Beginner to networking and servers....
 

Hi All,

I'm wondering if any of you know of textbooks for any Linux distros that would be similar to the MS Server style. Those give you some explanation, a scenario, steps to follow. I'm a really newbie to anything other than desktop usage. I've been looking for books like this, I think Redhat used to print these but I haven't seen a more recent book of this style.

I think that if a Linux distro really pushed the textbook/certification bandwagon there would be even greater uptake and that would be a very good thing.

There are a lot of books for Linux distributions and if you visit some book store and stroll around for a while you will definitely find one that you like. There are books for major distributions.
You could look for Linux Bible by Christopher Negus.

Hi,

You could take a look at 'Linux Books & Online Magazines' section.

Or look at some of these;

Linux Documentation Project
Rute Tutorial & Exposition
Linux Command Guide
Linux Newbie Admin Guide
LinuxSelfHelp
Getting Started with Linux

These links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!

Thanks for the idea's. I'll look into those.

Hello, my point of view:

Normally you don't need a compendium for the whole distribution, some of these facts are changed 2 month after the book was published, and some facts are stable for years. When you are bvery new to linux , the a book for explaining the main things of a distribution may be o.k. But later you need a more specialized book.

For instance:
You want to make Windows networking in deep , you need a SAMBA Book, not a redhat or debian book. You want to establish a Active directory service, you need an OpenLDAP book, and so on. Which Distribution you take is then a minor problem. There are only a few differences in the handling, thats all. It should be not a big problem to move with your working configuration to a new distri, or a new version.

I think that is the reason why such a large compendium for one distribution has not to be the first choice, and maybe that is the reason why you don't find such a book.

Regards Randolf Balasus

Hi, a few months ago I had the same problem and I can tell you of what I have done. Is your machine PC Intel dual processor? If it is not, this may not be of use to you. I installed Fedora 10 distro F10-i686-Live. Write in Google [F10-i686-Live .iso] and you will find the .iso (image disk). Download it and copy the disk on a flash memory and go to a friend with Linux to write the image to you on a CD. If you have a burner reading .iso you may write the disk by yourself. If you have Linux on your PC you may write the disk by yourself if you know how. For further details look in Google [linux CD burn] or whatever you guess. Try variations of this. The live CD runs by itself and installs in the computer memory. There is a RedHat package installer icon asking you whether or not you are willing to install the CD on the HD. Follow the instructions. Success.

Thanks inside_man,

I'm trying to find a book/document that thoroughly explains the partitioning of a harddrive. How many partitions, under what circumstances, and how to decide. How big should they be? that kind of thing. Then how to determine how much space a user should have. Starting basic services, when you need them, what they are for, commandline usage.

I'm sure all of this is available in the man pages, but I don't even know where to begin to look for the answers there.

Thanks f10-next,

That is one of the distros that I will be trying out quite soon.

More precisely, I'm looking for a really thorough introduction to disk partitioning. For instance, how many partitions, what size should they be, should applications/services have there own partitions, how big should they be, how big should users partitions be, how are these calculated?

Commandline commands and common usage, possibly with examples. Does this get into scripting or is that something done in vi/vim (which may be the same thing, I'm not sure)? I've heard this book vi(1) Tips: Essential vi/vim Editor Skills, 1st ed. is quite good.

In terms of style I think you'll find that many things on the O'Reilly 'label' are good (I probably used to say everything, but O'Reilly's lists have grown a lot since then, and not all of their books are to quite the same standard); they may not be the best 'manuals', but they are often the best and most readable descriptions of the subject that they cover.

The SuSE networking series and the manuals included with their boxed sets used to be brilliant, but I haven't seen any of those for years.

People have asked this kind of question before, and you may wish to look up the answers that they received, but their answers will have been appropriate for their circumstances, and the appropriate answer for your situation is likely to be different (and currently unanswerable, because you haven't said anything about what this situation is). It should be clear that, for example, a file server will need an amount of space where those files are kept and that will push up the size of the relevant partition.

This is a good book for beginners...

http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Administ...2848203&sr=8-2

thanks salasi and custangro,

salasi I could not be more precise because I barely know what I'm talking about or asking. I know when I have installed a Linux OS those were questions at I found vexing.

The links provided in post #3 are well worth researching. Should cover everything.
See also http://www.linuxtopia.org/, yet another large collection of texts.
You just need to look through all the links we've provided.

chrism01,

thanks for that link. I have a question for you. CentOS is fairly well documented, do you use Fedora for desktops and will CentOS run on desktop computers?

You can use either for either, your choice. Each is a full Linux distro, if you choose the correct pkgs.
Note that each Fedora version has a brief life; 13 mths iirc. Its a bleeding edge distro, primarily aimed at desktops but can be used as a server.
Centos is RHEL and therefore has 5 ( 7? ) yrs of updates. ie its very stable. Recommended for serious work, primarily servers.
At the end of the day, its your choice.