The beginner’s handbook

Debian 9 Stretch

3hg team © WTFPL

Updated: July 8, 2017

– About this manual –

“The beginner’s handbook” is a simpli ed manual to install and take-over the Debian system.

You will nd in the following pages the answers to your rst questions concerning the Debian
GNU/Linux system , its history, how to obtain it, to install it, to take-over it, to con gure and
administrate it.

You will be able to go further and obtain information concerning the privacy protection, the back-
ing up of your data, and the various actors of the Free Software world.

Usually, the manuals begin by teaching you the theoretical basis and the usage of the terminal.
This manual takes the very side of the “graphical environment”: it is designed to let you start
quickly with Debian, screen powered on, ngers on the keyboard and the mouse nearby .

– The mission of this manual is not to be comprehensive. –

A lot of external links are available in this manual. Don’t hesitate to click on them in order to read
more detailed information.

For a more detailed documentation, please visit the o cial Debian Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/
FrontPage

If you need a complete Debian manual, please read the Debian Administrator Handbook from
Raphaël Hertzog and Roland Mas https://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/.

– How to use this manual?–

This PDF version includes a detailed summary and a table of gures at the end of the guide.
Note: This manual includes some commands or code blocks that are sometimes longer than the
width of the page. In this case, a backslash \ is added and the rest of the command or code is
carried over to the next line.

The Debian beginner’s handbook: https://lescahiersdudebutant.fr/index-en.html

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 Debian? What’s that?

Distribution, free software, community, packages, source code … but what is De-
bian in fact?

1.1 The Debian GNU/Linux system

Debian is an operating system libre (as in free speech) and gratis (as in free beer). Debian
allows your computer to function and o ers you a a full set of Free Software for all the usual
practices (sur ng the Web, sending emails, playing multimedia les, doing o ce kind of tasks),
and more …
This collection of Libre Software comes to a large extend from the GNU project, launched in 1983
by Richard M. Stallman. The Linux kernel developed by Linus Torvalds came to complete those
software to make GNU/Linux.

GNU & Tux, logos of the GNU projet and the Linux kernel by Péhä CC-BY-SA

2
1.1. The Debian GNU/Linux system

The Debian GNU/Linux distribution was started by Ian Murdock (rip) in August 1993. Everything
started with a little, but solid, group of free software hackers, which grew up to become a big and
well organized community of developers and end users. Debian is now developed by a thousand
of volunteers spread around the world.

in memory of Ian Murdock by Péhä CC-0

So, Debian is a complete set of free software. A free software is de ned by the 4 freedoms:
it gives the end users the freedom in using, studying, sharing and modifying that software,
without breaking the law. To achieve this, it is necessary for the developer to distribute the source
code and authorize the end-user to exercise its rights granted by a free license.
One of the major interests of the free software is that it allows competent people to audit the
program code, to insure notably that it does only what it is supposed to do. So it is additional
barrier to protect your privacy .

Debian implements this principle in its Social Contract, and particularly in the Free Software Guide-
lines according to Debian.
This contract states that the Debian project will contain only free Software. Thus, during the instal-
lation of a Debian distribution, neither non-free drivers will be install by default. However the
contract recognizes that some users might need “non-free” components to run their systems, like
some peripheral drivers, or some applications decoding some music or video les, for example.
That’s why the distributed software is separated in 3 sections:

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1.2. Where to nd help

• main for the free software packages available by default,

• contrib for the packages respecting the free software guidelines by themselves, but are
depending on non-free software, which do not comply with these guidelines,
• non-free for packages which do not comply with the free software guidelines.

logo Debian texte

Debian id developed very thoroughly. Every new stable version is carefully tested by users
before it is released. And this release happens when it is ready. Hence few maintenance work
is required once the system is installed and facing problems is very rare.
Like numerous other free distributions, Debian is not very sensitive to malware (like viruses Trojan
horses, spyware…) and for several reasons:

• This large variety of software is available from repositories hosted on servers controlled
by the project. Therefore, it is not necessary to search programs to be installed on dubious
sites which distribute virus and unwanted programs in addition to the one you were looking
for.
• The administrator and the user rights are clearly separated, which helps a lot in limiting the
damages: In case of a viral infection, only the user’s documents are a ected. This clear
separation of the rights limits also the risks of error made between the keyboard and the
chair. More details on the rights in chapter 3.7.

The back-up of you data on a regular basis remains the best insurance to protect them
against potential viruses or technical issues, but also against your own mistakes (chap.9).

1.2 Where to nd help

Do you need help? The rst re ex, if you can, is to consult the documentation. Next comes the
various user’s forums, and then a GNU/Linux Group (LUG), if you are lucky enough to be located
nearby. There are also several events dedicated to the free software in various associations: you
will be able to de ne appointments not far from your home by consulting agendas of the Libre
software https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free-software_events.

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1.2. Where to nd help

• The documentation embedded in the system itself: in general, the installed applica-
tions include a manual available from the command line (chap.3.8) by typing “man applica-
tion_name” and/or from the graphical menu with the “Help” button of the application.
• The on-line documentation: when you use a GNU/Linux distribution like Debian, you can
access a detailed on-line documentation, with a list of the functionalities of the embedded
applications. Debian provides you an o cial documentation: https://wiki.debian.org.
• Self-help and support forums: the free software community is divided into a host of fo-
rums, sites and blogs of information. To nd your way in this abundance of communi-
cation is sometimes tricky, and you should rather prefer the sites dedicated to your own
environment or distribution. Concerning Debian 2 main self-help forums are available to
support you: Debian User forum (http://forums.debian.net/) and the Debian Help (forum
http://www.debianhelp.org/). You could get some extra information on the Debian O cial
Support page: https://www.debian.org/support
• Associations and LUGs: if you are lucky, you are living not too far from a Linux users group
or an association where members meet on a regular basis. In this case don’t hesitate to pay
them a visit for a little chat (http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/User-Group-HOWTO-3.html)

1.2.1 About forums, geeks, and the terminal

The self-help and support GNU/Linux community mainly consists of passionate volunteers who
share their knowledge with big pleasure. They are also very technical and are friendly called the
geeks (usually wearing a beard) with several years of computer practice behind them. This expe-
rience leads them to master the terminal, which is the most e cient tool to manage a GNU/Linux
system: therefore, the very rst answers found on the forums will naturally be given in the form
of a set of command line operations. Don’t be scared: in most of the cases a graphical solution
(using the mouse within a window) exists. Ask kindly and you will get an explanation.

To be able to ask a question on a self-help and support forum you should usually register
rst. You need a valid email address to register with, and receive a con rmation request message,
as well as your answers noti cations once registered.

Before you ask a question, please remember to look rst into the Questions/Answers already
solved: most of the forum include a search function by keyword, which will help you nd out if your
problem is already described in there and has a documented solution.

Don’t forget that a forum is usually maintained by volunteers, not to be confused with a post-sales
customer service organization .

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1.3. Few links before moving on

1.3 Few links before moving on

• The Free Software Foundation: https://www.fsf.org/?set_language=en

• About Debian: https://www.debian.org/intro/about.en.html
• Introduction to Debian: https://www.debian.org/intro/index.en.html
• The o cial Debian Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/DebianIntroduction
• the developer’s corner: https://www.debian.org/devel/
• the historic details: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/project-history/
• The joy of coding https://twitter.com/joyofcoding

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 A simpli ed introduction to computer
systems

We begin here a scary page…

Let’s start with a simple statement: Software developers and end-users do not speak
the same language…

dev vs users

7
But then … how are we going to make it?

Easy: we read the beginner’s handbook!

Within a short period of time, computers became an essential tool of the modern life. One issue is
that information and education don’t follow the technical progress at the same pace, nor the needs
of the users.
Therefore, it is di cult for a “new user” to discover the full capabilities of its computer. Moreover
we use generally only few applications.
We will try to simplify this universe as far as possible, in order for you to make the most of your
computer and to enjoy the capabilities of Debian.
How does a computer work ?
One launches applications, clicks on icons, types text in… One needs a computer, a screen, a
keyboard, a mouse.

In this handbook, we will explain to you the basic manipulations in order to use your mouse

and your keyboard .

What use for a computer?
It seems di cult to summarize in few sentences the whole scope of information technology. How-
ever its usage is somewhat clear :

• watch a movie: whether it is for your summer vacation footage, or a DVD, or a video le
downloaded from Internet, Debian o ers you several multimedia players. An example in this
manual with VLC (chap.6.7)
• listen to music: enjoy your audio CD, your direct radio streaming, or your digital music
library with Rhythmbox (chap.6.8) and no trouble at all.
• search for something on Internet: browse the Net, visit pages, contribute to Internet, by
using several Debian web applications let’s take Firefox as an example (chap.6.6).
• read or write electronic mails: communicate with your family, your contacts, using either
your email client or your web browser (chap.6.4)
• work on formatted documents or presentations: Debian includes several applications,
but the LibreO ce suite (chap.6.9) will let you perform all kinds of o ce work using compat-
ible formats.
• walk through your family pictures: your memories in one click, simply using the image
viewers integrated on all the Debian desktop.
• print documents or images: Debian uses the CUPS printing server, and its common con-
guration tool (chap.6.2.2), but you can also use an integrated utility for a printer simpli ed
con guration (chap.6.2.1)

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2.1. Test your level of computer skills

And this is exactly the knowhow you are going to learn with the beginner’s handbook .

2.1 Test your level of computer skills

Keep in mind that this manual is not cast in stone… Our advices are only suggestions regarding
your computer knowledge …
First of all, you are free !
Importantly, be as honest as possible: we are all beginners in one domain or another (personally,
I am unable to change the injectors in the carburettor of my car) and it is not a fault. The issue is
raising only because computers are taking a large space in our lives, and penalize the newbies.
But we are here to change all that!
The goal of this manual is not to transform you in GNU/Linux sysadmin (short for system admin-
istrator), but simply give you the tools to utilize your computer as you want !
Outright beginner?
You never or rarely used a keyboard? You still wonder why you must “open a window” and what
is this “drag and drop” concept? Please continue reading this manual and follow its guidance.
You will learn how to:

• use your mouse and keyboard: the tools to directly interface with the machine,
• recognize the basic elements of your desktop environment: menus, panels, windows, virtual
desktop …
• and then discover Debian and its functionalities.

Novice user?
You are a Windows® user and/or you have a little experience with GNU/Linux, but you never
installed it: it is the right time to choose your Debian (chap.4) and discover the main interface of
your future system.
Basic user?
You have already used a Debian derivative and/or another free distribution, and you know exactly
what you need. Let’s jump directly to the serious stu with the actual installation (chap.5).

2.2 The mouse

The mouse is the physical interface which let you move the pointer on the screen: the mouse

moves are synchronized with those of the of the little arrow (the pointer) on your desktop.

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2.2. The mouse

There are di erent types of mouse; We will take here the example of the classical mouse with two
buttons and a scrolling wheel.

2.2.1 Left-click and double-click

The left-click (or simple-click) is the most common and is used to point to (or select) either
a folder, or a le or an image, which can then be open with a double-click (done by quickly press-
ing twice the mouse left-button). This left-click is also used to send commands to the computer
(validating a choice for example) when one presses on the “button” or something else sensitive to
the click (like the cross closing a window, for example).

2.2.2 Right-click

The right-click is used to open a contextual menu (a variable list of options, depending on
the software used and the “object” pointed at by the mouse) in order to modify a le, a folder, a
con guration …

2.2.3 Middle-click

The middle-click or scrolling-wheel is used for scrolling and quick copy. If your mouse
has neither a middle button nor a scrolling wheel, the “middle-click” can be emulated by pressing
on the two (left and right) buttons at the same time.

2.2.4 Actions executed with the mouse

The main action of the mouse is to point an item to open it (in the case of a document for example)
or to launch it (in the case of a link to an application or a menu entry). For that, nothing very
complicated, just place the pointer on the element and then double-click with the left button of
your mouse.

One thing that you SHOULD NEVER DO is to click several times on a button if you think that
nothing happens. It is very possible that an application won’t start “immediately”, it is very de-
pending on your hardware and the application being launched. As an example, a web browser
takes signi cantly more time to start up, than the le manager.

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2.2. The mouse

2.2.4.1 Drag-and-drop

To graphically move or copy your data, it is enough to “drag” them across the screen and “drop”
them where you want (this is the graphical equivalent of the mv command).

Example: to move a le you just downloaded into another folder, press the left-button the le in
question, and while you hold the right-button, you move the mouse into the destination folder and
then you release the mouse button:

drag and drop: point to the le to be moved

drag and drop: hold the button while moving the mouse

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2.2. The mouse

drag and drop: move the mouse into the destination folder

drag and drop: release the button

2.2.4.2 Text selection

Put the cursor at the beginning or at the end of the text segment you want to select, then hold the
left-button, and move the mouse over the text you want selected. Then release the mouse button.

You can also double-click (click twice quickly on the mouse left-button) on the rst word you want
to select and then move the cursor.

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2.2. The mouse

text selection within the Gedit application

If you are fast enough, a triple-click will select the entire line or paragraph.

2.2.4.3 Copy and paste a selection

With the right-button: a right-click will display a contextual menu giving you the choice among
several actions, one of them being the requested copy/paste. Put the cursor within the selected
segment, right-click and choose the “copy” action. Then move the cursor where you want to paste
the selected text, right-click again and choose “paste”.

Copy and paste a text segment: copy the selection

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2.2. The mouse

Copy and paste a text segment: cursor on destination, right-click > paste

Copy and paste a text segment: selection pasted

With the middle-button: this is the fastest method. Once the text segment is selected, you just
need to move the pointer where you want to paste the selection and do a middle-click. The copy
is immediate.

2.2.4.4 Selection of several items

If you nedd to move, copy er delete several items, you can select them together.

To select a group of contiguous items: press and hold the left-button, move the mouse to drag a
frame around them and release the button when they are all selected. Then you can act on the
selection like explain previously (copy/paste or contextual menu)

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2.2. The mouse

Selecting several folders under Gnome

To select non contiguous items you can:

• either select each item one by one with a combination of the [Ctrl] key on the keyboard and
the left-button of the mouse: hold the [Ctrl] key down and left-click on each element you want
to select.
• or select all the elements and then “remove” the undesirable ones using a combination of
the [Ctrl] key on the keyboard and the left-button of the mouse: hold the [Ctrl] key down and
left-click on each element you want to remove from the selection.

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2.3. The keyboard

Selection of several non-contiguous items in a Nautilus window

2.3 The keyboard

The keyboard is the main physical interface to enter data in your computer. But it is not the
just the device which let you enter some words in the Internet search bar, or work with a word
processor. It includes also some special keys, called modi er keys, which allow you to execute
quick actions by modifying the behavior of the “normal” keys. The combinations of some “special”
keys with other “normal” keys form the keyboard shortcuts.

Default QWERTY keyboard layout

Example of layout for an English keyboard (cc-by-sa)

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2.3. The keyboard

2.3.1 The modi er keys

The “non-alphanumeric” keys of the keyboard give you access to extended functionalities during
action or edition phases. From the simple carriage return within a text editor with the [Enter] key,
to the launch of a Help window with the [F1] key, nd hereafter some descriptions of these special
keys:

• [ENTER] The rst “special” key, which is not really a modi er key. This is the most important
key of your keyboard since it let you end a command line, launch a search request. Basically
this is the key saying “Yes” to the computer. When a dialog window opens on the screen,
either to con rm a download or delete an application, take the time to read the message
before pressing [Enter].
• [Ctrl] or [Control] Located at the bottom of your keyboard, on both sides of the space bar,
it is the default key used for the shortcuts.
• [Alt] or [Function] By default this key displays the speci c shortcuts of an application.
Within an open window, pressing the [Alt] key reveals the shortcuts to navigate through
the menus or trigger some actions. These shortcut keys are identi ed by an underscore.
• [AltGr] let you use the hidden characters of the keyboard. More information in the dedicated
section (chap.2.3.3).
• [ESC] or [Escape] This key cancels the latest entry of a modi er, or closes a dialog box
asking the user to make a choice (equivalent to click on the “Cancel” button in the dialog
box).
• Tab or [Tabulation] Symbolized by two opposite horizontal arrows. It allows you to com-
plete a command or navigate through the various elds of a form, or menus of a window.
• [Shift] or [Uppercase] Key symbolized by a wide up-arrow. let you type capitalized char-
acters, and sometimes numbers (depending on your keyboard layout), some special char-
acters like “@”,“%”, “&” etc.
• [CapsLock] or [Capital Lock] Key symbolized by a lock or a larger [Shift], causes all letters
to be generated in capitals until deactivated. Equivalent to a [Shift] key down permanently.
• [F1], [F2]…[F12] Execute various functions… by de nition. The [F1] key is often used to
launch the Help function within applications, [F11] to switch to full-screen mode; For exam-
ple.

2.3.2 Keyboard shortcuts

Why bother? Because it’s much faster!

Note that the shortcuts are made by pressing down the keys together, at the same time: to copy
a selection, press and hold the [Ctrl] key, then press the “c” key. You can then release both keys,

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2.3. The keyboard

a clone of your selection is stored in the “clipboard” (a special bu er located in the memory of the
operating system).
Hereafter a short summary of the most useful keyboard shortcuts:

shortcut action

[Shift] + arrows make a selection

[Ctrl] + “c” Copy the current selection (in the “clipboard”)
[Ctrl] + “x” Cut the current selection (and save it in the “clipboard”)
[Ctrl] + “v” Paste the latest copy/cut selection
[Ctrl] + “f” Find a word or an expression
[Ctrl] + “+/-” or Mouse-scrolling-wheel Zoom in/out of the screen display
[Alt] + [F4] Close the active window
[Alt] + Tab Jump from open window to the next one
[F1] Open the Help function of the active application
[F11] Switch to full-screen mode

Note that some functionalities are not only available on text segments (like copy/paste), but on les
also: if you select several pictures in your “Pictures” folder, make a [Ctrl]+“c” and then a [Ctrl]+“v”
on your desktop, your selected pictures will be copied there. In the same way, [Ctrl]+mouse-
scrolling-wheel will zoom in or out the content of your Internet navigator, as well as the content of
a system le manager window.

2.3.3 Special characters

Keyboards can’t contain as many keys as available characters. In order to write the particular
characters in English, it is necessary to combine the keys like the shortcuts (simultaneous pressing
of the keys)

First, a preview of the QWERTY’s hidden keys:

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2.4. Online exercises

special charaters available on QWERTY keyboard layout (cc-by-sa)

Each symbol is associated with a key combination. So to write “©”, you’ll have to simutaneous
press [AltGr] + “c”.

Available characters on “c” key

If you are not comfortable with simultaneous pressure exercises, you can always copy and paste
special characters from a characters table.

2.4 Online exercises

The beginner’s handbook dedicated page (mouse & keyboard):

https://lescahiersdudebutant.fr/exercices/index-en.html
mouse exercices:

• http://pbclibrary.org/mousing/mousercise.htm
• http://www.mydigitalliteracy.us/

keyboard exercices:

• http://play.typeracer.com/
• https://www.typing.com/student/start
• http://www.sense-lang.org/typing/tutor/keyboarding.php

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2.5. The users

2.5 The users

One of the great strengths of the GNU/Linux systems is their user management. The separation of
rights and responsibilities provides a better security when executing system administration tasks
or exchanging data on the net. Small explanation …

2.5.1 $USER

Generally YOU are the user, of course. Sometimes one talks about the Chair-To-Keyboard inter-
face (abbreviated CTKI), since it’s very true that you are sitting between the chair and the key-
board, or the mouse. When you work on your computer, it does not see you. It feels only the
actions made by a user with a login-name and sometimes a password.

Each user is allowed to perform a certain number of actions. Your user can, for example, use
the keyboard and the mouse, read and write some documents ( les), but not all of them. We call
that rights: to execute administrative tasks, one must obtain the rights of the root administrator
(chap.3.8.3).

2.5.2 ROOT

Only one user has all the rights, it is the administrator. This special user is able to execute some
tasks (in particular for the system administration) that other normal users cannot perform by them-
selves. But a single mistake in an operation made by this root user could potentially beak the whole
system.

At home, on your desktop computer , you can use your computer both as a normal user and as
an administrator. Some well de ned actions have to be made in order to switch from one role to
the other, like entering the root administrator password (chap.3.8.3).

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2.5. The users

2.5.3 Separate to secure

This clean distinction, which, by the way, does not always exist under other operating systems,
strengthen the stability and security of the Debian GNU/Linux system, as mentioned at the be-
ginning of this manual. When working as simple/normal user you cannot make your computer
unusable (brick it), and the potential viruses cannot infect the whole system.

More details on rights and permissions in the chapter 3.7.

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 The graphical environment

Let’s start by looking at the various elements displayed on the screen. On this simple
image, you can already identify the rst elements which are explained below in this handbook:

The “panel” or task bar (at the top of the screen, in this example, but can be moved wherever
you wish)) which includes, from left to right:

• the “application menu” listing your installed software,

• a collection of launchers (small icons) for your favorite applications,
• the list of the currently open windows,
• the list of virtual desktops,
• the time,
• the noti cation area, (showing the wired network connection),
• the user button which allows you to quit your working session, stop or restart your computer,

a le manager window which displays the folders contained in your home directory.

22
3.1. The task bar

The Xfce desktop with the application menu and Thunar

You will discover other interfaces and layouts in the chapter dedicated to desktop environments
(chap 4.2).

3.1 The task bar

The “panel”, the task bar, the noti cation area… all these words to talk about the information and
launcher interface of your system.

Usually, it is a banner located at the top or the bottom of your screen, displaying several types of
information, launchers, menus to quickly access your data or your applications, but also to inform
you (new email has arrived, what time it is, a USB disk was just plugged in …) via the noti cation
area.

Here after a quick overview of the various “panels” on the Debian desktops: Gnome, Xfce, LXDE,
MATE, Cinnamon and KDE:

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3.1. The task bar

panel Gnome-Shell

panel Xfce

panel LXDE

panel MATE

panel Cinnamon

panel KDE

Irrelevant of the type of desktop, the task bar displays, at least, the following elements:

• An application menu, allowing you to access to the installed software.. In genral, the
applications are sorted and grouped by categories (Multimedia, O ce…) and are launched
by a left-click on their labels or icons.
• A list of active windows or at least the title of the active windows. Depending on the con-
text, a left click on the corresponding button will minimize, restore or bring to the foreground
the target application.
• The time with the date also displayed when the cursor hovers on the area. On some
desktops an agenda is open by a left-click on the time.
• A noti cation area with more or less information, depending on the desktop, intended to
display messages coming from your applications (new email, network connection …)
• An action button to quit the working session, to suspend, stop or restart your computer.
Depending on your con guration you might switch user, with this button, and take advantage
of the multi-user mode of the Debian GNU/Linux systems.

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3.2. Menus

Like almost all the elements of the GNU/Linux desktops, the task bar can be con gured and em-
bellished by plug-in (little specialized modules) or simply removed !

A right-click on the “panel” opens a drop down menu allowing you to change its con guration
(except for the Gnome-3 desktop). Hereafter an example of con guration for the Xfce panel:

Accessing the Xfce panel con guration with a right-click

The 3 tabs of the Xfce panel con guration

More details in the GNU/Linux desktop discovery section (chap.4.2).

3.2 Menus

The various applications installed in your system are available through several vectors: launchers
on the desktop, or in the task bars, and more generally using the menus.

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3.2. Menus

In the menus, your programs are listed and sorted by categories. A left-click on the menu icon
displays the application and section entries. A left-click on a program icon launch the correspond-
ing application. Each desktop has its own speci c menu:

Cinnamon menu by category:

Cinnamon menu

Classic drop down Xfce menu:

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3.2. Menus

Xfce menu

Gnome-Shell full screen menu:

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3.3. Windows

Gnome-Shell menu

3.3 Windows

Your applications, your data, your USB keys, are usually displayed within a decorated frame.
Each desktop environment decorates windows its own way, but most of the times they implement
the same functions:

• the title bar at the top displays the window title and the action buttons (minimize/maximize/-
close)
• the decorations around the window, which include two areas at the bottom to resize the
window using a mouse left-click
• the status area: some applications display informations at the bottom of the window (like
free space available in the active partition, size of the le currently pointed at …)

Hereafter an example of windows on the Gnome desktop:

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3.3. Windows

The Firefox web browser and the le manager under Gnome

Actions on windows are generally executed with the mouse but are also possible with the key-
board: either directly with a function key, or by using a keyboard shortcut (chap 2.3.2).

3.3.1 Closing a window

To close a window, left-click on its “close” button, usually symbolized by a cross in the top right
corner of the window.

Closing a window with the mouse

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3.4. Virtual desktops

3.3.2 Moving a window

To move a window on your screen simply move your pointer on the title bar (the top banner of
the window) then press and hold the left-click. The pointer will then change its usual look:

from to
The window will then follow the mouse motion until you release the left button.
If you don’t have access to the title bar, you can use the special [Alt] key on your keyboard together
with the mouse left-click to grab and move your window.

3.3.3 Resizing a window

Windows are automatically open on the screen with a certain size. To close them, we have seen
already that we need to click on the close button symbolized by a cross.
To resize a window, you need to move your cursor on the borders of the window or, even better,
on one of the bottom corners.

The pointer will then change its usual look: from to or depending on its left or
right position. When the look of the pointer changes, press the left-button and move the mouse to
resize the window like you want.
An alternative solution consists in using use the special [Alt] key on your keyboard. Move the
pointer inside the window, then press together the [Alt] key and the right-button of the mouse.
Then you will be able to resize the window.
To maximize the window, double-click (click twice quickly with the mouse left-button) on the
title-bar (when using the GNOME environment) or use the maximize button located next to the
close button, if present (and it is the case on most of the desktops).

3.4 Virtual desktops

To avoid overloading your workspace, the Debian GNU/Linux environments support, since several
years, the virtual desktop concept: the elements displayed on your screen lay upon a “desktop”.
You can have several of them, which means that if you move to another “desktop”, it will be empty
at rst. If you return back to the previous desktop, you will nd it in the same state as you left it
(with your applications opened).

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3.4. Virtual desktops

… “Several desktops” … What do you mean exactly ??

Well, it’s like having several screens for your computer, lined up behind each other, with the
capability to change their order at will. You open the Internet navigator full screen on the rst
virtual desktop, then you feel like having a look at your latest family pictures. So you go to the
next desktop which happens to be empty, and you can then display there your pictures also in
full screen mode, and return back to the rst desktop and enjoy the full real estate for the comfort
of your navigation.
It is also a nice mean to get organized with your tasks: the rst desktop is reserved for the
Internet applications, the second for the multimedia, the third for the o ce work and so on, allowing
you to leave open your work in progress, for future modi cations, without impacting the other
activities.
Each environment has its own way to represent the virtual desktops:
Gnome displays shrunk desktops on a side panel:

Gnome and 4 virtual desktops displayed on the right panel

Xfce displays the virtual desktops in its top panel, within frame shapes representing the di erent
workspaces.

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3.5. File management on GNU/Linux

Xfce and 4 virtual desktops shown in the panel

3.5 File management on GNU/Linux

All your data, your videos, your documents, your pictures, are regarded by Debian GNU/Linux as
les, and these les are organized into folders.
Debian is an operating system (the big piece of software making your computer functional) which
organizes the data according to their respective addresses, that is the path to follow, in order to
access them, from the general starting point (the system root identi ed by the “/” symbol).

… the picture of grandma is a “ le” having an “address” relative to a “root” ???

Imagine your computer is like your house. If your favorite book is located in a certain place, this
“place” is like an address relative to the “house”. For example, if the book stands in the second
drawer of your nightstand, one can de ne its address (the path to follow in order to reach it) like
this: Home,bedroom,nightstand,2nd drawer,favorite book.
To separate the various “items” we use the “/” symbol, which gives the following address in com-
puter language: /home/bedroom/nightstand/2nd drawer/favorite book.
The “root of the system is symbolized by a simple”/“. The main folder containing all the users data
is symbolized by”/home/, and your personal folder is named “/home/Alice/”.
If we come back to the favorite book example, its address could be:
“/home/Alice/Documents/books/my_favorite_book.pdf”

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3.5. File management on GNU/Linux

3.5.1 Your personal data

Your personal data are stored within your personal folder, whose address is “/home/y-
our_user_name”. They are organized within folders to to ease the nding and consulting of the
les, by yourself or by some programs (it is very logical for a photo viewer to open rst in the
“Pictures” folder).

To help you better organize your data, Debian is distributed with few folders already de ned in
your personal folder: Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Models, Music, Pictures and Videos.

The system le manager Nautilus, on Gnome, with two open tabs

NOTE: Most of the objects you nd in the computer le system are either les, or folders.
In the following sections of this manual we will use the word “Item” when the distinction between
“File” and “Folder” is irrelevant.

3.5.2 Your hidden les

Some items within your personal folder, relate to your interface con guration, the various fonts
you are using, your passwords stored in Firefox, etc.
This type of data does not need to be always displayed on the screen when you consult your
photos or documents: this is why these items are hidden.

They are identi ed by the form “/home/your_user_name/.hidden_ le”. Please note the “.” (dot)
symbol in front of the le name.

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3.5. File management on GNU/Linux

When you want to display them press together [Ctrl]+“h” (h obviously for “hidden”), or from the
menu of your le manager window goto “View” > “Show Hidden Files”:

Show hidden les in Nautilus on Gnome

3.5.3 System les

Debian GNU/Linux includes a collection of programs to navigate on the Internet, inside your per-
sonal folder, among all your photo albums, etc. These programs are stored inside “system fold-
ers”.

These folders are write-protected and some are also read-protected: this means that you can
consult some of them, but you may not modify any of them, as being a simple user.
In order to modify these items, you need to use the system administrator account: “root”
(chap.3.8.3).

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3.6. An example of system le manager: Thunar

3.6 An example of system le manager: Thunar

Thunar is the le manager by default with the Xfce desktop. This program let you navigate
through your various folders, “Pictures”, “Documents”, etc. by using the mouse (double-click
on a folder to look into its content) or the keyboard (navigate among the folders with the arrows
keys, and press [Enter] to open the selected one).The role of a le manager is to display on screen
the content of these folders: your personal data. Thunar is accessible from the Xfce application
menu in the task bar, under the name “ le manager”.
Each GNU/Linux desktop environment has its dedicated le manager (otherwise it’s not funny)
that has a slightly di erent interface than Thunar. However, you will nd the same functions of
consultation, search and modi cation of the data.

