Wiley red hat linux fedora for dummies dec 2003 ISBN 076454232x

We tried our hardest to fill up this book with the things you need to knowabout, such as how to Install Red Hat Linux Get connected to the Internet by using broadband DSL and cablemodems

Chapter 9 - Gnowing GNOME

Chapter 10 - Gnowing More Applications

Configure broadband Internet connections, work with OpenOffice.org, and more Red Hat has merged its

Discover how to:

Get online with cable, DSL, or dial-up modems Manage e-mail with Mozilla and Evolution

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“25 years”), the past 18 years of which have been spent using,

Paul G Sery is a computer systems engineer employed by Sandia

National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico He is a member ofthe Computer Support Unit, Special Projects, which specializes in

Dedication

Jon ‘maddog’ Hall: To Mom & Pop (TM), whose aversion to things

electronic is well known, and who can still call their son Jon rather thanmaddog

Paul G Sery: To my wife, Lidia Maura Vazquez de Sery.

Author’s Acknowledgments

never was into “Star Trek,” and I am pecking at this keyboard on

Saturday night, but my beautiful wife sure has made me a better man

I would also like to thank Anne Hamilton and Laura Lewin, who gave methe chance to write in general and this book in particular Both showedgreat confidence and patience in me I am very grateful and wish themsuccess in their ventures

How useful was Oso? Well, one night while working on this book I got aphone call Leaving my apple pie behind next to the keyboard, I wentdownstairs to take the call and passed him on his way up I should haveknown something was up because he had a cell phone with him and noone 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 ouronline registration form located at www.dummies.com/register/.Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include thefollowing:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and Media Development Project Editor

Red Hat Linux Fedora For Dummies is designed to help you install and

use Red Hat Linux This book shows you how to do fun and interesting —

to say nothing of useful — tasks with Red Hat Linux This book is alsodesigned to be an effective doorstop or coffee cup coaster Whatever youuse it for, we hope that you have fun

This book is designed to be a helping-hands tutorial It provides a place

to turn for help and solace in those moments when, after two hours oftrying to get your network connection working, your dog bumps into thecable and it magically starts working

Note: At press time, Red Hat renamed its Linux product to the Fedora

Project Throughout this book, we usually refer to the product as Red HatLinux You’ll probably see the product referred to as the Fedora Project inthe news, on the Web, and elsewhere, but you can rest assured that thedifferent terms, as used in this book, are referring to the same product

We tried our hardest to fill up this book with the things you need to knowabout, such as how to

Install Red Hat Linux

Get connected to the Internet by using broadband DSL and cablemodems or old-fashioned dial-up modems

Get connected to your Local Area Network (LAN)

Build a simple but effective firewall

Build Internet and LAN services, such as Web pages and printservers

Use Red Hat Linux to play CDs and listen to Internet radio

stations

Use the GNOME desktop environment

Take advantage of useful and usable applications, such as theOpenOffice desktop productivity suite, Evolution desktop

organizer and e-mail client, and streaming multimedia MPlayer.Work with the OpenOffice desktop productivity suite to satisfy

version of Red Hat Linux you find on the companion DVD;

we also describe how to download several softwarepackages not found on the DVD-ROMs Feel free to useother versions of Red Hat Linux or even other Linuxdistributions, but be aware that our instructions may notwork exactly or even at all Good luck!

computer because this book describes how to install Red HatLinux on a computer

Have no duct tape: You want to put the Red Hat Linux operating

system and the computer together, and using duct tape hasn’tworked

A system administration book: Again, we don’t have enough

space to do the subject justice We provide instructions on how toperform certain essential administrative tasks, like adding users,packages, and network connections This book selects certaintopics to focus on and leaves the rest for other books

At computer conventions, thousands of computer people get togetherand talk about deep technical issues, such as

What is the best hardware for running Red Hat Linux?

Is Coke better than Pepsi?

Could Superman beat Batman?

Could Superman, Batman, and Spiderman together beat ThePunisher? (No way!)

But these conventions aren’t the types we mean Our conventions areshorthand ways of designating specific information, such as what is andisn’t a command or the meaning of certain funny-looking symbols

Typing code

We show you how to use graphical interfaces to run most of the

programs, utilities, and applications we describe in this book Sometimes,however, running commands from a text-based interface is better or

necessary In Chapter 4, for example, we describe how to start a terminalemulator window in which to run the command In anticipation of runningtext-based commands, we describe the conventions we use

When you see filenames, directories, commands, and parameters in thetext, they’re formatted in monospace type That helps differentiatethose items from the general text

When you see words in boldface, they indicate something you shouldtype; for example:

Type man chown at the command prompt and press Enter.

