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Mastering Red Hat Linux 9
The book starts out with an introduction to Linux, and has a good chapter on preparing to install, including hardware checklists. This is followed by a very detailed step-by-step explanation of installing Red Hat, both locally and via network. A nice part of this is a troubleshooting chapter for solving installation problems. Part Two explains the basics of using the command line, how filesystems work in Linux, and using the shell for various tasks.
Part Three includes chapters for administering users and groups on your new system, and how the RPM software package management process works. Other chapters in this part explain the bootup process and how to configure it, various ways to perform system backups, and other common administration tasks such as cron jobs and logs. Especially useful should be Chapter 12 which explains how to update/compile your own kernel. There are very good examples of the myriad kernel options, mostly by using the xconfig utility.
The next several chapters go over how to configure and use the X Window display system, including good examples from the XF86Config file. This is followed by detailed explanations of configuring and using the Gnome and KDE desktop environments. The KDE discussion is very good, considering Red Hat is more known for its use of Gnome as the default desktop. Chapter 18 introduces many of the more commonly used graphical applications in Linux, such as OpenOffice.org, Gnome Office, and the KOffice suite. Chapter 19 should be very handy for Linux/RH new users, as it outlines the Red Hat graphical configuration utilities which allow customization of the desktop look-and-feel and other system preferences.
Chapters 20-22 cover basic Linux networking. The first part of this section gives a very understandable primer on TCP/IP and network terminology. This is followed up by excellent discussions on how to setup and manage networking on your Linux computer, including security recommendations and firewall/masquerading methods. Once you've got your network running safely, there are additional chapters which cover topics such as remote access and xinetd services, and various server applications installation and operation. These include DNS, DHCP, CUPS printing operations, FTP servers (and clients), NFS and NIS, and mail servers (sendmail). Some of these services are probably more than most home users would need, and the sendmail operation in particular is a little difficult to understand.
Chapter 29 (Using Samba) will probably be a great help for people desiring to integrate a Linux system with existing Windows computers on a network. It offers an excellent tutorial on how to share files and resources across the LAN, and includes an explanation of the SWAT configuration utility which greatly simplifies initial setup for newcomers. The final chapter in the book explains how to install and setup a basic webserver using the Apache software. The appendix of the book is a relatively short section called the Linux Command Reference. There is some handy information in this, although it seems to be organized somewhat haphazardly. The book's index, on the other hand, seems to be very complete.
Overall, I found this book to be a very useful reference tool. It is basic enough for most beginners to get all the help they need, and has a good amount of usable knowledge for more advanced Linux users. One thing I realized is that much of the information here is not necessarily Red Hat-specific, so it can be helpful to users of other Linux distributions as well.
You can purchase Mastering Red Hat Linux 9 from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
RedHat is off the user linux market. All your skills are belong to us. Should've pursued MCSE or a degree from ITT Tech.
good thing this book came out before the End of Life for Redhat 9, in 5 months.
(yeah, I guess this is a troll)
We're like rats, in some experiment! -- George Costanza
Mastering Red Hat Linux 9 is a huge, very complete guide to Red Hat Linux 9
"Mastering Red Hat Linux 10" will be a thin, very complete leaflet to Red Hat Linux 10 that will have "Switch to Debian now!" written on it in big blood-red letters.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Mastering Fedora Core 0. I mean, hey, get people used to the idea.
You are not the customer.
Man, sucks to be the author. Put months of time into your book, then have the vendor pull support.
Of course there is another side: since there won't be version 10, this will always be the book on the latest and greatest version of Red Hat Linux!
Step one: Install a version of Microsoft Windows, since Linux is not ready for your desktop yet.
This has been a Red Hat approved statement(tm)
with this entire series is that they're very unwieldy and come with a 'orrible binding...the pages usually separate out within 3-4 months.
Also see Teach Yourself Red Hat Linux 9 from sams... I'm using it right now to try Linux out for the first time and it's pretty easy to follow so far.
"The Complete Guide to Microsoft NT4 Internet Services" and "Push Technology: The Future of Content Distribution".
