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Title: Debian GNU/Linux : Guide to Installation and Usage

Author: Goerzen and Othman

Release Date: September, 2004  [EBook #6527]
[Most recently updated: July 13, 2020]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DEBIAN GNU/LINUX: GUIDE TO INSTALATION AND USAGE ***




Debian GNU/Linux: Guide to Installation and Usage

by John Goerzen and Ossama Othman

April 23, 2001

  (c) 1998, 1999 Software in the Public Interest, Inc.

  Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this
  manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are
  preserved on all copies.

  Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of
  this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also
  that the sections that reprint “The GNU General Public License” and
  other clearly marked sections held under separate copyright are
  reproduced under the conditions given within them, and provided that
  the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of
  a permission notice identical to this one.

  Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this
  manual into another language under the conditions for modified
  versions. “The GNU General Public License” may be included in a
  translation approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in
  the original English.

  At your option, you may distribute verbatim and modified versions of
  this document under the terms of the GNU General Public License,
  excepting the clearly marked sections held under separate copyright.




Contents

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Preface

I. Guide
1. Introduction
1.1 What Is Debian?
1.2 A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating System
1.3 What Is Free Software?
1.4 About This Book

2. Getting Started
2.1 Supported Hardware
2.2 Before You Start
2.3 Partitioning Your Hard Drive
2.4 Choosing Your Installation Media
2.5 Booting the Installation System

3. Step-by-Step Installation
3.1 Select Color or Monochrome Display
3.2 Debian GNU/Linux Installation Main Menu
3.3 Configure the Keyboard
3.4 Last Chance to Back Up!
3.5 Partition a Hard Disk
3.6 Initialize and Activate a Swap Partition
3.7 Initialize a Linux Partition
3.8 Install Operating System Kernel and Modules
3.9 Configure PCMCIA Support
3.10 Configure Device Driver Modules
3.11 Configure the Network
3.12 Install the Base System
3.13 Make a Boot Floppy
3.14 The Moment of Truth
3.15 Set the Root Password
3.16 Create an Ordinary User
3.17 Shadow Password Support
3,18 Remove PCMCIA
3.19 Select and Install Profiles
3.20 Package Installation with dselect
3.21 Glossary

4. Logging In
4.1 First Steps
4.2 Command History and Editing the Command Line
4.3 Working as Root
4.4 Virtual Consoles
4.5 Shutting Down

5. The Basics
5.1 The Command Line and Man Pages
5.2 Files and Directories
5.3 Processes
5.4 The Shell
5.5 Managing Processes with bash
5.6 A Few bash Features
5.7 Managing Your Identity

6. Using the Shell
6.1 Environment Variables
6.2 Where Commands Reside: The PATH Variable
6.3 Configuration Files
6.4 Aliases
6.5 Controlling Input and Output
6.6 Filename Expansion

7. More on Files
7.1 Permissions
7.2 Files Present and Their Locations
7.3 File Compression with gzip
7.4 Finding Files
7.5 Determining a File’s Contents
7.6 Using a File Manager

8. Working with Text Files
8.1 Viewing Text Files
8.2 Text Editors
8.3 Using ae

9. The X Window System
9.1 Introduction to X
9.2 Starting the X Environment
9.3 Basic X Operations
9.4 Customizing Your X Startup

10. Filesystems
10.1 Concepts
10.2 mount and /etc/fstab
10.3 Backup Tools

11 Networking
11.1 PPP
11.2 Ethernet

12 Removing and Installing Software
12.1 What a Package Maintenance Utility Does
12.2 dpkg
12.3 dselect
12.4 Compiling Software

13 Advanced Topics
13.1 Regular Expressions
13.2 Advanced Files
13.3 Security
13.4 Software Development with Debian

II. Reference
A Reading Documentation and Getting Help
A.1 Kinds of Documentation

B Troubleshooting
B.1 Common Difficulties
B.2 Troubleshooting the Boot Process

C Booting the System

D The GNU General Public License


List of Figures

1. cfdisk screenshot
2. dselect Access screen
3. Sample session with su
4. Sample printenv output
5. Changing the prompt
6. Redirecting output


List of Tables

1. Linux Device Names
2. Special dselect keys
3. dselect Package States
4. Expected Package Category States
5. Permissions in Linux




Acknowledgments


  Many people have helped with this manual. We’d like to thank
  everyone involved, and we try to do that here.

  Thanks to Havoc Pennington, Ardo van Rangelrooij, Larry Greenfield,
  Thalia Hooker, Day Irmiter, James Treacy, Craig Sawyer, Oliver
  Elphick, Ivan E. Moore II, Eric Fischer, Mike Touloumtzis, and the
  Linux Documentation Project for their work on what became the Debian
  Tutorial document.

  Thanks to Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation for
  advice and editing.

  Thanks to Bruce Perens, Sven Rudolph, Igor Grobman, James Treacy,
  Adam Di Carlo, Tapio Lehtonen, and Stephane Bortzmeyer for their
  work on what became a collection of installation documents.

  Of course, it’s impossible to thank the hundreds of Debian
  developers and thousands of free software authors who gave us
  something to write about and use.




Preface


_“Freedom is still the most radical idea of all.”_

  This quote, penned by Nathaniel Branden, seems fitting nowhere
  moreso than with the freewheeling computing industry. In the space
  of just a few decades, lives the world over have been changed by
  computing technology. We, the people behind the Free Software
  movement, are seeking to continue this trend by truly opening up
  software to everyone—not just the few people working for the
  companies that write it—but everyone. As part of this goal, this
  book and CD contain a treasure chest of Free Software. Over one
  thousand packages, including things such as the world’s most popular
  web server, can be found here. You can use this software for
  everything from graphic design to SQL databases.

  The Free Software revolution has taken the industry by storm. Linux,
  started from scratch not even 10 years ago, has been the favorite
  kernel of the Free Software world. The ideas and experience gained
  from Free Software have truly sent Linux and the Free Software
  Foundation’s GNU tools all over the world. Free systems such as
  Debian GNU/Linux ship with literally thousands of applications, and
  they have more power and stability, and outperform some of the
  industry’s traditional best-selling proprietary operating systems.

  Today, GNU/Linux plays a dominant role in Internet servers and among
  ISPs, in academia, among computer hobbyists, and in computer science
  research. Debian GNU/Linux has brought the power of Free Software to
  everything from laptops to flights aboard the Space Shuttle. As I
  write this, companies the world over are experiencing the joy and
  benefits that are Free Software. The unprecedented power, the
  ability to speak directly to the people who write the software you
  use, the capability to modify programs at will, and the phenomenal
  expertise of the online support mechanism all combine to make Free
  Software a vibrant and wonderful way to use your computing
  resources.

  Starting with a Free Software such as Debian GNU/Linux can be the
  best thing you’ve done with your computer in a long time. It’s fast,
  powerful, stable, versatile, and _fun_!

  Welcome to the revolution!

  — John Goerzen




I. Guide

1. Introduction


  We’re glad to have this opportunity to introduce you to Debian! As
  we begin our journey down the road of GNU/Linux, we’d like to first
  talk a bit about what exactly Debian is—what it does, and how it
  fits in with the vast world of Free Software. Then, we talk a bit
  about the phenomenon that is Free Software and what it means for
  Debian and you. Finally, we close the chapter with a bit of
  information about this book itself.


1.1 What Is Debian?

  _Debian_ is a free operating system (OS) for your computer. An
  operating system is the set of basic programs and utilities that
  make your computer run. At the core of an operating system is the
  _kernel_. The kernel is the most fundamental program on the
  computer: It does all the basic housekeeping and lets you start
  other programs. Debian uses the _Linux_ kernel, a completely free
  piece of software started by Linus Torvalds and supported by
  thousands of programmers worldwide. A large part of the basic tools
  that fill out the operating system come from the GNU Project[1], and
  these tools are also free.

[1] http://www.gnu.org/

  Another facet of an operating system is application software:
  programs that help get work done, from editing documents to running
  a business to playing games to writing more software. Debian comes
  with more than 1,500 _packages_ (precompiled software bundled up in
  a nice format for easy installation on your machine)—all for free.

  The Debian system is a bit like a pyramid. At the base is Linux. On
  top of that are all the basic tools, mostly from GNU. Next is all
  the application software that you run on the computer; many of these
  are also from GNU. The Debian developers act as architects and
  coordinators—carefully organizing the system and fitting everything
  together into an integrated, stable operating system: Debian
  GNU/Linux.

  The design philosophy of GNU/Linux is to distribute its
  functionality into small, multipurpose parts. That way, you can
  easily achieve new functionality and new features by combining the
  small parts (programs) in new ways. Debian is like an erector set:
  You can build all sorts of things with it.

  When you’re using an operating system, you want to minimize the
  amount of work you put into getting your job done. Debian supplies
  many tools that can help, but only if you know what these tools do.
  Spending an hour trying to get something to work and then finally
  giving up isn’t very productive. This guide will teach you about the
  core tools that make up Debian: what tools to use in certain
  situations and how to tie these various tools together.


1.1.1 Who Creates Debian?

  Debian is an all-volunteer Internet-based development project. There
  are hundreds of volunteers working on it. Most are in charge of a
  small number of software packages and are very familiar with the
  software they package.

  These volunteers work together by following a strict set of
  guidelines governing how packages are assembled. These guidelines
  are developed cooperatively in discussions on Internet mailing
  lists.


1.2 A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating System

  As we mentioned earlier in section 1.1, the design of Debian
  GNU/Linux comes from the Unix operating system. Unlike common
  desktop operating systems such as DOS, Windows, and MacOS, GNU/Linux
  is usually found on large servers and _multiuser_ systems.

  This means that Debian has features those other operating systems
  lack. It allows a large number of people to use the same computer at
  once, as long as each user has his or her own _terminal_.[2] To
  permit many users to work at once, Debian must allow many programs
  and applications to run simultaneously. This feature is called
  _multitasking_.

[2] A terminal is just a keyboard and a screen that are connected to
the computer through the network, over a modem, or directly. You
keyboard and monitor form a terminal that is directly attached to the
computer: This special terminal is often called the _console_.

  Much of the power (and complexity) of GNU/Linux systems stems from
  these two features. For example, the system must have a way to keep
  users from accidentally deleting each other’s files. The operating
  system also must coordinate the many programs running at once to
  ensure that they don’t all use the same resource, such as a hard
  drive, at the same time.

  If you keep in mind what Debian was originally designed to do, many
  aspects of it will make a lot more sense. You’ll learn to take
  advantage of the power of these features.


1.3 What Is Free Software?

  When Debian developers and users speak of “Free Software,” they
  refer to _freedom_ rather than price. Debian is free in this sense:
  You are free to modify and redistribute it and will always have
  access to the source code for this purpose. The Debian Free Software
  Guidelines[3] describe in more detail exactly what is meant by
  “free.” The Free Software Foundation[4], originator of the GNU
  Project, is another excellent source of information. You can find a
  more detailed discussion of free software on the Debian web site[5].
  One of the most well-known works in this field is Richard M.
  Stallman’s essay, _Why Software Should Be Free_[6]; take a look at
  it for some insight into why we support Free Software as we do.
  Recently, some people have started calling Free Software “Open
  Source Software”; the two terms are interchangable.

[3] http://www.debian.org/social_contract#guidelines

[4] http://www.fsf.org/

[5] http://www.debian.org/

[6] http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html

  You may wonder why would people spend hours of their own time
  writing software and carefully packaging it, only to give it all
  away. The answers are as varied as the people who contribute.

  Many believe in sharing information and having the freedom to
  cooperate with one another, and they feel that free software
  encourages this. A long tradition that upholds these values,
  sometimes called the Hacker[7] Ethic, started in the 1950s. The
  Debian GNU/Linux Project was founded based on these Free Software
  ethics of freedom, sharing, and cooperation.

[7] Note that the term “hacker” should not be confused with the term
“cracker.” In short, a hacker is benevolent, whereas a cracker is
generally considered malevolent. Movies and other forms of media many
times incorrectly use the term “hacker” instead of “cracker.”

  Others want to learn more about computers. More and more people are
  looking for ways to avoid the inflated price of proprietary
  software. A growing community contributes in appreciation for all
  the great free software they’ve received from others.

  Many in academia create free software to help get the results of
  their research into wider use. Businesses help maintain free
  software so they can have a say in how it develops—there’s no
  quicker way to get a new feature than to implement it yourself or
  hire a consultant to do so! Business is also interested in greater
  reliability and the ability to choose between support vendors.

  Still others see free software as a social good, democratizing
  access to information and preventing excessive centralization of the
  world’s information infrastructure. Of course, a lot of us just find
  it great fun.

  Debian is so committed to free software that we thought it would be
  useful if it was formalized in a document of some sort. Our Social
  Contract[8] promises that Debian will always be 100% free software.
  When you install a package from the Debian main distribution, you
  can be sure it meets our Free Software Guidelines.

[8] http://www.debian.org/social_contract

  Although Debian believes in free software, there are cases where
  people want to put proprietary software on their machine. Whenever
  possible Debian will support this; though proprietary software is
  not included in the main distribution, it is sometimes available on
  the FTP site in the non-free directory, and there is a growing
  number of packages whose sole job is to install proprietary software
  we are not allowed to distribute ourselves.

  It is important to distinguish _commercial_ software from
  _proprietary_ software. Proprietary software is non-free software;
  commercial software is software sold for money. Debian permits
  commercial software, but not proprietary software, to be a part of
  the main distribution. Remember that the phrase “free software” does
  not refer to price; it is quite possible to sell free software. For
  more clarification of the terminology, see
  http://www.opensource.org/or
  http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/categories.html.


1.4 About This Book

  This book is aimed at readers who are new to Debian GNU/Linux. It
  assumes no prior knowledge of GNU/Linux or other Unix-like systems,
  but it does assume very basic general knowledge about computers and
  hardware; you should know what the basic parts of a computer are,
  and what one might use a computer to do.

  In general, this tutorial tries to help you understand what happens
  inside a Debian system. The idea is to empower you to solve new
  problems and get the most out of your computer. Thus there’s plenty
  of theory and fun facts thrown in with the “How To” aspects of the
  manual.

  We’d love to hear your comments about this book! You can reach the
  authors at [email protected]. We’re especially interested in
  whether it was helpful to you and how we could make it better.
  Whether you have a comment or think this book is the greatest thing
  since sliced bread, please send us e-mail.

  Please do not send the authors technical questions about Debian,
  because there are other forums for that; see Appendix A on page [*]
  for more information on the documentation and getting help. Only
  send mail regarding the book itself to the above address.


1.4.1 How to Read This Book

  The best way to learn about almost any computer program is by using
  it. Most people find that reading a book without using the program
  isn’t beneficial. The best way to learn about Unix and GNU/Linux is
  by using them. Use GNU/Linux for everything you can. Feel free to
  experiment!

  Debian isn’t as intuitively obvious as some other operating systems.
  You will probably end up reading at least the first few chapters of
  this book. GNU/Linux’s power and complexity make it difficult to
  approach at first, but far more rewarding in the long run.

  The suggested way to learn is to read a little, and then play a
  little. Keep playing until you’re comfortable with the concepts, and
  then start skipping around in the book. You’ll find a variety of
  topics are covered, some of which you might find interesting. After
  a while, you should feel confident enough to start using commands
  without knowing exactly what they do. This is a good thing.

    Tip: If you ever mistakenly type a command or don’t know how to
    exit a program, press CTRL-c (the Ctrl key and the lowercase
    letter c pressed simultaneously). This will often stop the
    program.


1.4.2 Conventions

  Before going on, it’s important to be familiar with the
  typographical conventions used in this book.

  When you should simultaneously hold down multiple keys, a notation
  like CTRL-a will be used. This means “press the Ctrl key and press
  lowercase letter a.” Some keyboards have both Alt and Meta; most
  home computers have only Alt, but the Alt key behaves like a Meta
  key. So if you have no Meta key, try the Alt key instead.

  Keys like Alt and Meta are called _modifier_ keys because they
  change the meaning of standard keys like the letter A. Sometimes you
  need to hold down more than one modifier; for example, Meta-Ctrl-a
  means to simultaneously press Meta, Ctrl, and lowercase a.

  Some keys have a special notation—for example, Ret (Return/Enter),
  Del (Delete or sometimes Backspace), Esc (Escape). These should be
  fairly self-explanatory.

  Spaces used instead of hyphens mean to press the keys in sequential
  order. For example, CTRL-a x RET means to simultaneously type Ctrl
  and lowercase a, followed by the letter x, followed by pressing
  Return. (On some keyboards, this key is labeled Enter. Same key,
  different name.)

  In sample sessions, bold face text denotes characters typed by the
  user, italicized text denotes comments about a given part of the
  sample session, and all other text is output from entering a
  command. For shorter commands, you’ll sometimes find that the
  command can be found within other text, highlighed with a monospace
  font.




2. Getting Started


    “_A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step._”
    —Lao-Tsu

  Now that you’ve read about the ideas and philosophy behind Linux and
  Debian, it’s time to start putting it on your computer! We start by
  talking about how to prepare for a Debian install, then about
  partitioning your disk, and finally, how to start up the
  installation system.


2.1 Supported Hardware

  Debian does not impose hardware requirements beyond the requirements
  of the Linux kernel and the GNU tools.

  Rather than attempting to describe all the different hardware
  configurations that are supported for the PC platform, this section
  contains general information and pointers to where additional
  information can be found.

  There are two excellent places to check for detailed information:
  the Debian System Requirements[1] list and the Linux Documentation
  Project Hardware Compatibility HOWTO[2]. For information on video
  card support, you may also want to look at the XFree86[3] Project
  web site.

[1] http://www.debian.org/releases/slink/i386/ch-hardware-req.en.html

[2] http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO.html

[3] http://www.xfree86.org/


2.1.1 Memory and Disk Space Requirements

  You must have at least 4MB of memory and 35MB of available hard disk
  space. If you want to install a reasonable amount of software,
  including the X Window system, and some development programs and
  libraries, you’ll need at least 300MB. For an essentially full
  installation, you’ll need around 800MB. To install _everything_
  available in Debian, you’ll probably need around 2GB. Actually,
  installing everything doesn’t make sense because some packages
  provide the same services.


2.2 Before You Start

  Before you start, make sure to back up every file that is now on
  your system. The installation procedure can wipe out all of the data
  on a hard disk! The programs used in installation are quite reliable
  and most have seen years of use; still, a false move can cost you.
  Even after backing up, be careful and think about your answers and
  actions. Two minutes of thinking can save hours of unnecessary work.

  Debian makes it possible to have both Debian GNU/Linux and another
  operating system installed on the same system. If you plan to use
  this option, make sure that you have on hand the original CD-ROM or
  floppies of the other installed operating systems. If you
  repartition your boot drive, you may find that you have to reinstall
  your existing operating system’s boot loader[4] or the entire
  operating system itself.

[4] A boot loader is responsible starting an operating system’s boot
procedure.


2.2.1 Information You Will Need

  If your computer is connected to a network 24 hours a day (i.e., an
  Ethernet or similar LAN connection—not a PPP connection), you should
  ask your network’s system administrator for the following
  information:

    ◼ Your host name (you may be able to decide this on your own)
    ◼ Your domain name
    ◼ Your computer’s IP address
    ◼ The IP address of your network
    ◼ The netmask to use with your network
    ◼ The broadcast address to use on your network
    ◼ The IP address of the default gateway system you should route
    to, if your network _has_ a gateway
    ◼ The system on your network that you should use as a DNS server
    ◼ Whether you connect to the network using Ethernet
    ◼ Whether your Ethernet interface is a PCMCIA card, and if so, the
    type of PCMCIA controller you have
  If your only network connection is a telephone line using PPP or an
  equivalent dialup connection, you don’t need to worry about getting
  your network set up until your system is already installed. See
  section 11.1 on page 99 for information on setting up PPP under
  Debian.


2.3 Partitioning Your Hard Drive

  Before you install Debian on your computer, it is generally a good
  idea to plan how the contents of your hard drive will be arranged.
  One part of this process involves partitioning your hard drive.


2.3.1 Background

  Partitioning your disk simply refers to the act of breaking up your
  disk into sections. Each section is then independent of the others.
  It’s roughly equivalent to putting up walls in a house; after that,
  adding furniture to one room doesn’t affect any other room.

  If you already have an operating system on your system (Windows 95,
  Windows NT, DOS, etc.) and you want to install Debian GNU/Linux on
  the same disk, you will probably need to repartition the disk. In
  general, changing a partition that already has a filesystem on it
  will destroy any information in that filesystem. Therefore, you
  should always make backups before doing any repartitioning. Using
  the analogy of the house, you would probably want to move all the
  furniture out of the way before moving a wall or you risk destroying
  your furniture. Luckily, there is an alternative for some users; see
  section 2.3.6 on page [*] for more information.

  At a bare minimum, GNU/Linux needs one partition for itself. You can
  have a single partition containing the entire operating system,
  applications, and your personal files. Most people choose to give
  GNU/Linux more than the minimum number of partitions, however. There
  are two reasons you might want to break up the filesystem into a
  number of smaller partitions. The first is for safety. If something
  happens to corrupt the filesystem, generally only one partition is
  affected. Thus, you only have to replace (from the backups you’ve
  been carefully keeping) a portion of your system. At the very least,
  you should consider creating what is commonly called a “root
  partition.” This contains the most essential components of the
  system. If any other partitions get corrupted, you can still boot
  into GNU/Linux to fix the system. This can save you the trouble of
  having to reinstall the system from scratch.

  The second reason is generally more important in a business setting,
  but it really depends on your use of the machine. Suppose something
  runs out of control and starts eating disk space. If the process
  causing the problem happens to have root privileges (the system
  keeps a percentage of the disk away from users), you could suddenly
  find yourself out of disk space. This is not good since the
  operating system needs to use real files (besides swap space) for
  many things. It may not even be a problem of local origin. For
  example, unsolicited e-mail (“spam”) can easily fill a partition. By
  using more partitions, you protect the system from many of these
  problems. Using e-mail as an example again, by putting the directory
  /var/spool/mail on its own partition, the bulk of the system will
  /work
  even if unsolicited e-mail fills that partition.

  Another reason applies only if you have a large IDE disk drive and
  are using neither LBA addressing nor overlay drivers[5]. In this
  case, you will have to put the root partition into the first 1,024
  cylinders of your hard drive, usually around 524 megabytes. See
  section 2.3.3 on page [*] for more information on this issue.

[5] See your hard drive manual for a description of these features.

  Most people feel that a swap partition is also a necessity, although
  this isn’t strictly true. “Swap” is scratch space for an operating
  system, which allows the system to use disk storage as “virtual
  memory” in addition to physical memory. Putting swap on a separate
  partition allows Linux to make much more efficient use of it. It is
  possible to force Linux to use a regular file as swap, but this is
  not recommended.

  The only real drawback to using more partitions is that it is often
  difficult to know in advance what your needs will be. If you make a
  partition too small, either you will have to reinstall the system,
  or you will be constantly moving things around to make room in the
  undersized partition. On the other hand, if you make the partition
  too big, you may be wasting space that could be used elsewhere.


2.3.2 Planning Use of the System

  Disk space requirements and your partitioning scheme are influenced
  by the type of installation you decide to create.

  For your convenience, Debian offers a number of default “profiles”
  some of which are listed later in this section. Profiles are simply
  preselected sets of packages designed to provide certain desired
  capabilities on your system. Installation is easier since packages
  that fit your desired profile are automatically marked for
  installation. Each given profile lists the size of the resulting
  system after installation is complete. Even if you don’t use these
  profiles, this discussion is important for planning, since it will
  give you a sense of how large your partition or partitions need to
  be. The following are some of the available profiles and their
  sizes:

  Server_std. This is a small server profile, useful for a
  stripped-down server, that does not have a lot of niceties for shell
  users. It basically has an FTP server, a web server, DNS, NIS, and
  POP. It will take up around 50MB. Of course, this is just the size
  of the software; any data you serve would be additional.

  Dialup. This profile would be good for a standard desktop box,
  including the X Window system, graphics applications, sound,
  editors, etc. The size of the packages will be around 500MB.

  Work_std. This profile is suitable for a stripped-down user machine
  without the X Window system or X applications. It is also suitable
  for a laptop or mobile computer. The size is around 140MB. It is
  possible to have a simple laptop setup including X with less than
  100MB.

  Devel_comp. This is a desktop setup profile with all the popular
  development packages, such as Perl, C, and C++. It requires around
  475MB. Assuming you are adding X and some additional packages for
  other uses, you should plan for approximately 800MB of disk space
  for this type of installation.

  Remember that these sizes don’t include all the other materials that
  are normally found, such as user files, mail, and data. It is always
  best to be generous when considering the space for your own files
  and data. Notably, the Debian /var directory contains a lot of state
  information. The installed package management files can easily
  consume 20MB of disk space. In general, you should allocate at least
  50MB for the /var directory because system log files are also stored
  there.


2.3.3 PC Disk Limitations

  A PC BIOS generally adds additional constraints for disk
  partitioning. There is a limit to how many “primary” and “logical”
  partitions a drive can contain. Additionally, there are limits to
  where on the drive the BIOS looks for boot information. More
  information can be found in the Linux Partition mini-HOWTO[6]. This
  section will include a brief overview to help you plan most
  situations.

[6] http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/Partition.html

  “Primary” partitions are the original partitioning scheme for PC
  hard disks. However, there can be only four of them. To get past
  this limitation, “extended” or “logical” partitions were invented.
  By setting one of your primary partitions as an extended partition,
  you can subdivide all the space allocated to that partition into
  logical partitions. The number of logical partitions you can create
  is much less limited than the number of primary partitions you can
  create; however, you can have only one extended partition per drive.

  Linux limits the number of partitions per drive to 15 partitions for
  SCSI drives (3 usable primary partitions, 12 logical partitions),
  and 63 partitions for IDE drives (3 usable primary partitions, 60
  logical partitions).

  The last issue you need to know about a PC BIOS is that your boot
  partition—that is, the partition containing your kernel image—needs
  to be contained within the first 1,024 cylinders of the drive.
  Because the root partition is usually your boot partition, you need
  to make sure your root partition fits into the first 1,024
  cylinders.

  If you have a large disk, you may have to use cylinder translation
  techniques, which you can set in your BIOS, such as LBA translation
  mode. (More information about large disks can be found in the Large
  Disk mini-HOWTO[7].) If you are using a cylinder translation scheme,
  your boot partition must fit within the _translated_ representation
  of cylinder 1,024.

[7] http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/mini/Large-Disk.html


2.3.4 Device Names in Linux

  Linux disks and partition names may be different from those in other
  operating systems. You should know the names that Linux uses when
  you create and mount partitions. The basic scheme can be found in
  Table 2.1 on page [*].

Table 2.1: Linux Device Names
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Device                                        |          Linux Name          |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| First floppy drive                            |           /dev/fd0           |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| Second floppy drive                           |           /dev/fd1           |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| First partition on /dev/hda (typically C: in  |          /dev/hda1           |
| other OSs)                                    |                              |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| Fifth partition on /dev/hdc                   |          /dev/hdc5           |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| Second partition on /dev/sdb                  |          /dev/sdb2           |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| Entire Primary-Master IDE hard disk or CD-ROM |           /dev/hda           |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| Entire Primary-Slave IDE hard disk or CD-ROM  |           /dev/hdb           |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| Entire Secondary-Master IDE hard disk or      |           /dev/hdc           |
| CD-ROM                                        |                              |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| Entire Secondary-Slave IDE hard disk or       |           /dev/hdd           |
| CD-ROM                                        |                              |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| First SCSI disk                               |           /dev/sda           |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| Second and remaining SCSI disks               |    /dev/sdb and so forth     |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| First serial port (COM1 in other OSs)         |          /dev/ttyS0          |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| Second, third, etc. serial ports              | /dev/ttyS1, /dev/ttyS2, etc. |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| SCSI tape units (automatic rewind)            |   /dev/st0, /dev/st1, etc.   |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| SCSI tape units (no automatic rewind)         |  /dev/nst0, /dev/nst1, etc.  |
|-----------------------------------------------+------------------------------|
| SCSI CD-ROMs                                  |  /dev/scd0, /dev/scd1, etc.  |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

  The partitions on each disk are represented by appending a number to
  the disk name. For example, the names hda1 and hda2 represent the
  first and second partitions of the first IDE disk drive in your
  system. Linux represents the primary partitions with the drive name
  plus the numbers 1 through 4. For example, the first primary
  partition on the first IDE drive is /dev/hda1. The logical
  partitions are numbered starting at 5, so the first logical
  partition on that same drive is /dev/hda5. Remember that the
  extended partition—that is, the primary partition holding the
  logical partitions—is not usable by itself. This applies to SCSI
  drives as well as IDE drives.

  Let’s assume you have a system with two SCSI disks, one at SCSI
  address 2 and the other at SCSI address 4. The first disk (at
  address 2) is then named sda and the second sdb. If the sda drive
  has three partitions on it, these will be named sda1, sda2, and
  sda3. The same applies to the sdb disk and its partitions. Note that
  if you have two SCSI host bus adapters (i.e., controllers), the
  order of the drives can get confusing. The best solution in this
  case is to watch the boot messages, assuming you know the drive
  models.


2.3.5 Recommended Partitioning Scheme

  As described above, you should have a separate smaller root
  partition and a larger /usr partition if you have the space. For
  most users, the two partitions initially mentioned are sufficient.
  This is especially appropriate when you have a single small disk,
  because creating lots of partitions can waste space.

  In some cases, you might need a separate /usr/local partition if you
  plan to install many programs that are not part of the Debian
  distribution. If your machine will be a mail server, you may need to
  make /var/spool/mail a separate partition. Putting /tmp on its own
  20 to 32MB partition, for instance, is a good idea. If you are
  setting up a server with lots of user accounts, it’s generally good
  to have a separate, large /home partition to store user home
  directories. In general, the partitioning situation varies from
  computer to computer depending on its uses.

  For very complex systems, you should see the Multi Disk HOWTO[8]. It
  contains in-depth information, mostly of interest to people setting
  up servers.

[8] http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Multi-Disk-HOWTO.html

  Swap partition sizes should also be considered. There are many views
  about swap partition sizes. One rule of thumb that works well is to
  use as much swap as you have system memory, although there probably
  isn’t much point in going over 64MB of swap for most users. It also
  shouldn’t be smaller than 16MB, in most cases. Of course, there are
  exceptions to these rules. If you are trying to solve 10,000
  simultaneous equations on a machine with 256MB of memory, you may
  need a gigabyte (or more) of swap space.

  As an example, consider a machine that has 32MB of RAM and a 1.7GB
  IDE drive on /dev/hda. There is a 500MB partition for another
  operating system on /dev/hda1. A 32MB swap partition is used on
  /dev/hda3 and the rest, about 1.2GB, on /dev/hda2 is the Linux
  partition.


2.3.6 Partitioning Prior to Installation

  There are two different times that you can partition: prior to or
  during the installation of Debian. If your computer will be solely
  dedicated to Debian you should partition during installation as
  described in section 3.5 on page [*]. If you have a machine with
  more than one operating system on it, you should generally let the
  other operating system create its own partitions.

  The following sections contain information regarding partitioning in
  your native operating system prior to Debian installation. Note that
  you’ll have to map between how the other operating system names
  partitions and how Linux names partitions; see Table 2.1 on page
  [*].

 Partitioning from DOS or Windows

  If you are manipulating existing FAT or NTFS partitions, it is
  recommended that you use either the scheme below or native Windows
  or DOS tools. Otherwise, it is not really necessary to partition
  from DOS or Windows; the Linux partitioning tools will generally do
  a better job.

 Lossless Repartitioning

  One of the most common installations is onto a system that already
  contains DOS (including Windows 3.1), Win32 (such as Windows 95, 98,
  NT), or OS/2 and it is desired to put Debian onto the same disk
  without destroying the previous system. As explained in section
  2.3.1 on page [*], decreasing the size of an existing partition will
  almost certainly damage the data on that partition unless certain
  precautions are taken. The method described here, while not
  guaranteed to protect your data, works extremely well in practice.
  As a precaution, you should _make a backup_.

  Before going any further, you should have decided how you will
  divide up the disk. The method in this section will only split a
  partition into two pieces. One will contain the original operating
  system, and the other will be used for Debian. During the
  installation of Debian, you will be given the opportunity to use the
  Debian portion of the disk as you see fit, i.e., as swap or as a
  filesystem.

  The idea is to move all the data on the partition to the beginning
  before changing the partition information, so that nothing will be
  lost. It is important that you do as little as possible between the
  data movement and repartitioning to minimize the chance of a file
  being written near the end of the partition as this will decrease
  the amount of space you can take from the partition.

  The first thing you need is a copy of FIPS, which is available in
  the tools directory on your Debian CD-ROM. This disk must be
  bootable. Under DOS, a bootable floppy can be created using the
  command sys a: for a previously formatted floppy or format a: /s for
  an unformatted floppy. Unzip the archive and copy the files
  RESTORRB.EXE, FIPS.EXE and ERRORS.TXT to the bootable floppy. FIPS
  comes with very good documentation that you may want to read. You
  should definitely read the documentation if you use a disk
  compression driver or a disk manager. Create the disk and read the
  documentation _before_ you continue.

  The next thing to be done is to move all the data to the beginning
  of the partition. DEFRAG, which comes standard with DOS 6.0 and
  later, can easily do the job. See the FIPS documentation for a list
  of other software that may also work. Note that if you have Windows
  95 or higher, you must run DEFRAG from there, because DOS doesn’t
  understand VFAT, which is used to support long filenames in Windows
  95 and higher.

