A new edition of this title is available, ISBN-10: 0137003889 ISBN-13: 9780137003884     Praise for A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux®   “I am so impressed by how Mark Sobell can approach a complex topic in such an understandable manner. His command examples are especially useful in providing a novice (or even advanced) administrator with a cookbook on how to accomplish real-world tasks on Linux. He is truly an inspired technical writer!” –George Vish II, Senior Education Consultant, Hewlett-Packard Company   “Overall, I think it’s a great, comprehensive Ubuntu book that’ll be a valuable resource for people of all technical levels.” –John Dong, Ubuntu Forum Council Member, Backports Team Leader   “The JumpStart sections really offer a quick way to get things up and running, allowing you to dig into the details of his books later.” –Scott Mann, Aztek Networks   “Ubuntu is gaining popularity at the rate alcohol did during prohibition, and it’s great to see a well-known author write a book on the latest and greatest version. Not only does it contain Ubuntu-specific information, but it also touches on general computer-related topics, which will help the average computer user to better understand what’s going on in the background. Great work, Mark!” –Daniel R. Arfsten, Pro/ENGINEER Drafter/Designer   “I read a lot of Linux technical information every day, but I’m rarely impressed by tech books. I usually prefer online information sources instead. Mark Sobell’s books are a notable exception. They’re clearly written, technically accurate, comprehensive-and actually enjoyable to read.” –Matthew Miller, Senior Systems Analyst/Administrator, BU Linux Project, Boston University Office, of Information Technology   “I would so love to be able to use this book to teach a class about not just Ubuntu or Linux but about computers in general. It is thorough and well written with good illustrations that explain important concepts for computer usage.” –Nathan Eckenrode, New York Local Community Team   Praise for Other Books by Mark Sobell   “I currently own one of your books, A Practical Guide to Linux®. I believe this book is one of the most comprehensive and, as the title says, practical guides to Linux I have ever read. I consider myself a novice and I come back to this book over and over again.” –Albert J. Nguyen   “Thank you for writing a book to help me get away from Windows XP and to never touch Windows Vista. The book is great; I am learning a lot of new concepts and commands. Linux is definitely getting easier to use.” –James Moritz   “I have been wanting to make the jump to Linux but did not have the guts to do so-until I saw your familiarly titled A Practical Guide to Red Hat® Linux® at the bookstore. I picked up a copy and am eagerly looking forward to regaining my freedom.” –Carmine Stoffo, Machine and Process Designer to pharmaceutical industry   “I am currently reading A Practical Guide to Red Hat® Linux® and am finally understanding the true power of the command line. I am new to Linux and your book is a treasure.” –Juan Gonzalez   The Most Complete, Easy-to-Understand, and Useful Guide to Ubuntu Linux Desktops and Servers   Ubuntu Linux is a state-of-the-art operating system, and you need a book that’s just as advanced. Along with being the most comprehensive reference to installing, configuring, and working with Ubuntu, A Practical Guide to Ubuntu Linux® also provides extensive server coverage you won’t find in any other Ubuntu book.   Best-selling author Mark Sobell begins by walking you through every feature and technique you need to know, from installing Ubuntu–using the DVD included with the book–to working with GNOME, Samba, exim4, Apache, DNS, NIS, firestarter, and iptables. Sobell’s exceptionally clear explanations demystify everything from system security to Windows file/printer sharing.   Sobell presents full chapters on using Ubuntu from the command line and GUI; thorough system administration and security guidance; and up-to-the-minute, step-by-step instructions for setting up networks and every major type of Internet server. Along the way, you’ll learn both the “hows” and the “whys” of Ubuntu. Sobell knows every Linux nook and cranny: He’s taught hundreds of thousands of readers and never forgets what it’s like to be new to Linux. Whether you’re a user, administrator, or programmer, this book gives you all you need–and more.   Don’t settle for yesterday’s Ubuntu Linux book...get the ONLY book that meets today’s challenges and tomorrow’s!   This book delivers…  Deeper coverage of the command line and the GNOME GUI, including GUI customization Coverage of important Ubuntu topics, such as sudo and the new Upstart init daemon More practical coverage of file sharing with Samba, NFS, and FTP More detailed, usable coverage of Internet server configuration, including Apache, exim4, and DNS/BIND More state-of-the-art security techniques, including firewall setup using firestarter and iptables, as well as a full chapter on OpenSSH and an appendix on security Deeper coverage of “meat-and-potatoes” system and network administration tasks–from managing users to CUPS printing, configuring LANs to building a kernel A more practical introduction to writing bash shell scripts Complete instructions on how to keep your Linux system up-to-date using aptitude, Synaptic, and the Software Sources window And much more...including a 500+ term glossary, five detailed appendixes, and a comprehensive index to help you find what you need fast Print book includes DVD! Get the full version of the Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy Gibbon) release.  

