the official ubuntu book [electronic resource]

“The Official Ubuntu Book is a great way to get you started with Ubuntu,giving you enough information to be productive without overloading you.” —John Stevenson, DZone Book Reviewer “OUB

“The Official Ubuntu Book is a great way to get you started with Ubuntu,

giving you enough information to be productive without overloading you.”

—John Stevenson, DZone Book Reviewer

“OUB is one of the best books I’ve seen for beginners.”

—Bill Blinn, TechByter Worldwide

“This book is the perfect companion for users new to Linux and Ubuntu

It covers the basics in a concise and well-organized manner General use

is covered separately from troubleshooting and error-handling, makingthe book well-suited both for the beginner as well as the user that needsextended help.”

—Thomas Petrucha, Austria Ubuntu User Group

“I have recommended this book to several users who I instruct regularly onthe use of Ubuntu All of them have been satisfied with their purchase andhave even been able to use it to help them in their journey along the way.”

—Chris Crisafulli, Ubuntu LoCo Council,

Florida Local Community Team

“This text demystifies a very powerful Linux operating system in just afew weeks of having it, I’ve used it as a quick reference a half dozen times,which saved me the time I would have spent scouring the Ubuntu forumsonline.”

—Darren Frey, Member, Houston Local User Group

Sixth Edition

Capetown • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City

Benjamin Mako Hill

Matthew Helmke

Amber Graner

Corey Burger

With Jonathan Jesse,

Kyle Rankin, and Jono Bacon

The authors and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein.

The publisher offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales, which may include electronic versions and/or custom covers and content particular to your business, training goals, marketing focus, and branding interests For more information, please contact:

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ix

The Debian Project and the Free Software Universe 16

Ubuntu Promises and Goals 17

Beyond the Vision: Ubuntu Subprojects, Derivatives,

CHAPTER 3 Using Ubuntu on the Desktop 59

Starting Applications and Finding Things 63

Shutting Down Your Computer and Logging Out 71

Connecting with Empathy and Gwibber

Managing Your E-Mail and Calendars with Evolution 79

Selecting, Copying, and Moving Files and Folders 92

Moving to the Next Ubuntu Release 108

Adding and Removing Programs and Packages 112

I Want to Install an Application That Is Not

Using Windows Files on Another Partition 133

The Story of the Logical Volume Manager 148

Encrypted Home and Software Selection 152

Creating Graphics with GIMP and Inkscape 180

Playing to Learn with Educational Programs 200

The Ubuntu Community Team at Canonical 229

Can I Switch to Kubuntu If I Have Ubuntu

Navigating in Kubuntu 254Shutting Down Your Computer and Logging Out 255Using sudo Instead of a Root Account 257

Finding Help and Giving Back to the Community 287

Common Questions 295

APPENDIX Welcome to the Command Line 327

Using Byobu by Default in GNOME Terminal 340Moving to More Advanced Uses of the Command Line 340

THE OFFICIAL UBUNTU BOOK CAPTURESboth the spirit and the precision withwhich Ubuntu itself is crafted Like Ubuntu, it has evolved in a steadycadence of regular releases, and this sixth edition reflects the cumulativeinsight gained from prior editions, as well as some of the latest innova-tions driving Ubuntu forward

2011 is a critical year of change for Ubuntu, as we move towards the new,unified interface called Unity Our goal is to deliver what people have longwished for: the world’s cleanest, most elegant desktop experience, as freesoftware 11.04 is the first major step in that process as we introduce Unity

by default on the desktop, retaining the Classic GNOME desktop for thosewho cannot yet make the leap to Unity

Our broader goal is to challenge the free software ecosystem to invest asmuch creativity and energy in design as it does in engineering We knowthat free software can be the best in the world for performance, reliability,and security; now it’s time to bring ease-of-use and stylishness into themix too

I hope you enjoy 11.04, and love this book My thanks to the many folks

who have made both Ubuntu and The Official Ubuntu Book possible It’s a

great privilege to be part of this community

—Mark ShuttleworthUbuntu FounderApril 2011

IT’S A SMALL CELEBRATIONfor me to write this foreword—almost exactlytwo years after the first meeting of a small group of free software profes-sionals that turned into the Ubuntu project A celebration because twoyears ago none of us would have predicted that our dream would spawnseveral million CDs, three or four million enthusiastic users, hundreds ofcommitments of support from companies large and small, a minor prime

time television reference, and now The Official Ubuntu Book.

