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Old 09-28-2011, 12:34 AM   #1
YourCyborg
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Linux\Slackware Suggested Reading?


I tried Slackware awhile ago, and I really liked it a lot, even though I wasn't very good with it. Software was pretty much installed on a case by case basis. I eventually slipped back into using Linux Mint, because I am a very weak person. After going through dependency hell, I find myself back at Slackware. Other Linux distributions don't force you to have an understanding of Linux like Slackware, which should be good for me in the long run... Right?

I want to get off on the right start this time. I definitely need to learn how to use the terminal better, but I'd also like to have a better understanding of Linux in general (with an emphasis where it will help me have a better experience with Slackware).

I've already added the Slackbook to this list. I'm considering putting Linux From Scratch on there, too, but it may be a bit too comprehensive. Definitely keeping the thread So You Want to be a Slacker in mind as I go, too.

What has helped you guys out? The book doesn't have to be free, but that's always a plus =)

In a previous post some time ago I had about wireless problems (which did get fixed, I pretty much overcomplicated it), onebuck suggested the following to me...

SlackwareŽ Essentials
SlackwareŽ Basics
Linux Documentation Project
Rute Tutorial & Exposition
Linux Command Guide
Bash Reference Manual
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide
Linux Newbie Admin Guide
LinuxSelfHelp
Getting Started with Linux

Anything else I need? ^I'm hoping not to do that much reading, but I suppose certain aspects can be learned as I go-- I just want to make sure that I start out right this time.

Last edited by YourCyborg; 09-30-2011 at 11:45 AM.
 
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Old 09-28-2011, 01:06 AM   #2
smoooth103
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The best way, in my opinion, is not to be weak and slip back into other brainless linux distributions. These distributions try to hide things from you in a failed attempt to make it easier. Your best bet is to install slackware and read the directions on how to install it. Invest the time early on, it will pay off in the end. The instructions are available on slackware.com and perhaps at slackbook.org. Don't look for short cuts and distro specific applications to run your linux. When you come to a problem, read first and learn first. Look to do as much possible from the command prompt because these basic tools don't change very often and can be applied to many problems and issues.

Once you take a few extra minutes to read and learn, slackware will be 100 times easier then any of the other distributions. Those suggested reading materials are pretty good but start with installing/using slackware first. It will lead you to those other documents.

Google can be your best friend and also this website -- it's a great place to ask questions and get them answered.

Last edited by smoooth103; 09-28-2011 at 01:08 AM.
 
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Old 09-28-2011, 01:30 AM   #3
markush
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Hi,

I'd suggest to read the manpages. Slackware comes with all programs vanilla which means that everything works exactly like it is described in the manpages.

Markus

Last edited by markush; 09-28-2011 at 02:45 AM.
 
Old 09-28-2011, 01:53 AM   #4
0men
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A little about understanding the filesystem, a little old but still.....
http://tldp.org/LDP/Linux-Filesystem...-Hierarchy.pdf

Like smooth103 said, Slackware was pretty full on when i first started as well. You need to take time to learn it, just get it online and research. When i first switched, i dropped Slackware because of the whole package-management thing. I distro-hopped for a while and finally landed back at Slackware. In which i've never left. Remember, that the time you spend learning Slackware will pay off for other distributions, as you'll most likely find them a breeze to work with. (expect the /etc/rc.d /etc/init.d :P ) still gets me ! lol.

And if all else fails, Linux Questions to the rescue! I wish you all the best...

Good Luck and welcome back to the real Linux --- Slackware.
 
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Old 09-28-2011, 07:05 AM   #5
tronayne
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One of the best investments you can make -- after you've devoured the list that Onebuck gave you and gotten familiar with how things work -- is to take the time to dig into regular expressions.

Huh?

As time goes on, you'll find that the Click 'n' Drool School will get boring, applications will start to feel limited, you'll want to do something or other and you'll want to be able to do more. Linux, the operating system itself is Linux all the rest are the utilities, will, once you've got things configured, become invisible; you start it up, it sits there mumbling to itself, and you don't need to tinker with it.

So, then what do you do?

Well, say a little light bulb pops on over your head and you think to yourself, "Wow! How can I make that happen?" And that's where all the utilities begin to look interesting.

Virtually all the tools and utilities sitting there are for you to use to accomplish something quickly and easily. And all of them started out life as part of Unix, developed by a bunch of Really Smart Folks at AT&T Bell Laboratories. They built the tools to make what they were doing (essentially reinventing computer programming) easier. Ain't no easy, but there's a whole lot of easier.

The Unix utilities got migrated to Linux as look-work-alike utilities developed by the Free Software Foundation (that's GNU) and contributors all over the world that saw a Good Thing and help migrate that to free and open source. Linux itself, the kernel, was developed by Linus Torvalds because he liked Unix but couldn't afford to buy a license for it so he developed a look-work-alike that we now have in hand.

One of those Really Smart Folks is M. Douglas McIlory, a Bell Labs scientist (the guy that invented the Unix pipe, no small contribution) who postulated what has become known as the Unix Philosophy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy:
Quote:
This is the Unix philosophy: Write programs that do one thing and do it well. Write programs to work together. Write programs to handle text streams, because that is a universal interface.
The essence of which is: Write programs that do one thing and do it well.

The question, then, is "OK, how?"

Always keep in mind that everything hangs together -- the utilities, the tools, do work together. The output of one can be the input to another which, in turn, can output into the input of yet another and so on. That's the beauty of the pipe.