Table of Contents:
Preface  xxxvi   Chapter 1: Welcome to Linux  1 The GNU—Linux Connection 2 The Linux 2.6 Kernel 5 The Heritage of Linux: UNIX 5 What Is So Good About Linux? 6 Overview of Linux 10 Additional Features of Linux 15 Conventions Used in This Book 17 Chapter Summary 20 Exercises 20   PART I: Installing Ubuntu Linux  21   Chapter 2: Installation Overview  23 The Live/Install Desktop CD/DVD 24 More Information 24 Planning the Installation 25 The Installation Process 36 Downloading and Burning a CD/DVD 37 Gathering Information About the System 41 Chapter Summary 42 Exercises 43 Advanced Exercises 43   Chapter 3: Step-by-Step Installation  45 Basic Installation from the Live/Install Desktop CD/DVD 46 Graphical Partitioners 53 Upgrading to a New Release 59 Installing KDE 60 Setting Up a Dual-Boot System 61 Advanced Installation 62 The X Window System 74 Chapter Summary 83 Exercises 83 Advanced Exercises 84   PART II: Getting Started with Ubuntu Linux  85   Chapter 4: Introduction to Ubuntu Linux     87 Curbing Your Power: root Privileges/sudo 88 A Tour of the Ubuntu Linux Desktop 89 Getting the Most out of the Desktop 105 Updating, Installing, and Removing Software Packages 119 Where to Find Documentation 124 More About Logging In 132 Working from the Command Line 136 Controlling Windows: Advanced Operations 139 Chapter Summary 142 Exercises 143 Advanced Exercises 144   Chapter 5: The Linux Utilities  145 Special Characters 146 Basic Utilities 147 Working with Files 149 | (Pipe): Communicates Between Processes 156 Four More Utilities 157 Compressing and Archiving Files 159 Locating Commands 164 Obtaining User and System Information 166 Communicating with Other Users 170 Email 171 Tutorial: Creating and Editing a File with vim 172 Chapter Summary 179 Exercises 181 Advanced Exercises 182   Chapter 6: The Linux Filesystem  183 The Hierarchical Filesystem 184 Directory Files and Ordinary Files 184 Pathnames 189 Directory Commands 191 Working with Directories 196 Access Permissions 199 ACLs: Access Control Lists 203 Links 209 Chapter Summary 214 Exercises 216 Advanced Exercises 218   Chapter 7: The Shell  219 The Command Line 220 Standard Input and Standard Output 226 Running a Program in the Background 237 Filename Generation/Pathname Expansion 239 Builtins 243 Chapter Summary 244 Exercises 245 Advanced Exercises 247   PART III: Digging into Ubuntu Linux  249   Chapter 8: Linux GUIs: X and GNOME  251 X Window System 252 The Nautilus File Browser Window 260 GNOME Utilities 266 Chapter Summary 271 Exercises 272 Advanced Exercises 272   Chapter 9: The Bourne Again Shell  275 Background 276 Shell Basics 277 Parameters and Variables 295 Special Characters 309 Processes 310 History 312 Aliases 328 Functions 331 Controlling bash Features and Options 334 Processing the Command Line 338 Chapter Summary 347 Exercises 349 Advanced Exercises 351   Chapter 10: Networking and the Internet  353 Types of Networks and How They Work 355 Communicate Over a Network 370 Network Utilities 372 Distributed Computing 379 Usenet 388 WWW: World Wide Web 390 Chapter Summary 392 Exercises 393 Advanced Exercises 394   Chapter 11: Programming the Bourne Again Shell  395 Control Structures 396 File Descriptors 429 Parameters and Variables 432 Builtin Commands 444 Expressions 458 Shell Programs 466 Chapter Summary 