3.6.1 Simpli ed presentation of Thunar

When Thunar displays your personal folder, a number of information and tools are already avail-
able to you:

Presentation of the le manager Thunar

• #1 The title bar: displays the folder being viewed and the program which was launched. It

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3.6. An example of system le manager: Thunar

includes the “action buttons” allowing you, with a mouse left-click, to minimize the window
(then it will be parked in the task bar), to maximize the window (it will occupy the full screen),
to close the window or any other actions available with the window manager in use.
• #2 The menu bar: each menu gives you the possibility to act on items (copy/-
paste/delete/rename, etc.), to change the location, the view style (Icons, Detailed
List, Compact List), and even to close the window, always with a left-click.
• #3 The location bar: tells you which folder you are currently in, and, if there is enough
space, the latest visited folder(s).
• #4 The tab bar: tells you which folders are open in the active windows. Thunar tabs operate
like those in your Internet navigator.
• #5 The side pane: displays the main folders (personal folder, wastebasket, le system,
desktop), your shortcuts (favorite folders) and the external volumes (USB keys or hard disk
drives plugged as USB devices); A left-click on the label will display the selected folder. A
middle-click will open the folder in a new tab (handy to copy or move data). The side pane
can also display the tree structure of your system, that is the complete set of your folders and
les sorted hierarchically. You can mask/display the side pane with the keyboard shortcut
[Ctrl]+“b”.
• #6 The main pane: displays the folder content. If this folder includes other folders, they
are positioned before the “simple” les (like photos, PDF documents, etc.) and, by default,
sorted by alphabetic order.
• #7 The status bar: display the number of items in the concerned folder,and the free re-
maining space in the current le system , or indicates if one or several items are selected.

3.6.2 Usage and functionality of Thunar

Thunar will let you consult your data, sort them, and modify them.

Note that other le managers have a di erent look and feel (GTK3), like placing the application
menu directly in the title bar like Gnome for example (chap.4.2.1).

3.6.2.1 Consulting your data

Consulting your data is very easy. Launch Thunar which opens by default on your personal folder.
You can then decide to open another speci c folder depending on the type of data you are looking
for.

To open or explore a folder, put the mouse pointer over it: a double-click with the left button
will open this folder in the same window. A middle-click will open the folder in a new window tab.

You can also click on the shortcuts located in the left side pane of the Thunar window.

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3.6. An example of system le manager: Thunar

To open a le, put the mouse pointer over it: a double-click with the left button will open this le
with the application assigned to it by default. A right-click will display a contextual menu which,
among other things, allows you to open the le with another application of your choice.

3.6.2.2 Data selection

To select several items move the mouse cursor in an empty area of the window, left-click,hold and
simply move over all the items that you want selected. Then release the button. After this, you
can remove one or several items from the selection using the shortcut [Ctrl]+left-click on each of
them.
More details in the simpli ed initiation (chap.2.2.4.4).

Once selected, you can apply the modi cations to these items as detailed in the “Modi cations”
chapter below.

3.6.2.3 Classifying the data

You are going to say:

I can do whatever I want with my own data

… and you are damn right !

However some applications will access your data more easily if they are stored in their speci c
folders. Thus, the screen capture program will record its shots in the “Pictures” folder, the Internet
navigator will record your downloaded les in the “Downloads” folder, the music player will look
into the “Music” folder … And so on.

Thunar allows you to create shortcuts to ease the access, the classi cation and thus the retrieving
of your data.

To create a shortcut, just “drag and drop” the wanted folder in the side pane. This folder will
then be always accessible with a simple click.

3.6.2.4 Data modi cation using the contextual menu

A contextual menu shows up when right-clicking on an item (I.E. either a folder or a le), and then,
let you make a number of actions/modi cations on this selected item.

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3.6. An example of system le manager: Thunar

Contextual menu in Thunar

In our example the contextual menu proposes the following actions:

• Open with the default application, here the Ristretto image viewer.
• Open with another application: if you choose this option, another window will open
and let you navigate in the system to select a di erent application (start searching in
/usr/bin/app_name).
• Send To is a menu to share this item via email, or create a link on the desktop, or other
di erent actions depending on the type of item selected.
• Cut: this action will remove the selected item with the goal of pasting it somewhere else.
It is then enough to navigate into the destination folder, to make a right-click on an empty
area of the window and to pick the “Paste” action in the menu.
• Copy: this action leaves the selected item in its original folder, but let you copy (clone) it
into the destination folder, following the same procedure as the one described in the “Cut”
action above.
• Move to Wastebasket: this action remove the selected item from its folder and move it
directly into the Trash Bin (see next chapter)
• Delete: de nitely delete the selected item from the system.
• Rename: this action let you modify the name of the selected item.
• Set as wallpaper: is rather explicit and appears only if a image type le is selected.
• Create Archive: this action allows you to compress one or several selected item(s). In the
window that opens, you can choose the destination folder, by navigating in the side pane,

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3.7. Rights and permissions

enter a name for this archive and select its type. Then click on the “New” button to start the
archive process.
• Properties: this action let you modify the name of a le, the default application when you
open it, assign an “emblem” to it or manage the access rights and “Permissions” of the
selected item.

3.6.2.5 Data removal

The famous “Trash bin” (or “Wastebasket”) is reachable directly from the side pane of the Thunar
window. The “full bin” icon indicates that some items are currently in the wastebasket.

Empty the Wastebasket using the Thunar menu

To empty the Wastebasket and remove de nitively all the items in there, left-click on its proper
icon and take the “Empty Wastebasket” action. You can also use the “File” menu and then click
on “Empty Wastebasket”.

Sometimes the context menu has the “Delete” entry. Be careful because this menu entry will not
move your les to the recycle bins: they will be deleted immediately and de nitively.

3.7 Rights and permissions

Debian is a multi-user GNU/Linux system. It is therefore necessary to put in place a mechanism

to protect the items belonging to each user, so that user Alice could not modify the “tax & due” list
of user arp, for example.

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3.7. Rights and permissions

To achieve this goal, each le and each folder belongs to one owner and to one users group.

For each item, one can give Read, Write and eXecute rights distinctly to its owner, its group or all
the others (I.E. persons which are neither the owner nor a member of the proprietary group).

To display these information, one can use the “ls” (list directory content) command, with the option
“-l”, within a terminal window (that you will discover in the next chapter):
ls -l
-rw-r----- arp money Nov : tax_and_due.txt

Here, one can see that the user arp has the “read” and “write” rights, on the le “tax_and_due.txt”,
while the members of the money group (which user Alice is part of) can only “read” this le, but
not modify it, and the others cannot even open it (“-”, means no right).

rights and permissions

3.7.1 Rights and permissions from the contextual menu

The le managers integrated in the various Debian desktops let you also display and/or modify the
rights and permissions of your system folders and les “with the mouse only”. To do so, you need
to open the contextual menu with a right-click on the le/folder you are interested in, and click on
“Properties”:

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3.7. Rights and permissions

contextual menu: properties

In the new window which opens, click on the “Permissions” tab:

Edition of rights and permissions from the contextual menu

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3.8. The terminal

In this example, the le belongs to “Me” (arpinux), who has the Read and Write access, while the
other users or groups have a Read only access right.

3.8 The terminal

When you launch an application from the menu, or when you move a le from a folder to another
by using your mouse, you send instructions to your computer in graphical mode.

These instructions can also be sent directly, without going trough a menu or launching an ap-
plication, thanks to the Terminal which gives you access to the command line. This tool is
more accurate than the graphical interface because it let you use all the options available in your
application. It is also your last resort when the graphical session is gone.

The only concern is that this little black box, full of strange signs, is somewhat frightening … But
we are going to demystify all this and show you that the terminal can become your new friend .

In case of doubts, don’t hesitate to ask your questions on the support and help forums (chap.1.2).

Never run terminal tests in administrator mode!!: some very useful commands like “rm”
(remove) allow you to bypass the “wastebasket” principle, but could be devastating on the entire
system when you are running them in administrator mode.

Geek girl, by Péhä (CC-BY-SA)

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3.8. The terminal

3.8.1 Presentation

Let’s simply start with what you see written in the terminal window:

Terminal presentation

• the user, its you, or more exactly the one who is logged in and uses the terminal
• the host name, is the name of the machine on your local network, a name you entered
during the system installation
• the path is the place where you are currently in the le system (here the personal folder
“/home/arp/” symbolized by the tilde “~”)
• the prompt delimiter (symbolized here by the “$” sign) after which you will enter in the
command line. Its output (or “feed back”) will be displayed on the following line(s) of the
terminal.

The con guration of the full prompt string resides in the “~/.bashrc” (hidden le in your personal
folder) “bash” interpreter con guration le. The bash program is handling the commands entered
in the terminal (to make a long story short); it enables you to send commands, typed in the terminal,
to the computer system in order to give it various instructions or obtain some information back.
Notez que vous pouvez aussi personnaliser graphiquement l’a chage depuis le menu “Édition >
Préférences”.

3.8.2 User mode example

To tame the beast, we are going to start with a simple “cd” (standing for “change directory”),
which let you walk through the system le.
When you open a Terminal, you are by default in the personal folder of the user logged-in (here it
is the /home/arp/ home folder). This folder includes the sub-folders Pictures, Downloads, etc.
To go down into the “Pictures” sub-folder, I type in the words “cd Pictures” - without the quotes -
(and the uppercase is of importance here, hence the necessity to clearly identify the item names

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3.8. The terminal

one is looking at…) then I press [Enter] to send the command. To reach this “Pictures” folder from
anywhere in the le system, you need to provide its full path “/home/arp/Pictures” (replace arp by
your user name):

Using “cd” to navigate the le system in the Terminal console

You can see here that, within the command prompt pre x, the path “~” has been changed to
“~Pictures”, because you changed the folder you were in, and this is exactly like opening a folder
with your graphical le manager.

However, when you open a folder with the le manager, you “see” all the items in there. Within a
terminal you need to list the items with the “ls” command:

List of existing folders and les with “ls”

… easy, isn’t it ? See, you did not break anything Yes, but you are going to tell me that this stu is
rather useless…

OK, lets move on to cooler commands:

• “uname -r” gives the version of the active Linux kernel.

console : uname -r

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3.8. The terminal

• “uptime” gives the current time, since how long the system is running, how many users are
currently logged in, the system load average for the past 1, 5, 15 minutes, in order to see
if the process waiting list is not too long. If the load is over 1 (for old computers) or 2 (for
dual-cores and +) this means that one process is running while another one is waiting.

console : uptime

• You want to return back in your personal folder ? Just a small and simple “cd” and you are
@home.

console : cd

• Your screen is a bit crowded ? A small “clear” will empty the console.

console : clear

3.8.3 Administrator mode example

To run a command as administrator, Debian uses the command “su”. You will be asked to enter
the administrator password, and nothing is displayed on screen when you type it in. This is done
on purpose.

Debian can also use “sudo” (do as superuser). When using sudo, you will be asked, this time, to
enter your own password.

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3.8. The terminal

Switch to administrator mode with “su”

You note that the “$” sign (the command prompt delimiter), as been replaced by the “#” sign,
indicating the “root” administrator account.

Once connected as “root” in the terminal session, you can launch system administration com-
mands, for example here, a package repository update within a Gnome terminal, using the com-
mand “apt-get update”:

Terminal in administrator mode: package list update using “apt-get update”

Look again at this package list update example, that is the retrieval of the latest information on
packages and potential updates. After the completion of this package list update (verifying the
repositories), we launch “apt-get upgrade” to execute the available updates for the software you
have installed.

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3.8. The terminal

Terminal in administrator mode: package upgrade using “apt-get upgrade”

On Gnu/Linux, when a process must modify the system, it usually asks you a con rmation. Here
the terminal informs you about the type of the expected changes and wait for your agreement,
either by simply pressing [Enter] if you accept the default option (here “Yes”) or by typing “y” to
accept or “n” to decline.
If you accept the changes, you will see the complete process of downloading, con guring and in-
stalling the concerned packages. Then the terminal will “give the control back to you” by displaying
the command prompt:

Terminal in administrator mode: executing the upgrade

That’s it, you just updated your system using the terminal!
The single commands tend to be boring after a while… But then it is a lot more fun if you associate
several of them together in a “script” which enables the automation of series of processes.
For more information on scripts, and if you want to “learn the shell”, see the dedicated page on
linuxcommand.org: http://linuxcommand.org/lc3_learning_the_shell.php.
A short summary of the GNU/Linux commands is proposed at the end of this manual (chap.11).

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3.8. The terminal

You must be extremely strict when you send commands in administrator mode. To avoid errors,
use the auto-completion feature. This mechanism allows the computer to complete the commands
you started typing (3 characters are enough), or their corresponding arguments. This is accom-
plished by pressing on the Tab key. If several choices are possible, they will be proposed to you
as well.
Some applications in graphical mode require the administrator rights. You should not launch
them with su or sudo, otherwise that might break the graphical session. You should use instead
the command gksu (on gtk type desktops) or kdesu (for KDE) depending on your desktop envi-
ronment.

3.8.4 Launching an “administrator terminal”

Like you have seen in the previous section, one uses “su” (or “sudo”) in a terminal to enter a
command in administrator mode. You can also launch directly your terminal in “administrator”
mode using a menu entry or the application list:

launching an “administrator terminal”

Be aware that within this kind of terminal, all the commands entered are executed with the “root”
account, and in case of mistake or cockpit error, the system can become unstable. None of the
commands used in this manual requires to be identi ed as “root”, except when clearly otherwise
indicated.

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 Pick your Debian

Debian is an operating system o ered in several versions, and you will need to make a choice
depending on your tastes, your needs and your hardware.

4.0.1 Choosing a Debian derivative?

There are a lot of Debian derivatives out there, more or less stable and/or supported. This manual
and the indications in there can be used for all the Debian Stable “Stretch” derivatives.

The GNU/Linux distributions are not all supported by a community the way Debian is. Some-
time, a single person handle the entire distribution. The di erent distributions do not provide the
same level of documentation and support. They also do not o er the same durability. Choosing a
“mother” distribution like Debian insures you to receive stable and regular updates.

If you want to test other distributions based on Debian, we suggest you consult the Debian deriva-
tives o cial page (https://wiki.debian.org/Derivatives/CensusFull).

If you want to consult a more comprehensive list, visit Distrowatch.com which enumerates almost
all the available active distributions.

4.0.2 Alternatives to Debian

Because no, there is not only “Debian” in life

Other projects develop systems for beginners in the GNU/Linux world. If you want to try another

49
4.1. Choosing the architecture

system, let’s take a look at the GNU/Linux distributions dedicated chapter in the Software Direc-
tory (chap.12).

4.0.3 You want to try the Debian journey

Let’s go ! The rest of this manual will help you to:

• choose the processor architecture (chap.4.1),

• choose your main interface (chap.4.2),
• launch the installation (chap.5).

logo debian

4.1 Choosing the architecture

The processor, which is the compute and control unit of your computer, functions under a speci c
type of architecture, I.E. it handles data according to its own type (32 or 64 bits, PowerPC …).

We encourage you to use an ISO image of type “netinst” (chap.5.2.1.1), which gives you access
to the most up-to-date software versions by downloading directly the applications during the instal-
lation process (you need an active and stable Internet connexion during the install). This version
will let you install the desktop of your choice.
You can also use an ISO image already including a ready-to-use environment (Gnome, KDE, Xfce
…).

But you must choose an ISO corresponding to your processor architecture. In other words, decide
between a 32 bits or a 64 bits version, or again between an i386 or an amd64 version.
Note that the “32 bits” version will run on a “64 bits” computer, but not vice-versa.

4.1.1 To make it easy

• If your computer has a sticker indicating “coreDuo”, “core2duo”, or was built after the year
2005, you can take an “amd64” ISO.

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

• If your computer proudly displays the sign “Pentium IV M” or was born before 2003, take an
“i386” version.
• In case of doubts, you can take the 32 bits “i386” version, it functions everywhere.
• In case of a huge doubt, ask the question on a forum (chap.1.2)

4.1.2 Checking the architecture

Using a GNU/Linux distribution in an autonomous “live” session (chap.5.3.1), open a terminal,

and in order to nd out the 32 or 64 bits compatibility, type the following command:
lscpu | grep -i "mode(s)"

which returns the explicit result, here an example when using an “amd64” processor:
CPU op-mode(s): -bit, -bit

Using a Windows® system, your processor model is displayed in the “General” tab of the menu
Start Button > Con guration Panel > System

4.2 Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

Debian let you adopt one or several desktop environment directly from the installer interface:
Gnome, KDE, Mate, Cinnamon, Xfce and LXDE. We propose you to discover also LXQt.

… But why several Gnu/Linux “desktop” ?

The computer is only a tool, and even if we ask you sometime to learn a couple of tricks to
make an e ective use of it, it is still your tool, and as such it must be highly adaptable to your
taste, your working habit, and to your own way to have fun.
With this perspective, each desktop has its own organization, its setting method, its various func-
tionalities. And it is not a super uous diversity, designed by the brain mazes of some bearded
geeks (although…), but rather a strength of the free software: knowing how to propose rather
than impose!
Hereafter the description of the main characteristics of this various environments, to help you de-
cide which one to use. And then you will be able to add more of them, according to your needs
and preferences.
The two main desktops are Gnome and KDE, but they are also the more “resource-hungry” solu-
tions, so don’t hesitate to test other environments.

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Integrated applications

Each desktop environment is designed to o er a minimal functionality for the personal usage of
your computer.
So, within all the desktops presented here, you will nd the Firefox Internet browser (chap.6.6),
a system le manager, a text editor, the LibreO ce suite (chap.6.9), a multimedia player (except
on MATE DE, but it’s easy to add one) and an access to a software library in order to maintain,
update or make changes in your installation.

4.2.1 Gnome

The Gnome-Shell interface is the default desktop for Debian and o ers:

**The Activities Overview“**, which is a separate view designed to enable users to get an overview
of their current activities and to enable e ective focus switching. It can be accessed via the ac-
tivities button at the left of the top bar or by pressing the “’฀ Win”’ key of the keyboard. This view
includes:

• A series of application launchers (that you can easily add or remove using the drag and drop
method, or by using a right-click on the “dock”).
• All the open applications.
• The capability to dispatch the applications to several virtual desktops (visualized on the right
side pane).
• A seach engine for applications, les or even contacts.

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Gnome: desktop presentation

The Time manager, at the center of the top bar, has an on click calendar, linked to Evolution (the
mail client), the personal information manager handling emails, calendar and contacts.

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

Gnome : le gestionnaire de temps

The System manager at the right of the top bar, including:

• The settings of the local network parameters

• The settings of the sessions parameters
• Access to the system parameters settings

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

Gnome: the System manager

Integrated comprehensive help

Gnome includes a general detailed help mechanism, that you can access via the dock, by default,
and this should reassure all the beginners, and make them a lot more comfortable:

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

Gnome: integrated comprehensive help

Main applications:

• Internet communications: Evolution (https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Evolution) and Polari

(https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Polari)
• Video player: Totem (chap.6.7)
• Audio player: Rhythmbox (chap.6.8)
• System le manager: Nautilus (https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Nautilus)

Minimum RAM needed to start up: 450 Mo

Minimum RAM needed to surf the web: 530 Mo
Minimum user level: extreme beginner / beginner

Gnome project home page: https://www.gnome.org/

More details in the dedicated section of this manual (chap.7.1.1).

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

4.2.2 KDE

KDE is a project delivering a graphical environment (called “Plasma”) and a full set of applications.
KDE is highly con gurable, both in terms of desktop environment and supported applications. KDE
has so many capabilities that some people even nd di cult to deal with it.
Note that you can use KDE without any particular con guration tuning. It can be fully functional
with its “out-of-the-box” settings.

The KDE Plasma desktop on Debian

The KDE environment is visually close to Windows®, and o ers:

• KDE Application launcher: the menu giving you access to the entire system.
• Graphical components: the modules you can place anywhere on your desktop to enjoy
additional functionalities.
• Activity manager: a banner which integrates your pending tasks, your appointments… an-
other way to help with your daily work.
• Plasma: KDE is delivered with a pack of applications integrated in the “plasma” desktop,
and providing a uid and consistent graphical experience.

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More than any other GNU/Linux desktop, you can transform KDE according to your needs and
desires.
KDE is a very complete environment and has a con guration center as well as a built-in help center.
To launch the control center, navigate to the main menu > Applications > Con guration > System
Settings.

KDE System Settings on Debian

If you can not nd an application, you can enter its name or function in the search box of the main
menu (here with the help center).

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

KDE Help Center launcher

KDE Help Center

Main applications:

• Internet Navigator: Konqueror (https://konqueror.org/)

• Internet communications: Kmail (https://userbase.kde.org/KMail/fr), Kopete (https:
//userbase.kde.org/Kopete/fr)

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

• Video player: Dragon Player (https://www.kde.org/applications/multimedia/dragonplayer/)

• Audio player: Juk (https://juk.kde.org/)
• File system manager: Dolphin (https://www.kde.org/applications/system/dolphin/)

Minimum RAM needed to start up: 480 Mo

Minimum RAM needed to surf the web: 570 Mo
Minimum user level: beginner / experienced

KDE project home page: https://www.kde.org/

An introduction to KDE: https://userbase.kde.org/An_introduction_to_KDE

More detailed information in the dedicated section of this manual (chap.7.1.2).

4.2.3 Mate

MATE is a fork of GNOME 2. This means that this desktop environment was started from a copy
of GNOME 2 and then modi ed independently.

This is the perfect environment for people who do not want to change all the work habits they
acquired when using GNOME 2. This is also a good system for the computer aided music and
the resource-intensive applications going with.

Mate aims to be lighter than GNOME 3, and as such, is more suitable for aging or resource limited
computers. It’s clearly is a good compromise between GNOME 3 and Xfce 4.

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MATE desktop on Debian

Mate o ers a “traditional” interface with its two task bars:

• The top panel includes, on the left, the main applications, the main folders and the system
setting menu.
• The right part of the top panel is reserved to the noti cation area and the quick settings
(Audio volume, keyboard con guration, small agenda)
• The bottom panel includes the desktop button (to mask all the application windows), the list
of the active windows, and the virtual desktops selector.

To con gure Mate you open the control center (“system” menu > Control Center) and you have
access to the various components of this interface:

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

Control Center of the MATE desktop

• System le manager: Caja (fork of Nautilus)

• Minimum RAM needed to start up: 310 Mo
• Minimum RAM needed to surf the web: 390 Mo
• Minimum user level: extreme beginner / beginner

Mate project home page: http://mate-desktop.com

More details on the Mate Debian wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/Mate

4.2.4 Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a desktop environment derived from the Gnome-Shell project. It moved away from
this latter all-in-one interface, to adopt a more traditional interface (dash board along with a menu
where Icons are sorted by categories).

Cinnamon is developed by the Linux Mint team (https://linuxmint.com/), and is one of the leading
desktop environments of this speci c GNU/Linux distribution.

Cinnamon uses the Nemo system le manager, a fork from Nautilus, which reinstates some func-
tionalities removed by the latter: compact view, open in a terminal, open as root, capability to
manually edit the absolute le path, etc.

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

Cinnamon desktop on Debian 9

Cinnamon o ers a complete desktop with all the helpful (or not) applications for your daily us-
age: in the screen capture above, you can see the graphical applications, and under the Internet
category, for example, you will nd the Firefox navigator (chap.6.6), the email client Thunderbird
(chap.6.4.1), the multi-protocol chat client Pidgin, the Bittorent Transmission client and a remote
desktop access software.

The Cinnamon con guration is delegated to the system settings pannel which centralized all the
system and user settings:

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

Cinnamon: system settings panel

Main applications:

• Internet communications: Thunderbird (chap.6.4.1) & Pidgin

• Video player: Totem (chap.6.7)
• Audio player: Rythmbox (chap.6.8)
• System le manager: Nemo

Minimum RAM needed to start up: 480 Mo

Minimum RAM needed to surf the web: 560 Mo
Minimum user level: extreme beginner / beginner
Cinnamon project home page: https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon
More detailed information on the CinnamonTeam: https://wiki.debian.org/CinnamonTeam

4.2.5 Xfce

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for Unix type operating systems. Its goals are to be
fast, little greedy in machine resources, but visually attractive and user friendly. It is expandable,
thanks to numerous available plug-ins, and embeds a volume control application (xfce4-mixer), its
own window manager supporting transparency, shades … (xfwm4), an integrated archive manager

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

(thunar-archive-plugin), and disk, battery network, processor and memory monitorings, as well as
various themes and miscellaneous pug-ins.

This interface is clear and traditional: you won’t be surprised during your rst meeting with it.

The default Xfce on Debian 9

Xfce has the signi cant advantage to be fully modular, because it is released with di erent inde-
pendent plug-ins. Xfce also allows the integration of applications coming from other environments,
and is able to launch, during the system start-up, the Gnome and/or KDE services by default.

It is a perfect environment for beginners, o ering a great stability, a complete graphical han-
dling (“with the mouse only”), and evolution capabilities with no real limit.

Like the other previously seen environments, Xfce centralizes its con guration settings to ease
the customization. Note that each elements can also be con gured from its speci c interface (like
a right-click on the panel to add a new launcher, for example).

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The Xfce setting center on Debian 9

Main applications:

• Internet communications: Thunderbird (chap.6.4.1)

• Video player: VLC (chap.6.7)
• Audio player: Quod Libet (https://quodlibet.readthedocs.io/en/latest/)
• System le manager: Thunar (chap.3.6)

Minimum RAM needed to start up: 250 Mo

Minimum RAM needed to surf the web: 330 Mo
Minimum user level: extreme beginner / beginner

Xfce project home page: http://www.xfce.org/

More detailed information on the Xfce Debian wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/Xfce.

4.2.6 LXDE/Openbox

LXDE is a free desktop environment for Unix like systems, and other systems which are compliant
to the POSIX standard, like Linux or BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution). The LXDE name is
the acronym for “Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment”.

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

And as its name implies, the goal of this project is to propose a fast and lightweight desktop envi-
ronment.

As opposed to other desktop environments, the various components are not tightly linked together.
Instead they are rather independents and each of them can be used without the others, with very
few dependencies (packages used during the installation).

LXDE uses by default Openbox (https://wiki.debian.org/Openbox) as window manager:

The LXDE desktop and PCManFM on Debian

The LXDE design model implies that the con guration of each element needs to go through an
interface designed for this speci c application. You will not nd a “Control Center” akind to the
Gnome one, but rather a suite of lightweight tools to customize your environment.

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LXDE Appearance and Session con guration panels on Debian

Preference menu and Openbox con guration tool on LXDE

Note that the elements being con gured, display their modi cations on the y which makes the
customization very easy.

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4.2. Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop

LXDE is notably light, making it an ideal solution for small hardware con gurations and computers
refurbishing, but it requires a little more time to learn and use its di erent elements.

Having said that, the LXDE/OpenBox couple will let you earn your rst stripes on Debian as a
“g33k”.

Main applications:

• Video player: SMplayer (http://smplayer.sourceforge.net/)

• Audio player: LXMusic (http://wiki.lxde.org/fr/LXMusic)
• System le manager: PCManFM (https://wiki.lxde.org/fr/PCManFM)

Minimum RAM needed to start up: 220 Mo

Minimum RAM needed to surf the web: 320 Mo
Minimum user level: beginner / experienced

LXDE project home page: http://lxde.org

More detailed information on the LXDE o cial wiki: https://wiki.lxde.org

4.2.7 LXQt

LXQt is a light desktop environment. It o ers a classical but a modern and lightweight interface
that will let you work without thinking about it. It comes with a series of speci c tools to take
advantage of your favorite data and applications. It is an ideal environment for old machines and
low performance.

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LXQt desktop on Debian 9

Its lightness does not dispense with a centralized con guration tool allowing you to access the
settings of the main functions of your system.
Con guration goes through the control center: direction the main menu > Preferences > LXQt
Settings> LXQt con guration center:

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LXQt con guration

LXQt is not yet available from the standard Debian 9 installation interface, but you can easily install
it from your software manager (chap.8.3)

Main applications:

• Video player: SMplayer

• Audio player: Audacious
• System le manager : PCManFM

Minimum RAM needed to start up: 220 Mo

Minimum RAM needed to surf the web: 310 Mo
Minimum user level: beginner / experienced

LXQt homepage: http://lxqt.org/

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 Installing Debian

About time to take the plunge …

The following section describe the classical Single-boot installation: Debian will be the only dis-
tribution residing on your hard disk and the install process will be automatic (assisted partitioning,
with the whole Debian system in a single partition).

This manual is intended for beginners, and does not cover all the install capabilities of the
Debian system. If you are in a particular situation not covered here, look at the on-line Debian
installation manual (https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual).
For installations in a di erent context (separated /home partition, DualBoot, Logical Volume Man-
agement, Encryption, Multi-boot, etc.) you will nd the links to the speci c documentations in
chapter 5.5.

5.1 Before installing

Most of the users never had to install a system previously (computers are usualy delivered with
an operating system already installed). And that could be a little freaking … Take the time to be
well prepared, take a breath of fresh air, and everything is going to be all right.

72
5.1. Before installing

5.1.1 Hardware compatibility

One of the rst question when you wish to install Debian concerns the hardware compatibility: is
Debian going to run smoothly on my computer??

A fast and simple way to check this out, is to type “Debian” followed by your machine type, within
your favorite search engine: look for “Debian IBM T60”, for example. In case of doubts, don’t
hesitate to ask on a support-and-help forum (chap.1.2).

In order to be really sure, you can use a distribution o ering a test capability through a “live” session
(chap.5.3.1).

5.1.2 Backing up your data

If you anticipate to overwrite your hard disk with Debian, verify rst that none of your personal data
is in there: everything will be lost.

Remember to back-up your data before you start messing with the partitions (chap.9)

5.1.3 Disk space requirement

A Debian distribution occupies 4 GB in average, but you should still plan for a minimum of 6GB,
to be able to download the updates. For greater safety and if you plan to add few applications,
reserve 12 GB and you will be comfortable.

5.1.4 Installation time duration

To install Debian from a “net-install” ISO requires some time because the software is down-
loaded from the Debian servers during the process: the time duration needed for the installation
then depends on the speed and quality of your Internet connexion and may vary from 40 up to 90
minutes.

To install a derivative or from a Debian Live support, takes far less time (around 20 minutes,
depending on your computer power), because the packages are already included within the down-
loaded ISO image. However, a system update will then be necessary after the installation, be-
cause the embedded packages are dating back to the time when the ISO image was burned.

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5.2. Downloading Debian

5.1.5 Preparing the hard disk

If you anticipate to install Debian as the unique operating system on your machine, you don’t have
to do anything special: the embedded installer includes the tools needed to prepare (I.E. to format)
the disk(s).

If you anticipate to install Debian next to another operating system, take good care of preparing
your hard disk (like defragmenting the Windows partition for example). More details in the section
dedicated to speci c installations (chap.5.5).

5.2 Downloading Debian

Debian ISO images are available for each desktop, in several architecture declinations, and sup-
ported by various media like netinst, CD, DVD, …

5.2.1 Which image to download?

Here after the di erent ways to obtain a Debian ISO image. If you have other questions, read the
Debian FAQ: https://www.debian.org/CD/faq/index.en.html.

5.2.1.1 Debian Netinst

If your Internet connection is stable, we encourage you to download an ISO image of type “netinst”
multi-arch which includes everything you need to install Debian on any modern 32 or 64 bits (i386
or amd64) computer, with all the desired options: you will be able choose your main interface
during the installation process.

• The advantage of this ISO image is that it will search for applications on Debian servers
during installation, allowing you to get a completely up-to-date system.
• The disadvantage is that you will have to be connected to the network during installation,
either wired (by cable, recognized natively in most cases) or Wi- if recognized.

This is the ISO image used in the installation section of this manual.

