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Chapter 1 – Introduction and Objectives 1.1 Introduction Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed by anyone under the terms of the GNU GPL and other free licenses. Linux is predominantly known for its use in servers, although it is installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from embedded devices and mobile phones to supercomputers. Linux distributions, installed on both desktop and laptop computers, have become increasingly common place in recent years, partly owing to the popular Ubuntu distribution and the emergence of net books. The name "Linux" comes from the Linux kernel, originally written in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. The rest of the system usually comprises components such as the Apache HTTP Server, the X Window System, the K Desktop Environment, and utilities and libraries from the GNU operating system (announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman). Commonly-used applications with desktop Linux systems include the Mozilla Firefox web-browser and the OpenOffice.org office application suite. The GNU contribution is the basis for the Free Software Foundation's preferred name GNU/Linux. (1) Mandriva Linux (formerly Mandrake Linux) is a Linux operating system distributed by Mandriva (formerly Mandrake soft). It uses the RPM Package Manager. The product lifetime of Mandriva Linux releases is 18 months for base updates (operating system, system

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software etc.) and 12 months for desktop updates (window managers, desktop environments, web browsers etc.) . Server products receive full updates for at least 24 months after their release. The Author is going to install the Mandriva Linux and he/she going to explain the function of the software their and tell us more about using Mandriva Linux. (2)

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1.2 Problem Background  Other Operating System like Microsoft Windows is the common target of a Virus.  The Drive C in Microsoft Windows is the first target of a Virus.

1.3 Objectives  Linux is a virus free Operating System  Linux is free; you can download it easily to a net

1.4 Advantages of Linux  Linux is one of the most secure operating systems. “Walls” and flexible file access permission systems prevent access by unwanted visitors or viruses. Linux users have to option to select and safely download software, free of charge, from online repositories containing thousands of high quality packages. No purchase transactions requiring credit card numbers or other sensitive personal information are necessary.  Downloadable  Can use as a Server in the Company or Internet Shop  Doesn’t need to be rebooted periodically to maintain performance levels. It doesn’t

freeze up or slow down over time due to memory leaks and such. Continuous uptimes of hundreds of days (up to a year or more) are not uncommon.

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 Provides persistent high performance on workstations and on networks. It can handle

unusually large numbers of users simultaneously, and can make old computers sufficiently responsive to be useful again.  If you develop software that requires knowledge or modification of the operating

system code, Linux source code is at your fingertips. Most Linux applications are Open Source as well. 1.5 Disadvantages of Linux  Linux is going to take some time to learn. Limited of person have knowledge in using

this type of Operating System.  There some applications do not exist in Linux.  Some of the latest and greatest hardware that is being produced is not compatible with Linux.

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Chapter 2 – Installing of Linux and Configuration of LILO 2.1 Factors to be consider during installation All recent systems can boot from a CD-ROM, configure your computer to boot from the CD, insert the 1st CD (or the DVD), boot the system and follow the on-screen instructions. The installer asks you some simple questions regarding the desired language, keyboard layout (if applicable), security level, disk partitioning scheme and package selection; it is usually safe to accept the defaults proposed. You can install Mandriva Linux alongside other operating systems, such as Windows®, or other versions of Linux. Have the documentation for those OSes handy and make sure you: 1. Backup existing data. This is always the safest choice to ensure no data is lost. 2. Defragment the disk. This is mostly needed with all variants of Windows®. Linux file systems have very little fragmentation, so there is no need to defragment them. 3. Make room for Mandriva Linux. 10 GB can be enough depending on what you want to do with it. Note that the installer itself can resize existing installations of Windows® and Linux without the risk of losing data.

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Once Mandriva Linux is installed, and the system is restarted, a menu appears from which you can select the operating system to start: use the arrow keys to highlight the one you want, and then press Enter to boot it. (3)

2.2 Installation Process Start Installation

Select the language you want to use

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Accept the licence

Choose the security level, which is better to put in standard if you are planning to use Mandriva for the house use, and to surf the web.

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Also in this step you need to choose the administrator login or email.

Select where you want to install the system, in the free space of the disk, or if you want to manually work with partitions, in my case was in a new disk so I selected free space.

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Select the software you want to install; I have also selected individual package selection, as I want to select some programs that are not automatically selected.

I choose here to install Thunderbird as it is my favorite email reader.

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Here I select to install gFTP it is a great FTP client, you can continue selecting the software you need.

On this screen you see a warning that the server cups is going to be installed, this is the print server, so other machines can print on your printers.

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Enter twice the root password; choose a strong password, better with letters, number and special characters

Add your user.

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If you need to add another user you can do it here.

