link Regular file Searches for files that belong to the user user user included in the command User
47. cfg on an existing Debian System then edit if desired A 1 8 Creating the Post Installation Script postinst The post installation script is a series of commands that are run after installation is complete The script can be written any language supported by the fully installed system The post installation script is optional It is not needed for an automated install Chapter A Automating Multiple Installs 261 A 1 9 Creating the Sources List File sources lst This file is a list of sources for apt It can be copied from any sources list for apt You can create it by Typing cp etc apt sources lst conf sources I st e Creating a plain text file called sources lst in the target directory with the following line deb http archive progeny com progeny progeny main contrib non free A 2 Creating the Automated Installer Floppy Before creating the floppy for the automated installer you must create all configuration files and place them in the conf directory Only the postinst file is optional 1 From the conf directory type make autoinst initrd kernel version The kernel ver sion is the version of the kernel that you want to use on the floppy to create the initial ram disk that is used to start the system The kernel must be installed on the system that you are currently using 2 Place a floppy disk in the drive The drive is mounted automatically in the next step e 3 From the conf directory type make au
48. characters e A question mark includes any single character Warning Metacharacters can be extremely powerful especially when used in combination Be especially careful about using them when you are deleting and moving files You may affect more files than you realize Note If you want to search for a character that is usually used as a metacharacter place a backward slash in front of it For example searches for a question mark instead of any character Metacharacters or Wild Cards Metacharacter Stands for Any character except a new line marker 2 Any one character or none Any one of the enclosed characters i Any number of characters or none string The string at the start of the line string The string at the end of the line string Match one or more of the characters in the string string Match a range of instances string string One of the strings Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 63 Metacharacters are especially powerful when used together For example contacts matches text in which contacts is the only word on a line Cc ontacts matches Contacts or contacts e S searches for any line of three characters compan y lies searches for company or companies A Za z searches for any upper or lowercase letter Similarly 0 9A Za z searches for any num ber or any letter 5 3 7 Entering Multi
49. command then the command runs automatically 5 5 4 Using Command Aliases An alias is a shorter name for a command Aliases are especially useful if you want a shortcut for a command with a set of commonly used options You can Create an alias e Delete an alias View existing aliases Creating an Alias Type alias alias command option If the original command includes options and arguments enter it as a string in single quotation marks For example if you regularly printed three copies of everything to a printer called progeny you could create an alias by typing alias p3 Ipr 3 P progeny Once the alias is created you can use the alias instead of the original command For example to send the file contactlist txt to the printer you would type p3 contact txt Deleting an Alias Type unalias alias Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 69 Viewing Aliases Type alias A list of aliases displays 5 5 5 Abbreviating File Path Names One of the biggest drawbacks to the command line is that typing file names can be cumber some You can reduce the amount of typing by using e Shortcut symbols Relative paths Using Special Symbols You can use the following special symbols to reduce the amount of typing you need to do in file names Special Symbols for the Command Line Symbol What it stands for The directory that you are now in the working directory The director
50. command when this option is used u uid Sets the user id Must be a unique id Files in the user s home directory are changed but not files elsewhere s shell Sets the users shell If no shell is specified then the default bash is used Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 179 12 1 4 Changing Individual Passwords 1 Type passwd user You are prompted for current UNIX password You do not need to enter the user for the current account For information about selecting a password 2 Enter your current password You are prompted for your New UNIX password 3 Enter your new password You are prompted to retype new UNIX password 4 Enter your new password again A message displays All authentication tokens up dated successfully The next time you log in to the account whose password you have changed you must use the new password 12 1 5 Choosing a Password A good password is one that is hard to crack That is it is A mixture of letters numbers symbols and of upper and lower case At least six characters long Not based on anything associated with you such as a birthday a spouse s name a pet or a favorite sports team or movie Not a common word found in a dictionary Different from your passwords on other machines Different to your user account Not written down anywhere 12 2 Managing Groups User groups can define How users can access the system Wh
51. computer reboots e 2 Remove the Progeny CD and floppy from their drives when the install program in structs you Your computer restarts e 3 If necessary change the boot order on your machine so that it starts from the hard drive See Preparing a CD or Floppy Installation on page 19 img Installing png If your forget to change the boot order restart your computer and try again Restarting your machine a second time does not affect the install process After a moment the Insert cd rom screen opens 4 Put the Progeny Debian Install cd into the drive and press the Enter key After a moment the System Configuration screen opens img Installing png img Installing png If your video card or monitor is not detected automatically text based installation screens open For details on how to use these screens See Configuring the Video Card on page 36 See Configuring the Monitor on page 37 img Installing png If you started the installation program with linux secondstage text then the configuration stage is text based instead of graphical Chapter 3 Installing Debian 33 e 5 Select the Next button to start the configuration stage of the install program The Select Options to Configure screen opens img Installing png Middle click anywhere on the screen except the window to open a virtual terminal for trou bleshooting 3 3 2 Selecting Options to Configure img Installing png e 1 Select the options
52. configuration files 11 3 2 Understanding Package Information Packages contain a wealth of information You can install a program without reading this information but reading it often saves you wasted effort For example you generally do not want to install a package that conflicts with another or to start the installation of a package whose installed size is greater than the free space on your hard disk This section explains The contents of packages Package names Important files for packages Priorities Dependencies Understanding the Contents of Packages Debian packages are either binary or source A binary package contains a compiled program that can be run after installation A source package must be compiled before it can be installed A Debian binary package contains A binary or executable file The program itself Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 155 The conffiles file Lists the configuration files for the package Configuration files Files need to install or remove the package Installation scripts Scripts that run automatically when a package tool is used Some may require input from the user Scripts are in the var lib dpkg info directory Usu ally there are four preinst Runs before installation of the package postinst Runs after installation of the package prerm Runs before removal of the package postrm Runs after removal of the package man
53. d so seca ra see Eee ee ee es 6 2 Preparing to Install Debian 9 21 Understanding Your Sveleni s Hardware o oers s bas mamaa kx ex OR Ros 9 2 1 1 Finding Sources of Hardware Information 9 21 2 Gathering Hardware Information s s sos e onm bY aoe era aOR we 10 2 1 3 Checking Hardware Compatibility ooa a 11 2 1 4 Meeting Minimum Hardware Requirements oaao 12 2 2 Gathering Information About Linux Device Names 266 sie vee s 12 221 Understanding Device Names os ss io ea oes ro c oaia oa e REE we Ys 13 2 2 2 Finding Information About Partitions lt lt aoaaa RR 13 2 23 Understanding Windows Device Names cess 13 2 2 4 Understanding Linux Device Names caca nman 14 Ran Reading Linux Device Names coca dars a Sa EUH aor eX ACE Ros 15 2 2 6 Translating Windows Names to Linux Names 16 29 Backing Up Your Systemi i s rao REA RSE ER RScRR E RE RARE d ede ES 16 CONTENTS ii 3 Installing Debian 17 AL Organizing the lastall uu aru yie ed 06 opo e e DOES Ee dee d ed 18 Sal Preparing forthe Histall o e sise save c eae uen Sox ex ACE et os 18 3 1 2 Installing Multiple Operating Systems 14 04 04 x m Re x 19 3 1 3 Preparing a CD or Floppy Installation s oo cece R9 19 3 14 Changing the Boot Order on IDE Computers 0 4 19 3 1 5 Changing the Boot Order on SCSI Computers sues o RR 20 316 Installing Froma Floppy vanes oes bk Babee g bare
54. deaur doux om BEERS SE OR GR EUER De dung 249 13 6 1 Changing Window Managers From a Desktop aa 249 13 6 2 Changing the Keyboard Mapping 626 5668 o o o RE 250 13 63 Changing Window Managers From the Command Line 250 13 6 4 Adding Window Managers to the Login Screen ils 251 13 7 Changing Other DEI erede uc race ek we RS amp cie RC RR e XR 251 19 7 1 Setting Date and Time Prom the Desktop 22a saw x 9 252 13 7 2 Setting Date and Time From the Command Line 252 129 53 Setting the Command Shell 2 uu ke dox c see RR o o de m 253 1524 Ads POS 2l ox tack RS ee ai SOR PERERA EE ERE os 253 CONTENTS xii A Automating Multiple Installs 257 Ad Creatine Configuration Piles o lt s sa scssi s AE Re dc pee POE 257 A 1 1 Creating the Global Configuration File global cfg 258 A 1 2 Creating the debconf Configuration File debconf cfg 258 A 13 Creating the Network Modules File netmod lst Ls 258 A 14 Creating the SCSI Module File scsimod lst 2 2 ees 259 A 1 5 Creating the Network Configuration Database network cfg 259 A 1 6 Creating the Partitioning Information File partinfo cfg 260 A 1 7 Creating the Package Selection List select cig 0 4 6 ee ew e 260 A 1 8 Creating the Post Installation Script postinst 260 AAD Creating the Sources List File sources Ist sso rer RR 261 AZ Creat
55. displays but the command continues to be Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 167 Forces the command to processed x force argument complete even though a problem occurs See The dpkg Command Package Management Argument The command stops with an error Stops the command from message x no force argument completing if a problem x refuse argument occurs See The dpkg Command Package Management Argument See The dpkg Command Package Management Argument on this page 11 9 2 The dpkg Command Package Management Argument Argument Action auto select Selects or de selects packages remove to install or configure any If necessary that the package depends on configures any unconfigured packages Installs even if the package conflicts with not stop the command conflicts another one This option could cause some files to be over written depends Warns about dependency problems display but do depends version Warngs about version problems display downgrade Installs even if a newer version is already installed hold Processes packages with a hold flag overwrite Over writes a file from one package with the same Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 168 file from another package remove reinstreq Removes broken packages
56. ew 37 O12 Configuring the Pointer lt lt s oco RR RR tahae EERE KS 38 CONTENTS iii 3313 Setting Advanced Graphic Display Options 4 ee 39 3 314 Conneuune Electronic Mall soss se ea a Rom a ex Be aw xe 39 2045 ConDsuHUE Pree x sira ades ma e ECROR OR aK 3o ex ADR det OM 40 2b Configuring the NetWork uus ee k op UR nene E oo ke d 41 34 Selecting Software to Install lt cs d se REOR ck RR Y XO eR OH y oy e 42 3 5 Installing Software Prom the Extras CD ze Roo orm dw a 46 Starting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface 49 4 1 Working With User Accounts ouk or po Y eee bee eked ew EE RHE 49 4 1 1 Understanding Regular User Accounts 2 2 bee eR X oes 50 412 Understanding the Root Account gt s o 65 oo RR 50 A2 Logeing in to Debian o eia ee hee Xx BAS E E R EEE HERES ERS 51 421 Logging Graphically ea era ESSER egoe dde BAKE X Ee KS 52 422 Logging in froma Command Line s s s s s soes ace ees 52 43 Shutting Downe Debian lt i s ssa s a sa acis ri Pe Op E wee ee ae 53 4 3 1 Shutting Down from the Desktop 6 6045 604 o a eee eA 53 452 Shutting Down From the Command Line 2 o cv ox xo eu ws 54 433 Shutting Down From the Keyboard sor o RR RR 54 44 Starting and Shutting Down the Graphical Interface s l 55 44 1 Starting a Graphical Interface From the Command Line 55 12 Exiting the Graphical Interface sou ko mamas 55 44 3 Keeping the X Window System Running in the Background
57. ew oe So 20 A17 Installing Froma Network lt lt iwe doe eS ee Re ey y ESKER 20 3 1 8 Installing Progeny Debian Without a Graphical Display 21 3 1 9 Navigating the Install Program lt md R3 ede et Bee HERE KS 22 10 Navigating Witho ta Mouse ss ok Gb RSPR EEE RR e I E 22 3 1 11 Opening a Virtual Terminal for Troubleshooting 22 3 2 Installing the Minimal System s os c ma orm ee edad e m ba ee 23 3 2 1 Selecting the Installation Target lt s seso sisne eede ex 26 3 22 Creating and Editing Partitions lt etes R9 saitte 4o e 3 27 32 39 Limitations ofthe Partitioning Tool s o s 8 e ss a w aoa ee w E eee 31 3 2 4 Working Around Incompatible Partitions aoaaa 31 So Contenu Your Syste lt s eccita oko OSES EUR Dobis x aa OES 32 mel Starting the Configuration Stage so s dees ro e ER 32 3 3 2 Selecting Options to Configure sud S Er a 33 goo mening the Date And TIME equos s a o o9 C Oe Ra eS 33 3 3 4 Configuring Users and Passwords ss ose eru m Rx s 34 505 Choosing a Secure PRESWORBT uos ew E atop Rn ERR ERR 34 moo Setting the Root Password c se sa ee ey eR wx Ee ee 35 3 37 Creating a Regular User Account 25 aa ou E x33 35 33 8 Configuring Password Levels 2i se cos e om ok RR RR we 35 5059 Configarine the Video Card lt sos sots R Bake mem wa C83 36 S10 Configuring the MONIO ecse se cea Rom pad Rr Ak eke ee ee wd 37 3 3 11 Setting the Desktop Graphic Display 2k
58. excluding those countries so that distribution is permitted only in or among countries not thus excluded In such case this License incorporates the limitation as if written in the body of this License The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and or new versions of the General Public License from time to time Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the present version but may differ in detail to address new problems or concerns Each version is given a distinguishing version number If the Program specifies a version number of this License which applies to it and any later version you have the option of following the terms and conditions either of that version or of any later version published by the Free Software Foundation If the Program does not specify a version number of this License you may choose any version ever published by the Free Software Foundation If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into other free programs whose distribution conditions are different write to the author to ask for permission For software which is copyrighted by the Free Software Foundation write to the Free Software Foundation we sometimes make exceptions for this Our decision will be guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the sharing and reuse of software generally NO WARRANTY because the program is licensed free of charge there is no warrant
59. if you want to use procmail for local mail delivery Proc mail lets you filter incoming messages and deliver them to folders other than your Inbox You can use other tools to filter so if in doubt do not use procmail See Directing E Mail Using procmail on page 238 7 Select the Next button The Printer screen opens 3 3 15 Configuring Printers img Installing png In this screen you can configure printers for your system 1 Select the Printer definition to create or edit If you have not created a Printer definition already you can only select New 2 Enter a short name and a long name for the printer definition These names can help you identify the printer The short name appears on the printer spool that stores files before they are sent to the printer and in configuration files The long name is used mainly to help you identify the printer At some companies printers are named with a theme such as animals or famous people However names based on some combination of the manufacturer model and or path name of the printer may be easier to work with 3 Select the location of the printer Local the printer is attached to the machine on which you are installing You need to enter the device to which the local printer is attached Usually the device will be the first parallel port dev 1p0O Remote The printer is on a network to which your machine is attached You need to enter The hostname The machine
60. info grub at a command line Editing the Boot Manager Configuration File grub files are in boot grub You can edit the boot manager in three ways By opening the grub shell with sbin grub By highlighting an item in the menu as your computer starts and pressing the E key This method is useful only for editing existing entries By opening boot grub menu lst in a text editor This method is the easiest and is the one covered here Chapter 13 Configuring the System 229 The configuration file for the boot manager is boot grub menu lIst menu lst is divided into groups of options or stanzas The first stanza contains global settings for grub Each of the other stanzas contains the settings for one operating system or kernel Unless the default option is used in the global stanza the default operating system is the first one after the global stanza Options are generally placed one per line but this convention is not necessary It exists only to make the file easier for people to read Enter options as they appear in the following table filling in specific values for the variables The GRUB Boot Manager Global Settings Option Setting color menu foreground menu background selected foreground selected background Sets the colors that menu items and selected menu items display in The available colors are black blue green cyan red magenta brown and light gray The foregro
61. into the Linux name if you want to be sure that you never delete or reformat the partition Note On most computers your Windows C partition is hdal in the Linux naming system However check before working with any partitions Notice too that port names on Windows start with 1 while on Linux they start with 0 Linux Equivalents for Common Windows Device Names Type of Device Windows Linux lst floppy drive A fdo lst partition lst hard drive ide C hdal lst partition lst hard drive scsi C sdal lst serial port comi ttyso lst parallel port ipti 1p0 23 Backing Up Your System Before you start to install Debian back up your system At the very least make copies of important files You may also want to create new rescue disks for existing operating systems So long as you are careful these precautions should be unnecessary However even experi enced computer users can make mistakes or face an unexpected power interruption If any thing does happen backing up your system will save you hours of time and trouble 17 Chapter 3 Installing Debian This section is Progeny specific and does not apply for the standard Debian system Rewrite desirable Please refer to the official documents Installation Manual stable version http www debian org releases stable installmanual and Installation Manual testing ver sion http www debian org releases testing
62. left the order of permissions in each group are read write and execute permissions Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 132 9 19 3 Changing Permissions from the Desktop From the file s pop up menu select Properties The Properties window displays e Select the Permissions tab img Files 16 png e Set read write and execute permissions by selecting them for each category of user with the mouse You can view the current owner and group in the File Ownership pane Continually select the button for the user or group id to cycle through valid settings The changes display in the Current mode line at the top of the Permissions tab e Select the ok button to change the settings and close the window 9 19 4 Changing Permissions From the Command Line The chmod command has two modes the symbolic or character and the absolute or octal mode As well as the usual options in any command the symbolic mode uses a series of individual arguments Use the symbolic mode if you want to assign the permissions carefully and in full By contrast the absolute mode uses octal notation to reduce the arguments in the commands to three characters Despite its name absolute mode is quick and efficient once you learn it Changing Permissions in Symbolic Mode Type chmod options group action permissions file The possible entries for each part of this command is explained in one of the tables below The group and permissions
63. look of the display by changing desktops or window managers This section discusses e Configuring a video card e Configuring a monitor e Configuring the graphical display screen color depth and resolution Configuring a pointer Changing the keyboard mapping Changing desktops Changing window managers Chapter 13 Configuring the System 241 13 5 1 Configuring a Video Card From the Desktop img System 8 png Information about your video card is detected automatically by the system However you can change this information if necessary Warning Choosing settings that are not supported by your video card could damage it or the monitor 1 Select Systems X Configuration from the gnome Control Center Note If you are using the kde desktop type usr bin xserver configlet capplet at a command line N From the X Configuration pane select the Video Card tab Oo Enter a name or identifier for your video card configuration After the install you can see this name in the XFree86Config 4 file 4 If necessary select the X server package graphic display driver to use In most cases you can use the one suggested by the install program If you have trouble choosing an X server package that works try xserver xfree86 or xserver vga 5 If necessary select the manufacturer and driver to use In most cases you can select the one suggested by the install program If you have trouble configuring t
64. on another hard drive map hd0 other_hard_drive map other_hard_drive hd0 Place these lines before the root or chainloader 1 options Chapter 13 Configuring the System 232 13 3 5 Making a Bootable Recovery Disk A boot disk is a basic recovery tool To create a boot disk Copy the boot image on the cd This image is called install 1 44 and is in a directory below dists progeny main disks i386 on the cd Mount a floppy disk then type dd if path of dev fd0 bs 1474560 A floppy to use with a grub entry 1 1 Mount the floppy 2 2 Copy the kernel image to a floppy Type dd if boot vmlinuz 2 2 18 0f dev fd0 bs 8192 3 3 Make an entry for the floppy in boot grub menu lst See Basic Settings for a Floppy Drive in the GRUB Boot Manager on the page before The utilities in the tools directory of the cd to create a boot disk under Windows or dos using rawritel or rawrite2 13 4 Configuring Networks In Linux terms the subject of networking includes not only a network of individual machines but also internet connections This section covers the basics of Linux networking in Debian starting with the hardware and how to configure a connection and ending with how to configure e mail Configuring an ethernet card Checking a modem connection Configuring a Network connection Configuring a Dialup connection e Setting up electronic mail 13 4 1 Configuring an Ethernet Card img Syste
65. or install the packages in dividually Installed window manager files are generally in a sub directory of usr share with the executable in usr bin or usr X11R6 2 From the gnome Control Center select Desktop Window Manager 3 If necessary select the Add button to add a window manager to the list Enter its name and executable 4 Highlight a window manager in the list Then select the Try button 5 A message window offers you the chance to save the change If you decide to save the change later check the Save current setup box as you log out 8 Do one of the following e Select the Revert button to return to your original window manager Select the ok button to continue using the new window manager If you lose the desktop background image select Desktop gt Background to restore it Chapter 13 Configuring the System 250 13 6 2 Changing the Keyboard Mapping The default keyboard for Debian is the qwerty layout for the us language However you can change the keyboard to a different layout or a different language For a complete change you must change the keyboard mapping for both the command line and the desktop Changing the Command Line Keyboard Mapping 1 Logged in as root user type dpkg reconfigure console data 2 Answer the questions on the screen as they appear Changing the Desktop Keyboard Mapping 1 Check that the keyboard mapping that you want is installed in usr shre keymaps i386
66. other removable device you cannot unmount Chapter 13 Configuring the System 226 The root partition The swap partition unless you use the swapoff command first Any filesystem that has a binary that is currently in use on the system You must unmount a removable filesystem before changing it Type umount options mountpoint Note The command is spelled umount not unmount no first n For convenience set up an alias so you can type unmount The umount Command Option Action Comment To unmount all Filesystems set to noauto in the a filesystems listed in fourth column of fstab are not fstab unmounted To unmount all type filesystems of one type Changing a Mount Point You may want to change a filesystem s mount point for several reasons You are running out of space You have changed the sizes of partitions You have added another hard drive You want to place a very large directory such as home or user on its own partition To change a partition 1 If necessary create and format a new partition See Partitioning a Hard Drive on page 219 Warning Always back up information before re partitioning and choose your tools carefully While parted can resize a partition without destroying data fdisk cannot Chapter 13 Configuring the System 227 2 For safety start your machine in single user mode 3 Create a tempo
67. permanently 1 Type chsh at the command line 2 When prompted type the path to the shell s executable Executables for shells are usually in the bin directory They have the same name as the shell Additional Linux Command Shells Shell Description ash A smaller shell than bash very popular for writing scripts csh The C shell Popular with programmers because of its familiar syntax tcsh An enhanced version of the csh shell In addition to the features of other shells it includes a spell checker 13 7 4 Adding Fonts Linux can support a number of different font formats The most commonly used are postscript also called Typel or Adobe and TrueType font formats Each format must be set up separately You can also setup fonts separately for programs that use their own printing systems such as StarOffice or WordPerfect However when you do the fonts are available only for the individual programs Consult the documentation for these programs for more information Adding Postscript Type1 Fonts Postscript is a printer language created by Adobe Postscript fonts are ones that can be used by postscript without conversion Postscript fonts are also called Typel or Adobe fonts Each postscript font has several files associated with it The files have the same name but a different extension Chapter 13 Configuring the System 254 6 afm short for Adobe Font Metrics Contain the proporti
68. range supported by your monitor 13 5 5 Setting Display Settings from the Desktop img System 10 png From the Desktop screen you can set the resolution and color depth for the graphical display on your system Settings for the graphic display depend on the capabilities of your video card and monitor If you did not collect this information before installing See Gathering Hardware Information on page 10 Warning Choosing settings that are not supported by both your video card and monitor could damage either piece of hardware 1 Select Systems X Configuration from the gnome Control Center Note If you are using the kde desktop type usr bin xserver configlet capplet at a command line 2 From the X Configuration pane select the Desktop tab Warning Choosing settings that are not supported by both your video card and monitor may dam age them Chapter 13 Configuring the System 245 5 Select the resolutions to support By default your desktop starts in the highest resolution supported but you can change the resolution Temporarily by pressing Alt Ctrl keypad to cycle through the available resolu tions e Permanently by editing the XFree86Config 4 file 6 From the drop down list select the color depth or the number of colors that your desktop will use Fewer colors mean a less realistic display of graphics but a faster redraw time However if you have a video card with more than 4 megabytes
69. root directory Even directories on another partition are sub directories of the root directory See Searching for Files and Text on page 93 Using a few basic commands you can Change directories e Read the contents of directories Identify the type of entries in a directory Find your current directory Clear the screen 5 41 Changing directories Type cd directory Unless the directory you are changing to is a sub directory of the current one usually you should type the full path name to the directory To change to the directory immediately above the present one type cd two periods 5 4 2 Reading the Contents of Directories Type Is options directory By carefully selecting your options you can use the ls list command to help you locate files For example the S option lists files in order of size while the t option lists files by when they were modified Another trick is to set an alias so that typing list results in ls color which prints files in different colors depending on what kind they are See Creating an Alias on page 68 The ls Command List Option Action Comments T a Includes hidden files in the Most hidden files list Start with a period t color Displays types of files in Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 65 dereference
70. selected as a source in dselect the old text based package management tool in Debian The apt get utility is not so much a command but a collection of commands This fact is reflected in its format which can include not only options but a specific command as well Type apt get options command package name The most commonly used options are apt get install package name Retrieves unpacks and installs the package Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 161 apt get remove package name Removes the package from your system Note that You may be asked questions during the install Many can be answered with a y yes or n no e Some commands can be entered without specifying package names If no packages are mentioned commands like upgrade affect the entire system Others commands such as install require that a package is specified Options can be entered as part of the command or set in etc apt apt conf Options set in the configuration file can be overridden from the command line by using the option option name no download only does not unpack them The apt get Command Manage Packages Options Option Action Comment aao Compiles source compile packages after build they are downloaded Downloads The option for the ecl packages but configuration file is apt Get Download only f fix broken Adds missing dependenc
71. set e Buttons The possible functions The equivalent of apt s commands Details The current status of the package set and the amount of hard drive space it occupies once installed The installed space is sometimes less than the memory required during installation e 3 Select the packages to work with A package set is highlighted when selected Note A package set may be selected regardless of whether it is installed or not However all you would want to do with an uninstalled package set is install it 4Select a function from the buttons on the right of the window Apply Install the selected package Revert Undo the previous action and restore the package set to its original status Update Update the list of package sets available from the sources Upgrade Upgrade the selected package set if a newer version is available e 5 When you are finished select the Close button to close the Add Remove Software window 11 6 Installing and Removing Packages With the apt pkgset Com mand This section is Progeny specific and does not apply for the standard Debian system Rewrite desirable Debian simplifies package selection by grouping related packages into sets If a program re quires more than one package you can install all the packages at the same time using Progeny s apt pkgset utility As the name implies apt pkgset is the command line version of gnome apt pkgset Progeny s desktop tool Chapter 11 Ins
72. single user mode the graphical interface starts 1 At the login prompt type your user account name and press the Enter key The pass word prompt displays Note Use the root account only for configuration or administration work e 2 Type the password for your user account If you type an account name and password that are entered into the system then a command prompt displays and you are ready to work If the account name or password are incorrect you return to the login prompt Chapter 4 Starting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface 53 43 Shutting Down Debian Linux is generally running many processes at once Many of these run in the background where they are easy to forget For this reason shutting down the system properly is essential A proper shutdown is often called a graceful shutdown or exit During a graceful shutdown All processes and programs are closed e All information in ram memory or on the swap partition is written to the hard drive e All log files are updated All partitions are dismounted Warning If you do not shut down properly you may damage the operating system or lose files At best the next time you start your computer you have a long delay while the root partition is checked You can shut down from The desktop A command line The keyboard 43 1 Shutting Down from the Desktop e 1 From the menu select Logout A confirmation window displays e 2 f yo
73. structure These last three steps may take several minutes apiece In each case watch the display on the screen for errors You may have to install a programming library on your system to get past these steps without errors At the end of this process the software should be ready for use You may want to e Clean up after installing unpackaged software you can conclude by typing make clean e Add an icon or a menu item for it to your desktop See Adding Launchers on page 87 Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 172 Note The most likely error when installing unpackaged software is a missing dependency However because unpackaged software is often in development it may not work on all systems or with all Linux based operating systems especially in the earliest stages of development 11 11 Making Debian Packages From Other Formats Often you can make a Debian package from another format using the alien utility However because of the complexities of converting from one format to another alien does not always work For this reason you may prefer to use a static tar file instead See Installing Unpackaged Software on page 170 1 Obtain the package you want to install You can convert from the following formats rpm Red Hat Package Management format e slp Stampede Linux format e tgz Slackware format archives made using tar and gzip 2 Type alien i source format ta
74. support later you can do so after the install Configure with dhcp Network information is assigned automatically by the dhcp server The dhcp hostname is assigned by an isp to your machine This setting is optional In most cases it can be ignored Use manual settings Enter the settings needed for the network Domain name The name of the machine on which you are installing Progeny Debian ip address The address of the machine on which you are installing Progeny Debian e Netmask The bitmask that defines the part of the system s network address that identi fies the network Gateway The address of the machine that is the default route to machines not on the network Chapter 3 Installing Debian 42 e Name Servers The address of the system that provide hostname lookup services to your system img Installing png Check with your system administrator or Internet Server Production for the entries that you need e 3 If your network connection is through a pcmcia or Cardbus network card select the box beside Main network device is removable 4Select the Next button The Finish screen opens img Installing png e 5Select the Finish button to complete the configuration stage of installation A bar graph displays the progress while the system is configured img Installing png When your choices are entered configuration is complete The Available Software screen opens 3 4 Selecting Software to Install
75. the backup Also while compression is generally reliable it creates another stage at which the process can fail Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 192 Whether users are responsible for backing up their own files Since only the root user has full permissions for all files on the system usually backups are best done by the root user However if users back up their own files you might omit backing up the home directory or at least not back it up regularly 12 5 2 Choosing a Backup Tool Linux has several tools for backing up and restoring files e dump restore Old tools that work with filesystems rather than files and can back up unmounted devices Although you can easyly control what is backed up with dump by editing a single column in the etc fstab file for some reason these utilities have fallen into disuse Today many distributions of Linux including Debian do not even include them by default If you want to use dump and restore you must install them yourself e tar A standard backup tool and by far the easiest to use It is especially useful for backing up over multiple removable devices using the M option See Archiving and Compressing From the Desktop on page 201 cpio A very flexible command but one that is hard to use because of the unusual way in which the command must be entered Many commercial or free software back up tools are also available 12 5 3 Backing Up and Restoring Using the cp
76. the desktop equivalent of the df command img Sysinfo 5 png 10 13 Viewing User Information from the Desktop Using the gw Command img Sysinfo 6 png The gw utility is the desktop equivalent of the w command It displays informations about users If you are logged in as root user gw displays information about all users currently logged in If you are logged in as a regular user then only information about the current account displays Type gw from a command line The Active User screen opens Note If you use the command regularly add it to the workspace panel or menu From the Active User screen you can read such information about where users logged in from local or remote how long they have been logged in and the processes they are currently running 10 1 4 Using the Monitor Applets The Applets are small programs that are a standard part of the gnome desktop When selected an applet displays in the panel The Monitor manuals are among the most useful applets Each gives a graphic display of some aspect of the system To add one to the panel go to Applets Monitors on the main menu Monitor Applets Monitor What It Shows cpu mem The cpu memory and swap load usage Battery The battery charge for laptops Warns when the charge Chapter 10 Reading System Information 142 charge is low Disk usage The amount of hard drive space used and free cp
77. the file who can use the file and how they can use it You can only adjust these settings if you own the file or if you are logged in as root user See Changing Permissions on page 130 Note On the desktop you can also select Directory or url Link by right clicking on the work space and making a selection from the New menu Icon Properties Tabs Tab Editable Information Basic information about the icon Statistics You can change the icon text by editing the File Name m The icon image Options Select the icon to change the icon Lists information about Permissions Who can use the file X How the file can be used Who owns the file See Changing Permissions on page 130 Chapter 6 Getting to Know the Desktop 82 6 3 6 Opening A Command Line Early Linux development centered on the command line and the graphical desktops are still being improved As a result you will find that your need for a command line increases as you gain in expertise You can open a command line in a number of ways e Select the gnome terminal icon from the panel img Desktop 25 png Select AIt F2 or Run from the main menu to enter a single command then close the command line img Desktop 26 png From the menu select Programs gt System gt Eterm gnome Terminal or Regular xt erm A command line window opens img Desktop 27 png Right click on the
