Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - STEP BY STEP GUIDE Manual

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Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3

Red Hat Enterprise Linux Step

By Step Guide

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Summary of Contents for Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - STEP BY STEP GUIDE

Page 1 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3 Red Hat Enterprise Linux Step By Step Guide...
Page 2 All other trademarks and copyrights referred to are the property of their respective owners. The GPG ﬁngerprint of the security@redhat.com key is: CA 20 86 86 2B D6 9D FC 65 F6 EC C4 21 91 80 CD DB 42 A6 0E...
Page 3: Table Of Contents
Table of Contents Introduction............................i 1. Changes to This Manual ......................i 2. Document Conventions......................ii 3. Copying and Pasting Text With X..................iv 4. Using the Mouse ........................v 5. We Need Feedback! ......................v 6. Sign Up for Support ......................v I.
Page 4 7.2. Editing Text Files ....................79 7.3. Viewing PDFs ...................... 81 8. Audio, Video, and General Amusement ................83 8.1. Playing Audio CDs ....................83 8.2. Playing Digital Audio Files ................. 83 8.3. Troubleshooting Your Sound Card ..............85 8.4. Troubleshooting Your Video Card ............... 86 8.5.
Page 5 E. System Directories......................143 F. Keyboard Shortcuts......................145 Index..............................147 Colophon............................153...
Page 7: Introduction
Introduction to System Administration, and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Security Guide. HTML, PDF, and RPM versions of the manuals are available on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Docu- mentation CD and online at http://www.redhat.com/docs/. Note Although this manual reﬂects the most current information possible, read the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Release Notes for information that may not have been available prior to our documenta- tion being ﬁnalized.
Page 8: Document Conventions
Introduction Getting Started With GNU Privacy Guard This new chapter discusses sending and receiving secure email using GNU Privacy Guard (GPG). The chapter discusses the conﬁguration and usage of GPG with an email client. Diskettes and CD-ROMs The section discussing X-CD-Roast was removed as it is no longer included in Red Hat Enter- prise Linux.
Page 9 Introduction [key]-[combination] A combination of keystrokes is represented in this way. For example: The [Ctrl]-[Alt]-[Backspace] key combination exits your graphical session and return you to the graphical login screen or the console. text found on a GUI interface A title, word, or phrase found on a GUI interface screen or window is shown in this style. Text shown in this style is being used to identify a particular GUI screen or an element on a GUI screen (such as text associated with a checkbox or ﬁeld).
Page 10 Introduction replaceable Text used for examples which is meant to be replaced with data provided by the user is displayed in this style. In the following example, is displayed in this style: version-number ¡ The directory for the kernel source is , where /usr/src/ version-number...
Page 11: Copying And Pasting Text With X
If you spot a typographical error in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Step By Step Guide, or if you have thought of a way to make this manual better, we would love to hear from you! Please submit a report in Bugzilla: http://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/) against the component rhel-sbs. When submitting a bug report, be sure to mention the manual’s identiﬁer: rhel-sbs(EN)-3-Print-RHI (2003-11-12T01:05) If you have a suggestion for improving the documentation, try to be as speciﬁc as possible when de-...
Page 12 Introduction Good luck, and thank you for choosing Red Hat Enterprise Linux! The Red Hat Documentation Team...
Page 13: Starting Out
I. Starting Out To begin the journey of using your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, you need to learn the basics. This part introduces the concepts and terms that help you get the most out of Red Hat Enterprise Linux, and learn some of its exciting features. From conﬁguring your system with Setup Agent to using your graphical desktop and the shell prompt, this part helps you get acquainted with your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system.
Page 15: Getting Started
Chapter 1. Getting Started From booting up to shutting down, whether you are working or playing, Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides tools and applications to help you get the most out of your computing environment. This chapter guides you through some basic tasks that you can perform on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system.
Page 16 Chapter 1. Getting Started Figure 1-2. License Agreement The Setup Agent allows you to manually set your machine’s date and time, which adjusts the clock on your computer’s BIOS (Basic Input Output System). To set the day, month, and year on your system, use the calendar interface.
Page 17 Red Hat Network. Selecting No, I do not want to register my system skips the registration. For more information about Red Hat Network and registering your machine, refer to the Red Hat Network documentation at http://www.redhat.com/docs/manuals/RHNetwork/.
Page 18: Introductory Terms
Chapter 1. Getting Started Figure 1-6. Red Hat Network Registration Client To install Red Hat Enterprise Linux RPM packages that you did not install during installation, software from third-party providers, or documentation from the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Documentation CD, you can do so at the Additional CDs screen.
Page 19 Chapter 1. Getting Started Command: An instruction given to the computer, most often with the keyboard or mouse. • Command line: The space at the shell prompt where commands are typed. • Graphical Desktop: The most visible area of a GUI. The desktop is where your user Home and •...
Page 20: Logging In
Chapter 1. Getting Started Figure 1-9. A Shell Prompt su and su -: The command gives you access to the root account or other accounts on your system. • When you type to switch to your root account while still inside your user account shell, you have access to important system ﬁles that you can change (or damage if you are not careful).
Page 21 Chapter 1. Getting Started If you did not create a user account using the Setup Agent, you must log in as root. After you create a user account, it is highly recommended that you log in as that user instead of root to prevent accidental damage to your Red Hat Enterprise Linux installation.
Page 22: Graphical Interface
Chapter 1. Getting Started Unless you have chosen to give your machine its own hostname, which is primarily used in a network setting, your machine will probably be called localhost.localdomain To log in as root from the console, type root at the login prompt, press [Enter], then type the root password that you chose during installation at the password prompt and press [Enter].
Page 23 You can also start the User Manager by typing at a shell prompt. redhat-config-users 2. If you are not logged in as root, you will be prompted for your root password. 3. The window shown in Figure 1-12 will appear. Click Add User.
