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+<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//GNOME//DTD DocBook PNG Variant V1.1//EN"[
+]>
+<article id="index"> 
+ 
+  <artheader> 
+    <title> If you are new to Linux/UNIX</title>
+    <copyright>
+      <year>2000</year>
+      <holder>Alexander Kirillov</holder>
+    </copyright>
+
+      <legalnotice id="legalnotice">
+      <para>
+        Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this
+        document under the terms of the <ulink type="help"
+        url="gnome-help:fdl"><citetitle>GNU Free Documentation
+        License</citetitle></ulink>, Version 1.1 or any later version
+        published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant
+        Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. You
+        may obtain a copy of the <citetitle>GNU Free Documentation
+        License</citetitle> from the Free Software Foundation by
+        visiting <ulink type="http" url="http://www.fsf.org">their Web
+        site</ulink> or by writing to: Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+        59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
+      </para>
+	
+	<para>
+	  Many of the names used by companies to distinguish their
+	  products and services are claimed as trademarks. Where those
+	  names appear in any GNOME documentation, and those
+	  trademarks are made aware to the members of the GNOME
+	  Documentation Project, the names have been printed in caps
+	  or initial caps.
+	</para>
+      </legalnotice>
+    </artheader>
+<sect1 id="introduction"> 
+    <title>Introduction</title>
+ 
+  <para> One of the goals of GNOME is to make your system easy to use,
+    without requiring you to learn the technical details about your
+    operating system.  However, there are some basic UNIX notions that
+    you have to be familiar with even while using the easy graphical
+    interface provided by GNOME. For the convenience of new users,
+    these basics are collected in this document. If you need further
+    information on UNIX, you should read the documentation which came
+    with your system; there are also a number of books and on-line
+    guides available for all versions of UNIX.
+  </para>
+
+  <para> The following guide applies to all versions of UNIX and
+    UNIX-like operating systems, including both the commercial Unices
+    such as <systemitem>Solaris</systemitem> and open-source operating
+    systems such as <systemitem>FreeBSD</systemitem> and
+    <systemitem>Linux</systemitem>. Some of the material here is based
+    on <citetitle>Linux Installation and Getting Started</citetitle>
+    guide, by Matt Welsh, Phil Hughes, David Bandel, Boris Beletsky,
+    Sean Dreilinger, Robert Kiesling, Evan Liebovitch, and Henry
+    Pierce. The guide is available for download or online viewing from
+    the <ulink url="http://www.linuxdoc.org" type="http">Linux
+    Documentation Project</ulink> or from the <ulink
+    url="http://www.oswg.org">Open Source Writers Group</ulink>.
+  </para>
+  </sect1>
+
+ <sect1 id="new-users">
+    <title>Users</title> 
+    <para> UNIX is a multiuser operating system: it
+      was designed to allow many users to work on the same computer,
+      either simultaneously (using several terminals or network
+      connections) or in turns. Under UNIX, to identify yourself to
+      the system, you must log in, which entails entering your
+      <emphasis>login name</emphasis> (the name the system uses to identify
+      you) and your <emphasis>password</emphasis>, which is your personal key
+      for logging in to your account. Because only you know your
+      password, no one else can log in to the system under your user
+      name. Usually people choose their first or last name or some
+      variation of it as their login name, so that if your real name
+      is Sasha Beilinson, your login might be <systemitem>sasha</systemitem>.
+    </para>
+    <para> Each user has a separate place to keep his files (called
+      his <emphasis>home directory</emphasis>). UNIX has a system of
+      permissions (see <xref linkend="permissions">), so that on a
+      properly configured UNIX system a user can't change other users'
+      or system files. This also allows every user to customize
+      various aspects of the system &mdash; in particular, GNOME
+      behavior &mdash; for himself, without affecting other users.
+    </para>
+    <para> On any UNIX system there is also a special user, called
+      <emphasis>system administrator</emphasis>, with the login name
+      <systemitem>root</systemitem>. He has <emphasis>full</emphasis>
+      control over the system &mdash; including full access to all the
+      system and users' files. He has the authority to change the
+      passwords of existing users and add new users, install and
+      uninstall software, and so on. The system administrator is
+      usually the person responsible for proper functioning of the
+      system, so if you have some problems, you should ask him.