It must suck to publish and have the product EOLed within six months.
-jaded- walking the earth as a living corpse is in somewhat questionable taste
Even though the content of this book is relevant and probably useful, the title should have been change to reflect more the Mandrake/Fedora Linux distributions. The fact that Red Hat will now be synonymous with their expensive Red Hat Enterprise edition, this will probably limit the audience and sale of this book.
Ruby on Rails Screencast
...given that Fedora is going to be based around Redhat 9, I suppose the (rather poor :-) timing isn't an issue.
:-)
I wonder how many others (than me) are seriously considering moving to debian now that RH9 isn't a 'hold-your-hands' upgradable system (assuming you buy RH update
Simon.
Physicists get Hadrons!
Plenty of folks complaining or pointing the finger that Red Hat will be pulling the plug on RH9 this spring. In my opinion there's even more reason to go buy this book, if you plan on sticking w/ RH9. Why not have a 900 page bible on the OS you plan on sticking with? I know I know, gentoo gentoo gentoo, but in the meantime us newbies can contniue using RH and at least have one decent source to turn to.
Linux books get charged a sales tax and a SCO tax?
Mastering Windows 3.11 from the same author. :)
Seriously, this review belongs in the "It's funny, laugh" department.
Although the impending RHL EOL is not all that "funny" to me....
dinner: it's what's for beer
I am/was busy studying for RHCE, I started out with RHL8, at that point only RHL7 books were available. In due time, RH9 was released and I found myself running 2 versions behind plus Red Hat is very proud of the fact that they switch their exams quickly after a new product release. This was one of the books that I was looking at to use as a study guide as it came highly recommended. Pity about the switch Red Hat has made.At this point in time there are no study books available for RHEL and you might as well forget about RH9.
We are the people our parents warned us about.
Episode 3: Revenge of Redhat
Unknown to the Linux Masters, Senator Redhat makes a secret deal with Microsoft to bring doom and destruction to Linux. As the plan unfolds, the masters realize that they have been betrayed by redhat, but it was too late.
Microsoft's apprentice, SCO, seeks out the linux masters. SCO battles it out with linux, the fight looking unfavorable to sco. Then FreeBSD steps in and knocks the piss out of both of them.
Rumored to be the most powerfulest unix in the universe, The Little D.Mon Master proceeds to show who is the master of unix to sco and linux.
After the fight, the one left standing is D.Mon. D.Mon now angry that a little unknown linux master named Gentoo claimed to be a BSD Like and uber fast and all powerful.
The Freebsd master chuckled, and showed Gentoo masters a little document showing that there is actually a performance loss if one does "-03" compared to regular "-O". The gentoo master refused the truth, but couldnt fight due to emerge not functioning correctly. Instead, the gentoo master was busy trying to get its nvidia drivers working, and recovering from the crasy of "oh darn, -O3 made my system unusable"
FreeBSD took pitty on gentoo, and decided to give gentoo a copy of 4.9 and a nifty handbook, that explains everything, and what a true master unix behaves like.
Now Redhat, responded to the threat of FreeBSD, it incorportated a new weapon called "RHEL". RHEL has a deadly weapon called of "I can run linux apps". Freebsd chuckled, as it said "so can I, but even faster"
Redhat starts to cry, and shows it's new apprentice.. Fedora. Fedora, if you didnt know, is a redheaded stepchild, that was born out of "lets dumped the user".
Meanwhile.... Novel, the old master of File Services, is chuckling....
(continue the story)
Experts should have no trouble skipping over the sections they don't need, though
well thats a nice feature but won't that soon be the entire book??
I wonder how this book rates with NON GUI subjects. Of the last several books I looked at on RH8, not a single one touched on command line stuff more than an occasional teaser here or there. When you are using one as a headless server, not only no monitor, but X not even installed, all these GUI centric books don't help one iota. It seems like either the authors don't have a clue as to how to administer one via the keyboard, or they just choose to take the 'easy' way to a quick buck.
(Stolen sig) Remember: it's a "Microsoft virus", not an "email virus", a "Microsoft worm", not a "computer worm
man tar
.
