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Debian GNU/Linux: The Complete Documentation

• This category contains 46 Papers
• The last paper was added on 2007-03-26 (YYYY-MM-DD)

An apt-get primer

Published on 2004-12-09, by Bruce Byfield, ©Open Source Technology Group.

If any single program defines the Debian Linux project, that program is apt-get. apt-get is Debian's main tool for installing and removing software. Working with the .deb package format, apt-get offers sophisticated package management that few Red Hat Package Manager RPM-based distributions can match.

APT HOWTO

Published on July 2003, by Gustavo Noronha Silva, ©Debian GNU/Linux.

This document intends to provide the user with a good understanding of the workings of the Debian package management utility, APT. Its goal is to make life easier for new Debian users and to help those who wish to deepen their understanding of the administration of this system. It was created for the Debian project in order to help improve the support available for users of this distribution.

APT Pupil: your own repository

Published on 2005, by Roberto Alsina, ©Roberto Alsina.

In a previous article, I explained how APT can improve your Fedora (or similar) system administration experience. In yet another, I explained how to create your own RPMs without much trouble. Well, you can surely see how there is a need for this article, explaining how you can use your own RPMs via APT, right? So, based on the principle that you can't have too much of a good thing, here it is: a (hopefully) simple guide to building your own APT-RPM repository. There is already at least one decent such guide: It's good!. I will go into a little more detail, though.

APT Signature Checking

Published on , by Isaac Jones and Colin Walters, ©Isaac Jones and Colin Walters.

APT Secure is the working name of a project to add to APT the ability to verify the authenticity of Debian packages. APT and its surrounding infrastructure contain a chain of trust from the developer to the end user. In versions prior to 0.6, this chain is not authenticated by the installing machine. APT Secure fixes that problem. As of Christmas, 2003, the version of APT in experimental (0.6 and later) contains the APT Secure patch, with some changes. Simply apt-get install apt/experimental. Users of previous versions of APT Secure should remove the vendor annotations from their sources.list file, since these may now cause parse errors.

apt-build - Optimize Debian packages for your system

Published on 2005, by Julien Reveret, ©Julien Reveret.

Since the arrival of the very first versions of Gentoo, some people have announced that "Debian is good, but that's not optimized for [distribution in which you run make all the time]". And this is wrong, you are free to recompile software you use on Debian, using the apt system. Downloading a tarball, uncompressing it, running configure scripts and make install, is an easy task for every Linux user, but this is not adapted for the Debian package management system. Stow was a way which worked without too much effort, but compiled programs were not really integrated in the apt dependancies. The ultimate solution is to use apt-build to recompile a software already packaged for Debian.

ATI Linux driver packages for Debian

Published on 2004-09-12, by Flavio Stanchina, ©Flavio Stanchina.

This page explains how to build Debian packages from the ATI Linux driver for the ATI Radeon 8500, 9000, 9100, 9200, 9500, 9600, 9700, 9800, X800 (AGP only), Mobility M9, M9+, M10 and the ATI FireGL 8700, 8800, E1, E2, X1, X2, X3-256, Z1 graphics accelerators. Click here to learn how this package was born.

Automatic Debian Package Repository HOWTO

Published on 2005-01-16, by Roberto C. Sanchez, ©Roberto C. Sanchez.

This HOWTO was inspired by several things:

• A desire to more effectively manage some packages I have backported and created locally (kernel images and JDK packages).
• A desire to help others who are interested in creating a local repository.
• A desire to help extend some of the available documentation, which does not go into sufficient detail.
• An interest in creating an automatic repository (which is not so well documented), as opposed to a trivial repository (which limits flexibility).

There are also many good reasons as to why you may want to create your own package repository. Say you are trying to install something that depends on the package j2sdk1.4. This is not possible without outside sources, since Debian does not distribute JREs or JDKs. Naturally, you could just add the Blackdown deb sources to your sources.list and be on your way. But what if you prefer the Sun JRE? You would have to download it from Sun and manually install it. If you do this with enough packages you will lose track or begin forgetting where you have placed things.

