Red Hat Linux 6.2 The Official Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide ISBN: 1-58569-076-7 Red Hat, Inc 2600 Meridian Parkway Durham NC 27709 US 919-547-0012 1-888-733-4281 919-547-0024 docs@redhat.com 13588 Research Triangle Park NC 27713 © 2000 Red Hat, Inc GSG(EN)-6.2-Print-RHI (02/00) Red Hat is a registered trademark and the Red Hat Shadow Man logo, RPM, the RPM logo, and Glint are trademarks of Red Hat, Inc Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds Motif and UNIX are registered trademarks of The Open Group Alpha is a trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation SPARC is a registered trademark of SPARC International, Inc Products bearing the SPARC trademark are based on an architecture developed by Sun Microsystems, Inc Netscape is a registered trademark of Netscape Communications Corporation in the United States and other countries TrueType is a registered trademark of Apple Computer, Inc Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners Copyright © 2000 by Red Hat, Inc This material may be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, V0.4 or later (the latest version is presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/) Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder Distribution of the work or derivative of the work in any standard (paper) book form for commercial purposes is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the copyright holder Printed in Canada, Ireland, and Japan ii Contents Red Hat Linux 6.2 Introduction Who Should Read This Book? A Peek Inside A Note About Environments Work With Your User Account Where to Find More Info More to Come Sign Up for Support ix ix xi xi xiii xiv xv xv Part I The Basics 17 Chapter 1.1 Chapter 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8 Chapter 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Getting Started 19 Log In, Please 19 GNOME in 60 Seconds (or so) An Overview The Desktop Folders The Panel Main Menu Button Finding Help Multiple Desktops Switching Environments 31 31 33 35 37 39 41 42 43 KDE in 60 Seconds (or so) An Overview The Desktop Folders The Panel 45 45 49 52 54 iii 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 Chapter 4.1 4.2 4.3 Chapter 5.1 5.2 Chapter 6.1 6.2 Chapter 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 Chapter 8.1 8.2 The Main Menu K Icon The Taskbar Finding Help Switching Environments 58 59 60 63 Logging Out and Shutting Down Quitting from GNOME Quitting from KDE Shutting Down at the Shell Prompt 65 65 68 69 Setting Up Your Printer 71 Using Printtool 72 Printing Utilities in KDE and GNOME 82 Getting Online 91 Using RP3 to Connect 92 Connecting with Kppp 108 The Web, E-Mail and News in GNOME and KDE Using Navigator in GNOME and KDE E-Mail and News Settings for Messenger Reading and Composing Mail in Messenger Using Messenger to Read News Customizing Your Desktop in GNOME and KDE 161 Customizing with the GNOME Control Center 161 Customizing with the KDE Control Center 165 Part II Managing Files and Directories Chapter 9.1 129 130 138 147 155 169 File Managers in GNOME and KDE 171 The GNOME File Manager 171 iv 9.2 The KDE File Manager 182 Chapter 10 Using Gnome-RPM and RPM 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 The benefits of RPM Using Gnome-RPM Installing New Packages Basic Configuration Package Manipulation RPM from the Shell Prompt 191 191 192 195 197 202 206 Chapter 11 Working with Update Agent 11.1 11.2 11.3 215 Starting Update Agent 215 Configuring Update Agent 216 Using Update Agent 222 Part III The Shell Prompt 227 Chapter 12 Shell Prompt Basics 12.1 12.2 12.3 229 Why Use a Shell Prompt? 