476 Exercises 478 Advanced Exercises 480   PART IV: System Administration  483   Chapter 12: System Administration: Core Concepts  485 Running Commands with root Privileges 487 The Upstart Event-Based init Daemon 500 System Operation 510 Avoiding a Trojan Horse 520 Getting Help 522 Textual System Administration Utilities 522 Setting Up a Server 527 nsswitch.conf: Which Service to Look at First 542 PAM 545 Chapter Summary 550 Exercises 551 Advanced Exercises 551   Chapter 13: Files, Directories, and Filesystems  553 Important Files and Directories 554 File Types 566 Filesystems 570 Chapter Summary 580 Exercises 580 Advanced Exercises 581   Chapter 14: Downloading and Installing Software  583 JumpStart: Installing and Removing Packages Using aptitude 585 Finding the Package That Holds a File You Need 587 APT: Keeps the System Up-to-Date 588 dpkg: The Debian Package Management System 598 BitTorrent 604 Installing Non-dpkg Software 607 wget: Downloads Files Noninteractively 609 Chapter Summary 610 Exercises 610 Advanced Exercises 610   Chapter 15: Printing with CUPS  611 Introduction 612 JumpStart I: Configuring a Local Printer 614 system-config-printer: Configuring a Printer 614 JumpStart II: Configuring a Remote Printer Using the CUPS Web Interface 618 Traditional UNIX Printing 622 Configuring Printers 624 Printing from Windows 630 Printing to Windows 632 Chapter Summary 633 Exercises 633 Advanced Exercises 633   Chapter 16: Building a Linux Kernel  635 Prerequisites 636 Downloading the Kernel Source Code 637 Read the Documentation 638 Configuring and Compiling the Linux Kernel 639 Installing the Kernel, Modules, and Associated Files 646 Rebooting 647 grub: The Linux Boot Loader 647 dmesg: Displays Kernel Messages 654 Chapter Summary 655 Exercises 656 Advanced Exercises 656   Chapter 17: Administration Tasks  657 Configuring User and Group Accounts 658 Backing Up Files 662 Scheduling Tasks 668 System Reports 671 parted: Reports on and Partitions a Hard Disk 673 Keeping Users Informed 677 Creating Problems 678 Solving Problems 679 Chapter Summary 690 Exercises 690 Advanced Exercises 691   Chapter 18: Configuring a LAN      693 Setting Up the Hardware 694 Configuring the Systems 697 Setting Up Servers 702 More Information 703 Chapter Summary 703 Exercises 704 Advanced Exercises 704   PART V: Using Clients and Setting Up Servers  705   Chapter 19: OpenSSH: Secure Network Communication  707 Introduction 708 About OpenSSH 708 OpenSSH Clients 711 sshd: OpenSSH Server 720 Troubleshooting 724 Tunneling/Port Forwarding 725 Chapter Summary 727 Exercises 728 Advanced Exercises 728   Chapter 20: FTP: Transferring Files Across a Network  729 Introduction 730 More Information 731 FTP Client 731 FTP Server (vsftpd) 740 Chapter Summary 753 Exercises 753 Advanced Exercises 754   Chapter 21: exim4: Setting Up Mail Servers, Clients, and More  755 Introduction to exim4 756 JumpStart I: Configuring exim4 to Use a Smarthost 758 JumpStart II: Configuring exim4 to Send and Receive Email 760 How exim4 Works 761 Configuring exim4 765 SpamAssassin 768 Additional Email Tools 772 Authenticated Relaying 777 Alternatives to exim4 779 Chapter Summary 779 Exercises 780 Advanced Exercises 780   Chapter 22: NIS: Network Information Service     781 Introduction to NIS 782 How NIS Works 782 Setting Up an NIS Client 784 Setting