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Chapter 4 . Learning Basic Administration 129 Figure 4-2: See services that start from each run level in the Service Configuration window. . Bootloader If you have multiple operating systems on your computer, or multiple Linux kernels available to boot in Linux, you can use the Boot Configuration screen to choose which to boot by default. For example, you might have Fedora Linux, SUSE, and Windows XP all on the same hard disk. You could choose which would start automatically (after a set number of seconds), if one wasn t selected explicitly. . Date & Time Set the date and time or choose to have an NTP server keep system time in sync. . Disk Management Mount and format removable media, such as CDs and floppy disks. . Display Change the settings for your X desktop, including color depth and resolution for your display. You can also choose settings for your video card and monitor. . Hardware Browser View information about your computer s hardware. . Internet Configuration Wizard Create initial configurations for connecting to the Internet via Ethernet, ISDN, modem, and other types of network equipment. . Keyboard Choose the type of keyboard you are using, based on language. . Kickstart Create a kickstart configuration file that can be used to install multiple Fedora systems without user interaction.
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128 Part II . Running the Show Red Hat Config Tools A set of graphical tools that comes with Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux systems can be launched from the Applications and Desktop menus (under the System Tools and System Settings submenus) or the command line. Most of the Red Hat tools that launch from the command line begin with the system-config string (such as system-config-network). In Fedora Core 1 and previous versions of Red Hat Linux, the GUI administrations tools all began with redhat-, such as redhat-config-network and redhatlogviewer. Starting with Fedora Core 2, those names have all changed tosystem-, resulting in names like system-config-network and system-logviewer. These administrative tasks require root permission; if you are logged in as a regular user, you must enter the root password before the GUI application s window opens. After you ve entered that password, most of the system configuration tools will open without requiring you to retype the password during this login session. Look for a keys icon in the lower-right corner of the panel, indicating that you have root authorization. Click the keys to open a pop-up window that enables you to remove authorization. Otherwise, authorization goes away when you close the GUI window. The following list describes many of the GUI-based windows you can use to administer your Fedora or Red Hat Linux system. Start these windows from the System Settings or System Tools submenus on your Applications and Desktop menus: . Server Settings Access the following server configuration windows: Domain Name System Create and configure zones if your computer is acting as a DNS server. HTTP Configure your computer as an Apache Web server. NFS Set up directories from your system to be shared with other computers on your network using the NFS service. Samba Configure Windows (SMB) file sharing. (To configure other Samba features, you can use the SWAT window.) Services Display and change which services are running on your Fedora system at different run levels from this Service Configuration window (see Figure 4-2). . Add/Remove Applications Manage software packages in the Fedora distribution. . Authentication Change how users are authenticated on your system. Usually, Shadow Passwords and MD5 Passwords are selected. However, if your network supports LDAP, Kerberos, SMB, NIS, or Hesiod authentication, you can select to use any of those authentication types. Note
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Chapter 4 . Learning Basic Administration 127 The Webmin Administration Tool The Webmin facility (www.webmin.com) offers more complete Web-based Linux and UNIX administration features. Although Webmin isn t delivered with some Linux systems that offer their own graphical administration tools (such as Red Hat s Fedora and RHEL), the Webmin project has ported Webmin to run in many different Linux distributions. Those distributions include SUSE, Red Hat (Fedora and RHEL), Debian, Slackware, Mandriva, Yellow Dog, and others (see www.webmin.com/ support.html for a complete list). Once you get Webmin from Webmin.com and install it, you can use Webmin from your Web browser. To start the Webmin interface, type the following in the Web browser s location box: http://localhost:10000 After you log in as root user, the main Webmin page displays, as shown in Figure 4-1. Figure 4-1: Webmin offers a Web browser interface for administering Linux. Graphical Administration with Different Distributions Some people fear that once they ve left the familiar confines of their Microsoft Windows system for Linux, they ll be stuck doing everything from a command line. To gain a wider audience, commercial Linux distributions such as Red Hat Linux and SUSE created their own sets of graphical tools to provide an easy entry point for new Linux users. The following sections describe Red Hat s system-config and SUSE s YaST graphical administration tools.
