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

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Electrode
An introduction to the UNIX command promptOne of the most significant differences between Windows and *NIX operating systems is that you can go your whole life without ever opening a command prompt in Windows, but you have to use it every day in *NIX. If you intend to switch to a *NIX OS, you need to know how to use the command prompt.

First off, unlike DOS and Windows which only offered one shell (command.com and its ilk), *NIX operating systems offer several different ones. The default shell in Linux is BASH. The default shell in OpenBSD is KSH. Other *NIXen may have different default shells. Generally, however, you can install your favorite shell on any *NIX system if you don't like the default. I use BASH, and so this guide is a bit slanted towards it. If anyone who uses another shell could contribute info relevant to their shell, I'd appreciate it.


Getting help:
man command - Almost always shows you the manual for the specified program. When told to 'RTFM', this is what you must do.
apropos word - Kinda like a search engine for man.


Moving around the file system:
Navigating the *NIX file system is very similar to DOS. Some of the commands are a little different, but they behave the same.
cd dirname - Changes to the specified directory.
cd .. - Changes to the parent of the current directory.
pwd - Prints the current directory. Usefull if, for whatever reason, your prompt doesn't give this info.
ls - Directory listing. use the -lh switch to get a detailed listing. Use the -a switch to show hidden files.


Archives:
tar xzf file.tar.gz - Unpack a .tar.gz file. Doesn't work in all systems.
tar xf file.tar - Unpack an uncompressed .tar file.
gunzip file.gz - Uncompress any .gz file, tar or otherwise. If the file you are decompressing is a .tar.gz, it will not be unpacked, it will simply become a normal .tar file.
bunzip2 file.bz2 - Uncompress any .bz2 file.

tar cf file.tar dirname - Put the contents of a directory into a .tar file.
gzip file - GZip compress a file.
bzip2 file - BZip2 compress a file. This is a pretty good compression method, I suggest you use it.


Viewing and editing files:
cat - Outputs the contents of a text file. Only useful on small files.
more - A somewhat simple text file reader. Hit a key to go to the next page. Works a lot like the one in DOS.
less - A really nice text file reader. Lets you scroll up or down using arrow keys, pageup/down, space, and so on. Q exits. You can get a scrollable directory listing with ls -lha | less

more has most of the abilities of less now, I believe. Its space to go one page, enter to go forward one line, and b to go back a page.

vi file - A really nice text editor, albeit a bit tricky to use. My favorite.

vim being the most common decendant.

nano file - I'm told this text editor works like Notepad and MS-DOS EDIT. I wouldn't know, I only use VI.

Its a pico work a like.

gvim file - If you have this editor on your site, it can't be beat.

This is a nice over view of basic command line applications. Just threw 2 cents in on a couple

Environment variables:

You should expand (ie define) environment variables before you give examples. Id help you out more, but JD isnt the best thing for FAQing.

PATH - Tells the shell where to look for programs if you don't tell it exactly where it is. It works like the DOS PATH variable, but with colons (:) instead of semicolons (;) to seperate the entries. For example: /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/opt/mozilla

The shell looks at these paths in order. In your example it would look in /bin for the application you tried to run, then /usr/bin then /usr/local/bin, etc.

export - In BASH, this command is used to set an environment variable.

export works in most (all?) Bourne based shells (BASH, ksh, etc). setenv is what csh uses. unset is how you unset an environment variable. env is a way to see what you have set.

Nice start

 

[krystalogik]

I have a request for a Linux/BSD/*Nix FAQ!
how about symbolic links?

 

[Gooberlx2]

Here's a few:

Q: How do I enable/configure hibernating and suspending for my linux-ified laptop?

Q: What are some useful shortcut keys in linux? (i.e. to open another desktop, to move a program to another desktop, etc)

Q: How can I better configure Mozilla to use my TrueType fonts?

Electrode: Huge props and thx for that Wine/WineX Guide!