  After running the defragmenter (which can take a while on a large
  disk), reboot with the FIPS floppy disk you created. Simply type a:\
  fips and follow the directions.

  Note that there are many other other partition managers out there,
  in case FIPS doesn’t work for you.


2.3.7 Debian Installation Steps

  As you initially install Debian, you will proceed through several
  different steps:

   1. Boot the installation system
   2. Initial system configuration
   3. Install the base system
   4. Boot the newly installed base system
   5. Install the rest of the system

  Booting the Debian installation system, the first step, is generally
  done with the Rescue Floppy or from the CD-ROM.

  Once you’ve booted into Linux, the dbootstrap program will launch
  and guide you through the second step, the initial system
  configuration. This step is described in detail in section 3 on page
  [*].

  The “Debian base system” is a core set of packages that are required
  to run Debian in a minimal, stand-alone fashion. dbootstrap will
  install it from your CD-ROM, as described in section 3.12 on page
  [*]. Once you have configured and installed the base system, your
  machine can “stand on its own.”

  The final step is the installation of the remainder of the Debian
  system. This would include the applications and documents that you
  actually use on your computer, such as the X Window system, editors,
  shells, and development environments. The rest of the Debian system
  can be installed from CD-ROM. At this point, you’ll be using the
  standard Debian package management tools, such as dselect. This step
  is described in section 3.20 on page [*].


2.4 Choosing Your Installation Media

  First, choose the boot media for the installation system. Next,
  choose the method you will use to install the base system.

  To boot the installation system, you have the following choices:
  bootable CD-ROM, floppies, or a non-Linux boot loader.

  CD-ROM booting is one of the easiest ways to install. Not all
  machines can boot directly from the CD-ROM so you may still need to
  use floppies. Booting from floppies is supported for most platforms.
  Floppy booting is described in section 2.4.2 on page [*].


2.4.1 Installing from a CD-ROM

  If your system supports booting from a CD-ROM, you don’t need any
  floppies. Put the CD-ROM into the drive, turn your computer off, and
  then turn it back on. You should see a Welcome screen with a boot
  prompt at the bottom. Now you can skip down to section 2.5.

  If your computer didn’t “see” the Debian CD-ROM, the easiest option
  is to make two floppies for booting (described in section 2.4.2) and
  then use them to start Debian. Don’t worry; after Debian is finished
  with those two floppies, it will find your CD-ROM with no trouble.


2.4.2 Booting from Floppies

  It’s not hard at all to boot from floppies. In fact, your CD-ROM
  contains all the information necessary to create boot disks for you.
  For these instructions, you will need to get two disks. Label the
  first one “Debian 2.1 Install/Rescue Disk” and the second “Debian
  2.1 Modules/Drivers Disk.”

 Creating Floppies from Disk Images

  Disk images are files containing the complete contents of a floppy
  disk in _raw_ form. Disk images, such as resc1440.bin, cannot simply
  be copied to floppy drives. A special program is used to write the
  image files to floppy disk in _raw_ mode.

  First, you need to get to a DOS prompt. In Windows 95 and above, you
  can do this by double-clicking on an MS-DOS icon or by going to
  Start\( \rightarrow \)Programs\( \rightarrow \)MS-DOS prompt. Then,
  insert your Debian GNU/Linux CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive. First,
  you change to your CD-ROM drive. In most cases, this is D:.

  C:\WINDOWS>D:

  Now, change to the directory containing the disk images.

  D:\>CD
  \DISTS\SLINK\MAIN\DISKS-I386\2.1.8-1999-02-22

  If you get an error, double-check what you’re typing. If the error
  persists, manually issue CD \DISTS\SLINK\MAIN\DISKS-I386, then run
  DIR, and then CD into the directory indicated. Note that the above
  commands, and some other examples below, may appear as a single line
  on your display even if they are wrapped here.

  Now, you’re ready to create the first of two disks. Start the
  program to write them out, rawrite2:

  D:\DISTS\SLINK\MAIN\DISKS-I386\
  2.1.8-1999-02-22>rawrite2
  RaWrite 2.0 - Write disk file to
  raw floppy diskette

  Rawrite2 starts and displays its welcome message. Next, it asks for
  the filename and diskette drive. You tell it to write resc1440.bin
  to a:

  Enter disk image source file name: resc1440.bin
  Enter target diskette drive: a:

  Rawrite2 now asks you to insert a disk into the floppy drive. Do so
  and press Enter.

  Plese insert a formatted diskette into
  drive A: and press -ENTER- :

  At this point, rawrite2 will create the first of the two disks. Now,
  you need to repeat the process for the second disk:

  D:\DISTS\SLINK\MAIN\DISKS-I386\
  2.1.8-1999-02-22>rawrite2
  RaWrite 2.0 - Write disk file to
  raw floppy diskette
  Enter disk image source file name: drv1440.bin
  Enter target diskette drive: a:
  Please insert a formatted diskette into
  drive A: and press -ENTER- :

  By now, your disks are created. You can now use the first one to
  boot.

 Booting Debian

  You are now ready to boot into Debian! Shut down your existing
  operating system, turn off your computer, and place the
  Install/Rescue Disk into the floppy drive. Now turn your computer
  back on. You should get a Welcome screen with a boot prompt at the
  bottom.


2.5 Booting the Installation System

  You should now have the boot prompt. Simply press Enter at this
  point.

  Once you press Enter, you should see the message Loading..., and
  then Uncompressing Linux..., and then a screenful or so of
  information about the hardware in your system. In general, you can
  ignore these messages. Linux will look for various hardware devices
  and will tell you what it finds and doesn’t find. Don’t worry about
  messages at this point. Just wait until you see the Color Selection
  screen. If you have trouble, see section B.2 on page [*].




3. Step-by-Step Installation


  dbootstrap is the name of the program that is run after you have
  booted into the installation system. It is responsible for initial
  system configuration and the installation of the “base system.”

  The main job of dbootstrap and the main purpose of your initial
  system configuration is to configure certain core elements of your
  system. For instance, this includes your IP address, host name, and
  other aspects of your networking setup, if any. This also includes
  the configuration of “kernel modules,” which are drivers that are
  loaded into the kernel. These modules include storage hardware
  drivers, network drivers, special language support, and support for
  other peripherals. Configuring these fundamental things is done
  first, because it is often necessary for the system to function
  properly for the next steps of installation.

  dbootstrap is a simple, character-based application. It is very easy
  to use; generally, it will guide you through each step of the
  installation process in a linear fashion. You can also go back and
  repeat steps if you made a mistake. Navigation within dbootstrap is
  accomplished with the arrow keys, Enter, and Tab.


3.1 Select Color or Monochrome Display

  Once the system has finished booting, dbootstrap is invoked. The
  first thing that dbootstrap asks about is your display. You should
  see the “Select Color or Monochrome display” dialog box. If your
  monitor is capable of displaying color, press Enter. The display
  should change from black-and-white to color. Then press Enter again,
  on the “Next” item, to continue with the installation.

  If your monitor can display only black and white, use the arrow keys
  to move the cursor to the “Next” menu item, and then press Enter to
  continue with the installation.


3.2 Debian GNU/Linux Installation Main Menu

  You may see a dialog box that says “The installation program is
  determining the current state of your system and the next
  installation step that should be performed.” This is a phase in
  which the installation program automatically figures out what you
  probably need to do next. In some cases, you may not even see this
  box.

  During the entire installation process, you will be presented with
  the main menu, titled “Debian GNU/Linux Installation Main Menu.” The
  choices at the top of the menu will change to indicate your progress
  in installing the system. Phil Hughes wrote in the _Linux
  Journal_[1] that you could teach a chicken to install Debian! He
  meant that the installation process was mostly just _pecking_ at the
  _Enter key_. The first choice on the installation menu is the next
  action that you should perform according to what the system detects
  you have already done. It should say “Next,” and at this point the
  next step in installing the system will be taken.

[1] http://www.linuxjournal.com


3.3 Configure the Keyboard

  Make sure the highlight is on the “Next” item and press Enter to go
  to the keyboard configuration menu.

  Move the highlight to the keyboard selection you desire and press
  Enter. Use the arrow keys to move the highlight. In most cases, you
  can just use the default U.S. layout.


3.4 Last Chance to Back Up!

  Did we tell you to back up your disks? Here’s your first chance to
  wipe out all of the data on your disks and your last chance to save
  your old system. If you haven’t backed up all of your disks, remove
  the floppy from the drive, reset the system, and run backups.


3.5 Partition a Hard Disk

  Whatever the “Next” menu selection is, you can use the down-arrow
  key to select “Partition a Hard Disk.” Go ahead and do this now,
  then press Enter.

  The “Partition a Hard Disk” menu item presents you with a list of
  disk drives you can partition and runs a partitioning application
  called cfdisk. You must create at least one “Linux native” (type 83)
  disk partition, and you probably want at least one “Linux swap”
  (type 82) partition, as explained in later in this section.

  You will now create the partitions that you need to install Debian.
  For this example, the assumption is that you are partitioning an
  empty hard disk.

  The boot partition must reside within the first 1,024 of cylinders
  of your hard disk (see section 2.3.3 on page [*]). Keeping that in
  mind, use the right-arrow key to highlight the “New” menu selection,
  and then press Enter. You will be presented with the choice of
  creating a _primary_ partition or a _logical_ partition. To help
  ensure that the partition containing the boot information is within
  the first 1,024 cylinders, create a primary partition first. This
  primary partition will be your “Linux native” partition.

  Highlight the “Primary” menu selection and press Enter. Next you
  will need to enter how large you want that partition to be. Review
  section 2.3.2 on page [*] if you’re not sure how large it should be.
  Remember to leave enough space for your swap partition (see section
  2.3.5 on page [*]). Enter the parition size you want and then press
  Enter. Next you will be asked if you want to place the partition at
  the beginning of free space or at the end. Place it at the beginning
  to help ensure that it lies within the first 1,024 cylinders.
  Highlight “Beginning” and press Enter. At this point you will be
  brought back to the main screen. Notice that the partition you
  created is listed. By default, a Linux native partition was created.
  This partition must now be made bootable. Make sure that the
  “Bootable” menu selection is highlighted and press Enter. The
  partition should now have the word “Boot” listed under the “Flags”
  column.

  With the remaining space, create another primary partition. Using
  the down-arrow key, highlight the _free space_ entry in the
  partition list. Now highlight the “New” menu selection and proceed
  just as you did when you created the first primary partition. Notice
  that the partition is listed as a Linux native partition. Because
  this partition will be your swap partition, it must be denoted as
  such. Make sure the partition you just created (your swap partition)
  is highlighted and then press the left-arrow key until the “Type”
  menu selection is highlighted, then press Enter. You will be
  presented with a list of supported partition types. The Linux swap
  partition type should already be selected. If it is not, enter the
  number from the list that corresponds to the Linux swap partition
  (82), and then press Enter. Your swap partition should now be listed
  as a Linux swap partition under the “FS Type” column in the main
  screen.

[Illustration: Figure 3.1: cfdisk screenshot]

  Your cfdisk screen should look something like the screenshot in
  Figure 3.1 on page [*]. The numbers may not be the same, but the
  Flags and FS Type column shoulds be similar.

  Until now, nothing on your disk has been altered. If you are
  satisfied that the partition scheme you created is what you want,
  press the left-arrow key until “Write” is highlighted, and press
  Enter. Your hard disk has now been partitioned. Quit the cfdisk
  application by selecting the “Quit” menu selection. Once you have
  left cfdisk, you should be back in Debian’s dbootstrap installation
  application.


3.6 Initialize and Activate a Swap Partition

  This will be the “Next” menu item once you have created one disk
  partition. You have the choice of initializing and activating a new
  swap partition, activating a previously-initialized one, or doing
  without a swap partition.

  A swap partition is strongly recommended, but you can do without one
  if you insist and if your system has more than 4MB RAM. If you wish
  to do this, select the “Do Without a Swap Partition” item from the
  menu and move on to the next section.

  It’s always permissible to reinitialize a swap partition, so select
  “Initialize and Activate a Swap Partition” unless you are sure you
  know what you are doing. This menu choice will first present you
  with a dialog box reading “Please select the partition to activate
  as a swap device.” The default device presented should be the swap
  partition you’ve already set up; if so, just press Enter.

  Next you have the option to scan the entire partition for unreadable
  disk blocks caused by defects on the surface of the hard disk
  platters. This is useful if you have MFM, RLL, or older SCSI disks,
  and it never hurts (although it can be time-consuming). Properly
  working disks in most modern systems don’t require this step,
  because they have their own internal mechanisms for mapping out bad
  disk blocks.

  Finally, there is a confirmation message because initialization will
  destroy any data previously on the partition. If all is well, select
  “Yes.” The screen will flash as the initialization program runs.


3.7 Initialize a Linux Partition

  At this point, the next menu item presented should be “Initialize a
  Linux Partition.” If it isn’t, either you haven’t completed the disk
  partitioning process, or you haven’t made one of the menu choices
  dealing with your swap partition.

  You can initialize a Linux partition, or alternately you can mount a
  previously initialized one. Note that dbootstrap will _not_ upgrade
  an old system without destroying it. If you’re upgrading, Debian can
  usually upgrade itself, and you won’t need to use dbootstrap. The
  Debian 2.1 release notes contain upgrade instructions[2].

[2]
http://www.debian.org/releases/slink/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading-
req.en.html

  If you are using old disk partitions that are not empty, i.e., if
  you want to just throw away what is on them, you should initialize
  them (which erases all files). Moreover, you must initialize any
  partitions that you created in the disk partitioning step. About the
  only reason to mount a partition without initializing it at this
  point would be to mount a partition upon which you have already
  performed some part of the installation process using this same set
  of installation floppies.

  Select the “Next” menu item to initialize and mount the / disk
  partition. The first partition that you mount or initialize will be
  the one mounted as / (pronounced “root”). You will be offered the
  choice to scan the disk partition for bad blocks, as you were when
  you initialized the swap partition. It never hurts to scan for bad
  blocks, but it could take 10 minutes or more to do so if you have a
  large disk.

  Once you’ve mounted the / partition, the “Next” menu item will be
  “Install Operating System Kernel and Modules” unless you’ve already
  performed some of the installation steps. You can use the arrow keys
  to select the menu items to initialize or to mount disk partitions
  if you have any more partitions to set up. If you have created
  separate partitions for /var, /usr, or other filesystems, you should
  initialize or mount them now.


3.7.1 Mount a Previously-Initialized Partition

  An alternative to the “Initialize a Partition” step is the “Mount a
  Previously-Initialized Partition” step. Use this if you are resuming
  an installation that was interrupted or if you want to mount
  partitions that have already been initialized.


3.8 Install Operating System Kernel and Modules

  This should be the next menu step after you’ve mounted your root
  partition, unless you’ve already performed this step in a previous
  run of dbootstrap. First, you will be asked to confirm that the
  device you have mounted on root is the proper one. Next, you will be
  offered a menu of devices from which you can install the kernel.
  Choose the appropriate device from which to install the kernel and
  modules; this will either be a CD-ROM device or the first floppy
  device.

  If you’re installing from floppies, you’ll need to feed in the
  Rescue Floppy (which is probably already in the drive), followed by
  the Drivers Floppy.


3.9 Configure PCMCIA Support

  There is an alternate step, _before_ the “Configure Device Driver
  Modules” menu selection, called “Configure PCMCIA Support.” This
  menu is used to enable PCMCIA support.

  If you do have PCMCIA but are not installing your Debian system
  using it (i.e., installation with a PCMCIA Ethernet card), you need
  not configure PCMCIA at this point. You can easily configure and
  enable PCMCIA at a later point, after installation is complete.
  However, if you are installing by way of a PCMCIA network device,
  this alternate must be selected, and PCMCIA support must be
  configured prior to configuring the network.

  If you need to install PCMCIA, select the alternate below “Configure
  Device Driver Modules.” You will be asked which PCMCIA controller
  your system contains. In most cases, this will be i82365. In some
  cases, it will be tcic; your laptop’s vendor-supplied specifications
  should provide the information. You can generally leave the next few
  sets of options blank. Again, certain hardware has special needs;
  the Linux PCMCIA HOWTO[3] contains plenty of information in case the
  default doesn’t work.

[3] http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/PCMCIA-HOWTO.html

  In some unusual cases, you may also need to modify the file
  /etc/pcmcia/config.opts. You can open your second virtual terminal
  (Left Alt-F2) and edit the file there and then reconfigure your
  PCMCIA, or you can manually force a reload of the modules using
  insmod and rmmod.

  Once PCMCIA is properly configured and installed, you should
  configure your device drivers as described in the next section.


3.10 Configure Device Driver Modules

  Select the “Configure Device Driver Modules” menu item and look for
  devices that are on your system. Configure those device drivers, and
  they will be loaded whenever your system boots.

  You don’t have to configure all your devices at this point; what is
  crucial is that any device configuration required for the
  installation of the base system is done here.

  At any point after the system is installed, you can reconfigure your
  modules with the modconf program.


3.11 Configure the Network

  You’ll have to configure the network even if you don’t have a
  network, but you’ll only have to answer the first two
  questions—“Choose the Host name,” and “Is your system connected to a
  network?”

  If you are connected to a network, you’ll need the information you
  collected from 2.2.1. However, if your primary connection to the
  network will be PPP, you should choose _NOT_ to configure the
  network.

  dbootstrap will ask you a number of questions about your network;
  fill in the answers from 2.2.1. The system will also summarize your
  network information and ask you for confirmation. Next, you need to
  specify the network device that your primary network connection
  uses. Usually, this will be eth0 (the first Ethernet device). On a
  laptop, it’s more likely that your primary network device is pcmcia.

  Here are some technical details you may find handy: The program
  assumes the network IP address is the bitwise AND of your system’s
  IP address and your netmask. It will guess the broadcast address is
  the bitwise OR of your system’s IP address with the bitwise negation
  of the netmask. It will guess that your gateway system is also your
  DNS server. If you can’t find any of these answers, use the system’s
  guesses. You can change them once the system has been installed, if
  necessary, by editing
  /etc/init.d/network. (On a Debian system, daemons are started by
  /scripts
  in the directory /etc/init.d/.)


3.12 Install the Base System

  During the “Install the Base System” step, you’ll be offered a menu
  of devices from which you may install the base system. Here, you
  need to select your CD-ROM device.

  You will be prompted to specify the path to the base2_1.tgz file. If
  you have official Debian media, the default value should be correct.
  Otherwise, enter the path where the base system can be found,
  relative to the media’s mount point. As with the “Install Operating
  System Kernel and Modules” step, you can either let dbootstrap find
  the file itself or type in the path at the prompt.


3.12.1 Configure the Base System

  At this point you’ve read in all of the files that make up a minimal
  Debian system, but you must perform some configuration before the
  system will run.

  You’ll be asked to select your time zone. There are many ways to
  specify your time zone; we suggest you go to the “Directories:” pane
  and select your country (or continent). That will change the
  available time zones, so go ahead and select your geographic
  locality (i.e., country, province, state, or city) in the
  “Timezones:” pane.

  Next, you’ll be asked if your system clock is to be set to GMT or
  local time. Select GMT (i.e., “Yes”) if you will only be running
  Linux on your computer; select local time (i.e., “No”) if you will
  be running another operating system as well as Debian. Unix (and
  Linux is no exception) generally keeps GMT time on the system clock
  and converts visible time to the local time zone. This allows the
  system to keep track of daylight savings time and leap years, and
  even allows a user who is logged in from another time zone to
  individually set the time zone used on his or her terminal.


3.12.2 Make Linux Bootable Directly from the Hard Disk

  If you elect to make the hard disk boot directly to Linux, you will
  be asked to install a master boot record. If you aren’t using a boot
  manager (and this is probably the case if you don’t know what a boot
  manager is) and you don’t have another different operating system on
  the same machine, answer “Yes” to this question. Note that if you
  answer “Yes,” you won’t be able to boot into DOS normally on your
  machine, for instance. Be careful. If you answer “Yes,” the next
  question will be whether you want to boot Linux automatically from
  the hard disk when you turn on your system. This sets Linux to be
  the _bootable partition_—the one that will be loaded from the hard
  disk.

  Note that multiple operating system booting on a single machine is
  still something of a black art. This book does not even attempt to
  document the various boot managers, which vary by architecture and
  even by sub-architecture. You should see your boot manager’s
  documentation for more information. Remember: When working with the
  boot manager, you can never be too careful.

  The standard i386 boot loader is called “LILO.” It is a complex
  program that offers lots of functionality, including DOS, NT, and
  OS/2 boot management. To find out more about this functionality, you
  can read the documentation in /usr/doc/lilo after your system is set
  up.


3.13 Make a Boot Floppy

  You should make a boot floppy even if you intend to boot the system
  from the hard disk. The reason is that it’s possible for the hard
  disk bootstrap to be mis-installed, but a boot floppy will almost
  always work. Select “Make a Boot Floppy” from the menu and feed the
  system a blank floppy as directed. Make sure the floppy isn’t
  write-protected, because the software will format and write it. Mark
  this the “Custom Boot” floppy and write-protect it once it has been
  written.


3.14 The Moment of Truth

  You system’s first boot on its own power is what electrical
  engineers call the “smoke test.” If you have any floppies in your
  floppy drive, remove them. Select the “Reboot the System” menu item.

  If are booting directly into Debian and the system doesn’t start up,
  either use your original installation boot media (for instance, the
  Rescue Floppy) or insert the Custom Boot floppy if you created one,
  and then reset your system. If you are _not_ using the Custom Boot
  floppy, you will probably need to add some boot arguments. If
  booting with the Rescue Floppy or similar technique, you need to
  specify rescue root=rootfs, where rootfs is your root partition,
  such as /dev/sda1.

  Debian should boot, and you should see the same messages as when you
  first booted the installation system, followed by some new messages.


3.15 Set the Root Password

  The _root_ account is also called the _superuser;_ it is a login
  that bypasses all security protection on your system. The root
  account should be used only to perform system administration and for
  as short a time as possible.

  Any password you create should contain from six to eight characters,
  and it should contain both uppercase and lowercase characters, as
  well as punctuation characters. Take extra care when setting your
  root password, since it is such a powerful account. Avoid dictionary
  words or use of any personal information that could be guessed.

  If anyone ever tells you he needs your root password, be extremely
  wary. You should normally never give out your root account, unless
  you are administering a machine with more than one system
  administrator.


3.16 Create an Ordinary User

  The system will ask you to create an ordinary user account. This
  account should be your main personal login. You should _not_ use the
  root account for daily use or as your personal login.

  Why not? It’s a lot harder to do damage to the system as an ordinary
  user than as root; system files are protected. Another reason is
  that you might be tricked into running a _Trojan horse_ program—that
  is, a program that takes advantage of your superuser powers to
  compromise the security of your system behind your back. Any good
  book on Unix system administration will cover this topic in more
  detail. Consider reading one if this topic is new to you.

  Name the user account anything you like. If your name is John Smith,
  you might use “smith,” “john,” “jsmith,” or “js.”


3.17 Shadow Password Support

  Next, the system will ask whether you want to enable shadow
  passwords. This is an authentication system that makes your Linux
  system a bit more secure. Therefore, we recommend that you enable
  shadow passwords. Reconfiguration of the shadow password system can
  also be done later with the shadowconfig program.


3.18 Remove PCMCIA

  If you have no use for PCMCIA, you can choose to remove it at this
  point. This will make your startup cleaner; also, it will make it
  easier to replace your kernel (PCMCIA requires a lot of correlation
  between the version of the PCMCIA drivers, the kernel modules, and
  the kernel itself). In general, you will not need PCMCIA unless
  you’re using a laptop.


3.19 Select and Install Profiles

  The system will now ask you if you want to use the pre-rolled
  software configurations offered by Debian. You can always choose
  package-by-package what you want to install on your new machine.
  This is the purpose of the dselect program, described below. But
  this can be a long task with the thousands of packages available in
  Debian!

  So, you have the ability to choose _tasks_ or _profiles_ instead. A
  _task_ is work you will do with the machine, such as “Perl
  programming” or “HTML authoring” or “Chinese word processing.” You
  can choose several tasks. A _profile_ is a category your machine
  will be a member of, such as “Network server” or “Personal
  workstation.” Unlike with tasks, you can choose only one profile.

  To summarize, if you are in a hurry, choose one profile. If you have
  more time, choose the Custom profile and select a set of tasks. If
  you have plenty of time and want very precise control on what is or
  is not installed, skip this step and use the full power of dselect.

  Soon, you will enter into dselect. If you selected tasks or
  profiles, remember to skip the “Select” step of dselect, because the
  selections have already been made.

  A word of warning about the size of the tasks as they are displayed:
  The size shown for each task is the sum of the sizes of its
  packages. If you choose two tasks that share some packages, the
  actual disk requirement will be less than the sum of the sizes for
  the two tasks.

  Once you’ve added both logins (root and personal), you’ll be dropped
  into the dselect program. dselect allows you to select _packages_ to
  be installed on your system. If you have a CD-ROM or hard disk
  containing the additional Debian packages that you want to install
  on your system, or if you are connected to the Internet, this will
  be useful to you right away. Otherwise, you may want to quit dselect
  and start it later after you have transported the Debian package
  files to your system. You must be the superuser (root) when you run
  dselect. Information on how to use dselect is given in section 3.20.


3.20 Package Installation with dselect

  It is now time to install the software packages of your choice on
  your Debian system. This is done using Debian’s package management
  tool, dselect.


3.20.1 Introduction

  This section documents dselect for first-time users. It makes no
  attempt to explain everything, so when you first meet dselect, work
  through the help screens.

  dselect is used to select which packages you wish to install (there
  are currently about 2,250 packages in Debian 2.1). It will be run
  for you during the installation. It is a very powerful and somewhat
  complex tool. As such, having some knowledge of it beforehand is
  highly recommended. Careless use of dselect can wreak havoc on your
  system.

  dselect will step you through the package installation process
  outlined here:

   1. Choose the access method to use.
   2. Update list of available packages, if possible.
   3. Select the packages you want on your system.
   4. Install and upgrade wanted packages.
   5. Configure any packages that are unconfigured.
   6. Remove unwanted software.

  As each step is completed successfully, dselect will lead you on to
  the next. Go through them in order without skipping any steps.

  Here and there in this document we talk of starting another shell.
  Linux has six console sessions or shells available at any one time.
  You switch between them by pressing Left Alt-F1 through Left Alt-F6,
  after which you log in on your new shell and go ahead. The console
  used by the install process is the first one, a.k.a. tty1, so press
  Left Alt-F1 when you want to return to that process.


3.20.2 Once dselect Is Launched

  Once in dselect, you will get this screen:

  Debian Linux ‘dselect’ package handling frontend.
  0.  [A]ccess  Choose the access method to use.
  1.  [U]pdate  Update list of available packages, if possible.
  2.  [S]elect  Request which packages you want on your system.
  3.  [I]nstall Install and upgrade wanted packages.
  4.  [C]onfig  Configure any packages that are unconfigured.
  5.  [R]emove  Remove unwanted software.
  6.  [Q]uit    Quit dselect.

  Let’s look at these one by one.

Access

[Illustration: Figure 3.2: dselect Access screen]

  Here we tell dselect where our packages are. Ignore the order that
  these appear in. It is very important that you select the proper
  method for installation. You may have a few more methods listed, or
  a few less, or you may see them listed in a different order; just
  don’t worry about it. In the following list, we describe the
  different methods.

  multi_cd. Quite large and powerful, this complex method is the
  recommended way of installing a recent version of Debian from a set
  of multiple binary CDs. Each of these CDs should contain information
  about the packages in itself and all prior CDs (in the file
  Packages.cd). When you first select this method, be sure the CD-ROM
  you will be using is not mounted. Place the last binary disk of the
  set (we don’t need the source CDs) in the drive and answer the
  questions you are asked:

  CD-ROM drive location
  Confirmation that you are using a multi-cd set
  The location of the Debian distribution on the disk(s)
  [ Possibly ] the location(s) of the Packages file(s)

  Once you have updated the available list and selected the packages
  to be installed, the multi_cd method diverges from normal procedure.
  You will need to run an “install” step for each of the CDs you have,
  in turn. Unfortunately, due to the limitations of dselect, it will
  not be able to prompt you for a new disk at each stage; the way to
  work for each disk is outlined here:

   1. Insert the CD in your CD-ROM drive.
   2. From the main dselect menu, select “Install.”
   3. Wait until dpkg finishes installing from this CD. (It may report
   installation successful, or possibly installation errors. Don’t
   worry about these until later.)
   4. Press Return to go back to the main dselect menu.
   5. Repeat with the next CD in the set.

  It may be necessary to run the installation step more than once to
  cover the order of package installation; some packages installed
  early may need to have later packages installed before they will
  configure properly.

  Running a “Configure” step is recommended to help fix any packages
  that may end up in this state.

  multi_nfs, multi_mount. These are similar to the multi_cd method and
  are refinements on the theme of coping with changing media—for
  example, installing from a multi_cd set exported via NFS from
  another machine’s CD-ROM drive. indexdselect!multi-NFS, multi-mount
  installation

  apt. One of the best options for installation from a local mirror of
  the Debian archive or from the network. This method uses the “apt”
  system to do complete dependency analysis and ordering, so it’s most
  likely to install packages in the optimal order.

  Configuration of this method is straightforward. You may select any
  number of different locations, mixing and matching file: URLs (local
  disks or NFS mounted disks), http: URLs, or ftp: URLs. Note,
  however, that the HTTP and FTP options do not support local
  authenticating proxies.

  If you have proxy server for either HTTP or FTP (or both), make sure
  you set the http_proxy and ftp_proxy environment variables,
  respectively. Set them from your shell before starting dselect by
  using the following command:

  # export http_proxy=http://gateway:3128/
  #
  # dselect
  #
  #
  #
  #
 Update

  dselect will read the Packages or Packages.gz files from the mirror
  and create a database on your system of all available packages. This
  may take a while as it downloads and processes the files.

 Select

  Hang on to your hat. This is where it all happens. The object of the
  exercise is to select just which packages you wish to have
  installed.

  Press Enter. If you have a slow machine, be aware that the screen
  will clear and can remain blank for 15 seconds. So don’t start
  bashing keys at this point.

  The first thing that comes up on the screen is page 1 of the Help
  file. You can get to this help by pressing ? at any point in the
  “Select” screens, and you can page through the help screens by
  hitting the . (full stop) key.

  Before you dive in, note these points:

    ◼ To exit the “Select” screen after all selections are complete,
    press Enter. This will return you to the main screen if there is
    no problem with your selection. Otherwise, you will be asked to
    deal with that problem. When you are happy with any given screen,
    press Enter to get out.
    ◼ Problems are quite normal and are to be expected. If you select
    package A and that package requires package B to run, dselect will
    warn you of the problem and will most likely suggest a solution.
    If package A conflicts with package B (i.e., if they are mutually
    exclusive), you will be asked to decide between them.

  Let’s look at the top two lines of the Select screen. This header
  reminds us of some of the special keys listed in Table 3.1.

Table 3.1: Special dselect keys
           +------------------------------------------------------+
           | Key  |                  Description                  |
           |------+-----------------------------------------------|
           |  +   |      Select a package for installation.       |
           |------+-----------------------------------------------|
           |  =   |            Place a package on hold            |
           |------+-----------------------------------------------|
           |  -   |               Remove a package.               |
           |------+-----------------------------------------------|
           |  _   | Remove a package and its configuration files. |
           |------+-----------------------------------------------|
           | i, I |      Toggle/cycle information displays.       |
           |------+-----------------------------------------------|
           | o, O |        Cycle through the sort options.        |
           |------+-----------------------------------------------|
           | v, V |            A terse/verbose toggle.            |
           +------------------------------------------------------+

  Table 3.2 lists the states that dselect uses to denote the status of
  each package it is aware of.

Table 3.2: dselect Package States
              +-----------------------------------------------+
              | Flag |     Meaning     |   Possible values    |
              |------+-----------------+----------------------|
              |  E   |      Error      |     Space, R, I      |
              |------+-----------------+----------------------|
              |  I   | Installed State | Space, *, -, U, C, I |
              |------+-----------------+----------------------|
              |  O   |    Old Mark     |    *, -, =, _, n     |
              |------+-----------------+----------------------|
              |  M   |      Mark       |    *, -, =, _, n     |
              +-----------------------------------------------+

  Rather than spell all this out here, I refer you to the Help screens
  where all is revealed. One example, though.

  You enter dselect and find a line like this:

  EIOM Pri  Section  Package   Description
  ** Opt  misc     loadlin   a loader (running under DOS) for LINUX

  This is saying that loadlin was selected when you last ran dselect
  and that it is still selected, but it is not installed. Why not? The
  answer must be that the loadlin package is not physically available.
  It is missing from your mirror.

  The information that dselect uses to get all the right packages
  installed is buried in the packages themselves. Nothing in this
  world is perfect, and it does sometimes happen that the dependencies
  built into a package are incorrect, which means that dselect simply
  cannot resolve the situation. A way out is provided where the user
  can regain control; it takes the form of the commands Q and X, which
  are available in the Select screen.

  Q An override. Forces dselect to ignore the built-in dependencies
  and to do what you have specified. The results, of course, will be
  on your own head.

  X Use X if you get totally lost. It puts things back the way they
  were and exits.

