Resource

The act of compiling a new kernel isn’t as difficult as many people expect. For the most part, you select your kernel options, compile it, copy a few files to appropriate locations, and you’re good to go. The hard part lies in knowing what you need.

I’m pleased with myself at the moment: I’ve just succeeded in creating my own firewall from scratch with a Linux box! Rather than purchasing dedicated hardware to isolate our office network a little better from our clients, I finally got my hands on an old desktop system, installed a second NIC and Slackware, and set [...]

This one is for all the Debian users out there who might still be running the 2.4 kernel, here is an opportunity to learn how to upgrade to the 2.6 kernel. What are the benefits of compiling your own kernel? Simply put the base kernel of any distro is somewhat bloated since it must accommodate [...]

NewsForge’s Tina Gasperson checks in with a story about a Canadian BMW dealership who recently turned to Linux to replace some internal systems. While they still use Windows on the desktop to run proprietary BMW software, they have saved money by moving some of their in-house equipment to Linux.

This article provides clear instructions on setting up a Linux mail server from scratch. The author seems to be new to Linux, as well; with some help and using a variety of resources, he gets a full-blown Linux mail server running Postfix, Courier Maildrop, Apache, SquirrelMail, Amavis and SpamAssassin. Install Guide.

Knoppix is the most well known of all Linux live CDs and maybe of all Linux distros. There is a good reason for that it’s a powerful system rescue tool that’s fairly easy to use. Unleashing the power of Knoppix requires a bit of practice so here’s another tutorial that you can add to your [...]

After a round of breakins, Joe Barr put together Linux, an Open Source software suite called ZoneMinder, and a set of D-Link wireless cameras to better keep an eye on things. He outlined the setup procedure for the rest of us at NewsForge here.

Here’s an article that should be mandatory reading for any Linux sysadmin. I know what you’re thinking I would never forget my root password. OK, that may or may not be true, but there are several other instances where you might need access to the root password and not have it. This is a resource [...]

With the increase in popularity of Linux, more and more Web sites are being spawned to meet the needs of this ever-growing group of users. The latest one is a site called Tuxme.com. Tuxme, however, is targeting the Linux power user as its main audience. What’s a Linux power user?

Vi is just one of many text editors found in Linux but I’m sure you already knew that. Are you familiar with the many commands for working in vi? If you are like me chances are you have mastered a few of the basic commands but never really bothered to go past that. I just [...]

If you’ve been looking for a Linux replacement for MS Money or Quicken, then the most frequent alternative you’ll run into is GnuCash. It’s free (as in speech and beer), and it runs on Linux and most Unix systems including Mac OS X.

Don’t throw out that old hardware! If you’ve got an older machine sitting in the closet collecting dust, you can put it to use as a cheap network gateway and save yourself the cost of a dedicated router. While cable/DSL routers have come down quite a bit in cost, the flexibility a dedicated Linux box [...]

I’ve got an article about the following on LinuxPlanet, if you don’t feel like poring through the whole thing
here.
Bill Nottingham released the following to the Red Hat community on
Monday, July 21:

Announcing a beta release of Red Hat Linux: Severn
Thank you gentlemen. This is rumor control. Here are the facts. As
some of you know, [...]

/. reported the availability of a new Linux Driver Wiki at linux-driver.org, which will be geared toward both developers and newbies who are looking for information about their hardware and compatibility/setup on a Linux system.

With the recent release of Slackware 10, there has been an upsurge in interest for this great distro. So why should you try Slackware? Because it’s a fast, rock solid, stable distro that is constantly being updated with the latest software releases. But you have heard that Slackware is not for new Linux users? I’ve [...]

The latest version of the Linux Mobile Guide — formerly the Linux Laptop HOWTO — has just been released over at TuxMobil. It’s written in HTML, and all 181 files can be downloaded in .tgz format for your desktop, .ipk for your mobile device, or simply viewed on the web.

The International Open Source Network has recently put together a Flash-based training utility based on their already-existing manuals for Linux users. It is currently in the preview stage, and is available for for public review here. As long as you have Flash on your system, you should have no problem accessing the file.

What is rsync? As the name implies, it’s a tool for synchronizing files. In a new Linux.com article, you are introduced to rsync as an effective backup tool. Learn the basics of backing up mainly “what to back up, to where, and when.” The author is very thorough in his coverage of this material even including [...]

Mozilla Thunderbird is my favorite e-mail client; I install it in every Linux distro I use. The Thunderbird project is very active and it is maturing into a full-featured e-mail client. For users of Ximian Evolution, I found a nice How To on Linux.com for migrating your mail and settings from Evolution to Thunderbird. This is [...]

The CLI is an informative series that tries to introduce the new user to the intricacies of Linux. The latest installment deals with Symbolic Links also called symlinks. Symlinks “let you more easily do all sorts of neat things, not the least of which is to satisfy dependency issues for needy applications.” This article covers [...]