+    </para>
+    <important>
+      <title>IMPORTANT</title>
+      <para>
+	Even if you are the only user on your computer (for example,
+	if the computer is your personal workstation), so that you are
+	also the system administrator, it is important that you create
+	a user account and use it for daily work, logging in as root
+	only when necessary for system maintenance. Because root can
+	do anything, it is easy to make mistakes that have
+	catastrophic consequences.  Picture the root account as a
+	magic hat that gives you lots of power, with which you can, by
+	waving your hands, create or destroy entire cities.  Because
+	it is easy to wave your hands in a destructive manner, it is
+	not a good idea to wear the magic hat when it is not needed,
+	despite the wonderful feeling.
+      </para>
+    </important>
+  </sect1>
+  <sect1 id="new-file">
+    <title>Files and filenames</title>
+    <para>
+      Under most operating systems (including UNIX), there is the
+      concept of a <emphasis>file</emphasis>, which is just a bundle of
+      information given a name (called a
+      <emphasis>filename</emphasis>). Examples of files might be
+      your history term paper, an e-mail message, or an actual
+      program that can be executed. Essentially, anything saved on
+      disk is saved in an individual file.
+    </para>
+    <sect2 id="new-filenames">
+      <title>Filenames</title>
+      <para>
+	Files are identified by their filenames. For example, the file
+	containing your conference talk might be saved with the filename
+	<filename>talk.txt</filename>. There is no standard format for file
+	names as there is under MS-DOS and some other operating systems; in
+	general, a filename can contain any character (except the /
+	character&ndash;see the discussion of path names below) and is
+	limited to 256 characters in length.
+      </para>
+      <important>
+	<title>IMPORTANT</title>
+	<para>
+	  Unlike MS-DOS, the filenames in UNIX are case-sensitive:
+	  <filename>myfile.txt</filename> and
+	  <filename>MyFile.txt</filename> are considered as two
+	  different files.
+	</para>
+      </important>
+      <para>
+	You should also be aware of several UNIX conventions; while they are
+	not mandatory, it is usually a good idea to follow them.
+	<itemizedlist>
+	  <listitem>
+	    <para> It is customary to use the format
+	      <filename>filename.extension</filename> for filenames,
+	      where the extension indicates the file type; for
+	      example, the extension <filename>txt</filename> is
+	      usually used for plain text files, while the extension
+	      <filename>jpeg</filename> is used for graphics in JPEG
+	      format, and so on. In particular, the <application>GNOME
+	      File Manager</application>
+	      (<application>Nautilus</application>) uses extensions to
+	      determine file type. You can view or change file
+	      extensions recognized by
+	      <application>GNOME</application> by selecting the
+	      section <menuchoice><guimenu>Document Handlers</guimenu>
+	      <guimenuitem>MIME types</guimenuitem> </menuchoice> in
+	      <application>GNOME Control Center</application>.  Note
+	      that the standard convention in UNIX is that the
+	      <emphasis>executables</emphasis> (i.e., the program
+	      files) have no extension at all.
+            </para>
+          </listitem>
+	  
+	  <listitem>
+	    <para> Files and directories whose names begin with a dot
+	      (.) are usually <emphasis>configuration
+		files</emphasis>, that is, files which keep settings and
+	      preferences for various applications. For example, GNOME
+	      keeps all its settings in various files in the directories
+	      <filename>.gnome</filename> and
+	      <filename>.gnome-desktop</filename> in the user's home
+	      directory. Since most of the time you do not need to
+	      edit these files manually, or even know their precise
+	      names and locations, <application>Nautilus</application>
+	      usually doesn't show these files. You can change this
+	      setting as described in <ulink type="help"
+	      url="gnome-help:nautilus">Nautilus manual</ulink>. 
+	    </para>
+	  </listitem>
+	  
+	  <listitem> 
+	    <para> Files with names ending with tilde (~) are
+	      usually backup files created by various
+	      applications. For example, when you edit a file
+	      <filename> myfile.txt</filename> with
+	    <application>emacs</application>, it 
+	      saves the previous version in the file
+	      <filename>myfile.txt~</filename>.
