red hat linux 9 for dummies

by Jon “maddog”Hall and Paul G. Sery Red Hat ® Linux ® 9 FOR DUMmIES ‰ Red Hat ® Linux ® 9 For Dummies ® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 909 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2003 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8700. 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Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Control Number: 2003101854 ISBN: 0-7645-3990-6 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 1B/RX/QU/QT/IN is a trademark of Wiley Publishing, Inc. About the Authors Jon “maddog” Hall is the executive director of Linux International, a vendor organization dedicated to promoting the use of the Linux operating system. He has been in the computer industry for more than a quarter of a century (somehow, that sounds more impressive than just “25 years”), the past 18 years of which have been spent using, programming, and admiring the Unix operating system. Jon works for Compaq Computer Corporation, where he is helping to shape Compaq’s strategy with respect to Linux. Previously, Jon was the department head of computer science at Hartford State Technical College, where his students lovingly (he hopes) gave him the nickname “maddog” as he tried to teach them operating system design, compiler theory, and how to live an honorable life. While working for Digital Equipment Corporation in May of 1994, “maddog” met Linus Torvalds, and was intelligent enough (his critics say “maddog” was just lucky) to recognize the potential of the Linux operating system. Linux changed his life, mostly by providing him with 22-hour workdays. Since “maddog” has started working with Linux, however, he has also started meeting more girls (in particular, his two godchildren). You can usually find Jon speaking at various Linux conferences and events (“maddog” just barks), and he has also been known to travel long distances to speak to local Linux user groups. Paul G. Sery is a computer systems engineer employed by Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is a member of the Computer Support Unit, Special Projects, which specializes in managing and trouble- shooting Unix and Linux systems. When he is not beating his head against systems administration problems, Paul and his wife, Lidia, enjoy riding their tandem bicycle through the Rio Grande valley. They also enjoy traveling throughout Mexico. Paul is the author of Linux Network Toolkit and the co-author of several other books. He has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of New Mexico. Author’s Acknowledgments I want to thank my wife, Lidia, for her patience, support, and good advice, all of which have made writing this book possible. Without her, I would still be the pocket-protector-inserted-into-shirt, busted-eyeglass-fixed-with-tape-wearing, “Star Trek”-watching, wrinkled-shirt-suffering, spaghetti-in-the-pot-over-the- sink-eating, Saturday-night-hacking sorry-sack sorta guy. Well, I never was into “Star Trek,” and I am pecking at this keyboard on Saturday night, but my wonderful and beautiful wife certainly has made me a better man. And, of course, I want to thank the staff at Wiley Publishing, who provided considerable and essential help, too. Terri Varveris and Rebecca Whitney provided constant and essential assistance. Their patience with me was truly vital. I also want to thank Laura Lewin, who gave me the chance to help write this book. She showed great confidence and patience in me. I’m also in debt to Anne Hamilton (now working for, er, the other guy), who gave me my first Linux gig. I’m truly grateful and wish them success in their new ventures. I also want to acknowledge a total lack of assistance in writing this book from my dog, the infamous Oso Maloso; eater of many things that should have ended his long career early, including but not limited to: ant poison, Advil, pounds of tootsie rolls one Halloween, several bags of chicken bones during one party, beer and other assorted items; escaper of many fences and gates; and friend of the late, great Paunchy (former demidog of Albuquerque). How useful was Oso? Well, one night while working on this book, I got a phone call. Leaving my apple pie behind next to the keyboard, I went downstairs to take the call and passed him on his way up. I should have known something was up because he had a cell phone with him and no one answered when I picked up to take the call. I went up the stairs while he went down. The apple pie was gone. Oso 1, human 0. — Paul G. Sery Publisher’s Acknowledgments We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/. Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following: Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor: Rebecca Whitney Acquisitions Editor: Terri Varveris Technical Editor: Terry Collings Editorial Manager: Carol Sheehan Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle Media Development Supervisor: Richard Graves Editorial Assistant: Amanda M. Foxworth Cartoons: Rich Tennant ( www.the5thwave.com) Production Project Coordinator: Kristie Rees Layout and Graphics: Amanda Carter, Jennifer Click, Sean Decker, Michael Kruzil, Kristin McMullan, Jackie Nicholas, Jeremey Unger Proofreaders: John Tyler Connoley, John Greenough, Susan Moritz, Charles Spencer, TECHBOOKS Production Services Indexer: TECHBOOKS Production Services Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director Publishing for Consumer Dummies Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director Composition Services Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services Contents at a Glance Introduction 1 Part I: Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Chapter 1: And in the Opposite Corner . . . a Penguin? 