Fedora 31 Essentials

Learn to Install, Deploy and Administer Fedora Linux

Neil Smyth

• Editorial: Payload Media, Inc.
• Año: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781951442118
• Categoría: Computer Science
• Categoría: Operating Systems

Arguably one of the most highly regarded and widely used enterprise level operating systems available today is the Fedora 31 distribution. Not only is it considered to be among the most stable and reliable operating systems, it is also backed by the considerable resources and technical skills of Red Hat, Inc.

Fedora 31 Essentials is designed to provide detailed information on the installation, use and administration of the Fedora 31 distribution. For beginners, the book covers topics such as operating system installation, the basics of the GNOME desktop environment, configuring email and web servers and installing packages and system updates using App Streams. Additional installation topics such as dual booting with Microsoft Windows are also covered, together with all important security topics such as configuring a firewall and user and group administration.

For the experienced user, topics such as remote desktop access, the Cockpit web interface, logical volume management (LVM), disk partitioning, swap management, KVM virtualization, Secure Shell (SSH), Linux Containers and file sharing using both Samba and NFS are covered in detail to provide a thorough overview of this enterprise class operating system.

1. Introduction

Backed by Red Hat, Inc. and developed by the Fedora Project, the Fedora Linux distribution is an open source operating system intended to field test the latest Linux developments and technologies before they are adopted by the Red Hat Enterprise Linux distribution (typically shortened to RHEL and pronounced rell). This makes Fedora an exciting, cutting-edge operating system that is ideal for gaining experience with the latest Linux developments and features before they appear in enterprise and mission critical environments. Fedora 31 Essentials is designed to provide detailed information on the installation, use and administration of the Fedora 31 distribution. For beginners, the book covers topics such as operating system installation, the basics of the GNOME desktop environment, configuring email and web servers and installing packages and system updates using App Streams. Additional installation topics such as dual booting with Microsoft Windows are also covered, together with all important security topics such as configuring a firewall and user and group administration.

For the experienced user, topics such as remote desktop access, the Cockpit web interface, logical volume management (LVM), disk partitioning, swap management, KVM virtualization, Secure Shell (SSH), Linux Containers and file sharing using both Samba and NFS are covered in detail to provide a thorough overview of this enterprise class operating system.

1.1 Superuser Conventions

Fedora, in common with Linux in general, has two types of user account, one being a standard user account with restricted access to many of the administrative files and features of the operating system, and the other a superuser (root) account with elevated privileges. Typically, a user can gain root access either by logging in as the root user, or using the su - command and entering the root password. In the following example, a user is gaining root access via the su - command:

[neil@demo-server ~]$ su -

Password:

[root@demo-server ~]#

Note that the command prompt for a regular user ends with a $ sign while the root user has a # character. When working with the command-line, this is a useful indication as to whether or not you are currently issuing commands as the root user.

If the su - command fails, the root account on the system has most likely been disabled for security reasons. In this case, the sudo command can be used instead as outlined below.

Alternatively, a single command requiring root privileges may be executed by a non-root user via the sudo command. Consider the following attempt to update the operating system with the latest patches and packages:

[neil@demo-server ~]$ dnf update

Not root, Subscription Management repositories not updated

Error: This command has to be run under the root user.

Optionally, user accounts may be configured so that they have access to root level privileges. Instead of using the su - command to first gain root access, user accounts with administration privileges are able to run otherwise restricted commands using sudo.

[neil@demo-server]$ sudo dnf update

We trust you have received the usual lecture from the local System

Administrator. It usually boils down to these three things:

#1) Respect the privacy of others.

#2) Think before you type.

#3) With great power comes great responsibility.

[sudo] password for neil:

Updating Subscription Management repositories.

.

.

To perform multiple commands without repeatedly using the sudo command, a command prompt with persistent super-user privileges may be accessed as follows:

[neil@demo-server]$ sudo su -

[neil@demo-server]#

The reason for raising this issue so early in the book is that many of the command-line examples outlined in this book will require root privileges. Rather than repetitively preface every command-line example with directions to run the command as root, the command prompt at the start of the line will be used to indicate whether or not the command needs to be performed as root. If the command can be run as a regular user, the command will be prefixed with a $ command prompt as follows:

$ date

If, on the other hand, the command requires root privileges, the command will be preceded by a # command prompt...