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If you keep getting "device busy" messages, check first that all shell sessions have left the CD file system and that no graphical applications are using it anymore. When in doubt, use the lsof tool to trace down the process(es) still using the CD resource.
7.6. 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 Command Meaning
aptitude | Manage packages Debian-style. |
automount | automatically include newly inserted file systems. |
dpkg | Debian package manager. |
dselect | Manage packages Debian-style. |
loadkeys | Load keyboard configuration. |
lsof | Identify processes. |
mount | Include a new file system into the existing file system tree. |
ntpdate | Set the system time and date using a time server. |
quota | Display information about allowed disk space usage. |
recode | Convert files to another character set. |
rpm | Manage RPM packages. |
setfont | Choose a font. |
timezone | Set the timezone. |
tzconfig | Set the timezone. |
ulimit | Set or display resource limits. |
up2date | Manage RPM packages. |
urpmi | Manage RPM packages. |
yum | Manage RPM packages. |
7.7. Exercises
7.7.1. Shell environment
• Print out your environment settings. Which variable may be used to store the CPU type of your machine?
• Make a script that can say something on the lines of "hello, world." Give it appropriate permissions so it can be run. Test your script.
• Create a directory in your home directory and move the script to the new directory. Permanently add this new directory to your search path. Test that the script can be executed without giving a path to its actual location.
• Create subdirectories in your home directory to store various files, for instance a directory music to keep audio files, a directory documents for your notes, and so on. And use them!
• Create a personalized prompt.
• Display limits on resource usage. Can you change them?
• Try to read compressed man pages without decompressing them first.
• Make an alias lll which actually executes ls -la.
• Why does the command tail testfile > testfile not work?
• Mount a data CD, such as your Linux installation CD, and have a look around. Don't forget to unmount when you don't need it anymore.
• The script from Section 7.2.5.2 is not perfect. It generates errors for files that are directories. Adapt the script so that it only selects plain files for copying. Use find to make the selection. Do not forget to make the script executable before you try to run it.