The dream that brought us together can be simply expressed:

To build a world-class operating system for ordinary desktop computerusers, that is genuinely free and freely available, that is immediately useful,and that represents the very best that the free software world can achievetoday

In setting out to build a platform for “ordinary desktop computer users,” Ihad no idea that I would have the privilege of meeting and working with

so many extraordinary desktop computer users Some of those

extraordi-nary individuals are the authors of this book, people who both understandthe importance of the free software movement and have the talent to havebeen real contributors to its success Others make up the backbone of theUbuntu community—the small but dedicated army of a few hundredpeople that works to produce a new release of Ubuntu every six months.They are at the heart of a network that reaches out through the global freesoftware community—through the world of Debian, an extraordinaryproject in its own right and without which Ubuntu could not exist, and onout to the thousands of projects, large and small, that produce the code

and documentation that we pull together and call Ubuntu.

While this huge extended community can often appear to be fractured anddivided along infinitesimal ideological lines, we are all broadly in agreementabout four key ideas, and it is those ideas that are central to the Ubuntupromise:

 That our software should not come with a license fee That we should

be able to share our software, modify it, and then share our tions, too

modifica- That this free software should be the best version available, includingregular security updates, and not a tease for a better, commercialproduct

 That full-scale, high-quality commercial support from local andglobal companies should be available for this free platform

 That this software should be usable in as many languages as possibleand usable by as many people as possible regardless of disability

The 17 of us who met in London two years ago come from a very widevariety of countries and backgrounds, but we all agreed that the goal ofproducing a platform that could live up to that promise was a worthy one,one that we would devote ourselves to wholeheartedly

For several months we worked quietly We wanted to come to the world notonly with a manifesto but also with a clear demonstration of work donetoward our goals, something that people could test and comment on Wehad no name (though industry insiders called us the “Super-Secret DebianStartup”), and, as a result, we hosted most of our work at www.no-name-yet.com We were looking for a name that could express the beauty of thefree software community development process—collaboration, interde-pendence, sharing, standing gently on the shoulders of giants, and reachingfor lofty goals The only word that comes close to that, of which I’m aware,

is the African word ubuntu It is found in many forms in many different

African languages And so we adopted it as the name of our project

We knew that our first release would have blemishes—warts—and gave itthe codename “The Warty Warthog.” We called ourselves “the warthogs”and coordinated our work on the #warthogs IRC channel Today, for bet-ter or worse, that’s turned into a tradition of codenames such as “Breezy

Badger” and “Dapper Drake.” As lighthearted as they sound, these names come to embody the spirit of our community as it works toward aparticular release This next one—Dapper—is exactly that: a man emerg-ing from youth, professional, bold, confident, and energetic This is ourfirst release that is designed to meet the needs of large organizations asmuch as developers and engineers In the same way, the Ubuntu commu-nity has moved from being something of a rebellion against the “Linuxestablishment” to a strong and professionally organized group.

code-What Makes Ubuntu So Popular?

First, this is the time for free software to come to the forefront, andUbuntu is very much the beneficiary of the vast amount of work that hasgone into building up a huge body of work in the GNU/Linux world Thatwork has been underway for nearly 30 years, in one form or another, butUbuntu is one way in which it is suddenly becoming “visible” to the non-specialist computer user We are in the middle of a great overturning of theindustry status quo The last time that happened, in the mid-1990s, waswhen the world suddenly found itself connected to itself—by the Internet.Every major company, especially those in the field of technology, had toexamine itself and ask the question, “How do we adapt to an Internetworld?” Today, every major technology company has to ask itself the ques-tion, “How do we adapt to a free software world?”

