linux bible 2005 ed

Linux
®
Bible
2005 Edition
Christopher Negus
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Linux
®
Bible
2005 Edition
Christopher Negus
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Linux® Bible 2005 Edition
Published by
Wiley Publishing, Inc.
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Indianapolis, IN 46256
www.wiley.com
Copyright © 2005 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana
Published simultaneously in Canada
ISBN: 0-7645-7949-5
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Negus, Chris, 1957–
Linux bible 2005 edition/Christopher Negus.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7645-7949-5 (paper/dvd)
1. Linux. 2. Operating systems (Computers) I. Title.
QA76.76.063N422 2005
005.4'32- - dc22
2004028132

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. 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.
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About the Author
Chris Negus has authored or co-authored dozens of books on Linux and UNIX,
including the Red Hat Linux Bible (all editions), Linux Troubleshooting Bible,
and Linux Toys. He worked with the organization at AT&T that developed UNIX
for eight years before moving to Utah to help contribute to Novell’s short-lived
UnixWare project in the early 1990s. When not writing about Linux, Chris rides the
400 trail with his wife Sheree, builds things with his son Seth, and plays soccer when
he can.
Contributing Authors
David Dalan is foremost a husband and a father. Although formally trained as a geol-
ogist, he now spends the bulk of his professional time writing books, making and
teaching music, and earning his keep as a professional geek. David has worked on
books ranging in topic from Cisco certification to Apache server administration.
Wayne Tucker is a Linux enthusiast and has been a professional system administra-
tor for six years. He is currently a technical manager, systems administrator, and net-
work engineer at an Internet company in Washington state. He lives in Bellingham,
Washington, with his beloved wife Danielle, whom he would like to thank for her
patience while he was working on this project. His future projects include continu-
ing his education and working on the things that have recently accumulated on his
“honey-do” list.
Kurt Wall is a professional technical writer by trade and a historian by training.
These days, Kurt works for TimeSys Corporation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His
primary responsibility is managing TimeSys’ Content Group. In addition to oversee-
ing production of the technical and end-user documentation of TimeSys’ embedded
Linux operating system and development tools, he writes most of the documenta-

tion for TimeSys’s embedded Linux products and all of the content available on the
TimeSys Network. Kurt has written all or parts of 15 books on Linux system admin-
istration and programming topics and contributes the occasional product review to
LinuxPlanet. In his spare time, he has no spare time.
Kurt, who dislikes writing about himself in the third person, receives entirely too
much e-mail at

Paul Love, CISSP, CISA, CISM, Security+ has been in the IT field for 15 years. Paul
holds a Master’s of Science degree in Network Security and a Bachelor’s in Information
Systems. He has co-authored one Linux security book, contributed to another secu-
rity book, and has been the technical editor for more than 10 best-selling Linux and
UNIX books. Paul also ran a successful Linux portal site during the dot-com era and
has been an avid UNIX/Linux user and administrator for many years. Paul is currently
a security manager at a large financial services company.
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Credits
Acquisitions Editor
Debra Williams Cauley
Development Editor
Maryann Steinhart
Production Editor
Gabrielle Nabi
Technical Editor
Dilip Thomas
Copy Editors
Kim Cofer
Howard Jones
Editorial Manager
Mary Beth Wakefield
Vice President & Executive