 

[Electrode]

krystalogik: I'm not sure what makes symlinking FAQ-worthy. It's a pretty simple concept if you ask me, but I will whip up a FAQ anyway.


What are symbolic/hard links?All modern *NIX filesysems support giving a file (which includes directories, devices, FIFO's, and anything else you might encounter) more than one name by one of two methods: Symbolic Linking (a.k.a. symlinks) and Hard Linking. NTFS supports symlinking to directories, but not normal files.

Symbolic Links are special files that point to another file. A little like "shortcuts" on Windows, but they work at a lower level. Any program can use them as if they were the file they point to. If the file they point to is deleted, however, the symlink will remain but cease to function.

Hard Links are another word for a filename. They link directly to the data. They work like symlinks, but if you remove the original filename, the hard link you create will still work. The data itself will not be unlinked until ALL hard links are deleted.

On *NIX systems, the ln command creates hard links and symlinks. Windows NT does not include a user-mode tool to make symlinks (called 'junctions'), but there is one in the Resource Kit called linkd, or you can get an open-source one called junctionfrom sysinternals.com.

To use ln:
ln [-s] original-file link-name

Use the -s switch if you want a symlink. By default, a hard link is made.

Example 1: Making a symlink to /var/files/sometext in the current directory (it will be named sometext)
ln -s /var/files/sometext

When the link-name is omitted, the link is created in the current directory, with the same name as the file you're linking to.

Example 2: Making a hard link to /usr/local/lib/libFoo.so.2.1 in /usr/lib/ that will be called libFoo.so
ln /usr/local/lib/libFoo.so.2.1 /usr/lib/libFoo.so


To use junction:
junction [-d] linkname link-target

Use the -d switch if you want to delete the symlink. This will not delete the target directory. Running deltree on a symlink will delete the target directory.

Example 1: Making a symlink to D:\storage\downloads called C:\download
junction C:\download D:\storage\downloads

Example 2: Deleting a symlink called C:\symlink without deleting the target directory
junction -d C:\symlink



I hope this has answered every question you might possibly have about file linking.

 

[EmperorRob]

It should also be worth noting that there is a difference running the rm command on symlinks on UNIX vs LINUX.

In Linux you are safe to rm a symlink as it will delete the link, not what the link points to.
However, in UNIX you must use the unlink command to delete the symlink. Using rm on a symlink in UNIX will delete what the symlink points to.

 

[krystalogik]

Electrode : sorry if that was a bit elementary, but after reading the man pages, and NHF's at linuxnewbie, i still didnt understand it.

Thanks so much!

 

[BML]

Great thread!
How about a quick easy way to change resolution in RH 7.3

 

[Electrode]

ctrl-alt-keypad + to increase res
ctrl-alt-keypad - to decrease res

 

[n0cmonkey]

v0.4a of nVidia driver install FAQ. Please dont post this anywhere officially yet, its a working draft right now

Lets see if we can get people to test it. Once we are comfortable with this particular FAQ, then please, AndyHui, post it up on the next go around

Anyone who wants to can idiot test it and report back successes and failures.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------BEGIN---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ctrl-alt-f1 will bring you to a virtual terminal. At this terminal, you can login using the username and password you setup previously. The password will not echo anything to the screen so if there is a cursor, it will not move. That is how this is supposed to work, its not a bug

You should know both the username of the user you created earlier and the password. You will need the root password for the next step so I hope you remember that too

Once you have loged in, type:

su -

This will ask you for the root password that you set during the installation. Enter that password. You should now be root and see a # (hash) as your prompt. The - runs root's profile (.profile, .cshrc, .bash_profile depending on the shell, which is outside of the scope of this document) and can be emited from this step.

At this point you will need the nVidia files. You can get them onto the Linux machine in a variety of ways. You can burn a cdrom from another OS, put them on a floppy from another OS, or download them directly.