To get hold of the “Netinst” ISO image, you can visit this page: https://www.debian.org/CD/netinst/
index.en.html. You will nd there the torrent links (to share and relieve the main servers) and the
direct “HTTP” to the ISO images depending on your architecture. Below the torrent link to a 64
bits ISO image:

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5.2. Downloading Debian

download link for Debian netinstall

Note that if you absolutely need an ISO image already integrating non-free rmwares for your
hardware (for a Wi- installation for example), Debian provides you with multi-arch ISOs (in-
stallable on 32 rr 64 bts architectures): http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/
cd-including-firmware/current/multi-arch/iso-cd/

5.2.1.2 Debian on CD/DVD

To obtain a classic bootable ISO image, pre-con gured with a speci c desktop, you can look at
this page: https://www.debian.org/CD/http-ftp/index.en.html.

This ISO le does not let you test your system, through a “live” session (chap. 5.3.1) to check the
hardware compatibility with your PC. It only allows to install Debian on your computer, which is
already cool, and let you install directly your preferred desktop, without a stable Internet connection
at your disposal.

5.2.1.3 Debian torrent

To relieve the main Debian servers and, at the same time, share your ISO image with other com-
munity members, you can use the BitTorent protocol.

To obtain the list of the available “torrents”, you can visit this page: https://www.debian.org/CD/
torrent-cd/index.en.html.

5.2.1.4 Debian live

Other images, called “autonomous”, are also available: they let you check your particular environ-
ment through a “live” session. They include also an installation launcher on the desktop, which,
once your test is completed, let you install Debian directly from the session you are in. To get hold
of a live image, you can visit this page: https://www.debian.org/CD/live/index.en.html.

More details on the dedicated “live” section (chap.5.3.1).

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5.2. Downloading Debian

Note that if you absolutely need an ISO image already integrating the non-free rmwares for your
hardware (for a test on Wi- for example), Debian puts at your disposal ISOs of type Live-non-free:
http://cdimage.debian.org/cdimage/unofficial/non-free/cd-including-firmware/current-live/

5.2.2 Verifying the ISO image integrity

In order to verify the integrity of the image, Debian computes the “md5sum” (short form of “md5
check sum”). This check can be used on all kind of data, but is particularly useful when down-
loading ISO image.

5.2.2.1 Checking md5 on GNU/Linux

The md5 checking tool is integrated in almost all the GNU/Linux distributions. To verify the md5
checksum of a le, just type the following command in a terminal emulator, including the path of
the le to be checked:
md sum debian-xx-amd -i -netinst.iso

which will return a result of the type (to be checked against the md5sum given by the download
site.):
c cef f d ad c debian-xx-amd -i -netinst.iso

Veri cation in graphic mode (“with the mouse”).

The Gtkhash program let you also check the md5 signature, but with a graphical interface.

• Install “gtkhash” (using a Terminal command or the Synaptic package manager).

• Launch GtkHash from the application menu.
• In the File eld: look for the ISO le to be checked.

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5.2. Downloading Debian

GTKHash: selecting the ISO image le to be checked

• In the Check eld: paste the checksum retrieved from the Internet site.
• Click on the Hash button.
• The digital ngerprints (I.E. checksums) will show-up for each hash functions (MD5, SHA1,
SHA256…)
• If the integrity checksum is exactly matching, a (green) validation symbol will be displayed
at the right of the eld, and in the corresponding one in the computed hash eld.

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5.2. Downloading Debian

GTKHash: verifying the md5 checksum

5.2.2.2 Verifying md5 on Windows®

To graphically verify the md5 checksum using a Windows® PC, you can use the WinMd5Sum
software, to be downloaded here: http://www.nullriver.com/downloads/Install-winMd5Sum.exe

Once installed, launch it. A small graphical interface is open. In the “File Name” eld paste or
open the Debian image.iso downloaded le. In the “Compare” eld, make a copy/paste of the
md5 checksum retrieved from the site given by Debian (see above) and click on the “Compare”
button.

the winMd5Sum software in action on a Debian ISO image

That’s all. The md5 checksum is computed within a minute or so (depending on the size of the
le) and if found to be correct, you can proceed to the next step.

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5.2. Downloading Debian

5.2.3 Transfert sur CD/DVD

To burn your Debian ISO on a CD/DVD on a computer under GNU/Linux, simply open your favorite
burning application, indicate the path of the “debian-xx-iso” downloaded le, and start the media
burning.

For the Microsoft® users, read this tutorial made for the Windows®7/8 systems: http://www.
digitalcitizen.life/burning-iso-or-img-disk-images-windows-7

5.2.4 ISO transfer on a USB key

The USB key is the most convenient way to install GNU/Linux distributions, because you can
change them as often as you want and even test several of them in parallel. The key also secures
your tests because once the session is over, no trace is left on the key nor on the computer which
booted from it.

5.2.4.1 From a GNU/Linux system with the terminal

The recommended method.

Plug your USB key in and launch a terminal in “root” administrator mode (chap.3.8.3). We are
going to identify the USB key to be used, with the command:
blkid

which returns information of this type:

/dev/sda : LABEL="system" UUID=" d - b e- f -b e - a c " \
TYPE="ext "
/dev/sdb : UUID="F B -E " TYPE="vfat"

Here, our key is identi ed as UUID=“F9B8-E691”, is formated in “vfat” and includes the sdb1
partition. Note carefully this sdb1 value, to avoid erasing by mistake a partition on your internal
hard disk (here sda1 is another partiton on this disk).

The Debian ISO le should be located in the Downloads folder. Let’s move in there to act on this
ISO le (the “$Home” variable replaces the address “/home/your_loginID”):
cd /$HOME/Downloads

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5.2. Downloading Debian

Now, we are going to transfer the ISO content to the USB key, thanks to the “dd” command. Take
good care of naming the USB key “sdb” and not “sdb1” (in our example), because it is the
disk device name which is requested, not the partition, and don’t forget to change the xx in the
“debian-xx.iso” le by the corresponding version number.
Within a terminal in “root” administrator mode:
dd if=debian-xx.iso of=/dev/sdb bs= M && sync

The transfer duration on the USB key is obviously depending on the size of the ISO and on the
transfer rate of your USB port. This operation usually lasts from 10 to 15 minutes without any sign
of activity within the terminal window. Once the transfer is completed, the control will be given
back to you, that is a new command prompt line will be displayed in the terminal.

5.2.4.2 From a Windows® system with Win32DiskImager

Win32DiskImager is a bootable media creation utility for Windows®: it will allow you to create a
USB key on which you will boot your computer in order to install Debian.
To install it on your Windows® system, go to the main project page and download the latest ver-
sion: https://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

Win32DiskImager installs like other Windows®-compatible software. Once in place, rst plug
in your USB stick and note the ID of the disc displayed (disk “F:” for example). Then run
Win32DiskImager.

Win32DiskImager

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• In 1, you will choose the downloaded Debian ISO image: Click on the folder icon to open the
le selector. Win32DiskImager only looks for les of type “.img” by default: think of setting
the search lter to “.” and not “.img” in order to view your debian-xxx.iso.
• In 2, you will indicate the device to be used: it is the disk mounted when inserting your USB
key. Caution! All data on the key will be deleted during the transfer procedure.
• In 3, you start the ISO image writing on the key. You can follow the progress of the process
directly in the Win32DiskImager window.

Wait a moment and you will be in possession of a bootable Debian USB key!

You still have to restart your computer on this bootable key and start the Debian installation.

5.2.5 Booting from the CD/DVD or the USB device

To proceed now with the Debian installation, using your CD/DVD or USB medium, you need to
ask the computer to boot from this device. If your computer does not boot automatically from the
desired installation medium, you need to access the “Boot menu” or modify the “Boot order” in the
BIOS.

Some computers have a function key that let you boot directly from a peripheral device, without
having to modify the BIOS parameters. Usually, but not always, pressing the F12 key at start-up
gives you access directly to the boot options. On the other end, to access the BIOS con guration
you need to tap one key like DEL, ESC or F2 during the start-up phase.

More information at: http://www.boot-disk.com/boot_priority.htm

5.2.5.1 The Boot Menu

As mentioned above, the key to access the Boot Menu at start-up may vary from one computer to
another. This speci c key as well as the key to access the BIOS con guration is usually indicated
during the boot sequence for one or two second:

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open the boot menu

The boot menu let you select the boot peripheral without going into the BIOS con guration

select a disk ti boot from

Use the keyboard direction arrows to select the right peripheral (in this example the USB key is
the “Removable Devices”).

5.2.5.2 BIOS con guration

If the Boot-order menu is not available, you must modify the Boot priority inside the BIOS.

Once entered in the BIOS settings, the operations to execute are very simple, but you should be
extremely careful to not modify other parameters. Hopefully, in case of mistake, the program let
you quit without recording the changes, by pressing the ESC (or Escape) key. Other keys like F9
or F10 will let you reload the default parameters, or to record the changes before quitting:

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• F9: reload default parameter (or factory setting)

• F10: Record the modi cations and quit
• ESC: cancel the modi cations and quit.

The navigation is done by using the directional arrows on the keyboard. One validate or enter
inside an option using the ENTER key. In most of the BIOS models, you move until the Boot
menu is highlighted, then nd the peripheral selection for the boot (boot device, boor sequence,
boot priority) and nally put the various devices in the rst, second, third etc … positions, re ecting
the boot order you wish.

BIOS: setting the Boot order (sources linuxtrack.net)

Hereafter some peripheral names, like they might appear in your BIOS settings:

• A Cd-Rom reader will usually appear as** CD/DVD** or CD-ROM

• A Hard disk will usually appear as HDD or HARD DRIVE or HARD DISK or even IDE~…
• A USB peripheral will usually appear as USB HDD, USB DRIVE or USB DEVICE or Re-
movable Device.

5.2.5.3 BIOS/UEFI/Secure Boot con guration

If your machine uses a BIOS/UEFI equipped with the wonderful “Secure Boot”, the handling is
slightly di erent.

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Each manufacturer has its own UEFI, and the following images and explanations might be di erent
at your place.

Disable the secure boot

Using the mouse or the navigation arrow keys, select the “Security” or “Authenti cation” tab. Verify
that the “Secure Boot” is “Disabled”.

SecureBoot : disabling 1 (sources linuxtrack.net)

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SecureBoot : disabling 2 (sources linuxtrack.net)

Change the boot order

Now we must change the boot order so that the computer starts rst from the USB (or the DVD).
Click on the “Boot” tab and modify the order, if necessary, so that your medium becomes the rst
of the list as explained on the previous chapter (BIOS).

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5.3. Testing Debian safely

SecureBoot: Save setting (sources linuxtrack.net)

Now, you save your changes and you start the Debian installation.

5.3 Testing Debian safely

The best way to make your choice: try the system directly on your computer!
There are two possibilities: you can test a GNU/Linux distribution from a stand-alone “Live” ses-
sion or directly from your windows® system thanks to virtualization software: VirtualBox.

5.3.1 Testing Debian in Live session

Debian provides standalone “live” images for safe testing of an environment. Their peculiarity is to
change nothing on the computer, everything happens in RAM and is forgotten once the computer
is turned o . These images sometimes have a setup launcher on the desktop that allows you,
once tested, to install Debian directly from your session.
To get a live image, visit this page : https://www.debian.org/CD/live/index.html.

The principle of the Live CD is the capability to use/test a distribution on a computer without

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5.3. Testing Debian safely

any risks for your personal data. The Live also let you check the distribution compatibility with
your hardware.
The Debian software is “compressed” within a special le (the “squashfs. lesystem” le) and em-
bedded in the downloaded ISO image. This same special le is “uncompressed” during the Live
utilization, and will later be copied on your hard disk during the installation process.

At launch, the menu is di erent from the classic Debian ISOs since the “Live” entry awaits you:

Launching Debian Live session

Whatever version you choose (Gnome, KDE, Xfce …), you will nd on the desktop and / or in the
“System” menu an entry to install directly Debian. Thus, after having tested the compatibility of
your machine, you can directly install the chosen environment from the “live” session.

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5.3.2 Testing Debian from Windows® with VirtualBox

Virtualbox (http://www.virtualbox.org/) is a virtualization software available for major operating

systems. This software will allow you to test your Debian or any other GNU/Linux OS directly on
your Windows® desktop. Virtualbox is not the only virtualization software: more information about
virtualization on Wikipédia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtualization#Nested_virtualization).

Internet is full of tutorials about installing VirtualBox. I leave you to consult these few links which
will allow you to take charge quickly this software:

• WikiHow documentation: http://www.wikihow.com/Install-VirtualBox (cc-by-nc-sa)

• The o cial VirtualBox documentation in PDF: http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/5.1.
18/UserManual.pdf

… We enter the virtual world here??

Kind’of’. The virtualization software makes it possible to test or install a system in a system,
and to ensure the independence of the two installations. VirtualBox will “make believe” the system
you want to test (referred to as “guest system”) that it is all alone on its computer, while ensuring
exchanges (shared folder, network connection sharing, etc.) With the host system.
Your guest system will be installed on a “virtual disk”, which will simply be like a big archive in a
folder of your documents.
Note that this test method does not verify hardware compatibility and is only for you to discover a
distribution before installing it on your hard drive.

5.4 Installation simple boot

Here comes the long-awaited moment, the actual installation of the Debian GNU/Linux system on
your machine … Are you ready to begin the exciting journey?

Hereafter a visual step by step explanation on how to easily install Debian, using the graphical
installer. This method erases the whole disk and installs Debian as the unique operating
system on your machine. The ISO image is of the type “netinst”.

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5.4. Installation simple boot

The Debian installer displays an explanation at every step of the process: with GNU/Linux ,
there is no advertising, so please take few seconds of your time to read the little messages which
talk about your future system

5.4.1 Starting the installation

When the installer begins, we select the installation mode:

installation mode (BIOS)

If your motherboard boots under UEFI, the display might be slightly di erent:

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5.4. Installation simple boot

installation mode (UEFI)

More information on UEFI in the Debian wiki (https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI).

During the start-up, the installer proposes a choice of several installation modes:

• The Install mode proposes a text in gray color on a blue background, and cursor move
possible only by using the keyboard arrows, the TAB key and the Space bar to tick options
on/o .
• The Graphical Install mode o ers a prettier interface, enabling the mouse usage.

Each installer pane displays a clear explanation message. When you don’t know the answer, take
the default setting. However, pay great attention during the partitioning phase, since this
operation could erase the existing data on your hard disk(s).

5.4.2 Select your language

Selection of the system language by default: this choice will also modify the installer language
itself, which then will display its own messages in English (if you chose “English”).

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installation: language

5.4.3 Select your geographical location

This information allows the system to automatically set the date and time of your system, using a
remote time server.

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installation: country

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5.4.4 Con gure your keyboard

installation: keyboard

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5.4.5 System name setting

installation: hostname

5.4.6 Domain name setting (if necessary)

Leave this eld empty if you don’t know the answer.

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installation: domain

5.4.7 Root account creation

Enter the administrator password (twice to con rm). Like indicated in the information message,
creating a “root” administrator account is not mandatory. If you leave the elds empty, the rst
user will receive all the rights to perform administrative tasks with the “sudo” command and your
password.
More information about passwords on dedicated section (chap.10.1.3).

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installation: admin password

5.4.8 First user account creation

Start by entering the full name of the main user:

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installation: user full name

Then enter its identi er, that is the pseudo which will be used during the connection (login) to a
session:

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installation: user login

5.4.9 First user password setting

Like for the administrator account, you need to enter the password twice for con rmation.

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installation: user password

5.4.10 Selecting the guided or manual partitioning scheme

… “Partitioning” … What’s that?

The partitioning process consists in organizing di erent partitions on your system. Partitions are
non-overlapping area de ned on your hard disk(s), each one of them having its speci c properties
( le system type, unique identi er, size, etc.). In order to function correctly, Debian GNU/Linux
needs at least one partition to install the operating system. An additional exchange partition (called
SWAP) is highly recommended, to deal not only with insu cient memory space, but also with the
suspend or hibernation functionality.
The guided partitioning scheme proposes 2 partitions (system + swap), but you can opt for a
scheme proposing a separated “/home” partition, and use another hard disk to store your personal
data (as an example).

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5.4. Installation simple boot

installation: partition mode

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5.4. Installation simple boot

5.4.11 Selecting the disk to partition

installation: disk to partition

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5.4. Installation simple boot

5.4.12 Patitioning scheme selection

installation: partition scheme

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5.4. Installation simple boot

5.4.13 Modify or nish the partitioning

installation: check partition

5.4.14 Partitioning overview and formating process launch

Warning: this is the step during which the installer will format the partitions.
The data on the selected disk will be erased!

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5.4. Installation simple boot

installation: formating and install

The base system is installed. You will choose your main interface later.

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5.4. Installation simple boot

installation

5.4.15 Analysis of the CD/DVD complementary contents (if necessary)

Optional: Had you opted for a Debian CD set including all the packages needed for the installation,
you would now insert the second CD (and tick the “Yes” option).

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5.4. Installation simple boot

installation: optional additional CD

5.4.16 Selecting the network mirror country

… where should I put this mirror?

“A repository mirror” is a computer server, available on-line, hosting the full set of the Debian
packages. If you don’t have all the CDs on hand, Debian will grab the software or the packages
you need on the network mirror servers.
There are repository servers all around the world, each one being the exact copy (mirror) of the
others. In this example we select “Yes” and in the following section we will pick an Internet mirror
located in the United Kingdom.

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5.4. Installation simple boot

installation: mirror country

5.4.17 Selecting the server hosting the archive mirror

The server proposed by default is usually a good choice.

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installation: mirror server

5.4.18 Con guring a proxy server (if necessary)

Leave this eld empty, if you don’t know.

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5.4. Installation simple boot

installation : con guration du proxy

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5.4. Installation simple boot

5.4.19 Participating - or not - to the Debian popularity-contest

installation: stats Debian

This can be useful to the community, but it is not mandatory.

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5.4. Installation simple boot

5.4.20 Selecting software

installation: softwares and main desktop

Now, it is time to select your main desktop interface, as well as the main services to be installed
by default. Note that you can select several desktops in view of directly installing several environ-
ments. Hereafter a summary description of the proposed choices:

• Debian desktop environment let you install, or not, a desktop. The desktop environment
installation can be done later on, or never, and it is not indispensable, for example on a
server. But if you are a beginner, a graphical interface will be easier to master.
• web server includes a preselection of packages dedicated to Web servers.
• print server includes a preselection of packages dedicated to Print servers.
• SSH server allows you to activate the ssh protocol, and computer remote control. Warning!
Enabling the SSH service might create a security breach if it is not correctly con gured. For
experienced users only.
• standard system utilities includes a collection of applications to manage your operating
system.

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5.4. Installation simple boot

5.4.21 Packages installation

Time to take a little pause. Downloading and installing the packages may take quite some time,
depending on the power of your computer and the Internet connection bandwidth.

installation: packages

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5.4. Installation simple boot

5.4.22 Installing Grub, the boot loader

installation: GRUB

5.4.23 Selecting the Grub location

When the system installation is of type “simpli ed single-boot”, you should install Grub on your
machine main disk, usually identi ed under the nice “/dev/sda” name.

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5.4. Installation simple boot

installation: disk for GRUB

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5.4.24 Installation complete

installation: end and reboot

Don’t forget to remove the CD or USB key to avoid re-launching the installer during the next boot.
Then complete the installation process by pressing the Continue button.

5.4.25 Debian rst start-up

Grub boot loader selection menu:

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5.4. Installation simple boot

installation: reboot on GRUB

Gnome login in:

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5.4. Installation simple boot

Debian: login screen

Interface by default on the Debian Gnome-Shell desktop:

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5.5. On-line installation details

launching Gnome-Shell

5.5 On-line installation details

Debian o ers more possibilities than just the two methods explained in the previous chapters.
But this manual being intended for the beginners, the more complex installation modes are detailed
in the o cial Debian documentation: https://www.debian.org/releases/stable/installmanual
Just to give you a avor of the other installation modes:

5.5.1 Dual-boot installation

The Dual-boot mechanism let you install side-by-side two independent operating systems, and
doing so, allows you to select, at boot time, which one you want to launch.

This is not the recommended method: there are inherent risks for your data during the partition

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5.5. On-line installation details

resizing. If you choose this solution to get started on Debian, please remember that you can very
well test it rst by using a Live session (chap.5.3.1) with no risks for your data.
More information of the Debian Dual-Boot Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/DualBoot

5.5.2 LVM … what’s that?

LVM is an acronym for Logical Volume Manager.

Is usage consists in:

• Create a speci c partition of type “LVM” (which corresponds to a mounted disk)

• Within this partition we can create “Logical Volumes” (corresponding to partitions) that we
can modify at will, themselves sized and formated to our own convenience.

So, the “Logical Volumes” utilization, replaces straight out the usual disk “partitioning”, and pro-
vide a more exible way to manage disk space by allowing modi cations on them at any point of
time.
It is possible, as well, to keep one part of the LVM partition without installed “Logical Volume”
pending further decisions.
More details on the dedicated Debian LVM Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/LVM

5.5.3 Encryption … what’s for?

The con dentiality of personal data is is a pretty hot topic these days. In order to better protect
your data, you can opt for an encrypted installation; With this kind of installation, even in the
case of theft of your computer, or the removal of its hard disk, no data access is possible with the
password !
The Debain Administrator’s Handbook provide us with more details (https://debian-handbook.
info/browse/en-US/stable/sect.installation-steps.html#sect.install-partman):

This feature can be added underneath any lesystem, since, as for LVM, Linux (and more
particularly the “dm-crypt” driver) uses the Device Mapper to create a virtual partition (whose
content is protected) based on an underlying partition that will store the data in an encrypted
form (thanks to LUKS, Linux Uni ed Key Setup, a standard format that enables the storage
of encrypted data as well as meta-information that indicates the encryption algorithms used).

To put it simply, LUKS creates a container to host an encrypted volume protected by a password.
For more information and a complete guide, visit the digital self-defense guide: https://ssd.eff.org/
en

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5.5. On-line installation details

5.5.4 RAID … does it hurt?

Wikipédia is my friend …

RAID is the acronym of redundant array of independent disks.

RAID is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive
components into a single logical unit for the purposes of data redundancy, performance im-
provement, or both.

Please note that the Debian installation in RAID mode, uses the RAID software (thanks to the
mdadm tool) and not the RAID hardware (handled by a physical RAID controller).

For more details and installation tutorial see the o cial Debian wiki https://wiki.debian.org/
SoftwareRAID or the dedicated section of the Debian Administrator’s HandBook https:
//debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/advanced-administration.html#sect.raid-soft

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 Fast boot after installation

First things to do after installation: Wi- network connection, screen resolution, printer con gura-
tion … everything you’ll need to make your workstation operational.

6.1 Network connection setting

Using either an Ethernet wired connection or a Wi- wireless connection, your Debian system is
expected to access the network. The Ethernet connection is recognized natively. As far as the
Wi- is concerned, it is sometimes necessary to use a non-free driver.

• If your Wi- connection is recognized natively, jump directly to the Network manager
sections (forthe Gnome, Mate, Cinnamon or Xfce desktop), Wicd (for the LXDE desktop) or
the connection editor under KDE.
• If you network device is not functioning, you need to go to the “material recognition”
section (chap. 6.1.4).

6.1.1 Network-manager-gnome

This is the network manager delivered with Gnome, Mate, Cinnamon, and Xfce. It is accessible
from its icon within the noti cation area (here on Gnome and LXDE):

121
6.1. Network connection setting

Network management on Gnome

Network management on LXDE

All the active or inactive connections are listed here, and the Wi- networks are detected as well.
Left-click on the network you want to connect to, and a dialog box will pop up. Select your network
then “Connect”. A password is then required (the one given by your Internet Service Provider).
Here on the Gnome desktop:

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6.1. Network connection setting

network selection

network private key

Then enjoy your Wi- connection:

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6.1. Network connection setting

wi- network connected

To tweak the Wi- settings, select the dedicated entry in the main menu:

network con guration menu

You will be able to modify the connection settings, and even “Forget” it:

network selection

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6.1. Network connection setting

network settings

forget the network

6.1.2 Wicd

Wicd (https://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse#Wicd) (Wireless Interface Connection Daemon)

is an independent network manager delivered with LXDE. However, it can be used on any other
desktop.

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6.1. Network connection setting

Its interface is slightly di erent compared to the one of the Gnome manager, but the functionality
is the same.

Wicd is available from its icon in the task bar (usually at the bottom right, in the noti cation area);
A left-click opens the main interface which let you select your network access:

Wicd: connection properties

If the network does not show up, verify rst that in the Wicd “Preferences”, the right interface (the
very one found in the previous chapter: “wlp2s0” for example) is selected for the Wi- network.

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6.1. Network connection setting

Wicd: Connection manager preferences

6.1.3 Éditeur de connexion KDE

On KDE, the network connections are managed like on the other desktops: through a graphical
interface. A left-click on the network icon in the noti cation area and you access to the list of
available networks. A click on “Connect” and KDE ask you to enter the network Wi- key:

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6.1. Network connection setting

KDE: network selection

KDE: network private key

When this is done, you can connect your computer using this Wi- network and/or modify its set-
tings.

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6.1. Network connection setting

KDE: network connexion editor

6.1.4 Check if the driver is present

Driver or Firmwares are microprograms often provided by the manufacturer. The kernel must
load this driver into the Wi-Fi card itself.
In order to check if the driver is present, we are using the command:
/sbin/ifconfig

which should return a result like:

enp s Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx
BROADCAST MULTICAST MTU: Metric:
RX packets: errors: dropped: overruns: frame:
TX packets: errors: dropped: overruns: carrier:
collisions: lg file transmission:
RX bytes: ( . B) TX bytes: ( . B)

lo Link encap:Boucle locale

inet adr: . . . Masque: . . .
adr inet : :: / Scope:Hôte
UP LOOPBACK RUNNING MTU: Metric:
RX packets: errors: dropped: overruns: frame:

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6.2. Con guring your printer

TX packets: errors: dropped: overruns: carrier:

collisions: lg file transmission:
RX bytes: ( . KiB) TX bytes: ( . KiB)

wlp s Link encap:Ethernet HWaddr xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx

UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST MTU: Metric:
RX packets: errors: dropped: overruns: frame:
TX packets: errors: dropped: overruns: carrier:
collisions: lg file transmission:
RX bytes: ( . MiB) TX bytes: ( . MiB)

If the interface named something like “wpl2s0” or “wpl2s1” does not appear in the list, this means
that the Wi- driver is missing.

6.1.4.1 Identifying a network device, and installing its driver

If your network connection is not functioning, it is usually a driver issue. In order to select the right
one, we need to identify rst the network device.

Within a terminal, in user mode, launch the command:

lspci | grep -i "net" | cut -d: -f

which will return a result like:

Intel Corporation LM Gigabit Network Connection (rev )
Broadcom Corporation BCM . a/b/g/n Wireless LAN Controller ...

Here, the detected Wi- device is the Broadcom BCM4322

If I run a simple Internet search, like “Debian Broadcom BCM4322”, I found quickly the right page
(https://wiki.debian.org/bcm43xx) which tells me to install the rmware-b43-installer.

The Wi- connection setting is a very touchy subject for the GNU/Linux distributions, due to the
non-free nature of the drivers to be installed.

More information on the Debian Wi- Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/éWiFi.

6.2 Con guring your printer

C.U.P.S (https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Unix_Printing_System), is an acronym for Common

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6.2. Con guring your printer

Unix Printing System, and as its name suggests it, a printer management system created by Apple
Inc. for OSX and other Unix-like systems. It is used by default on Debian to manage printers. To
achieve this, CUPS uses the Internet Printing Protocol (ipp) to drive both the local and the network
printers.
What is enough to remember is that CUPS is the tool managing the printers.
If you chose an exotic installation, you might need to install yourself some Debian packages. Within
a terminal in administrator mode (thanks to “su” (chap.3.8.3) :
apt update && apt install --install-recommends task-print-server

Compatibility
Likewise Wi- devices, printers need external drivers. However their detection by default is much
better, which enables Debian to embed a simpli ed printer setting interface (detailed in the rst
section of this chapter). Methods may vary from one manufacturer to another.

• for Brother: visit the dedicated page: http://support.brother.com/g/b,

• for Epson: add the following repository (chap.8.1.3) to your “sources.list” le: “deb
http://download.ebz.epson.net/dsc/op/stable/debian/ lsb3.2 main” (sans les “”)
• for HP: make sure the “hplip” package is installed on your machine. If your printer is very re-
cent, visit the dedicated page http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/index.html, download
the packages corresponding to tour printer for the Debian system ( le ending by “.deb”) and
install these packages using either the dpkg or gdebi tool (chap.8.7).

To check your printer compatibility, you can visit the dedicated page of the openprinting.org site:
https://www.openprinting.org/printers.

Regardless of the chosen method, don’t forget to plug the power cord at both ends, to verify that
the paper tray is not empty, to connect the printer either directly to your computer, or to the local
network, and turn its power on.

6.2.1 Simpli ed graphical method with system-con g-printer

The Debian GNU/Linux desktops include the system-con g-printer tool, a simpli ed graphical
manager to add and con gure your printer.
If you followed the Debian classic installation procedure, this tool is already present on your system
and can be found usually at “Sysem > Print Settings”, or in the Control Centers for Gnome or KDE.
If you don’t nd it, simply open a terminal and launch:

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6.2. Con guring your printer

system-config-printer

In the rst window which opens you can press the “Add” button to add a printer.

System-con g-printer: defaut interface

Then you access the “New Printer” window which presents the local or network “Detected De-
vices” list. Select your printer and click the “Forward” button:

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6.2. Con guring your printer

printer selection

If your printer was correctly detected, its driver has been selected for you. You can describe your
printer in the next window. Once you are done with the modi cations click on the “Apply” button:

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6.2. Con guring your printer

printer description

The installer then ask you if you want to test the printer:

print test page?

The printer is now correctly added to your machine. It is available for the printing tasks executed
by any of the installed applications on your system (LibreO ce, Evince (for pdf les), etc.).
To change your printer settings, double-click on its icon:

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6.2. Con guring your printer

con guration de l’imprimante

Small hint: to change the printer behavior in case of error, go to your printer settings, click on the
“Policies” category, and select the “Abort job” option (instead of “Stop printer”) in the “Error
policy” eld.

6.2.2 Universal graphical method with CUPS

The simpli ed interface is handy, but the classic CUPS interface is no longer as austere as it used
to be. You can access it from your Internet navigator since CUPS is a print server o ering a web
interface.

So let’s meet on the page http://localhost:631/printers/ which displays all the detected printers
(don’t forget to connect your printer either directly to your computer, or to the local network, and
to turn its power on).

CUPS: “Printers” tab of the web interface

A left-click on your printer opens the dedicated page:

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6.3. Check for updates

active printer page

which includes the “Maintenance” and “Administration” menus. Depending on the selected oper-
ations, the administrator password will be requested. (chap.3.8.3).

More information of the Debian SystemPrinting Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/SystemPrinting.

6.3 Check for updates

Debian updates have nothing to do with Windows’ updates…

The GNU/Linux system updates are the direct evidence of one of the free software
strengths: the public sources.

