Re: newbie here - system administration question

[Chris Lale <chrislale@untrammelled.co.uk>]

Per olof Ljungmark wrote:
> Hi debianites,
> 
> I am a complete beginner with Debian and need a little help to get
> going. Specifically, I wonder how you configure the system (not
> installed software), things like the network, users, logging etc.
> [...]

You may find answers to some of your problems on the website of the NewbieDOC
project [1]. The great thing is that you can contribute your experiences back to
the project because the website is a wiki.

There is an example of a /etc/network/interfaces file in section 3 of the
article on setting up a wireless network card [2]. (The ethernet card - eth0 -
section has been commented out in this article.) You may need to add nameservers
to /etc/resolv.conf. You can restart the network with the new configuration, as
user root, with the commands
	# /etc/init.d/networking stop
	# /etc/init.d/networking start

If you want to dig deeper, have a look at some man pages with these commands
	$ man ifconfig
	$ man ifup

There is also an article on managing users and groups [3].

Logs are kept in /var/log/. Eg to view the last few entries in the system log
(as root)
	# tail /var/log/syslog

To follow the system log in real time
	# tail -f /var/log/syslog

Other ways to read the logs:
	# more /var/log/syslog
	# cat /var/log/syslog
	# less /var/log/syslog
	# grep -i fail /var/log/boot

(Check the man pages for these commands.)

You might find the Debian Reference [4] useful too.


[1] http://newbiedoc.berlios.de
[2]
http://newbiedoc.berlios.de/wiki/How_to_set_up_a_wireless_network_card_using_drivers_from_Debian_packages#Permanent_setup_once_everything_is_working
[3] http://newbiedoc.berlios.de/wiki/Manage_users_and_groups
[4] http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/reference/


-- 
Chris.