ColdFusion 7.x Installation on Debian Sarge (3.1r1) Linux

Published on 2006-01-10, by Oğuz Demirkapı, ©Oğuz Demirkapı.

Because there is not any documentation about ColdFusion installation on Debian over internet. As you know Debian Linux is not supported officialy by Adobe. But Debian is one of the mosts used and well known Linux distribition for specially server usage and I think there would be some other people who wants to use Debian and ColdFusion together.

Create Debian Linux packages

Published on July 10, 2003, by Joe "Zonker" Brockmeier, ©IBM developerWorks.

Learn the basics of creating Debian packages for distributing programs and source code. This article shows all the necessary components of a package and how to put them together to end up with a final product.

Creating custom kernels with Debian's kernel-package system

Published on 15 April 2003, by Kevin McKinley, ©Kevin McKinley.

I used to compile kernels manually, and it involved a series of steps to be taken in order; kernel-package was written to take all the required steps (it has grown beyond that now, but essentially, that is what it does). This is especially important to novices: make-kpkg takes all the steps required to compile a kernel, and installation of kernels is a snap. - Manoj Srivastava, author of kernel-package

Debian Binary Package Building HOWTO

Published on 2003-12-19, by Chr. Clemens Lee, ©Chr. Clemens Lee.

The intended use of such a newly created archive is to install it only on your own box, not to get them into the official Debian distribution. To follow the 'official' process, please study the Debian New Maintainers' Guide. Normal Debian packages get a proper source package, including a debian/rules file which automates the steps involved in creating the binary package. Here we just show how to package a simple shell script or binary executable into a small binary package. BTW, I assume you know how to use 'tar', 'man', and what a '.tar.gz' file and Debian is (and how to use an editor ;-), but I assume you have never touched programs like 'ar' or 'dpkg'.

Debian dvd::rip clustering

Published on 2004-01-17, by anton, ©myrddin.org.

Firstly you will need dvd::rip, but to do so you will need to add the following line to your /etc/apt/sources.list. deb http://marillat.free.fr/ unstable main Now you will need to get some packages. apt-get update apt-get install video-dvdrip

Debian Euro HOWTO

Published on June 04, 2003, by Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña, www.debian.org.

As of January 1st 2002, twelve European Union countries, and several others, are starting to use the euro as the only official currency. Thus, all the prices will be shown in euros and all the monetary transactions will use it. Euro is expected to become a common currency throughout Europe and even some other continents.

Debian GNU/Linux FAQ (The)

Published on February 14, 2003, by Josip Rodin, www.debian.org.

This document answers questions frequently asked about Debian GNU/Linux.

Debian Java FAQ

Published on November 06, 2002, by Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña, www.debian.org.

Answers to Frequently Asked Questions on Debian and Java (Note: some information is not up-to-date). Any changes/corrections to this FAQ are appreciated, please send them to the current maintainer.

Debian New Maintainers' Guide

Published on 2002-04-06, by Josip Rodin, ©Josip Rodin.

This document tries to describe building of a Debian package to the common Debian user, and wannabe developer. It uses pretty common language, and it's well covered with working examples. There is an old Roman saying, Longum iter est per preaecepta, breve et efficax per exempla! (It's a long way by the rules, but short and efficient with examples!).

Debian Policy Manual

Published on 1998, by Ian Jackson and Christian Schwarz, ©Ian Jackson and Christian Schwarz.

This manual describes the policy requirements for the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. This includes the structure and contents of the Debian archive and several design issues of the operating system, as well as technical requirements that each package must satisfy to be included in the distribution.

Debian Quick Reference

Published on July 26, 2003, by Osamu Aoki, www.debian.org.

This Debian Quick Reference is intended to provide a short introduction to the Debian system as a quick reference. This is an excerpt of Debian Reference.

Debian Reference

Published on July 26, 2003, by Osamu Aoki, www.debian.org.

This Debian Reference is intended to provide a broad overview of the Debian system as a post-installation user's guide. It covers many aspects of system administration through shell-command examples. Basic tutorials, tips, and other information are provided for topics including fundamental concepts of the Debian system, system installation hints, Debian package management, the Linux kernel under Debian, system tuning, building a gateway, text editors, CVS, programming, and GnuPG for non-developers.