I would speculate and say that Ubuntu represents an idea whose time hascome We did not invent the free software movement—that honor goes toRichard Stallman and many others who had a vision far more profound at atime when it was hard to see how it could ever become reality But Ubuntuhas perhaps the honor of bringing that vision to a very wide audience in aform that we can all appreciate I hope that the real visionaries—those whohave led the way—will appreciate the decisions and the choices we make inbringing you this project Some will take exception—I know Linus prefersKDE to GNOME, for example, so he’s likely to be more of a fan of Kubuntuthan Ubuntu But in general, the ideas that others have had, the principles

of the free software movement, are well expressed in Ubuntu

Second, Ubuntu is a project on which you can have a real impact It has thebenefit of deep and reliable financial backing and a corporate team to give

it muscle, but it is in every regard an open project, with participation at thehighest levels by true volunteers We work in a fishbowl—our meetings takeplace online, in a public forum That can be tricky Building an operatingsystem is a fast-paced business full of compromise and tough decisions inthe face of little information There are disagreements and dirty laundry,and mistakes are made (I should know; some of them are mine You shouldhear the one about the Warty Warthog desktop artwork.) The transparency

of our environment, however, means that we can count on having robustconversations about our options—all of them, even the ones the core teamwould never have dreamed up It also means that mistakes are identified,discussed, and ultimately addressed faster than they would be if we livedand worked behind closed doors You get a better platform as a result

We work hard as a community to recognize the contributions of all sorts

of individuals—advocates, artists, Web forum moderators, channel tors, community event organizers, writers, translators, people who file andtriage bugs whatever your particular interest or talent, we will find away to integrate your contribution

opera-Perhaps most important is the way our approach to community ates Ubuntu from other free software projects with similar vision We try to

differenti-do all of this in a way that recognizes that disagreements are important butprevents those disagreements from creating deep divides in our commu-nity Our code of conduct may not be perfect, but it reminds each of us to

remember the meaning of the word ubuntu—that each of us has our best impact through the relationships we maintain with one another Finding

common ground and maintaining healthy communication are moreimportant for us as a community in the long run than a particular technicaldecision or the specific choice of words with which to translate “File” intoSpanish Our community governance structures—our Technical Boardand Community Council—exist to ensure that debates don’t become per-sonal and that decisions can be taken after all sides have been heard

If you are a software professional or curious about Linux, this book and thisplatform are an excellent choice You will learn about the world of Ubuntuand, indirectly, Debian and GNU/Linux These are great foundations forworking with the tools that I believe will come to define the “standard,” theeveryday computing base upon which we build our homes and offices

I once heard a proprietary software vendor say, “Linux is more expensivebecause skilled Linux professionals are more costly.” This is true It means,

of course, that Linux skills are more valuable! It won’t be true foreverbecause the world of Linux is expanding so rapidly that sooner or later wewill have to accept a position in the mainstream, and that takes off some ofthe “geek points” associated with being part of the “future of technology.”But right now, without a doubt, being ahead of the curve on Linux and onUbuntu is the right place to be If you’re this far into this foreword, you areclearly going to make it ;-)

It’s difficult for me to speculate on what the future might hold for theUbuntu project I know that I along with many others are loving theopportunity to be at the center of such an exciting initiative and are com-mitted to seeing where it leads us over the coming years I believe that itwill become a pervasive part of our everyday computing environment, so Iwould like to help make sure that we don’t make too many mistakes alongthe way! Please, come and join us in the fishbowl to help ensure we do avery, very good job

—Mark ShuttleworthUbuntu FounderApril 2006

AS WE WRITE THIS, it has been several years since we penned the first edition

of The Official Ubuntu Book Over that time, we have seen Ubuntu continue

its explosive growth Updating this book drives this fact home in strikingways For example, the number of users and posts in the Ubuntu Forumshas nearly doubled since the last edition of this book a year ago Again Thenumber of officially supported flavors of Ubuntu has increased as well

Again Once again, we feel blessed that The Official Ubuntu Book has been able to benefit from, and perhaps in a small way even contribute to, that suc-

cess Ultimately, that success paved the way for several subsequent editions,and now the sixth edition, of the book that you’re reading now

In the process, this book, like Ubuntu, continues to mature Our job asauthors, like that of the Ubuntu developers, now involves more updatingand polishing than it used to Distributed under a free license, a once-riskybook on a once-risky operating system is, just a few short years later, asclose to a sure thing as an author, publisher, and if we have done our jobwell, a reader, could hope for

And yet with success comes responsibility to our readers and to our userswith high expectations Ubuntu’s success is built in part of maturity andexcellence, and it cannot sacrifice these qualities if it will succeed We can-not either Our job as writers is complicated because we need to accuratelyreflect and represent both while catering to an increasing and increasinglydiverse group of users

As we’ve noted in the prefaces to previous editions of this book, being

Official has carried with it a set of rights and responsibilities Our book’s

title means that we must attempt to reflect and represent the whole Ubuntucommunity While we, as authors, are expected to put ourselves into the

xxix

book, it is understood that it can never be to the detriment of the values,principles, technologies, or structures of the Ubuntu community.