+	    </para>
+	  </listitem>
+	</itemizedlist>
+      </para>
+    </sect2>
+    <sect2 id="new-wildcards">
+      <title> Wildcards</title> 
+
+      <para>When entering commands from the command line, you can use
+	so-called <emphasis>wildcards</emphasis> instead of an exact
+	filename. The most common wildcard is *, which matches any
+	sequence of symbols (including an empty string). For example,
+	the command <command>ls *.txt</command> will list all the files with
+	the extension <filename>txt</filename>, and the command <command>rm
+	  chapter*</command> will remove all files with the names starting with
+	<filename>chapter</filename> (<command>ls</command> and
+	<command>rm</command> are UNIX 
+	commands for listing and removing files). Another useful
+	wildcard is ?, which matches any single symbol: for example,
+	<command>rm chapter?.txt</command> will remove files
+	<filename>chapter1.txt, chapter2.txt</filename> , but not
+	<filename>chapter10.txt</filename>
+      </para>
+      <para>Most new GNOME users prefer using the <application>GNOME
+	  File Manager</application> for operations with files, rather
+	  than working from the command line. Wildcards can also be
+	  used in  <application>Nautilus</application> in the file
+	  selection and view filter dialogs.  </para>
+    </sect2>
+
+    <sect2 id="quoting">
+      <title>Using spaces, commas, etc. in file names</title>
+      <para>
+	As was mentioned above, a file name may contain not only
+	letters and numbers, but also spaces, commas, etc. &mdash; any
+	characters other than slash (/). However, if you are using
+	commands typed on the command line, you should be careful when
+	dealing with such files. To avoid problems, it is advised that
+	you enclose  filenames that contain anything other than
+	letters, numbers, and dots,  in single quotes: to delete file
+	<filename>My File</filename>, you should type <command>rm 'My
+	File'</command> rather than <command>rm My
+	File</command>.
+      </para>
+      <para>
+	Of course, if you are only using graphical tools such as GNOME
+	File Manager, than you do not  need to worry about this: to
+	delete file <filename>My File</filename>, just drag it to the
+	trash can.
+      </para>
+    </sect2>
+
+  </sect1>
+  <sect1 id="new-dirs">
+    <title>Directories and paths</title> 
+    <sect2 id="new-dirstruct">
+      <title>Directory structure</title>
+      <para>
+	Now, let's discuss the concept of directories. A
+	<emphasis>directory</emphasis> is a collection of files. It
+	can be thought of as a <quote>folder</quote> that contains
+	many different files. Directories are given names, with which
+	they can be identified. Furthermore, directories are
+	maintained in a tree-like structure; that is, directories may
+	contain other directories. The top level directory is called
+	the <quote>root directory</quote> and denoted by
+	<filename>/</filename>; it contains all the files in your
+	system.
+      </para>
+      <sect3 id="new-path">
+	<title>Pathnames</title>
+	<para>
+	  A <emphasis>pathname</emphasis> is a file's <quote>full
+	  name</quote>; it contains not only filename but also its
+	  location. It is made up of the filename, preceded by the
+	  name of the directory containing that file. This, in turn,
+	  is preceded by the name of directory containing
+	  <emphasis>that directory</emphasis>, and so on. A typical
+	  pathname may look like
+	  <filename>/home/sasha/talk.txt</filename> which refers to
+	  the file <filename>talk.txt</filename> in the directory
+	  <filename>sasha</filename> which in turn is a subdirectory
+	  in <filename>/home</filename>.
+	</para>
+	<para>
+	  As you can see, the directory and filename are separated by
+	  a single slash (/). For this reason, filenames themselves
+	  cannot contain the / character.  MS-DOS users will find this
+	  convention familiar, although in the MS-DOS world the
+	  backslash (\) is used instead. The directory that contains a
+	  given subdirectory is known as the <emphasis>parent
+	  directory</emphasis>. Here, the directory
+	  <filename>home</filename> is the parent of the directory
+	  <filename>sasha</filename>.
+	</para>
+	<para>
+	  Each user has a home directory, which is the directory set aside for
+	  that user to store his or her files.  Usually, user home directories
+	  are contained under <filename>/home</filename>, and are named for the
+	  user owning that directory, so that the home directory of user
+	  <systemitem>sasha</systemitem> would be 
+	  <filename>/home/sasha</filename>.
+	</para>
+      </sect3>
+    </sect2>
+    <sect2 id="new-relative"> 
+      <title>Relative directory names</title>
+      <para>
+	At any moment, commands that you enter are assumed to be
+	<emphasis>relative</emphasis> to your current working
+	directory. You can think of your working directory as the
+	directory in which you are currently
+	<quote>located</quote>. When you first log in, your working
+	directory is set to your home directory &mdash; for user
+	sasha, it would be <filename>/home/sasha</filename>. Whenever
+	you refer to a file, you may refer to it in relationship to
+	your current working directory, rather than specifying the
+	full pathname of the file.