  Select screen (dselect) Keys that help you not to get lost (!) are
  R, U, and D.

  R Cancels all selections at this level. Does not affect selections
  made at the previous level.

  U If dselect has proposed changes and you have made further changes
  U will restore dselect’s selections.

  D Removes the selections made by dselect, leaving only yours.

  An example follows. The boot-floppies package (not an example for
  beginners, I know, but it was chosen because it has a lot of
  dependencies) depends on these packages:

    ◼ libc6-pic
    ◼ slang1-pic
    ◼ sysutils
    ◼ makedev
    ◼ newt0.25
    ◼ newt0.25-dev
    ◼ popt
    ◼ zlib1g
    ◼ zlib1g-dev
    ◼ recode

  The person maintaining boot-floppies also thinks that the following
  packages should be installed. These are not, however, essential:

    ◼ lynx
    ◼ debiandoc-sgml
    ◼ unzip

  When you select boot-floppies, dselect brings up the conflict
  resolution screen. You’ll notice that all the required packages have
  been selected.

  Pressing the R key puts things back to the starting point.

  EIOM Pri Section  Package      Description
  __ Opt admin    boot-floppie Scripts to create the Debian
  __ Opt devel    newt0.25-dev Developer’s toolkit for newt
  __ Opt devel    slang1-dev   The S-Lang programming library
  __ Opt devel    slang1-pic   The S-Lang programming library

  If you decide now that you don’t want boot-floppies, just press
  Enter.

  Pressing the D key puts things the way I selected them in the first
  place:

  EIOM Pri Section  Package      Description
  _* Opt admin    boot-floppie Scripts to create the Debian

  __ Opt devel    newt0.25-dev Developer’s toolkit for newt
  __ Opt devel    slang1-dev   The S-Lang programming library
  __ Opt devel    slang1-pic   The S-Lang programming library

  Pressing the U key restores dselect’s selections:

          EIOM Pri Section  Package      Description
  _* Opt admin    boot-floppie Scripts to create the Debian
  installation
  _* Opt devel    newt0.25-dev Developer’s toolkit for newt
  _* Opt devel    slang1-dev   The S-Lang programming library
  _* Opt devel    slang1-pic   The S-Lang programming library

  I suggest running with the defaults for now; you will have ample
  opportunities to add more later.

  Whatever you decide, press Enter to accept and return to the main
  screen. If this results in unresolved problems, you will be bounced
  right back to another problem resolution screen.

  The R, U, and D keys are very useful in “what if” situations. You
  can experiment at will and then restore everything and start again.
  _Don’t_ look on them as being in a glass box labeled “Break in Case
  of Emergency.”

  After making your selections in the Select screen, press I to give
  you a big window, press t to take you to the beginning, and then use
  the Page Down key to look quickly through the settings. This way you
  can check the results of your work and spot glaring errors. Some
  people have deselected whole groups of packages by mistake and not
  noticed the error until too late. dselect is a _very_ powerful tool;
  don’t misuse it.

  You should now have the situation shown in Table 3.3.

Table 3.3: Expected Package Category States
                   +--------------------------------------+
                   | Package category |      Status       |
                   |------------------+-------------------|
                   |     Required     |   all selected    |
                   |------------------+-------------------|
                   |    Important     |   all selected    |
                   |------------------+-------------------|
                   |     Standard     |  mostly selected  |
                   |------------------+-------------------|
                   |     Optional     | mostly deselected |
                   |------------------+-------------------|
                   |      Extra       | mostly deselected |
                   +--------------------------------------+

  Happy? Press Enter to exit the Select process. You can come back and
  run Select again if you wish.

 Install

  dselect runs through the entire set of packages and installs those
  selected. Expect to be asked to make decisions as you go. It is
  often useful to switch to a different shell to compare, say, an old
  configuration with a new one. If the old file is conf.modules, the
  new one will be conf.modules.dpkg-dist.

  The screen scrolls past fairly quickly on a fast machine. You can
  stop and start it with Ctrl-s and Ctrl-q, respectively, and at the
  end of the run, you will get a list of any uninstalled packages.

  It can happen that a package does not get installed because it
  depends on some other package that is listed for installation but is
  not yet installed. The answer here is to run Install again. Cases
  have been reported where it was necessary to run it four times
  before everything slipped into place. This will vary by your
  acquisition method.

 Configure

  Most packages get configured in step 3, but anything left hanging
  can be configured here.

 Remove

  Removes packages that are installed but no longer required.

 Quit

  I suggest running /etc/cron.daily/find at this point, because you
  have a lot of new files on your system. Then you can use locate to
  get the location of any given file.


3.20.3 A Few Hints in Conclusion

  When the install process runs dselect for you, you will doubtless be
  eager to get Debian running as soon as possible. Well, please be
  prepared to take an hour or so to learn your way around and then get
  it right. When you enter the Select screen for the first time, don’t
  make _any_ selections at all—just press Enter and see what
  dependency problems there are. Try fixing them. If you find yourself
  back at the main screen, run Select again.

  You can get an idea of the size of a package by pressing i twice and
  looking for the “Size” figure. This is the size of the compressed
  package, so the uncompressed files will be a lot bigger (see
  “Installed-Size,” which is in kilobytes, to know it).

  Installing a new Debian system is a complex thing, but dselect can
  do it for you as easy as can be. So take the time to learn how to
  drive it. Read the help screens and experiment with i, I, o, and O.
  Use the R key. It’s all there, but it’s up to you to use it
  effectively.


3.21 Glossary

  The following terms will be useful to you throughout this book and
  in general when you’re talking about Debian.

  Package. A file that contains everything needed to install,
  de-install, and run a particular program. The program that handles
  packages is dpkg. dselect is a front-end to dpkg. Experienced users
  often use dpkg to install or remove a package.

  Package names. All package names have the form xxxxxxxxxxx.deb.
  Sample package names include the following:

    ◼ efax_08a-1.deb
    ◼ lrzsz_0.12b-1.deb
    ◼ mgetty_0.99.2-6.deb
    ◼ minicom_1.75-1.deb
    ◼ term_2.3.5-5.deb
    ◼ uucp_1.06.1-2.deb
    ◼ uutraf_1.1-1.deb
    ◼ xringd_1.10-2.deb
    ◼ xtel_3.1-2.deb




4. Logging In


  Your system is now installed! Pat yourself on the back for a job
  well done! Now it’s time to start using the system. In this chapter,
  we introduce you to the Debian command line, some security
  principles, and how to exit the system. In later chapters, we’ll go
  into more detail on these topics and introduce you to the Debian
  graphical interface, X11.


4.1 First Steps

  After you quit dselect, you’ll be presented with the login: prompt.
  You can now log in using the personal login and password you
  selected; your system is now ready to use. Let’s examine what it
  means to log in and how this process works.

  To use Debian, you must identify yourself to the system. This is so
  it knows who you are, what you have permission to do, and what your
  preferences are.

  To this end, you have a _username_ or _login_. If you installed
  Debian yourself, you should have been asked to give such a name
  during installation. If you are logging on to a system administered
  by someone else, you’ll have to ask him for an account on the system
  and a corresponding username.

  You also have a password, so no one else can pretend to be you. If
  you don’t have a password, anyone can log on to your computer from
  the Internet and do bad things. If you’re worried about security,
  you should have a password.

  Many people prefer to trust others not to do anything malicious with
  their account; hopefully your work environment doesn’t encourage
  paranoia. This is a perfectly reasonable attitude; it depends on
  your personal priorities and your environment. Obviously a home
  system does not need to be as secure as a military installation.
  Debian allows you to be as secure or as insecure as you like.

  When you start Debian, you’ll see a _prompt:_ a request from the
  computer for some information. In this case, the prompt is login:.

  You should type your username and, when requested, your password.
  The password does not appear on the screen as you type it. Press
  Enter after both the username and the password. If you type your
  username or password incorrectly, you’ll have to start over.

  If you do it correctly, you’ll see a brief message and then a $
  prompt. The $ is printed by a special program called the _shell_ and
  is thus called a _shell prompt_. This is where you give commands to
  the system.

  Try entering the command whoami now. There is a _cursor_ to the
  right of the shell prompt. Your cursor is a small underscore or
  rectangle that indicates where you’re typing; it should move as you
  type. Always press Enter when you’re done typing a shell command.

  whoami tells your username. You’ll then get a new shell prompt.

  For the rest of the book, when we say to enter a command, you should
  type it at the shell prompt and press the Enter key.

  When you’re done working, you may want to log out of the system. To
  exit the shell, enter the exit command. Keep in mind that if you
  remain logged in, someone could come along and use your account.
  Hopefully you can trust those in your office or home not to do this;
  but if you do not trust your environment, you should be certain to
  log out when you leave.


4.2 Command History and Editing the Command Line

  Whatever you type after the shell prompt and before pressing Enter
  is called a _command line_. It’s a line of text that commands the
  computer to do something. The Debian default shell offers several
  features to make entering command lines easy.

  You can scroll up to previous commands to run them again, or you can
  modify them slightly and _then_ run them again. Try this: Enter any
  command, such as whoami; then press the Up Arrow key. The whoami
  command will reappear at the prompt. You can then press Enter to run
  whoami a second time.

  If you’ve entered several commands, you can keep pressing the Up
  Arrow key to go back through them. This feature is handy if you’re
  doing the same thing several times, or if you type a command
  incorrectly and want to go back to fix it. You can press the Down
  Arrow key to move in the other direction, toward your more recent
  commands. If there are no more commands to move to, the computer
  will beep.

  You can also move around on the command line to make changes. The
  easiest way is with the Left and Right Arrow keys. Try typing
  whoasmi instead of whoami, and then use the Left Arrow key to move
  back to the s. You can erase the s with the Backspace or Delete
  keys.

  There are more advanced features as well (no need to memorize them
  all now, though). Try pressing Ctrl-a. This moves you to the
  beginning of the line. Ctrl-k (the k stands for “kill”) deletes all
  characters until the end of the line; try it from the middle of the
  command line. Using Ctrl-a followed by Ctrl-k, you can delete the
  entire command line. Ctrl-y pastes the last thing you killed,
  reinserting it at the current cursor position (y stands for “yank,”
  as in “yank it back”). Ctrl-e will move the cursor to the end of the
  command line.

  Go ahead and play around with command-line editing to get a feel for
  it. Experiment.


4.3 Working as Root

  Because Debian is a multiuser system, it’s designed to keep any one
  user or program from breaking the entire system. The kernel will not
  allow normal users to change important system files. This means that
  things stay the way they’re supposed to, safe from accidents,
  viruses, and even malicious pranks. Unlike other operating systems,
  Debian is safe from these threats. You won’t need an anti-virus
  program.

  However, sometimes you need to change important system files; for
  example, you might want to install new software or configure your
  network connection. To do so, you have to have greater powers than a
  normal user; you must become the _root user_ (also called the
  _superuser_).

  To become root, just log on with the username root and the root
  password; this was set during installation, as described in section
  3.15 on page [*].

  At many sites, only the system administrator has the root password,
  and only the system administrator can do the things that one must be
  root to do. If you’re using your own personal computer, _you_ are
  the system administrator, of course. If you don’t have root
  privileges, you will have to rely on your system administrator to
  perform any tasks that require root privileges.

  Sometimes you’ll have the root password even on a shared corporate
  or educational server, because the system administrator trusts you
  to use it properly. In that case, you’ll be able to help administer
  the system and customize it for your needs. But you should be sure
  to use the password responsibly, respecting other users at all
  times.

  If you have the password, try logging on as root now. Enter the
  whoami command to verify your identity. Then _log out immediately_.
  When you’re root, the kernel will not protect you from yourself,
  because root has permission to do anything at all to the system.
  Don’t experiment while you’re root. In fact, don’t do anything as
  root unless absolutely necessary. This isn’t a matter of security,
  but rather of stability. Your system will run much better if it can
  keep you from making mistakes.

  You may find the su command more convenient than logging in as root.
  su allows you to assume the identity of another user, usually root
  unless you specify someone else. (You can remember that su stands
  for Super User, though some say it stands for Set UserID.)

  Here’s something to try. Log on as yourself—that is, not as root.
  Then your session will look something like the one in Figure 4.1.

[Illustration: Figure 4.1: Sample session with su]

  When you’re doing system administration tasks, you should do as much
  as possible as yourself. Then use su, do the part that requires root
  privileges, and use the exit command to turn off privileges so you
  can no longer harm anything.

  You can use su to assume the identity of any user on the system, not
  just root. To do this, type su _user_ where _user_ is the user you
  want to become. You’ll have to know the user’s password, of course,
  unless you’re root at the time or the user has no password.


4.4 Virtual Consoles

  The Linux kernel supports _virtual consoles_. These provide a way of
  making your single screen and keyboard seem like multiple terminals
  that are connected to the same system. Thankfully, using virtual
  consoles is one of the simplest things about Debian: There are “hot
  keys” for switching among the consoles quickly. To try it, log in to
  your system and press Alt-F2 (simultaneously press the left Alt key,
  and F2, that is, function key number 2).

  You should find yourself at another login prompt. Don’t panic: You
  are now on virtual console (VC) number 2! Log in here and do some
  things—more whoami commands or whatever—to confirm that this is a
  real login shell. Now you can return to virtual console number 1 by
  pressing Alt-F1. Or you can move on to a _third_ virtual console, in
  the obvious way (Alt-F3).

  Debian comes with six virtual consoles enabled by default, which you
  access with the Alt key and function keys F1 through F6.
  (Technically, there are more virtual consoles enabled, but only six
  of them allow you to log in. The others are used for the X Window
  system or other special purposes.)

  If you’re using the X Window system, it will generally start up on
  the first unused virtual console—probably VC 7. Also, to switch from
  the X virtual console to one of the first six, you’ll have to add
  Ctrl to the key sequence. So that’s Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get to VC 1. But
  you can go from a text VC to the X virtual console using only Alt.
  If you never leave X, you won’t have to worry about this; X
  automatically switches you to its virtual console when it starts up.

  Once you get used to them, virtual consoles will probably become an
  indispensable tool for getting many things done at once. (The X
  Window system serves much the same purpose, providing multiple
  windows rather than multiple consoles.) You can run a different
  program on each VC or log on as root on one VC and as yourself on
  another. Or everyone in the family can use his or her own VC; this
  is especially handy if you use X, in which case you can run several
  X sessions at once on different virtual consoles.


4.5 Shutting Down

  _Do not just turn off the computer! You risk losing valuable data!_

  If you are the only user of your computer, you might want to turn
  the computer off when you’re done with it.

  To avoid possibly weakening some hardware components, only turn off
  the computer when you’re done for the day. Power up and power down
  are the two greatest contributors to wear and tear on computer
  components. Turning the computer on and off once a day is probably
  the best compromise between your electric bill and your computer’s
  lifespan.

  It’s a bad thing to just press the power switch when you’re done
  using the computer. It is also bad to reboot the machine (with the
  Reset button) without first taking proper precautions. The Linux
  kernel, in order to improve performance, has a disk cache. This
  means it temporarily stores information meant for permanent storage
  in RAM. Because memory is thousands of times faster than a disk,
  this makes many file operations move more quickly. Periodically, the
  information Linux has in memory is actually written to the disk.
  This is called _syncing_. In order to turn off or reboot the
  computer safely, you’ll have to tell the computer to clear
  everything out of memory and put it in permanent storage.

  To reboot, just type reboot or press Ctrl-Alt-Del (that’s Ctrl, Alt,
  and Delete).

  To shut down, you’ll have to log in as root. As root, just type the
  command shutdown -h now. The sytem will go through the entire
  shutdown procedure, including the sync command, which clears the
  disk cache as described above. When you see System halted, it’s safe
  to turn off the computer. If you have Advanced Power Management
  (APM) support in your kernel and BIOS, the computer might shut
  itself off and save you the trouble. APM is common in laptops and is
  also found in certain desktop mainboards.




5. The Basics


  It’s now time to explore the system in more detail. You’ve seen how
  to log in and shut down the system. In this chapter, we explore the
  Linux comand line, how Linux deals with files and directories, and
  some basics on identifying yourself to others.


5.1 The Command Line and Man Pages

  We’ve already discussed the command line—that is, commands you type
  after the shell prompt. This section describes the structure of more
  complicated command lines.

  A minimal command line contains just a command name, such as whoami.
  But other things are possible. For example, you might type: man
  whoami. This command requests the online manual for the whoami
  program (you may have to press the space bar to scroll through the
  documentation or press q to quit). A more complicated example is man
  -k PostScript. This command line has three parts. It begins with the
  command name, man. Then it has an _option_ or _switch_, -k, followed
  by an _argument_, PostScript. Some people refer to everything except
  the command name as the _parameters_ of the command. So, options and
  arguments are both parameters.

  Options change the behavior of a command, switching on particular
  features or functionality. They usually have a - before them. The
  GNU utilities also have “long forms” for the options; the long form
  of -k is -apropos. You can enter man -h or man -help to get a full
  list of options for the man command. Every command will have its own
  set of options, though most have -help and -version options. Some
  commands, such as tar, do not require the “-” before their options
  for historical reasons.

  Anything that isn’t an option and isn’t the command name is an
  _argument_ (in this case, PostScript). Arguments can serve many
  purposes; most commonly, they are filenames that the command should
  operate on. In this case, PostScript is the word you want man to
  search for. In the case of man whoami, the argument was the command
  you wanted information about.

  Here’s a breakdown of the man -k PostScript command line:

  man. The command name, tells the computer to look at the manual
  pages. These provide documentation for commands. For example, man
  whoami will give you documentation on the whoami command.

  -k. The option, changes the behavior of man. Normally man expects a
  command name, such as whoami, for an argument and looks for
  documentation of that command. But with the -k or -apropos option,
  it expects the argument to be a keyword. It then gives a list of all
  manual pages with that keyword in their description.

  PostScript. is the argument; because we used the -k option, it’s the
  keyword to search for.

  -k and PostScript are both parameters.

  Go ahead and type man -k PostScript, and you will see a list of all
  the manual pages on your system that have something to do with
  PostScript. If you haven’t installed much software, you might see
  the message PostScript: nothing appropriate instead.


5.1.1 Describing the Command Line

  Note: You can skip this section if you want to move on.

  There’s a traditional, concise way of describing command _syntax.
  Syntax_ means the correct ways to combine various options and
  arguments. For example, if you type man man to get the manual page
  about man, you’ll see several syntax descriptions beginning with the
  command name man. One of them will look like this: man -k [-M path]
  keyword ...

  Anything in brackets ([]) is an optional unit. In this case you
  don’t have to use the -M option, but if you do, you must use a path
  argument. You must use the -k option and the keyword argument. The
  ... means that you could have more of whatever came before it, so
  you could look up several keywords.

  Let’s look at one of the more complex descriptions from the man
  manual page:

  man [-c|-w|-tZT device] [-adhu7V]
  [-m system[,...]] [-L locale] [-p string]
  [-M path] [-P pager] [-r prompt] [-S list]
  [-e extension] [[section] page ...] ...

  There’s no need to go through all of this (and don’t worry about
  what it all means), but do pay attention to the organization of the
  description.

  First, clusters of options usually mean you can use one or more of
  them in different combinations, so -adhu7V means you can also use
  -h. However, you can’t always use all combinations; this description
  doesn’t make that clear. For example, -h is incompatible with other
  options, but you could do man -du. Unfortunately, the description’s
  format does not make this clear.

  Second, the | symbol means “or.” So you can use the -c, the -w, _or_
  the -tZT option, followed by a device argument.

  Third, notice that you can nest the brackets, because they indicate
  optional _units_. So if you have a section, you must also have a
  page, because e page is not optional within the [[section] page]
  unit.

  There’s no need to memorize any of this, just refer to this section
  as you read documentation.


5.2 Files and Directories

  _Files_ are a facility for storing and organizing information,
  analogous to paper documents. They’re organized into _directories_,
  which are called _folders_ on some other systems. Let’s look at the
  organization of files on a Debian system:

  /.
          A simple / represents the root directory. All other files
          and directories are contained in the root directory. If you
          are coming from the DOS/Windows world, / is very similar to
          what C:is for DOS, that is the root of the filesystem. A
          notable difference between DOS and Linux however, is that
          DOS keeps several filesystems: C: (first hard disk), A:
          (first floppy disk), and D: (either CD-ROM or second hard
          disk), whereas Linux has all its files organized above the
          same / root.

  /home/janeq.
          This is the home directory of user “janeq.” Reading left to
          right, to get to this directory you start in the root
          directory, enter directory home, and then enter directory
          janeq.

  /etc/X11/XF86Config.
          This is the configuration file for the X Window system. It
          resides in the X11 subdirectory of the /etc directory. /etc
          is in turn a subdirectory of the root directory, /.

  Things to note:

    ◼ Filenames are case-sensitive. That is, MYFILE and MyFile are
    _different_ files.
    ◼ The root directory is referred to as simply /. Don’t confuse
    this “root” with the root user, the user on your system with
    “super powers.”
    ◼ Every directory has a name, which can contain any letters or
    symbols _except_ /. The root directory is an exception; its name
    is / (pronounced “slash” or “the root directory”), and it cannot
    be renamed.
    ◼ While you can use almost any letters or symbols in a filename,
    in practice it’s a bad idea. It is better to avoid characters that
    often have special meanings on the command line, including: { } (
    ) [ ] ’ ‘ " \/ > < | ; ! # & ^ * %
    ◼ Also avoid putting spaces in filenames. If you want to separate
    words in a name, good choices are the period, hyphen, and
    underscore. You could also capitalize each word, LikeThis.
    ◼ Each file or directory is designated by a _fully-qualified
    filename, absolute filename_, or _path_, giving the sequence of
    directories which must be passed through to reach it. The three
    terms are synonymous. All absolute filenames begin with the /
    directory, and there’s a / before each directory or file in the
    filename. The first / is the name of a directory, but the others
    are simply separators to distinguish the parts of the filename.
    ◼ The words used here can be confusing. Take the following
    example:
      /usr/share/keytables/us.map.gz. This is a fully-qualified
      /filename;
      some people call it a _path_. However, people will also refer to
      us.map.gz alone as a filename.
    ◼ There is also another use for the word “path.” The intended
    meaning is usually clear from the context.
    ◼ Directories are arranged in a tree structure. All absolute
    filenames start with the root directory. The root directory has a
    number of branches, such as /etc and /usr. These subdirectories in
    turn branch into still more subdirectories, such as /etc/init.d
    and /usr/local. The whole thing together is called the “directory
    tree.”
    ◼ You can think of an absolute filename as a route from the base
    of the tree (/) to the end of some branch (a file). You’ll also
    hear people talk about the directory tree as if it were a _family_
    tree: Thus subdirectories have “parent,” and a path shows the
    complete ancestry of a file.
    ◼ There are also relative paths that begin somewhere other than
    the root directory. More on this later.
    ◼ No directory corresponds to a physical device, such as your hard
    disk. This differs from DOS and Windows, in which all paths begin
    with a device name such as C:\. The directory tree is meant to be
    an abstraction of the physical hardware, so you can use the system
    without knowing what the hardware is. All your files could be on
    one disk—or you could have 20 disks, some of them connected to a
    different computer elsewhere on the network. You can’t tell just
    by looking at the directory tree, and nearly all commands work
    just the same way no matter what physical device(s) your files are
    really on.

  Don’t worry if all this isn’t completely clear yet. There are many
  examples to come.


5.2.1 Using Files: A Tutorial

  To use your system, you’ll have to know how to create, move, rename,
  and delete files and directories. This section describes how to do
  so with the standard Debian commands.

  The best way to learn is to try things. As long as you aren’t root
  (and haven’t yet created any important personal files), you cannot
  mess up too seriously. Jump in—type each of these commands at the
  prompt and press Enter.

  pwd

  One directory is always considered the _current working directory_
  for the shell you’re using. You can view this directory with the pwd
  command, which stands for Print Working Directory. pwd prints the
  name of the directory you’re working in—probably /home/yourname.

  ls

  ls stands for “list,” as in “list files.” When you type ls, the
  system displays a list of all the files in your current working
  directory. If you’ve just installed Debian, your home directory may
  well be empty. If your working directory is empty, ls produces no
  output, because there are no files to list.

  cd /

  cd means “change directory.” In this case, you’ve asked to change to
  the root directory.

  pwd

  This verifies that you’re working in the root directory.

  ls

  Lets you see what’s in /.

  cd

  Typing cd with no arguments selects your home directory— /home/
  yourname —as the current working directory. Try pwd to verify this.

  Before continuing, you should know that there are actually two
  different kinds of filenames. Some of them begin with /, the root
  directory, such as
  /etc/profile. These are called _absolute_ filenames because they
  /refer
  to the same file no matter what your current directory is. The other
  kind of filename is _relative_.

  Two directory names are used _only_ in relative filenames: . and ...
  The directory . refers to the current directory, and .. is the
  parent directory. These are “shortcut” directories. They exist in
  _every_ directory. Even the root directory has a parent
  directory—it’s its own parent!

  So filenames that include . or .. are _relative_, because their
  meaning depends on the current directory. If I’m in /usr/bin and
  type ../etc, I’m referring to /usr/etc. If I’m in /var and type
  ../etc, I’m referring to /etc. Note that a filename without the root
  directory at the front implicitly has ./ at the front. So you can
  type local/bin, or ./local/bin and it means the same thing.

  A final handy tip: The tilde ~ is equivalent to your home directory.
  So typing cd ~ is the same as typing cd with no arguments. Also, you
  can type things like cd ~/practice/mysubdirectory to change to the
  directory
  /home/yourname/practice/mysubdirectory. In a similar way, ~myuser is
  equivalent to the home directory of the user “myuser,” which is
  probably something like /home/myuser; so ~myuser/docs/debian.ps is
  equivalent to
  /home/myuser/doc/debian.ps.
  /
  /
  /
  Here are some more file commands to try out, now that you know about
  relative filenames. cd to your home directory before you begin.

  mkdir practice

  In your home directory, make a directory called practice. You’ll use
  this directory to try out some other commands. You might type ls to
  verify that your new directory exists.

  cd practice

  Changes the directory to practice.

  mkdir mysubdirectory

  Creates a subdirectory of practice.

  cp /etc/profile .

  cp is short for “copy.” /etc/profile is just a random file on your
  system, don’t worry about what it is for now. We’ve copied it to .
  (recall that . just means “the directory I’m in now,” or the current
  working directory). So this creates a copy of /etc/profile and puts
  it in your practice directory. Try typing ls to verify that there’s
  indeed a file called profile in your working directory, alongside
  the new mysubdirectory.

  more profile

  This lets you view the contents of the file profile. more is used to
  view the contents of text files. It’s called more because it shows
  one screenful of the file at a time, and you press the space bar to
  see more. more will exit when you get to the end of the file, or
  when you press q (quit).

  more /etc/profile

  Verifies that the original looks just like the copy you made.

  mv profile mysubdirectory

  mv stands for “move.” You’ve moved the file profile from the current
  directory into the subdirectory you created earlier.

  ls

  Verifies that profile is no longer in the current directory.

  ls mysubdirectory

  Verifies that profile has moved to mysubdirectory.

  cd mysubdirectory

  Changes to the subdirectory.

  mv profile myprofile

  Note that unlike some operating systems, there is no difference
  between moving a file and renaming it. Thus there’s no separate
  rename command. Note that the second argument to mv can be a
  directory to move the file or directory into, or it can be a new
  filename. cp works the same way.

  As usual, you can type ls to see the result of mv.

  mv myprofile ..

  Just as . means “the directory I’m in now,” .. means “parent of the
  current directory,” in this case the practice directory you created
  earlier. Use ls to verify that that’s where myprofile is now.

  cd ..

  Changes directories to the parent directory—in this case practice,
  where you just put myprofile.

  rm myprofile

  rm means “remove,” so this deletes myprofile. Be careful! Deleting a
  file on a GNU/Linux system is _permanent_—there is no undelete. If
  you rm it, it’s _gone, forever_. Be careful! To repeat, deleting a
  file on a GNU/Linux system is _permanent_—there is no undelete. If
  you rm it, it’s _gone, forever_.

  rmdir mysubdirectory

  rmdir is just like rm, only it’s for directories. Notice that rmdir
  only works on empty directories. If the directory contains files,
  you must delete those files first, or alternatively you can use rm
  -r in place of rmdir.

  cd ..

  This moves out of the current directory, and into its parent
  directory. Now you can type the following:

  rmdir practice

  This will delete the last remnants of your practice session.

  So now you know how to create, copy, move, rename, and delete files
  and directories. You also learned some shortcuts, like typing simply
  cd to jump to your home directory, and how . and .. refer to the
  current directory and its parent, respectively. You should also
  remember the concept of the _root directory_, or /, and the alias ~
  for your home directory.


5.2.2 Dot Files and ls -a

  When you type ls, files beginning with a dot are not listed.
  Traditionally, files that contain configuration information, user
  preferences, and so on begin with a dot; these are hidden and out of
  your way while you do your day-to-day work. Sample dot files are
  ~/.emacs, ~/.newsrc, ~/.bashrc, ~/.xsession, and ~/.fvwmrc. These
  are used by Emacs, news readers, the Bash shell, the X Window
  system, and the fvwm window manager, respectively. It is
  conventional to end the dot filename with rc, but some programs
  don’t. There are also directories beginning with a dot, such as
  ~/.gimp and ~/.netscape, which store preferences for the Gimp and
  Netscape.

  Sometimes a program will create a dot file automatically; for
  example, Netscape allows you to edit your preferences with a
  graphical dialog box and then it saves your choices. Other times you
  will create them yourself using a text editor; this is the
  traditional way to do it, but you have to learn the peculiar format
  of each file—inconvenient at first, but it can give you a lot of
  power.

  To see dot files, you must use the -a option to ls. The long form of
  -a is -all, if you find that easier to remember. You can also use -A
  or -almost-all, which displays all dot files except . and ...
  Remember that . is the current directory, and .. is the parent of
  the current directory; because these are guaranteed to be in every
  directory, there is no real reason to list them with ls. You already
  know they are there.


5.3 Processes

  We mentioned before that GNU/Linux is a _multitasking_ system. It
  can do many tasks at once. Each of these tasks is called a
  _process_. The best way to get a sense of this is to type top at the
  shell prompt. You’ll get a list of processes, sorted according to
  how much of the computer’s processing time they’re using. The order
  will continuously change before your eyes. At the top of the
  display, there’s some information about the system: how many users
  are logged in, how many total processes there are, how much memory
  you have and how much you’re using.

  In the far left column, you’ll see the user owning each process. The
  far right column shows which command invoked the process. You’ll
  probably notice that top itself, invoked by you, is near the top of
  the list (because anytime top checks on CPU usage, it will be active
  and using CPU to do the check).

  Note that in all the commands ending in “d” —such as kflushd and
  inetd —the “d” stands for _daemon_.

  Daemon originally meant Disks And Extensions MONitor. A daemon is a
  non-interactive process, that is, it’s run by the system and users
  never have to worry about it. Daemons provide services like Internet
  connectivity, printing, or e-mail.

  Now press u and give top your username when it asks. The u command
  asks to see only those processes belonging to you; it allows you to
  ignore all the daemons and whatever other people are doing. You
  might notice bash, the name of your shell. You’ll pretty much always
  be running bash.

  Note that column two of the top display shows you the _PID_, or
  Process IDentification number. Each process is assigned a unique
  PID. You can use the PID to control individual processes (more on
  that later). Another useful trick is to press ? to get a list of top
  commands.

  You may wonder about the difference between a “process” and a
  “program.” In practice, people use the terms interchangeably.
  Technically, the _program_ is the set of instructions written by a
  programmer and kept on disk. The _process_ is the working
  instantiation of the program kept in memory by Linux. But it’s not
  that important to keep the terms straight.

  Much of your interaction with a computer involves controlling
  processes. You’ll want to start them, stop them, and see what
  they’re up to. Your primary tool for this is the _shell_.


5.4 The Shell

  The _shell_ is a program that allows you to interact with your
  computer. It’s called a shell because it provides an environment for
  you to work in—sort of a little electronic home for you as you
  compute. (Think hermit crab.)

  The simplest function of the shell is to launch other programs. You
  type the name of the program you want to run, followed by the
  arguments you want, and the shell asks the system to run the program
  for you.

  Of course, graphical windowing systems also fill this need.
  Technically, Windows 95 provides a graphical shell, and the X Window
  system is another kind of graphical shell. But “shell” is commonly
  used to mean “command-line shell.”

  Needless to say, the hackers who work on shells aren’t satisfied
  with simply launching commands. Your shell has a bewildering number
  of convenient and powerful features if you would like to take
  advantage of them.

  There are countless different shells available; most are based on
  either the _Bourne shell_ or the _C shell_, two of the oldest
  shells. The original Bourne shell’s program name is sh, while csh is
  the C shell. Bourne shell variants include the Bourne Again Shell
  from the GNU project (bash, the Debian default), the Korn shell
  (ksh), and the Z shell (zsh). There is also ash, a traditional
  implementation of the Bourne shell. The most common C shell variant
  is tcsh (the t pays tribute to the TENEX and TOPS-20 operating
  systems, which inspired some of tcsh’s improvements over csh).

  bash is probably the best choice for new users. It is the default
  and has all the features you’re likely to need. But all the shells
  have loyal followings; if you want to experiment, install some
  different shell packages and change your shell with the chsh
  command. Just type chsh, supply a password when asked, and choose a
  shell. When you next log in, you’ll be using the new shell.