Group Publisher
Richard Swadley
Vice President and Publisher
Joseph B. Wikert
Project Coordinator
Erin Smith
Graphics and Layout Technicians
Beth Brooks
Carrie Foster
Jennifer Heleine
Shelly Lea
Barry Offringa
Heather Pope
Heather Ryan
Quality Control Technicians
Laura Albert
Amanda Briggs
John Greenough
Jessica Kramer
Susan Moritz
Carl Pierce
Brian Walls
Media Development Specialist
Travis Silvers
Proofreading and Indexing
TECHBOOKS Production Services
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As always, I dedicate this book to my wife Sheree.
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Preface
I
nsert the DVD or CD that comes with this book into your PC. Within five min-
utes, you’ll be able to try out Linux with a full range of desktop applications.
Within an hour, you can have a full-blown Linux desktop or server system installed
on your computer. If you are like most of us who have been bitten by the Linux bug,
you won’t ever look back.
The Linux Bible 2005 Edition is here to open your eyes to what Linux is, where it
came from, and where it’s going. But, most of all, the book is here to hand you Linux
and help you get started. Because Linux is the operating system of free speech and
free choice, the Linux Bible gives you choices in selecting the Linux that is right for
you.
On the DVD and CD that come with this book are 10 different Linux distributions
that you are free to install and try out. You learn how those distributions are alike
or different, and the book leads you through the basics of installing and setting up
your Linux system as:
✦ A desktop computer. You have a full range of office, music, gaming, graphics,
and other applications to use.
✦ A server computer. Using some of the world’s best server software, you can
set up your computer to be a Web server, file server, mail server, or print
server.
✦ A workstation. You can draw on thousands of open source programming tools
to develop your own software applications.
Unlike other books on Linux, this book doesn’t tie you to one Linux distribution.
The book teaches you the essentials of Linux graphical interfaces, shell commands,
and basic system administration. Separate chapters break down most of the major
Linux distributions available today. Then descriptions of the major software pro-
jects in most Linux distributions (KDE and GNOME desktops, Apache Web servers,
Samba file and printer sharing, and so on) guide you in setting up and using those
features, regardless of which Linux you choose.

Understanding the Linux Mystique
To calm your fears that “free” software can’t be that good, this book guides you
through the strange and circuitous path of open source software development that
led to the Linux phenomenon. It also details the major companies and organizations
that are behind Linux and the open source movement today.
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Preface
Along the way, you learn how you can become part of the open source community,
whose stars are known by a single name (like Linus) or a few initials (like rms). You’ll
be staggered by the number of open source projects, forums, and mailing lists that
are thriving today (and always looking for more people to get involved).
How This Book Is Organized
Learn the basics of what goes into Linux and you will be able to use all sorts of
devices and computers in the future. The book is organized in a way that will enable
you to start off at the very beginning with Linux, but still grow to the point where you
can get going with some powerful server and programming features, if you care to.
Part I assumes that someone has set up a Linux system in front of you and you want
to start learning the basics of how to
✦ Use the shell (Chapter 2).
✦ Work with your graphical desktop (Chapter 3).
In Part II, you learn how to
✦ Do basic administration (Chapter 4).
✦ Attach to the Internet (Chapter 5).
✦ Secure your Linux system (Chapter 6).
If you don’t have Linux installed yet, this book helps you out in a big way: the com-
panion DVD and CD include a variety of Linux distributions you can try. Part III
(Chapters 7 through 18) describe each of those distributions and how to install
them. Appendix A tells you what’s on the DVD and CD, how to install from the DVD
or CD, and how to burn additional installation CDs from the software we provide.

In Part IV, you learn to get some fun and useful features going in Linux so that you can
✦ Play music and video (Chapter 19).
✦ Write documents and work with graphics (Chapter 20).
✦ Use Web browsers and e-mail clients (Chapter 21).
✦ Play games (Chapter 22).
Linux creates powerful servers, and in Part V you learn to
✦ Set up a Web server using Apache, MySQL, and PHP in Linux (Chapter 23).
✦ Run a mail server (Chapter 24).
✦ Share printers with a CUPS print server (Chapter 25).
✦ Share files with a Samba or NFS file server (Chapter 26).
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Preface
If you are coming to Linux for its programming environment, Part VI provides chap-
ters that describe
✦ Programming environments and interfaces (Chapter 27).
✦ Programming tools and utilities (Chapter 28).
In addition, Appendix B can help get you “plugged in” to the Linux community.
What You Will Get From This Book
By the time you finish this book, you’ll have a good basic understanding of many
of the major features in Linux and how you can use them. If you decide then that
you want to go a bit deeper into any Red Hat Linux distribution, Red Hat Fedora
Linux 3 Bible would be a good next step, with content that includes how to set up
many different types of Linux servers. If you are more technically oriented, the
Linux Troubleshooting Bible can be a good way to learn more advanced skills for
securing and troubleshooting Linux systems.
Given the size of thousands of software features available for Linux systems, we can’t
possibly cover everything in one book. To expand our coverage in a few important
areas, we created the Linux Bible 2005 Edition Web site (
www.wiley.com/go/

