6. Summary

When everything has its place, that means already half the work is done.

While keeping order is important, it is equally important to feel at home in your environment, whether text or graphical. The text environment is controlled through the shell setup files. The graphical environment is primarily dependent on the X server configuration, on which a number of other applications are built, such as window and desktop managers and graphical applications, each with their own config files. You should read the system and program specific documentation to find out about how to configure them.

Regional settings such as keyboard setup, installing appropriate fonts and language support are best done at installation time.

Software is managed either automatically or manually using a package system.

The following commands were introduced in this chapter:

Table 7.2. New commands in chapter 7: Making yourself at home

CommandMeaning
aptitudeManage packages Debian-style.
automountautomatically include newly inserted file systems.
dpkgDebian package manager.
dselectManage packages Debian-style.
loadkeysLoad keyboard configuration.
lsofIdentify processes.
mountInclude a new file system into the existing file system tree.
ntpdateSet the system time and date using a time server.
quotaDisplay information about allowed disk space usage.
recodeConvert files to another character set.
rpmManage RPM packages.
setfontChoose a font.
timezoneSet the timezone.
tzconfigSet the timezone.
ulimitSet or display resource limits.
up2dateManage RPM packages.
urpmiManage RPM packages.
yumManage RPM packages.