As opposed to the proprietary systems, hiding their software aws (since they sell it) as long as
possible, the free distributions publish their software aws as soon as they are discovered and x
them immediately.

So, when a small window suddenly pops up and invite you to update your system, say yes, of
course, and your computer will thank you a all lot.

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6.3. Check for updates

• Updates using a terminal (chap.6.3.1)

• Updates using the Synaptic package manager (chap.8.3.3)
• Updates using Discover on KDE (chap.8.4.2)
• Updates with the simpli ed Debian software center (chap.8.5.4)

6.3.1 Update with a terminal

The terminal, this little box which frightens you so much, whereas it is actually your friend … yes
yes … your friend.
You want a proof ? Easy: we are going to update the entire system using just one line.
We start by opening a terminal and log in as administrator. That is (depending on your environ-
ment) from the Applications menu > System > “Administrator Terminal”, or in the more classic
way, open a terminal and type the command:
su

In both cases, the administrator password is requested. Once connected as “root” in the terminal,
cut and paste this line:
apt update && apt dist-upgrade

… wait a minute, what does that mean exactly?

• “apt”: the command to invoke Debian package manager ;

• “update”: reload the information concerning the available packages ;
• “&&”: once this is done without error, launch what follows ;
• “apt”: the same application veri es and applies the modi cations ;
• “dist-upgrade”: execute a complete update of the installed applications, adding or remov-
ing packages as necessary. A con rmation to proceed will be requested. For a complete
example have a look on the Administrator example (chap.3.8.3).

6.3.2 Updates noti cation

The GNU/Linux desktops use Software or the Synaptic package manager on the Gnome, Xfce
and LXDE interfaces, or Discover on the KDE interface, and both tools include a noti cation
function.
Thus, your system checks the repositories on a regular basis (when the network is available, of

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6.4. Retrieve your email account

course), without even bothering you and displays a noti cation at the beginning of a new session
when some updates are available. It is enough to accept the updates, or to click on the noti cation
bubble opening up, to display the update manager tool integrated in your system.

Update noti cation on the KDE interface

If you want to manually check for available updates, you can use the procedure listed at the
beginning of this chapter.

6.4 Retrieve your email account

If you have an online messaging service like gmail.com or free.fr, you can access it from your
Firefox web browser (launches from the application menus in the “Internet” section). Enter the
address of your online account provider (openmailbox.org, yahoo.fr, orange.fr, google.com …) in
the address bar and launch by pressing [Enter].

If you do not have an e-mail account, or you want to create a new e-mail account, we recommend
that you use the services that respect your privacy. For example:

• https://protonmail.com/
• https://www.openmailbox.org/
• https://www.mailoo.org/
• https://www.net-c.com/
• https://lavabit.com/
• https://www.toile-libre.org/
• http://www.zaclys.com/
• https://webmail.vivaldi.net/
• https://www.mail.be/
• https://tutanota.de/#%21home
• http://mailfence.com/
• mailbox and web domain: https://www.gandi.net/domaine

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6.4. Retrieve your email account

If you are using a local e-mail client, a dedicated software, Debian o ers severals tools but all
working on the same model: Gnome uses “Evolution”, KDE includes “KMail” and Xfce integrates
Thunderbird.

6.4.1 Thunderbird: your free mail client

Thunderbird (https://www.mozilla.org/fr/thunderbird/) is primarily an emailer, but it is also a com-

munication hub that allows you to read and write within newsgroups, chat with others (discussion
group), and read RSS feeds provided by some websites.

If you have two or more email accounts, it might not be very practical to access each of them using
the browser! Thunderbird is an application that brings together all the mail boxes of all your email
accounts, in one single convenient interface.

To open Thunderbird, from an application list or a menu, select the “Mail client” from the “Internet”
category.

6.4.1.1 Thunderbird setup

At rst startup, Thunderbird provides temporary con guration interface and a foreground window
that allows you to create an account with two suppliers and partners.

If you want to take advantage of this option, ll in the elds and let you guide, the con guration will
be automatic.

If you are not interested you can click on “Skip this step and use my existing address”.

Another window opens. Then provide the requested information about your account. You can
choose whether Thunderbird must remember the password. If you uncheck this option, you must
enter your password each time you connect.

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6.4. Retrieve your email account

Thunderbird: mail account con guration

Click on “continue”. Thunderbird then searches in its database then speci c parameters for your
eamil account. When nished click on “done”.

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6.4. Retrieve your email account

Thunderbird: mail account veri cation

Thunderbird now displays your account details in the right column, starts downloading all your
emails and, depending on your provider, all your contacts (this may take sometime). Now click on
your account in left pane to unfold it, then on “Inbox”. The interface takes its normal appearance:

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6.4. Retrieve your email account

Thunderbird: default display

6.4.1.2 Thunderbird interface

The Thunderbird interface is relatively intuitive. In the top tool bar you can check your mail, com-
pose a new message, open a chat session, access your address book, put a label on a message,
or lter your messages.
At the right of the menu bar you can nd the Thunderbird menu, represented three small horizontal
bars, from which you set your preferences, and launch various actions.
For example if you click on the Message menu (or right-click on given message), a list of actions
is proposed like Reply, Forward, Archive, Mark as Junk, etc.
The right panel is reserved for the “Lightning” calendar, very intuitive: a click on a date will open
the assistant to make appointments.
If you are looking for a speci c message you have several options:

• Type few characters in the search eld of the top menu bar; -é Click on one of the column
headers (“Subject”, “From”, “Date”, “Attachments”, “Star”, “Tag” if you tag your messages,
Read/Unread status, etc.): your messages will be sorted immediately according to the se-
lected criterion (de ned by the header name), which will let you nd quickly an old message
rather than scrolling through an endless list of emails. By clicking a second time on the col-
umn header the sort will be done in reverse order. Thus, by using this tool, you can customize
the way your messages are presented according to your own criteria.

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6.4. Retrieve your email account

6.4.1.3 Retrieve other email account(s)

If you have more email accounts you want to access via Thunderbird, click on the main menu (the
three small horizontal bars at the right of the tool bar) and select “New Message” > “Existing Mail
Account …” and continue the Mail Account Setup procedure like explained above.

6.4.1.4 Thunderbird settings

In the modern presentation of Thunderbird (as well as other communication tools like Firefox and
Chromium, for example) the application menu is de ne by the three small horizontal bars at the
top right of the window. From this menu you have access to the parameters of the application.
If you prefer the classic presentation, with the menu bar at the top of the window, click on this
Thunderbird menu and then “Preferences” and tick “Menu Bar” on.

It is advisable to visit the Preferences setting window, where you can de ne the handling of junk
mails, de ne a master password for all your account, customize your tag list, among all the settings
available in there.

6.4.1.5 Protect your new and forwarded e-mails

… Encrypt your e-mails … what does that mean?

Let us take the example of the regular mail, sent via post-mail. You send a postcard to your mother-
in-law for example, you know that what is written on it can be read by the postman or anyone else.
Well, with your e-mails, it’s exactly like the postcard,if you do not encrypt them.

“Does not matter ” you say, “I don’t care if someone knows that I wrote to my mother-in-law that
the weather is ne during our vacations”. Perhaps. But you can write more than just mundane
wordings in your messages, and you never know what can happen to them. You are not con-
vinced? I ask you to reconsider if you really have nothing to hide by visiting this page on the FSF
website: https://emailselfdefense.fsf.org.

To e ectively protect your electronic exchanges, use EnigMail!: https://emailselfdefense.

fsf.org.

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6.5. Login con guration

6.5 Login con guration

GNU/Linux systems follow the principle of rights and permissions by default. When you install
Debian, a password is requested for the primary user. This password is requested at the beginning
of the session.

Gnome : demande de mot de passe au lancement de la session

If you are using Debian in single-user mode, you can disable this password request in order to
begin your working session directly when the computer is started.
Debian uses three di erent default connection managers: GDM (on Gnome & Cinnamon),
LightDM (on MATE, LXDE & Xfce) and SDDM (on KDE).

6.5.1 Autologin with GDM

GDM3 (https://wiki.debian.org/GDM) is the default Gnome Display Manager for the default desk-
top environment on Debian 9 “Stretch”. To enable automatic login:

• From the system widget, click on your nickname then “Account settings”:

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6.5. Login con guration

user account con guration

• Unlock the application, the administrative password will be asked.

unlock user preferences

• Activate the automatic login:

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6.5. Login con guration

auto login enabled

6.5.2 Autologin with LightDM

LightDM

You can setup LightDM (https://wiki.debian.org/LightDM) by editing its main con guration le. To
enable autologin, you’ll have to edit it with a root terminal (chap.3.8.3).

Open a terminal and become root with the “su” command. The administrator password will be
asked. Once connected in root terminal, copy (to backup) and edit the dedicated le with in 2
commands:
cp /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.bak
nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

The second command opens the con guration le in the CLI Nano editor. Use arrows to scroll
and locate those lines:
#autologin-user=
#autologin-user-timeout=0

Remove the “#” (uncomment) in front of each line then add your login like that:
autologin-user=my_login
autologin-user-timeout=

With “my_login” remplaced by your login.

Save the le with the [Ctrl]+x shortcut, then answer “Y” for “yes”:

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6.5. Login con guration

LightDM: con guration le edition in Néano CLI editor

You can close your terminal: your password won’t be asked anymore at login time.

In case of troubles, just enter this command in administrator mode to restore your previous
LightDM con guration:
mv -f /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf.bak /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf

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6.5. Login con guration

6.5.3 Login con guration on KDE

SSDM: login screen on Debian 9

KDE is a truly complete environment and SDDM (Simple Desktop Display Manager) provides you
with a graphical interface to con gure your login screen. The con guration tool will allow you to
manage the wallpaper, the language used, some options and of course, the automatic login.

To access SDDM con guration, direction the main menu > Applications > Settings > System Set-
tings > Startup and Shutdown:

KDE: launching SDDM con guration

Enable automatic login from the “Advanced” tab of the SDDM con guration interface:

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6.6. Navigate on Internet

SDDM: graphical con guration tool

Select the “Automatic login” checkbox and select the user from the “User” drop-down menu. As
this action changes the system settings, you will be prompted for the administrator password. On
next login, your password won’t be asked.

6.6 Navigate on Internet

The primary function of a web browser is to let you consult information available on the Web (World
Wide Web).
The user gives the browser the web address of the resource to consult. There are three ways to
give a web address:

• Type yourself the web address in the address bar of the browser,

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6.6. Navigate on Internet

• Select a favorite in your list of bookmarks, knowing that each is associated with a favorite
web address,
• Follow a link on a web page, knowing that each link is associated with a web address.

The browser connects to the web server hosting the target resource. The communication protocol
commonly used is HTTP or HTTPS (secure version).

• If the resource is an HTML page, a compatible video le, or a PDF le, the browser display
a page.
• If the resource is unknown or not handled by the browser, the choice is yours: download or
open the resource with an external application.

6.6.1 Firefox: a free web browser

Firefox (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/desktop/) is an open and free web browser, devel-

oped and distributed by the Mozilla Foundation (https://www.mozilla.org) with the help of thou-
sands of volunteers using the free software/open source development methodology (dixit wikipé-
dia).

Debian integrates Firefox-ESR, the “Extended Support Release” version, aimed at large organi-
zations (and small ones) for mass deployments. This version is maintained for 10 months from its
release date and only bene ts from security updates, ensuring a stable and secure browser.

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6.6. Navigate on Internet

Firefox on Debian

The main window consists of the following elements (from top to bottom):

• The tab bar displays the open Internet pages and allows you to switch from one to another
with a single click.
• The tools bar displays: the forward button, the address bar, the search eld, bookmarks
button, the main Firefox menu.
• the browsing pane displays the web pages contents.

Customize and con gure Firefox through its main menu that appears when clicking on the 3
bar menu icon (at the right end of the tool bar):

• The rst line of the menu allows you to perform common editing operations (cut/copy/-
paste).
• Then comes the zoom line… it’s explicit.
• Several tools are available to navigate in “private mode”, view your history or directly print
a web page.
• The Preferences button takes you to the main con guration menu: 8 tabs with explicit
entries.
• The Addons button takes you to the extensions con guration menu (active or inactive).

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6.7. Watch a video

• The Customize button launches the “edit mode” of Firefox: the left pane presents “Ad-
ditional Tools and Features” that you can move either to the Firefox main menu (currently
open) or directly in the tool bar, and vice versa … Well, you tweak the look of the browser
by just dragging and dropping items in the interface. When you are done click on “Exit Cus-
tomize” at the bottom of the main menu.
• The “?” button takes you to the o cial Firefox on-line help. Mozilla contributors have worked
well. Online help (https://support.mozilla.org/en/products/firefox) is comprehensive and de-
tailed: you can explore there all the possibilities of your browser.

To add features to your Firefox browser, navigate to Preferences > Add-ons. In the tab that opens,
select “Get Add-ons” and choose from the available modules (https://addons.mozilla.org/fr/firefox/
extensions/).

Firefox: Add-ons catalog

6.7 Watch a video

Debian GNU/Linux comes with a video player on each Desktop Environment (DE like Gnome or
Xfce). Debian natively recognizes most common video formats (ogv, mkv, mp4, avi, webm, etc).

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6.7. Watch a video

Once your system is installed (or in Live session), a double-click on a video le will open it with
the default player of your DE.

For Gnome or Cinnamon, it’s the “Videos” player (Totem) that is automatically launched when
double-clicking on a video:

Totem: “Videos” and “Places” windows on Gnome-Shell

Its use is very simple and intuitive. At the slightest movement of the pointer, the playback menu is
displayed and allows you to browse the video le, set loop playback (the vertical bar formed by 3
points) or adjust the volume. The main menu gives you access to other functions:

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6.7. Watch a video

Totem: video player menu

Each DE integrates its own player, all featuring the same basic functions, largely enough for a rst
use of a Debian system.

As usual on Debian, you can add the multimedia software of your choice. I’ll let you visit the list of
applications available on the Debian wiki (https://wiki.debian.org/Multimedia).

The Xfce desktop comes with a multi-platform media player widely used by Windows®: VLC
(https://www.videolan.org/vlc/), a way to get started on Debian without changing your habits.

VLC is a free media player and a system capable of playing most multimedia les as well as DVDs,
Audio CDs, VCDs, and various broadcasted protocols.

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6.8. Listen to music

VLC: open a media from the “Media” menu

VLC can also play network streams (podcasts), listen to an online radio, capture the screen, as
well as encode a stream to save it.

6.8 Listen to music

Debian GNU/Linux comes with a media player for each DE. Some allow the management of a
large music library, including sort management, play lists, cover artwork, etc (such as Amarok or
Rhythmbox described in the following section), others are simple, lightweight and easy to master
(Such as Audacious http://audacious-media-player.org/ or XMMS https://xmms2.org/wiki/Main_
Page).

6.8.1 About audio format natively recognized

Wikipédia is my friend …

An audio le format is a le format for storing digital audio data on a computer system. The
bit layout of the audio data (excluding metadata) is called the audio coding format and can
be uncompressed, or compressed to reduce the le size, often using lossy compression. The

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6.8. Listen to music

industry has produced many formats for either production or distribution

The program element which transforms the signal into a le and the le back into a signal is
called a codec (https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Codec), an abbreviation for coder-decoder.

Debian recognizes (among other things) the 4 main default formats (mp3, ogg, ac, wav). If
you need to install codecs or non-free audio software, you will need to modify your repositories
(chap.8.1.3) to add the “contrib” and “non-free” sections.

6.8.2 Rhythmbox: your music player

Rhythmbox (https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Rhythmbox) is the default music player in the Gnome

environment, which allows you to play and organize your music collection.

Here are its main features:

• Sort by artists, albums or genres..

• Playlist management.
• Display of jackets and lyrics.
• Management of podcasts and web-radios.
• Integration of Jamendo, Magnatune and Last.fm.
• Support for portable players (MTP or iPod).
• Support infrared remote controls.
• Sharing and playing music on a local network.

At rst launch, Rhythmbox scans your “Music” folder, but you can add more folders to your music
library.

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6.8. Listen to music

Rhythmbox: default view

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6.8. Listen to music

Rhythmbox: menu

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6.8. Listen to music

Rhythmbox: preferences settings

Rhythmbox integrates a plugin system that adds functionality to the player.

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6.8. Listen to music

Rhythmbox: con gure plugins

Default audio player of the Gnome desktop, it bene ts from a complete integrated help:

Rhythmbox: complete help

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6.9. Work on word processor

The main desktops also have their dedicated player, which works on the same principle: a music
library scanned by the application which o ers you simple reading or by “playlists”, options, pref-
erences and plugins.
Let your mouse wander, you do not risk anything: a con rmation will be asked for each action
involving the modi cation or the deletion of your musical les.

6.9 Work on word processor

Debian integrates by default the full o ce suite LibreO ce which allows you to work on documents
of any type format coming from di erent o ce suites.

If you don’t need such a comprehensive tool suite, you can use the Abiword (https://packages.
debian.org/stretch/abiword) or Gnumeric (https://packages.debian.org/stretch/gnumeric) tools,
lighter while maintaining a high level of compatibility.

6.9.1 LibreO ce the free o ce productivity suite

LibreO ce (http://libreoffice.org/) is a free (as in freedom) o ce suite that o ers tools for word
processing (Writer), spreadsheet (Calc), presentation (Impress), drawing (Draw), database
(Base) and editing mathematical formulas (Math).

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6.10. Edit your photos with the Gimp

Libreo ce: default view

LibreO ce is the default o ce suite for Debian 9 and will be integrated with the main desktops.
There are many possibilities for LibreO ce. The o cial wiki of the community is very well done
and will provide you with an e cient and complete help (no need to reinvent the wheel …): https:
//wiki.documentfoundation.org/FAQ

Good reading.

6.10 Edit your photos with the Gimp

Debian includes the graphic manipulation software the Gimp.

GIMP, standing for GNU Image Manipulation Program, is an image processing software. Often
considered as a competitor of Adobe™ photoshop™, it is, at any rate, a safe alternative with all
the same functionalities, and, on top of it, it is free!

Available for a whole range of OS, it runs naturally on Linux, MacOsX, BSD and Windows®.

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6.10. Edit your photos with the Gimp

There are already very good documentation concerning The GIMP, and this page is only to gather,
in few lines, the most basic hints, without having to browse through dozens of sites hoping to nd
its happiness.

6.10.1 Interface Overview

At rst launch, Gimp displays 3 windows with several elements:

The Gimp on Gnome-Shell

1 The tools box - 2 The tools options - 3 The Gimp menu bar - 4 The active picture - 5 & 6 The
tabs displaying the values of tools and layers.

• The toolbox contains the icons for the various Gimp tools. You can add or remove them
from the menu bar > Edit > Preferences > Toolbox. The function of each tool is displayed
on a pop-up window if selected.
• The tool options show the parameter values of the tool being used: the size and hardness
of the brush, for example, or the opacity of the lling…

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6.10. Edit your photos with the Gimp

• The menu bar gives you access to all functions and possibilities of the Gimp.
• The active image is displayed in the main window: the changes made are directly visible.
• The right window contains various tabs that you can modify or delete from the small arrow
at the top right of the tab.

By default, the rst tab displays the active layers in the image.

… What does those “layers” exactly means??

Gimp uses the principle of layers, ie the superimposition of images for a nal rendering. It is
the same principle as recording a piece of music: the instruments are all recorded on separate
“audio tracks”, the voices also, then “mixed” all together to obtain the nal piece of music.
For the layers of Gimp, it is the same: you separate the di erent elements on layers and the nal
image will be exported in the format of your choice (JPEG, PNG …).

The default format of Gimp is “xcf”, a format that allows to preserve the independence of the
layers and thus, to be able to modify an element without touching the other layers.

6.10.2 First Tips

Prepare a folder with a copy of the images to modify:

It is often said, the backup is your friend and it is also true for image editing. Before working on
your project, create a folder where you will place a copy of your original image as well as all the
elements you want to add (other images to process, modify, your graphics resources in short).

Record your work regularly in “.xcf” format:

Gimp uses the default “xcf” format to save your project. This format allows to save the layers
and therefore, permits a ne modi cation of your work. To save in xcf format, direction the menu
“File”> “Save”. Once your project is nalized, you can export your project in a compressed
format (jpeg, png, gif) from the menu bar: “File” > “Export as”.

Switch to single-window mode:

If the default interface with its 3 windows disturbs you, Gimp has provided a “single-window” mode
available from the menu “Windows” > “Single window mode”.

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6.10. Edit your photos with the Gimp

The Gimp en mode “fenêtre unique”

Have Fun!

One way to discover the Gimp is to test, try, have fun editing your family photos for fun… Create
a folder to play with Gimp and place your favorite photos or images and start to gimp-it

Tutorials

The Gimp website provides a large choice of tutorials where you could start to play: https://www.
gimp.org/tutorials/

Print an image

If Gimp prints only white pages, and the preview is desperately showing a blank page too, you
can x this problem by installing the gimp-gutenprint package in administrator mode (chap.3.8.3)
:
apt install gimp-gutenprint

Then, to print a image, all you have to do is: “File > Print with Gutenprint”. A page is open where
you can set up your printer and print layout.

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 Tweaking of your environment

Do you feel you took control of your system ? Now we are going to tweak the con guration of your
workstation.
Basically, you can modify everything you want on the Debian GNU/Linux desktops and tailor your
environment to make it t your personal needs and tastes.
To achieve this, the right-click is the quasi-ultimate weapon !

7.1 User interface

The GNU/Linux environments are known for their great exibility in terms of con guration. How-
ever, some desktop are more exible than others, because of their main interface.
Grossly speaking, they all work the same way: a “Control Center” to handle them all in the same
place, and the right-click for the settings of individual elements.
Most of the functionalities have been addressed during the presentation of the desktops
(chap.4.2). But let’s return to the two Debian main desktops: Gnome and KDE.

7.1.1 The Gnome-Shell interface

Gnome is the default desktop for the Debian installations. This desktop features an “all-in-one”
interface which makes it a uid and intuitive environment.
Gnome-Shell (https://wiki.debian.org/GnomeShell) provides a “uniform” interface: this is what
brings this great uidity. This means also that you will not be able to modify everything you want,

166
7.1. User interface

like on the other desktops built with a modular design. But instead of talking about the few things
you cannot make, let’s talk about all the settings available to you.

Let’s take the direction Gnome Activity menu > “Tweak Tool”.

Gnome-Shell con g launcher

The opening window includes all the elements of your Gnome-Shell desktop. The changes are
applied and visible immediately.

Gnome-Shell: con guring the interface

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7.1. User interface

After few “clicks” on the various categories, you will easily understand how to install, in the top
bar, the Application menu, the Places menu or the weather forecast.

Gnome-Shell: Gnome desktop con gured with extensions

7.1.1.1 Installing Gnome-Shell extensions

Gnome-Shell is enhanced with various extensions available in Debian repositories. To install

them, run the software manager, category “Add-ons”… simple isn’t it?

launching “Software”

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7.1. User interface

Software manager: select “Add-ons” category

You still have to make your choice in the list: a left click on an extensions and “Software” o ers
installation. You will be asked for con rmation.

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7.1. User interface

List of Gnome-Shell extensions available

Selecting an extension for installation

Installation con rmation

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7.1. User interface

Your extension is immediately accessible, here with the extension “Screencast” which allows to
record a video of your working session:

l’extension est disponible

7.1.1.2 Gnome-Shell keyboard shortcuts

In order to be more e cient, and even if Debian is “mouse-click-oriented”, we suggest you use
the keyboard shortcuts: pressing the “Windows” key, for example, switch between the Activi-
ties overview and desktop. The overview displays the open activities, the dock and the virtual
workspaces.

Shortcuts Actions

Alt + F1 ou Win Switch between the Activities overview and desktop

Ctrl + Alt + Tab Give keyboard focus to the top bar
Alt + F2 Pop up command window
Alt + Tab Quickly switch between windows
Alt + Maj + Tab Idem, but in reverse order
Alt + ² Switch between windows from the same group
Ctrl + Alt + ↑/↓ Switch between workspaces
Ctrl + Alt + Maj + ↑/↓ Move the current window to a di erent workspace

7.1.1.3 Gnome Desktop Settings

“Gnome Settings” is available from the Parameter launcher and gives you access to all the settings
of your environment.

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7.1. User interface

Gnome-Shell con g launcher

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7.1. User interface

Gnome-Shell: All Settings Panel

7.1.1.4 The Gnome Classic interface

If you want to use a more “classical” interface, you can take this option during your session sign
in: click on the little gearwheel to select the “Gnome Classic” option before pressing the “Sign In”
button:

Gnome classic: Environment selection during Sign In

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7.1. User interface

connexion

Your session then opens with a more conventional version of Gnome, but you keep your main
settings and your tools.

The “Classical” interface is lighter, but o ers less visual e ects (usefull or useless, depending on
the view point)

Gnome Classic desktop on Debian 9 Stretch

In order to come back to the default Gnome-Shell interface, select the “Gnome” option of the
gearwheel menu, next time you Sign In.

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7.1. User interface

7.1.2 The KDE Plasma interface

KDE is one historical desktop for the GNU/Linux environments, and did always put the emphasis
on its extreme customization. The transition to the Plasma (https://www.kde.org/plasma-desktop)
rendering engine did not change a bit on that point: everything on KDE is modular, movable,
con gurable, and accessible from a very detailed System Setting Center.

KDE on Debian

7.1.2.1 The System Settings panel

This is where you are going to tweak all your computer and Debian system settings.

Network, audio, video, window appearances, default language, and also the way you sign in, and
a lot more … Virtually everything is con gurable from this panel. Even some desktop special e ects
integrated in KDE, in Compiz style, can be managed from here.

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7.1. User interface

Debian System Settings on KDE Plasma

Each entry is detailed and you will discover as the con guration possibilities of the KDE-Plasma
environment.
If you wish a more “out-of-the-box” like environment, and if your computer con guration allows it,
you should prefer Gnome or Cinnamon which o er less detailed (and less complex) interfaces.

7.1.2.2 KDE and desktop widgets

Plasma allows you to add graphic components to your desktop, sort of small “widgets” that display
virtually anything on your desktop. From the launcher at the top left corner or right-click on the
desktop, select “Add Widgets” and then drag and drop the desired components to your desktop.

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7.1. User interface

KDE widgets

To con gure the widgets, left-click on the relevant component to bring up the con guration menu.
You can then adjust the component, move it or resize it to your liking.

7.1.2.3 KDE Activities

The Activity manager let you organize your tasks and keep an eye on them. To access it, left-click
on the top-left corner menu or right-click on the desktop:

access to activities

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7.2. System Preferences

The activity banner will then appear at the left of the screen and display the current and pending
activities. Each activity can be con gured to separate your tasks and associate certain settings
(for example, deleting the browsing history).

La gestion des activités sur KDE

7.2 System Preferences

The con guration of your system directly impact you user experience. Instead of writing a com-
plete chapter about the di erent ethical and technical concepts which led to the Debian software
organization, we are going to examine their consequences on your daily usage.

In the rest of this chapter, you might be asked to activate the “contrib” and/or “non-free” sections
of the Debian repositories, in order to access some “less-free” software. In that case, follow the
method documented in the chapter 8.1.3.

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7.2. System Preferences

7.2.1 Root-User / su-sudo

During the installation, Debian ask you to enter the password for the “root” administrator account.
This account is common to all the GNU/Linux systems and allows to execute administrative tasks
on the system.

However, this account is not mandatory. During the installation process, you can pass over the
the “root” account con guration (leave empty the root password elds), and doing so, avoid its
creation.

In this case, this is the rst user registered during the installation who will assume the “root” role.

OK… and then?

Then, this changes the way you launch commands to administrate the system: in this manual,
every time we ask you to execute a command in “root” mode, we use the “su” command. But if
the “root” account was not created, you must use instead the “sudo” command, which switch you
and “root”, and give your own password.

In a nutshell to launch an administrative command:

If the “root” account was created, use “su” + administrator password + command launch:
su
> asking administrative password
apt update && apt upgrade
> command execution

If the “root” account was NOT created, use “sudo + command” + your user password:
sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
> asking first user password
> command execution

7.2.2 Read a commercial DVD

The DVDs sold commercially are “copy protected” and usually are not readable by default on free
systems.

The Entertaining Companies consider that we do not have the right, on a free system, to make a
private copy of the DVDs we bought … no comment.

To remedy that, if you really need this functionality, you must install the libdvdcss2 package. This
package is not present by default in the Debian repositories, but you can nd it in the repositories
of Videolan (the site of VLC, the well known multimedia player).

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7.2. System Preferences

The principle consists in adding the Videolan repositories to your system, adding the signature
keys to secure the communication with these repositories and nally installing libdvdcss2.

In practice: 3 commands and that’s it!

1 Open a terminal in administrator mode (chap.3.8.3) with su, then launch this command to add
the Videolan repositories in a separate le:
echo "deb␣http://download.videolan.org/pub/debian/stable/␣/" > /etc/apt/\
sources.list.d/videolan.list

2 Add the repositories signature key:

wget -O - http://download.videolan.org/pub/debian/videolan-apt.asc | apt\
-key add -

3 Reload the repositories and install libdvdcss2:

apt update && apt install libdvdcss

You can realize these modi cations in graphical mode only, by using the Synaptic package man-
ager, but it takes a lot of time to click with the mouse all over the places …

Your Debian GNU/Linux system is now able to read the “protected” commercial DVDs, and to
make private copies of them.

7.2.3 Using FlashPlayer

Adobe Flash Player is a non-free platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to
Web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements and games.

A free reader exist: Gnash (https://packages.debian.org/stretch/gnash). It is an alternative to the

Adobe reader but does not allow to have access to all the Flash functionalities.

Be aware that the current trend for site developers is to move away from ash in favor of HTML5
(https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5), thus it is more and more easy to survive on the Internet with-
out the proprietary ash player.

This manual being intended for beginners, we are not going to ask you to remove all the bookmarks
pointing to sites still using the ash reader (although that could help making a faster transition), so
we will detail below how to install the ash player from Adobe website

• Start by visiting the o cial download page (https://get.adobe.com) which should detect your
architecture and your browser. Select the “linux tar gz” archive in the menu:

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7.2. System Preferences

ash player download page

• Once the archive is downloaded, right-click on it the “extract here”.

• Open the “ ash_player-npapi_linux_your-architecture” folder, you’ll nd the “lib ash-
player.so” le.
• Copy this le from your le browser: right-click on lib ashplayer.so > “copy”
• Navigate to the folder ~/.mozilla by displaying the hidden folders. (menu view > show hidden
les).
• Create the folder “plugins” in your ~/.mozilla then right-click in this folder > “paste” the
lib ashplayer.so

To update your ash player, retrieve the latest version in the same way, and overwrite the old le
with the new one, simply.

7.2.4 Installing a graphic card driver

The Debian GNU/Linux system includes free drivers and some rmware in order to operate the
integrated graphical functions (chipsets) of the motherboard or the external graphical card.

… I need a driver to manage the card of my mother ??

