Chapter Review

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Chapter Review

Checklist

In this chapter, I mentioned:

the hardware requirements to run Linux
the variety of Linux distributions available
Linux packages
disk partitioning and Linux file system organization
boot loaders and boot floppies
ways to get your own distribution of Linux

Quiz

1.	What are the minimum disk space and memory required for a system to run Linux reasonably well?
2.	How many primary partitions can be created on a disk drive?
3.	What is the minimum number of disk partitions required to run Linux?
4.	What is a dual-boot system?
5.	What is the major difference between the ext2 and ext3 file systems?
6.	Describe the function of a boot loader.

Exercises

1.	Find three Linux distributions not mentioned in this chapter and state why someone might choose each of them over the more popular distributions. [level: medium ]

Projects

1.	Obtain a distribution of Linux and install it (you saw that one coming, right?). [level: easy ]

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3. GNU Utilities for Nonprogrammers

Motivation

Prerequisites

Objectives

Presentation

Utilities

Shell command

Section 3.1. Obtaining an Account

Section 3.2. Logging In

Section 3.3. Shells

Section 3.4. Running a GNU Utility

Section 3.5. Input, Output, and Error Channels

Section 3.6. Obtaining Online Help: man

Section 3.7. Special Characters

Section 3.8. Setting Your Password: passwd

Section 3.9. Logging Out

Section 3.10. Poetry in Motion: Exploring the File System

Section 3.11. Printing Your Shell's Current Working Directory: pwd

Section 3.12. Absolute and Relative Pathnames

Section 3.13. Creating a File

Section 3.14. Listing the Contents of a Directory: ls

Section 3.15. Listing the Contents of a File: cat/more/head/tail

Section 3.16. Renaming a File: mv

Section 3.17. Creating a Directory: mkdir

Section 3.18. Moving to a Directory: cd

Section 3.19. Copying a File: cp

Section 3.20. Editing a File: vim

Section 3.21. Deleting a Directory: rmdir

Section 3.22. Deleting a File: rm

Section 3.23. Printing a File: lp/lpstat/cancel

Section 3.24. Printing a File: lpr/lpq/lprm

Section 3.25. Counting Words in a File: wc

Section 3.26. File Attributes

Section 3.27. Groups

Section 3.28. Listing Your Groups: groups

Section 3.29. Changing a File's Group : chgrp

Section 3.30. Changing a File's Permissions: chmod

Section 3.31. Changing a File's Owner: chown

Section 3.32. Changing Groups: newgrp

Section 3.33. Poetry in Motion: Epilogue

Section 3.34. Determining Your Terminal's Type: tset

Section 3.35. Changing a Terminal's Characteristics: stty

Section 3.36. Editing a File: vim

Section 3.37. Editing a File: emacs

Section 3.38. Electronic Mail: mail

Chapter Review

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Motivation

This section contains the absolute basics that you really need to know in order to be able to do anything useful with Linux.

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Prerequisites

In order to understand this chapter, you must have already read Chapter 1, "What Is Linux?" It also helps if you have access to a Linux system so that you can try out the various Linux/GNU features that I discuss.