Linux for dummies

by Dee-Ann LeBlanc

Linux ®

FOR

DUMmIES‰

7TH EDITION

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Linux ®

FOR

DUMmIES‰

7TH EDITION

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by Dee-Ann LeBlanc

Linux ®

FOR

DUMmIES‰

7TH EDITION

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Linux® For Dummies®, 7th Edition

Published by

Wiley Publishing, Inc.

111 River Street

Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774

www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2006 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or

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Rest of Us!, The Dummies Way, Dummies Daily, The Fun and Easy Way, Dummies.com, 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 trade￾mark 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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Library of Congress Control Number: 2006920624

ISBN-13: 978-0-471-75282-0

ISBN-10: 0-471-75282-7

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Dee-Ann LeBlanc, RHCE (Red Hat Certified Engineer), is a writer, course

developer, journalist, and trainer who specializes in Linux. While these vari￾ous professions may sound scattered, they in fact reinforce one another by

allowing her to see what people are doing with Linux in the real world and

where they need help. She is the Linux Games editor for the Linux Journal,

the Desktop editor for LinuxToday.com, and is the author of numerous books

on Linux and other computer topics. Dee-Ann has also been a regular contrib￾utor to Computer Power User magazine for two years, writing this publica￾tion’s Linux content.

When Dee-Ann isn’t teaching, developing course materials, writing technical

nonfiction or fantasy fiction, interviewing interesting people, chatting about

Linux online or at conferences, or trying in one way or another to save the

world, she hikes with her dogs and experiments on her husband Rob with new

recipes. See the latest that Dee-Ann’s up to and join her readers’ mailing list

at www.Dee-AnnLeBlanc.com and http://dee-ann.blog-city.com/.

(Contact Dee-Ann at [email protected].)

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Dedication

I continue to dedicate this book to my husband, who always has to

listen to my stressed whining when I’m running behind, and my

dogs, who really would like their mom to stop staring at the glow￾ing box once in a while.

Author’s Acknowledgments

I, as usual, have lots of people I’d like to thank. First off, thanks to the folks

without whom the earlier editions of this book would have never existed. For

one, there’s John “maddog” Hall for giving me the opportunity to take over

this book’s evolution. He was too busy leading Compaq’s UNIX Software

Group, acting as Executive Director for Linux International, and sitting on the

board of advisors for Sair Linux/GNU certification to continue handling this

project. There’s also the folks at LANWrights for all their hard work, along

with Melanie Hoag and Evan Blomquist for their strong efforts. Finally, of

course, to the editors and staff at Wiley Publishing, Inc. Without them and

their guidance, this book would not exist or continue to improve over time.

Most of all, I’d like to thank the readers who contacted me with their ques￾tions, suggestions, and concerns. I apologize to anyone who got lost in the

great deluges of e-mail and didn’t get an answer, but please trust that, at the

very least, when I dug your e-mail out from the pile three months later, I filed

it away as one more thing to consider in the next edition. It’s reader partici￾pation that keeps books like this improving over the years, and it’s my goal

to continue refining Linux For Dummies to keep it the best desktop Linux

book available.

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Publisher’s Acknowledgments

We’re proud of this book; please send us your comments through our online registration form

located at www.dummies.com/register/.

Some of the people who helped bring this book to market include the following:

Acquisitions, Editorial, and

Media Development

Project Editor: Blair J. Pottenger

Acquisitions Editors: Terri Varveris,

Tiffany Ma

Senior Copy Editor: Barry Childs-Helton

Technical Editor: Bryan Hoff

Editorial Manager: Kevin Kirschner

Media Development Specialist: Kit Malone

Media Development Manager:

Laura Carpenter VanWinkle

Media Development Supervisor: Laura Moss

Editorial Assistant: Amanda Foxworth

Cartoons: Rich Tennant

(www.the5thwave.com)

Composition

Project Coordinator: Michael Kruzil

Layout and Graphics: Carl Byers, Andrea Dahl,

Lauren Goddard, Denny Hager,

Stephanie D. Jumper, Barbara Moore,

Julie Trippetti

Proofreaders: Jessica Kramer, Techbooks

Indexer: Techbooks

Publishing and Editorial for Technology Dummies

Richard Swadley, Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Andy Cummings, Vice President and Publisher

Mary Bednarek, Executive Acquisitions Director

Mary C. Corder, Editorial Director

Publishing for Consumer Dummies

Diane Graves Steele, Vice President and Publisher

Joyce Pepple, Acquisitions Director

Composition Services

Gerry Fahey, Vice President of Production Services

Debbie Stailey, Director of Composition Services

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Contents at a Glance

Introduction .................................................................1

Part I: Getting Your Feet Wet ........................................7

Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Linux......................................................................9

Chapter 2: Prepping Your Computer for Linux.............................................................19

Chapter 3: Installing Fedora Core...................................................................................39

Chapter 4: Installing Other Linux Distributions ...........................................................57

Chapter 5: Booting and Stopping Linux.........................................................................91

Chapter 6: Checking Out Those Desktops ..................................................................101

