Praise for Previous Editions of The Official Ubuntu Book “The Official Ubuntu Book is a great way to get you started with Ubuntu, giving you enough information to be productive without overloading you.” —John Stevenson, DZone book reviewer “OUB is one of the best books I’ve seen for beginners.” —Bill Blinn, TechByter Worldwide “This book is the perfect companion for users new to Linux and Ubuntu. It covers the basics in a concise and well-organized manner. General use is covered separately from troubleshooting and error-handling, making the book well-suited both for the beginner as well as the user that needs extended help.” —Thomas Petrucha, Austria Ubuntu User Group “I have recommended this book to several users who I instruct regularly on the use of Ubuntu. All of them have been satisfied with their purchase and have even been able to use it to help them in their journey along the way.” —Chris Crisafulli, Ubuntu LoCo Council, Florida Local Community Team “This text demystifies a very powerful Linux operating system . In just a few weeks of having it, I’ve used it as a quick reference a half-dozen times, which saved me the time I would have spent scouring the Ubuntu forums online.” —Darren Frey, Member, Houston Local User Group This page intentionally left blank The Official Ubuntu Book Seventh Edition This page intentionally left blank The Official Ubuntu Book Seventh Edition Matthew Helmke Amber Graner With Kyle Rankin, Benjamin Mako Hill, and Jono Bacon Upper Saddle River, NJ • Boston • Indianapolis • San Francisco New York • Toronto • Montreal • London • Munich • Paris • Madrid Capetown • Sydney • Tokyo • Singapore • Mexico City Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed with initial capital letters or in all capitals. The authors and publisher have taken care in the preparation of this book, but make no expressed or implied warranty of any kind and assume no responsibility for errors or omissions. No liability is assumed for incidental or consequential damages in connection with or arising out of the use of the information or programs contained herein. The publisher offers excellent discounts on this book when ordered in quantity for bulk purchases or special sales, which may include electronic versions and/or custom covers and content particular to your business, training goals, marketing focus, and branding interests. For more information, please contact: U.S. Corporate and Government Sales (800) 382-3419 [email protected] For sales outside the United States please contact: International Sales [email protected] Visit us on the Web: informit.com/ph Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Helmke, Matthew. The official Ubuntu book / Matthew Helmke, Amber Graner. — 7th ed. p. cm. Previous editions by Benjamin Mako Hill and others. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-13-301760-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Ubuntu (Electronic resource) 2. Operating systems (Computers) I. Graner, Amber. II. Title. QA76.76.774.U28H45 2013 005.4'32—dc23 2012016037 Copyright © 2012 Canonical, Ltd. This book is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/. Printed in the United States of America. This publication is protected by copyright, and permission must be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise, unless permitted under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license 3.0. To obtain permission to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to (201) 236-3290. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-301760-1 ISBN-10: 0-13-301760-5 Text printed in the United States on recycled paper at RR Donnelley in Crawfordsville, Indiana. First printing, June 2012 This book is dedicated to the Ubuntu community. Without your tireless hard work and commitment, none of this would be possible. This page intentionally left blank Contents at a Glance Foreword to the Sixth Edition xix Foreword to the First Edition xxi Preface xxvii Acknowledgments xxxi About the Authors xxxiii Introduction xxxv Chapter 1: The Ubuntu Story 1 Chapter 2: Installing Ubuntu 33 Chapter 3: Getting Started with Ubuntu 61 Chapter 4: Becoming an Ubuntu Power User 105 Chapter 5: Finding and Installing Ubuntu Applications 123 Chapter 6: Customizing Ubuntu for Performance, Accessibility, and Fun 163 Chapter 7: Welcome to the Command Line 183 Chapter 8: The Ubuntu Server 199 Chapter 9: Ubuntu-Related Projects and Derivatives 241 Chapter 10: The Ubuntu Community 275 Index 313 ix This page intentionally left blank Contents Foreword to the Sixth Edition xix Foreword to the First Edition xxi Preface xxvii Acknowledgments xxxi About the Authors xxxiii Introduction xxxv About This Book xxxv The Scope of the Book xxxvi The Menu xxxvi CHAPTER 1 The Ubuntu Story 1 The Vision 2 Free Software, Open Source, and GNU/Linux 3 Free Software and GNU 4 Linux 5 Open Source 6 How the Vision Became Ubuntu 7 Mark Shuttleworth 7 The Warthogs 9 What Does Ubuntu Mean? 10 Beyond the Vision 11 What Is Ubuntu? 