That line means to enter the command man chown and press the Enter(or Return) key The command is then executed (Throughout this book,

we say “press the Enter key” whenever we want you to execute a

Commands not shown in the text, but set off on lines by themselves, looklike this:

example, you should enter either echo “one” or echo “two” or echo “three” if you see the command echo “{one|two|three}”.

An ellipsis ( .) means and so on or to repeat the preceding

command line as needed

Don’t concern yourself much with these conventions for now In mostchapters in this book, you don’t need to know these particulars Whenyou do need to know something about a particular syntax, come back tothis introduction for a refresher course

Keystrokes and such

Keystrokes are shown with a plus sign between the keys For example,Ctrl+ Alt+Delete means that you should press the Ctrl key, Alt key, and

Most applications and utilities we describe in this book use a graphicaluser interface (GUI), such as GNOME, which allows you to control yourcomputer by pointing and clicking with your mouse Occasionally,

however, we give nongraphical instructions that require you to press keys

on your keyboard In those situations, we often simplify the instructions

by saying “click OK.” That instruction generally means that you press theTab key, which moves the cursor to the OK button, and then press theEnter key That two-step process is equivalent to clicking an OK button in

a GUI

Like all proper For Dummies books, this book is organized into

independent parts You can read the parts in any order Heck, try readingthem backward for a real challenge This book is not meant to be readfrom front cover to back; rather, it’s meant to be a reference book thathelps you find what you’re looking for when you’re looking for it Betweenthe Contents at a Glance page, the table of contents, and the index, youshould have no problem finding what you need

If you do read the chapters in this book in order, you encounter the usefuland interesting things first and the more technical items last For

example, after installing Red Hat Linux in Part I, you may want to

proceed immediately to Part II to see how to connect Linux to the Internet

or your local network From there, you can use your new workstation tosurf the Internet and use e-mail

The following sections describe each part

Part I : Installing Red Hat Linux

In Part I, you find out what Linux is and how to prepare your computer toinstall Red Hat Linux We then walk you through the installation and showyou the basics of working with Red Hat Linux

Part II : Got Net?

In Part II, you find out about connecting to the Internet and local

networks You see how to jump on the Internet with your everyday

modem or high-speed (broadband) DSL or cable modem We also showyou how to connect to an existing network If that local network has ahigh-speed Internet connection, you can use it as your portal to the

wonderful world of surfing The Internet can be dangerous, so we includeinstructions for creating your own firewall

Part III : Linux, Huh! What Is It Good For? Absolutely

Everything!

with Red Hat Linux You’re introduced to the GNOME desktop windowenvironment You’re taken through its paces by finding out how to move,resize, hide, and close windows and how to use the file manager andmuch more Two chapters are devoted to using the Red Hat Linux

multimedia capabilities, such as listening to CDs and MP3s, in addition tohow to rip and record them The world’s radio stations are now available

to you with streaming media technology We introduce you to the Mozillabrowser so that you can surf the Net and use the Evolution organizer toread your e-mail, do calendaring, and other tasks We also describe indetail the full-featured OpenOffice desktop productivity suite You can useOpenOffice with your Red Hat Linux machine to do all your writing andother work-related functions You can even write a book with it! Finally,you see how to get organized with Red Hat Linux

security and troubleshooting network problems Insert your pocket

protector, strap the old HP calculator to your hip, retape your glasses,and get ready for Saturday night!

Part V : The Part of Tens

A For Dummies book just isn’t complete without The Part of Tens, where

you can find ten all-important resources and answers to the ten mostbothersome questions people have after installing Red Hat Linux (Thefolks at Red Hat Software provided these questions.) We introduce theten most important security concerns too

Part VI : Appendixes

is sometimes helpful when you’re installing Red Hat Linux Appendixes C

and D introduce you to using and managing the Linux file system

Appendix E shows how to use the Red Hat Package manager (RPM)

Appendix F completes this book by describing what you can find on thecompanion DVD-ROM

Heck, you don’t have to read any of this book if you don’t want to, butwhy did you buy it? (Not that we’re complaining.) Part I has backgroundinformation If you don’t want it, don’t read it Also, the text in sidebars isoptional, although often helpful If you’re on the fast track to using Linux,you can skip the sidebars and the text next to the Technical Stuff icon, asdescribed in the following section But we suggest instead that you slowdown a bit and enjoy the experience

This section describes the icons you see in this book Icons amplify thediscussion by injecting interesting or important information

Tip Nifty little shortcuts and timesavers are under this icon Red Hat

Linux is a powerful operating system, and you can save unbelievableamounts of time and energy by using its tools and programs We hopethat our tips show you how

You’re about to join the 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 10 years We havefound 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 The time and energy you expend in becoming

familiar with it will be worthwhile Carpe Linuxum.