Page 24: Documentation And Help
Chapter 1. Getting Started 5. At the prompt enter a password for the new user and press [Enter]. New password: 6. At the prompt, enter the same password to conﬁrm your selection. Retype new password: Important You should take precautions when you choose a password. The password is the key to your account, so it should be both unique and easy for you to remember.
Page 25 Linux Documentation CD. All of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux manuals are on this CD. Individual downloads of our documentation in HTML, RPM, PDF, and compressed tarball format ) are also available at http://www.redhat.com/docs/. Once you have logged in to your user .tar.gz account, inserting the Documentation CD in your CD-ROM drive should automatically start the Pack- age Management Tool and allow you to install any of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux documentation.
Page 26: Logging Out
Main Menu => Documentation. If you have downloaded individual documentation RPM packages from the Red Hat website at http://www.redhat.com/docs/ you can install these manuals from a shell prompt. Open a shell prompt, and type the following at the command line: su - Press [Enter].
Page 27: Shutting Down Your Computer
Chapter 1. Getting Started Figure 1-15. Logout Conﬁrmation 1.8.2. Virtual Console Logout If you are not using the X Window System, and you logged in at the console, type or [Ctrl]-[D] exit to log out of the console session. 1.9. Shutting Down your Computer Before turning off your computer, it is important to properly shut down Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Page 28 Chapter 1. Getting Started...
Page 29: Using The Graphical Desktop
Chapter 2. Using the Graphical Desktop Red Hat Enterprise Linux includes a powerful graphical desktop environment where you can easily access your applications, ﬁles, and system resources. Both new and experienced users can take full advantage of their Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems using the graphical desktop. This chapter covers the fundamentals of the desktop and how you can conﬁgure it for your needs.
Page 30: Using The Panel
Chapter 2. Using the Graphical Desktop icons for ﬁles and applications to the desktop, panel, and ﬁle manager. You can change the appearance of most of the tools and applications and change system settings with provided conﬁguration tools. 2.2. Using the Panel The desktop panel is the bar that stretches across the bottom of the screen and holds icons and small applications which makes using your system easier.
Page 31 Chapter 2. Using the Graphical Desktop Taskbar Next to the Workspace Switcher is the Taskbar. The Taskbar is an applet which shows you the titles of running applications on any one virtual desktop. This is very helpful if you decide to minimize an application as it seems to disappear from the desktop.
Page 32 Chapter 2. Using the Graphical Desktop Figure 2-7. The Printer Notiﬁcation Icon Warning If you cannot see any of the notiﬁcation icons, then the notiﬁcation area was removed from the desktop panel. To add the it back to your panel, right-click on the panel and choose Add to Panel => Utility =>...
Page 33: Using Nautilus
Chapter 2. Using the Graphical Desktop 2.3. Using Nautilus The graphical desktop includes a ﬁle manager called Nautilus that gives you a graphical display of your system and personal ﬁles. Nautilus is designed to be much more than a visual listing of ﬁles, however.
Page 34 Chapter 2. Using the Graphical Desktop The Start Here screen includes icons that allow you to access your favorite applications, desktop preferences, Main Menu items, server conﬁguration tools, and system settings. You can add your favorite locations to the Bookmarks. Navigate to the location you want to book- mark, and then select Bookmarks =>...
Page 35 Chapter 2. Using the Graphical Desktop Figure 2-10. The Background Preferences Tool The Background Preferences tool allows you to load a new background from a directory of provided images ( ). You can also drag an image into the /usr/share/backgrounds/images/ window from your own image directory.
Page 36: Logging Out
Chapter 2. Using the Graphical Desktop 2.4.2. Customizing your System The Start Here screen in Nautilus contains additional conﬁguration tools that help you with your new Red Hat Enterprise Linux system and the server applications included. The System Settings icon includes tools that help you set up your system for personal everyday use. The following lists some of the tools included in System Settings and what you can do with them.
Page 37 Chapter 2. Using the Graphical Desktop To quit the graphical desktop, select the Log Out menu item from the Main Menu. This brings up a dialog which presents you with the options listed above.
Page 38 Chapter 2. Using the Graphical Desktop...
Page 39: Shell Prompt Basics
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics 3.1. Why Use a Shell Prompt Graphical environments for Linux have come a long way in the past few years. You can be perfectly productive in the X Window System and only have to open a shell prompt to complete a few tasks. However, many Red Hat Enterprise Linux functions can be completed faster from the shell prompt than from a graphical user interface (GUI).
Page 40: Determining Your Current Directory With Pwd
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics When the Free Software Foundation sought a royalty-free shell, developers began to work on the language behind the Bourne shell as well as some of the popular features from other shells available at the time. The result was the Bourne Again Shell, or .
Page 41 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics You can use absolute or relative pathnames. Absolute paths start at the top of the ﬁle system with (referred to as root) and then look down for the requested directory; relative paths look down from your current directory, wherever that may be.
Page 42 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics Note Always make sure you know which working directory you are in before you state the relative path to the directory or ﬁle you want to get to. You do not have to worry about your position in the ﬁle system, though, when you state the absolute path to another directory or ﬁle.
Page 43: View Directory Contents With Ls
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics As soon as you give the root password, the prompt changes to superuser status. For example: [root@localhost root]$ When you are done working as root, type at the prompt; you are returned to your user account. exit 3.5.
Page 44: Locating Files And Directories
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics You do not have to be in the directory whose contents you want to view to use the command. For example, to see what is in the directory from your home directory, type: /etc/ ls -al /etc Figure 3-4.
Page 45: Clearing And Resetting The Terminal
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics command works very quickly, as long as the database is up to date. That database is locate automatically updated on a nightly basis through a job. is a small program that runs in the cron cron background, performing various tasks (such as updating the database) at regularly scheduled...
