Von Hagen - Ubuntu Linux bible Includes index

Ubuntu Linux Bible: Featuring Ubuntu 10.04 LTS, Third Edition

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Copyright 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-60450-2

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To Dorothy, for more than words can say

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum sonatur.

About the Author

William von Hagen (Bill) has been a UNIX system administrator for more than 20 years, and a Linux fanatic since the early 1990s. He has worked as a Linux product manager, systems programmer, system administrator, writer, application developer, drummer, and content manager. Bill has written or co-written books on such topics as Linux server hacks, GCC, Xen virtualization, Linux filesystems, SUSE Linux, Red Hat Linux, SGML, Mac OS X, and hacking the TiVo. He has also written numerous articles on Linux, embedded computing, Mac OS X, UNIX, and various open source topics. An avid computer collector specializing in workstations, he owns more than 200 computer systems but is not compulsive at all. You can reach him at .

Credits

Executive Editor

Carol Long

Project Editor

Tom Dinse

Technical Editor

Timothy Boronczyk

Production Editor

Kathleen Wisor

Copy Editor

Catherine Caffrey

Editorial Director

Robyn B. Siesky

Editorial Manager

Mary Beth Wakefield

Marketing Manager

Ashley Zurcher

Production Manager

Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Associate Publisher

Jim Minatel

Project Coordinator, Cover

Lynsey Stanford

Compositor

Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreaders

Nancy Carrasco

Sheilah Ledwidge, Word One

Louise Watson, Word One

Indexer

Robert Swanson

Cover Image

Joyce Haughey

Cover Designer

Michael E. Trent

Acknowledgments

Nothing I have ever written would have been possible without the love, support, and infinite patience of Dorothy Fisher, my wife and best friend. Dorth believed in me from day one, removed several thousand commas from my earliest writing, and has accepted I cant do that nowcome back in 15 minutes or 6 hours as an excuse more times than anyone should ever be expected to. I am similarly lucky to have great friends like Jeff Sunshine Kaminski, Gregg Kostelich, Dr. Joe OLear, Jim Morgan, Larry Rippel, and Kim Walter in my life. I heard once that a good friend will come and bail you out of jail, but a true friend will be sitting in jail with you saying, Man! That was fun! Luckily, we havent had to test that, but Im sure wed all look great in orange.

I would also like to thank Carol Long, Tom Dinse, and others at Wiley who enabled me to do a new edition of this book and supported me during its creation. Similarly, Tim Boronczyk did a great job as the technical editor for this edition of the book, catching old errors that remained undetected and new ones that I introduced, as well as making some great suggestions. All errors are mine alone, but this would be a much weaker book without all of your contributions. I quite literally wouldnt have been able to do it without you.

Finally, this book wouldnt exist without Linus Torvalds; Mark Shuttleworth; the Ubuntu folk in general; the Debian, GNOME, and KDE Projects; Richard Stallman; the FSF; and the millions of contributors to the cornucopia that is GNU/Linux.

Introduction

A Linux distribution is basically the sum of the things that you need to run Linux on your computer. There are many different Linux distributions, each with its own target audience, set of features, administrative tools, and fan clubthe latter of which is more properly known as a user community . Putting aside the downright fanatics, most of the members of the user community for any Linux distribution are people who just happen to find themselves using that particular distribution for one reason or another. These reasons range from what theyve heard from friends, what CD or DVD came with a Linux magazine they bought, or which Linux book they happened to buy.

Ubuntu Linux is the most exciting Linux distribution in years. Ironically, while Ubuntu itself is indeed new, it also comes with a respectable Linux pedigree. Ubuntu has direct roots in one of the oldest and best-known Linux distributions available, the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. The folks who initially created and supported Ubuntu, Canonical Ltd., started out as Debian fans who wanted a faster-moving, more up-to-date distribution than Debian provided. So, in the spirit of Linux and the open source movement, they made their own distribution, Ubuntu Linux, by incorporating the best of Debian, other Linux distributions, and open source applications, and added their own special sauce.