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The following article was written by David.M.Clark for Linux Server Magazine.

Red Hat provides Unix-industry specialists with a wealth of utilities and installation tips. Choose from many options to suit your needs.

Having installed various releases of Unix over the years, such as AIX, HP-UX, SCO, and Sun, I was quite familiar with most Unix installation issues. As a result, it was interesting for me to sail a course through uncharted waters when I had to install Red Hat Linux 7.0 (Red Hat Inc.--www.redhat.com). In this case the requirement for my company was to install Red Hat 7.0 on an HP (Hewlett-Packard Co.--www.hp.com) OmniBook notebook as well as a clone PC.

Previously, I had installed Red Hat 6.2 on an IBM Corp. (www.ibm.com) Netfinity machine. In addition, I had experience installing Caldera OpenLinux 2.4, from Caldera Systems Inc. (www.caldera.com), on two other clone PCs.

KDE vs. GNOME
Red Hat 7.0 implements many Public/ GNU-based software packages as part of the OS. As a result, this version is a breeze to operate. I first used KDE (K Desktop Environment) as the desktop environment on Caldera OpenLinux 2.4. In order to make KDE run by default under Red Hat 7.0, I simply modified the /etc/sysconfig/desktop file to read DISPLAY="KDE". KDE then replaced GNOME as the GUI desktop.

Although GNOME is an excellent GUI window manager, I like all of the extra toys on display in the KDE environment. Both GNOME and KDE coexist on the system. Thus, at the login you can choose to run the login session under either GNOME or KDE, whichever you prefer.

KDE has been available for other platforms as an add-on package for the GUI environment for quite some time. Since KDE provides ease of use, I thoroughly recommend it for first-time Linux users. In addition, the Kppp utility connects you to your ISP (Internet service provider) in minutes. For e-mail you can use either Kmail or Netscape's Messenger option. Both work well in the POP (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP (Internet Mail Access Protocol) client environment. You can also install the Sun (Sun Microsystems Inc.--www.sun.com) StarOffice product and use its built-in e-mail utility.

Utilizing vim and gzip
Some other nice qualities of Red Hat include the use of vim as the default vi editor. Actually, vim is vi with more features. One of the features I like in particular is the ability to hold a complete undo buffer. Therefore, after you press the letter "u" to undo your most recent change, you can continue pressing it for more changes. Continuing to press "u" undoes each individual previous change as well.

The default presence of the gzip utility, a GNU-based file compression/ decompression utility, is a nice feature as well. I have encountered compressed-file incompatibilities with the Unix compress utility on files I have copied between various Unix systems. In my experience gzip remains the best cross-platform utility. In the past it was necessary for me to load both gzip and vim manually after installing the OS, but not in this case.

Shell Defaults and Options
Red Hat uses the Bash (Bourne Again Shell) by default. The Bash is an arrow-keys-friendly Unix prompt. The Korn Shell is not part of the operating system, which was disappointing. However, a version called pdksh (located on the Red Hat contributions CD-ROM) is available. In addition, a DtKsh (Graphical Desktop Korn Shell) package is available on the Internet.

Finding Information and Fixes
If you are installing Red Hat on a SCSI system, you may need to check the Red Hat Web site mentioned previously for any technical information. The site includes details on hardware compatibility, download modules for the kernel, and installation testimonials under the How To pages. These pages are quite helpful. I have found a wealth of information there for virtually any piece of hardware I have installed.

Linux is traditionally aimed at the personal GUI environment. Therefore, sometimes obscure video adapters, such as the SM811, can cost you hours of searching on the Internet to accomplish the correct XFree86 setup. Even though XFree86 does provide support for a wide range of video adapters under X-Windows, not all adapters work without modification. Often, you must edit the /etc/X11/XF86Config file manually, and, additionally, make a trip to the www.XFree86.org Web site.

I come from a traditional Unix background where there is one main source for inquiries. Now, it is good to see the wealth of information readily available on the Net. You may need to dig around the Red Hat sites and related links or look through archived Usenet discussion groups at sites like www.google.com. (Previously, www.deja.com did the archiving.) However, you should be able to find at least one person out there who has installed Linux on the same equipment you are using.

Usenet archives proved invaluable when encountering issues with various video-adapter and network-adapter setups. This advantage is particularly true when it comes to notebooks. I even found solutions to an issue in Red Hat 7.0 where the Netscape 4.75 address book crashes continually. The recommendation from most people in this case was to install Netscape 6, which resolved the problem.