Select if you want or not to be automatically logged on your PC, and also your preferred windows manager.

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Select your screen resolution.

Select your time zone.

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Choose the time server you want to use (you will need to be connected to the internet to sync your pc clock to the servers clock, but is recommended to have your time accurate.

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Check for updates or not, I prefer not to do it at that time and do it later, but that could be risky if you are on the internet with no firewall protection, as you PC will go live with out the latest security updates.

Now you have it installed, and you can start enjoying your new Mandriva Linux

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(4)

2.3 Post Installation Issue  There was no CD burner software installed. Yes, it is in the repos but how can something so basic be missing from the default install. What will a person without Internet access do?  MP4 movies did not play on either Dragon Player or Movie Player. This was

expected, but they did not play well even after installing the codecs. Fortunately there was a mention about this in the errata and could get things playing now.  There was no notification when I used the volume controls placed in the front of my

Dell Inspiron 6400. The volume actually reduces, but I have no idea to check the current volume using these buttons. The volume control in the system tray shows only the PCM volume. Can PCM and the Front volume be synced somehow as it is done in Ubuntu? [Update: I actually figured this out. Right click on the speaker icon from the

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system tray and click on Select Master Channel. Select Front and then click on OK. Now the speaker volume levels increase or decrease every couple of key presses. But not for every press]  One positive thing I noticed is Mandriva never crashed at any time. I never had to do a hard boot anytime in the past three days.  You have to manually install the printer setup program (system-config-printer). This is something that should be included by default, not just included in the special pay version of Mandriva. Once installed, it eventually found my printer, and I was able to print successfully.  The system prompts you with confusing and dangerous messages. After doing a

security update through the graphical utility, urpmi prompted that there were orphan utilities that could be removed by typing “urpme –auto-orphans”. Well, thats bizarre, shouldn’t the package management tool do that auto-magically? So, I did it manually, and by doing so, installed most of KDE 4.1 – woops.(5)

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Chapter 3 - Create Users and Groups Launching UserDrake will display the main window which lists the users currently defined on the system. You can switch from users to groups by clicking on the Groups tab next to the Users tab. (6) 3.1 The User List in UserDrake

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3.2 Adding a New User in the System

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3.3 Adding Users to a Group

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The dialog is made of the following tabs: User Data -

Allows you to modify information provided when the user was created.

Account Info -

Enables you to provide an expiration date for that account, after which the user won't be able to connect to the system. This is useful for temporary accounts. It's also possible to temporarily lock an account to prevent a user from logging in. Finally, this tab allows you to change the icon associated with the user.

Password Info -

Allows you to provide a password expiration date, after which the user will be required to change his password.

Groups -

Shows the list of available groups where you can select the groups to which any user should belong.

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Chapter 4 – Policies Setting 4.1 Modifying Standard Options (7)

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4.2 Delegating Rights

This tab is used to allow users to perform tasks normally reserved to the system administrator

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4.3 Configuring File-Permission Checks

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4.4 Adding a File-Permissions Rule

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Chapter 5 – Common Linux Commands, Text Editor and Web Browsers 5.1 The listing and description of Linux common commands The following is a list of commonly used LINUX/UNIX commands which may be of value during your Telnet sessions. Remember that LINUX/UNIX is case sensitive. Options or flags which can be used with a command are placed in [ ]. The [ ] are not part of the command and should not be included in the command that you type. (8) Linux Command

Description

login username

allows you to login for a Telnet session

passwd

changes your password

logout

logs you out of a Telnet session

cd

change directory; cd .. moves you backwards to the next higher subdirectory level; cd / moves you to the highest directory level

chmod permissions filenames

changes the permissions for a file; permissions should include a letter designating who gets permissions (u for the user, g for the group, o for others, or a for all) followed by a + or - (to give or take away the permission) followed by the kind of permission (r for read access, w for write access, x for execute if the file is a program or script); the complete command that you type should look like: chmod g-w filename

chown user:group filenames

changes ownership of a file

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clear

clears the screen

cp oldfiles newfiles

copies a file; this leaves the old file intact and makes a new

date

copy with a new filename tells you the current date and time

df

displays how much space on the disks (harddrive partitions)

du [-a] [-s] directories

is free tells you how much disk space your files occupy; the -a option displays the space used by each file, not just each directory; the -s option displays the total space used for each

finger

directory but not subdirectory provides information concerning a user; finger without the

username@servername

username@servername will provide information concerning

help

who is using the server at that time rovides online help; several topics have been included in the

ls [-l] [-a] [-p] [-r] [-t] [-x]

help system available on the servers lists the files in a directory; -l displays detailed informtion about each file and directory, including persmissions, owners, size and time/date when the file was last modified; -a option displays all the files and subdirectories including hidden files (with names that begin with a dot); -p displays a slash at the end of each directory name to distinquish them from filenames; -r displays files in reverse order; -t displays files in order of modification time; -x displays the filenames

lynx servername or URL

in columns across the screen. Lynx is a text-based, non-graphical web brower for use in

man [-k keywords] topic

Telnet session displays the reference manual page about a LINUX command; the -k keywords option allows you to see all man

