Debian Reference

This Reference Manual applies to: Debian
This Reference Manual is intended for: Beginner, Desktop User, Desktop Power User, Server Administrator, Advanced Server Administrator

This Debian Reference is intended to provide a broad overview of the Debian system as a post-installation user's guide.

All content on one page (useful for printing, presentation mode etc.)

1. Preface
   1. Official document
   2. Document conventions
   3. Example scripts
   4. Basic setup
   5. Basics of the Debian distributions
2. Debian fundamentals
   1. The Debian archives
      1. Directory structures
      2. Debian distributions
      3. The stable distribution
      4. The testing distribution
      5. The unstable distribution
      6. The frozen distribution
      7. Debian distribution codenames
      8. Codenames used in the past
      9. The source for codenames
      10. The pool directory
      11. Historical notes about Sid
      12. Uploaded packages in incoming/
      13. Retrieving an older package
      14. Architecture sections
      15. The source code
   2. The Debian package management system
      1. Overview of Debian packages
      2. Debian package format
      3. Naming conventions for Debian package filenames
      4. Preservation of local configuration
      5. Debian maintenance scripts
      6. Package priorities
      7. Virtual packages
      8. Package dependencies
      9. The meaning of "Pre-Depends"
      10. Package status
      11. Holding back packages from an upgrade
      12. Source packages
      13. Building binary packages from a source package
      14. Creating new Debian packages
   3. Upgrading a Debian system
      1. dpkg
      2. APT
      3. dselect
      4. Upgrading a running system
      5. Downloaded and cached .deb archive file
      6. Record-keeping for upgrades
   4. The Debian boot process
      1. The init program
      2. Runlevels
      3. Customizing runlevels
   5. Supporting diversity
   6. Internationalization
   7. Debian and the kernel
      1. Compiling a kernel from non-Debian source
      2. Tools to build custom kernels
      3. Special provisions for dealing with modules
      4. De-installing an old kernel package
3. Debian System installation hints
   1. General Linux system installation hints
      1. Hardware compatibility basics
      2. Determining a PC's hardware and chip set
      3. Determining a PC's hardware via Debian
      4. Determining a PC's hardware via other OSs
      5. A Lilo myth
      6. GRUB
      7. Choice of boot floppies
      8. Installation
      9. Hosts and IP to use for LAN
      10. User accounts
      11. Creating filesystems
          1. Hard disk partition
          2. Mount filesystems
          3. Autofs mount
          4. NFS mount
      12. DRAM memory guidelines
      13. Swap space
   2. Bash configuration
   3. Mouse configuration
      1. PC/2 mice
         1. In General
         2. The ms3 protocol approach
         3. The raw protocol approach
         4. How to adjust to different mice
      2. USB mice
      3. Touchpad
   4. NFS configuration
   5. Samba configuration
   6. Printer configuration
      1. lpr/lpd
      2. CUPS™
   7. CRON for desktop PCs
   8. Other host installation hints
      1. Install a few more packages after initial install
      2. Modules
      3. CD-RW basic setup
      4. Large memory and auto power-off
      5. Strange access problems with some websites
      6. Dialup PPP configuration
      7. Other configuration files to tweak in /etc/
4. Debian tutorials
   1. Getting started
      1. Login to a shell prompt as root
      2. Set up minimal newbie environment
      3. Add a user account
      4. Switch between virtual console
      5. How to shut down
      6. Play time
   2. Midnight Commander (MC)
      1. Enhance MC
      2. Start MC
      3. File manager in MC
      4. Command-line tricks in MC
      5. Editor in MC
      6. Viewer in MC
      7. Auto-start features of MC
      8. FTP virtual filesystem of MC
   3. Unix-like work environment
      1. Special key strokes
      2. Basic Unix commands
      3. The command execution
      4. Simple command
      5. Command execution and environment variable
      6. Command search path
      7. Command line options
      8. Shell wildcards
      9. Return value of the command
      10. Typical command sequences
          1. command &
          2. command1 | command2
          3. command1 ; command2
          4. command1 && command2
          5. command1 || command2
          6. command > foo
          7. command >> foo
          8. command > foo 2>&1
          9. command < foo
      11. Command alias
   4. Unix-like text processing
      1. Regular expressions
      2. Replacement expressions
   5. Unix-like filesystem
      1. Unix file basics
      2. The filesystem concept in Debian
      3. File and directory access permissions
      4. Timestamps
      5. Links
      6. Named pipes (FIFOs)
      7. Sockets
      8. Device files
         1. /dev/null etc.