CDROM:
To mount the cdrom you must first know what it is.

ls /dev/cdrom

If this command returns something along the lines of cdrom you are fine. If not, you will have to figure out which device your cdrom is. hda is the master device on the primary IDE controller, hdb is the slave device on the primary IDE controller, hdc is the master IDE device on the secondary IDE controller, etc. That will be important if the file /dev/cdrom does not exist.

mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt

This should mount your cdrom in /mnt. The -t iso9660 specifies the file system on the cdrom.

mount -t iso9660 /dev/hdc /mnt

This should mount your cdrom (if it is hdc) in /mnt. Any more mount options are beyond the scope of this document (look for a future mount FAQ).


FLOPPY:

mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt

This command will mount the floppy (fd0) using the msdos file system. If it is formatted using a different file system, replace msdos with the name of the file system.


DOWNLOAD:

Using wget:

wget http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/1.0-2960/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-2960.tar.gz

This will download the file NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-2960.tar.gz. Check the site for updated versions.

lynx:

lynx http://download.nvidia.com/XFree86_40/1.0-2960/NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-2960.tar.gz

You will be prompted to D)ownload or C)ancel. Press d. This will download the file. It will ask you then what to do with the file, select save to disk (the default). Then enter a file name (or hit enter for the default). If you get a permission error put a ~/ at the beginning of the file name.

Dont forget to download the second file! Both are necessary!

The following instructions assume you have mounted a floppy or a cdrom in /mnt. If you have downloaded the files to your home directory skim this part or skip ahead.


cd /mnt

This changes you to the directory of /mnt.

ls

This lists what is in that directory (and Mozilla is ascting wierd for me at this point )

cp *.gz ~/

This copies *.gzx (anything that ends in .gz) to your home directory. ~/ is a shortcut for your home directory. in this instance use /home/your_login. The fact you su-'d to root may complicate the ~/, so using the full path would be preferable. But knowing the ~/ shortcut is nice and I will be using it throughout the rest of the document to mean /home/your_login

cd ~/

tar -zvxf NVIDIA_GLX-1.0-2960.tar.gz

These commands first change your working directory to /home/your_login and then "untar and decompress" the GLX file. The tar command, or Tape ARchive, groups files together under one name, much like .zip files are often multiple files in an archive, but tar does not compress the files. The -z flag used in the tar command gunzips the files. The .gz extension at the end of the file means it has been gzipped. Read the tar manpage for more information on the other flags.

tar -zvxf NVIDIA_kernel-1.0-2960.tar.gz

You should have an idea of what this does from the previous description.

cd NVIDIA_kernel
make install

This should install everything important there.

cd ../NVIDIA_GLX
make install

This should install everything important there.

Now that all of this is installed, we move on.

As root:

vi /etc/X11/XF86Config-4

This will bring you into an editor (vi) to edit the XF86Config-4 file. If this file does not exist, try:

vi /etc/X11/XF86Config



Now, in vi type:

/nv

And hit enter. This searches for "nv". You should see soemthing like Driver "nv". We will need to change this.

type: 2 x

This will delete 2 characters (n and v). Now hit i. This will bring you into the editor mode.

Type: nvidia and hit escape.

The line should now read: Driver "nvidia"

Now, type: /glx

If there is no entry for glx, add Load "glx" into the Modules section. The instructions for this are (basically):

/Module

This should find the Module section. Move down atleast one line to the first blank line UNDER the "Modules" title.

i Load "glx" and hit esc.

Also remove Load "dri" and Load "GLcore".

/\"dn\"

This finds an instance of "dn". The \ tells the interpreter that the following character should be used "as is" instead of being interpretedt Hopefully this is the only dn in quotes. Once the proper line is found hit:

dd

This is the vi command to delete a line.

You can follow the same steps for "Load GLcore":

/GLcore
dd

Afterwards, type:

:wq

to write and quit.

vi /etc/modules.conf

You want to check the modules.conf file to make sure alias char-major-195 NVdriver is present. I will take you through that in a moment. Some distros may not use an /etc/modules.conf. Slackware 8.x uses /etc/rc.d/rc.modules. When you make the drivers and glx it should automatically add the line /sbin/modprobe NVdriver to the end of rc.modules, but use the steps below to make sure. Check the documentation for your distribution if this file is not present.