78. the string PASCO Stops at the first Whether other matches x quiet match are available is not listed X oc Searches x recursive sub directories v Searches for lines X line regexp Displays lines that match the entire string Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 107 8 44 Using Metacharacters With grep Commands Metacharacters are characters that can be used to set special conditions for searching They are also known as wild cards See Using Special Symbols on page 69 Metacharacters are added to a text string A text string that includes metacharacters is called a regular expression Regular expressions are useful for finding variations in wording or in the positioning of the string on a line Metacharacters can be used with both grep and egrep However grep can use fewer metachar acters than egrep Whenever you want to use metacharacters egrep is usually the tool to use If you do not want to use any metacharacters at all or do not have the characters memorized for use use fgrep Metacharacters can be extremely powerful especially when used in combination However when you are using search tools little is likely to go wrong unless you combine a grep com mand with another one that makes changes to files Note If you want to search for a character that is usually used as a metacharacter place a backward slash in front of it For example searches for a qu
79. to configure By default all options are configured except X configu ration You must configure Users and Electronic Mail img Installing png If you want a desktop select X configuration Most users should configure all options However if you decide not to you can configure from the desktop e 2Select the Next button to continue The Date and Time Screen opens 3 3 3 Setting the Date And Time img Installing png 1 Under Time Zone select your Region from the drop down list e 2Select your Time Zone from the drop down list The list varies with the region that you select e 3 Select the options you want The System set to utc box to set the system to Greenwich Mean Time The path to your Network Time Server if you have one 4 Under Date and Time select the month The arrow on the left move the month back ward while the arrow on the right moves it forward e 5 Select the year The arrows on the left move the year backward while the arrow on the right moves it forward If you move the month from December to January the year changes automatically e 6 Select the day by highlighting it on the calendar Chapter 3 Installing Debian 34 7 Enter the hour minute and seconds In each field you can either enter highlight the current entry and over write it or else use the arrow keys to change it e 8 Set the time to am or pm If you prefer a 24 hour clock you can reset the date later using the date command
80. unless you are sure what you are doing Chapter 13 Configuring the System 246 13 5 6 Setting Display Settings Manually Settings for the graphical display are stored in the Display subsection of etc X11 XF86Config 4 in the main section Screen Entries in the Display subsection are arranged by color depth Depth Below each Depth are the resolutions Modes that can be used by each color depth When the video card profile defined in the Screen section is used the system defaults to the highest color depth and resolution listed You can change the default by Commenting out or deleting depths that you do not want to use e Adding or deleting modes Placing the mode you want to be the default first in the horizontal list of modes From the desktop you can toggle through the other resolution available by pressing Ctrl Alt on the number pad Warning Selecting color depths or resolutions unsupported by your monitor and video card can damage them Refer to the hardware manuals while configuring the screen display Screen Display Depths and Modes Setting Comments Depth The color depth in bits This setting ranges from 1 to 24 bits up to 4 billion colors The screen resolution All resolutions supported by the driver and color depth are listed in the line with the default one first Mode Resolutions usually range from 640 x 480 to 1600 x 1200 Each resolution is surrounded by double quotation
81. will probably need to provide additional information before technical support can help you Hardware Information Needed for an Install Hardware Information You Might Need How many you have Their order on the system Hard Whether ide or scsi most computers are ide Drives Available free space Chapter 2 Preparing to Install Debian 11 Partitions Partitions where other operating systems are installed Monitor FF F F X Model and manufacturer Resolutions supported Horizontal refresh rate Vertical refresh rate Color depth number of colors supported Screen size Mouse x Type serial ps or usb Port Manufacturer Number of buttons Network 0x FF F F F Model and manufacturer Type of adapter Domain name dhcp host name ip Address Netmask Gateway Name server Printer Model and manufacturer Printing resolutions supported Video Card Model and manufacturer Video ram available Resolutions and color depths supported these should be checked against your monitor s capabilities 2 1 13 Checking Hardware Compatibility Many brand name products work without trouble on Linux Moreover hardware for Linux is improving daily However Linux still does not run as many different types of hardware as some operating systems In particular Linux usually cannot run h
82. with a user account To use an account you must know both the user name and the password User accounts are organized into groups of accounts with similar access to the system The software and the hardware you can use depends on the user account that you are using and the groups to which it belongs Chapter 4 Starting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface 50 For more information When you install Debian create at least two user accounts a regular user account for everyday computing and a root account for system administration Normally you also want one regular user account for each person who uses the system 4 1 1 Understanding Regular User Accounts A regular account is used for everyday computing Each account has a home directory By de fault users home directories are beneath the home directory This home directory is usually the same as the user name for the account When you are logged in with an account you usually can e Read write and use files and directories in the account s home directory Read write and use all files and directories to which other users give you permission e Read but not write or use basic system files On some systems the system administrator may choose to make basic system files unreadable by regular users Accounts may annoy those familiar with other operating systems However user accounts have several advantages Your private files are secure You can cha
83. 1 3 Recompiling a Kernel The Linux kernel contains the drivers for hardware filesystems and other features of the oper ating system Since each piece of hardware or feature has its own module you can make your operating system quicker and more efficient by only loading support for what is actually on your system You may need to reconfigure the kernel when you add or remove hardware or other features You can also temporarily enable a module with the modprobe command However if you reboot the system you will need to use the command again Making permanent changes to the kernel consists of three steps 1 Editing the kernel 2 Building or compiling the kernel 3 Installing the kernel However before configuring the kernel you should gather information about the present con figuration and prepare carefully so that you can recover from accidents Finding Kernel and Module Information Fora list of currently loaded kernel modules type modprobe 1 e To see the version of the kernel you are currently using type uname r Preparing to Build a Kernel e Prepare a usable rescue disk If the kernel does not work after you build it the rescue disk gives you a way to start your system and correct the problem See Making a Bootable Recovery Disk on page 232 Make a copy of your current kernel and give it a different name Usually your ker nel is boot vmlinuz The kernel number usually follows the file name for example
84. 33 Conienrine DSEBBDEB o eiii X BS tacna i RSOR gia a e Xe o S 219 CONTENTS xi igo Partitioning a Hard Dive ca s s does BME ELSES EERE EE HE KS 219 1332 Mounting and Unmounting Pilesystems oor aon 222 13 3 9 Creating a Swap Parton or File osos o maces omand Rx Hx RO Ro 227 13 3 4 Configuring the Boot Loader ss cert eR m Re 228 13 3 5 Making a Bootable Recovery Disk 242 bx RE 232 134 Configuring NetWorks Luca setor soi d m SCR Gode xe AE eb E e s 232 13 4 1 Configuring an Ethernet Cam si ss imm Por Rok REC in 232 154 2 CheckihgaModemConneclhon cs 2684 babs o em x eee KS 233 1943 Configuring a Network Connection 2 222 so E m 234 13 4 4 Preparing to Configure a Network Connection 0 234 134 5 Configuring a Dialup Internet Connection 24444 bese o RA 236 1340 Settar Up EM 6g ioyes si hd AREA ELE d UE Andr ER ERE 237 13 5 Configuring the Graphical Display oe vic cecs e toned SON koX ER OS 240 13 5 1 Configuring a Video Card From the Desktop 24 co t 241 13 5 2 Configuring Video Card Manually 5 ue Re RR 241 13 5 3 Configuring a Monitor From the Desktop coo 242 13 5 4 Configuring a Monitor Profile Manually sss 243 13 5 5 Setting Display Settings hom the Desktop 52x x s 244 13 5 6 Setting Display Settings Manually 2 2 xar yb oo omm aes 246 13 5 7 Configuring a Pointer From the Desktop 5 om ws 247 15 58 Configuring a Pomter Manually lt cric RR 247 13 6 Changing Desktops uu dug dep
85. 4 oko ww e 157 1134 Understanding Package Statuses ea uc y Rake aw ee dE 157 114 Understanding Selection States 3 loose om o RR ke ges 157 1141 Understanding Package Flags gt lt so or eR ox CRRA Ew ee 158 11 5 Installing and Removing Package Sets With gnome apt pkgset 158 11 6 Installing and Removing Packages With the apt pkgset Command 159 11 7 Installing and Removing Packages With the apt get Command 160 CONTENTS ix ILS ae Seales dC Ace BES ESS ERS MESES REESE doe RS 163 1181 Adding a New Source Using an Interface sedo ew we 164 11 8 2 Adding a New Source froma Text Editor a Rn 164 11 83 Adding a New CD to the List of Sources sek ro RR 165 11 9 Managing Packages With the dpkg Command 166 11 9 1 The dpkg Command Package Management Options 166 11 9 2 The dpkg Command Package Management Argument 167 11 9 3 The dpkg Command Package Management Actions 168 ILIUbsstdllne Unpackaged Software sek Gee eee eae RR ORO de EROR A 170 11 11Making Debian Packages From Other Formats 0000004 172 12 Doing Everyday Administration 175 1l Managing User AGCOHUMB iux a a ano oui aoa Exc dE CX ee eS ees 175 1211 Adding a User Account uae RO GER Re qe Ae de 45 176 12 1 2 Dielegne s User ACCOUNT cu iw e we Pe ee eA EMH cy ee oe 177 12125 Poe User Account lt p lt me SE EX ERAS BARE DEE ERS 178 1214 Changing Individual Passwo
86. Comment c task Displays listed tasks d task Deletes the specified tasks f file Read tasks from the file entered 1 Lists all tasks scheduled for the current user m Sends mail to the user when the task is run The at Command Scheduling Time Formats Option Action Comment The day can be spelled out day Sets the day of the week lor abbreviated to its first three letters Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 201 ET hh mm Use either a 24 hour clock modifier Sets the time or a 12 hour clock modified by am or pm midnight Sets the time to 12 00 am If the month is before the mmddyyyy Sets the date current month the command runs next year noon Sets the time to 12 00 pm Runs the command now immediately or at the same time on the specified day m teatime Sets the time to 4 00 pm today Runs the command today tomorrow Runs the command tomorrow Using the at Utilities The at command can be controlled by two utilities e atrm Deletes tasks Type atrm job e atq Lists tasks for the current user or all jobs if used by the root user Type atq 127 Archiving and Compressing From the Desktop By default Debian installs the gui tar program in the main menu Despite the name guitar uses the tar gzip and gzip2 utilities as well as several others
87. Each of the first five columns is an option for setting the date and time Each of the first five columns can specify A particular date or time A series of dates or times with a comma between them A range of dates or time beginning with the start with a hyphen between them See Column Entries in a Crontab File on the facing page The sixth column is the command to run including options and arguments No quotation marks are need to enclose the command For example 0 12 usr share bin alarm would run a script called alarm every day at noon Note Jobs only run if the time and date match all column settings Setting column 3 to 1 and column 5 to 1 would only run a job when the first of the month falls on a Monday Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 199 Note No validity check is made Nothing stops yo for example from setting column 3 to 31 and column 4 to 2 setting the time to February 31 Column Entries in a Crontab File x Column or Option Argument Comments from left to right t 1 Minute 0 59 2 Hour 0 23 0 is midnight 3 Day of the 1 31 month 4 Month 1 12 5 Day of the 0 6 0 is Sunday week m Options or arguments can be included 1 6 Job any command No quotation marks are needed around the string All possible entries Any column 2 Use in the first five columns No entry Any column Use in the f
88. On the panel select Remove from panel On the main menus select Remove this item In each case a confirmation window opens img Desktop cu png e 2Select the Yes button to continue deleting img Desktop cu png Deleting a launcher does not delete the file or directory associated with it Launchers are links They point to the files with which they are associated but otherwise have no direct connection with them 7 8 5 Recreating Default Launchers The desktop installs with a number of default icons To restore these defaults right click on the workspace and select Recreate Default Icons 7 3 4 Positioning Desktop Launchers Automatically 1 Right click on the workspace and select Desktop Properties The Desktop Properties window opens img Desktop cu png e 2Select the Desktop tab The Icon position pane shows the automatic placement of icons Icons can be arranged in vertical or horizontal rows e 3 To change the automatic positioning click on the icon in the diagram that will be closest to the corner of the side of the desktop that the icons will be aligned to This icon is always one at the end of a row in the diagram However it may be in the first or second row in the pane Using this method you can align icons to any side of the desktop img Desktop cu png Chapter 7 Making the Desktop Your Own 89 e 4 Select Automatic icon placement or Snap icons to grid if you want either of these fea tures These features
89. Processor RAM Hard Drive No desktop Pentium 100 16 megabytes 450 megabytes With Desktop Pentium 100 64 megabytes 1 gigabyte Server Pentium II 300 128 megabytes 4 gigabytes Note If you are using a desktop you will find that some window managers run better with more ram 2 2 Gathering Information About Linux Device Names Linux uses its own system for naming hardware If you know this system during installation you can choose your options more intelligently You can also avoid over writing partitions that you want to keep Chapter 2 Preparing to Install Debian 13 2 21 Understanding Device Names All operating systems use a system for naming devices such as hard drive partitions and serial and parallel ports Partitions are subdivisions of your hard drive Serial and parallel ports are connectors on the back of your computer where devices such as a mouse or printer can be connected to the system No matter what operating system you are using hard drives are divided into partitions Parti tions can be of three types primary extended and logical A hard drive can have up to four primary partitions However as hard drives grew in size a way around this limitation was needed The answer was extended partitions which can be partitioned into any number of smaller or logical drives 2 22 Finding Information About Partitions You can find information about your partitions by using e fdisk on Linux or
90. Progeny Debian system or Reboot to make sure that any initial services that are needed by the choices you have made during the install can start img Installing png Although you can explore your Progeny Debian System immediately plan on rebooting the system soon after you finish the installation process just to make sure that everything is work ing properly Software Package Sets Package CD Use Apache web Install Sets up the system as a web server server 4 Bind Domain Name Install Makes the system a Domain Name Server Server Character mode Command line mail and news clients mail and news Install client A default selection dhcp server Install Makes the system a dhcp server t Debian package maintenance Install The creation of Debian deb packages tools Document Document tools including TeX LaTex preparation Install sgml and xml tools ftp server Install Makes the system an ftp server Productivity applications such as a word gnome Install processor and spreadsheet applications A default selection gnome desktop The default Progeny Debian desktop Chapter 3 Installing Debian 45 system Install A default selection gnu emacs Install The gnu emacs editor Games Extras A collection of games Productivity applications for the kde kde Office Extras
91. Select the modules to enable See Selecting Modules on this page 2 Regenerate dependency files Type make dep clean 3 Create the kernel image Depending on whether you want the file is compressed using gzip or bzip2 type either make zImage or make bzImage The file usr src linux arch i386 boot zImage or bzImage is created The name of the directory below arch may change depending on what processor you enabled in the kernel 4 Build and install modules Type make modules modules install This string includes two commands make modules and make modules install Note You can install automate kernel building by installing the package called kernel package Once it is installed you only need to type make kpkg kernel image Chapter 13 Configuring the System 215 Installing a Kernel Installing a kernel is third step in configuring a kernel 1 Build the kernel See Building the Kernel on the preceding page 2 Move zImage or bzImage to the root partition renaming it The boot directory is the conventional location Traditionally the kernel is vmlinuz If you have several versions of a kernel add a suffix identifying the kernel version or some unique aspect of the kernel For instance if only one kernel has scsi support you could name it vmlinuz scsi 3 If necessary add the new kernel to the boot manager See Configuring the Boot Loader on page 228 4 Create a new boot disk See Mak
92. The System Info win dow opens img Sysinfo l png If you want to save the information select either e Save Information to File e Email Information A dialogue box opens for you to select or enter a file name or e mail address 10 1 2 Viewing Process Information from the Desktop Using the gtop Command e Start the command Type gtop from a command line or Select gtop from the pop up menu of some Monitor applets In either case the gnome System Monitor window opens Note If you use the command regularly add it to the workspace panel or menu e Select the statistics to display Select Settings gt Preferences from the menu e Select a tab to display Either click on the tab with the mouse or select a tab from the View menu By default the tab displays are Processes Processes that are currently running on the system The statistics to display can be altered in the Settings Preference menu The tab includes graphs for cpu memory swap and average loads This tab is the desktop equivalent of the top or ps command img Sysinfo 3 png Chapter 10 Reading System Information 141 e Memory usage The amount of memory used by each process in relation to each other This figure does not represent an absolute amount of ram This tab is the desktop equivalent of part of the top command img Sysinfo 4 png Filesystems The amount of hard drive space that is free on each partition or hard drive This tab is
93. User s Guide Progeny Linux Systems Inc Version 1 00p00 2003 02 14 15 11 Abstract This User s Guide is nothing but a reformatted Progeny User s Guide Contents are ad justed for the standard Debian system Copyright Notice Copyright 2001 by Progeny Linux Systems Inc This document may be used under the terms the GNU General Public License version 2 or higher This document was created from GPL version of document at http archive progeny com progeny debian doc which page states as follows Within this directory you will find several forms of the Progeny Debian User s Guide As of the March 19 2002 the User s Guide is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License This debiandoc sgml was created from users guide html tar gz using simple shell and perl scripts with the help of w3m gpm vim mc etc This content was touched up slightly by Osamu Aoki lt osamu debian org gt and those por tions are also licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License Contents 1 Introducing Debian 1 11 Learning ADOUPLIBEC isos ave REO He EUR SRO OE Be OREO 1 12 Leamine AboutDebB uoce C RO AER Bore Phas ond 3 1 9 Leaming Abou Progeny Depia icu use koe RR EROR anai a Saree CNRC CX ed 3 184 Whatis TE this PO Liuius a Mog woui degna d XO PRORA ER e be ec A k 4 15 Conventions Used in This Manual 5 0 ee ee eee nee 4 16 Familarizing Yourself with LIBBX se
94. age Lists files that come from a particular package print avail package Displays package information Note that the package names not the package files are entered The information is form var lib dpkg available purge package Purges a package Note that the package names not the package files are entered Instead of listing packages you can use a or pending to configure all packages marked for purging r package remove package Removes a package Note that the package names not the package files are entered Instead of listing packages you can use a or pending to remove all packages marked for removal x S filename search filename pattern Searches installed packages for a file name Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 170 s packages Display a status package s status package To unpack all packages in a Uploads a file directory use this options unpack b ut does not with R or recursive and configure it complete with a directory name instead of a single package name x update avail Updates list of x merge avail available files Searches for uninstalled yet to unpack packages that have been selected for installation 11 10 Installing Unpackaged Software Linux developers often offer programs as tar files of uncompiled source code inst
95. age is unpacked but not configured 11 4 Understanding Selection States As you decide what to do with a package it can be in one of several states You can view the selection state using the dpkg command Install The package is selected for configuration and installation Deinstall All package files have been selected for removal except the configuration files Purge All package files have been selected for removal including the configuration files e Hold The current version of the package will not be over written e Unknown The package has not been unpacked Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 158 11 4 1 Understanding Package Flags Packages may be flagged with two options You can view package flags using the dpkg com mand e Hold Nothing is done with the package unless the force hold option is used with apt e Reinst required The package is broken and needs to be reinstalled The package can only be removed with the force reinstreq option for apt 115 Installing and Removing Package Sets With gnome apt pkgset This section is Progeny specific and does not apply for the standard Debian system Rewrite desirable Debian simplifies package selection by grouping commonly used related packages into sets If a program requires more than one package you can install all the packages at the same time using Progeny s gnome apt pkgset utility Alternately you can double click on the packag
96. ample if you are looking for an executable program it is probably in a bin short for binary if it is a general or third party application or usr bin system binary if it is a program that is an essential part of the operating system or a maintenance utility The following table shows the directories where certain types of files are likely to be located This structure is very similar in all Linux distributions although small differences exist The Linux Directory Structure Directory What s In It The root directory Contains all other files and directories The complete or absolute path to other directories starts from the root directory Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 97 Binary or executable files that can be used by both the root user and normal user bin Look in other bin directories for other executable files Files needed to start Linux including the kernel Most boot files in boot generally cannot be configured using a text editor The usual mount point for the cd drive If the system cdrom has a second cd drive its mount point is usually cdrom2 Definitions for drives partitions and other devices dev dev also includes the makedev tool to create new devices Most of the system s configuration files Including etc etc X11 for the X Window system and etc opt for third party applications The usual mount point for the first
97. an also be used to set an environment variable The fdisk command can also be used to make and delete partitions fdisk 1 Partitions However the parted utility is more versatile for these purposes See Partitioning a Hard Drive hostname i Host Name Displays host name and ip address directory Useful options include cen Permissions owners sizes ls Files modification time mts Inodes xs Sizes Usable only from the root account Kernel For each loaded module lists lsmod modules loaded Name Size Referring modules if any nslookup Domain name Displays the domain name and address host server server Present pwd working Chapter 10 Reading System Information 144 With different options the same Swapon s Swap file command can also be used for turning on a swap partition Information is given in a single line in the following order cpu and o uname a perating Operating system system Local host Kernel releas Kernel build information Processor type For a report on all current users of the system do not specifiy a user Current w user system Displays summaries of state System usage Users who are logged in Current activities of each user See Partitioning a Hard Drive on page 219 10 2 2 Commands for Reading Memory Information
98. and or info pages Help for the program The control file A summary of the libraries required by the package the name and ver sion of the package its priority its installed size its maintainer and other basic informa tion Note Look at the control file for basic information about the package before you install it Understanding Package Names Depending on the tools you may just need the program name to install or remove it In other cases however you need the entire package name Debian packages have a consistent naming convention program_version revision_processor deb In other words the name consists of 1 The program name sometimes an abbreviation 2 The version number usually a sequential number 3 The revision number usually or sequential number 4 The processor type such as i386 for Intel machines This part of the convention is the least likely to be included 5 The deb extension which identifies a Debian or Debian package Debian based distri butions may also use this extension Note Debian packages are named in the same way as a standard Debian package Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 156 Understanding Package Priorities A package s priority is listed in the control file The priority describes how important it is to the operating system Requires The system must have the package to operate properly In other words the package is a basic part of the op
99. and to any other program whose authors commit to using it Some other Free Software Foundation software is covered by the gnu Library General Public License instead You can apply it to your programs too When we speak of free software we are referring to freedom not price Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software and charge for this service if you wish that you receive source code or can get it if you want it that you can change the software or use pieces of it in new free programs and that you know you can do these things To protect your rights we need to make restrictions that forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to surrender the rights These restrictions translate to certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies of the software or if you modify it For example if you distribute copies of such a program whether gratis or for a fee you must give the recipients all the rights that you have You must make sure that they too receive or can get the source code And you must show them these terms so they know their rights We protect your rights with two steps 1 copyright the software and 2 offer you this license which gives you legal permission to copy distribute and or modify the software Also for each author s protection and ours we want to make certain that everyone under stands that there is no warranty for this
100. ardware that requires a running version of Windows to work Although some Windows specific hardware can be made to run on Linux doing so usually requires extra effort In addition Linux drivers for Windows specific hardware are usually specific to one Linux kernel Therefore they can quickly become obsolete Chapter 2 Preparing to Install Debian 12 So called win modems are the most common type of this hardware However printers and other equipment may also be Windows specific Author suggests that you avoid all such hardware You can check hardware compatibility by Checking manufacturers web sites for new drivers Looking at web sites or manuals for information about emulation Lesser known brands can sometimes use the drivers or settings for better known ones e Checking hardware compatibility lists for Linux such as http www linuxdoc org HOWTO Hardware HOWTO e Searching the Internet for other users experiences 2 1 4 Meeting Minimum Hardware Requirements Once you have gathered information about your computer s hardware check that your hard ware will let you do the type of installation that you want to do Depending on your needs you might manage with less than some of the recommended hard ware listed in the table below However most users risk being frustrated if they ignore these suggestions Recommended Minimum System Requirements Install Type
101. ars In fact the Debian Free Software guidelines became the main source of the Open Source Definition in Although Debian has been almost entirely non commercial it is one of the most popular distributions of Linux It is also the basis for several commercial distributions including Progeny Debian is especially popular among advanced users because of its technical excellence and its deep commitment to the needs and expectations of the Linux community Debian also introduced many features to Linux that are now commonplace For example Debian was the first Linux distribution to include a package management system for easy installation and removal of software It was also the first Linux distribution that could be upgraded without requiring reinstallation Debian continues to be a leader in Linux development Its apt program is second to none for managing software over the Internet Moreover its development process is an example of just how well the Open Source development model can work even for very complex tasks such as building and maintaining a complete operating system 13 Learning About Progeny Debian This section is Progeny specific and does not apply for the standard Debian system Rewrite desirable May put list of present and past Debian based distributions here Progeny Debian is not a distribution spun off from Debian in the sense that Mandrake is based on Red Hat Progeny s efforts are contributions to Debian not a replacement
102. arting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface 52 You cannot bypass this process the way you can in some operating systems By default you log in graphically However you can also configure Debian to start in a com mand line instead 4 2 1 Logging in Graphically From the login window e 1 If you want select options from the menu Choose a desktop or window manager from the Session menu Choose a language from the Language menu In both cases if you do not make a choice then the last choices you made are used as defaults Usually you do not need to make a choice 2 Type your user account name in the login field and press the Enter key The field changes to the password field Note Use the root account only for configuration or administration work e 3 Type the password for your user account If you have changed any options since the last time you logged in a dialogue window displays Select the Yes button to make the new options the default If you type an account name and password that are entered into the system then the desktop starts If the account name or password are incorrect then you return to the login window 4 2 2 Logging in from a Command Line You can log in from a command line if you configure Debian not to start the graphical interface automatically You can also start Debian in single user mode which does not include the graphical interface If you press Ctrl D from the log prompt in
103. artition Free space Only the free space on the hard drive is used The first available free space on any hard drive that is greater than one gigabyte is used for the install The Linux partition is as large as possible The swap partition is 125 megabytes in size Custom partitioning The hard drive is used the way that you decide img Installing png Back up all important information before doing custom partitioning Otherwise you may lose information e 5 Do one of the following If you selected Entire disk choose the hard drive to use Then press the Next button img Installing png img Installing png If an error dialog opens asking whether you want a new partition table created select the No button Otherwise all partitions on your hard drive are destroyed Before continuing use the Install cd to start your system then used parted from a virtual terminal to create partitions If you selected custom partitioning divide your hard drive the way you want if you selected Custom partitioning Then press the Next button See Creating and Editing Partitions on page 27 img Installing png If you are installing over an existing Progeny Debian installation select Custom install and re format the partitions Otherwise the reinstall may fail In all cases the Configure System Startup screen opens img Installing png 6 Choose the boot loader to use Use grub By default Progeny uses the Grand Uni
104. as the need arises Once you have learned them you will find that the features of Linux give you more convenience efficiency and hands on control than other popular operating systems Chapter 1 Introducing Debian Chapter 2 Preparing to Install Debian Installing Linux is much easier than it was a few years ago However if you have never in stalled an operating system installing Linux can still be nerve wracking You may find that your hardware either does not support Linux or needs to be configured manually to work well To avoid trouble during the install gather the information you need during the install before you start This chapter explains how to Meet hardware requirements Name partitions according to Linux s and Windows conventions Prevent accidental data loss during the install 2 1 Understanding Your System s Hardware In most cases you can let Debian detect your hardware and accept the settings suggested during the install However these suggestions may not always work To minimize problems before you install you should Gather information about your hardware before you start to install At the very least have the information handy if you need it e Check hardware compatibility Check that your computer meets the minimum requirements for the type of install that you want to do 2 1 1 Finding Sources of Hardware Information Hardware information can be gathered from Chapter 2
105. at files directories and services uses can work with Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 180 What hardware users can work with Some of these features are defined when the group is created Others are created by using permissions or configuration settings Groups are listed in the etc group file Each group has a unique id gid 12 2 1 Reading the etc group File The etc group file lists all existing groups By default any user can view this file but you must be logged in as the root user to edit it Each group is defined in a line in etc group Columns are separated by a colon Information is given in the following order group encrypted password group id users in group Note The group name generally reflects what access the group has to the system For example the Ip group defines who can use the printer The encrypted password is rarely used any more Usually an x is added as a placeholder The group id is usually a number from 1 to 50 The list of users in the group only needs to contain those who are not in the group by default You can edit etc group directly in a text editor However often the command line tools are easier to use 12 2 Adding a Group 1 Log in as root user e 2 Type groupadd g gid group You can create a group without a group id by leaving out the option 12 2 3 Deleting a Group 1 Delete the group Logged in as root user type groupdel group e 2 Fi
106. bolic link is displayed with the original file beside it For example if the original file was ToDo and the link was Monday then the entry for the link would be Monday ToDo You can also use the color option to display symbolic links and other file types in their own color and F to display symbolic links with the at sign 9 at the end of them 9 16 3 Adding Links From the Desktop Open the gnome Midnight Commander Do one of the following From the workspace select the Home directory launcher From the menu select Programs File Manager Select the files to link See Selecting Files From the Desktop on page 117 e Right click on one of the selected files The pop up menu opens e Select Symlink from the pop up menu A dialogue window opens img Files 11 png If necessary enter the name of the original file In most cases the name is entered for you Enter the file name for the symbolic link If the file name already exists a confirmation window opens Select the Cancel button to avoid over writing the file If the file name entered does not conflict with an existing one then the symbolic link is created The icon for the link has an arrow in the lower right corner img Files 12 png Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 127 9 16 4 Adding Links From the Command Line You can use the cp 1 command to create an absolute link or the In s command to create a symbolic link Usually y
107. butes not files Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 138 139 Chapter 10 Reading System Information Linux is built by users who have a hands on approach to computing As a result your system includes many command line tools for displaying information You can view information about The operating system and hardware Processes running on the system Memory being used and memory available Users You can gather information by Using command line tools e Viewing files in the proc directory e Reading log files Graphical tools have been made for some of the command line tools but they are generally less complete and flexible than the command line tools 10 1 Reading System Information From the Desktop Debian installs with three basic desktop information tools e System Info Basic information about your system e gtop Processes memory and filesystems Chapter 10 Reading System Information 140 gw Information about users In addition the Applets menu includes several useful monitors that display graphs of how the system is being used In particular laptop users might want to install the battery charge applet on the panel 10 1 1 Using System Information from the Desktop Using the System Info Tool The System Info tool is the graphical equivalent of the uname a and w commands From the main menu select Applications gt System gt System Info
108. by symbolic links instead of the links themselves Golou r color Common symbols are F Displays types of files Directories classify using symbols x Executable files Symbolic links full time Prints complete file attributes t T l Displays file attributes format long t L Lists the files referenced See Working With Symbolic Links EROS koss sort time in which they were modified R Includes sub directories recursive S Sorts files by size Largest files are sort size displayed first EU Displays files in the order The most recently modified files are displayed first X Not all files may sort Sorts by file extensions have extensions extension ME Lists files in multiple format columns across See Working With Symbolic Links on page 125 5 4 3 Identifying Types of Directory Listings Type file options file Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 66 To see the types of all the listings in a directory type the directory name followed by the asterisk wild card For example file root Note The file command does not read compressed files or symbolic links unless the z option is chosen Note Another way to identify directory listing is to use the ls command with the color option See R
109. card s e irq numbers e dma channels Port addresses If your card is already installed you can find information about it In proc sound The computer s bios settings The sound card s manual which may list defaults From the tools of another operating system on which the card is already installed Chapter 13 Configuring the System 218 Installing Plug and Play Sound Cards Instead of configuring the kernel you can use a command tool to enable cards that support the Plug and Play standard 1 Type pnpdump gt etc isanp conf 2 Open isapnp conf in a text editor 3 Uncomment the settings you want to try Remove the hash marks from the lines on which the settings are listed 4 Save the file and then reboot your system 5 To check whether sound is enabled start a program that uses sound If you have none enable sound for the desktop in the Control Center 13 2 3 Setting Up Personal Information Devices Debian is not installed with support for personal information devicess However you can add this support by installing some packages 1 Install the cradle for the device Follow the instructions that accompany it 2 If the device is connected to a serial port add the user account from which the device is to be used to the dialout group Type adduser user dialout 3 Install the pilot link and pilot link perl packages See Installing Removing and Up grading Software on page 151 7 In