         2. Device node number
      9. /proc filesystem
   6. X Window System
      1. Start the X Window System
      2. Menu in the X Window System
      3. Keyboard sequence for the X Window System
   7. Further study
5. Upgrading a distribution to stable, testing, or unstable
   1. Upgrading from Potato to Woody
   2. Preparing for upgrade
   3. Upgrading
      1. Using dselect
      2. Using apt-get
6. Debian package management
   1. Introduction
      1. Main package management tools
      2. Convenience tools
   2. Beginning Debian package management
      1. Set up APT
      2. Installing tasks
      3. aptitude
      4. dselect
      5. Tracking a distribution using APT
      6. aptitude, apt-get and apt-cache commands
   3. Debian survival commands
      1. Check bugs in Debian and seek help
      2. APT upgrade troubleshooting
      3. Rescue using dpkg
      4. Recover package selection data
      5. Rescue system after crashing /var
      6. Install a package into an unbootable system
      7. What to do if the dpkg command is broken
   4. Debian nirvana commands
      1. Information on a file
      2. Information on a package
      3. Unattended installation with APT
      4. Reconfigure installed packages
      5. Remove and purge packages
      6. Holding older packages
      7. Mixed stable/testing/unstable system
      8. Prune cached package files
      9. Record/copy system configuration
      10. Port a package to the stable system
      11. Local package archive
      12. Convert or install an alien binary package
      13. Automatically install command
      14. Verify installed package files
      15. Optimized sources.list
   5. Other Debian peculiarities
      1. The dpkg-divert command
      2. The equivs package
      3. Alternative commands
      4. Runlevel usage
      5. Disabled daemon services
7. The Linux kernel under Debian
   1. Kernel (re)compile
      1. Kernel headers
   2. Tuning the kernel through the proc filesystem
      1. Too many open files
      2. Disk flush intervals
      3. Sluggish old low memory machines
      4. The 2.6 kernel with ud
8. Debian tips
   1. Booting the system
      1. "I forgot the root password!" (1)
      2. "I forgot the root password!" (2)
      3. Cannot boot the system
      4. "Let me disable X on boot!"
      5. Other boot tricks with the boot prompt
      6. Setting GRUB boot parameters
   2. Recording activities
      1. Recording shell activities
      2. Recording X activities
   3. Copy and archive a whole subdirectory
      1. Basic commands for copying a whole subdirectory
      2. cp
      3. tar
      4. pax
      5. cpio
      6. afio
   4. Differential backup and data synchronization
      1. Differential backup with rdiff
      2. Daily backup with pdumpfs
      3. Regular differential backup with RCS
   5. System freeze recovery
      1. Kill a process
      2. Alt-SysRq
   6. Nifty little commands to remember
      1. Pager
      2. Free memory
      3. Set time (BIOS)
      4. Set time (NTP)
         1. Set time with permanent Internet connection
         2. Set time with sporadic Internet connection
      5. How to control console features such as the screensaver
      6. Search administrative database
      7. Disable sound (beep)
      8. Error messages on the console screen
      9. Set console to the correct type
      10. Get the console back to a sane state
      11. Convert a text file from DOS to Unix style
      12. Convert a text file with recode
      13. Regular-expression substitution
      14. Edit a file in place using a script
      15. Extract differences and merge updates for source files
      16. Convert a large file into small files
      17. Extract data from text file table
      18. Script snippets for piping commands
      19. Script snippets for looping over each file
      20. Perl short script madness
      21. Get text or a mailing list archive from a web page
      22. Pretty print a web page
      23. Pretty print a manual page
      24. Merge two PostScript or PDF files
      25. Time a command
      26. nice command
      27. Schedule activity (cron, at)
      28. Console switching with screen
          1. Remote access scenario
          2. Typical screen commands
          3. Backspace and/or Ctrl-H in screen session
