I've tried a few times to get Linux working on this box, as a dual boot with XP pro, and finally i've managed with Mandrake 10. It's the very first time i've managed to partition, install, run...and quite literally everything has worked off the mark. I've had major probs with my onboard LAN before, but that's worked...with no fuss!

Anyway, way back when I started on computers I was a DOS user, then onto Win 3.x, so now i'm onto Mandrake and at the moment i'm using KDE and now and then i've dropped into Gnome too. I prefer the look and 'feel' of KDE though I can't say i'm a big fan of the speed. I know there are other window managers out there but i want to get a feel for the command line stuff first.

What would people recommend for getting used to command line linux? That is, using the terminal window more? At the moment I try to untar things, copy things here and there using it but so far i'm having trouble remembering all the different commands (kinda like when i started on DOS all those moons ago). What kind of commands are the most 'useful' and regular? Literally all i can usually remember is 'ls' and 'cd'. I know that it's 'tar' to untar a .tar, then there's the .tar.gz (tarball?) and i've been told by my bro that tar -xgvf is what to use.

I'll leave it at that right now but i may have more afterwards!

Will rename the file oldname to the file newname. It will also move the file if you specify a path.
Will display the man page for a program. This is an important one - just reading the man file for programs can stop you asking stupid questions on this site

Hehe, luckily i know this one already, though i'll admit it wasn't until i had a look on here yesterday i found out how to exit the man pages.

i have written a document that covers common commands in linux.
you can obtain that document at the following location:

Computer Experts, Inc. Website

Scroll down to CUSTOMER TOOLS & RESOURCES which is displayed on the right, and enter:

username: customer
password: customer

Click on the folder icon "ARTICLES", then the fourth link down labeled:

Common Commands in Linux_rev1.doc

download that file. it contains common commands and their function. it also coveres mounting/unmounting devices. the file was written using OpenOffice and has been saved in w0rd format, but can also be read using OpenOffice.

hope i could help!!!!!!!!

is a useful one; it returns all the man-pages containing (text).

That file was pretty good, i'll print it out and have a good read.

Thanx for the rest too.

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/cli.html was a pretty big help to me when i first needed to use the command line, still is when i forget something.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...?action=adinfo


If you want to advertise your website, please have a look
at that link ...


Cheers,
Tink

linuxlastslonge

How would you feel about offering your document to our LQ Wiki as a resource for visitors?
We use a Creative Commons Licence for material on the wiki site..

It's nice to see well written material..

You can do wonders with awk, sed, find, xargs, and bash builtins and substitutions. See man pages.

Yves.

My experience began as did yours: DOS and win 3.x. When I took the plunge into Linux, I found a tutorial called 'Newbie's Linux Manual', which contains excellent examples of how to use some of the more common Linux commands, as well as some of the more common applications, such as rpm. From there, is was read, read, and read a bit more.
To get into the habit of command-line, safely:
A. Never login as root unless you ablosutely have to. Root has ultimate authority and can kill the system. Login as user; your authority to do damage is limited to your home directory.
B. Always cd to the directory in which you want to do some work. If you give the dreaded 'rm *', you only damage that directory; not the entire system.
C. It would be a good idea, no matter where you are in the directory tree, to give the full path to files in your commands as additional insurance against inadvertant destruction of your system.
D. When editing text files, use text editors such as vi, vim, emacs, etc. It increases use of the keyboard, and commands associated with command-line operations.

Beyond that, google up Linux command lists.

Thanks for the info people, very useful indeed.

A few more questions have popped to mind now...

1. What's the easiest way to update gaim? So far i'm finding gaim the best messnger client as i mainly use MSN and sometimes Yahoo; and the plugins for Gaim are pretty good. But if anyone suggests others that are worth looking at i'll have a try. I know of kopete and amsn (i had a few probs with amsn before)

2. Anyone recommend a reliable (that is, easy to use :P) IRC client? I've downloaded IIRC but had a few problems with it.

3. A while back my dad gave me a Microsoft multimedia keyboard, and as mine was dying at the time i took it off his hands. Now, in XP i just edit the registry to stop this damn f-lock key, i've tried googling but can't find anything to help with this problem in linux (mandrake). Any ideas?

edit: I seem to be 'missing' the command urpmi? Is this possible?
Sorry, i'll give a better description of what i mean by missing. In a terminal window if i type say
then it comes up with...

No urpmi? And i can't say i'm too sure what the others are. I've googled and looked at the man page, and so far i get that urpmf is for finding the package, but how about the other command?

Try doing the same while logged in as root.

hehe, boy is my face red. Nice one.

Multimedia keyboard: I don't know of any program to change de default status of the f-lock key. Same with my Logitech keyboard: default is to use MM functions whereas I'd like the default to be the Fxx keys...

I think the easiest solution is to make your own keyboard mapping, by swapping the MM symbols and the Fxx symbols; eg: when you'll press F5, apps will get Play (for example), and when you press Play (same key actually), apps will get F5.

See my home site if that helps: http://www.gablin.fr.fm/

Yves.