Page 46: Manipulating Files With
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics 3.8. Manipulating Files with Red Hat Enterprise Linux has a utility which can help you keep short lists, gather lists together, and even show you information about your system. The utility is called , short for concatenate, which means to combine ﬁles. The command also displays the contents of an entire ﬁle on the screen (for example, type ).
Page 47 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics Figure 3-6. Redirecting Output to a File Press [Enter] to go to an empty line and use the [Ctrl]-[D] key combination to quit Do you notice anything different in Figure 3-6? There are no repeated entries. That is because the standard output from cat was redirected.
Page 48 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics Figure 3-7. Joining Files and Redirecting Output You can see that has added where ended. home.txt sneakers.txt 3.8.2. Appending Standard Output You can use output redirection to add new information to the end of an existing ﬁle. Similar to when you used the symbol, you tell your shell to send the information somewhere other than standard §...
Page 49 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics Figure 3-8. Stringing Commands and Comparing Files 3.8.3. Redirecting Standard Input Not only can you redirect standard output, you can perform the same type of redirection with standard input. When you use the redirect standard input symbol , you are telling the shell that you want a ﬁle to be read as input for a command.
Page 50: Pipes And
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics 3.9. Pipes and Pagers In Linux, pipes connect the standard output of one command to the standard input of another com- mand. Consider the command that was discussed earlier. There are plenty of options available with but what if the contents of a directory scroll by too quickly for you to view them? View the contents of the directory with the command:...
Page 51: More Commands For Reading Text Files
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics Figure 3-10. Piping Output of more To search the output of a text ﬁle using , press [/] and then type the keyword you want to search more for within the ﬁle. For example: /foo Use the [Spacebar] to move forward through the pages.
Page 52 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics 3.10.3. The Command grep command is useful for ﬁnding speciﬁc character strings in a ﬁle. For example, if you want grep to ﬁnd every reference made to "coffee" in the ﬁle , you would type: sneakers.txt grep coffee sneakers.txt Each line in that ﬁle where the word "coffee"...
Page 53: Command History And Tab Completion
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics You will probably use the asterisk ( ) most frequently when you are searching. The asterisk searches out everything that matches the pattern you are looking for. By typing ls *.txt ls sn* you would ﬁnd and any other ﬁles whose name ends with or begins with sneakers.txt...
Page 54: Using Multiple Commands
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics By default, up to 500 commands can be stored in the command line history ﬁle. bash By typing the command at a shell prompt, we can see the environment variable that controls the size of the command line history. The line which reads, shows the number of HISTFILESIZE=500 commands that...
Page 55: Ownership And Permissions
Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics 3.13. Ownership and Permissions Earlier in this chapter, when you tried to change to root’s login directory, you received the following message: -bash: cd: /root/: Permission denied That was one demonstration of Linux’s security features. Linux, like UNIX, is a multi-user system and ﬁle permissions are one way the system protects against malicious tampering.
Page 56 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics Those three sets are the owner of the ﬁle, the group in which the ﬁle belongs, and "others," meaning other users on the system. (rw-) (rw-) (r--) 1 sam sam type owner group others The ﬁrst item, which speciﬁes the ﬁle type, can show one of the following: —...
Page 57 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics In the following example, you want to allow everyone to write to the ﬁle, so they can read it, write notes in it, and save it. That means you must change the "others" section of the ﬁle permissions. Take a look at the ﬁle ﬁrst.
Page 58 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics Want to test your permissions skills? Remove all permissions from — for everyone. sneakers.txt chmod a-rwx sneakers.txt Now, see if you can read the ﬁle with the command , which should return the cat sneakers.txt following: cat: sneakers.txt: Permission denied Removing all permissions, including your own, successfully locked the ﬁle.
Page 59 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics 3.13.2. Changing Permissions With Numbers Remember the reference to the shorthand method of ? Here is another way to change permis- chmod sions, although it may seem a little complex at ﬁrst. Go back to the original permissions for sneakers.txt -rw-rw-r-- 1 sam sam...
Page 60 Chapter 3. Shell Prompt Basics Here is a list of some common settings, numerical values and their meanings: (600) — Only the owner has read and write permissions. • -rw------- (644) — Only the owner has read and write permissions; the group and others have •...
Page 61: Managing Files And Directories
Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories Your desktop ﬁle manager is a powerful and important tool for managing ﬁles and directories using the graphical desktop. This chapter discusses various shell prompt commands that can be used to manage ﬁles and directories on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system. This chapter also discusses compression tools to create archives of your ﬁles for backup or to conveniently send to others.
Page 62: Identifying And Working With File Types
— Location of documentation for installed packages. For example, the • /usr/share/doc/ documentation for the software package is located in the directory redhat-config-date /usr/share/doc/redhat-config-date- version-number — The reserved directory for all users to store temporary ﬁles. Files stored here are not •...
Page 63 Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories — an image ﬁle • .xpm 4.2.3. System Files — a conﬁguration ﬁle; conﬁguration ﬁles sometimes use the extension, as well • .conf .cfg — a lock ﬁle; determines whether a program or device is in use •...
Page 64: File Compression And Archiving
Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories 4.3. File Compression and Archiving Sometimes it is useful to store a group of ﬁles in one ﬁle so that they can be backed up, easily transferred to another directory, or even transferred to a different computer. It is also sometimes useful to compress ﬁles into one ﬁle so that they use less disk space and download faster via the Internet.
Page 65 Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories Figure 4-1. File Roller in Action 4.3.1.1. Decompressing and Unarchiving with File Roller To unarchive and/or decompress a ﬁle click the Open toolbar button. A ﬁle menu pops up, allowing you to choose the archive you wish to work with. For example, if you have a ﬁle called foo.tar.gz located in your home directory, highlight the ﬁle and click OK.
