Overview

Secrets in This Chapter

• Becoming root

• Using Red Hat User Manager to Add User Accounts

• Using Commands to Manage User Accounts

• Mounting a Device on the File System

• Examining the /etc/fstab File

• Mounting DOS Floppy Disks

• Mounting an NTFS Partition

• Learning the mtools Commands

This chapter introduces you to some Linux system administration tasks. You learn to perform many of these system administration tasks by using graphical tools as well as commands. You can access many of these graphical utilities from the main menu as well as from the Start Here window (that opens when you double-click the Start Here icon on the desktop).

First, you will learn how to manage users and groups by using Red Hat User Manager as well as text commands. Then you will explore tasks that the Start Here window enables you to perform. This overview of Start Here should help you perform other system-administration tasks as the need arises.

Because you typically install Red Hat Linux on a PC that previously had Microsoft Windows installed on it, a common system-administration task is to access the Windows files from Linux. This chapter shows you how to mount and access DOS/Windows disks, including floppy disks. You learn about a kernel module for the NTFS file system that enables you to read from Windows XP partitions that use the NTFS file system.

You also learn about a package by the name of mtools, which enables you to access and use (copy, delete, and format) MS-DOS files (typically, on a floppy disk) in Red Hat Linux.