LinuxBible2005
). Refer to that site for coverage of many application and server
features that didn’t make it into this text.
To order the source code for Fedora, see the coupon printed at the back of the
book. To order source code for any of the other Linux distributions included on the
DVD or CD, go to
www.wiley/go/linuxbible2005source to download a coupon
with further details.
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Acknowledgments
I
consider anyone who has contributed to the open source community to be a
contributor to the book you see in front of you. The backbone of any Linux dis-
tribution is formed by the organizations that produce the distributions, the major
projects included in Linux, and the thousands of people who give their time and
code to support Linux. So, thanks to you all!
For their help on understanding particular Linux distributions, I’d like to thank
Patrick Volkerding (creator of Slackware), Kai Staats (CEO of Terra Soft Solutions,
makers of Yellow Dog Linux), and Jesse Keating (Fedora Legacy Project), who took
the time to answer my questions. Likewise, I’d like to thank Charles Mauch for help-
ing me get started with Gentoo and Joel Parker for building my computing infras-
tructure so that when I work, no Linux distribution is more than a click away.
My Linux users group (TACLUG.org) was an invaluable resource. Whether on the
group’s mailing list or personally at meetings, the group members have been
extremely valuable to me (providing direct input to this book, as well as contribut-
ing to my personal growth with Linux).
As for the contributing authors on this book, I couldn’t have asked for a finer group.
Without the contributions of David Dalan, Wayne Tucker, Kurt Wall, and Paul Love,
this book might never have gotten done. Likewise, technical editor Dilip Thomas

did a great job pointing out ways of improving the book.
Thanks to the folks at Wiley for helping me press through the project. Without
Debra Williams Cauley, I would surely not have known (on a daily basis) how far
behind I was on my schedule. Maryann Steinhart proved to be a tough, but kind,
editor. Thanks to Margot Maley Hutchison, Kimberly Valentini, and Maureen
Maloney from Waterside productions for contracting the book for me with Wiley.
And finally, special thanks to my wife Sheree. There’s no way I could do the work I
do without the solid support I get on the home front. I love you, and thanks for tak-
ing such good care of me, Seth, and Caleb.
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Contents at a Glance
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Part I: Linux First Steps. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 1: Starting with Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Chapter 2: Running Commands from the Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Chapter 3: Getting into the Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Part II: Running the Show . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Chapter 4: Learning Basic Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Chapter 5: Getting on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Chapter 6: Securing Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Part III: Choosing and Installing a Linux Distribution . . . . . . . . . 241
Chapter 7: Installing Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
Chapter 8: Running Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux . . . . . . . . . . 273
Chapter 9: Running Debian GNU/Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Chapter 10: Running SUSE Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Chapter 11: Running KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Chapter 12: Running Yellow Dog Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Chapter 13: Running Gentoo Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Chapter 14: Running Slackware Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Chapter 15: Running Linspire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Chapter 16: Running Mandrakelinux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Chapter 17: Running a Linux Firewall/Router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Chapter 18: Running Bootable Linux Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 447
Part IV: Running Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 459
Chapter 19: Playing Music and Video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 461
Chapter 20: Working with Words and Images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 501
Chapter 21: E-Mailing and Web Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 541
Chapter 22: Gaming Alone and Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 569
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Part V: Running Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
Chapter 23: Running a Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP (LAMP) Server . . . . . 595
Chapter 24: Running a Mail Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
Chapter 25: Running a Print Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 635
Chapter 26: Running a File Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 659
Part VI: Programming in Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 693
Chapter 27: Programming Environments and Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 695
Chapter 28: Programming Tools and Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723
Appendix A: Media . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753
Appendix B: Entering the Linux Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767
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Contents
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Part I: Linux First Steps 1
Chapter 1: Starting with Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Understanding Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
What’s So Cool About Linux? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Exploring Linux History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
From a Free-Flowing UNIX Culture at Bell Labs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
To a Commercialized UNIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
To a GNU Free-Flowing (Not) UNIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
BSD Loses Some Steam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Linus Builds the Missing Piece . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
What’s So Great About Linux? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
OSI Open Source Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Vibrant Communities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Major Software Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Linux Myths, Legends, and FUD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Can You Stop Worrying About Viruses? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Will You Be Sued for Using Linux? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Can Linux Really Run on Everything from Handhelds
to Supercomputers? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Will Linux Crush Microsoft? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Are You on Your Own If You Use Linux? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Is Linux Only for Geeks? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
How Do Companies Make Money with Linux? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
How Different Are Linux Distributions from One Another? . . . . . . . 25
Is the Linux Mascot Really a Penguin? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Running Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Common Mistakes When Starting with Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Getting Started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
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Contents
Chapter 2: Running Commands from the Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Starting a Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Using the Shell Prompt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Using a Terminal Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Using Virtual Terminals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Choosing Your Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Using bash (and Earlier sh) Shells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Using tcsh (and Earlier csh) Shells . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using ash . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using ksh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Using zsh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Exploring the Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Checking Your Login Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Checking Directories and Permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Checking System Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Exiting the Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Using the Shell in Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Locating Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Rerunning Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Connecting and Expanding Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Creating Your Shell Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Configuring Your Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Using Shell Environment Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Managing Background and Foreground Processes . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Working with the Linux File System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Creating Files and Directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Moving, Copying, and Deleting Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Using the vi Text Editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Starting with vi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Moving Around the File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Searching for Text . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Using Numbers with Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
Chapter 3: Getting into the Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Understanding Your Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Starting the Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
K Desktop Environment (KDE) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Using the KDE Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Managing Files with the Konqueror File Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Configuring Konqueror Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Managing Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Configuring the Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Adding Application Launchers and MIME Types . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
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The GNOME Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Using the Metacity Window Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Using the GNOME panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Using the Nautilus File Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Changing GNOME Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Exiting GNOME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Configuring Your Own Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Configuring X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Choosing a Window Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Choosing Your Personal Window Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Getting More Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Part II: Running the Show 123
Chapter 4: Learning Basic Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Graphical Administration Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Using Web-Based Administration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Graphical Administration with Different Distributions . . . . . . . . 127
Using the Root Login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Becoming Root from the Shell (su Command) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
Allowing Limited Administrative Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Exploring Administrative Commands, Configuration Files, and
Log Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Administrative Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Administrative Configuration Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Administrative Log Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Using sudo and Other Administrative Logins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Administering Your Linux System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Creating User Accounts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Adding Users with useradd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Setting User Defaults . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Configuring Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Finding Available Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Listing Loaded Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Managing File Systems and Disk Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Mounting File Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Using the mkfs Command to Create a File System . . . . . . . . . . . 161
Adding a Hard Disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
Checking System Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Monitoring System Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
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Chapter 5: Getting on the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Connecting to the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Connecting Via Dial-up Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

