The great AT Linux/BSD/*NIX FAQ project!

[EHobaX]

Yes Virginia there is a Santa Claus. His name is Electrode!

Thanks for the Samba FAQ!

 

[indd]

It seems that a lot of things might already be pretty well explained in a HOWTO, so I was thinking maybe there could be a list of pointers to various HOWTO's already there? Otherwise, a lot of work might be redundant.

just a thought..
indd

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: indd
It seems that a lot of things might already be pretty well explained in a HOWTO, so I was thinking maybe there could be a list of pointers to various HOWTO's already there? Otherwise, a lot of work might be redundant.

just a thought..
indd

When I was just starting out with Linux I found a lot of those HOWTOs to be very hard to read. The FAQs here are much easier for someone like me to get a grip on when Im half a glass from passing out. Many of the HOWTOs are also very out of date. Someone was looking for information on pppd and mgetty the other day and mentioned the HOWTOs are from RH 5.x days. Maybe things havent changed much in the past couple of years, but chances are they are much different. Yes, it may be redundant, but I think its necessary. Plus this would be something AT could call its own. Someone to increase the reputation to Linux users.

 

[Chooco]

i can help with this thing, i'll find problems for your to solve

i have one, Where do the files go when i 'install' an RPM file?
they never really go to the same place, but how can i figure out where they went?

oh here's another one, it's in my big book somewhere but i don't remember it. How do i access lilo so i can change the boot up settings?

 

[EHobaX]

I admit there are a lot of more in-depth HOWTOs out there.
However, not all people who operate Linux want to be super-uber admins or kernel hackers.
Some (*gasp*) actually just want to be end-users or in-betweeners.

So maybe a summary or quick list of steps to get something going is perfect for me in some instances.
Working for the man, life, and other things detract from the time I can spend sitting around at my Linux box.

I've been through the Samba HOWTO. It's like 20+ pages long! I really didn't have time to go through the entire thing.
Electrode's list of steps got me running in under 5 minutes. So I says, keep up the good work!

 

[DaiShan]

Thanks much, I have been in need of a Linux FAQ!

 

[mcveigh]

6. Now start the samba server. smbd -D


While it's not very elaborite, or even very secure, what you have created is suitible for the home MP3 server. The hosts allow and interfaces lines are there to make the server inaccessible to anything other than the computers on your LAN, which is a pretty good security measure if you ask me.

don't we need to start the nmbd server also?
nmbd -D

also any thime you make changes to your smb.conf you need to restart the samba server.

 

[Electrode]

<< don't we need to start the nmbd server also?
nmbd -D >>

Oops, forgot that. Adding it now.

 

[Reel]

Originally posted by: Chooco
i can help with this thing, i'll find problems for your to solve

oh here's another one, it's in my big book somewhere but i don't remember it. How do i access lilo so i can change the boot up settings?

Quick answer: edit your lilo.conf* file. I remember it used to be just lilo.conf but it seems on my computer now it is lilo.conf.anaconda. I would help more if I could.

More FAQ suggestions: sudo, ipchains.

 

[Barnaby W. Füi]

Originally posted by: ReelC00L

Originally posted by: Chooco
i can help with this thing, i'll find problems for your to solve

oh here's another one, it's in my big book somewhere but i don't remember it. How do i access lilo so i can change the boot up settings?

Quick answer: edit your lilo.conf* file. I remember it used to be just lilo.conf but it seems on my computer now it is lilo.conf.anaconda. I would help more if I could.

anaconda is a redhat thing isnt it? might be a backup.....or redhat is evil!

More FAQ suggestions: sudo, ipchains.

sudo would make a great FAQ, but if we're gonna do a netfilter/firewalling/nat FAQ i think iptables would be the better choice considering hardly any distro uses 2.2 anymore, and even with the ones that do (debian, slack maybe?), people often upgrade to 2.4.

i'm not sure if it'd be even feasable to make an iptables faq, there's tons to explain, and with the short nature of these faq's, we would have to supply a script for them to use (they wouldnt learn enough to write their own), and who determines that? you'd be taking a bunch of people's main security defense and put it in the hands of one anandtech'er.

