|
|
Our primary goal with Linux Troubleshooting Bible is to give you the resources you need to overcome any problems you might have using and administering Fedora Linux (primarily), as well as other Red Hat Linux systems. We take two approaches to attaining this goal:
Teaching you how to troubleshoot Fedora on your own
Getting you in touch with other Fedora resources
By focusing mostly on command-line tools and text-based configuration files, you'll learn basic troubleshooting techniques that will apply to most Linux distributions. For example, whether you use an Apache web server from Fedora, RHEL, SUSE, or another Linux distribution, the httpd.conf file will still be the basic file you will troubleshoot if something goes wrong with your web server.
For the features we cover, we try to give you multiple commands and options to try out. Because we know we can't cover every issue that might come up, for most subjects we will point you to mailing lists, FAQs, or other online resources you can turn to for more information.
You can use this book as a reference (check it when you have a problem) or a guide (step through the procedure, to learn how to troubleshoot a feature). We have divided the book into six major parts.
Part I: Getting Going-Part I contains the most Fedora-specific information in the book. In addition to an introductory chapter (Chapter 1), the two other chapters in this part describe how to troubleshoot problems installing Fedora Core 1 (Chapter 2) and how to get the updates and do upgrades you need to keep Fedora patched and secure (Chapter 3).
Part II: Preventing Problems-The two chapters in this part focus on how to prevent problems from happening in the first place. Chapter 4 describes how to lock down both desktop and server Fedora systems before you deploy them. Chapter 5 focuses on how to prepare good backup policies to protect your data.
Part III: Troubleshooting Basic Features-Many features that apply to troubleshooting both desktop and server systems are covered in this part. Basic tips and tools that can be used to troubleshoot many different Linux features are described in Chapter 6. Chapter 7 tells how to troubleshoot your video, mouse, and keyboard. Tools for managing your software packages and correcting problems are described in Chapter 8. Troubleshooting disks and file systems is covered in Chapter 9.
Part IV: Troubleshooting the Network-Techniques for making your network secure and keep it running smoothly are contained in this part. Security issues are covered in Chapter 10. Chapter 11 tells how to troubleshoot your firewalls. Chapter 12 describes how to troubleshoot problems with serving domain names from a DNS server. Chapter 13 covers how to troubleshoot modem problems.
Part V: Troubleshooting Internal Services-Network services that are typically offered behind a company firewall are covered in this part. The part includes chapters for troubleshooting printers (Chapter 14), Samba (Chapter 15), and NFS (Chapter 16).
Part VI: Troubleshooting External Services-Popular services that are often made available on public networks are covered in this part. Troubleshooting techniques are described for web servers (Chapter 17), file transfer servers, such as FTP (Chapter 18), and e-mail servers (Chapter 19).
In addition, the book contains three appendixes.
Appendix A: Fedora Software Repositories describes several repositories for Fedora packages.
Appendix B: Troubleshooting SUSE Linux is intended to help transition the Fedora and Red Hat Linux troubleshooting techniques learned in this book to SUSE Linux systems.
Appendix C: Troubleshooting Debian/GNU Linux aims at helping Fedora troubleshooters transition their skills to Debian Linux.
Many of the chapters in Linux Troubleshooting Bible will cover the same basic types of information. This information includes the following:
Overview-Provides an overview of the feature being covered in the chapter. This often includes a quick review of the steps needed to get each basic feature running.
Procedures-Provides step-by-step procedures for walking through techniques for troubleshooting a feature. When you are done, you should have a good sense of how to feel your way around a feature and look for potential problems.
Tools-Provides additional commands, options, and interfaces for working with a particular feature. Once you understand the basic tools needed to work with a feature, you should be able to refer to man pages and info pages to get more options you can use with those tools.
Tips-Provides tips for troubleshooting some of the most common problems you might encounter.
References-Provides refererence information to help you find things like the location of mailing lists, project home pages, and FAQS for the feature being described.
If you find that you are stuck on a problem, you might try one of the many Fedora and Red Hat Linux online forums listed in Chapter 1 for further information.
Throughout the book, a special typeface indicates code or commands. Commands and code are shown in monospace type:
In the event that an example includes both input and output, monospace is still used, but input is presented in bold type to distinguish the two. Here is an example:
$ ftp ftp.linuxtoys.net Name (home:jake): jake Password: ******
The following special mark-up is used to call your attention to points that are particularly important.
| Note |
A Note provides extra information to which you need to pay special attention. |
| Tip |
A Tip shows a special way of performing a particular task, or introduces a shortcut to ease your way. |
| Caution |
A Caution alerts you to take special care when executing a procedure, or damage to your computer hardware or software could result. |
| Cross-Reference |
A Cross-Reference refers you to further information on a subject that you can find outside the current chapter. |
|
|