Welcome, and thank you for using Mandrake Linux! This book is aimed at people wishing to dive into the depths of their GNU/Linux system, and exploiting its huge capabilities. This book is made up of three parts:
Introduction to Linux: here we will introduce you to the use of the command line, its various uses, and to text editing basics, essential under GNU/Linux.
We begin with a chapter introducing you to the Unix and more particularly GNU/Linux worlds. It is necessary to understand well the concepts presented here before going on to the next chapter dedicated to the command line. This chapter introduces you to the standard utilities for manipulating files and also some useful features provided by the shell.
Another chapter is dedicated to editing text. As most Unix configuration files are text files, you may need to edit them in a text editor. You will learn how to use two of the most famous text editors in the Unix world: the mighty Emacs and the modern :-) Vi.
You should now be able to perform some basic maintenance on your system. The following two chapters present practical uses of the command line and process control in general.
Linux in depth: these are some details about the Linux kernel and file system architecture.
You will see in the first chapter how the file tree is organized. Unix systems tend to grow very large, but every file has it's place in a specific directory. After reading this chapter you will know where to look for files depending on their role in the system.
Another chapter covers the topic of file systems and mount points. Here you will learn what both of these terms mean and you will see a practical example.
One chapter will be dedicated to GNU/Linux file systems. After presenting the available file systems, you will learn more about file types and some additional concepts that may be new to you. Another chapter will introduce the special GNU/Linux file system /proc.
You will then learn about the Mandrake Linux boot-up procedure, and how to use it efficiently.
Advanced uses: finally some chapters for advanced users, including a very useful troubleshooting chapter.
First is a chapter dedicated to printing management and daily use.
Then three more chapters especially dedicated to people willing to become experts with GNU/Linux the first one is especially dedicated to troubleshooting; if you start experiencing problems with your system, this is a good starting point. Next comes the chapter describing the details of the security levels available under Mandrake Linux. The next one describes the configuration wizards, guiding you through the configuration of your system as a LAN server.
You are finally shown how to compile and install a new kernel and free software.