229 Pulling Yourself Up by the Boot 229 A Good "Man" Is Easy to Find 233 Chapter 13 You Are Here 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 13.8 13.9 13.10 Finding Yourself with pwd Getting from Here to There: cd Looking Around with ls A Larger Picture of the Filesystem "Washing" the Window Using cat Using Redirection Appending Standard Output Redirecting Standard Input Pipes v 237 237 238 246 254 258 259 261 265 267 268 13.11 13.12 13.12 13.12 13.12 13.13 Stringing Commands Together Ownership and Permissions Identities Permissions Actions Fun with Numbers in chmod 270 270 276 276 276 279 Chapter 14 Working with Files and Directories Shell Collecting Locating Files and Directories Command History and Tab Completion Identifying and Working with File Types Copying, Moving and Renaming Files and Directories 283 283 285 287 290 297 Part IV Q & A 303 Chapter 15 Q & A: Quick Answers to Common Questions 305 305 305 308 309 310 311 313 315 316 317 318 318 319 321 325 326 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 15.8 15.9 15.10 15.11 15.12 15.13 15.14 15.15 15.16 Your First Login Using a Diskette Switching Environments Shutting Down Error Message While Installing an RPM Starting Applications Accessing a Windows Partition Find Some Commands Fast Keep ls Output from Scrolling Tips on Using Command History Unable to Log In Starting "Services" Using All Available RAM Configuring a Sound Card Removing Red Hat Linux Changing Login from Console to X at Startup vi Part V Appendixes 329 Appendix A Glossary 331 Appendix B A Brief History of Linux and Red Hat B.1 347 What is Linux? 347 Appendix C DOS to Linux Cheat Sheet C.1 C.2 351 DOS and Linux Commands 351 Different Paths 353 vii viii Section 0.1:Who Should Read This Book? Introduction Welcome to the Official Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide! Just a few short years ago, a user who wanted to try out Linux had relatively few choices in the distributions, or types of packaged Linux operating systems, which were available That’s all changed Now, there are dozens of Linux distributions from which you can choose But Red Hat Linux has remained a leading choice of Linux distributions for years Here at Red Hat, we believe we offer the best Linux distribution on the market We hope you’ll agree that the time and money you spent to install and work with Red Hat Linux were well spent, indeed The Official Red Hat Linux Getting Started Guide is part of our effort to help you become acquainted with your new Red Hat Linux system Who Should Read This Book? If you count yourself among the many who are discovering Red Hat Linux for the first time, this book is for you! Inside, you’ll find valuable tips and tricks which can help you get acquainted with your desktop environment Concentrating on tasks in GNOME and KDE, you’ll see how to navigate through your system, how to manage files and directories and how to make some of the power of Red Hat Linux work for you If you’re most familiar with a Windows environment, you’ll find the DOS-to-Linux commands in Appendix C, DOS to Linux Cheat Sheet (as well as the tips on the enclosed "cheat sheet" in the boxed set of Red Hat Linux) to be useful guides, so you can start looking around right away ix x Introduction Figure A GNOME Desktop You’ll learn how to accomplish such basic first steps as connecting to the Internet, configuring your e-mail client, adding a printer and more More advanced topics will cover how to work with Update Agent, so your system automatically stays current with critical software updates Is Red Hat Linux sharing your computer with Microsoft Windows? Turn to Chapter 15, Q & A: Quick Answers to Common Questions to find out how you can allow Red Hat Linux to "see" into your other operating system, so you can perform certain tasks without having to reboot into the other operating system You’ll even gain some experience at file management and system administration using the "shell prompt," the command-line interface In short, this guide picks up where the Official Red Hat Linux Installation Guide leaves off: by giving you the confidence to work with your new operating system .. .ISBN: 1-58 569 -0 76- 7 Red Hat, Inc 26 0 0 Meridian Parkway Durham NC 27 709 US 919-547-00 12 1-888-733- 428 1 919-547-0 024 docs @redhat. com 13588 Research Triangle Park NC 27 713 © 20 00 Red Hat, Inc. .. Redirection Appending Standard Output Redirecting Standard Input Pipes v 23 7 23 7 23 8 2 46 25 4 25 8 25 9 26 1 26 5 26 7 ... 22 2 Part III The Shell Prompt 22 7 Chapter 12 Shell Prompt Basics 12. 1 12. 2 12. 3 22 9 Why Use a Shell Prompt? 22 9 Pulling Yourself