Mastering Mandriva Linux

by NeoDoc, Camille Bégnis, Christian Roy, Fabián Mandelbaum, Roberto Rosselli del Turco, Marcus Duarte, Marco De Vitis, Alice Lafox, John Rye, Wolfgang Bornath, Funda Wang, Patricia Pichardo Bégnis, Debora Rejnharc Mandelbaum, Raphaël Jadot, Pascal Rigaux, Thierry Vignaud, Giuseppe Ghibò, Pavel Maryanov, Felipe Arruda, André Machado, Laura Sebrie, Johanna Mistretta, Denis Philippov, Kasparas Adomaitis, Mario Gonzalez.

This material may only be distributed subject to the terms and conditions set forth in the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later (the latest version is presently available at opencontent.org).

  • Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.

  • Distribution of the work or derivatives of the work in any standard (paper) book form is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained from the copyright holder.

Mandriva” and “DrakX” are registered trademarks in the US and/or other countries. The related “Star logo” is also registered. All rights reserved. All other copyrights embodied in this document remain the property of their respective owners.

May 2O1O

Abstract

This is the main official manual distributed by Mandriva Linux.


Preface
1. About Mandriva Linux
1.1. Contacting Mandriva Linux Community
1.2. Joining Mandriva Community
1.3. Purchasing Mandriva Products
1.4. Contributing to Mandriva Linux
2. About this User Guide
3. Conventions Used in this Book
3.1. Typing Conventions
3.2. General Conventions
4. Quick Install
4.1. Performing the Installation
4.2. Co-existing with Other Operating Systems
1. Free Software Daily
1. Discover your New Environment
1.1. Discovering the K Desktop Environment
1.1.1. The Desktop
1.1.2. The Panel
1.1.3. Virtual Desktops
1.2. How to Access Folders
1.2.1. Welcome Home!
1.2.2. Accessing Other Folders
1.2.3. Accessing Removable Media
1.2.4. Accessing Remote Shares
1.3. Personalizing Your Desktop
1.3.1. Changing Your Desktop's Appearance
1.3.2. Customizing Your Panel
1.4. Searching for Files
1.5. KDE Sessions
1.6. Manipulating the 3D Desktop
1.6.1. Manipulating the 3D Desktop with Compiz
1.6.2. Metisse, an Innovative Windows Manipulation System
2. Using the Internet
2.1. Writing E-mails
2.1.1. Mail Configuration
2.1.2. Mail Client Interface
2.1.3. Composing a Message
2.1.4. Folders and Filters
2.2. Stay Informed with News Feeds
2.3. Browsing the Web
2.3.1. Tab Browsing
2.3.2. Built-in Search Bar
2.3.3. Installing Plugins
3. Doing Office Work
3.1. Writing Documents
3.1.1. Word Processor Interface
3.1.2. Styles
3.1.3. Lists
3.1.4. Page Headers and Footers
3.2. Calculations and Simulations
3.2.1. Spreadsheet Interface
3.2.2. Entering Data
3.2.3. Adding Formulas
3.2.4. Charts: Explaining Data in a Simpler Way
3.3. Communicating Your Ideas
3.3.1. Presentation Interface
3.3.2. Adding Slides to Your Presentation
3.3.3. Simple Charts
3.3.4. Slide Background
3.3.5. Transitions, Animations and Effects
3.3.6. Running Your Presentation
3.4. Going Further
4. Audio, Movie and Video Applications
4.1. Audio Applications
4.1.1. amaroK Audio Player
4.1.2. Using KMix, the Mixer
4.2. Listening to Music and Watching Videos with Totem
4.2.1. Getting Started
4.2.2. Settings
4.2.3. Usage
4.3. CD and DVD Burning
4.3.1. Getting Started
4.3.2. Burning Data CDs
4.3.3. Burning Audio CDs (CDDA)
4.3.4. Audio CD Extraction or Ripping
4.3.5. Duplicating a CD
4.3.6. Erasing CD-RW media