5.5 Managing Processes with bash

  Debian is a multitasking system, so you need a way to do more than
  one thing at once. Graphical environments like X provide a natural
  way to do this; they allow multiple windows on the screen at any one
  time. Naturally, bash (or any other shell) provides similar
  facilities.

  Earlier you used top to look at the different processes on the
  system. Your shell provides some convenient ways to keep track of
  only those processes you’ve started from the command line. Each
  command line starts a _job_ (also called a _process group_) to be
  carried out by the shell. A job can consist of a single process or a
  set of processes in a _pipeline_ (more on pipelines later).

  Entering a command line will start a job. Try typing man cp, and the
  cp manual page will appear on the screen. The shell will go into the
  background and return when you finish reading the manual page (or
  you can press q to quit rather than scrolling through the whole
  thing).

  But say you’re reading the manual page, and you want to do something
  else for a minute. No problem. Press Ctrl-z while you’re reading to
  _suspend_ the current foreground job and put the shell in the
  foreground. When you suspend a job, bash will first give you some
  information on it, followed by a shell prompt. You will see
  something like this on the screen:

  NAME cp - copy files SYNOPSIS cp [options] source
  --More--
  [1]+ Stopped man cp
  $

  Note the last two lines. The next to last is the job information,
  and then you have a shell prompt.

  bash assigns a _job number_ to each command line you run from the
  shell. This allows you to refer to the process easily. In this case,
  man cp is job number 1, displayed as [1]. The + means that this is
  the last job you had in the foreground. bash also tells you the
  current state of the job—Stopped—and the job’s command line.

  There are many things you can do with jobs. With man cp still
  suspended, try the following commands:

  man ls

  Starts a new job.

  Ctrl-z

  Suspends the man ls job; you should see its job information.

  man mv

  Starts yet another job.

  Ctrl-z

  Suspends it.

  jobs

  Asks bash for a display of current jobs. The result looks like this:

  {$} jobs
  [1] Stopped man cp
  [2]- Stopped man ls
  [3]+ Stopped man mv
  {$}

  Notice the - and +, denoting respectively the next to last and last
  foreground jobs.

  fg

  Places the last foreground job (man mv, the one with the +) in the
  foreground again. If you press the space bar, the man page will
  continue scrolling.

  Ctrl-z

  Re-suspends man mv.

  fg %1

  You can refer to any job by placing a % in front of its number. If
  you use fg without specifying a job, the last active one is assumed.

  Ctrl-z

  Re-suspends man cp.

  kill %1

  Kills off job 1. bash will report the job information, which will
  look like this:

  $ kill %1
  [1]- Terminated man cp
          $

  bash is only asking the job to quit, and sometimes a job will not
  want to do so. If the job doesn’t terminate, you can add the
  -KILL[1] option to kill to stop asking and start demanding. For
  example:

[1] Many people use the signal number -9 instead of the signal name
-KILL. However, it’s technically more portable to use the signal name.

  $ kill -KILL %1
  [1]- Killed man mv
  $

  The -KILL option forcibly and unconditionally kills off the job.

  In technical terms, kill simply sends a signal. By default, it sends
  a signal that requests termination (TERM, or signal 15) but you can
  also specify a signal, and signal 9 (KILL) is the signal that forces
  termination. The command name kill is not necessarily appropriate to
  the signal sent; for example, sending the TSTP (terminal stop)
  signal suspends the process but allows it to be continued later.

  top

  This brings the top display back up. Give the u command in top to
  see only your processes. Look in the right-hand column for the man
  ls and man mv commands. man cp won’t be there because you killed it.
  top is showing you the system processes corresponding to your jobs;
  notice that the PID on the left of the screen does not correspond to
  the job number.

  You may not be able to find your processes because they’re off the
  bottom of the screen; if you’re using X (see Chapter 9 on page [*]),
  you can resize the xterm to solve this problem.

  Even these simple jobs actually consist of multiple processes,
  including the man process and the pager more, which handles
  scrolling one page at a time. You may notice the more processes are
  also visible in top.

  You can probably figure out how to clean up the remaining two jobs.
  You can either kill them (with the kill command) or foreground each
  one (with fg) and exit it. Remember that the jobs command gives you
  a list of existing jobs and their status.

  One final note: The documentation for bash is quite good, but it is
  found in the Info help system rather than the man pages. To read it,
  type info bash. See section A.1.1 for instructions on using the info
  program. bash also contains a very good summary of its commands
  accessible by the help command. help displays a list of available
  topics; more information about each of them is accessible with the
  command help topic name. Try typing help cd, for example. This will
  give you details on the -P and -L arguments recognized by cd.


5.6 A Few bash Features

  This section mentions just a few of the most commonly used Bash
  features; for a more complete discussion see Chapter 6.


5.6.1 Tab Completion

  The bash shell can guess what filename or command you are trying to
  type and automatically finish typing it for you. Just type the
  beginning of a command or filename and press Tab. If bash finds a
  single unique completion, it will finish the word and put a space
  after it. If it finds multiple possible completions, it will fill
  out the part all completions have in common and beep. You can then
  enter enough of the word to make it unique and press Tab again. If
  it finds no completions, it will simply beep.


5.7 Managing Your Identity

  Unix-like systems are multiuser, and so you have your own electronic
  identity as a user on the system. Type finger _yourusername_ to look
  at some of the information about you that’s publically available. To
  change the name and shell listed there, you can use the commands
  chfn and chsh. Only the superuser can change your login (username)
  and directory. You’ll notice that it says “No plan.” A “plan” is
  just some information you can make available to others. To create a
  plan, you put whatever information you want people to see in a file
  called .plan. To do this you’ll use a text editor; see section 8.2
  on page [*]. Then finger yourself to see your plan. Others can
  finger you to see your plan and to check whether you’ve received new
  mail or read your mail.

  Note that this finger information is available to the entire
  Internet by default. If you don’t want this, read about configuring
  inetd and the file
  /etc/services. Eventually the installation manual will describe this
  configuration, but for now you might try the man pages or just put
  nonsense in for your finger information.




6. Using the Shell


  As you have been reading this book, you’ve been interacting with the
  shell already. The shell is the program that reads your commands and
  then does what you ask it to. In this chapter, you explore the shell
  in greater detail, with a special eye towards customizing the shell
  to work as you want it to.


6.1 Environment Variables

  Every process has an _environment_ associated with it. An
  environment is a collection of _environment variables_. A variable
  is a changeable value with a fixed name. For example, the name EMAIL
  could refer to the value [email protected]. The value can vary; EMAIL
  could also refer to [email protected].

  Because your shell is a process like any other, it has an
  environment. You can view your shell’s environment by entering the
  printenv command. Figure 6.1 has some sample output from printenv.
  On your system, the output will be different but similar.

[Illustration: Figure 6.1: Sample printenv output]

  Environment variables are one way to configure the system. For
  example, the EDITOR variable lets you select your preferred editor
  for posting news, writing e-mail, and so on.

  Setting environment variables is simple. For practice, try
  customizing your shell’s prompt and your text file viewer with
  environment variables. First, let’s get a bit of background
  information.

  man less

  This command lets you view the online manual for the less command.
  In order to show you the text one screenful at a time, man invokes a
  pager that shows you a new page of text each time you press the
  space bar. By default, it uses the pager called more.

  Go ahead and glance over the man page for less, which is an enhanced
  pager. Scroll to a new page by pressing space; press q to quit. more
  will also quit automatically when you reach the end of the man page.

  export PAGER=less

  After reading about the advantages of less, you might want to use it
  to read man pages. To do this, you set the environment variable
  PAGER.

  The command to set an environment variable within bash always has
  this format:

Illustration: Figure 6.2: Changing the prompt

  export NAME=value

  export means to move the variable from the shell into the
  environment. This means that programs other than the shell (for
  instance, a file viewer) will be able to access it.

  echo $PAGER

  This is the easiest way to see the value of a variable. $PAGER tells
  the shell to insert the value of the PAGER variable _before_
  invoking the command. echo echoes back its argument: in this case,
  it echoes the current PAGER value, less.

  man more

  Displays the more manual. This time, man should have invoked the
  less pager.

  less has lots of features that more lacks. For example, you can
  scroll backward with the b key. You can also move up and down (even
  sideways) with the arrow keys. less won’t exit when it reaches the
  end of the man page; it will wait for you to press q.

  You can try out some less-specific commands, like b, to verify that
  they don’t work with more and that you are indeed using more.

  unset PAGER

  If you don’t want to specify a pager anymore, you can unset the
  variable. man will then use more by default, just as it did before
  you set the variable.

  echo $PAGER

  Because PAGER has been unset, echo won’t print anything.

  PS1=hello:

  Just for fun, change your shell prompt. $ should now change; see
  Figure 6.2 for details.

  export is not necessary, because you’re changing the shell’s own
  behavior. There’s no reason to export the variable into the
  environment for other programs to see. Technically, PS1 is a _shell
  variable_ rather than an environment variable.

  If you wanted to, you could export the shell variable, transforming
  it into an environment variable. If you do this, programs you run
  from the shell can see it.


6.2 Where Commands Reside: The PATH Variable

  When you type a command into the shell, it has to find the program
  on your hard disk before executing it. If the shell had to look all
  over the disk, it would be very slow; instead, it looks in a list of
  directories contained in the PATH environment variable. This list of
  directories makes up the shell’s _search path;_ when you enter a
  command, it goes through each one in turn looking for the program
  you asked to run.

  You may need to change the PATH variable if you install programs
  yourself in a non-standard location. The value of PATH is a
  colon-separated list of directories. The default value on Debian
  systems is as follows:

  /usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games
  /
  /
  /
  /
  This value is defined in the file /etc/profile and applies to all
  users. You can easily change the value, just as you can change any
  environment variable. If you type the command ls, the shell will
  first look in
  /usr/local/bin; ls isn’t there, so it will try /usr/bin; when that
  /fails,
  it will check /bin. There it will discover /bin/ls, stop its search,
  and execute the program /bin/ls. If /usr/bin/X11/ls existed (it
  doesn’t, but pretend), it would be ignored.

  You can see which ls the shell is going to use with the type
  command. type ls will give you the answer /bin/ls. Try it yourself.

  Try asking where type itself resides:

  $ type type
  type is a shell builtin

  type isn’t actually a program; it’s a function provided by the
  shell. However, you use it just like an external program.

  There are a number of commands like this; type man builtins to read
  the man page describing them. In general, you don’t need to know
  whether a command is a builtin or a real program; however, builtins
  will not show up in the output of ps or top because they aren’t
  separate processes. They’re just part of the shell.


6.3 Configuration Files

  Many applications on Linux systems allow you to alter how they
  behave at certain times by altering files containing configuration
  information. These configuration files may contain application
  start-up information, run-time settings and application shutdown
  settings. In general, a configuration filename is based on the name
  of the application for which it contains settings. Such a naming
  convention allows you to more readily determine which configuration
  file contains settings for a given application.


6.3.1 System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration

  It’s important to remember that there are two different kinds of
  configurations on a Debian system. _System-wide configuration_
  affects all users. System-wide settings are made in the /etc
  directory, so you generally must be root in order to change
  system-wide settings. You might configure the way the system
  connects to the Internet, for example, or have web browsers on the
  system always start on the company home page. Since you want these
  settings to apply to all users, you make the changes in /etc. Sample
  configuration files in /etc include /etc/X11/XF86Config,
  /etc/lynx.cfg, and /etc/ppp/options. In fact, nearly all the files
  /in /etc
  are configuration files.

  _User configuration_ affects only a single user. Dotfiles are used
  for user configuration. For example, the file ~/.newsrc stores a
  list of which USENET (discussion group) articles you have read and
  which groups you subscribe to. This allows news readers such as trn
  or GNUS to display unread articles in the groups you’re interested
  in. This information will be different for every user on the system,
  so each user has his own .newsrc file in his home directory.


6.4 Aliases

  If you use the same command often, you might get tired of typing it.
  bash lets you write shorter _aliases_ for your commands.

  Say you always use the -almost-all and -color=auto options to ls.
  You quickly get tired of typing ls -almost-all -color=auto. So you
  make an alias:

  alias myls=’ls -almost-all -color=auto’

  Now you can type myls instead of the full command. To see what myls
  really is, run the command type myls. To see a list of aliases
  you’ve defined, simply type alias on a line by itself.

[Illustration: Figure 6.3: Redirecting output]


6.5 Controlling Input and Output

  Throughout your experiences with Linux, you will most likely find
  that manipulating application input and output can be a very
  powerful thing to do. This section describes some of the things that
  controlling input and output can do for you.


6.5.1 stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and Redirection

  Every process has at least three connections to the outside world.
  The _standard input_ is one source of the process’s data; the
  _standard output_ is one place the process sends data; and the
  _standard error_ is a place the process can send error messages.
  (These are often abbreviated stdin, stdout, and stderr.)

  The words “source” and “place” are intentionally vague. These
  standard input and output locations can be changed by the user; they
  could be the screen, the keyboard, a file, even a network
  connection. You can specify which locations to use.

  When you run a program from the shell, usually standard input comes
  from your keyboard, and standard output and error both go to your
  screen. However, you can ask the shell to change these defaults.

  For example, the echo command sends it output to standard output,
  normally the screen. But you can send it to a file instead with the
  _output redirection operator_, >. For example, to put the word
  “Hello” in the file myfile, use this command:

  echo Hello > myfile

  Use cat or your text file pager (more or less) to view myfile’s
  contents; see Figure 6.3.

  You can change the standard input of a command with the _input
  redirection operator_, <. For example, cat < myfile will display the
  contents of myfile. This is not useful in practice; for convenience,
  the cat command accepts a filename argument. So you can simply say
  cat myfile, and the effect will be the same. redirection operators

  Under the hood, cat < myfile means that the shell opens myfile and
  then feeds its contents to the standard input of cat. cat myfile,
  without the redirection operator, means that the cat command
  receives one argument (myfile) opens the file itself, and then
  displays the file.

  There’s a reason for the double functionality, however. For example,
  you can connect the standard output of one command to the standard
  input of another. This is called a _pipeline_, and it uses the _pipe
  operator_[1], |.

[1] Depending on your keyboard, this may either appear as a vertical
bar or a broken vertical bar, but it can almost always be found above
the backslash (\).

  Perhaps you want to see the GNU General Public License in reverse.
  To do this, you use the tac command (it’s cat, only backward). Try
  it out:

  tac /usr/doc/copyright/GPL

  Unfortunately, it goes by too quickly to read. So you only get to
  see a couple of paragraphs. The solution is a pipeline:

  tac /usr/doc/copyright/GPL | less

  This takes the standard output of tac, which is the GPL in reverse,
  and sends it to the standard input of less.

  You can chain as many commands together as you like. Say you have an
  inexplicable desire to replace every G with Q. For this you use the
  command tr G Q, like this:

  tac /usr/doc/copyright/GPL | tr G Q | less

  You could get the same effect using temporary files and redirection,
  for example:

  tac /usr/doc/copyright/GPL > tmpfile
          tr G Q < tmpfile > tmpfile2
          less < tmpfile2
          rm tmpfile tmpfile2

  Clearly a pipeline is more convenient.


6.6 Filename Expansion

  Often you want a command to work with a group of files. _Wildcards_
  are used to create a _filename expansion pattern:_ a series of
  characters and wildcards that expands to a list of filenames. For
  example, the pattern
  /etc/* expands to a list of all[2]
  the files in /etc.

[2] Actually, files beginning with . are not included in the expansion
of *.

  * is a wildcard that can stand for any series of characters, so the
  pattern /etc/* will expand to a list of all the filenames beginning
  with
  /etc/.
  /
  /
  /
  This filename list is most useful as a set of arguments for a
  command. For example, the /etc directory contains a series of
  subdirectories called rc0.d, rc1.d, etc. Normally to view the
  contents of these, you would type the following:

  ls /etc/rc0.d /etc/rc1.d /etc/rc2.d /etc/rc3.d
  ls /etc/rc4.d /etc/rc5.d /etc/rc6.d /etc/rcS.d

  This is tedious. Instead, you can use the ? wildcard as shown here:

  ls /etc/rc?.d

  /etc/rc?.d expands to a list of filenames that begin with rc,
  /followed by
  any single character, followed by .d.

  Available wildcards include the following:

  * Matches any group of 0 or more characters.

  ? Matches exactly one character.

  [...] If you enclose some characters in brackets, the result is a
  wildcard that matches those characters. For example, [abc] matches
  either a, or b, or c. If you add a ^ after the first bracket, the
  sense is reversed; so [^abc] matches any character that is not a, b,
  or c. You can include a range, such as [a-j], which matches anything
  between a and j. The match is case sensitive, so to allow any
  letter, you must use [a-zA-Z].

  Expansion patterns are simple once you see some concrete examples:

  *.txt This will give you a list of all filenames that end in .txt,
  since the * matches anything at all.

  *.[hc] This gives a list of filenames that end in either .h or .c.

  a?? This gives you all three-letter filenames that begin with a.

  [^a]?? This gives you all three-letter filenames that do not begin
  with a.

  a* This gives you every filename that starts with a, regardless of
  how many letters it has.




7. More on Files


  In section 5.2 on page [*], we covered moving and renaming files
  with mv, copying them with cp, removing them with rm, removing
  directories with rmdir, and creating directories with mkdir. This
  chapter will cover some more aspects of working with files.

Permissions

  GNU and Unix systems are set up to allow many people to use the same
  computer, while keeping certain files private or keeping certain
  people from modifying certain files. You can verify this for
  yourself. Log in as yourself, i.e. _NOT_ as root.

  whoami

  This verifies that you are not root. Then enter the following
  command:

  rm /etc/resolv.conf

  You should be told Permission denied. /etc/resolv.conf is an
  essential system configuration file; you aren’t allowed to change or
  remove it unless you’re root. This keeps you from accidentally
  messing up the system, and if the computer is a public one (such as
  at an office or school), it keeps users from messing up the system
  on purpose.

  Now type ls -l /etc/resolv.conf.

  This will give you output that looks something like this:

  -rw-r-r- 1 root root 119 Feb 23 1997 /etc/resolv.conf

  The -l option to ls requests all that additional information. The
  info on the right is easy: The size of the file is 119 bytes; the
  date the file was last changed is February 23, 1997; and the file’s
  name is
  /etc/resolv.conf. On the left side of the screen, things are a
  /little more
  complicated.

  First, the brief, technical explanation: The -rw-r-r- is the _mode_
  of the file, the 1 is the number of hard links to this file (or the
  number of files in a directory), and the two roots are the user and
  group owning the file, respectively.

  So that was cryptic. Let’s go through it slowly.


7.1.1 File Ownership

  Every file has two owners: a user and a group. The above case is a
  little confusing because there’s a group called root in addition to
  the root user. Groups are just collections of users who are
  collectively permitted access to some part of the system. A good
  example is a games group. Just to be mean, you might create a group
  called games on your computer and then set up your system so that
  only people in a games group are allowed to play games.

  Here’s a more practical example. Consider a case in which you’re
  setting up a computer for a school. You might want certain files to
  be accessible only to teachers, not students, so you put all the
  teachers in a single group. Then you can tell the system that
  certain files belong to members of the group teachers, and that no
  one else can access those files.

  Let’s explore groups on the system. First, you can use the groups
  command at the shell prompt. This will show you a list of the groups
  to which you belong. Here’s an example:

  $ groups
  system-wide configuration!permissions!file
  ownershipusername dialout cdrom floppy audio

  It’s likely that you’re a member of only one group, which is
  identical to your username. However, root can add you to other
  groups. The above example shows a person that is a member of five
  groups.

  less /etc/group

  This file lists the groups that exist on your system. Notice the
  root group (the only member of this group is the root user), and the
  group that corresponds to your username. There are also groups like
  dialout (users who are allowed to dial out on the modem) and floppy
  (users who can use the floppy drive). However, your system is
  probably not configured to make use of these groups. It’s likely
  that only root can use the floppy or the modem right now. For
  details about this file, try reading man group.

  ls -l /home

  This command shows you that every user’s directory is owned by that
  user and that user’s personal group.

    Tip: If you just installed Debian, you may be the only user. You
    can use the adduser command to add more users to the system.


7.1.2 Mode

  In addition to being owned by one user and one group, every file and
  directory also has a mode, which determines who’s allowed to read,
  write, and execute the file (and run it, if it’s a program). There
  are a few other things also determined by the mode, but they’re
  advanced topics so we’ll skip them for now.

  The mode looks like this in the ls output: -rw-r-r-. For now, we’ll
  consider nine of these parts: those that control _read, write_, and
  _execute_ permissions for the _user_ owning the file, the _group_
  owning the file, and _others_ (everyone on the system, sometimes
  called _world_).

  In the mode line, the first “element” gives the file type. The - in
  this case means it’s a regular file. If it was d, we’d be looking at
  a directory. There are also other possibilities too complex to go
  into here; for details, see section 13.2.2 on page [*].

  The remaining nine elements are used to display the file’s mode. The
  basic 9 bits (read, write, and execute for user, group, and other)
  are displayed as three blocks of rwx.

  So if all permissions are turned on and this is a regular file, the
  mode will look like this: -rwxrwxrwx. If it was a directory with all
  permissions turned off for others and full permissions for user and
  group, it would be drwxrwx--.

Table 7.1: Permissions in Linux
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Code |  Name   | Allows for Files         | Allows for Directories           |
|------+---------+--------------------------+----------------------------------|
|  r   |  read   | Examine contents of file | List contents of directory       |
|------+---------+--------------------------+----------------------------------|
|  w   |  write  | Modify file              | Add or remove files in directory |
|------+---------+--------------------------+----------------------------------|
|  x   | execute | Run as a command         | Access files in directory        |
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

  Table 7.1 describes the meaning of the read, write, and execute
  permissions for both files and directories.

  Directory modes can be a little confusing, so here are some examples
  of the effects of various combinations:

  r-

  The user, group, or other with these permissions may list the
  contents of the directory, but can do nothing else. The files in the
  directory can’t be read, changed, deleted, or manipulated in any
  way. The only permitted action is reading the directory itself, that
  is, seeing what files it contains.

  rw-

  Write permission has no effect in the absence of execute permission,
  so this mode behaves just like the above mode.

  r-x

  This mode permits the files in a directory to be listed and permits
  access to those files. However, files can’t be created or deleted.
  Access means that you can view, change, or execute the files as
  permitted by the files’ own permissions.

  -x

  Files in this directory can be accessed, but the contents of the
  directory can’t be listed, so you have to know what filename you’re
  looking for in advance (unless you’re exceptionally good at
  guessing). Files can’t be created or deleted.

  rwx

  You can do anything you want with the files in this directory, as
  long as it’s permitted by the permissions on the files themselves.

  Directory write permission determines whether you can delete files
  in a directory. A read-only file can be deleted if you have
  permission to write to the directory containing it. You can’t delete
  a file from a read-only directory even if you’re allowed to make
  changes to the file.

  This also means that if you own a directory you can always delete
  files from it, even if those files belong to root.

  Directory execute permission determines whether you have access to
  files - and thus whether file permissions come into play. If you
  have execute permissions to a directory, file permissions for that
  directory become relevant. Otherwise, file permissions just don’t
  matter; you can’t access the files anyway.


7.1.3 Permissions in Practice

  This section goes through a short example session to demonstrate how
  permissions are used. To change permissions, we’ll use the chmod
  command.

  cd; touch myfile

  There are a couple of new tricks here. First, you can use ; to put
  two commands on one line. You can type the above as:

  $ cd
  $ touch myfile

  or as:

  $ cd; touch myfile

  Either way the same thing will end up happening.

  Recall that cd by itself returns you to your home directory. touch
  is normally used to change the modification time of the file to the
  current time. But it has another interesting feature: If the file
  doesn’t exist, touch creates the file. So you’re using it to create
  a file to practice with. Use ls -l to confirm that the file has been
  created and notice the permissions mode:

  $ ls -l

  -rw-r-r- 1 user user 0 Nov 18 22:04 myfile

  Obviously the time and user/group names will be different when you
  try it. The size of the file is 0, because touch creates an empty
  file. -rw-r-r- is the default permissions mode on Debian.

  chmod u+x myfile

  This command means to add (+) execute (x) permissions for the user
  (u) who owns the file. Use ls -l to see the effects.

  chmod go-r myfile

  Here you’ve subtracted (-) read permission (r) from the group (g)
  owning the file and from everyone else (others, o). Again, use ls -l
  to verify the effects.

  chmod ugo=rx myfile

  Here you’ve set (=) user, group, and other permissions to read and
  execute. This sets permissions to _exactly_ what you’ve specified
  and unsets any other permissions. So all rx should be set, and all w
  should be unset. Now, no one can write to the file.

  chmod a-x myfile

  a is a shortcut for ugo, or “all.” So all the x permissions should
  now be unset.

  rm myfile

  With this command, you’re removing the file, but without write
  permissions. rm will ask if you’re sure by displaying the following
  message:

  rm: remove ‘myfile’, overriding mode 0444?

  You should respond by typing y and pressing Enter. This is a feature
  of rm, not a fact of permissions. Permission to delete a file comes
  from the directory permissions, and you have write permission in the
  directory. However, rm tries to be helpful, figuring that if you
  didn’t want to change the file (and thus remove write permission),
  you don’t want to delete it either, so it asks you.

  What was that 0444 business in the question from rm? The permissions
  mode is a twelve-digit binary number, like this: 000100100100. 0444
  is this binary number represented as an octal (base 8) number, which
  is the conventional way to write a mode. So you can type chmod 444
  myfile instead of chmod ugo=r myfile.


7.2 Files Present and Their Locations

  Now that you can navigate the directory tree, let’s take a guided
  tour of the files and directories you created when you installed
  Debian. If you’re curious, cd to each directory and type ls to see
  its contents. If the listing doesn’t fit on the screen, try ls |
  less, where | is the “pipe” character, generally found on the same
  key with backslash.

  / As already mentioned, this is the root directory, which contains
  / every
  other directory.

  /root
          But don’t get /confused with /root! /root is the home
          directory of the root user, or superuser. It’s a directory
          called /root, but it isn’t _the_ root directory /.

  /home This is where all normal users—that is, all users except
  root—have their home directories. Each home directory is named after
  the user who owns it, for example, /home/jane. If you’re using a
  large system at a school or business, your system administrator may
  create additional directories to contain home directories: /home1
  and /home2 for example. On some other systems, you’ll see an
  additional level of subdirectories: /home/students/username,
  /home/staff/username, etc.

          Your home directory is where you put all your personal work,
          e-mail and other documents, and personal configuration
          preferences. It’s your home on the system.

  /bin
          This directory contains “binaries,” executable files that
          are essential to the operation of the system. Examples are
          the shell (bash) and file commands such as cp.

  /sbin
          This directory contains “system binaries,” utilities that
          the root user or system administrator might want to use, but
          that you probably won’t want to use in your day-to-day
          activities.

  /usr
          /usr contains most of the files you’ll be interested in. It
          /has
          many subdirectories. /usr/bin and /usr/sbin are pretty much
          like
          /bin and /sbin, except that the directories in /usr are not
          considered “essential to the operation of the system.”

          While not essential to getting the computer working, /usr
          does contain the applications you’ll use to get real work
          done. Also in
          /usr, you’ll find the /usr/man, /usr/info, and /usr/doc
          directories. These contain manual pages, info pages, and
          other documentation, respectively. And don’t forget
          /usr/games!

  /usr/local
          The Debian system doesn’t install anything in this
          directory. You should use it if you want to install software
          that you compile yourself or any software not contained in a
          Debian package. You can also install software in your home
          directory if you’ll be the only one using it.

  /etc
          /etc contains all the system-wide configuration files.
          /Whenever
          you want to change something that affects all users of your
          computer—such as how you connect to the Internet or what
          kind of video card you have—you’ll probably have to log on
          as root and change a file in /etc.

  /tmp
          Here you’ll find temporary files, most of them created by
          the system. This directory is generally erased on a regular
          basis or every time you reboot the system. You can create
          files here if you want, just be aware that they might get
          deleted automatically.

  /var
          /var contains “variable” files that the system changes
          automatically. For example, incoming mail is stored here.
          The system keeps a log of its actions here. There are a
          number of other automatically generated files here as well.
          You’ll mostly be interested in the contents of /var/log,
          where you can find error messages that can help you figure
          out what you’re system’s up to if something goes wrong.

  Clearly there are many more directories on the system—far too many
  to describe every one.

  For changing things, you’ll usually want to confine yourself to your
  home directory and /etc. On a Debian system, there’s rarely an
  occasion to change anything else, because everything else is
  automatically installed for you.

  /etc is used to configure the _system_ as a whole. You’ll use your
  /own home
  directory, a subdirectory of /home, for configuring your own
  preferences and storing your personal data. The idea is that on a
  day-to-day basis, you confine yourself to /home/_yourname_, so
  there’s no way you can break anything. Occasionally you log in as
  root to change something in a system-wide directory, but only when
  it’s absolutely necessary. Of course, if you’re using Debian at a
  school or business and someone else is the system administrator, you
  won’t have root access and will be able to change only your home
  directory and any other directory that you own. This limits what you
  can do with the system.


7.3 File Compression with gzip

  Often it would be nice to make a file smaller—say, to download it
  faster, or so it takes up less space on your disk. The program to do
  this is called gzip (GNU zip). Here’s how it works:

  $ cd; cp /etc/profile ./mysamplefile

  This switches to your home directory and copies an arbitrarily
  chosen file (/etc/profile) to your current directory, in the process
  renaming it mysamplefile. This gives you a file to play with when
  using gzip.

  $ ls -l

  Lists the contents of the current directory. Note the size of
  mysamplefile.

  $ gzip mysamplefile

  Compresses mysamplefile.

  $ ls -l

  Observe the results of this command: mysamplefile is now called
  mysamplefile.gz . It’s also a good bit smaller.

  $ gunzip mysamplefile.gz; ls -l

  This uncompresses the file. Observe that mysamplefile has returned
  to its original state. Notice that to uncompress, one uses gunzip,
  not gzip.

  $ rm mysamplefile

  Use this command to remove the file, since it was just to practice
  with.


7.4 Finding Files

  There are two different facilities for finding files: find and
  locate. find searches the actual files in their present state.
  locate searches an index generated by the system every morning at
  6:42 a.m. (this is a cron job, explained elsewhere in this book).
  locate won’t find any files that were created after the index was
  generated. However, because locate searches an index, it’s much
  faster—like using the index of a book rather than looking through
  the whole thing.

  To compare the two ways of finding files, pretend you can’t remember
  where the X configuration file XF86Config resides.

  $ locate XF86Config

  This should be pretty fast. You’ll get a list of filenames that
  contain XF86Config, something like this:

  /etc/X11/XF86Config
  /
  /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config
  /
  /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config.eg
  /
  /usr/X11R6/man/man5/XF86Config.5x.gz
  /
  /
  /
  /
  Now try the find command:

  $ find / -name XF86Config

  You will hear a lot of disk activity, and this will take a lot
  longer. Results will look something like this:

  /etc/X11/XF86Config
  /
  /usr/X11R6/lib/X11/XF86Config
  /
  find: /var/spool/cron/atjobs: Permission denied
  find: /var/spool/cron/atspool: Permission denied
  find: /var/lib/xdm/authdir: Permission denied

  Notice that find found only files that were named _exactly_
  XF86Config, rather than any files containing that string of letters.
  Also, find actually tried to look in every directory on the
  system—including some where you didn’t have read permissions. That’s
  why you got the Permission denied messages.

  The syntax is different as well. With find, you had to specify what
  directory to search in, whereas locate automatically chose the root
  directory. And you had to specify a search by name using the -name
  option. You could also have searched for files using many other
  criteria, such as modification date or owner. To have find search
  for files whose names match XF86Config, you’d have to use a
  wildcard:

  $ find / -name ’*XF86Config*’

  Like most of the command line tools, find accepts wildcards as
  arguments.

  In general, find is a more powerful utility, and locate is faster
  for everyday quick searches. The full range of possible searches
  would take a long time to explain; for more details , type info
  find, which will bring up the very thorough info pages on find and
  locate.


7.5 Determining a File’s Contents

  Debian comes with a utility that can guess at the contents of a file
  for you. Although it is not 100% accurate, you can use the following
  command to explore your system:

  $ file /bin/cp

  You should see something like this:

  /bin/cp: ELF 32-bit LSB executable, Intel 386, version 1
  /
  /
  /
  /
  Skipping the technical parts, this is an executable file for Intel
  machines.

  $ file /etc/init.d/boot

  The preceding command gives this response:

  /etc/init.d/boot: Bourne shell script text
  /
  /
  /
  /
  meaning that this is a text file containing a Bourne shell script.


7.6 Using a File Manager

  Instead of moving files around by hand, you can use a _file
  manager_. If you move a lot of files around, a file manager can make
  your work more efficient. There are text-based file managers, such
  as GNU Midnight Commander (mc), and a number of file managers for
  the X Window system (for example gmc for the X Window version of GNU
  Midnight Commander).

  Describing each of these is outside the scope of this book, but you
  may want to try them out if the command line doesn’t meet your
  needs.




8. Working with Text Files


  Text files are prevelant on a GNU/Linux system. They hold everything
  from documentation to configuration files. Fortunately, it’s easy to
  work with them.


8.1 Viewing Text Files

  A _text file_ is simply a normal file that happens to contain
  human-readable text. There’s nothing special about it otherwise. The
  other kind of file, a binary file, is meant to be interpreted by the
  computer.

