The Debian Way
Okay, here is my version of the debian way. It is probably full of
mistakes and stuff, since most of it was written while sitting at my
win95 box (GASP!). I don't plan on doing anymore work on it, so do with
it what you will. I GPL'ed it.
I tried adding docbook markup as Stephane suggested, but I haven't had a
chance to test it. I fully expect any parser to choke on it.
Here ya go:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//Norman Walsh//DTD DocBk XML V3.1//EN"
"dtd/docbook-xml/docbookx.dtd"[
<!-- New elements -->
<!-- The contents of the debianpackage element is the official name -->
<!-- The name attribute holds the Debian name, if it's different -->
<!ELEMENT debianpackage (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST debianpackage name CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ATTLIST debianpackage refserver CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ENTITY % local.title.char.mix
"|debianpackage">
<!ELEMENT debiandoc (#PCDATA)>
<!ATTLIST debiandoc file CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ATTLIST debiandoc text CDATA #IMPLIED>
<!ENTITY % local.para.char.mix
"|debiandoc|debianpackage">
<!ELEMENT manpage (#PCDATA)>
<!-- New attributes -->
<!ENTITY % local.common.attrib
"debianversionequal CDATA #IMPLIED
debianversionmin CDATA #IMPLIED
debianversionmax CDATA #IMPLIED">
]>
<article>
<artheader>
<title>The Debian Way</title>
<author>
<firstname>Mark</firstname>
<surname>Small</surname>
</author>
<legalnotice>
<para>This text is distributed according to the <ulink
url="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html";>General
Public License</ulink>.</para>
</legalnotice>
</artheader>
<sect1>
<title>About this document</title>
<para>General infomation about this document</para>
<sect2>
<title>Disclaimer</title>
<para>
I am not a professional admin. I only have experience
with one unix/unix-like system: the Debian box in my home. I
make no claims to the accuracy/safety of this document. Use at
your own risk.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Overview</title>
<para>
The purpose of this document is to give a short list of features
specific to the Debian Gnu/Linux system. After 2 years
experience with debian I decided that there is a gap in the
documentation available. Many admins coming from other
distributions do not know all of the features of debian. Also,
much of the documnetation out there already is specific to
another distribution. Here I give a short summary of debian
features. They should serve as a jumping off point, they'll
help you know which man pages/docs to look at.
</para>
<para>
This document assumes that you are familiar with unix-like
systems in general (or are not intimidated).
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
<sect1>
<title>Features</title>
<sect2>
<title>Admin stuff</title>
<para>
DPKG handles much of the setup necessary in getting your Debian
system running. It controls most of your directory tree. If
you want do stuff outside of DPKG, do it under /usr/local/. All
configuration files are under /etc/. If you find yourself
playing with files outside of these directories, you may be in
for a spot of bother later on.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Users and groups</title>
<para>
By default, every user is in a group by the same name.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>The debian menu system</title>
<para>
Debian provides a centralized system for managing the application
menus that appear in most window managers/desktop environments.
Most packages contain menu entries that are installed under
/usr/lib/menu. Don't mess with these files. They will be
overwritten whenever you upgrade. You can customize these menus
(system wide) by putting revised/new files under /etc/menu.
Users can do their own customizations under ~/.menu/.
After creating/editing the menu files, run update-menu.
See /usr(/share)/doc/menu for more information.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Apt</title>
<para>
Apt is the next generation tool for installing packages on your
debian system. It allows installation from many sources
including multiple cdroms. See man apt-cdrom, man sources.list,
man apt for more info.
</para>
<para>
Lots of people are always willing to write about apt, I'll
leave details up to them.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>/etc/alternatives</title>
<para>
I don't know enough about this yet to write anything intelligent.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>runlevels</title>
<para>
Some distributions specify that runlevels 2-6 have specific uses.
(X, net, etc) Debian does NOT. Customize them as you please.
The runlevels are controlled by scripts in /etc/rcX.d/ where X is
the runlevel. These scripts are symlinks to scripts in
/etc/init.d/.
Have a look at man update-rc for a good way of managing your
runlevels.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>daemons</title>
<para>
Sometimes after you reconfigure a daemon, it is necessary to
restart it in order for the change to take effect. To do this
type: /etc/init.d/[daemon name] restart. All of the init scripts
can handle the following commands: start, stop, reload, restart
(one of these is optional, isn't it?)
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>update-modules</title>
<para>
I'll have to check the man page on this one since I have no idea
what it really is.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>kernel compilation</title>
<para>
There is a nice way to compile your kernel under debian. It is
a package called make-kpkg. It automates a lot of the steps.
After you are done, if you use loadlin (like me), you will need
to copy the new kernel image from /boot/vmlinuz-(ver) to your
dos partition.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>Hardware access</title>
<para>
See the debian faq, but in short, you'll have to add users to
the dip group to let them use ppp, and add them to the audio
group to let them use sound.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect2>
<title>X</title>
<para>
~/.xsession is where config stuff goes if you are using XDM.
Most debian boxes default to using XDM for X. See the man page.
</para>
</sect2>
</sect1>
</article>
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