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The menusThere are two primary menus in GNOME and Fedora Core 3. One of these isaccessible through the Applications button on the upper panel, and the otheris available by clicking Actions next to it. The Applications menu contains theoptions shown in Table 6-1, and the Actions menu s contents are shown inTable 6-2. Menu items that have an arrow on their right offer submenus, which you canopen by holding your mouse on that menu choice. Often, the submenus havetheir own submenus within that offer even more programs. Table 6-1Fedora Applications Menu Contents, Listed in the Order That They AppearMenu ChoiceWhat You FindAccessoriesSmall, specific-function GNOME and X programs. Contains a calculator, character map, dictionary, file roller, Pilot/Handspring tool, and text editor. GamesA collection of games. (continued) Figure 6-1: The defaultGNOMEdesktop in FedoraCore 3.109Chapter 6: Checking Out Those Desktops10_
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108Part I:Getting Your Feet Wet so you just add a cto make less grocand press Tab again to finish theautocompletion. This technique can save you a ton of typing, especially withreally long filenames! Most Linux distributions also keep a running historyof the most recentlyused commands. To use this list, press the up-arrow key on your keyboard. This action pulls up the last command you typed. As you continue to pressthe up-arrow key, you step through the most recently entered commandsfrom the most to least recent. If you accidentally pass what you re looking for, use the down-arrow key to go back. When the command you want appearsat the command prompt, press Enter to execute the command, or edit it andthen press Enter. In Chapter 14, I cover the command-line environment in more detail. When you installed Linux, you added a graphical login by default. (This addi- tion is true for all the versions discussed in this book.) Some versions of Linuxgive you the option of choosing a graphical or command-line login, which cancause a lot of confusion for folks who accidentally choose the command-lineoption. If you did so (or think you did) and find yourself lost after the machineboots up, see Chapter 19. GNOME BasicsGNOME stands for the GNU Network Object Model Environment not thatthis expansion tells you much! Suffice it to say that GNOME is a full graphicalenvironment. I focus here on Fedora since it is the only distribution I m cov- ering that uses GNOME by default. Figure 6-1 shows you what you see onceyou log into the system and the GUI finishes launching. To find out more about GNOME, visit the main GNOME site, at www.gnome.org. Keep in mind that the programs you have depend on the type of installationyou chose and what customizations you made; if what you have is differentfrom what you see in descriptions or the figures, don t panic! The GNOME desktop environment is essentially broken into four separateparts: The menus The menu and icon panel at the top of the screen The desktop panel on the bottom of the screen The icons on your desktop10_
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Most distributions come with both KDE and GNOME, so most users simplychoose their preferred desktop. While it may look from here as though KDE isparticularly popular compared to GNOME, this isn t necessarily the case. Both are excellent desktops with strong fan bases. It s a pretty personal pref- erence, so I encourage you to install and experiment with both and to seewhich you like better. The cool thing is that you can run most KDE programsunder GNOME and vice versa. This ability is vital when it comes to making iteasier on developers (and users) in the Linux community. When you askpeople why they chose one over another, often they really can t give youmuch of a good answer aside from That s what I ve always used. Keep thisin mind when people try to convince you that one or the other is the bestthing since sliced bread! I cover how to switch between KDE and GNOME later in this chapter in thesection Switching between GNOME and KDE. Making the Best of the Command LineThe Linux command-line interface provides a quick and easy way of enteringcommands and executing actions. Even if you re mostly a GUI person, afteryou get the hang of using the command line, you discover that it s faster toperform some tasks at the command line than with a mouse in the GUI envi- ronment. However, if you prefer to use a GUI interface as your working environment, you can easily open a terminal window,which is a command- prompt window, to perform your command-driven tasks without having tocompletely leave the point-and-click environment (see Chapter 14). There are some interesting things that you might find useful to know aboutusing the command-line interface. One difference between the Linux com- mand line and other interface command lines, such as the Windows MS-DOSprompt, is that Linux commands are case sensitive. Typing LSis completelydifferent from typing ls, and, in fact, gives you an error because there is anlscommand but there is no LScommand. The Linux command line also hasan autocompletionfeature. If you know the first few characters of a commandor filename, type part of it and press Tab to complete the rest automatically. For example, if you re trying to use the lesscommand to view the contentsof the file /home/bob/grocery_list, you can type less /home/bob/groand press Tab to try and complete the filename. However, if you also have thesubdirectory (folder) /home/bob/group_projects, you hear a beep. Youcan press the Tab key again, like double-clicking a mouse, to see the output: grocery_list group_projectsThe cool thing here is that the command prompt beneath these items stillhas the text less groso that you don t have to retype it! You can then seethat typing a cmakes it clear that you re referring to groceryand not group, 107Chapter 6: Checking Out Those Desktops10_