5. Graphics Tools and Practical Devices
5.1. Graphic Art and Image Manipulation
5.1.1. GIMP
5.1.2. Vector Graphic Applications
5.2. Digital Cameras
5.2.1. Configuring Your Digital Photo Camera
5.2.2. Handling Digital Camera Storage Media
5.2.3. Transferring Pictures
5.2.4. Touching Up Pictures
5.2.5. EXIF Photographic Settings, Comments and Tags
5.2.6. Sharing your Photos
5.3. Scanning Documents and Images
5.3.1. Scanning Documents with Kooka
5.3.2. A Note About the Resolution
5.3.3. Extracting Text from Scanned Documents (OCR)
2. Configuring and Tweaking Your Box
6. Introduction to the Mandriva Linux Control Center
6.1. MCC's Components
6.2. Raise an Issue
7. Package Management
7.1. Adding and Removing Software
7.1.1. Meet Rpmdrake
7.1.2. Handling Dependencies
7.2. Updating Packages
7.3. The Software Media Manager
7.4. Package Statistics
8. Hardware Setup
8.1. Sound System Configuration
8.1.1. Changing Drivers
8.1.2. Other Sound Options
8.2. Configuring Your Hardware
8.2.1. Hardware Detection and Configuration
8.2.2. Problems and Troubleshooting
8.3. Configuring a 3D Desktop
8.3.1. Metisse
8.3.2. Compiz Fusion
8.3.3. No 3D desktop effects
8.4. Controlling the Graphical Configuration
8.4.1. XFdrake Interface
8.4.2. Changing the Monitor
8.4.3. Changing the Resolution
8.5. Changing Your Keyboard Layout
8.6. Changing Your Mouse
8.7. Configuring Printers
8.7.1. Adding a Printer
8.7.2. Changing Printer Configuration
8.8. Installing and Sharing Scanners
8.8.1. Main Interface and Scanner Installation
8.8.2. Share your Scanner
8.9. Configuring a Fax Server
8.10. Setting up your UPS
9. Setting up your Network and Accessing the Web
9.1. Network and Internet Connection Management
9.1.1. Setting up a New Network Interface
9.1.2. Network Center: Reconfiguring and Monitoring Network Interfaces
9.1.3. Monitoring Connections
9.1.4. Reconfiguring a Network Interface
9.2. Proxies Configuration
9.3. Sharing an Internet Connection
9.3.1. The Gateway Connection Wizard
9.3.2. Disable Connection Sharing
9.3.3. Configuring the Clients
9.4. Managing Wireless Connections (Roaming)
9.4.1. Switching Networks
9.4.2. Configuring a Wireless Connection
9.5. Activating and Managing Network Profiles
9.5.1. Profile Handling
9.6. Configure VPN Connections
9.7. Manage Hosts Definitions
9.8. Firewall Black/White Lists, etc.
9.8.1. Enabling and Accessing Interactive Firewall Feature
9.8.2. Monitoring and Managing Intrusions
10. Personalizing your System
10.1. Users Authentication
10.2. Menu Style
10.3. Configuring Start-Up Services
10.4. Managing Fonts on your System with DrakFont
10.5. Setting your Machine's Date and Time
10.6. System Localization
10.7. Monitoring System Activity
10.7.1. Browsing System Logs
10.7.2. Setting up Mail Alerts
10.8. Access to the Console
10.9. Managing Users and Groups
10.9.1. The Interface
10.9.2. Adding a New User
10.9.3. Guest account
10.10. Import Windows® Settings and Documents
10.11. Backing Up and Restoring your Files
10.11.1. A Practical Example Using the Wizard
10.11.2. Restoring Backups
10.11.3. Automating Periodic Backups
10.11.4. Advanced Backup Wizard Configuration
10.12. System Snapshots
10.12.1. What to Backup
10.12.2. Where to Backup
11. Network Sharing
11.1. Importing Remote SMB Directories
11.2. Samba Shares Managements
11.2.1. Basic Server Setup
11.2.2. Samba User Management
11.2.3. File Sharing Settings
11.2.4. Printer Sharing Settings