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pages that contain that keyword; topic is the command or mesg [n|y]

topic which you want information about lets you control whether other people can use the talk command to interrupt you with on-screen messaging; mesg n

mkdir new_directory

will block the interruptions; mesg y will allow interruptions makes a new subdirectory with the name specified by

mv [-i] oldname newname

new_directory renames a file or moves it from one filename or directory to another; the -i option tells mv to prompt you before it

nslookup IP address or

replaces an existing filename provides conversion of an IP address to an alias of a

server alias

computer if it is registered in DNS (Domain Name Service)

pine

or will provide the IP address for an alias a program which allows you to read and send mail; information concerning the use of pine can be found elsewhere in the documentation or by reading the online

ping IP address or server

manual pages for pine ( man pine ) sends a ping packet to another server; this provides

alias

information concerning the time it takes for information to make the round trip to the other computer; it will also tell

ps

you whether the other server is on-line at that time displays information about your processes/jobs/programs

rm [-i] [-r] filenames

which are running on the server removes or deletes files; the -i option asks you to confirm that you want to delete each file; the -r option is dangerous because it allow you to delete an entire directory and all of

rmdir directory

the files it contains removes a directory; you can use the -i and -r options which are described in the rm command

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rmdir directory

removes a directory; you can use the -i and -r options which

tail [-r] [-lines] filename

are described in the rm command displays the last few lines of a file; -r displays the lines in reverse order; -lines specifies the number of lines, starting at

talk username@servername

the end of the file, you want to see allows you to talk to another user by typing messages to each other on-screen; to prevent someone from talking to you, see

touch [-a] [-c] [-m] [date]

the mesg n command changes the date and time for a file without changing the

filenames

content of the file; -a changes onlyt the date and time the file was last accessed; -c doesn't create a file if it does not already exist; -m changes only the date and time the file was last modified; date specifies the date and time to give the file in the mmddhhnn format (month, day, hour, minute); touch

traceroute IP address or

with a new filename with create a new, empty file. provides information concerning the route which packets

server alias

must take to get from your computer (the server in this case) to a remote computer/server; typically used to diagnose

vi

possible problems in packet routing VI is a text editor. Further information concerning the editing

w

commands for VI can be found in the help document. provides information concerning who is logged into the

who

system and some details on how they are connected tells you who is using the server at that time

write username

sends a message to another person using the system; to prevent someone from writing to you, see the mesg n command

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5.2 Web browsers and text editors supported and the explanation of them 5.2.1 Web Browser Launch Firefox by selecting Internet+Firefox Web Browser from the main menu.

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The main components of Firefox's interface are: Page Display Area. Where the contents of the pages you browse are displayed. Navigation Buttons and Location Bar. Buttons allowing you to move around pages you visit: go back, go forward; refresh a page; stop loading page elements; and go to your home page. The location bar is where you enter a web site's URL (or a local file using file:// as the protocol part of the URL). Bookmarks Toolbar. You can add manage displayed bookmarks by right-clicking on the bar. Search Bar. Located at the upper-right corner, it allows you to perform web searches, dictionary searches, and others. (9) 5.2.2 Tab Browsing One of Firefox's most convenient features is the ability to browse many websites at the same time, without being confused by lots of open windows. Each website is opened in a new tab. This is called “tabbed browsing”. (10)

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5.3 Text Editor Pico is a text editor for Unix and Unix-based computer systems. It is integrated with the Pine e-mail client, which was designed by the Office of Computing and Communications at the University of Washington. (11)

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Chapter 6 – X Windows System, Desktop Environment and Desktop Application/Tools 6.1 Explaining About X Windows

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The X Window System (commonly X or X11) is a computer software system and network protocol that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for networked computers, and was initially developed as part of Project Athena. It implements the X display protocol and provides windowing on raster graphics (bitmap) computer displays and manages keyboard and pointing device control functions. In its standard distribution, it is a complete, albeit simple, display and human interface solution, but also delivers a standard toolkit and protocol stack for building graphical user interfaces on most Unix-like operating systems and OpenVMS, and has been ported to many other contemporary general purpose operating systems. Desktop environments such as OpenWindows, CDE, GNOME, KDE, and Xfce, use the X Window System. (12)