Once in vi:

/NVdriver

This will search for NVdriver. If it is not found:

shift g

This should bring you to the last line of the file. Move to the end of the line and:

a
carriage-return
alias char-major-195 NVdriver
esc
:wq

This will add the line to the end of the file. Carriage-return means to hit enter to bring you to the next line.

Now reboot and see what happens. The reason I say reboot instead of restarting X is that it makes sure everything is restarted properly. Plus, I have never had to restart X and I have no machines with X running right now, so Im not sure how to do it properly off hand.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Just a note: I do not own any nVidia hardware, nor do I have a Linux machine at this time! So I have never tested this! Everything is based off the nVidia site and some hints from Electrode. I chose the tarballs over the rpms because from what I have read on the forums the tarballs are generally better, and I have an utter dislike for rpms

And on a side note, I will not own any nVidia hardware until there is a game out there for the PC that I like and needs some 3d power, or they start playing better with Linux.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
EDIT:
v0.3 - added reminder to download second file in the downlaod section.
v0.4 - added NVdriver module -If anyone knows what distros dont use /etc/modules.conf and what they use instead, please pm me with the information so it can be added! Thanks.
v0.4a - ICSVortex informed me that slack 8 uses an rc.modules file. I basically copy&pasted what he pmed me with. Thanks!

 

[Electrode]

Perhaps I should write something about a certain *NIX that often goes unconsidered:
AndyHui: I guess the FAQ is done. I can't think of anything more that should be said (cygwin isn't all that different from Linux or BSD, so there isn't a lot of cygwin-specific stuff to mention) and I've corrected all the mistakes (I hope!), so you can go ahead and put it in your next round of updates.

Introduction to CygwinCygwin is a UNIX-compatible environment that runs on Windows systems. It consists of cygwin1.dll, a library that takes POSIX calls and translates them into Win32 calls (kinda like winelib in reverse); a shell (GNU BASH, the shell used on most Linux systems, is the default); an implementation of the X Window System and, of course, GCC.

There are many reasons why you'd want to use Cygwin:
1. You are used to UNIX-like systems, but are forced to use Windows for some reason.
2. You want to compile and run *NIX software on Windows.
3. You are thinking of switching from Windows to a UNIX-like OS, and want to learn more about the environment you will be working in, before you actually do it.
4. You need an X server on Windows, and don't want to pay upwards of US$600 for one.

This FAQ will tell you how to set up Cygwin, and some of the cool things you can do with it. Please note that these instructions assume you are using Windows NT/2000/XP. The procedures are similar for Win9x, use common sense.

Installing Cygwin
1. Login as Administrator, or some user with Administrator priviledges.
2. Go to Cygwin.com
3. Click Install Cygwin Now to download setup.exe. Make a directory "cygwin" and put setup.exe there.
4. Run setup.exe
5. Choose "Install from Internet". You will get a dialog asking where you want to install Cygwin, who to install it for, and the default text file mode. Accept the defaults. You will then be asked about proxy settings, and then you willl get a list of mirror sites. If you know which site is closest to you, use that one. If not, pick one at random and hope for the best.
6. You will then get a list of packages. There are tons of them, but almost all of them have descriptions. Installing everything is a safe bet if you haven't the slightest idea what this is all about.
7. Cygwin will install itself, and then ask if you want any shortcuts. Installation is complete.
8. If you get any warnings about incomplete downloads, click "retry", pick a different mirror, and then just hit "next" on the package selection screen. If it fails again, don't retry, cygwin should work just fine without it.

