Ubuntu: Up and Running

Book description

Ubuntu for everyone! This popular Linux-based operating system is perfect for people with little technical background. It's simple to install, and easy to use -- with a strong focus on security. Ubuntu: Up and Running shows you the ins and outs of this system with a complete hands-on tour. You'll learn how Ubuntu works, how to quickly configure and maintain Ubuntu 10.04, and how to use this unique operating system for networking, business, and home entertainment.

This book includes a DVD with the complete Ubuntu system and several specialized editions -- including the Mythbuntu multimedia release.

  • Choose among three desktop environments: GNOME, KDE, or XFCE
  • Connect printers, sound cards, cameras, webcams, and iPhones
  • Use the Linux filesystem with either the desktop or the command line
  • Learn networking functions, such as file and folder sharing and Internet access
  • Get an in-depth introduction to the OpenOffice.org business productivity suite
  • Learn how to use WINE to run Windows programs
  • Implement upgrades quickly and easily
  • Find out where to get, and how to install, other great software for Linux

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Table of contents

  1. Ubuntu: Up and Running
    1. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly
    2. Foreword
    3. Preface
      1. Audience
      2. Assumptions This Book Makes
      3. Organization of This Book
      4. Supporting Books
      5. Conventions Used in This Book
      6. Using Code Examples
      7. How to Contact Us
      8. Safari® Books Online
      9. Acknowledgments
    4. 1. About Ubuntu
      1. Why Ubuntu?
      2. The Parts That Make Up Ubuntu
        1. Debian
        2. GNU
        3. The Linux Kernel
        4. Tux
        5. Linux Distributions
        6. Ubuntu Versions
        7. X Window System
        8. Linux Desktop Environments
          1. GNOME
          2. KDE
          3. Xfce
        9. Linux Packages
        10. The Ubuntu Community
        11. Ubuntu Versions
        12. Things You See
        13. Things You Don’t See
      3. Summary
    5. 2. Installing and Upgrading Ubuntu
      1. The Live DVD
        1. The Main Menu
        2. The Function Key Options
      2. Starting the Live DVD
      3. Alternative Editions
        1. About the MD5 Hashes
        2. Downloading a Distribution
      4. Burning a CD or DVD
        1. Using Active ISO Burner for Windows
        2. Burning an ISO Image Using OS X
        3. Burning an ISO Image Using Ubuntu
        4. Burning to a Thumb Drive
      5. Virtual Installation
        1. Microsoft Virtual PC
        2. VMware
        3. Sun VirtualBox
          1. Getting started
          2. Creating a virtual machine
          3. Running a virtual machine
        4. Other Virtualizers
      6. Full Installation
        1. Installing Ubuntu Under Windows
          1. Performing the installation
          2. Important considerations
        2. Installing Ubuntu As a Standalone OS
          1. Sharing the hard disk
          2. Using the entire hard disk
          3. Entering your user details
          4. After rebooting
          5. Dual- and multi-boot setups
          6. Recovery mode
          7. Memory testing
        3. What’s New in 10.04
      7. Upgrading to New Releases
        1. Installing from CD
        2. Upgrading an Existing Installation
          1. Upgrade availability
          2. Skipping versions
        3. What’s New in 10.04
      8. Summary
    6. 3. Configuring
      1. Keyboard
        1. General
        2. Layouts
        3. Accessibility
        4. Mouse Keys
        5. Typing Break
        6. Keyboard Shortcuts
      2. Mouse
        1. General
        2. Accessibility
      3. Graphics
        1. Display Preferences
          1. Sun VirtualBox
      4. Sound
        1. Sound Effects
        2. Hardware
        3. Input
        4. Output
        5. Applications
      5. PulseAudio
      6. Basic Networking
        1. Wired Connections
          1. Installing suitable drivers
        2. Wireless Connections
