LINUX? Configuration and Installation (The M&t Books Slackware Series) - Softcover

Volkerding, Patrick; Reichard, Kevin; Foster-Johnson, Eric

9780764570056: LINUX? Configuration and Installation (The M&t Books Slackware Series)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0764570056 ISBN 13: 9780764570056

Publisher: Wiley, 1998

Slackware Creator Patrick Volkerding Shows You How to Build Your Own System Harness the power of Linux with step-by-step explanations straight from the creator of one of its most popular distributions. Complete with Slackware 3.5 and new coverage of specific installation and configuration topics, Linux Configuration and Installation, 4th Edition brings you everything you need, short of a PC, to get you up and running in no time. Inside, You'll Learn How to:

Prepare your PC for Linux
Install and configure Linux for your system
Set up XFree86
Master the basic Linux tools and applications
Manage your system for maximum performance
Leverage resources with a Linux network
Expand your system with telecommunications capabilities
Connect to the Internet with Linux
Develop Linux applications using C, Make, Java, Tcl, Perl, and Gawk

Get Slackware 3.5 Free, including:

Kernels for most major PC hardware configurations — including support for IDE/EIDE, SCSI, PCMCIA cards, tape drives, sound boards, network cards, Jaz and Zip drives, and CD-ROMs
Full set of installation tools — including easy-to-use menus and tools for upgrading
Three installation methods — traditional Linux installation via bootdisks and rootdisks, direct installation onto a Zip drive or other DOS partition, and direct installation from the bootable installation CD-ROM
Complete installation of XFree86 3.3.2 system — including installation and configuration utilities, window managers (fvwm, fvwm-95, twm, olvwm), and X servers for most graphics cards
Full TCP/IP connectivity for the Internet, corporate networks, and intranets
Netscape Communicator, with Web-browsing, electronic-mail, collaborative, and newsgroup capabilities
Complete ANSI C and C++ programming suites
Various Unix shells — including the Bourne Again Shell (bash), tcsh, and more
Tools for connecting your PC to the Internet and to online services with PPP, SLIP, CSLIP, UUCP, dip, mailx, and dialup serial programs
Other Internet applications — including electronic mail (pine and elm), Web browsers (Arena and Lynx), Usenet newsreaders (cnews, nn, tin, trn, and inn) and FTP
All major GNU commands and applications — including GNU Emacs 20.2
Multimedia tools for working with images files and MIME
Internet servers — including the Apache HTTP Web server, sendmail, and an FTP server
Terminal applications — including Midnight Commander and the sc spreadsheet
A full set of programming tools — egcs-1.0.3 (gcc-2.8 based C/C++/f77/Objective-C compiler from egcs.cygnus.com), make (GNU and BSD), byacc and GNU bison, flex, 5.4.44 C libraries, gdb, SVGAlib, ncurses, gcl (LISP), p2c, m4, perl, python, rcs
Text-editing and text-formatting tools — including elvis, vm, jed, joe, jove, pico, gross TeX, info) as well as hundreds of fonts
Full suite of X Window applications — including Ghostscript, xlock, libgr, seyon, workman, xfilemanager, xv 3.10a, GNU chess and xboard, xfm 1.3.2, ghostview, gnuplot, xpaint, xfractint, and various X games.
Support for iBCS, which allow binaries created on other x86 UNIX variants to run under Linux
X Window programming and usage tools — X11 server linkkit, static libraries, PEX support, xview3.2p1-X11R6 (XView libraries), the Open Look virtual and nonvirtual window managers for XFree86
Various applications and add-ons — the manual pages, groff, ispell, joe, jed, jove, ghostscript, sc, bc, and the quota patches
A collection of FAQs and other documentation
Tcl, Tk, and TcIX, built with ELF shared libraries and dynamic loading support, as well as the TkDesk file manager
The BSD games collection — Koules, Lizards, and Sasteroids

Shareware programs are fully functional, free trial versions of copyrighted programs. If you like particular programs, register with their authors for a nominal fee and receive licenses, enhanced versions, and technical support. Freeware programs are free, copyrighted games, applications, and utilities. You can copy them to as many PCs as you like—free—but they have no technical support.

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Review:

This book provides everything you would expect, but little more; however, Linux Configuration & Installation provides it so authoritatively that there's no doubt about completeness or accuracy. Because one of the authors, Patrick Volkerding, created Slackware Linux, this documentation of his own Linux flavor is good.

The authors begin by helping you decide if your machine's hardware will cooperate with Linux. They then show you how to install Slackware Linux 3.2 and get it to recognize your hardware. The authors detail how to install XFree86 (X Windows for Linux) and give more customization advice than most other authors of Linux books do. Other chapter topics include managing files; applications, such as elvis and a vi port for Linux; system administration; and Internet services. While these chapters aren't command references, they do show users how to get into the proper frame of mind for doing things with Slackware Linux and impart some command facts along the way.

The best features of this book are its two CD-ROMs. Not only do they contain Slackware Linux 3.2, ready to install, but also XFree86, lots of hardware drivers, a bunch of compilers, and some games and miscellaneous utilities. You'll play with this stuff for days.

About the Author:

About the Authors: Patrick Volkerding is the creator of Slackware, the highly praised distribution of Linux. Kevin Reichard and Eric Foster-Johnson are Unix and Internet experts and veteran computer book authors. They have written top-selling books on Unix, including Unix in Plain English and Teach Yourself Unix. Foster-Johnson's Cross-Platform Perl and Graphical Applications with Tcl and Tk have paved the way for many an Internet programmer.

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