2.7 TUTORIAL - USING LINUX
1. (If you haven't already logout of the root account) Login with your username and password. Later you can logout with 'logout' or 'exit'. (Note: you can also use 'shutdown -h now' to stop the machine.)
2. After you have logged in you should see a flashing cursor. Type 'startx' to start the X-windows GUI. This will take some time, but when done you will have a windowed interface.
3. First we want to open a command window. Point to the bottom of the screen and locate the icon that looks like a computer screen. Click on it once with the left mouse button. A command window will pop up on the screen. Click on the border of the window, the keyboard will then be focused on the window, and commands will work there.
4. Enter the commands below in order and observe the results. They should allow you to move around directories and see the files listed there. Some of the options will change how you see the files.
5. Use the manuals to find other options for the `ls' command with `man ls'.
6. Explore the hard drive to find what is there. The following directories are particularly important.
/etc - the machine configuration and boot files
/opt - some packages will be installed here
/bin and /usr/bin - executable files
/sbin and /usr/sbin - executable files for the root user and system
/home - use directories are here
/mnt - mounted disk drives are attached here
/proc - system status is kept here
/var/log - system log files are kept here
/tmp - temporary files are stored here
7. Change to the directory '/etc', and look at the contents of the file 'fstab' with the command 'more fstab'. This file contains a list of the disk drives in the computer. You can find more information about it with 'man fstab'.
8. Return to your own directory and create a subdirectory called public_html with the command 'mkdir public_html'. Change to that directory and create a new file using the vi editor with 'vi index.html'. Enter the following text into that file. The editor has two modes. In command mode each key will cause an action. In edit mode each key is added to the text. Hitting 'ESC' at any time puts the editor back into command mode. To move into edit mode hit 'i' then start typing text. To erase a single character hit 'x'. When you are done editing the program use ':wq:' to save the file and quit. Refer to the previous section in the text more details on the commands.
9. When done save and quit the editor. Make sure the permissions of your file and the 'public_html' directory are correct with the command 'chmod 755 index.html ~/public_html ~'.
10. Use netscape to look at you web page and see if it is there. You can do this using 'netscape &'. You can see the file by opening it. You should also be able to see the file by typing 'http://localhost/~jackh/index.html', where 'YOURNAME' is you user ID.
11. Look at the list of processes running on the computer with 'ps -aux'. Notice that the columns indicate what is running, the status of the process, etc. You can get more information about this using 'man ps'
12. Log into claymore using 'telnet claymore.engineer.gvsu.edu' or 'telnet 148.61.104.215'. use 'ls' to look at the files in your directory. When done looking around your account use 'exit' to logout.
13. Now, look at some of the programs in the Window manager.