Page 66 Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories There is much more you can do with File Roller than is explained here. Refer to the File Roller manual (available by clicking Help => Manual) for more information. 4.3.2. Compressing Files at the Shell Prompt Compressed ﬁles use less disk space and download faster than large, uncompressed ﬁles.
Page 67 Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories For more information, type at a shell prompt to read the man pages for man bzip2 man bunzip2 bzip2 bunzip2 4.3.2.2. Gzip and Gunzip To use to compress a ﬁle, type the following command at a shell prompt: gzip gzip filename The ﬁle is compressed and saved as...
Page 68 Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories The above command compresses , and the contents of the file1 file2 file3 directory (assuming this directory exists) and places them in a ﬁle named /usr/work/school/ filename.zip For more information, type at a shell prompt to read the man pages for man zip man unzip unzip...
Page 69: Manipulating Files At The Shell Prompt
Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories results in the creation of the directory in your current working directory with the ﬁle foo/ bar.txt inside of it. Remember, the command does not compress the ﬁles by default. To create a tarred and bzipped compressed ﬁle, use the option: tar -cjvf filename.tbz file...
Page 70 Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories Replace with the name of your choice. If you run a directory listing, you can see that filename the new ﬁle contains zero (0) bytes of information because it is an empty ﬁle. For example, typing the command at the shell prompt returns the following output: ls -l newfile...
Page 71 Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories 4.4.3. Moving Files To move ﬁles, use the command. For more about , refer to the man page (type man mv Common options for include the following: (interactive) — Prompts you if the ﬁle you have selected overwrites an existing ﬁle in the •...
Page 72 Chapter 4. Managing Files and Directories rm: remove ’piglet.txt’? You can also delete ﬁles using the wildcard , but be careful, because you can easily delete ﬁles you did not intend to throw away. To remove a ﬁle using a wildcard, you would type: rm pig* The above command removes all ﬁles in the directory which start with the letters You can also remove multiple ﬁles using the...
Page 73: Using Your System
II. Using Your System Now that you have begun exploring your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, you can start using some of the many applications that are included with it. From Internet surﬁng and personal productivity, to games and beyond, this part details some popular software programs that help you become more pro- ductive with your computer, and tap the power of the Internet for your research and communications.
Page 75: Web Browsing
Chapter 5. Web Browsing Once you have conﬁgured your Internet connection, you are ready to get online. Red Hat Enterprise Linux comes with several Web browsers, graphical applications that use your Internet connection to access the World Wide Web: news, research, shopping, banking, and more. This chapter brieﬂy ex- plains how to surf the Web using Mozilla.
Page 76 Chapter 5. Web Browsing The navigation bar has an address ﬁeld with which you can type a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) — the name or address of a website — into the address ﬁeld at the top of the browser window. Mozilla supports keyword searching via the address ﬁeld as well.
Page 77: Web Browser Keyboard Shortcuts
Chapter 5. Web Browsing Mozilla also allows you to browse multiple websites within one browser window using navigational tabs. Instead of using two or more separate windows to read multiple webpages, you can open a tab by clicking File => New => Navigator Tab or by pressing [Ctrl] and [T] at the same time. This opens the new tab and allows you to switch between tabs by clicking on them.
Page 78 Chapter 5. Web Browsing Shortcut Description [Ctrl]-[T] Opens a new tab for browsing multiple websites within one browser window [Ctrl]-[N] Opens a new browser window [Ctrl]-[Q] Closes all browser windows and exits the application [Ctrl]-[L] Moves the cursor to the browser’s address ﬁeld [Ctrl]-[P] Prints the current displayed webpage or document [Ctrl]-[right arrow]...
Page 79: Email Applications
Chapter 6. Email Applications Email is a very popular way of communicating with others over the Internet. You can use email with an email client, an application that understands the various email transmission standards and allows you to send, receive, and read email. Red Hat Enterprise Linux includes several email applications, including graphical email clients like Evolution and Mozilla Mail, and text-based clients like mutt.
Page 80 Chapter 6. Email Applications 6.1. Evolution Evolution is more than just an email client. It provides all of the standard email client features, includ- ing powerful mailbox management, user-deﬁned ﬁlters, and quick searches. It additionally features a ﬂexible calendar/scheduler which allows users to create and conﬁrm group meetings and special events online.
Page 81 Chapter 6. Email Applications Figure 6-2. Evolution Main Screen To view what is in your inbox or to send an email, click on the Inbox icon. Figure 6-3. Evolution Inbox Screen To compose a mail, select New Message from the toolbar.
Page 82: Mozilla Mail
Chapter 6. Email Applications Figure 6-4. Evolution New Email Message Screen Once you have composed a message and entered an email address to send the email to, click Send on the toolbar. While Evolution does so much more than read and send email, this chapter focuses exclusively on its email capabilities.
Page 83 Chapter 6. Email Applications Figure 6-5. Account Setup To open Mozilla Mail while in Mozilla, click on the mail icon near the lower left corner of the Mozilla screen Figure 6-6. Mozilla Mail and News To create a new email message, click the Compose button.
Page 84: Plain Text Email Clients
Chapter 6. Email Applications Figure 6-7. Mozilla Mail New Email Message Screen To send an email, click on the Send button or go to File => Send Now or Send Later. If you choose to send later, you can go back to the main mail screen and go to File => Send unsent messages. To read email, click on the mail folder you created for yourself to view any messages waiting for you.
Page 85 Chapter 6. Email Applications 6.3. Plain Text Email Clients Most modern email clients allow the user to select whether they want to send their emails in plain text or in HTML. The advantage of HTML formatted email is that they can contain graphics and interactive links to Web sites.
Page 86 Chapter 6. Email Applications These messages are in a default mail folder, often called the mailspool, that you can think of as your inbox. Use the [K] and [J] keys on your keyboard to move the highlighted cursor up and down the list of messages.