12 What Is a Distribution? 13 An Ecosystem of Distributions 14 The Debian Project and the Free Software Universe 16 The Ubuntu Community 17 xi xii Contents Ubuntu Promises and Goals 17 Philosophical Goals 17 Conduct Goals and Code of Conduct 20 Technical Goals 22 Bug #1 24 Sustaining the Vision: Canonical and the Ubuntu Foundation 25 Canonical, Ltd. 25 Canonical’s Service and Support 26 Bazaar and Launchpad 28 The Ubuntu Foundation 29 Beyond the Vision: Ubuntu Subprojects, Derivatives, and Spin-Offs 30 Summary 32 CHAPTER 2 Installing Ubuntu 33 Choosing Your Ubuntu Version 34 Other Ubuntu Distributions 35 Is It Still Ubuntu? 36 Getting Ubuntu 36 Burning a CD 37 Creating a Bootable USB Stick 39 Booting and Installing 40 Migration 41 Language 42 Preparing to Install Ubuntu 43 Allocate Drive Space 43 Installation Begins 48 Configuring Your Keyboard 49 Identification 50 Finishing Up 52 Installing from the Alternate Install CD 53 Choosing Your Spot in the World 53 Hardware 54 Setting the Hostname and Time Zone 54 Creating Partitions 54 Configuring a User 57 Finishing Up 59 Installing from within Windows 59 Summary 59 Contents xiii CHAPTER 3 Getting Started with Ubuntu 61 Getting Acquainted with Unity 63 Finding and Running Applications with the Launcher 64 Other Icons in the Launcher 66 Using Applications 67 Managing Files and Folders 67 Adding Additional Users 70 The Notification Area 71 Using Applications 74 Browsing the Web with Firefox 75 Creating Documents with LibreOffice 78 Connecting with Empathy and Gwibber and the Indicator Applet 81 Ubuntu One 81 Managing Your E-Mail with Thunderbird 81 Using Ubuntu in Your Language 84 Configuring a Printer 84 Gathering Information 86 Launching the Wizard 86 Mission Accomplished! 87 Remote Printing 87 Keeping Your Computer Updated 88 Using Ubuntu Software Center 89 Adding and Removing Programs and Packages 90 Installing Updates 91 Learning about What Was Updated 92 Installing an Application That Is Not in the Repositories 92 Upgrading to the Next Ubuntu Release 93 Doing the Actual Upgrade 94 Ubuntu and Multimedia 95 Installing Codecs 95 Listening to Audio Files 97 Playing and Ripping CDs 99 Buying Music 99 Interacting with Photos 99 Watching Videos 99 Backing Up 102 Customizing Ubuntu’s Look and Feel 104 Summary 104 xiv Contents CHAPTER 4 Becoming an Ubuntu Power User 105 Administering System and User Settings 106 User Settings 108 Privacy Settings 108 Ubuntu One 108 Default Settings 110 Understanding How Linux Stores and Organizes Files 111 Using Windows Files on Another Partition 113 Learning Unity Keyboard Shortcuts 115 Dash 115 Switching 116 Windows 116 Workspaces 116 Other 116 Using the Terminal 118 Working with Windows Programs 119 Running Applications 120 Installing Software from PPAs 120 Compiling Software from Source 121 Summary 122 CHAPTER 5 Finding and Installing Ubuntu Applications 123 Using Ubuntu Software Center 124 Ubuntu Software Center Account 124 Recommendations 125 Sorting 126 Searching 127 Learning More about a Package and Installing It 128 No-Cost Software 129 Software for Purchase 130 Learning Terminology and Foundations 131 Using Synaptic 132 Installing a Package 133 Removing a Package 133 Finding That Package 134 Useful Software Packages to Explore 135 Creating Graphics with GIMP and Inkscape 135 Desktop Publishing with Scribus 146 Creating Music with Jokosher 151 Contents xv Playing to Learn with Educational Programs 154 Kalzium 154 Kanagram 156 KBruch 156 KHangman 156 Kig 157 KmPlot 158 Stellarium 158 KTouch 159 KTurtle 159 Marble 159 Parley 160 Step 160 Blinken 161 Others Not on the Education Menu 161 Summary 161 CHAPTER 6 Customizing Ubuntu for Performance, Accessibility, and Fun 163 Unity Terminology 164 Appearance Tool 169 MyUnity 171 Compiz Config Settings Manager 174 Unity Lenses and Scopes 181 Additional Resources 181 Summary 182 CHAPTER 7 Welcome to the Command Line 183 Starting Up the Terminal 184 Getting Started 185 Building Pipelines 186 Running Commands as Superuser 187 Finding Help 188 Moving around the Filesystem 189 Manipulating