at St. Norbert College

Table of Contents

1. General Information

1.1 What is Linux?
1.2 A Brief History of Linux
1.2.1 History of Linux in General
1.2.2 History of Linux at SNC
1.3 Why Use Linux?
1.3.1 Its Free!
1.3.2 Inexpensive Hardware
1.3.3 Wide Acceptance
1.3.4 Major Users
1.4 Why is SNC Using Linux?
1.5 The Future of Linux

2. System Structure

2.1 The Role of the Kernel
2.2 Basic File Structure
2.3 Devices
2.3.1 Device Basics
2.3.2 Mounting a Floppy

3. Using Linux - The Basics

3.1 Logging In
3.2 The Linux Environment
3.2.1 Virtual Consoles
3.3 Commands to Know
3.3.1 System Commands
Getting the Time and Date
Printing Text to the Screen
Getting Help
Changing Your Password
Displaying a Calendar
Using a Calculator
Finding a User's Groups
Checking the System's Uptime
3.3.2 File Management Commands
Listing Directory Contents
Changing the Current Directory
Copying a File
Moving/Renaming a File
Creating a New Directory
Removing a Directory
Printing a File
Checking the Print Queue
Removing a File From the Print Queue
Looking For Patterns in a File
Displaying a File on the Screen
Displaying the First Part of a File
Displaying the Last Part of a File
Displaying a File One Screen at a Time
Creating a Symbolic Link
Counting Words of Lines in a File
Running a Spell-Check
Comparing Two Files
Compressing or Decompressing a File
Creating or Using a File Archive
3.3.3 Process Management Commands
Checking Process Status
Running a Process in the Background
Getting a List of Current Jobs
Stopping a Running Process
Displaying the Top CPU Processes
3.3.4 Common Commands for System Administration
Logging In as a Superuser
Rebooting the System
Halting the System
Making a System Boot Disk
Configuring the Linux Loader
Configuring Your Network
3.4 Available Editors
The Vi Editor
The Nano Editor
The SSE Editor
3.5 Available Compilers
3.6 Redirecting Program Output
3.7 Protecting Your Files
3.7.1 Setting File Permissions
3.7.2 Changing File Ownership
3.8 Logging Out

4. Communicating With Other People

4.1 Getting Users' Information
4.2 Communication Utilities

5. Communicating With Other Machines

5.1 Using Telnet to Access a Remote Machine
5.2 Using FTP to Transfer Files
5.2.1 Starting FTP and Connecting to the Remote Computer
5.2.2 Finding Files on the Remote Computer
5.2.3 Moving Around on Your Home Computer
5.2.4 Getting Files From or Putting Files on the Remote Machine
5.2.5 Closing the FTP Connection

6. Appendices

6.1 A DOS to Linux Conversion Sheet
6.2 A Vi Reference Sheet
6.3 An SSE Reference Sheet
6.4 Getting Started With the X Window System
6.6 Useful Linux Resources
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Last Update: September, 2008 by Dawn Rohm