Fedora® and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® Bible Christopher Negus Wiley Publishing, Inc Fedora® and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® Bible Fedora® and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® Bible Christopher Negus Wiley Publishing, Inc Fedora® and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux® Bible Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc 10475 Crosspoint Boulevard Indianapolis, IN 46256 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc All rights reserved 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) 750-4744 Requests to the Publisher for 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fact that an organization or Website is referred to in this work as a citation and/or a potential source of further information does not mean that the author or the publisher endorses the information the organization or Website may provide or recommendations it may make Further, readers should be aware that Internet Websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read For general information on our other products and services or to obtain technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S at (800) 762-2974, outside the U.S at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002 Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries and may not be used without written permission Red Hat and Fedora are trademarks or registered trademarks of Red Hat, Inc Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners Wiley is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data available upon request ISBN: 978-0-470-23020-6 Printed in the United States of America 10 About the Author Christopher Negus has been working with UNIX systems, the Internet, and (most recently) Linux systems for more than two decades During that time, Chris worked at AT&T Bell Laboratories, UNIX System Laboratories, and Novell, helping to develop the UNIX operating system Features from many of the UNIX projects Chris worked on at AT&T have found their way into Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Fedora, and other Linux systems Chris is the author of all editions of what started out as Red Hat Linux Bible, which because of the name changes of Red Hat’s Linux projects has evolved into the book you are holding Most recently, Chris co-authored three books in the Linux Toolbox series: Fedora Linux Toolbox, Ubuntu Linux Toolbox, and SUSE Linux Toolbox (Wiley Publishing, 2007) Before that, Chris authored Linux Bible 2008 Edition and co-wrote Linux Troubleshooting Bible and Linux Toys II for Wiley Publishing During the past few years, Chris has written several books on UNIX and the Internet, including Internet Explorer Bible and Netscape Plug-Ins For Dummies for Wiley Publishing He also co-wrote several books for Que Publishing, including The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Networking (second and third editions) and Using UNIX (second edition) At home, Chris enjoys spending time with his wife, Sheree, and his boys, Caleb and Seth His hobbies include soccer, singing, and exercising with Sheree As always, I dedicate this book to my wife, Sheree This book would never have happened without her love and support Credits Acquisitions Editor Jenny Watson Development Editor Sara Shlaer Technical Editor Tim Boronczyk Copy Editor Nancy Rapoport Production Manager Tim Tate Editorial Manager Mary Beth Wakefield Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Richard Swadley Vice President and Executive Publisher Joseph B Wikert Project Coordinator Bill Ramsey Indexer Johnna VanHoose Dinse Media Associate Project Manager Laura Atkinson Media Assistant Producer Josh Frank Media Quality Control Kit Malone Anniversary Logo Design Richard Pacifico Preface With the Fedora Linux operating system and the instructions in this book, you can transform your PC into a safe, powerful, and free computer system Starting with Fedora, you can simply replace (or coexist with) Microsoft Windows on your everyday desktop computer You can also configure your computer to share your files, printers, Web pages, or directory services to other computers Then, if you choose, you can transition your skills to manage anything from a small office to a large, corporate Red Hat Enterprise Linux computer installation This book tells you how and gives you the software to it Who Are You? You don’t need to be a programmer to use this book You may be someone who just wants to use Linux (to run programs, access the Internet, and so on) Or you may simply want to know how to administer a Linux system in a workgroup or on a network I assume that you are somewhat computer literate but have little or no experience with Linux (or UNIX) You may be migrating from Microsoft operating systems to Linux because of its networking and multiuser features You may be looking to start a career as a computer technician or network administrator and find that spending a few dollars for an entire operating system and book is more economical than taking those technical classes offered on late-night television Or you might just think a “free” operating system is cool In any case, after you peruse this book you should have a good idea of how to run applications, set up a small network, connect to the Internet, and configure a variety of server types (Web servers, print servers, file servers, and so on) This book represents a great first few steps toward your becoming someone who can set up a home network or a small office network and maintain a group of computers This Book’s Learn-Through-Tasks Approach The best way to learn a computer system is to get your hands on it To help you learn Linux, this book takes a task-oriented approach Where possible, I step you through the process of working with a feature, such as setting up a network or configuring your desktop When you are done with a task, you should have a good, basic setup of the feature that it covers After that, I often provide pointers to further information on tweaking and tuning the feature Instead of assuming that you already know about cryptic topics such as troff, NFS, and TCP/IP, I ease you into those features with headings such as “Publishing with Fedora and RHEL,” “Setting up a File Server,” and “Connecting to the Internet.” Heck, if you already knew what all those things were and how to get them working, you wouldn’t need me, would you? .. .Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Bible Christopher Negus Wiley Publishing, Inc Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Bible Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Bible Christopher... Advantages of Linux 10 What Are Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora? 11 Red Hat forms the Fedora Project .11 Red Hat shifts to Red Hat Enterprise Linux ... that project’s site (http://mirror.centos.org/) Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Bible Improvements Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux Bible represents the continuing development of Red