Debian Repository HOWTO

Published on January 07, 2003, by Aaron Isotton, www.isotton.com.

This document explains what a Debian repository is and how you can set up one.

Debian, SSL Certificates and Certificate Authorities

Published on 2004-01-17, by anton, ©myrddin.org.

Considering at the time of writing, the debian apache-ssl package only gives you a one month SSL certificate for use with your apache-ssl server, most people would be needing to generate new SSL keys for their web servers. This used to be performed using the ssl-certificate script but unfortunately that script has been depreciated. This howto is designed to show you how to create your own CA (Certificate Authority) keys as well as SSL certificates signed by your CA for use on your web servers.

Debian-Kernel-Compile-Howto (Kernel 2.4)

Published on 2004-06-12, by Falko Timme, .

In some cases you might want to compile your own kernel that suits your needs better than the standard kernel that comes with your distribution. I will describe how to do this on a Debian machine. Be aware that there is some risk in doing so! For example, it could happen that your machine does not boot properly after you have installed the new kernel so you might be forced to boot from a rescue CD to repair your system. You have been warned! This document comes without warranty of any kind!

Debian-Kernel-Compile-Howto (Kernel 2.6)

Published on 2004-12-27, by Falko Timme, ©Falko Timme.

In some cases you might want to compile your own kernel that suits your needs better than the standard kernel that comes with your distribution. I will describe how to do this on a Debian machine. Please note that this tutorial is for kernel 2.6 only! A tutorial for kernel 2.4 can be found here. Be aware that there is some risk in doing so! For example, it could happen that your machine does not boot properly after you have installed the new kernel so you might be forced to boot from a rescue CD to repair your system. You have been warned! This document comes without warranty of any kind!

Installing Debian 3.0 onto an Apple iBook

Published on May 21, 2003, by Branden Robinson, ©Branden Robinson.

These instructions should apply to any model of iBook, but they have only been tested by the author on a 2001 iBook Dual USB.

Installing Debian on IBM RS/6000 B50

Published on 2003-12-23, by anton, ©myrddin.org.

First we need to prepare the boot disks. We need the image files rescue.bin and root.bin from http://http.us.debian.org/dists/woody/main/disks-powerpc/current/chrp/images-1.44/ The included kernel image linux.bin will not work on this machine so replace it with http://www.kutilek.de/technik/rs6k-2.4.17/linux.bin All necessary drivers are compiled into this kernel.

Installing lm-sensors on Debian

Published on 2003-06-15, by anton, ©myrddin.org.

Before commencing you need to ensure you have compiled your own kernel.

Intrustion detection and prevention for Apache with mod-security

Published on 2004-12-28, by Steve Kemp, ©Steve Kemp.

mod-security is a simple intrusion detector and preventor for Apache™, allowing you to wrap an additional layer of protection around your webserver.

mod-security is a rule-based IPS (intrusion protection system) which allows you to create rules describing abnormal requests to your webserver. When malucious requests are made which match your rules the request can be denied, and the details logged.

With the rise of recent PHP-based worms, (such as Santy.E, or the renamed version PhpIncludeWorm), which attempt to exploit any PHP script they find it's suddenly much more important to protect your server.

The real protection, of course, is to only install and use secure code but if you're not auditing the code yourself, and the author was careless you could suddenly find yourself attacked with no warning.

Because the mod-security module can examine all parameters passed to your server be they GET or POST requests it is a perfect place to detect and defend against these attacks.

Linux on the Mac Mini

Published on 2005, by William R Sowerbutts, ©William R Sowerbutts.

Apple's Mac Mini™ is something which a lot of Linux™ users have been waiting for: An inexpensive, readily available PowerPC™ system in a small, quiet and attractive chassis.

Debian™ is very popular on Intel™ i386 compatible systems. Due to the open source nature of the Linux™ kernel and the Debian™ operating system, it is possible to build the same software to run on the PowerPC™ processor found inside the Mac Mini™. It's simple to swap your big, noisy old PC for the slim, svelte Mac Mini™, and this page aims to show you how to do just this.

