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WY025-01 Bible Tight WY025-Negus-v2.cls June 28, 2004 22:29
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CHAPTER
Introduction to Linux
Troubleshooting
✦✦✦✦
In This Chapter
Introduction to Linux
troubleshooting
Learning Linux
troubleshooting with
Fedora
Using Linux
Troubleshooting Bible
Giving back to Fedora
✦✦✦✦
L
inux troubleshooting skills that were once useful only
for hackers and ubergeeks have become necessities for computer
professionals and serious technology enthusiasts. Once confined to
the computers of free software proponents, Linux systems have found
their way into desktop computers, small office servers, hand-held
computers, enterprise operations, and anywhere else computer
processors might be found.
If you can troubleshoot Linux, demand for your skills will grow
exponentially in the time to come.
Despite the fact that there are now scores of different Linux systems,
the core components of those systems are still strikingly similar. The
kernel, hundreds of basic commands, and the approach you need to
take to track down problems are very much the same among most
Linux systems.
The goals of Linux Troubleshooting Bible are to help you:
✦ Set up and fix Linux desktop, laptop, workstation, and server
systems.
✦ Develop Linux troubleshooting expertise that can easily transition
to many different Linux systems.
To provide detailed, working instructions to learn Linux
troubleshooting, we chose Fedora Core 1 as the example Linux
distribution for this book. In fact, we are strong proponents of Fedora
for those who want to:
✦ Become proficient in a free Linux distribution that can be used in
the same ways that Red Hat Linux was traditionally used.
✦ Learn how to dig up resources that can help you maintain Linux
systems yourself, without paying expensive subscription fees.
✦ Develop a set of troubleshooting skills that will transition up to
enterprise-quality Linux distributions.
Most of the techniques described in this book will work exactly the
same on Red Hat Enterprise and Red Hat Linux (versions 8 and 9, in
particular) as well. In the next section, we explain why we believe
Fedora is an excellent choice for both learning Linux troubleshooting
and for using as desktop and server systems, in many situations.
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