  You can view either kind of file with the less file pager if you
  have it installed (install it if you haven’t, it’s quite useful).
  Type less
  /etc/profile to view a sample text file. Notice that you can read
  /the
  characters even if their meaning is obscure. Type less /bin/ls to
  view a binary file. As you can see, the ls program is not meant to
  be read by humans.

  Sometimes, you’ll find files that end with .gz. These files may be
  viewed with zless; you can run it like so:

  zless /usr/doc/ae/changelog.Debian.gz

  Tip: zless is great for viewing documentation, which is often
  shipped in .gz form.

  The difference between the two kinds of files is purely a matter of
  what they contain, unlike in some other systems (such as DOS and
  MacOS), which actually treat the files differently.

  Text files can contain shell scripts, documentation, copyright
  notices, or any other human-readable text.

  Incidentally, this illustrates the difference between _source code_
  and _binary executables_. /bin/ls is a binary executable you can
  download from Debian, but you can also download a text file that
  tells the computer how to create /bin/ls. This text file is the
  source code. Comparing /bin/ls to /etc/profile illustrates how
  important source code is if someone wants to understand and modify a
  piece of software. Free software provides you or your consultants
  with this all-important source code.


8.2 Text Editors

  A _text editor_ is a program used to create and change the contents
  of text files. Most operating systems have a text editor: DOS has
  edit, Windows has Notepad, MacOS has SimpleText.

  Debian provides a large variety of text editors. vi and Emacs are
  the classic two, which are probably both the most powerful and the
  most widely used. Both vi and Emacs are quite complex and require
  some practice, but they can make editing text extremely efficient.
  Emacs runs both in a terminal and under the X Window system; vi
  normally runs in a terminal but the vim variant has a -g option that
  allows it to work with X. text editors

  Simpler editors include nedit, ae, jed, and xcoral. nedit and xcoral
  provide easy-to-use X Window system graphical interfaces. There are
  also several vi variants. Additionally, you can find and a GNU Emacs
  variant called XEmacs.

  This book does not cover the use of any particular editor in detail,
  though we will briefly introduce ae since it is small, fast, and can
  be found even on the Debian rescue disks, so it pays to know a bit
  about it for usage in a pinch. When you need to do more serious
  editing, check out vim or GNU Emacs. Emacs provides an excellent
  interactive tutorial of its own; to read it, load Emacs with the
  emacs command and type F1 t. Emacs is an excellent choice for new
  users interested in a general-purpose or programming editor.


8.3 Using ae

  You can start ae by giving it the name of a file to edit, like so:

  $ ae filename.txt

  This will bring up an editor screen. The top part of this screen
  provides some quick help; the bottom shows the file you’re editing.
  Moving around in this editor is simple; just use the arrow keys. You
  can save the file by pressing C-x C-s and then exit the editor by
  pressing C-x C-c. Once you feel comfortable with the editor, you can
  press C-x C-h to turn off the help. That’s it! Knowing this will let
  you do basic editing. For programming or more detailed editing work,
  you’ll want to investigate other editors as discussed earlier.




9. The X Window System


  This chapter describes the X Window system graphical user interface.
  It assumes that you have already successfully configured X as
  described in the Installation Manual (again, the install manual is
  not yet written; for now you will need to use the XFree86 HOWTO, the
  contents of /usr/doc/X11, and this chapter). Once you install X, you
  can enter the X environment by typing startx or via xdm, depending
  on your choice during configuration.


9.1 Introduction to X

  A GUI (Graphical User Interface) is part and parcel of the Windows
  and Mac operating systems. It’s basically impossible to write an
  application for those systems that does not use the GUI, and the
  systems can’t be used effectively from the command line. GNU/Linux
  is more _modular_, that is, it’s made up of many small, independent
  components that can be used or not according to one’s needs and
  preferences. One of these components is the X Window system, or
  simply X.

  This component is also sometimes called X11. Please note that “X
  Windows” is _not_ correct.

  X itself is a means for programs to talk to your mouse and video
  card without knowing what kind of mouse and video card you have.
  That is, it’s an _abstraction_ of the graphics hardware. User
  applications talk to X in X’s language; X then translates into the
  language of your particular hardware. This means that programs only
  have to be written once, and they work on everyone’s computer.

  In X jargon, the program that speaks to the hardware is known as an
  _X server_. User applications that ask the X server to show windows
  or graphics on the screen are called _X clients_. The X server
  includes a _video driver_, so you must have an X server that matches
  your video card.

  The X server doesn’t provide any of the features one might expect
  from a GUI, such as resizing and rearranging windows. A special X
  client, called a _window manager_, draws borders and title bars for
  windows, resizes and arranges windows, and provides facilities for
  starting other X clients from a menu. Specific window managers may
  have additional features.

  Window managers available on a Debian system include fvwm, fvwm2,
  icewm, afterstep, olvwm, wmaker, twm, and enlightenment. You’ll
  probably want to try them all and pick your favorite.

  Neither the X server nor the window manager provide a _file
  manager;_ that is, there aren’t any windows containing icons for
  your files and directories. You can launch a file manager as a
  separate application, and there are many of them available. The
  GNOME desktop project is developing an icon-based file manager and
  other GUI facilities. See the GNOME homepage[1] for the latest news
  on this.

[1] http://www.gnome.org/

  A final feature of X is its _network transparency_, meaning that X
  clients don’t care if they’re talking to an X server on the same
  machine or an X server somewhere on the network. In practical terms,
  this means you can run a program on a more powerful remote machine
  but display it on your desktop computer.


9.2 Starting the X Environment

  There are two ways to start X. The first is to start X manually when
  you feel like using it. To do so, log in to one of the text consoles
  and type startx. This will start X and switch you to its virtual
  console.

  The second (and recommended) way to use X is with xdm or X Display
  Manager. Basically, xdm gives you a nice graphical login prompt on
  the X virtual console (probably VC 7), and you log in there.

  By default, either method will also start an xterm, which is a small
  window containing a shell prompt. At the shell prompt, you can type
  any commands just as you would on a text VC. So you can follow all
  the examples in this book using xterm; the only difference between
  an xterm and the text console is that you don’t have to log on to
  the xterm because you already logged on to X.

  There are also a lot of things you can do only in X, which are
  covered in this chapter.

  One note: The default xterm window has a smallish font. If you have
  a small monitor or very high resolution or bad eyesight, you may
  want to fix this. Follow these steps:

   1. Move the mouse pointer into the center of the xterm window.
   2. Hold down the Control key and the _right_ mouse button
   simultaneously. This will give you a font menu.
   3. Point to the font you want and release the mouse button.


9.3 Basic X Operations

  There are certain commonly used operations in X that you should
  familiarize yourself with. This section describes some of the basic
  operations that you may find useful.


9.3.1 The Mouse

  The mouse in X works pretty much the same as the mouse on other
  systems, except that it has three buttons. If your mouse has only
  two, you can simulate the middle button by clicking both buttons
  simultaneously. This is kind of tricky and annoying, so investing in
  a $15 three-button mouse probably isn’t a bad idea. These are
  available from most computer retailers.

  The buttons are numbered from left to right assuming you have a
  right-handed mouse. So button one is on the left, two is in the
  middle, and three is on the right. You may see either the numbers or
  the locations in documentation.

  X has a simple built-in copy-and-paste facility. To select text to
  copy, you click and drag with the left mouse button. This should
  select the text to copy, assuming the application you’re using has
  copy-and-paste support. To paste the text, you click the middle
  mouse button in a different X application. For example, if you
  receive an e-mail containing an URL, you can select the URL with the
  left button and then click in your web browser’s “Location” field
  with the middle button to paste it in.


9.3.2 X Clients

  Programs that communicate with the X server are called X clients.
  Most of these programs will ask the X server to display windows on
  the screen.

  You start an X client the same way you start any other Debian
  program. Simply type the name of the client on the command line. Try
  typing xterm into an existing xterm window, and a new xterm client
  will appear on the screen.

  You may notice that the original xterm is now useless, because your
  shell is waiting for the second xterm to finish. To avoid this
  problem, you can run the X client in the backgroundby adding a &
  after the command name like this: xterm &. If you forget, you can
  place a running process in the background. First suspend the process
  with CTRL-z, and then place it in the background with the bg
  command.

  If you use a program often, your window manager will generally
  provide a way to put that program on a convenient graphical menu.


9.3.3 Troubleshooting

  Sometimes when you launch an X client from a graphical menu, you
  won’t be able to see any error messages if it fails. You can find
  any error messages in the file ~/.xsession-errors.


9.3.4 Leaving the X Environment

  To leave X, you need to use a menu. Unfortunately for beginners,
  this is different for every window manager, and for most window
  managers, it can be configured in many ways. If there’s an obvious
  menu, look for an entry like “Exit” or “Close Window Manager.” If
  you don’t see a menu, try clicking each of the mouse buttons on the
  background of the screen. If all else fails, you can forcibly kill
  the X server by pressing CTRL-ALT-Backspace. Forcibly killing the
  server destroys any unsaved data in open applications.


9.4 Customizing Your X Startup

  When you start X, Debian runs some shell scripts that start your
  window manager and other X clients. By default, a window manager, an
  xconsole, and an xterm are started for you.

  To customize your X startup, the file /etc/X11/config must contain
  the line allow-user-xsession. If it does not, log in as root and add
  the line now. Then log back in as yourself and continue the
  tutorial.

  You can see how Debian’s X startup works in the file /etc/X11/
  Xsession. Note that you can change the behavior of /etc/X11/Xsession
  by modifying the file /etc/X11/config, which specifies a few
  system-wide preferences.

  To run the clients of your choice when X starts, you create an
  executable shell script called .xsession in your home directory.

  $ touch ~/.xsession

  This creates the file.

  $ chmod u+x ~/.xsession

  This makes the file executable.

  Once .xsession is created, you need to edit it to do something
  useful with your favorite text editor. You can do anything you want
  to in this script. However, when the script’s process terminates, X
  also terminates.

  In practical terms, this means that you often end the script with a
  call to exec. Whatever program you exec will replace the script
  process with itself, so commands found after the exec line will be
  ignored. The program you exec will become the new owner of the
  script process, which means that X will terminate when this new
  program’s process terminates.

  Say you end your .xsession with the line exec fvwm. This means that
  the fvwm window manager will be run when X starts. When you quit the
  fvwm window manager, your X session will end, and all other clients
  will be shut down. You do not have to use a window manager here; you
  could exec xterm, in which case typing exit in that particular xterm
  would cause the entire X session to end.

  If you want to run other clients before you use exec, you will need
  to run them in the background. Otherwise .xsession will pause until
  each client exits and then continue to the next line. See the
  previous section on running jobs in the background (basically you
  want to put an ampersand at the end, as in xterm &).

  You can take advantage of this behavior, though. If you want to run
  commands at the end of your X session, you can have your .xsession
  run a window manager or the like and wait for it to finish. That is,
  leave off the exec and the &; just enter fvwm by itself. Then put
  the commands of your choice after fvwm.

  It would probably help to look at a few sample .xsession files. In
  all the examples, replace fvwm with the window manager of your
  choice.

  The simplest .xsession just runs a window manager:

  exec fvwm

  This will run fvwm, and the X session will end when fvwm exits. If
  you do it without the exec, everything will appear to behave the
  same way, but behind the scenes .xsession will hang around waiting
  for fvwm, and .xsession will exit after fvwm does. Using exec is
  slightly better because fvwm replaces .xsession instead of leaving
  it waiting. You can use the ps or top command to verify this.

  A more useful .xsession runs a few clients before starting the
  window manager. For example, you might want some xterms and an
  xclock whenever you start X. No problem; just enter xterm & xterm &
  xclock & exec fvwm. Two xterms and an xclock start up in the
  background, and then the window manager is launched. When you quit
  the window manager, you’ll also quit X.

  You might try it without the backgrounding just to see what happens.
  Enter this command: xterm xclock exec fvwm. xterm will start, and
  wait for you to exit it. Then xclock will start; you’ll have to exit
  xclock before fvwm will start. The commands are run in sequence,
  since the script waits for each one to exit.

  You can use sequential execution to your advantage. Perhaps you want
  to keep track of when you stop working every day:

  xterm &
  xclock &
  fvwm
  date >> ~/logout-time

  This will fork off an xterm and an xclock and then run fvwm and wait
  for it to finish. When you exit fvwm, it will move on to the last
  line, which appends the current date and time to the file
  ~/logout-time.

  Finally, you can have a program other than the window manager
  determine when X exits:

  xclock &
  fvwm &
  exec xterm

  This script will run xclock and fvwm in the background and then
  replace itself with xterm. When you exit the xterm, your X session
  will end.

  The best way to learn how to use .xsession is to try some of these
  things out. Again, be sure you use chmod to make it executable;
  failure to do so is a common error.




10. Filesystems


  A Debian system uses a filesystem to store and manage your data.
  This chapter introduces you to the filesystem, describes how to add
  and remove filesystems, and shows you how to back up your system.


10.1 Concepts

  It’s probably a good idea to explain a little theory before
  discussing the mechanics of using disks. In particular, you must
  understand the concept of a _filesystem_. This can be a bit
  confusing because it has several meanings.

  _The_ filesystem refers to the whole directory tree, starting with
  the root directory /, as described in earlier chapters.

  A filesystem in general means any organization of files and
  directories on a particular physical device. “Organization” means
  the hierarchical directory structure and any other information about
  files one might want to keep track of: their size, who has
  permission to change them, etc. So you might have one filesystem on
  your hard disk, and another one on each floppy disk.

  “Filesystem” is also used to mean a _type_ of filesystem. For
  example, MS-DOS and Windows 3.1 organize files in a particular way,
  with particular rules: Filenames can have only eight characters, for
  example, and no permission information is stored. Linux calls this
  the msdos filesystem. Linux also has its own filesystem, called the
  ext2 filesystem (version two of the ext filesystem). You’ll use the
  ext2 filesystem most of the time unless you’re accessing files from
  another operating system or have other special needs.

  Any physical device you wish to use for storing files must have at
  least one filesystem on it. This means a filesystem in the second
  sense—a hierarchy of files and directories, along with information
  about them. Of course, any filesystem has a type, so the third sense
  will come into play as well. If you have more than one filesystem on
  a single device, each filesystem can have a different type—for
  example, you might have both a DOS partition and a Linux partition
  on your hard disk.


10.2 mount and /etc/fstab

  This section describes how to mount a floppy or Zip disk, discusses
  the
  /dev directory, and addresses distributing the directory tree over
  multiple physical devices or partitions.


10.2.1 Mounting a Filesystem

  On a GNU/Linux system there’s no necessary correspondence between
  directories and physical devices as there is in Windows, in which
  each drive has its own directory tree beginning with a letter (such
  as C:\).

  Instead, each physical device such as a hard disk or floppy disk has
  one or more filesystems on it. In order to make a filesystem
  accessible, it’s assigned to a particular directory in another
  filesystem. To avoid circularity, the root filesystem (which
  contains the root directory /) is not stored within any other
  filesystem. You have access to it automatically when you boot
  Debian.

  A directory in one filesystem that contains another filesystem is
  known as a _mount point_. A mount point is a directory in a first
  filesystem on one device (such as your hard disk) that “contains” a
  second filesystem, perhaps on another device (such as a floppy
  disk). To access a filesystem, you must mount it at some mount
  point.

  So, for example, you might mount a CD at the mount point /cdrom.
  This means that if you look in the directory /cdrom, you’ll see the
  contents of the CD. The /cdrom directory itself is actually on your
  hard disk. For all practical purposes, the contents of the CD become
  a part of the root filesystem, and when you type commands and use
  programs, it doesn’t make any difference what the actual physical
  location of the files is. You could have created a directory on your
  hard disk called /cdrom and put some files in it, and everything
  would behave in exactly the same way. Once you mount a filesystem,
  there’s no need to pay any attention to physical devices.

  However, before you can mount a filesystem or actually create a
  filesystem on a disk that doesn’t have one yet, it’s necessary to
  refer to the devices themselves. All devices have names, which are
  located in the /dev directory. If you type ls /dev now, you’ll see a
  pretty lengthy list of every possible device you could have on your
  Debian system. For a summary of some devices, see Table 2.1 on page
  [*]. A more thorough list can be found on your system in the file
  /usr/src/linux/Documentation/devices.txt.

  To mount a filesystem, we want to tell Linux to associate whatever
  filesystem it finds on a particular device with a particular mount
  point. In the process, we might have to tell Linux what kind of
  filesystem to look for.


10.2.2 Example: Mounting a CD-ROM

  As a simple demonstration, we’ll go through mounting a CD-ROM, such
  as the one you may have used to install Debian. You’ll need to be
  root to do this, so be careful; whenever you’re root, you have the
  power to manipulate the whole system, not just your own files. Also,
  these commands assume there’s a CD in your drive; you should put one
  in the drive now. Then start with the following command:

  su

  If you haven’t already, you need to either log in as root or gain
  root privileges with the su (super user) command. If you use su,
  enter the root password when prompted.

  ls /cdrom

  Use this command to see what’s in the /cdrom directory before you
  start. If you don’t have a /cdrom directory, you may have to make
  one using mkdir /cdrom.

  mount

  Simply typing mount with no arguments lists the currently mounted
  filesystems.

  mount -t iso9660 _CD-device_ /cdrom

  For this command, you should substitute the name of your CD-ROM
  device for _CD-device_ in the above command line. If you aren’t
  sure, /dev/cdrom is a good guess because the install process should
  have created this symbolic link on the system. If that fails, try
  the different IDE devices:
  /dev/hdc, etc. You should see a message like this: mount: block
  /device dev/hdc is write-protected, mounting read-only.
  /
  /
  /
  The -t option specifies the type of the filesystem, in this case
  iso9660. Most CDs are iso9660. The next argument is the name of the
  device to mount, and the final argument is the mount point. There
  are many other arguments for mount; see the manual page for details.

  Once a CD is mounted, you may find that your drive tray will not
  open. You must unmount the CD before removing it.

  ls /cdrom

  Confirms that /cdrom now contains whatever is on the CD in your
  drive.

  mount

  Displays the list of filesystems again; notice that your CD drive is
  now mounted.

  umount /cdrom

  This unmounts the CD. It’s now safe to remove the CD from the drive.
  Notice that the command is umount with no “n,” even though it’s used
  to unmount the filesystem.

  exit

  Don’t leave yourself logged on as root. Log out immediately, just to
  be safe.


10.2.3 /etc/fstab: Automating the Mount Process

  The file /etc/fstab (it stands for “filesystem table”) contains
  descriptions of filesystems that you mount often. These filesystems
  can then be mounted with a shorter command, such as mount /cdrom.
  You can also configure filesystems to mount automatically when the
  system boots. You’ll probably want to mount all of your hard disk
  filesystems when you boot, so Debian automatically adds entries to
  fstab to do this for you.

  Look at this file now by typing more /etc/fstab. It will have two or
  more entries that were configured automatically when you installed
  the system. It probably looks something like this:

  # /etc/fstab: static file system information.
  # /
  # /   #
  # /   #
  # <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> #<dump > <pass>
  #
  /dev/hda1 / ext2 defaults 0 1
  /
  /dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0
  /
  proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
  /dev/hda5 /tmp ext2 defaults 0 2
  /
  /dev/hda6 /home ext2 defaults 0 2
  /
  /dev/hda7 /usr ext2 defaults 0 2
  /
  /dev/hdc /cdrom iso9660 ro,noauto 0 0
  /
  /dev/fd0 /floppy auto noauto,sync 0 0
  /
  /
  /
  /
  /
  The first column lists the device the filesystem resides on. The
  second lists the mount point, the third indicates the filesystem
  type. The line beginning by proc is a special filesystem. Notice
  that the swap partition (/dev/hda3 in the example) has no mount
  point, so the mount point column contains none.

  The last three columns may require some explanation.

  The fifth column is used by the dump utility to decide when to back
  up the filesystem. In most cases, you can put 0 here.

  The sixth column is used by fsck to decide in what order to check
  filesystems when you boot the system. The root filesystem should
  have a 1 in this field, filesystems that don’t need to be checked
  (such as the swap partition) should have a 0, and all other
  filesystems should have a 2. It’s worth noting that the swap
  partition isn’t exactly a filesystem in the sense that it does not
  contain files and directories but is just used by the Linux kernel
  as secondary memory. However, for historical reasons, the swap
  partitions are still listed in the same file as the filesystems.

  Column four contains one or more options to use when mounting the
  filesystem. You can check the mount manpage for a summary; see
  section 5.1 on page [*].


10.2.4 Removable Disks (Floppies, Zip Disks, Etc.)

  Add the following lines to your /etc/fstab file:

  /dev/sda1 /mnt/zip ext2 noauto,user 0 0
  /
  /dev/sda4 /mnt/dos msdos noauto,user 0 0
  /
  /
  /
  /
  From now on, you’ll be able to mount the DOS-formatted Zip disks
  with the command mount /mnt/dos, and you be able to mount
  Linux-formatted Zip disks with the command mount /mnt/zip.

  If you have SCSI hard disks in your system, you’ll have to change
  sda to sdb or sdc in the example above.


10.3 Backup Tools

  Backups are important under any operating system. Debian GNU/Linux
  provides several different utilities that you might want to use.
  Additionally, while many of these utilities were aimed at tape
  backups originally, you’ll find that they are now being used for
  other things. For instance, tar is being used for distributing
  programs over the Internet. Some of the utilities that you’ll find
  include the following:

    ◼ Taper is a menu-driven, easy-to-learn backup program that can
    back up to a variety of media. Its limitation is that it doesn’t
    handle large (4GB or larger) backups.
    ◼ dump is designed specifically for tapes; its main strengths are
    its interface for file restores, low-level filesystem backups, and
    incremental backup scheduling. Its limitations include the
    inability to back up NFS or other non-ext2 filesystems and some
    rather arcane defaults.
    ◼ GNU tar (short for Tape ARchiver) is an implementation of what
    is probably the most widely used backup or archiving utility in
    Linux today. It makes a good general purpose tool and can deal
    with the widest variety of target media. Additionally, many
    different systems can read tar files, making them highly portable.
    tar’s weaknesses include a weaker incremental backup system than
    dump and no interactive restore selection screen.


10.3.1 tar

  Because tar is used so much, and for quite a bit in addition to
  backups, it is being described here. For more details, see the tar
  manual page; instructions for viewing manual pages can be found in
  section 5.1 on page [*].

  tar is an _archiver_. This means that tar can take many files and
  combine them all into one large file or write them out to a backup
  device such as a tape drive. Once you have this one large file, you
  will often want to compress it; the -z option is great for this.
  Hence, tar offers a great way to distribute programs and data on the
  Internet, and you’ll find that it is used extensively for this
  purpose.

  Here’s a sample tar command line:

  tar -zcvf myfiles.tar.gz /usr/local/bin

  Let’s take a look at how this command can be broken down:

  tar

Name of the command.—Tells tar that options will follow.

  z

Tells tar to use gzip compression automatically; if you use this, it’s
good to add a .gz extension as well.

  c

Tells tar to create a new archive.

  v

This says to be verbose; that is, it tells tar to let you know what
it’s doing while it creates the archive.

  f

This indicates that the next thing on the command line is the name of
the file to be created or the device to be used. If I used /dev/st0
here, for instance, it would write the backup to the tape drive.

  myfiles.tar.gz This is the name of the file to be created.

  /usr/local/bi
  /
  /
  /
  /
  This is the name of the file or directory to store in the archive.
  It’s also possible to specify several items here.

  You may often find tar.gz files (or simply tgz files) on the
  Internet. You can unpack these with a command like:

  tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz




11. Networking


  One of the key benefits of GNU/Linux over other systems lies in its
  networking support. Few systems can rival the networking features
  present in GNU/Linux. In this chapter, we tell you how to configure
  your network devices.


11.1 PPP

  This section is a quick-start guide to setting up PPP on Debian. If
  it turns out that you need more details, see the excellent |PPP
  HOWTO| from the Linux Documentation Project. The HOWTO goes into
  much more detail if you’re interested or have unique needs.


11.1.1 Introduction

  If you connect to the Internet over a phone line, you’ll want to use
  PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol). This is the standard connection
  method offered by ISPs (Internet service providers). In addition to
  using PPP to dial your ISP, you can have your computer listen for
  incoming connections - this lets you dial your computer from a
  remote location.


11.1.2 Preparation

  Configuring PPP on Debian GNU/Linux is straightforward once you have
  all the information you’ll need. Debian makes things even easier
  with its simple configuration tools.

  Before you start, be sure you have all the information provided by
  your ISP. This might include:

    ◼ Username or login
    ◼ Password
    ◼ Your static IP (Internet Protocol) address, if any (these look
    like 209.81.8.242). This information isn’t needed for most ISPs.
    ◼ Bitmask (this will look something like 255.255.255.248). This
    information isn’t needed for most ISPs.
    ◼ The IP addresses of your ISP’s name servers (or DNS).
    ◼ Any special login procedure required by the ISP.

  Next, you’ll want to investigate your hardware setup: whether your
  modem works with GNU/Linux and which serial port it’s connected to.

  A simple rule determines whether your modem will work. If it’s a
  “winmodem” or “host-based modem,” it won’t work. These modems are
  cheap because they have very little functionality, and they require
  the computer to make up for their shortcomings. Unfortunately, this
  means they are complex to program, and manufacturers generally do
  not make the specifications available for developers.

  If you have a modem with its own on-board circuitry or an external
  modem, you should have no trouble at all.

  On GNU/Linux systems, the serial ports are referred to as
  /dev/ttyS0,
  /dev/ttyS1, and so on. Your modem is almost certainly connected to
  /either
  port 0 or port 1, equivalent to COM1: and COM2: under Windows. If
  you don’t know which your modem is connected to, run the program
  wvdialconf to try to detect it (see below); otherwise, just try both
  and see which works.

  If you want to talk to your modem or dial your ISP without using
  PPP, you can use the minicom program. You may need to install the
  minicom package to make the program available.


11.1.3 The Easy Way: wvdial

  The simplest way to get PPP running is with the wvdial program. It
  makes some reasonable guesses and tries to set things up for you. If
  it works, you’re in luck. If it guesses wrong, you’ll have to do
  things manually.

  Be sure you have the following packages installed:

    ◼ ppp
    ◼ ppp-pam
    ◼ wvdial

  When you install the wvdial package, you may be given the
  opportunity to configure it. Otherwise, to set up wvdial, follow
  these simple steps:

  Log in as root, using su (as described in an earlier chapter).

  touch /etc/wvdial.conf

  touch will create the following file if the file doesn’t exist; the
  configuration program requires an existing file.

  wvdialconf /etc/wvdial.conf

  This means you’re creating a configuration file, /etc/wvdial.conf.

  Answer any questions that appear on the screen. wvdialconf will also
  scan for your modem and tell you which serial port it’s on; you may
  want to make a note of this for future reference.


11.2 Ethernet

  Another popular way to connect to the Internet is via a LAN that
  uses Ethernet. This gives you a high-speed local network in addition
  to Internet access. Fortunately, though, you should have already
  configured Ethernet networking during installation so there isn’t
  much you need to do now. If you ever need to modify your
  configuration, here are the files that you will be interested in:

    ◼ /etc/init.d/network has things such as your IP address, netmask,
    and default route.
    ◼ /etc/hostname records your hostname.
    ◼ /etc/hosts also records your hostname and IP address.




12. Removing and Installing Software


  This chapter describes ways of installing and removing software
  packages. There are several ways of doing both. Here we discuss
  installation and removal of pre-built software, such as Debian
  packages, and installation of source that must be built by you.


12.1 What a Package Maintenance Utility Does

  An application or utility program usually involves quite a few
  files. It might include libraries, data files like game scenarios or
  icons, configuration files, manual pages, and documentation. When
  you install the program, you want to make sure you have all the
  files you need in the right places.

  You’d also like to be able to uninstall the program. When you
  uninstall, you want to be sure all the associated files are deleted.
  However, if a program you still have on the system needs those
  files, you want to be sure you keep them.

  Finally, you’d like to be able to upgrade a program. When you
  upgrade, you want to delete obsolete files and add new ones, without
  breaking any part of the system.

  The Debian package system solves these problems. It allows you to
  install, remove, and upgrade software _packages_, which are neat
  little bundles containing the program files and information that
  helps the computer manage them properly. Debian packages have
  filenames ending in the extension .deb, and they’re available on the
  FTP site or on your official Debian CD-ROM.


12.2 dpkg

  The simplest way to install a single package you’ve downloaded is
  with the command dpkg -i (short for dpkg -install). Say you’ve
  downloaded the package icewm_0.8.12-1.deb and you’d like to install
  it. First log on as root, and then type dpkg -i icewm_0.8.12-1.deb,
  and icewm version 0.8.12 will be installed. If you already had an
  older version, dpkg will upgrade it rather than installing both
  versions at once.

  If you want to remove a package, you have two options. The first is
  most intuitive: dpkg -r icewm. This will remove the icewm package
  (-r is short for -remove). Note that you give only the icewm for
  -remove, whereas -install requires the entire .deb filename.

  -remove will leave configuration files for the package on your
  system. A configuration file is defined as any file you might have
  edited in order to customize the program for your system or your
  preferences. This way, if you later reinstall the package, you won’t
  have to set everything up a second time.

  However, you might want to erase the configuration files too, so
  dpkg also provides a -purge option. dpkg -purge icewm will
  permanently delete every last file associated with the icewm
  package.


12.3 dselect

  dselect is a great front-end for dpkg. dselect provides a menu
  interface for dpkg, and can automatically fetch the appropriate
  files from a CD-ROM or Internet FTP site. For details on using
  dselect, see section 3.20 on page [*].


12.4 Compiling Software

  Many programs come in source format, often in tar.gz form. First,
  you must unpack the tar.gz file; for details on doing this, see
  section 10.3.1 on page [*]. Before you can compile the package,
  you’ll need to have gcc, libc6-dev, and other relevant “-dev”
  packages installed; most of these are listed in the devel area in
  dselect.

  With the appropriate packages installed, cd into the directory that
  tar created for you. At this point, you’ll need to read the
  installation instructions. Most programs provide an INSTALL or
  README file that will tell you how to proceed.




13. Advanced Topics


  By now, you should have a strong base for which to build your
  GNU/Linux skills on. In this chapter we cover some very useful
  information regarding some advanced GNU/Linux features.


13.1 Regular Expressions

  A regular expression is a description of a set of characters. This
  description can be used to search through a file by looking for text
  that matches the regular expression. Regular expressions are
  analogous to shell wildcards (see section 6.6 on page [*]), but they
  are both more complicated and more powerful.

  A regular expression is made up of text and _metacharacters_. A
  metacharacter is just a character with a special meaning.
  Metacharacters include the following: . * [] - \^ $.

  If a regular expression contains only text (no metacharacters), it
  matches that text. For example, the regular expression “my regular
  expression” matches the text “my regular expression,” and nothing
  else. Regular expressions are usually case sensitive.

  You can use the egrep command to display all lines in a file that
  contain a regular expression. Its syntax is as follows:

  egrep ’regexp’ filename1 ...

  The single quotation marks are not always needed, but they never
  hurt.

  For example, to find all lines in the GPL that contain the word GNU,
  you type

  egrep ’GNU’ /usr/doc/copyright/GPL

  egrep will print the lines to standard output. If you want all lines
  that contain freedom followed by some indeterminate text, followed
  by GNU, you can do this:

  egrep ’freedom.*GNU’ /usr/doc/copyright/GPL

  The . means “any character,” and the * means “zero or more of the
  preceding thing,” in this case “zero or more of any character.” So
  .* matches pretty much any text at all. egrep only matches on a
  line-by-line basis, so freedom and GNU have to be on the same line.

  Here’s a summary of regular expression metacharacters:

  . Matches any single character except newline.

  * Matches zero or more occurrences of the preceding thing. So the
  expression a* matches zero or more lowercase a, and .* matches zero
  or more characters.

  [_characters_] The brackets must contain one or more characters; the
  whole bracketed expression matches exactly one character out of the
  set. So [abc]matches one a, one b, or one c; it does not match zero
  characters, and it does not match a character other than these
  three.

  ^ Anchors your search at the beginning of the line. The expression
  ^The matches The when it appears at the beginning of a line; there
  can’t be spaces or other text before The. If you want to allow
  spaces, you can permit 0 or more space characters like this: ^ *The.

  $ Anchors at the end of the line. end$ requires the text end to be
  at the end of the line, with no intervening spaces or text.

  [^_characters_] This reverses the sense of a bracketed character
  list. So [^abc] matches any single character, _except_ a, b, or c.

  [_character-character_] You can include ranges in a bracketed
  character list. To match any lowercase letter, use [a-z]. You can
  have more than one range; so to match the first three or last three
  letters of the alphabet, try [a-cx-z]. To get any letter, any case,
  try [a-zA-Z]. You can mix ranges with single characters and with the
  ^metacharacter; for example, [^a-zBZ]means “anything except a
  lowercase letter, capital B, or capital Z.”

  () You can use parentheses to group parts of the regular expression,
  just as you do in a mathematical expression.

  || means “or.” You can use it to provide a series of
alternative expressions. Usually you want to put the alternatives in
parentheses, like this: c(ad|ab|at)matches cad or cab or cat. Without
the parentheses, it would match cad or ab or at instead

  \ Escapes any special characters; if you want to find a literal *,
  you type \*. The slash means to ignore *’s usual special meaning.

