Introduction 1 About This Book 1 Foolish Assumptions 2 Icons Used in This Book 3 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go from Here 4 Book 1: Getting Started with Linux 5 Chapter 1: Introducing Linux 7 What Is Linux? 7 The Linux kernel 8 GNU utilities 11 Linux user interfaces 12 Linux Distributions: Why So Many? 16 Core Linux distributions 17 Specialized Linux distributions 18 Chapter 2: Installing Linux 21 Dual-Booting with Linux and Microsoft Windows 23 Installing a second hard drive 24 Partitioning an existing drive 24 Partitioning using Windows tools 25 Partitioning using Linux tools 26 Finally, Finally, Before You Get Started 27 Disabling the secure boot feature 27 Creating a boot disk 28 Installing Ubuntu 30 Your First Ubuntu Boot 36 Chapter 3: Living in a Virtual World 39 What Are Virtual Servers? 39 Installing VirtualBox 40 Creating a Linux Virtual Machine 42 Installing Linux on a Virtual Machine 45 Changing settings 45 Loading the operating system 47 Working with the sandbox 50 Chapter 4: Trying Out Linux 53 Starting Linux 53 Playing with the Shell 56 Starting the bash shell 56 Understanding shell commands 58 Trying a few Linux commands 58 Shutting Down 60 Chapter 5: Troubleshooting and Customizing Linux 63 Using Text Mode Installation 64 Lookin'' for Trouble 64 Using the kernel ring buffer 65 Using log files 66 Using the journal 67 Resolving Other Installation Problems 68 Using KNOPPIX boot commands 68 Handling the fatal signal 11 error 71 Getting around the PC reboot problem 71 Using Linux kernel boot options 71 Setting Up Printers 74 Managing DVDs, CD-ROMs, and Flash Drives 76 Updating the Operating System 77 Updating Ubuntu 77 Updating openSUSE 78 Installing New Software 79 Adding applications 80 Adding packages 81 Book 2: Linux Desktops 85 Chapter 1: The GNOME Desktop 87 Looking at the History of GNOME 87 Breaking Down the GNOME Desktop 88 Menu, please! 88 The desktop 90 Exploring the Activities Overview 91 Customizing Your Ride 92 Chapter 2: The KDE Plasma Desktop 93 The KDE Plasma Desktop 93 The Application launcher 95 The panel 96 The desktop 96 Using Widgets 98 Adding widgets 98 Getting more widgets 99 Plasma System Settings 99 Desktop Settings 100 Chapter 3: Other Popular Desktops 103 Spicing Things Up with Cinnamon 103 Reviewing the history of Cinnamon 104 Looking at the menu 105 Changing settings 105 Adding more spice 106 Working with MATE 107 The history of MATE 107 Looking at the menu 109 Changing desktop settings 109 Applets 110 The Xfce Desktop Interface 111 The history of Xfce 111 The Whisker menu 112 Changing Xfce settings 113 Applets 113 Chapter 4: Linux Desktop Applications 115 The LibreOffice Suite 115 Browsing the Web with Firefox 117 Configuring Firefox 117 Communicating with Email 119 Evolving into email 120 Working with KMail 121 The amazing Thunderbird 123 Listening to Audio 124 Listening to downloaded music 127 Viewing Movie Files 129 Creating and Modifying Graphics 130 Chapter 5: The Linux File System 133 Pieces of the Puzzle 133 Touring the Linux File System 134 The root of the tree 134 Where removable media lives 136 Managing Your File System without a Net (or Mouse) 136 Viewing information about files on the command line 136 Understanding file listing information 137 Comprehending file types 139 Navigating the file system in Linux 140 A Permissions Primer 141 Checking out the triplets 141 Beware of owners 143 Hanging out in groups 143 Clicking Your Way through the File System 144 Using files 145 Swimming with Dolphin 149 Don''t forget Xfce! 151 Finding Things 152 Chapter 6: Text Editors 155 Viewing the Contents of a Text File 155 Editing Text Files with nano 156 Going with gedit 157 Editing Text in the KDE Plasma Desktop 158 Writing with KWrite 159 Meet Kate 160 Text Editing with ed and vi 161 Using ed 162 Using vi 165 Book 3: Networking 171 Chapter 1: Connecting to the Internet 173 Understanding the Internet 174 Deciding How to Connect to the Internet 175 Connecting