Never used Linux-system has Gentoo Linux 1.12.9 installed where do I start?
 

System has Gentoo Linux 1.12.9 installed. I'm not a linux user and this is my first encounter. I can access the system via ssh though putty to get logged in to root. I'm just not sure what to do next. This is all new to my world.

I need to find out what all is installed and running on the system. What jobs are sch'd to run, programs supported by the system, how they are constructed and communicate over the network, ect...
I've been handed this with out any documentation on how to get this information out of the system.

Thanks for any guidance in resolving my dilemma.

gentoo linux 1.12.9? Does that exist? If it does, it must date back from 1995 or so!
Please post the output of uname -a. This will tell us the version of linux
equery list -i
lists all packages installed on the system via emerge.
crontab -l
lists all cron scheduled jobs for the current user.
rc-update show
lists all services started at boot by init.
man command
prints the manual for command
man man
prints the manual for man.

I found many references to "base system release 1.12.9"--goes back to August 2007.

bradtech;
If you are brand new to Linux, the first thing I would suggest is to install a different version (distro). Something like Ubuntu, Fedora, PCLinuxOS, Mepis, OpenSUSE

Otherwise, tell us more about why you need to make this particular machine work.

uname -a
Linux 2.6.20-hardened-r10-ABLB #3 SMP Wed Oct 31 00:29:06 PDT 2007 x86_64 AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ AuthenticAMD GNU/Linux

this is what is present to me after I logn through putty ssh:
Gentoo Linux 1.12.9
Linux 2.6.16-hardened-r11-ABLB, Compiled #2 SMP Tue Sep 12 08:46:16 PDT 2006 Two AMD Athlon 64 2.21GHz CPUs, 1GB RAM, 8850.94 Bogomips
Uptime 118 days 10 hours 8 minutes

The Server is up running and processing jobs. I'm needing to keep it up and discover what is on the system, what all is running, how it is and why. Being new to it all I just need a good place to start. I don't want to kick off something that would bring any current running process to a halt.

It is a GRAND under taking for a newbie.

