Linux questions

Hello,

decided to place this here rather than the Linux+ forum, as it doesn't specifically deal with certification.

first, Do I need to install any software updates distributed by the software updater? I am not familiar with everything that is part of linux, so I have no idea if I need an update, I know in windows, if it's an Windows Media update, "oh, well WMP isn't installed, ignore!"

Second, is there a terminal program included with Fedora I can use to manage my cisco devices? I've seen a mention of "Seyon" and "minicom", but I have no idea where to find them if they are installed, or how user friendly they are.

Thanks for your help

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UnixGuy

Good questions.

Well first we need to know the exact Linux distro you are using ?

Generally speaking, you need to upgrade/patch each software/package indivdually. But if you are using RedHat, for example, then you have to have a subscription with RedHat netowrk to get updates/patches online. For Sun Solaris, you can download a lot of patches from Sun website but not everything, you need a support contract to get some premium patches. You can always connected to internet and click "update", but it's not a good practice, generally speaking.

Make sure you backup your system before you patch/upgrade anything.

Rule of thumb: patch management in Linux/Unix is not a simple task.

SephStorm wrote: »

Hello,

decided to place this here rather than the Linux+ forum, as it doesn't specifically deal with certification.

first, Do I need to install any software updates distributed by the software updater? I am not familiar with everything that is part of linux, so I have no idea if I need an update, I know in windows, if it's an Windows Media update, "oh, well WMP isn't installed, ignore!"

Second, is there a terminal program included with Fedora I can use to manage my cisco devices? I've seen a mention of "Seyon" and "minicom", but I have no idea where to find them if they are installed, or how user friendly they are.

Thanks for your help

Slowhand

SephStorm wrote: »

[F]irst, Do I need to install any software updates distributed by the software updater? I am not familiar with everything that is part of linux, so I have no idea if I need an update, I know in windows, if it's an Windows Media update, "oh, well WMP isn't installed, ignore!"

I'm assuming you're using Fedora, as you mention later in your post. If that's the case, you're probably using yum to update your machine. There's a graphical tool and a command-line utility to run updates, and you are able to pick and choose what updates you allow to install, just like with Windows Update. Of course, there are also ways to update EVERYTHING without any prompting, as well as upgrading your OS, via yum. Your best bet is to play around with it and read up on the auto-update features on the Fedora Project site.

SephStorm wrote: »

Second, is there a terminal program included with Fedora I can use to manage my cisco devices? I've seen a mention of "Seyon" and "minicom", but I have no idea where to find them if they are installed, or how user friendly they are.

I'm not sure what other tools are included, but Telnet and SSH clients should both be available as standard install options with most Linux distros, including Fedora. If you're looking for something fancier, then you'll have to look into what's available for Fedora through APT and yum or look around for a stand-alone product that works with Fedora. (This might be a good time to start messing around with source-code installs.)

SephStorm

Thats actually what I was doing, I installed nmap via command line follwing instructions from the nmap website. I had to work through some issues with packages that were not installed, but I got it in the end. I'll do a few more that way if I have the opportunity, that way I get it down pat.

FYI, I am using Fedora 13. So I am using the yum gui currently to do updates, but is there any way to know what I NEED to update?

NightShade03

From the command line (as root) you could do:

# yum list updates

This will show you anything that needs to be updated.

Pash

Don't have any cookies or bites near your PC when doing application instals/updates in an RPM based distro. YUM tehehehehee. I hate working late

Good luck with your Linux studies. www.distrowatch.com is what we would all recommend.

Try as many distro's as possible and try installing/updating apps from terminal rather than gui. That way, when you are in a locked down shell on a linux box you will be very valuable!

I personally like downloading random distros and beta's and trying things out. Make sure you try out different distros and mess about lots with kde and gnome. Personally I am overall liking Ubuntu 10.10 at the moment. Very clean Gnome desktop environment, compiz is installed by default which means when you install the compiz settings manager you can enable/disable the cool 3d cube navigation!!!

tiersten

yum will only offer updates for packages you've got installed.

JockVSJock

Hey StepStorm, I use Minicom to manage my Cisco routers/switches. I used Ubuntu as my Linux distro manage them from.

If you want to check and see if Minicom is installed, type the following command

whereis minicom

Could also use the Find command too...As for getting the Minicom package, I remember 10 years ago when I first started to run RedHat, there where websites that were able to find rpm packages.

I found this one via Google

RPM resource minicom...

Of course you want to d/l the ones built for Fedora.

Also, maybe would recommend grabbing VirtualBox here: Linux_Downloads - VirtualBox

And then you can setup an environment where you can 'play' with Linux iso and not worry about having any issues with your prod machine.

-J

Forsaken_GA

SephStorm wrote: »

Hello,

first, Do I need to install any software updates distributed by the software updater? I am not familiar with everything that is part of linux, so I have no idea if I need an update, I know in windows, if it's an Windows Media update, "oh, well WMP isn't installed, ignore!"

How updates are handled are determined by what distribution you use. If you're using some sort of package management system (apt, yum, etc), then when you install a package, it will also install the dependencies. When you go to update your software, most package management systems will check to see what you have installed, and only look for updates to those packages. There's no crap like trying to sneak an internet exploder update in on you when you use Firefox/Safari/Chrome/et al.

Second, is there a terminal program included with Fedora I can use to manage my cisco devices? I've seen a mention of "Seyon" and "minicom", but I have no idea where to find them if they are installed, or how user friendly they are.

Yeah, there are plenty of terminal programs if you need to access the console port. The hard part these days is finding a computer with a console port, but USB to Serial adapters fill those needs quite nicely. minicom is quite popular. Personally, I use screen.

darkerosxx

minicom
conman(d)