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My introduction to Linux
Linux. Where does one start?...at the beginning! I discovered the
heady delights of Red Hat Linux about two and a half years ago -
just curious really to find out for myself what all of the computer
magazines were talking about, when they were writing all those rave
reviews about it! I had never encountered a Unix operating system
before - save for the one server at work that ran SCO Unix 3.1 - and
that was VERY limited at the time - so my background has been
primarily working with Microsoft products (such as NT, 95, DOS etc)
and Novell NetWare. The opportunity presented itself
forthwith.......
What is Linux?
It's free UNIX-based operating system software (under a publicly
accessible generic license) and so when I bought a copy of my
favourite computer magazine, a copy of Red Hat Linux 5.2 was
supplied with the magazine as part of the "freebies" that almost
every computer magazine seems to do. I had one of my first computers
knocking around the place for a couple of months - now redundant due
to upgrades - and so I decided to give it a go and load it up to see
what all the fuss was about.
Oh!
I duly read all of the (sparse!) instructions provided in the
magazine and connected up my old trusty AST Pentium 200, replete
with 128Mb of 72 pin memory and all of one 2.1Gb hard drive. "Boot
from CD" the magazine said. Ah. Problem.....sorry....challenge no.1!
My computer, being of an older type, does not support booting from
CD. Floppy only, I'm afraid. So that was the first challenge (of
many!) to try and make boot disks for the install. No instructions
in the magazine. OK, so pop the CD into my running Windows computer
and have a peruse around the contents of the disk. Aha! There was a
folder within which contained instructions on how to make a bootable
install floppy disk! For those of you not in the know (and I wasn't
then!) you have to use a program similar to Rawrite to manufacture
the unix-based boot disk from images stored on the CD. Luckily,
instructions were found with the .exe that was the program. Great!
Install is about to commence! OK, so put the CD in the CD-ROM drive,
insert the floppy disk and switch on. Ah. Can't put the CD into the
drive until the power is on. OK, power on, put the CD into the drive
and then reset it. Aha! Things are now happening - there's a screen
full of writing and a prompt that says boot:
Now what?.........
Since that fateful day a few years ago where I decided to have
a play around with Linux, I've discovered - and installed - several
releases of it and I've become reasonably accustomed to the way in
which Linux works (or not!). Whilst in no way, shape or form am I a
Linux Guru (there are plenty out there!) I am just a bloke with a
passion for computers that wanted to try something different.
Subsequently, I have toyed with Linux in the various forms that
RedHat provides and I've managed to get a successfully functioning
web server and Jabber server working, with a few little "frilly
bits" around the edges, such as samba, squid and the like. I even
went so far as to have a Linux box as my firewall at one stage,
using ipchains.
The gentle reader must, however, bear in mind that these web and
Jabber servers are really not meant for serving hundreds of users
and distributing thousands of simultaneous web pages. No - this is a
rather gentle affair with little or no in-depth knowledge of Linux,
just coming across problems that stop things from working, or I just
can't figure out what that error message means!!! So, I don't know
how to write code, I don't know how to write Perl scripts. I've
absolutely no idea about things like editing C or XML. I can,
however read websites and use a search engine!! I can also determine
where problems lie and with what component. I can usually then get
detailed help from somewhere else to help me across my seemingly
insurmountable issues. (and I can also spell!! :-) )The result, my
friends, is my current system and the need to perhaps give a helping
hand to someone like me who wants to play with the things, but not
become a Guru.
I also realise that the methods I've used to build these servers may
not be the most best-practice procedures in the World. I acknowledge
that my knowledge can be severely lacking in some areas......but it
works!! Please - you Linux Gurus - don't shoot me down in flames :-)
Hence the (very) few pages I've put here on building a basic RedHat
Fedora server for use with Apache and Jabber (2).
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