# equery list -i

[ Searching for all packages in all categories among: ]
* installed packages
[I--] [ ] net-misc/openssh-4.7_p1-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-misc/ntp-4.2.4_p0 (0)
[I--] [M ] net-misc/whois-4.7.21 (0)
[I--] [M~] net-misc/redir-2.2.1 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-misc/rsync-2.6.9-r5 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-misc/wget-1.10.2 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-misc/curl-7.16.4 (0)
[I--] [M ] net-misc/iputils-20060512 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-misc/netkit-telnetd-0.17-r6 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-misc/hylafax-4.3.0 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-fs/sshfs-fuse-1.8 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-fs/reiserfsprogs-3.6.19-r1 (0)
[I--] [M ] sys-fs/e2fsprogs-1.39-r2 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-fs/udev-115-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-fs/fuse-2.7.0 (0)
[I--] [M ] mail-mta/qmail-1.03-r16 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-glibc-1000 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-baselibs-2.1.2 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-emulation/emul-linux-x86-compat-1.0 (0)
[I--] [M ] net-p2p/ctorrent-2.2 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-editors/vim-7.1.042 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-editors/nano-2.0.6 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-editors/xemacs-21.4.20-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-editors/vim-core-7.1.042 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-arch/cpio-2.9-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-arch/unrar-3.7.5 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-arch/p7zip-4.44 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-arch/gzip-1.3.12 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-arch/zip-2.32 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-arch/sharutils-4.6.3 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-arch/ncompress-4.2.4-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-arch/cabextract-1.1 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-arch/tar-1.19 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-arch/bzip2-1.0.4-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-arch/unace-1.2b-r1 (1)
[I--] [ ] app-arch/unzip-5.52-r1 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-portage/gentoolkit-0.2.1_pre5 (0)
[I--] [M~] app-portage/portage-utils-0.1.20 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-dicts/aspell-en-6.0.0 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-dialup/lrzsz-0.12.20-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-dialup/minicom-2.2-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-dialup/mgetty-1.1.35-r2 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXext-1.0.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXdmcp-1.0.2 (0)
[I--] [M ] x11-libs/motif-config-0.9 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXmu-1.0.3 (0)
[I--] [M ] x11-libs/libXi-1.1.0 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXft-2.1.12 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXcursor-1.1.8 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXxf86vm-1.0.1 (0)
[I--] [M ] x11-libs/libX11-1.1.1-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libdrm-2.3.0 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXfixes-4.0.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXau-1.0.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXrender-0.9.2 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXt-1.0.5 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libICE-1.0.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libSM-1.0.2 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/xtrans-1.0.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libfontenc-1.0.4 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-libs/libXrandr-1.2.1 (0)
[I--] [M ] x11-libs/libXfont-1.2.7-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-ftp/ftp-0.17-r6 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-ftp/pure-ftpd-1.0.21-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-ftp/ftpbase-0.01 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-ftp/ncftp-3.1.9 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-fonts/gnu-gs-fonts-std-8.11 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-fonts/corefonts-1-r2 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-python/python-fchksum-1.7.1 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-python/pycrypto-2.0.1-r6 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-python/egenix-mx-base-2.0.5 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-python/pyzor-0.4.0-r3 (0)
[I--] [M ] dev-python/dnspython-1.3.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-xemacs/emerge-1.11 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-xemacs/xemacs-base-1.75 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-antivirus/clamav-0.91.2-r1 (0)
[I--] [M ] x11-base/opengl-update-3.0.0 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-benchmarks/dbench-2.0 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/Test-Simple-0.67 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/Digest-MD5-2.33 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/PodParser-1.35 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/Test-Harness-2.64 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/MIME-Base64-3.05 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/Storable-2.15 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/Sys-Syslog-0.18 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/Time-HiRes-1.97.05 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/DB_File-1.815 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/Time-Local-1.17 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/digest-base-1.15 (0)
[I--] [ ] perl-core/net-ping-2.31 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-vim/gentoo-syntax-20070506 (0)
[I--] [ ] x11-misc/util-macros-1.1.5 (0)
[I--] [M ] x11-misc/makedepend-1.0.0 (0)
[I--] [M ] sys-kernel/hardened-sources-2.6.11-r15 (2.6.11-r15)
[I--] [ -] sys-kernel/linux-headers-2.6.23-r2 (0)
[I--] [M ] sys-kernel/hardened-sources-2.6.20-r6 (2.6.20-r6)
[I--] [M ] sys-kernel/hardened-sources-2.6.14-r3 (2.6.14-r3)
[I--] [M ] sys-kernel/hardened-sources-2.6.14-r7 (2.6.14-r7)
[I--] [M ] sys-kernel/hardened-sources-2.6.14-r8 (2.6.14-r8)
[I--] [M ] sys-kernel/hardened-sources-2.6.17-r1 (2.6.17-r1)
[I--] [M ] sys-kernel/hardened-sources-2.6.14-r5 (2.6.14-r5)
[I--] [M ] sys-kernel/hardened-sources-2.6.20-r10 (2.6.20-r10)
[I--] [M ] sys-kernel/hardened-sources-2.6.16-r10 (2.6.16-r10)
[I--] [M ] sys-kernel/hardened-sources-2.6.16-r11 (2.6.16-r11)
[I--] [ ] sys-process/procps-3.2.7 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-process/cronbase-0.3.2 (0)
[I--] [M ] sys-process/psmisc-22.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-process/vixie-cron-4.1-r10 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-process/acct-6.3.5-r1 (0)
[I--] [M ] sys-process/atop-1.19 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-process/daemontools-0.76-r5 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-process/lsof-4.78 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-process/htop-0.6.6 (0)
[I--] [M ] net-www/gentoo-webroot-default-0.2 (0)