        3. Using an Ethernet Bridge
      7. Printing
        1. Finding Unreported Printers
        2. Other Printers
      8. TV Tuners
        1. Restarting and Setup
        2. Capture Cards
        3. Video Sources
        4. Input Connections
        5. Running MythTV
      9. Webcams
      10. USB Media
        1. What’s New in 10.04
      11. Summary
    7. 4. The Desktop: Accessing Applications and Features
      1. Logging In
        1. Language
        2. Keyboard
        3. Sessions
        4. Accessibility
      2. Desktop Layout
        1. The Applications Menu
        2. The Places Menu
          1. The Home Folder group
          2. The Storage Devices group
          3. The Network group
          4. The Search for Files… and Recent Documents groups
        3. The System Menu
          1. Preferences
          2. Administration
          3. The bottom three menu entries
        4. The Top-Left Icons
        5. The Quit Button
          1. Set Status
          2. Lock Screen
          3. Guest Session
          4. Switch User…
          5. Log Out…
          6. Suspend
          7. Hibernate
          8. Restart
          9. Shutdown
          10. What’s new in 10.04
        6. The Remaining Top-Right Icons
          1. The date and time
          2. New mail
          3. Sound volume
          4. Bluetooth
          5. Network connection
        7. The Bottom-Right Icons
          1. The Trash
          2. The workspace switcher
        8. The Bottom Panel
          1. Show desktop
      3. Personalization
        1. Appearance
          1. Theme
          2. Background
          3. Fonts
          4. Interface
          5. What’s new in 10.04
          6. Visual effects
        2. Managing Panels
          1. Adding an item to a panel
          2. Removing an item from a panel
          3. Moving an item within a panel
          4. Changing a launcher’s icon
          5. Adding a drawer
          6. Changing a drawer’s icon
          7. Adding a menu to a panel
          8. Hiding a panel
          9. Other panel properties
        3. Editing Menus
          1. Changing menu entry icons
          2. Moving and deleting entries
          3. Adding new menus and items
      4. The Desktop Itself
        1. Creating Folders, Launchers, and Files
        2. Managing Desktop Icons
      5. Adding New Users
      6. What’s New in 10.04
      7. Summary
    8. 5. The Filesystem, File Attributes, and Permissions
      1. The Directory Tree
      2. Case Sensitivity and Special Characters
      3. Mounting Media
        1. Drive Mounting
        2. Mounting ISO Files
        3. Mounting Network Folders
        4. Unmounting
      4. Hidden Files and Folders
      5. Symbolic Links
      6. File Extensions
      7. File Permissions
      8. Users and Groups
        1. Managing Users
        2. Managing Groups
      9. Other File Attributes
      10. The Trash
      11. Summary
    9. 6. The Nautilus File Browser
      1. Opening Files and Folders
      2. Dragging and Dropping
      3. Copying Files and Folders
        1. Copying with External Media
      4. Selecting Files and Folders
        1. Lassoing Items
        2. Individually Selecting Items
        3. Selecting Items in Sequence
        4. Selecting All Items
        5. Moving or Deleting with Selections
        6. Opening Multiple Items
          1. Opening multiple folders
        7. Using Tabs
        8. Deselecting
      5. Zooming In and Out
      6. The File Browser Menus
        1. File Menu
        2. Edit Menu
          1. Backgrounds and Emblems…
      7. Other Features of the File Manager
      8. Preferences
        1. Edit → Preferences → Views
        2. Edit → Preferences → Behavior
        3. Edit → Preferences → Display
        4. Edit → Preferences → List Columns
        5. Edit → Preferences → Preview
        6. Edit → Preferences → Media
          1. Media Handling
          2. Other Media
      9. The View Menu
      10. The Go Menu
      11. The Bookmarks Menu
      12. The Tabs Menu
      13. Help
      14. Context Menus
      15. Template Files
