A Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux

by Sobell, Mark G.

• ISBN13: 9780137142958
• ISBN10: 0137142951
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-05-09
• Publisher: Prentice Hall

Summary

With complete, up-to-date coverage of Fedora 8 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5, this guide shows professionals how to install and configure Linux from the accompanying DVD containing a full version of Fedora 8, navigate its graphical user interfaces, set up Linux to provide file/print sharing and Internet services, and much more.

Author Biography

Mark G. Sobell is President of Sobell Associates Inc., a consulting firm that specializes in UNIX/Linux training, support, and custom software development. He has more than twenty-five years of experience working with UNIX and Linux systems and is the author of many best-selling books, including A Practical Guide to Red Hat^® Linux^®, Third Edition; A Practical Guide to Linux^® Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming; and A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux^®, all from Prentice Hall, and A Practical Guide to the UNIX System from Addison-Wesley.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xxxi
Welcome to Linux	p. 1
The GNU Linux Connection	p. 2
The Linux	p. 2.6
Kernel	p. 5
The Heritage of Linux: UNIX	p. 5
What Is So Good About Linux?	p. 6
Overview of Linux	p. 10
Additional Features of Linux	p. 14
Conventions Used in This Book	p. 16
Chapter Summary	p. 19
Exercises	p. 19
Installing Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux	p. 21
Installation Overview	p. 23
The Desktop Live Media CD and the Install Media DVD	p. 24
Planning the Installation	p. 24
The Installation Process	p. 36
The Medium: Where Is the Source Data?	p. 36
Downloading a CD/DVD (FEDORA)	p. 37
Checking and Burning the CD/DVD	p. 41
Rescue CD	p. 42
Gathering Information About the System	p. 43
Finding the Installation Manual	p. 44
More Information	p. 44
Chapter Summary	p. 45
Exercises	p. 46
Advanced Exercises	p. 46
Step-by-Step Installation	p. 47
Running a Fedora Live Session	p. 48
Installing Fedora/RHEL Linux	p. 50
Installation Tasks	p. 63
The X Window System	p. 80
Chapter Summary	p. 88
Exercises	p. 89
Advanced Exercises	p. 89
Getting Started with Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux	p. 91
Introduction to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux	p. 93
Curbing Your Power: Superuser/root Access	p. 94
A Tour of the Fedora/RHEL Desktop	p. 94
Getting the Facts: Where to Find Documentation	p. 114
More About Logging In	p. 123
Controlling Windows: Advanced Operations	p. 131
Chapter Summary	p. 134
Exercises	p. 135
Advanced Exercises	p. 136
The Linux Utilities	p. 137
Special Characters	p. 138
Basic Utilities	p. 139
Working with Files	p. 141
(Pipe): Communicates Between Processes	p. 148
Four More Utilities	p. 149
Compressing and Archiving Files	p. 151
Locating Commands	p. 156
Obtaining User and System Information	p. 158
Communicating with Other Users	p. 162
Email	p. 164
Tutorial: Creating and Editing a File with vim	p. 164
Chapter Summary	p. 171
Exercises	p. 174
Advanced Exercises	p. 175
The Linux Filesystem	p. 177
The Hierarchical Filesystem	p. 178
Directory Files and Ordinary Files	p. 178
Pathnames	p. 183
Directory Commands	p. 185
Working with Directories	p. 190
Access Permissions	p. 192
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The BookWhether you are an end user, a system administrator, or a little of each, this book explains with step-by-step examples how to get the most out of a Fedora or Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) system. In 28 chapters, this book takes you from installing a Fedora or Red Hat Enterprise Linux system through understanding its inner workings to setting up secure servers that run on the system. The AudienceThis book is designed for a wide range of readers. It does not require you to have programming experience, but having some experience using a general-purpose computer is helpful. This book is appropriate for Studentswho are taking a class in which they use Linux Home userswho want to set up and/or run Linux Professionalswho use Linux at work System administratorswho need an understanding of Linux and the tools that are available to them Computer science studentswho are studying the Linux operating system Programmerswho need to understand the Linux programming environment Technical executiveswho want to get a grounding in Linux BenefitsA Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux , College Edition,gives you a broad understanding of many facets of Linux, from installing Fedora/RHEL through using and customizing it. No matter what your background, this book gives you the knowledge you need to get on with your work. You will come away from this book understanding how to use Linux, and this book will remain a valuable reference for years to come. OverlapIf you readA Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming,you will notice some overlap between that book and the one you are reading now. The first chapter, and the chapters on the utilities, the filesystem, programming tools, and the appendix on regular expressions are very similar in the two books, as are the three chapters on the Bourne Again Shell ( bash ). Chapters that appear in this book but not inA Practical Guide to Linux Commands, Editors, and Shell Programminginclude Chapters 2 and 3 (installation), Chapters 4 and 8 (Fedora/RHEL and the GUI), Chapter 10 (networking), all of the chapters in Part IV (system administration) and Part V (servers), and Appendix C (security). This Book Includes Fedora 8 on a DVDA Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux , College Edition,includes a DVD that you can use to install or upgrade to Fedora 8. Chapter 2 helps you get ready to install Fedora. Chapter 3 provides step-by-step instructions for installing Fedora from this DVD. This book guides you through learning about, using, and administrating Fedora or Red Hat Enterprise Linux. What Is New in This Edition?The college edition ofA Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux covers Fedora 8 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 5. There is a new section on LDAP in Chapter 21. Chapters 2 and 3 cover booting into a live session and installing from live media. All the changes, large and small, that have been made to Fedora/RHEL since the previous edition of this book have been incorporated into the explanations and examples. Features of This BookThis book is designed and organized so you can get the most out of it in the shortest amount of time. You do not have to read this book straight through in page order. Once you are comfortable using Linux, you can use this book as a