The editors, ed, ex, sed and others are useful as text filters. So too are tools such as awk, grep, sort, uniq among a plethora of useful tools.

The common denominator of all of these are regular expressions http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regular_expression:
Quote:
In computing, a regular expression provides a concise and flexible means for "matching" (specifying and recognizing) strings of text, such as particular characters, words, or patterns of characters.
When you stop and think about, everything you do with a computer starts out as some form of text; a shell program, a letter to your mom, a C program, data base entries, and on and on. It's all text before it becomes bits and bytes and nibbles. Editing something such as this post is easily done with, oh, vi -- vi is, by the way, the visual mode of the ex editor -- but consider editing a 10,000-word document to replace some pattern of text with some other pattern of text, clean out stuff that shouldn't be there (like back slants rather than slashes -- not the same thing at all). Would you want to do that by "hand" or would it be easier to do it using a tool, say, sed (the streaming editor) using a "...concise and flexible means for "matching" (specifying and recognizing) strings of text..."

Consider a data file of thousands of lines containing hundreds of fields from which you only need the third, tenth and twenty-fifth fields to accomplish some task -- how would you do that? How would you remove all instances of multiple blanks; how would you remove trailing blanks; if you had all upper case text, how would you convert that to lower case but retain the first character of a sentence as upper case; if people's names were all upper case, how would you convert those to lower case but keep the first character as upper case and, oh, by the way, properly deal with Mc, Mac and other mixed case surnames?

All of that, and much, much more, is easily dealt with if you have a good grasp of pipes and filters and, of course, regular expressions. Well worth your time investment, those.

To solve problems with a computer (or, what the heck, pretty much anything else) requires that you have a clear understanding of three things: what have you got; what do you want; what do you have to do to get there. Learning about the tools and what you can do with them is a good use of your time.

Hope this helps some.

Last edited by tronayne; 09-28-2011 at 07:09 AM.
 
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Old 09-28-2011, 07:26 AM   #6
bonixavier
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This list is a bit old, but there is a lot of good information: http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/hint...prereading.txt
 
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Old 09-28-2011, 08:45 AM   #7
markush
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Hello,
Quote:
Originally Posted by tronayne View Post
One of the best investments you can make -- after you've devoured the list that Onebuck gave you and gotten familiar with how things work -- is to take the time to dig into regular expressions

Huh?
....
I agree with tronayne, I've read Jeffrey Friedl's book "Mastering Regular Expressions" http://books.google.com/books?id=GX3...page&q&f=false. It's one of the best "computerbooks" I've ever read. After I began to read this book, I experienced instantly that I began to work much more efficient with the computer.
Quote:
As time goes on, you'll find that the Click 'n' Drool School will get boring,
...

...
Learning about the tools and what you can do with them is a good use of your time.

Hope this helps some.
Well, this is an excellent post of tronayne, I agree with everything. It's a little bit off topic here, but I'd recommend additionally to become familiar with a good texteditor.

Markus

Last edited by markush; 09-28-2011 at 08:48 AM.
 
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Old 09-28-2011, 08:58 AM   #8
Robert.Thompson
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See my bookshelf below - they are books on Linux

The titles of the first 2 books may sound intimidating but they are written for people like me - real newbies.

DistroWatch (http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=major) says:
Quote:
There is a saying in the Linux community that if you learn Red Hat, you'll know Red Hat, but if you learn Slackware, you'll know Linux.
The corollary of that would be:
Code:
... but if you learn Linux, you'll know Slackware.
Switching to SlackWare was the best 'Linux decision' that I ever made.
 
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Old 09-28-2011, 10:36 AM   #9
ferrel
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This is fairly obvious, although I know at least one instance where it wasn't ; while you're clawing your way, tooth and nail, up the learning curve, it helps to have a separate computer connected to the internet. Personal experience.

Best wishes!
Ferrel
It's the ant, not the antennae.
 
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Old 09-28-2011, 12:42 PM   #10
ottavio
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I read this every now and again:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/li...map/index.html
 
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Old 10-01-2011, 08:29 PM   #11
Fred-1.2.13
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This link is one of the best for getting your feet wet with the shell (command line). It starts off very basic and walks you though some fairly high level stuff by the end. I can't recommend it enough:

You can download the entire book here:
http://linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php

Last edited by Fred-1.2.13; 10-01-2011 at 08:38 PM.
 
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Old 10-04-2011, 08:57 AM   #12
onebuck
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Hi,

Quote:
Originally Posted by YourCyborg View Post
<snip>
Anything else I need? ^I'm hoping not to do that much reading, but I suppose certain aspects can be learned as I go-- I just want to make sure that I start out right this time.
I will add a little more to what other LQ members have stated. 'Slackware-Links' was created to provide useful links to information for Gnu/Linux users. Look at Linux Books & Online Magazines section and you will find loads of free books for you to devote time to learn.

Keep Slackware specific sections in mind;
Look at the other sections for useful resource(s) within 'Slackware-Links' to enhance your Gnu/Linux experience. More than just SlackwareŽ links!

Plus do not forget one of the best on the Slackware team: Alien_Bob has provided the means to
go multilib then look at Multilib Slackware for x86_64.

Few more Alien_Bob's links that you will find VERY useful;
If you look at Alien_Bob's work and discern/interpret the code you will be learning a lot from a great contributor.

Happy Slacking!
 
  


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