110. ce cases this setting is dev psaux or dev ttySO0 or dev ttyS1 The driver for the pointer The name of the Protocol protocol is usually based on the manufacturer or on the type of mouse See the man page for the file for a complete set of options Emulate3Button Set to true to enable three button emulation Makes the entry the primary pointer Useful for laptops which may have a built in pointer but Corepointer are also capable of using a plug in mouse No entry is needed for this option in the third column Use for a secondary pointer such as a plug in SendCoreEvents mouse on a laptop Set to true to the third column Chapter 13 Configuring the System 249 Enables the use of a scroll wheel ZAxisMapping Set to 4 5 in the third column 13 6 Changing Desktops Debian installs the gnome desktop by default You can also install the kde desktop using the Extras cd See Installing Software From the Extras CD on page 46 When either desktop is installed you can choose which desktop to run by selecting it from the Sessions menu of the log in screen Note When both are installed you can run applications written for one desktop on the other 13 6 1 Changing Window Managers From a Desktop 1 Install the window manager packages You can use the Progeny Debian Window man agers package set listed in the Add Remove Software utility
111. ck of your partitions 2 2 4 Understanding Linux Device Names Linux takes a consistent approach to naming All drives and ports are named in the same way e An id for the type of device These ids include hd for an ide hard drive t t yS for a serial port and 1p for a parallel port e A letter id for the device If like most users you have an ide system then aisthe primary master device e bis the primary slave device cis the secondary master device dis the secondary slave device Warning Check your bios or the contents of each device to find details about master and slave devices e A number id for the partition or port Primary or extended partitions are named 1 4 while logical partitions are named 5 or higher e Serial and parallel ports start with 0 and can have any number For example the first partition on the first ide hard drive is hda1 Similarly the first serial port is ttySo This naming convention is simple and gives you information about your system The device id gives you information about the type of hardware installed while the partition id tells you whether it is a primary or logical partition In addition if you add or delete partitions only the number id changes Chapter 2 Preparing to Install Debian 15 Even then it can only change so far A logical partition can never become hda4 because 4 is reserved for primary partitions By contrast D could be either type of partition under
112. commands Other executables are in bin usr Programs and system files that are shared by all users A common location for free software or for third party software Important sub directories include usr local and usr share var Data files whose content changes frequently such as caches spools log files and user mailbox files var lock Lock files that prevent another user from opening or saving particular files var log Log files for different programs These logs are invaluable for solving problems Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 99 8 2 2 Understanding Absolute and Relative File Paths A file path is a list of the directories above the file ending with the file name Linux uses two types of paths absolute and relative paths e An absolute path always starts with the root directory It includes all directories and sub directories above the file For example the absolute path to a file in a sub directory in a user s home directory might be home kchong ToDo january txt This path can take a long time to type but is completely clear A relative path starts in your present working directory For example if you were in the home kchong directory the relative path to a file in a sub directory might be ToDo january tx t You can display your present working directory by using the pwd present working directory command In addition indicates the present workin
113. complete If you need to fine tune the system configuration use the System tools in the gnome Control Center They are similar to the screens that you use during installation If you want to add software or upgrade the system use the apt get utility or select Programs gt System gt Add Remove Software from the main menu Re installing over an existing Progeny Debian system is often difficult If you do re install backup all important information and reformat the partitions you are using Chapter 3 Installing Debian 48 49 Chapter 4 Starting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface Like any version of Linux Debian has strict procedures for starting and stopping a system These procedures are part of the operating system s security features They also prevent acci dental damage to the system To start your computer you must choose the operating system to load from the boot manager and then log in to a user account To stop your computer you must log out of the user account then halt or reboot the system This chapter explains Working with User Accounts Choosing an operating system from the boot manager Logging in to a user account with a desktop or a command line e Shutting down the system e Starting and closing the graphical interface Changing user accounts after logging in 41 Working With User Accounts Linux is designed for multiple users To use the system you must log in
114. conditions type show c for details The hypothetical commands show w and show c should show the appropriate parts of the General Public License Of course the commands you use may be called something other than show w and show c they could even be mouse clicks or menu items whatever suits your program Chapter D GNU General Public License 273 You should also get your employer if you work as a programmer or your school if any to sign a copyright disclaimer for the program if necessary Here is a sample alter the names Yoyodyne Inc hereby disclaims all copyright interest in the program Gnomovision which makes passes at compilers written by James Hacker lt signature of Ty Coon gt 1 April 1989 Ty Coon President of Vice This General Public License does not permit incorporating your program into proprietary pro grams If your program is a subroutine library you may consider it more useful to permit linking proprietary applications with the library If this is what you want to do use the gnu Library General Public License instead of this License
115. cpu time taken by the stime process UU The id of the process s user uid KOC The name of the processes cmd binary file g The process s group pgrp 2 The process s id Tou fup The process s parent s id Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 187 ppid H s The process s size The size is given in size kilobytes 12 4 4 Viewing Intensive Processes The top command shows a constantly updated summary of the processes that are using the most system resources The figures given are relative to each other rather than representing the actual amount of ram used Type top options Once the display is running you can use keyboard commands to Change the details of the display including the time between updates and the statistics shown Change the process or number of processes shown e Sort the display according to different criteria e Set a priority as with the nice command See Setting the Priority for a Process From the Command Line on page 190 e Stop a process as with the kill command See Stopping a Process From the Desktop on the next page The top Command Views Intensive Processes Option Action d seconds To set the interval between updatings of the display p To display only processes with a particular id process id 4 Keyboard Shortcuts for the top Command g H Press Tos
116. curity use a regular user account for your connection Never use the internet when logged in as root user Chapter 13 Configuring the System 237 Add the accounts which are to use the dialup connection to the dialout group so that they can use the serial ports From the command line type adduser user dialout At the command line type dpkg reconfigure pppconf The pppconf tool opens img System 6 png Select the Yes button to have your modem detected A button is blue when selected If your modem is not connected See Troubleshooting a Dialup Connection on this page Enter the phone number that you use to connect to your Internet Service Provider Then select the Yes button Enter the log in name for your internet account Enter the password for your internet account Troubleshooting a Dialup Connection If you are having trouble making a dial up connection Make sure that you are not trying to use a winmodem or host based modem Check the port to which your modem is connected Usually it will be on ttyS0 com Make sure that your modem is properly setup and turned on To ensure that your system can find the modem create a symbolic between the serial port to the dev modem device Type In sf dev serialport dev modem Check the pppd man page for more options 13 4 6 Setting Up E Mail img System 7 png Unless set to local only e mail requires a network or dialup connection You can configure a networ
117. d can replace the word command any options the word options and so on Following are proposed conventions by Osamu e PRGN program name e FILE full path name to file directory PACKAGE package name e TT short command input and console output EXAMPLE root command option shell user command option variable argument Use punctuation outside of quotation This is not right English but clear manual con tents Convert Type command option into shell console screen command option Note Whenever files are a variable you can also use a directory name Note Variable information may include source and target The source is the file that original infor mation is taken from The target is the file that is acted upon For example when a file is copied the source is the file being copied and the target is the new copy that is created Chapter 1 Introducing Debian 6 1 6 Familiarizing Yourself with Linux This manual introduces concepts as you are likely to need them For now here are some con cepts that may be new to you Linux generally uses a three button mouse If you do not have a middle mouse button you can emulate three buttons by clicking the left and the right mouse buttons at the same time The command line is much more flexible than you might think It includes the abilities to cut and paste to re use previous commands and to complete what you have typed in
118. d line utilities that ask you ques tions to graphical interfaces However the most common in Debian are e dpkg reconfigure which configures using simple question and answer dialogues Two useful tools are etherconf and pppconf Chapter 13 Configuring the System 210 The System tools in the gnome Control Center These are similar to the tools that you used during installation Text editors for manual editing of configuration files This method requires exact knowl edge but allows complex configuration and is always available so long as you have a text editor For expert users this is often the tool of choice Note Hardware connected with the graphical display including the monitor video card and pointer can be configured by editing the profiles in the etc X11 Xf86Config 4 file In each section of the file the first profile is used by default The kernel which can be customized and recompiled This method requires exact knowl edge and can be intimidating to new users However it may be necessary especially if hardware is undetected 13 1 1 Understanding the System Settings Debian includes the tools used to configure during the install as part of the gnome Control Center 4 Do one of the following From the panel select the Control Center icon from the panel e From the menu select Settings gt System From the menu select Programs gt Settings gt System 10 Select the configuration tool to u
119. d to gather infor mation for commands such as ps which reports on active processes Most users should have no need to edit either entry Column Settings in etc fstab Mounting Filesystems Column Contents Choices Chapter 13 Configuring the System 223 1 The partition that the filesystem is on See Understanding Device Names EER The directory on which 2 the filesystem is mounted Many users prefer to put home usr and var on separate partitions Other partitions are usually mounted as a sub directory of mnt However you can use any directory for a mount point If you are running an operating system that uses a Windows like naming convention directories that use the convention such as mnt C you might create The filesystem s format Support for the format 3 must be enabled in the kernel Predefined choices are ext2 sw Linux swap file for the swap file vfat fat 32 The format of Windows 98 me and the second release of Windows 95 1509660 CO S nts network file system The native Linux format Use only You can recompile the kernel to support other file systems Network filesystems and several journalistic filesystems are also supported auto The filesystem is mounted when the computer starts or when mount a is typed noauto The filesystem is not mounted when the computer starts or when or when
120. desktop such as a word processor anda spreadsheet kde Desktop Extras An alternate desktop kde Desktop system Extras Files needed to develop programs for the Development kde desktop files Linux 2 2 smp Install Linux kernel compiled for multi processor support Linux 2 4 kernel Install Linux 2 4 kernel experimental Linux 2 4 kernel with smp support Install Linux 2 4 kernel compile for multi processor support experimental Miscellaneous Print filters for various formats print filters Install including TeX dvi and assorted graphics formats Open source web browser e mail client Mozilla Install and news browser A default selection nfs server Install nfs nis server Non free web browser e mail client and Netscape Install news browser Communicator A default selection Open ldap client Install Client support for using ldap servers Chapter 3 Installing Debian 46 software Open ldap server Install Server and support files for setting up software an ldap server Samba smb Suite of programs that allows Linux protocol server Install systems to share files and printers with Windows systems over a network Scripting Install Scripting tools such as tk tcl languages Software A complete set of tools for developing development Install software tools Squid internet Install Proxy server for web and ftp clients object cache
121. e Use back up commands with crontab to have automatic regularly scheduled backups See Backing Up and Compressing Files on the current page Debian supports most backup devices that use ide scsi or usb standards or use a parallel port These devices include tape zip and iomega drives as well as removable hard drives However for some of these devices you may need to install a package that is not installed by default Be prepared to do some research before backing up to such devices 12 5 1 Planning a Backup Before doing a backup plan it carefully Consider e Which files are irreplaceable without a back up Irreplaceable files probably include those in users home directories including root and configuration files such as those in the etc directory e Which files are on removable drives such as cd s or floppies Since you probably do not need to back up removable drives you might unmount them before doing a complete system backup Which files can be easily replaced by installing a package or doing a selective install or upgrade of the operating system You can save time and storage space by not including these files in a backup e Which files are unnecessary or dangerous to backup For example files in tmp are probably unnecessary while restoring some files that are in the proc directory could crash the system e Whether to compress files using gzip or bzip2 Compressing saves space but adds an other step to
122. e From the Command Line You must have the X Window System installed as well as a desktop and or window manager 1 Login to a command line See Logging in from a Command Line on page 52 e 2 Type startx The X Window System starts and the login window displays Note The X Window System is not loaded if you are starting from single user mode e 3 Log in See Logging in Graphically on page 52 4 44 2 Exiting the Graphical Interface You can e Exit the X Window System and keep it running in the background Close down a X Window System session that you started from the command line 4 44 3 Keeping the X Window System Running in the Background e 1 Press Ctrl Alt F1 A full screen command line displays with a login prompt 2 Log in See Logging in from a Command Line on page 52 To return to the desktop press Alt F7 You return to your original user account 44 4 Closing Down an X Window System 1 Open a command line from the panel 2 Log in as the root user See Changing User Accounts on the following page e 3 From a command line type etc init d gdm stop Then press the Enter key A full screen command line displays with a login prompt Chapter 4 Starting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface 56 4 5 Changing User Accounts From both the command line and the desktop you can logout as one user then login as an other However a more convenient way to change accounts is to us
123. e RR x3 95 521 Using Directories to Find Piles lt ss ossec aed komo e ed 96 8 22 Understanding Absolute and Relative File Paths 99 So Searching from the Desktop lt oec ore sasamane RR eR OW o Re 99 8 3 1 Using the find Command From the Desktop vrac RR 99 8 3 2 Using the locate Command From the Desktop osoo 100 8 3 3 Searching From the GNOME Midnight Commander 101 8 4 Searching From the Command Line cose RR Rx o ma 102 8 4 1 Searching for Files Using the find Command ss 102 8 4 2 Searching for Files From the Command Line Using the locate Command 104 8 4 3 Searching for Text From the Command Line Using grep Commands 105 84 4 Using Metacharacters With grep Commands 107 85 Viewing Files From the Desktop gt es ces e re a canse EHE ROX IX ACE EG O9 107 8 6 Viewing Files From the Command Line 2 22 RR A3 108 8 61 Viewing Short Files Using the cat Command s ees 109 8 6 2 Viewing Files with Scrolling Using the less Command 109 8 63 Viewing Files Backwards Using the tac Command 110 8 6 4 Viewing the Start of Files Using the head Command 110 8 65 Viewing the End of Files Using thetail Command 111 8 7 Comparing Files from the Command Line s s s es soso a aca ace woe dads 112 827 1 Making Simple Comparisons of Files Using the comm Command 112 8 7 2 Making Complex Comparisons Using the dif
124. e Select Move from the pop up menu The Move window opens img Files 7 png e Select the folder to copy the files to You can enter the folder or select it using the Browse button If you wish select Preserve symlinks from the Advanced tab With this option symbolic links are automatically updated Select the ok button to move the file Note If you cannot move a file then you do not have write permission in the target directory See Changing Permissions on page 130 Note You can also drag selected files with the left mouse button to the desktop or to folders Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 121 9 10 Moving Files From the Command Line Type mv options source target The target can be a file or a directory This command can have three possible results If the target file or directory does not already exist the source file or directory is renamed If the target file or directory already exists then it is over written by the source The original file is deleted unless the b option is used to back it up e If the target is a directory then the source files are moved to the directory The mv Command Move Option Action Comments p Backs up target files that backup will be over written No confirmation is asked komf Over writes any existing force files with the copy Consider using with i or b to prevent over writing by mistake
125. e a hardcopy record Using a file for input instead of typing the input Combining two commands so that they work together As you learn the command line you may find other uses for redirection To redirect a command s input output or error you use a small set of characters known as redirection operators Redirection Operators Characters What it does Redirects the output to a file or a piece of hardware gt such as the printer If the file already exists the older file is automatically overwritten Redirects the output but if the output is a file that already exists adds the output to the end of the gt gt existing file Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 71 Usually this character is safer to use than gt since it does not overwrite existing files 2 gt Redirects the error output to a file or a piece of hardware such as the printer 2 gt amp 1 Redirects the error output to a standard output lt Redirects the input of the command from a file or device The format for using redirection is command operator target For example if you wanted to save a copy of a search for the keyword expenses in a file you could type grep expenses January2001 gt expenses txt In this example grep is the search command expenses is the argument string you are searching for e January2001 is the file to search expenses txt i
126. e basic structure you can start using them efficiently This section covers Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 59 e Understanding the parts of a command e Understanding command structures Entering multiple file names Entering wild cards Entering multiple commands e Combining commands e Running commands in the background e Stopping commands from running 5 3 1 Understanding the Parts of a Command A command is sometimes a single word However a command may include Options variations on how the command is carried out Options begin with one hyphen if they were developed for unix or by unaffiliated programmers or by two hyphens if they were developed by the gnu Foundation Because gnu commands are often complete words they are often more user friendly e Arguments Fixed values that affect exactly what the command does or how it does it Directories or files What the command affects Some commands such as cp copy need a source file the file being worked with and a target file the one affected e Strings A set of characters enclosed by double or single quotation marks Often a string contains a regular expression or wild card What a command does can vary greatly depending on what options arguments and files are used For example If you simply type date then the current date and time display However if you type date 0707132101 then your computer s date is changed to 1
127. e can be edited deleted or backed up These special attributes are in addition to the usual set of ownership permissions and dates They are not automatically assigned to a file Type chattr options actions attributes files Do not put a space between the action and attribute argument The chattr Command Change Attributes Options Option Action Comments R Changes attributes of sub directories and their contents M Displays actions on screen The chattr Command Change Attributes Actions Action Argument Adds the attribute Removes the attribute Sets only the attribute specified Removes other Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 137 attributes The chattr Command Change Attributes Attributes Attribute Argument Date and time are not updated when the file is modified A Material can only be added to the end of the file a Existing contents cannot be changed File can only be modified by the root user T File cannot be recovered when deleted S File cannot be deleted u Do not include in backup using dump d Viewing Attributes Set by the chattr Command Type lsattr options files Files are displayed one line at a time Options for the lsattr Command List Attributes Option Action Comments a Shows all files in the directory listed q Lists directories attri
128. e install In addition a swap file gives better performance enabling you to use virtual memory Putting other directories on different partitions can make backing up or recovering easier Partition Flags Select the Bootable box to include the partition among the possible choices when you start the computer To be bootable the partition must either have an operating system installed or else be the one on which you plan to install Progeny Debian Partition The size of the partition Chapter 3 Installing Debian 31 Size To change the size ither enter the size directly in the field or use the arrow keys to change it Partitions Choices are primary or logical Units The units of measurement for the partition size megabytes mb or gigabytes gb 3 23 Limitations of the Partitioning Tool Currently you cannot Resize an existing partition Instead a Back up the information on the partition b Delete the partition c Create a new partition of the size you want Change the format of an existing partition Instead a Back up the information on the partition b Delete the partition c Create a new partition with the format you want Mount existing partitions not in ext2 or swap format Mount these partitions after the install by editing etc fstab See Mounting Drives When the System Starts on page 222 3 24 Working Around Incompatible Partitions
129. e is not associated selecting Open or Open With displays a window to choose a viewer from img Finding 12 png If you are choosing a viewer do one of three things e Select an application from the directory tree or Use the Browse button to find a viewer or Type the path of a viewer If the chosen browser is capable of displaying the file then the file displays 8 6 Viewing Files From the Command Line Linux includes so many tools for viewing files from the command line that some are widely considered obsolete For example cat is less commonly used than it once was probably because it has few options and does not allow scrolling However cat is still useful for a quick no frills view of a short file Similarly although more is still a functional tool for most people it has been replaced by less whose name is a play on the saying that less is more In general less is the standard tool for viewing files However specialized commands also exist tac Displays files from the end backwards head Displays the first lines of a file e tail Displays the last lines of a file Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 109 8 6 1 Viewing Short Files Using the cat Command The cat command is useful for viewing files that are less than a screen in length For longer files that you want to scroll back and forth in use less instead Type cat options file The cat Command View
130. e location of the printer Chapter 13 Configuring the System 217 Local the printer is attached to the machine on which you are installing You need to enter the device to which the local printer is attached Usually the device will be the first parallel port dev Ip0 e Remote The printer is on a network to which your machine is attached You need to enter The hostname The machine to which the printer is attached The printer name The name of the printer on the system to which it is attached If you do not have this information consult your system administrator 9 Select the printer driver from the list Printers are listed by manufacturer then by model If your printer is not listed it may be able to emulate one that is Hewlett Packard Laserjet drivers for both postscript and non postscript printers work for many other makes and models of printers 10 Select the Apply button to enter the printer definition 11 Select the default printer If you entered only one printer definition in the previous screen then it is already listed as default 12 Select the default paper size If you are North American you can use the default Letter If not you probably want A4 13 2 2 Configuring a Sound Card Debian detects most sound cards automatically However in some cases you may need to configure sound support in the kernel See Recompiling a Kernel on page 213 Before editing the kernel you need to know your
131. e parted is generally safe to use interruptions to your computer s problems or other accidents could destroy information 2 Atacommand line type parted The parted command line starts At any time you can type help for a list of available commands 3 Type select drive to move to the hard drive you want to partition By default parted uses the first hard drive it finds 4 Type print to see a list of partitions on the current hard drive This information is especially useful when you need to know the start and end point of a partition that you are creating 5 Enter the commands you want to use Warning If you are creating partitions wait at least five minutes per partition to ensure that the partition is created The parted utility does not indicate when it is finished 6 Type quit to exit the parted command line for the general bash shell Note For information on how Linux names devices See Reading Linux Device Names on page 15 The parted Command Partitioning Commands Command Action check Checks for bad blocks on the partition partition mklabel Give an existing partition a label partition Formats an existing partition Values for the filesystem ar mkfs partition ext2 The native Linux filesystem filesystem linux swap The Linux swap filesystem fat fat 32 the Windows filesystem These values are different from the ones used in mounting and unmou
132. e root user 5 3 3 Understanding Common Options Many options differ with each command However a few basic options are used reasonably consistently Some may have slight variations such as using upper or lower case letters If you have any doubt about an option check the help before using it Common Command Options Option What It Does d Displays debugging information x debug WE Runs the command no matter what the consequences T tortce such as over writing existing files help Displays info help for the command Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 61 Waits for confirmation before doing each part of the command i interactive i interactive or x ignore case Ignores the distinction between lower case and capital letters insensitive aR SE Includes files and sub directories of the x recursive directory name in the command AON N Displays what a command is doing so you can see x verbose its progress In some cases V or v gives the version number of the command 5 3 4 Entering Multiple File Names for a Command The simplest way to have a command affect multiple files is to enter the file names with a space between them Because this method specifies which files are affected by the command it reduces the chances of accidently applying the command to the wrong file For example if a user called mary wanted to copy files called tas
133. e same as those for an icon on the desktop or the main menus See Customizing Program Launchers on page 86 Chapter 7 Making the Desktop Your Own 90 Global Preferences Sets the default for all panel settings in the gnome Control Center e Panel Options for customizing the panel img Desktop_cu png The panel options are e Add to panel Items that can be added to the panel including applets drawers launch ers and icons for such desktop functions as Logout Lock and Run Create panel Add a new panel Several types are available Remove this panel Delete the panel from the desktop Properties How the panel opens and behaves Options include the panel type the hiding policy the buttons to hide the buttons to hide the panel s size and background img Desktop cu png 7 5 4 Adding Applets to the Panel Applets are small gnome programs that can be added to the panel They range from the serious to the frivolous You can also add a launcher to the panel from the main menu From the menu item s pop up menu select Add this launcher to panel or select it from the Applets sub menu in the gnome main menu When the applet is selected it displays on the panel 7 6 Customizing the Menu 1 Log in as root user 2 From the menu bar select Settings Menu editor The Menu editor opens img Desktop cu png img Desktop cu png If you want to add a launcher to a menu you can also select Add new item to this
134. e set and select individual packages from it As the name indicates gnome apt pkgset is based on the apt utility It is also the tool that you use during installation to select software It includes much of the functionality of apt and uses the same commands Experienced users may find gnome apt pkgset limiting and prefer to use apt See Installing and Removing Packages With the apt get Command on page 160 Note For a list of package sets see usr share package sets Each package set includes a file with an extension of contents which lists the packages in the set and a file with an extension of description which displays in gnome apt pkgset Note Currently package sets are supported only by Debian cd s or download sites You cannot use gnome apt pkgset with an ordinary Debian source e 1 Log in as the root user e 2 Start gnome apt pkgset Either e Select Programs gt System gt Add Remove Software from the main menu or Type gnome apt pkgset at the command line or Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 159 e Select the Add Remove Software icon from the panel In all cases the Add Remove Package Set window opens img packages 2 png The window consists of four sections Available Software A list of package sets A package set with a check in the box is installed A package set with a box that is unselected is not installed Description A summary of what is in the package
135. e task list Minimize Minimize a window You can also choose iconify from the pop up menu of the task list Send window to Move or copy a window in a workspace You can position the window or a copy of it in a workspace or ina cell of its current workspace Position the window in Toggle gt Sticky the same place on every work space If a window is already sticky this menu item makes it unsticky 6 3 5 Reading Icon Properties You can add three main types of icons to the desktop Directory A folder on the desktop img Desktop 21 png e url Link A web page link Chapter 6 Getting to Know the Desktop 81 img Desktop 22 png Application An icon to start a program This icon is also the default img Desktop 23 png No matter where they are the work space the menu or the panel all icons have the same properties You can read an icon s properties by selecting Properties from its pop up menu to open the Properties window img Desktop 24 png The Properties window includes three tabs e Statistics The file s path name and size as well as the dates on which the file was created last modified and last accessed Using the Properties window you can change the file name Options Sets the icon to use for the file If you do not want to use the default icon for the file type you can select a custom icon by clicking on the icon pane e Permissions Sets who owns
136. e the su command switch user or set user This command is especially useful if you need to log in briefly as the root user while using a graphical interface However to use it effectively you need to be comfortable working from the command line To change user accounts e 1 If necessary open a command line from the panel e 2 From a command line type su user command You do not need to enter a command If you do enter a command you use the other user account only to run that command Then you return to your original account A password prompt appears if you are logged in as a regular user If you are logged in as the root user then no password prompt displays e 3 If necessary enter the password for the account that you are logging into Note You have changed accounts only for the command line you are using If you are running a desktop then you are still logged in with your original account in other windows e 4 If you changed accounts without running a command repeat this process to return to your original account If you run a command you return to your original account as soon as the command is carried out 57 Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line A command line is a text based interface for interacting with your computer You type a com mand then press the Enter key to run it If you have used DOS then you have used a com mand line The command line is also known as the terminal
137. e time 8 6 3 Viewing Files Backwards Using the tac Command The tac command s name comes from the fact that it was intended as the opposite of cat However tac remains useful after less has replaced cat Type tac file Although a few options exist they are not often used 8 6 4 Viewing the Start of Files Using the head Command head has a companion tool called tail which views the end of files The options for both tools are similar but have some important differences For example head ordinarily displays the name of the file while tail has more options Type head options file The head Command View Option Action Comments c number units Sets the size of the display optionally the units and If no unit is specified the size is in bytes Units are tute Blocks k Kilobyes m Megabytes Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 111 fum number x lines Sets the number of lines to display The default is number LOG o Prevents display of the file name quiet header 8 6 5 Viewing the End of Files Using the tail Command tail has a companion tool called head which views the start of files The options for both tools are similar but have some important differences For example tail has more options while head ordinarily displays the name of the file Type tail options file The tail Command View
138. ead of in a package format While a program is in early development cotinually remaking packages would be a waste of effort so most programmers do not bother The source code is after all what most programmers are interested in In many cases too developers are not working with a specific distribution or package management system in mind A tar file of unpackaged software may be listed as being dynamically linked or static A dynamically linked piece of software calls on programming libraries as it needs them This tactic saves space and is the one most commonly used However it has two major drawbacks You may need to backtrack and install other software before you can use dynamically linked software Because the Red Hat Package Management System is so widely used dynamically linked software may look for the links it requires on the wrong place on a Debian system By contrast static software includes the necessary functions within itself As a result it may duplicate existing functions on your hard drive and take up more space than the same pro gram dynamically linked However because it is self contained it should not have any de pendency problems For this reason always install the static version of unpackaged software whenever you have the choice Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 171 Exact instructions vary with each piece of unpackaged software However the following in structions give a ge
139. eading the Contents of Directories on page 64 The file Command Identifies File Types i Option Action Comment F L Lists the files referenced by symbolic links Traces the rather than the links themselves original file Z Reads compressed files 4 5 4 4 Finding Your Current Location Type pwd The current or working direction displays on the screen 5 4 5 Clearing the Screen Type clear Only the screen display is affected The command history is still usable 5 5 Using Command Line Shortcuts Linux has several shortcuts for entering commands Tab completion e History Command pasting Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 67 e Aliases e Abbreviating file paths e Redirecting inputs and outputs e Environment variables 5 5 1 Using Tab Completion By pressing the Tab key you can have the shell complete the command you are typing You can also use Tab completion as a guide to commands if you are unsure of which command you want If only one command completes what you have typed then the full command is entered auto matically However you still need to add any options arguments and files and press the Enter key If more than one command completes what you typed then a list of possible completions displays You can use the list as a guide to commands Or you can type another letter press the Tab key and display another list of completions F
140. ectories in a tree like hierarchy in which any directory may contain other directories or files However Linux s directory structure has several differences from those in other popular oper Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 96 ating systems Linux systems are deeper That is Linux tends to have more sub directories Linux systems all start with the root directory The root directory is denoted by a forward slash All other directories even those on other partitions are sub directories of the root directory Note Do not confuse the root directory with the root user the root user s home directory root or the root partition the hard drive partition which the root directory is on You cannot always tell from a directory s position whether it is on a separate partition from the root directory For example the usr directory could be on the same partition as the root directory It could just as easily be on another hard drive altogether Note To see which directory a partition is mounted on view etc fstab in a text editor On each line the first column is the partition and the second column is its mount point The advantage of this system is that you can position a partition almost anywhere on the sys tem 8 2 1 Using Directories to Find Files Linux directories are consistent in their contents The result is that a file s directory is usually a clue to what type of file it is For ex
141. ectory on your system A filesys tem is a formatted partition or removable drive Filesystems listed in the etc fstab file are generally mounted when the system starts The settings in fstab also control how users can access each filesystem You can also mount or unmount filesystems not listed in fstab Removable drives must usually be mounted or unmounted each time you use them However you can also set the automounter feature for removable drives You must always mount a floppy or cd drive before using it and unmount it before switching to another floppy or cd At any time you can see a list of currently mounted filesystems by opening etc mtab or by typing mount at a command line Mounting Drives When the System Starts The etc fstab filesystem table file lists filesystems that are mounted when your computer starts You may choose to add other filesystems to fstab but not mount them You need to edit fstab when You want permanent access to non Linux partitions You add another drive including any type of removable drive such as a zip drive or cd drive You repartition a hard drive Information about each filesystem is listed in six columns For convenience you can often copy and paste an existing filesystem definition and modify it for another one Warning Do not edit the swap partition or proc filesystem entries in etc fstab The swap partition enables virtual memory while the proc filesystem is use