11 Chapter 2: Getting Ready for Red Hat Linux 17 Chapter 3: Ready, Set, Install! 31 Chapter 4: Getting Red Hat Linux 55 Part II: Got Net? 69 Chapter 5: Dial-Up Modems Still Get the Job Done 71 Chapter 6: Broadband Rocks! 83 Chapter 7: Connect Locally, Communicate Globally: Connecting to a LAN 99 Chapter 8: Fire, Fire! Heh-Heh, Firewalls Are Cool! 115 Part III: Linux, Huh! What Is It Good For? Absolutely Everything! 127 Chapter 9: Gnowing GNOME 129 Chapter 10: Gnowing More Applications 149 Chapter 11: Surfin’ the Net and Groovin’ to Tunes 161 Chapter 12: Live from the Net 175 Chapter 13: Going to the Office 187 Part IV: Revenge of the Nerds 197 Chapter 14: Building Your Own, Private Network 199 Chapter 15: Creating Basic Linux Network Services 213 Chapter 16: Securing Your Future 239 Chapter 17: Bringing In the Red Hat Linux Repair Person 263 Part V: The Part of Tens 277 Chapter 18: Ten Problem Areas and Solutions 279 Chapter 19: Ten Security Vulnerabilities 291 Part VI: The Appendixes 299 Appendix A: Discovering Your Hardware 301 Appendix B: Filing Your Life Away 307 Appendix C: Becoming a Suit: Managing the Red Hat Linux File System 323 Appendix D: Revving Up RPM 333 Appendix E: System Requirements 343 Index 347 Table of Contents Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Conventions Used in This Book 2 Typing code 3 Keystrokes and such 4 How This Book Is Organized 4 Part I: Installing Red Hat Linux 5 Part II: Got Net? 5 Part III: Linux, Huh! What Is It Good For? Absolutely Everything! 6 Part IV: Revenge of the Nerds 6 Part V: The Part of Tens 6 Part VI: Appendixes 6 What You’re Not to Read 7 Icons in This Book 7 Where to Go from Here 7 Part I: Installing Red Hat Linux 9 Chapter 1: And in the Opposite Corner . . . a Penguin? . . . . . . . . . . . . .11 History of the World — Er, Linux – Part II 11 Knowing What You Can Do with Red Hat Linux 13 Boosting your personal workstation 14 Using Linux network tools and services 16 Chapter 2: Getting Ready for Red Hat Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17 Preparing Your Hard Drive for Red Hat Linux 18 Am I Fat or Just NTFS? 19 Defragmenting Your Hard Drive 19 Move Over, Windows — Here Comes Linux 22 Resizing Windows 9x and Windows Me FAT partitions with FIPS 22 Resizing Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP NTFS partitions with a little PartitionMagic 25 Chapter 3: Ready, Set, Install! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31 Choosing an Installation Type 32 Installation Stage 1: Starting the Installation 33 Installation Stage 2: Slicing and Dicing the Pie 35 Installation Stage 3: Configuring Your Network 41 Installation Stage 4: Configuring Your Options 44 Installation Stage 5: The Point of No Return! 46 Installation Stage 6: X Marks the Spot 48 Post Installation: Using the Setup Agent 50 Chapter 4: Getting Red Hat Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55 Introducing the Linux File System Tree 55 Giving Red Hat Linux the Boot 57 Logging In 58 The Command-Line Interface (CLI) versus the Graphical User Interface (GUI) 59 Configuring Your Graphical Display 60 Creating User Accounts with the Red Hat User Manager 64 Creating an Account without X 67 Ending Your First Session 68 Part II: Got Net? 69 Chapter 5: Dial-Up Modems Still Get the Job Done . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71 Desperately Seeking an ISP 72 Configuring Your Internet Connection 74 Locating Your Modem with Linux 77 Locating Your Modem with Windows 79 Firing Up Your Internet Connection 80 Chapter 6: Broadband Rocks! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83 Introducing DSL and Cable Connections: The Proof Is in the Wiring 84 The Cable Modem Option 85 Finding an Internet cable provider 86 Dealing with the hardware 87 Setting up Internet protocols 87 Registering your modem with your ICP 90 The DSL Option 91 Facing DSL configuration woes head-on 92 Finding a DSL provider 93 Connecting your Cisco modem to your Red Hat Linux computer 94 Configuring the Cisco DSL modem 96 Red Hat Linux 9 For Dummies xiv Chapter 7: Connect Locally, Communicate Globally: Connecting to a LAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99 Introducing Local Area Networks 100 Configuring Your NIC with the Red Hat Network Utility 100 Preparing to configure your wireless NIC 101 Choosing between ad hoc and infrastructure 102 Configuring your Ethernet or wireless NIC 103 Manually Starting and Stopping Your Network 112 Chapter 8: Fire, Fire! Heh-Heh, Firewalls Are Cool! . . . . . . . . . . . . . .115 Understanding Why You Need a Firewall in the First Place 116 Building an Effective Firewall the iptables Way 116 Setting Up a Firewall 118 Displaying Your Firewall Rules 121 Firing Up Your Firewall (And Dousing the Flames) 122 Saving your filtering rules to a script 122 Turning your firewall off and on 122 Testing Your Firewall 124 Part III: Linux, Huh! What Is It Good For? Absolutely Everything! 