When you log on, Linux grinds its gears for a moment, then displays the GNOME desktop, which I describe later in this chapter.
If you didn’t install X server, you’ll see a text-mode login prompt that resem- bles this:
Red Hat Linux release 9 Shrike Kernel 2.4.20-6 on an i586
LSERVER login: The login prompt displays the Linux version Red Hat Linux release 9, the
kernel version it’s based on 2.4.20-6, the CPU architecture i586, and the server’s hostname LSERVER. To log in, type your user ID, press Enter, then
type the password and press Enter again.
When you’ve successfully logged in, you’ll be greeted by a semi-friendly prompt similar to this:
Last login: Sun Jul 20 20:00:56 on :0 [dougLSERVER doug]
The prompt character in the standard Linux shell is a dollar sign rather than a greater-than sign as it is in MS-DOS or Windows. Also, notice that
prompt indicates your user name and server dougLSERVER as well as the name of the current directory doug.
Even if you’ve installed X server, you can still log in to a command shell by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1. This switches you to a virtual console.
Logging off
Once you’ve logged on, you’ll probably want to know how to log off. If you logged on to GNOME, you can log off by clicking the main menu and choosing
the Log Out command. A dialog box asks whether you’re sure you want to log out. Click OK.
In a command shell, there are three ways to log out: ⻬ Enter the logout command.
⻬ Enter the exit command. ⻬ Press Ctrl+D.
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Shutting down
As with any operating system, you should never turn off the power to a Linux server without first properly shutting down the system. You can shut down a
Linux system using one of these three techniques:
⻬ Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete. ⻬ From GNOME, click the main menu and choose Log Out. Then, when
the confirmation dialog box appears, select Shut Down or Restart and click OK.
⻬ From a command shell, enter the halt command.
Using GNOME
Although you can do all your Linux configuration chores from the com- mand line, Red Hat Linux includes a number of GNOME-based configuration
tools for many configuration tasks. Although you can do most of your Linux configuration from GNOME, you do need to use a command line once in a
while.
Figure 21-1 shows a typical GNOME desktop with the Text Editor application open. As you can see, the GNOME desktop looks a lot like Microsoft Windows.
In fact, many of the basic skills for working with Windows — such as moving or resizing windows, minimizing or maximizing windows, and using drag-and-
drop to move items between windows — work almost exactly the same in GNOME. So you should feel right at home.
The following paragraphs describe some of the key features of the GNOME desktop:
⻬ On the desktop itself, several icons let you access common features. The Home icon takes you to your home directory. The Start Here icon pro-
vides access to commonly used configuration utilities. And the Trash icon is similar to the Recycle Bin in Windows.
⻬ The area at the bottom of the desktop is called the panel. It works much like the taskbar in Windows. At the extreme left of the panel is a Red Hat
icon. Click the hat to access the Main Menu, which works like the Start menu in Windows. You can start an application by choosing the applica-
tion in the Main Menu.
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⻬ The down arrow at the top-left corner of each window reveals a menu of things you can do with the window. Try the Roll Up command; it
reduces a window to its title bar, but leaves the window on the desktop. To restore the window, click the down arrow and choose Unroll. This
menu also lets you move the window to a different workspace.
⻬ Workspaces, you ask? A workspace is like a separate desktop where you can keep open windows to reduce the clutter on your screen. The panel
contains a tool called the Workspace Switcher, which lets you switch from one active workspace to another by clicking one of the rectangles
in the grid.
Getting to a Command Shell
There are two basic ways to get to a command shell the program that pro- vides the command line when you need to run Linux commands directly.
The first is to press Ctrl+Alt+Fx that is, one of the function keys to switch to one of the virtual consoles. Then you can log on and run commands to
your heart’s content. When you’re done, press Ctrl+Alt+F7 to return to GNOME.
Figure 21-1:
A typical GNOME
desktop.
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