+      </para>
+      <para>
+	For example, if your current directory is
+	<filename>/home/sasha</filename>, and you have a file there called
+	<filename>talk.txt</filename>, you can refer to it just by its file
+	name: a command like <command>emacs talk.txt</command> issued from the
+	directory <filename>/home/sasha</filename> is equivalent to
+	<command>emacs /home/sasha/talk.txt</command>
+	(<application>emacs</application> is an extremely powerful editor for
+	text files; new users may prefer something simpler, such as
+	<application>gnotepad</application>, but for power user,
+	<application>emacs</application> is indispensable).
+      </para>
+
+
+      <para>
+	Similarly, if, in <filename>/home/sasha</filename> you have a
+	subdirectory called <filename>papers</filename> and, in that
+	subdirectory, a file called <filename>fieldtheory.txt</filename>, you
+	can refer to it as <filename>papers/fieldtheory.txt</filename>.
+      </para>
+      <para> If you begin a filename (like
+	<filename>papers/fieldtheory.txt</filename>) with a character
+	other than /, you're referring to the file in terms relative
+	to your current working directory. This is known as a relative
+	pathname.  On the other hand, if you begin a filename with a
+	/, the system interprets this as a full pathname &mdash; that
+	is, a pathname that includes the entire path to the file,
+	starting from the root directory, /. Use of the full pathname
+	is known as an <emphasis>absolute pathname</emphasis>.
+      </para>
+    </sect2>
+    <sect2 id="new-path-conv">
+      <title>Pathname conventions</title> 
+      <para>
+	Here are some standard conventions you can use in paths: 
+      </para>
+      <para>
+	<filename>~/</filename> &mdash; user's home directory
+      </para>
+      <para>
+	<filename>./</filename>  &mdash; current working directory
+      </para>
+      <para>
+	<filename>../</filename>  &mdash; parent of the current directory
+      </para>
+      <para>
+	For example, if sasha's current directory is
+	<filename>/home/sasha/papers</filename>, he can refer to the file
+	<filename>/home/sasha/talk.txt</filename> as
+	<filename>~/talk.txt</filename> or as <filename>../talk.txt</filename>.
+      </para>
+    </sect2>
+  </sect1>
+  <sect1 id="permissions">
+    <title>Permissions</title>
+    <para>
+      Every file on your system has an <emphasis>owner</emphasis> &mdash; one
+      of the users (usually the one who created this file), and a system of
+      <emphasis>permissions</emphasis>, which regulate access to this
+      file.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      For ordinary files, there are 3 types of access permissions:
+      read, write, and execute (the latter only makes sense for
+      executable files). They can be set independently for 3
+      categories of users: the file owner, the users in the group
+      owning the file, and everyone else. Discussion of groups of
+      users goes beyond the scope of this document; the other two
+      categories are self-explanatory.  <!--Which groups of users? I
+      don't think the other two categories are self-explanatory. Would
+      help if there was some exposition here which explicitly states
+      who belongs where.-->So, if the permissions on a file
+      <filename>/home/sasha/talk.txt</filename> are set to read and
+      write for user sasha, who is the file owner, and read only for
+      everyone else, only sasha will be able to modify this file.
+      <!--How about adding something in parentheses here, like (Since
+      sasha created the file <filename>talk.txt</filename>, sasha has
+      the widest range of rights to access the file.)... or something
+      like that?-->
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+      All newly created files carry some standard permissions, usually
+      read/write for user and read only for everyone else. You can
+      view the permissions using the GNOME File Manager, by
+      right-clicking on the file, choosing
+      <guimenuitem>Properties</guimenuitem> in the pop-up menu, and
+      then the <guilabel>Permissions</guilabel> tab. Using this
+      dialog, you can also change the permissions &mdash; just click
+      on a square representing the permission to toggle it.  Of
+      course, only the file owner or the system administrator can
+      change the permissions of a file. Advanced users can also change
+      the default file permissions which are assigned to newly created
+      files&mdash;see the manual pages for your default shell (usually
+      <command>bash</command>, <command>csh</command> or
+      <command>tcsh</command>) and look for the command
+      <command>umask</command>.