  Here are some more examples to help you get a feel for things:

  c.pe matches cope, cape, caper.

  c\ .pe matches c.pe, c.per.

  sto*p matches stp, stop, stoop.

  car.*n matches carton, cartoon, carmen.

  xyz.* matches xyz and anything after it; some tools, like egrep,
  only match until the end of the line.

  ^The matches The at the beginning of a line.

  atime$ matches atime at the end of a line.

  ^Only$ matches a line that consists solely of the word Only—no
  spaces, no other characters, nothing. Only Only is allowed.

  b[aou]rn matches barn, born, burn.

  Ver[D-F] matches VerD, VerE, VerF.

  Ver[^0-9] matches Ver followed by any non-digit.

  the[ir][re] matches their, therr, there, theie.

  [A-Za-z][A-Za-z]* matches any word which consists of only letters,
  and at least one letter. It will not match numbers or spaces.


13.2 Advanced Files

  Now that you have a basic understanding of files, it is time to
  learn more advanced things about them.


13.2.1 The Real Nature of Files: Hard Links and Inodes

  Each file on your system is represented by an _inode_ (for
  Information Node; pronounced “eye-node”). An inode contains all the
  information about the file. However, the inode is not directly
  visible. Instead, each inode is linked into the filesystem by one or
  more _hard links_. Hard links contain the name of the file and the
  inode number. The inode contains the file itself, i.e., the location
  of the information being stored on disk, its access permissions, the
  file type, and so on. The system can find any inode if it has the
  inode number.

  A single file can have more than one hard link. What this means is
  that multiple filenames refer to the same file (that is, they are
  associated with the same inode number). However, you can’t make hard
  links across filesystems: All hard references to a particular file
  (inode) must be on the same filesystem. This is because each
  filesystem has its own set of inodes, and there can be duplicate
  inode numbers on different filesystems.

  Because all hard links to a given inode refer to _the same file_,
  you can make changes to the file, referring to it by one name, and
  then see those changes when referring to it by a different name. Try
  this:

  cd; echo "hello" > firstlink

  cd to your home directory and create a file called firstlink
  containing the word “hello.” What you’ve actually done is redirect
  the output of echo (echo just echoes back what you give to it),
  placing the output in firstlink. See the chapter on shells for a
  full explanation.

  cat firstlink

  Confirms the contents of firstlink.

  ln firstlink secondlink

  Creates a hard link: secondlink now points to the same inode as
  firstlink.

  cat secondlink

  Confirms that secondlink is the same as firstlink.

  ls -l

  Notice that the number of hard links listed for firstlink and
  secondlinkfiles!inodes is 2.

  echo "change" >> secondlink

  This is another shell redirection trick (don’t worry about the
  details). You’ve appended the word “change” to secondlink. Confirm
  this with cat secondlink.

  cat firstlink

  firstlink also has the word “change” appended! That’s because
  firstlink and secondlink refer to _the same file_. It doesn’t matter
  what you call it when you change it.

  chmod a+rwx firstlink

  Changes permissions on firstlink. Enter the command ls -l to confirm
  that permissions on secondlink were also changed. This means that
  permissions information is stored in the inode, not in links.

  rm firstlink

  Deletes this link. This is a subtlety of rm. It really removes
  links, not files. Now type ls -l and notice that secondlink is still
  there. Also notice that the number of hard links for secondlink has
  been reduced to one.

  rm secondlink

  Deletes the other link. When there are no more links to a file,
  Linux deletes the file itself, that is, its inode.

  All files work like this—even special types of files such as devices
  (e.g. /dev/hda).

  A directory is simply a list of filenames and inode numbers, that
  is, a list of hard links. When you create a hard link, you’re just
  adding a name-number pair to a directory. When you delete a file,
  you’re just removing a hard link from a directory.


13.2.2 Types of Files

  One detail we’ve been concealing up to now is that the Linux kernel
  considers nearly everything to be a file. That includes directories
  and devices: They’re just special kinds of files.

  As you may remember, the first character of an ls -l display
  represents the type of the file. For an ordinary file, this will be
  simply -. Other possibilities include the following:

  ddirectory
  lsymbolic link
  bblock device
  ccharacter device
  pnamed pipe
  ssocket

 Symbolic Links

  Symbolic links (also called “symlinks” or “soft links”) are the
  other kind of link besides hard links. A symlink is a special file
  that “points to” a hard link on any mounted filesystem. When you try
  to read the contents of a symlink, it gives the contents of the file
  it’s pointing to rather than the contents of the symlink itself.
  Because directories, devices, and other symlinks are types of files,
  you can point a symlink at any of those things.

  So a hard link is a filename and an inode number. A file is really
  an inode: a location on disk, file type, permissions mode, etc. A
  symlink is an inode that contains the name of a hard link. A symlink
  pairs one filename with a second filename, whereas a hard link pairs
  a filename with an inode number.

  All hard links to the same file have equal status. That is, one is
  as good as another; if you perform any operation on one, it’s just
  the same as performing that operation on any of the others. This is
  because the hard links all refer to the same inode. Operations on
  symlinks, on the other hand, sometimes affect the symlink’s own
  inode (the one containing the name of a hard link) and sometimes
  affect the hard link being pointed to.

  There are a number of important differences between symlinks and
  hard links.

  Symlinks can cross filesystems. This is because they contain
  complete filenames, starting with the root directory, and all
  complete filenames are unique. Because hard links point to inode
  numbers, and inode numbers are unique only within a single
  filesystem, they would be ambiguous if the filesystem wasn’t known.

  You can make symlinks to directories, but you can’t make hard links
  to them. Each directory has hard links—its listing in its parent
  directory, its . entry, and the .. entry in each of its
  subdirectories—but to impose order on the filesystem, no other hard
  links to directories are allowed. Consequently, the number of files
  in a directory is equal to the number of hard links to that
  directory minus two (you subtract the directory’s name and the .
  link). comparing!hard links and symlinks You can only make a hard
  link to a file that exists, because there must be an inode number to
  refer to. However, you can make a symlink to any filename, whether
  or not there actually is such a filename.

  Removing a symlink removes only the link. It has no effect on the
  linked-to file. Removing the only hard link to a file removes the
  file.

  Try this:

  cd; ln -s /tmp/me MyTmp

  cd to your home directory. ln with the -s option makes a symbolic
  link - in this case, one called MyTmp that points to the filename
  /tmp/me.

  ls -l MyTmp

  Output should look like this:

  lrwxrwxrwx 1 havoc havoc 7 Dec 6 12:50 MyTmp -> /tmp/me

  The date and user/group names will be different for you, of course.
  Notice that the file type is l, indicating that this is a symbolic
  link. Also notice the permissions: Symbolic links always have these
  permissions. If you attempt to chmod a symlink, you’ll actually
  change the permissions on the file being pointed to.

  chmod 700 MyTmp

  You will get a No such file or directory error, because the file
  /tmp/me doesn’t exist. Notice that you could create a symlink to it
  anyway.

  mkdir /tmp/me

  Creates the directory /tmp/me.

  chmod 700 MyTmp

  Should work now.

  touch MyTmp/myfile

  Creates a file in MyTmp.

  ls /tmp/me

  The file is actually created in /tmp/me.

  rm MyTmp

  Removes the symbolic link. Notice that this removes the link, not
  what it points to. Thus you use rm not rmdir.

  rm /tmp/me/myfile; rmdir /tmp/me

  Lets you clean up after yourself. symlinks!removing

 Device Files

  Device files refer to physical or virtual devices on your system,
  such as your hard disk, video card, screen, and keyboard. An example
  of a virtual device is the console, represented by /dev/console.

  There are two kinds of devices:character and block. _Character
  devices_ can be accessed one character at a time. Remember the
  smallest unit of data that can be written to or read from the device
  is a character (byte).

  _Block devices_ must be accessed in larger units called blocks,
  which contain a number of characters. Your hard disk is a block
  device.

  You can read and write device files just as you can from other kinds
  of files, though the file may well contain some strange
  incomprehensible-to-humans gibberish. Writing random data to these
  files is probably a bad idea. Sometimes it’s useful, though. For
  example, you can dump a postscript file into the printer device
  /dev/lp0 or send modem commands to the device file for the
  appropriate serial port.

   /dev/null
   /
   /
   /
  /dev/null is a special device file that discards anything you write
  /to it.
  If you don’t want something, throw it in /dev/null. It’s essentially
  a bottomless pit. If you read /dev/null, you’ll get an end-of-file
  (EOF) character immediately. /dev/zero is similar, except that you
  read from it you get the \0 character (not the same as the number
  zero).

 Named Pipes (FIFOs)

  A named pipe is a file that acts like a pipe. You put something into
  the file, and it comes out the other end. Thus it’s called a FIFO,
  or First-In-First-Out, because the first thing you put in the pipe
  is the first thing to come out the other end.

  If you write to a named pipe, the process that is writing to the
  pipe doesn’t terminate until the information being written is read
  from the pipe. If you read from a named pipe, the reading process
  waits until there’s something to read before terminating. The size
  of the pipe is always zero: It doesn’t store data, it just links two
  processes like the shell |. However, because this pipe has a name,
  the two processes don’t have to be on the same command line or even
  be run by the same user.

  You can try it by doing the following:

  cd; mkfifo mypipe

  Makes the pipe.

          echo "hello" > mypipe &

  Puts a process in the background that tries to write “hello” to the
  pipe. Notice that the process doesn’t return from the background; it
  is waiting for someone to read from the pipe.

  cat mypipe

  At this point, the echo process should return, because cat read from
  the pipe, and the cat process will print hello.

  rm mypipe

  You can delete pipes just like any other file.

 Sockets

  Sockets are similar to pipes, only they work over the network. This
  is how your computer does networking. You may have heard of
  “WinSock,” which is sockets for Windows.

  We won’t go into these further because you probably won’t have
  occasion to use them unless you’re programming. However, if you see
  a file marked with type son your computer, you know what it is.


13.2.3 The proc Filesystem

  The Linux kernel makes a special filesystem available, which is
  mounted under /proc on Debian systems. This is a “pseudo-filesystem”
  because it doesn’t really exist on any of your physical devices.

  The proc filesystem contains information about the system and
  running processes. Some of the “files” in /proc are reasonably
  understandable to humans (try typing cat /proc/meminfo or cat
  /proc/cpuinfo); others are arcane collections of numbers. Often,
  system utilities use these to gather information and present it to
  you in a more understandable way.

  People frequently panic when they notice one file in particular—
  /proc/kcore —which is generally huge. This is (more or less) a copy
  /of
  the contents of your computer’s memory. It’s used to debug the
  kernel. It doesn’t actually exist anywhere, so don’t worry about its
  size.

  If you want to know about all the things in /proc, type man 5 proc.


13.2.4 Large-Scale Copying

  Sometimes you may want to copy one directory to another location.
  Maybe you’re adding a new hard disk and you want to copy /usr/local
  to it. There are several ways you can do this.

  The first is to use cp. The command cp -a will tell cp to do a copy
  preserving all the information it can. So, you might use

  cp -a /usr/local /destination

  However, there are some things that cp -a won’t catch[1]. So, the
  best way to do a large copy job is to chain two tar commands
  together, like so:

[1] Sparse files and hard links are two examples.

  tar -cSpf - /usr/local | tar -xvSpf -
  -C /destination

  The first tar command will archive the existing directory and pipe
  it to the second. The second command will unpack the archive into
  the location you specify with -C.


13.3 Security

  Back in section 7.1 on page [*], we discussed file permissions in
  Linux. This is a fundamental way to keep your system secure. If you
  are running a multi-user system or a server, it is important to make
  sure that permissions are correct. A good rule of thumb is to set
  files to have the minimum permissions necessary for use.

  If you are running a network server, there are some other things to
  be aware of as well. First, you ought to uninstall or turn off any
  network services you’re not using. A good place to start is the file
  /etc/inetd.conf; you can probably disable some of these. For most
  /network
  services, it’s also possible to control who has access to them; the
  /etc/hosts.allow and /etc/hosts.deny files (documented in
  man 5 hosts_access) can control who has access to which services.
  You also ought to keep up-to-date with patches or updates to Debian;
  these can be found on your nearest Debian FTP mirror.

  Some other commonsense rules apply:

    ◼ Never tell anyone your password.
    ◼ Never send your password in cleartext across the Internet by
    using something like telnet or FTP. Instead, use encrypted
    protocols or avoid logging in remotely.
    ◼ Avoid using root as much as possible.
    ◼ Don’t install untrusted software, and don’t install it as root.
    ◼ Avoid making things world-writable whenever possible. /tmp is
    one exception to this rule.

  While this is probably not of as much use to somebody not running a
  server, it is still pays to know a bit about security. Debian’s
  security mechanism is what protects your system from many viruses.


13.4 Software Development with Debian

  Debian makes a great platform for software development and
  programming. Among the languages and near-languages it supports are:
  C, C++, Objective-C, Perl, Python, m4, Ada, Pascal, Java, awk,
  Tcl/Tk, SQL, assembler, Bourne shell, csh, and more. Writing
  programs is beyond the scope of this book, but here are some of the
  more popular development programs in Debian:

  gcc The GNU C Compiler, a modern optimizing C compiler.

  g++ The C++ compiler from the gcc line.

  cpp The C preprocessor from gcc.

  perl The Perl interpreter. Perl is a great “glue” language.

  gdb GNU Debugger, used to debug programs in many different
  languages.

  gprof Used for profiling, this program helps you to find ways to
  improve the performance of your programs.

  emacs GNU Emacs is a programmers’ editor and IDE.

  as The GNU Assembler.




II. Reference


A. Reading Documentation and Getting Help

A.1 Kinds of Documentation

  On Debian systems, you can find documentation in at least the
  following places:

    ◼ man pages, read with the man command.
    ◼ info pages, read with the info command.
    ◼ The /usr/doc/_package_ directories, where package is the name of
    the Debian package.

        Tip:
        zless is useful for reading the files in /usr/doc; see section
        8.1 on page [*] for details.

    ◼ /usr/doc/HOWTO/contains the Linux Documentation Project’s HOWTO
    documents, if you’ve installed the Debian packages containing
    them.
    ◼ Many commands have an -h or -help option. Type the command name
    followed by one of these options to try it.
    ◼ The Debian Documentation Project[1] has written some manuals.
    ◼ The Debian support page[2] has a FAQ and other resources. You
    can also try the Linux web site[3].

[1] http://www.debian.org/~elphick/ddp/

[2] http://www.debian.org/support/

[3] http://www.linux.org

  The confusing variety of documentation sources exists for many
  reasons. For example, info is supposed to replace man, but man
  hasn’t disappeared yet. However, it’s nice to know that so much
  documentation exists!

  So where to look for help? Here are some suggestions:

    ◼ Use the man pages and the -help or -h option to get a quick
    summary of a command’s syntax and options. Also use man if a
    program doesn’t yet have an info page.
    ◼ Use info if a program has info documentation.
    ◼ If neither of those works, look in /usr/doc/_packagename_.
    ◼ /usr/doc/_packagename_ often has Debian-specific information,
    even if there’s a man page or info page.
    ◼ Use the HOWTOs for instructions on how to set up a particular
    thing or for information on your particular hardware. For example,
    the Ethernet HOWTO has a wealth of information on Ethernet cards,
    and the PPP HOWTO explains in detail how to set up PPP.
    ◼ Use the Debian Documentation Project manuals for conceptual
    explanations and Debian-specific information.
    ◼ If all else fails, ask someone. See section A.1.3 on page [*].
    Using man pages is discussed above in section 5.1 on page [*].
    It’s very simple: press the space bar to go to the next page, and
    press q to quit reading. Using info, viewing files in /usr/doc,
    and asking for help from a person are all discussed in the
    remainder of this chapter.


A.1.1 Using info

  info is the GNU documentation viewer. Some programs provide
  documentationin info format, and you can use info to view that
  documentation. You can start up the viewer by simply typing info, or
  by supplying a topic as well:

  info emacs

  You can also bring up the information on info itself, which includes
  a tutorial, like so:

  info info

  Now, you may navigate with these keys:

  arrows

  Move the cursor around the document

  m RET

  Select the menu item that’s at the cursor

  u

  Move “up” in the document

  n

  Move to the next page

  p

  Move to the previous page

  s

  Search for something

  g

  Go to a specific page

  q

  Quit info

  You might notice that the top line of the screen indicates the next,
  previous, and “up” pages, corresponding nicely to the actions for
  the n, p, and u keys.


A.1.2 HOWTOs

  In addition to their books, the Linux Documentation Project has made
  a series of short documents describing how to set up particular
  aspects of GNU/Linux. For instance, the SCSI-HOWTO describes some of
  the complications of using SCSI—a standard way of talking to
  devices—with GNU/Linux. In general, the HOWTOs have more specific
  information about particular hardware configurations and will be
  more up to date than this manual.

  There are Debian packages for the HOWTOs. doc-linux-text contains
  the various HOWTOs in text form; the doc-linux-html package contains
  the HOWTOs in (surprise!) browsable HTML format. Note also that
  Debian has packaged translations of the HOWTOs in various languages
  that you may prefer if English is not your native language. Debian
  has packages for the German, French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese,
  Korean, Polish, Swedish and Chinese versions of the HOWTOs. These
  are usually available in the package doc-linux-_languagecode_, where
  _languagecode_ is fr for French, es for Spanish, etc. If you’ve
  installed one of these, you should have them in
  /usr/doc/HOWTO. However, you may be able to find more recent
  /versions on
  the Net at the LDP homepage[4].

[4] http://www.metalab.unc.edu/LDP/


A.1.3 Personal Help

  The correct place to ask for help with Debian is the debian-user
  mailing list at [email protected]. If you know how to use
  IRC (Internet Relay Chat), you can use the #debian channel on
  irc.debian.org. You can find general GNU/Linux help on the
  comp.os.linux.* USENET hierarchy. It is also possible to hire paid
  consultants to provide guaranteed support services. The Debian
  website[5] has more information on many of these resources.

[5] http://www.debian.org/

  Again, please _do not_ ask the authors of this book for help. We
  probably don’t know the answer to your specific problem anyway; if
  you mail debian-user, you will get higher-quality responses, and
  more quickly.

  Always be polite and make an effort to help yourself by reading the
  documentation. Remember, Debian is a volunteer effort and people are
  doing you a favor by giving their time to help you. Many of them
  charge hundreds of dollars for the same services during the day.

 Tips for asking questions

    ◼ Read the obvious documentation first. Things like command
    options and what a command does will be covered there. This
    includes manpages and info documentation.
    ◼ Check the HOWTO documents if your question is about setting up
    something such as PPP or Ethernet.
    ◼ Try to be sure the answer isn’t in this book.
    ◼ Don’t be afraid to ask, after you’ve made a basic effort to look
    it up.
    ◼ Don’t be afraid to ask for conceptual explanations, advice, and
    other things not often found in the documentation.
    ◼ Include any information that seems relevant. You’ll almost
    always want to mention the version of Debian you’re using. You may
    also want to mention the version of any pertinent packages: The
    command dpkg -l _packagename_ will tell you this. It’s also useful
    to say what you’ve tried so far and what happened. Please include
    the exact error messages, if any.
    ◼ Don’t apologize for being new to Linux. There’s no reason
    everyone should be a GNU/Linux expert to use it, any more than
    everyone should be a mechanic to use a car.
    ◼ Don’t post or mail in HTML. Some versions of Netscape and
    Internet Explorer will post in HTML rather than plain text. Most
    people will not even read these posts because the posts are
    difficult to read in most mail programs. There should be a setting
    somewhere in the preferences to disable HTML.
    ◼ Be polite. Remember that Debian is an all-volunteer effort, and
    anyone who helps you is doing so on his or her time out of
    kindness.
    ◼ Re-mail your question to the list if you’ve gotten no responses
    after several days. Perhaps there were lots of messages and it was
    overlooked. Or perhaps no one knows the answer—if no one answers
    the second time, this is a good bet. You might want to try
    including more information the second time.
    ◼ Answer questions yourself when you know the answer. Debian
    depends on everyone doing his or her part. If you ask a question,
    and later on someone else asks the same question, you’ll know how
    to answer it. Do so!


A.1.4 Getting Information from the System

  When diagnosing problems or asking for help, you’ll need to get
  information about your system. Here are some ways to do so:

    ◼ Examine the files in /var/log/.
    ◼ Examine the output of the dmesg command.
    ◼ Run uname -a.




B. Troubleshooting


  In Debian, as in life, things don’t always work as you might expect
  or want them to. While Debian has a well-deserved reputation for
  being rock-solid and stable, sometimes its reaction to your commands
  may be unexpected. Here, we try to shed some light on the most
  common problems that people encounter.


B.1 Common Difficulties

  This section provides some tips for handling some of the most
  frequently experienced difficulties users have encountered.


B.1.1 Working with Strangely-Named Files

  Occasionally, you may find that you have accidentally created a file
  that contains a character not normally found in a filename. Examples
  of this could include a space, a leading hyphen, or maybe a
  quotation mark. You may find that accessing, removing, or renaming
  these files can be difficult.

  Here are some tips to help you:

    ◼ Try enclosing the filename in single quotation marks, like this:
      less ’File With Spaces.txt’
    ◼ Insert a ./ before the filename:
      less ’./-a strange file.txt’
    ◼ Use wildcards:
      less File?With?Spaces.txt
    ◼  Use a backslash before each unusual character:
      less File\ With\ Spaces.txt


B.1.2 Printing

  One common source of trouble is the printing system in Debian.
  Traditionally, printing has been a powerful but complex aspect of
  Unix. However, Debian makes it easier. An easy way to print is with
  the package called magicfilter. magicfilter will ask you a few
  questions about your printer and then configure it for you. If you
  are having troubles printing, give magicfilter a try.


B.1.3 X Problems

  Many questions revolve around X. Here are some general tips for
  things to try if you are having difficulties setting up the X Window
  system:

    ◼ For mouse problems, run XF86Setup and try the PS/2, Microsoft,
    MouseSystems, and Logitech options. Most mice will fit under one
    of these. Also, the device for your mouse is /dev/psaux for PS/2
    mice and a serial port such as /dev/ttyS0 for serial mice.
    ◼ If you don’t know what video chipset you have, try running
    SuperProbe; it can often figure this out for you.
    ◼ If your screen doesn’t have a lot of color, try selecting a
    different video card or tell X how much video RAM you have.
    ◼ If your screen goes blank or has unreadable text when you start
    X, you probably selected an incorrect refresh rate. Go back to
    XF86Setup or xf86config and double-check those settings.
    ◼ xvidtune can help if the image on the screen is shifted too far
    to the left or right, is too high or low, or is too narrow or
    wide.
    ◼ xdpyinfo can give information about a running X session.
    ◼ XF86Setup can set your default color depth.
    ◼ You can select your default window manager by editing
      /etc/X11/window-managers.
      /
    ◼ /var/log/xdm-errors can contain useful information if you are
    having trouble getting xdm to start properly.

  As a final reminder, try the XF86Setup or xf86config tools for
  configuring or reconfiguring X for your hardware.


B.2 Troubleshooting the Boot Process

  If you have problems during the boot process, such as the kernel
  hangs during the boot process, the kernel doesn’t recognize
  peripherals you actually have, or drives are not recognized
  properly, the first things to check are the boot parameters. They
  can be found by pressing F1 when booting from the rescue disk.

  Often, problems can be solved by removing add-ons and peripherals
  and then booting again. Internal modems, sound cards, and
  Plug-n-Play devices are especially problematic.

  Tecras and other notebooks, and some non-portables fail to flush the
  cache when switching on the A20 gate, which is provoked by bzImage
  kernels but not by zImage kernels. If your computer suffers from
  this problem, you’ll see a message during boot saying A20 gating
  failed. In this case, you’ll have to use the ‘tecra’ boot images.

  If you still have problems, please submit a bug report. Send an
  email to [email protected]. You _must_ include the following as
  the first lines of the email:

  Package: boot-floppies
  Version: _version_

  Make sure you fill in version with the version of the boot-floppies
  set that you used. If you don’t know the version, use the date you
  downloaded the floppies, and include the distribution you got them
  from (e.g., “stable” or “frozen”).

  You should also include the following information in your bug
  report:

  architecture i386

  model your general hardware vendor and model

  memory amount of RAM

  scsi SCSI host adapter, if any

  cd-rom CD-ROM model and interface type, i.e., ATAPI

  network card network interface card, if any

  pcmcia details of any PCMCIA devices

  Depending on the nature of the bug, it also might be useful to
  report the disk model, the disk capacity, and the model of video
  card.

  In the bug report, describe what the problem is, including the last
  visible kernel messages in the event of a kernel hang. Describe the
  steps you performed that put the system into the problem state.




C. Booting the System


  This appendix describes what happens during the GNU/Linux boot
  process.

  How you boot your system depends on how you set things up when you
  installed Debian. Most likely, you just turn the computer on. But
  you may have to insert a floppy disk first.

  Linux is loaded by a program called LILO, or LInux LOader. LILO can
  also load other operating systems and ask you which system you’d
  like to load.

  The first thing that happens when you turn on an Intel PC is that
  the BIOS executes. BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System. It’s a
  program permanently stored in the computer on read-only chips. It
  performs some minimal tests and then looks for a floppy disk in the
  first disk drive. If it finds one, it looks for a “boot sector” on
  that disk and starts executing code from it, if there is any. If
  there is a disk but no boot sector, the BIOS will print a message
  like this: Non-system disk or disk error. Removing the disk and
  pressing a key will cause the boot process to resume.

  If there isn’t a floppy disk in the drive, the BIOS looks for a
  master boot record (MBR) on the hard disk. It will start executing
  the code found there, which loads the operating system. On GNU/Linux
  systems, LILO can occupy the MBR and will load GNU/Linux.

  Thus, if you opted to install LILO on your hard drive, you should
  see the word LILO as your computer starts up. At that point, you can
  press the left Shift key to select which operating system to load or
  press Tab to see a list of options. Type in one of those options and
  press Enter. LILO will boot the requested operating system.

  If you don’t press the Shift key, LILO will automatically load the
  default operating system after about 5 seconds. If you like, you can
  change what system LILO loads automatically, which systems it knows
  how to load, and how long it waits before loading one automatically.

  If you didn’t install LILO on your hard drive, you probably created
  a boot disk. The boot disk will have LILO on it. All you have to do
  is insert the disk before you turn on your computer, and the BIOS
  will find it before it checks the MBR on the hard drive. To return
  to a non-Linux OS, take out the boot disk and restart the computer.
  From Linux, be sure you follow the proper procedure for restarting;
  see section 4.5 on page [*] for details.

  LILO loads the Linux kernel from disk and then lets the kernel take
  over. (The kernel is the central program of the operating system,
  which is in control of all other programs.) The kernel discards the
  BIOS and LILO.

  On non-Intel platforms, things work a little differently. But once
  you boot, everything is more or less the same.

  Linux looks at the type of hardware it’s running on. It wants to
  know what type of hard disks you have, whether or not you have a bus
  mouse, whether or not you’re on a network, and other bits of trivia
  like that. Linux can’t remember things between boots, so it has to
  ask these questions each time it starts up. Luckily, it isn’t asking
  _you_ these questions—it’s asking the hardware! While it boots, the
  Linux kernel will print messages on the screen describing what it’s
  doing.

  The query process can cause problems with your system, but if it was
  going to, it probably would have when you first installed GNU/Linux.
  If you’re having problems, consult the installation instructions or
  ask questions on a mailing list.

  The kernel merely manages other programs, so once it is satisfied
  everything is okay, it must start another program to do anything
  useful. The program the kernel starts is called init. After the
  kernel starts init, it never starts another program. The kernel
  becomes a manager and a provider of services.

  Once init is started, it runs a number of scripts (files containing
  commands), which prepare the system to be used. They do some routine
  maintenance and start up a lot of programs that do things like
  display a login prompt, listen for network connections, and keep a
  log of the computer’s activities.




D. The GNU General Public License


                              GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
                                 Version 2, June 1991

           Copyright (C) 1989, 1991 Free Software Foundation, Inc. 59
           Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307    USA
           Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim
           copies of this license document, but changing it is not
           allowed.

                                      Preamble

            The licenses for most software are designed to take away
            your freedom to share and change it.  By contrast, the GNU
            General Public License is intended to guarantee your
            freedom to share and change free software-to make sure the
            software is free for all its users.  This General Public
            License applies to most of the Free Software Foundation’s
            software and to any other program whose authors commit to
            using it.  (Some other Free Software Foundation software
            is covered by the GNU Library General Public License
            instead.)  You can apply it to your programs, too.

            When we speak of free software, we are referring to
            freedom, not price.  Our General Public Licenses are
            designed to make sure that you have the freedom to
            distribute copies of free software (and charge for this
            service if you wish), that you receive source code or can
            get it if you want it, that you can change the software or
            use pieces of it in new free programs; and that you know
            you can do these things.

            To protect your rights, we need to make restrictions that
            forbid anyone to deny you these rights or to ask you to
            surrender the rights. These restrictions translate to
            certain responsibilities for you if you distribute copies
            of the software, or if you modify it.

            For example, if you distribute copies of such a program,
            whether gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients
            all the rights that you have.  You must make sure that
            they, too, receive or can get the source code.  And you
            must show them these terms so they know their rights.

            We protect your rights with two steps: (1) copyright the
            software, and (2) offer you this license which gives you
            legal permission to copy, distribute and/or modify the
            software.

            Also, for each author’s protection and ours, we want to
            make certain that everyone understands that there is no
            warranty for this free software.  If the software is
            modified by someone else and passed on, we want its
            recipients to know that what they have is not the
            original, so that any problems introduced by others will
            not reflect on the original authors’ reputations.

            Finally, any free program is threatened constantly by
            software patents.  We wish to avoid the danger that
            redistributors of a free program will individually obtain
            patent licenses, in effect making the program proprietary.
             To prevent this, we have made it clear that any patent
            must be licensed for everyone’s free use or not licensed
            at all.

            The precise terms and conditions for copying, distribution
            and modification follow.

                              GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE
             TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR COPYING, DISTRIBUTION AND
             MODIFICATION

            0. This License applies to any program or other work which
            contains a notice placed by the copyright holder saying it
            may be distributed under the terms of this General Public
            License.  The "Program", below, refers to any such program
            or work, and a "work based on the Program" means either
            the Program or any derivative work under copyright law:
            that is to say, a work containing the Program or a portion
            of it, either verbatim or with modifications and/or
            translated into another language.  (Hereinafter,
            translation is included without limitation in the term
            "modification".)  Each licensee is addressed as "you".

          Activities other than copying, distribution and modification
          are not covered by this License; they are outside its scope.
           The act of running the Program is not restricted, and the
          output from the Program is covered only if its contents
          constitute a work based on the Program (independent of
          having been made by running the Program). Whether that is
          true depends on what the Program does.

            1. You may copy and distribute verbatim copies of the
            Program’s source code as you receive it, in any medium,
            provided that you conspicuously and appropriately publish
            on each copy an appropriate copyright notice and
            disclaimer of warranty; keep intact all the notices that
            refer to this License and to the absence of any warranty;
            and give any other recipients of the Program a copy of
            this License along with the Program.

          You may charge a fee for the physical act of transferring a
          copy, and you may at your option offer warranty protection
          in exchange for a fee.

            2. You may modify your copy or copies of the Program or
            any portion of it, thus forming a work based on the
            Program, and copy and distribute such modifications or
            work under the terms of Section 1 above, provided that you
            also meet all of these conditions:

              a) You must cause the modified files to carry prominent
              notices stating that you changed the files and the date
              of any change.

              b) You must cause any work that you distribute or
              publish, that in whole or in part contains or is derived
              from the Program or any part thereof, to be licensed as
              a whole at no charge to all third parties under the
              terms of this License.

              c) If the modified program normally reads commands
              interactively when run, you must cause it, when started
              running for such interactive use in the most ordinary
              way, to print or display an announcement including an
              appropriate copyright notice and a notice that there is
              no warranty (or else, saying that you provide a
              warranty) and that users may redistribute the program
              under these conditions, and telling the user how to view
              a copy of this License.  (Exception: if the Program
              itself is interactive but does not normally print such
              an announcement, your work based on the Program is not
              required to print an announcement.)

          These requirements apply to the modified work as a whole.
          If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from
          the Program, and can be reasonably considered independent
          and separate works in themselves, then this License, and its
          terms, do not apply to those sections when you distribute
          them as separate works.  But when you distribute the same
          sections as part of a whole which is a work based on the
          Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms
          of this License, whose permissions for other licensees
          extend to the entire whole, and thus to each and every part
          regardless of who wrote it.

          Thus, it is not the intent of this section to claim rights
          or contest your rights to work written entirely by you;
          rather, the intent is to exercise the right to control the
          distribution of derivative or collective works based on the
          Program.

          In addition, mere aggregation of another work not based on
          the Program with the Program (or with a work based on the
          Program) on a volume of a storage or distribution medium
          does not bring the other work under the scope of this
          License.

            3. You may copy and distribute the Program (or a work
            based on it, under Section 2) in object code or executable
            form under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above provided
            that you also do one of the following:

              a) Accompany it with the complete corresponding
              machine-readable source code, which must be distributed
              under the terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium
              customarily used for software interchange; or,

              b) Accompany it with a written offer, valid for at least
              three years, to give any third party, for a charge no
              more than your cost of physically performing source
              distribution, a complete machine-readable copy of the
              corresponding source code, to be distributed under the
              terms of Sections 1 and 2 above on a medium customarily
              used for software interchange; or,

              c) Accompany it with the information you received as to
              the offer to distribute corresponding source code.
              (This alternative is allowed only for noncommercial
              distribution and only if you received the program in
              object code or executable form with such an offer, in
              accord with Subsection b above.)