Doing this has been complicated as Ubuntu has grown In each edition, wehave added new information, because the Ubuntu community has grown

to include new projects In each revision of this book, we have needed toadd to the list of related projects, tools, and community initiatives As theUbuntu community grows, it is impossible to give a complete accounting

of what Ubuntu has to offer Creating a summary requires some hard sions At the end of the day, we are constrained by page count and our ownlimited schedules

deci-Meanwhile, as with earlier editions, we needed to write this book about anew release of Ubuntu while that version was under active developmentand was being redesigned, rethought, and rebuilt Every day, Ubuntu grows

in different, unpredictable ways, and this growth has increased tially with the size of the community and the diversity of the userbase Ourbook’s development process had to both match and track this process asour content was crafted, rewritten, adjusted, and allowed to mature itself

exponen-As in the previous edition, the contributors to this book go well beyondthose listed on the book’s cover Invisible to most readers, dozens of mem-bers of the community left their mark on different parts of the text of thisbook Although this degree of participation led to a writing process thatwas as hectic, and at times frustrating, as the process that builds Ubuntu,

we hope we can remind readers of the level of quality that this processinspires in our book’s subject In the places where we achieve this, we haveearned our book’s title With that goal in mind, we look forward to futureversions of Ubuntu and editions of this book wrought through the samecommunity-driven process

SPECIAL THANKS TOMark Shuttleworth, Jane Silber, and Billy Cina for alltheir efforts to get this book out into the world for both new and veteranUbuntu users Thanks also to Victor Ferns, director of Canonical, Ltd., forhis attention to the project Many people at Canonical, including Iain Farrell, Kat Kinnie, Julian Hubbard, Ivanka Majic, Cezzaine Haigh, JamesTroup, and Marcus Haslam, provided immeasurable assistance in the pro-duction of this book

We reached into the Ubuntu community for a top group of reviewers, each

of whom greatly contributed to the strength of the manuscript, includingAshley Rose, Allen Dye, Isabelle Duchatelle, Jim Kielman, and Joe Barker.Our thanks extend back to this group of reviewers and informationsources for help with the previous editions: Alan Pope, Jorge O Castro,Jonathan Riddell, Oliver Grawet, Dennis Kaarsemaker, Matthew East,Quim Gil, Dinko Korunic, Abhay Kumar, Jaldhar Vyas, Richard Weideman,and Scott Ritchie

And finally, we appreciate the efforts of the Prentice Hall team, includingDebra Williams Cauley, Kim Arney, Linda Begley, Richard Evans, KimBoedigheimer, Mark Taub, John Fuller, and Elizabeth Ryan

Benjamin Mako Hill is a Seattle native working out of Boston,

Massachu-setts Mako is a long-time free software developer and advocate He waspart of the founding Ubuntu team, one of the first employees of Canonical,

Ltd., and coauthor of The Official Ubuntu Server Book In addition to some

technical work, his charge at Canonical was to help grow the Ubuntu opment and user community during the project’s first year Mako is cur-rently a fellow at the MIT Center for Future Civic Media, and a researcherand Ph.D candidate at the MIT Sloan School of Management Mako hascontinued his involvement with Ubuntu as a member of the CommunityCouncil governance board, through development work, and through projectssuch as this book

devel-Matthew Helmke has been an Ubuntu user since April 2005 and an Ubuntu

Member since August 2006 He served from 2006 to 2011 on the UbuntuForum Council, providing leadership and oversight of the Ubuntu Forums,and spent two years on the Ubuntu regional membership approval boardfor Europe, the Middle East, and Africa He has written articles aboutUbuntu for magazines and websites, is the lead author of UbuntuUnleashed, and has written several books and articles on other topics Heworks for the iPlant Collaborative, which is funded by the National Sci-ence Foundation and is building the world’s first cyberinfrastructure forthe biological sciences

