► http://www.lnx-bbc.org/ — Home page for the Bootable Business Card, a 50MB compressed Linux distribution that offers hundreds of networking clients, a live X session, web browsing, PDA backup, wireless networking, rescue sessions, and file recovery.
► http://www.coyotelinux.com/ — Home page for several compact Linux distributions offering firewalling and VPN services. The floppy-based distribution works quite well on older PCs and does not require a hard drive.
► http://www.freesco.org/ — Home page for a floppy-based Linux router solution that works on 386 PCs, requires only 6MB of RAM, and provides bridging, firewalling, IP masquerading, DNS, DHCP, web, telnet, print, time, and remote access functions.
► http://www.bitwizard.nl/sig11/ — A detailed overview of some root causes of Linux Signal 11 errors.
► http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/parted.html#introduction — Home page for the GNU parted utility.
► http://www.linux.org/vendors/systems.html — One place to check for a vendor near you selling Linux preinstalled on a PC, laptop, server, or hard drive.
APPENDIX C
Fedora and Linux Internet Resources
Linux enjoys a wealth of Internet support in the form of websites with technical information, specific program documentation, targeted whitepapers, bug fixes, user experiences, third-party commercial technical support, and even free versions of specialized, fine-tuned clone distributions.
This appendix lists many of the supporting websites, FTP repositories, Usenet newsgroups, and electronic mailing lists that you can use to get more information and help with your copy of Fedora.
If you are a small business, corporate, or enterprise- level Red Hat Enterprise Linux user, do not forget that you can always turn to the source, Red Hat, or third- party companies, such as Dell and HP who supply Red Hat servers for commercial technical support on a 24/7 onsite basis, by phone, by electronic mail, or even on a per-incident basis. Red Hat offers a spectrum of support options for its software products. You can read more about support options when you purchase Red Hat software at https://www.redhat.com/apps/commerce/. Remember that Fedora is not an officially supported product from Red Hat. If you want help, try http://fedoraforum.org.
This appendix also lists websites that might be of general interest when using Fedora or specific components such as Xorg. Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the URLs, but keep in mind that the Internet is always in flux!
yumKeeping informed about bug fixes, security updates, and other errata is critical to the success and health of a Fedora system. To keep abreast of the most important developments when using Fedora, be sure to register with the Fedora Announcements mailing list. The list tells you about updates that have been issued and what has been fixed as a result. Go to http://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-announce-list to register for this mailing list. At the very least you should use the updater applet, or puplet as it's affectionately known, to ensure that you are up-to-date with all the patches, bug fixes, and security updates that are available for your system. Alternatively, if you are taken with the command line, you could also use the yum update command (as root) to do the same thing.
Websites and Search Engines
Literally thousands of websites exist with information about Linux and Fedora. The key to getting the answers you need right away involves using the best search engines and techniques. Knowing how to search can mean the difference between frustration and success when troubleshooting problems. This section provides some Internet search tips and lists Red Hat, Fedora, and Linux-related sites, sorted by various topics. The lists are not comprehensive, but have been checked and were available at the time of this writing.
Web Search Tips
Troubleshooting problems with Linux by searching the web can be an efficient and productive way to get answers to vexing problems. One of the most basic rules for conducting productive searches is to use specific search terms to find specific answers. For example, if you simply search for "Fedora Linux," you end up with too many links and too much information. But if you search for "Fedora sound," you are more likely to find the information you need. If you receive an error message, use it; otherwise, use the Linux kernel diagnostic message as your search criterion.
Other effective techniques include the following:
► Using symbols in the search string, such as the plus sign (+) to force matches of web pages containing both strings (if such features are supported by the search engine)
► Searching within returned results
► Sorting results (usually by date to get the latest information)
► Searching for related information
► Stemming searches; for example, specifying returns for not only link but also linking and linked
Invest some time and experiment with your favorite search engine's features — more productive searches will result. In addition to sharpening your search skills, also take the time to choose the best search engine for your needs.
Google Is Your Friend
Some of the fastest and most comprehensive search engines on the Web are powered by Linux, so it makes sense to use the best available resources. Out of the myriad number of websites with search engines, http://google.com stands out from the crowd, with at least 81 million users per month. Google makes use of advanced hardware and software to bring speed and efficiency to your searches, although at its heart is a heavily customized Linux distro. If you are looking for specific Linux answers, take advantage of Google's Linux page at http://google.com/linux.
Why is Google (named after a math number) so powerful? You can get a quick idea from the company itself at http://www.google.com/technology/index.html. Part of its success is because of great algorithms, good programming, and simple interface design, but most users really seem to appreciate Google's uncanny capability to provide links to what you are looking for in the first page of a search return. Google's early success was also assured because the site ran its search engine on clusters of thousands of PCs running a customized version of Red Hat Linux!
Google has the largest database size of any search engine on the web, with reputedly more than eight billion web pages searched and indexed. The database size is important because empty search results are useless to online users, and the capability to return hits on esoteric subjects can make the difference between success and failure or satisfaction and frustration. Some of Google's features include a GoogleScout link to return similar pages on the results page, the capability to see the exact version of a web page as returned to a search engine (known as a cached feature), advanced searches, and more recently, a link to an active Usenet news feed!
To get a better idea of what Google can offer you, browse to http://www.google.com/options/. You will find links to more than two dozen different services and tools covering specialized searches, databases, information links, translators, and other helpful browsing tools.