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Here's where I'll post random musings regarding LQ specific things.
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New-Comer's Greeting

Posted 02-04-2011 at 07:55 AM by xeleema

Greetingz and Welcome to LQ!

I would suggest you familiarize yourself with how to use LQ, which will help you in asking questions. There's a section on "how to post" (I know that sounds really, really low-brow, but hey, even I learned a lot from it).
If you already know how to use BBcode to format a post, you can just skip to the list of supported tags here.

If you've never used a Linux command line before, here's a few links to help you move around inside the guts of the OS.
(This is where you find the "Terminal" shortcut and start to get friendly with the command line.)
An introduction to the Linux command line
GNU/Linux Command-Line Tools Summary
The Vim commands cheat sheet - 1.2

ProTIP: Need to edit or remove something? Make a local backup copy first.
A quick backup of a file, before you start tweaking things can really save you time (should things go haywire).
"cp -p /path/to/filename /path/to/filename-`date +%Y_%m_%d-%H%M`"

Xeleema's Personal Guidelines for New-Comers

There's also a few of my personal "guidelines" I think anyone starting-out should be aware of;
Rule #1: You do not use the root account.
Rule #2: YOU do not USE the ROOT ACCOUNT, use sudo if you *really* need root!
Rule #3: If a process halts, gives an error, or SEGFAULTS, you read the man pages.
Rule #4: Only one System Administrator to a computer.
Rule #5: One fight question at a time.
Rule #6: No "Diet" drinks, no overhead lights.
Rule #7: Fights Troubleshooting sessions will go on as long as they have to.
Rule #8: If this is your first night at FIGHT CLUB LQ, you HAVE to fight google.

ROOT
Now I know some of those may come off as a tad harsh in the eyes of some people, so I just want to point out a few things; the root shell in a lot of *NIX environments is very un-polished. There are typically no "safety mechanisms" in place to stop someone from accidentally deleting the entire OS install (bear in mind some distributions like Ubuntu & Linux Mint try to stop you...).

MAN PAGES
Often times I see people asking questions such as "How do I do this or that with this command?"
Most of these could be solved by checking the man pages ("man commandname". Questions like this do not necessarily indicate a certain level of lazyness on the part of the "Original Poster" ("OP"), rather this hints that OP has not "learned how to learn" (checking man pages, the homepage of a particular software project, or simply hitting google). However I have noticed that there are OPs out there who seem to hit LQ with a question, and seldom (if ever) post a reply back.

ONE SYSADMIN TO A SYSTEM
This stems from all of the "little shops" I've seen (and worked in). As long as roles are clearly defined, there's a huge reduction in the "blame-game". Much like when a FireWall goes up for the first time in an orgaization (and everyone blames every problem on the FireWall), there needs to be a clear line between who has "Admin rights" (or "root") and who doesn't.
Example: Ever seen a Windows Admin troubleshoot a Solaris Grid Engine cluster? I have. It's not pretty.
This "guideline" stems from the Highlander's "There can be only one!" theme (and until that happens, every day's an uphill battle)

ONE QUESTION AT A TIME
Now I'm all for dedicating a thread to helping one OP get their system(s) all squared away, however it's bad form if one (or two, or three, or five) people start chiming in that they're having the "same" problem...
Unless you *fixed* your problem and want to post how you did it, just watch the thread for a lil bit, pretty please?

NO "DIET" DRINKS, NO OVERHEAD LIGHTS
This one is deliberatly obtuse.
When I see someone drinking "diet" coke or "lite" beer, smoking "light" cigarettes, and only going 5 MPH over the speed limit, it kinda grinds my gears. Basically, don't go for the half-hearted quick-n-dirty solution.
Take the time to do it right, and tell others how you did it.

TROUBLESHOOTING SESSIONS WILL GO ON AS LONG AS THEY HAVE TO
If our powers combined can't solve the problem, there's always one last recourse; "Flatten the server and reload it."
Sometimes this conclusion is reached faster than you would think, but never more so then when dealing with Microsoft products.

IF THIS IS YOUR FIRST NIGHT AT LQ, YOU HAVE TO GOOGLE
With the millions (billions?) of webpages scoured by Google, it would make sense that when someone encounters a problem they've never seen before, that they hit the resource most likely to tell them if it's common. Here at LQ, we do expect that a minute amount of troubleshoot has occured before an OP starts a thread (Any threads titled "Please Help Me" are the exception). We're here to help because we *like* helping others, however we're not your paid customer support.

Google first, then give us some details to go on and ask for help (words like "ASAP" or "IMMEDIATELY", or anything in all capital letters, do not belong in a thread-starting post).
Posted in Uncategorized
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Total Comments 6

Comments

  1. Old Comment
    A comment to your root-section: In my personal opinion I would strongly recommend to advise newcomers to use a root-shell, and not sudo. I know that this is a controversial topic, but I try to explain why I would do this:
    I have seen many newbies, especially Ubuntu users (no offense meant) that are totally unaware of the system of user privileges, especially the concept of a root account. This is caused by the use of sudo. I have seen many people that put a sudo in front of almost any command, just because they have learned that some commands work only with sudo, but they know not that this is caused by user privileges. For example, have a look at this HowTo and the use of sudo in it. It shows that the author is totally unaware when he needs root privileges, and when not (and also that sudo does not work with commands that are built in the shell).
    Of course, they may also be users that do everything in a root shell, but I think that these users are aware of the concept of user privileges. They simply don't care.

    By the way, sudo has also no safety-mechanisms when configured like in Ubuntu or Mint, you can damage your system in the same way with sudo as you can with a root shell.

    Just my 2 cents.
    Posted 02-06-2011 at 02:52 AM by TobiSGD TobiSGD is offline
  2. Old Comment
    who needs sudo when you have 'su -c' anyway? But I suppose 'su -c' would get people into just as much trouble.
    Posted 02-07-2011 at 08:09 AM by lumak lumak is offline
  3. Old Comment
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lumak View Comment
    who needs sudo when you have 'su -c' anyway? But I suppose 'su -c' would get people into just as much trouble.
    I like sudo. Always have always will. Just a preference really -- no actual benefit from what I can see.
    Posted 02-07-2011 at 09:38 AM by lupusarcanus lupusarcanus is offline
  4. Old Comment
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by lumak View Comment
    who needs sudo when you have 'su -c' anyway?
    su doesn't work on Ubuntu by default, sudo does.
    Posted 02-08-2011 at 09:46 PM by Aquarius_Girl Aquarius_Girl is offline
  5. Old Comment
    Meh.. 'sudo su' seems to get the job done in ubuntu..

    Honestly, I probably would use sudo if I had the time to fully understand and configure it other than allowing a super user to do everything. But wanting to configure things properly includes a lot of things. Like limiting the mounting of external media in KDE, or even taking the time to configure /etc/login.defs.
    Posted 02-09-2011 at 11:12 AM by lumak lumak is offline
  6. Old Comment
    All good points regarding sudo, however keep in mind that most brand-spanking-new users do the following;

    1) Try a command with their regular user account.
    2) Login as root and try it again (then they don't logout as root)
    or
    3) Use "sudo command"

    The idea behind the post about sudo was to get people to start trying to use their regular user account first, then use root-level access when needed.
    Posted 02-09-2011 at 12:38 PM by xeleema xeleema is offline
 

  



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