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106Part I:Getting Your Feet Wet If you ve been using computers for many years, you may also be familiar with the command-line interface, which usually consists of a black screenwith white text. The initial release and early development of Linux was allcommand-line-oriented; GUIs then grew as the icing on the Linux cake, making it a lot more colorful to use and easier for people who would rather point and click than type. In choosing between the command-line and the GUI, you need to consider anumber of factors. For a lot of people, this decision is pretty much a no-brainerissue. They have no intention of leaving GUIs behind. That s fine, but at thevery least, you may want to become familiar with what s under the hood. Someday, your GUI might break and leave you at the ever-dreaded login prompt! Deciding Which Interface to UseOne important factor when choosing between the command-line interfaceand a GUI is speed. Keep in mind that if you re a programmer who needs tocompile programs or a scientist who needs to run software that does heavynumber crunching, the GUI slows down your system. You also need to typi- cally shut off the GUI when using Linux as a server, because it s mostly awaste of RAM and processing speed more often than not, a server justdoes its thing with no one sitting there watching over it. Readability can also be a big issue when choosing between the GUI and the command prompt. If you have a hard time reading text in those smallcommand-prompt windows from within the GUI (Chapters 14 and 20 covervarious ways to switch around), you can either make the windows and thefont bigger, or work directly with the command prompt outside of the GUI. However, on a desktop that you want to use for word-processing or editingimages, you ll want a point-and-click environment. This setup is the type Ifocus on, but I don t leave you without any clue about the command-line, just in case! You also can choose from two major GUI versions: GNOME and KDE. Somepeople prefer one, and some the other, and I m not here to tell you which touse. If you stuck with the defaults for your distribution, then you re using Fedora:GNOME Knoppix:KDE Linspire:KDE Mandrake:KDE SuSE:KDE Xandros:KDE10_
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Chapter 6Checking Out Those DesktopsIn This Chapter Finding your way around Fedora Kicking around Knoppix Looking around Linspire Messing around with Mandrake Seeing what s what with SuSE Xightseeing around Xandros A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a workstation. . . . Steven WrightAlot of people like to characterize Linux as a DOS-like environment, where all you can do is operate in this antique-feeling world where youhave to type a lot of cryptic stuff and can t see any pretty pictures. However, the Linux desktop offers you quite a nice working environment, as you seethroughout this chapter. The cool thing is that most of it is configurable. Those who like to customize their systems can have way too much funchanging things around. Introducing the InterfacesLinux has two interface types: the command-line interfaceand the graphicaluser interface(GUI). If you use other computer systems, such as Windows orthe Macintosh, you re already familiar with a GUI. Most Linux distributionsinclude different versions of the GUI (which takes up the majority of thischapter), which you can heavily customize.
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104Part I:Getting Your Feet Wet
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If you re plagued with brief power outages or spikes that cause your com- puter to reboot, look into getting a UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply) foryour computer. These heavy recharging batteries can not only protect yourcomputer from damage read the box to see what features a particular UPSoffers but can also provide an extra five minutes or more of power to giveyou a chance to properly close your files and shut down a machine when thepower goes out. Better yet, for those really brief spikes, the only inconven- ience you ll have to deal with if you have a UPS in place is listening to it com- plain with beeps. Your computer won t be affected by the spike at all! Removing Linux from Your SystemAlthough I d hate to see you go, I d also hate to see you get trapped in Linuxif you don t want to use it! How to most easily get rid of Linux depends onwhat you want to do: If you want to replace Linux with Windows, just install Windows on themachine. It will overwrite all of Linux, including the boot menu. If you want to remove Linux from a dual boot setup, then boot into yourWindows option, access a command prompt, and type fdisk /mbr. Thisaction removes the Linux boot loader. It doesn t erase Linux, but youcan then format the Linux drive(s) or partition(s) for Windows. Windows XP and Xandros users have a special command they can use toremove this distribution. Boot your machine using your XP CD-ROM into theRecovery Console. Change to the Windows directory and then type fixmbr. 103Chapter 5: Booting and Stopping Linux09_
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Don t Just Turn Off the Machine! Even when you re not tapping the keyboard or clicking buttons, Linux is stillrunning along in the background and doing lots of housekeeping chores. Some of these chores may involve swapping cached datato and from thefixed disk a geeky way of saying that it s actually jotting down things ontoyour hard drive that before it had just been making sure to remember inRAM. When you shut off the power out of the blue, anything the computerwas remembering but hadn t written is lost, kind of like when you or I fallasleep before making a to-do list for the next day. If you re used to Windows 98, you need to recondition yourself from justshutting off the power when you re finished. For one thing, many Linux usersleave their computers on when they re not using them; they just log out oftheir accounts so that no one can mess with their stuff and shut off the moni- tor because monitors draw a lot of power. When you do decide to turn offyour Linux machine, for whatever reason, you must shut down