Chapter 7: Configuring Linux ........................................................................................119

Part II: Internet Now!...............................................136

Chapter 8: Connecting to the Internet.........................................................................137

Chapter 9: Using the Internet........................................................................................153

Part III: Getting Up to Speed with Linux.....................179

Chapter 10: Manipulating Files and Directories .........................................................181

Chapter 11: Checking Out the Linux Filesystem.........................................................201

Chapter 12: Adding Software to Linux .........................................................................219

Chapter 13: A Secure Linux Box Is a Happy Linux Box..............................................249

Chapter 14: Working without the GUI ..........................................................................265

Chapter 15: Gettin’ Gooey with the GUIs.....................................................................281

Part IV: Getting Things Done .....................................293

Chapter 16: Putting the X in Text .................................................................................295

Chapter 17: Word Processing and More with OpenOffice.org ..................................303

Chapter 18: Multimedia Wow! .......................................................................................337

Chapter 19: Windows-Only Media Formats and Programs .......................................357

Part V: The Part of Tens ............................................365

Chapter 20: Ten Troubleshooting Tips........................................................................367

Chapter 21: Two Knoppix Ten-Steps............................................................................379

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Part VI: Appendixes ..................................................383

Appendix A: Common Linux Commands.....................................................................385

Appendix B: About the DVD-ROM ................................................................................395

Index .......................................................................401

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Table of Contents

Introduction..................................................................1

About This Book...............................................................................................1

How to Use This Book .....................................................................................2

Three Presumptuous Assumptions ...............................................................3

How This Book Is Organized...........................................................................4

Part I: Getting Your Feet Wet.................................................................4

Part II: Internet Now! ..............................................................................4

Part III: Getting Up to Speed with Linux ..............................................5

Part IV: Getting Things Done.................................................................5

Part V: The Part of Tens.........................................................................5

Part VI: Appendixes................................................................................5

Icons Used in This Book..................................................................................6

Where to Go from Here....................................................................................6

Part I: Getting Your Feet Wet.........................................7

Chapter 1: Getting Acquainted with Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Is Free Really Free?...........................................................................................9

Linux: Revolution or Just Another Operating System? .............................10

Anatomy of an Open Source Software Project ...........................................13

GNU who? ..............................................................................................13

Who’s in charge of Linux anyway? .....................................................15

Einstein was a volunteer .....................................................................15

Packaging Linux: The Distribution...............................................................16

Chapter 2: Prepping Your Computer for Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

Installation Considerations...........................................................................19

Preparing to Use Linux and Microsoft Windows Together.......................20

Partitioning from scratch for a dual boot .........................................21

Peeking at your partitions from Windows.........................................21

Peeking at your partitions in Windows 2000 and Windows XP ......22

Peeking at your partitions in Windows 98 ........................................23

Making space ........................................................................................26

Working with Disk Partitions ........................................................................27

Choosing a partitioning tool ...............................................................28

Getting and resizing partitions with qtparted ..................................28

Double-Checking Hardware Compatibility..................................................33

Finally, Finally, Before You Get Started........................................................37

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Chapter 3: Installing Fedora Core . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

Things to Consider Before You Begin Installation .....................................39

The Installation Process................................................................................40

Your First Boot ...............................................................................................51

Chapter 4: Installing Other Linux Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

Jump-Starting Linux with Knoppix...............................................................58

Living Large with Linspire.............................................................................58

Installing Linspire.................................................................................59

Recognizing some special Linspire features.....................................64

About the various Linspire versions..................................................64

Maxin’ Out the Fun with Mandriva ..............................................................64

Installing Mandriva...............................................................................65

About the various Mandriva versions ...............................................70

Starting Off with SuSE....................................................................................71

Installing SuSE.......................................................................................71

About the various SuSE versions .......................................................77

Utilizing Ubuntu..............................................................................................77

Installing Ubuntu ..................................................................................78

About the various Ubuntu versions...................................................82

Zapping Frustration with Xandros...............................................................82

Installing Xandros.................................................................................83

About the various Xandros versions .................................................88

Using LiveCDs and LiveDVDs .......................................................................88

Finding Even More Linux...............................................................................89

Chapter 5: Booting and Stopping Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

Giving Linux the Boot ....................................................................................92

Step 1: Power-On Self-Test (POST) leads to BIOS.............................92

Step 2: The BIOS passes the baton to the boot loader....................93

Step 3: The boot loader (LILO or GRUB) loads the system

kernel into memory ..........................................................................94

Step 4: Control is handed over to init................................................96

Entering Rescue Mode...................................................................................96

Getting into rescue mode (a quick guide).........................................97

Using Fedora Code rescue mode (step by step) ..............................98

Don’t Just Turn Off the Machine! .................................................................98

Removing Linux from Your System............................................................100

Chapter 6: Checking Out Those Desktops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .101

Deciding Which Interface to Use................................................................101

Making the Best of the Command Line......................................................103

GNOME Basics..............................................................................................104

The menus...........................................................................................105

The Lock Screen tool .........................................................................107

xii Linux For Dummies, 7th Edition

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