Your computer is designed around its “motherboard”, a plastic board on which the various ele-
ments of the processor (the central compute unit) are xed, as well as the chipsets, the graphical

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7.2. System Preferences

component being part of them (the graphical display computer, to make a long story short).
In order to send the right instructions to these elements the GNU/Linux kernel (the program man-
aging the interactions of the hardware with the system) uses pieces of code, called drivers (and
sometimes “ rmware” to be loaded on smart devices during the initialization phase). The Linux
kernel includes by default a set of free drivers. These drivers are usually su cient to manage
the screen display. But it may happen that proprietary drivers are needed to optimize the screen
resolution.

You can try to install these proprietary drivers if, during a live session or once your system is
installed, you nd out that:

• resolution is wrong, with stretched and distorted images,

• the screen remains black after start-up, even if the system was installed without any errors.
• the colors are badly handled
• the system is heating too much when watching videos
• returning from the “suspend” mode is somewhat erratic …

Please note that installing proprietary drivers is a non-free alternative, and as such, not followed
by the Debian developers. If your computer is very recent, don’t hesitate to ask the support of the
community before tinkering with your system (chap.1.2).

7.2.4.1 Identifying your hardware

The rst thing to do is to identify your graphic device (or graphic card). Open a terminal as simple
user, and enter the following command:
lspci | egrep " D|Display|VGA"

which will display this kind of result for a nVidia controller:

: . VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation G GLM [Quadro FX \
M] (rev a )

or this kind of result for an ATI controller:

: . VGA compatible controller [ ]: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [\
AMD/ATI] Barts PRO [Radeon HD ] [ : ]

but what doest that mean?

lspci

lists the devices connected to the PCI bus and

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7.2. System Preferences

egrep " D|Display|VGA"

selects only the information we are interested in, rather than displaying everything. Here we are
looking only at graphical components.
As you can see the identi cation is rather easy … we got the manufacturer and the model on the
same line. Should you have the slightest doubt concerning the installation of additional drivers,
don’t hesitate to ask the Free Community for help (chap.1.2).

7.2.4.2 Installing the generic rmware

In all cases, and before the installation of any proprietary driver, you should add the non-free
rmware delivered by Debian. To add the Debian non-free rmware to your system, start with mod-
ifying your repositories (chap.8.1.3) by adding the contrib and non-free sections to your sources.
Open a terminal in administrative mode (voir chap.3.8.3) with the “su” command (the administrator
password is requested), then launch the command:
apt edit-sources

Modify the sources.list le by adding the contrib and non-free section, like this:
###### Debian Main Repos
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free

###### Debian Update Repos

deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free

Save your modi cations with [Ctrl]+x in the Nano text editor, then “Y” for “Yes”.
Reload the repository informatin, and install the non-free rmware:
apt update && apt install firmware-linux firmware-linux-nonfree

Restart your machine to test again your screen display before installing the proprietary drivers.
If no real improvement is noticed, continue with the following sections … The sources.list le is
already set for the next steps.

7.2.4.3 ATI/AMD card con guration

ATI driver
This is the “generic” driver to install if your card is not listed in the speci c sections (Radeon,
Catalyst).
To install it from an administrator terminal (chap.3.8.3):

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7.2. System Preferences

apt install libgl -mesa-dri xserver-xorg-video-ati

Restart your computer to load the microcode ( rmware) of the graphic peripheral.

Radeon driver

the Radeon driver of Debian 9 “Stretch”, supports the graphic processors from R100 to Hawaii
(Radeon 7000 - Radeon R9 290). See the Radeon package page https://packages.debian.org/
stretch/xserver-xorg-video-radeon to verify your card.

To install it from an administrator terminal (chap.3.8.3):

apt install libgl -mesa-dri xserver-xorg-video-radeon

Restart your computer to load the microcode ( rmware) of the graphic peripheral.

For non-supported cards here and for more information, visit the o cial Debian documentation:
https://wiki.debian.org/ATIProprietary.

7.2.4.4 nVidia card con guration

Debian uses a software tool to detect and indicate the driver to be installed: nvidia-detect.

To install and use it, open a terminal in administrator mode (chap.3.8.3), then launch:
apt update && apt install nvidia-detect

To launch the detection, simply launch the command:

nvidia-detect

which will return this kind of result:

Detected NVIDIA GPUs:
: . VGA compatible controller [ ]: NVIDIA Corporation G GLM [\
Quadro FX M] [ de: c] (rev a )
Your card is supported by the default drivers and legacy driver series \
.
It is recommended to install the
nvidia-driver
package.

In this example, the card is natively supported by the default driver and by the “legacy series 304”
driver; Depending on your machine, you can install two types of drivers: the 340.xx series (for
the GeForce 8x and more) and the 304.xx series (for the GeForce 6x and 7x). Older models are
supported natively by the free driver.

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7.2. System Preferences

For a complete list of the supported cards, visit the dedicated documentation: 340.xx series
page (http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86_64/340.65/README/supportedchips.
html) - 304.xx series page (http://us.download.nvidia.com/XFree86/Linux-x86/304.125/README/
supportedchips.html)

For details on the installation procedure and supported cards, refer to the o cial Debian docu-
mentation page: https://wiki.debian.org/NvidiaGraphicsDrivers

7.2.4.5 Perte de session graphique

If, following a driver installation, you are facing a black screen, you need to return to the previous
con guration.

Boot in “recovery mode”: from the Grub loader menu, select the “Advanced options” entry and
then the “recovery mode” entry.

GRUB: advanced options

GRUB: recovery mode

The system launches a console and invite you to continue the startup sequence (by using the
[Ctrl]+d short-cut to quit the console) or enter the administrator password, and this is what you do:

recovery mode enabled

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7.3. Adding a new user

Removal of the xorg.conf con guration le: during the installation of the proprietary driver,
you created a X con guration le located in /etc/X11/xorg.conf and/or /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/xxx.conf.
It must be removed. Always from the console and depending on the le created, remove it with
the command: “rm”:
rm /etc/X /xorg.conf.d/ -nvidia.conf

Here this is the le corresponding to nVidia which was removed, !! to be adapted to your
situation !!.

Uninstallation of the proprietary drivers: The same way you were able to install a driver, you
can uninstall it, here an example with the nVidia driver, !! to be adapted to your situation !!:
apt remove nvidia-kernel-dkms nvidia-driver

Restart your computer with a simple

systemctl reboot

7.3 Adding a new user

If you are not the only user of your computer, you can create new user accounts in order to pre-
serve your data and preferences. By adding a new user, a new folder will be created in the
system. This folder, named by the pseudo of the new user, will receive the default parameters
delivered during the system installation.
It will be readable (you can consult the data of the other user) but not writable (you cannot create
or modify its data).

7.3.1 Adding a new user the graphical way

Debian includes a simple graphical tool to execute this task, but you can also use the terminal and
the “adduser” command (described in the next section).

From a menu or the application list, “System” category, select “Users and Groups”:

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7.3. Adding a new user

user con g launcher

The window which opens, displays the detailed information of your user account. You can then
modify the parameters of your account, or create a new account. But you need rst to “unlock”
the application by clicking on the lock button at the top, and enter the administrator password.

To add a new account, click on “Add” (or the “+” button) at the bottom of the left panel:

user con guration

You must enter the full name of this new user, as well as its username (the pseudo or login name
used when connecting to a new session). On the Gnome system, you can let the user to de ne its
password during the rst connection, or enter it immediately:

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7.3. Adding a new user

adding new user

The user account is created … and here you go:

new user password

Advanced settings allow you to de ne the rights and permissions for each user.

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7.3. Adding a new user

7.3.2 Adding a new user using the terminal

Open a terminal in administrator mode (voir chap.3.8.3) enter the command which creates the
new “username” account. Note that you should enter here the user ID (or pseudo), not the full
name which will be asked later on:
adduser username

useradd 1

The user account creation process is started and you must enter the password twice (without any
echo, its normal).

Once the account is created, we can enter additional information: full name, room number, work
phone, home phone, and any comments in the “Other” eld.
Once done, a con rmation is requested. If these information are correct you can type [Enter] or Y
to nish the account creation process:

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7.3. Adding a new user

user added

This new user will be able to login with its username and password at computer startup. It will be
able to store and manage its data and con gure its environment without any risks for your own
data and preferences.

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 System administration

8.1 The software sources

Debian GNU/Linux uses the repository methodology to distribute applications. This methodology
allows the software centralization and the usage of simple interfaces to administrate and upgrade
your system: you have no need to visit the software sites themselves.

8.1.1 The sources.list le

The Internet addresses of the Debian repositories are stored in the /etc/apt/sources.list and the
les of the type /etc/apt/sources.list.d/xxx.list.

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8.1. The software sources

An example of “sources.list” le on Debian 9

Details concerning the various information found in the “sources.list” le (the lines beginning with
a “#” are just comments):

• “deb”: means a binary repository (the compiled software itself)

• “deb-src”: means a source repository (the program code les used to compile the software)
• “http:·…”: the Internet address of the repository server
• “stretch”, “stretch/updates”: the branch in the repository tree
• “main”: the repository section.

… why “stretch” and not “stable” since the system is based on Debian Stable ??
“stretch” is the precise version name of the installed system. It sets a given version of each
packages included in the “stretch” repository (the version of the generic kernel, for example).
“stable” is the generic name of the currently stable.
For the time being, “stretch” is the “stable” version, thus you could used either designation. But
when the Debian “stable” version becomes “buster”, then “stretch” will change to “oldstable”.
Using the precise name of your version allows you to control if and when you want to upgrade your
system to the next version, as opposed to some systems which want to impose their upgrades…
For more detailed information, I invite you to visit the dedicated Debian wiki https://www.debian.
org/releases/index.html

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8.1. The software sources

8.1.2 About repositories, branches and sections/components

Debian organizes its software within repositories. These repositories are divided into branches
and sections/components. To learn more about the “testing” and “unstable” branch read the chap-
ter 8.8. One word, however, about the sections/components in the repositories.

There are 3 sections in the o cial Debian repositories:

section component selection criteria for the packages

main complies to the DFSG without any “non-free” dependency

contrib complies to the DFSG with some “non-free” dependencies
non-free does not comply to the DFSG

DFSG (Debian Free Software Guidelines) : principes du logiciel libre selon Debian (https://www.
debian.org/social_contract.html#guidelines)

Only the packages within the main section/component are o cially supported by the Debian
project and are 100% free software. Rather, those proposed in contrib and non-free are partially
or totally non-free.

Having said that, and depending on your type of hardware, it is very possible that some services
do not function correctly without using speci c (proprietary) drivers. In that case, you need to
modify the /etc/apt/sources.list le (details in the following chapter)

• More details about the Debian versions in the Debian Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/
DebianReleases.
• For more details on sources.list it’s here: https://wiki.debian.org/SourcesList.
• For a complete documentation on the Debian package management, it’s there: https://www.
debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.html.

8.1.3 Modifying the Repositories

Before you start modifying the software sources of your system, you must be conscious of the
risks your are taking by using the “contrib” or “non-free” components of the archived branch.

• lack of freedom for this king of packages

• lack of support by the Debian project (you cannot maintain a piece of software without having
the source code at your disposal)
• the contamination of your fully free Debian system.

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8.2. APT in a terminal

Now, that you are warned that the non-free people kill the pink rabbits, let’s move on:

To modify your software sources, it is enough to edit the “sources.list” le. Open a terminal in
terminal mode (chap.3.8.3), and enter:
apt edit-sources

This command opens the appropriated le with the default text editor (nano or vim). Once you are
done with your modi cations, save the le (“[Ctrl]+x” with nano, or “:wq” with vim http://www.vim.
org/).

Example of line entry for the free packages:

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stable main

Example of line entry for the free packages and the proprietary packages:
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian/ stable main contrib non-free

Now you can help yourself in the 3 package sections and install the non-free codecs and drivers.

Note also that you can modify your software sources by using the graphical Synaptic package
manager (chap.8.3).

8.2 APT in a terminal

The following sections present the graphical interface of the APT (Advanced Package Tool) pro-
gram. This application is also available directly from the command line, allowing a better ne
tuning of your system.

This section presents the basic APT commands to manage the Debian packages from a terminal.

Debian supports also “aptitude”, another package manager, with a di erent syntax and behavior.
This manual being intended for beginners, no need to explicit these commands here: to learn more
about them, visit the dedicated Debian Aptitude Wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/Aptitude.

8.2.1 “User” command to search and display information

These commands can be executed as simple user, because they do not impact your system.

command description

apt show toto display information about the package toto

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8.2. APT in a terminal

command description

apt search toto look for packages corresponding to the toto

apt-cache policy toto display the available version of toto

8.2.2 “Administrator” mode commands for system maintenance

These commands must be executed with the “root” administrator rights, because they impact
the system. To move into the administrator mode from a terminal, type “su -”: the administrator
password is requested.

command description

apt update Update the repositories metadata

apt install toto Install the toto package and its dependencies
apt upgrade Secured update of the installed packages
apt dist-upgrade Update of the installed packet, by adding/removing
other packages if necessary
apt remove xyz Remove the xyz package, but not the con guratrion les
apt-get autoremove Auto remove the unecessary packages
apt purge xyz Purge the xyz package and its con guration les
apt-get clean Clean the local cache of the installed package
apt-get autoclean Clean the local cache of the obsolete packages
apt-mark showmanual Mark a package as being “manually-installed”

For more detailed information and the apt/aptitude equivalence, visit the dedicated page of the
Debian manual: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/ch02.html

All-in-One command line (in administrator mode) to update the repositories information + update
your system + clean the packages in cache:
apt update && apt dist-upgrade && apt-get autoclean

Which goes to show that managing your system with a terminal is not that complex.

Apt vs Apt-get

The Apt program is currently going through some streamlining and o ers now a simpli ed syntax
for its commands and options. Thus, you will nd both syntax (apt and/or apt-get) in this manual
as well as in most of the GNU/Linux documentations.

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

8.2.3 Backport packages

Debian o ers also some special repositories called backports, which contain more recent ver-
sions of some applications. These repositories are not activated by default, but do not present
any particular risks for your system: the “regular” repositories have the highest priority dur-
ing the update process, only the applications installed from the backports will look into these
speci c repositories.

… what do you mean exactly by “backports” ?

Nothing to do, in fact, with the “backdoors” used to spy on your machine running proprietary
systems…
The backport is a mechanism allowing an application currently hold in the Debian development
repositories, to be ported back to the “stable” version.
For example, the Debian developers take in the development repositories the most recent version
of LibreO ce, and re-compile (re-build) the package holding the application, while taking care of
all the dependencies existing in the “stable” version.

More details about Backports ine the dedicated page of the Debian wiki (https://wiki.debian.org/
Backports). If you are looking for speci c application, you have two solutions: use the search
package tool (https://backports.debian.org/Packages/) [en] or the search by category (https://
packages.debian.org/jessie-backports/).

8.3 Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

Synaptic is the comprehensive graphical interface of the Debian package manager. It allows a
total vision of the proposed packages, whether installed or not. It is a lot more detailed than the
Software Center, or Apper (see the following chapters) since it displays the full set of available
packages (including the libraries).

• Provide the same functionality as apt or apt-get.

• You need to provide the administrator password to open qand use Synaptic.
• An active Internet connection is also neede to install or update your software.

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

8.3.1 Main interface

The Synaptic windows is divided in 4 areas: the tool bar at the top, the left pane allowing di erent
ways of sorting and selecting the packages, the center pane displaying the package list itself, and
below the pane hosting the description of the currently selected package (the selection is done
with a click).

In front of each package, you notice a little box (white for non-installed packages, green when they
are installed, red when they are broken). Next to this status box, a Debian logo indicates that this
package is “free” (as in freedom).

Synaptic: the default interface of the package manager

The very rst thing to do when you launch Synaptic, is to click on the “Reload” button in
order to update all the information (metadata) concerning the repositories, the packages and the
available applications.

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

Don’t hesitate to click on all the menus to explore Synaptic and become more familiar with it. It is
a good way to discover its numerous functionalities.

Don’t be afraid to break your system since nothing will really happen until you click on the “Apply”
button. On top of that, a message asking for con rmation will always be displayed rst.

8.3.2 Managing the repositories

The repositories allow to update and install additional packages.

Open the Synaptic package manager (menu System > Synaptic package manager)

In the top menu bar, click on “Settings, then”Repositories“.

The GNOME desktop repository management uses an explicit “check” interface:

Synaptic: managing sources from Gnome

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

The management of the repositories on the other desktops like Xfce or LXDE is in “text” mode
with the displayed addresses:

Synaptic: managing sources from Xfce

You’ll notice that the list corresponds to the contents of the /etc/apt/sources.list le mentioned in
chapter 8.1.1.
Now, you can modify your repository sources at your entire convenience. Simply click on a source
to modify it, or on the “New” button to add a new source.
Once your modi cations are validated, the application will invite you to reload the repositories list
in order to take your changes into account.
Note that if you want the “check” interface on Xfce Desktop, you have to install the “software-
properties-gtk’ package.

8.3.3 Updating the system

Before updating the system, it is necessary to “Reload” the package list, by clicking on the corre-
sponding button, or by going in the menu “Edit > Reload Packages Information” (or even [Ctrl]+r if
you want to use a keyboard shortkey). This action checks if the version of the packages residing
on your system is the most recent or not.

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

check repositories informations

Then click on “Mark All Upgrades” or menu “Edit > Mark All Upgrades…”.

upgrades request

A new window appears with the list of the packages to be upgraded as well as the additional
dependencies, if some are required:

resquest changes list

You only have to click on the “Apply” button, and accept the requested con rmation:

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

con rm changes

The system updating process begins with the package downloading, and continues with their
installation. A message informs you that all the changes were applied.

Synaptic: downloading packages

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

Synaptic: upgrading packages

system upgraded

8.3.4 Searching for a software

If you don’t know the name of the package you need, you can parse the list using the ltering
by sections, status, origin, etc …
By example, if you are looking for a game, click on Sections in the bottom part of the left pane,
scroll down to the “Games and Amusement” section, click on it, and the packages concerning
games and amusement are listed in the center pane.
If you know the name of the package or if you are looking precisely for something, click on the
search button (in the top bar) and enter the keywords of your search in the window which opens.

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

Other “Custom Filters” are available. Click on the button to explore them.

8.3.4.1 Look at a package detailed information

By clicking on a package, its description is displayed on the bottom center pane of Synaptic. To
obtain even more information on a package, right-click on it, and select Properties, or go to menu
“Packages > Properties”.

Then you will know everything - positively absolutely everything - on this package; dependencies,
installed les, size and version.

8.3.5 Installing / uninstalling softwares

8.3.5.1 Installing a package

To install one or several packages, right-click on the little box in front of the package name, and
select the “Mark for Installation” option.

Synaptic: marking a package for installation

If, in order to be functional, this package requires the installation of other packages (the famous
dependencies) they are automatically added to the selection.

Then, you simply need to click on the “Apply” button, and con rm the summary of the changes to
be applied.

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

Synaptic: summary of the pending changes

Synaptic: changes being applied

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

Synaptic: installation of pacman

8.3.5.2 Uninstalling a package

Like for the installation, right-click on the little box in front of the package name, and select the
“Mark for Removal” option. Then click on “Apply”.

The simple removal keep the package con guration les on your system, in case you would like
to re-install it, later on.

To remove also the con guration les select the “Mark for Complete Removal” option (equiv-
alent to the “purge” in a terminal command line)

8.3.5.3 Reinstalling a package

Sometimes we want to re-install a package which is already installed. In that case select the
“Mark for Reinstallation” option. This allows, for example, to update the default con guration for
the applicatoin if you modi ed it.

8.3.5.4 Cleaning useless packages

Often, when software is uninstalled, some packages (the dependencies) remain in the system
while no longer useful, since all the packages needing them are gone. These useless packages
can be easily removed with Synaptic.

When Synaptic is launched, click on the “Status” button at the bottom of the left pane. If the “In-
stalled (Auto removable)” category shows up, click on it to display the corresponding package(s)
(see image below):

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

Synaptic: auto removable packages

All you have to do next is a right-click on each package in the center pane, and select the “Mark
for Complete Removal” option. Once all the packages are marked, click on the “Apply” button.

8.3.5.5 Removing con guration residues

Although one choose to completely remove a software, some con guration residues might still
remain in the system, bur they can be removed with Synaptic.
Click on the “Status” button at the bottom of the left pane. If the category “Not installed (residual
con g)” shows up, select it (see image below):

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

Synaptic: removing con guration residues

All you have to do next is a right-click on each package in the center pane, and select the “Mark
for Complete Removal” option. Once all the packages are marked, click on the “Apply” button.

8.3.6 Synaptic preferences

“Preferences” is a well-named category, existing in most applications, and which is also present
here…
But keep in mind that Synaptic is a very special case: it manages the full set of software
installed on your system. When you remove a program, it does not go in the wastebasket (where
you could have potentially retrieved it) !

After these scary warnings, let’s move to the settings available for Synaptic. the Preferences
window (launched via menu Settings > Preferences) displays 6 di erent tabs:

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8.3. Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager

Synaptic: Preferences window

• General: the options in there are rather explicit. Note: it is possible to un-tick the option
“Consider recommended packages as dependencies”, if that helps you keeping an ultra-
light system. But this could induce problems when installing future new packages. Thus an
option to be handled carefully.
• Columns and Fonts: allows you to display/mask some columns in the package list, and
de ne the font, if necessary.
• Colors: you can de ne here the package colors according to their status.
• Files: When you install a piece of software, it is rst stored in the cache (which is a speci c
folder of the le system) before being uncompressed and installed. These packages can
occupy more and more disk space as you make usage of your computer. Here you can
delete them immediately or con gure an automatic action.
• Network: This is the way Synaptic connects to Internet. You should know if your situation

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8.4. Discover: the KDE package manager

requires a modi cation of these parameters.

• Distribution: De nes the package upgrade behavior and is very explicit. In case of
doubts, do not modify

Remember: by using a terminal (chap.8.2) you can achieve the same results more quickly and
with less manipulations.

8.4 Discover: the KDE package manager

The Synaptic package manager is the default interface for the software management, but it is
sometimes “too” complete. Gnome uses “Software” to manage applications in a simpli ed way,
KDE integrates Discover, an intuitive and e cient software.

Discover simply launched from the KDE main menu > Applications> System > Software Center:

Discover launcher

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8.4. Discover: the KDE package manager

Discover: default interface

8.4.1 Discover: Manage your applications

Search and install applications from the dedicated search eld or by visiting the categories of
Discover. A click on the “Install” button is enough:

Searching an application with Discover

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8.4. Discover: the KDE package manager

Browsing categories with Discover

Install Plasma desktop wisgets directly from Discover by visiting the dedicated category (here
with the “Weather” addon):

Installing Plasma modules

Uninstaliing an application with Discover, simply by visiting the “Installed” category then click
on “Remove”:

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8.4. Discover: the KDE package manager

Uninstalling with “Discover”

A con rmation will be asked for any action on the software. The process will then be launched in
the background. You can follow the progress of the changes from the KDE noti cation area.

8.4.2 Discover: upgrading your applications

When KDE noti es you of one or more updates, it is “Discover” that launches to perform them:

update noti cation

Simply click on “Update all” and con rm with the administrator password.

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8.5. Software : the simpli ed package manager

upgrading system on KDE

As with software management, you can follow the process from the KDE noti cation area.

8.5 Software : the simpli ed package manager

Software is a simpli ed manager for Debian applications. It allows you to search, install, delete
or update packages containing your applications. You can nd it in the “System” category of your
menus or directly from the Gnome search box by typing “Software”.

Software: default Debian interface.

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8.5. Software : the simpli ed package manager

8.5.1 Software: searching an application

Directly from the search magnifying glass button, or by clicking on one of the displayed categories:

Searching an application by its name.

Searching applications through categories.

8.5.2 Software: installing an application

Install an application simply by clicking on its form and then “Install”. The administrator pass-
word will be requested. You can follow the progress in the main window and then launch directly
the newly downloaded application.

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8.5. Software : the simpli ed package manager

Selecting an application for installation.

Authenti cation.

You can follow installation process.

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8.5. Software : the simpli ed package manager

The installation is successful: you can launch your application directly.

8.5.3 Software: remove an application

Uninstall an application simply by visiting the “Installed” category (at the top of the interface)
and clicking on the “Remove” button. You will be asked for con rmation:

Selecting an application for removal.

con rmation

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8.5. Software : the simpli ed package manager

8.5.4 Software: upgrading your applications

Update your system from the dedicated section “Updates” which will indicate the available
and/or already downloaded updates. If no update is available, you can check the repositories
using the dedicated button at the top left.
In our example, an update series that includes the “operating system update” requires a reboot.
You can list all the updated applications in this batch by clicking on the relevant entry:

updates tab

checking available updates

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8.6. Cleaning the system

You then have to restart by clicking on the dedicated button.

Note that for smaller updates, restart is not necessary.

8.6 Cleaning the system

Even if the capacity of hard disks increased dramatically during the last years, you might need
some free space. Several scripts automate the disk cleaning process, however I must confess
that I prefer to check before using the rm command (standing for remove. chap.11.2).

8.6.1 Disk space information

The rst thing to do, of course, is to nd out the used space on your disk. Several tools are available
to you:

Disk space in terminal mode: a summary of the disk space usage for each system mount points
(disks and partitions):
df -h

List your folders sorted by decreasing size:

du -ks * | sort -nr

Ncdu: disk space analyzer in console mode. To launch it, simply type “ncdu” in your terminal. To
install this software (in administrator mode):

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8.6. Cleaning the system

apt update && apt install ncdu

Ncdu launched in the user personal folder

Baobab: disk space analyser in graphic mode, integrated in Gnome.

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8.6. Cleaning the system

Baobab: disk space analyzer on Gnome

Fslint: utility to nd and clean various forms of unwanted extraneous les in your le system, like
duplicates, broken links, empty folders, wrong encoding, etc … To be manipulated with extreme
caution: double check carefully the pending changes before validating the whole process.

8.6.2 Cleaning the packages

Apt/aptitude/dpkg are the usual Debian package managers. When you install a package its
archive-source/deb le is stored in your system (in the /var/cache/apt/archives/ folder) to enable
a potential re-installation without Internet connection. To clean the “apt cache” use a simple com-
mand in administrator mode (chap.3.8.3):
apt-get clean

Once the cache of the installed packages is cleaned, you can also remove the useless packages
from your system, as well as the con guration les. Warning! Remember to check carefully the
list of the packages planed for removal, before accepting the operation:
apt-get autoremove --purge

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8.6. Cleaning the system

8.6.3 Emptying the trash bins

Three di erent bins must be taken into account:

The user wastebasket : ~/.local/share/Trash/ . You can empty it with the system le manager,
or with a terminal:
rm -Rf ~/.local/share/Trash/*

The administrator wastebasket : /root/.local/share/Trash/ . To empty it with the proper manner,

use a terminal in administrator mode:
rm -Rf /root/.local/share/Trash/*

The external wastebaskets : locates on your external disks, they are usually named “/media/y-
our_id/your_disk/.Trash_1000”, where your_id corresponds to your login name.

8.6.4 Purging application caches

Some applications use a “cache” folder, where they store images, videos, and miscellaneous
information in order to run faster. Usually these data do not occupy too much disk space, however
if (using the tools described above) you detect that a folder becomes too fat, don’t hesitate to
remove it.
Each application has its own way to manage its own cache: some purge it systematically when
they close, others store their data in the /tmp folder, which will be cleared during the session logout,
others keep all their information in a speci c folder.
For Firefox, as an example, you can purge the cache from the preferences menu, and even auto-
mate this action every time the application is closed.

8.6.5 Purging the thumbnails

Every time you open a folder containing pictures or videos, thumbnails are created to represent
these graphic les. These thumbnails are stored in a speci c folder to reuse them, rather than
being forced to recompute them, every time you access this kind of le.
The problem raised when you delete a graphic le, because its thumbnail is kept in the system,
and this leads to a certain amount of disk space used to store obsolete thumbnails.
To purge them, it is enough to remove their corresponding folder:
rm -Rf ~/.thumbnails

This folder will be created again, the next time the system needs to store a newly generated thumb-
nail.

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8.7. Installing external “.deb” packages

8.7 Installing external “.deb” packages

Debian GNU/Linux uses the package repository system to better manage the software and in-
crease the security of your system. But it may happen that you need an external package of the
“.deb” format.

… but who is this “deb” ??

deb is the short for “debian”, the mother company. To distribute its software, Debian uses a
speci c archive le format: “.deb”. It is a compressed format, like the “.zip” that you use to save
your data. These “.deb” archives are recognized by the di erent Debian package managers (APT
and its graphical interface Synaptic) and thus can be handled more easily.

8.7.1 Installation in graphic mode with gdebi

Gdebi is a graphical utility with allows the installation of external packages of the “.deb” format,
while managing the dependencies.

To install it, look for “gdebi” in your favorite package manager (Synaptic, Apper, Packages) or
more simply from a terminal in administrator mode using “su” (chap.3.8.3):
apt update && apt install gdebi

When you download a Debian external package, right-click on it and select “Open with gdebi”.

8.7.2 Installation in terminal mode with Dpkg

Dpkg is a software utility handling the packages like apt, but it does not manage the dependencies.
This means that if you use dpkg to install external packages, you need to install the “dependent”
packages one by one from your terminal. Dpkg is integrated in Debian by default, and must be
used in administrative mode.

To install an external package:

dpkg -i package.deb

An error message will let you know if some dependencies are missing, an error message will let
you know, and then simply install them the classic way with apt:
apt install dependent_ dependent_ ...

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8.8. Who is this Sid guy?

Then relaunch the installation of your external package:

dpkg -i adresse_du_paquet.deb

To remove an external package:

dpkg --purge package_name

8.8 Who is this Sid guy?

First of all, one must know that several Debian distribution branches exist in parallel.

Namely the oldstable, stable, testing and unstable distributions, as well as an experimental
branch.

The Stable distribution is the Debian o cial distribution, the one released at this moment, with
is maintained and updated par the Debian teams. The only changes made concern the security
updates and the bug xes. It is recommended to favor this Version.

The Oldstable distribution is the previous stable version. It is usually supported by the Debian
teams during one year after the release of the new stable version. Then it might live longer if
enough individuals or companies continue to assure its maintenance. Then it is called a LTS
(standing for Long Term Support) distribution: we extend its life span.

The Testing distribution is the future Stable version. It is used to prepared the next stable
version. When everything is OK, when all the bit and pieces are functioning well together, when
all the features targeted by the Debian teams are included, and after a period of software freeze
and bug hunting, then the Testing version becomes the o cial new Stable distribution.

The Unstable distribution, nicknamed Sid is the version which receives all the new packages
versions, and sits at the cutting edge of innovation, but is not very stable: it’s a research lab.
Nevertheless some brave adventurers use it on a daily basis.

The Experimental distribution is not a Debian distribution per se, but rather a repository where
alpha or beta software versions are tested.

Toy Story © Disney & Pixar

All these distributions are given a name picked among the characters of the Toy Story® cartoon.

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8.8. Who is this Sid guy?

Currently, the name of the stable version is Stretch, the name of the testing version is Buster,
the name of the oldstable version is Jessie, the Experimental as no nickname.