the computerin an orderly manner. You can use one of these methods to shut down Linux properly: If you re in the GUI, log out of your account using the main menu s LogOut option and then click the display manager option that says, strangely enough, Shut Down. If you have a command prompt open, enter the haltcommand at theshell prompt (#) followed by the root password, and Linux shuts itselfdown and tells you when it s all right to turn off the machine. If you have a command prompt open, enter the rebootcommand, andLinux goes through the motions of shutting itself down and then immedi- ately reboots the machine. If you have a command prompt open, entering shutdown -f nowis themost traditionally accepted method. The shutdowncommand optionallyallows you to send messages to logged-in users and determine how longuntil the shutdown takes place. Another method is the poweroff com- mand, which is just an alias to the previously mentioned haltcommand. If you do accidentally cut the power to your Linux box, take heart; all is notlost. More often than not, you can reboot your computer and pick up whereyou left off. However, you may have to pay for your error by waiting during aquick file system check while the machine makes sure that nothing was dam- aged. This process is similar to the one in Windows, where, if you power offincorrectly, the operating system may need to scan its hard drives to makesure that everything is okay. 102Part I:Getting Your Feet Wet
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SuSE:The DVD, or the first installation CD, contains a Rescue Systemmenu option. Use your arrow keys to highlight this option and pressEnter. Xandros:The CD contains a rescue mode. When the installer starts, press the Shift key. This action opens a list of menu options. Use thearrow keys to select Rescue Console, and press Enter. To enter rescue mode in Fedora Core, place the DVD or your first CD intoyour DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive and boot the machine. Then follow thesesteps: 1.When the disk first loads, type linux rescueat the bootprompt. This action begins booting the system into maintenance mode. 2.Select your language and press Enter. 3.Select your keyboard type and press Enter. The rescue system does its thing for a while, perhaps a minute or two ona slow system. 4.When asked whether you want to start the network interfaces, answerNo unless you know you need to download something. 5.At the Rescue screen, select one of the three options offered and thenpress Enter. Your three options are Continue: The rescue interface tracks down your installed FedoraCore system for you. If you select this option (or the next) and it fails, you may need toreboot and restart the rescue system. After restarting, choose Skip. Read-Only: The same as Continue, but you aren t able to make anychanges to your hard drive installation. Skip: Don t bother trying to locate the filesystem, just give me aprompt! I assume that you chose Continue. If so, a shell prompt(the rescue command-line interface) appears, and you now have access to therescue interface. 6.If the rescue process was able to load your Fedora installation, typechroot/mnt/sysimageto be able to use your system without havingto type /mnt/sysimagein front of everything. 101Chapter 5: Booting and Stopping Linux09_
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The main problems you may encounter with initare services(programs that run in the background) that fail to start properly, as is indicated by the[FAILED]status shown during the boot process. Many of these services don tkeep you from logging in and using your system. Services usually fail becauseof misconfigurations or unsupported hardware drivers. Sometimes a problemservice takes a long time to start up, so you may need some patience while youwait it out. Once the machine boots up, you can use the techniques describedin Chapter 12 to shut off the problem service if it s being a pain. If the machinecan t boot because of this service, you ll need to access your distribution srescue mode to shut off the service. Rescue mode is covered in the next sec- tion. Entering Rescue ModeHeavy-duty system repair tends to happen in rescuemode, which is a special boot selection that simulates your hard disk in whatis called a RAM disk,holding the files entirely in memory. The benefit of thisdisk is that you can perform necessary system surgery without requiring util- ities that are part of the installed system; everything you need is part of therescue disk. The drawback is that this is a purely command-line interface, and you really have to know your stuff to find your way around. Appendix A contains a list of Linux commands, roadmap to try to help youout. Chapter 20 addresses, among other things, how to fix your boot loadersfrom here if your problem is with the boot loader, and how to track down theerror messages your kernel might have left behind. You may also be able tofind helpful tips by reviewing your distribution s documentation and helpforums. Knoppix is quite popular to use for system rescues because it s a whole dis- tribution on a CD. (For more on Knoppix and live CDs, see Chapter 2.) SeeChapter 20 for more on using Knoppix for things like rescuing broken Linux(and even Windows) systems. Just about every Linux distribution includes a rescue mode. Due to spacerestrictions, I have room to cover entering only Fedora s rescue mode in step- by-step detail, but at the very least, here s a quick reference to how to findthe rescue mode in the distributions covered in this book: Linspire:The CD contains a rescue mode. When the installer starts, useyour arrow keys to select Diagnostics and then press Enter. Fedora:The DVD, or the first installation CD, contains a rescue modethat you can enter by typing linux rescueat the installer s bootprompt. Mandrake:The first CD contains a rescue mode. When the installerstarts, press F1 to access the command prompt, type rescue, and pressEnter. 100Part I:Getting Your Feet Wet
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