Connecting a Single Computer to Broadband . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
Connecting Multiple Computers to Broadband . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Connecting Servers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Connecting Other Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
Using Ethernet Connections to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Configuring Ethernet During Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
Configuring Ethernet from the Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Using Network Configuration in Fedora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Identifying Other Computers (Hosts and DNS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
Understanding Your Internet Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
Using Dial-up Connections to the Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Getting Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
Setting Up Dial-up PPP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
Creating a Dial-up Connection with the Internet
Configuration Wizard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Launching Your PPP Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Launching Your PPP Connection on Demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
Checking Your PPP Connection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190
Chapter 6: Securing Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Protecting Your Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Understanding Attack Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
Protecting Against Denial of Service Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Mailbombing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Spam Relaying . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Smurf Amplification Attack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Protecting Against Distributed DoS Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Protecting Against Intrusion Attacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Evaluating Access to Network Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Disabling Network Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204

Using TCP Wrappers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Detecting Intrusions from Log Files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
The Role of Syslogd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
Redirecting Logs to a Loghost with syslogd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Understanding the messages Log File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
Using Password Protection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
Choosing Strong Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
Using a Password File . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Using Encryption Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Symmetric Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
Public-Key Cryptography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
Secure Socket Layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
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Using the Secure Shell Package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Starting the SSH Service . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Using the ssh, sftp, and scp Commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
Using ssh, scp, and sftp Without Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Guarding Your Computer with PortSentry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
Downloading and Installing PortSentry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Using PortSentry As Is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Configuring PortSentry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
Testing PortSentry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
Tracking PortSentry Intrusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
Restoring Access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Security Auditing Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
Part III: Choosing and Installing a Linux Distribution 241
Chapter 7: Installing Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243