with DSL 176 How DSL works 176 DSL alphabet soup: ADSL, IDSL, SDSL 177 Typical DSL setup 179 Connecting with a Cable Modem 180 How a cable modem works 181 Typical cable modem setup 182 Chapter 2: Setting Up a Local Area Network 185 Understanding TCP/IP 185 IP addresses 187 Internet services and port numbers 189 Setting Up an Ethernet LAN 190 How Ethernet works 191 Ethernet cables 192 Configuring TCP/IP Networking 195 Connecting Your LAN to the Internet 196 Chapter 3: Going Wireless 199 Understanding Wireless Ethernet Networks 199 Understanding infrastructure and ad hoc modes 201 Understanding wireless security 201 Setting Up Wireless Hardware 203 Configuring the Wireless Access Point 204 Configuring Wireless Networks 205 Chapter 4: Managing the Network 207 Configuring Network Features 207 Manually editing network configuration files 208 Using a graphical tool 210 Using a command-line tool 212 Basic Network Troubleshooting 216 Advanced Network Troubleshooting 218 Book 4: Administration 223 Chapter 1: Working with the Shell 225 Opening Terminal Windows and Virtual Consoles 225 Using the Bash Shell 228 Understanding the syntax of shell commands 228 Working with files 230 Combining shell commands 231 Controlling command input and output 231 Going wild with asterisks and question marks 233 Discovering and Using Linux Commands 235 Becoming root (superuser) 240 Managing processes 241 Working with date and time 242 Processing files 243 Writing Shell Scripts 246 Chapter 2: Introducing Basic System Administration 249 Taking Stock of System Administration Tasks 250 Becoming root 251 Using the su - command 251 Using the sudo command 252 Understanding How Linux Boots 252 Understanding the SysVinit method 253 Understanding the Systemd method 259 Monitoring System Performance 264 Using the top utility 264 Using the uptime command 266 Using the vmstat utility 267 Checking disk performance and disk usage 267 Viewing System Information with the /proc File System 270 Understanding Linux Devices 273 Device files 274 Persistent device naming with udev 275 Managing Loadable Driver Modules 276 Loading and unloading modules 276 Understanding the /etc/modprobe.d files 277 Scheduling Jobs in Linux 278 Scheduling one-time jobs 278 Scheduling recurring jobs 281 Introducing Some GUI System Administration Tools 284 Chapter 3: Managing Users and Groups 287 Adding User Accounts 288 Managing user accounts by using a GUI user manager 288 Managing user accounts by using commands 290 Managing Groups 291 Exploring the User Environment 292 Changing User and Group Ownership of Files 295 Chapter 4: Managing File Systems 297 Exploring the Linux File System 297 Understanding the file-system hierarchy 298 Mounting a device on the file system 299 Examining the /etc/fstab file 303 Sharing Files with NFS 304 Installing NFS 305 Exporting a file system with NFS 306 Mounting an NFS file system 307 Accessing a DOS or Windows File System 308 Mounting a DOS or Windows disk partition 308 Mounting an NTFS partition 309 Book 5: Managing Linux Servers 311 Chapter 1: Hosting Internet Services 313 What Is a Linux Server? 313 Launching services 314 Listening for clients 316 Serving the Basics 318 Web services 319 Database services 320 Mail services 322 Serving Local Networks 324 File servers 325 Print servers 326 Network resource servers 326 Chapter 2: Managing a Web Server 331 Linux Web Servers 331 Apache 331 NGINX 333 The Apache Web Server 333 Installing an Apache server 333 Configuring an Apache server 336 The NGINX Server 344 Installing NGINX 344 Configuring NGINX 346 Chapter 3: Managing a Database Server 349 Using the MySQL/MariaDB Database 349 Installing MariaDB 350 Looking at the MariaDB command prompt 353 Using the mysql commands 356 Creating database objects 360 Using the PostgreSQL Database 363 Installing PostgreSQL 364 Looking at the PostgreSQL command interface 366 Creating PostgreSQL database objects 370 Chapter 4: Working with Samba and NFS 373 Sharing Files with NFS.