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126 Part II . Running the Show Using Web-Based Administration Web-based administration tools are available with many open source projects to make those projects more accessible to casual users. Often all you need to use those tools is a Web browser (such as Mozilla), the port number of the service, and the root password. Projects such as Samba and CUPS come with their own Web administration tools. Webmin is a general-purpose tool for administering a variety of Linux system services from your Web browser. The advantages of Web-based administration tools are that you can operate them from a familiar interface (your Web browser) and you can access them remotely. If the Linux distribution you are using comes with its own set of graphical administration tools (such as SUSE s YaST or Red Hat s system-config tools), you should generally use those instead of any Web-based interface that comes with a project because a distribution s own tools better integrate with its tools for starting and stopping services. Open Source Projects Offering Web Administration Several major open source projects come with Web-based interfaces for configuring those projects. Regardless of which Linux you are using, you can use your Web browser to configure the following projects: . Samba To set up Samba for doing file and printer sharing with Microsoft Windows systems on your LAN, use the Samba SWAT Web-based administration tools from any Web browser. With SWAT installed and running, you can access your Samba server configuration from your Web browser by typing the following URL in the location box: http://localhost:901 The Samba project also offers other graphical tools for administering Samba. You can check them out at http://samba.org/samba/GUI. For descriptions of these tools, see Chapters 26 and 27. . CUPS The Common UNIX Printing Service (CUPS) has its own Web administration tool. With CUPS installed and configured, you can typically use CUPS Web administration by typing the following URL in your Web browser s location box: http://localhost:631 You use the CUPS administration tool to manage printers and classes and do a variety of administration tasks. CUPS is described in Chapter 26. Samba and CUPS are included with many Linux distributions. Other projects that offer Web-based administration that may or may not be in your Linux distribution include SquirrelMail (a webmail interface) and Mailman (a mailing list facility). Note
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Learning Basic Administration Linux, like other UNIX systems, was intended for use by more than one person at a time. Multiuser features enable many people to have accounts on a single Linux system, with their data kept secure from others. Multitasking enables many people to run programs on the computer at the same time. Sophisticated networking protocols and applications make it possible for a Linux system to extend its capabilities to network users and computers around the world. The person assigned to manage all of this stuff is called the system administrator. Even if you are the only person using a Linux system, system administration is still set up to be separate from other computer use. To do most administrative tasks, you need to be logged in as the root user (also called the superuser) or temporarily get root permission. Users other than root cannot change, or in some cases even see, some of the configuration information for a Linux system. In particular, security features such as stored passwords are protected from general view. Because Linux system administration is such a huge topic, this chapter focuses on the general principles of Linux system administration. In particular, it examines some of the basic tools you need to administer a Linux system for a personal desktop or on a small LAN. Beyond the basics, this chapter also teaches you how to work with file systems and monitor the setup and performance of your Linux system. Graphical Administration Tools Many Linux systems come with simplified graphical tools for administering Linux. If you are a casual user, these tools often let you do everything you need to administer your system without editing configuration files or running shell commands. Let s examine some of the Web-based administration tools available to use with most Linux systems. C4H A P T E R . . . . In This Chapter Doing graphical administration Using the root login Understanding administrative commands, config files, and log files Creating user accounts Configuring hardware Managing file systems and disk space Monitoring system performance . . . .
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Running the Show . . . . In This Part Chapter 4 Learning Basic Administration Chapter 5 Getting on the Internet Chapter 6 Securing Linux . . . . P A R T IIII
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Chapter 3 . Getting into the Desktop 121 Getting More Information If you tried configuring X and you still have a server that crashes or has a garbled display, your video card may either be unsupported or may require special configuration. Here are a couple of locations you can check for further information: . X.Org (www.x.org) The latest information about the X servers that come with Fedora Core is available from the X.Org Web site. X.Org is the freeware version of X recently used by many major Linux distributions to replace the XFree86 X server. . X documentation README files specific to different types of video cards are delivered with the X.Org X server. Visit the X doc directory (/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/doc) for a README file specific to the type of video card (or more specifically, the video chipset) you are using. A lot of good information can also be found on the xorg.conf man page (type man xorg.conf). Summary Complete desktop environments that run in Linux can rival desktop systems from any operating system. KDE and GNOME are the most popular desktop environments available today for Linux. For people who want a sleeker, more lightweight desktop environment, a variety of simple window managers (Blackbox, FVWM, twm, FluxBox, and many others) are available to use in Linux as well. The KDE desktop is well known for its large set of integrated applications (office productivity tools, games, multimedia, and other applications). GNOME has the reputation of being a more basic, business-oriented desktop. Most Linux distributions such as Slackware and Gentoo offer GNOME and KDE desktops that aren t changed much from how they are delivered from those desktop projects. Other Linux systems (such as Red Hat) put their own look-and-feel over GNOME and KDE desktops. While the latest Windows systems won t run on many older 486 and Pentium machines, you can use an efficient Linux system such as Slackware, add a lightweight window manager, and get reasonably good performance with your desktop system on those machines. . . .