Page 87: Working With Documents
Chapter 7. Working with Documents Red Hat Enterprise Linux includes several tools for managing all of your documents. Whether you are preparing for a presentation, writing a formal letter, or opening a document from an email attachment, Red Hat Enterprise Linux has a tool that suits your needs. 7.1.
Page 88 Chapter 7. Working with Documents accomplish several tasks for academic, business, or home use. The following sections shows you how to use the OpenOfﬁce.org suite. 7.1.2. OpenOfﬁce.org Writer Writing documents using OpenOfﬁce.org is similar to other word processing applications you may have used before.
Page 89 Chapter 7. Working with Documents editing a ﬁle that was sent as an email attachment with the extension, you can save the ﬁle as a .doc Microsoft Word ﬁle type that others are able to open in Microsoft Word. While OpenOfﬁce.org Writer is useful for general document editing, you can also add objects such as images, illustrations, charts, and tables to your document to complement your text or give impact to your documents.
Page 90 Chapter 7. Working with Documents Figure 7-3. OpenOfﬁce.org Calc OpenOfﬁce.org Calc allows you to enter and manipulate personal or business data. For example, you can create a personal budget by entering data descriptions (such as rent, groceries, and utilities) into column A and the quantities of those data descriptions in column B. OpenOf- ﬁce.org Calc allows you to enter the data either in the cell itself by double clicking the cell and typing your information or by using the Input Line (the text box on the toolbar).
Page 91 Chapter 7. Working with Documents Figure 7-4. Creating Charts with OpenOfﬁce.org Calc You can save spreadsheets created with OpenOfﬁce.org Calc in several ﬁle formats, including the na- tive as well as Microsoft Ofﬁce compatible formats. Additionally, you can export rendered .sxc .xls charts and graphs to several image ﬁle formats and integrate them with document ﬁles, webpages, and...
Page 92 Chapter 7. Working with Documents Figure 7-5. OpenOfﬁce.org Impress When you ﬁrst start OpenOfﬁce.org Impress, you are presented with the AutoPilot. You can choose the style of your slides, the medium with which you present your slides (plain paper, transparent paper for overhead projectors, slides, or a display monitor), and any animated visual effects you want to apply to the slides if you run presentations from your computer.
Page 93: Editing Text Files
Chapter 7. Working with Documents To learn more about OpenOfﬁce.org Impress, click Help => Contents from the ﬁle menus. 7.1.5. OpenOfﬁce.org Draw If you want to create graphics for your documents and presentations, you can use OpenOfﬁce.org Draw. Using your mouse as a you would a pen or a paintbrush, OpenOfﬁce.org Draw allows you to make illustrations and save them in several formats that you can add to printed documents, place on websites, or attach to emails.
Page 94 Chapter 7. Working with Documents gedit is a graphical text editor. It can open, edit, and save plain text ﬁles. You can also cut and paste text to and from other graphical desktop applications, create new text ﬁles, and print ﬁles. gedit has a clear and understandable interface that uses tabs so that you can open more than one ﬁle at the same time without opening more than one gedit window.
Page 95: Viewing Pdfs
Chapter 7. Working with Documents window prompts you to name the ﬁle and save it in the directory of your choice. If you are editing an existing ﬁle, then any changes you make automatically appears in the ﬁle the next time you open it.
Page 96 Chapter 7. Working with Documents An open source application called xpdf is included with Red Hat Enterprise Linux. The xpdf toolbar at the bottom has navigational tools that let you move backward and forward through the PDF document, as well as standard zoom, print, and ﬁnd tools. The xpdf man page provides useful information on the xpdf options.
Page 97: Audio, Video, And General Amusement
Chapter 8. Audio, Video, and General Amusement This chapter presents you with the lighter side of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. From games and toys to multimedia applications, Red Hat Enterprise Linux provides many packages to assist you in having some fun with your computer. 8.1.
Page 98 Chapter 8. Audio, Video, and General Amusement 8.2. Playing Digital Audio Files Digital audio has become very popular in recent years. Users enjoy the technology because the sound quality is excellent compared to analog tape or records, and the ﬁles are compact (audio ﬁles can easily be transferred across the Internet).
Page 99: Troubleshooting Your Sound Card
Most sound cards are supported by Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but there are some sound cards that are not completely compatible or may not work at all. If you are having trouble conﬁguring your sound card, check the Hardware Compatibility List at http://hardware.redhat.com/hcl/ to see if your card is supported.
Page 100: Troubleshooting Your Video Card
You can also start from a shell prompt by typing the command , which then prompts you to enter your root password. If you redhat-config-xfree86 are working from a shell prompt and X is not working, attempts to start redhat-config-xfree86 a minimal X session to allow you to continue your conﬁguration.
Page 101: Games
Chapter 8. Audio, Video, and General Amusement To conﬁgure your monitor manually, click the Advanced tab, then click the Conﬁgure... button next to the Monitor Type entry. A pop-up window displays a list of monitor models. Choose your model and click OK. You can also let the X Conﬁguration Tool probe your monitor for the correct model and vertical/horizontal frequency settings.
Page 102 Chapter 8. Audio, Video, and General Amusement...
Page 103: Working With Digital Cameras
Chapter 9. Working with Digital Cameras Digital cameras have recently grown in popularity because of their increasing image quality and easy interaction with desktop PCs. Digital cameras create high-quality images that allow you to send to others over the Internet or print on a color printer. Red Hat Enterprise Linux supports several brands of digital cameras and has applications that help you access, view, and modify your digital photographs.
Page 104 Chapter 9. Working with Digital Cameras Figure 9-2. Viewing Images with gtKam For more information about using gtKam, refer to the gtKam page at the gPhoto website: http://gphoto.sourceforge.net/proj/gtkam/...
