- A brief history of Linux, and my history with it.
- What I have already learned before starting this log.
- The Linux Log, coming along nicely. My record of everything I've learned with Linux.
- Works Consulted List. Proof I think getting sued is generally bad. A list of book sources used for this page. Web sources are on my link pages under "Linux".
- The latest date I entered is 26 July 1999.
A fairly short introduction: <back to top>
Linux is a relatively new operating system created by a genius kid in Finland (some
place like that) named Linus. He started it in around 1992 as a PC version of the
super-duper high-end operating system UNIX. Since UNIX is copy righted and
proprietary he used all original code and made a "kernel", the main core of an
operating system. Eventually he added C compiler for writing programs and put it on
the internet for the entire techie-world to work on. He decided to "copy
left" it which means it's completely free to use, distribute and sell, so long and
you don't change the conditions of use. Something like that. This is releasing
"under the conditions of the GNU". The kernel is even open-source, so you
can look at the code and modify it. GNU, by the way, stands for "GNU is Not
Unix". The official mascot of Linux, of course is Tux the penguin. He looks like
this: 
In the last couple years the system has really taken off as a low-cost alternative to Microsoft or official UNIX brands. There's even a free web server called Apache which actually has a majority-share in the web server market.
Linux fans, the real hard-core ones that is, are fanatical about their system. Microsoft Windows is considered a joke, some referring to it as "the Microsoft tax".
I had never heard of it until just a few months ago (February '99). So in about February or March 1999 I decided I wanted to try and install it. Thing is I was just starting a college semester and had an English class to worry about, not a good time to start messing with "boot sectors", right? Well I did it anyway (what a rush!). I read as much online material and the book that came with package as I could first though of course. I decided to go with the RedHat package, I hear the inventor the system (Linus) uses it so it must be the best.
By the way, the way this works is there are a whole bunch of different distributors of the Linux kernel, each varies slightly, but all are compatible. The difference is how easy the installation program is and what software packages the distribution comes with. There are also other attributes like whether the package comes with the graphical interface Windows-like system called X-Windows and how easy it is to set that up. The Linux kernel is also available free over the Internet. (Wouldn't suggest on slow connection, direct-connect should work though).
Well the whole UNIX/Linux operating system is not an easy system to learn. It has quite a steep learning curve. So here's what I decided to do:
Read the Linux book I bought from Amazon.com, keep a pencil and pad of paper handy, and record everything I figure out. Then type it out for my website. This way I learn Linux by doing, writing, and typing what I learned. And have a brand new feature for my site to boot. Pretty good idea huh?
What I know so far... <back to top>
- Assuming this is just a hobby for you to do on the side from the Windows Menace, use
Windows to get specific information about your system, especially ports and interrupts of
your sound card, modem, and video card (especially video card if X-Windows sounds
inviting). For the video card make sure you get info like horizontal and vertical refresh
rates, and the name of the card. Very very important.
- Being the super high tech operating system it is, you can switch "terminals".
In other words you can login (which is required, no choice) as several different users at
once. Just use the Alt+function key combination. So if you start a process
that's going to take a long time you can sign in as another name and do something else. To
switch out of X-Windows to a terminal use the Ctrl+Alt+function key combination.
Imagine playing a game on one terminal while a 20 page report prints in the back ground,
AND DOESN'T CRASH THE SYSTEM! Neat eh?
- For those of you familiar with MS-DOS, ls in Linux similar to dir
in MS-DOS.
- Apparently Linux is case-sensitive. So MYLINUXFILE.TXT is a separate file from
MyLinuxTextFile.txt. What's more both case exist side-by-side in the same directory.
- Instead of back slashes (\) as in the Windows and DOS world, you have to remember
forward slashes (/) are now your friend. /usr/root/.
- Hard drives don't have names like C: and A:, you get different partitions when you
install Linux and root of the hard drive is simply a forward slash (/).
- You cannot tell just by looking at a file what kind of file it is. Unlike DOS
executables don't have to end with .exe. In fact any file can end in anything or nothing
at all and you won't be able to tell. And there's no limit to the number of characters in
a file or directory name, including spaces.
- When looking for files with a specific extension, ls sometext.* will
not display every file with sometext in the name, only those that
actually have a period and letters after it.
- Want to make a file hidden from immediate view (ls won't show it with out a
hyphen-option, as in ls -a)? Name it with a leading period, e.g. .MySuperSecretFile.file.
- Apparently everything in this system is a file. All devices, directories, everything. There's stdin - standard in, stdout - standard out, and stderr standard error. In other words, the keyboard isn't necessarily the default input device, the monitor isn't necessarily the default output device and error messages can actually be redirected to text file(I'm sure I'll learn how to do that soon).
Sun. 18 July 1999
- The Home directory can be returned to with the following methods:
cd ~ (called a "tilde", usually the key in the upper left hand corner, next to 1, above Tab, with shift)
cd $HOME (the universal variable for the home directory)
cd [enter] (Just cd and hit the enter key, much faster.) - To restart linux, thus giving you a chance to boot into your primary operating system like Windows, type shutdown -r now.
- Ability to make an "alias", a substitute for a long series of keystrokes, with
something shorter. For example alias restart='shutdown -r now' (just type
restart now, much easier now right?)
