Professor Norm Matloff’s Beginner’s Guide to Installing and Using Linux ∗ Norm Matloff Department of Computer Science University of California at Davis matloff@cs.ucdavis.edu c 1999-2013 January 4, 2013
Contents 1
Background Needed
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2
Install to Where?
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3
Which Linux Distribution Is Best?
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4
Installation
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4.1
The Short Answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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4.2
Installing Linux to a USB Key or External Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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4.2.1
Installation Method I (for Slax Linux) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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4.2.2
Other Methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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5
6
Post-Installation Configuration
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5.1
Configuring Your Search Path (“Why can’t I run my a.out?”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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5.2
Configuring a Printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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5.3
Switching from GNOME/Ubuntu Unity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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5.4
Configuring KDE/GNOME for Convenient Window Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Some Points on Linux Usage ∗
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The information contained here is accurate, to the author’s knowledge. However, no guarantee is made in this regard.
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