- Booting Red Hat Desktop
- Welcome to Red Hat Desktop!
- Configuring Your Printer and Internet Service
- Summary
- Q&A
- Workshop
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Welcome to Red Hat Desktop!
When your Red Hat Desktop computer system starts for the first time, Red Hat Desktop automatically displays the Welcome to Red Hat Desktop screen. Beginning at this screen, you are led through a few remaining configuration steps that the Red Hat Desktop installer did not handle. The following section walks you through this process.
Finishing First-Run Configuration
On the Welcome to Red Hat Desktop screen, click the Next button to proceed to the License Agreement screen. Here, you are asked to read and agree to the software license terms set forth by Red Hat. After you read the terms and feel that you agree with them, click Yes, I agree to the License Agreement and then click Next to proceed with first-run configuration.
Now you see the Date and Time screen, shown in Figure 3.3. Use this screen to be sure that your current date and time are set correctly.
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FIGURE
3.3 The Date and Time screen allows you to set your current date and
time.
You can choose a month and year by using the navigation arrows; after the correct month and year appear, you can choose a day simply by clicking its number. If you need to adjust the current time (shown in 24-hour format), enter the correct values into the Hour, Minute, and Second entry boxes. Alternatively, if your computer is connected to the Internet, you can choose to automatically set your time using network time servers by checking the Enable Network Time Protocol check box and selecting a server at random (it does not matter which server you use) from the time server drop-down list.
After you set your date and time correctly or choose to let the network set your date and time for you, click Next to proceed to the User Account screen, shown in Figure 3.4. Use this screen to create a user account with regular privileges on the system. It is this account that you will use on a day-to-day basis. Enter all the following information:
A username (account name) in the Username box
Your real name in the Full Name box
Your desired password in the Password box
Your desired password a second time in the Confirm Password box
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FIGURE
3.4 The User Account screen allows you to create the first "regular
user" account on your Red Hat Desktop system.
When you are done entering account information, click Next to create this account and proceed with first-run configuration.
If Red Hat Desktop detects that sound-generating hardware (of the kind that allows you to listen to music or hear other sounds on your PC) is installed in your computer, the Sound Card test screen, shown in Figure 3.5, appears. On the Sound Card test screen, you can ensure that Red Hat Desktop has successfully configured your sound hardware by clicking the Play Test Sound button. If, after clicking the button, you are unable to hear any sound at all, ensure that your sound cabling and speakers are correctly installed and powered on and that your sound card or other sound-generating hardware is supported by Red Hat Desktop.
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FIGURE
3.5 The Sound Card test screen allows you to verify that Red Hat Desktop has
correctly configured your sound hardware.
After you finish testing your sound configuration, click Next to proceed to the Red Hat Network screen, shown in Figure 3.6.
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FIGURE
3.6 The Red Hat Network screen allows you to sign up for Red Hat's
software updates service.
On the Red Hat Network screen, you have an opportunity to choose to register with Red Hat's update service. Because this service is an optional premium feature, we don't discuss it until Chapter 33, "Using the Red Hat Network." For now, select the No option and click Next to proceed to the Additional CDs screen, as shown in Figure 3.7.
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FIGURE
3.7 At the Additional CDs screen, Red Hat Desktop gives you the option of
installing more software from your CD-ROMs.
Because you will learn how to install additional software from the Red Hat Desktop DVD any time you like in Chapter 32, "Installing Software and Updates," we don't spend extra time now installing additional software. Click Next to proceed to the Finish Setup screen, which confirms that your preliminary configuration of Red Hat Desktop is complete.
Click Next one more time to display the Linux login prompt.
Logging In for Configuration
After you finish the first-boot configuration discussed in the preceding section, you find yourself looking at the login prompt shown in Figure 3.8. This screen appears every time you start Red Hat Desktop.
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FIGURE
3.8 Every time you start Red Hat Desktop from now on, you will see the Linux
login prompt.
Identifying the Parts of the Login Screen
The login prompt is primarily designed to enable you to log in to the desktop environment so that you can begin to use your computer. Before you log in for the first time, however, you need to become familiar with a few functional areas of the login screen.
For Users Who Didn't Install the X Window System
If, in Chapter 2, you chose to customize your software selection and subsequently did not install the X Window System graphical environment, you will not see a graphical login prompt. Instead, you will see a text login prompt. Study the console-related sections of Chapters 5–7 and then proceed to Chapter 19, "Performing Basic Shell Tasks," for details on logging in to and using Linux in text mode.
If you chose to install more than one language when you installed Linux, clicking the Language button displays a list of languages from which you can select, as shown in Figure 3.9. The language you select is the language used by Red Hat Desktop for communicating with you in the desktop environment. The default language is English.
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FIGURE
3.9 Clicking the Language button enables you to select the language Red Hat
Desktop will use when interfacing with you.
If you chose the Desktop or Workstation install or chose to install the KDE or GNOME environments at the software customization screen as you were installing Linux, clicking the Session button on the login screen enables you to select the environment you want to use, as shown in Figure 3.10.
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FIGURE
3.10 Clicking the Session button enables you to select the type of desktop
environment you want to use.
The options in the Session dialog box log you in to the desktop in the following ways:
The Last option logs you in to whichever desktop environment you used the last time you logged in, or to the GNOME environment if this is your first time logging in.
The Default option logs you in to whichever desktop environment is your current default, or to the GNOME environment if this is your first time logging in.
The Failsafe option instructs Red Hat Desktop to log you in to a basic X Window System desktop in an environment called TWM that is discussed in more detail in Chapter 26, "Learning About Desktop Power Tools."
The GNOME and KDE options instruct Red Hat Desktop to log you in to the GNOME and KDE desktops, respectively.
Because you have just installed Red Hat Desktop, the default environment is GNOME. You can learn more about logging in to KDE and GNOME specifically in Chapter 4, "Introducing the Desktop."
You use the Reboot and Shutdown buttons near the bottom of the screen to restart Red Hat Desktop or shut down the computer, respectively. Both buttons present a confirmation dialog box when you click them. The confirmation dialog box for the Shutdown button appears in Figure 3.11.
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FIGURE
3.11 After you click the Shutdown button, a confirmation dialog box appears.
To shut down the system, click Yes.
Always Shut Down Before Powering Off
Before you turn off your Linux computer, you should always remember to return to the Login screen, click the Shutdown button, and choose Shutdown to shut down the system. Although it isn't likely, it is possible that not shutting down correctly could cause you to lose some of your data.