The name of unstable is Sid, but who is this Sid guy?

Sid is the little boy, in the Toy story® cartoon, who breaks all his toys (http://pixar.wikia.com/wiki/
Sid_Phillips).

More detailed information on the dedicated Debian Wiki https://wiki.debian.org/DebianUnstable.

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 Back up your data

No matter where your expertize level is, or the current state of your hardware, nobody is immune
to a bad cockpit error, a technical failure, a heavy thunderstorm, a cup of tea/co ee spilt on the
keyboard, or the cat messing around with the central unit …

The hard dish drive capacities are increasing every day and we are tempted to store on them more
and more data (family pictures, videos, private copies of movies, etc). The risk of losing a large
amount of data also increase at the same time, and that’s why we advise you to execute regular
backups of your personal data, as well as your passwords and email messages.

This section will endeavor to provide you with simple keys to avoid the lost of your favorite les
during a hardware or software failure.

The “cloud” is fashionable these days. Several on-line services are at your disposal to save your
data on an external server…
First of all, you are not immune to a server failure, and secondly, you have no real control on what
your data are going to be used for. The “cloud” is actually the computer of someone else, as user
Bibi told us recently.

I strongly advise you, in case of doubts (all services are not subsidiaries of the NSA …) to backup
your data locally, that is on your own physical medium which you fully control.

225
9.1. Choosing the medium

9.1 Choosing the medium

Backups used to be made on oppy disks, then on CDs and then on DVDs. Even if you can still
use this kind of support, the technology now gives you access to larger capacities at little cost.
Depending on the amount of the data to backup, you can nd external disk from 1GB (USB key
type) to 2TB (2000GB), being powered directly over the USB cable, or by an external power sup-
ply. The prices range roughly from 5 to 200 US$, depending the capacity.
Of course, if the size of your data is below 700MB, you can use a CD-RW (re-writable CD-Rom)
for your backups.

9.2 Graphical mode applications

Debian hosts in its repositories several utilities (https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/

debian-reference/ch10.html#_copy_and_synchronization_tools) in the “copy and synchro-
nization” section, each of them o ers a graphical interface or “client”. Here we present one of the
simplest backup tool: Deja-Dup.
Deja Dup is more than enough to backup your personal data, but if you want to exe-
cute a “full system backup” (including your application and the whole installation) you
must use more complex software, as described in the Debian documentation (https:
//wiki.debian.org/BackupAndRecovery).

9.2.1 Backing Up with Deja-Dup

Deja Dup (https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/DejaDup) is a “simpli ed backup tool”, which is a graph-

ical interface to the Duplicity software (http://duplicity.nongnu.org/). It allows building secured
backups of your data within a local folder, an external disk, a local network, a remote network or
somewhere in the “cloud”.
It also allows the complete encryption and password protection of your backup les.
Deja-Dup o ers a clear interface which does not require any computer knowledge.

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9.2. Graphical mode applications

9.2.1.1 Installing Deja-Dup

Deja-Dup can be found in the Debian repositories.To install it using a terminal in administrator
mode (chap.3.8.3) :
apt-get update && apt-get install deja-dup

Or using the graphical interfaces (chap.8.3), look for “deja-dup”.

9.2.1.2 Launching and con guring Deja-Dup

Deja-Dup will be accessible from the application menu > “Utilities” > “Backups”. During the rst
launch, the Deja-Dup settings let you de ne how to automatically execute the future backups,
where to save, what to save and with which frequency.

Deja-Dup: selection of the folders to save

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9.2. Graphical mode applications

Deja-Dup:selection of the folder to ignore

Deja-Dup: selection of the storage location

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9.2. Graphical mode applications

Deja-Dup: scheduling the backups

9.2.1.3 Saving your data with Deja-Dup

Once the settings are done, launch the rst backup by clicking on the “Back Up Now” button
residing under the “Overview” tab.

backup

The very rst backup execution will take some time, depending on the size of the data to be saved,
but the following runs should be a lot faster since they will save only the modi ed les: this is the
incremental backup.

An additional feature is the optional password setting during the con guration, which allows the
encryption of the full set of backups:

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9.2. Graphical mode applications

Deja-Dup: protecting your backup

Deja-Dup: launching the backup

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9.2. Graphical mode applications

9.2.1.4 Restoring your data with Deja-Dup

To restore a backup on a newly installed system, for example, simply install Deja-Dup on it,
launch it and select “Restore” in the main window.

restore launcher

A series of simple windows will help you to nd and restore your data:

• De ne the restore from which location:

• De ne the restore from which creation time (when several backups are available):

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9.2. Graphical mode applications

• De ne the restore destination:

• con rm the restore parameters:

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9.2. Graphical mode applications

• If the backup has been encrypted, the password will be required, then the restore process
will begin. An information window is displayed at the end of the process.

Deja-Dup: restoring data

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9.3. Manual method

Deja-Dup: restore process completed

9.3 Manual method

If you want to save just one folder or few of them, you can simply use the le system manager, or
your archive manager (to reduce the storage space through compression).
The latter produces “real” archives: for subsequent consultation of these data, you need to un-
compress the archive.
From the le manager, select the folders to be saved, then right-click and take the “Compress…”
(or “Archive”) action.
Then you just have to move the archive on an external medium.

9.4 Cloning the system

This is the complete solution ensuring a total safety for your data: cloning the entire hard disk.

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9.4. Cloning the system

Clonezilla Live (http://clonezilla.org/) is a Live CD based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution,

which includes the Clonezilla software. It allows the user to directly execute from its machine:

• A Backup: copy the entire disk copy , or one or several partitions, under the form of an
image and save it on any kind of storage.
• A Restore: restore an image from its storage location (to the same disk, another disk, an-
other machine, a USB key, a network, etc.).
• A Copy: direct copy from an original disk to another destination disk.

This Clonezilla version is able to connect to di erent servers: SSH server, Samba server, NFS
server …

As its name suggests it, it works like a Live CD (CD-ROM, DVD-ROM) but can also be executed
from a USB key, an external disk, etc. (source Wikipédia).

You can nd an English tutorial on this page: https://www.howtoforge.com/back-up-restore-hard-drives-and

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 Protect your data and your privacy

The news are crystal clear: is being wire-tapped. It is not to alarm or frighten you, but you have to
realize that the “Internet” is not your private living room, and that each picture or text used on the
web is potentially recoverable.

10.1 Protect your system

10.1.1 Physical security

This is obvious, but let’s say it but once and for all: if you want to protect your data, don’t leave
your laptop everywhere ! don’t leave your computer in self-service at your home !
Your computer hosts your passwords (bank, administration, work …) your documents (adminis-
trative forms, pictures, etc.), your browsing history (the sites you visited and when), etc. You may
think that these information are seemingly harmless, but they allow - for the best - to de ne your
consumer pro le, or - for the worst - to use your computer as a gateway to crack in other persons
systems.
If you want to present your distribution, or simply share tour resources, we strongly suggest you
create another user account (chap.7.3) who will not be able to access your data, nor to mess with
your system administration.

If your computer is always on the road, we suggest you use the direct encryption during the system
installation like mentioned in the chapter 5.5.3. By this way, even if your computer is lost or stolen,
it will be extremely di cult to extract the data from your hard disk.

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10.1. Protect your system

10.1.2 Updates

The software updates bring new functionalities, x bugs, and, above all, correct potential se-
curity aws.

This is the big strength of the Libre-Software: the program sources are available, thus when
a aw is uncovered, it is publicized and xed immediately.

This practice to be opposed to the proprietary systems, whose aws are being kept secret, and
continue to a ect the daily life of all their users.

The security updates should not be considered as optional ones: you must install them as soon
as possible.

10.1.3 Passwords

Each year, tens of thousands of email accounts, Wi- access codes, phone PIN … are easily
cracked, because users picked passwords too easy to guess. The top worst password for the
year 2013 was “123456”, but there are other crazy sequences like “QWERTYUIOP”, “0000”,
animal names, birthdays …

All these passwords, too easy to guess, must be avoided !

And, by the way, putting together two weak passwords, does not create a strong one ! “Indepen-
dance1783” might be di cult to guess for a human being, but a “computer robot” will decipher it
in the blink of an eye.

To increase the robustness of your password, in other words to increase its resistance
against deciphering attacks, use as many characters as possible and mix their types (lowercase
and uppercase letters, numbers, special characters).

There are simple tolls which allow you to keep and organize your passwords like KeePassX (https:
//www.keepassx.org/).

The stronger my password is, the more di cult to memorize it. Isn’t it ?
You can use a **“pass-phrase**. Here we are talking about a long sentence, di cult to uncover,
but easy to remember: few words put together produce a meaningless string, but which has a well
de ned sense for youself.
For example, the sentance “grandma loves French pickles in her soup”, can easily becomes a ro-
bust password: “GrandmaLovesFrenchPicklesInHerSoup” … especially if one replaces few vow-

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10.2. Protect your data

els by numbers (“i” by “1”, “e” by “3” and o by “0”):

“GrandmaL0v3sFr3nchP1ckl3sInH3rS0up”.

10.2 Protect your data

10.2.1 Limit the access rights of others on your data

If you use Debian in “multi-user” mode, the data of the other users are readable by you, and yours
too, by necessity. You may want to restrict the access rights to some of your data for the other
users. The graphical procedure is easy (no need to open a terminal): right-click on he folder >
properties > “Permissions”. hereafter an example with the “Documents” folder.

properties menu

Select the “None” option for the “Others” access rights:

no access for others

A window will ask you if you want to apply these modi cations to all the les and folders embedded
within the concerned folder, and we advise you to accept, in order to protect the full set of data
included inside this folder.

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10.3. Antivirus software

10.2.2 Backup your data

You certainly ran into these warning messages talking about backing up your data …
and this is not for nothing! Please refer to the chapter 9 and get into the habit of saving your
data on an external medium and on a regular basis.

10.3 Antivirus software

Admittedly, the GNU/Linus systems are much less sensitive to virus attacks, but it is possible to
nd a virus on a GNU/Linux machine.

For the time being, updates are the only e cient protections against potential viruses, and adding
an antivirus software on your system does not improve its security. Viruses embedded within
documents originating from proprietary systems do not target the GNU/Linux environments, and
as such, are totally harmless for your data.

However, if you want to monitor and control your data, ClamAv is the reference antivirus software.
Note that it does not run continuously in the background, and the user should explicitely request
a folder scan to verify its contents.

More information on the DebianHelp site http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/clamav.htm

10.4 Parental control

Yes, one can nd everything on Internet: the best and the worst, and often inappropriate images
and contents for our children. In order to let them enjoy safely the digital world, you can use
di erent parental control systems.

However, keep in mind that YOU are the best parental control !

10.4.1 From your ISP

The Internet Service Providers usually propose di erent parental control software. This method
allows you to control all the devices on your home network, but does not exempt you to activate
the parental control on your Web Browser.

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10.5. Privacy on Internet

More information on the site https://www.internetmatters.org/parental-controls/interactive-guide/

10.4.2 From your computer

The settings of the parental control is reserved to the experienced users, because the procedure
is rather complex … and is not 100% e ective. In addition, the list of “prohibited” sites must be up-
dated on a regular basis. The Fox Web Security addon module can be e ectively installed in the
Firefox navigator extensions (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/fox-web-security) in
order to lter inappropriate “adult content”.

An alternative solution is to use a search engine whis is going to lter the proposed results, like
Qwant Junior: https://www.qwantjunior.com

10.5 Privacy on Internet

It is di cult to remain completely anonymous on Internet. Unless you are a well equipped experi-
enced user, you will always leave a trail behind you.

The most beautiful ngerprint you leave, on a daily basis, is your IP address. In fact, each device
connected to Internet must have an IP address, which allows to know not only your ISP, but also
your precise geographical location … A small test? visit this page to know your public IP address:
http://whatismyipaddress.com/

In addition, even if you are not a great pastry chef, you are giving away a lot of “cookies” to all the
sites you are visiting. Cookies are connection witnesses: they keep, for a given site, information
like your preferences, your identi er, your password, your chosen language, the content of your
digital shopping cart, etc. not only on your computer but also on the servers in the cloud. Thus,
when you start a search request on a site, it is very capable to register this information.

Advertising companies come join the party, and automatically create your pro le by looking at your
browsing history.

Don’t be alarmed, Numerous advices and software tools are at your disposal to become easily
discreet.

10.5.1 Social networks

Remember that the social networks, in their vast majority, are not there to help you, quite the
contrary: they are big advertising agencies which collect everything they nd about you. Then,
these personal information are resold to advertisers, in order for them to better target your “needs”.

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10.6. Private navigation within your browser

Intelligence on the social networks does not stop there: they continue to trace you on plenty of sites
by using - for example - the “like” or “G+” buttons.

Furthermore, the latest scandals unveil the fact that personal data can be collected by several
governmental intelligence agencies, even if you are not doing anything suspicious.

If you cannot resist to the temptation of opening an account on a social network (and I fully un-
derstand you: virtual encounters are very cool), you can test the Diaspora or the Mastodon
journey and discover a decentralized network, which is respectful of your private life and
data; Diaspora and Mastodon are designed on the “node network principle”, which means that
several connecting points are available. here is one to start with: https://www.joindiaspora.com/
and https://mastodon.social/about.

As far as the other “less social” networks are concerned, nd hereafter few simple advices:

• Use a pseudo instead of your name and forename.

• Limit your network to the persons you know in the real life.
• Modify your privacy settings in order to be seen by your “friends” only.
• Don’t enter any personal information: address, phone number …
• Avoid uploading pictures of yourself or your relatives, let alone tagging them (with the name
of the persons on the photo).

10.6 Private navigation within your browser

If you want to surf the Web without leaving traces on your computer, the latest versions of the
Internet navigators include a “private browsing” feature. This mode functions very simply: once
launched, the navigator does not keep the history of the visited sites, nor the cookies distributed
by these sites, nor the passwords entered during this “private” session.
However, the visited sites keep track of your IP address: you don’t navigate in an “anonymous”
way.

For Firefox, click on the menu (the 3 band top left button) then select the “New Private Window”
option.

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10.7. Private navigation on Internet

Firefox: private navigation window

Note: it is very possible that some Internet sites do not function well if some cookies are disable.
Thus, it is best not to use this mode all the time.

10.7 Private navigation on Internet

Warning: private does not mean anonymous!

First avoid using non-free navigators, whose source codes cannot be analyzed by the rst expert
that comes along. The non-free navigators (Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome …) can potentially
spy on your navigation without your knowledge.

The main free navigator you can trust is Firefox.

The private navigation allows the removal of all navigation traces on your computer and can
add few more protections against the tracking. It cannot guarantee your anonymity when fac-
ing some advanced tracking technology like the ngerprinting (https://wikipedia.org/wiki/Canvas_
fingerprinting).

10.7.1 Search engines

Stop doing like everyone else, even if supposedly “you have nothing to hide”.

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10.8. Anonymous navigation on Internet

• Do not make all your search requests on Google or Bing … even if they function very
well, you might not want these companies to keep for tens of year your web search on “so-
lution against hemorrhoids”, or even to sell this information to drug companies, your mutual
insurance company …
• Use search engines respecting your privacy like Startpage (https://startpage.com) (us-
ing the power of Google, but hiding your identity to it), DuckDuckGo (https://duckduckgo.
com/) or QwantLite (https://lite.qwant.com/).
• Enhance your free navigators with extensions ghting against the leakage of your data.

10.8 Anonymous navigation on Internet

If you want to become anonymous and mask completely your IP address, the best idea is to use
TOR (https://www.torproject.org/index.html). To achieve this, we are going to desciobe two meth-
ods: installation of the Tor-Browser or the usage of the Tails anonymous distribution.

… What’s this Tor stu ??

TOR stands for The Onion Router, and is a software allowing us to become anonymous on the net
by communicating with other TOR users. The principle is to de ne a random and indirect route
on the network, between you and the exit node, which makes impossible the tracking of your IP
address.
In addition, the data circulating on the TOR network are encrypted, which makes even more di -
cult to identify the ows, although they are spied on.

This functionality must not prevent the common sense … If you connect to an account, whatever
it might be, with your usual pseudo and password, you will be quickly identi ed, even if you use
TOR.

10.8.1 Tor-Browser, an anonymous navigator

Tor o ers its web browser under the form of an independent archive (no need for administrator
rights):

• You begin by downloading the right version on the main site (https://www.torproject.org/
projects/torbrowser.html.en) by selecting the language and the architecture:

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10.8. Anonymous navigation on Internet

TorBrowser: the downloading page

• Once the archive is downloaded, uncompressed it wherever you want (but in a permanent
folder) and open the newly created folder (tor-browser_en-US):

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10.8. Anonymous navigation on Internet

TorBrowser: uncompressing the archive

TorBrowser: opening the TorBrowser folder

• Double-click on the “Tor Browser Setup” icon:

TorBrowser: Browser settings

• If your connecting site is behind a proxy, you must “Con gure” the Tor connection. But in
most of the cases, you can just click on the “Connect” button. The Tor service is started and
look for relay nodes:

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10.8. Anonymous navigation on Internet

TorBrowser: Tor connexion settings

TorBrowser: connecting to the Tor network

• You can enjoy now the anonymous Internet navigation.

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10.8. Anonymous navigation on Internet

TorBrowser: default interface

• If you want to have a quick access to the Tor Browser, drag-and-drop its icon on the launcher
panel, or create on link on your desktop.

Please note that using Tor might slow down your Internet navigation.

10.8.2 Tails: the anonymous distribution

Tails is a GNU/Linux distribution based on Debian. It allows you to be totally anonymous on

the net. It is installed on a DVD or a USB key, and like with the other Debian Live (autonomous)
images, nothing is saved on your DVD or USB key between two working sessions, and, in addition,
you enjoy an anonymous navigation on Internet.

On the main site, you can read …

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10.8. Anonymous navigation on Internet

Tails is a live (autonomous) operating system that you can start on almost any computer from a
DVD, USB stick, or SD card. It aims at preserving your privacy and anonymity, and helps you to:

• use the Internet anonymously and circumvent censorship; all connections to the In-
ternet are forced to go through the Tor network;
• leave no trace on the computer you are using unless you ask it explicitly;
• use state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt your les, emails and instant mes-
saging.

For more information, you can visit the Tails download page https://tails.boum.org/install/
download/index.en.html.

Note that the TOR navigation is often slowed down, and that some site or functionalities will not
be reachable, due to their embedded scripts or their “privacy” policies …
Is it the right time to sort out through all your bookmarks ?

“Plant onions!” by Péhä (CC-BY)

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10.8. Anonymous navigation on Internet

10.8.3 Real anonymity??

No! You must be aware that internet browsing works thanks to a physical network of con-
nected machines. A person with physical access to the di erent “connection points” will be
able to observe the tra c and capture informations immediately, or to store this information for a
further consultation.
In addition, computer monitoring is not the only way to identify you and your navigation: video
surveillance of public or private places, labeling of machines “for your safety ” are only examples
of all the possibilities of the authorities and companies to access your valuable data.
It is up to everyone to de ne his “private life” and not spread it on the web … Or to move on to more
political than technical considerations for the Privacy Protection .

Anonymous

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 Basic Command Memo

a shell to rule them all

Debian GNU/Linux systems have all the graphical applications needed to perform your daily tasks,
so why use the command line?

• it’s faster,
• not all options are present in the graphical interfaces,
• use the command line without GUI saves resources,
• it makes learning the Debian GNU/Linux system easier.

This section gathers some basic commands. For a more complete list, visit the Debian documen-
tation: https://wiki.debian.org/ShellCommands.

The ultimate command: man

250
11.0.1 Browse directories

command action
----------------------------------------------------------------------
pwd Print Working Directory
cd rep Change Directory to rep
cd Change Directory to /home/$USER or ~/
cd .. Browse the parent directory
ls rep List information about file(s) in rep
ls -a ls with hidden files displayed
ls -l ls with size and rights

11.0.2 Action on les or directories

command action
----------------------------------------------------------------------
mv source target move the file from source to target
cp source target copy the file from source to target
cp -R source target copy the directory source to target
ln source link create a hard link from source to link
ln -s source link create a symbolik link from source to link
touch file create the file file or update its
modification date
mkdir rep create a repertory rep
mkdir -p rep/rep mkdir with creation of parent directory if needed
rm file remove file
rm -f file remove the write-protected file
rmdir rep remove an empty directory
rm -R rep remove a directory
du -h file or rep display size of the file or the rep

11.0.3 View/Compare les

command action
----------------------------------------------------------------------
wc file Print byte, word and line counts of file
cat file display the contents of a file
more file displays file page by page. 'Space'=next page,
'Enter'=next line, 'u'=up
less file displays file with fine navigation
Left/Right/Up/Down/PageUp/PageDown

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 head -n x file displays 'x' first lines of file
tail -n x file displays 'x' last lines of file
tail -f file dynamicaly display last line of file
diff file file Displays differences between two text files
diff -u file file Displays differences between file and file
with patch syntax
comp file file compares two binary files
comp file file n N compare two files, file from the octet n and
file from octet N

11.0.4 Users and goups

command action
----------------------------------------------------------------------
whoami Print the current user id and name
who Print all usernames currently logged in
id Print user and group id's (uid & gid)
id user Print user and group id's (root only)
finger user Print informations about user
write user Print a message on user's terminal
tty Print the current terminal's name
su - sudo Switch to administrator mode, superuser
passwd Change the password of the current user
adduser add a user
deluser delete a user
addgroup add a group
delgroup delete a group

11.0.5 Process

command action
----------------------------------------------------------------------
ps Process Status. Lists running process
ps ax Print all running processes
ps aux Print all process identified by users
pstree Print all process in a tree
top List processes running on the system in a
semi-graphical table
kill signal pid kill a process using its pid
pkill signal name kill a process using its name

signaux utilisés par kill/pkill

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 signal mode action
----------------------------------------------------------------------
- (HUP) Reload the process configuration file
- (INT) Interrupt the process
- (QUIT) Quit the process
- (KILL) Kill the process (to avoid, try '- ' first)
- (TERM) Complete the process properly
- (STOP) Freeze the process
- (CONT) Resume execution of a frozen process

11.0.6 Hardware

command action
----------------------------------------------------------------------
lsusb Lists connected USB devices
lspci Lists connected PCI devices
cat /proc/cpuinfo Displays processor information
cat /proc/partitions Displays mounted partitions

examples : (sources linuxtrack)

Display the model of the graphics card:

lspci | egrep " D|Display|VGA"

Show the model of the Wi card:

lspci | grep -i "net" | cut -d: -f

Show the soundcard model:

lspci | grep -i audio | cut -d: -f

11.0.7 Network

command action
----------------------------------------------------------------------
hostname Print or set system name
ping machine send a ping to a machine on the network
traceroute machine displays a traceroute through machine
netstat Displays the use of the network
by the processes
netstat -a netstat with the display of the
server processes
lsof Detailed list of file and network usage

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 ifconfig Displays the config of the interfaces
ifconfig interface IP mask configure the network interface
route Displays the routing table

ex : displays its locap IP on eth0

ip address show eth | grep "inet␣" | tr -s "␣" ":" | cut -d: -f
/sbin/ifconfig eth | grep "inet␣" | tr -s "␣" ":" | cut -d: -f
ip address show eth | grep "inet␣" | tr -s "␣" ":" | tr -s "/" ":" | \
cut -d: -f

11.0.8 Search

command/option action
----------------------------------------------------------------------
locate pattern search for file with a pattern name
updatedb update locate database
find path options search for file corresponding to options in path
find -name pattern search for file with a pattern
find -type f/d/l search by filetype: f=file, d=directory, l=link
find -exec cmd execute *cmd* to found files

Example: search for all png les in the “Images” directory, then copy all les to tmp directory (
“{}” stands for found les).
find $HOME/Images -name "*.png" -exec cp {} $HOME/tmp/ \;

11.0.9 Archives

format compress extract

----------------------------------------------------------------------
.tar.bz , .tbz tar -cvjf archive.tar.bz directory tar xvjf
.tar.gz, .tgz tar -cvzf archive.tar.gz directory tar xvzf
.bz bzip file bunzip
.rar - unrar x
.gz gzip file gunzip
.tar tar -cvf archive.tar files tar xvf
.zip zip -r archive.zip files unzip
.Z compress files uncompress
. z z a files z x
.xz xz -z directory unxz

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11.0.10 Kernel

Version of the Linux kernel used, its name, the version of the compiler used:
cat /proc/version

Version of the Linux kernel used:

uname -r

List all kernels installed on your machine:

dpkg -l | egrep "linux-(header|image)"

11.0.11 Links and references

• Dedicated page on Debian-Facile (fr): https://debian-facile.org/doc:systeme:commandes:

gnu_linux
• Dedicated Debian documentation: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-reference/
ch01.html
• Commands list: http://www.epons.org/commandes-base-linux.php
• Commands list on Debian wiki: https://wiki.debian.org/ShellCommands

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 Free Softwares

You can nd hereafter a list of the sites providing more detailed information concerning the Free
Culture (in general) and the Free Software (in particular).

12.1 The web sites

12.1.1 Free Software Foundation

https://www.fsf.org/
The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a nonpro t with a worldwide mission to promote computer
user freedom. We defend the rights of all software users.
Free software developers guarantee everyone equal rights to their programs; any user can study
the source code, modify it, and share the program. By contrast, most software carries ne print
that denies users these basic rights, leaving them susceptible to the whims of its owners and
vulnerable to surveillance.

12.1.2 The GNU project

https://www.gnu.org/
Philosophy of the GNU Project: Free software means that the software’s users have freedom.
(The issue is not about price.) We developed the GNU operating system so that users can have
freedom in their computing.
Speci cally, free software means users have the four essential freedoms: (0) to run the program,
(1) to study and change the program in source code form, (2) to redistribute exact copies, and (3)
to distribute modi ed versions.

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12.2. The Wikimedia Foundation

Software di ers from material objects—such as chairs, sandwiches, and gasoline—in that it can
be copied and changed much more easily. These facilities are why software is useful; we believe
a program’s users should be free to take advantage of them, not solely its developer.

12.1.3 The Linux Foundation

https://www.linuxfoundation.org/
The Linux Foundation partners with the world’s leading developers and companies to solve the
hardest technology problems and accelerate open technology development and commercial
adoption.
Founded in 2000, The Linux Foundation today provides tools, training, and events to scale any
open source project, which together deliver an economic impact not achievable by any one
company.

12.2 The Wikimedia Foundation

You all know Wikipedia the free on-line encyclopedia.

But actually Wikipedia is part of a large family, under the benevolent umbrella of the Wikimedia
Foundation
The Wikimedia Foundation is a global movement whose mission is to bring free educational
content to the world. Quoting the foundation home page :
“Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge.
That’s our commitment.”. https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Home

12.2.1 Wikipédia

wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://wikipedia.org/

Wikipedia is an universal, multilingual encyclopedia, written and maintained by volunteers on the
Internet, and functioning under the Wiki principle.

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12.2. The Wikimedia Foundation

12.2.2 Wikimedia

wikimedia commons, the multimedia library https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Wikimedia Commons, which is often refereed to as Commons, is a media le repository making
available public domain and freely-licensed educational media content (images, sound and video
clips) to everyone, in their own language.

12.2.3 Wiktionary

wikitionnary, the dictionary https://en.wiktionary.org/

Wikitionary was initially designed as the lexical companion to Wikipedia, the encyclopedia project,
Wiktionary has grown beyond a standard dictionary and now includes a thesaurus, a rhyme guide,
phrase books, language statistics and extensive appendices. We aim to include not only the de -
nition of a word, but also enough information to really understand it. Thus etymologies, pronunci-
ations, sample quotations, synonyms, antonyms and translations are included.

12.2.4 Wikiquote

wikiquote, the free quote compendium https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page

The Wikiquote collaborative project, is a free online compendium of sourced quotations from no-
table people and creative works in every language, translations of non-English quotes, and links
to Wikipedia for further information.

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12.2. The Wikimedia Foundation

12.2.5 Wikisource

wikisource, the free library https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Main_Page

Wikisource is a project to create a growing free content library of source texts, as well as transla-
tions of source texts in any language. This work is done by voluntary contributors.
Some things Wikisource includes are: Source texts previously published by any author, Transla-
tions of original texts, Historical documents of national or international interest, Bibliographies of
authors whose works are in Wikisource.
Some basic criteria for texts excluded from Wikisource are: Copyright infringements, Original
writings by a contributor to the project, Mathematical data, formulae, and tables, Source code (for
computers), Statistical source data (such as election results).
Unless otherwise noted, all user contributions to Wikisource are released under the Creative Com-
mons Attribution/Share-Alike License (CC-BY-SA) (replacing the previously used GNU Free Doc-
umentation License).

12.2.6 Wikibooks

Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection https://fr.wikibooks.org/wiki/Accueil

Wikibooks is a collection of open-content textbooks. Wikibooks is for textbooks, annotated texts,
instructional guides, and manuals. These materials can be used in a traditional classroom, an
accredited or respected institution, a home-school environment, as part of a Wikiversity course,
or for self-learning.

12.2.7 Wikijuniors

wikijuniors, the free textbooks for children https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikijunior%

7CWikijunior

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12.2. The Wikimedia Foundation

Wikijunior produces non- ction books for children from birth to age twelve. These books could
take the form of macropedias, textbooks, or primers. These Wikijunior books are written with
children in mind. The subjects of these books are chosen because they are appealing to kids.
These books are richly illustrated with photographs, diagrams, sketches, and original drawings.

12.2.8 Vikidia

vikidia, the free encyclopedia for children https://en.vikidia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Vikidia is an English encyclopedic project, based on wiki technology, for 8-13 year-old readers
and contributors, but not only.
The website is independent from Wikimedia Foundation which owns Wikipedia. It was launched
in November 2006 in French and in 2013 in English. Vikidia is handled by the Association Vikidia,
a non-pro t-organization located in France.

12.2.9 Wikiversity

Wikiversity, the open learning community https://www.wikiversity.org/

Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects,
and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university,
including professional training and informal learning.
Teachers, students, and researchers are invited to join Wikiversity in creating open educational
resources and collaborative learning communities.

12.2.10 Wikispecies

wikispecies, the free species directory https://species.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

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12.2. The Wikimedia Foundation

Wikispecies is a wiki-based on-line project supported by the Wikimedia Foundation. Its aim is to
create a comprehensive free content catalog of all species; the project is directed at scientists,
rather than at the general public. Wikispecies is available under the GNU Free Documentation
License and CC BY-SA 3.0.

12.2.11 Wikivoyage

wikivoyage, the free travel guide https://www.wikivoyage.org/

Wikivoyage is a free web-based travel guide for travel destinations and travel topics written by
volunteer authors (“Wiki-travelers” from all around the world). It is a sister project of Wikipedia
and supported and hosted by the same non-pro t Wikimedia Foundation. Wikivoyage has been
called the “Wikipedia of travel guides”.