 

[KennyH]

Thanks guys, this will be very handy in the near future

 

[Electrode]

The thread came unstuck! :Q

 

[FoolishMcNasty]

Bump for a handy thread.

 

[Electrode]

bump

 

[Chooco]

how about including a big list of commands? make sure to include "tar zxvf (filename" and since i'm here, could you tell me what the z,x,v and f mean? my buddy said z might stand for zip, x he has no idea, v for verbose meaning it gives info back and f means it makes its own folder.....it makes sense but i'm not sure if he's right.
also include an explanation of wildcards.... it's a real b!tch having to type hlds_l_3109_linux_i386.tar.gz which can easily be replaced with hlds*.gz

 

[Electrode]

x: extract
z: compress (gzip)
v: verbose
f: file

And to ease the process of entering those long and bizzare filenames, just type the first few letters, and then hit the tab key. Same goes when entering any path or file name at the command prompt.

 

[Chooco]

how are you supposed to know how to set parameters?
with the tar thing, zxvf doesn't have any symbol, it's just letters. sometimes we have something like "./hlds_run -game tfc -port 27015" and sometimes we have "./wine hl.exe --hl.exe -game tfc -console -dev"

how do i know whether i'm supposed to use nothing, - or --?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Chooco
how are you supposed to know how to set parameters?
with the tar thing, zxvf doesn't have any symbol, it's just letters. sometimes we have something like "./hlds_run -game tfc -port 27015" and sometimes we have "./wine hl.exe --hl.exe -game tfc -console -dev"

how do i know whether i'm supposed to use nothing, - or --?

By RTFMing. Also, you can sometimes get a list of command options with a --help or something after the command. But the man pages are definitely the first place to look.

zxfv all mean something specific (as noted earlier) and if you think about what each letter means they make sense.

 

[Chooco]

i have several manuals and none of them say, i have:
Running Linux (O'Reilly book)
Linux For Dummies (has basic commands, sort of helpful to start with)
Teach Yourself Linux In 24 Hours (similar to Linux For Dummies)

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Chooco
i have several manuals and none of them say, i have:
Running Linux (O'Reilly book)
Linux For Dummies (has basic commands, sort of helpful to start with)
Teach Yourself Linux In 24 Hours (similar to Linux For Dummies)

None of them say what? What particular flags you should use for each command? I should hope not. That would be the worst book in the world!

To understand which flags you use with which programs, you should 1. understand what you are trying to do, and 2. understand what the program does.

The second thing is easier than the first sometimes. The manual (man for short) will help you out. Want to know that there are twenty some odd options for ls? Want to know what each does? Look at the manual with the command "man ls." Most programs will have a manual page on your system. Read through them to understand what each option does. With that information, combined with your knowledge of what you are trying to do will help you understand which options to use when you are trying to use a program.

If you are going to post on this topic again, please include more information than your last cryptic post. Thank you.

 

[TheOmegaCode]

I don't know if man(ual) will help alot in the case of you running wine or a dedicated half-life server. For those, read README. I know they are kind'a ambiguous, but you'll find em

 

[Chooco]

how do you always know what to ask the computer for? typing in something "man permissions" comes up emtpy so how am i supposed to know what to type?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Chooco
how do you always know what to ask the computer for? typing in something "man permissions" comes up emtpy so how am i supposed to know what to type?

A very basic understanding of UNIX-like systems. "man chmod" is what you may be looking for. Try reading up on UNIX-like systems in general before putzing around with something 100% foreign to you.

 

[Chooco]

isn't chmod supposed to mean change modules or something like that?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Chooco
isn't chmod supposed to mean change modules or something like that?

No.