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120 Part I . Linux First Steps window). It also includes an icon bar and adds some useful mouse features (such as using your mouse wheel to change workspaces). . Window Maker (www.windowmaker.org) Window Maker is a clone of the NEXTSTEP graphical interface, a popular UNIX workstation of the 1980s and 1990s. It is a particularly attractive window manager, with support for themes, various window decorations, and features for changing backgrounds, animations, and adding applets (called docapps). . FVWM (www.fvwm.org) This window manager supports full internationalization, window manager hints, and improved font features. Interesting features include window shading in all directions (even diagonal) and side titles (including text displayed vertically). . FVWM-95 (http://fvwm95.sourceforge.net) A version of FVWM that was created to look and feel like Windows 95. . Twm (Tabbed Window Manager) Although no longer actively maintained, some people still use twm when they want a truly bare-bones desktop. Until you click the left mouse button in twm, there s nothing on the screen. Use the menu that pops up to open and close windows. There are many other window managers available for Linux as well. To check out some more, visit the Xwinman Web site (www.plig.org/xwinman). Once the system default is set for your window manager, users can set their own window manager to override that decision. The following section describes how to do that. Choosing Your Personal Window Manager Simply adding an exec line with the name of the window manager you want to use to your own .xinitrc file in your home directory causes startx to start that window manager for you. Here is an example of the contents of a .xinitrc to start the Window Maker window manager: exec /usr/bin/wmaker Make sure that the file is executable (chmod 755 $HOME/.xinitrc). The Window Maker window manager should start the next time you start your desktop. Other window managers you can choose include Blackbox (/usr/X11R6/bin/blackbox), FluxBox (/usr/X11R6/bin/fluxbox), FVWM (/usr/X11R6/bin/fluxbox), FVWM- 95 (/usr/X11R6/bin/fvwm95), and twm (/usr/X11R6/bin/twm).
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Chapter 3 . Getting into the Desktop 119 . $HOME/.xinitrc The .xinitrc file is used to let individual users set up their own desktop startup information. Any user can add a .xinitrc file to his or her own home directory. The result is that the contents of that file will override any system-wide settings. If you do create your own .xinitrc file, it should have as its last line exec windowmanager, where windowmanager is the name of your window manager; for example: exec /usr/X1R6/bin/blackbox Slackware has at least seven different window managers from which you can choose, making it a good place to try out a few. It also includes a tool called xwmconfig, which lets you change the window manager system-wide (in the /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc file). To use that tool, as the root user simply type xwmconfig from any shell on a Slackware system. Figure 3-15 shows an example of that screen. Figure 3-15: In Slackware, you can change window managers using the xwmconfig command. Select the window manager you want to try from that screen and select OK. That window manager will start the next time you run startx (provided you don t override it by creating your own .xinitrc file). Here are your choices: . Xfce (www.xfce.org) The xfce window manager is designed to be lightweight and fast. . Blackbox (www.blackboxwm.sourceforge.net) Another lightweight window manager that strives to require few library dependencies so it can run in many environments. Offers many features for setting colors and styles. . FluxBox (http://fluxbox.sourceforge.net) Based on Blackbox (0.61.1), FluxBox adds nice features such as window tabs (where you can join together multiple windows so they appear as multiple tabs on a single
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118 Part I . Linux First Steps . Video device The Device section is where you identify the driver to use with your video driver and any options to use with it. It s important to get this section right. The Xorg command described earlier usually does a good job detecting the driver. If you want to change to a different one, this is where to do so. Here s an example of the Device section after I added a video driver from NVIDIA to my system (the driver name is nv): Section Device Identifier Card0 Driver nv VendorName nVidia Corporation BoardName Unknown Board BusID PCI:1:0:0 EndSection . Screen resolution The last major piece of information you may want to add is the screen resolution and color depth. There will be a screen resolution associated with each video card installed on your computer. The Screen section defines default color depths (such as 8, 16, or 24) and modes (such as 1024 768, 800 600, or 640 480). Set the DefaultDepth to the number of bits representing color depth for your system, and then add a Modes line to set the screen resolution. To read more about how to set options in your xorg.conf file, type man xorg.conf. If your X server is XFree86, type man XF86Config. Choosing a Window Manager Fully integrated desktop environments have become somewhat unfriendly to changing out window managers. However, you can completely bypass KDE or GNOME, if you like, and start your desktop simply with X and a window manager of your choice. Although I m using Slackware as the reference distribution for describing how to change window managers, the concept is the same on other Linux systems. In general, if no desktop environment is running in Linux, you can start it by typing the following: $ startx This command starts up your desktop environment or window manager, depending on how your system is configured. Although a variety of configuration files are read and commands are run, essentially which desktop you get depends on the contents of two files: . /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc If a user doesn t specifically request a particular desktop environment or window manager, the default desktop settings will come from the contents of this file. The xinitrc file is the system-wide X configuration file. Different Linux systems use different xinitrc files.
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