This 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 reference: Look up a topic of interest in the table of contents or index and read about it. Or think of the book as a catalog of Linux topics: Flip through the pages until a topic catches your eye. The book includes many pointers to Web sites where you can get additional information: Consider the Internet an extension of this book.
A Practical Guide to Fedora™ and Red Hat® Enterprise Linux®, College Edition, is structured with the following features:
* In this book, the term Fedora/RHEL refers to both Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Features that apply to only one operating system or the other are marked as such using these indicators: FEDORA or RHEL.
* Optional sections enable you to read the book at different levels, returning to more difficult material when you are ready to delve into it.
* Caution boxes highlight procedures that can easily go wrong, giving you guidance before you run into trouble.
* Tip boxes highlight ways that you can save time by doing something differently or situations when it may be useful or just interesting to have additional information.
* Security boxes point out places where you can make a system more secure. The security appendix presents a quick background in system security issues.
* Concepts are illustrated by practical examples throughout the book.
* Chapter summaries review the important points covered in each chapter.
* Review exercises are included at the end of each chapter for readers who want to further hone their skills. Answers to even-numbered exercises are at www.sobell.com.
* This book provides resources for finding software on the Internet. It also explains how download and install software using yum, BitTorrent, and, for Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Network (RHN).
* The glossary defines more than 500 common terms.
* The book describes in detail many important GNU tools, including the gcc C compiler, the gdb debugger, the GNU Configure and Build System, make, and gzip.
* Pointers throughout the text provide help in obtaining online documentation from many sources including the local system, the Red Hat Web site, the Fedora Project Web site, and other locations on the Internet.
* Many useful URLs (Internet addresses) point to sites where you can obtain software, security programs and information, and more.
* The comprehensive index helps you locate topics quickly and easily.
Key Topics Covered in This Book
This book contains a lot of information. This section distills and summarizes its contents. You may want to review the table of contents for more detail. This book covers the following.
Installation
* Describes how to download from the Internet and burn both Fedora Desktop Live Media CD/DVDs and Fedora Install Media DVDs.
* Helps you plan the layout of the system's hard disk and assists you in using Disk Druid or the GNOME graphical partition editor (gparted) to partition the hard disk.
* Explains how to use the Logical Volume Manager (LVM2) to set up, grow, and migrate logical volumes, which are similar in function to traditional disk partitions.
* Discusses booting into a live Fedora session and installing Fedora from that session.
* Describes in detail how to install Fedora/RHEL from a DVD, CD, a hard disk, or over a network using FTP, NFS, or HTTP.
* Covers boot command line parameters (FEDORA), responses to the boot: prompt (RHEL), and explains how to work with Anaconda, Fedora/RHEL's installation program.
* Covers the details of customizing the X.org version of the X Window System.
Working with Fedora/RHEL
* Introduces the graphical desktop (GUI) and explains how to use desktop tools including the panel, Panel menu, Main menu, Window Operations menu, Desktop menu, Desktop switcher, and terminal emulator.
* Presents the KDE desktop and covers using Konqueror to manage files, start programs, and browse the Web.
* Covers the GNOME desktop and the Nautilus file manager.
* Explains how to customize your desktop to please your senses and help you work more efficiently.
* Covers the Bourne Again Shell (bash) in three chapters, including an entire chapter on shell programming that includes many sample shell scripts.
* Explains the command line interface (CLI) and introduces more than 30 command line utilities.
* Presents a tutorial on the vim (vi work-alike) textual editor.
* Covers types of networks, network protocols, and network utilities.
* Explains hostnames, IP addresses, and subnets, and explores how to use host and dig to look up domain names and IP addresses on the Internet.
* Covers distributed computing and the client/server model.
Book Details
- Paperback: 1224 pages
- Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; 5 edition (February 21, 2010)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0137060882
- ISBN-13: 978-0137060887
- File Size: 8.4 MiB
- Hits: 2,447 times
