Uber Noob Needs Help
 

Just installed BackTrack 4 pre-final onto a WindowsXP Lenovo t61p with internal Intel 4965 wifi link network adapter.

The install process seemed to go well. I am able to boot into either xp or backtrack.

Linux might as well be Japanese.

I have read up all day to get some sort of grasp on things... now confused and frustrated.

SHORT TERM GOAL = get my wireless internet working

can someone PLEASE explain to me what I need to do here (as if you were explaining it to an 8 year old) assume I know nothing.

i boot up backtrack.
i log in with username and password.
i read somewhere something about root users, and access.... do i need
to change my name/password to root or something???
i saw someone use the command "sudo su", so i tried that, and it asks for my password again, then it gives me root access??? is that right??

the following commands i read off of tutorials, i have very little knowledge of what they do...

i type iwconfig -a
it says 'nothing found' or something..

i type iwconfig
it shows an entry for "wlan0" with 0 db transmit power
i assume that is my wireless card??

i type ifconfig wlan0 up
i type iwocnfig again, it show the transmit power at 14 db
i assume that i successfully turned on my wireless card??

then i type in the essid, channel and key entries... it still never says "ASSOCIATED" in iwconfig....


do i need to load a module or something?
are the drivers for my card already loaded into backtrack?
do i need to hunt down adapters for my card?
is backtrack even seeing my card?
shouldn't it be seeing my wired ethernet adapter in my laptop also?
do i need to type in a dhcpcd command? I tried and it didn't recognize the command???
i tried the apt-get commmand...didn't even recognize that??

Not wishing to be discouraging, but why did you pick BackTrack as (presumably) your first attempt at Linux ?. And why a pre-release ?.
Do you have an interest/requirement for security/penetration testing ?.

To answer your questions, do some searching here on LQ - there have been innumerable threads on intros to Linux, you'll find some good recommendations there. More generally, the help system for commands is (generally) "man <command>" (say "man sudo" for example - no quotes). That is run from a terminal session - enter "q" (no quotes) to exit the "man" command.

Also recommend you remove your email address from here before a spambot comes by and picks it up. You may need to replace it, although gmail spam filters are pretty good.
In any case, we prefer people to propose and solve probs here, so we can all learn.

That said, Welcome to LQ :) and like syg00 said, you may want to re-think your distro choice.
Anything off the top 5 or 10 at www.distrowatch.com would probably do.
If you really like the MS approach, the Ubuntu series are popular.

Welcome to LQ. I agree with chrism01, pick a more popular distro for your first Linux.
About your title, please be more specific -- you'll attract a lot more help that way. A lot of LQ users ignore vague titles like "I need help".
Yes you have your wireless card on with the command you issued, the driver is loaded.
You should create an ordinary user from "administration" menu, not sure how with Backtrack. This will prevent you running as root all the time. Again, welcome to LQ and welcome to Linux.

Hi,

Welcome to LQ!

BackTrack is great! But do you need it? As others have pointed out you may wish to re-think your choice.

You could look at 'The LiveCD List' to get a feel for something that may meet your needs via a test drive.

Just a few links to aid you;

Linux Documentation Project
Rute Tutorial & Exposition
Linux Command Guide
Linux Newbie Admin Guide
LinuxSelfHelp
Getting Started with Linux
Advanced Bash-Scripting Guide

These links and others can be found at 'Slackware-Links'. More than just Slackware® links!