terry posted <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, excerpted
below,  on Fri, 25 Mar 2005 15:08:14 -0700:

> Re: the FAQ:
> 
> A discussion of the dangers of etc-update.  Protect your hand-crafted
> config files.  Especially fstab and group.

This is always a good one to emphasize.  (Do note that the fstab issue is
going away, however.  I don't know about stable, but ~ baselayout doesn't
contain that file any more, so it's not overwritten.  Continuing to use it
as an example should still be effective, however, for anyone the least bit
familiar with Linux.  Something like "Always check the files etc-update
wants to update.  Don't just let it overwrite stuff.  Consider what would
happen if it overwrote your painstakingly crafted /etc/fstab with a
generic version."

> For the Linux noobs: a tutorial on setting up mail and other essential
> services; possibly a brief introduction to using the CLI and some of the
> tools available; and some information regarding the Gentoo forums, FAQs
> and the rest of the site.

Everything suggested here is non-amd64 specific.  Gentoo already has
documentation on mail, IIRC.  

A general CLI introduction, along with an intro to *ix style file
permissions, including what SUID/SGID do, would be useful for Gentoo as a
whole. It might be worth checking with O'Reilly to see if we can
specifically excerpt the file permissions portion of their "Running Linux"
chapter four, which deals with typical user level stuff like file
permissions, and commands like pwd, cd, and the like.  A fairly lengthy
excerpt or possibly the entire chapter reprinted, with proper credits and
a recommendation to buy the book for more useful newbie Linux information,
would probably benefit both them and us.  I know I asked for
recommendations for a decent intro to Linux book to read, got that one
named several times independently so bought it, and it proved invaluable
to me, when I first began.  Between it and "Linux in a Nutshell" (which I
still use and actually bought the next edition as well, when it came out),
I figure I advanced my Linux use fully 3 months worth of full time use and
experimentation, over where I would have been otherwise.  Three months of
8-hour/day, 5-day/week, they were WELL worth the $70 or so I paid for both
of them, considering the effort I would have had to put into replacing the
knowledge they gave me up front.

However, as I said, these aren't amd64 specific.  A single simple entry in
the amd64 FAQ pointing to a general FAQ should suffice.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman in
http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/linux/2004/12/22/rms_interview.html



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