.
the en_US locale) should be used both to create the archive and to extract files from the archive.
Last change: 28 Jan 1998 12
Maybe not as current as we'd like?
--Keeping the flame wars alive, one post at a time
Not quite on-topic with the book review, but relevant to the comments discussing life-cycle. If I've observed anything out of the transition from Red Hat Linux to Fedora, which is nowhere near done, it's that a common standard like the LSB and FHS combined with package managet agnostic repository header information is becoming essential. While waiting for FC to come out I installed Debian unstable, and was quickly reminded that the reason I liked Red Hat in the first place was for the awesome config tools. I actually had to get on irc to figure out not only how to configure my USB mouse but also how to get my IDE controller working! Move forward a couple of weeks and FC is out and installed side-by-side with Debian unstable. I hate having to do so much extra legwork to get ntfs and mp3 support. When LSB/FHS compliance are so strong between the major vendors that an app packaged for Debian can be installed on Red Hat and Red Hat's config tools can see/configure it, or Red Hat's config tools can be installed on Debian and produce config files that Debian will be aware of, there will be rejoicing in the streets. RedHat adding yuma dn apt support to up2date is a huge step. Yum is part of the Fedora Core, and apt is on the way, I believe. But having the tool agnostic repo header info will make it all moot. You setup your package repo and magically apt, yum, and up2date can all process dependencies. What a glorious day it will be.
About two weeks ago I decided to try and install Linux on my old K6-2 450mhz machine gathering dust in the basement.
A friend of mine gave me a few cd's that had something called 'Mandrake' on it.
He said "This is supposed to be the most user-friendly 'distro' out there. Give it a try."
So with trepidation about wiping out my beloved win98se install on the old machine, I jumped right in.
On firing up the install disk, the Man-drake installer asked me if I wanted to remove the win98se partition
that already existed. After pondering this for several minutes I though, 'what the hell, I can always
reinstall it!' So I let it fly.
After what seemed like 45 minutes of swapping cd's in-and-out of the drive, the man-drake (isn't that some sort of bird?)
installer ask me what I wanted to use this linux machine for. So many choices! games, office, mail server,
web server, about 2 dozen choices flooded my screen. This is madness! So after carefully considerating my options
I decided to choose them all! I would be a Linux power-user to end all linux power-users!
So after this decision was made I waited. And waited. And waited. During this I started to wonder. My Windows XP
Home intallation on my other Peecee didn't ask me thse kind of questions, and it easily has the all the abilities
that man-drake advertised to have. After all, I paid for WinXP Home. Sigh, I guess this it the price one pays
for being part of the linux elite.
Approximately 50 mintues later I get another prompt from the man-drake installer asking me what kind of GUI I wanted
to use, KDE or GNOME. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice shame on me! I selected both and let it fly.
After only about 20 mintues this time it appeared the install was completed. The mandrake installer told me it
was going to reboot and then I would revel in Linux goodness. I waited with baited breath while the reboot
churned away, eagerly waiting the opportuntity to use the KDE/GNOME interface. Page after page of command line
stuff flew by my screen, seeming to get faster and faster as the time of my linux deliverance approached. Then,
the screen flashed black (kinda like those scenes from the movie Wargames). I gasped and was presented with
something like this:
bsh: blah/blah/blah/ ____
What the hell was this? Wasn't this man-drake linux supposed to be user friendly? Instead of the friendly
confines of a WinXP like GUI instead I was given an ugly DOS like prompt, which looked supiciously like
the TRS-80 system I first learned BASIC on in high school. Is this all the farther the great open-source
movement has progressed?
After serveral minutes of sobbing and knashing of teeth, I came to a decision. All the linux fags out there
were not going to defeat me! They were not going to cry "Bend over WinXP boy, you're going to take linux OUR
WAY and like it!".
I quickly found my old musty copy of 'Unix in a Nutshell' from my college days and got to work. In a few hours
I found out how to start the KDE GUI. This made life so much easier. After several days I was able to get the
machine's 14.4 internal modem working with man-drake and connected to the internet, using a browser called
Mozilla. Where oh where were the glorious pop-ups that appeared as I was surfing porn sites? Those bastards!
