Assignment

Purpose: To explore various methods for installing applications.

NOTE: These instructions were written with reference to version 12.04LTS of Ubuntu.

1. Start your machine and log in. Open your web browser.

2. In the address bar of your web browser type sourceforge.net. Browsing projects can be overwhelming, so for this exercise perform a search for FileZilla (a popular FTP client). What sort of license is used for this project?

3. Click on the link which will reveal more detail and describe the intended audience for this project:

4. Typically the installation of software from SourceForge requires that you download a package (an archive - tarred and gzipped), extract the files from the archive, then build the application program. That process is too involved for this lab assignment, so we will stop here.

5. Open a GUI package manager: Click on the icon for Software Center on the toolbar on your left.

6. Select the Accessories section and look for GNU emacs. (It might be fastest to search, from the box in the top right of the window). What "version number" do you see?

7. Click on the package, then Install. In the dialog boxes that follow, confirm that you wish to download and install that package and all of the packages upon which it depends. When the installation is complete, close the package manager.

8. Open the Dash Home icon. Can you find emacs anywhere? It is there . . .

9. . . . but you may have to search. Did you find it? Don't open it from the GUI. Instead, open a command shell and type the command which emacs. What is the full pathname of your new emacs executable?

10. Type the command: emacs testemacs.txt &

11. When the program starts, notice that there are two panes within the window. Type the control sequence x 1 - what happens? (NOTE: Hold the control key down while pressing the x, then let go of it and press the number 1 by itself.)

12. Type a description of the most interesting class you have taken at Bellevue University. Note that the class does not have to be CIS 240 . . .

13. Type x s, then x c. What happens?

14. Using the full pathname of the emacs command (you should have it above), create a symbolic link to that program in your Desktop directory.

15. Find the link on your Desktop and try to start the application by double-clicking on the link icon. Does it work?

16. Return to your command shell and perform the command ls -l /usr/bin/em*. (This command will shrink the list of results so that it is easier to read.) What do you notice about the emacs file? Where does it point?

17. View a long listing of that target file - what is the full pathname of the REAL executable which starts the emacs application?

28. Right-click on your new desktop icon and study the modifications you can make to it. Can you do things with Windows icons that you cannot do with this one? Can you do things with this one that you cannot do with Windows icons?

What aspect of the UNIX software-installation process do you find most confusing? Be sure to include your cited your source(s) to support your position.

Quiz

I. Multiple Choice

DIRECTIONS: Save this document on your local machine. Use the blue-bordered box for your answers - for each question, type the answer you have selected into that box.

1. Which command will list all of the aliases available to a user?
a. printenv          c. cmnds
b. showalias       d. alias

2. Which command will list all of the environment variables available to the shell?
a. printenv          c. cmnds
b. showalias       d. alias

3. Which of these directories contains default configuration files for use in setting up accounts for new users?
a. C:\Documents and Settings\Users    c. /etc/profile
b. /etc/skel                                            d. /etc/defaults

4. Which of these commands will list the "dotfiles" in a directory?
a. ls -a        c. ls -Al
b. ls -alg     d. all of the above

II. Short Answer

DIRECTIONS: Type the answer to each question in the blue box associated with it.

5. Write a command which will create an alias named mthumb for the command which will mount a thumb drive on the device /dev/sda to the mount point /media/thumb.

6. What is the absolute path name for the file which contains instructions for configuring ALL of the BASH shells started on a system (not just login shells and not just ones started by an individual user)?

7. Write down the contents of your MACHTYPE variable.

8. Which of the applications in the OpenOffice/LibreOffice suite is designed for the formatting (for display) of mathematical equations? (NOTE: Your default installation of Ubuntu may not include this application, so consider looking for the information on-line.)