Sams teach yourself Linux in 24 hours

Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Sams Teach Yourself Linux in 24 Hours, Second Edition is a tutorial aimed at making the Linux beginner more effective and productive users of the fastest-growing operating system today - Linux. This book gives the reader step-by-step instructions on how to: install the operating system, configure their hardware, and effectively use the tools that come with the OpenLinux distribution included on the CD.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. 1)
• Part I Installation and Configuration (p. 5)
• Hour 1 Preparing to Install Linux (p. 7)
• What is Linux? (p. 8)
• What is OpenLinux? (p. 9)
• What Equipment is Required? (p. 10)
• What Equipment is Supported? (p. 10)
• What Equipment Doesn't Work? (p. 11)
• What Equipment Do I Have? (p. 13)
• How Do I Plan for the Installation? (p. 14)
• Planning Your Boot Process (p. 17)
• Preparing Your Hand Drive (p. 18)
• Summary (p. 21)
• QandA (p. 22)
• Exercises (p. 22)
• Hour 2 Installing Linux (p. 23)
• Beginning the Installation (p. 24)
• Finishing Your Linux Installation (p. 31)
• Summary (p. 38)
• QandA (p. 39)
• Exercises (p. 39)
• Hour 3 Post-Installation Issues (p. 41)
• The X Window System (p. 42)
• Configuring Sound for OpenLinux (p. 50)
• Enabling PCMCIA Cards (p. 57)
• Configuring Network Information with COAS (p. 61)
• Using an Iomega Zip Drive with OpenLinux (p. 64)
• Summary (p. 65)
• QandA (p. 65)
• Exercises (p. 66)
• Part II Learning Linux Basics (p. 67)
• Hour 4 Reading and Navigation Commands (p. 69)
• Getting Help with the man Command (p. 69)
• Navigating and Searching the File System (p. 72)
• Reading Directories and Files (p. 78)
• Reading the Beginning or End of Files with the head and tail Commands (p. 88)
• Summary (p. 91)
• QandA (p. 91)
• Exercises (p. 91)
• Hour 5 Manipulation and Searching Commands (p. 93)
• Manipulating Files or Directories (p. 93)
• Searching Files (p. 105)
• Compressing and Uncompressing Files (p. 110)
• Summary (p. 115)
• QandA (p. 115)
• Exercises (p. 116)
• Hour 6 Using the Shell (p. 117)
• What is a Shell? (p. 117)
• What Shells are Available? (p. 118)
• Understanding the Shell Command Line (p. 123)
• Building Shell Scripts (p. 136)
• Summary (p. 140)
• QandA (p. 140)
• Exercises (p. 141)
• Hour 7 Using the X Window System (p. 143)
• Starting X (p. 144)
• X11 Window Managers (p. 150)
• X11 Terminal Programs (p. 157)
• Learning X11 Basic Operations (p. 160)
• Exploring X11 Programs (p. 172)
• Summary (p. 175)
• QandA (p. 176)
• Exercises (p. 176)
• Hour 8 Exploring the K Desktop Environment (p. 177)
• Starting KDE (p. 179)
• Features of the KDE Desktop (p. 180)
• Configuring KDE with the KDE Control Center (p. 184)
• Summary (p. 195)
• QandA (p. 196)
• Exercises (p. 196)
• Part III Connecting to the Outside World (p. 197)
• Hour 9 Using Communications Programs (p. 199)
• Setting Up and Testing Your Modem (p. 200)
• Dialing Out with Communications Programs (p. 203)
• Sending and Receiving Faxes (p. 211)
• Summary (p. 220)
• QandA (p. 221)
• Exercises (p. 221)
• Hour 10 Connecting to the Internet (p. 223)
• Hardware You Need (p. 224)
• Linux Software You Need (p. 226)
• Information You Need from Your ISP (p. 228)
• Setting Up a PPP Connection Manually (p. 229)
• Manually Starting and Stopping PPP Connections (p. 232)
• Configuring a PPP Connection with kppp (p. 234)
• Configuring a PPP Connection with xisp (p. 240)
• Checking the Connection (p. 243)
• Summary (p. 247)
• QandA (p. 247)
• Exercises (p. 248)
• Hour 11 Configuring Internet Email (p. 249)
• Setting Up and Getting Your Email (p. 249)
• Sending Mail with Mail Programs (p. 253)
• Configuring procmail and Writing Recipes to Fight Spam (p. 264)
• Summary (p. 267)
• QandA (p. 267)
• Exercises (p. 268)
• Hour 12 Configuring Internet News (p. 269)
• Reading Usenet News with the tin Newsreader (p. 271)