Part I: Installing Red Hat Linux

Chapter 3, when you install your own penguin (Linus Torvalds, the

inventor of Linux, loves penguins; and they have been adopted as theLinux mascot.) Chapter 4 gives you a brief, but important, introduction toworking with Red Hat Linux

Chapter 1: And in the Opposite Corner a Penguin?

productivity tool, Internet portal, multimedia workstation, and basic

network server You can do lots of things with Red Hat Linux, and thischapter gives you an overview of the possibilities in addition to a brieflook at the history of Linux

In the beginning of computerdom (said in a booming, thunderous voice), the world was filled with hulking mainframes These slothful beasts

lumbered through large corporations; required a special species of

ultranerds to keep them happy; and ate up huge chunks of space, power,and money Then came the IBM PC and Microsoft, and the world

changed Power to the people — sort of

In 1991, a student at the University of Helsinki named Linus Torvaldsbecame dissatisfied with the standard PC operating system Torvaldsthought that the Unix operating system might be better suited than MS-DOS or Windows to help him accomplish his work Unix was invented inthe 1970s and, although powerful, was expensive, so he began writinghis own version of Unix Now, writing your own operating system is a

simple task — not! After formulating the basic parts, Torvalds recruited a

team of talented programmers through the Internet, and together they

created a new operating system, or kernel, now named Linux.

One of the most important decisions Torvalds made in the early days ofLinux was to freely distribute the Linux kernel code for anyone to do with

Think of open source software as a chain You can use the existing chainand add another link to the chain However, you can’t stop anyone fromusing the chain or adding to it

The lack of proprietary restrictions on Linux has led to drastic

associated subsystems In contrast, proprietary operating systems arelike a black box where no one except a small group of insiders knowswhat goes on inside Only that select group can make modifications, andthat limits innovation and improvements

Go back to our history lesson In early spring 1994, the first real version

of Linux (Version 1.0) was made available for public use Even then itwas an impressive operating system that ran smartly on computers withless than 2MB of RAM and a simple 386 microprocessor Linux 1.0 alsoincluded free features for which other operating systems charged

hundreds of dollars Nowadays, tens of millions of users enjoy Linux athome and work

Technical Stuff By the way, if you’re wondering about the whole

penguin thing, the answer is disappointingly simple Linus loves

penguins The Linux world naturally started using it as its symbol Thefriendly and familiar penguin — whose name is Tux, by the way — nowsymbolizes All Things Linux

Linux is freely available software The source code for Linux, which is theheart and soul of the operating system, is also publicly available TheFree Software Foundation (FSF) contributes much of the utilitarian

software that makes using Linux much easier — FSF is the brainchild ofthe great Richard Stallman

Red Hat Linux combines all those pieces plus some additional

applications and then goes another step and adds a few of its own to

create an integrated product Red Hat, Inc., combines the basic Linux

operating system with software (some made by other companies andsome made by Red Hat) to produce a package with a value that’s greater

than the sum of its parts That combination is known as a distribution, or

flavor, of Linux.

So that you can get up and running as quickly as possible, we have

bundled the Red Hat Linux 10 distribution on the DVD in the back of thisbook The Publisher’s Edition contains all the major parts of the full RedHat distribution except the source code and some MS-DOS utilities (forexample, the Windows File Allocation Table, or FAT, repartitioning

program First nondestructive Interactive Partitions Splitting [FIPS] isn’tincluded)

Tip If your computer can’t use DVD-ROMs, you can get the full Red Hat

Linux distribution on CD-ROMs by sending in the coupon in the back ofthis book

Red Hat Linux was initially used almost solely to provide network

services However, Red Hat started working hard to make Linux suitablefor your everyday use The result is that Red Hat Linux is now used inboth server and desktop environments It’s used by individuals,

businesses, and governments to cut costs, improve performance, andjust plain get work done