+    </para>
+
+    <para>
+      A file can also have some special permission properties such as
+      UID, GID, and <quote>sticky</quote> bit. They are for advanced
+      users only &mdash; do not change them unless you know what you
+      are doing. (If you are curious: these permissions are typically
+      used on executable files to allow the user to execute
+      <emphasis>some</emphasis> commands which read or modify files to
+      which the user himself doesn't have access.)
+    </para>
+
+    <para> Similar to files, the directories also have
+      permissions. Again, there are 3 possible permissions: read,
+      write, and execute. However, they have different meaning:
+      namely, <quote>read</quote> permission for a directory means
+      permission to list the contents of the directory or search for a
+      file; <quote>write</quote> means permission to create and remove
+      files in the directory, and <quote>execute</quote> means
+      permission to access files in the directory.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      Note that the permissions granted to a file depend on the
+      permissions of the directory in which the file is located: in
+      order to be able to read a file, a user needs to have the read
+      permission for the file itself and <quote>execute</quote>
+      permission for the directory that contains it. So, if user sasha
+      doesn't want anybody else to see his files, he can achieve this
+      by removing the execute permission on his home directory for all
+      other users. This way, no one but himself (and, of course, root)
+      will be able to read any of his files, no matter what the
+      permissions of individual files are.
+    </para>
+    <para> Detailed explanation of the permission system can be found,
+      for example, in the <ulink type="info" url="info:fileutils">info
+      page</ulink> for the GNU <citetitle>File Utilities</citetitle>
+      package.
+      </para>
+  </sect1>
+
+  <sect1 id="symlinks">
+    <title>Symbolic links</title>
+    <para>
+      In addition to regular files, UNIX also has special files called
+      <emphasis>symbolic links</emphasis> (or
+      <emphasis>symlinks</emphasis> for short). These files do not
+      contain any data; instead, they are just
+      <quote>pointers</quote>, or <quote>shortcuts</quote> to other
+      files. For example, sasha can have a symlink named
+      <filename>ft.txt</filename> pointing to the file
+      <filename>papers/fieldtheory.txt</filename>; this way, when a
+      program tries to access the file <filename>ft.txt</filename>,
+      the file <filename>papers/fieldtheory.txt</filename> will be
+      opened instead. As you can see from this example, the symlink
+      and the target file can have different names and be located in
+      different directories.
+    </para>
+    <para> Note that deleting, moving, or renaming the symlink file
+      has no effect on the target file: if sasha tries to delete the
+      file <filename>ft.txt</filename>, it is the symlink that will
+      be deleted, and the file
+      <filename>papers/fieldtheory.txt</filename> will remain
+      unchanged.  Also, the permissions of the symlink are
+      meaningless: it is the permissions of the target file that
+      determine whether a user has the access to it.
+    </para>
+
+    <para> Symlinks can also point to directories.  For example, on
+      the GNOME FTP server (<systemitem>ftp.gnome.org</systemitem>),
+      there is a file
+      <filename>/pub/GNOME/stable/releases/october-gnome</filename>,
+      which is actually a  symlink to directory
+      <filename>/pub/GNOME/stable/releases/gnome-1.0.53</filename>
+      &mdash; as one would expect, since <quote>October GNOME</quote>
+      is  just another name for 1.0.53 release
+      of GNOME.  
+    </para>
+  </sect1>
+  <sect1 id="new-mount">
+    <title>Mounting and unmounting drives</title>
+    <para>
+      As we mentioned earlier, the directories on a UNIX system are
+      organized in a tree, with the top level directory being
+      <filename>/</filename>. Unlike some other operating systems such as
+      MS-DOS, there are no special names for files on your floppy disk or
+      CD-ROM: <emphasis>all</emphasis> the files accessible to your system
+      must appear in the main directory tree starting with
+      <filename>/</filename>.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      Thus, before you can access files on a floppy diskette or a
+      CD-ROM, you must give to your system a command to incorporate
+      the contents of this diskette into the main directory tree,
+      which is referred to as <emphasis>mounting</emphasis> the
+      diskette. You can think of it as the software analog of
+      connecting the drive to your system.  Typically the contents of
+      the CD-ROM will appear under the name
+      <filename>/mnt/cdrom</filename>; the floppy diskette under
+      <filename>/mnt/floppy</filename> (these are called the
+      <emphasis>mount points</emphasis> and are defined in the special
+      configuration file, <filename>/etc/fstab</filename>). Accessing
+      a drive in this fashion doesn't mean that the system will copy
+      all the files from the CD to the directory
+      <filename>/mnt/cdrom</filename>. Instead, it means that the
+      directory <filename>/mnt/cdrom</filename>
+      <emphasis>represents</emphasis> the CD-ROM: When a program tries
+      to access, say, a file called
+      <filename>/mnt/cdrom/index.html</filename>, the system will look
+      for file <filename>index.html</filename> on the CD-ROM.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      So, in short: before you can use files on a drive, you must
+      <quote>mount</quote> it. Similarly, <emphasis>before removing
+      the disk from the drive, you must unmount it.</emphasis>
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      When using GNOME, you usually do not have to worry about
+      mounting and unmounting: GNOME scans the appropriate
+      configuration file and places the icons for all drives on your
+      desktop. Double-clicking on any of these icons automatically
+      mounts the corresponding drive (if it was not already mounted)
+      and starts the file manager in the appropriate directory.
