by Tim Parker and Kamran Husain

IN THIS CHAPTER

• The Linux Documentation Project

• CD-ROM Documentation

• HOWTO Documents

• Usenet Newsgroups

• World Wide Web Sites

• Linux Journal

This chapter takes a brief look at the documentation available from the Linux CD-ROM, as well as alternative sources. You will read about the following topics:

• What documentation is available on the CD-ROM

• Where to go on the Internet for more information

• Linux newsgroups you should check for help

This book should provide most of the information you'll need in order to get going with Linux, but you might need to investigate other sources of information for various reasons (such as hardware support or troubleshooting).

The first exposure most people get to Linux is a book like the one you are now reading or the Linux INFO-SHEET, a relatively short ASCII document available from Usenet, BBSs (bulletin board systems), and many user groups. The INFO-SHEET is a quick summary of Linux posted at regular intervals to the Linux newsgroups on Usenet. In addition, you can find the INFO-SHEET on this book's CD-ROM, in the /cdrom/docs directory.

As Linux was developed, several programmers started writing brief guides to their contributions, as well as wider areas of the operating system. These documents, while usually terse and awkward to read, did provide others with enough information to continue their own use of Linux. Over a short span, the documentation for Linux began growing rapidly, and a central organizing body became necessary to help keep it on track and avoid unnecessary duplication.

The Linux Documentation Project was created to provide a complete set of public domain documentation for Linux. From a few rough installation notes a couple of years ago, the documentation has expanded to include almost a thousand pages, some very good, some not. The following primary documents are currently available or soon to be released:

• Linux Installation explains how to install and configure Linux.

• The Linux User's Guide is a guide for first-time users.

• The Linux System Administrator's Guide gives information about various aspects of system administration.

• The Linux Network Administration Guide explains how to set up and use networks.

• The Linux Kernel Hacker's Guide is a guide to modifying the Linux kernel.

In addition to these primary documents, there are about a dozen smaller guides to specific or esoteric aspects of Linux. These smaller guides are called HOWTO documents. Together they form a growing document suite that covers practically every aspect of Linux. These documents are available with most distributions of the software. Not all the documents are up-to-date, because changes to the operating system have occurred since they were first written. Several people wrote the Linux documents, so the styles and layout are not consistent. A printed copy of the Linux Documentation Project is available from Linux Systems Labs and some bookstores.

The Slackware CD-ROM that accompanies this book supplies a lot of documentation. The primary location of information is the /docs directory of the CD-ROM, which contains several types of files. Listing 15.1 shows a directory listing of this /docs directory.

# ls /cdrom/docs

AX25-HOWTO            Hebrew-HOWTO        Polish-HOWTO

Access-HOWTO          INDEX               Portuguese-HOWTO

BootPrompt-HOWTO      INDEX.html          Printing-HOWTO

Bootdisk-HOWTO        INDEX.short.html    Printing-Usage-HOWTO

Busmouse-HOWTO        INFO-SHEET          SCSI-HOWTO

CDROM-HOWTO           IPX-HOWTO           SCSI-Programming-HOWTO

COPYRIGHT             ISP-Hookup-HOWTO    Serial-HOWTO

Commercial-HOWTO      Installation-HOWTO  Shadow-Password-HOWTO

Cyrillic-HOWTO        Italian-HOWTO       Sound-HOWTO

DNS-HOWTO             JE-HOWTO            Sound-Playing-HOWTO

DOSEMU-HOWTO          Java-HOWTO          TRANS.TBL

Danish-HOWTO          Kernel-HOWTO        Term-HOWTO

Distribution-HOWTO    Keyboard-HOWTO      Tips-HOWTO

ELF-HOWTO             Keystroke-HOWTO     UMSDOS-HOWTO

Ethernet-HOWTO        META-FAQ            UPS-HOWTO

Finnish-HOWTO         MGR-HOWTO           UUCP-HOWTO

Firewall-HOWTO        Mail-HOWTO          WRITING

Ftape-HOWTO           NET-2-HOWTO         XFree86-HOWTO

GCC-HOWTO             NIS-HOWTO           install-guide/

German-HOWTO          News-HOWTO          kernel-2.0/

HAM-HOWTO             PCI-HOWTO           linux.faq/

HOWTO-INDEX           PCMCIA-HOWTO        mini/

Hardware-HOWTO        PPP-HOWTO           slack-docs/

Most of these files are extracted to your Linux hard drive if you select the documentation options when installing Linux through setup. The setup routine lets you choose which types of documentation will be moved from the installation CD-ROM to your hard drive, but you can't select individual entries in the sets. If you are limited in disk space, you should consider leaving most of the document on the CD-ROM and viewing it only when needed.

Most documentation files are stored in the /usr/doc directory (both on the CD-ROM and when installed to your hard drive). A directory listing of this area shows a wealth of files, as given in Listing 15.2.

