LINUX® Configuration and Installation [Paperback]

Patrick Volkerding (Author), Kevin Reichard (Author), Eric Foster-Johnson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0764570056 | ISBN-13: 978-0764570056 | Edition: 4th

Slackware Creator Patrick Volkerding Shows You How to Build Your Own System Harness the power of Linux with step-by-step explanations straight from the creator of one of its most popular distributions. Complete with Slackware 3.5 and new coverage of specific installation and configuration topics, Linux^® Configuration and Installation, 4th Edition brings you everything you need, short of a PC, to get you up and running in no time. Inside, You'll Learn How to:

• Prepare your PC for Linux
• Install and configure Linux for your system
• Set up XFree86
• Master the basic Linux tools and applications
• Manage your system for maximum performance
• Leverage resources with a Linux network
• Expand your system with telecommunications capabilities
• Connect to the Internet with Linux
• Develop Linux applications using C, Make, Java, Tcl, Perl, and Gawk

Get Slackware 3.5 Free, including:

• Kernels for most major PC hardware configurations — including support for IDE/EIDE, SCSI, PCMCIA cards, tape drives, sound boards, network cards, Jaz and Zip drives, and CD-ROMs
• Full set of installation tools — including easy-to-use menus and tools for upgrading
• Three installation methods — traditional Linux installation via bootdisks and rootdisks, direct installation onto a Zip drive or other DOS partition, and direct installation from the bootable installation CD-ROM
• Complete installation of XFree86 3.3.2 system — including installation and configuration utilities, window managers (fvwm, fvwm-95, twm, olvwm), and X servers for most graphics cards
• Full TCP/IP connectivity for the Internet, corporate networks, and intranets
• Netscape Communicator, with Web-browsing, electronic-mail, collaborative, and newsgroup capabilities
• Complete ANSI C and C++ programming suites
• Various Unix shells — including the Bourne Again Shell (bash), tcsh, and more
• Tools for connecting your PC to the Internet and to online services with PPP, SLIP, CSLIP, UUCP, dip, mailx, and dialup serial programs
• Other Internet applications — including electronic mail (pine and elm), Web browsers (Arena and Lynx), Usenet newsreaders (cnews, nn, tin, trn, and inn) and FTP
• All major GNU commands and applications — including GNU Emacs 20.2
• Multimedia tools for working with images files and MIME
• Internet servers — including the Apache HTTP Web server, sendmail, and an FTP server
• Terminal applications — including Midnight Commander and the sc spreadsheet
• A full set of programming tools — egcs-1.0.3 (gcc-2.8 based C/C++/f77/Objective-C compiler from egcs.cygnus.com), make (GNU and BSD), byacc and GNU bison, flex, 5.4.44 C libraries, gdb, SVGAlib, ncurses, gcl (LISP), p2c, m4, perl, python, rcs
• Text-editing and text-formatting tools — including elvis, vm, jed, joe, jove, pico, gross TeX, info) as well as hundreds of fonts
• Full suite of X Window applications — including Ghostscript, xlock, libgr, seyon, workman, xfilemanager, xv 3.10a, GNU chess and xboard, xfm 1.3.2, ghostview, gnuplot, xpaint, xfractint, and various X games.
• Support for iBCS, which allow binaries created on other x86 UNIX variants to run under Linux
• X Window programming and usage tools — X11 server linkkit, static libraries, PEX support, xview3.2p1-X11R6 (XView libraries), the Open Look virtual and nonvirtual window managers for XFree86
• Various applications and add-ons — the manual pages, groff, ispell, joe, jed, jove, ghostscript, sc, bc, and the quota patches
• A collection of FAQs and other documentation
• Tcl, Tk, and TcIX, built with ELF shared libraries and dynamic loading support, as well as the TkDesk file manager
• The BSD games collection — Koules, Lizards, and Sasteroids

Shareware programs are fully functional, free trial versions of copyrighted programs. If you like particular programs, register with their authors for a nominal fee and receive licenses, enhanced versions, and technical support. Freeware programs are free, copyrighted games, applications, and utilities. You can copy them to as many PCs as you like—free—but they have no technical support.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

This book provides everything you would expect, but little more; however, Linux Configuration & Installation provides it so authoritatively that there's no doubt about completeness or accuracy. Because one of the authors, Patrick Volkerding, created Slackware Linux, this documentation of his own Linux flavor is good.

The authors begin by helping you decide if your machine's hardware will cooperate with Linux. They then show you how to install Slackware Linux 3.2 and get it to recognize your hardware. The authors detail how to install XFree86 (X Windows for Linux) and give more customization advice than most other authors of Linux books do. Other chapter topics include managing files; applications, such as elvis and a vi port for Linux; system administration; and Internet services. While these chapters aren't command references, they do show users how to get into the proper frame of mind for doing things with Slackware Linux and impart some command facts along the way.

The best features of this book are its two CD-ROMs. Not only do they contain Slackware Linux 3.2, ready to install, but also XFree86, lots of hardware drivers, a bunch of compilers, and some games and miscellaneous utilities. You'll play with this stuff for days. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

About the Authors: Patrick Volkerding is the creator of Slackware, the highly praised distribution of Linux. Kevin Reichard and Eric Foster-Johnson are Unix and Internet experts and veteran computer book authors. They have written top-selling books on Unix, including Unix^® in Plain English and Teach Yourself^® Unix^®. Foster-Johnson's Cross-Platform Perl and Graphical Applications with Tcl and Tk have paved the way for many an Internet programmer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 554 pages
• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons; 4th edition (September 24, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764570056
• ISBN-13: 978-0764570056
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.1 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,284,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It was fine, December 13, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Linux: Configuration and Installation (3rd Edition) (Paperback)

I never even heard of linux and then I bought this book and it was pretty good in installing. I did hear though that Slackware 3.3 has some security flaws so i downloaded 3.6. I had to do alot of guesswork, so this book is for intermediate to expert computer users. I found many of the applications in both the cd's to be very helpful.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Execellent Resource and Tutorial ;), February 20, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: LINUX® Configuration and Installation (Paperback)

I read this book from cover to cover and am still using it as a guide for building my new linux friendly computer. The depth it goes into on setting up Xfree86 and the touching on shell programming is awesome. The cd's were also a lifesaver and a resource to get software without searching all over the net. Id reccommend this book to any linux newbie.

2.0 out of 5 stars Too old and not enough guidance, March 9, 2004

By 

George M. Nickles III (Cullowhee, NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Linux: Configuration and Installation (Mis Press Slackware Series) (Paperback)

If you're looking for a guide to Linux and a distribution that will work on an older computer with very little hard drive space, and only need to play around with it and not do anything terribly useful, then this may be the book for you. Otherwise, I suggest you look elsewhere.

While this may have been a helpful book at one time, this distribution is now very out of date. As the book focuses on the Slackware distribution included, it may or may not pertain to newer Slackware distributions or other distributions. The book includes the Slackware 3.3 distribution on a single CD.

I purchased this book as it was recommeneded as one of the few ways to get Linux on an old 486 laptop. I had no previous experience with Linux, but with this book and some helpful websites I was able to install it to the laptop. The laptop only had a floppy drive, requiring a floppy installation (about 2.5 hours). While I did learn much about Linux in this process, I didn't really make the computer much more useful than when it had Windows 3.1 installed (for my limited needs). I'm giving two stars because it did assist me in installing Linux.

Summary: The book and distribution are now out of date. The book does not necessarily stand on its own in guiding installation. Not recommended as an introduction to Linux as there MUST be better books out there now.