Amber Graner is an active Ubuntu Community member, whose path to

Ubuntu activism started as she blogged about her transition to Ubuntu in

2009 Amber contributes to the Ubuntu News Team, Ubuntu WomenProject, Ubuntu North Carolina LoCo Team, and more She assists withmany of the online Ubuntu tutorial weeks and various UbuCons Amberresides in Western North Carolina where she works as the Associate Web

Editor for Linux New Media Her writing can be found online and in print

for Linux Pro and Ubuntu User magazines Additionally Amber is often

found at Linux and open source events promoting, advocating, and aging participation in the Ubuntu Community and with the Ubuntuproject

encour-Corey Burger lives in Victoria, British Columbia, and is a long-term user

and contributor to Ubuntu A founder of the Ubuntu Canada group andformer member of the Community Council, he has been involved withUbuntu since its first release Corey is currently a geography student and hasmost recently worked for a Canadian Linux company He also contributes toOpenStreetMap and works to promote Ubuntu on Vancouver Island Coreyspeaks regularly about Ubuntu, OpenStreetMap, and open source to a widevariety of audiences

Jonathan Jesse is a full-time Microsoft Windows consultant specializing

in IT lifecycle management products Beginning with the Hoary hog release, he joined the Ubuntu Documentation Team by proofreadingand submitting patches to the mailing list, then worked on the Kubuntudocuments Currently, Jonathan is involved in working on bugs for theKubuntu Team, the Ubuntu Wiki, and the Laptop Testing Team Ubuntuand Kubuntu have given Jonathan a way to give back to the communitywithout having to be a developer, and he encourages everyone to comehelp him out

Hedge-Kyle Rankin is a senior systems administrator for Cyan, Inc.; the current

president of the North Bay Linux Users’ Group; the author of The Official

Ubuntu Server Book, Knoppix Hacks, Knoppix Pocket Reference, Linux timedia Hacks, and Ubuntu Hacks; and he has contributed to a number of

Mul-other O’Reilly books Kyle is also a columnist for Linux Journal and has had articles featured in PC Magazine, Tech Target, and other publications.

Jono Bacon is the Ubuntu community manager at Canonical, author of The

Art of Community, founder of the annual Community Leadership Summit,

founder of Severed Fifth, and cocreator of the popular LugRadio podcast

WELCOMEto The Official Ubuntu Book, Sixth Edition!

In recent years, the Ubuntu operating system has taken the open sourceand IT world by storm From out of nowhere, the Little Operating SystemThat Could has blossomed into a full-featured desktop and server offeringthat has won over the hearts of users everywhere Aside from the strongtechnical platform and impressive commitment to quality, Ubuntu alsoenjoys success because of its sprawling community of enthusiastic userswho have helped to support, document, and test every millimeter of theUbuntu landscape

In your hands you are holding the official, authorized guide to this sive operating system Each of the authors selected to work on this bookhas demonstrated a high level of technical competence, an unbridled com-mitment to Ubuntu, and the ability to share this knowledge in a simpleand clear manner These authors gathered together to create a book thatoffers a solid grounding to Ubuntu and explains how the many facets andfeatures of Ubuntu work

impres-About This Book

At the start of every book, on every bookshelf, in every shop, is a graph that sums up the intentions and aims for the book We have onevery simple, down-to-earth aim: to make the Ubuntu experience evenmore pleasant for users The Ubuntu developers and community havegone to great lengths to produce an easy-to-use, functional, and flexibleoperating system for doing, browsing, and creating all kinds of interestingthings This book augments that effort With such an integrated and flex-ible operating system, this guide acts as a tour de force for the many thingsyou can do with Ubuntu

para-The Scope of the Book

With so much to cover, we had our work cut out to write a book that couldcover the system in sufficient detail However, if we were to write in depthabout every possible feature in Ubuntu, you would need to buy a newbookcase to store the sheer amount of content