+      Similarly, if you right-click on the drive icon and choose the
+      command <guimenuitem>Eject device</guimenuitem> from the pop-up
+      menu, GNOME automatically unmounts it before ejecting. You can
+      also mount/unmount a drive by right-clicking on its icon on the
+      desktop and choosing <guimenuitem>Mount device</guimenuitem> or
+      <guimenuitem>Unmount device</guimenuitem> from the pop-up menu,
+      or by using the disk mount applet.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      Note that you can't unmount a drive if it is being used by some
+      program; for example, if you have a terminal windows open in a
+      directory on the drive you're trying to unmount. So, if you get
+      the error message <quote>Device busy</quote> while trying to
+      unmount a drive, make sure that none of your open applications
+      is accessing a file or directory on this drive.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      However, GNOME cannot prevent you from ejecting the disk using the
+      physical eject button on the drive itself &mdash; in this case,
+      <emphasis>it is your responsibility to unmount the drive</emphasis>
+      before doing so. For CD and Zip drives, the system blocks the eject
+      button on the drive while the drive is mounted; for floppy drives this
+      is technically impossible.
+    </para>
+
+    <important>
+      <title>IMPORTANT</title>
+      <para>
+	If you eject a floppy  disk using the eject button on the drive without
+	first unmounting it, you may lose your data!
+      </para>
+    </important>
+
+    <para> Some systems are running special programs such as
+      <application>supermount</application> or
+      <application>magicdev</application>
+      which automatically mount a drive when a disk is inserted and unmount a
+      drive if it hasn't been used for a specified period of time. In
+      this case, you will probably never need to worry about
+      mounting/unmounting drives yourself; you don't even need to read
+      this section. 
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      Allowing users to mount and unmount drives carries some security
+      risks, so many multi-user systems are configured so that only
+      root can mount or unmount drives. This is the most probable
+      cause of error messages you may be getting while trying to mount
+      a drive. In this case, discuss this matter with your system
+      administrator.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      If the computer is your personal workstation or home computer
+      and you are not worried about security, you can give mount
+      permission to ordinary users. The easiest way to allow this is
+      to use the application
+      <application><emphasis>linuxconf</emphasis></application> (which
+      can only be run by root).  Just select the drive you want to
+      access in the <guilabel>Access local drive</guilabel> section.
+      In the <guilabel>Options</guilabel> tab select the
+      <guilabel>User Mountable</guilabel> option.  Your drive will now
+      be mountable by users.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      If <application><emphasis>linuxconf</emphasis></application> is
+      not available, then you must manually edit the file
+      <filename>/etc/fstab</filename> to include user access. This is
+      done by adding the <quote>user</quote> attribute to the
+      drive. For example:
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      If your <filename>fstab</filename> file contains a line like
+      this:
+    </para>
+      <programlisting>
+/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 exec,dev,ro,noauto 0 0
+      </programlisting>
+      <para>
+      add the word <quote>user</quote> to the fourth column:
+    </para>
+    <programlisting>
+/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 user,exec,dev,ro,noauto 0 0
+    </programlisting>
+  </sect1>
+
+  <sect1 id="devices">
+    <title>Drives and devices</title>
+    <para>
+      Under UNIX, the word <quote>device</quote> is used for all
+      peripheral devices connected to your computer; this includes
+      hard drives, floppy and CD-ROM drives, audio and video cards,
+      serial and parallel ports, and much more. Each device has a
+      name, such as <filename>/dev/hda</filename>. The most common
+      device names are listed below (for Linux; other varieties of
+      UNIX may use slightly different device names).