11.3. Importing Remote NFS Directories
11.4. Share Drives and Folders using NFS
11.5. Setting up WebDAV Mount Points
12. Local Disks
12.1. Managing your Hard Drive Partitions with DiskDrake
12.1.1. The Interface
12.1.2. DiskDrake's Action Buttons
12.1.3. Resizing an Old Partition and Creating a New One
12.2. Managing Removable Devices
12.3. Allowing Users to Share Folders
13. “Security” Section
13.1. Securing your Machine with DrakSec
13.1.1. Setting your Security Level
13.1.2. Customizing a Security Level
13.1.3. Setting up your own Permissions
13.2. Setting up Rights Delegation
13.3. Securing your Internet Access via DrakFirewall
13.3.1. Choosing Services to be Available from Outside
13.3.2. Activating Interactive Firewall Feature
13.3.3. Which Interface(s) to Protect
13.4. Network Interface and Firewall Failover
13.4.1. Network Redundancy Configuration
13.4.2. Firewall Replication Configuration
13.5. Parental Controls
13.5.1. Defining Main Options
13.5.2. Scheduling a Timeframe
13.5.3. Using the Blacklist
13.5.4. Using the Whitelist
13.5.5. Filtering applications
14. Boot Device Configuration
14.1. Configuring the Login Mode
14.2. Changing your Boot-up Configuration
14.2.1. Configuring the Bootloader
14.2.2. Managing Boot Entries
14.3. Display Manager Setup
3. Installing Mandriva Linux
15. Coexisting with Other Operating Systems
16. Before Installation
16.1. Configuring your BIOS
16.2. Supported Hardware
17. Installation with DrakX
17.1. The Mandriva Linux Installer
17.1.1. The Installation Process
17.1.2. Startup Options
17.2. Choosing your Language
17.3. License Terms of the Distribution
17.4. Configuring your Keyboard
17.5. Installation Class
17.6. Where to Install Mandriva on your Hard Disk
17.7. Choosing Mount Points
17.7.1. Manual Choice
17.7.2. Partition Naming
17.8. Choose the Partitions to Format
17.9. Package Selection
17.9.1. Choosing the Installation Media
17.9.2. Supplementary Installation Media
17.9.3. Choosing a Graphical Environment
17.9.4. Choosing Package Groups to Install
17.9.5. Minimal Installation
17.9.6. Choosing Individual Packages to Install
17.10. User Management
17.10.1. Administrator (root) Password
17.10.2. Enter a User
17.11. Installing a Bootloader
17.12. Graphical Interface Configuration
17.13. Checking Miscellaneous Parameters
17.13.1. Summary
17.13.2. Time Zone Options
17.13.3. Configuring X, the Graphical Server
17.13.4. Selecting Available Services at Boot Time
17.14. Installing Updates from the Internet
17.15. It's All Done!
17.16. How to Uninstall Linux
18. Introduction to the Command Line
18.1. File Manipulation
18.1.1. List the Contents of a Directory
18.1.2. Copy
18.1.3. Move
18.1.4. Remove
18.1.5. Create a Directory
18.1.6. Change the Working Directory
18.2. Process Manipulation
18.2.1. Information on Processes
18.2.2. Controlling Processes
18.2.3. Mixing ps and kill: top
18.3. Commands Documentation
18.4. Further Reading
1. Where to Get Documentation
1.1. Mandriva Linux-Specific Documentation
1.1.1. Mandriva's Own Documentation
1.1.2. Internet Resources
1.2. Linux Useful Resources
1.2.1. The /usr/share/doc Directory
1.2.2. Web Resources
1.2.3. The Man Pages
1.2.4. Info Pages
1.2.5. HOWTOs
2. About the Making of this Manual
2.1. Technical Infrastructure
2.2. Help Improve Mandriva Linux Documentation
3. The GNU General Public License
3.1. Preamble
3.2. Terms and conditions for copying,  distribution  and  modification
Index

