Red Hat Linux Fedora 3 Unleashed - Softcover

Ball, Bill; Duff, Hoyt

9780672327087: Red Hat Linux Fedora 3 Unleashed

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0672327082 ISBN 13: 9780672327087

Publisher: Sams, 2004

Keeping with the tradition of offering the best and most comprehensive coverage of Red Hat Linux on the market, Red Hat Fedora 3 Unleashed includes new and additional materials based on the latest release of Red Hat's Fedora Core Linux distribution. Incorporating an advanced approach, the information presented aims to provide you with the best and latest information about installation, configuration, system administration, server operations and security. Updated discussions of the architecture of several Linux issues, as well as material on new applications, peripherals and Web development are also included. Get the most out of the latest Red Hat Linux distribution with Red Hat Fedora 3 Unleashed.

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About the Author:

Red Hat Linux Fedora 3 UnleashedLead Authors

Bill Ball is the best-selling author of nearly 20 books about Linux, including several editions of Red Hat Linux Unleashed, Que Publishing's Using Linux, and Sams Publishing's SuSE Linux Unleashed. He is a technical writer, editor, and magazine journalist, and has been using computers for nearly 30 years. He first edited books for Que in 1986, and wrote one of the first best-selling Linux books, Teach Yourself Linux in 24 Hours, in 1997. He has authored articles and reviews in Linux Journal, developed technical online content for business Web sites, and has developed and released open-source software for the Mac OS and Palm OS platforms. He has been a fan of Linux and XFree86 since 1994 and uses the software on Intel-based PCs, Apple PowerMacs, and MIPS platforms. Bill is an active member of the Northern Virginia Linux Users Group (NOVALUG); teaches Linux courses at Stratford University in Falls Church, Virginia; and lives in the Shirlington area of Arlington, Virginia. He can be contacted through http://www.tux.org/~bball.

Hoyt Duff feels that a good word to describe his life experience is "former"—former senior vice president and senior commercial loan officer for a bank, former community college instructor, former restaurateur, and former special education teacher. He currently meets the needs of his inner ADD child by spending the summer months tending to his family business, a sport fishing pier (the longest on the East Coast), and playing cocktail piano on weekends. Hoyt even finds time to write about Linux as a columnist and regular contributor of reviews and tutorial for Linux Format magazine. Active in the TideWater UNIX Users Group (http://www.twuug.org), Hoyt enjoys the regular Linux installfests the most and will attempt to install Linux on anything that moves.

His computer experiences began with writing college course Fortran programs on an IBM 360/65, Pascal programming on the original IBM PC, and then taking a detour hacking 6502 assembler on a Commodore VIC20. Discovering Linux through an article in Boot magazine, he eventually got his first commercial writing assignment for its sister publication, MaximumLinux magazine. The philosophy that drives his life is "Fix it until it breaks," which is why he enjoys Linux so much. Hoyt can be contacted at hoyt@maximumhoyt.com.

Introduction

Introduction

Welcome to Red Hat Fedora 3 Unleashed! This book covers the free Linux distribution named Fedora Core and includes a fully functional and complete operating system produced by the Fedora Project, sponsored by Red Hat, Inc.

If you're familiar with Red Hat Linux, you've made the right choice in choosing Fedora Core—you'll feel right at home after you install this cutting-edge operating system. Many of the familiar software tools, utilities, and applications you previously enjoyed while using Red Hat's free Linux distributions are included with Fedora Core, along with a number of improvements and new software packages.

If you're new to Linux and to Sams Publishing Unleashed books about Linux, congratulations—you've picked one of the best books on the market about Fedora Core. Get ready for an exciting, safe, and productive journey as you read this book and install the included software.

This book provides information to match the latest developments found in Fedora, and as always, includes a free copy of the latest distribution on DVD and CD-ROM. Linux, the kernel of a free operating system, is no longer the new kid on the block as it has been available for more than 10 years now. Linux forms the core of a stable, mature, and secure operating system. From embedded devices (such as PDAs) to laptops, desktops to servers, and mainframes to new Itanium CPUs, Linux continues to be in the vanguard and a major force in the free software marketplace.

Make no mistake: While Linux has been deployed in many corporate and enterprise-level environments, it is also steadily advancing toward use on millions of desktops. Thousands of open-source programmers around the world improve, test, and update the Linux kernel and Linux-related software packages. Their efforts have contributed much to the success of Linux for many different types of users. Fedora Core incorporates many of these software packages, along with the latest stable version of the Linux kernel. This means that you put Fedora to work right away.

