Introduction to LINUX


A (very) Short History

UNIX and the culture of code sharing, Academic computing.
Richard Stallman - FSF, 1984 - The GNU and the GPL
Linus Torvalds - 1991 - Creates the kernel, or core, of the OS, posts it
on the Internet under the GPL. Invites the world to help. UNIX-like, by
Linus -- LINUX!

Nine years later... The number of users countinues to more than double each year.

0. Basic Philosophy of Linux

Stability, Modularity, Performance,Good Engineering . Quality Counts.
Freedom of choice. When to upgrade, what solutions to use, hardware.
Everyone can contribute!
You control your computer -- not the other way around.

Get out of the habit of reinstalling and rebooting to solve problems.
You can do all the the following without a reboot:

By "killing" the process that is having a problem, you can almost always fix any problem.
You can kill and restart X-Windows without a reboot.
(rarely necessary except for a new, untested (beta) X-server or Window Manager).

File names and command names are CASE SENSITIVE (like any UNIX).

1. Logging on

Root vs. user account

  • Always run as a non-root user unless root is required. Be careful when running as root!
  • "su -" to root, do the work and exit out. (rm examples)
  • How to set up a user account. As root:
    useradd fred
    passwd fred
  • Can also be setup through the GUI " linuxconf" or thru " control-panel".
  • Add a user for every person using the Linux box, and even projects.
  • ALT-Fx to switch between Virtual Consoles.

2. Shutting down.

Always shutdown normally before powering off.
shutdown -h now to halt
shutdown -r now to reboot

Also selectable from the login screen on several recent Linux distributions.

3. Finding Help with your system

Using Man Pages
xman
man -k keywords # A.K.A "apropos"

man command

    man 8 command # where "8" = section number:
  1. User commands
  2. System calls
  3. Subroutines
  4. Devices
  5. File Formats
  6. Games
  7. Miscellaneous
  8. System Administration

also, use l for Local and n for New (not yet classified)

Files in /usr/doc/ & /usr/doc/HOWTO

Books:

  • The No-BS guide to Linux
  • Linux for Dummies"

  • Running Linux
  • Linux in a Nutshell from O'Reilly

Internet:

  • http://www.deja.com - power search groups limited to *linux*
  • http://www.kalamazoolinux.org Local events, news, extensive
    link pages for a lot more documentation, software, and and more.
    Search our mailing list archive, your question may have been asked
    and answered already.

Etiquette on posting questions to lists

  • Nothing for personal gain, selling stuff, etc.
  • Be brief, concise, and post all relevant information.

4. GUI Tools

Redhat "control-panel" for sysadmin'ing.
Use this to configure your ppp connection to the internet.
Go to the network section and add a serial line interface.
Also "linuxconf" for sysadmin. Can be run from control-panel.
Other distributions may use other sysadmin tools.

i.e. SuSE uses "yast" - Yet Another Sysadmin Tool.

Manually editing configuration files.
Make a backup copy FIRST. (copy to another filename)
Some programs need to be restarted after config changes.

5. Finding and using your Word Processor

Star Office is available free of charge (but not under the GPL).
It can be downloaded from the internet, and is available through KLUG
to install.


6. Backing up

tar cvzlpf /dev/TAPEDEVICE /
or " cp -a /dirtobackup /mnt/otherHDDpartition"

7. Finding and using your browser.

  • Numerous Linux distributions install Netscape, with icons to click on in the window manager to launch it.
  • Or enter "netscape" from a command line.
  • Also, with window managers like KDE and Gnome, you can use the file manager as a simple web browser.


8. How to use your CD and Disk drives

Device names (like a:, or disk0: ) are not part of the way UNIX systems address devices in general, and disks in particular.

CDROM's and floppy disks must be mounted for access. They are accessed like any other directory after they are mounted. To mount a floppy diskette:
mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy
umount /mnt/floppy # before removing the floopy from the drive or you will trash it.

To mount a CDROM:
mount -t iso9660 -oro /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom
umount /mnt/cdrom # or you cannot eject it.

You can modify /etc/fstab for default mount parameters to simplify the mount command and allow non-users to execute [u]mount commands.

9. File directories- An overview of what is where.
/bin Programs needed at boot time.
/boot Linux Kernel.
/dev Device files for direct hardware access.
/etc Config files for most software.
/home User's home directories.
/lib Shared libraries required at boot time.
/mnt Directories to mount devices.
/proc Linux information files (pseudo files created by Linux)
/root Root's home directory.
/sbin System programs needed at boot time.
/tmp Place for temporary files.
/usr Main directory.
/usr/X11* X Windows programs/libraries/...
/usr/bin User programs.
/usr/doc Documentation for installed software.
/usr/doc/HOWTO Howto documentation.
/usr/include Software development system include files.
/usr/info More documentation.
/usr/lib Shared libraries.
/usr/local Put your local programs here.
/usr/man Man pages.
/usr/sbin System programs.
/usr/share Data files for some programs.
/usr/src System source code.
/var Directory for files that change.
/var/catman Temporary directory for man pages.
/var/lock Program lock files.
/var/log Log files for system and some programs.
/var/run Where some programs store their process number.
/var/spool Spool directory for printing, mail, cron, etc.
/var/tmp More temporary storage.



10. Using an Xterm.

Log on in console mode and type "startx" for X-Windows.
Unix is case sensitive for all filenames (Windows is not).
Basic commands: (see man page for each before running)
cp # copy
mv # move
ls # directory listing
ps # process listing

11. Networking as a future project.
Linux shines as a server. Most ditributions provide servers for:
Web, FTP, SMTP (e-mail), POP3, IMAP, print, NNTP (news), samba (NT file sharing),
PHP, DNS, PPP, Telnet, DHCP, Bootp, PostgreSQL (database), http proxy, and
IP Masquerading.

Using IP Masquerading and/or a proxy server, you can create a home LAN
and all of your PC's to share a single dialup connection to the net!