+    </para>
+    <itemizedlist>
+      <listitem><para> <filename>/dev/hd*</filename> (where *=a,b,c,
+	  &hellip;): these are IDE devices, such as hard drives,
+	  CD-ROM drives and ZIP drives. <filename>/dev/hda</filename>
+	  denotes the master drive on the first IDE controller
+	  (usually your first hard drive, <filename>C:</filename>
+	  under Windows), <filename>/dev/hdb</filename> is the slave
+	  drive on the fist controller (this can be a second hard
+	  drive or a CD-ROM), and so on. See also the <link
+	  linkend="zippartition">note</link> below about ZIP drives.
+	  </para></listitem>
+
+      <listitem><para>
+	  <filename>/dev/sd*</filename> (where *=a,b,c, &hellip;):
+	  these are SCSI devices, usually hard drives. 
+	</para></listitem>
+    </itemizedlist>
+
+    <note>
+      <title>NOTE</title> 
+      <para>If the acronyms IDE and SCSI are new to you, here is a
+      brief explanation: there are two types of interfaces for hard
+      drives and other similar devices: IDE (and its cousins such as
+      EIDE, ATAPI, etc.) and SCSI. SCSI provides better performance,
+      but is more expensive, so it is only used on
+      servers. If you are not sure what kind of drives you have, most
+      probably it is IDE. </para>
+    </note> 
+    <itemizedlist>
+      <listitem><para>
+	  <filename>/dev/fd*</filename> (where *=0,1, etc) are floppy
+	  drives; <filename>/dev/fd0</filename> is the first drive (it
+	  corresponds to <filename>A:</filename> under Windows),
+	  <filename>/dev/fd1</filename> is the second
+	  (<filename>B:</filename>), etc. 
+	</para>
+      </listitem>
+      <listitem><para>
+	  <filename>/dev/lp*</filename> (where *=0,1, etc) are
+	  parallel ports; most commonly, these ports are used to
+	  connect a printer to the
+	  computer. <filename>/dev/lp0</filename> corresponds to
+	  <filename>LPT1</filename> under Windows,
+	  <filename>/dev/lp1</filename> to <filename>LPT2</filename>,
+	  etc.  
+	</para>
+      </listitem>
+      <listitem><para> <filename>/dev/ttyS*</filename> (where *=0,1,
+	  etc) are serial ports; these ports are commonly used for
+	  connecting a mouse or a
+	  modem. <filename>/dev/ttyS0</filename> corresponds to
+	  <filename>COM1</filename> under Windows,
+	  <filename>/dev/ttyS1</filename> to <filename>COM2</filename>,
+	  etc.
+	</para>
+      </listitem>
+      <listitem><para> 
+	  <filename>/dev/audio</filename> and
+	  <filename>/dev/dsp</filename> &mdash; these two device
+	  names are used for your audio card (they are not equivalent,
+	  since they are used for different types of audio files). 
+	</para>
+	</listitem>
+    </itemizedlist>
+    <para>
+      In addition, it is a common practice to have symlinks
+      <filename>/dev/floppy, /dev/modem</filename> and
+      <filename>/dev/cdrom</filename> pointing to the actual device
+      name corresponding to your floppy drive, modem, and CD-ROM drive
+      respectively.
+    </para>
+    <para>
+      You rarely need to use these device names. In particular, if you
+      want to access a file on a drive, you do not use the device name
+      (such as <filename>/dev/fd0</filename>); instead, you first
+      mount the device so that its contents shows as a subdirectory
+      (for example, <filename>/mnt/floppy</filename>) in the main
+      directory tree, and then use this directory for accessing
+      files; see <xref linkend="new-mount"> for more information. About
+      the only time when you actually need to use the device names is
+      when you are configuring some newly installed program. For
+      example, a fax program can ask you for the device name for your
+      modem (in which case you can either give it the actual device
+      name, such as <filename>/dev/ttyS1</filename>, or just use the
+      symlink <filename>/dev/modem</filename>).
+    </para>
+    <para> And just for fun: there is also a device
+    <filename>/dev/null</filename> which acts as a <quote>black
+    hole</quote>: you can send to it any information, and it never
+    returns. So if you do not want to be bothered by error messages,
+    re-direct them to <filename>/dev/null</filename> -:).
