> Can someone tell me what they consider to be a good up to > date Debian book for a beginner, one that doesn't assume that > the reader has a background in Unix or DOS? Is there such a book?
As a couple of people have mentioned already, most of the good documentation is online. Some folks also mention a couple of O'Reilly Books; "Essential System Administration" and "Running Linux" I happen to own both of those, and am a linux newbie myself. I've found both to be useful, but neither will stand on its own. I've found them most useful for helping me understand basic Linux concepts, such as run levels and what goes in the /etc directory vs the /usr directory. For the nitty-gritty commands, however, I've found both of these books to be either way out of date, or not focused (enough) on Debian. "Running Linux" for instance, tells you that to configure your TCP/IP address, you should modify the /etc/rc.d/rc.inet1 file. At least on my Debian box, that's completely wrong - I don't even have an rc.d directory, let alone an rc.inet1 file. (the file you want, BTW, is /etc/network/interfaces) That said, both books were essential in my ability to get two Debian boxes up and running, so they do provide some value. Just understand that you'll have to take the concepts they give you and then go dig up the real command/file/location in the online Debian documentation. HTH --kurt
