Wiley linux for dummies 8th edition jul 2007 ISBN 0470116498 pdf

Linux ® FOR DUMmIES 8TH ‰ EDITION by Dee-Ann LeBlanc and Richard Blum Linux ® FOR DUMmIES 8TH ‰ EDITION by Dee-Ann LeBlanc and Richard Blum Linux® For Dummies®, 8th Edition Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2007 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) 646-8600 Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Legal Department, Wiley Publishing, Inc., 10475 Crosspoint Blvd., Indianapolis, IN 46256, (317) 572-3447, fax (317) 572-4355, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, 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 Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners Wiley Publishing, Inc., is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM THE 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, 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 For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport 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: 2007926389 ISBN: 978-0-470-11649-4 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 About the Authors Dee-Ann LeBlanc, RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer), is a writer, course developer, journalist, and trainer who specializes in Linux Although these various professions may sound scattered, they in fact reinforce one another by allowing her to see what people are doing with Linux in the real world and where they need help In the past, she has been the Linux Games editor for the Linux Journal, the Desktop editor for LinuxToday.com, and has written and held positions with a number of other Linux and technology publications such as Computer Power User magazine She has also written numerous books about Linux Today, she is the SplunkBase Knowledge Manager for Splunk (www.splunk.com), an IT search company It is her job to build a community around SplunkBase (www.splunkbase.com) that fills this IT troubleshooting resource with world-class content When Dee-Ann isn’t managing, teaching, developing course materials, writing technical nonfiction, writing fantasy and science fiction, interviewing interesting people, chatting about Linux online or at conferences, or trying in one way or another to save the world, she hikes with her dogs and tries out new recipes on her husband Rob See what Dee-Ann is up to and join her readers’ mailing list at www.Dee-AnnLeBlanc.com and http://dee-ann.blog-city com/ (Contact Dee-Ann at dee@renaissoft.com.) Richard Blum has worked in the IT industry for more than 20 years as a network and systems administrator During that time, he’s had the opportunity to work with lots of different computer products, including Windows, Netware, Cisco, Avaya, different flavors of UNIX, and of course, Linux Over the years, he’s also volunteered for several non-profit organizations to help support small networks that had little financial support Rich is the author of several Linux-based books for total Linux geeks, and a couple of Windows-based books for programmers When he’s not being a computer nerd, Rich plays the electric bass in a church worship band, and enjoys spending time with his wife, Barbara, and their two daughters, Katie Jane and Jessica Dedication Dee-Ann wishes to dedicate this book to all of the people she occasionally (okay, often) frustrates or drives crazy during the writing process Richard would like to dedicate this book to his daughters Remember: It’s always a good time to learn new things (even when you’re not in school) Authors’ Acknowledgments Dee-Ann, as usual, has lots of people to thank First off, she thanks the folks without whom the earlier editions of this book would have never existed For one, there’s John “maddog” Hall for giving her the opportunity to take over this book’s evolution He was too busy leading Compaq’s UNIX Software Group, acting as Executive Director for Linux International, and sitting on the board of advisors for Sair Linux/GNU certification to continue handling this project There’s also the editors and staff at Wiley Publishing, Inc Without them and their guidance, this book would not exist or continue to improve over time Thanks as well go to Richard Blum for stepping up to the plate when Dee-Ann realized that she had completely overdone it this time Most of all, she’d like to thank the readers who contacted her with their questions, suggestions, and concerns She apologizes to anyone who got lost in the great deluges of e-mail and didn’t get an answer, but please trust that, at the very least, when she dug out your e-mail from the pile three months later, she filed it away as one more thing to consider in the next edition It’s reader participation that keeps books like this improving over the years, and it’s her goal to continue refining Linux For Dummies to keep it the best desktop Linux book available Rich would like to thank Dee-Ann for giving him the opportunity to tag along on this edition Also, many thanks to the great people at Wiley Publishing for their help and guidance in writing this He especially thanks Kyle Looper, the acquisitions editor, and Linda Morris, the project editor, for helping keep him on track Thanks also goes to Carole McClendon at Waterside Productions for arranging this gig Finally, Rich would like to thank his parents, Mike and Joyce Blum, for constantly stressing education over goofing off, and his wife Barbara and daughters Katie Jane and Jessica for their love and support, especially while he was working on this project 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 Composition Services Project Editor: Linda Morris Acquisitions Editor: Kyle Looper Copy Editor: Linda Morris Technical Editor: John Kennedy Editorial Manager: Jodi Jensen Media Development Manager: Laura VanWinkle Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth Sr Editorial Assistant: Cherie Case Project Coordinator: Heather Kolter Layout and Graphics: Claudia Bell, Stacie Brooks, Carl Byers, Denny Hager, Joyce Haughey, Heather Ryan Proofreaders: Aptara, John Greenough, Todd Lothery Indexer: Aptara Anniversary Logo Design: Richard J Pacifico Special Help Christine Williams Cartoons: Rich Tennant (www.the5thwave.com) Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director 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 Part I: Getting Your Feet Wet Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Linux Chapter 2: Prepping Your Computer for Linux 19 Chapter 3: Installing Fedora 41 Chapter 4: Booting and Stopping Fedora 57 Chapter 5: Checking Out the Desktops 65 Part II: Getting Up to Speed with Linux 81 Chapter 6: Working without the GUI 83 Chapter 7: Getting to Know the Linux Filesystem 99 Chapter 8: Using the Filesystem in GNOME and Nautilus .117 Chapter 9: Connecting to the Internet 135 Part III: Getting Things Done 155 Chapter 10: Using the Internet 157 Chapter 11: Putting the X in Text 185 Chapter 12: Word Processing and More with OpenOffice.org 191 Chapter 13: Messing with Audio 225 Chapter 14: Messing with Video and Graphics 239 Chapter 15: Windows-Only Media Formats and Programs .257 Part IV: Junior Administrator Boot Camp 265 Chapter 16: Adding Software to Linux 267 Chapter 17: Basic System Administration 279 Chapter 18: A Secure Linux Box Is a Happy Linux Box 301 Part V: The Part of Tens 315 Chapter 19: Ten Steps to Making Your Own Wireless Access Point 317 Chapter 20: Ten Steps to Setting Up a Samba Print Server .335 Chapter 21: Ten Steps to Setting Up a File Server 349 Chapter 22: Ten Troubleshooting Tips 365 .. .Linux ® FOR DUMmIES 8TH ‰ EDITION by Dee-Ann LeBlanc and Richard Blum Linux ® FOR DUMmIES 8TH ‰ EDITION by Dee-Ann LeBlanc and Richard Blum Linux For Dummies , 8th Edition Published by Wiley. .. online at http://www .wiley. com/go/permissions Trademarks: Wiley, the Wiley Publishing logo, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, A Reference for the Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The... “Aaargh! I Forgot My Root Password! What Do I Do?” 374 xv xvi Linux For Dummies, 8th Edition Part VI: Appendixes 375 Appendix A: Common Linux Commands 377 Linux Commands