Personally, I bought the Mac Mini™ as a replacement for my girlfriend's aging 1GHz Pentium-III system. Thanks to the portability of Debian™ and its advanced package management tools, making her new Mac™ look like her old PC took only an hour or so.

Mini-Howto for User Mode Linux: User Mode Linux with debian woody and lvm

Published on 2005, by Christian Wicke, ©Christian Wicke.

UML instances ("User Mode Linux") allow you to run multiple Linux servers on one physical machine. This can be handy for many different purposes. For example, you might want to give different people root rights, but prevent them from interfering with one another. Or, you might want to have several identically configured servers, one for production, one for development, and one for testing, but without investing in multiple physical machines.

Mounting encrypted volumes

Published on 2004, by Steve, ©Debian Administration.

If you're worried about storing confidential material upon your home machine, or a laptop, then you might be interested in using encryption. Using applications such as GNU Privacy Guard are good for protecting single files, but they lack something when wanting to keep a whole directory secure. This is where mounting volumes with an encryption module can be useful.

Using the loop-aes kernel module you can mount a file via the loopback interface and have everything written to that file be secure and private.

Of course there is a downside. Using encryption for a file will give you additional overhead, and it can make recovery of data difficult in the case of a crash, or filesystem corruption.

But the gain of mounting things securely is worthwhile.

The loopback module is available in Debian's unstable and sarge archives, and requires the use of the full kernel source of your running kernel to build.

For the moment it is suggested you use 2.6.x.

OpenGroupware-Debian-HOWTO

Published on 2004-10-04, by Robert Hutton, ©Robert Hutton.

based on the work by Bjoern Stierand posted on the OGo-Users list

Perfect Setup - Debian (The)

Published on 2003-12-05, by Falko Timme, ©Falko Timme.

This is a detailed description about the steps to be taken to setup a Debian based server that offers all services needed by ISPs and hosters (web server (SSL-capable), mail server (with SMTP-AUTH and TLS!), DNS server, FTP server, MySQL server, POP3, Quota, Firewall, etc.).

Recompiling a kernel the Debian way

Published on 2004-01-30, by anton, ©myrddin.org.

This is the way to compile a custom kernel against an existing debianized kernel package. This howto was written with Debian testing/unstable in mind at the time of writing. It should also be adaptable to debian stable by simply changing the actual kernel version numbers to match those available. It also goes without saying, to simply replace the kernel versions listed in this howto with those that are available in your flavour of debian, testing/unstable, etc.

Rolling Out Unattended Debian Installations (Part 1)

Published on 2004-12-06, by Carla Schroder, ©Jupitermedia Corporation.

The next time you have a hankerin' to install a new batch of Debian machines, make it easy on yourself and use FAI (Fully Automatic Installation). FAI is a versatile, intelligent installer for performing mass unattended Debian installations. Use it to install clusters, server farms, classroom computer labs, or new LANs.

Rolling Out Unattended Debian Installations (Part 1)

Published on 2004-12-06, by Carla Schroder, ©Jupitermedia Corporation.

The next time you have a hankerin' to install a new batch of Debian machines, make it easy on yourself and use FAI (Fully Automatic Installation). FAI is a versatile, intelligent installer for performing mass unattended Debian installations. Use it to install clusters, server farms, classroom computer labs, or new LANs.

Securing a Debian Linux Laptop for Road Warriors

Published on April 04, 2001, by Stephanie Thomas, ©SANS Institute.

For as long as mobile computers have been around, System Administrators have had to wrestle with the problems of securing them. Having a portable computer, while immensely advantageous to the user, can present some unique and challenging security vulnerabilities to the System Administrator. Many laptop users work remotely where their computers are exposed to a hostile network. To ensure productivity, remote users must be able to securely access email and files stored within the company's internal network. In addition, laptops are easy to steal - there have been numerous cases of laptop theft at the U.S. State Department within the past year : http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/04/17/state.computer.02/

Securing Debian Manual

Published on July 28, 2003, by Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña, Alexander Reelsen, www.debian.org.