127 Chapter 9: Gnowing GNOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .129 Introducing the X Window System 130 Exploring the GNOME Desktop Environment 131 Mucking about the Desktop 132 Introducing the default desktop icons 133 Changing themes and backgrounds 133 Toiling in your workplace 134 Trading places on your workspace switcher 135 Messing Around with Windows 135 Moving windows 136 Resizing windows 136 Minimizing windows 136 Maximizing windows 137 The Making of a Desktop Icon 137 Playing with the GNOME Panel 138 Adding and Deleting Panels 139 Leaving GNOME and X 140 Securing your computer while you step out for a moment 141 Going home for the night 141 eXterminating X 141 xv Table of Contents [...]... Know where to go for help ߜ Manage your Red Hat Linux workstation 2 Red Hat Linux 9 For Dummies You see troubleshooting tips throughout this book, but Chapter 17 is devoted to the subject It’s not that Red Hat Linux is all that much trouble, but we want you to be prepared in case you run into bad luck The instructions in this book are designed to work with the version of Red Hat Linux that’s on the companion... with it will be worthwhile Carpe Linuxum 7 8 Red Hat Linux 9 For Dummies Part I Installing Red Hat Linux Y In this part ou’re about to embark on a journey through the Red Hat Linux installation program Perhaps you know nothing about setting up an operating system on your computer That’s okay The Red Hat Linux installation system is easygoing by nature and straightforward to use Plus, we help guide... hole For now, please keep your Red Hat Linux 9 For Dummies CD-ROMs in a safe place, such as the sleeve in the back of this book, when you’re not using it Part I: Installing Red Hat Linux In Part I, you find out what Linux is and how to prepare your computer to install Red Hat Linux We then walk you through the installation and show you the basics of working with Red Hat Linux Part II: Got Net? In Part... working with Red Hat Linux Chapter 1 And in the Opposite Corner a Penguin? In This Chapter ᮣ Napping through Linux History 101 ᮣ Finding out what Red Hat Linux can do ᮣ Using Red Hat Linux network functions ᮣ Using Red Hat Linux as a workstation W e see a penguin in your future He’s an unassuming fellow who’s taking on a rather big competitor — that other operating system — in the battle for the hearts,... Future 2 39 Thinking Security 2 39 Preventing Intruders 240 Reducing vulnerabilities by updating Red Hat Linux packages 240 xvii xviii Red Hat Linux 9 For Dummies Reducing your exposure: Removing and reducing services 246 Using a secure shell client 247 Configuring a secure shell server 2 49 Exchanging keys makes your life easier... legions of people who have been using and developing Linux We have been using Unix for more than 20 years, Linux for more than 10 years, and Red Hat Linux for 8 years We’ve found Red Hat Linux to be a flexible, powerful operating system, capable of solving most problems even without a large set of commercial software The future of the Linux — and Red Hat Linux in particular — operating system is bright... desktops of computer users Red Hat Linux, with its splashy brand name and recognizable logo, is undeniably one of the driving forces behind the Linux revolution — and is by far the most popular Linux brand This chapter introduces you to the latest and greatest Red Hat release, Red Hat Linux 9 This book covers all the bases — a good number of bases, at least — about how to use Red Hat Linux as a desktop productivity... dual boot system, meaning that you choose which operating system to use when you power up, or boot, your computer This chapter shows you how to properly tenderize and marinate your hard drive so that Linux and Windows can live in harmony It’s going to be a love-fest 18 Part I: Installing Red Hat Linux Preparing Your Hard Drive for Red Hat Linux Before you install Red Hat Linux alongside Windows, you... different parts of Linux, Red Hat Linux continues to become more flexible and capable with each release This list shows some of the cool Red Hat Linux features you can use: ߜ Desktop productivity tools: Red Hat has successfully worked overtime over the past few years to make Linux work on your desktop Red Hat bundles software, such as the OpenOffice suite of productivity tools, so that you can get your... 292 Open the Encrypt 293 Aha! No Firewall — Very, Very Good 293 Keeping Up with the Software Joneses 294 “Backups? I Don’t Need No Stinking Backups!” . 294 My Buffer Overflow-ith . 295 Social Engineering 1010101010 296 Bad Passwords 296 Scan Me 297 I Know Where You Logged in Last Summer . 298 Part VI: Appendixes 299 Appendix . by Jon “maddog”Hall and Paul G. Sery Red Hat ® Linux ® 9 FOR DUMmIES ‰ Red Hat ® Linux ® 9 For Dummies ® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 90 9 Third Avenue New York, NY 10022 www.wiley.com Copyright. Problems (Of the CD Kind) 344 Index 347 Red Hat Linux 9 For Dummies xx Introduction R ed Hat Linux 9 For Dummies is designed to help you install and use Red Hat Linux. This book shows you how to do. 90 The DSL Option 91 Facing DSL configuration woes head-on 92 Finding a DSL provider 93 Connecting your Cisco modem to your Red Hat Linux computer 94 Configuring the Cisco DSL modem 96 Red Hat