Linux

Key Notes

Introduction to Open Source. What is Linux. Linux Distros. Which is Suitable for Me. Linux Installation Process. How to Use Linux. Installing Useful Software. Linux Shells (Advanced).

Open Source

Is a development methodology. Means that people can share their programs source code with every one for free. This type of software is available under terms of licenses such as GPL, LGPL, AGPL, ISC, MIT. Each license puts some rules for the method of using their code. Most famous one is the GPL license used with Linux.

Open Source & Linux

Unix was the Major used OS in most universities. Unix started asking students to pay money for the usage and development of the system. A professor developed Minix in order to replace Unix, which was used by Linus Torvalds. Linus started to develop the Linux Kernel. In the same time Ritchard Stallman started to develop GNU and constructed Free Software Foundation.

What is Linux?

Linux is a free open source operating system kernel built by a student to replace UNIX. Linux is the system kernel where GNU is the tools that system use to operate. It was developed in early 1990s but still developed until now. Is the first choice for enterprise world and geeks. Linux can run on many platforms(i386, x86/64, PPC, Amiga, SPARC, PS3, Super computers).

GNU/Linux Architecture

Linux has a monolithic kernel. GNU/Linux uses the structure of layered model.

Process control

Networking Kernel Peripherals

File System

Unix Shells

Unix Tools

X Server (X window system)

Linux Window Managers.

Window managers is a graphical software used to ease the use of the system. Linux has many window managers (KDE, Gnome, xpde, xfce, fluxbox, twm, NextStep,....).

Screen shots for WMs

Linux Distros.

As Linux is open source so any one can develop his own version. Linux distros varies in DWM, Applications provided with each. Market imposed on us some distros as standard (Redhat, Debian, Slackware). Most of current distros are based on Debian(Ubuntu) or Redhat (Fedora).

Fedora Desktop

Ubuntu Desktop

Which is Suitable for Me?

Redhat is good for enterprise work. Debian is good for professional end-users. Fedora is good for personal use and developing Opensuse is good for training usage Mandriva is very good for non technical user. Slackware is intended for Advanced professional users. Ubuntu is suitable for ALL !!!

Why Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is a free Linux distros Ubuntu is based on Debian which is reliable and stable. Ubuntu is the distribution with the biggest software repositories. Ubuntu has a good hardware support for most available companies. Ubuntu have a lot of variants (Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Goubuntu, MIDI Ubuntu).

Ubuntu is Widely Used

Installing Ubuntu

Ubuntu comes on a live CD. Live CD means that you can use the system from CD with out installing (boot only). The system installation is as easy as installing a program (Only double click on icon). The installation process is very fast and easy (faster and easier than installing windows). Let's see how ???!!

First Welcome Screen

Choose your Language.

Choose your Location

Choose Keyboard Layout

Prepare Disk Space

Who are you?

Import Windows Settings

Booting After Installition

Login Screen

Using Linux

Linux desktop is very easy to use like windows. There are some important elements on desktop

Computer Disks: Places Computer. Home Directory : Places Home Folder. Configurations : System Preferences. Administration : System Administration. All Programs : Applications Choose Category.

Note that all this menus are found under Gnome only KDE is different.

Using Linux (File System)

Linux uses EXT2, EXT3 file systems and a swap partition to use as virtual memory. Linux can mount FAT16/32 , NTFS , HFS Drives where windows can't mount EXT drive. Under File system there are some Directories:

/bin: contains UNIX tools and executable Shell tools /boot: file needed to boot the system. /etc: system configuration files. /lib : system and applications libraries. /media: mounted drives.

Installing Useful Software

Most of applications available for Linux are free and open source so it's easy to get. Linux has repositories for programs (search & get). Each Linux distribution has a software called package manager. The two most famous packages formats are: .deb for Debian based system , .rpm for Redhat based systems.

How to Install Applications?

From Application menu go to Add/Remove.....

In the windows opened write program name or description in the search field. choose your preferred programs. Click Apply and wait for download and instillation. Now the program is installed and ready to use. sudo apt-get install packageName Then wait for download and installation.

To install application from shell.

Windows Emulation

WINE is a windows emulator which is able to run windows software under Linux. Wine can be downloaded via Add/Remove.. WINE can emulate windows (2.0, 3.0, 95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, Server 2003, Vista, Server 2008) Wine Doors is a program that downloads some libraries for WINE to be compatible with most windows Apps. Wine needs (MFC , VC++ runtime, VB runtime, IE6 libs, DX9c libs, .....).

Programming on Linux.

Linux has dozens of programming languages. GNU Compilers Collection has compilers for:

Ada, C/C++, Fortran and Java.

The Linux kernel is compiled using GCC. Perl, Python are installed on most distros. Sun's JDK, JVM can be installed on Linux. A lot of IDEs are available for Linux(Eclipse, Netbeans, Mono, KDevelop, Omnis Studio)

Installing Java & Netbeans

To install Sun Java write this commands:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sudo apt-get install sun-java6-bin sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk sudo apt-get install sun-java6-plugin

To install Netbeans download the Linux file then:

Double click the Icon and continue the setup. ./netbeans6.x --javahome:JavaDirectoryPath

Installing MySQL & Oracle

MySQL server must be installed using package manager:

sudo apt-get install mysql-server-5.0 Query browser and other tools can be downloaded via Add/Remove from Applications menu.

Download the Oracle deb package from Oracle website then:

Double click on the icon. Click on install package button and wait for setup to finish. Go to /etc/init.d then write chmod +x oracle-xe Then start script as root sudo ./oracle-xe

Linux Shells (UNIX shells)

Linux uses shells to interact with user in CLI mode (good for servers and administrators). Shells can be accessed by GUI users via terminals. Linux shell is similar to UNIX shell but with some additional commands. Most popular Linux shell is Bash. Bash supports scripts with a wide range of commands.

Linux Shell Commands

cp file1 file2 copy file1 to file2 rm fileName deletes the file. mv file1 file2 rename file1 or moves it to another location. cd directoryName change directory. less fileName view file content clear clear screen man command view command Manual. find fileName search for file.

Linux Shell Commands 2

ls list files in current directory. ps -u UserName view all running process for userName. kill PID kill process with a specific ID. su change to root mode. sudo command execute command in root mode. chmod +x file change file mode to executable. ./script.xyz execute script or file. ifconfig view your network interface configurations. history view history of command you entered. reboot restart system , halt shutdown the system

Shell Configurations

The shell configurations file of the Bash shell is found under /home/UseName/.bashrc . We can use this file to define new environment variables to the shell by adding the following line at the end of the file:

PATH=$PATH:/xx/yy/zz; export PATH

.bash_history contains your command history. .bash_logout execute command when leaving shell.

Bye Bye

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