6.2 Desktop Environment KDE (K Desktop Environment) is a free software project based around its flagship product, a desktop environment mainly for Unix-like systems. The goal of the project is to provide basic desktop functions and applications for daily needs as well as tools and

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documentation for developers to write stand-alone applications for the system. In this regard, the KDE project serves as an umbrella project for many standalone applications and smaller projects that are based on KDE technology. These include KOffice, KDevelop, Amarok, K3b and many others. KDE software is based on the Qt toolkit. The original GPL version of this toolkit only existed for the X11 platform, but with the release of Qt 4, GPL versions are available for all platforms. This allows KDE software based on Qt 4 to also be distributed to Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. (13)

6.3 Desktop Application/Tools A desktop environment is a set of software for operating a computer in a graphical way. It is composed of the environment itself (dashboards, icons, menus, file manager, etc.),

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software to configure the environment, and software for routine tasks (office software, CD burning, filing photos, playing videos and DVDs, accounting, games, and more...), to use your computer immediately after installation. Mandriva Linux can handle multiple environments on the same machine, and the environments do not conflict with each other, so there are no additional difficulties with installing multiple environments. Installing a new desktop environment is very simple. The environment you'd like to use for each session can then be chosen from the login screen. Each user can select and use the environment they prefer.

Chapter 7 – Others 7.1 Mandriva Packaging Manager

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Software Management in the Mandriva Linux Control Center (14)

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7.2 Troubleshooting Linux: basic problems and possible solutions 1. 1. How Do I Remove (or Change) the Colors in the ls Display?

Ans. If ls is displaying in color and you haven't told it to, you probably have an alias configured for it. Some distributions ship this way by default. The shell command, unalias ls, should completely unset the configuration that some distributions provide as standard. To permanently make this change, check your initialization script, .bashrc. 2. Why Won't a Program Work in the Current Directory? Ans. Because the current directory (i.e.,) is not in the search path, for security reasons, as well as to insure that the correct program versions are used. If an intruder is able to write a file to a world-writable directory, like /tmp, presumably he or she would be able to execute it if the directory were in the search path. The solution to this is to include the directory in the command; e.g.,/myprog, instead of myprog. Or add the current directory to your PATH environment variable; e.g., export PATH=".:"$PATH using bash, although this is discouraged for the reasons mentioned above. 3. How Do I Find Out If a Notebook Runs Linux? Ans. There's no fixed answer to this question, because notebook hardware is constantly updated, and getting the X display, sound, PCMCIA, modem, and so forth, working, can take a good deal of effort.

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Most notebooks currently on the market, for example, use "Winmodems," which often do not work with Linux because of their proprietary hardware interfaces. Even notebooks which are certified as "Linux compatible," may not be completely compatible. 4. Can I Resume an Interrupted Download? Ans. You can use the reget command of the standard ftp client program after reconnecting to pick up where you left off. Clients like ncftp support resumed FTP downloads, and wget supports resumed FTP and HTTP downloads. (15)

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Reference: 1. Title: Linux

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux 2. Title: Mandriva Linux

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandriva_Linux 3. Title: Mastering Mandriva Linux

URL: http://doc.mandriva.com/en/2009/Mastering-Manual/MasteringManual.html/quick-install.html 4. Title: Linux Operating System

URL: http://www.go2linux.org/mandriva-installation-screenshots 5. Title: Mandriva Linux One 2009 – Post Installation Impression

URL: http://pbs01.wordpress.com/2008/10/27/mandriva-linux-one-2009-postinstallation-impressions/ 6. Title: Mastering Mandriva Linux

URL: http://doc.mandriva.com/en/2009/Mastering-Manual/MasteringManual.html/userdrake.html 7. Title: Mastering Mandriva Linux

URL: http://doc.mandriva.com/en/2009/Mastering-Manual/MasteringManual.html/draksec.html#d5e9051

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8.

URL: http://papa.indstate.edu/docs/common commands.html

9.

Title: Mastering Mandriva Linux URL: http://doc.mandriva.com/en/2009/Mastering-Manual/Mastering-

Manual.html/web-browsing.html 10.

Title: Mastering Mandriva Linux URL: http://doc.mandriva.com/en/2009/Mastering-Manual/Mastering-

Manual.html/web-browsing.html 11. Title: Pico (text editor)

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pico_(text_editor) 12. Title: X Windows System

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Window_System 13. Title: KDE

URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE 14. Title: Mastering Mandriva Linux

URL: http://doc.mandriva.com/en/2009/Mastering-Manual/MasteringManual.html/software-management.html#sw-mcc 15.

Title:

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