Or alias lslaf='ls -l -a -f'
(no spaces except between alias and [command]). Aliases like these can placed in your startup script so you don't have to re-type them every time you use Linux. - To make your CD-ROM and floppy drives work you have to "mount" them. You do this by using mount [source] [target]. For example, mount /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom and mount /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy (it seems fd0 - fdzero - is a fancy name for the floppy drive). Of course this takes a lot of typing as you have to type cd /mnt/cdrom just to access CD-ROM files...
- To make a symbolic link use ln -s [source] [target]. For example, use ln -s /mnt/cdrom /cdrom to make accessing your CD-ROM take less typing, and ln -s /mnt/floppy /floppy for your 3 1/2 inch floppy drive. In the above instance /mnt/cdrom is the source, /cdrom is the target. So now to access your cd-ROM enter cd /cdrom from any directory. By the way, you'd probably be shunned for making your symbolic link named a: or d:, heh...(politically incorrect, Linux wise).
- To view the history of everything that has scrolled off the screen, use Shift-PgUp and Shift-PgDn.
Mon. 19 July 1999
- After mounting your CD-ROM, tray will not eject. To get it to eject, you must unmount it. For example umount /dev/cdrom then the eject command to eject the tray. Don't forget to re-issue the mount command before accessing the drive again.
Wed. 21 July 1999
- UNIX and Linux come with several "shells" also called command interpreters. In UNIX the most popular shell is called the Bourne Shell. The Linux version is called the BASH shell, which stands for "Bourne Again Shell", a very clever reference, right?
- The default prompt for the Bourne shell is simply $.
- There is also the C Shell, which C programmers seem to like. The Linux version is called tcsh. And the Korn Shell, called pdksh under Linux.
- You can switch shells by simply typing the above names. The main differences are the "shell scripting" features of the respective shells.
- The root user, the first user you login as, has rights to everything, and is therefore assumed you don't want to use it primarily because you could screw up your whole Linux setup (personally I would contend that, but what do I know?)
- To add a user account use adduser user1 type format. Feel free to use something besides user1 though. There's no limit to the number of users you can add. Each one gets their own directory by default.
- To change a user's password use the passwd user1 command. This will give you a prompt for assigning a password.
- Remember, you can log lots of users in at once using the Alt-F# key combinations to switch consoles.
- Use logoff to log a user off and return to the name/password prompt.
- If your logged in as a "mere mortal" user (as opposed to the "omnipotent" super user that goes by "root") use su to switch to root real quick (no logging off, just enter password).
- When you're done being temporarily omnipotent enter exit and your back to your more limited alter-ego.
- Linux is capable of seeing, writing to and reading from your WinDoze9x (that's Windows95/98 in case you were wondering) partitions. In case you don't know, Windows95 users a "file allocation table" called FAT16. For long filenames, Windows uses a "VFAT" or "Virtual FAT". Windows98 on the other hand uses "FAT32". Fats keep track of all your free and used disk space. These other file systems can be mounted with Linux. This makes it easy to obtain downloaded programs you got with Windows because your modem won't work with Linux.
Here's some steps to set up your windows partition(s) and be continually available even if you have to leave Linux:
- Make a directory on your Windows partition, something like DownLoadedLinuxFiles on C:\ maybe. That's what I used. Then keep all your downloaded files there so you can find them.
- To mount your Windows9x partition you must have kernel version 2.0.34 or later. You can get your kernel version using uname -r.
- The commands to mount: then mkdir win95c: (you can use any name) now mount -t vfat /dev/hda1 /win95c:. Your Win9x partition may not be hda1, you'll have to adjust it accordingly.
- (PLEASE: Make a back up of fstab and read other sources on this before
trying. You can back-up fstab by issuing this command:
cat /etc/fstab > /etc/fstab.bak) Then use the standard text editor vi to edit something called fstab. This is so you can have access to your Win9x partition every time you use Linux. You do this by typing vi /etc/fstab. vi is a very frustrating text editor to those of us used to Windows and Notepad or Edit for DOS, so lets go one step at a time. First type i, this will take you into "insert mode". Then hit Enter once for a newline and move your cursor up one line. Then add this: /dev/hda1 /win95c: vfat user, defaults 0, 0 (zero-zero) Be sure to line this up with the rest of the text already in fstab. Actually you can make the spacing as ou want, just make sure there are spaces in between each item. To break out of insert mode just hit Esc once. Then ZZ to to quickly write the changes and exit from vi. Kinda makes you miss MS Edit doesn't it?
Komarinksi, Mark F. Linux Companion: The essential Guide for Users and
System
Administrators. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.
Afzal, Amir. UNIX Unbounded: A Beginning Approach. Columbus:
Prentice
Hall,
1998.
RedHat. RedHat Linux Installation Guide. Research Triangle Park: 1998.
Rankin, Bob. The No B.S. Guide to Linux: Just What You Need to Know to:
Install,
Optimize, and Use Linux. San Francisco: No Starch Press, 1997.
And also Thomas, super-duper Linux-Guru-Guy (as he is officially known, I think)
Linux Log has received visitors. Isn't that great?!
FastCounter by LinkExchange
See links page for Internet sources.
I got it for free at http://come.to