12.2.12 Wikinews

wikinews, the free news source https://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Main_Page

Wikinews is a free-content news source Wiki and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. The site
works through collaborative journalism. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales has distinguished
Wikinews from Wikipedia by saying “on Wikinews, each story is to be written as a news story
as opposed to an encyclopedia article.” The neutral point of view policy espoused in Wikinews
distinguishes it from other citizen journalism e orts. In contrast to most projects of the Wikimedia
Foundation, Wikinews allows original work under the form of original reporting and interviews.

12.2.13 Wikidata

wikidata, the free and open knowledge base https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Main_

Page
Wikidata is a collaboratively edited knowledge base operated by the Wikimedia Foundation. It is

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12.2. The Wikimedia Foundation

intended to provide a common source of data which can be used by Wikimedia projects such as
Wikipedia, and by anyone else, under a public domain license. This is similar to the way Wikimedia
Commons provides storage for media les and access to those les for all Wikimedia projects, and
which are also freely available for reuse. Wikidata is powered by the software Wikibase.
This project was launched by Wikimedia Deutschland. It was presented during the Semantic Tech
& Business Conference in February 2012, and the site was open to the rst contributions on 30
October 2012.

12.2.14 Wiki Meta-wiki

wikimedia Meta-wiki, the global community site for the Wikimedia projects https:
//meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Meta (or Wikimedia’s Meta-Wiki) is a wiki-based web site that is auxiliary for coordination of all
the Wikimedia Foundation projects.
Meta currently serves as one of the major avenues of discussion for Wikimedians including
Wikipedians, the others being the mailing lists, the IRC channels, and the talk pages of individual
articles and users. Meta is an independent and autonomous project from the English language
Wikipedia and thus has its own policies and customs, which often di er from those here.
Originally focused on the English language version of Wikipedia, Meta has, since its upgrade
to Wikipedia’s custom MediaWiki software, become a multilingual discussion forum used by all
Wikimedia language communities.

12.2.15 Wiki-incubator

wikimedia incubator, where possible new languages for existing projects are tested
https://incubator.wikimedia.org/wiki/Incubator:Main_Page
The Wikimedia Incubator founded on 2 June 2006, is a wiki-based website hosted by the Wiki-
media Foundation. It serves as a platform where anyone can build up a community in a certain
language edition of a Wikimedia project (Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikibooks, Wikinews, Wikiquote

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12.3. The GNU/Linux distributions

and Wikivoyage) that does not yet have its own sub-domain, provided that it is a recognized lan-
guage.
This is where potential Wikimedia project Wikis in new language versions can be arranged, writ-
ten, tested and proven worthy of being hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation.

12.2.16 MediaWiki

mediawiki, a free software open source Wiki package, supporting all the Wikimedia
projects https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki
MediaWiki is free server-based software, licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL).
It’s designed to run on a large server farm for a website that gets millions of hits per day.

12.3 The GNU/Linux distributions

12.3.1 Debian

Debian, the universal operating system, aka the “Mother” of numerous children distributions https:
//www.debian.org/index.en.html
By the way, Debian provides more than a pure OS: it comes with over 43000 packages, precom-
piled software bundled up in a nice format for easy installation on your machine.
Debian is also a democratic community organization, which aims at the development of operating
systems exclusively based on free software.

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12.3. The GNU/Linux distributions

12.3.2 Emmabuntüs

Emmabuntüs (http://www.emmabuntus.org) a distro for all seasons.

Emmabuntüs is a distribution designed to facilitate the refurbishing of computers given to hu-
manitarian associations, in particular the Emmaüs community (http://www.emmaus-international.
org/en/) (hence, the name of the distribution), to help the discovery of the GNU/Linux world by
beginners, and limit the the electronic wastes generated by the hardware overconsumption, by
extending the lifespan of aging computers.

12.3.3 Mageia

Mageia (https://www.mageia.org) is a free operating system, based on GNU/Linux. It is a

community project (https://www.mageia.org/en/community/), supported by an association law
1901 consisting of elected contributors.
The goal of Mageia: to make superb tools for people. Beyond a secure, stable and sustainable
operating system for your computers, the goal is to establish stable and credible governance to
coordinate collaborative projects.
Contributions are based on their own license (https://www.mageia.org/en/about/license/) and
the community complies with a Code of Conduct (https://www.mageia.org/en/about/code-of-
conduct).
Mageia has an active community and detailed documentation. https://www.mageia.org/en/
support/

12.3.4 Fedora

Fedora (https://getfedora.org/) is a polished, easy to use operating system for laptop and desktop

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12.4. Free software alternatives to proprietary software

computers, with a complete set of tools for developers and makers of all kinds.
Fedora comes with a “Server” release, a powerful, exible operating system that includes the best
and latest datacenter technologies. It puts you in control of all your infrastructure and services.

12.3.5 Entirely free distributions

https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.fr.html
This page lists the GNU/Linux distributions that are entirely free as in freedom.
The Free Software Foundation seems quite tough in what concerns the real freedom … But can
we put the blame on an organization which is seeking a situation that should be commonplace.

12.4 Free software alternatives to proprietary software

• Equivalence between proprietary software: A list of free alternatives proposing

functionalities close to those of proprietary software, well established in their application
domain. This list is far to be comprehensive, and does not have the goal to spotlight
particular software, but rather to present di erent (proprietary or free) software within the
same application domain. http://wiki.linuxquestions.org/wiki/Linux_software_equivalent_
to_Windows_software

• The Free Software Directory: FSD, or simply Directory is a project of the Free Software
Foundation (FSF). We catalog useful free software that runs under free operating systems
— particularly the GNU operating system and its GNU/Linux variants. https://directory.fsf.
org/wiki/Main_Page

12.5 Compatible hardware

h.node: This project aims at the construction of a hardware database in order to identify what
devices work with a fully free operating system. The h-node.org website is structured like a Wiki
in which all the users can modify or insert new contents. The h-node project is developed in
collaboration and as an activity of the Free Software Foundation (FSF).
https://h-node.org/home/index/en

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 Glossary

13.1 A

13.1.1 Administrator

=> With great power comes great responsibility…

The administrator is a person in the IT department who is responsible for managing the company
server. He takes care of the system updates, veri es its proper functioning, creates new accounts,
sets permissions and con gures le sharing, emails, backups, security scheme …
On a computer for private use, the administrator is the one who has the system management
rights: in this case, yourself.

13.1.2 ADSL

ADSL means broadband Internet. ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is practically de-
ployed throughout most of the industrial countries the French and allows you to take advantage of
speeds up to 30 Megabits/s, which permits you to watch videos, download les and navigate the
Web very easily.

13.1.3 ALSA

ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) is a Linux kernel module which gather the function
of several di erent sound drivers into one. It is used to detect sound cards whatever they are; it
is very popular and very e cient. It greatly simpli es the management of sound on Linux and is
often updated.

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13.2. B

13.1.4 Apt

Apt (Advanced Packaging Tool) is the Debian package manager using the .deb package formats.
There are graphical interfaces like Synaptic or Adept for those who are not comfortable with the
command lines in the the terminal window.

13.1.5 Aptitude

Aptitude is an alternative to Apt. It o ers other options such as the construction of dependency
tree, update of package status and many others. If Aptitude does not care about broken packages
on your system, Aptitude will try to repair it during the next update or upgrade, by presenting
alternative solutions as well as their consequences and let you decide what to do.
Finally, it is also interesting to see the behavior of Aptitude when removing software: it computes
useless dependencies and deletes them. On the other end, Apt only does only what you clearly
ask for.

13.1.6 Arobase @

The “at” symbol “@” is the little “a” with a circle curling around it. It is used to form email addresses
(eg [email protected]). This symbol is not used in the web addresses, only for electronic mail.

13.1.7 Audio Format

An Audio format is a data format used to represent sounds, music and voices in digital form, with
the purpose of either store or transport them.

13.1.8 Autonomy

Autonomy is the time that a battery enables a mobile unit to operate without having to be recharged
by an electric outlet. The autonomy of a laptop is a few hours and that a mobile phone a few days
in theory.

13.2 B

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13.3. C

13.2.1 Beast

Computer name when it’s big and powerfull.

13.2.2 BIOS

BIOS stands for Basic Input Output System. The BIOS is the software ( rmware) embedded on
the motherboard which allows you to perform basic tasks when you turn the computer on (eg read
a sector of a hard disk).

13.2.3 Boot manager

This is the program that launches at startup, allowing the choice of booting the computer with one
among several operating. The most popular, Lilo and Grub are usually installed in the MBR (Mas-
ter Boot Record) or the GPT (GUID Partition Table) of the hard drive. Although Windows has a
similar piece of software, it is more di cult to use, when implementing a dual-boot Linux/Windows
(for example), than using Grub.

13.2.4 Browser

Software used to navigate the Web.

13.2.5 Bug

A bug is unwanted operation in a computer or a computer program. We are talking about bug
when the software does not do what you asked, it stops or do something weird or shutdown…

13.3 C

13.3.1 C

The computer language (following the A and B languages) which has become one of the most
widely used programming languages of all time.

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13.3. C

13.3.2 C++

An evolution of the C programing language. Warning: C+ does not exist!

13.3.3 Chat

Live chat rooms on the Internet are spaces where you share information via text with a group of
other users. The ability to converse with multiple people in the same conversation di erentiates
chat rooms from instant messaging programs, which are more typically designed for one-to-one
communication.

13.3.4 Click

A click is the action of pressing and releasing (almost) immediately one of the mouse buttons. An
unspeci ed “click” actually means a “left-click”.

13.3.5 Client/Server

Common type of architecture on the Internet and more generally in computer science: A server
contains information, clients connect to it and submit a request. Corresponding treatments are
performed by the server and the results are sent back and displayed on the client computer. The
Web is a good example of client/server application.

13.3.6 Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is concept gaining wide acceptance: rather than installing a program on our
computer, which is going to take some space, the current trend is to do the work online, without
the need to download the software. This is a way to do o ce work with Google Docs without
installing anything on the computer, a browser is enough.

13.3.7 Code (to)

to write a program, or to speak the “machine language” (no, it does not mean “make beep beep
beep” …).

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13.3. C

13.3.8 Code (Source)

The source code is the text le written by the software developer, which can be understood by
the compiler and transformed into a directly executable program. Some source codes are freely
available to developers in particular in the context of free software.

13.3.9 Compile (to)

Start a command that converts source code into an executable program.

13.3.10 Console

Also named terminal, it is (or not) a graphical window giving access to the shell interpretor allowing
you to type command lines to be executed.

13.3.11 Cookie(s)

Files sent by some websites and stored on your hard drive. On subsequent connections, your
computer let the Web site retrieve data that you previously entered. Cookies can only be read by
the website that issued them and may contain only data that the user voluntarily provided to the
site, or that can be retrieved from the connection itself (source IP address, etc). They can not read
the disc’s contents or contain an executable program. You can set your browser to reject cookies,
but you lose an interesting usability (like storing your preferences or passwords).

13.3.12 Copy and paste

Copy and paste represents the action to duplicate a le from one location to another. The le is
cloned into a new destination. The copy-paste operation is done, for example, by right-clicking
on a selection and choosing the “Copy” action, and then right-clicking in the destination folder
and choosing the “Paste” action. The keyboard shortcuts for these two actions are the popular
[Ctrl]+“c” and [Ctrl]+“v”.

13.3.13 Core dump

A program crashing under Unix has the e ect of copying its entire memory contents into a le
named “core”. Not a good news … but becoming seldom these days.

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13.4. D

13.3.14 Cut and paste

Cut and paste, moves a le without duplicating it: the le will no longer exists in its original location,
but only in its destination. The keyboard shortcuts for these actions are [Ctrl]+X and [Ctrl]+V.

13.3.15 Cursor

=> arrow, the movements of which you have a hard time to follow on the screen…
The cursor is following on the screen the movements of your mouse. Often symbolized by a slanted
arrow cursor, it lets you point an element: an icon, a menu, a button to click on in order to activate
a function.

13.4 D

13.4.1 Debian

=> The mommy of many distributions

Debian is a community and a democratic organization whose purpose is the development of op-
erating systems based exclusively on free software.
Debian di ers from most of the distributions based on it by its non-commercial nature and the
cooperative governance of the association managing the distribution.

13.4.2 Dependencies

It is said that there is a dependency, when a package depends on another one to be installed
and/or running.

13.4.3 Desktop Environment

In the Unix world, a DE is a set of programs that provide a user friendly graphical interface to the
operating system. It usually consists of a window manager and a lot of software that t well with
the environment, rst and foremost le managers, control panels, web browsers, text and image
editors, games, and even o ce and messaging suites.

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13.5. E

13.4.4 Device

A device is a piece of hardware that is connected to a computer. USB key, keyboard, mouse,
printer … are all devices.

13.4.5 Dialog

A dialog box is a small window that appears when the system or an application wants you to make
a choice. You must therefore read the message and click the button that corresponds to your
choice (Yes or No, Save or Cancel, …).

13.4.6 Distribution

Distribution is a GNU/Linux system with a collection of software, which forms a complete operat-
ing system, ranging from the command line up to the graphical environment. The goal is to put
together a stable and coherent set of software aiming at a particular audience. Distribution pro-
vides di erent tools to easily obtain and install the software.
Some distributions are commercial, that is to say, manufactured and distributed by companies,
which adhere, more or less, to the free software spirit. Others, only developed by volunteers, are
completely free.

13.4.7 Drag and drop

Drag and drop is the action of moving the cursor on an icon, pressing and holding a mouse button,
moving the mouse cursor to another location, and then releasing the button: the selected les
follows the mouse and moves directly into this new location.

13.5 E

13.5.1 Email

An email can be written in plain text or in HTML format. In the HTML case, some text enrichments
are possible (bold, color, image, tables) but some mail client software (increasingly rare) do not
read messages in HTML format.

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13.6. F

13.5.2 Ergonomics

Ergonomics refers to the ease of handling, understanding and using an equipment (eg a phone, a
software or a website). More ergonomic it is, and faster the end user will master it. An ergonomic
system is intuitive.

13.6 F

13.6.1 File Manager

A le manager or le browser is a computer program that provides an user interface to work with
le systems. The most common operations performed on les or groups of les include creat-
ing, opening (e.g. viewing, playing, editing or printing), renaming, moving or copying, deleting and
searching for les, as well as modifying le attributes, properties and le permissions. Folders and
les may be displayed in a hierarchical tree based on their directory structures. Some le man-
agers contain features inspired by web browsers, including forward and backward navigational
buttons. Some le managers provide network connectivity.

13.6.2 File system

A le system (FS) , represents the way data are organized in a disk partition. GNU/Linux has its
own FS, called ext2, ext3, ext4, ReiserFS, btrfs … and handles a multitude of le systems from
other architectures, including FAT , VFAT (ie FAT32), NTFS (DOS/Windows le systems), ISO
9660, etc.
A le system is called “journalized” when it keeps a record (log) of the operations being performed,
and then saves them on the disk.
These types of le systems (for example ext3/4 or Reiserfs and also NTFS) are more tolerant
to system crashes because they keep the system consistent (no need anymore to use fsck or
scandisk at start-up).

13.6.3 Firewall

The rewall is a software protection located at the entry point of a computer, or a local network,
to prevent intrusions from the outside. It controls the inputs and outputs and transmits only the
authorized signals.

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13.7. G

13.6.4 Firmware

A rmware is a program used to connect smart devices (hard drive, DVD burner, scanner, ADSL
modem) to your computer. It is written in the language understood by the electronic device. We
can compare the rmware of a device to the BIOS of a computer. It is responsible for initializing
the device and then executes the commands received from more advanced programs.

13.6.5 Fonts

A font represents a range of characters with a particular size, weight and style of a typeface.

13.6.6 Fork

It is often used in a gurative sense to designate a “branch” or a “di erentiation” from a common
root. It is often through this di erentiation process that new Linux distributions emerge. More
precisely the whole idea is to take a basic known kernel or program, to modify it according to
some purpose and to redistribute it.

13.6.7 FTP

File Transfert Protocol. Protocol used to transfer les over the Internet. Also the name of the
program implementing this protocol. It is necessary to have a specialized program for access the
FTP servers (Example: Filezilla)

13.7 G

13.7.1 Geek

Although the word may have a broader connotation, a geek is a computer enthusiast, usually
passionate about other subjects (Eg. science ction) and generally curious. Geek does not mean
technology obsessed: geek do not like to only use the technology, they love to understand how
that works and they do have a critical mind.

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13.8. H

13.7.2 Graphics card

The graphics card is a component of the central unit responsible for the on-screen display. Pow-
erful graphics cards also handle the rendering of 3D displays (for video games). The main manu-
facturers of graphics cards are Nvidia and ATI.

13.7.3 GUI

The graphical user interface refers to how the software is presented on the screen to the user. It is
the positioning of the elements: menus, buttons, features in the window. A well de ned graphical
interface is ergonomic and intuitive: designed in such a smart way that the user understands it
immediately.

13.7.4 Gnome

GNOME stands for GNU Network Object Model Environment. It is a user friendly free graphical
environment which goal is to make the GNU operating system usage available to the greatest
number of people. This interface is currently very popular on the GNU/Linux systems and runs
also on most of the UNIX-like systems.

13.7.5 GNU

The GNU project (“GNU’s not Unix”) is a community initiated in 1983 by Richard Stallman to
create a free alternative to the Unix operating system.
GNU is particularly known in the software world because it made major contributions such as the
development of the GNU compiler collection (GCC), the improvements of existing Unix commands
or the de nition of the free GNU General Public License (GPL).
GNU has also worked on a kernel called HURD, but ultimately it is Linux which emerged and
became the kernel enabling the usage of all the other bricks of the project.

13.8 H

13.8.1 Hack or Trick

An inelegant but e ective solution to a computing problem. Sometime also called a workaround.

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13.8.2 Hard Drive

The hard (disk) drive is an important component of a computer. It is the computer shed, since its
role is to store data. The hard drive contains partitions that contain your installed system and your
personal data
=> note : Soft Drive does not exist …

13.8.3 Hardware

The collection of physical elements that comprise a computer system (the beast, cards, chips,
drives, processor, etc.), as opposed to the Software part.

13.8.4 High de nition

High De nition is the successor of the television set as we knew it before. HDTV is a television
system providing an audio quality and an image resolution which are substantially higher than
that of standard-de nition television. The di erence is really obvious. Video games (PS3 and
Xbox360) and Blu-Ray (successor to the DVD) also bene t from this technology. However you
will need some money and compatible hardware to enjoy it (compatible HDTV set, HDMI cable,
Blu-Ray player …).

13.8.5 HDMI

HDMI stands for High-De nition Multimedia Interface. HDMI is a standard for connecting together
High De nition devices. It is replacing the Scart socket. You can connect a Blu-Ray player for
example to an HDTV with an HDMI cable, and even a PS3 or a Xbox 360.

13.9 I

13.9.1 Icon

An icon is a pictogram, accompanied by a name, representing an element: folder, le, software,

shortcut … clicking on an icon will launch a prede ned action: open the le, launch the software,
display the content…

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13.9. I

13.9.2 IM

IM stands for Instant Messaging, and refers to a software where you can communicate directly (or
chat) with friends and family, possibly share les, using the microphone to talk and the webcam to
see each others. Unlike a chat, instant messaging lets you talk with some people of your contact
list, and not just anyone on the web.

13.9.3 Internet

Internet includes all interconnected (wired and wireless) networks in the world and their associated
websites. With an Internet access, you can access visit all the websites of the world in one click,
listen to music, communicate, watch videos, learn … let it be from your computer, your tablet or
your smart phone.

13.9.4 IN/OUT

Inputs/Outputs (or I/O) characterize the exchange of information between the processor and its
associated devices. In practice, within an operating system, the inputs are the keyboard, the
mouse, the disks, the incoming data from the network. When the outputs are the screen, the
disks, the printer, the outgoing data to the network etc …

13.9.5 IP Address

Single address across the Internet network, to uniquely identify a machine. It is usually repre-
sented by a group of four numbers. If your computer is connected to the Internet, it has an IP ad-
dress that is usually provided at the beginning of the connection by your Internet Service Provider
(ISP).

13.9.6 ISP

Internet Service Providers which let you enjoy Internet. Each of them provides an interface allow-
ing you to connect to the Internet, to have an unlimited land-line phone and even access to digital
TV programs.

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13.10. J

13.9.7 IRC

Internet Relay Chat. Discussion System in real time on the Internet. There are several IRC net-
works themselves divided into “channels” themes.

13.10 J

13.10.1 Java

Multi-platform programming language by Sun. The principle is that a program written once in
Java can run on any computer as long as it has the speci c runtime environment called “Java
Virtual Machine”. This converts Java virtual machine instructions into speci c instructions to your
computer while requiring it to meet certain safety rules.
Java programs can be embedded within web pages, and in that case they are executed while the
container page is being displayed. They are named Applet.
You should be extremely careful, because Java applet can be used as malware on your computer.

13.10.2 JPEG

graphics le format producing an impressive compression ratios compared to previously de ned

formats, but at the expense of image quality. Actually, he compression method is usually lossy,
meaning that some original image information is lost and cannot be restored, possibly a ecting
image quality. The corresponding le extension is JPG.

13.11 K

13.11.1 Kernel

The core of an operating system, or simply the kernel, is one (if not the most) important part of
the system. It manages the computer resources and allows di erent components - hardware and
software - to communicate with each other.

13.11.2 Keyboard Shortcut

A keyboard shortcut is a combination of keys pressed simultaneously on the keyboard to perform

a speci c action on the computer. The most commonly used keyboard shortcuts are for saving

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13.12. L

([Ctrl] + s), to copying ([Ctrl] + c), pasting ([Ctrl] + v), or closing a window ([Alt] + F4) …

13.11.3 Kiss

The KISS principle, “Keep it Simple Stupid”, is a method which advocates seeking simplicity in
design and avoiding unnecessary complexity. Example: Give me a KISS.

13.12 L

13.12.1 Lag (to)

Run … very … slowly. Lagging like a snail.

13.12.2 Live CD

A live CD (or a live USB key) is a bootable medium. The system starts booting the computer and
then runs the OS without installation. It actually uses the volatile memory (RAM) to run, and does
not a ect the permanent memory (hard disk).

13.12.3 Free Software

“Free Software” is a concept of free applications and operating systems, whose source codes are
left open by the developers, in order for everybody to inspect and improve them. One example is
the GNU/Linux initiative which regroups free and gratis operating systems like Debian, but also
the LibreO ce suite, the free alternative to Microsoft™ O ce, or Firefox and Chromium the free
alternatives to Microsoft™ Internet Explorer.

13.12.4 Long (it’s not gonna be)

Sentence used by the computer people to say that they still have 2 hours to nish (the time to
compile, test, x, compile, test, x, compile …)

13.13 M

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13.14. N

13.13.1 Mail

mail refers to a letter sent by Internet via email software (Eg. Icedove). The mails are free, usually
limited to 10MB, which can be accompanied by attachments (images, documents …) and sent to
recipient(s) (At :) and potentially people in copy (CC :). Unwanted mails are called junk or spam.

13.13.2 Memory card

A memory card is a small device able to permanently store digital data, likewise a USB key. The
memory card is intended to be plugged into digital cameras or camcorders. It can store photos
and movies, and can be read back by computer featuring a memory card slot. Among the most
popular formats, we nd the MemoryStick card for Sony devices, and SD for most others. A recent
memory card can store thousands of photos.

13.13.3 Motherboard

The motherboard is the main component of the CPU. Its role is to centralize and process all the
data exchanged between the processor and the peripheral. The motherboard therefore manages
the hard disk, the CD/DVD drive, the keyboard, the mouse, the network, the various USB ports …

13.14 N

13.14.1 No Life

Nolife is an insane geek or nerd so passionate by his computer activity that he:she spends all
his time with his/her passion neglecting everything else and in consequence has no (or very few)
social life. No comment …

13.14.2 Noob

The “Noob” term (derived from “newbie” or novice) refers to a computer novice. It is not neces-
sarily a pejorative term.

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13.15. O

13.14.3 Noti cation Area

The noti cation area is usually located at the right of the taskbar. You can usually nd in there,
the time, the network indicator, the sound volume. This is where the messages appear when the
system has something to tell you (eg the battery is running empty, updates are available …)

13.15 O

13.15.1 Operating System

This is the set of software that manages the computer hardware and provides common services
for the application programs. By extension, it is also viewed as the main interface with the end
users.
Some examples of operating systems : GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD.

13.15.2 OS

Operating System.

13.16 P

13.16.1 Package Manager

A package manager is the software which installs, updates and uninstalls the system packages.
On Debian, Synaptic is the graphical front-end of the APT Debian package manager.

13.16.2 Partition

To use certain media such as hard disks, we need to structure them, to break them down into
rather large subsets: partitions. In turn, each partition is then structured as a separate le system.
Spliting a hard drive into multiple partitions allows, for example, the coexistence, on the same disk,
of two di erent operating systems like GNU/Linux and Windows, which use di erent le systems.

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13.16. P

13.16.3 Phishing

Phishing is a scam practice which tricks an user by sending him an email with a forged sender
address and including a link to a fake website mimicking its bank site, or an e-commerce site,
and asking him to update its information … If the user get trapped (or phished) then his sensitive
information (private data, bank account details, …) can be used to evil ends.

13.16.4 Pixel

a Pixel is the smallest controllable element of a picture represented on the screen. A pixel can
display one color at a time. Thus the screen is composed with million of these pixels, spread in
both directions (height and width), and they come together to form the screen image. A pixel is so
small that you can barely see it with the naked eye. The more pixels compose an image and the
sharper it is.

13.16.5 Plugin

A plugin is a software component that adds a speci c feature to an existing computer program.
Allowing for example a web browser to read more image, video, animation or sounds formats.
Sometimes also called “addon”.

13.16.6 PS/2 Port

PS/2 port represents a couple of plugs located in the rear of the system unit. The purple plug
connects the keyboard, while the green one connects the mouse.
Having said that, we should mention that the PS/2 port not used very often and replaced by the
universal USB ports. One of the big disadvantage of this port is that it is not a hotplug : a device
connected after the computer startup won’t be recognized.

13.16.7 Processor

The processor, also named Central Processing Unit (CPU), is the electronic circuitry within a com-
puter that carries out the instructions of a computer program by performing the basic arithmetic,
logical, control and input/output (I/O) operations speci ed by the instructions.
In particular, it handles the data exchanges between the various components of the system (hard
drive, memory, mouse, graphics card …) and performs all the computation needed to interact with
the you through the data displayed on the screen.

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13.17. Q

There is also the Graphics Processor Unit (GPU) which is a special component of the graphics
card which accelerates the creation of images in a frame bu er intended for output to a display.

13.17 Q

13.17.1 Queue

Used in the sense of “waiting line”. For example di erent les to be printed are put rst in the
printer spooler queue.

13.17.2 Quit (to)

Terminate the execution of a program. Example : give me a pay raise or a quit my job.

13.18 R

13.18.1 RAM

RAM stands for Random-Access Memory. It is the computer volatile data storage. Its major
advantage is the speed at which one can read from or write to it, as opposed to other direct access
data storage media where the time required to read and write data items varies, depending on
their locations and/or some mechanical limitations such as the media rotation speeds and arm
movement delays.

13.18.2 Right-click

A right-click is the action of pressing and releasing (almost) immediately the mouse right button.
A right-click will display a contextual menu corresponding to the pointed element. In particular, it
allows to copy, move, delete and rename the pointed element when it is a le or a folder.

13.18.3 RTFM

Means “Read The Fucking Manual”. This is an abbreviation that is thrown wildly at the head of
someone who asks a question to encourage him to do rst his home work in the documentation.
This is because people sometimes ask trivial questions, whose answers are readily available in

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13.19. S

the man pages or on the Internet, and often these people are not used to the power of the docu-
mentation in the Unix world.

13.19 S

13.19.1 Search Engine

A search engine is a large software system, hosted by a website and which is designed to search
for information on the World Wide Web. It lets you ask questions or type key words to be searched
for. The engine will then return the most relevant results.

13.19.2 Shortcut

A shortcut is an icon placed anywhere and providing a quick access to a software or a location on
your computer. Most of the time a shortcut is used to launch a program. Deleting a shortcut does
not uninstall the program it is associated with, and does not delete either the linked le.

13.19.3 Software

Everything that makes a computer running, except the hardware part. Applications are software,
for example.

13.20 T

13.20.1 Tab

Generally present in modern Internet browsers, tabs allow to browse multiple sites simultaneously.
To switch from one site to another, you just have to click on its corresponding tab. Tabs are
represented like tabs in a workbook.

13.20.2 Terminal

We call a terminal, the command line console which is available and essential in all GNU/Linux
distributions.

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13.21. U

Even though many GUIs are available for virtually any application, nothing is more e cient, for
example, than updating your entire system by typing single command line.

Note : a terminal is a very useful tool to debug a program.

13.20.3 Troll

In the world of Usenet, forums of all kinds, mailing lists, IRC, and all these places open to online
discussions, a troll is a person who sows discord by starting arguments or upsetting people, by
posting in ammatory, extraneous, or o -topic messages with the intent of provoking readers into
an emotional response. By extension the subject of the argument itself.
Known examples : “GNU/Linux or Windows”, “Women in Free Software”.

13.21 U

13.21.1 Unit (Central)

For a desktop, the central unit is the box containing all the electronic equipment that allows the
computer to operate. The Keyboard, mouse, monitor, speakers etc. are all connected to it. The
hard disk drive is located in this central unit, for example.
For a laptop, there is no Central Unit. All the electronic components are grouped under the Key-
board.

13.21.2 Unix

Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer OS. The original Unix system was developed in 1969.
Several versions were created later on, and today, GNU/Linux is taking its inspiration from this
family and continues with the same philosophy.
Unix systems are characterized by a modular design that is sometimes called the “Unix philoso-
phy,” meaning that the OS provides a set of tools, each of which performing a well-de ned function,
and an uni ed le system to perform complex work- ows.

The main Unices are : the BSD family (NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD), AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, Mac
Os X.

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13.22. V

13.21.3 Update

An update is a new version of a program that x a problem existing in its the previous version. The
update may x a security hole, add a new functionality, solve an algorithm error …

13.21.4 URL

The URL (Uniform Ressource Locator) points to the address of a website like “http://www.debian.org”.
By typing an URL in the browser address bar, you go directly to the desired site, without having to
go through a search engine. You never need to type the %%“http://www.”%% address header,
simply enter “debian.org”.

13.21.5 USB

USB stands for Universal Serial Bus. It is the cable with a rectangular connector that wants to be
universal: almost all current hardware devices are connected to your computer via USB. Comput-
ers now have USB ports on the back, on the front of the Central Unit, and even sometimes on your
monitor.

It usually requires 3 steps to plug an USB connector: try to plug in a rst try, it does not work. Turn
over the connector and retry, it does not work too. Retry with the initial position and the connector
will be in. This is as mysterious as the sock which disappears in the washer…

13.22 V

13.22.1 Virtual Desktop

It is the full set of the workspaces available on a GNU/Linux desktop. It is like having on hand
several desktops (with task bar and included windows). Very handy to get organized !

13.22.2 VGA

Video Graphics Array (VGA) refers to the display hardware rst introduced with the IBM PS/2
in 1987. The term can also mean either an analog computer display standard, the 15-pin D-
subminiature VGA connector or the 640x480 resolution itself. While this resolution was super-
seded in the personal computer market in the 1990s, mobile devices have only caught up in the
last few years.

