Chapter 18. Basic Administration

Secrets in This Chapter

  • Monitoring the System

  • Viewing Log Files

  • Managing Services and Programs

  • Monitoring Disk Usage

Not everything is fun and games on your Ubuntu workstation. There are a few things you should do to help ensure that your system is running properly. There are also times when things go wrong. When that happens, it helps to know how to look at various parts of your system and see what's going on. This chapter walks through some of the basics of managing your Ubuntu workstation. It discusses how to use the simple utilities Ubuntu provides for interacting with your system and determining how it's doing.

First we'll take a look at the System Monitor, which can provide some excellent information about what programs are running and how much of the system resources they're using. We'll then take a look at how Ubuntu uses log files to document when things go wrong on the system. Next, we'll look at a couple of utilities that Ubuntu provides for configuring which system services and applications run, both when your system starts and when you log into your desktop. Finally, we'll discuss the Disk Usage Analyzer tool, which allows you see where your disk space is going.

Monitoring the System

The best tool for administering your Ubuntu workstation is the System Monitor. Start the System Monitor by selecting System

Monitoring the System

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