• Reading Usenet News with the slrn Newsreader (p. 274)
• Reading Usenet News with the krn Client (p. 278)
• Reading Usenet News with Netscape Discussions (p. 282)
• Before Posting to a Usenet Group (p. 285)
• Summary (p. 286)
• QandA (p. 286)
• Exercises (p. 287)
• Hour 13 Internet Downloading and Browsing (p. 289)
• Using File Transfer Protocol Programs to Get Files (p. 290)
• Browsing the World Wide Web with Linux Browsers (p. 298)
• Chatting with Internet Relay Chat (p. 304)
• Installing and Configuring AOL Instant Messenger (p. 306)
• Connecting with Other Computers with the telnet Command (p. 308)
• Summary (p. 309)
• QandA (p. 310)
• Exercises (p. 310)
• Part IV Using Linux Productively (p. 311)
• Hour 14 Text Processing (p. 313)
• Word Processors in the Linux Environment (p. 313)
• Spell Checking Your Documents (p. 332)
• Summary (p. 335)
• QandA (p. 335)
• Exercises (p. 336)
• Hour 15 Preparing Documents (p. 337)
• Formatting Text (p. 337)
• Printing Text Documents (p. 347)
• Summary (p. 356)
• QandA (p. 356)
• Exercises (p. 357)
• Hour 16 Graphics Tools (p. 359)
• Understand Linux Graphics File Formats (p. 360)
• Converting and Viewing Graphics (p. 367)
• A Word About Digital Cameras and Scanners (p. 377)
• Summary (p. 379)
• QandA (p. 379)
• Exercises (p. 379)
• Hour 17 Learning Math and Financial Tools (p. 381)
• Calculators (p. 382)
• Spreadsheets (p. 387)
• Using gnuplot to Graph Mathematical Formulas (p. 394)
• Summary (p. 396)
• QandA (p. 396)
• Exercises (p. 397)
• Hour 18 Personal Productivity Tools (p. 399)
• Scheduling Personal Reminders and Tasks with the at Command (p. 400)
• Scheduling Regular Reminders with the crontab Command (p. 403)
• Creating Appointment Reminders with the X11 ical Client (p. 405)
• Checking the Calendar and Keeping Appointments with emacs (p. 409)
• Setting Alarms with the knotes Client (p. 411)
• Summary (p. 412)
• QandA (p. 413)
• Exercises (p. 413)
• Hour 19 Home Office Management with StarOffice (p. 415)
• Installing and Configuring StarOffice (p. 416)
• Using StarOffice (p. 421)
• Summary (p. 432)
• QandA (p. 433)
• Exercises (p. 433)
• Hour 20 Relaxation and Playing Linux Games (p. 435)
• Playing Music CDs with the kscd and xplaycd Clients (p. 435)
• Games for the Console (p. 439)
• Games for the X Window System (p. 442)
• Summary (p. 447)
• QandA (p. 447)
• Exercises (p. 448)
• Part V Administering Your System (p. 449)
• Hour 21 Basic System Administration (p. 451)
• Running as the root Operator with the su Command (p. 452)
• Getting Disk Space Information (p. 454)
• Getting Memory Information (p. 460)
• Getting System Load Information with the top and xload Commands (p. 464)
• Managing User Access (p. 468)
• Summary (p. 476)
• QandA (p. 476)
• Exercises (p. 477)
• Hour 22 Handling Files and Your File system (p. 479)
• How OpenLinux Is Organized (p. 480)
• Using the mount Command to Access Other Filesystems (p. 482)
• Understanding the Filesystem Table, /etc/fstab (p. 482)
• Formatting a Floppy (p. 484)
• Formatting Floppies with the KFloppy Client (p. 488)
• The mtools Package (p. 489)
• Managing File Ownership and Permissions (p. 491)
• Changing File Permissions with the chmod Command (p. 494)
• Changing File Ownership with the chown Command (p. 496)
• Changing Groups and Ownerships with the chgrp and newgrp Commands (p. 497)
• Managing Linux Software with rpm, lisa, and kpackage (p. 499)
• Summary (p. 507)
• QandA (p. 508)
• Exercises (p. 508)
• Hour 23 Backing Up and Restoring Your System (p. 509)
• Considerations Before Performing Backups and Restores (p. 509)
• Summary (p. 520)
• QandA (p. 520)
• Exercises (p. 521)
• Hour 24 Using Scheduling to Automate System Management (p. 523)
• Using the cron Daemon (p. 524)
• Managing User Scheduling with the atrun Command (p. 527)
• Summary (p. 530)
• QandA (p. 530)
• Exercises (p. 530)
• Index (p. 531)

Author notes provided by Syndetics