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13.23. W

13.22.3 VPN

Stands for Virtual Private Network, and refers to an encrypted network on the Internet, which
allows a company whose premises are geographically dispersed to communicate and share doc-
uments in a completely secure manner, as if they were all connected in a local area network.

13.23 W

13.23.1 Web

Web is the most common Internet network and refers to all the interconnected networks that run
across the whole world and connect computers together in the manner of a spider web.
Sur ng the Web means : browse the Internet.

13.23.2 Web Browser

An Internet browser is a software application that allows you to visit websites, download les and
make some research.

13.23.3 Wiki

A wiki (Hawaiian word meaning “quick”) is a web site whose pages are editable by visitors, en-
abling the creation of collaborative contents. (And aren’t you afraid to give the keys to strangers
?).

13.23.4 Window

A window is a rectangular area that appears on the screen to display, for example, the contents
of a folder, or a text le, or some software output. The window can take all the space (full-screen)
or only a part of the screen real estate. It is possible to view multiple windows simultaneously and
drag items from one to another using the drag and drop technique.

13.23.5 Window Manager

The window manager is the X (graphical) client software that controls the placement and appear-
ance of windows (title bar, framing, moving, resizing, etc..) within a windowing system in a graph-

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13.24. X

ical user interface. Most window managers are designed to help provide a desktop environment.
Applications, handle the inside of the window they created and manage their content and the in-
teraction with the user.
It is possible to change the window manager and see all the look and feel of the screen change
completely.
When the window manager can do many other things in addition to what has been described here,
it is a desktop environment like XFCE.

13.23.6 WWW

Initials of the World Wide Web.

13.24 X

13.24.1 X Window

X Window System, commonly called X Windows, X11 or just X is the graphics subsystem of
GNU/Linux. X Window is not only a driver for the video card, it is mainly an interface (API) for
applications, so that they appear on the screen and receive input from the keyboard and mouse.

13.24.2 X Org

Free X server used by GNU/Linux distributions.

13.25 Y

13.25.1 Yes We Can

Yes We can make you understand your computer, use it to do what you want and share knowl-
edge…

13.26 Z

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13.27. Links

13.26.1 Zen

“Stay zen”, means keep calm. Zen Buddhism has always been appreciated by hackers. This is
a fundamental virtue of good programmer, especially in the debugging phase …

13.26.2 Zip

A very popular le compression format. Requires a speci c program for decoding (expanding) the
compressed le.

13.26.3 Zombie

Program that ended but whose father, informed of its death, does nothing (in keeping with the
quilt analogy, he is not concerned with the funeral and the administrative procedures). It does not
exist anymore but is not deleted from the processus listr, so it is still a bit alive … A program whose
father was destroyed in turn is an orphan.

13.27 Links

• The Jargon Lexicon: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/go01.html

• WhatIs.com: http://whatis.techtarget.com/
• Techopédia: https://www.techopedia.com/dictionary

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 Sources & licenses

Sources of this manual are freely available in its GIT repository: https://git.framasoft.org/dflinux/
thebeginnershandbook

14.1 Software used

• Sources edition: Geany https://www.geany.org/ & VIM http://www.vim.org/

• Screenshots: scrot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrot
• Pictures edition: Gthumb https://wikipedia.org/wiki/GThumb, the Gimp https://www.gimp.
org, Inkscape https://inkscape.org & Phatch http://photobatch.wikidot.com
• HTML public export: MkDocs http://www.mkdocs.org/
• External exports in PDF, HTML & EPUB : Pandoc http://pandoc.org/
• Debian package export: equivs https://debian-handbook.info/browse/stable/sect.
building-first-package.html
• PDF optimization: ps2pdf https://www.ps2pdf.com/ & Exiftool https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
ExifTool

14.2 References

The various sources that helped me in the development of this manual:

• Debian Administrator HandBook: https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/debian-handbook/

index.html
• Debian main site: https://www.debian.org/
• The Jessie beginner’s handbook: https://lescahiersdudebutant.fr/jessie/index.html

290
14.3. Coordination & License

• Debian-Facile documentation (fr): https://debian-facile.org/wiki

14.3 Coordination & License

The beginner’s handbook scribbled by 3hg team https://3hg.fr under free license

WTFPLv2 (http://www.wtfpl.net) unless otherwise stated.

This manual integrates logos (Debian, Firefox, etc.) under copyright (each one its own, oth-
erwise it’s not funny) as well as some images and texts under license CC-BY-SA
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) (speci ed and credited under images and texts
Concerned)
The icons used come from themes Gnome:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/GNOME_Desktop_icons
& Tango: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tango_icons

Debian : Copyright © 1997-2017 SPI (http://www.spi-inc.org/) and others; See license terms
(https://www.debian.org/license)

Debian is a registered trademark (https://www.debian.org/trademark) of Software in the Public

Interest, Inc.

14.4 Speakers aka thx a lot

First of all, a great Thanks to the Framasoft team (https://framasoft.org) that hosts
the sources of this project on framaGIT and the online public version.

Thanks a lot to people who participated to the rst “Jessie” release of the beginners hand-
book: bendia, nIQnutn, Atapaz, Severian, deuchdeb, martinux_qc, mercredi, nazmi, chalu,
bruno-legrand, Thuban, Starsheep, arpinux, smolski, Tre x, desmoric, nono47, yanatoum,
PengouinPdt, èfpé, che, BibiSky51, titiasam, Firepowi, dcpc007, rhyzome, Péhä, Caribou22.

For this Stretch release, thanks to BibiSky51 for its rereading and advices, to kyodev for gitpages
initiation, to 3hg for work and support, to saby43 for the english translation and to my wife <3

Special thx 2 Péhä for his drawings (under CC-BY-SA) and his free spirit https:
//lesptitsdessinsdepeha.wordpress.com.

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14.4. Speakers aka thx a lot

by Péhä CC-BY-SA

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 Contents

1 Debian? What’s that? 2

1.1 The Debian GNU/Linux system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Where to nd help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.2.1 About forums, geeks, and the terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.3 Few links before moving on . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2 A simpli ed introduction to computer systems 7

2.1 Test your level of computer skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2 The mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
2.2.1 Left-click and double-click . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.2 Right-click . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.3 Middle-click . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.4 Actions executed with the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.2.4.1 Drag-and-drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.2.4.2 Text selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.2.4.3 Copy and paste a selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2.4.4 Selection of several items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.3 The keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3.1 The modi er keys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.2 Keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
2.3.3 Special characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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2.4 Online exercises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

2.5 The users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.5.1 $USER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.5.2 ROOT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
2.5.3 Separate to secure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

3 The graphical environment 22

3.1 The task bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2 Menus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.3 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.3.1 Closing a window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.3.2 Moving a window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.3.3 Resizing a window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.4 Virtual desktops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3.5 File management on GNU/Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.5.1 Your personal data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.5.2 Your hidden les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.5.3 System les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.6 An example of system le manager: Thunar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.6.1 Simpli ed presentation of Thunar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.6.2 Usage and functionality of Thunar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.6.2.1 Consulting your data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
3.6.2.2 Data selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.6.2.3 Classifying the data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.6.2.4 Data modi cation using the contextual menu . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
3.6.2.5 Data removal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.7 Rights and permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.7.1 Rights and permissions from the contextual menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.8 The terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.8.1 Presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.8.2 User mode example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.8.3 Administrator mode example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.8.4 Launching an “administrator terminal” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

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4 Pick your Debian 49

4.0.1 Choosing a Debian derivative? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.0.2 Alternatives to Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.0.3 You want to try the Debian journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.1 Choosing the architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.1.1 To make it easy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.1.2 Checking the architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.2 Choosing your GNU/Linux desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

4.2.1 Gnome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

4.2.2 KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57

4.2.3 Mate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

4.2.4 Cinnamon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

4.2.5 Xfce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

4.2.6 LXDE/Openbox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66

4.2.7 LXQt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

5 Installing Debian 72
5.1 Before installing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
5.1.1 Hardware compatibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.1.2 Backing up your data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.1.3 Disk space requirement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.1.4 Installation time duration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
5.1.5 Preparing the hard disk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.2 Downloading Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.2.1 Which image to download? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.2.1.1 Debian Netinst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
5.2.1.2 Debian on CD/DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.2.1.3 Debian torrent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.2.1.4 Debian live . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75
5.2.2 Verifying the ISO image integrity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
5.2.2.1 Checking md5 on GNU/Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

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5.2.2.2 Verifying md5 on Windows® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

5.2.3 Transfert sur CD/DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.2.4 ISO transfer on a USB key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.2.4.1 From a GNU/Linux system with the terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
5.2.4.2 From a Windows® system with Win32DiskImager . . . . . . . . . 80
5.2.5 Booting from the CD/DVD or the USB device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.2.5.1 The Boot Menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
5.2.5.2 BIOS con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.2.5.3 BIOS/UEFI/Secure Boot con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.3 Testing Debian safely . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.3.1 Testing Debian in Live session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.3.2 Testing Debian from Windows® with VirtualBox . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.4 Installation simple boot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.4.1 Starting the installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.4.2 Select your language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.4.3 Select your geographical location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.4.4 Con gure your keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
5.4.5 System name setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.4.6 Domain name setting (if necessary) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.4.7 Root account creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.4.8 First user account creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.4.9 First user password setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.4.10 Selecting the guided or manual partitioning scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.4.11 Selecting the disk to partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.4.12 Patitioning scheme selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.4.13 Modify or nish the partitioning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.4.14 Partitioning overview and formating process launch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.4.15 Analysis of the CD/DVD complementary contents (if necessary) . . . . . . . 105
5.4.16 Selecting the network mirror country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.4.17 Selecting the server hosting the archive mirror . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.4.18 Con guring a proxy server (if necessary) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
5.4.19 Participating - or not - to the Debian popularity-contest . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
5.4.20 Selecting software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.4.21 Packages installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.4.22 Installing Grub, the boot loader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

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5.4.23 Selecting the Grub location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

5.4.24 Installation complete . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.4.25 Debian rst start-up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.5 On-line installation details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.5.1 Dual-boot installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
5.5.2 LVM … what’s that? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.5.3 Encryption … what’s for? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
5.5.4 RAID … does it hurt? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120

6 Fast boot after installation 121

6.1 Network connection setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6.1.1 Network-manager-gnome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
6.1.2 Wicd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
6.1.3 Éditeur de connexion KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.1.4 Check if the driver is present . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6.1.4.1 Identifying a network device, and installing its driver . . . . . . . . 130
6.2 Con guring your printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
6.2.1 Simpli ed graphical method with system-con g-printer . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
6.2.2 Universal graphical method with CUPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.3 Check for updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.3.1 Update with a terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
6.3.2 Updates noti cation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
6.4 Retrieve your email account . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138

6.4.1 Thunderbird: your free mail client . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139

6.4.1.1 Thunderbird setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
6.4.1.2 Thunderbird interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.4.1.3 Retrieve other email account(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.4.1.4 Thunderbird settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.4.1.5 Protect your new and forwarded e-mails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
6.5 Login con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6.5.1 Autologin with GDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6.5.2 Autologin with LightDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.5.3 Login con guration on KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.6 Navigate on Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

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6.6.1 Firefox: a free web browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

6.7 Watch a video . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
6.8 Listen to music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6.8.1 About audio format natively recognized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6.8.2 Rhythmbox: your music player . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6.9 Work on word processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6.9.1 LibreO ce the free o ce productivity suite . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6.10 Edit your photos with the Gimp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
6.10.1 Interface Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.10.2 First Tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

7 Tweaking of your environment 166

7.1 User interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
7.1.1 The Gnome-Shell interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 166
7.1.1.1 Installing Gnome-Shell extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
7.1.1.2 Gnome-Shell keyboard shortcuts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7.1.1.3 Gnome Desktop Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7.1.1.4 The Gnome Classic interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
7.1.2 The KDE Plasma interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7.1.2.1 The System Settings panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7.1.2.2 KDE and desktop widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.1.2.3 KDE Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.2 System Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
7.2.1 Root-User / su-sudo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.2.2 Read a commercial DVD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
7.2.3 Using FlashPlayer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
7.2.4 Installing a graphic card driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
7.2.4.1 Identifying your hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
7.2.4.2 Installing the generic rmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
7.2.4.3 ATI/AMD card con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183
7.2.4.4 nVidia card con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
7.2.4.5 Perte de session graphique . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.3 Adding a new user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
7.3.1 Adding a new user the graphical way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
7.3.2 Adding a new user using the terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

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8 System administration 191

8.1 The software sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
8.1.1 The sources.list le . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
8.1.2 About repositories, branches and sections/components . . . . . . . . . . . 193
8.1.3 Modifying the Repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193
8.2 APT in a terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
8.2.1 “User” command to search and display information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
8.2.2 “Administrator” mode commands for system maintenance . . . . . . . . . . 195
8.2.3 Backport packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
8.3 Synaptic: the comprehensive package manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
8.3.1 Main interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
8.3.2 Managing the repositories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
8.3.3 Updating the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
8.3.4 Searching for a software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
8.3.4.1 Look at a package detailed information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
8.3.5 Installing / uninstalling softwares . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
8.3.5.1 Installing a package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
8.3.5.2 Uninstalling a package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
8.3.5.3 Reinstalling a package . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
8.3.5.4 Cleaning useless packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
8.3.5.5 Removing con guration residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
8.3.6 Synaptic preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
8.4 Discover: the KDE package manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
8.4.1 Discover: Manage your applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
8.4.2 Discover: upgrading your applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
8.5 Software : the simpli ed package manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
8.5.1 Software: searching an application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
8.5.2 Software: installing an application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
8.5.3 Software: remove an application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
8.5.4 Software: upgrading your applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
8.6 Cleaning the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
8.6.1 Disk space information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218
8.6.2 Cleaning the packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
8.6.3 Emptying the trash bins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

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8.6.4 Purging application caches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

8.6.5 Purging the thumbnails . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
8.7 Installing external “.deb” packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
8.7.1 Installation in graphic mode with gdebi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
8.7.2 Installation in terminal mode with Dpkg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
8.8 Who is this Sid guy? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

9 Back up your data 225

9.1 Choosing the medium . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
9.2 Graphical mode applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
9.2.1 Backing Up with Deja-Dup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
9.2.1.1 Installing Deja-Dup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
9.2.1.2 Launching and con guring Deja-Dup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
9.2.1.3 Saving your data with Deja-Dup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
9.2.1.4 Restoring your data with Deja-Dup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
9.3 Manual method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234
9.4 Cloning the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

10 Protect your data and your privacy 236

10.1 Protect your system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
10.1.1 Physical security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
10.1.2 Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
10.1.3 Passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237
10.2 Protect your data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
10.2.1 Limit the access rights of others on your data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
10.2.2 Backup your data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
10.3 Antivirus software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
10.4 Parental control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
10.4.1 From your ISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
10.4.2 From your computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
10.5 Privacy on Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
10.5.1 Social networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240
10.6 Private navigation within your browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
10.7 Private navigation on Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

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10.7.1 Search engines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242

10.8 Anonymous navigation on Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
10.8.1 Tor-Browser, an anonymous navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
10.8.2 Tails: the anonymous distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
10.8.3 Real anonymity?? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

11 Basic Command Memo 250

11.0.1 Browse directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
11.0.2 Action on les or directories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
11.0.3 View/Compare les . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251
11.0.4 Users and goups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
11.0.5 Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
11.0.6 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
11.0.7 Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
11.0.8 Search . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
11.0.9 Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
11.0.10Kernel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255
11.0.11Links and references . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

12 Free Softwares 256

12.1 The web sites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
12.1.1 Free Software Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
12.1.2 The GNU project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
12.1.3 The Linux Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
12.2 The Wikimedia Foundation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
12.2.1 Wikipédia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
12.2.2 Wikimedia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
12.2.3 Wiktionary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
12.2.4 Wikiquote . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
12.2.5 Wikisource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
12.2.6 Wikibooks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
12.2.7 Wikijuniors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
12.2.8 Vikidia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
12.2.9 Wikiversity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260

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12.2.10Wikispecies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 260
12.2.11Wikivoyage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
12.2.12Wikinews . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
12.2.13Wikidata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261
12.2.14Wiki Meta-wiki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
12.2.15Wiki-incubator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
12.2.16MediaWiki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
12.3 The GNU/Linux distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
12.3.1 Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
12.3.2 Emmabuntüs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
12.3.3 Mageia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
12.3.4 Fedora . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
12.3.5 Entirely free distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
12.4 Free software alternatives to proprietary software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
12.5 Compatible hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

13 Glossary 266
13.1 A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
13.1.1 Administrator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
13.1.2 ADSL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
13.1.3 ALSA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
13.1.4 Apt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
13.1.5 Aptitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
13.1.6 Arobase @ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
13.1.7 Audio Format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
13.1.8 Autonomy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
13.2 B . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
13.2.1 Beast . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
13.2.2 BIOS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
13.2.3 Boot manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
13.2.4 Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
13.2.5 Bug . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
13.3 C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268
13.3.1 C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 268

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13.3.2 C++ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269

13.3.3 Chat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
13.3.4 Click . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
13.3.5 Client/Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
13.3.6 Cloud Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
13.3.7 Code (to) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
13.3.8 Code (Source) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
13.3.9 Compile (to) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
13.3.10Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
13.3.11Cookie(s) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
13.3.12Copy and paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
13.3.13Core dump . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
13.3.14Cut and paste . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
13.3.15Cursor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
13.4 D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
13.4.1 Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
13.4.2 Dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
13.4.3 Desktop Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
13.4.4 Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
13.4.5 Dialog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
13.4.6 Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
13.4.7 Drag and drop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
13.5 E . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
13.5.1 Email . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
13.5.2 Ergonomics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
13.6 F . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
13.6.1 File Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
13.6.2 File system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
13.6.3 Firewall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
13.6.4 Firmware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
13.6.5 Fonts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
13.6.6 Fork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
13.6.7 FTP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
13.7 G . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
13.7.1 Geek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274

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13.7.2 Graphics card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275

13.7.3 GUI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
13.7.4 Gnome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
13.7.5 GNU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
13.8 H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
13.8.1 Hack or Trick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
13.8.2 Hard Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
13.8.3 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
13.8.4 High de nition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
13.8.5 HDMI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
13.9 I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
13.9.1 Icon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
13.9.2 IM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
13.9.3 Internet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
13.9.4 IN/OUT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
13.9.5 IP Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
13.9.6 ISP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
13.9.7 IRC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
13.10J . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
13.10.1Java . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
13.10.2JPEG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
13.11K . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
13.11.1Kernel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
13.11.2Keyboard Shortcut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
13.11.3Kiss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
13.12L . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
13.12.1Lag (to) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
13.12.2Live CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
13.12.3Free Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
13.12.4Long (it’s not gonna be) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
13.13M . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
13.13.1Mail . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
13.13.2Memory card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
13.13.3Motherboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
13.14N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

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13.14.1No Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280

13.14.2Noob . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
13.14.3Noti cation Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
13.15O . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
13.15.1Operating System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
13.15.2OS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
13.16P . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
13.16.1Package Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
13.16.2Partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
13.16.3Phishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
13.16.4Pixel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
13.16.5Plugin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
13.16.6PS/2 Port . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
13.16.7Processor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
13.17Q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
13.17.1Queue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
13.17.2Quit (to) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
13.18R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
13.18.1RAM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
13.18.2Right-click . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
13.18.3RTFM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 283
13.19S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
13.19.1Search Engine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
13.19.2Shortcut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
13.19.3Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
13.20T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
13.20.1Tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
13.20.2Terminal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
13.20.3Troll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
13.21U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
13.21.1Unit (Central) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
13.21.2Unix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
13.21.3Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
13.21.4URL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
13.21.5USB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286

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13.22V . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
13.22.1Virtual Desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
13.22.2VGA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
13.22.3VPN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
13.23W . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
13.23.1Web . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
13.23.2Web Browser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
13.23.3Wiki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
13.23.4Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
13.23.5Window Manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
13.23.6WWW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
13.24X . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
13.24.1X Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
13.24.2X Org . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
13.25Y . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
13.25.1Yes We Can . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
13.26Z . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
13.26.1Zen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
13.26.2Zip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
13.26.3Zombie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289
13.27Links . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 289

14 Sources & licenses 290

14.1 Software used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
14.2 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290
14.3 Coordination & License . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
14.4 Speakers aka thx a lot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291

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1.1 GNU & Tux, logos of the GNU projet and the Linux kernel by Péhä CC-BY-SA . . . 2
1.2 in memory of Ian Murdock by Péhä CC-0 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.3 logo Debian texte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.1 dev vs users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.2 drag and drop: point to the le to be moved . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.3 drag and drop: hold the button while moving the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
2.4 drag and drop: move the mouse into the destination folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.5 drag and drop: release the button . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.6 text selection within the Gedit application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.7 Copy and paste a text segment: copy the selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.8 Copy and paste a text segment: cursor on destination, right-click > paste . . . . . . 14
2.9 Copy and paste a text segment: selection pasted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.10 Selecting several folders under Gnome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2.11 Selection of several non-contiguous items in a Nautilus window . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.12 Example of layout for an English keyboard (cc-by-sa) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.13 special charaters available on QWERTY keyboard layout (cc-by-sa) . . . . . . . . 19
2.14 Available characters on “c” key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

3.1 The Xfce desktop with the application menu and Thunar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
3.2 panel Gnome-Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.3 panel Xfce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.4 panel LXDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.5 panel MATE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

307
List of Figures

3.6 panel Cinnamon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

3.7 panel KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
3.8 Accessing the Xfce panel con guration with a right-click . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.9 The 3 tabs of the Xfce panel con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3.10 Cinnamon menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
3.11 Xfce menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
3.12 Gnome-Shell menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
3.13 The Firefox web browser and the le manager under Gnome . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.14 Closing a window with the mouse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3.15 Gnome and 4 virtual desktops displayed on the right panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
3.16 Xfce and 4 virtual desktops shown in the panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
3.17 The system le manager Nautilus, on Gnome, with two open tabs . . . . . . . . . . 33
3.18 Show hidden les in Nautilus on Gnome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
3.19 Presentation of the le manager Thunar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
3.20 Contextual menu in Thunar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
3.21 Empty the Wastebasket using the Thunar menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
3.22 rights and permissions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
3.23 contextual menu: properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.24 Edition of rights and permissions from the contextual menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
3.25 Geek girl, by Péhä (CC-BY-SA) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
3.26 Terminal presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
3.27 Using “cd” to navigate the le system in the Terminal console . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.28 List of existing folders and les with “ls” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.29 console : uname -r . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3.30 console : uptime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.31 console : cd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.32 console : clear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.33 Switch to administrator mode with “su” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
3.34 Terminal in administrator mode: package list update using “apt-get update” . . . . 46
3.35 Terminal in administrator mode: package upgrade using “apt-get upgrade” . . . . 47
3.36 Terminal in administrator mode: executing the upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
3.37 launching an “administrator terminal” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

4.1 logo debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

4.2 Gnome: desktop presentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

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4.3 Gnome : le gestionnaire de temps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

4.4 Gnome: the System manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
4.5 Gnome: integrated comprehensive help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
4.6 The KDE Plasma desktop on Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
4.7 KDE System Settings on Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
4.8 KDE Help Center launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.9 KDE Help Center . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
4.10 MATE desktop on Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
4.11 Control Center of the MATE desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
4.12 Cinnamon desktop on Debian 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
4.13 Cinnamon: system settings panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
4.14 The default Xfce on Debian 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
4.15 The Xfce setting center on Debian 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4.16 The LXDE desktop and PCManFM on Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
4.17 LXDE Appearance and Session con guration panels on Debian . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.18 Preference menu and Openbox con guration tool on LXDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
4.19 LXQt desktop on Debian 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
4.20 LXQt con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

5.1 download link for Debian netinstall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

5.2 GTKHash: selecting the ISO image le to be checked . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
5.3 GTKHash: verifying the md5 checksum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.4 the winMd5Sum software in action on a Debian ISO image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
5.5 Win32DiskImager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
5.6 open the boot menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.7 select a disk ti boot from . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
5.8 BIOS: setting the Boot order (sources linuxtrack.net) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
5.9 SecureBoot : disabling 1 (sources linuxtrack.net) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
5.10 SecureBoot : disabling 2 (sources linuxtrack.net) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
5.11 SecureBoot: Save setting (sources linuxtrack.net) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
5.12 Launching Debian Live session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
5.13 installation mode (BIOS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
5.14 installation mode (UEFI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
5.15 installation: language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
5.16 installation: country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

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5.17 installation: keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93

5.18 installation: hostname . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
5.19 installation: domain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
5.20 installation: admin password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
5.21 installation: user full name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
5.22 installation: user login . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
5.23 installation: user password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
5.24 installation: partition mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
5.25 installation: disk to partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
5.26 installation: partition scheme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
5.27 installation: check partition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
5.28 installation: formating and install . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
5.29 installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
5.30 installation: optional additional CD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
5.31 installation: mirror country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
5.32 installation: mirror server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
5.33 installation : con guration du proxy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
5.34 installation: stats Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
5.35 installation: softwares and main desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
5.36 installation: packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
5.37 installation: GRUB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
5.38 installation: disk for GRUB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
5.39 installation: end and reboot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
5.40 installation: reboot on GRUB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
5.41 Debian: login screen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
5.42 launching Gnome-Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

6.1 Network management on Gnome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122

6.2 Network management on LXDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
6.3 network selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.4 network private key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
6.5 wi- network connected . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6.6 network con guration menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6.7 network selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
6.8 network settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

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6.9 forget the network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125

6.10 Wicd: connection properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
6.11 Wicd: Connection manager preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
6.12 KDE: network selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.13 KDE: network private key . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
6.14 KDE: network connexion editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
6.15 System-con g-printer: defaut interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
6.16 printer selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
6.17 printer description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6.18 print test page? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
6.19 con guration de l’imprimante . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.20 CUPS: “Printers” tab of the web interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
6.21 active printer page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
6.22 Update noti cation on the KDE interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
6.23 Thunderbird: mail account con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
6.24 Thunderbird: mail account veri cation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
6.25 Thunderbird: default display . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
6.26 Gnome : demande de mot de passe au lancement de la session . . . . . . . . . . . 144
6.27 user account con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
6.28 unlock user preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
6.29 auto login enabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.30 LightDM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
6.31 LightDM: con guration le edition in Néano CLI editor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
6.32 SSDM: login screen on Debian 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.33 KDE: launching SDDM con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
6.34 SDDM: graphical con guration tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
6.35 Firefox on Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.36 Firefox: Add-ons catalog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
6.37 Totem: “Videos” and “Places” windows on Gnome-Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
6.38 Totem: video player menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
6.39 VLC: open a media from the “Media” menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6.40 Rhythmbox: default view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6.41 Rhythmbox: menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
6.42 Rhythmbox: preferences settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
6.43 Rhythmbox: con gure plugins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

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6.44 Rhythmbox: complete help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160

6.45 Libreo ce: default view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
6.46 The Gimp on Gnome-Shell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
6.47 The Gimp en mode “fenêtre unique” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

7.1 Gnome-Shell con g launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167

7.2 Gnome-Shell: con guring the interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
7.3 Gnome-Shell: Gnome desktop con gured with extensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
7.4 launching “Software” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
7.5 Software manager: select “Add-ons” category . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
7.6 List of Gnome-Shell extensions available . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
7.7 Selecting an extension for installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
7.8 Installation con rmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
7.9 l’extension est disponible . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
7.10 Gnome-Shell con g launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
7.11 Gnome-Shell: All Settings Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
7.12 Gnome classic: Environment selection during Sign In . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
7.13 connexion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7.14 Gnome Classic desktop on Debian 9 Stretch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174
7.15 KDE on Debian . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
7.16 Debian System Settings on KDE Plasma . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176
7.17 KDE widgets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.18 access to activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
7.19 La gestion des activités sur KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
7.20 ash player download page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
7.21 GRUB: advanced options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.22 GRUB: recovery mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.23 recovery mode enabled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185
7.24 user con g launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
7.25 user con guration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
7.26 adding new user . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
7.27 new user password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
7.28 useradd 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
7.29 user added . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190

8.1 An example of “sources.list” le on Debian 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192

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8.2 Synaptic: the default interface of the package manager . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197

8.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
8.4 Synaptic: managing sources from Gnome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198
8.5 Synaptic: managing sources from Xfce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
8.6 check repositories informations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
8.7 upgrades request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
8.8 resquest changes list . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
8.9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8.10 con rm changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8.11 Synaptic: downloading packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201
8.12 Synaptic: upgrading packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
8.13 system upgraded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
8.14 Synaptic: marking a package for installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
8.15 Synaptic: summary of the pending changes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
8.16 Synaptic: changes being applied . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
8.17 Synaptic: installation of pacman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
8.18 Synaptic: auto removable packages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
8.19 Synaptic: removing con guration residues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
8.20 Synaptic: Preferences window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
8.21 Discover launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209
8.22 Discover: default interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
8.23 Searching an application with Discover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
8.24 Browsing categories with Discover . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
8.25 Installing Plasma modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
8.26 Uninstalling with “Discover” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
8.27 update noti cation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
8.28 upgrading system on KDE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
8.29 Software: default Debian interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
8.30 Searching an application by its name. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
8.31 Searching applications through categories. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
8.32 Selecting an application for installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
8.33 Authenti cation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
8.34 You can follow installation process. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215
8.35 The installation is successful: you can launch your application directly. . . . . . . . 216
8.36 Selecting an application for removal. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

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8.37 con rmation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216

8.38 updates tab . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
8.39 checking available updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217
8.40 Ncdu launched in the user personal folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
8.41 Baobab: disk space analyzer on Gnome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
8.42 Toy Story © Disney & Pixar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223

9.1 Deja-Dup: selection of the folders to save . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227

9.2 Deja-Dup:selection of the folder to ignore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
9.3 Deja-Dup: selection of the storage location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 228
9.4 Deja-Dup: scheduling the backups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
9.5 backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
9.6 Deja-Dup: protecting your backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
9.7 Deja-Dup: launching the backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 230
9.8 restore launcher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
9.9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
9.10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
9.11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
9.12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
9.13 Deja-Dup: restoring data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
9.14 Deja-Dup: restore process completed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234

10.1 properties menu . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

10.2 no access for others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
10.3 Firefox: private navigation window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
10.4 TorBrowser: the downloading page . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
10.5 TorBrowser: uncompressing the archive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
10.6 TorBrowser: opening the TorBrowser folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
10.7 TorBrowser: Browser settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
10.8 TorBrowser: Tor connexion settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
10.9 TorBrowser: connecting to the Tor network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 246
10.10TorBrowser: default interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
10.11“Plant onions!” by Péhä (CC-BY) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 248
10.12Anonymous . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249

11.1 a shell to rule them all . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250

14.1 by Péhä CC-BY-SA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292

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The beginner’s handbook
3hg team © WTFPL