          4. Equivalent program to screen for X
      29. Network testing basics
      30. Flush mail from local spool
      31. Remove frozen mail from local spool
      32. Redeliver mbox contents
      33. Clear file contents
      34. Dummy files
      35. chroot
          1. Run a different Debian distribution with chroot
          2. Setting up login for chroot
          3. Setting up X for chroot
          4. Run other distributions with chroot
          5. Build a package with chroot
      36. How to check hard links
      37. mount hard disk image file
      38. Samba
      39. Utilities for foreign filesystems
   7. Typical mistakes to be noted
      1. rm -rf .*
      2. rm /etc/passwd
9. Tuning a Debian system
   1. System initialization
      1. Customizing init scripts
      2. Customizing system logging
      3. Optimizing hardware
   2. Restricting access
      1. Restricting logins with PAM
      2. "Why GNU su does not support the wheel group"
      3. Purposes of standard groups
      4. Working more safely – sudo
      5. Restricting access to services
      6. Centralizing authentication – LDAP
   3. CD writers
      1. Introduction
      2. Approach 1: modules + lil
      3. Approach 2: recompile the kernel
      4. Post-configuration steps
      5. CD-image file (bootable)
      6. Write to the CD-writer (R, RW):
      7. Make an image file of a CD
      8. Debian CD images
      9. Back up the system to CD-R
      10. Copy a music CD to CD-R
      11. Writing DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW
   4. X
      1. X packages
      2. Hardware detection for X
      3. The X server
         1. Configuring the X server (version 4)
         2. Configuring the X server manually
         3. Configuring the X server manually
      4. X clients
      5. X sessions
         1. Custom X sessions
         2. Starting an X session for a user
         3. Setting up KDE and GNOME
      6. Using X over TCP/IP
      7. Connecting to a remote X server – xhost
      8. Connecting to a remote X server – ssh
      9. The X terminal emulator – xterm
      10. X resources
      11. Keymaps and pointer button mappings in X
      12. Getting root in X
      13. TrueType fonts in X
      14. Web browsers in X
      15. Mail Clients (MUAs) in X
   5. SSH
      1. Basics of SSH
      2. Port forwarding for SMTP/POP3 tunneling
      3. Connecting with fewer passwords – RSA
      4. Dealing with alien SSH clients
      5. Setting up ssh-agent
      6. Troubleshooting SSH
   6. Mail
      1. Mail transport agents (MTAs)
         1. Smarthost
         2. Basic configuration of Exim
         3. Setting up a catchall for nonexistent email addresses under Exim
         4. Configuring selective address rewriting for outgoing mail under Exim
         5. Configuring SMTP authentication under Exim
      2. Fetching mail – Fetchmail
      3. Processing mail – Procmail
      4. Processing spam with crm114
      5. Reading mail – Mutt
   7. Localization (l10n)
      1. Basics of localization
         1. Localizing the keyboard
         2. Localizing data files
         3. Localizing the display
         4. Localizing messages and documentation
      2. Locales
      3. Introduction to locales
      4. Activating locale support
      5. Activating a particular locale
      6. ISO 8601 date format locale
      7. Example for the US (ISO-8859-1)
      8. Example for France with Euro sign (ISO-8859-15)
      9. Example for a multilingual X window system
      10. Alternative X input methods
      11. X terminal emulators
      12. UTF-8 support for the X terminal emulator
      13. Example for UTF-8 in a framebuffer console
      14. Beyond locales
   8. Multilingualization (m17n)
10. Network configuration
    1. Basics of IP networking
    2. Low level network configuration
       1. ifconfig and route
       2. ip
       3. Configuring a Wi-Fi interface
       4. Configuring a PPP interface
          1. Configuring pppd manually
          2. Configuring pppd using pppconfig
          3. Configuring a PPP interface using wvdial
    3. Naming the computer
       1. Hostname
       2. Mailname
    4. Domain Name Service (DNS)
       1. The resolver
       2. Managing nameserver information – resolvconf
