Matthew Helmke has used Ubuntu since 2005. He has written about Linux for several magazines and websites, is a lead author of The Official Ubuntu Book, and has coauthored both A Practical Guide to Linux: Commands, Editors, and Shell Programming and The VMware Cookbook. In his day job, Matthew works for Gremlin [...] making the Internet more reliable. Matthew first used UNIX in 1987, while studying Lisp on a Vax at the university. He has run a business using only free and open source software, has consulted, and teaches as an adjunct professor for the University of Arizona. You can find out more about Matthew at [...] or drop him a line with errata or suggestions at [...]

Introduction xxxi

Before You Begin the Installation 1

Researching Your Hardware Specifications 2

Installation Options 2

32-Bit Versus 64-Bit Ubuntu 4

Planning Partition Strategies 5

The Boot Loader 5

Installing from DVD or USB Drive 6

Step-by-Step Installation 6

Installing 7

First Update 11

Shutting Down 11

Finding Programs and Files 12

Software Updater 12

The sudo Command 14

Configuring Software Repositories 15

System Settings 17

Detecting and Configuring a Printer 18

Configuring Power Management in Ubuntu 18

Setting the Time and Date 19

Configuring Wireless Networks 20

Troubleshooting Post-Installation Configuration Problems 21

What Is Linux? 23

Why Use Linux? 25

What Is Ubuntu? 27

Ubuntu for Business 27

Ubuntu in Your Home 28

Getting the Most from Linux and Ubuntu Documentation 28

Linux 29

Ubuntu 30

Foundations and the X Server 31

Basic X Concepts 32

Using X 33

Elements of the xorg conf File 34

Starting X 39

Using a Display Manager 39

Changing Window Managers 39

Desktop Environment 41

Using GNOME: A Primer 42

KDE and Kubuntu 45

Xfce and Xubuntu 46

LXDE and Lubuntu 47

MATE and Ubuntu MATE 48

Ubuntu Budgie 49

Ubuntu Kylin 50

Getting Started with Firefox 52

Checking Out Google Chrome and Chromium 53

Introducing LibreOffice 56

Other Useful Productivity Software 58

Working with PDFs 58

Writing Scripts 59

Working with XML and DocBook 59

Working with LaTeX 60

Creating Mind Maps 61

Productivity Applications Written for Microsoft Windows 61

Sound and Music 63

Sound Cards 64

Sound Formats 65

Listening to Music 65

Graphics Manipulation 66

The GNU Image Manipulation Program 66

Using Scanners in Ubuntu 67

Working with Graphics Formats 67

Capturing Screen Images 69

Other Graphics Manipulation Options 70

Using Digital Cameras with Ubuntu 70

Handheld Digital Cameras 70

Using Shotwell Photo Manager 71

Burning CDs and DVDs in Ubuntu 71

Creating CDs and DVDs with Brasero 71

Creating CDs from the Command Line 72

Creating DVDs from the Command Line 73

Viewing Video 75

Video Formats 75

Viewing Video in Linux 76

Recording and Editing Audio 76

Editing Video 77

Ubuntu Gaming 79

Installing Proprietary Video Drivers 80

Online Game Sources 81

Steam 81

GOG com 82

Humble 82

itch io 82

LGDB 82

Game Jolt 82

Installing Games from the Ubuntu Repositories 82

Warsow 82

Scorched 3D 83

Frozen Bubble 84

SuperTux 84

Battle for Wesnoth 85

Frets on Fire 85

FlightGear 87

Speed Dreams 87

Games for Kids 88

Commercial Games 88

Playing Windows Games 88

Ubuntu Software 91

Using Synaptic for Software Management 92

Staying Up to Date 94

Working on the Command Line 95

Day-to-Day APT Usage 95

Finding Software 98

Using apt-get Instead of apt 99

Compiling Software from Source 100

Compiling from a Tarball 100

Compiling from Source from the Ubuntu Repositories 101

Configuration Management 102

dotdee 102

Ubuntu Core 103

Using the Snappy Package Manager 103

What Is the Command Line? 106

Accessing the Command Line 107

Text-Based Console Login 107

Logging Out 108

Logging In and Out from a Remote Computer 108

User Accounts 109

Reading Documentation 111

Using Man Pages 111

Using apropros 112

Using whereis 112

Understanding the Linux File System Hierarchy 112

Essential Commands in /bin and /sbin 114

Configuration Files in /etc 114

User Directories: /home 115

Using the Contents of the /proc Directory to Interact with or Obtain Information from the Kernel 115