Page 105: Working With Images
Chapter 10. Working with Images Digital images have grown in popularity with the development of the graphical Internet and the in- creasing quality of digital cameras. There are several types of image ﬁles, some of which are created using sophisticated illustration software packages, while others are made from digital sources such as a scanner or camera.
Page 106: Manipulating Images With The Gimp
Chapter 10. Working with Images Double-click on any thumbnail icon to view the image at its native size and the image loads within the browser window. To increase or decrease the size of the viewed image in Nautilus, click on the zoom buttons next to the Location: ﬁeld as shown in Figure 10-2: Figure 10-2.
Page 107 Chapter 10. Working with Images 10.2.2. Loading a File To load an existing ﬁle, select File => Open, and the Load Image dialog appears, as illustrated in Figure 10-4. Figure 10-4. The Load Image Dialog The Load Image dialog displays the working directory, which is the directory you are in when the GIMP was launched.
Page 108 Chapter 10. Working with Images 10.2.4. GIMP Options Like many applications, the GIMP provides more than one method to accomplish tasks. The easiest way to work with images is to right-click the image, which displays a set of menus containing most of the GIMP’s many capabilities, including image sizing, rotation, and ﬁlter application.
Page 109: Additional Resources
Chapter 10. Working with Images The GIMP is a powerful image editing tool and it takes some time to master all of its functions. Try exploring some of the options yourself. If you make a mistake, you can always undo your mistakes by right-clicking on the image and choosing Edit =>...
Page 110 Chapter 10. Working with Images...
Page 111: Diskettes And Cd-Roms
Chapter 11. Diskettes and CD-ROMs Using diskettes and CD-ROMs with Red Hat Enterprise Linux requires some understanding about removable media. This chapter discusses how to read and write ﬁles to and from diskettes, how to format diskettes, and how to read and copy data from a CD-ROM. This chapter also covers using CD-writable and CD-rewritable drives.
Page 112 Chapter 11. Diskettes and CD-ROMs If you are using GNOME, you can unmount the diskette by right-clicking on the icon and choosing Unmount Volume from the menu. You can now safely eject the diskette from the drive. 11.1.2. Putting Linux Files on an MS-DOS Diskette To copy ﬁles from a Linux machine to an MS-DOS formatted diskette so that a Windows machine can read it you should format your diskette with an MS-DOS (FAT) ﬁle system.
Page 113 Chapter 11. Diskettes and CD-ROMs Figure 11-2. gﬂoppy Insert a diskette and change the settings in gﬂoppy to suit your needs; then click Format. The status box will appear on top of the main window, showing you the status of formatting and veriﬁcation (see Figure 11-3).
Page 114: Cd-Roms
Chapter 11. Diskettes and CD-ROMs 11.2. CD-ROMs The CD-ROM format is a popular medium to deliver typically large software applications as well as multimedia games and presentations. Most of the software that can be purchased from retail outlets come in the form of CD-ROMs. This section shows you how to use CD-ROMs on your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system.
Page 115 Chapter 11. Diskettes and CD-ROMs and still image) presentations. Red Hat Enterprise Linux includes several tools for using CD-Rs and CD-rewritable (CD-RW) drives. 11.3.1. Using CD Creator If you want to perform a quick ﬁle or directory backup to a CD-R or CD-RW, there is a tool included in the Nautilus ﬁle manager called CD Creator.
Page 116 Chapter 11. Diskettes and CD-ROMs Click the Write ﬁles to CD button to start burning. A status window displays the writing progress, as shown in Figure 11-7. Figure 11-7. The CD Creator Write Status Window By default, the CD-R(W) should automatically eject from your drive when it is ﬁnished. Since it is generally recommended to periodically backup personal ﬁles, the CD Creator can help you do so quickly.
Page 117 Chapter 11. Diskettes and CD-ROMs Option Function Sets a Volume ID — a name that is assigned to it if the image is burned, and the disc is mounted in Solaris and Windows environments. Sets verbose execution, which is useful for viewing the status of the image as it is being made.
Page 118: Additional Resources
Chapter 11. Diskettes and CD-ROMs 11.4. Additional Resources This chapter brieﬂy covers several applications. Refer to the following resources for more information about the applications in this chapter 11.4.1. Installed Documentation man page — Discusses how to burn data, audio and mixed-mode CD-ROMs. Offers •...
Page 119: Troubleshooting Your System
III. Troubleshooting Your System If you ever run into problems using your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system, there are steps you can take and tools you can use to recover from issues that get you back to using your system normally. From booting into rescue mode to changing a forgotten password, this part can show you how to troubleshoot several common issues that you may run into in the course of using Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
Page 121: Frequently Asked Questions
For more information about using RPM and Package Management Tool, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Administration Guide on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Documentation CD or online at http://www.redhat.com/docs/. 12.3. Starting Applications I installed an application I downloaded from the Internet, and everything seemed to go ﬁne, but I still when I type its name.
Page 122 Chapter 12. Frequently Asked Questions If you are trying to start an application from the shell prompt and it is not working, try typing out the full directory path before the name of the application’s executable (such as /usr/local/bin/my-executable For example, imagine that you have downloaded the setiathome client application and want to try it out.
Page 123: Accessing A Windows Partition
Chapter 12. Frequently Asked Questions For more information about using and conﬁguring your shell prompt refer to Chapter 3 Shell Prompt Basics. 12.4. Accessing a Windows Partition I have a dual-boot system with Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Windows 98. Is there a way to access my Windows partition while I am running Linux? You can access another partition on your system (for example, a Windows partition), in two different ways.
Page 124: Finding Commands Quickly
Chapter 12. Frequently Asked Questions Before you can access the partition, you must mount it in the directory you just created. As root, type the following command at a shell prompt (where is the Windows partition you found via /dev/hda1 Hardware Browser): mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /mnt/windows You may then logout of root user mode and access your Windows data by changing into the mounted...