          The source code for a work means the preferred form of the
          work for making modifications to it.  For an executable
          work, complete source code means all the source code for all
          modules it contains, plus any associated interface
          definition files, plus the scripts used to control
          compilation and installation of the executable.  However, as
          a special exception, the source code distributed need not
          include anything that is normally distributed (in either
          source or binary form) with the major components (compiler,
          kernel, and so on) of the operating system on which the
          executable runs, unless that component itself accompanies
          the executable.

          If distribution of executable or object code is made by
          offering access to copy from a designated place, then
          offering equivalent access to copy the source code from the
          same place counts as distribution of the source code, even
          though third parties are not compelled to copy the source
          along with the object code.

            4. You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the
            Program except as expressly provided under this License.
            Any attempt otherwise to copy, modify, sublicense or
            distribute the Program is void, and will automatically
            terminate your rights under this License. However, parties
            who have received copies, or rights, from you under this
            License will not have their licenses terminated so long as
            such parties remain in full compliance.

            5. You are not required to accept this License, since you
            have not signed it.  However, nothing else grants you
            permission to modify or distribute the Program or its
            derivative works.  These actions are prohibited by law if
            you do not accept this License.  Therefore, by modifying
            or distributing the Program (or any work based on the
            Program), you indicate your acceptance of this License to
            do so, and all its terms and conditions for copying,
            distributing or modifying the Program or works based on
            it.

            6. Each time you redistribute the Program (or any work
            based on the Program), the recipient automatically
            receives a license from the original licensor to copy,
            distribute or modify the Program subject to these terms
            and conditions.  You may not impose any further
            restrictions on the recipients’ exercise of the rights
            granted herein. You are not responsible for enforcing
            compliance by third parties to this License.

            7. If, as a consequence of a court judgment or allegation
            of patent infringement or for any other reason (not
            limited to patent issues), conditions are imposed on you
            (whether by court order, agreement or otherwise) that
            contradict the conditions of this License, they do not
            excuse you from the conditions of this License.  If you
            cannot distribute so as to satisfy simultaneously your
            obligations under this License and any other pertinent
            obligations, then as a consequence you may not distribute
            the Program at all.  For example, if a patent license
            would not permit royalty-free redistribution of the
            Program by all those who receive copies directly or
            indirectly through you, then the only way you could
            satisfy both it and this License would be to refrain
            entirely from distribution of the Program.

          If any portion of this section is held invalid or
          unenforceable under any particular circumstance, the balance
          of the section is intended to apply and the section as a
          whole is intended to apply in other circumstances.

          It is not the purpose of this section to induce you to
          infringe any patents or other property right claims or to
          contest validity of any such claims; this section has the
          sole purpose of protecting the integrity of the free
          software distribution system, which is implemented by public
          license practices.  Many people have made generous
          contributions to the wide range of software distributed
          through that system in reliance on consistent application of
          that system; it is up to the author/donor to decide if he or
          she is willing to distribute software through any other
          system and a licensee cannot impose that choice.

          This section is intended to make thoroughly clear what is
          believed to be a consequence of the rest of this License.

            8. If the distribution and/or use of the Program is
            restricted in certain countries either by patents or by
            copyrighted interfaces, the original copyright holder who
            places the Program under this License may add an explicit
            geographical distribution limitation excluding those
            countries, so that distribution is permitted only in or
            among countries not thus excluded.  In such case, this
            License incorporates the limitation as if written in the
            body of this License.

            9. The Free Software Foundation may publish revised and/or
            new versions of the General Public License from time to
            time.  Such new versions will be similar in spirit to the
            present version, but may differ in detail to address new
            problems or concerns.

          Each version is given a distinguishing version number.  If
          the Program specifies a version number of this License which
          applies to it and "any later version", you have the option
          of following the terms and conditions either of that version
          or of any later version published by the Free Software
          Foundation.  If the Program does not specify a version
          number of this License, you may choose any version ever
          published by the Free Software Foundation.

            10. If you wish to incorporate parts of the Program into
            other free programs whose distribution conditions are
            different, write to the author to ask for permission.  For
            software which is copyrighted by the Free Software
            Foundation, write to the Free Software Foundation; we
            sometimes make exceptions for this.  Our decision will be
            guided by the two goals of preserving the free status of
            all derivatives of our free software and of promoting the
            sharing and reuse of software generally.

                                      NO WARRANTY

            11. BECAUSE THE PROGRAM IS LICENSED FREE OF CHARGE, THERE
            IS NO WARRANTY FOR THE PROGRAM, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY
            APPLICABLE LAW.  EXCEPT WHEN OTHERWISE STATED IN WRITING
            THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND/OR OTHER PARTIES PROVIDE THE
            PROGRAM "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER
            EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
            IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A
            PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE QUALITY AND
            PERFORMANCE OF THE PROGRAM IS WITH YOU.  SHOULD THE
            PROGRAM PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE COST OF ALL
            NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR OR CORRECTION.

            12. IN NO EVENT UNLESS REQUIRED BY APPLICABLE LAW OR
            AGREED TO IN WRITING WILL ANY COPYRIGHT HOLDER, OR ANY
            OTHER PARTY WHO MAY MODIFY AND/ OR REDISTRIBUTE THE
            PROGRAM AS PERMITTED ABOVE, BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR DAMAGES,
            INCLUDING ANY GENERAL, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR
            CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF THE USE OR INABILITY
            TO USE THE PROGRAM (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OF
            DATA OR DATA BEING RENDERED INACCURATE OR LOSSES SUSTAINED
            BY YOU OR THIRD PARTIES OR A FAILURE OF THE PROGRAM TO
            OPERATE WITH ANY OTHER PROGRAMS), EVEN IF SUCH HOLDER OR
            OTHER PARTY HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
            DAMAGES.

                               END OF TERMS AND CONDITIONS

                      How to Apply These Terms to Your New Programs

            If you develop a new program, and you want it to be of the
            greatest possible use to the public, the best way to
            achieve this is to make it free software which everyone
            can redistribute and change under these terms.

            To do so, attach the following notices to the program.  It
            is safest to attach them to the start of each source file
            to most effectively convey the exclusion of warranty; and
            each file should have at least the "copyright" line and a
            pointer to where the full notice is found.

              <one line to give the program’s name and a brief idea of
              what it does.>

              Copyright (C) 19yy  <name of author>

              This program is free software; you can redistribute it
              and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
              Public License as published by the Free Software
              Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
              option) any later version.

              This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
              useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
              implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
              PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
              for more details.

              You should have received a copy of the GNU General
              Public License along with this program; if not, write to
              the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place,
              Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307 USA

          Also add information on how to contact you by electronic and
          paper mail.

          If the program is interactive, make it output a short notice
          like this when it starts in an interactive mode:

              Gnomovision version 69, Copyright (C) 19yy name of
              author
              Gnomovision comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; for
              details type ‘show w’.

              This is free software, and you are welcome to
              redistribute it under certain conditions; type ‘show c’
              for details.

          The hypothetical commands ‘show w’ and ‘show c’ should show
          the appropriate parts of the General Public License.  Of
          course, the commands you use may be called something other
          than ‘show w’ and ‘show c’; they could even be mouse-clicks
          or menu items-whatever suits your program.

          You should also get your employer (if you work as a
          programmer) or your school, if any, to sign a "copyright
          disclaimer" for the program, if necessary.  Here is a
          sample; alter the names:

            Yoyodyne, Inc., hereby disclaims all copyright interest in
            the program ‘Gnomovision’ (which makes passes at
            compilers) written by James Hacker.

            <signature of Ty Coon>, 1 April 1989
            Ty Coon, President of Vice

          This General Public License does not permit incorporating
          your program into proprietary programs.  If your program is
          a subroutine library, you may consider it more useful to
          permit linking proprietary applications with the library.
          If this is what you want to do, use the GNU Library General
          Public License instead of this License.




