crouse
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 Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2025 3:12 pm Post subject: Book Review: Linux Quick Fix Notebook by Peter Harrison |
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Book Review: Linux Quick Fix Notebook by Peter Harrison
USA Linux Users Group Book Review
Reviewer: Crouse
Book: Linux Quick Fix Notebook
Author: Peter Harrison
Published by Prentice Hall PTR (2005)
Series: Bruce Perens' Open Source Series.
ISBN: 0131861506; Published: Mar 21, 2025; Copyright 2025;
Dimensions 7x9-1/4 ; Pages: 696; Edition: 1st.
This book is designed for intermediate to advanced Linux users. Designed with a system's administrator in mind, it covers many of the issues a systems administrator might have to deal with in the course of a day. If your a "power" Linux user or an administrator of a Linux system, you will probably find several useful examples in this book. That's one of the things I noticed right away, it wasn't just a book with alot of bland reading material, there are examples and code on almost every page to help in a "hands on" sort of way. Chapter after chapter of information that intermediate users will love, and advanced users will find helpful as well. Sorry, this book isn't for newbies, as it definately covers topics that are more advanced than "Why shouldn't I run as root?". Windows administrators needing some quick help on some of the topics below will find this book especially invaluable. Topics that are covered include issues like:
Network Troubleshooting
The Linux boot process
Configuring the DHCP server
Windows, Linux, and Samba
Linux Wireless Networking
Linux Firewalls
FTP Server Setup
Telnet, TFTP, and xinetd
SSH and remote logins
Configuring DNS
The Apache Web Server
Configuring Linux Mail Servers
Network based Linux Installation
Linux Software raid
Configuring NIS
Centralized logins using LDAP and Radius
Controlling web access with SQUID
Configuring Linux VPN's
There isn't much "hand holding" there if your not at least familiar with these topics, but the book is a very valuable reference for the intermediate to advanced users, providing example after example for these topics. Each of these topics have covered entire books on their own, but this book is more like a collection of tips and tricks for Linux administrators. I had no more than picked this book up and I found an answer to a networking problem I was having. Needless to say, that was all the motivation I needed to read most of the rest of the book. No, I didn't read EVERY word, as some chapters simply were not interesting to me on a personal level. However I did glance over every chapter that I didnt' read and indeed there are those same examples and command notes in those chapters as well.
One command I hadn't tried before was chkconfig --list
This command lists the applications started at each runlevel. chkconfig when used with grep can be used to find out which levels a program starts in.
chkconfig --list | grep cups will show you the runlevels the cups server starts in. It will output something like:
| Code: |
[root@localhost root]# chkconfig --list | grep cups
cups 0:off 1:off 2:on 3:on 4:on 5:on 6:off
[root@localhost root]#
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The book also explains how to use chkconfig to CHANGE which runlevels a program will run in chkconfig --level 234 cups off My example will turn OFF cups from starting when starting runlevel 2 or 3 or 4 from the above example. While this may not seem real complicated, the book examples and notes are extremely useful in figuring things out. The book contains information similar to my example above, but in much greater detail and with better explanations 
Each chapter ends with a nice "Conclusion", and I found them very interesting and helpful. While this book isn't for everyone, I highly recommend it if you want some extremely useful Linux administration tips.
Websites:
http://www.quickfixnotebook.com/
http://www.htmltr.com/title/0131470248
Original review: http://usalug.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.html?p=66817
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