142. ed to the network or to the router Each line defines a single machine Each machine is defined by three columns 1 mac address ethernet card id e 2 ip address e 3 host name Columns are separated by a single space At the bottom of a local stanza you can add a default entry The default entry is used if a machine cannot be otherwise connected to the machine The default entry uses default for the mac address and unassigned for the host name Chapter A Automating Multiple Installs 260 A 1 6 Creating the Partitioning Information File partinfo cfg The partinfo cfg file describes how the install program should partition each system during an automated install One line is used for each partition Each line has the same format partitiontype filesystem size mountpoint size The size is either m megabytes or percentage of total disk space In most cases you want at least a root partition and a swap partition Entries in partinfo cfg Entry Choices partition primary type logical filesystem ext2 Linux native swap Linux swap size Any size given in megabytes The file should include at least one partition mounted as root mountpoint A swap file has no mount point but is entered as swap A 1 7 Creating the Package Selection List select cfg The select cfg file lists the packages to install To create the file type dpkg get selections gt conf select
143. elect Programs File Manager In both cases the gnome Midnight Commander opens displaying your home directory img Finding 7 png From the gnome Midnight Commander menu select Commands Find File The Find File window displays img Finding 8 png n the Start at field type the directory from which to start the search The default is the current directory In the Filename field type the file name to search for You can use wild cards n the Content field type a text string to search for This field is optional e Start the search Select the ok button The search results display in a separate window They may take some time to display img Finding 9 png Note You can only search for results in directories in which you have read permission Using the buttons in the results window you can e Select a result and change to its directory e Start a new search Close the search tool Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 102 8 4 Searching From the Command Line The Linux command line includes many tools for locating files or information in them These tools can be divided into two main categories e File Locating Tool find locate e Text Locating Tools grep egrep and fgrep Some of these commands including grep egrep and find can use variable text patterns metacharacters or regular expressions to extend their search abilities See Using Metachar acters or Wild Cards on page 62 8 4 1
144. en a text editor e 3 Open e etc apt sources list Any source e var state apt cdroms list cd sources Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 165 11 83 Adding a New CD to the List of Sources Type apt cdrom options command Currently the only command available is add This utility maintains the database of cd s in var state apt cdroms list Options can be entered as part of the command or set in etc apt apt conf Options set in the configuration file can be overridden from the command line by using the option option no d Note You can also use the apt set command to set a cd source The apt cdrom Command Sets Sources Option Action Comment Tou Scan for packages May not be needed for all cd s bthrough The mount point must be listed in etc fstab uae Sets the cd mount cdrom point The equivalent option in the configuration file is Acquire cd mount Copies files to your The equivalent option in the m SE system without configuration file is fast checking them APT cd Fast The configuration file is etc Edits an option in apt apt conf o group tool the configuration option files See the configuration file and on line help for information about options Over rides a setting The configuration file is etc option no in the configuration apt apt conf file FIRE Gives a cd a new You are p
145. ends a symbolic link This option saves time and disk Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 183 IS Ito the printer instead space for large files but may lof the file cause printing to be slower 12 4 Managing Processes A process is a running program to which the Linux kernel has assigned a share of your system s resources or computing power A process that starts when the system starts and runs in the backgrounduntil needed is a daemon Because Linux is a multi tasking operating system dozens of processes of all sorts can be running at any one time Some of the reasons that you may want to check the processes that are running include To Troubleshoot Your system is not responding properly The processes the combination of processes and the resources used by processes should all be examined as a routine part of troubleshooting To check system security If you suspect an intruder on the system the processes used may provide a clue You should also check what user or group id a process is running under In particular check programs running by the root user and see if anything is out of the ordinary To close a frozen or strangely behaving program While Linux itself is stable the desktop has developed rapidly and some programs that run under the X Window System behave erratically You may also need to close a program while testing it 12 4 4 Understanding Processes Linux uses three basic types of proce
146. ense GPL Unlike most software licenses the GPL encourages users to freely copy change and distribute source code For the Free Software Foundation the emphasis of the GPL is on free software as a philosoph ical right The group that focuses on applying the ideals in the GPL to business solutions is called the Open Source movement Its emphasis is on the faster development and higher qual ity of software released under a public licence However to outsiders these differences are mainly a matter of emphasis Although the GPL is often said to encourage fragmentation Linux remains more or less stan dardized for several reasons First final approval of changes to the kernel are overseen by Linus Torvalds and his closest associates especially Allan Cox Second Linux is released in different versions or distributions Some distributions like Debian are volunteer efforts Others like Progeny are commercial However all programs are kept as compatible as possible within the same distribution Many programs also work with other distributions or can be made to work with a little effort Third volunteer software projects are usually coordinated by informal project managers known as maintainers Although anyone can write improvements to a piece of software the maintainer makes the final decision about which improvements become an official part of the project Usually the maintainer makes these decisions after consulting the leading co
147. ensed as a whole at no charge to all third parties under the terms of this License Chapter D GNU General Public License 269 c If the modified program normally reads commands interactively when run you must cause it when started running for such interactive use in the most ordinary way to print or display an announcement including an appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is no war ranty or else saying that you provide a warranty and that users may redistribute the program under these conditions and telling the user how to view a copy of this License Exception if the Program itself is interactive but does not normally print such an announcement your work based on the Program is not required to print an announcement These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in themselves then this License and its terms do not apply to those sections when you distribute them as separate works But when you distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the Program the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of this License whose permissions for other licensees extend to the entire whole and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it Thus it is not the intent of this section to claim rights or contest your rights to work written entirel
148. erating system Important The system does not strictly need the package but having it adds to the basic functionality Many Important packages are routinely installed as part of the operating system e Standard The system benefits from having the package Optional Most systems include this package Extra Either the system does not need this package or else the package may conflict with a package that has higher priority In other words Extra packages should only be used after you learn more about the risks of using them For absolute safety check the package dependencies or search the Progeny or Debian sites for information before using a package with a priority of Extra Understanding Dependencies A package s dependencies are listed in the control file The dependencies describe how a pack age interacts with other packages or programming libraries Depends The package needs another package to work It may need a particular version of another program This dependency is extremely common for programming libraries e Recommends The package works better with another package but does not strictly need it e Suggests For most purposes the package works better with another package Conflicts The package does not work with another package The two programs should not be run together Consider removing one of the packages or restricting the execute permissions on one of the packages Replaces The package over writ
149. ers A text editor Edit the source files directly modelling entries on existing ones This is the preferred method of most Debian users apt cdrom A command line utility that automatically detects cd s in the drives and mounts and unmounts cd s as necessary 11 8 1 Adding a New Source Using an Interface 1 Type apt setup The Apt Configuration window opens img packages 3 png Note apt setup removes all comments from etc apt sources list e 2 Select the type of source from the list Then select the ok button 3 Follow the on line instructions Depending on the type of source you select you may be asked Whether you want to use a site that includes software restricted in the United States Whether you want to use non free software Before you continue you are given the choices of whether to use each of these categories of software If you are an American cit izen or prefer to use only free software consider your choices carefully before continuing If you choose to edit a source file directly then the file opens in the vim editor 4 Enter the path to the source Depending on the type of source you may be able to choose from a list Otherwise enter the path to the list e 5 If necessary answer any other questions that display Select the ok button to move between screens and to close the program after making your choices 11 8 2 Adding a New Source from a Text Editor 1 Log in as root user e 2 Op
150. es a file is assigned to its owner s main group which is usually the same as the owner s account name However users may belong to more than one group Valid owners are listed in the etc group file The group may be changed by either the present owner or the root user The group attribute lets the owner define whether other users can work with the file and what they can do with it It can also be used by the root owner to protect files from casual use or accidental damage 9 18 1 Changing Groups From the Desktop From the file s pop up menu select Properties The Properties window displays Select the Permissions tab img Files 14 png e Edit the Group field You type in a group or select one from the pull down list You must enter a valid group If you do not an error message displays and the Properties window closes e Select the ok button to change the settings and close the window 9 18 2 Changing Groups From the Command Line Use the chgrp change group command Only the owner of a file or the root user can change the group Valid groups are listed in etc group Type chgrp options group files The group can be identified by name or group id To copy the group from another file type chgrp options reference source target Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 130 The chgrp Command Change Group Option Action Comments Toa Displays information about changed files
151. es or removes another package Be sure that you know what will happen if a package has a Replaces dependency Provides The package includes another package or at least provides the same function ality Predepends The package requires another package to run You may have to install the other package first Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 157 11 3 3 Finding Package Management Files Important files for package management are e etc apt sources list The internet sources of packages for use with apt and gnome apt pkgset e var state apt cdroms list The list of cd sources for use with apt e etc apt apt conf The configuration file for apt e usr share package sets The directory that lists the contents and the description of a Progeny package set e var lib dpkg available Lists packages on the system e var lib dpkg status Lists the status of packages on the system See Understanding Package Statuses on the current page 11 3 4 Understanding Package Statuses As you use the package management tools a package may be in several different states Config files Only the configuration files for the package are on the system e Half configured Configuration was started but interrupted e Half installed Installation was started but interrupted Installed The package is unpacked configured and installed Not installed No part of the package is installed e Unpacked The pack
152. estion mark instead of any character Metacharacters are especially powerful when used together For example contacts searches for matches in which contacts is the only word on a line Cc ontacts matches Contacts or contacts e S searches for any line of three characters compan y lies searches for company or companies A Za z searches for any upper or lowercase letter Similarly 0 9A Za z searches for any num ber or any letter 8 5 Viewing Files From the Desktop The desktop offers only limited choices for viewing files For selective viewing of parts of files use the command line instead See Viewing Files From the Command Line on the next page To view a file from the desktop Open the gnome Midnight Commander Do one of the following From the workspace select the Home directory launcher From the menu select Programs File Manager In both cases the gnome Midnight Commander opens displaying your home directory img Finding 10 png Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 108 Use the directory tree and the Back Up and Forward icons to display the directory you want e Right click on the icon for the file that you want A pop up menu appears img Finding 11 png e Select Open or Open With from the menu One of two things happens If the file s type is associated with a program selecting Open displays the file See Adding MIME Types on page 91 or If the file s typ
153. ever need to deactivate a swap partition or file type swapoff partition or swapoff file Chapter 13 Configuring the System 228 13 3 4 Configuring the Boot Loader Debian can use the Grand Unified Boot Manager grub The boot manager is a program that lets you choose which operating system to use when you start your computer You can also use a boot manager to run different Linux kernels In fact if you recompile the kernel you can guarantee that your system remains workable by making a copy of your kernel and adding an entry for the copy to the boot manager Understanding the GRUB Naming Conventions grub uses its own naming convention for hard drives and partitions This convention is differ ent from either the Linux or Windows conventions e All numbering starts at 0 so that hd0 is the first hard drive e No distinction is made between ide and scsi devices hd0 could be either type of hard drive Primary and extended partitions are numbered from 0 to 3 Logical partitions are numbered from 4 e All hard drive and partition numbers are enclosed in parentheses For example hd0 is the first hard drive The partition number follows the hard drive number with a comma between them For example hd1 2 is the third partition on the second hard drive The root partition is the one that grub is installed on not necessarily the root partition for Linux You can find complete information about grub by typing
154. f Command 113 8 2 3 Comparing Three Files Using the diff Command 114 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 115 9 1 Creating New Files Froni the Desktop 4 ce eh n ee nh RD oho its 115 9 2 Creating New Files From the Command Line llle 116 9 5 Creating New Directories Prom the Desktop 2 6 eee d 116 9 4 Creating New Directories From the Command Line 0 116 Oo Selecting Files From the Desktop cauce eae Sees BA OX ee ee O3 117 9 6 Selecting Multiple Files From the Command Line 2e 117 CONTENTS vii gy 9 8 9 9 9 10 9 11 9 12 9 18 9 14 9 15 9 16 9 17 9 18 9 19 Copying Files Prom the Desktop o oc 4424443 Hed GE EY EN Ee RS 118 Copying Prom te Command DINE vesis stis amp becho p a re ox e ey 118 Moving Files From the Desktop a2 v oc 3 xx RUE Eee xx 3 120 Moving Files From the Command Line 125 4265 RR y RR 121 Renaming Files From the Desktop 6 suae oomen rex Rx hs ee a 121 Renaming Files From the Command Line 4 22s xy wo 122 Deleting Files From the Desktop cuu ex 56 Ry mw ee TR REOR n 122 193 Deleting Files Permanently 64444446 oce eem Ren 122 9132 Moving To the Trasi e eci x gee o we HO RS a E ara REOR S 123 91393 Rest nng From the Trash ue cs saro eas si Oe 9 xx Re ES 123 Deleting Files From the Command Line s s 64608645 S64 a uee aee Des 123 Merging Files M mo rcas uias eo wee eee Se aa Se Diae See eS 124 9 15 1 Merging Using a V
155. f the Program by all those who receive copies directly or indirectly through you then the only way you could satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain entirely from distribution of the Program If any portion of this section is held invalid or unenforceable under any particular circum stance the balance of the section is intended to apply and the section as a whole is intended to apply in other circumstances Chapter D GNU General Public License 271 It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to infringe any patents or other property right claims or to contest validity of any such claims this section has the sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free software distribution system which is implemented by public license practices Many people have made generous contributions to the wide range of software dis tributed through that system in reliance on consistent application of that system it is up to the author donor to decide if he or she is willing to distribute software through any other system and a licensee cannot impose that choice This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License e If the distribution and or use of the Program is restricted in certain countries either by patents or by copyrighted interfaces the original copyright holder who places the Program under this License may add an explicit geographical distribution lim itation
156. f the commands used for uncompressed files The gzip Command Compress Option Action Comment Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 206 Sets the amount of compression to greatest The default setting is 6 Fh O 8 Q oO best setting on a scale of 1 When the compression is to 9 greatest the speed of compression is slowest A 9 Extracts compressed x decompress files x decompress Sets the compression to When the speed of fastest the fastest setting 1 compression is greatest on a scale of 1 to 9 the amount of compression is least eS Forces compression N Keeps original name and x name time stamp ile ol Discards original name This is the default x no name and time stamp setting for decompressing Sets the speed and 1 is the fastest 9 the number amount of compression on most compressed a scale of 1l tQ 9 The default setting is 6 Mee Includes sub directories x recursive and their contents V Displays progress The file and the amount x verbose on screen of compression display 12 8 3 Compressing and decompressing With the bzip2 Command The bzip2 command is one of two tools for compressing and decompressing files The other is gzip The gzip command is more common but bzip2 s compression is 10 to 20 percent greater depending on the file Compressed files made with bzip2 have a bz2 extension T
157. fax modem If you are a desktop user then you might also install tkhylafax so that you have a graphical interface Other fax packages are also available Note Check that your modem is usable under Linux See Configuring a Sound Card on page 217 13 4 3 Configuring a Network Connection A Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol DHCP connection is the most common network connection today In addition a dhcp connection is also used for an adsl or cable internet connection Nowadays the connection is generally through an ethernet card However another type of network interface card may also be used 13 4 4 Preparing to Configure a Network Connection Before you start to configure the network you need to know the type of card you use to connect to the internet On most modern computers the card should be an ethernet card If you are on a laptop you are probably using an ethernet interface with a pcmcia card Consult the documentation that comes with the card In addition consult your system administrator or internet provider for Chapter 13 Configuring the System 235 Your user account Your domain name Your computer s ip address and hostname The ip address of your network The netmask to use with your network The broadcast address to use on your network The ip address of the default gateway system i f your network has a gateway The router for your connection Configuring a Network Connection
158. fied Bootloader grub If you previously installed another boot loader you may need to edit grub to add other operating systems See Configuring the Boot Loader on page 228 If you are already using grub and have Windows on the first partition of the first hard drive an entry for Windows is automatically created If you have Windows installed on another partition you must manually reconfigure grub to start Windows See Configuring the Boot Loader on page 228 Chapter 3 Installing Debian 25 Use a different boot loader Select if you plan to keep using a different boot loader such as lilo that is already installed You may need to edit entries after configuration grub is loaded on to the root partition for Progeny Debian Do Not Install a Boot Loader No bootloader is used The standard master boot record on the computer is used You will only be able to use Progeny Debian until you set up and configure a bootloader Create a Startup Floppy Select this option to create a boot floppy as an alternate means of booting your system img Installing png Do not select both Create a Startup Floppy and Do Not Install a Boot Loader together If you do then the floppy will not be bootable When choosing this option you should know that Booting from a floppy is considerably slower than other choices Allinformation on the floppy is over written Back up any important information before creating the floppy
159. floppy drive If the floppy system has a second floppy drive its mount point is usually floppy2 Home directories for all regular users The root user s home directory is root Subdirectories of home are named for the user name of home each account Personal configuration files that start witha a period are in each home directory These configuration files are not displayed by many commands unless you select an option to display them initrd Files for Linux s ram disk Programming libraries needed to start the system and run basic commands lib Look for other lib directories scattered throughout the system Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 98 lost found Files recovered when a check is run on a damaged file system mnt A folder for other mount points usually other partitions not used directly by Linux including those for other operating systems On some Linux distributions mnt includes cdrom and floppy directories but this is not standard Debian practice proc Process and system information Be extremely careful of changes to proc while you are logged in as the root user because they can easily bring the system down root The home directory for the root user Home directories for other users are generally sub directories of home sbin Executable files that are used only by the root user including general management and networking
160. for it In fact many Progeny employees are or have been actively involved with Debian One of Progeny Debian main goals is to bring ease of use and system integration enhancements to Debian without taking away the flexibility and power of the underlying Debian system The areas that Progeny is working in include installation system administration hardware detection and software management Another goal is to apply an additional testing and release cycle to the general Debian devel opment cycle Progeny hopes that this effort will help Debian provide its users with more frequent current and stable releases Chapter 1 Introducing Debian 4 So far as possible Progeny works with existing free software and with existing Debian de velopment efforts As with Debian all of Debian s development occurs in an open forum Everyone is welcome and encouraged to participate To get involved in Progeny s Debian development efforts subscribe to the progeny debian mailing list Send an e mail to progeny debian request lists progeny com with the word sub scribe in the subject line or message body 1 4 What is in this Product This section is Progeny specific and does not apply for the standard Debian system Rewrite desirable May replace with available sources of Debian such as Net install with CD Put URL Net install with FD Put URL Full CD See Debian site for local venders The box that this manual came in should c
161. free software If the software is modified by someone else and passed on we want its recipients to know that what they have is not the original so that any problems introduced by others will not reflect on the original authors reputations Chapter D GNU General Public License 268 Finally any free program is threatened constantly by software patents We wish to avoid the danger that redistributors of a free program will individually obtain patent licenses in effect making the program proprietary To prevent this we have made it clear that any patent must be licensed for everyone s free use or not licensed at all The precise terms and conditions for copying distribution and modification follow GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING DISTRIBUTION AND MODIFICATION This License applies to any program or other work which contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it may be distributed under the terms of this Gen eral Public License The Program below refers to any such program or work and a work based on the Program means either the Program or any derivative work under copyright law that is to say a work containing the Program or a portion of it either verbatim or with modifi cations and or translated into another language Hereinafter translation is included without limitation in the term modification Each licensee is addressed as you Activities other than copyin
162. g distribution and modification are not covered by this License they are outside its scope The act of running the Program is not restricted and the output from the Program is covered only if its contents constitute a work based on the Program inde pendent of having been made by running the Program Whether that is true depends on what the Program does You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the Program s source code as you receive it in any medium provided that you conspicuously and appropri ately publish on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and disclaimer of warranty keep intact all the notices that refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of this License along with the Program You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a copy and you may at your option offer warranty protection in exchange for a fee You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or any portion of it thus forming a work based on the Program and copy and distribute such modifications or work under the terms of Section 1 above provided that you also meet all of these conditions a You must cause the modified files to carry prominent notices stating that you changed the files and the date of any change b You must cause any work that you distribute or publish that in whole or in part contains or is derived from the Program or any part thereof to be lic
163. g directory and the path to your home directory 8 3 Searching from the Desktop You can search for files or text from the desktop using The gnome search tool gsearchtool A graphical interface for the find and locate com mands that includes the most common options for the commands The gnome Midnight Commander Useful for simple searches If you want a more elaborate search See Searching From the Command Line on page 102 8 3 1 Using the find Command From the Desktop The find command is a tool for locating files It can also do basic searches using strings and regular expressions e At a command line type gsearchtool The gnome search tool opens with the Full find find tab selected img Finding 2 png Enter the directory in which to start the search You can type the directory choose it from the drop down list of recent choices or use the browse button to make a selection Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 100 Choose the options to use from the drop down list beside the Add button These options correspond to the most common ones in the find command img Finding 3 png The default choice is the File name Select the option When it displays select the Add button to display the option in the window You can disable an option temporarily by de selecting the Enable button beside it or remove it from the display by selecting the Remove button When you have chosen the options to use enter any informa
164. get Separate file names by a space You could also use less or more to merge files Viewing Files From the Command Line on page 108 9 15 2 Merging Files Using the diff3 Command The diff3 command can be used for comparing files However you can also use the command to merge files This function is especially useful when two versions of a file have been worked on separately Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 125 Type diff3 target original version Note The original file is the one that the other two are based on The version file is the first modified version of the original file The target file is the second modified version of the original file The contents of each file displays on the screen The order of the files is important The command compares the original and the version file then the target and the version file A change in the target file always over rides a change in the version file 9 16 Working With Symbolic Links A link is a small file that points to another file When a command is used by a link it is passed on directly to the original file A link is useful when you need a file in two places and or when you want to save disk space However if the original file is moved or deleted the symbolic link no longer works Links are also used to create launchers on the desktop Because the launchers are links deleting them does not delete the file to which they p
165. gt The gimp 7 Continue by following the instructions that come with the package 13 3 Configuring Partitions Linux users often spend more time configuring partitions than the users of other operating systems Many users prefer to mount important directories on different partitions either to control the space used by certain files or to make recovery from disaster easier Even more have multiple operating systems on the same machine and not only have to divide their hard drives into more partitions but also need to use a boot loader to select a operating system when their computers start This section covers Partitioning a hard drive Mounting and unmounting partitions Creating swap partitions Configuring the boot loader 13 3 1 Partitioning a Hard Drive The fdisk and cfdisk commands are standard Linux utilities However these commands are limited by the fact that they cannot manipulate a partition while preserving data Instead Progeny recommends that you use the parted partition editor utility for manipu lating partitions whenever possible Although a command line utility parted has much of the functionality of commercial on the fly partitioning tools The utility allows you to create delete resize and move partitions You can use it with a Linux native ext2 partition a swap partition or a fat 32 partition Chapter 13 Configuring the System 220 1 Back up all important information Whil
166. h commands and configuration files Man pages are summaries rather than how tos In addition many are no longer being updated For this reason man pages are often hard to use To open a man page type man command or man file Searching man Pages You can search man pages for all entries on a particular topic by typing apropos keyword The one drawback to this command is that common topics can list an overwhelming number of entries 5 6 2 Using Info Documents Info documents are gnu help Usually info files are more current and more thorough than man pages Most people find them easier to use To open an info document type command help 5 6 3 Using whatis The whatis command gives a short summary of the topic entered Type whatis keyword 73 Chapter 6 Getting to Know the Desktop Most operating systems offer two ways to interact with your computer a desktop and a com mand line In popular operating systems the command line is usually de emphasized Progeny suggests that you take a mixed approach to Linux For routine work the desktop is convenient and easy to learn However consider using the command line for complex work The Linux command line takes longer to learn than a graph ical interface but in many circumstances it is easier and quicker to use The default graphical interface for Debian is gnome gnu Network Object Model Environ ment This chapter describes the features of gnome However you ma
167. he panel the menus launchers and the work space all have pop up menus However the work space has two pop up menus Clicking with the right mouse button on a blank space on the desktop opens the desktop pop up menu From this menu you can create launchers icons rescan the desktop to update it and set other desktop properties img Desktop 18 png Clicking with the middle mouse button on a blank space opens a general pop up menu From this menu you can see a list of opened tasks navigate between virtual desktops select a program to run or customize the desktop img Desktop 19 png 6 3 3 Using Keyboard Shortcuts To save time you can add keyboard shortcuts for basic desktop tasks by selecting Sawfish Window Manager then Shortcuts from the Control Center Only a few shortcuts are defined by default However you can add a long list of keyboard shortcuts or edit existing ones See Making the Desktop Your Own on page 83 Chapter 6 Getting to Know the Desktop 79 6 3 4 Manipulating Windows img Desktop 20 png An open window in the default Debian theme has e An X icon in the upper right corner to close the window e An up arrow icon in the upper left corner to maximize the window e A down arrow icon in the upper left corner to minimize the windows e A menu that you can open by right clicking on the title bar From the menu you can minimize maximize or close the window and manipulate it in other ways as
168. he video card use one of the generic settings at the bottom of the list Generic vga or Generic vesa should work with most cards 6 If necessary enter the amount of video memory for the card In most cases you can leave it blank Note This setting is provided for older cards and for trouble shooting Under most circum stances Debian detects the video memory available 7 Select the ok button 8 Restart the desktop or reboot the computer for the changes to take effect 13 5 2 Configuring a Video Card Manually You can configure your video card in the Screen section of etc X11 XF86Config 4 Entries consist of a series of settings Below each entry is a list of resolutions and color depths that can be used with the video card See Setting Display Settings Manually on page 246 Chapter 13 Configuring the System 242 Video Card Settings Setting Comments Identifier The label for the video card profile Device The card s manufacturer and model Monitor The monitor profile used with the card placed in double quotation marks Default The color depth used by preference Depth 13 5 3 Configuring a Monitor From the Desktop img System 9 png Information about your monitor is automatically detected However you can change these settings if necessary Warning Choosing settings that are not supported by your monitor could damage it or the video card Consul
169. hin a di rectory is called a sub directory Note Strictly speaking links and directories are specialized files You can copy them or change their permissions exactly as you would with any other file 8 11 Understanding Linux Names The names of Linux files links and directories follow certain rules Their names cannot be longer than 256 characters and the complete path cannot be longer than 4096 They are case sensitive distinguishing between lower and upper case letters Jsmith jsmith and JSMITH could all be files in the same directory They can use any letter or number However to avoid potential problems do not include characters used metacharacters or for some other purpose such as the hash mark that indicates a comment They use a forward slash at the start to indicate a directory Windows by contrast uses a backward slash Note A forward slash by itself is shorthand for the root directory You can use this shorthand on both the command line and the desktop 8 1 2 Understanding File Extensions in Linux Extensions are file name suffixes that start with a period Usually they are two or three letters long Linux can read many file extensions used by other platforms such as jpg for a graphic file or html for a web file It can also use them for mime types However Linux does not always use extensions to identify file types Often the directory where a file is placed is a be
170. hive y Displays actions verbose on screen Asks WwW confirmation Enter y for Yes and n interactive before working for No Checks for Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 205 W errors in verify archiving or extracting x Extracts files cextract from an archive cget Ae og Compress or compress can also be EG uncopresses used to compress using gzip 1 See Understanding Absolute and Relative File Paths on page 99 2 See Changing Permissions on page 130 12 8 2 Compressing and decompressing Files With the gzip Command The gzip command is one of the two Linux tools for compressing and decompressing files The other is bzip2 The bzip2 command can compress files more but gzip is more common and can sometimes read zipped files or compressed files created with the obsolete tool compress A file compressed using gzip has a gz extension Type gzip options files Separate file names with a space The gzip command has several related utilities e zcat Displays files in a gzip archive e zcmp Compares files in a gzip archive e zdiff Compares files in a gzip archive Zgrep zegrep zfgrep Search for text patterns in files in a gzip archive e gunzip decompresses files However gzip d also decompresses All these commands have the same format as gzip They can use the same options as the versions o
171. ies The option for the configuration file is apt Get Fix Broken force yes Forces an action No prompts for actions are given In some cases this option could make your System unusable The option for the configuration file is apt Get force yes Use with the dist upgrade command for Chapter 11 Installing Remo ving and Upgrading Software 162 ignore hold Ignores hold flags on a package efficiency The option for the configuration file is apt Get ignore hold cm Ignores missing Do not use with f or x ignore missing or corrupted fix broken fix missing packages Only packages already no download Prevents downloaded are affected downloading by other commands or options no upgrade To prevent the upgrading of packages The option for the configuration file is apt Get no upgrade Displays a list The option for the u of all packages configuration file is x show upgraded to be upgraded apt Get Show Upgraded The option for the fy Automatically configuration file is yes replies yes to apt Get Assume Yes assume yes all prompts If an error occurs then apt get stops The apt get Command Manage Packages Commands Option Action Option Removes package files that can no longer be downloaded autoclean from the sources Upda
172. iewing Command 25 646 so soma a eu s m cmai 124 9 15 2 Merging Files Using the diff Command 124 Working With Symbole LinKS us s a ger es s si s Ro wa oe e eo Te CORE de 125 9 16 1 Viewing Symbolic Links From the Desktop 125 9 16 2 Viewing Symbolic Links From the Command Line 126 9 16 3 Adding Links From the Desktop noaoo eR xn 126 9 16 4 Adding Links From the Command Line aoaaa aaa 127 Changing WETS so oda por Re eee He SD ee a ee Poa NW eae dr d 127 9 17 1 Changing Owners From the Desktop 0 4651 6 hte cae ee Rex 128 9 17 2 Changing Owners From the Command Line 128 Changing OMe ck eux eR e OMY POLES ORS ERA OE ES 129 9181 Changing Groups From the Desktop 2 48 35 44 t RAS 129 9 18 2 Changing Groups From the Command Line 2 6 sew ew ee ees 129 Changing Permissions saepe Pa e 6 eue ES Sw Ege Ede Eee dex xg 130 9 19 1 Viewing Permissions From the Desktop 2 2 4 e n 131 9 19 2 Viewing Permissions From the Command Line 131 9 19 3 Changing Permissions from the Desktop 2 662064 4044s 132 9 19 4 Changing Permissions From the Command Line 132 9195 Changing File Date and Time Attributes 2 255464 o x 135 9 19 6 Setting Special File Attributes oso eho dk X ORO AAR Ecc RS 136 CONTENTS viii 10 Reading System Information 139 10 1 Reading System Information From the Desktop sso o o es 139 10 1 1 Usi