Now you've got a Cygwin shortcut somewhere in your start menu or desktop. When you start it, you will get a command prompt. The command prompt proto-FAQ written earlier can give you an idea of what to do here. There are a few things you should know about cygwin's filesystem:

1. / is actually C:\cygwin, or wherever you installed cygwin.
2. You can access the rest of your drive(s) from the /cygdrive/letter directory. For example, C:\ is /cygdrive/c, D:\ is /cygdrive/d, and so on.
3. /proc and /dev are present, but they aren't all that useful, since Windows just doesn't like the "everything is a file" way of doing things.
4. Cygwin interprets .lnk files (shortcuts) as symlinks. This is Cygwin's way of getting around NTFS's serious lack of POSIX-mandated features, such as symlinking.
5. Everything is case sensitive. Do not forget this.

Now, here's a few things you might want to do to get the most out of Cygwin:

Setting up X
No nVidia drivers this time around, but you DO have to reconfigure your environment a bit to make X work. In the interest of modular design, cygwin doesn't do this for you, as that would mean assuming X is installed. That is unacceptable.

Note that all of these steps are to be performed in the Cygwin shell.

1. vim /etc/profile
2. Find the PATH line. Add /usr/X11R6/bin to it. Then save and exit.
3. export PATH=$PATH:/usr/X11R6/bin (to make it take effect in the current session)
4. man XWin
5. Look over the command-line switches in the manpage. Decide which ones you will want to start X with.
6. vim /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh (In cygwin, startxwin.sh is the best way to start X. The more UNIX-like "startx" command also works, but not very well.)
7. Find the XWin command in this script. Add the switches you decided on in 5. Also note the twm command. You will be changing that to the window manager you want when you get everything set up. Save and exit.
8. /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh
9. If all is well, a window with a stippled background (the infamous monitor- and head-exploding X stipple) and a command prompt window (an xterm) will open. This is your X server in all it's glory. If you set it to run fullscreen, then this display will cover your entire screen, instead of showing up as a window. You can get out of it with ALT-F4 (the windows way) or CTRL-ALT-BACKSPACE (the *NIX way).
10. At this point you might want to consider getting a more feature-rich window manager to take the place of TWM. WindowMaker and FVWM are inclued with Cygwin as optional packages. Almost any window manager should compile and run without much hassle. KDE 2.2 is available as well if you want that. Either way, when/if you install a new window manager, just open up /usr/X11R6/bin/startxwin.sh and find the twm command, and replace it with the command to run your window manager.


Making it possible to run Cygwin apps from normal command prompts and the windows GUI

Windows NT:
1. My Computer > Properties
2. Advanced tab
3. Environment variables button
4. Find the "PATH" one. Add C:\cygwin\bin to it.

Windows 9x:
1. Open c:\autoexec.bat (when was the last time you heard someone say THAT? )
2. Find the PATH line. Add C:\cygwin\bin to it.
3. Reboot.

 

[pac1085]

Quake 3 Arena Installation How-To v0.2

Pre-requisites: XFree86 (4.x?) OpenGL graphics card configured properly.(I've only got experience with nVidia cards, to get them working refer to n0cmonkeys post a few up.)

1. Download the latest 'linuxq3apoint-x.xx.x86.run' from ID Software or a mirror (in this example im using linuxq3apoint-1.31.x86.run)

2. cd to the directory where you downloaded the file, and 'chmod +x linuxq3apoint-1.31.x86.run'

3. su to root, and type './linuxq3apoint-1.31.x86.run'

4. An installer should pop up with a license agreement. If it doesnt, and a command line installer shows up, it will still work fine.

5. Set the install path to what you want it to be. same with link path (make sure its in your PATH though)

6. Select if you want to install team arena and/or the dedicated server. Also select if you want menu icons.

7. Click 'begin install'

8. This should copy a bunch of files to the installation path that you set, or '/usr/local/games/quake3' if you left it at default.