Page 125: Ls Output From Scrolling
Chapter 12. Frequently Asked Questions 12.6. Tips on Using Command History What are some other ways I can use command history? If you type history, a numbered list scrolls by very quickly, showing you the previous 500 com- mands you have used. You probably do not need to see all of the last 500 commands, so the command history 20 might be useful.
Page 126: Forgotten Password
Chapter 12. Frequently Asked Questions 12.8. Forgotten Password Help! I forgot my root password. How do I log in now? You can log in using single-user mode and create a new root password. To enter single-user mode, reboot your computer. If you use the default boot loader, GRUB, you can enter single user mode by performing the following: 1.
Page 127 Chapter 12. Frequently Asked Questions # Default runlevel. The runlevels used by RHS are: 0 - halt (Do NOT set initdefault to this) 1 - Single user mode 2 - Multiuser, without NFS (The same as 3, if you do not have networking) 3 - Full multiuser mode 4 - unused 5 - X11...
Page 128 Chapter 12. Frequently Asked Questions...
Page 129: Appendix
IV. Appendix This part contains supplemental information and instruction that you may ﬁnd useful during the course of your Red Hat Enterprise Linux usage. Perhaps you want to use the KDE graphical desktop envi- ronment, or learn more about conﬁguring your system to send and receive encrypted email. This section shows you time-saving keyboard shortcuts, discusses the Red Hat Enterprise Linux directory structure, and more.
Page 131: Kde: The K Desktop Environment
Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment A.1. Introducing KDE The K Desktop Environment (KDE) is a graphical desktop that uses common graphical objects such as icons, windows, menus, and panels; it allows you to access your Red Hat Enterprise Linux system and applications using your mouse and keyboard.
Page 132: Using The Panel
Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment Figure A-2. A Typical KDE Desktop The KDE desktop displays application launchers, document windows, ﬁle folders, and so on. You can also access the main menu and conﬁgure the desktop to suit your needs. The long bar across the bottom of the desktop is the panel.
Page 133 Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment Figure A-3. The Panel The panel is highly conﬁgurable. You can add and remove buttons that launch applications easily. Right-click on the panel and select Conﬁgure Panel to open the panel Settings. You can conﬁgure panel orientation and size, set a panel hiding conﬁguration (where the panel remains hidden until you hover over the panel area), and customize your main menu.
Page 134 Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment A.4.2.1. Working with Multiple Desktops By default, KDE provides four desktops that you can use to display multiple applications without having to crowd all of them onto one desktop. Each desktop can hold icons, open applications, and be individually customized.
Page 135 Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment Figure A-6. Desktop Background Conﬁguration After you make any adjustments to your desktop conﬁguration, click Apply to save the changes. Click OK to close the desktop conﬁguration tool. Buttons for your desktops appear on the panel in the Desktop Pager. Click on a tile to move to a different desktop.
Page 136: Managing Files
Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment A.4.3. Adding Icons and Applets to the Panel To further customize the panel for your particular needs, you can include additional launcher icons to start applications without using the main menu or Start Here. To add a new launcher to the panel, right-click the panel and choose Add =>...
Page 137: Browsing The Web With Konqueror
Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment You can navigate through the ﬁle system by clicking on folders within the main window frame or through the hierarchical ﬁle system viewer on the navigation panel as shown in Figure A-8. Files and folders in the main window frame can be moved or copied to another folder or sent to the trash.
Page 138 Figure A-10. Welcome to Konqueror To begin your Web session, enter a URL in the Location ﬁeld. For example: http://www.redhat.com Press [Enter] to connect to the webpage. You can navigate the webpage using your mouse and key- board. To scroll up and down a webpage, click the the scroll bar on the right side of the browser window as you drag the mouse up and down.
Page 139: Using Konqueror To View Images
Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment Figure A-11. The Konqueror Handbook A.7. Using Konqueror to View Images You can also use the Konqueror ﬁle manager to view images. If you chose KDE as your default desk- top environment, click on your home directory desktop icon to access the Konqueror ﬁle manager: Using Konqueror as an image browser works similarly to Nautilus (see Chapter 10 Working with Images for more information).
Page 140: Kmail
Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment To zoom in and out of an image, you ﬁrst need to change the way Konqueror renders the image. From the window menu, choose View => View Mode => Image Viewer Part. This re-displays the image and allow you to rotate and zoom in on the image using the two magnifying glass icons or the magniﬁcation percentage drop-down menu on the toolbar, as shown in Figure A-13.
Page 141 Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment Figure A-15. KMail Main Screen Once you have your email settings conﬁgured, you can begin sending and receiving email. The folders on the left side of the KMail screen allow you to view emails you have received, emails ready to be sent, emails you have sent, and more.
Page 142: Customizing Kde
Appendix A. KDE: The K Desktop Environment Once you have composed a message and entered an email address to send the email to, click Send in the toolbar: A.9. Customizing KDE KDE allows you to conﬁgure the desktop and your system to suit your needs. The KDE Control Center, available by selecting Main Menu =>...
Page 143: Getting Started With Gnu Privacy Guard
Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard Have you ever wondered if your email can be read during its transmission from you to other people, or from other people to you? Unfortunately, complete strangers could conceivably intercept or even tamper with your email.
Page 144: Warning Messages
Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard mv ~/.gnupg/options ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf If you are upgrading from a version prior to 1.0.7, you can create signature caches in your keyring to decrease the keyring access time. To perform this operation, execute the following command once: gpg --rebuild-keydb-caches B.2.
Page 145 Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard gpg --gen-key Since you work with your user account most frequently, you should perform this action while logged in to your user account (not as root). You see an introductory screen, with key options, including one recommended option (the default), similar to the following: gpg (GnuPG) 1.2.1;...