Part of the challenge in creating The Official Ubuntu Book was selecting the

topics and content that can be covered within a reasonably sized book Wehave identified the most essential content and written only about it Thesechosen topics not only include installation, use of the desktop, applications,multimedia, system administration, and software management, but alsoinclude a discussion of the community, online resources, and the philoso-phy behind Ubuntu and open source software As a bonus, we expandedour discussion of projects related to Ubuntu that will be of interest to you

We believe this book provides an ideal one-stop shop for getting startedwith Ubuntu

The Menu

Here is a short introduction to each chapter and what it covers

 Chapter 1—The Ubuntu Story: This spirited introduction describesthe Ubuntu project, its distribution, its development processes, andsome of the history that made it all possible

 Chapter 2—Installing Ubuntu: We walk through the installationprocess one step at a time to clearly describe how anyone interestedmay begin using Ubuntu on their own computer

 Chapter 3—Using Ubuntu on the Desktop: This is an informative andenjoyable introductory tour of the Ubuntu desktop, the applicationsincluded, and ways to configure and customize your desktop

 Chapter 4—Gaining Greater Proficiency: We explore some of theadvanced ways to use Ubuntu, including managing the system Thesefeatures are not vital if you want to use the computer only as a simpletool, but once you learn how to install and manage software, usehardware devices and printers, interact with remote computers, usethe terminal, and run some Windows programs under Ubuntu, youwill find your overall experience even more rewarding and enjoyable

 Chapter 5—The Ubuntu Server: This introduction to Ubuntu Serverinstallation and administration includes coverage of command-linepackage management, basic security topics, and advanced installerfeatures like logical volume management and RAID.

 Chapter 6—More Applications for Ubuntu: Here we discuss some

of the most interesting and useful options from among the softwarepackages available for Ubuntu but not installed by default Thesequality programs are interesting and useful, but either there is notenough space to include them on the installation CD or they arewithout as wide an audience as those programs preinstalled foreveryone

 Chapter 7—The Ubuntu Community: The Ubuntu community islarger and more active than many people realize We discuss many

of its facets, including what people like you do to build, promote,distribute, support, document, translate, and advocate Ubuntu—and

we tell you how you can join in the fun

 Chapter 8—Using Kubuntu: The most popular spin-off project fromUbuntu is Kubuntu This chapter provides a solid introduction andprimer for getting started

 Chapter 9—GNOME 3, GNOME Shell, and More: The default

graphical user interface for Ubuntu is Unity, discussed throughout thisbook Another option is KDE, discussed in Chapter 8 In Chapter 9, weintroduce other options for those who like to customize or experi-ment or who have unique needs

 Chapter 10—Ubuntu-Related Projects: There are a number of Linuxdistributions based on Ubuntu that you will find interesting andpossibly useful We discuss some of these as well as projects that areintegral to the creation of Ubuntu, such as Launchpad and Bazaar

 Chapter 11—Introducing Ubuntu One: Ubuntu One is a cloudstorage option that integrates perfectly into the Ubuntu desktop Afree version is provided by Canonical, with extra features available for a fee

 Appendix—Welcome to the Command Line: You can begin to takeadvantage of the power and efficiency of the command line with theclear, easy-to-use examples in our brief introduction

The Ubuntu team offers several installation options for Ubuntu users,including CDs for desktop, alternate install, and server install These three

CD images are conveniently combined onto one DVD included in theback of this book, allowing you to install Ubuntu for different configura-tions from just one disk There is also an option to test the DVD for defects

as well as a memory test option to check your computer

The first boot option on the DVD, Start or Install Ubuntu, will cover mostusers’ needs For more comprehensive information, check the Help feature

by selecting F1 on the boot menu You can also refer to Chapter 2, whichcovers the Ubuntu installation process in detail

You can find the DVD image, the individual CD images (for those whodon’t have a DVD drive), and Kubuntu and Ubuntu Server on www.ubuntu.com/download

 The Vision

 Free Software, Open Source, and GNU/Linux

 How the Vision Became Ubuntu

 What Is Ubuntu?

 Ubuntu Promises and Goals

 Sustaining the Vision: Canonical and the

Ubuntu Foundation

 Beyond the Vision: Ubuntu Subprojects,

Derivatives, and Spin-offs

 Summary

The Ubuntu Story