173. ind See Searching for Files Using the find Command on page 102 The basic pattern is find name string print cpio p options gt target In this example The name option for find lets you search for a string enclosed in double quotation marks Metacharacters can be used See Using Metacharacters or Wild Cards on page 62 The bar character redirects the output of find to cpio The o flag sets cpio to create an archive file for backing up The target is a directory The gt redirection operator redirects files to the location for the back up Typically this location is on a removable device The o Flag in the cpio Command Backup Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 196 Option Action Comments A Adds files to an existing archive append m E Displays progress on screen x verbose The p Flag for the cpio Command Delayed Backup Option Action Comment a Resets reset access time modificationtimes O Makes directories make directories as needed mox Keeps previous non matching modification time on restored files Keeps original m modification times Use as root user Reassigns R user group ownership of the If no user is owner user group file Specified then the owner becomes the root user cc Overwrites old unconditional files wy Displays pr
174. ing a Bootable Recovery Disk on page 232 You can now start your system with the new kernel by selecting it from the boot manager when you start your computer If you have any problems you can use the older kernel to start your system 13 2 Configuring Hardware Linux hardware support is rapidly improving However Linux still cannot run as much hard ware as some popular operating systems Before buying hardware for your Progeny Linux System check that it runs under Linux If the hardware is supported Debian should generally detect it once it is added As a general rule if Linux supports your scsi controller card then you should be able to use any scsi software including scanners cd drives and removable drives including Iomega Bernoulli and Zip drives and Syquest drives Support for ide hardware is more varied In some cases you need to install a driver or recom pile the kernel before an ide device is usable usb support is just starting to become commonplace for Linux For this reason check compat ibility before purchasing new software You can check the support for a particular piece of hardware by Contacting the manufacturer Doing an internet search on the manufacturer and model Look for hardware compati bility lists how tos and discussion groups in which people describe their experiences Chapter 13 Configuring the System 216 Contacting Progeny Linux Systems or posting to the Debian mailing li
175. ing the Automated Installer Floppy lt s 23 4 or tena 261 AS Star ng an Automated Install lt i lt s so s or omn x ee Rae eS 261 B Acknowledgements and Thanks 263 C Contacting Progeny Linux Systems 265 D GNU General Public License 267 Chapter 1 Introducing Debian This user guide is a touched up debiandoc sgml version of Progeny Debian Manual Please also refer to FAQ http www debian org doc manuals debian faq APT HOWTO http www debian org doc manuals apt howto Debian reference http www debian org doc manuals quick reference and other documents in Debian Documentation Project http www debian org doc Debian is a version of the Debian GNU Linux operating system The CDs that come with this manual contain not only a complete operating system but also the tools for most computing needs If you want an even larger selection of software you can download it for free from the Debian web site http www debian org This manual is designed to get started with Debian It is also designed for use in front of your computer The manual does not assume that you are an expert However it does assume that you have used computers before and want to transfer your skills to Linux At the very least you are assumed to be willing to learn Linux tools have come a long way in the last few years but Linux is still built with a do it yourself philosophy While you can ignore this philosophy adapting
176. installmanual if you have any doubts This chapter explains how to install Progeny Debian for the first time If you want to Upgrade an existing Debian or Debian based operating system Do identical installs on different machines See Automating Multiple Installs on page 257 Progeny Debian features a graphical installer The installer automatically detects many types of hardware and suggests many settings If you do not need a graphical display you can use text mode from the second stage of the install onwards The first stage of the install uses a basic vga mode which almost every system should be able to support If you run into problems you can usually follow the settings suggested by the installer and get a working system After configuration you can fine tune the configuration from within Progeny Debian Installation should take 30 60 minutes The exact time depends on your choices your experi ence and the speed of your system Note If you have already installed Progeny Debian on your system use the Add Remove Software option to upgrade your system rather than reinstalling Unlike some commercial distributions Progeny Debian is not designed to reinstall over an existing system Chapter 3 Installing Debian 18 Installation consists of five steps Organizing the install Installing the minimal system Configuring Progeny Debian e Selecting and installing software Installing Softwa
177. inter Linux is designed for use with a three button mouse so most users of two button mouses should choose this option 6 Select Enable scroll wheel event to use a scroll wheel If your mouse has a scroll wheel you probably want this option 13 5 8 Configuring a Pointer Manually A pointer is usually a mouse but can include trackballs and other devices used instead of a mouse To edit the pointer manually edit the Input Device Section of the etc X11 XF86Config 4 file Existing entries can help you make your own Entries are in three columns Chapter 13 Configuring the System 248 First Column The general listing category The first two must be Identifier Driver The rest are Option e Second Column The exact listing The first two must be the identifier and the driver The rest are specific options and must include Device and Protocol Note All entries in all columns must be in straight double quotation marks Third Column The setting for any options Neither the Identifier nor Driver have a third column entry All entries must be in double quotation marks There must be an entry for the Device and Protocol option Pointer Settings in XF86Config 4 Setting Comments The label for this pointer configuration By Identifer default it is Configured Mouse or Generic Mouse Driver Usually just mouse The port that the mouse is connected to In most Devi
178. inter is the same as pressing the middle button on a three button pointer Linux is designed for use with a three button mouse so most users of two button mouses should choose this option 4 Select Enable scroll wheel event to use a scroll wheel If your mouse has a scroll wheel you probably want this option 5 Select the Next button The X Server screen opens Chapter 3 Installing Debian 39 3 3 18 Setting Advanced Graphic Display Options img Installing png From the X Server screen you can set advanced options for your graphical display If you are unsure what these settings mean use the defaults 1Select who can use a graphic display from the drop down list Root Only Only the root user e Anybody All users whether local or remote Console Users Only Users can only start the graphical display when working from the local keyboard and monitor e 2 Select the process priority This setting determines what share of your system s re sources are given to the graphic display at any given time img Installing png Changing the priority for your graphical display can seriously affect system performance Do not change this setting from 10 unless you are sure what you are doing e 3 Select the Next button The Electronic Mail Configuration screen opens 3 3 14 Configuring Electronic Mail img Installing png Unless set to local only e mail requires a network or dialup connection You can configure a ne
179. io Command The cpio command is one of the most commonly used Linux back up tools The cpio command has two unusual features Unlike tar in which the files to back up are typed in as part of the command cpio reads the files to work with from the standard input in other words the screen This feature means that cpio must be used as part of a multiple command or with a redirection pipe Examples of this usage are shown in the tables below cpio must always be used with one of three flags Flags are options that set the mode in which the command runs Only one flag can be used at a time and it must come before any other options In addition the choice of flags limits the options that can be used Each flag also has a gnu option that can used in its place The gnu option gives a convenient name for each flag extract create and pass through The cpio Command Backup and Restore Flag GNU Option What it does Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 193 iE Restores files from an archive that match the string i Metacharacters can be used in the options extract string See Using Metacharacters or string Wild Cards Strings should be surrounded by double quotation marks 0 create Backs up files to an archive file options Copies files to another directory on p the same system options pass through directory This option is useful for repeating a
180. ion 146 i gt e Tie As the root directory top Processes that use the most The figures given are relative to leach other They are not the actual system resources resources used 10 2 4 Commands for Reading User Information Commands Topic Comments Displays information from the psswd file finger users A user If no user is specified information about the current user is displayed Use as root user Displays the groups that a user belongs to groups Groups that user users belong If no user is specified information to about the current user is displayed Use as root user id user Users and Displays the user s groups user id and Groups group id s Displays Users Users who currently The time each user has have been logged on logged in Each user s remote host if on a network whoami Current user Chapter 10 Reading System Information 147 10 2 5 Reading proc Files The proc directory contains several files that are useful when you are configuring or trou bleshooting your system Information Files in the proc Directory File Information proc General information about the system including the cpuinfo processor type its speed and cache size t proc Maps irq addresses to devices interrupts proc Information about parallel ports and the devices parport attached to them proc The system
181. irst five columns 12 6 2 Scheduling With the at Command You can use the at command to schedule a command or script to run a single time The com mand includes several utilities See Using the at Utilities on page 201 Note Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 200 If you want to schedule a command more than once look into the crontab command By default only the root user can use the at command However the root user can use two files to allow regular users the command etc at allow If this file exists only users listed in it can use the command e etc at deny If this file exists users listed in it cannot use the command The at command depends on a plain text file This file lists commands or scripts one per line The end of the file must be marked by lt EOT gt on a line by itself The time for a task can be set using several formats The simplest is a 24 hour clock in the hh mm format followed by the date in the mm dd yyyy format You can enter commands by entering The name of a plain text file in which commands or scripts are listed one per line Type at f file command time date By entering the time and entering the commands at an at prompt one per line The end of the file must be marked by lt EOT gt on a line by itself Type at time date This method is especially useful if you are entering multiple commands The at Command Scheduling Options Option Action
182. is now repaired Note If you wrote down the changes you made you can also edit the configuration file in a text editor Using the vim Text Editor The vim editor is an enhanced version of vi one of the standard text editors Like vi vim has two modes Command mode For entering keyboard commands about the program or the file being edited Insert mode For editing a file Type vim to start To open vim with a file type vim file Note Using these two modes may be confusing if you are unfamiliar with them so practice using vim enough so that you are comfortable enough to use it in an emergency Chapter 13 Configuring the System 212 Basic vim Commands Key What it Does Strokes text Searches for the text entered The search starts from the cursor s position file Opens the file named q Quits vim without saving DW Saves open file or Redo an action that was undone Esc Starts command mode h Moves the cursor one character to the left i Starts insert mode j Move the cursor down to the next line k Moves the cursor up to the next line l Moves the cursor one character to the right p Pastes to the clipboard R Starts over writing u Undo last action x Deletes the character at the cursor yw Moves the current word to the clipboard yy Moves the current line to the clipboard Chapter 13 Configuring the System 213 13
183. ist select the color depth or the number of colors that your desktop will use Fewer colors mean a less realistic display of graphics but a faster redraw time However if you have a video card with more than 4 megabytes of memory for most purposes you can use the highest available color depth without any trouble img Installing png Choosing settings that are not supported by both your video card and monitor could damage either piece of hardware 3 Select the Next button to continue The Pointer screen opens 3 3 12 Configuring the Pointer img Installing png The pointer is usually a mouse However it can also be a trackball a palette or any other device that replaces a mouse If you have been using the mouse during the install you can accept the settings listed How ever if your mouse is not working you adjust the settings 1 Select the port to use In most cases it is dev ttySO com1 or dev ttyS1 com2 for a serial mouse or dev psaux for a ps2 mouse 2 Select the protocol or driver to use If you are using a serial mouse then select the name of the manufacturer from the drop down list Use ps2 for a generic ps2 mouse If you cannot find a protocol for your mouse or pointing device select Auto to have it detected automatically You can also try different protocols to see if your mouse can use them 3 Select Emulate 3 button mouse if you have a 2 button one With three button emulation pressing both buttons on the po
184. it by e Selecting Program gt File Manager from the main menu e Selecting New Window from the pop up menu that starts when you right click on the desktop Typing gmc at a command line e Selecting the Home directory icon 6 2 4 The Workspaces Using gnome you can create multiple or virtual desktops called workspaces Each workspace can have columns or rows that help to position windows See Making the Desktop Your Own on page 83 Multiple workspaces require more memory to run However they can be useful if You have a small monitor You want a different set of launchers for different tasks You work with many windows open so that you have a hard time keeping track of them You want to keep a window open for use but do not want it always taking up room on your main workspace If necessary you can turn off multiple workspaces to save memory Chapter 6 Getting to Know the Desktop 77 Moving Between Workspaces To move between workspaces do one of the following Select a workspace on the pager img Desktop 14 png or Middle click on the current workspace and select another one img Desktop 15 png From the Workspace sub menu you can e Select a workspace e Select the next or previous workspace Customize how the workspace functions 6 3 Finding Your Way Around the Desktop The gnome desktop works in much the same way as other desktops You start programs by left clicking on a
185. it can bring a sense of power and control to your computing If you master this manual you will still not be an expert To cover Linux completely requires hundreds of pages However you will be able to configure the basic parts of your system and be ready to explore Linux on your own 11 Learning About Linux Linux http www linux org is an operating system a series of programs that let you interact with your computer and run other programs Chapter 1 Introducing Debian 2 Linux is modelled on the unix operating system From the start Linux was designed to be a multi tasking multi user system These facts are enough to make Linux different from other well known operating systems However Linux is even more different than you might imagine In contrast to other operating systems nobody owns Linux Much of its development is done by unpaid volunteers Development of what later became Linux began in 1984 when the GNU Free Software Foun dation http www gnu org began development of a free unix like operating system Linux s name is derived from that of Linus Torvalds who began development of a unix like kernel in 1991 While many groups and individuals have contributed to Linux the largest single contributor is still the Free Software Foundation which created not only most of the tools used in Linux but also the philosophy and the community that made Linux possible Linux is released under the GNU General Public Lic
186. ites any existing files with the copy No confirmation is asked Consider using with i or b to avoid over writing files by accident i interactive Asks for confirmation before over writing any files Pp preserve Includes the original file s attributes Attributes include the owner group permissions and dates P parents Copies parent directories to sub directories of the target directory E E recursive Copies sub directories and their contents S symbolic link Makes the target a symbolic link to the source file instead of a copy See Working With Symbolic Links u update Copies only files whose date are the same or newer than similarly named ones in the target directory Y verbose Displays file names as they are copied Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 120 Working With Symbolic Links on page 125 9 9 Moving Files From the Desktop Open the gnome Midnight Commander Do one of the following From the workspace select the Home directory launcher From the menu select Programs gt File Manager e Select the files to move See Selecting Files From the Desktop on page 117 Warning Paths aliases links and other features may be affected by moving a file e Right click on one of the selected files A pop up menu displays
187. ity for a Process From the Desktop Linux assigns priorities for processes However you can set your own priorities 1 Type gtop The gnome System Monitor opens img admin 5 png e 2 Select a process The process is highlighted when selected 3 Right click on the process and select Renice from the pop up menu The Renice window opens img admin 6 png 4 Drag the slider bar with the mouse cursor to set the priority The priority is a number with a range from 20 highest priority to 19 lowest priority Only the root user can use a negative priority 1 to 20 e 5Select the Apply button to change the priority then the ok button to close the window 12 4 8 Setting the Priority for a Process From the Command Line Linux assigns priorities for processes However you can set your own priorities Type nice n adjustment command In this structure Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 191 The adjustment is a number with a range from 20 highest priority to 19 lowest prior ity Only the root user can use a negative priority 1 to 20 e The command includes any options or arguments Warning Changing a process s priority may cause problems on your system especially on systems with limited hardware resources or a large number of users 12 5 Backing Up and Compressing Files Regular back ups are a basic precaution against lost of date due to security leaks power loss or user carelessness Not
188. k during the install process or after A dialup connection is not part of the install program but you can set up one after the install process If you need help with the choices on this screen consult your system administrator or Internet service provider 1 1 From the gnome Control Center select System gt Electronic Mail Note If you are using the kde desktop type usr bin mail configlet capplet at the command line Chapter 13 Configuring the System 238 7 Select the General mail setup Choices are Internet Site The same machine that originates the mail sends it and receives any incoming mail Internet with smarthost A dedicated server delivers mail This setting is often used when you are connecting to an Internet service provider e Satellite system No mail is delivered locally Mail is delivered only through the smarthost Local only E mail can only be sent and received by users on the present machine e No configuration No e mail is configured 8 Enter the outgoing mail hostname Consult your system administrator or isp provider for the hostname needed 9 Enter the incoming mail hostname Consult your system administrator or isp provider for the hostname needed 10 Enter the smtp relay host Consult your system administrator or isp provider for the hostname needed 11 Check the appropriate box if you want a world writable mail drop A world writable mail drop allows users to receive mail direct
189. klist and notes to her backup directory she would type cp home mary tasklist notes home mary backup 5 3 5 Entering Commands with Strings Some commands use a string as an argument A string is a combination of letters numbers characters and or spaces inside single or double quotation marks Within a string you can type in multiple words or disable metacharacters also known as wild cards A string that uses metacharacters is referred to as a regular expression See Using Metacharacters or Wild Cards on the next page If you use double straight quotation marks all metacharacters are disabled except environment variables such as home Single straight quotation marks disable all special characters In most cases use single quota tion marks Do not use true quotation marks True quotation marks may be a problem if you copy and paste from a word processor For example if you wanted to search user jsmith s home directory for a file that contained the phrase business expenses you would use the grep command with the phrase as an argu ment grep business expenses home jsmith Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 62 5 3 6 Using Metacharacters or Wild Cards Metacharacters are characters that designate a range of choices They are also called special characters or wild cards You may know the basic metacharacters from other operating systems e An asterisk includes any number of
190. lation A 1 2 Creating the debconf Configuration File debconf cfg Make a copy of the debconf database Type usr sbin readdebconf conf debconf cfg A 1 3 Creating the Network Modules File netmod lst The netmod lst file lists the scsi kernel modules to load Modules are listed one per line Chapter A Automating Multiple Installs 259 Look at the example provided Type less usr share doc autoinstall examples netmode lst on an existing Debian System The file must be configured to fit your hardware A 1 4 Creating the SCSI Module File scsimod lst The scsimod st file lists the scsi kernel modules to load Modules are listed one per line Look at the example provided Type less usr share doc autoinstall examples scsimod lst on an existing Debian System The file must be configured to fit your hardware A 1 5 Creating the Network Configuration Database network cfg The network cfg file describes the network and all machines on it The file consists of pairs of stanzas The first stanza in a pair is the global stanza Global stanzas may be added for any network or routers Global stanzas contain the following entries with one characteristic per line 1 gateway e 2 network e 3 netmask 4 name server e 5 broadcast e 6 domain name Leave a space after each characteristic then add the value for characteristic The second stanza in each pair is a local stanza It defines local machines attach
191. lect Custom partitioning as your installation target the Edit Partitions screen opens Using the Edit Partitions screen you can create delete or edit partitions Partitions are divisions of your hard drive You need at least a root partition before you can continue the install You should also add a swap partition for virtual memory If you want you can also create other partitions For example many Linux users prefer to have personal files on a separate partition to make back ups easier Similarly some put printer queues on a separate partition to limit their size To create or edit a partition e 1 Select a partition to edit or a block of free space in which to create a partition from the Edit Partition screen Your selection is highlighted img Installing png For detailed information about the Edit Partition screen see Reading the Edit Partition Screen on the following page e 2Select the New or Edit button In both cases the Partition screen opens img Installing png e 3 Enter the features of the partition See New and Edit Screen Fields on page 29 img Installing png If you are editing an existing partition you cannot change the type or size Nor can you make a swap partition bootable You must have a root partition In addition you probably want a swap partition You may also want to create other partitions You can change the mount point of an existing partition without losing the information on it
192. let you tidy the icons but limit where you can place them e 5 Select the Apply button then the ok button 7 4 Customizing General Desktop Behavior 1 From the desktop pop up menu select Desktop Properties The Desktop Properties window opens img Desktop cu png 2 Edit the desktop behaviors You can edit File display Which files display and how Confirmations Which warnings to display when you are using files e vfs Virtual File system Settings that affect how you manipulate remote files especially on ftp sites e Caching How the desktop uses memory This tab includes Allows customization of icons in icon view which allows customs icons in sub directories Desktop How icons are positioned on the desktop See Positioning Desktop Launchers Automatically on the facing page 7 5 Customizing the Panel Panels may contain icons draws applets and other features such as the task bar Right clicking on the panel selects the pop up menu This menu includes items for the nearest panel item as well as for the panel img Desktop cu png From the pop up menu you can Remove from panel Delete the closest item from the panel Move Change the position of the closest item on the panel The mouse cursor changes to a four way arrow and the icon slides along the panel following the cursor s movements Left click on the desktop when the panel is repositioned Properties The icon s settings These icons are th
193. ll the window manager 2 As root user open a new file in a text editor 3 Type the following lines in the file bin sh exec windowmanager Identify the file with its absolute path Usually a window manager is installed in the usr bin directory 4 Save the file as etc gdm Sessions file The name of the file is the item that appears in the Sessions menu Generally the file should have the name of the window manager 5 Change the permission on the file so that all users can choose the window manager Type chmod x windowmanager The next time that a user logs in the window manager is available as an item in the Sessions menu of the log in screen 13 7 Changing Other Settings This section explains how to Change the date and time on your system Change command line shells e Add fonts to your system Chapter 13 Configuring the System 252 13 7 4 Setting Date and Time From the Desktop img System 13 png 1 Select Systems Date and Time from the gnome Control Center Note If you are using the kde desktop type usr bin time configlet capplet at the command line Under Time Zone select your Region and Time Zone from the drop down lists The Time Zone list varies with the Region that you select Select The System set to utc box to set the system to Greenwich Mean Time The path to your Network Time Server if you have one Under Date and Time select the month and yer The arrows o
194. lt is var log messages If necessary select an item from the View menu Calendar A monthly calendar img Sysinfo 9 png Log stats Information about the file itself such as its path size and when it was started and last modified img Sysinfo 10 png Zoom Details about the currently selected message along with a brief explanation of the message img Sysinfo 1ll png 10 3 2 Reading Standard Log Files From the Command Line Standard logs are plain text files You can use any viewing tools or text editors to view logs from the command line The most useful tools are less head and tail See Viewing Files From the Command Line on page 108 Keeping a Log File Open Using the tail Command If you are troubleshooting you may want to keep a log file open so that you can constantly refer to it Log in as root user and open a command line Type tail f log The f option keeps the tail viewing command open as new messages are added to it Chapter 10 Reading System Information 149 Standard Log Files Log Contains messages about or from auth log Attempts to log on and log off the system daemon log Daemons and attempts to use modprobe debug All parts of the system that might be useful for trouble shooting kern log The kernel lpr log The printer mail err Problems with the e mail subsystem Duplicates much of the information in mail warn mail info General mail inf
195. ly instead of only through your network s mail system It is faster but can be a security risk If in doubt do not select world writable mail drop 12 Check the appropriate box if you want to use procmail for local mail delivery Procmail lets you filter incoming messages and deliver them to folders other than your Inbox You can use other tools to filter so if in doubt do not use procmail 13 Configure the mail program you want to use Directing E Mail Using procmail You can use procmail to arrange your e mail so that messages from a sources go into a partic ular directory 1 In the gnome Control Center select the box beside Use procmail for local delivery on the System Electronic Mail pane 2 Create a text file called procmailrc in your home directory See Lines in the procmail File on the next page 3 If necessary create the directory in which to filter mail This directory can be one created and used by another mailreader Chapter 13 Configuring the System 239 4 Create a sub directory in your home directory called procmail to hold procmail files 5 Create filters Place each filter in a file called rc filter in the procmail directory See Filters for procmail on the following page 6 Create a file called forward in your home directory This file activates procmail when new mail arrives In the forward file enter IIFS amp amp exec usr bin procmail f exit 75 user No
196. m upper case ones x string exclude string When comparing directories excludes directories that match the string Metacharacters can be used x X file exclude from file When comparing directories excludes files and directories that match the pattern listed in file Displays 3 lines Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 114 before or after each result eo Sy Displays results in side by side two columns Includes Tc sub directories when recursive comparing directories CO Only displays brief whether files differ x eg fI VS Only displays when a report identical file files do not differ 8 73 Comparing Three Files Using the diff3 Command The diff3 command compares three files and reports on the differences between them It does not give detailed information about the differences the way that diff does diff3 can also be used to merge files using a simple script see the man pages for more detail Type diff3 options 1st file 2nd file 3rd file Two results may display e All three files differ e file is different The diff3 Command Comparing and Merging Option Topic Comments a Compares binary files Binary files are treated as text files CU Displays merged differences Output can also be x merge on the screen redirected to a file
197. m 4 png 1 Ata command line type dpkg reconfigure etherconf The Ethernet Networking Config uration screen opens If your card is detected the first screen notes the fact If it is not See Iroubleshooting With a Network Card on the facing page Chapter 13 Configuring the System 233 10 Follow the instructions on each screen You may need to know Whether the network card is removable Whether the card can be configured with dhcp Your computer s ip Address The network s netmask The gateway The hostname The domain name e The name server If you do not know this information consult your system administrator or Internet Provider 11 When you are finished configuring select Exit etherconf then attempts to connect to the network Watch the command line for messages about this effort If the connection is unsuccessful after several minutes press Ctrl Z then Ctrl C to stop the effort Then check the network card Troubleshooting With a Network Card Post woody Debian should detect most network cards automatically However if you are having trouble establishing a connection Check that the card is properly installed Check that your ethernet card or other network interface card is supported by Linux Check that your network card is working Type ifconfig a A list of active interfaces displays Your network card is probably dev eth0 Check that your network card is active Type
198. m the File menu of the Midnight Commander In both cases the Delete window displays img Files 9 png Select the Yes button to delete the selected files Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 123 9 13 2 Moving To the Trash img Files 10 png The trash bin is a directory gnome desktop Trash in your home directory for storing deleted files that you might want to restore again All users have their own trash bins Open the gnome Midnight Commander Do one of the following From the workspace select the Home directory launcher From the menu select Programs File Manager e Select the files to move to the Trash Do one of the following e Select Move to Trash from the pop up menu of one of the selected files Drag the selected files to the Trash icon on the desktop e Move the selected files to Desktop Trash in the same way that you would move any files anywhere See Moving Files From the Desktop on page 120 Note From the desktop you cannot set the gnome Trash to empty when it reaches a certain size However you could use the cron command to delete its contents at a regular time 9 13 3 Restoring From the Trash Your Trash folder behaves exactly the same as any other folder on your desktop To restore files move them from the Trash folder to another folder See Moving Files From the Desktop on page 120 9 14 Deleting Files From the Command Line Type rm file If yo
199. mand Line You can stop a process from the command line in three ways Identifying it by id Identifying it by the command that starts it Identifying it by a file that uses it Stopping a Process Identified by ID Type kill process ids Unless you are root user you can only kill processes that you started Warning Closing a process can crash your system or cause other problems Stopping a Process Identified by Name or Files Type killall options command Unless you are root user you can only kill processes that you started Warning Closing some processes can crash your system or cause other problems Stopping a Process Identified a File Using It Type killall options file A name with a forward slash in it is read as a file name All processes that use that file are closed Unless you are root user you can only kill processes that you started Warning Closing some processes can crash your system or cause other problems Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 190 The killall Command Stops Processes x Option Action Comment t Stops only processes that If this option is not used all e are an exact match of processes are killed that match what you enter the first 15 characters g Stops all parent processes as well Enters a confirmation i before each process is stopped v Displays progress on screen 12 4 7 Setting the Prior
200. marks If you are in doubt virtually all systems made in the last five years should support 640 x 480 no matter what the difficulties Chapter 13 Configuring the System 247 13 5 7 Configuring a Pointer From the Desktop img System 12 png The pointer is usually a mouse However it can also be a trackball a palette or any other device that replaces a mouse If you have been using the mouse during the install you can accept the settings listed How ever if your mouse is not working you adjust the settings 1 Select Systems X Configuration from the gnome Control Center Note If you are using the kde desktop type usr bin xserver configlet capplet at a command line 2 From the X Configuration pane select the Pointer tab 3 Select the port to use In most cases it is dev ttySO com1 or dev ttyS1 com2 for a serial mouse or dev psaux for a ps2 mouse 4 Select the protocol or driver to use If you are using a serial mouse then select the name of the manufacturer from the drop down list Use ps2 for a generic ps2 mouse If you cannot find a protocol for your mouse or pointing device select Auto to have it detected automatically You can also try different protocols to see if your mouse can use them 5 Select Emulate 3 button mouse if you have a 2 button one With three button emulation pressing both buttons on the pointer is the same as pressing the middle button on a three button po
201. may change This chapter assumes that you are working with a default desktop using the Sawfish window manager 7 4 Configuring Monitor Color Display If you are doing graphics work or need to adjust your monitor s display select Settings gt Imlib Configuration Options from the main menu img Desktop cu png You can edit Color palettes The colors used for the desktop display e Rendering The technical aspects of displaying images such as dithering and the cache size reserved by the desktop Display Forcing selections if they are not used by your hardware Otherwise this tab is blank rgb Color correction The calibration of basic colors for the display Red Green and Blue You can save configurations for the current user or if you are logged in as root for the entire system img Desktop cu png Changing these settings can worsen your display if you do not know what you are doing Make changes carefully and record original settings so that you can restore them 7 2 Customizing General Settings for GNOME and Sawfish You can customize settings for the behavior of gnome the Sawfish window manager and your themes from the Control Center To customize general settings Chapter 7 Making the Desktop Your Own 85 e 1 Do one of the following e Select the Control Center icon from the panel From the menu select Settings gt gnome Control Center Middle click on the workspace area to display a
202. ment Keep original m atime preserve time stamps on extracted files at ol Creates a new create archive file d tarfile files Compare the Missing files sizes compares tarfile files ina tar and attributes are files file with other reported on files Excludes a file exclude file from archiving or extracting Extracts files k without An error message keep old files overwriting displays if there are files with the conflicts same name Splits over M multiple Works with tapes or x multivolume removable floppies Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 204 devices N date after date date Excludes files older than the date entered from the archive P absolute paths Keeps absolute paths See Understanding Absolute and Relative preserve permissions when they are archived File Paths 1 Keeps p permissions of See Changing x same permissions files unchanged Permissions 2 TE append Adds a tar file to the end of another one The second file listed in the command is added to the end of the first remove files Removes files after they are added to a tar file with each file A Displays files Nace in an archive Files are only added if tu Updates an they are new than files x update archive of the same name that are already in the arc
203. menu on the pop up menu if you are logged in as the root user 3 Enter the information for the icon See Adding Launchers on page 87 e 4 If you highlight an item in the tree in the left pane you can also Chapter 7 Making the Desktop Your Own 91 Add a new sub menu Add a new menu item Delete an item or menu Move an item up in a menu Move an item down in a menu e Sort a sub menu in alphabetical order 7 7 Customizing Individual Windows 1 Right click on the title bar to open the window menu e 2Select from the following items Frame type Sets which sides have a border or if a title bar displays Frame style Apply an installed theme only to the open window History Set whether the window s position size or attributes frame type and frame style are remembered e 3 Select History gt Remember attributes to keep the new settings the next time you open the window 7 8 Starting Files With Programs Setting MIME Types You can configure your desktop so that you can start a program by clicking on a file associated with it This association is known as a mime Type Setting up a mime type requires two steps First you must add the mime type Then you must edit it 7 8 1 Adding MIME Types e 1 Do one of the following From the Control Center select mime types From the menu select Settings gt Document Handlers gt mime types From the menu of the file manager select Command
204. mmand LINE suse one REPRE Roe P 7 Making the Desktop Your Own 4A Configuring MonitorColor Display lt 4 lt 4 8s RE LEE ER Pe Tawi 7 2 Customizing General Settings for GNOME and Sawfish 5o Customizing Program Launchers os qu oom RR hom rc XR A ke Cos Fo Adding Lanches iue aca or rnm om on HS E RO de ACC RR cou JEDE LAUNCHES s opas vob Ea ee reb GEH nee uod foo Recreating Default Launchers vesc cs o acre GEO VO eme D Xen 7 34 Positioning Desktop Launchers Automatically 7 4 Customizing General Desktop Behavior 24 4 2248864 be xS AS Customizing the DABEI xi hw ge doe OR EUR UR GE but E RS 751 Adding Appleteto the Panel uus ook m hom dae eh ro Sus the Menti s acces wow o mr e e mcm YO C eR ee Re 7 7 Customizing Individual Windows sss eoru RR kk ey Regex RO 7 8 Starting Files With Programs Setting MMETypes lees 781 Adding MIME Types ace oie cd oe eae REOR Ee ow X RR fee Edi nga MIME Lyp soera di Trga PURSE CHEESE BES EES feo Deleng a MIME TVDE uuo ded gode pe A EE RAE SE Pe HS 8 Searching for Files and Text BA Understanding Linux Miles s ca oboe dee oro RR ERS REESE Ds 8 1 1 Understanding Linux Names s lt a s s sa ok RR RO esae He AER 8 1 2 Understanding File Extensions in Linux 2k Rr S 76 76 77 78 78 78 79 80 82 83 84 84 86 87 88 88 88 89 89 90 90 91 91 91 92 92 CONTENTS vi 8 2 Introducing the Linux Directory Structure soo ee