# ls /usr/doc

GETTING.GNU.SOFTWARE    indent/       sendmail/

INSTALL                 ipfwadm/      seyon/

PROBLEMS                ispell/       splitvt/

README                  jpeg/         strace/

SlingShot/              ldso/         sysklogd/

WorkBone-2.3/           less/         sysvinit/

arena/                  libc-4.7.6/   tar/

bash/                   lilo@         tcl7.5/

bc/                     lizards/      tclX7.5.0/

bind-4.9.3-BETA26/      lrzsz/        tcsh/

binutils/               lynx/         textutils/

bootutils/              m4/           tin/

cnews/                  mc/           tk4.1/

cpio-2.3/               metamail/     tkdesk/

dialog/                 minicom/      tools-2.17/

diffutils/              modules/      ttysnoop/

dip/                    mtools/       unzip/

elm/                    net-tools/    util-linux-2.5/

emacs-19.31/            netpipes/     x3270/

faq/                    nfs-server/   xboard-3.2.pl2/

fdutils-4.3/            nn/           xfig/

file/                   p2c/          xfm-1.3/

flex/                   perl5.003/    xlock/

fvwm95-2/               pidentd/      xpaint/

g77/                    pine/         xpm-3.4c/

gawk/                   popclient/    xspread/

gdb/                    portmap/      xv/

getty_ps/               ppp/          yp-clients/

gnu-make/               procmail/     ypserv/

gnuchess-4.0/           rcs/          zip/

gpm/                    rdist/

ibcs2/                  sasteroids/

Each subdirectory in the preceding list contains more specific information about each tool. For example, if you want more specific information about archiving, look in the /usr/doc/tar/ directory for a README file for a listing of the contents.

Let's face it. This one chapter (or book, for that matter) cannot possibly hope to cover all the scenarios you will encounter as you work with Linux. The number of combinations of hardware devices, software interfaces, and versions of Linux makes it impossible to list them all here. That one specific CD-ROM or Ethernet card in your PC might not be listed here in this book, but might very well be supported under Linux. To get detailed information about specific topics, you have to read the HOWTO files for that topic.

Basically, a HOWTO file is compiled by someone who has tracked problems related to a specific issue. Topics include booting, printing, tape support, and so on. Various HOWTO files are included with the CD-ROM (and installed to the hard drive with most installations of Linux). If your mount point is /cdrom, the HOWTO files are found in /cdrom/docs. The files are in text format in that directory, so you can use any text editor to view them. A complete listing of the /cdrom/docs/INDEX file is shown here to help you get an idea of where to look for more information: Linux-HOWTOs.tar.gz Tar file of all the HOWTOs in plain text

README README file

mini Directory containing informal mini-HOWTOs

other-formats Directory containing other formats of the HOWTOs

AX25-HOWTO How to configure AX25 networking for Linux

Access-HOWTO How to use adaptive technology with Linux

BootPrompt-HOWTO List of boot-time arguments and overview of booting software

Bootdisk-HOWTO How to create a boot/root maintenance disk for Linux

Busmouse-HOWTO Information on bus mouse compatibility with Linux

CDROM-HOWTO Information on CD-ROM drive compatibility with Linux

Commercial-HOWTO Listing of commercial software products for Linux

Cyrillic-HOWTO How to configure Linux for use with the Cyrillic character set

DNS-HOWTO How to set up DNS

DOSEMU-HOWTO HOWTO about the Linux MS-DOS Emulator, DOSemu

Danish-HOWTO How to configure Linux for use with the Danish character set

Distribution-HOWTO List of Linux distributions

ELF-HOWTO How to install and migrate to the ELF binary file format

Ethernet-HOWTO Information on Ethernet hardware compatibility with Linux

Finnish-HOWTO How to configure Linux for use with the Finnish character set

Firewall-HOWTO How to set up a firewall using Linux

Ftape-HOWTO Information on ftape drive compatibility with Linux

GCC-HOWTO How to set up the GNU C compiler and development libraries

German-HOWTO Information on using Linux with German-specific features

HAM-HOWTO How to configure amateur radio software for Linux

HOWTO-INDEX Index of HOWTO documents about Linux

Hardware-HOWTO List of hardware known to work with Linux

Hebrew-HOWTO How to configure Linux for use with the Hebrew character set

INFO-SHEET Generic introduction to the Linux operating system

IPX-HOWTO How to install and configure IPX networking

ISP-Hookup-HOWTO Basic introduction to hooking up to an ISP

Installation-HOWTO How to obtain and install the Linux software

Italian-HOWTO How to configure Linux for use with the Italian character set

JE-HOWTO Information on JE, a set of Japanese language extensions for Linux

Java-HOWTO How to get started with Java and HotJava

Kernel-HOWTO Upgrading and compiling the Linux kernel

Keyboard-HOWTO Information about the Linux keyboard, console, and non-ASCII characters