[I--] [M ] media-sound/mpg123-0.59s-r10 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-sound/lame-3.97-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-sound/sox-12.17.9 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Sys-Hostname-Long-1.4 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/HTML-Tagset-3.10 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/IO-Socket-SSL-1.02 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/GDGraph-1.43.08 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Test-Pod-1.26 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/URI-1.35 (0)
[I--] [M ] dev-perl/Archive-Tar-1.26 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Data-DumpXML-1.06 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Net-SSLeay-1.30 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/GDTextUtil-0.86 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Net-IP-1.25-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Net-DNS-0.60 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Digest-SHA1-2.11 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/IO-Zlib-1.04 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Crypt-SSLeay-0.53 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Term-ReadLine-Perl-1.03.02 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/TermReadKey-2.30 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Curses-UI-0.95 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Pod-Simple-3.05 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/GD-2.35-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Digest-Nilsimsa-0.06-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/GD-Graph3d-0.63 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Pod-Escapes-1.04 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Curses-1.15 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Mail-SPF-Query-1.999.1 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/BerkeleyDB-0.31 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Digest-HMAC-1.01-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/DelimMatch-1.06 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Compress-Raw-Zlib-2.004 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/IO-String-1.08 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Array-RefElem-1.00 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/IO-Compress-Zlib-2.004 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/libintl-perl-1.16 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/PlRPC-0.2018 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/XML-Parser-2.34 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/DBI-1.55 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/DBD-SQLite2-0.33 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/HTML-Parser-3.56 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/HTML-Tree-3.23 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Net-CIDR-Lite-0.20 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/IO-Compress-Base-2.004 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/DBD-mysql-4.00.5 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Locale-gettext-1.05 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Compress-Zlib-2.004 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/libwww-perl-5.805 (0)
[I--] [ ] dev-perl/Net-Daemon-0.39 (0)
[I--] [ ] mail-filter/dcc-1.3.55 (0)
[I--] [M~] mail-filter/dspam-3.8.0-r6 (0)
[I--] [ ] mail-filter/maildrop-2.0.2-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] mail-filter/procmail-3.22-r7 (0)
[I--] [ ] mail-filter/razor-2.82 (0)
[I--] [ ] mail-filter/qmail-scanner-1.25-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/libpng-1.2.18-r1 (1.2)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/gd-2.0.35 (2)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/t1lib-5.0.2 (5)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/fontconfig-2.4.2 (1.0)
[I--] [M ] media-libs/freetype-2.3.4-r2 (2)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/freetype-1.3.1-r5 (1)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/jbigkit-1.6-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/mesa-6.5.2-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/libsdl-1.2.11-r2 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/jpeg-6b-r7 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/tiff-3.8.2-r2 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/libmng-1.0.9-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/audiofile-0.2.6-r3 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/lcms-1.14-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/urt-3.1b-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] media-libs/giflib-4.1.4 (0)
[I--] [ -] sys-boot/grub-static-0.97 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/eselect-vi-1.1.4 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/php-toolkit-1.0-r2 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/apache-tools-2.2.6 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/perl-cleaner-1.04.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/sudo-1.6.8_p12-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/eselect-opengl-1.0.5 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-admin/sysstat-7.0.4-r2 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/eselect-1.0.10 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/logrotate-3.7.2 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/superadduser-1.0.9 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-admin/syslog-ng-1.6.11-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/python-updater-0.2 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/webapp-config-1.50.16-r1 (0)
[I--] [M ] app-admin/paxtest-0.9.6 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-admin/ccze-0.2.1-r2 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-misc/pax-utils-0.1.15 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-misc/screen-4.0.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-misc/mime-types-7 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-misc/linux-logo-4.16 (0)
[I--] [ ] app-misc/ca-certificates-20070303-r1 (0)
[I--] [M ] net-analyzer/acid-0.9.6_beta23 (0.9.6_beta23)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/mrtg-2.15.2 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/netcat-110-r8 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/oinkmaster-1.2 (0)
[I--] [M~] net-analyzer/hydra-5.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/nmap-4.20 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/mtr-0.72 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/traceroute-1.4_p12-r5 (0)
[I--] [M~] net-analyzer/jnettop-0.13.0-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/nload-0.6.0 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/tcpdump-3.9.5-r3 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/fping-2.4_beta2-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/net-snmp-5.4 (0)
[I--] [ ] net-analyzer/metasploit-2.7 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-libs/glibc-2.6.1 (2.2)
[I--] [ ] sys-libs/db-1.85-r3 (1)
[I--] [ ] sys-libs/zlib-1.2.3-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-libs/gdbm-1.8.3-r3 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-libs/ss-1.40.3 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-libs/libstdc++-v3-3.3.4 (5)
[I--] [ ] sys-libs/cracklib-2.8.9-r1 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-libs/pwdb-0.62 (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-libs/slang-1.4.9-r2 (0)
[I--] [M ] sys-libs/timezone-data-2007g (0)
[I--] [ ] sys-libs/com_err-1.40.3 (0)
[I--] [M ] sys-libs/readline-5.2_p4 (0)
[I--] [M ] sys-libs/libcap-1.10-r5 (0)