205. mount a is typed exec files Users can run executable Chapter 13 Configuring the System 224 no exec Users cannot run How the filesystem can executable files 4 be used and by whom nouser Only the root user can access the filesystem ro Users can only view the filesystem rw Users can read and write to the filesystem user Any user can mount the file system For unlimited access to the filesystem use user auto dev exec user rw t t Whether the filesystem O The device is not backed up should be backed up 1 The device is backed up 5 when the dump command is used Since dump is not often used today most filesystems can be set to 0 4 0 No check is done This option The order in which can start the system faster filesystems are checked 1 The device is checked first 6 for errors when the The root partition should always system starts use this setting 2 The device is checked after any filesystems set to l See Understanding Device Names on page 13 Mounting Filesystems Temporarily 1 If necessary log in as root 2 If necessary create the directory needed for the mount point using the mkdir command 3 If the kernel does not currently support the type of filesystem enable support Type modprobe t type See the options for the 3rd column of etc fstab for common filesystems See Column
206. ms To do so attach the following notices to the program It is safest to attach them to the start of each source file to most effectively convey the exclusion of warranty and each file should have at least the copyright line and a pointer to where the full notice is found one line to give the program s name and a brief idea of what it does Copyright C year name of author This program is free software you can redistribute it and or modify it under the terms of the gnu General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation either version 2 of the License or at your option any later version This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful but without any warranty with out even the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose See the gnu General Public License for more details You should have received a copy of the gnu General Public License along with this program if not write to the Free Software Foundation Inc 59 Temple Place Suite 330 Boston MA 02111 1307 usa Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and paper mail If the program is interactive make it output a short notice like this when it starts in an interactive mode Gnomovision version 69 Copyright C year name of author Gnomovision comes with absolutely no warranty for details type show w This is free software and you are welcome to redistribute it under certain
207. n icon or a menu item You set properties by right clicking on a desktop element Windows are minimized or maximized using either their menus or the icons in the upper right corner e Windows become active or come into focus as gnome puts it by clicking with the mouse on any part of them Minimized also called iconified windows display in the task list The Trash can stores deleted files in case you want to restore them img Desktop 16 png However if you are new to Linux some of its functions may be unfamiliar to you Instead of repeating what you already know this section concentrates on these unfamiliar functions Chapter 6 Getting to Know the Desktop 78 6 3 1 Using A Three Button Mouse Like other Linux desktops gnome is designed for a three button mouse If your mouse only has two buttons then you can choose during the install to emulate a three button mouse by pressing both buttons at the same time is the same as using the middle mouse button In most circumstances e The left mouse button selects an icon or menu item to start The right mouse button displays a pop up menu Often this menu is used for setting the properties of a desktop element such as an icon The middle button is used for other functions if they exist To see other functions for the mouse buttons roll the mouse over a part of the desktop to see a pop up list img Desktop 17 png 6 3 2 Using the Desktop Pop Up Menus T
208. n the left of the month and year display move the month or year backward while the arrow on the right moves it forward If you move the month from December to January the year changes automatically 7 Select the day by highlighting it on the calendar 8 10 11 Enter the hour minute and seconds In each field you can either enter highlight the current entry and over write it or else use the arrow keys to change it Set the time to am or pm Note If you prefer a 24 hour clock or to use Greenwich Mean Time you can reset the date once you install Select the Set Date and Time button to apply your changes Select the ok button 13 7 2 Setting Date and Time From the Command Line As the root user type date mm ddhhmmyy at the command line MM is the month given as a two digit number and mm is minutes Hours should be in 24 hour format To set the time to Greenwich Mean Time use the u option Note A desktop clock may take a moment to update For more information about the date command see its on line help Chapter 13 Configuring the System 253 13 7 3 Setting the Command Shell Linux has many command line interfaces These interfaces are called shells The default shell is bash the Bourne Again Shell This manual assumes that you are using it To change a shell temporarily enter its name as a command The next time you open a com mand line you will be using bash again To change your default shell
209. nd files that belong to the group Type find l group group Searching for Files and Text on page 93 e 3 Change the group ownership on the files Managing Groups on the page before To save effort select multiple files Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 181 12 2 4 Editing a Group 1Select the group Logged in as root user type groupmod g gid e 2 Find files that belong to the group Type find l group group Searching for Files and Text on page 93 e 3 Change the group ownership on the files Managing Groups on page 179 To save effort select multiple files 12 3 Managing Printing Linux includes a number of command line tools for administering printing These commands are useful on networks or for troubleshooting and managing printing on any system Each printer on a Linux system has its own spool or queue in the var spool Ipd directory This spool uses the short name of the printer which is created when the printer is first config ured When a file is printed it becomes a job in the spool Each job is stored in a spool until it is printed Printing tools generally start with Ip short for line printer If you are familiar with other Linux commands you can usually make a good guess at what the rest of the command should be For example Iprm removes a print job from the spool You can use the following tools for managing printing e lpq Checks the status of print jobs e lprm Remo
210. neral overview e 1 Download a tar file Choose the static binary whenever possible e 2 f the site that you download from specifies that any dependencies are needed down load and install them before you install the software 3 Log in as root user Note Do not use the internet while root user Doing so makes your system vulnerable to attacks e 4 Place the tar file in the root directory and unarchive it A directory structure is created for the program e 5 Change to the sub directory that contains the program Since there is no standard you may have to search a while Often however it is the src source directory 6 Find and read the file that contains installation instructions Usually it is called Install or Readme 7 Type configure During the configuration process e Variables in the program are defined to suit your system Install scripts are created for your system Make files the files needed for installation are created During configuration a long list of information scrolls If the last few lines contain no messages about errors you can continue e 8 Type make The software is compiled that is converted from source code to the binary format in which you use it While the software is compiled information scrolls by in the command line If no error messages display you can continue 9 Type install The software is installed Generally the program is added to the us local directory
211. net Use these precautions even on a single unnetworked computer Using the Boot Loader img Login 2 png Many users have multiple operating systems or Linux kernels on the same computer Using a boot loader you can choose which operating system or kernel to start your computer with Debian uses grub Grand Unified Boot Loader However other boot loaders are widely used including lilo the Linux Loader grub is the first thing that you see when starting a Debian system You can edit grub to display any installed operating system or kernels Your Debian system also includes a single user mode The single user mode starts the machine with a basic system that the root user can use for troubleshooting To choose an operating system from grub do one of the following e Highlight a menu item by using the arrow keys Then press the Enter key or Wait for the default choice to start The default choice starts in 10 seconds if you make no selection In either case Debian starts After processes are started and some tests are run the graphical display starts and the log in screen opens You can reconfigure grub and add other operating systems to it See Configuring the Boot Loader on page 228 42 Logging in to Debian img Login 3 png After Debian has started its initial processes and run some checks the log in screen opens Logging in is the process of entering your user account and your password Note Chapter 4 St
212. net Server Production for the entries that you need 12 If your network connection is through a pcmcia or Cardbus network card select the box beside Main network device is removable Configuring a Network Connection From the Command Line 1 Logged in as root user add your hostname to etc hostname 2 Add your hostname and ip address to etc hosts 3 Add atleast your ip address and netmask to etc init d network You may need to add other information to enable your connection 4 If necessary add your nameserver to etc host conf and etc resolv conf Configuring a Temporary Network Connection You can use Linux commands to set up a temporary connection without editing files This type of on the fly configuration is especially useful for testing configurations To setup a temporary connection 1 Logged in as root user type ifconfig device ipaddress netmask 2 Add the route Type route add default gw route 3 If necessary add your nameserver to etc resolv conf If you log out re do the first two steps to re create the temporary connection 13 4 5 Configuring a Dialup Internet Connection A dialup connection uses a modem and an unmodified telephone line A dialup connection is also known as a Point to Point Protocol ppp connection Debian installs with a Group called dialout Only members of this group can use the serial ports or any device such as a modem that is attached to a serial port Warning For greater se
213. ng System Information from the Desktop Using the System Info Tool 140 10 1 2 Viewing Process Information from the Desktop Using the gtop Command140 10 1 3 Viewing User Information from the Desktop Using the gw Command 141 10 1 4 Using the Monitor Applets ue hem x Rn mmn 141 10 2 Using Command Line Tools ud e uode o a eh Dk UR tnde Ren 142 10 2 1 Commands for Reading System Information 142 10 2 2 Commands for Reading Memory Information 144 10 2 3 Commands for Reading Process Information 145 10 2 4 Commands for Reading User Information sess 146 10 55 Reading proc Piles ou ke REEG EX EEG SE Exeter S E xs 147 105 Reading Log Fies o ect x hok noy o Od OS ORR OP AS EKA ES OR 147 10 3 1 Reading Standard Log Files From the Desktop 148 10 3 2 Reading Standard Log Files From the Command Line 148 10 3 3 Reading Non standard Log Files lt er cies spere 150 10 3 4 Creating Custom Logs Using Redirection les 150 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 151 ILI Understanding Packages ues dou d uoa no yr o Oe XA ECCO RES on 152 11 2 Understanding Package Management Tools a 152 11 3 Understanding Debian Package Management ue bs tom os 153 11 3 1 Understanding the Life Cycle ofa Package coco 045 154 1132 Understanding Package Information lt 6 64 56 x eee ds 154 11 3 3 Finding Package Management Fil s 2
214. nge your setting so that other regular users cannot change nor even see your files Your desktop and command line interfaces can be customized e Viruses are less likely to infect the computer While viruses are not the problem on Linux that they are on other operating systems any damage is likely to affect only one user s files Only the root user can use important files Mistakes like viruses are likely to affect only a user s personal files 41 2 Understanding the Root Account The root account has full access to all software and hardware on the system In most cases it should be the only account that has full access For this reason the root user is sometimes called the super user or privileged user The root user s home directory is root Note The root directory is different from the root directory at the top of the Linux directory tree Nor is it the same as the root partition the partition that the root directory is on To avoid damaging your system take the following precautions when using the root account Chapter 4 Starting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface 51 Use the root account only for configuration or administration Use the root account as briefly as possible Give the root password to as few people as possible Each of those people should use another account for everyday computing Do not give root privileges to any other account Do not use the root account on the Inter
215. nting filesystems Chapter 13 Configuring the System 221 Creates a partition and formats it If you do not specify the filesystem then you create an unformatted partition Values for the type are ext2 The native Linux filesystem linux swap The Linux swap filesystem fat fat 32 the Windows filesystem mkpart These values are different from the ones used in filesystem mounting and unmounting filesystems type start end Values for the type are logical or extended The start and end values are in megabytes measured from the start of the partition Refer to print for the values for the start and end points of the partition When parted creates the partitions the values may differ slightly from the ones you enter These differences are generally small enough that they are unimportant and can be ignored move partition Moves the partition to a new location start end print Displays information about the current hard drive resize Resizes the partition partition start end The start and end values are in megabytes measured from the start of the partition rm partition Removes partition Set the hard drive to partition By default parted select device starts with the first hard drive located usually hda Chapter 13 Configuring the System 222 13 3 2 Mounting and Unmounting Filesystems Mounting is the process of associating a filesystem with a dir
216. ntributors to the project These mechanisms are loose enough that Linux users still have immense freedom of choice in their software For example Linux users can choose from a dozen different command line shells and several graphical desktops This selection is often bewildering to users of other operating systems who are not used to thinking of the command line or desktop as something that they can change In addition to software selection Linux is less likely to crash better able to run more than one program at the same time and more secure than many operating systems With these advantages Linux is the fastest growing operating system in the server market More recently Linux has begun to be popular among home and business users as well Chapter 1 Introducing Debian 3 1 2 Learning About Debian Debian http www debian org is a popular version of Linux It is developed by a decentralized team of over 600 volunteer programmers in all parts of the world and includes over 6000 software packages Debian was founded in 1993 by Ian Murdock now president and CEO of Progeny which funded and created the previous version of this User s Guide The name of Debian com bines Ian s name with that of his wife Debra Its full name Debian GNU Linux recognizes the central role of the GNU Free Software Foundation in developing Linux Debian has been a major force in the rise of Linux and Open Source software over the last seven ye
217. nux users change the X server but many change the window manager and desktop regularly Some users prefer a window manager but no desktop In addition you can also change the look of a window manager or desktop by changing themes the default colors and designs Entire web sites are devoted to themes notably www themes org 6 2 Getting to Know the Parts of the Default Desktop The gnome desktop is similar to desktops on other operating systems However take the time to find where the parts of the desktop are Some features may not be in the position you expect while others can be reached in more than one way You can add many features to the gnome desktop However the default desktop consists of e The Menus e The Panel The File Manager Workspaces 6 2 1 The Menus You can select a program to run by opening one of two menus The gnome main menu at the top left of the screen img Desktop 1 png The Programs item in the pop up menu for the work space Note To have a menu or sub menu stay open double click on the top part above the dotted line The menu becomes a regular window This feature is sometimes called a tear off menu Chapter 6 Getting to Know the Desktop 75 6 2 2 The Panel The panel runs across the top of the desktop It contains the menu icons or launchers and commonly used tools The default panel contains The gnome menu on the left img Desktop 3 png The gnome Help icon for
218. of memory for most purposes you can use the highest available color depth without any trouble Warning Choosing settings that are not supported by both your video card and monitor could damage either piece of hardware 7 Select the resolutions to support By default your desktop starts in the highest resolution supported 8 From the drop down list select the color depth or the number of colors that your desktop will use Fewer colors mean a less realistic display of graphics but a faster response time However if you have 128 megabytes of ram and or a video card with more than 4 megabytes of memory for most purposes you can use the highest available color depth without any trouble 9 Select the X configuration tab for advanced display options img System 11 png From the X Server screen you can set advanced options for your graphical display If you are unsure what these settings mean use the defaults 13 Select who can use a graphic display from the drop down list Root Only Only the root user e Anybody All users whether local or remote Console Users Only Users can only start the graphical display at the local keyboard and monitor 14 Select the process priority This setting determines what share of your system s resources are given to the graphic display at any given time Warning Changing the priority for your graphical display can seriously affect system performance Do not change this setting from 10
219. ogram may destroy your ability to start other operating systems or encourage you to reformat partitions with other operating systems You can recover from these actions or avoid them but installing Windows first saves you trou ble 3 1 3 Preparing a CD or Floppy Installation Depending on your computer you may need to change the boot order in the bios so that you can start from a cd or floppy Note You only need the floppy if your computer cannot start from a cd The boot order is a listing of the drives that your computer tries to start from and the order in which drives are tried Your machine starts with the first operating system that it finds How you change the boot sequence may depend on whether you have an ide or scsi system 3 14 Changing the Boot Order on IDE Computers 1 As your computer starts press the keys to enter the bios utility Often it is the Delete key However consult the hardware documentation for the exact keystrokes e 2 Find the boot sequence in the setup utility Its location depends on your bios but you are looking for a field that lists drives Common entries on ide machines are C A cdrom or A C cdrom C is the hard drive and A is the floppy drive 3 Change the boot sequence setting so that the cdrom or the floppy is first Usually the Page Up or Page Down keys cycle through the possible choices e Save your changes Instructions on the screen tell you how to save the changes on your
220. ogress verbose on screen 12 6 Scheduling Jobs You can schedule a command or a script using two tools Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 197 crontab Schedules tasks once or repeatedly at Schedules tasks once 12 6 1 Scheduling With the crontab Command You can use the crontab command to run commands at regular times For example you could schedule a backup of your files every Friday Commands can be scheduled to the minute Note If you want to schedule a command to run only once look into the at command The crontab command works by reading a crontab file A crontab file is a plain text file that lists all the jobs you have scheduled Each line of the crontab file consists of the command with all its options and arguments and the date and time to run it By default all users can set up their own crontab files However the root user can use two files to control access e etc cron allow If this file exists only users listed in it can use crontab e etc cron deny If this file exists users listed in it cannot use crontab All crontab files are stored in the var spool cron crontabs directory However since reg ular users do not have read or write permission to this directory they must use the crontab command to schedule jobs In addition many system administrators use three files to schedule jobs etc cron daily etc cron weekly and etc cron monthly As the names suggest
221. oint Linux uses two types of links e Absolute links also called hard links get their name because of how they are stored on the filesystem For the average user hard links are more limited than symbolic links An absolute link must be on the same filesystem as the original file and is not recognized by ls and other commands e Symbolic links also called soft links are copied moved or deleted like other files Delet ing a link does not affect the original file However the creation of symbolic links and administering the connections between them requires a little more care than with other files 9 16 1 Viewing Symbolic Links From the Desktop Open the gnome Midnight Commander Do one of the following From the workspace select the Home directory launcher From the menu select Programs gt File Manager Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 126 Do one of the following Select the Custom icon from the tool bar e Select Layout gt Custom View from the menu In all cases files that are links have an as the first character in the Permissions column 9 16 2 Viewing Symbolic Links From the Command Line The ls command displays the contents of the working directory To display the symbolic links in the current directory open a command line and type Is 1 The attributes of each file are displayed on a separate line If a file is a link then the first character is an In addition any sym
222. om which you are installing 3 1 8 Installing Progeny Debian Without a Graphical Display The Progeny Debian installer is designed primarily for users who want a graphical display However you may decide not to use a graphical display the X Window System if you are an experienced user or are installing a server If you do not want a graphical display note the following steps e Start the minimal install with the command linux secondstage text The minimal instal lation will use a generic vga display but the other stages will be text based e At the start of the configuration stage do not select X configuration During the software installation stage do one of the following De select the pre selected gnome and X Window package set Chapter 3 Installing Debian 22 Leave the default package sets then remove the gnome and X Window package set once Progeny Debian starts 3 19 Navigating the Install Program The install program detects your mouse so that you can use it during the install The install program uses a simple set of buttons for navigation Back Returns you to the previous screen e Next Moves to the next screen Cancel Exits the install program In some cases a button may not be available until a task is completed 3 1 10 Navigating Without a Mouse If your mouse does not work in the install program you can use the keyboard to navigate the menu choices Later you can configure yo
223. ommand line Maintenance work in single user mode also requires familiarity with a command line These reasons are important enough that many Linux users still prefer to work from the com mand line instead of the desktop If you have used DOS you will find the Linux command line much easier and much more powerful Not only does it have many shortcuts to save you time but you can even choose the command line interface the shell that best suits your needs This manual assumes that you are using bash Bourne Again Shell the default for Progeny Debian and most other Linux distributions 5 2 Starting a Command Line If your computer is not set up to use a graphical desktop it starts with the command line already running To start a command line while running a graphical desktop do one of the following e Select the command line from the panel img Shell 1 png From the menu select Programs gt System gt Eterm gnome Terminal or Regular xt erm A command line window opens img Shell 2 png Press Alt F2 or select Run from the menu A single line command window opens img Shell 3 png e Right click on the work space Then select New gt Terminal from the pop up menu Press Ctrl Alt F1 using the left hand keys A full screen command line opens To return to the desktop press Alt F7 5 3 Entering Commands To new users a command can look overwhelming However once you realize that all com mands follows the sam
224. ommander Do one of the following From the workspace select the Home directory launcher From the menu select Programs gt File Manager e Right click on the directory pane A pop up menu displays From the menu select New Directory The Create a new directory window opens img Files 2 png Enter a name for the new directory Select the ok button when you are finished Note You may need to select Edit Rescan directory before the new directory displays in the gnome Midnight Commander 9 4 Creating New Directories From the Command Line Type mkdir options directory The mkdir Command Make Directory Option Action Comment Sets permissions for new See Changing m mode directory in absolute mode Permissions in Absolute Mode E p Creates any parent directories x parents if they do not already exist Changing Permissions in Absolute Mode on page 134 Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 117 9 5 Selecting Files From the Desktop Open the gnome Midnight Commander Do one of the following From the workspace select the Home directory launcher From the menu select Programs File Manager In both cases the gnome Midnight Commander opens displaying your home directory img Files 3 png e Select a file Do one of the following Left click on an icon with the mouse If you want to select another file left click on its
225. on r Set user or group id S Set sticky Set to user s current permissions u Set write permission wW Set execute permission x Changing Permissions in Absolute Mode Type chmod number The number is usually three digits From left to write the digits stand for the permissions for the user the group and other users You can calculate the digit to use by adding the octal number for each permission Calculating Numbers for the chmod Command Absolute Mode on the current page You must use at least three digits in Absolute Mode A fourth number is sometimes added as a prefix to set user or group id or to set sticky See The chmod Command Change Permissions The 4th Digit in Absolute Mode on the facing page The chown Command Change Permissions The 4th Digit in Absolute Mode page 200 Calculating Numbers for the chmod Command Absolute Mode To calculate each digit in Absolute Mode See The chmod Command Permissions Absolute Mode on the next page add the octal numbers for the permissions you want to set For example the number to set read and execute permission is 5 4 1 The first three digits are for the user group and others For example 754 gives The user read write and execute permission The group read and execute permission Others read permission You may also use a fourth digit See The chmod Command Change Permissions The 4th Digit in Absolute Mode on
226. on line help img Desktop 4 png The browser icon for your internet connection img Desktop 5 png The gnome Control Center for configuring the desktop See Making the Desktop Your Own on page 83 img Desktop 6 png The Add Remove Software icon img Desktop 7 png The terminal icon for opening a command line img Desktop 8 png The gnome Desktop Guide or pager beside the task list The pager opens a list of cur rently running processes and shows where windows are open on the work space Select the pager to open or close it img Desktop 9 png The status dock for showing the windows on each workspace img Desktop 10 png The task list for displaying minimized windows on the right Chapter 6 Getting to Know the Desktop 76 img Desktop 11 png Notice too the arrows on each side of the panel Selecting an arrow slides the panel shut to give more room in the workspace Selecting an arrow again slides the panel back into position Warning You can add other panels or other items to the default panel as you need Useful items include Drawers Pull down menus of icons launchers which group icons and save space e Applets Various small tools and monitors including one for laptop batteries Clocks Several different styles time pieces See Making the Desktop Your Own on page 83 6 2 3 The File Manager img Desktop 13 png The default file manager is the gnome Midnight Commander You can start
227. ons for each letter in the font Necessary for displaying or printing the font pfb short for Printer Binary Font Contain instructions on how to print the font inf and pfm extensions Not needed for use under Linux Install the typelinst package Type apt get install typelinst Add the pfb and afm files for each font to a directory accessible to Linux Common choices are usr X11R6 lib X11 fonts Typel or usr share fonts typel Note Because installing fonts is so involved install as many fonts as you can at one time If necessary add the directory to the Font Paths listed in XF86Config 4 Change to the directory in which the fonts are installed Install the fonts Type typelinst If you receive a message that the foundry the distributor of the font is unknown you can ignore it It does not affect whether you can use the font A file called Fontmap is created in the directory You need this file later during the instal lation of the fonts Type mkfontdir Fonts are now ready for on screen use 7 Make the fonts available to ghostscript so that you can print them Type cat fontdirectory 10 11 Fontmap gt gt etc gs Fontmap Either e Restart typelinst Type etc init d typelinst force reload Restart your system In either case the postscript fonts are now available for on screen use Restart your system The newly installed fonts are now available for both screen display and printing
228. ontain The Install cd containing the operating system The Extras cd containing additional programs including the kde desktop Two source code cd s An Install floppy for systems that cannot start from the cd drive e A Modules floppy for rarer drivers that cannot fit anywhere else A registration card for technical support a three month subscription to the Progeny Ser vice Network The Progeny Debian User s Guide this manual If anything is missing please contact Progeny Linux Systems at 1 317 833 0313 or cust serv progeny com 1 5 Conventions Used in This Manual To help you concentrate on learning this manual uses as few conventions as possible In fact it has only three Chapter 1 Introducing Debian 5 e When you have to choose an icon or menu item with the mouse you may be told to select or to click or click on All these instructions mean that you should select an item with the cursor while depressing the left mouse button Similarly right click means to use the right mouse button while middle click means to use the middle mouse button or the equivalent e Information to type appears in a fixed width font text like this chmod 777 todo txt Punctuation after this text should not be typed e Italics text indicates variable information For example the standard format for a com mand is command options argument files The italics indicate that any comman
229. or example if you type chg then press the Tab key the command chgrp is entered at the prompt No other command completes chg On the other hand if you type cha you get the following list chage chat chattr This time these three command complete what you have typed 5 5 2 Using Command History The bash history file in your home directory lists all the commands that you have entered from the command line You can use this file to re enter commands that you have already used This ability is useful if you are doing repetitive work or if you have made a mistake and want to correct it without re typing To move through the command history use the up arrow key to repeat the previous command in the history Use the down arrow key to repeat the next command If you are at the last command then using the arrow key deletes what you have entered at the command prompt If you change user accounts you cannot use the command history of the original account Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 68 5 5 3 Using Text Pasting You can use the mouse to copy and paste text that still displays on the screen To paste a command 1 Press the left mouse button and drag the cursor over the text that you want to paste The text is highlighted 2 Release the mouse button 3 Place the cursor at the spot where you want to paste the text Then click the middle mouse button The text is pasted If you selected an entire line with a
230. ormation mail warn Problems with the e mail subsystem Duplicates much of the information in mail err messages The entire system syslog The log daemon user log User activity Columns in Standard Log Files Column Information Timestamp The date and time that the message was written to the log Hostname The machine that generated the message The subsystem that generated the message The subsystem can be the kernel or a process Name If the subsystem is a process then its id is Chapter 10 Reading System Information 150 included Message What the log entry is about 10 3 3 Reading Non Standard Log Files Several useful log files are not in standard format As a result they cannot be read by the System log monitor tool on the desktop Several must be read using unique command line tools Non Standard Log Files File What It Contains and How to View It dmesg Contains information about the most recent starting of the system View by using the dmesg command faillog Contains information about the last time users tried to log in including the number of failures the maximum allowed and the latest failure View by typing faillog u user lastlog Contains a list of users and the last time they logged in View by using the lastlog command XFree86 0 log Contains information about
231. ot be greater than the highest resolution supported by both your monitor and your video card Expert Enter the Horizontal Sync Range and Vertical Refresh Rate for your monitor If you do not know these statistics 30 130 for the Horizontal Sync and 60 160 for the Vertical Refresh should work for most monitors img Installing png Simple and Medium modes or the suggested Horizontal Sync Range and Vertical Refresh Rate may not always give the best settings for your monitor If necessary you can change the set tings after the install e 3 Select the Next button to continue The Desktop screen opens 3 3 14 Setting the Desktop Graphic Display img Installing png From the Desktop screen you can set the resolution and color depth for the graphical display on your system Settings for the graphic display depend on the capabilities of your video card and monitor If you did not collect this information before installing See Gathering Hardware Information on page 10 img Installing png Choosing settings that are not supported by both your video card and monitor could damage either piece of hardware Chapter 3 Installing Debian 38 1 Select the resolutions to support By default your desktop starts in the highest resolu tion supported but you can change the resolution Temporarily by pressing Alt Ctrl keypad to cycle through the available resolutions Permanently by editing the XFree86Config file 2 From the drop down l
232. ou will want to create a symbolic link instead of an absolute link To add a single link with a different name from the original file type In s options file link To add a link with the same file name as the original file but in a different directory type In s options file directory If you enter more than one original file name leave a space between the names The ln Command Link Option Action Comments p Backs up files backup before over Useful with the S option writing ESSE Over writes files Use with the b option to Kom LORCE if necessary avoid accidentally over writing important files SO Prompts for x interactive permission before each action S Suffix Adds a suffix to oceesuftrx backup files The default suffix is suffix m XS Creates a symbolic Without this option a hard x symbolic link link is created WU M Displays actions x verbose on screen 9 17 Changing Owners Each file in Linux has an owner This attribute gives users some privacy It can also be used by the root owner to protect files from casual use or accidental damage Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 128 The owner of a file is usually the user who created the file However the owner may be changed by either the present owner or the root user Valid owners are listed in the etc passwd file An owner is identified by the user account or a u
233. own using a 24 hour clock reboot The system shuts down and restarts Note Use the shutdown command to give regular users time to save their work Warning If you do not shut down properly then you risk damage the operating system Even if you don t your system will check and if necessary repair the root partition before restarting 43 3 Shutting Down From the Keyboard Press the Ctrl Alt Backspace keys in sequence The desktop closes and the log in screen opens 2 From the login screen you can Log in as another user If you only need to change user accounts briefly you may prefer to use su instead See Changing User Accounts on page 56 e Select System gt Reboot from the menu The system shuts down and restarts e System gt Halt from the menu The system shuts down If you select Reboot or Halt a confirmation screen appears 3 Select the Yes button to reboot or halt the system Chapter 4 Starting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface 55 4 4 Starting and Shutting Down the Graphical Interface Linux uses the X Window system for a graphical interface such as a desktop and or a window manager See Understanding Graphical Interfaces on page 73 You can choose to start a graphical interface automatically when you start your computer This is the default setup for Debian Alternatively you can start the X Window system from the command line 4 4 1 Starting a Graphical Interfac
234. perties window opens img Desktop_cu png 2 Enter the information on the Basics tab All except Comment are required fields e Name The text that displays below the icon Comment Notes about the program that appears in tool tips Not a required field e Command The file to which the launcher links Type The type of launcher Choices are Directory and Application e 3 Select the icon box and choose an icon img Desktop cu png By default custom icons do not display in a directory on the desktop To use custom icons select from the desktop pop up menu Desktop Properties Caching Allow customization of icons in icon view 4 If the program is not designed to run in the X Window System select the Run in termi nal box img Desktop cu png You do not need to set anything on the Advanced tab for the launcher to work Advanced tab settings matter mainly to makers of distributions or to system administrators working with multiple languages Chapter 7 Making the Desktop Your Own 88 7 8 2 Deleting Launchers Deleting an program launcher is the same process regardless of whether you are adding it to the desktop workspace the panel or a menu To delete an icon for a launcher e 1 Right click to display the pop up menu for the launcher On the desktop do one of the following Select Delete The launcher is permanently removed Select Move to Trash The launcher is removed but you may restore it later
235. ple Commands Separate multiple commands by a semi colon For example if you type cd backup ls s you move to the backup directory using cd and list all files in the directory that start with s 5 3 8 Combining Commands You can combine commands by typing them with the pipe character 1 between them This technique is known as piping For example if you type ls less you display the files of the current directory Is using the less command which allows you to scroll back and forth in the list This combination would be useful if you had a long list of files Warning Use piping carefully Sometimes it has unwanted or unexpected results 5 3 9 Running Programs in the Background If you are using the X Window System the command prompt is generally in its own window As a result you can easily do another task while a command is running However if you are using only the command line you can run a command in the background so that you can use the shell for another task while the command is running To run a command in the background type command amp 5 3 10 Stopping Commands from Running Press Ctrl C The command that is running stops Then a new command prompt displays below the previ ous one Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 64 5 4 Navigating the Command Line Linux systems store files in directories The directories are arranged in a tree like structure At the top of the tree is the