Page 146: Generating A Revocation Certiﬁcate
Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard When the activity on the screen ceases, your new keys are made and placed in the directory .gnupg in your home directory. To list your keys, use the command: gpg --list-keys You will see something similar to the following: /home/username/.gnupg/pubring.gpg ----------------------------------------- 1024D/B7085C8A 2000-06-18 Your Name...
Page 147: Exporting Your Public Key
Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard Once your revocation certiﬁcate has been created ( ), it is located in your login directory. revoke.asc You should copy the certiﬁcate to a diskette and store it in a secure place. (If you do not know how to copy a ﬁle to a diskette in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, see the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Step By Step Guide.) B.5.
Page 148 Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard sending your key to one keyserver is like distributing it to them all. A correspondent can request your public key from a from a keyserver, import that key to their keyring, and they are ready for secure correspondence with you.
Page 149: Importing A Public Key
Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard Figure B-1. Copying Your Public Key Note that if you are submitting your key to another Web-based keyserver, the above transaction is essentially the same. That is all you need to do. Regardless of whether you use the shell prompt or the Web, you see a message that your key was successfully submitted —...
Page 150: What Are Digital Signatures
Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard gpg: key F78FFE84: public key imported gpg: Total number processed: 1 gpg: imported: 1 To check that the process was successful, use the command; you should see your gpg --list-keys newly imported key listed on your keyring. When you import a public key, you add that key to your keyring (a ﬁle in which public and secret keys are kept).
Page 151 Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard B.8.3. Related Books The Ofﬁcial PGP User’s Guide by Philip R. Zimmerman; MIT Press • PGP: Pretty Good Privacy by Simson Garﬁnkel; O’Reilly & Associates, Inc. • E-Mail Security: How to Keep Your Electronic Messages Private by Bruce Schneier; John Wiley & •...
Page 152 Appendix B. Getting Started with Gnu Privacy Guard...
Page 153: Applications
Appendix C. Applications The following table shows some of the Red Hat Linux applications that are available to perform many common tasks. This is not a complete list of all applications available. Applications in between (parentheses) denotes the formal name of the application. Category Recommended Extras...
Page 154 Appendix C. Applications...
Page 155: A Comparison Of Common Dos And Linux Commands
Appendix D. A Comparison of Common DOS and Linux Commands Many Linux commands typed at a shell prompt are similar to the commands you would type in DOS. In fact, some commands are identical. This appendix provides common commands used at the DOS prompt in Windows and their coun- terparts in Linux.
Page 156 Appendix D. A Comparison of Common DOS and Linux Commands Command’s MS-DOS Linux Basic Linux Example Purpose Displays your chdir location in the ﬁle system Changes directories cd /directory/directory with a speciﬁed pathname pathname path (absolute path) Changes directories cd.. cd ..
Page 157: System Directories
Appendix E. System Directories This is a list of the primary Red Hat Enterprise Linux system directories. Each directory is described brieﬂy. For additional directory information, refer to the Red Hat Enterprise Linux System Adminis- tration Guide and the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Reference Guide. —...
Page 158 Appendix E. System Directories...
Page 159: Keyboard Shortcuts
Appendix F. Keyboard Shortcuts Here are a few keyboard shortcuts you can use to perform common tasks quickly. Many more are available in addition to what is listed here. For more command line and keyboard shortcuts, visit: http://sunsite.dk/linux-newbie/lnag_commands.html#shortcuts [Ctrl] + [Alt] + [Backspace] = kills your current X session. Kills your graphical desktop session •...
Page 160 Appendix F. Keyboard Shortcuts...
Page 161: Index
Index change directories, 26 chmod, 41 numerical settings, 45 clear, 31 cron, 31 accounts DOS, 141 creating, 9 ﬁnding, 110 appending standard output, 34 grep, 37 applets head, 37 adding to KDE panel, 122 history, 110 adding to the panel, 18 locate, 30 on the desktop panel, 16 ls, 29...
Page 162 directories feedback changing, 26 contact information for this manual, v copying, 56 deleting, 57 descriptions, 143 (See Filesystem Hierarchy Standard) listing contents, 29 ﬁle, 49 managing from shell prompt, 25 ﬁle manager moving, 57 for KDE, 122 diskettes, 97 formatting, 98 Nautilus, 19 mke2fs, 99 ﬁle managers, 47...
Page 163 games and amusements, 87 images ﬁnding more online, 87 additional resources, 95 getting started logging in, 6 manipulation, 91 Setup Agent, 1 GIMP, 92 GIMP, 92 viewing, 91, 91 opening a ﬁle, 93 saving a ﬁle, 93 Konqueror, 125 GNOME desktop Nautilus, 91 (See graphical desktop) introduction, i...
Page 164 less, 36 O’Reilly & Associates, Inc., 137 linux commands OpenOfﬁce.org, 73 (See shell prompt) Draw, 79 listing directories features, 73 (See commands, ls) Impress, 77 log in, 6 Writer, 74, 75 logging in, 6 ownership and permissions, 41 graphical, 112 graphical login, 8 virtual console login, 7 logging out, 12...
Page 165 The Graphical Desktop, 8 Trash icon redirecting standard input, 35 KDE, 118 redirection, 32 troubleshooting reset, 31 sound card, 85 root, 47 video card, 86 and root login, 47 logging in as, 6 RPMs error message while installing, 107 unzip, 52 user account creating, 9 importance of, 7...
Page 167: Colophon
Colophon The manuals are written in DocBook SGML v4.1 format. The HTML and PDF formats are produced using custom DSSSL stylesheets and custom jade wrapper scripts. The DocBook SGML ﬁles are written in Emacs with the help of PSGML mode. Garrett LeSage created the admonition graphics (note, tip, important, caution, and warning).

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Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 3 - STEP BY STEP GUIDE Manual

Introduction

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Using Your System

Troubleshooting Your System

Appendix

Index

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