crontab -l
# DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE - edit the master and reinstall.
# (/tmp/crontab.XXXXIkFRxG installed on Tue Sep 11 15:00:17 2007)
# (Cron version V5.0 -- $Id: crontab.c,v 1.12 2004/01/23 18:56:42 vixie Exp $)
0 17 * * * /usr/bin/php /inet/domains/ablb.com/clients/aquahealth/mailer.php
23 * * * * /usr/bin/find /var/qmail/cqgreylist -mtime +1 -type f -exec rm -f {} \;
* * * * * /usr/bin/php /inet/domains/ablb.com/callstats/autoload.php >>/dev/null
0 03 * * * /crons/maint-main.sh 2>&1
0 17 * * * /usr/bin/php /inet/domains/trackspace.net/cron_cleanup.php
*/5 * * * * cat /etc/issue > /etc/motd; echo " " >> /etc/motd; /usr/bin/fortune >> /etc/motd
*/5 * * * * /bin/run-parts /etc/cron.mrtg 1> /dev/null

Arrrrrgh!!!--why do we need that huge list of stuff?

Let me get this straight: You are brand new to Linux and you have been asked to maintain a server??!! (I guess you will learn Linux very quickly...;))

Your uname results look like the machine that you use to access the server, whereas the other details apply to the server. I don't know if this is relevant, but it's good to be clear.

I'm not into servers, but some general advice includes running ps -e to see all the processes running, and then looking for relevant configuration files in /etc.

Curiousity: How did you get in this situation?

Sorry for the Huge posting.... I only shared the info that was returned from the commands given. I will reframe from doing this again.

Yes a quick start to the linux world is in my future and in my face at the present.

The previous tech made a quick exit... I'm pickup the pieces and hoping not to drop the ball.

The uname command was preformed on the machine that is the server. I'm using putty and connecting via ssh.

I've run this command ps -e to see all the processes running.

I do recognize a lot of what is running. Where would i look next for the relevant configuration files and what there in/etc.

Just not sure what next.

This is describing 2 different machines...you'll want to sort out which is which.

As I said, most configuration files are in /etc.

What is the server used for? e.g. web (http), ftp, etc.

PS:

Two handy ways of finding things:

ls -R|grep keyword (run this in a directory like /etc and it will go down into all the sub-directories---"keyword" can be any fragment)

find <path> -name keyword (You'll need to add "*" as required if you don't know the exact filename)


Also, go to http://tldp.org and get a copy of "Bash Guide for Beginners"

The system is used for web, faxing(hylafax), running back up jobs. It was use for some php development from a few former IT techs over the past few yrs. I've pulled down the beginners guide, Thanks.

Not sure about "R|grep keyword " I need to read up on this more.
I have run cat
cat /etc/shells
# /etc/shells: valid login shells
/bin/sh
/bin/bash
/bin/tcsh
/bin/csh
/bin/esh
/bin/ksh
/bin/zsh
/bin/sash

Would I be safer working from one of these directories?
I've logged in as root this is the only access I know at this point.

How do you print or display the contents of a file?

man cat
I would suggest you install Gentoo, best way to learn.
http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/handbook/handbook-x86.xml

It's "ls -R|grep keyword.