236. png Some packages are already selected Do not de select them unless you are sure what you are doing The lower right corner of the window shows the status of the package set and how much space all your choices and the base system need The total space used should be greater than the total space of all your Linux partitions not including the swap file Consult the table at the end of this section for help in selecting software img Installing png The Extras cd contains other software that you can install from the desktop including the kde desktop e 3 Select the Apply button to start installing the packages The Package Manager Output screen displays messages about the installation img Installing png If you de select default packages use the Revert button instead of the Apply button Other wise you could remove essential parts of the operating system If screens may appear to ask for clarification during installation consult the Help screens In most cases you can use the suggested settings If the pane showing the progress of the install stops at a Y N question in most cases you can safely enter y for yes When the install is finished the graphic display starts and a log in screen opens 4Do one of the following Chapter 3 Installing Debian 44 Log in as root to configure other parts of the system or to install software on the Extras cd or Log in with your regular user account to start using your
237. pop up window then select an item from the Customize menu In all cases the Control Center window opens img Desktop_ cu pngj e 2 Select the item to customize in the list in the left pane Use the scroll bar to move up and down the list Click on a top level item to see sub items img Desktop cu png img Desktop cu png When an item is selected you can open the Help topic for it from the menu bar of the window Context help appears at the bottom of the window e 3 Make your changes using the controls in the right pane of the Control Center window e 4 Select the Try button to test your changes If you change your mind select the Revert button to return to the previous settings img Desktop cu png e 5Select the ok button to save any changes or the Cancel button to discard them Setting Global Options from the Control Center Item to Customize Menu Item in the Control Center Autostart programs Session gt Startup Programs E Dialog windows User Interface Dialogs Keyboard Peripherals gt Keyboard Keyboard shortcuts Sawfish window manager gt Shortcuts mime Types Document Handler gt mime Types Chapter 7 Making the Desktop Your Own 86 Mouse Peripherals gt Mouse Panel Desktop gt Panel Power management use Desktop gt Screensaver Screensaver Desktop gt Screensaver Sound enabling support Sawfish window manager
238. pressing PIS euo s o ROO EGRE ges en 191 1251 Planning a Back p zoom RR o Ee Ee Rome Mg Kec des 191 125 2 Choosing a Backup Tool Luo eee eho ee i a ER de Ro 192 12 5 8 Backing Up and Restoring Using the cpio Command 192 126 Scheduling Jobe s popii ee ee EM eo ee Be ed SEE EG ES ORY 196 12 6 1 Scheduling With the crontab Command 22st 9 ees 197 1204 Scheduling Wih ine se Command s oers o maces Oe ee Goe ma A RR 199 12 7 Archiving and Compressing From the Desktop 00 000 201 12 8 Compressing and Archiving Files From the Command Line 202 12 8 1 Archiving and Compressing Using the tar Command 203 12 8 2 Compressing and decompressing Files With the gzip Command 205 12 8 3 Compressing and decompressing With the bzip2 Command 206 12 9 Checking or Repairing a File System uero bx Em oko y ewm 207 Configuring the System 209 13 1 Understanding Configuration Methods 4646456 6a ee RR 209 13 1 1 Understanding the System Settings osos t 6 x n 210 13 1 2 Understanding Manual Configuration 4 56 rms 210 Lodo Recompilng a Kemmel i222 kdo gor pa sai Rem eee k 213 132 SO ie Tees eco ee Be OE a Se Melee ee OS 215 1521 Contiguring a PRIE 6 6 udo EERE HEREREEE RES EES 216 1322 Configuring a Sound Card lt ie ka pror xxx Ew poiut 217 19 23 Setting Up Personal Information Devices 22292 creset chess 218 13 24 Setting Up aA SCANNEN x coe ea gosli oe aks Beko Ria ee SOY MOX oS 218 1
239. py from the pop up menu The Copy window displays img Files 5 png Enter the folder to copy the files to You can type the folder s path or select it using the Browse button If you wish select Copy options from the Advanced tab The Advanced options are Preserve Symlinks If a link is copied it points to the original file Follow links The original file is copied instead of the link The original file is probably larger than the link Preserve file attributes Information from the original is transferred to the copy Permis sions are transferred even if this option is not selected Recursively copy subdirectories If a directory is being copied then all sub directories in it are also copied By default only Preserve file attributes is selected e Select the ok button to copy the file Note If you cannot copy then you do not have write permission to the target directory or file name See Changing Permissions on page 130 Note You can also drag selected files with the left mouse button to any folder in any open Midnight Commander window 9 8 Copying From the Command Line Type cp options source target Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 119 The cp Command Copy Option Action Comments a archive Gives target files the same attributes as the source files b backup Backs up files that will be over written force Over wr
240. r a work means the preferred form of the work for making modifications to it For an executable work complete source code means all the source code for all modules it contains plus any associated interface definition files plus the scripts used to control com pilation and installation of the executable However as a special exception the source code distributed need not include anything that is normally distributed in either source or binary Chapter D GNU General Public License 270 form with the major components compiler kernel and so on of the operating system on which the executable runs unless that component itself accompanies the executable If distribution of executable or object code is made by offering access to copy from a designated place then offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the same place counts as distribution of the source code even though third parties are not compelled to copy the source along with the object code You may not copy modify sublicense or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License Any attempt otherwise to copy modify subli cense or distribute the Program is void and will automatically terminate your rights under this License However parties who have received copies or rights from you under this License will not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in full compliance You are not required to accept this License
241. rams do not always work either If all else fails a static tar file should generally install without trouble Debian packages are available from a Debian cd or from www debian org Static tar files are available from the web sites for specific projects or program maintainers Note Progeny Linux Systems cannot guarantee that a package designed for a Debian based distri bution can work with Debian 11 2 Understanding Package Management Tools Debian offers several tools for package management including Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 153 e gnome apt pkgset Progeny s desktop tool for installation and removal of sets of com mon packages e apt pkgset Progeny s command line tool for installation and removal of sets of common packages e apt get An advanced package management utility apt setup A tool for editing the sources list for gnome apt pkgset and apt e dpkg A package management utility not as advanced as apt but capable of complex searches for packages and their contents dpkg deb A utility for managing packages Other tools available include dselect and capt two text based interfaces However because new users often find these tools confusing they are only mentioned here without any further documentation All these tools work with a list of sources These sources may be cd s or internet sites Packages are transferred from a source to your hard drive They can
242. ranches of the tree Size The size of the partition in megabytes or gigabytes The state of the partition Usually the only statuses that you see are To be mounted The partition is ready for use and will be mounted but is not going to be formatted To be formatted The partition needs to be formatted Chapter 3 Installing Debian 29 Status In before it is ready for use Bootable The partition is listed as bootable in Windows If a Windows installation is on the first partition the installer detects it and sets it as Bootable automatically stalling No changes are carried out until you select the Next button The System format or filesystem ol are Free Space No format the partition Possible formats Linux ext2 The native Linux format Linux swap The Linux swap partition See Reading Linux Device Names on page 15 New and Edit Screen Fields Field Choices 2 Select the Format box to format the partition All File information is lost System Flags To avoid difficulties select this option if you are installing over an existing Progeny Debian install The format of the partition Possible formats are Linux ext2 The native Linux format This format is the one most commonly used in Linux Linux swap The Linux
243. rary mount point for the new partition To avoid confusion give the new partition s mount point a name that relates to the partition that it is replacing For example if you are moving var call the new partition var_new 4 Mount the new partition 5 Copy information on the old partition to the new one 6 Boot from a cd or floppy 7 Add the new partition to etc fstab Give it the mount point for the old partition 8 Remove the directory for the old partition 9 Reboot the computer normally The mount point has changed 13 3 3 Creating a Swap Partition or File Debian creates a swap partition during installation However you may want to add another partition or change the partition You may also choose to create a swap file although a swap partition is usually more stable 3 Do one of the following Create the partition or file See Partitioning a Hard Drive on page 219 See Creating New Files From the Command Line on page 116 Create a file by typing dd if dev zero of file bs size count size The size is in bytes 4 Set the partition or file for swapping Type mkswap partition or mkswap file size 5 Active the partition or file To activate swapping temporarily type swapon partition or swapon file To use a swap partition permanently add an entry to etc fstab You can copy the ex isting swap file entry See Column Settings in etc fstab Mounting Filesystems on page 222 Note If you
244. rds 2601 2 scks xx mx Rx s 179 1215 Ch osinga PassWONRl 44 2 Bee ed cR SE Kee er RS 179 122 Managing GQUUMDS ex Poca Pooh ede Ro RR dox Rok Dee PL ae deat k des ds 179 1221 Reading the ete gro p File osor ese mom rom REIR ORC 180 12 2 2 Adding a Group ee ee meie ma Re See OWS Se Ee SS 180 12239 Deltnga GrP se ic Roue ER y 06 o en de eee em 180 12 2 4 Editing a UND e sobe ca Rob eae e RACE ee Sat Pee EHS 181 123 Managing PINDE Lu caca doce he he RR Re AAG REPENS aeir d 181 12 3 1 Checking the Status of Print Jobs o cosa ra sotia Rm Ee 181 1232 Removing Jobs From a Printer Spool so sesos e esere memana 182 12 3 3 Reading the Status of a Printer Spool aoaaa 182 12234 Printing From the Command Lite gt gt gt s sc xx ee Ro 182 124 Managihe Processes sc cocca SES d ae ee E E BRASS E aaa a ERS 183 1241 Understanding Processes 2x xe vk mansa Dooi Gie ced ACE Sog 183 12 4 2 Viewing Active Processes From the Desktop a a sanaaa 655858 185 CONTENTS T 13 12 4 3 Viewing Active Processes From the Command Line 185 124 4 Viewing Intensive Processes o oo sn bs bar rok eee m mh kx 187 1245 Stopping a Process From the Desktop gt oo es c oec ca eaaa ee 188 12 4 6 Stopping a Process From the Command Line ss 189 12 4 7 Setting the Priority for a Process From the Desktop 190 12 4 8 Setting the Priority for a Process From the Command Line 190 125 Backing Up and Com
245. re on the Extras cd 3 1 Organizing the Install Immediately before installing you need to Prepare for the install Choose the order in which to install different operating systems Decide on your install source and prepare for its use Progeny Debian can be installed from A floppy and cd e A cd e A network e Start the install 3 1 1 Preparing for the Install Collect the information about your system that you need and have it handy during the install Depending on how you choose to install this information may include The partitions on the hard drive and which ones already contain an operating system The manufacturer and model for your video card monitor and printer e Settings for your network or for your internet connection In addition back up any information that you do not want to lose Errors or power surges and interruptions during the install could lose or corrupt it For complete information about preparing for an install See Preparing to Install Debian on page 9 Note Linux partitions created using PartitionMagic are incompatible with the Debian install pro gram If you have any delete them and re create the partitions using parted or Debian di sk Chapter 3 Installing Debian 19 3 12 Installing Multiple Operating Systems If you are going to install more than one operating system on the same machine install all versions of Windows first Otherwise the Windows installation pr
246. rget format options package The package is converted and installed If you want to examine the package before installing it do not include the i option 3 Test the converted package by entering the binary file s name at the command line The alien Command Convert Packages Formats E Format Action Comment t Hg Converts to or from This is the default if no to deb Debian format target format is mentioned r Converts to or from The Red Hat utility rpm x to rpm Red Hat format must be installed t to slp Converts to or from Stampede Linux format t Converts to or from Does not work on tarred x to tgz Slackware Linux source code files format Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 173 The alien Command Convert Packages Options Format Action Comment r Converts scripts for Use with caution Examine x scripts the package scripts before using this option r Installs newly After installation the x install generated package package file is removed automatically Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 174 175 Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration To keep your Debian system running smoothly you need to do some routine tasks These tasks usually need to be done more frequently on a network but they are also important on standalone desktop machines
247. rompted for the new Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 166 rename label label 11 9 Managing Packages With the dpkg Command The dpkg command is used for general package management It includes many of the func tions of dpkg deb a tool for managing and building Debian packages and is usually used in preference to it Although dpkg can be used to install a package on the whole it is less powerful and less convenient than apt get For ordinary user the real strength of dpkg is its ability to retrieve information about packages on their systems It is especially useful if you need to search packages or their contents For more advanced users dpkg is also useful for building Debian packages For information about building packages see the on line help for dpkg and dpkg deb Type dpkg options argument action package Depending on the option the package may be identified by its file name or by the name of the package 11 9 1 The dpkg Command Package Management Options Options Action Comments Automatically does deconfigures any auto deconfigure dependent packages when a package is removed Does not install the S SE package if the current d Skip same version version is already installed Includes any packages Use with the A SR in the subdirectories install recursive listed in the action unpack or avail actions A warning
248. rver vga 3 If necessary select the manufacturer and driver to use In most cases you can select the one suggested by the install program If you have trouble configuring the video card use one of the generic settings at the bottom of the list Generic vga or Generic vesa should work with most cards 4 If necessary enter the amount of video memory for the card In most cases you can leave it blank img Installing png This setting is provided for older cards and for trouble shooting Under most circumstances Progeny Debian automatically detects the video memory available e 5Select the Next button The Monitor configuration screen displays Chapter 3 Installing Debian 37 3 3 10 Configuring the Monitor img Installing png Information about your monitor is automatically detected However you can change these settings if necessary img Installing png Choosing settings that are not supported by your monitor could damage it or the video card Consult the monitor documentation for the correct settings e 1 Select a name for your monitor setting You can find this name after the install in the XFree86Config file 2 Select the Simple Medium or Expert button to choose the means of configuring your monitor Simple Select the monitor size from the drop down list Then select the ok button e Medium Select the resolution that you want to use from the drop down list Then select the ok button Your choice should n
249. s Using the comm Command Use the comm command for a basic comparison of text files For more advanced comparisons use diff Type comm options 1st file 2nd file The results are printed in three columns From left to right they are Lines unique to the first file Lines unique to the second file e Lines common to both files Use the number option to keep a column from displaying Arguments are 1 2 or3 If you want to block two columns enter them without any comma or space between them For example if you want to display only lines common to both files enter 12 The comm command has no other options Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 113 8 7 2 Making Complex Comparisons Using the diff Command Use the diff command if you want to Compare two directories including their sub directories e Show lines before and after differences Use metacharacters Type diff options 1st file 2nd file In the results text from the first file is marked with a lesser than symbol while text from the second file is marked with a greater than symbol gt The diff Command Comparing Option Action Comments Ignores changes in ane the amount of empty space 4 B Ignores blank lines x ignore blank lines Ignores the distinction between If this command is not used lower upper and lower case letters when a string is used case letters are distinguished fro
250. s gt Edit mime types In all cases the mime type window of the Control Center opens img Desktop cu png Chapter 7 Making the Desktop Your Own 92 e 2Select the Add button The Add new Mime Type window opens img Desktop_cu png 3 Enter the mime Type All types have a two part name with a forward slash separating the parts The first part is the general category of file Pre defined general categories include application audio font image text video and x url The second part is the specific file type For example image tiff is the type for the tiff graphic format 4 Enter the extensions normally associated with the type Separate each extension by a comma e 5 If you choose add two regular expressions associated with the type Select the ok button The type now opens in the alphabetical list of mime types See Using Metachar acters or Wild Cards on page 62 Now you must edit the type to use it 7 8 2 Editing a MIME Type 1 Select a type from the mime Type panel in the Control Center e 2 Select the Edit button The setting window for the type opens img Desktop_cu png e 3 Click on the icon box to select an icon for all files of the type e 4 Select the programs in which to open view and edit the type For each field an entry must include a program followed by f If necessary you can use the Browse button to select a program e 5 Select the ok button The mime Type is now ready for use 7 8 5 Dele
251. s can be identified by account name or by user id This option is best used as root user Otherwise find files for which you have read permission you can only 8 4 2 Searching for Files From the Command Line Using the locate Command The locate command searches a database for files It is often the quickest way to find a file Type locate string If you want to specify the database add the d path or database path option Note You may want to install slocate secure locate a replacement for locate Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 105 8 43 Searching for Text From the Command Line Using grep Commands Linux uses the grep command line tools to search for text in files This family of tools contains three commands grep A general purpose search tool that uses text strings sometimes with metacharac ters The grep command contains most of the functionality of the other tools but has fewer options for customizing the search fgrep A specialized search tool for locating literal text strings that is text strings with out metacharacters Because fgrep uses literal text strings it does not require you to remember any special characters in your search egrep A specialized search tool that uses metacharacters The command uses more metacharacters than grep In addition the egrep command is often said to be the fastest of the three tools All three commands use a similar format T
252. s for compressing and archiving e tar mainly an archive tool but also compresses files Many long time users prefer tar to the alternatives gzip a compression tool Sometimes gzip can decompress a zip file from another op erating system but do not confuse the two formats or expect them to be always inter changeable e bzip2 another compression tool The bzip2 tool is capable of greater compression than gzip and includes a recovery tool but less widely used In addition Linux includes tools for viewing searching and comparing files compressed using gzip Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 203 12 8 1 Archiving and Compressing Using the tar Command The tar command can compress as well as archive files Its z option is equivalent to using the gzip command An archive file has a tar extension An archive file that is also compressed has a tgz extension At times an archived and compressed file will have a tar gz extension The tar command is some times used for back ups However cpio is often used instead because it offers more control over back ups See Checking or Repairing a File System on page 207 Type tar options archive files The archive is the tar file to create or extract from If it does not exist it is created by the command Separate each file name by a space The tar Command Archive Option Action Com
253. s the file that the results are printed to If the file does not exist it is created 5 5 7 Using Environment Variables Environment variables define different aspects of the way that you interact with the system Some like home the variable for your home directory are set for you However you can also create your own variables to use in scripts or for saving time when you use the command line Variables that you create are stored in the bash profile file in your home directory Adding a Variable Type export variable value For example if you wanted to create the variable income to refer to the directory home jsmith Expenses you would type export income home jsmith Expenses Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 72 Using a Variable To use a variable type its name with a dollar sign in front of it where you would ordinar ily type the value For example if you create the variable income to refer to the directory home jsmith Expenses you can view the file Expenses january by typing less income January 5 6 Finding Help for Commands This manual lists only a few basic commands A thorough guide to commands would require well over 1000 pages To find more information about Linux commands you can use either the man or texinfo help systems For quick help you can use whatis 5 6 1 Using man Pages Man manual pages are the traditional help files of unix and Linux Man pages exist for bot
254. scussing any of them is beyond the scope of this manual Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 152 Note No matter what method you use in almost every case you must be logged in as root user to install or remove software 11 1 Understanding Packages A Linux packages is an archive of files for installing software easily Each package contains a program and the scripts needed to install configure and remove it In most cases it also includes the on line help files Linux has two main package systems The Red Hat Package manager is used by Red Hat and other distributions derived from it such as Mandrake and s u se Its packages have an rpm extension Debian uses the Debian package system Its packages end with a deb extension The Debian package system is widely known for its sophistication and reliability Unlike rpm packages Debian packages resolve any dependency problems providing the necessary libraries instead of simply reporting the need for them You can even upgrade your system while it is running with a single command You can sometimes use an rpm package on a Debian system or a deb package on a Red Hat based system However because of differeces in file locations and other problems this practice is not recom mended Depending on the package you could even cripple an essential part of the operating system Instead try a conversion tool such as alien However these conversion prog
255. se Choice are Date and Time Electronic Mail Network Printer e X Configuration Display 13 1 2 Understanding Manual Configuration Most configuration files are found in the etc directory Configuration file can be changed in a text editor Dozens of text editors are available but you should learn either a variant of vi or emacs At least one of these editors should be available on any Linux system By default Debian uses vim vi improved editor Chapter 13 Configuring the System 211 Manual configuration is especially useful if you are using single user mode or do not have the X Window System running For more information on your preferred text editor see its on line help 1 Prepare an emergency disk if you do not already have one 2 Log in as root 3 Make an extra copy of the file you are editing 4 Edit and save the file in a text editor Note As an extra precaution write down the changes you have made 5 In some cases you may have to restart the X Window System or your computer for the changes to take effect Recovering from Errors While Manually Reconfiguring If changing settings may make your system unusable you can recover by following these steps 1 Start your machine with a boot disk or select single user mode from the boot manager 2 Type cp f backup file The backup the configuration file overwrites the damaged file 3 Restart your system The damage to your system
256. ser id 9 17 1 Changing Owners From the Desktop From the file s pop up menu select Properties The Properties window displays e Select the Permissions tab img Files 13 png Edit the Owner field You must enter a valid user If you do not an error message displays and the Properties window closes e Select the ok button to change the settings and close the window 9 17 2 Changing Owners From the Command Line Type chown options owner files The owner can be identified by the user account or the user id To copy the owner from another file type chown options reference source target The chown Command Change Owner Option Action Comments o Displays information about files that changes are changed Changes the ownership of both dereferenc symbolic links and the files to which they point Sh Changes the ownership of a symbolic Lj no dereference link but not of the file to which it points reference fil Copies owner from the file listed o oum Changes ownership of sub directories Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 129 recursive and their contents H H y Displays actions on screen verbose 9 18 Changing Groups A group is a collection of users who have the same access to devices and files on the system Each file in Linux is assigned to a group In most cas
257. ses your hard drive in a different way If you are unsure of which to choose study the advantages and disadvantages of each target to decide which is best for you Installation Targets for Progeny Debian Advantages Disadvantages Entire Disk You lack full control of the process Information is lost unless you back it up The default setup may not be what You do not need any you want especially if you are an Special knowledge advanced user TES q urck A single large disk can be inconvenient For example when fschk is used at bootable you may need to wait a long time You cannot use this option if you have multiple operating systems on the system Free Space Information is not The hard drive must have enough destroyed continuous space for the necessary Existing partitions are partitions kept You lack full control of the You do not need any process Special knowledge The partitions created may be It s quick smaller than you want or need Custom You fully control the process You decide whether to keep existing You must understand what you are doing Chapter 3 Installing Debian 27 partitions You could destroy information by You can put major accident directories such as home or usr on different partitions 3 2 2 Creating and Editing Partitions img Installing png When you se
258. should know that e scsimod st netmod Ist and sources lst can be blank but must be in the conf directory with the other configuration files postinst is not required Place all finished configuration files in a directory named conf This directory can be a sub directory any place on the system Commands to create the automated install floppy are run from this directory Examples of configuration files are available in usr share doc autoinstall Chapter A Automating Multiple Installs 258 A 1 1 Creating the Global Configuration File global cfg The global cfg file contains the master information for the automated install One option is entered per line When an option requires a value leave a space between the option and the value Options for the global cfg File Option What It Does The url for the minimal system s tar file baseurl The url can be a cd cdrom or a web address http This option is required The password hash for the root user rootpwd This option is required nosafe Continues the install even if a filesystem exists on the target machine Allows the automated installer to configure the network Possible values ar network dhcp Use dhcp netdb configure using the network cfg file none do not configure the network cdinst Install using a cd instead of a network nfscd The path to an nfs mounted cd image that will be used for the instal
259. sses Interactive An ordinary program started by a user Many commands entered from the command line are interactive processes So is each new window opened in the X Window system Batch Any process run without a command line terminal e Daemon A process that runs continuously Usually they are started when the system starts but they can also be started by the root user Daemons generally run in the back ground You should also know A major characteristic of each process is its priority If system resources are short the priority determines what share of the resources the process uses In extreme cases of resource shortages the priority determines the order in which processes can use system resources Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 184 Processes can be hierarchal For example the printing daemon is always running but a new copy of it is started for an individual print job then closed after the job is printed The same thing happens when you open a command line then enter a command In both cases the original process is called the parent and the secondary process is called the child Because of this type of relation you may sometimes hear about process trees The opening of a secondary process is also called forking Linux includes a number of tools for working with processes See Viewing Intensive Processes on page 187 Warning Be careful about killing a process or changing its priori
260. stall synchronization packages Many are available including pilot manager A basic synchronization package e gnome pilot and gnome pilot conduits Synchronization packages for the gnome desktop They are accessible from the gnome Control Center under Peripherals You must setup gnome pilot before using any of the conduits jpilot A synchronization tool not specific to a desktop 8 Continue by following the instructions included with the packages you install 13 2 4 Setting Up a Scanner Debian is not installed with the software needed for scanners However you can add sup port by installing one of several packages Linux supports most scsi scanners More recently support for many usb scanners is also available Chapter 13 Configuring the System 219 1 Install the scanner Follow the instructions that accompany it 6 Install one of the following packages e sane A basic set of utilities for use with scanners sane gimp A set of scanner utilities that can be run separately or used within the gimp the graphics tool included in most Linux distributions e xsane An alternative set of utilities for scanners xsane gimp An alternative set of scanner utilities that can be run separately or used within the gimp the graphics tool included in most Linux distributions See Installing Removing and Upgrading Software on page 151 Note To run the gimp right click on the workspace then select New
261. sts Once you add the hardware to your system it should generally be detected automatically However in some cases you may need to configure it This section outlines some of the more common hardware issues Configuring a printer e Configuring a sound card e Setting up Palm synchronization e Setting up a scanner 13 2 1 Configuring a Printer img System 2 png Note Because of the complexities of the Linux printing system manual configuration of printers is recommended only for experienced users In particular because Debian uses magicfilter direct editing of the etc printcap file could cause problems 1 Select Systems Printer from the gnome Control Center Note If you are using the kde desktop type usr bin printer configlet capplet at a command line 2 Select the Printer definition to create or edit If you have not created a Printer definition already you can only select New 3 Enter a short name and a long name for the printer definition These names can help you identify the printer The short name appears on the printer spool which stores files before they are sent to the printer and in configuration files The long name is used mainly to help you identify the printer Atsome companies printers are named with a theme such as animals or famous people However names based on some combination of the manufacturer model and or path name of the printer may be easier to work with 8 Select th
262. swap partition This format is used for virtual memory which may improve performance You can have as many swap File partitions as you have space for System Type After you install you can recompile your kernel to add support for other types of filesystems Linux can support over two dozen filesystems including fat16 Chapter 3 Installing Debian 30 msdos in Linux the format used by dos and early versions of Windows fat 32 vfat in Linux is supported by default in Progeny Debian fat 32 is the format used by recent versions of Windows Several types of journalled filesystems are also available Mount Point The directory from which you read the partition You can select the directory from the drop down list or enter it in the field Choices from the drop down list are The root or top directory in the tree boot Files needed to start Linux home Users home directories and personal files tmp Temporary files usr Common system files for all users xo F F 0X usr share Common system files for all users including many basic programs var Variable files including logs and queues var spool Queues for information such as print jobs A common place for non Linux partitions is in the mnt directory For convenience you can call the mount points by their Windows name For example mnt C You must have at least a root directory before continuing with th
263. t If no group is specified then a g group group group with the same name as the user name is created s shell Sets the users shell If no shell is specified then the default bash is used 12 1 2 Deleting a User Account e 1 Log in as the root user e 2 Type userdel r user Warning The r option removes the user s home directory and the files in it If you want to keep the home directory omit the r option Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 178 12 1 3 Editing a User Account Log in as the root user Then type usermod options user The options are the features to edit The options are similar to those of the useradd command The usermod Command Edits User Accounts Option Action Comment Enter multiple groups by name G groups Adds groups in addition or gid Separate the names to the initial one with a comma and leave no blank spaces Enter multiple groups by name g group Changes the default or gid Separate the names group with a comma and leave no blank spaces d Changes the home directory directory l new Changes the user name The user must be logged out name when this option is used e date Sets an expiry date for the user account Sets the number of days f number after the expiry date Use with the e option which that the account is sets an expiry date disabled The user should not be executing any
264. t ace ees REP ee Rr Roe hne x no Re 67 ho Using Command Histoiy ea ee cx EE ESSERE EX Yd ex 67 Doe sie Text Pasa ox x oe ee eS oe OSE ROSEO oko tec 68 5 5 4 Using Command Aliases 12 2 EERE REX REOR Roe e 93 68 555 Abbreviatne File Path Names 5 rec s pk born E ea OH hee 69 55 6 Redirecting Input and Output for Commands 666 bee e 70 557 Using Environment Variables s s s ss ese ee eee wees ew 9m 71 S6 Finding Help tor Commands 204 lt as roro e ee ae ee de ERR don 72 251 Using man ages e eden bite cd eee be HA Pe PL ae doe HDX 72 552 Using nfo Documents uuu edo ew RK Se REC e DR 72 5b Usiog whafis 126 4 9er x EUR Tox RR COR RO ORS EC Re So 72 6 Getting to Know the Desktop 73 61 Understanding Graphical Interfaces 2 s orem 73 6 2 Getting to Know the Parts of the Default Desktop 74 62L THEMEen B o cha x REE A OK eae Oe 8 ee ES OS 74 G22 THReTABe 2x on aoo x aen emen BAe CEST mi EUR dS 75 CONTENTS 6 3 525 The Rle Maes Loue sed BEEK EEEEE EEE EMRE ERE des 5521 The Workspaces a ie ae od BD ROSS 9 Wo Oe Rae LS Finding Your Way Around the Desktop s es esce mra ssa csata 531 Using A Thaee Button Mouse 1 2 66 ry rh nex ko mo me x om 6 3 2 Using the Desktop Pop Up Menus zs oz o y de es 533 Using Keynoard D oriculs ou or ei eh bee exe Y ESR EDS 6 3 4 Manipulating Windows 2 lt 26 08 ee aber ee eee ee de Sees 635 Reading Icon Propefties uou do XR ORAE RR EERE ES 636 Opening A Co
265. t the monitor documentation for the correct settings 1 Select Systems X Configuration from the gnome Control Center Note If you are using the kde desktop type usr bin xserver configlet capplet at a command line 2 From the X Configuration pane select the Monitor tab 3 Select a name for your monitor setting You can find this name after the install in the XFree86Config file 7 Select the Simple Medium or Expert button to choose the means of configuring your monitor e Simple Select the monitor size from the drop down list Then select the ok button Medium Select the resolution that you want to use from the drop down list Then select the ok button Your choice should not exceed the highest resolution supported by both your mon itor and your video card Chapter 13 Configuring the System 243 Expert Enter the Horizontal Sync Range and Vertical Refresh Rate for your monitor If you do not know these statistics 30 130 for the Horizontal Sync and 60 160 for the Vertical Refresh should work for most monitors Note Simple and Medium modes or the suggested Horizontal Sync Range and Vertical Refresh Rate may not always give the best settings for your monitor If necessary you can change the settings after the install 8 Select the ok button 9 Restart the desktop or reboot the computer for the changes to take effect 13 5 4 Configuring a Monitor Profile Manually You can configure your monitor in the
266. talling Removing and Upgrading Software 160 Both are based on the apt utility Both include much of the functionality of apt and works in much the same way For example like apt both depend on a sources list However experienced users may find apt pkgset limiting and prefer to use apt See Installing and Removing Packages With the apt get Command on the current page Type apt pkgset command packageset No hyphen is placed in front of a command Note For a list of package sets see usr share package sets Each package set includes a file with an extension of contents which lists the packages in the set and a file with an extension of description which displays in gnome apt pkgset The apt pkgset Command Progeny specific Command Action install Adds the package set to your system remov Removes the package set from your system status Reports on the package set s status purge Removes the package set from your system and all files and associated with it 117 Installing and Removing Packages With the apt get Command The apt get A Package Tool or Advanced Package Tool utility is widely considered one of the most sophisticated package tools available Although still in development apt get can reliably upgrade your system over the internet or upgrade all packages on your system in a single operation The apt get command can run from the command line or be