After several more days I was starting to feel somewhat comfortable. Using something called Gimp to manipulate
my growing collection of adult images was becoming a habit. And because I was ashamed to let my friends and
neighbors know I was using a gasp! free operating system like mandrake, I kept the pee-cee in the basement. Now
my girlfriend things the sounds emanating from below are me just woodworking or lifting weights. I guess linux has
freed me after all!
CMDRTACO CHECK YOUR EMAIL!
which will continue keeping redhat 7.3 and redhat 9 up to date with all current security patches so you can happily continue to run machine on those distros far into the future... why troll???
tasty electronic music vittles
Too Late, now I need the Mastering Fedora FC 1 Book
I'm sorry. But isn't there a problem with a 900 page guide to an operating system? This isn't even advanced server. This is RH9 desktop. This is why I stopped using Linux on my desktop. It took me way more time to learn how to set something up, try to set it up, troubleshoot, and find the dirty hacks than to actually do what I was trying to do. Yes, it ran faster than windows and philosophically better, but I just didn't have time in my life!
So in regards to linux being ready for the prime-time desktop, well I think that it's still a hobbyist's OS. The day when you can plug stuff in and it all just *works* properly will be great. I know Lycoris and Lindows are working toward this, but doesn't it seem like they're just layering wrappers upon wrappers on top of the fundamentally unelegant backend? Take USB keys for example. You need to have SCSI compiled to use them. Why???
Sorry for the rant. But I see many posts making fun of 900 pages, and many posts making fun of RH not being ready for the desktop, but if you look at things from a realistic perspective, it's just *not ready* for mainstream. RH is not an idealistic company. They are reealistic, want to make money, and are succeeding at it, so I'd tend to think they know what they're talking about. Maybe linux is ready for tightly controlled office settings where you have homogenous hardware, set it up so it all works dandy, don't touch it and pray it doesn't break down, but it's not good where you have people with many diverse needs from their computers.
Mod me down, burn me at the stake, but this really is a personal reaction to all the "+5 Funny" posts on this page.
Last change: 28 Jan 1998 12
Maybe not as current as we'd like?
Maybe nothing has changed since then?
www.vanheusden.com - home of Multitail, HTTPing, CoffeeSaint, EntropyBroker, rsstail, bsod, listener, nagcon, nagi
I mean, come on. People are making it seem like Redhat is dead or that they're abandoning the product. Like if you install RH9 it's a dead product.
Do we have to spell it out for the ones that choose not to think? RH9 is not dead. If you install it, the upgrades are going through Fedora now. I know this because I "upgraded" to Fedora from RH-9 on one box.
OR you can choose to go the Enterprise route.
Freedom of choice baby!
Why are some people missing this?
"Music is everybody's possession. It's only publishers who think that people own it." - John Lennon.
The way I look at it is, with the lack of constantly revising the kernel, maybe now they will come out with some standards, an API toolkit, and support for hardware made in the last five years. Yes, that's not completely true about the hardware, but have you tried to install any version of Linux on a new machine and had all the devices work right out of the box. I have access to a large variety of laptops, most of them being Toshiba models, with some Dell, Hitachi, and Compaqs. I gave up after trying to install on 12 different models of laptops. All of them had some problem with graphics, sound, chipsets, controllers, or network interfaces. The manufacturers refer you to the parts makers, the parts makers refer you to XFree or some other linux group, and the linux groups refer you to the manufacturers. It's seems like noone cares if it doesn't work on your machine, you should get a different machine. I've actually been told to write my own drivers if I wanted it to work. Hmmm, Microsoft has never asked me to write drivers before, but of course, they actually work with the parts makers and equipment manufacturers.
fedora legacy will provide updates to redhat 7.3 and 9. http://fedora.redhat.com/participate/terminology.h tml
tasty electronic music vittles
Ctrl-Alt-Esc, click on the application that's hung. Generally works for me, IIRC. Not that I've had an application (outside of beta-builds) that's crashed on me in a while.