+    </para>
+
+    <sect2 id="partitions">
+      <title>Partitions</title>
+      <para>
+	Note that it is possible to subdivide a hard drive (or a
+	similar device) into parts which for all practical purposes
+	behave as independent disks, even though physically they
+	reside on the same disk. These parts are called
+	<quote>partitions</quote> (under Windows, the name
+	<quote>logical disk</quote> is used). For example, you can
+	partition your hard drive into several partitions, and install
+	different operating systems in different partitions; you can
+	reformat each partition independently of the others. This
+	partitioning of the hard drive is usually done during the
+	installation of the operating system; refer to your
+	installation guide for more information.
+      </para>
+      <para> 
+	If your hard drive has been partitioned then each partition
+	is considered as a separate device. For example, if your hard
+	drive is <filename>/dev/hda</filename>, then the first
+	partition on this drive would be referred to as
+	<filename>/dev/hda1</filename>, the second as
+	<filename>/dev/hda2</filename>, and so on. 
+      </para>
+      <warning id="zippartition">
+	<title> Partitioning of ZIP disks</title> 
+
+	<para> For reasons unknown to us, the pre-formatted
+	  ZIP disks sold in stores or formatted using Iomega's ZIP
+	  tools under Windows are partitioned in a strange way:
+	  they have only one partition (of Windows type, of course),
+	  but this partition has number 4. Thus, if your ZIP drive is
+	  <filename>/dev/hdc</filename>, the correct device name you
+	  should use for such disks is <filename>/dev/hdc4</filename>.
+	</para>
+      </warning>
+    </sect2>
+  </sect1>
+  <sect1 id="X11"> 
+    <title>Graphical user interface: X Window System, window
+      managers, and desktop environments.</title>
+    <para>
+      UNIX is a modular system: it consists of many components so that
+      a user (or system administrator) can choose those components he
+      needs.  In particular, there are several layers of software
+      responsible for graphical user interface. These layers are: X
+      Window System, window managers, and desktop environment.
+    </para>
+    <para> <emphasis>X Window System</emphasis> (also known as X, or
+      X11) is the component of UNIX systems responsible for virtually
+      all basic graphics &mdash; in particular, for drawing icons,
+      backgrounds, and windows in which your applications
+      work. Without X, you only have command line. X11 sets the screen
+      resolution and color depth, moves the mouse cursor around the
+      screen, etc. It serves as a foundation for other components of
+      graphical user interface such as window managers and desktop
+      environments.
+    </para>
+    <para> <emphasis>Window manager</emphasis> extends capabilities of
+      X Window System by placing borders and buttons around windows,
+      which allows the user to move, close, hide or resize the
+      windows. X11 is virtually always used in combination with a
+      window manager, since it would be pretty much unusable without
+      one. There are many window managers available for X11; most
+      popular are <application>fvwm</application>,
+      <application>mwm</application>, <application>kwm</application>
+      (used by KDE), <application>Enlightenment</application>, and
+      <application>Sawfish</application>.
+    </para>
+    <para> Finally, a <emphasis>desktop environment</emphasis> goes
+      one more step further than a window manager by adding a
+      graphical file manager from which you can drag-and-drop items on
+      your desktop, a panel which can be used to launch frequently
+      used applications, and a set of applications and utilities.
+      There are several desktop environments available for all
+      versions of UNIX; the most popular ones are <ulink type="http"
+      url="http://www.gnome.org">GNOME</ulink>, <ulink type="http"
+      url="http://www.kde.org">KDE</ulink> and <ulink type="http"
+      url="http://www.sun.com/solaris/cde/">CDE</ulink> (soon to be
+      replaced by GNOME).
+    </para>
+    <para> Most desktop environments contain a window manager as their
+      integral part; for example, KDE contains its own window manager,
+      <application>kwm</application> (it is possible to use KDE with
+      another window manager, but few people do so).  GNOME has no
+      window manager of its own; it will allow you to choose any
+      window manager you already have on your system. To make life
+      easier for new users, usually the
+      <application>Sawfish</application> window manager is distributed
+      with GNOME and is used by default; you can switch to
+      another window manager using <application>GNOME Control
+      Center</application>. Note however that you will need a
+      GNOME-compliant window manager to use such features of GNOME as 
+      session management, taskbar applet, etc. 
+    </para>
+
+    </sect1>
+	
+  
+</article>
+
+
+