Basics

Topics:

• Documentation
• Files And Directories
  • Structure of The Linux File System
  • Understanding Permissions
• Installing Software
  • From RPM
  • From source
  • Other
• Using The Shell
• Setting the Local Language

Other Sections: Administration Connectivity Hardware Installation Resources Security Troubleshooting Utils & Apps X

Documentation

In an ideal world, you wouldn't need documentation. But as it is, you should know where to find it and how to find your way through it.

Page One:

• Overview

Page Two:

• Finding Documentation
• Handling 'man'

Page Three:

• Searching Text Files With 'grep'
• Documentation Browsers

Files And Directories

Structure of The Linux File System

Lost in a maze of strange directories of the File system Hierarchy Standard? These pages tell you which files to find in which directories.

Page One:

• General Characteristics
• Reasons and Consequences
• Current Problems

Page Two:

• The Root Directory

Page Three:

• /etc
• /home
• /var

Page Four:

• /usr

Page Five?:

• General Jobs?

Understanding Permissions

Permissions are file attributes. Learn why they are here, why they are good and how to handle them.

Page One:

• The Concept
• Why Understanding Permissions Is Important

Page Two:

• Practical Examples
• Changing Permissions
• Popular Cock ups With Permissions

Installing Software

First the principles: in Linux you don't need to visit the vendors' sites to download and install everyting one by one. Instead of this you have a central software installer utility which is for install all the software you want and one software uninstaller to uninstall everything you don't need. You need to setup the software sources where you want to install from though, be it a CD, local network or an ftp server. When you have done that you just need to browse the available software in the software installer (rpmdrake) and choose it. Rpmdrake will take care of the rest.

From RPM

RPM is a software package allowing the easy installation, de-installation and management of software. It is recommended to use 'urpmi' or the Mandrake Control Center to install software, which is a wrapper around RPM that is able to solve dependencies.

Page One:

• What Is RPM?
• What RPM Does For You
• What RPM Does Not Do For You

Page Two:

• Preliminaries
• Common Operations
• Advanced Querying

Page Three:

• urpm - RPM Mandrake Style
• Configuring urpm
• Using rpmdrake
• Using urpm

Page Four:

• What is ...
• How Do I ...
• What Do I Do If ...

Page Five:(Contributed by Kevin Masaryk, edited)

• Introduction
• "I've lost everything: media sources, install groups, and uninstall groups."
• "I get false results when looking for a new RPM after updating my media."
• "I've added CD media but the RPMs aren't showing up."
• "rpmdrake is listing multiple copies of every package."

see related topic software.

From source

Want bleeding edge? Compile yourself1.1 These pages tell you how.

Page One:

• Compiling Basics
• Unpacking Archives
• Important Files to Read
• Needed Packages

Page Two:

• Running 'configure'
• What's Missing?
• Running make
• Uninstalling
• Applying Patches

Page Three (FAQ):

• Missing Or Unusual Build Files
• Build File Problems
• Building Problems

Other

Handling third party (Adobe, Netscape) installers.

Installing Non-RPM Programs {May 21, 02}

Using The Shell

These pages introduce and explain basic shell commands and mechanisms.

Page One:

• The Ultimate Power Tool
• Terminals, xterms And Shells
• First Steps On the Shell

Page Two:

• The very first shell commands to experiment

Page Three:

• Auto-Completion
• Commandline History
• Commandline Editing
• Available Shell Shortcuts

Page Four:

• Command Queuing
• Command Jobbing
• Command Substitution

Page Five:

• Filename Globbing / Expansion
• Output Redirection

Page Six:

• bash Configuration Files
• The Prompt
• Changing $PATH

Page Seven:

• Command Aliases and Shell Functions
• Where To Go From Here
• Shell FAQ

Setting the Local Language

These pages explain how you can change the local language used in the shell.

• Get and Set the Local Language?