META-FAQ A listing of Linux sources of information

MGR-HOWTO Information on the MGR graphics interface for Linux

Mail-HOWTO Information on Linux-based mail servers and clients

Module-HOWTO How to load modules and a listing of parameters

NET-2-HOWTO How to configure TCP/IP networking, SLIP, PLIP, and PPP under Linux

NIS-HOWTO Information on using NIS/YP on Linux systems

News-HOWTO Information on USENET news server and client software for Linux

PCI-HOWTO Information on PCI-architecture compatibility with Linux

PCMCIA-HOWTO How to install and use PCMCIA Card Services

PPP-HOWTO Information on using PPP networking with Linux

Polish-HOWTO How to configure Linux for use with the Polish character set

Portuguese-HOWTO How to configure Linux for use with the Portuguese character set

Printing-HOWTO HOWTO on printing software for Linux

Printing-Usage-HOWTO How to use the printing system for various file types and options

SCSI-HOWTO Information on SCSI driver compatibility with Linux

SCSI-Programming-HOWTO Information on programming the generic Linux SCSI interface

Serial-HOWTO Information on use of serial devices and communications software

Shadow-Password-HOWTO How to obtain, install, and configure shadow passwords

Sound-HOWTO Sound hardware and software for the Linux operating system

Sound-Playing-HOWTO How to play various sound formats under Linux

Term-HOWTO How to use the term communications package on Linux systems

Tips-HOWTO HOWTO on miscellaneous tips and tricks for Linux

UMSDOS-HOWTO How to install and use the UMSDOS file system

UPS-HOWTO Information on using a UPS power supply with Linux

UUCP-HOWTO Information on UUCP software for Linux

XFree86-HOWTO How to obtain, install, and configure XFree86 3.1.1 (X11R6)

Look at the preceding list carefully. If you see the topic of your interest here, you are in luck. The HOWTO file will be the best source for you to get more specific information. If you want to confirm that you have the latest HOWTO files, you can check the official repository of documents in the tsx-11.mit.edu site in the /pub/linux/docs/HOWTO directory for any updates.

Usenet is a collection of discussion groups (called newsgroups) available to Internet users. The more than 25,000 newsgroups generate over 1GB of traffic every day. Of all these newsgroups (which cover every conceivable topic), several are dedicated to Linux. These newsgroups are a useful forum for information and answers to questions about Linux.

You can read Usenet newsgroups through newsreader software that accesses either the Internet or a local site that offers Usenet service (called a newsfeed). Many online services, such as CompuServe and Delphi, provide access to the newsgroups (sometimes at an additional cost), and some have their own forums for Linux users. BBSs dedicated to Linux in whole or in part are also appearing, and many excerpt the Usenet conversations for the BBS users who do not have access to Usenet.

Usenet newsgroups are divided into three categories: primary newsgroups that are readily available to all users, local newsgroups with a limited distribution (usually based on geography), and alternate newsgroups that might not be handled by all news servers due to the relaxed rules of etiquette on them. These are the primary newsgroups of interest to Linux users when this book was written:

• Proponents of the Linux system sound off in comp.os.linux.advocacy.

• The comp.os.linux.announce newsgroup contains announcements important to the Linux community. This is a moderated newsgroup, which means someone approves the postings before you get to see them.

• The comp.os.linux.answers newsgroup contains questions and answers to problems about Linux.

• Ongoing work on Linux applications is discussed in comp.os.linux.development.apps.

• Ongoing work on the Linux operating system is discussed in comp.os.linux.development.system.

• The comp.os.linux.hardware newsgroup deals with issues concerning Linux and hardware support.

• Linux-specific (not just UNIX-specific) topics not covered by other groups are covered in comp.os.linux.misc.

• Linux-specific topics concerned primarily with X Window are covered in comp.os.linux.x.

• Linux networking issues are discussed in comp.os.linux.networking.

• The comp.os.linux.setup deals with Linux setup and installation problems.

These primary newsgroups should be available at all Usenet sites, unless the system administrator filters them out for some reason. The other Linux newsgroups tend to change frequently, primarily because they are either regional or populated with highly opinionated users. The alt. (alternate) newsgroups are the ones most likely to contain such users. One alt. newsgroup in operation when this book was written was the following one:

alt.uu.comp.os.linux.questions

To find several different newsgroups about Linux, use your newsreader software to search for all newsgroups with the word Linux in the title. If you have access to Usenet, regularly scan the newsgroup additions and deletions to check for new Linux newsgroups or existing groups that have folded. Notices about newsgroup changes are usually posted to all existing groups, but every now and again one gets through without fanfare. Online services that provide access to Usenet usually maintain lists of all active newsgroups that can be searched quickly.