Choosing a Linux Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Linux at Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
Other Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Getting Your Own Linux Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Finding Another Linux Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Understanding What You Need . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
Downloading the Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Burning the Distribution to CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
Exploring Common Installation Topics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Knowing Your Computer Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
Upgrading or Installing from Scratch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Dual Booting with Windows or Just Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
Using Installation Boot Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Partitioning Hard Drives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
Using LILO or GRUB Boot Loaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
Configuring Networking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
Configuring Other Administrative Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
Installing from the Linux Bible DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Chapter 8: Running Fedora Core and Red Hat Enterprise Linux . . . 273
Digging into Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
Red Hat Installer (Anaconda) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
RPM Package Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Kudzu Hardware Detection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
Red Hat Desktop Look-and-Feel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
System Configuration Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
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Going Forward with Fedora Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277

Fedora Legacy Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
Fedora Software Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
Forums and Mailing Lists . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Listening to the People at Red Hat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Listening to the Red Hat Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
Installing Fedora Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
Choosing Computer Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Choosing an Installation Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
Choosing to Install or Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Beginning the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Running Fedora Setup Agent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Chapter 9: Running Debian GNU/Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295
Inside Debian GNU/Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Debian Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Debian Package Management Tools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Debian Releases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Installing Debian GNU/Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 299
Hardware Requirements and Installation Planning . . . . . . . . . . 299
Running the Installer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Managing Your Debian System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Configuring Network Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
Package Management Using APT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Package Management Using dpkg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309
Installing Package Sets (Tasks) with Tasksel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Alternatives, Diversions, and Stat Overrides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 311
Managing Package Configuration with debconf . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Chapter 10: Running SUSE Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Understanding SUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316

What’s in SUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
Installation and Configuration with YaST . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
RPM Package Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
Automated Software Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Getting Support for SUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 321
Installing SUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Before You Begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 322
Starting Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323
Starting with SUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
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Chapter 11: Running KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Understanding KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 329
Looking Inside KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 330
What’s Cool About KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
Examining Challenges with KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Seeing Where KNOPPIX Comes From . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Exploring Uses for KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Starting KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Getting a Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 336
Booting KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Correcting Boot Problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 337
Using KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Using the KDE Desktop in KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
Getting on the Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 343
Installing Software in KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Saving Files in KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344
Keeping Your KNOPPIX Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348

Restarting KNOPPIX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 348
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
Chapter 12: Running Yellow Dog Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 351
Digging into Yellow Dog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
Installing Yellow Dog Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Hardware Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
Planning Your Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Beginning the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 358
Updating Yellow Dog Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
Running Mac Applications with Mac-on-Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Support Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 365
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 366
Chapter 13: Running Gentoo Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Understanding Gentoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367
Gentoo’s Open Source Spirit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 368
The Gentoo Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Building, Tuning, and Tweaking Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 369
Where Gentoo Is Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 370
What’s in Gentoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
Managing Software with Portage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372
Finding Software Packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Installing Gentoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Getting Gentoo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 374
Starting Gentoo Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
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Chapter 14: Running Slackware Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Getting into Slackware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383

Characterizing the Slackware Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
The Slackware Creator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385
Slackware Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 386
Slackware Internet Sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Challenges of Using Slackware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 387
Using Slackware as a Development Platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 388
Installing Slackware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Getting Slackware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 389
Starting Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Starting with Slackware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Chapter 15: Running Linspire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Getting into Linspire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Installing Software with Click-N-Run . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 401
Other Installation Options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Linspire Support and Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Linspire Forums and Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
Audio Assistant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Installing Linspire 4.5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Linspire Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 404
Installing Linspire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 405
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407
Chapter 16: Running Mandrakelinux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 409
Exploring Mandrakelinux 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
Mandrakelinux Installer (DrakX) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
RPM Package Management with RPMDrake . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Mandrakelinux Control Center (MCC) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
The Mandrakelinux Community . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413
RPM Repository on Mandrakeclub . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 413

Mandrakelinux Forums and News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
Installing Mandrakelinux 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 414
The Right Hardware for Mandrakelinux 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 415
Begin the DrakX Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 416
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 421
Chapter 17: Running a Linux Firewall/Router . . . . . . . . . . . . . 423
Understanding Firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
Protecting Desktops with Firewalls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Starting Your Firewall in Red Hat Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 425
Creating a Firewall in Mandrakelinux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 427
04_579495 ftoc.qxd 12/27/04 9:52 PM Page xxii