This book contains everything you need to plan, install, configure, maintain, administer, rebuild, and use Fedora. You can use this software at school, at home, or in the workplace. You can also make as many copies of Fedora as you want and freely give away those copies to anyone interested in using Linux.

After an introduction to Red Hat, Inc., and the Fedora Core project, you'll see to how to set up and plan for an install. You'll then get step-by-step directions on how to install Fedora in a variety of ways. Following directions on configuration, you'll be introduced to basic system administration, followed by instructions on advanced administration techniques and concepts. A section on programming, productivity, and multimedia rounds out the host of skills you'll acquire and learn when you use this book. Keep in mind however, that this book assumes you have at least some experience with using a computer operating system.

What Is Linux?

Linux is the core, or kernel, of a free operating system first developed and released to the world by Linus Benedict Torvalds in 1991. Torvalds, then a graduate student at the University of Helsinki, Finland, is now a Fellow at the Open Source Development Lab (http://www.osdl.org). He is an engineer, and had previously worked for the CPU design and fabrication company, Transmeta, Inc. Fortuitously for all Linux users, Torvalds chose to distribute Linux under a free software license named the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Note - To learn more about Linus and how Linux grew from a hobby to a major movement in the software industry, read Just for Fun, by Linus Torvalds and David Diamond (HarperCollins, 2001).

The GNU GPL is the brainchild of Richard M. Stallman, the founder of the Free Software Foundation. Stallman, the famous author of the emacs editing environment and gcc compiler system, crafted the GPL to ensure that covered software would always be free and available in source code form. The GPL is the guiding document for Linux and its ownership, distribution, and copyright. Torvalds holds the rights to the Linux trademark, but thanks to a combination of his generosity, the Internet, thousands of programmers around the world, GNU software, and the GNU GPL, Linux will remain forever free and unencumbered by licensing or royalty issues. See the later section "Licensing" to learn more about the GNU GPL and other software licenses.

Linux, pronounced "lih-nucks," is free software. Combining the Linux kernel with GNU software tools—drivers, utilities, user interfaces, and other software such as The X.Org Foundation's X11R6 7.0 X Window System—creates a Linux distribution. There are many different Linux distributions from different vendors, but many are derived from or closely mimic Red Hat, Inc.'s distribution of Linux, Red Hat Linux.

Note - After you install Fedora, you can use the play command to hear how Linus pronounces "Linux." Use the command, along with a directory and file specification, known as a pathname, like this:
$ play /usr/share/sndconfig/sample.au

What Is Fedora Core?

Fedora Core, or more simply, Fedora, is an operating system based on the Linux kernel, created, improved, and distributed by the Fedora Project at http://fedora.redhat.com. The Fedora Project, sponsored by Red Hat, Inc., is an open source project supported by a worldwide community of software developers. Although Fedora is not supported by Red Hat, Inc., it incorporates improvements made to the Linux kernel and helps contribute to Red Hat, Inc.'s commercial Linux distributions and software. At the same time, Fedora also benefits from improvements made by Red Hat software engineers to Red Hat's products. Despite this symbiotic relationship however, Fedora Core is a free operating system, built entirely from free software, and is guided by a process open to all free software developers.

Roots of Red Hat and Fedora

In 1994, Marc Ewing and Bob Young combined forces to create Red Hat (named after a Cornell University lacrosse team hat) in order to develop, release, and market an easily installed, easily managed, and easy-to-use Linux distribution. Five years later, Durham, N.C.–based Red Hat, Inc. would have one of the most successful initial public offerings (IPOs) on the stock market. In 2001, Red Hat introduced a line of products aimed at the corporate and enterprise markets, and created versions of its Red Hat Linux distributions and associated software in a product line known as Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Additional software, services, and distributions were added to the product over the next several years, such as the Advanced Server (with support for seven different CPU architectures), ES for small- to mid-range enterprise use, and WorkStation (WS) releases.

Following the release of Red Hat Linux 9 in mid-2003, Red Hat, Inc. announced that it was discontinuing the sale of consumer-based Linux distributions. Previously, the distributions had been available in boxed sets with manuals on store shelves or in CD-ROM image format for free download over the Internet. Red Hat, Inc. then created the Fedora Project and formally opened its new home on October 22, 2003.

Note - Shortly after discontinuing the free and boxed consumer distributions, Red Hat, Inc. announced a new Linux distribution named Red Hat Linux Professional Workstation. The distribution includes eight CD-ROMs of software and source code, along with installation, administration, reference, and safety (security) manuals, a Java development kit, 30 days of install support, and one year of updates via the customer-exclusive Red Hat Network. The distribution is based on Red Hat's Enterprise Linux WS release, and is slated to retail for $95. For more information, browse to http://www.redhat.com/software/workstation/.