You can use Red Hat Linux as a desktop workstation, a network server,

an Internet gateway, a firewall, the basis of an embedded system (such

as a smart VCR or a robot), or even as a multiprocessor supercomputer

This list shows some cool Red Hat Linux features you can use:

Desktop productivity tools: Red Hat has successfully worked

overtime over the past few years to make Linux work on yourdesktop Red Hat bundles software, such as the OpenOffice suite

of productivity tools, so that you can get your everyday work

done The OpenOffice suite includes a full-function word

processor plus spreadsheet, presentation, graphical drawing, andWeb page creation tools Its word processor can read and writeall Windows Office formats plus many others, such as

WordPerfect When you install Red Hat Linux, OpenOffice isinstalled and icons are placed on the menu bar to make

accessing it easy

Multimedia stuff: Red Hat Linux packs numerous multimedia

tools for you to use You can play, record, and rip audio tracksfrom CDs and DVDs You can listen to streamed media sources,such as radio stations, over the Internet Linux also lets you

transfer photos and other items from your own cameras and MP3players, for example

Network services: Red Hat Linux works as a network-based

server too Linux found its initial popularity performing jobs likeWeb serving and file and printer sharing and hasn’t missed abeat We show you how to create several network services

Boosting your personal workstation

We cannot emphasize enough how well Red Hat Linux works as a

personal workstation With Red Hat Linux, you can easily create yourown, inexpensive, flexible, and powerful personal workstation Linux

provides the platform for most of the applications you need to get yourwork done Many applications come bundled with Red Hat Linux, fromdesktop productivity suites, to web browsers and multimedia systems, for

The following list describes just a few major categories of free softwareavailable for Linux, along with some examples of popular programs:

Office suites: OpenOffice provides a complete desktop

productivity suite that includes an advanced word processor, aspreadsheet, and a presentation editor, for example The

OpenOffice word processor can read and write Microsoft Wordfiles, HTML editors, spreadsheet editors, and graphics editors

Tip OpenOffice provides its own file format but also reads and

writes Microsoft Office 97, Office 2000, and Office XP files It alsocan use other formats, such as Rich Text Format Check out thesite, at www.openoffice.org

Multimedia players: Red Hat packages and installs the open

source XMMS player You can use XMMS to play downloadedOgg/Vorbis files or continuous Ogg/Vorbis streams You can

download the excellent open source MPlayer audio and videoplayer MPlayer lets you watch DVDs and listen to MediaPlayerstreams You can, alternatively, download a free version of theproprietary RealPlayer, from RealNetworks, to listen to RealAudiostreams The Internet is going nuts with multimedia, and thesemultimedia players let you get in on the action

Running Microsoft Windows applications and environments:

You can use Linux to run Windows programs The WINE (Wine IsNot an Emulator) system facilitates running Windows programsdirectly under Linux The commercial VMware workstation

product creates a virtual computer within your Linux PC Thevirtual machine looks, acts, smells, and performs just like a realcomputer, but is really just a program running under the Linuxoperating system You can install Linux or Windows or both onthe virtual machine Both WINE and VMware create a bridgebetween Linux and Windows to give you the best of both worlds

Web browsers and e-mail clients: The open source browser,

in handy if you’re using an older, slower modem because theydon’t require as much speed as Mozilla does You can use

Mozilla or the new Ximian Evolution personal organizer, calendar,and e-mail client

Technical Stuff Linux is for nerds too

The Linux operating system has been ported (or converted) from the

32-bit Intel architecture to a number of other architectures, includingAlpha, MIPS, PowerPC, and SPARC This conversion gives users achoice of hardware manufacturers and keeps the Linux kernel flexible

for new processors Linux handles symmetric multiprocessing (it can

take on more than one CPU or mathematical and logical programmingunit per system box) In addition, projects are in the works to providesophisticated processing capabilities, such as

Real-time programming: Controlling machinery or test equipment High availability: Running a server that needs to work all the time Parallel processing: Amplifying the problem-solving power of a

computer by using multiple processors to work in parallel Parallelprocessing systems come in various flavors, such as Symmetric MultiProcessing (SMP), extreme Linux systems, and Beowulf clusters.Research organizations and even individuals can create machineswith supercomputer capabilities at a fraction of the price of

supercomputers In certain cases, extreme Linux systems have beenmade from obsolete PCs, costing the organizations that make themnothing in material costs