List of Figures

1.1. The KDE Desktop
1.2. The KDE Panel
1.3. Home Folder Content
1.4. A CD Has Been Inserted
1.5. Accessing Remote Shares
1.6. KDE System Settings
1.7. Changing KDE's Color Scheme
1.8. Changing KDE's Background Wallpaper
1.9. Panel Settings Window
1.10. Adding a Battery Monitor to the Panel
1.11. Metisse in Action
2.1. Mail Account Type
2.2. Your Personal Data
2.3. Account Credentials
2.4. Mail Servers
2.5. KMail Client Interface
2.6. The Message-Compose Window
2.7. Akregator's Interface
2.8. Feed Properties
2.9. Firefox's Interface
2.10. Tabbed Browsing with Firefox
2.11. Moving a Tab
3.1. OpenOffice.org Writer's Main Window
3.2. OpenOffice.org Calc's Main Window
3.3. Simplifying Data Entry Using Auto-Completion
3.4. A 3D Chart Inside the Spreadsheet
3.5. OpenOffice.org Impress' Main Window
3.6. Entering Chart Data
4.1. amaroK's Main Window
4.2. Music Collection
4.3. KMix Main Window
4.4. Totem Media Player Main Window
4.5. Playlist Dialog
4.6. Taking a Screenshot
4.7. K3b's Interface
4.8. Selecting Files and Directories to Include on a CD
4.9. Setting Writing Parameters
4.10. Burn CD Image Options
4.11. Selecting Audio Tracks to Include on the CD
4.12. CD Ripping Options
4.13. Setting Options to Copy a CD
4.14. Setting CD-RW Blanking Options
5.1. GIMP's Main Interface
5.2. Creating a New File
5.3. GIMP Picture
5.4. Layers, Channels and Paths Dialogs
5.5. Filter's Menu
5.6. Color Selection Dialog
5.7. Brushes Dialog
5.8. The digiKam Main Window
5.9. Adding a Comment and a Tag to a Picture
5.10. The digiKam Export Menu
5.11. Kooka Main Interface
5.12. Scanned Document in Kooka
6.1. The Network Sharing Section of the Control Center
6.2. Reporting a Bug
7.1. Software Management in the Mandriva Linux Control Center
7.2. Rpmdrake Interface
7.3. Dependency Alert Box
7.4. Alternative Packages
7.5. Updating Packages
7.6. Configured Software Media
7.7. Adding a Custom Package Repository Medium
7.8. Package Repository Authentication Key Management
7.9. Specifying a Proxy for Remote Media
7.10. The Main Package Stats Window
8.1. Sound Configuration Main Window
8.2. Selected Device
8.3. Activating 3D Desktop Effects
8.4. XFdrake Main Window
8.5. Choosing a New Monitor
8.6. Changing the Resolution of Your Screen
8.7. Choosing a Different Keyboard Layout
8.8. Choosing a Different Mouse
8.9. Automatically Detected Printer
8.10. Choosing Printer Driver
8.11. Printer Description
8.12. Available Printers
8.13. Windows System Printer Setup
8.14. Installing your Scanner
8.15. The Tree-list of All Known Scanner Models
8.16. Sharing Scanners within a LAN
8.17. Fax Server Hardware Options
8.18. Fax Server System Options
9.1. Network Configuration and Monitoring Tools
9.2. Setting Static LAN Connection Parameters
9.3. Setting the DSL Connection Protocol
9.4. Entering Dial-up Connection Parameters
9.5. Real-Time Network Connection Monitoring
9.6. Changing Network Parameters
9.7. Proxy Server Settings
9.8. A Simple Gateway Configuration
9.9. Configuring the LAN
9.10. Configuring a Client to Use DHCP
9.11. DrakRoam's Interface
9.12. Changing Wireless Network Configuration
9.13. The Network Profiles Interface
9.14. Modifying Drakhost Main Window
9.15. Interactive Firewall Window
10.1. Authentication Window
10.2. Choosing the Services Available at Boot Time
10.3. DrakFont's Main Window
10.4. Changing Date and Time
10.5. Selecting the Language of the System
10.6. Browsing and Searching through System Logs
10.7. Setting up a Mail Alert: Services
10.8. Setting up a Mail Alert: Load
10.9. Setting up a Mail Alert: Recipient
10.10. The User List in UserDrake
10.11. Adding a New User in the System
10.12. Adding Users to a Group
10.13. Main Backup Wizard Window
10.14. Selecting What to Backup
10.15. Selecting Where to Store the Backup
10.16. Setting Optical Media Parameters
10.17. Review Configuration Parameters
10.18. Backup Progress Dialog
10.19. Choosing the Restore Type to Perform
10.20. Daemon Options Window
10.21. Miscellaneous Options Window
10.22. Draksnapshot Main Window
10.23. Including and Excluding Files and Folders From the Snapshot
11.1. Scanning the Whole Network
11.2. DrakSamba Main Interface
11.3. Standalone Samba Server
11.4. Workgroup and Server Names
11.5. User Level Security Mode
11.6. File Server Banner
11.7. Per-Client Small Log File Setting
11.8. The DrakNFS Main Window
11.9. Managing WebDAV Mount Points
11.10. WebDAV Menu
12.1. DiskDrake's Main Window
12.2. Changing a Parameter
12.3. Controlling Exports
13.1. Choosing the Security Level of your System
13.2. Modifying Standard Options
13.3. Configuring File-Permission Checks
13.4. Adding a File-Permissions Rule
13.5. Delegating Rights
13.6. The DrakFirewall Window
13.7. Interactive Firewall Options
13.8. The Internet Interface
13.9. Highly Available Firewall
13.10. The DrakInvictus Window
13.11. Parental Controls Main Window
14.1. Choosing the Login Mode
14.2. Choosing the Boot Mode and Main Options
17.1. First Installation Welcome Screen
17.2. Choosing the Default Language
18.1. Monitoring Processes with top

List of Tables

1.1. 3D Desktop Manipulations with Compiz
1.2. Basic Windows Manipulations
1.3. Advanced Window Effects
1.4. Pager Actions
2.1. KMail's Toolbar Buttons
2.2. Message-Composition Toolbar Buttons
3.1. Suggested Text Styles
4.1. K3b's Toolbar Buttons
6.1. Overview of Graphical Tools

List of Examples

2.1. Add a New Feed
13.1. Allow the Users to Manage Network Connections