Hi newbie need and would REALLY appreciate ANY advice
 

Hi all I have just installed linux mandrake for the first time ver 9.0, I have two computers the one im on just now i have dual booting with windows millinium and linux mandrake,anyway basically im new to this and im not sure where to start i find alot of the tutorials NOT well explained at all(although i havent been looking for them that long) and I have just started my HND programming and ive got right into c++ and im managing it ok but i no im no where NEAR a programmers status yet but its just i need to now where to get step by step tutorials(good ones written in half decent english)FROM SCRATCH for instance one thing i want to do is get my geforce4ti running in 3d mode .what else do i need to configure? also my printer how does that install, what do the kernel drivers do? etc etc lol no ive doubt you can see im intimidated with linux JUST NOW but doin the programming and that i can see its potential so im goin to stick with it no matter how long it takes also I was thinking off buying unix-----is it better what are its advantages, disadvantages anyway i hope someone out there feels sorry for me being a newbie and that any help would be MUCHMUCHMUCHMUCHMUCHMUCHMUCHMUCHMUCHMUCHMUCHMUCH MUCHMUCH

APPreciated also just in case someone whos really clued up reads this ----- the system i hav is -----
800mhz pentium 3
geforce3 TI graphics card
Creative soundblaster 128 me thinks or ac97
I hav cable connection and network with 3 comps there is
an NETGEAR adapter in one and another 3 REALTECH ones

also hav an EPSON 580 printer which i havent a scooby how to get working under linux mandrake 9.0

also ---
Genius vivid3 v2.3 scanner

Thanks for reading
Regards
David

do yourself a favour and buy a book. a very wise investment.

and learn to use search engines, go to google. search for "nvidia" and "linux".. well there's that problem solved. for more answers try the same search on this site. a newbie first 20 questions are almost guarenteed to have an answer on this site already, if you look.

yes well ive only had the operating system for one week and i have a tutorial its GASH its a "tutorial" ---IF YOU HAVE 10 years experience and WHEN I learn NOT IF Im gonna write a decent tutorial for the NORMAL run of the mill person also im a newbie please HELP not critise trival things like my room NETIQUETTE

Dave

i'm not criticising, just trying to encourage you to look on this site, that's what it's here for.

acid_kewpie

Acid, you do come off sounding condescending and I think you discourage alot of newbies from using this site!

Just my opinion..

He's a moderator. And the moderators ARE linuxquestions.org.

They can do as they see fit. I don't think he's discouraging newbies, just discouraging newbies who ask here before looking around. It's about initiative. Oh, and buying a good book on Linux. Hint: Always buy OReilly if you can afford it.

Bert

heh, thanks for the support Bert, but to be honest, i don't have the right to do what i want. I know i sound a little condescending, but that's one of the things that the written word does, removes tones, inflections etc... if you heard me say what i say then it wouldn't sound nearly as bad as i might appear here.

acid_kewpie recommends o'Reilly books. they're great!

you may or may not agree with this piece of advice, but i would personally recommend getting rid of Win ME -- especially when if you want to become a programmer.

i say this because of my experience with ME, as well as the proverbial campfire horror stories of using it suggest that it is probably one of the worst operating systems from M$ (trailing behind win 3.0, of course). I would highly recommend changing to XP or 2K...or even back to 98.

and, from one particularly dumb newbie to all the others...you guys haven't seen condescending! All the people chillin on this site are NICE. try going to a forum with a bunch of hackers--ask the wrong questions and you'll get flamed with RTFM and STFW. it is common ediqute at a lot of places to read the manual/tutorials, search the web, and then search all of the forums before posting a question.

linux_h, if you search LQ you'll find 2 threads with clues for your epson: [1], [2], else try for instance here. Here is the LQ search page for Nvidia+drivers+install threads, and the excellent Gentoo Nvidia page.


IceGrill, IMNSHO I see only be two reasons for replying RTFM; one being the ppl on the board/list/NG know answering would be a waste of time because the answer's in the docs or FAQ: an efficient (for them, and not always polite) way of telling you you should study, experiment and get a grip on basics before stepping inside the lions' den,
the other being the board/list/NG is heavily populated with ppl trying to pass off as knowledgable over the backs of other ppl. Reading ten board/list/NG threads easily shows the difference.

acid_kewpie, i think the problem is your signature. The first time I saw a response from you I thought you were criticising me, too! Maybe you need to tweak the sig so people know it is not directed at them personally, but to everybody. It's a good sig to have, esp from a moderator, it has good advice!

Thanx all
 

Thanx Ive sussed out how to work my printer, lately Ive been trying to install UT on linux mandrake Ive got it installed but when i execute it says cant find file entry aNd sigot error, so I went on the forums and they said it was decompression problems, is there anything I can use to fix this problem

about the windows XP comment
 

Yep I would go up to windows XP in a minute but its just I have three computers all networked one with athlon xp 2000+

Ok, the first step for a newbie is to get in touch with the "navigation" under unix environments. You've chosen one of the more user-friendly distros.

I'm newbie also so i can't help you MUCH. Perhaps you need to lean more theory before you start with programming. The kernel modules are the built-in modules you need to run anything on your box. you could always use external drivers but unisn kernel's is better because the will work always for that kernel. If you use an external one you could have some troubles, like the iptables on RH7.0 for alpha.

Perhaps I'm not the best source of information, but i think www.tldp.org is. try it and see it.


Good luck with ME... i think taht you should go to 2K or XP so you could use M$ Visual Studio.net (the best development environment for windows-XML based aplications) thogh i still hate Windows.

Save the penguins

.:8yt3 H4n73r:.