      16. The Toolbars
        1. The Main Toolbar
        2. The Location Bar
      17. Configuration Editor
      18. What’s New in 10.04
      19. Summary
    10. 7. The Command Line
      1. The Terminal
      2. Bash
      3. The Command-Line Editor
      4. Bash Commands
        1. The cd, pwd, and ls Commands
        2. The cp and mkdir Commands
        3. The mv Command
          1. Renaming items
          2. Moving items
        4. The diff Command
        5. The find Command
          1. What’s new in 10.04
        6. The cat and more Commands
        7. The grep Command
        8. The rm and rmdir Commands
        9. The wc Command
      5. Using man
      6. Absolute and Relative Paths
      7. Using Quotation Marks
      8. The PATH Environment Variable
        1. Using the . Operator
      9. Other Environment Variables
      10. Alternative Shells
      11. Using Nano to Edit Files
      12. Shell Scripts
      13. Using Backticks
      14. Using Pipes
      15. Using Redirection
        1. Redirecting Output
        2. Redirecting Input
        3. The Difference Between Pipes and Redirections
        4. Appending to Files
      16. Standard Input, Output, and Error
        1. Streams and Handles
        2. Redirecting One Stream to Another
        3. The tee Command
      17. Wildcards, Sets, and Brace Expansion
        1. Using Sets and Ranges
        2. Using Brace Expansion
      18. Using Aliases
      19. File Compression
        1. Extracting Files
      20. File and Folder Permissions
        1. The Owner, Group, and World Attributes
        2. Using chmod
        3. Using chown
        4. Using chgrp
      21. Using sudo
        1. Logging in As root
      22. System Processes
        1. Killing and Restarting Processes from the Command Line
      23. Summary
    11. 8. Installing and Removing Software
      1. The Ubuntu Software Center
        1. Installing a Program
        2. Removing a Program
        3. Advanced Features
        4. The Ubuntu Software Tab
          1. Canonical-supported and community-maintained software
          2. Proprietary drivers
          3. Software restricted by copyright
          4. Source code
          5. Download from
        5. The Other Software Tab
        6. The Updates Tab
          1. Ubuntu updates
          2. Automatic updates
          3. Release upgrade
        7. The Authentication Tab
        8. The Statistics Tab
        9. The View Menu
        10. The Remaining Menus
      2. The Synaptic Package Manager
        1. Installing a Program
          1. Marking a program for installation
          2. Activating the installation process
        2. Using Search to Install a Program
        3. Removing a Program
        4. Other Synaptic Options
      3. Synaptic’s Menus
        1. The File Menu
        2. The Edit Menu
        3. The Package Menu
        4. The Settings Menu
        5. The Help Menu
      4. Using Aptitude
      5. Using apt-get
        1. Updating the package index
          1. Upgrading packages
          2. Searching for packages
          3. Installing a package
          4. Removing a package
          5. Getting help
      6. Summary
    12. 9. System Maintenance and Security
      1. System Maintenance
        1. Preferences
          1. Power Management
            1. The On AC Power tab
            2. The On Battery Power tab
            3. The General tab
          2. Preferred Applications
            1. The Internet tab
            2. The Multimedia tab
            3. The System tab
            4. The Accessibility tab
          3. Startup Applications
            1. Remember current applications
          4. Windows
            1. Window Selection
            2. Titlebar Action
            3. Movement Key
        2. Administration
          1. Computer Janitor
          2. Login Screen
          3. Creating a password-free system
          4. System Monitor
            1. The System tab
            2. The Processes tab
            3. The Resources tab
            4. The File Systems tab
            5. The menus
          5. System Testing