9a. ( For Windows/Linux users ) - If you have windows installed on your system and can read the partition in linux, you can save some space by symlinking the required files into the quake3 directory on linux. Otherwise,skip to step 9b.
For Quake3: 'ln -s /path-to-windows/path-to-quake3/baseq3/pak0.pk3 /path-to-quake3-on-linux/baseq3/pak0.pk3'
And for Team Arena: 'ln -s /path-to-windows/path-to-quake3/missionpack/pak0.pk3 /path-to-quake3-on-linux/missionpack/pak0.pk3'

9b. ( For Linux only users ) - You're going to need to copy some files over from your Quake3 and/or team arena CD to your linux quake 3 installation:
For Quake3:
Mount your Q3 CDROM and 'cp /mnt/cdrom/Quake3/baseq3/pak0.pk3 /path-to-quake3-on-linux/baseq3'
And for Team Arena:
Mount your Q3:TA CDROM and 'cp /mnt/cdrom/Setup/missionpack/pak0.pk3 /path-to-linux-quake3/missionpack'

10. All set! You can now run quake3 by typing 'quake3'. If you wish to play Team arena, you can select that from the mods menu within quake 3.

-- [ Changelog ] --
0.1 - Initial release
0.2 - Grammar, formatting

 

[RedBeard0531]

Great thead! I've notice that noone has posted an important part of linux that i dont under stand. An explinationof the directory stuctur and where things are located ( suchas what is /usr, /etc; what is the equivalent of Program Files). It would also be nice to have a list of important files and their uses.
keep up the good work!

 

[Electrode]

redbeard: read the FHS

Closest thing to "Program Files" is /opt, and that's only for packages that don't conform to the standard prefix/{bin,lib,include,share} layout, or really big standalone things like KDE or Quake 3. Virtually all software goes in /usr/bin.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Electrode
redbeard: read the FHS

Closest thing to "Program Files" is /opt, and that's only for packages that don't conform to the standard prefix/{bin,lib,include,share} layout, or really big standalone things like KDE or Quake 3. Virtually all software goes in /usr/bin.

/opt? HAHAHA

Sorry, /opt is a joke to me

Ill try and remember my Windows to Unix file structure explanation and post it.

 

[Nothinman]

Q: How do I enable/configure hibernating and suspending for my linux-ified laptop?

Unless the laptop does it in hardware in some magical way, you don't. There's software suspend to swap being worked on in the 2.5 development kernels, but it's not ready for regular use yet.

 

[Electrode]

There was once a message bashing JFS here, but I have since found it to be untrue, and have thus retracted it.

 

[Tiger]

Bump back up ^^^^

 

[krystalogik]

bumpity bump bump

 

[Electrode]

bumpity bump

anyone got FAQ requests?

 

[krystalogik]

here's a questio i see asked in networking a lot, which i would also like to learn.

How do i setup linux (lets say RedHat for now) to act as a router for my internal LAN?

 

[Electrode]

I'm not really sure how to do firewalling and port forwarding stuff, but here's how to do simple NAT:

1. Make sure your kernel supports iptables and NAT rules. Most distro kernels come with this support compiled as modules.
2. Become root
3. iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.0.0/24 -j MASQUERADE
4. iptables -A FORWARD -s 192.168.0.0/24 -j ACCEPT

Replace 192.168.0.0/24 with your internal IP range if it's not the same as mine.

 

[krystalogik]

What about setting it up for the external ip address and stuff? i.e. setting your nix box to use PPPOE, etc.

 

[jdbtensai]

brand new here.
only reason i joined was because of this thread. just wanted to say thanks. only looked at it for a few minutes so far but it seems very useful. i've used linux for about two months and i have been quite impressed so far. and this thread, i hope, can help me keep learning.
thanks again.

 

[TheOmegaCode]

Originally posted by: jdbtensai
brand new here.
only reason i joined was because of this thread. just wanted to say thanks. only looked at it for a few minutes so far but it seems very useful. i've used linux for about two months and i have been quite impressed so far. and this thread, i hope, can help me keep learning.
thanks again.

It's posts like this which deserve to push threads like this to the top...

 

[Electrode]

up