This document describes the process of securing and hardening the default Debian installation. It covers some of the common tasks to set up a secure network environment using Debian GNU/Linux. It also gives additional information on the security tools available as well as the work done by the Debian security team.

Shockingly easy server upgrade

Published on December 03, 2002, by mmims, ©Debian Planet.

For a couple of years, I've been running a Debian GNU/Linux server in-house. The system is small, a 233 MHz Pentium MMX with 128 MB RAM. Initially, it only ran Majordomo with a couple of very small e-mail lists. As new needs arose, I began adding additional services: Samba, mgetty for two incoming fax lines, CVS, Jabber, Bugzilla, etc.

Simple MySQL cookbook

Published on 2004-12-28, by Steve Kemp, ©Steve Kemp.

In the course of running this site, and working with MySQL™ generally I've had to lookup miscellaneous documentation. Hopefully these tips will prove useful to others too.

MySQL is described by its authors as the worlds most popular open source database, despite missing several features offered by its leading competitor PostgreSQL™ it is very popular and often included in cheap webhosting packages.

Small http based apt repository howto

Published on 2002-11-10, by Richard Bos and Marcel Ritter, ©Richard Bos and Marcel Ritter.

Imagine that you have created and released some rpms, it is now possible to provide the same rpms via your own apt repository on your internet service provider (ISP) http pages. The only thing you need is enough disk space at your ISP.

Stack Smashing Protection for Debian

Published on 2006-06-23, by Steve, ©Debian Administration.

Since we last covered the use of Stack Smashing Protection (SSP) the default compiler for Debian Sid has been upgraded to include it, with no need for custom patching. Read on for a brief demonstration of how it can be used to prevent attacks.

The default C compiler for Sid, which will be used in Etch too, is GCC v4.1. This releasecontains the SSP patch which previously needed to be applied manually (we demonstrated applying this patch for GCC v3.4 a long time ago).

Since the SSP patch is included in the compiler by default it is suddenly a lot easier to start working with it.

Switching from LILO to Grub # The Debian way of course!

Published on , by anton, ©myrddin.org.

Lilo has some rather annoying restrictions especially you are one for constantly compiling your own kernels and its daily usage becomes a bit of a pain. One of the main advantage of Grub lies in the fact that it provides directly at boot time a tiny shell that makes emergency booting easier. It knows how to read natively an important number of filesystem including FAT, ext2, ext3, reiserfs .... This point is crucial since it removes the needs for running grub (as it is the case for LILO), each times you want to try a brand new kernel. You can even not touch its configuration file, thanks to the shell at boot time.

User's Guide

Published on February 14, 2003, by Osamu Aoki, www.debian.org.

This "User's Guide" is nothing but a reformatted "Progeny User's Guide". Contents are adjusted for the standard Debian system.

Using Debian From Scratch

Published on 2004, by J. Goerzen, .

Welcome to Debian From Scratch (DFS). DFS is really two systems: 1) a bootable CD for repairing Linux systems or installing Debian; and 2) the program that generates the CDs that are used for #1. Most of this manual focuses on #1. A wide variety of DFS CDs can be made using the DFS build tools. This manual will refer to CDs made using the default configuration.

Using Debian Linux Packages

Published on 2004, by Keith Parkansky, ©Keith Parkansky.

"Packages" are software. A package can be a workstation-type program (mozilla Web browser, gimp graphics editor, etc.), a server-type program (Apache Web server, Sendmail e-mail server, etc.), a utility (apcupsd for APC UPSs, taper backup utility), programming libraries, or OS components (GUIs, language modules, even kernel patches). You can download and install software which isn't "packaged". It's just that when software is put into a package it makes it easier to install because programs are already compiled (binary), directories are created if necessary, and all files (binary executables, text configuratin files, man pages, etc.) are put into the proper directories.

Using LDAP for name resolution

Published on , by Torsten Landschoff, Torsten Landschoff.

Installing the OpenLDAP server. Assuming you configured your Debian system and especially apt correctly just running apt-get install slapd ldap-utils as root should be enough to download and install the Debian package of the OpenLDAP server and the related client tools. The installation will ask you a few questions but for our needs the defaults should be good enough.