Working with Shared Data in the /usr Directory 117

Temporary File Storage in the /tmp Directory 117

Accessing Variable Data Files in the /var Directory 117

Navigating the Linux File System 117

Listing the Contents of a Directory with ls 118

Changing Directories with cd 120

Finding Your Current Directory with pwd 120

Working with Permissions 120

Assigning Permissions 121

Directory Permissions 122

Altering File Permissions with chmod 123

File Permissions with umask 124

File Permissions with chgrp 125

Changing File Permissions with chown 125

Understanding Set User ID, Set Group ID, and Sticky Bit Permissions 125

Setting Permissions with Access Control Lists 127

Working with Files 128

Creating a File with touch 128

Creating a Directory with mkdir 129

Deleting a Directory with rmdir 129

Deleting a File or Directory with rm 130

Moving or Renaming a File with mv 131

Copying a File with cp 131

Displaying the Contents of a File with cat 132

Displaying the Contents of a File with less 132

Using Wildcards and Regular Expressions 133

Working as Root 133

Understanding and Fixing sudo 134

Creating Users 136

Deleting Users 137

Shutting Down the System 137

Rebooting the System 138

Commonly Used Commands and Programs 139

Why Use the Command Line? 142

Using Basic Commands 143

Printing the Contents of a File with cat 144

Changing Directories with cd 145

Changing File Access Permissions with chmod 147

Copying Files with cp 147

Printing Disk Usage with du 148

Using echo 148

Finding Files by Searching with find 149

Searches for a String in Input with grep 151

Paging Through Output with less 152

Creating Links Between Files with ln 154

Finding Files from an Index with locate 156

Listing Files in the Current Directory with ls 156

Listing System Information with lsblk, lshw, lsmod, lspci, and neofetch 158

Reading Manual Pages with man 159

Making Directories with mkdir 160

Moving Files with mv 161

Renaming Files with rename 161

Deleting Files and Directories with rm 161

Sorting the Contents of a File with sort 162

Printing the Last Lines of a File with tail 163

Printing the Location of a Command with which 164

Downloading Files with wget 164

Redirecting Output and Input 167

stdin, stdout, stderr, and Redirection 169

Comparing Files 170

Finding Differences in Files with diff 170

Finding Similarities in Files with comm 170

Limiting Resource Use and Job Control 171

Listing Processes with ps 171

Listing Jobs with jobs 173

Running One or More Tasks in the Background 173

Moving Jobs to the Background or Foreground with bg and fg 174

Printing Resource Usage with top 175

Setting Process Priority with nice 177

Combining Commands 178

Pipes 178

Combining Commands with Boolean Operators 180

Running Separate Commands in Sequence 180

Process Substitution 181

Executing Jobs in Parallel 181

Using Environment Variables 182

Using Common Text Editors 185

Working with nano 186

Working with vi 187

Working with emacs 188

Working with sed and awk 189

Working with Compressed Files 191

Using Multiple Terminals with byobu192

Doing a Polite System Reset Using REISUB 194

Fixing an Ubuntu System That Will Not Boot 195

Checking BIOS 195

Checking GRUB 195

Reinstalling GRUB 195

Using Recovery Mode 196

Reinstalling Ubuntu 196

Tips and Tricks 196

Running the Previous Command 196

Running Any Previous Command 197

Running a Previous Command That Started with Specific Letters 197

Running the Same Thing You Just Ran with a Different First Word 197

Viewing Your History and More 197

Doing Two or More Things 198

Using Shortcuts 198

Confining a Script to a Directory 198

Using Coreutils 199

Reading the Contents of the Kernel Ring Buffer with dmesg 200

User Accounts 201

The Super User/Root User 202

User IDs and Group IDs 204

File Permissions 204

Managing Groups 205

Group Listing 205

Group Management Tools 206

Managing Users 207

User Management Tools 208

Adding New Users 209

Monitoring User Activity on the System 211

Managing Passwords 212

System Password Policy 212

The Password File 212

Shadow Passwords 214

Managing Password Security for Users 216

Changing Passwords in a Batch 216

Granting System Administrator Privileges to Regular Users 217

Temporarily Changing User Identity with the su Command 217

Granting Root Privileges on Occasion: The sudo Command 219

Disk Quotas 222

Implementing Quotas 222

Manually Configuring Quotas 223

Related Ubuntu Commands 223

What Is a Shell? 225

Scheduling Tasks 226

Using at and batch to Schedule Tasks for Later 227

Using...