Today, the company, based in Raleigh, N.C., has grown from a handful of employees to more than 600 in 22 locations around the world.

Red Hat, Inc. was one of the first companies to adopt, promote, and use open source as a business model for supporting development, technical service, support, and sales of free software to the computer industry. Its business practices have spawned a shift in paradigm of proprietary attitudes prevalent in the monopolistic software industry, and the company is a role model and business leader in the open source movement. You learn more about Red Hat, Inc. and Fedora Core in Chapter 1, "Introducing Fedora."

Caution - The Fedora Core CD-ROM and DVD distribution included with this book is not supported by Red Hat, Inc. If you want technical support when using a Red Hat release, purchase a copy from Red Hat, Inc. at
http://www.redhat.com
You can also call to order. In the U.S., call
1-888-REDHAT1 (1-888-733-4281)
Elsewhere in the world, call
+1-919-754-3700
Red Hat is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc. Linux is a trademark owned by Linus Torvalds.
Do NOT contact Red Hat, Inc. for any type of support when using or attempting to install the software included with this book. Although every effort has been made to ensure that information in this book matches the included software, you should instead contact Sams Publishing for any problems related to the CD-ROMs contained in this book:
http://www.samspublishing.com/software/
Only users who purchase the "official" Red Hat Linux products from Red Hat, Inc., are entitled to support from Red Hat.

If you purchase an official Red Hat Linux distribution from Red Hat, Inc., you may find commercial software included on the distribution's CD-ROMs or DVD. These software packages are often included as an enticement to purchase more feature-laden or corporate versions, but you should carefully read any accompanying licensing agreements and be careful to not make unauthorized copies.

Licensing

Software licensing is an important issue for all computer users, and can entail moral, legal, and financial considerations. Many consumers think that purchasing a copy of a commercial or proprietary operating system, productivity application, utility, or game conveys ownership, but this not is true. In the majority of cases, the End User License Agreement, or EULA, included with a commercial software package, will state that you have only paid for the right to use the software according to specific terms. This generally means that you may not examine, make copies, share, resell, or transfer ownership of the software package. More onerous software licenses enforce terms that preclude you from distributing or publishing comparative performance reviews of the software. Even more insidious licensing schemes (and supporting legislation, especially in the United States), contain provisions allowing onsite auditing of the software's use!

This is not the case with the software included with this book. Although you cannot resell copies of this book's CD-ROMs labeled as "Red Hat Linux" (Red Hat is a trademark of Red Hat, Inc.), you are entirely free to make copies, share them with friends, and install the software on as many computers as you want—we encourage you to purchase additional copies of this book to give them as gifts, however. Make sure to read the file named README on the first CD-ROM included with this book for important information regarding the included software and disk contents. Look under the /usr/share/apps/LICENSES directory after you install Fedora to find a copy of the GNU GPL (along with copies of other software licenses). You'll see that the GPL provides unrestricted freedom to use, duplicate, share, study, modify, improve, and even sell software.

You can put your copy of Fedora to work right away in your home or at your place of business without having to worry about software licensing, per-seat workstation or client licenses, software auditing, royalty payments, or any other types of payments to third parties. However, you should be aware that although much of the software included with Fedora is licensed under the GPL, some packages on this book's CD-ROMs are licensed under other terms. There is a variety of related software licenses, and many software packages fall under a broad definition known as open source. Some of these include the Artistic License, the BSD License, the Mozilla Public License, and the Q Public License.

For additional information about the various GNU software licenses, browse to http://www.gnu.org. For a definition of open source and licensing guidelines, along with links to the terms of nearly three dozen different open-source licenses, browse to http://www.opensource.org/.

Why Use Linux?

Millions of savvy computer users have been putting Linux to work for more than 10 years now. Over the last year, many individuals, small office/home office (SOHO) users, businesses, corporations, colleges, nonprofits, and local, state, and federal agencies in a number of countries have incorporated Linux with great success. And today, Linux is being incorporated into many IS/IT environments as part of improvements in efficiency, security, and cost savings. Using Linux is a good idea for a number of reasons. These reasons include

Linux provides an excellent return on investment, or ROI. There is little or no cost on a "per-seat" basis. Unlike commercial operating systems, Linux has no royalty or licensing fees, and a single Linux distribution on CD-ROM can form the basis of an enterprisewide software distribution, replete with applications and productivity software. Custom corporate CD-ROMs can be easily crafted to provide specific installs on enterprisewide hardware. This feature alone can save hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in Information Service/Information...

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