Up an NIS Server 790 Chapter Summary 798 Exercises 798 Advanced Exercises 798   Chapter 23: NFS: Sharing Filesystems  799 Introduction 800 More Information 802 Setting Up an NFS Client 802 Setting Up an NFS Server 808 automount: Mounts Directory Hierarchies on Demand 818 Chapter Summary 821 Exercises 822 Advanced Exercises 822   Chapter 24: Samba: Linux and Windows File and Printer Sharing  823 Introduction 824 About Samba 825 JumpStart: Configuring a Samba Server Using shares-admin 826 swat: Configures a Samba Server 828 smb.conf: Manually Configuring a Samba Server 832 Accessing Linux Shares from Windows 838 Accessing Windows Shares from Linux 839 Troubleshooting 841 Chapter Summary 844 Exercises 844 Advanced Exercises 844   Chapter 25: DNS/BIND: Tracking Domain Names and Addresses  845 Introduction to DNS 846 About DNS 857 JumpStart: Setting Up a DNS Cache 858 Setting Up BIND 860 Troubleshooting 872 A Full-Functioned Nameserver 873 A Slave Server 877 A Split Horizon Server 878 Chapter Summary 883 Exercises 883 Advanced Exercises 884   Chapter 26: firestarter and iptables: Setting Up a Firewall  885 About firestarter 886 JumpStart: Building a Firewall Using the firestarter Firewall Wizard 888 firestarter: Maintains a Firewall 890 How iptables Works 896 About iptables 899 Anatomy of an iptables Command 900 Building a Set of Rules 901 Copying Rules to and from the Kernel 907 Sharing an Internet Connection Using NAT 908 Chapter Summary 912 Exercises 913 Advanced Exercises 913   Chapter 27: Apache: Setting Up a Web Server  915 Introduction 916 About Apache 917 JumpStart: Getting Apache Up and Running 919 Configuring Apache 921 Configuration Directives 925 The Ubuntu apache2.conf File 948 The Ubuntu default Configuration File 950 Redirects 951 Content Negotiation 951 Server-Generated Directory Listings (Indexing) 953 Virtual Hosts 953 Troubleshooting 956 Modules 957 webalizer: Analyzes Web Traffic 964 MRTG: Monitors Traffic Loads 964 Error Codes 964 Chapter Summary 965 Exercises 966 Advanced Exercises 966   PART VI: Appendixes 969   Appendix A: Regular Expressions  971 Characters 972 Delimiters 972 Simple Strings 972 Special Characters 972 Rules 975 Bracketing Expressions 976 The Replacement String 976 Extended Regular Expressions 977 Appendix Summary 979   Appendix B: Help  981 Solving a Problem 982 Finding Linux-Related Information 983 Specifying a Terminal 988   Appendix C: Security  991 Encryption 992 File Security 997 Email Security 997 Network Security 998 Host Security 1001 Security Resources 1006 Appendix Summary 1009   Appendix D: The Free Software Definition  1011   Appendix E: The Linux 2.6 Kernel  1015 Native Posix Thread Library (NPTL) 1016 IPSecurity (IPSec) 1016 Asynchronous I/O (AIO) 1016 O(1) Scheduler 1017 OProfile 1017 kksymoops 1017 Reverse Map Virtual Memory (rmap VM) 1017 HugeTLBFS: Translation Look-Aside Buffer Filesystem 1018 remap_file_pages 1018 2.6 Network Stack Features (IGMPv3, IPv6, and Others) 1018 Internet Protocol Virtual Server (IPVS) 1019 Access Control Lists (ACLs) 1019 4GB-4GB Memory Split: Physical Address Extension (PAE) 1019 Scheduler Support for HyperThreaded CPUs 1019 Block I/O (BIO) Block Layer 1019 Support for Filesystems Larger Than 2 Terabytes 1020 New I/O Elevators 1020 Interactive Scheduler Response Tuning 1020   Glossary  1021 Index  1071