      2. Alpha and Beta Releases
      3. System Security
        1. Passwords
        2. Root Access
        3. Physical Access
        4. Firewall
        5. Use Reliable Sources
        6. Don’t Use Untrusted Commands
        7. Updating
        8. Viruses and Malware
        9. Browsers and Email Clients
        10. Wine
      4. Summary
    13. 10. Networking Ubuntu
      1. Remote Desktop
        1. Enabling the VNC Server
          1. The remaining options
        2. Connecting to the VNC Server
          1. Using Ubuntu
            1. The View menu
            2. Fullscreen mode
          2. Using Windows
          3. Using Mac OS X
        3. VNC Desktop Resolutions
        4. Using VNC over the Internet
      2. Controlling Multiple Local Computers
      3. Using Shared Folders
        1. Sharing Your Folders
          1. Sharing folders on other operating systems
      4. Using Keyrings
        1. Managing Your Keyring
      5. Summary
    14. 11. The Internet
      1. Web Browsing
        1. The Menus
        2. The Bookmarks Toolbar
        3. Tabs and Windows
        4. Searching
        5. Other Browsers
      2. Email
      3. Instant Messaging
        1. Using Pidgin
          1. Adding buddies
      4. Internet Telephony
      5. Peer-to-Peer File Sharing
      6. Telnet and SSH
      7. Ubuntu One
        1. Joining and Logging In
        2. Using Ubuntu One
      8. Summary
    15. 12. Using OpenOffice.org
      1. Preparing the Example Files
      2. Writer
        1. The Standard Toolbar
        2. The Formatting Toolbar
        3. Using Styles
        4. About Word Completion
      3. Calc
        1. The Standard Toolbar
        2. The Formatting Toolbar
          1. Viewing and setting data types
      4. Impress
        1. The Standard Toolbar
        2. The Line and Filling Toolbar
        3. The Slides Frame
        4. The Workspace Frame
        5. The Tasks Frame
        6. The Drawing Toolbar
        7. The Master Slide
      5. Draw
      6. Base
      7. Math
      8. Built-in Help
      9. Evolution Calendar
      10. What’s New in 10.04?
      11. Summary
    16. 13. Playing Games
      1. Built-in Games
      2. PlayDeb
      3. Other Linux Games
      4. PlayOnLinux
      5. KDE Games
      6. Browser-Based Games
      7. Ubuntu Easter Eggs
        1. The Ubuntu Fish
      8. OpenOffice.org StarWars
      9. Aptitude Silliness
      10. What’s New in 10.04
      11. Summary
    17. 14. Pictures, Sound, and Video
      1. Movie Player
        1. Adding Plug-ins
      2. VLC Media Player
      3. Rhythmbox Music Player
        1. Importing Tracks
        2. Playing Music
        3. Last.fm
        4. What’s New in 10.04
      4. The GIMP Image Editor
        1. Learning How to Use It
        2. What’s New in 10.04?
      5. F-Spot Photo Manager
      6. Audacity Audio Editor
      7. Rosegarden
      8. PiTiVi Video Editor
        1. What’s New in 10.04?
      9. The Take Screenshot Program
      10. Summary
    18. 15. Other Ubuntu Distributions
      1. Installation
        1. Installing Distributions Alongside Ubuntu
          1. Adding Kubuntu
          2. Adding Xubuntu
          3. Adding Mythbuntu
          4. Adding Edubuntu
          5. Adding Ubuntu Studio
          6. Adding Ubuntu
      2. Kubuntu
      3. Xubuntu
      4. Mythbuntu
      5. Edubuntu
      6. Ubuntu Netbook Edition
        1. What’s New in 10.04
      7. Ubuntu Server Edition
      8. Ubuntu Studio
      9. Eeebuntu
      10. Even More Distributions
      11. Summary
    19. 16. Using Wine
      1. What Is Wine?
      2. The Benefits of Wine
      3. Wine’s Limitations
      4. Installing Wine
      5. Installing Microsoft Fonts
      6. Configuring Wine
      7. Accessing the Windows C: Drive
      8. Further Information
      9. Summary
    20. Index
    21. About the Author
    22. Colophon
    23. SPECIAL OFFER: Upgrade this ebook with O’Reilly

Product information

  • Title: Ubuntu: Up and Running
  • Author(s): Robin Nixon
  • Release date: April 2010
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9781449390730