       3. Caching looked-up names – nscd, dnsmasq, pdnsd, bind9
       4. Providing Domain Name Service – bind
    5. Configuring network interfaces using DHCP
    6. High level network configuration in Debian
       1. High level network configuration using ifupdown
          1. Configuring an interface with a static IP address
          2. Configuring an interface using DHCP
          3. Configuring a Wi-Fi interface
          4. Configuring a PPP interface
          5. Configuring a PPPoE interface
          6. Configuring multiple Ethernet interfaces for a gateway
          7. Configuring virtual interfaces
       2. High level network configuration using ifupdown logical interface definitions
       3. Automatic network configuration using ifupdown
       4. Automatic network configuration using laptop-net
       5. Automatic network configuration using network-manager
    7. Dealing with inconsistent naming of interfaces by the kernel
    8. Triggering network configuration
       1. Triggering network configuration at boot time
       2. Triggering network configuration – hotplug
       3. Triggering network configuration – ifplugd
       4. Triggering network configuration – waproamd
       5. Network configuration and PCMCIA
    9. Multi-stage mapping
    10. Network service configuration
    11. Network troubleshooting
    12. Building a gateway router
        1. Netfilter configuration
           1. Basics of netfilter
           2. Netfilter table
           3. Netfilter target
           4. Netfilter commands
           5. Network Address Translation
           6. Redirect SMTP connection (2.4)
        2. Manage multiple net connections
11. Editors
    1. Popular editors
    2. Rescue editors
    3. Emacs and Vim
       1. Vim hints
       2. Emacs hints
       3. Starting the editor
       4. Editor command summary (Emacs, Vim)
       5. Vim configuration
       6. Ctags
       7. Convert a syntax-highlighted screen to HTML source
       8. Split screen with vim
12. Version Control Systems
    1. Concurrent Versions System (CVS)
       1. Installing a CVS server
       2. CVS session examples
          1. Anonymous CVS (download only)
          2. Use local CVS server
          3. Use remote CVS pserver
          4. Use remote CVS through ssh
          5. Create a new CVS archive
          6. Work with CVS
          7. Export files from CVS
          8. Administer CVS
       3. Troubleshooting CVS
          1. File permissions in repository
          2. Execution bit
       4. CVS commands
    2. Subversion
       1. Installing a Subversion server
          1. Setting up a repository
          2. Configuring Apache2
       2. Moving a CVS repository to Subversion
       3. Subversion usage examples
          1. Create a new Subversion archive
          2. Working with Subversion
13. Programming
    1. Where to start
    2. Shell
       1. Bash – GNU standard interactive shell
       2. POSIX shells
       3. Shell parameters
       4. Shell redirection
       5. Shell conditionals
       6. Command-line processing
    3. Awk
    4. Perl
    5. Python
    6. Make
    7. C
       1. Simple C program (gcc)
       2. Debugging
          1. Debugging with gdb
          2. Check dependency on libraries
          3. Debugging with memory leak detection tools
       3. Flex – a better Lex
       4. Bison – a better Yacc
       5. Autoconf
          1. Compile and install a program
          2. Uninstall program
    8. Web
    9. Document preparation
       1. roff typesetting
       2. SGML
       3. TeX/LaTeX
       4. Literate Programming
          1. Noweb
          2. Doxygen
    10. Packaging
        1. Packaging a single binary
        2. Packaging with tools
14. GnuPG
    1. Installing GnuPG
    2. Using GnuPG
    3. Managing GnuPG
    4. Using GnuPG with applications
       1. Using GnuPG with Mutt
       2. applications
15. Support for Debian
    1. References
    2. Finding the meaning of a word
    3. Finding the popularity of a Debian package
    4. The Debian bug tracking system
    5. Mailing lists
    6. Internet Relay Chat (IRC)
    7. Search engines
    8. Websites
16. Appendix
    1. Authors
    2. Warranties
    3. Feedback
    4. Document format
    5. The Debian maze
    6. The Debian quotes
17. Abstract and Copyright