267. tch a warning displays before you move to the next screen 3 3 7 Creating a Regular User Account A regular user account has limited access to the system Even if you know the root password ordinarily you do most of your work in a regular user account See Starting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface on page 49 1 Leave the check box beside Create new user selected Press the Next button In almost every case you want to create at least one regular user account After installation you can create other user accounts as necessary 2 Enter a user name for the account Typically the user name is some combination of your first and last name such as jmacdonald 3 Enter the full name for the account The full name may or may not be identical to the user name 4 Enter a password for the account See Configuring Password Levels on this page e 5 Re enter the password to confirm it img Installing png Unless the two passwords match you receive a warning before moving to the next screen 3 3 8 Configuring Password Levels e 1 Select one of the following e Maximum Strength md 5 passwords are enabled The default is to enable them md 5 passwords add security to your system They also allow passwords longer than 8 char acters long Chapter 3 Installing Debian 36 Compatible with unix like Systems md 5 passwords are not enabled md 5 passwords may be incompatible with older systems or ones on a net
268. te For examples of procmail files and more ideas of what you can do with them see the sample files in the usr share docs procmail examples directory Lines in the procmail File Line What It Does path usr bin Defines the location of the utility Defines the directory to which mail is sent maildir directory If this directory does not already exist be sure to create it pmdir home procmail Defines the directory in which procmail files are stored logfile home Defines the procmail log file procmail log Defines the default location for mail default maildirectory directory This setting is overridden by any includerc line Defines a sender whose mail you want to includerc home filter procmail rc filter Include one line for each sender Chapter 13 Configuring the System 240 Filters for procmail Filter What It Does 70 Sender Sends a message that contains the keyword to the keyword specified directory directory O From Sends a message from the e mail address to the address Specified directory directory z0 Subject Sends a message whose subject contains the keyword to keyword the specified directory directory 13 5 Configuring the Graphical Display You can configure basic display settings using Debian s tools or by editing etc X11 XF86Config 4 in a text editor You can also change the
269. tes listings of packages check and check for broken packages Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 163 clean Clear the local listings of retrieved package files Installs the latest versions dist upgrade of all packages currently installed as well as any necessary dependencies install Enter only the package Installs packages package name not the full file name remove Enter only the package Removes packages package name not the full file name Use the compile option to convert the Source packages to Source Finds and downloads source binary packages package packages Use the download only option to download but not unpack source Updates package overview package files with information from the source Installs the latest versions Run the update upgrade of all packages currently command first to installed ensure that you have the latest sources 11 8 Editing Source Lists Source lists are essential to the use of apt get Without at least one valid source apt get is not usable Note When installing apt tries the sources in the order that they are listed in the file You can edit sources in at least three ways Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 164 apt setup A text based interface that guides you through the process Manu users con sider this tool obsolete but it is useful for new us
270. the X Window System View using the standard command line viewers 10 3 4 Creating Custom Logs Using Redirection Error messages for Linux commands display by default in the command line However you can redirect messages to a file to create a custom log for a particular command or script Type command 2 gt file 151 Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software Some of the contents here are Progeny Debian specific Especially e gnome apt pkgset apt pkgset Be warned Software in Debian is usually arranged in packages collections of programs scripts and help files If a program requires a library or other program not on your machine the package offers to install these other files or dependencies for you You can install software in Debian in several ways Using a Progeny package set The easiest way to install common related packages Using a Debian package The easiest and most common method for installing packages in general Compiling and installing source code from a tar file A method used when a Debian package does not exist Converting a package from another format This method is not commonly used because it is not always reliable Using a third party installer Some developers of commercial or Open Source software have developed their own installers Many third party installers are graphical and easy to use However they vary so widely that di
271. the facing page Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 135 The chmod Command Permissions Absolute Mode Permission Octal Number Read permission 4 Write permission 2 Execute permission 1 No permissions 0 The chmod Command Change Permissions The 4th Digit in Absolute Mode Permission Octal Number User id 4 Group id 2 Set sticky 1 Note The fourth digit in Absolute Mode is optional 9 19 5 Changing File Date and Time Attributes All files include e Acreation time The date and time that the file was created e An access time The date and time that the file was last used e A modification time The date and time that the file was last changed To change the creation time use the cp command without the a or archive options To change the other times type touch options file Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 136 The Touch Command Changing Date Attributes Option Action Comments Tux Changes the access time to the x time access current time x m Changes the modification time to time mtime the current time Uses the time specified instead Use the format t time of the current time ccyymmddhhmm ss 9 19 6 Setting Special File Attributes You can set special file attributes on a native Linux ext2 filesystem These attributes affect how the fil
272. then be installed either immediately or later Once you know something about the structure of Debian packages you can use these tools quickly and easily 113 Understanding Debian Package Management Before installing removing or upgrading software you may want to learn more about The life cycle of a package e Information in packages including The contents of packages Package names Priorities Dependencies e Package management files e Statuses Package flags Note If this information seems too overwhelming just now you can skip this section especially if you are using Progeny s gnome apt pkgset tool However refer back to this section if you are ready to know more than the basics Chapter 11 Installing Removing and Upgrading Software 154 11 3 1 Understanding the Life Cycle of a Package Debian package management uses very specific terms to describe what is done with a package 1 Downloaded The package has been put on to the system from a cd or from the internet e 2 Unpacked The files for the package have been unarchived but are not ready for use e 3 Compiled A binary has been made from the source package has been made into a binary 4 Configured The package is ready for your system but not installed e 5 Installed The package can be used 6 Deinstalled The package is removed except for its configuration files e 7 Purged The entire package is removed including its
273. these directories contain regularly scheduled jobs that run at daily weekly or monthly intervals To use a crontab file 1 Type crontab options user or crontab e Only the root user can specify another user s crontab file The crontab file opens in the vim editor The first time that you use a file it is blank 2 Enter the file and save it See Editing and Reading a crontab File on the next page The crontab Command Scheduling Option Action Comment H H Opens a user s crontab If no user is specified the e file in the vi text crontab file opened is the Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 198 editor current user s file Creates a crontab file Mostly useful for placing the file in a non standard location i Views a user s crontab Usable only by the root user user file SE Removes a user s Usable only by the root user user crontab file u Sets which user s user crontab file is Usable only by the root user affected Editing and Reading a crontab File To edit a crontab type crontab e user The file opens in the default editor for the current user Each line in a crontab file schedules a single task Note If you need to use a percentage sign put a back slash in front of it Otherwise it is read as the start of a new line and the command does not run Each line consists of six columns each one separated by a line or a tab
274. ting a MIME Type 1 Select a type from the mime Type panel in the Control Center e 2 Select the Delete button img Desktop_cu png No confirmation is asked The type is deleted as soon as you select the Delete button img Desktop_cu png Pre defined mime types cannot be deleted 93 Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text Debian includes many tools for locating files This chapter describes the tools for e Searching for files and text e Viewing files and text Comparing files From the desktop you can search with most common options and view files However you need to use the command line for e Advanced searching especially for text e Selected viewing of parts of files Comparing files First however you need to know something about how the Linux directory structure 8 1 Understanding Linux Files Linux treats everything on your hard drives and disks as a file In practice however Linux uses three main types of object to store information Files Containers of information Files that start a program are called executables or binaries Binaries are often stored in a bin directory short for binary or in an sbin directory short for system binaries Links Pointers to another file Links are useful for saving space when you need a file in more than one place Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 94 Directories Collections of files links and or other directories A directory wit
275. tion needed to use each option If you want select the Show Command button to see what the command would look like at the command line Select the Start button to search Search results display in a separate window Note This window stays open so that the results of other searches can be added to it img Finding 4 png e From the Search Results window you can e Select a result to open the file in gedit Clear the window of results Save the results to a file 8 3 2 Using the locate Command From the Desktop The locate command searches a database of file names and prints results that match the string that is entered for a command e At a command line type gsearchtool The gnome search tool opens with the Full find find tab selected Select the Quick Find locate tab img Finding 5 png Enter a string with or without metacharacters e Select the Start button to search Search results display in a separate window This win dow stays open so that the results of other searches can be added to it Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 101 img Finding 6 png From the Search Results window you can e Select a result to open the file in gedit Clear the window of results Save the results to a file 8 3 3 Searching From the GNOME Midnight Commander Open the gnome Midnight Commander Do one of the following From the workspace select the Home directory launcher From the menu s
276. to which the printer is attached Chapter 3 Installing Debian 41 The printer name The name of the printer on the system to which it is attached If you do not have this information consult your system administrator 4 Select the printer driver from the list Printers are listed by manufacturer then by model If your printer is not listed it may be able to emulate one that is Try Hewlett Packard Laserjet drivers for both postscript and non postscript printers e 5Select the Apply button to enter the printer definition 6 Add any other printer definitions by repeating this process Notice that the definition you just entered is now listed in the drop down list of printers e 7 Select the default printer If you entered only one printer definition in the previous screen then it is already listed as default e 8 Select the default paper size If you are in North America you can use the default Letter If not you probably want A4 e 9 Select the Next button The Network screen displays 3 3 16 Configuring the Network img Installing png Network configuration is used not only for a network but also for a cable or dsl internet con nection If you are an end user ask your system administrator or internet provider for the settings you need 1 Enter a hostname for your machine e 2Select one of the following No network configuration Continue the install without setting up a network If you want to add network
277. toinst disk kernel version img appendix a png Enter the same kernel version as you did in the first step The automated install floppy is created A 3 Starting an Automated Install Check that you have an install source The install source can be e A cd Acd image available over an nfs mounted cd image e An url In this case sources lst must point to a valid Progeny mirror Whatever the source it must be specified in the global cfg file 2 Place the automated install floppy in the floppy drive e 3 Start the machine The install proceeds drawing information from the auto install floppy as needed Chapter A Automating Multiple Installs 262 263 Appendix B Acknowledgements and Thanks Ian Murdock Bruce Byfield C Stephen Gunn Pat Ouellette John Daily John Hartman Doug Porter Dean Esmay Keith Hartman Branden Robinson Bern Galvin Steve Hunger Steve Schafer Aaron Stenhoff Eric Gillespie Andrew J Korty John Goerzen Jeff Licquia Michael Schultheiss Adam Lazur Kevin Mathews With special thanks to Frank Belew Ben Collins Jason Gunthorpe Johan Hanson Joey Hess Cory Lueninghoener Grant Taylor and anyone else whom we might have missed for their contributions to Debian The staff of Progeny would also like to thank their friends and family who provided their support love and understanding through the development process Your patience and en couragement helped make Progeny Debian possible
278. tter indication of what type of file it is See Using Directories to Find Files on page 96 However Linux does use a few regular extensions Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 95 Extensions Used in Linux Extension File Type bz2 A file compressed using bzip2 2G A file written in the C programming language conf A configuration file In some cases conf is used in a file name but not as an extension deb A Debian package for installing software lock A lock file that prevents the use of another file A Red Hat package file Although you can sometimes use rpm rpm s in Debian doing so can have unexpected results and is not generally recommended You can also convert packages using the alien utility SO A shared object a library or module Src A source code file Written in plain text a source file must be compiled to be used tar A single file made of a collection of files archived using the tar command A single file made of a collection of files archived tar gz using the tar command then compressed used the gzip command A single file made of a collection of files archived tgz using the tar command then compressed used the gzip command gz A file compressed using the gzip command 8 2 Introducing the Linux Directory Structure Linux s directory structure is based on unix s Like other operating systems Linux arranges dir
279. twork during the install process or after A dialup connection is not part of the install program but you can set up one after the install process If you need help with the choices on this screen consult your system administrator or Internet service provider e 1 Select the General mail setup Choices are Internet Site The same machine that originates the mail sends it and receives any incom ing mail Internet with smarthost A dedicated server delivers mail This setting is often used when you are connecting to an Internet service provider Satellite system No mail is delivered locally Mail is delivered only through the smarthost Local only E mail can only be sent and received by users on the present machine Chapter 3 Installing Debian 40 No configuration No e mail is configured 2 Enter the outgoing mail hostname Consult your system administrator or isp provider for the hostname needed 3 Enter the incoming mail hostname Consult your system administrator or isp provider for the hostname needed 4 Enter the smtp relay host Consult your system administrator or isp provider for the hostname needed 5 Check the appropriate box if you want a world writable mail drop A world writable mail drop allows users to receive mail directly instead of only through your network s mail system It is faster but can be a security risk If in doubt do not select world writable mail drop 6 Check the appropriate box
280. ty Unless you know what you are doing you can easily crash your system Be especially careful of daemons which often manage important system services and resources Understanding Process Statistics Statistics What It Means command The command used to start the process cpu The percentage of processing power used by the process t mem The percentage of system memory used by the process t The process s nice scheduling priority The higher the ni number the lower the priority Negative numbers are highest of all pid Process id Useful for killing a process 2 The process s scheduling priority The higher the pri number the lower the priority Negative numbers are highest of all rss The amount of ram memory in kilobytes shared The amount of shared memory used F size The size of the virtual image start The date that the process was started Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 185 The state that the process is in Common states are S Sleep stat T Suspended but running R Running D Asleep and not interruptible Z Zombie swap The amount of swap memory used in kilobytes time How much cpu time the process is using tty Controlling Terminal Daemons do not have a terminal user The user running the process wchan The kernel function which controls the process
281. u have any unsaved changes to the desktop select the Save current setup box e 3 Select the Yes button to log out and return to the log in screen 4 From the login screen you can Log in as another user If you only need to change user accounts briefly you may prefer to use su instead See Changing User Accounts on page 56 e Select System gt Reboot from the menu The system shuts down and restarts e System gt Halt from the menu The system shuts down If you select Reboot or Halt a confirmation screen appears e 5Select the Yes button to reboot or halt the system Chapter 4 Starting and Stopping the System and Graphical Interface 54 Warning If you do not shut down properly then you risk damaging the operating system Even if no damage is done your system checks the root partition before restarting A quicker alternative is to open the command line and shut down from there See Shutting Down Debian on the preceding page check enabled 43 2 Shutting Down From the Command Line e 1 Log in as the root user 2 From the command line or from a command line window enter one of the following commands halt All processes immediately stop and the system shuts down shutdown halt minutes or shutdown halt hh mm A warning message displays until all processes stop and the system shuts off minutes is the number of minutes before the system shuts down hh mm sets the time in hours and minutes for the shutd
282. u load The cpu resources being used Memload The amount of memory being used Swapload The amount of swapping done by the system Netload The load on different network interfaces Load Average The average amount of activity on the system 10 2 Using Command Line Tools Linux includes many commands for gathering information The following table summarizes some of the more common and more useful ones To read a complete list of options for each command see its man or texinfo pages See Finding Help for Commands on page 72 The following tables are divided into four categories e System information commands Memory information commands e Processes information commands e User information commands 10 2 1 Commands for Reading System Information m Command Information Comments i586 is a Pentium i686 a Pentium II arch cpu Compatible processors such as Celerons are listed as the Intel processor to which they are compatible Chapter 10 Reading System Information 143 date cal mm yy Date The date command gives the system date It can also be used to reset the date The cal command displays a calendar for the month and year given If no month or year is given then the calendar for the current month displays dnsdomainname Domain name Any user can use for viewing the domain name but not for changing it env Environment C
283. u want the option to recover files move them to a storage directory You can use the gnome desktop Trash directory in your home directory This is the directory in which files are stored when you send them to the Trash on the desktop Note You can also use rmdir to remove empty directories However in most cases you can use rm r as an alternative and save yourself the trouble of learning another command Chapter 9 Working with Directories Files and Links 124 The rm Command Remove Option Action Comments q Removes any Only the root user can directory sub directories and their use this option contents T fuo Removes all files without force confirmation Sa Asks for confirmation x interactive before removing each file r R Removes sub directories May cause accidental x recursive and their contents deletion of files vy Displays file names as x verbose they are removed E 9 15 Merging Files Files cannot be merged from the desktop From the command line you can use a viewing command with a redirection operator or diff3 9 15 1 Merging Using a Viewing Command You can a viewing command with redirection operator to merge files For example if you are using cat To merge separate files into a new file type cat files gt merged file To add files to an existing file type cat sources gt gt tar
284. unds can also use dark gray light blue light green light cyan light red light magenta yellow and white You can also add blink to make the foreground flash default number Sets the default operating system 0 is the operating system defined in the first stanza after the global one If the default option is not used then this stanza is automatically the default If this stanza is not configured correctly then the next corrected stanza is the default Sets the second default operating Chapter 13 Configuring the System 230 fallback number system The fallback starts only if the default cannot There is no default fallback timeout seconds Sets the time before the default operating system starts Basic Settings for Linux Entries in the GRUB Boot Manager Setting Comments initrd partition boot initrd img A symbolic link to the initrd file used by Linux title name The name that appears in the grub menu The distribution and version number is usually a good choice root partition The Linux root partition named using Linux s naming conventions Do not confuse with grub s root partition or use grub s naming convention kernel partition kernel Use grub s naming convention for the partition In Debian a kernel is boot vmlinuz with a suffix that gives the version number
285. ur mouse in the Pointer screen or after the install To navigate the install program without a mouse use The left arrow key or Shift Tab key to move between buttons and selections in the current screen The space bar to select an item in the current screen The Enter key to activate choices 3 111 Opening a Virtual Terminal for Troubleshooting If you have trouble installing Progeny Debian you can open a virtual terminal During the minimal install stage press Ctrl Alt F2 Press Alt F7 to return to the install During the configuration stage middle click anywhere on the screen except for the win dow e During software installation the output displays for you You may also want to open a virtual terminal if you need to use parted to partition your hard drive before installing Chapter 3 Installing Debian 23 3 2 Installing the Minimal System Installing the minimal system is the first stage in the installation of Progeny Debian Installing the minimal system consists of three steps e Selecting the target installation Determining which hard drive and partitions are used Partitioning your hard drive Creating and formatting the partitions for the install Configuring the system start up Choosing whether to use the grub boot manager an existing boot manager such as lilo or no boot manager Once you have made your choices the necessary partitions are prepared and the minimal system is installed e
286. user Type useradd options user The new user is added to the end of the etc passwd file Note To fully set up a typical new account type useradd mk user 2 Create an initial password Type passwd user The password is now added to the etc shadow file The useradd Command Sets Up New User Option Action Comments Adds a home directory that Does not the same If you do not want a home name as the user directory with these features d name use the m option directory and or If d or m is not used then no home directory is created Is not a sub directory of home e date Adds an expiry date for the user account Enter multiple groups by name or Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 177 G groups Adds groups in addition to the default one group id gid Separate the names with a comma and leave no blank spaces Copies default files to Use with the m or d option default features k the user s home directory directory By default files are copied from etc skel The default features are That has the same name as the user name Creates a home m directory with the and Is a sub directory of home If you do not want both these features then use the d option f number Disables the account after the number of days has passed Use with the e option which sets an expiry date Changes the defaul
287. ves a print job from a spool e lpstat Reads the status of a spool 12 3 1 Checking the Status of Print Jobs Type lpg options user The command s name comes from the fact that a spool is sometimes called a queue The lpq Command Print Jobs Option Action Comments H d Prints information for each file in the printer queue Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 182 number Checks the status of a job number P Sets the printer that a job should Not needed to use the printer use default printer 12 3 2 Removing Jobs From a Printer Spool Type lprm options job user The command s name comes from the fact that it removes rm a job from a line printer lp Only the root user can remove a job sent by another user Regular users can remove their own print jobs Use Ipstat to find job numbers See Reading the Status of a Printer Spool on this page The lprm Command Remove Print Jobs Option Action Comments P Sets the printer to use Not needed if the default printer is used user Removes all jobs sent by the user specified 12 3 3 Reading the Status of a Printer Spool Type lpstat t options 12 3 4 Printing From the Command Line Type lpr options files The lpr Command Print Option Action Comments P Selects the printer to Otherwise the system default is printer use used S
288. well In addition a window appears in the task list and the pager on the panel if it is on the current work space However the window menu and the pop up menu in the task list also let you manipulate an open window in ways that may be unfamiliar to you Ways to Manipulate Windows from the Menu To Select from the window menu Allow a window to be active when cycling through windows Dal Toggle If the select Focusable window is already focusable then Ignore Change a window s position in a stack of Stacki You ca ing this item again sets it to d ng n position the window behind or above windows other open windows depending on your choice from the sub menu m Close Close a window Any process that was displayed in the window still runs You can also close a window from the pop up menu of the task list Toggle gt Shaded If the window is already shaded this menu Chapter 6 Getting to Know the Desktop 80 item restores the window Display only the title bar You can also Left click twice on the title bar Selected Shaded from the pop up menu on the task list Toggle gt Ignored Ignore window when cycling through windows If the window is already Ignored selecting this menu item again sets it to Focusable Maximize Maximize a window You can also chose Restore from the pop up menu of th
289. work A network install provides a single install source for multiple machines When doing a net work install you might want to create an auto install floppy See Automating Multiple In stalls on page 257 If you do not understand networks do not attempt a network install without the help of your system administrator 1 Insert the Progeny Debian cd or install floppy Then restart your computer A text screen opens giving instructions for a network install A command line is at the bottom of the screen Chapter 3 Installing Debian 21 e 2 At the command line type linux nfscd host path options You must enter the host and the path If you have a dhcp connection the network configuration is automatically detected Oth erwise you may need to add other options Typical Network Install Options Option What It Does broadcast The address used for transmitting broadcasting packets to all hosts on a network gateway The address of the machine that is the default route to machines not on the local subnet host The nfs server ipaddr The address of the machine on which you are installing Progeny Debian nameserver The address of the systems that provide hostname lookup services to your system netmask The bitmask that defines the part of the system s network address that identifies the network path The path to the network mounted or nfs mounted cd drive fr
290. work space Then select New gt Terminal from the pop up menu 83 Chapter 7 Making the Desktop Your Own gnome is famous for being highly customizable You can customize almost every feature glob ally or individually For example you can customize all the panels on the desktop or just one Customization controls are scattered throughout the desktop However most of them are available from The gnome Control Center icon on the panel The Settings menu Pop up menus for different parts of the desktop This chapter mentions only the most common customization features It directs you to where you can customize Display settings General settings for the gnome desktop and the Sawfish window manager Program launchers icons General desktop behavior including confirmation dialogs The panel The menu Individual windows The program launched when a type of file is selected mime Type Chapter 7 Making the Desktop Your Own 84 For complete information about the features that you can customize see the on line gnome help If a feature are unfamiliar to you whenever possible many customization settings let you use the Try and Revert buttons Use the Try button to test the new settings then the Revert button to reverse the changes Some changes may have no effect until you reboot or restart the X server img Desktop cu png If you change window managers some of your configuration options
291. work that using a Network Information System nis Unless you have compatibility problems accept the default of Maximum Strength 2 Leave the appropriate box checked to enable shadow passwords With shadow pass words enabled passwords are encrypted and stored in a file readable only by the root user Shadow passwords are a standard security measure However they sometimes cause problems on networks that use a Network Information System nis Unless you have compatibility problems accept the default and enable shadow passwords e 3Select the Next button to continue If you chose to configure the graphical display the Video Card screen opens If you did not choose to configure the graphical display the Electronic Mail screen opens See Configuring Electronic Mail on page 39 3 3 9 Configuring the Video Card img Installing png Information about your video card is detected automatically by the system However you can change this information if necessary img Installing png Choosing settings that are not supported by your video card could damage it or the monitor 1 Enter a name or identifier for your video card configuration After the install you can see this name in the XFree86Config file 2 If necessary select the X server package graphic display driver to use In most cases you can use the one suggested by the install program If you have trouble choosing an X server package that works try xserver xfree86 or xse
292. xterm console command shell or shell Some of these terms make technical distinctions but for most purposes you can consider them identical This chapter explains the basics of using the Linux command line It covers e Why Use the Command Line An explanation of why you should learn to use the com mand line e Starting the Command Line The different ways that you can open a command line Entering a Command How a command is structured and how you run one e Navigating the Command Line How you can move through directories and list files from the command line Using Command Line Shortcuts Features of the Linux command line that save you time effort and typing e Setting the Command Shell How to change the default command line to suit your needs e Finding Help for Commands The on line help systems for commands The rest of the manual also contains command line solutions to different computing tasks 5 1 Why Use the Command Line Most Windows and Mac OS users work with a graphical desktop and ignore the command line Increasingly many Linux users are doing the same However you should learn how to use the command line for several reasons Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 58 e Many useful tools can only be used from the command line The command line gives you more flexibility and power especially when you are work ing with multiple files If you ever need to recover you will do so from the c
293. y above the one you are in now the parent directory Your home directory user The home directory for the user account listed The root directory Using Relative Path Names A file s complete path name starts with the root directory For example the path for the file ToDo in the January folder of the home directory for jgill would be home jgill January ToDo A complete path is generally known as the absolute path Instead of typing the absolute path you can save time by typing the relative path A relative path Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Command Line 70 Is traced from the current directory instead of the root directory Must be to a sub directory of the current directory Does not start with a forward slash For example if you were in the jgill January directory the relative path to ToDo would be January ToDo In the home directory the relative path would be jgill January ToDo 5 5 6 Redirecting Input and Output for Commands In most cases you enter a command from the keyboard and the results and any error messages display on the screen In other words the keyboard is the standard input and the screen is the standard output and standard error By changing these standards you can often save time and effort Uses for redirection include e Writing the results or errors to a file to keep a permanent record e Writing the results or errors to the printer to hav
294. y also install kde The K Desktop Environment from the Extras CD The two desktops have similar features and functionality Most modern computer users at least those installing Linux know the basics of using a desk top For this reason this chapter is written more to point out features than to explain them Its main focuses are Where to find features that you already know e What features new Linux users may not know For more detail see the gnome on line help 6 1 Understanding Graphical Interfaces Unlike other popular operating systems Linux lets you customize all the parts of your graph ical interface Linux uses the X Window System also called X but X Windows is considered insulting by many to display graphics The X Window System uses three parts to provide a graphical interface Chapter 6 Getting to Know the Desktop 74 The X server The program that provides basic graphical support The default X server for most versions of Linux is XFree86 The window manager A program that controls the placement and movement of win dows on the interface A few window managers have so many features that they are almost desktops in their own right Debian uses Sawfish currently the most popular gnome window manager The desktop A program that includes a set of features that works with the windows manager to provide a complete graphical environment You can choose each of these parts separately Only a few Li
295. y by you rather the intent is to exercise the right to control the distribution of derivative or collective works based on the Program In addition mere aggregation of another work not based on the Program with the Program or with a work based on the Program on a volume of a storage or distribution medium does not bring the other work under the scope of this License You may copy and distribute the Program or a work based on it under Section 2 in object code or executable form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided that you also do one of the following a Accompany it with the complete corresponding machine readable source code which must be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange or b Accompany it with a written offer valid for at least three years to give any third party for a charge no more than your cost of physically performing source distribution a complete machine readable copy of the corresponding source code to be distributed under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily used for software interchange or c Accompany it with the information you received as to the offer to distribute corresponding source code This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial distribution and only if you received the program in object code or executable form with such an offer in accord with Subsection b above The source code fo
296. y for the program to the extent permitted by applicable law except when otherwise stated in writing the copyright holders and or other parties provide the program as is with out warranty of any kind either expressed or implied including but not limited to the im plied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose the entire risk as to the quality and performance of the program is with you should the program prove defective you assume the cost of all necessary servicing repair or correction Chapter D GNU General Public License 272 inno event unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing will any copyright holder or any other party who may modify and or redistribute the program as permitted above be liable to you for damages including any general special incidental or consequential damages arising out of the use or inability to use the program including but not limited to loss of data or data being rendered inaccurate or losses sustained by you or third parties or a failure of the program to operate with any other programs even if such holder or other party has been advised of the possibility of such damages END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs If you develop a new program and you want it to be of the greatest possible use to the public the best way to achieve this is to make it free software which everyone can redistribute and change under these ter
297. ype e grep options string files egrep options string files e fgrep options string files Note To use grep or egrep as fully as possible you should familiarize yourself with metacharacters See Using Metacharacters With grep Commands on page 107 Note To save or print search results use redirection operators See Redirecting Input and Output for Commands on page 70 The grep egrep and fgrep Commands Find Text Option Action Comment Treats the string Used only with grep E as an extended Similar to using egrep regular expression Treats strings as Used only with grep F regular text Similar to using fgrep Chapter 8 Searching for Files and Text 106 Searches using a f file text file Strings must be listed file file containing a list one per line in the of patterns to file match Ignores the If this option is not Hsi distinction used lower case x ignore case between upper and letters are lower case distinguished from letters upper case ones Ae Lists files with Individual lines are x files with matches matches not listed eT Searches for files x files without match that do not match the string eon Displays lines line number numbered Sets the number of number lines to display Sometimes referred to before and after each match as context invert match that do not match
298. ype bzip2 options files Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 207 Separate each name with a space The bzip2 command has three related utilities bzipcat Displays the contents of a file in a bzip compressed file Uses the same options as the cat command bziprecover Helps to recover damaged compressed files e bunzip2 decompresses files However many users prefer bzip2 d for decompressing files All these utilities have the same command format as bzip2 The bzip2 Command Compress Option Action Comments cg Decompresses files x decompress SEE Over writes existing files Lofce Told Keeps original files once a compressed x keep file is made EL Displays progress on screen x verbose To Compresses files compress 12 9 Checking or Repairing a File System The native Linux filesystem ext2 does not need to be defragmented However occasionally you may need to check a partition s file allocation and make repairs Type fsck options filesystem or fsck options mountpoint Note that By default repairs are done without prompting Chapter 12 Doing Everyday Administration 208 Two ways of specifying a filesystem exist You do not need to specify a filesystem if you use the t or A options This check is also run when the system starts if it was not shut down gracefully or after a predefined number or reboots Note

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