Linux on Notebooks
Most users who have battled with installing any Unix platform on notebooks conclude notebooks are primarily for Windows. In the past I have labored long and hard to get the correct video drivers working. Then, I've had to face the ultimate challenge of configuring PCMCIA Ethernet cards to work.

Red Hat 7.0 has now changed my thinking about Unix on notebooks. It installed with a minimum of fuss. My only real challenge occurred with the GUI screen configuration. But after a few minutes on the Red Hat Web site, I was up and running.

One international issue you may encounter involves keyboard characters. After loading a video adjustment for the /etc/X11/XF86Config file, your keyboard may not give you the correct characters when you are typing in the X Window. The solution here is to edit the file and change it to represent the U.S. keyboard. Then, the file won't represent another keyboard, such as DE (German), instead. But first, I would advise you to back up default files in the /etc/X11 directory before making any changes. For example, use the command

cp /etc/X11/XF86Config /etc/X11/XF86Config_orig

If you don't do a backup first, you can cause yourself to spend hours trying to adjust the settings. Here again, Red Hat's How To pages come to the rescue.

Most Linux Web sites have powerful search engines. These search engines allow you to view the How To pages on their site as well as many other Linux sites. Both the Xerox (www.xerox.com) and 3COM Corp. (www.3com.com) PCMCIA cards I assessed configured without issue on the first boot. I was expecting installation to be much harder than it turned out to be.

Avoiding Reboots
One nice feature of Red Hat 7.0 on a notebook is the ability to change IP addresses without a reboot. I often use different IP addresses, depending on where I'm connected to our WAN. I sometimes connect via modem (using PPP--Kppp) and other times at varying LAN points. The netcfg utility allows me to change my IP address and reactivate the Ethernet interface (eth0) without rebooting. It all works well with the PCMCIA interface.

Linux and Other Unix Systems
If you are integrating Red Hat or other Linux platforms with various Unix servers (like SCO or Sun), you may have some of the same small issues I found. Terminal emulation through the GUI works best by using the xterm environment variable. SCO OpenServer and HP-UX use xterm. Unixware 7 works well with dtterm for terminal emulation (terminfo). For U.S.-based settings you must replace the equivalent pc settings with the following two values:

XkbSymbols "us(pc101)"
XkbModel "pc101"

You may need to become familiar with the terminfo setup on your Unix system to address some minor issues, such as the Backspace key (Ctrl-H). In addition, you may find some prompts in your shell scripts no longer work on Linux. Those using the "\c" to keep the cursor in the current position provide one example. To fix this issue, simply use the echo -n option for any lines acting as prompts.

Software Packages
Sun's much-coveted StarOffice package allows Unix users to enjoy full compatibility with the Microsoft suite of packages, such as Word or Excel. It has been quite a task to install StarOffice on Unix versions running the lxrun utility. But running StarOffice on Red Hat reaps the same ease of installation and use as it does on Sun systems. Perhaps you are currently using Microsoft Office under Windows. If so, StarOffice in both the Windows and Unix environments offers equal power and compatibility without the price tag. In fact, you'll often find StarOffice on most CD-ROMs distributed with PC-oriented magazines.

Graphical Edits and Views
In addition, Red Hat offers many other goodies such as Gimp. This freeware graphical editor is quite similar to Paintshop. The KDE Desktop includes a host of graphical viewers. It also offers the good old X-based favorites, such as World Watch for international time zones and MoonPhase (Xphoon).

Red Hat comes with a highly intuitive utility designed to scan for new or removed hardware on boot up. This process allows users more flexibility with hardware configuration. It is easy to identify and autoconfigure modems, sound cards, PCMCIA, and other peripherals on system start-up. Unlike other Unix systems, the new hardware normally does not require kernel relinking and system rebooting. Adding other nonstandard hardware is often as simple as loading the vendor's driver-kernel module and following the instructions.

Wrapping It Up
Red Hat plugs seamlessly into an existing network as a powerful front-end workstation or server equipped with low-cost or no-cost utilities. It allows complete communication in a network environment. It fully interfaces with other Unix systems via standard TCP/IP protocols with Windows PCs, using Samba. The protocols include Telnet, Rlogin, R-commands, HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), FTP (File Transfer Protocol), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), and POP.

Alternatively, Red Hat interfaces by using add-on packages, such as the Linux Citrix Systems Inc. (www.citrix.com) Metaframe client. With Red Hat, Unix-industry specialists have a wealth of utilities at their fingertips.


David M. Clark is the Director and Senior UNIX Consultant for DAVROM CONSULTING Pty Ltd. You can reach him at david@davrom.com.