The good thing with linux is, that if graphical boot (X Server or the subsequent services) fails, you can mostly switch to other consoles (Ctrl+Alt+F1/F2/F3...) and do a login in console.

There you can fix most problems that can be fixed or are worthy fixing (if the system can be rescued economically). What you often do, is check all the logs in /var/log with vour favoutite text editor (vim, nano).

At this early level of experience you will most probably have excessive trouble with that.

It is difficult to judge what changes you have done to your system. Did you delete system files with root acces? If you made complex and/or chaotic changes to the system, then just reinstall. Did you backup your files from /home/Tara? You can still maybe do that from console.

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Pa...ssGuestAccount
Screenshot is of "fast user switching" (used to be called that), not necessarily a user "logged in".
It is my advice you become intimate with the Official Ubuntu Documentation
and have an installation method handy.

Stop chasing ghosts.

Btw. if you had had sudo rights as "Tara" then you could have deleted the user Tim altogether.

Then he'd been gone for good in any case.

Long shot, his name was Tim.
But the OP never answered my question?

waste of time, just get the normal distro (debian,slackware) and learn linux from beginning installing the system as a first step.

i successfully reinstalled my OS. However, I am curious about slackware now. Can I install this along side ubuntu and can you recommend a novice training/tutorial for me to learn it? I am scanning several different tutorials for the ubuntu command line, but for whatever reason the commands aren't all working as indicated.

Someone had mentioned using a (forgive my ignorance) text editor? Is this for writing code in a simpler logistical manner and it translates it to the OS required code? Or is it something else, could you explain and recommend one if its advantageous.

Please

thanks-apples

That is very good.

It is possible. But you will be confronted with some issues, like how to partition, or rather repartition, your hard drive. You probably could get quite some headaches from slackware and multi-boot configuration at this early point in your linux career.

For example it is sometimes important if the tutorials are written for the very version of ubuntu you are using, and not (too) old versions. Aditionally it is possible that whatever software used in the tutorial might not be installed in your install. It is also easy to make typos when calling/recombining wanted command switches. Finally I think you can say it's normal that commands/linux sometimes don't seem to work as expected. In that case keep at it. Typical tutorials: http://www.slackware.com/install/
http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:beginners_guide

I prefer using a graphical text editor like:
kwrite
gedit
kate
geany (lots of advanced features that might be useful especially much later)

The other option is using a command line text editor, like
vi
vim
emacs
elvis

These are a lot less convenient as you need to reas documentation and learn by heart short-cuts to perform very basic tasks - like saving a file. But it's not bad to get used to one of them too.

There are a bunch of text files that are used for system configuration in Linux. Many of which are stored somewhere in the /etc/ directory and below. Almost any program is configured in an own text file! With it's own way of config / syntax / switches. This manual configure is likely to be necessary occasionally in Ubuntu at some point, and very necessary in Slackware very soon.

To do that it is inevitable to read documentation, like "man pages", howtos, online documetations or references. Although some config files contain documentations themselves in form of "commented out" examples and comments in the config file itself (if one exits at all already for a certain purpose).

To change config files you need to start the text editors with super user rights. The graphical editors need be started with use of gksu, kdesu, xdg-su or something like that to achieve that. Or the console editors you start with sudo or sudo -i. Only with super user access you will be able to change and save a config file under /etc/. This is essential.

1 members found this post helpful.

I notice Vi/Vim comprehension seems essential for understanding other systems down the road if that situation were to come up. I also noticed it was recommended to start with CentOS rather than Slackware for this reason. Debian was also mentioned, as was OpenSUSE. What's your recommendation? And please consider the online tutorials' propensity in schooling someone very new in this environment.

Also, what was your answer as far as installing another OS alongside Ubuntu in case I get overwhelmed with it all. I'm already experiencing negative feedback from humans seeing me glued to my laptop. I noticed when I reinstalled Ubuntu it gave me the option to install that way. I'm only inquiring about other systems because Ubuntu seems to get a bad rap since the GUI doesn't promote the command line interface reliance it seems that so many folks are looking for. The very thing I am starting to learn about. Do all of these distros use different coding language, if thats what its called? Is that what you are saying in the following?

I didn't completely follow you. Could you try again to explain. I have noticed that the man pages give different commands than the tuturial I was following. I think it was for KDE and I have Gnome, so I think. There is so much information out there I am a little overwhelmed. I keepb bookmarking more and more sites with every issue (every line) I come across... I hope this is how one begins at any rate.

Thank you for your time
apples

Vim is just a console text editor. Don't worry too much. Choose a linux that will work for beginners and that is configured by guiding the user. In the process of guided install the Distro will setup all underlying configuration files itself, so you don't need to get overwhelmed with manually setting up networking, etc., in config files.

Start with Mint, Ubuntu or OpenSuSE. I would prefer a desktop environments KDE, Mate or XFCE, and avoid Unity and Cinnamon. But whatever.

Setup your first install until it does everything you want. Just use it and get used to it fully for a year or so. Resolve all issues that might come up along the way.

Specific help you will find here or with specific documentations for every issue found with google.

Don't install Slackware or Debian in my opinion. Rather move to Debian or Slackware when you have more experience with Linux.

The link below is to the Slackware site and is a very detailed tutorial on installing Slackware. Slackware is the oldest Linux distribution still in existence so they must be doing something right. You might bookmark the page below and after you have familiarized yourself with your Ubuntu install give it a try.

http://docs.slackware.com/slackware:install

What about installing a firewall. It seems complicated to set one up. And what are the advantages/disadvantages of using a VPN?
Please...