Using Linux network tools and services

Linux computers can provide many powerful and flexible network

services Your Red Hat Linux Publisher’s Edition DVD comes packed

Apache web server: Of all the web servers on the Internet, the

majority are run by the open source Apache web server You canstart a simple web server by simply installing the bundled Apachesoftware from this book’s companion DVD-ROM

OpenSSH: The open source version of Secure Shell enables you

to communicate securely across the Internet Secure Shell ismuch safer than Telnet because Secure Shell encrypts your

communication when you log in (even when you log in to othercomputers), making much slimmer the chance that others candiscover your passwords and other sensitive information

OpenSSH also provides other authentication and security

features and enables you to securely copy files from machine tomachine With OpenSSH, you can prevent people from listening

to your communication

Internet accessing utilities: Red Hat Linux provides several

configuration utilities that help you connect to the Internet Theutilities help you to configure DSL, cable modems, and plain oldtelephone modems to connect to the Internet They also help you

netfilter/iptables filtering software, which is included onthe companion DVD-ROM Building a firewall is covered in

Chapter 8

This list is just a sample of the network-y things you can do with Red HatLinux We describe many of them in this book, but it takes much more

exploration to find them all!

Chapter 2: Getting Ready for Red Hat Linux

In This Chapter

Preparing to install Red Hat Linux

Determining whether your Windows partition is FAT or NTFSDefragmenting your hard drive

Resizing Windows 9x/Me FAT partitions

Resizing Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP NTFSpartitions

All major personal computer (PC) manufacturers now install MicrosoftWindows on their machines by default However, you can still purchasecomputers without an operating system via mail-order or from local,

nonbrand stores

What does that mean? Basically, you can skip this chapter if you have acomputer with no preinstalled operating system You can also skip thischapter if you have a Windows computer and are willing to reformat yourhard disk, permanently erasing its contents You can also skip this

chapter if your Windows computer includes a secondary partition onwhich you can install Linux

Tip A partition is a portion of a disk drive used to organize files and

directories For example, the famous Windows C: drive is installed on itsown partition A partition can use all or part of a disk Most systems useone large partition that hogs up an entire hard drive

Otherwise, you have to make accommodations so that Red Hat Linuxcan live alongside your existing Windows partition Because Linux is aneasygoing fellow who gets along well with others, you can install it on thesame hard drive with Windows This type of configuration is a called a

dual boot system: You choose which operating system to use when you

power up, or boot, your computer.

This chapter shows you how to prepare your hard drive so that Linux andWindows can live in harmony It will be a love-fest.

Before you install Red Hat Linux alongside Windows, you need to getyour hard drive ready This list provides an overview of the disk

preparation process:

1 Put on a red fedora.

2 Back up your computer.

The processes we describe in this chapter should not affectyour existing Windows installation However, you can never betoo safe when dealing with your precious files, so you shouldback them up A description of how to back up a Windows

computer is beyond the scope of this book We suggest thatyou look into using a product like Norton Ghost 2003 Thatsystem both backs up and repartitions your computer A sidebenefit of Ghost is that you can use it to repartition your harddrive Numerous other commercial and freeware (not to beconfused with open source) backup systems are available

3 Determine how your Windows computer’s hard drive is formatted.

Microsoft Windows uses two types of disk formats: FAT (FileAccess Table) and NTFS (NT File System) FAT is older andless advanced than NTFS However, free tools are available forresizing FAT-based disks to make room for Linux You have topurchase commercial software to repartition NTFS systems

4 Defragment your disk.

All resizing programs require you to defragment your disk

before proceeding Over time, the bits and bytes that compriseyour files tend to get scattered around your hard drive Resizingmay not work or may even cause problems if your computerhas too much fragmentation

5 Repartition your computer’s hard drive to make room to

Windows (or another operating system).

You can use either destructive or nondestructive resizing to

make room for Linux Destructive resizing wipes everything off your hard drive and starts fresh Nondestructive resizing uses

Windows utilities to dynamically shrink the existing partition andthen uses the freed space to make a new Linux partition

The open source FIPS (First nondestructive Interactive Partition Splitting)program is supplied with the full Red Hat Linux distribution to repartitionFAT disks You need to use commercial utilities, like PartitionMagic orNorton Ghost, to repartition NTFS disks; both these programs also work

on FAT systems

The process of determining your partition type is straightforward Theseinstructions describe how to use the tools provided by Windows

The following section describes how to defragment both FAT and NTFS partitions