Index


  $ (dollar sign)
               regular expression
                       Regular Expressions
  () (parentheses)
               regular expression
                       Regular Expressions
  (caret)
               regular expression
                       Regular Expressions
  * (regular expression)
          Regular Expressions
  * (wildcard)
          Filename Expansion
  . (regular expression)
          Regular Expressions
  / (slash)
               root directory
                       Files and Directories | Files and Directories
  /bin directory
          Files Present and Their
  /etc (directory)
               system-wide configuration
                       System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration |
                       System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration
  /etc directory
          Files Present and Their | Files Present and Their | Files Present
          and Their
  /etc/X11/Xsession
               modifying
                       Customizing Your X Startup
  /root directory
          Files Present and Their
  /sbin directory
          Files Present and Their
  /user directory
          Files Present and Their
  /var directory
          Files Present and Their
  /tmp directory
          Files Present and Their
  ? wildcard
          Filename Expansion
  [] (brackets)
               regular expression
                       Regular Expressions
    (tilde)
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  absolute filenames
          Files and Directories | Using Files: A Tutorial
  abstractions
          Introduction to X
  Access screen
               dselect
                       Access
  accessing
               files
                       Mode
               filesystems
                       Mounting a Filesystem
               Help file (installation)
                       Select
  accounts
               ordinary user
                       Create an Ordinary User | Create an Ordinary User
               permissions
                       Permissions | Permissions
                            example sessions
                                    Permissions in Practice | Permissions in
                                    Practice | Permissions in Practice
                            file mode
                                    Mode | Mode | Mode
                            file ownership
                                    File Ownership | File Ownership
               root user
                       Working as Root | Working as Root
               superuser
                       Set the Root Password
               user
                            logging in
                                    First Steps | First Steps
                            plans
                                    Managing Your Identity | Managing Your
                                    Identity
  Acknowledgments
          no title
  activating
               swap partition
                       Initialize and Activate a | Initialize and Activate a
  ae
          no title
  ae (text editor)
          Text Editors | Using ae
  alias
          Aliases
  aliases
          Aliases
  Alt key
          Conventions | Conventions
  APM
          Shutting Down
  APM (Advanced Power Management)
          Shutting Down
  application software
          What Is Debian?
  applications
               cfdisk
                       Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard Disk
               configuration files
                       Configuration Files
               dbootstrap
                       Step-by-Step Installation
                            network configuration
                                    Configure the Network
               dselect
                       Select and Install Profiles | Introduction |
                       Introduction
                            Access screen
                                    Access
                            multi-CD installation
                                    Access
                            multi-NFS, multi-mount installation
                                    Access
                            package states
                                    Select | Select
                            Update screen
                                    Update | Select | Select | Select |
                                    Select
               exiting
                       How to Read This
               file managers
                       Introduction to X
               GNU documentation viewer
                       Using info | Using info
               gzip
                       File Compression with gzip | File Compression with
                       gzip
               multitasking
                       A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
               system binaries
                       Files Present and Their
               tasks
                       Select and Install Profiles | Select and Install
                       Profiles
               text editores
                       Text Editors | Text Editors
               text editors
                            ae
                                    Using ae
  archiving utilities
          Backup Tools
  arguments
          The Command Line and
  arranging
               hard drive
                       Partitioning Your Hard Drive | Background |
                       Background
  asking technical questions
          Personal Help | Tips for asking questions
  assigning
               job numbers to command lines
                       Managing Processes with bash
  authentication
               shadow passwords
                       Shadow Password Support
  automatic filesystem mounting
          /etc/fstab: Automating the Mount | /etc/fstab: Automating the
          Mount
  backing up
               disks
                       Last Chance to Back
  backups
               performing
                       Before You Start
               utilities
                       Backup Tools
                            GNU tar
                                    tar
  base system
          no title | no title
               configuring
                       Debian Installation Steps | Choosing Your
                       Installation Media
               installation
                       Install the Base System | Configure the Base System
  bash
          Managing Processes with bash | Managing Processes with bash
               commands
                            aliases
                                    Aliases
               environment variables
                            setting
                                    Environment Variables | Environment
                                    Variables
               Info help system
                            displaying
                                    Managing Processes with bash
  binary executables
               comparing to source code
                       Viewing Text Files
  binary files
          Working with Text Files
               viewing
                       Viewing Text Files
  BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)
          Booting the System
  black-and-white display
               selecting
                       Select Color or Monochrome
  block devices
          Device Files | /dev/null
  blocks
          Device Files
  bold face
               typographical conventions
                       Conventions
  boot floppies
               creating
                       Make a Boot Floppy
  boot loaders
          Before You Start
               LILO
                       Make Linux Bootable Directly
  boot partition
          PC Disk Limitations
  boot process
               LILO (Linux Loader)
                       Booting the System
               query process
                       Booting the System
               troubleshooting
                       Troubleshooting the Boot Process
  booting
               Debian
                       Booting Debian
               from CD-ROM
                       Choosing Your Installation Media
               from floppies
                       Booting from Floppies
               operating systems
                            multiple
                                    Make Linux Bootable Directly
               smoke test
                       The Moment of Truth
  Bourne shell
          The Shell
  bug reports
               submitting
                       Troubleshooting the Boot Process
  built-in dependencies
               packages
                       Select | Select
  built-in programs
          Where Commands Reside: The
  buttons
               mouse operation
                       The Mouse
  C shell
          The Shell
  canceling
               selections (dselect)
                       Select
  cd
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  cd command
          Using Files: A Tutorial | Using Files: A Tutorial
  CD-ROM
               booting from
                       Choosing Your Installation Media
  CD-ROMs
               mounting
                       Example: Mounting a CD-ROM | Example: Mounting a
                       CD-ROM
               unmounting
                       Example: Mounting a CD-ROM
  CDs
               multi-CD installation
                       Access | Access
               multi-NFS, multi-mount installation
                       Access
  cfdisk
          Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard
          Disk
  Change Directory
          see cd
  character devices
          Device Files | /dev/null
  characters
               metacharacters
                       Regular Expressions
  clients
               X clients
                       Introduction to X
                            network transparency
                                    Introduction to X
               X windows system
                       X Clients | X Clients
                            selecting
                                    Customizing Your X Startup | Customizing
                                    Your X Startup
  closing
               programs
                       How to Read This
  color display
               selecting
                       Select Color or Monochrome
  Comand Line
               History
                       no title
  command history
          Command History and Editing
  command line
          Command History and Editing | Command History and Editing | no
          title | Describing the Command Line | Describing the Command Line
               structure
                       The Command Line and
  command lines
               job numbers
                            assigning
                                    Managing Processes with bash
  command-line shell
          The Shell | The Shell
  commands
               aliases
                       Aliases
               arguments
                       The Command Line and
               Bash
                            wildcards
                                    Tab Completion
               cd
                       Using Files: A Tutorial | Using Files: A Tutorial
               documentation
                       Kinds of Documentation | Kinds of Documentation
                            info
                                    Using info | Using info
               egrep
                       Regular Expressions
               ls
                       Using Files: A Tutorial | Using Files: A Tutorial |
                       Dot Files and ls -a
               man less
                       Environment Variables
               mkdir
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               more
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               parameters
                       The Command Line and
               shell commands
                            typing
                                    First Steps
               su
                       Working as Root
               whoami
                       Working as Root
  commercial software
               comparing to proprietary
                       What Is Free Software?
  comparing
               binary and text files
                       Viewing Text Files
               crackers and hackers
                       What Is Free Software?
               hard links and symlinks
                       Symbolic Links
               programs and processes
                       Processes
               software
                            commercial and proprietary
                                    What Is Free Software?
               system-wide and user-specific configuration
                       System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration |
                       System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration
  compiling
               packages
                       Compiling Software
  compressing
               files
                       File Compression with gzip | File Compression with
                       gzip
  Configuration
               Base system
                       no title
               comparing system-wide and user-specific
                       System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration |
                       System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration
               Device drivers
                       no title
               Modules
                       no title
               networking
                            Ethernet
                                    Ethernet
                            PPP
                                    The Easy Way: wvdial | The Easy Way:
                                    wvdial
               PCMCIA
                       no title | Configure PCMCIA Support
               system-wide
                            /etc directory
                                    Files Present and Their
                            automatic filesystem mounting
                                    /etc/fstab: Automating the Mount |
                                    /etc/fstab: Automating the Mount
                            networking
                                    Networking | PPP | Preparation
               user-specific
                            dotfiles
                                    System-Wide Versus User-Specific
                                    Configuration
  configuring
               base system
                       Debian Installation Steps | Choosing Your
                       Installation Media
               device drivers
                       Configure Device Driver Modules
               keyboard
                       Configure the Keyboard
               network
                       Configure the Network
               packages
                       Configure
  connections
               networking
                            Ethernet
                                    Ethernet
                            PPP
                                    PPP | Preparation | The Easy Way: wvdial
                                    | The Easy Way: wvdial
  consoles
          A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
               virtual consoles
                       Virtual Consoles | Virtual Consoles
  controllers
               SCSI
                            partitions, naming
                                    Device Names in Linux
  controlling
               processes
                       The Shell | The Shell
  conventions
               typographical
                       Conventions | Conventions
                            spaces
                                    Conventions
  copy-and-paste
               mouse operation (X)
                       The Mouse
  copying
               large-scale
                       Large-Scale Copying | Large-Scale Copying
  crackers
               comparing to hackers
                       What Is Free Software?
  creating
               accounts
                            ordinary user
                                    Create an Ordinary User | Create an
                                    Ordinary User
                            superuser
                                    Set the Root Password
               directories
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               disk images
                       Creating Floppies from Disk | Creating Floppies from
                       Disk
               plans
                       Managing Your Identity | Managing Your Identity
  csh (C shell)
          The Shell
  current working directories
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  Current Working Directory
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  customizing
               X windows system
                       Customizing Your X Startup
  cylinder translation
          PC Disk Limitations
  daemon
          Processes
  dbootstrap
          Step-by-Step Installation
               network configuration
                       Configure the Network
  Debian
               booting
                       Booting Debian
                            from CD-ROM
                                    Choosing Your Installation Media
               Web site
                       What Is Free Software?
  Debian base system
          Debian Installation Steps | Choosing Your Installation Media
  Debian mailing list
          Personal Help | Personal Help
  deleting
               directories
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               files
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               hard links
                       The Real Nature of
               named pipes
                       Named Pipes (FIFOs)
               symlinks
                       Symbolic Links | Symbolic Links
  Deleting Files
          see rm
  dependencies
               packages
                       Select | Select
  deselect
               package maintenance
                       dselect
  Devel_comp (profile)
          Planning Use of the
  developing
               Free Software
                            Social Contract
                                    What Is Free Software?
               software
                            free software
                                    What Is Free Software? | What Is Free
                                    Software?
  development
          Who Creates Debian?
  device drivers
               configuring
                       Configure Device Driver Modules
  device files
          Device Files | /dev/null
  Device Names
          no title
  devices
          Device Names in Linux | Device Names in Linux
               abstractions
                       Introduction to X
               base system
                            installing
                                    Install the Base System | Configure the
                                    Base System
               block devices
                       Device Files | /dev/null
               character devices
                       Device Files | /dev/null
               daemons
                       Processes
               files
                            symlinks
                                    Symbolic Links
               filesystems
                       Concepts
                            automatic mounting
                                    /etc/fstab: Automating the Mount |
                                    /etc/fstab: Automating the Mount
                            hard links
                                    The Real Nature of | The Real Nature of
                            mount points
                                    Mounting a Filesystem
                            mounting
                                    Mounting a Filesystem | Mounting a
                                    Filesystem | Example: Mounting a CD-ROM
                                    | Example: Mounting a CD-ROM | Removable
                                    Disks (Floppies, Zip
                            proc
                                    The proc Filesystem
                            symlinks
                                    Symbolic Links | Symbolic Links |
                                    Symbolic Links
               naming
                       Device Names in Linux
               output
                            redirecting
                                    stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and | stdin,
                                    stdout, Pipelines, and
               PCMCIA
                            configuring
                                    Configure PCMCIA Support
               printers
                            troubleshooting
                                    Printing
               SCSI drives
                            partitions
                                    Device Names in Linux
               swap partitions
                       Recommended Partitioning Scheme | Recommended
                       Partitioning Scheme
  Dialup profile
          Planning Use of the
  Directories
          no title | Files and Directories | Files and Directories | Files
          and Directories | Files Present and Their
               /etc
                       Files Present and Their | Files Present and Their |
                       Files Present and Their
                            system-wide configuration
                                    System-Wide Versus User-Specific
                                    Configuration | System-Wide Versus
                                    User-Specific Configuration
               /root
                       Files Present and Their
               /tmp
                       Files Present and Their
               /user
                       Files Present and Their
               /var
                       Files Present and Their
               contents, displaying
                       Files Present and Their | Files Present and Their
               copying
                       Large-Scale Copying | Large-Scale Copying
               creating
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               current working directory
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               file systems
                            mount points
                                    Mounting a Filesystem
               filename expansion patterns
                       Filename Expansion | Filename Expansion
               files
                            hard links
                                    The Real Nature of | The Real Nature of
                            inodes
                                    The Real Nature of | The Real Nature of
                            locating
                                    Finding Files | Finding Files
                            symlinks
                                    Symbolic Links
               filesystems
                       Concepts
                            mounting
                                    Mounting a Filesystem | Mounting a
                                    Filesystem | Example: Mounting a CD-ROM
                                    | Example: Mounting a CD-ROM | Removable
                                    Disks (Floppies, Zip
               hard links
                            removing
                                    The Real Nature of
               home directory
                       Files Present and Their
               modes
                       Mode
               parent directories
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               paths
                       Files and Directories
               permissions
                            example session
                                    Permissions in Practice | Permissions in
                                    Practice | Permissions in Practice
               removing
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               search path (shell)
                       Where Commands Reside: The | Where Commands Reside:
                       The
               shortcut directories
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               symlinks
                       Symbolic Links
               system-wide
                            files, modifying
                                    Files Present and Their
  disk blocks
               scanning
                       Initialize and Activate a
  disk cache
          Shutting Down
  disk space
               installation requirements
                       Memory and Disk Space
  disks
               backing up
                       Last Chance to Back
               boot disks
                            LILO
                                    Booting the System
               boot floppies
                            creating
                                    Make a Boot Floppy
               filesystems
                            mount points
                                    Mounting a Filesystem
                            mounting
                                    Mounting a Filesystem | Mounting a
                                    Filesystem | Example: Mounting a CD-ROM
                                    | Example: Mounting a CD-ROM | Removable
                                    Disks (Floppies, Zip
               floppies
                            booting from
                                    Booting from Floppies
               images
                            writing to floppies
                                    Creating Floppies from Disk | Creating
                                    Floppies from Disk
               removable
                            mounting filesystem
                                    Removable Disks (Floppies, Zip
  displaying
               directory contents
                       Files Present and Their | Files Present and Their
               file contents
                       Determining a File’s Contents
               files
                            filename expansion pattern
                                    Filename Expansion
               Info help system
                       Managing Processes with bash
               mounted filesystems
                       Example: Mounting a CD-ROM
               text files
                       Viewing Text Files
  displays
               ae (text editor)
                       Using ae
               dselect
                            Access screen
                                    Access
               X windows system
                            windows manager
                                    Introduction to X
  dividing
               partitions
                       Lossless Repartitioning
  documentation
          Kinds of Documentation | Kinds of Documentation
               GNU General Public License
                       The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The
                       GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public
               HOWTOs
                       HOWTOs
               info
                       Using info | Using info
  DOS (Disk Operating System)
               partitioning
                       Partitioning from DOS or | Lossless Repartitioning |
                       Debian Installation Steps
  Dotfiles
          no title | Dot Files and ls -a | System-Wide Versus User-Specific
          Configuration
  dpkg
          no title
               package maintenance
                       dpkg
  dselect
          Select and Install Profiles | no title | Introduction |
          Introduction | Access | no title
               Access menu
                       no title
               Access screen
                       Access
               multi-CD installation
                       Access
               package states
                       Select | Select
               packages
                            configuring
                                    Configure
                            installing
                                    Install | Install
               Select
                       no title
               Select screen
                       Select | Select | Select | Select | Select
                            exiting
                                    Select
               Update
                       no title
               Update screen
                       Update
  dump
          Backup Tools
  dump (backup utility
          Backup Tools
  editing
               text
                       Text Editors | Text Editors
  Editors
          no title
  egrep command
          Regular Expressions
  Emacs (text editor)
          Text Editors | Text Editors
  email
               bug reports
                            troubleshooting
                                    Troubleshooting the Boot Process
               Debian mailing list
                       Personal Help | Personal Help
  environment
               variables
                            importing
                                    Environment Variables
  environment variables
          no title | Environment Variables
               bash
                            setting
                                    Environment Variables | Environment
                                    Variables
               PATH
                       Where Commands Reside: The | Where Commands Reside:
                       The
               proxy servers
                            setting
                                    Access
  environments
          Environment Variables
  error messages
               standard error
                       stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
               X windows system
                            troubleshooting
                                    Troubleshooting
  Ethernet
               configuration
                       Ethernet
  example session
               permissions
                       Permissions in Practice | Permissions in Practice |
                       Permissions in Practice
  execute permission
          Mode
  executing
               programs
                            search path
                                    Where Commands Reside: The | Where
                                    Commands Reside: The
  exiting
               ae (text editor)
                       Using ae
               programs
                       How to Read This
               Select screen (dselect)
                       Select
               X windows system
                       Leaving the X Environment | Customizing Your X
                       Startup | Customizing Your X Startup
  expansion patterns
          Filename Expansion | Filename Expansion
               see also wildcards
                       Filename Expansion
  exporting
               shell variables
                       Environment Variables
               variables to environment
                       Environment Variables
  ext2 filesystem
          Concepts
  extended partitions
          PC Disk Limitations | Device Names in Linux
  FIFO (first-in-first-out)
          Named Pipes (FIFOs)
  file manager
          Using a File Manager
  file managers
               icon-based
                       Introduction to X
  file pagers
               text files
                            viewing
                                    Viewing Text Files
  file systems
          Partitioning Your Hard Drive | Background | Background
  filename expansion pattern
          Filename Expansion
  filename expansion patterns
          Filename Expansion
  files
          no title | Files and Directories | Files and Directories | Files
          and Directories
               /etc/X11/Xsession
                            modifying
                                    Customizing Your X Startup
               access
                       Mode
               binary
                       Working with Text Files
                            viewing
                                    Viewing Text Files
               compressing
                       File Compression with gzip | File Compression with
                       gzip
               configuration files
                       Configuration Files
               contents
                            displaying
                                    Determining a File’s Contents
               current working directory
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               deleting
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               device files
                       Device Files | /dev/null
               disk images
                       Creating Floppies from Disk | Creating Floppies from
                       Disk
               dotfiles
                       Dot Files and ls -a | System-Wide Versus
                       User-Specific Configuration
               Editors
                       no title
               hard links
                       The Real Nature of | The Real Nature of
               inodes
                       The Real Nature of
               large-scale copying
                       Large-Scale Copying | Large-Scale Copying
               locating
                       Finding Files | Finding Files
               moving
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               named pipes
                       Named Pipes (FIFOs)
               naming conventions
                            troubleshooting
                                    Working with Strangely-Named Files
               permissions
                       Permissions | Permissions | Security
                            example sessions
                                    Permissions in Practice | Permissions in
                                    Practice | Permissions in Practice
                            mode
                                    Mode | Mode | Mode
                            ownership
                                    File Ownership | File Ownership
               plans
                            creating
                                    Managing Your Identity | Managing Your
                                    Identity
               regular expressions
                       Regular Expressions | Regular Expressions | Regular
                       Expressions
               sockets
                       Sockets
               symlinks
                       Symbolic Links
                            removing
                                    Symbolic Links | Symbolic Links
               temporary
                       Files Present and Their
               Text
                       no title
                            editing
                                    Text Editors | Text Editors | Using ae
                            viewing
                                    Viewing Text Files
               text files
                       Working with Text Files
               uncompressing
                       File Compression with gzip
  filesystems
          Filesystems
               automatic mounting
                       /etc/fstab: Automating the Mount | /etc/fstab:
                       Automating the Mount
               backing up
                       Backup Tools
                            GNU tar
                                    tar
               ext2
                       Concepts
               hard links
                       The Real Nature of | The Real Nature of
                            deleting
                                    The Real Nature of
               listing
                       Example: Mounting a CD-ROM
               mount points
                       Mounting a Filesystem
               mounting
                       Mounting a Filesystem | Mounting a Filesystem |
                       Example: Mounting a CD-ROM | Example: Mounting a
                       CD-ROM | Removable Disks (Floppies, Zip
               proc
                       The proc Filesystem
               symlinks
                       Symbolic Links
  finding
               documentation
                       Kinds of Documentation | Kinds of Documentation
               files
                       Finding Files | Finding Files
               system information
                       Getting Information from the
  finger information
               plans
                            creating
                                    Managing Your Identity
  FIPS
          Lossless Repartitioning | Lossless Repartitioning
  floppies
               boot floppies
                            creating
                                    Make a Boot Floppy
               booting from
                       Booting from Floppies
               disk images
                            writing
                                    Creating Floppies from Disk | Creating
                                    Floppies from Disk
               filesystem
                            mounting
                                    Removable Disks (Floppies, Zip
               filesystems
                       Mounting a Filesystem
  Floppy Disks
          no title
  fonts
               selecting
                       Starting the X Environment
               xterm
                            increasing size
                                    Starting the X Environment
  Free Software
          What Is Free Software?
               developing
                       What Is Free Software?
               Social Contract
                       What Is Free Software?
  Free Software Foundation
          What Is Free Software?
  fully-qualified filenames
          Files and Directories
  functionality
          What Is Debian?
  General Public License
          The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General
          Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
          General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public |
          The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General
          Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
          General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public |
          The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General
          Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
          General Public | The GNU General Public
  glossary
          Glossary
  GNOME desktop project
          Introduction to X
  GNU documentation viewer
          Using info | Using info
  GNU General Public License
          The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General
          Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
          General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public |
          The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General
          Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
          General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public |
          The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General
          Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
          General Public | The GNU General Public
  GNU Midnight Commander
          Using a File Manager
  GNU Project
          What Is Debian?
  GNU tar
          tar
  GNU tar (backup utility
          Backup Tools
  GNU/Linux
               multiuser environment
                       A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
  graphical user interfaces
               see GUIs
                       The X Window System | Introduction to X
  GUIs
               abstractions
                       Introduction to X
               icon-based file managers
                       Introduction to X
               X Window
                       The X Window System | Introduction to X
               X windows system
                            clients
                                    X Clients | X Clients
                            clients, selecting
                                    Customizing Your X Startup | Customizing
                                    Your X Startup
                            customizing
                                    Customizing Your X Startup
                            exiting
                                    Leaving the X Environment | Customizing
                                    Your X Startup | Customizing Your X
                                    Startup
                            mouse operation
                                    The Mouse
                            starting
                                    Starting the X Environment
                            troubleshooting
                                    Troubleshooting | X Problems
                            xdm
                                    Starting the X Environment
  gzip
          File Compression with gzip | File Compression with gzip
  Hacker Ethic
          What Is Free Software?
  hackers
          What Is Free Software?
  hard disk
               Linux partition
                            initializing
                                    Initialize a Linux Partition |
                                    Initialize a Linux Partition
               partitioning
                            PC BIOS
                                    PC Disk Limitations
               swap partition
                            initializing
                                    Initialize and Activate a | Initialize
                                    and Activate a
  hard disks
               partitioning
                       Lossless Repartitioning | Debian Installation Steps |
                       Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard Disk
               partitions
                            mounting
                                    Initialize a Linux Partition
               scanning
                       Initialize and Activate a
  hard drive
               organizing
                       Partitioning Your Hard Drive | Background |
                       Background
               partition
                            boot partition
                                    PC Disk Limitations
               partitioning
                       Partitioning Your Hard Drive | Background |
                       Background
                            cylinder translation
                                    PC Disk Limitations
                            root partition
                                    Background
                            swap partition
                                    Background
  hard drives
               filesystems
                       Mounting a Filesystem
               LILO
                            operating system, booting
                                    Booting the System
               partitioning
                            swap partitions
                                    Recommended Partitioning Scheme |
                                    Recommended Partitioning Scheme
               partitions
                            mounting
                                    Mount a Previously-Initialized Partition
  hard links
          The Real Nature of | The Real Nature of
               comparing to symlinks
                       Symbolic Links | Symbolic Links
               deleting
                       The Real Nature of
               symlinks
                       Symbolic Links
  hardware
               abstractions
                       Introduction to X
               device files
                       Device Files | /dev/null
               video cards
                            support for
                                    Supported Hardware
  Hardware, supported
          no title
  Help file (installation)
               accessing
                       Select
  help system
               HOWTOs
                       HOWTOs
  hierarchies
          Concepts
               filesystems
                       Concepts
                            mount points
                                    Mounting a Filesystem
                            mounting
                                    Mounting a Filesystem | Mounting a
                                    Filesystem | Example: Mounting a CD-ROM
                                    | Example: Mounting a CD-ROM | Removable
                                    Disks (Floppies, Zip
  History
          see Command Line History
  home directories
          Files Present and Their
  home directory
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  HOWTOs
          HOWTOs
  icon-based file managers
          Introduction to X
  images (disk)
               writing to floppies
                       Creating Floppies from Disk | Creating Floppies from
                       Disk
  importing
               variables to environment
                       Environment Variables
  info
          no title | Using info | Using info
  Info help system
          Managing Processes with bash
  initializing
               Linux partition
                       Initialize a Linux Partition | Initialize a Linux
                       Partition
               swap partition
                       Initialize and Activate a | Initialize and Activate a
  inodes
          The Real Nature of | The Real Nature of
               hard links
                            removing
                                    The Real Nature of
  Installation
               backups, performing
                       Before You Start
               base system
                       Install the Base System | Configure the Base System
               base system, configuring
                       Debian Installation Steps | Choosing Your
                       Installation Media
               boot floppies
                            creating
                                    Make a Boot Floppy
               CD-ROM
                       no title
               device drivers
                            configuring
                                    Configure Device Driver Modules
               disks
                            backing up
                                    Last Chance to Back
               dselect
                       Introduction
                            Access screen
                                    Access
               Floppies
                       no title
               hard disks
                            partitioning
                                    Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard
                                    Disk
               hard drive
                            partitioning
                                    Background | Background
                            partitioning
                                    Partitioning Your Hard Drive
               Help file
                            accessing
                                    Select
               kernel
                       Install Operating System Kernel
               keyboard configuration
                       Configure the Keyboard
               Linux partition
                            initialization
                                    Initialize a Linux Partition |
                                    Initialize a Linux Partition
               main menu
                       Debian GNU/Linux Installation Main
               master boot record
                       Make Linux Bootable Directly
               Media
                       no title
               memory requirements
                       Memory and Disk Space
               Menu
                       no title
               monitor display
                            color, selecting
                                    Select Color or Monochrome
               multi-NFS, multi-mount
                       Access
               multi_cd
                       Access | Access
               network
                            configuring
                                    Configure the Network
               packages
                       Package Installation with dselect
               partitioning
                       Partitioning Prior to Installation | Partitioning
                       from DOS or | Lossless Repartitioning | Debian
                       Installation Steps
               PCMCIA support
                            configuring
                                    Configure PCMCIA Support
               Prerequisites
                       no title
               profiles
                       Planning Use of the
                            selecting
                                    Select and Install Profiles
               root password
                            setting
                                    Set the Root Password
               smoke test
                       The Moment of Truth
               swap partition
                            initialization
                                    Initialize and Activate a | Initialize
                                    and Activate a
               tasks
                            selecting
                                    Select and Install Profiles
               time zone
                            specifying
                                    Configure the Base System
  installations
               network workstations
                       Information You Will Need
               operating systems, multiple
                       Before You Start
  installing
               packages
                       Install | Install
  Internet
               Debian mailing list
                       Personal Help | Personal Help
               online manual
                            viewing
                                    Environment Variables
  IRC (Internet Relay Chat)
               Debian mailing list
                       Personal Help | Personal Help
  ISPs
               PPP
                       PPP | Preparation
  italics
               typographical conventions
                       Conventions
  job
          Managing Processes with bash
  job numbers
               assigning to command lines
                       Managing Processes with bash
  jobs
          Managing Processes with bash | Managing Processes with bash
               listing
                       Managing Processes with bash
               starting
                       Managing Processes with bash
               status
                            displaying
                                    Managing Processes with bash
               suspending
                       Managing Processes with bash | Managing Processes
                       with bash
               terminating
                       Managing Processes with bash | Managing Processes
                       with bash
  kernel
               boot process
                            troubleshooting
                                    Troubleshooting the Boot Process
               installing
                       Install Operating System Kernel
               PCMCIA
                            removing
                                    Remove PCMCIA
               virtual consoles
                       Virtual Consoles | Virtual Consoles
  kernel:LILO (Linux Loader)
          Booting the System | Booting the System
  key combinations
               dselect
                       Select
  keyboard
               configuring
                       Configure the Keyboard
  killing
               jobs
                       Managing Processes with bash | Managing Processes
                       with bash
               X server
                       Leaving the X Environment
  Korn shell
          The Shell
  languages
               programming
                       Software Development with Debian | Software
                       Development with Debian
  LANs
               Ethernet
                            configuration
                                    Ethernet
  large-scale copying
          Large-Scale Copying | Large-Scale Copying
  legal documentation
               GNU General Public License
                       The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The
                       GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public
  licenses
               GNU General Public License
                       The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The
                       GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public
  LILO
          Make Linux Bootable Directly
  LILO (Linux Loader)
          Booting the System | Booting the System
  limitations
               partitions
                       PC Disk Limitations
  Linux
               devices
                       Device Names in Linux | Device Names in Linux |
                       Device Names in Linux
               GNU General Public License
                       The GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The
                       GNU General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public | The GNU General Public | The GNU
                       General Public
               kernel
                            command line
                                    Describing the Command Line | Describing
                                    the Command Line
                            disk cache
                                    Shutting Down
                            virtual console
                                    Virtual Consoles | Virtual Consoles
  Linux Documentation Project
          Supported Hardware
               HOWTOs
                       HOWTOs
  Linux native partition
               creating
                       Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard Disk
  Linux partition
               initializing
                       Initialize a Linux Partition | Initialize a Linux
                       Partition
  Linux partitions
               mounting
                       Initialize a Linux Partition | Initialize a Linux
                       Partition
  Linux swap partition
               creating
                       Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard Disk
  listing
               aliases
                       Aliases
               jobs
                       Managing Processes with bash
               mounted filesystems
                       Example: Mounting a CD-ROM
               processes
                       Processes
  locating
               documentation
                       Kinds of Documentation | Kinds of Documentation
               files
                       Finding Files | Finding Files
               system information
                       Getting Information from the
  logging in
          First Steps | First Steps
  logical partitions
          PC Disk Limitations | Device Names in Linux
  long form
               options
                       The Command Line and
  ls
          Using Files: A Tutorial | no title
  ls command
          Using Files: A Tutorial | Using Files: A Tutorial | Dot Files and
          ls -a
  mailing list
               Debian
                       Personal Help | Personal Help
  main menu
               installation
                       Debian GNU/Linux Installation Main
  mainenance
               packages
                       What a Package Maintenance | What a Package
                       Maintenance
                            deselect
                                    dselect
                            dpkg
                                    dpkg
  man less command
          Environment Variables
  man pages
          The Command Line and
  managing
               files
                       Using a File Manager
  manual startup
               X windows system
                       Starting the X Environment
  master boot record
               installation
                       Make Linux Bootable Directly
  memory
               disk cache
                       Shutting Down
               installation requirements
                       Memory and Disk Space
               swap partitions
                       Recommended Partitioning Scheme | Recommended
                       Partitioning Scheme
  menus
               installation
                       Debian GNU/Linux Installation Main
                            Partition a Hard Disk
                                    Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard
                                    Disk
  messages
               error
                            standard error
                                    stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  metacharacters
               regular expressions
                       Regular Expressions | Regular Expressions | Regular
                       Expressions
  mkdir command
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  mode (files)
          Mode | Mode | Mode
  modifier keys
          Conventions | Conventions
  modifying
               files
                            hard links
                                    The Real Nature of
  modularity
          Introduction to X
  modules
               device drivers
                            configuring
                                    Configure Device Driver Modules
               installation
                       Install Operating System Kernel
  monitor
               display color
                            selecting
                                    Select Color or Monochrome
  monochrome display
               selecting
                       Select Color or Monochrome
  more command
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  mount points
          Mounting a Filesystem
  mounting
               CD-ROM
                       Example: Mounting a CD-ROM | Example: Mounting a
                       CD-ROM
               filesystems
                       Mounting a Filesystem | Mounting a Filesystem |
                       Example: Mounting a CD-ROM | Example: Mounting a
                       CD-ROM | Removable Disks (Floppies, Zip
                            automatic
                                    /etc/fstab: Automating the Mount |
                                    /etc/fstab: Automating the Mount
               floppy disks
                       Removable Disks (Floppies, Zip
               initialized partitions
                       Mount a Previously-Initialized Partition
               partitions
                       Initialize a Linux Partition | Initialize a Linux
                       Partition
  mouse operation
               X windows system
                       The Mouse
  moving
               files
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
  msdos filesystem
          Concepts
  multi-NFS, multi-mount installation
          Access
  multi_cd installation
          Access | Access
  multiple operating systems
               booting
                       Make Linux Bootable Directly
  multitasking
          A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating | A Multiuser, Multitasking
          Operating
               processes
                       Processes
  Multiuser
          A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
  multiuser environment
               GNU/Linux
                       A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
  multiuser environments
               virtual console
                       Virtual Consoles | Virtual Consoles
  mv command
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  named pipes
          Named Pipes (FIFOs)
  naming
               devices
                       Device Names in Linux | Device Names in Linux |
                       Device Names in Linux
  naming conventions
               files
                            troubleshooting
                                    Working with Strangely-Named Files
  navigating
               dbootstrap
                       Step-by-Step Installation
  nedit (text editor
          Text Editors
  netowrks
               devices
                            output, redirecting
                                    stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and | stdin,
                                    stdout, Pipelines, and
  network
               configuring
                       Configure the Network
  Network Configuration
          no title
  network transparency
          Introduction to X
  networking
          Networking
               Ethernet
                            configuration
                                    Ethernet
               PPP
                       PPP | Preparation
                            configuration
                                    The Easy Way: wvdial | The Easy Way:
                                    wvdial
               sockets
                       Sockets
  networks
               servers
                            partitioning
                                    Recommended Partitioning Scheme
               terminals
                       A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
               virtual console
                       Virtual Consoles | Virtual Consoles
               workstations
                            installation
                                    Information You Will Need
               X servers
                       Introduction to X
  online manual
               builtin programs
                       Where Commands Reside: The
               text, paging
                       Environment Variables
               viewing
                       Environment Variables
  Open Source Software
          What Is Free Software?
  operating system
               booting
                            LILO (Linux Loader)
                                    Booting the System
               kernel
                            installing
                                    Install Operating System Kernel
  operating systems
          What Is Debian?
               backup tools
                       Backup Tools
                            GNU tar
                                    tar
               boot loaders
                       Before You Start
               Debian
                            booting
                                    Booting Debian
               functionality
                       What Is Debian?
               GNU Linux
                            multiuser environment
                                    A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
               installation
                            partitioning
                                    Partitioning Prior to Installation |
                                    Partitioning from DOS or | Lossless
                                    Repartitioning | Debian Installation
                                    Steps
               LILO
                       Make Linux Bootable Directly
               modularity
                       Introduction to X
               multiple installations
                       Before You Start
               multiple, booting
                       Make Linux Bootable Directly
               root password
                            setting
                                    Set the Root Password
               swap partitions
                       Background
               X windows system
                            troubleshooting
                                    X Problems
  options (commands)
          The Command Line and
  ordinary user accounts
          Create an Ordinary User | Create an Ordinary User
  organization
               files
                       Files and Directories | Files and Directories
  organizing
               files
                       Concepts
               hard drive
                       Partitioning Your Hard Drive | Background |
                       Background
  ouput
               redirecting
                            pipelines
                                    stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  output
               redirecting
                       stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and | stdin, stdout,
                       Pipelines, and | stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
               reversing
                       stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  overriding
               package dependencies
                       Select
  ownership (files)
          File Ownership | File Ownership
  packages
          Glossary
               canceling selection (dselect)
                       Select
               compiling
                       Compiling Software
               configuring
                       Configure
               Debian base system
                       Debian Installation Steps | Choosing Your
                       Installation Media
               dependencies
                       Select | Select
               development
                       Who Creates Debian?
               installation
                       Package Installation with dselect
                            multi-CD
                                    Access | Access
                            multi-NFS, multi-mount
                                    Access
               installing
                       Install | Install
               maintenance utilities
                       What a Package Maintenance | What a Package
                       Maintenance
                            deselect
                                    dselect
                            dpkg
                                    dpkg
               profiles
                       Planning Use of the
               see also dselect
                       Introduction | Introduction
               selecting
                       Select and Install Profiles | Select | Select |
                       Select
               states (dselect)
                       Select | Select
  PAGER environment variable
          Environment Variables
  parameters
          The Command Line and
  parent directories
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  partition
               boot partition
                       PC Disk Limitations
               Initialization
                       no title
                            Swap
                                    no title
               Lossless
                       no title
  Partitioning
          no title | Device Names in Linux
               cylinder translation
                       PC Disk Limitations
               hard disks
                       Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard Disk
               hard drive
                       Partitioning Your Hard Drive | Background |
                       Background
                            root partition
                                    Background
                            swap partition
                                    Background
               Linux partition
                            initializing
                                    Initialize a Linux Partition |
                                    Initialize a Linux Partition
               PC BIOS
                       PC Disk Limitations
               SCSI drives
                       PC Disk Limitations
               servers
                       Recommended Partitioning Scheme
               swap partition
                            initializing
                                    Initialize and Activate a | Initialize
                                    and Activate a
               swap partitions
                       Recommended Partitioning Scheme | Recommended
                       Partitioning Scheme
  partitions
               mounting
                       Initialize a Linux Partition | Initialize a Linux
                       Partition | Mount a Previously-Initialized Partition
               surface scanning
                       Initialize and Activate a
  passwords
               logging in
                       First Steps | First Steps
               root password
                            setting
                                    Set the Root Password
               shadow passwords
                       Shadow Password Support
               superuser
                       Working as Root
  PATH
          no title
  paths
          Files and Directories
  PC BIOS
          PC Disk Limitations
  PCMCIA
          no title
               configuring
                       Configure PCMCIA Support
               removing
                       Remove PCMCIA
  Permissions
          no title | Permissions | Permissions | Security
               access
                       Mode
               example session
                       Permissions in Practice | Permissions in Practice |
                       Permissions in Practice
               file ownership
                       File Ownership | File Ownership
               hard links
                       The Real Nature of
               mode
                       Mode | Mode | Mode
  PID
          Processes
  PID (Process Identification Number)
          Processes
  pipe operators
          stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  pipeline
          Managing Processes with bash
  pipelines
          stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
               output
                            reversing
                                    stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  pipes
               named pipes
                       Named Pipes (FIFOs)
  plans
          Managing Your Identity | Managing Your Identity
  PPP
               configuration
                       PPP | Preparation
                            wvdial
                                    The Easy Way: wvdial | The Easy Way:
                                    wvdial
  primary partitions
          PC Disk Limitations
  printenv
          Environment Variables | Environment Variables
  Printing
          no title
               troubleshooting
                       Printing
  proc filesystem
          The proc Filesystem
  process groups
          Managing Processes with bash | Managing Processes with bash
  Process Management
          no title
  Processes
          no title | Processes
               boot process
                            troubleshooting
                                    Troubleshooting the Boot Process
               comparing to programs
                       Processes
               controlling
                       The Shell | The Shell
               daemons
                       Processes
               environments
                       Environment Variables
               jobs
                            listing
                                    Managing Processes with bash
                            starting
                                    Managing Processes with bash
                            suspending
                                    Managing Processes with bash | Managing
                                    Processes with bash
                            terminating
                                    Managing Processes with bash | Managing
                                    Processes with bash
               named pipes
                       Named Pipes (FIFOs)
               PID (Process Identification Number)
                       Processes
               redirection operators
                       stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and | stdin, stdout,
                       Pipelines, and
               standard input
                       stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
               standard output
                       stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  profiles
          Planning Use of the | Planning Use of the
               selecting
                       Select and Install Profiles | Select and Install
                       Profiles
  programming
          Software Development with Debian | Software Development with
          Debian
  programs
               bash
                            aliases
                                    Aliases
               BIOS (Basic Input/Output System)
                       Booting the System
               built-in
                       Where Commands Reside: The
               cfdisk
                       Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard Disk
               comparing to processes
                       Processes
               dbootstrap
                       Step-by-Step Installation
                            network configuration
                                    Configure the Network
               dselect
                       Select and Install Profiles | Introduction |
                       Introduction
                            Access screen
                                    Access
                            multi-CD installation
                                    Access
                            multi-NFS, multi-mount installation
                                    Access
                            package states
                                    Select | Select
                            packages, configuring
                                    Configure
                            packages, installing
                                    Install | Install
                            Update screen
                                    Update | Select | Select | Select |
                                    Select
               executing
                            search path
                                    Where Commands Reside: The | Where
                                    Commands Reside: The
               exiting
                       How to Read This
               file managers
                       Introduction to X
               functionality
                       What Is Debian?
               gzip
                       File Compression with gzip | File Compression with
                       gzip
               multitasking
                       A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
               packages
                            maintenance utilities
                                    What a Package Maintenance | What a
                                    Package Maintenance | dpkg | dselect
               shell
                       The Shell | The Shell
               software development
                       Software Development with Debian | Software
                       Development with Debian
               tasks
                       Select and Install Profiles | Select and Install
                       Profiles
               text editors
                       Text Editors | Text Editors
                            ae
                                    Using ae
               wvdial
                            PPP configuration
                                    The Easy Way: wvdial | The Easy Way:
                                    wvdial
               X clients
                       X Clients | X Clients
  Prompt, Changing
          Environment Variables | Environment Variables
  prompts
               shell prompts
                       First Steps
  proprietary software
               comparing to commercial
                       What Is Free Software?
  proxy servers
               environment variables
                            setting
                                    Access
  PS1
          Environment Variables | Environment Variables
  pwd
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  pwd command
          Using Files: A Tutorial | Using Files: A Tutorial
  query process
          Booting the System
  questions
               technical support
                       Personal Help | Tips for asking questions
  quitting
               ae (text editor)
                       Using ae
               X windows system
                       Customizing Your X Startup | Customizing Your X
                       Startup
  RAM
               disk cache
                       Shutting Down
  RAM (Random Access Memory)
               installation requirements
                       Memory and Disk Space
  reading
               device files
                       Device Files
  redirecting
               output
                       stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
                            pipelines
                                    stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  Redirection
          no title
  redirection operators
          stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
               hard links
                       The Real Nature of
               output
                            reversing
                                    stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  regular expressions
          Regular Expressions | Regular Expressions | Regular Expressions
  reinitializing
               swap partition
                       Initialize and Activate a
  removable disks
               mounting filesystem
                       Removable Disks (Floppies, Zip
  removing
               directories
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               hard links
                       The Real Nature of
               PCMCIA
                       Remove PCMCIA
               symlinks
                       Symbolic Links | Symbolic Links
  repartitioning
               from Windows
                       Partitioning from DOS or | Lossless Repartitioning
               hard drive
                       Partitioning Your Hard Drive | Background |
                       Background
  requirements
               installation
                            memory
                                    Memory and Disk Space
  restrictions
               partitions
                       PC Disk Limitations
  reversing
               output
                       stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  rm
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  root directory
          Files and Directories | Files and Directories
  root partition
          Background
  root password
               setting
                       Set the Root Password
  root user
          Working as Root | Working as Root
               see also superuser
                       Files Present and Their
  saving
               edited files (ae)
                       Using ae
  scanning
               hard disk
                       Initialize and Activate a
  screen
               display color
                            selecting
                                    Select Color or Monochrome
  screens
               ae (text editor)
                       Using ae
               dselect
                            Select
                                    Select | Select | Select | Select |
                                    Select
                            Update
                                    Update
               X windows system
                            windows manager
                                    Introduction to X
  scrolling
               commands
                       Command History and Editing
  SCSI drives
               partitioning
                       PC Disk Limitations
               partitions
                       Device Names in Linux
  search path
          Where Commands Reside: The | Where Commands Reside: The
  security
               backups, performing
                       Before You Start
               passwords
                            logging in
                                    First Steps | First Steps
                            shadow passwords
                                    Shadow Password Support
               permissions
                       Permissions | Permissions | Security
                            example session
                                    Permissions in Practice | Permissions in
                                    Practice | Permissions in Practice
                            file mode
                                    Mode | Mode | Mode
                            file ownership
                                    File Ownership | File Ownership
               root password
                            setting
                                    Set the Root Password
               root user
                       Working as Root | Working as Root
  Select screen (dselect)
          Select | Select | Select | Select
  selecting
               color display
                       Select Color or Monochrome
               fonts, xterm
                       Starting the X Environment
               monochrome display
                       Select Color or Monochrome
               packages
                       Select and Install Profiles | Select | Select |
                       Select
                            see also dselect
                                    Introduction | Introduction
               profiles
                       Select and Install Profiles | Select and Install
                       Profiles
               X clients
                       Customizing Your X Startup | Customizing Your X
                       Startup
  Server profile
          Planning Use of the
  servers
               partitioning
                       Recommended Partitioning Scheme
               proxy servers
                            environment variables, setting
                                    Access
               X server
                            killing
                                    Leaving the X Environment
               X servers
                       Introduction to X
                            clients
                                    X Clients | X Clients
                            network transparency
                                    Introduction to X
  sh (Bourne shell)
          The Shell
  shadow passwords
          Shadow Password Support
  sharing
               software
                       What Is Free Software? | What Is Free Software?
  Shell
          no title | The Shell | The Shell | no title
               built-in programs
                       Where Commands Reside: The
               filename expansion patterns
                       Filename Expansion
               output
                            reversing
                                    stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
               redirection operator
                       stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and | stdin, stdout,
                       Pipelines, and
               search path
                       Where Commands Reside: The | Where Commands Reside:
                       The
  shell commands
               typing
                       First Steps
  shell prompt
               command history
                       Command History and Editing
               command line
                       Command History and Editing | Command History and
                       Editing
  shells
               Bourne shell
                       The Shell
               C shell
                       The Shell
               command lines
                            job numbers, assigning
                                    Managing Processes with bash
               current working directory
                       Using Files: A Tutorial
               environments
                       Environment Variables
               jobs
                            suspending
                                    Managing Processes with bash
               pipelines
                       stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
               process groups
                       Managing Processes with bash | Managing Processes
                       with bash
               redirection operators
                            hard links
                                    The Real Nature of
               variables
                            exporting
                                    Environment Variables
               xterms
                       Starting the X Environment
  shortcut directories
          Using Files: A Tutorial
  shortcuts
               aliases
                       Aliases
  Shutdown
          no title
  shutting down
          Shutting Down
  sites
               Web
                            Debian
                                    What Is Free Software?
                            Free Software Foundation
                                    What Is Free Software?
                            Multi Disk HOWTO
                                    Recommended Partitioning Scheme
                            video cards, support for
                                    Supported Hardware
  smoke test
          The Moment of Truth
  Social Contract
          What Is Free Software? | What Is Free Software? | What Is Free
          Software?
  sockets
          Sockets
  soft links
          Symbolic Links
  software
               applications
                       What Is Debian?
               development
                       Who Creates Debian?
               free
                            developing
                                    What Is Free Software?
                            Social Contract
                                    What Is Free Software?
               Free Software
                       What Is Free Software?
               Open Source
                       What Is Free Software?
               packages
                            mainenance utilities
                                    What a Package Maintenance | dpkg |
                                    dselect
  sofware
               development
                       Software Development with Debian | Software
                       Development with Debian
  Source code
          Viewing Text Files
               comparing to binary executables
                       Viewing Text Files
  spaces
               typographical convention
                       Conventions
  specifying
               time zone
                       Configure the Base System
  splitting
               partitions
                       Lossless Repartitioning
  Stallman, Richard M.
               Why Software Should be Free
                       What Is Free Software?
  standard error
          stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  standard input
          stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  standard output
          stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
  starting
               ae (text editor)
                       Using ae
               jobs
                       Managing Processes with bash | Managing Processes
                       with bash | Managing Processes with bash
               X windows system
                       Starting the X Environment
  startup
               boot process
                            BIOS
                                    Booting the System
                            query process
                                    Booting the System
               X windows system
                            customizing
                                    Customizing Your X Startup
  states
               packages (dselect)
                       Select | Select
  status
               jobs
                            displaying
                                    Managing Processes with bash
  stdin
          no title
  stdout
          no title
  structure
               command line
                       The Command Line and
               directories
                       Files and Directories
  su command
          Working as Root
  subdirectories
               filename expansion patterns
                       Filename Expansion | Filename Expansion
  submitting
               bug reports
                       Troubleshooting the Boot Process
  superuser
          Working as Root | Working as Root
               home directory
                       Files Present and Their
  superuser account
          Set the Root Password
  surface scanning
               hard disks
                       Initialize and Activate a
  suspending
               jobs
                       Managing Processes with bash | Managing Processes
                       with bash
  swap partition
          Background
               initializing
                       Initialize and Activate a | Initialize and Activate a
  swap partitions
          Recommended Partitioning Scheme | Recommended Partitioning Scheme
               Linux swap partition
                            creating
                                    Partition a Hard Disk | Partition a Hard
                                    Disk
  symlinks
          Symbolic Links
               comparing to hard links
                       Symbolic Links | Symbolic Links
               removing
                       Symbolic Links
  syntax
               commands
                       The Command Line and | Describing the Command Line |
                       Describing the Command Line
               file searches
                       Finding Files
  system binaries
          Files Present and Their
  system clock
               setting
                       Configure the Base System
  system configuration
          Debian Installation Steps | Choosing Your Installation Media
               dbootstrap
                       Step-by-Step Installation
  system-wide configuration
          System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration
               /etc directory
                       Files Present and Their
               automatic filesystem mounting
                       /etc/fstab: Automating the Mount | /etc/fstab:
                       Automating the Mount
               networking
                       Networking
                            Ethernet
                                    Ethernet
                            PPP
                                    PPP | Preparation | The Easy Way: wvdial
                                    | The Easy Way: wvdial
               packages
                            selecting
                                    Select | Select | Select
               permissions
                            file mode
                                    Mode | Mode | Mode
                            file ownership
                                    File Ownership
               X windows system
                            customizing
                                    Customizing Your X Startup
  system-wide configuratoin
          System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration
  Taper
          Backup Tools
  taper (backup utility)
          Backup Tools
  tar
          Backup Tools | no title
  tar (tape archiver
          tar
  tasks
          Select and Install Profiles | Select and Install Profiles
  tcsh
          The Shell
  technical support
               asking questions
                       Personal Help | Tips for asking questions
  temporary files
          Files Present and Their
  Terminal
          A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
  terminals
          A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
               consoles
                       A Multiuser, Multitasking Operating
  terminating
               jobs
                       Managing Processes with bash | Managing Processes
                       with bash
  testing
               installation
                            smoke test
                                    The Moment of Truth
  text
               bold face
                            typographical conventions
                                    Conventions
               fonts
                            xterm, selecting
                                    Starting the X Environment
               italicized
                            typographical conventions
                                    Conventions
               online manual
                            paging
                                    Environment Variables
               output
                            reversing
                                    stdin, stdout, Pipelines, and
               regular expressions
                       Regular Expressions | Regular Expressions | Regular
                       Expressions
               wildcards
                            -
                                    Filename Expansion
                            ?
                                    Filename Expansion
                            file searches
                                    Finding Files
                            filename expansion patterns
                                    Filename Expansion
  text editors
          Text Editors
               ae
                       Using ae
  text files
          Working with Text Files | no title
               viewing
                       Viewing Text Files
  time zone
               specifying
                       Configure the Base System
  tools
               backups
                       Backup Tools
                            GNU tar
                                    tar
               FIPS
                       Lossless Repartitioning | Lossless Repartitioning
  troubleshooting
               boot process
                       Troubleshooting the Boot Process
               files
                            naming conventions
                                    Working with Strangely-Named Files
               printing
                       Printing
               X windows system
                       Troubleshooting | X Problems
  type
          Where Commands Reside: The
  typing
               Bash commands
                            wildcards
                                    Tab Completion
               command line
                       Command History and Editing | Command History and
                       Editing
               commands
                            aliases
                                    Aliases
               modifier keys
                       Conventions | Conventions
               shell commands
                       First Steps
               wildcards
                            ?
                                    Filename Expansion
                            filename expansion pattern
                                    Filename Expansion
  typographical conventions
          Conventions | Conventions
               bold face
                       Conventions
               italics
                       Conventions
               modifier keys
                       Conventions | Conventions
               spaces
                       Conventions
  uncompressing
               files
                       File Compression with gzip
  unmounting
               CD-ROMs
                       Example: Mounting a CD-ROM
  Update screen (dselect)
          Update
  user accounts
               logging in
                       First Steps | First Steps
               ordinary user
                       Create an Ordinary User | Create an Ordinary User
               permission
                       Permissions | Permissions
               permissions
                            example session
                                    Permissions in Practice | Permissions in
                                    Practice | Permissions in Practice
                            file ownership
                                    File Ownership | File Ownership
                            mode
                                    Mode | Mode | Mode
               plans
                       Managing Your Identity | Managing Your Identity
               root user
                       Working as Root | Working as Root
               superuser
                       Set the Root Password
  user-specific configuration
          System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration | System-Wide
          Versus User-Specific Configuration
               dotfiles
                       System-Wide Versus User-Specific Configuration
  utilities
               archiving
                       Backup Tools
               backup tools
                       Backup Tools
                            GNU tar
                                    tar
               dbootstrap
                            network configuration
                                    Configure the Network
               dselect
                       Select and Install Profiles | Introduction |
                       Introduction
                            Access screen
                                    Access
                            multi-CD installation
                                    Access
                            multi-NFS, multi-mount installation
                                    Access
                            package states
                                    Select | Select
                            packages, configuring
                                    Configure
                            packages, installing
                                    Install | Install
                            Update screen
                                    Update | Select | Select | Select |
                                    Select
               file manager
                       Using a File Manager
               FIPS
                       Lossless Repartitioning | Lossless Repartitioning
               GNU documentation viewer
                       Using info | Using info
               gzip
                       File Compression with gzip | File Compression with
                       gzip
               package maintenance
                       What a Package Maintenance | What a Package
                       Maintenance
                            deselect
                                    dselect
                            dpkg
                                    dpkg
               system binaries
                       Files Present and Their
               tasks
                       Select and Install Profiles | Select and Install
                       Profiles
               text editors
                       Text Editors | Text Editors
                            ae
                                    Using ae
  variables
          Environment Variables
               exporting
                       Environment Variables
               shell
                            exporting
                                    Environment Variables
  vi (text editor)
          Text Editors | Text Editors
  video cards
               support for
                       Supported Hardware
  viewing
               directory contents
                       Files Present and Their | Files Present and Their
               file contents
                       Using Files: A Tutorial | Determining a File’s
                       Contents
               files
                            filename expansion pattern
                                    Filename Expansion
               Info help system
                       Managing Processes with bash
               job status
                       Managing Processes with bash
               mounted filesystems
                       Example: Mounting a CD-ROM
               online manual
                       Environment Variables
               text files
                       Viewing Text Files
  Virtual Consoles
          no title | Virtual Consoles | Virtual Consoles
  virtual devices
          Device Files | /dev/null
  web sites
               Debian
                       What Is Free Software? | Personal Help | Personal
                       Help
               Free Software Foundation
                       What Is Free Software?
               Multi Disk HOWTO
                       Recommended Partitioning Scheme
  Web sites:video cards, support for
          Supported Hardware
  whoami command
          Working as Root
  Why Software Should be Free (Stallman, Richard M.)
          What Is Free Software?
  wildcards
          no title | Filename Expansion
               *
                       Filename Expansion
               ?
                       Filename Expansion
               Bash commands
                       Tab Completion
               file searches
                       Finding Files
               filename expansion pattens
                       Filename Expansion
               regular expressions
                       Regular Expressions | Regular Expressions | Regular
                       Expressions
  window managers
          Introduction to X
  Windows
               partitioning
                       Partitioning from DOS or | Lossless Repartitioning |
                       Debian Installation Steps
  Work profile
          Planning Use of the
  workstations
               installation
                       Information You Will Need
  write permission
          Mode
  writing
               disk images to floppies
                       Creating Floppies from Disk | Creating Floppies from
                       Disk
               to device files
                       Device Files
               to named pipes
                       Named Pipes (FIFOs)
  wvdial
               PPP configuration
                       The Easy Way: wvdial | The Easy Way: wvdial
  X clients
          Introduction to X
               network transparency
                       Introduction to X
               selecting
                       Customizing Your X Startup | Customizing Your X
                       Startup
  X servers
          Introduction to X
  X Window
          The X Window System | Introduction to X
  X windows system
               clients
                       X Clients | X Clients
                            selecting
                                    Customizing Your X Startup | Customizing
                                    Your X Startup
               customizing
                       Customizing Your X Startup
               exiting
                       Leaving the X Environment | Customizing Your X
                       Startup | Customizing Your X Startup
               mouse operation
                       The Mouse
               network transparency
                       Introduction to X
               starting
                       Starting the X Environment
               troubleshooting
                       Troubleshooting | X Problems
               xdm
                       Starting the X Environment
  X, troubleshooting
          no title
  xcoral (text editor)
          Text Editors
  xdm (X Display Manager)
          Starting the X Environment
  xterm
               font size, increasing
                       Starting the X Environment
               fonts
                            selecting
                                    Starting the X Environment
  xterms
          Starting the X Environment
  Zip Disks
          no title

About this document ...

  Debian GNU/Linux: Guide to Installation and Usage

  This document was generated using the LaTeX2HTML translator Version
  2K.1beta (1.48)

  Copyright (c) 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, Nikos Drakos, Computer Based
  Learning Unit, University of Leeds. Copyright (c) 1997, 1998, 1999,
  Ross Moore, Mathematics Department, Macquarie University, Sydney.

  The command line arguments were: latex2html -html_version 4.0,table
  -split 0 -t ‘Debian GNU/Linux: Guide to Installation and Usage’
  -toc_stars -local_icons -address ‘John Goerzen / Ossama Othman’
  debian-tutorial.tex

  The translation was initiated by John Goerzen on 2002-12-12

   John Goerzen / Ossama Othman




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