Hi,

Big long post full of questions here
btw, i'm a complete and utter newbie in all areas of linux but I know a lot about windows and a lot about pcs, i built mine and my dads pcs myself and networked them (although that's literally plug the cable in and it works with XP). If you're interested: AMD XP 1800 at 1.53ghz, 512mb PC133, nVidia geforce2 mx400 with 64mb, 40gb hard drive, 16x DVD-ROM drive, 16x40x12 CDRW drive, 15" monitor. I multi-boot 98 ME and XP (and now red hat 9) and my dads pc runs xp. he shares his printer and dialup internet over the network.

anyway, last night I installed red hat 9 shrike and it booted fine, installed fine, runs fine (i guess). I installed with the standard settings (the option that's not server, custom or minimal). I can do mozilla, play audio cds and that's about it. oh, i mounted my windows partition with all my music on (with help from a website) but I can't play mp3's or wma's with XMMS. CDs play fine.

there are a few things I would like to know how to do. firstly, how do I set my resolution? it's stuck at 640x480 and even if I change it in the display settings it doesn't change when I restart my pc. and the logon screen looks rubbish because all the writing is overlapping. i can change the refresh rate in the display window so it is at a viewable 75hz but I was getting 85hz in windows xp pro and everytime i set red hat to 85hz it crashes (or whatever linux does) and i have to reinstall because i have no boot floppy because i don't have a floppy drive.

Secondly, i've downloaded the latest version of WINE (as of june 17th) and msn messenger for linux but i can't figure out how to compile them. can't you just get plain install/setup programs like in windows. how come it is so difficult to install things?

Can you get winamp or windows media player for linux and if so are they easy to install? or should I just install WINE and run winamp through there?

How come I can access the internet and my dad's shared drives but not his shared printer?

Thanks for taking the time to read this!

Cheers,
Andy

:edit:
Also, why does my internet go sooooooo slowly when it went faster under windows? does the redhat firewall limit the speed or something? the most I can get is 2.3kb/s

First go to http://apt-rpm.tuxfamily.org/ and follow the directions to get apt-get. It makes installing most new programs (like what you'll need to play mp3's (xmms-mp3)) as easy as it is in windows. You'll love it.

hey dood to get xmms to play mp3s you need to find the correct plugin which i found out through here as well.. also with msn if you're using amsn which i trust you are, just right click the file and select open with then type in ark when it opens there is a button to extract it so select a folder where you want it to go thats all you need to do (assumign you extracted it to /home/user) then all you need to do to open it is open a shell and type msn/amsn and it should pop right up as for the resolution i had the same problem myself when i tried redhat 9
honestly tho guy i'd suggest going to redhat 7.3 its MUCH MUCH better people kept telling me to switch to redhat 9 and i finally did and it is nothing but problems
they never end i swear it is ridiculous and i've never personally used wine so i can't offer any help on that
oh ya with redhat you probably want rpm files they self extract and configure but again i don't know about redhat 9.. none of my rpms would install at all..

I am going to say I don't agree that Redhat 7.3 is better than 9, but we could agrue about that all day.

I thought I said in my last post that to play mp3's in XMMS you need to install the xmms-mp3 package, an easy way to do that is to install apt-get and just type:

#apt-get update
#apt-get install xmms-mp3

apt-get for Redhat 9 will download xmms-mp3 and install it. Then just open up xmms and play whatever you want.

Very easy, I promise.

I also suggest reading the documentation on Redhat 9 from redhat's site. redhat.com It will probably answer alot of other questions about configuring it.

Good Luck

To change your resolution follow these steps:

Before changing the resolution to something your not sure will work I recommend changing in the file /etc/inittab the line
id:5:initdefault: (5 meaning start graphically) to
id:3:initdefault: (3 meaning start text mode) so that you don't accidently start into a res your monitor can't handle and being stuck cause you can't get back to the command line.

If you change to id:3:initdefault: then you just type "startx" to...start xwindows after you've changed the resolution.

So to change the res:

1. su root

2. cd /etc/X11

3. emacs or vim (you pick your favorite text editor, I like emacs for programming and vim for quickly working with files) anyway, vim or emacs XF86Config

4. Find the part of the file that says:

Section "Screen"
Identifier "Screen0"
Device "Videocard0"
Monitor "Monitor0"
DefaultDepth 24
SubSection "Display"
Depth 24
Modes "1400x1050" "1280x1024" "1280x960" "1152x864" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection
EndSection

See where it says "1400x1050" etc etc, If you are having problems making it stay a certain resolution then you can remove all of the resolutions but the one or two you want and it will be forced to use the one you leave. Now BE CAREFUL, if your monitor wasn't made for that high a resolution and it is an old monitor, a high res will fry it. I take no responsibility.

5. Save the file (so with emacs you'd ctrl X S and ctrl X C and with vim you'd :wq) .

6. Restart your computer.

If you changed to id:3:initdefault: then put in your username and passwd and type startx

If it doesn't work it will probably kick you back to the command line, in that case follow the directions above and put it back to what it was originally cause your monitor can't handle any better.

Good Luck.,

With RH9 you should have got X-Chat or Ksirc, these are IRC chat programs.

Logon to quakenet and go to channel #Linux

I got my RH9 installed to a certain level but had problems with Samba and compiling from source. These ppl helped me a lot.

You must ask questions, including any error messages and what version of Linux you are using. Most of these ppl dont use GUI version of linux :S


For MSN try using gaim. This is much better but does not support file transfers yet. Another is Kmerlin again no file transfer.


XMMS is the best. Get the Mp3 plugin and all will work.

apt-get is a god send. Type "apt-get update" and this will update all software on your pc to the latest versions. I ran it and it updated 37 programs.

Also. apt-cache search "file name" you can use this to see if apt-get has the program listed. You can use * in filename.


So..... apt-cache search KDE* this will list all progs with KDE(insert anything else).


Good luck


Medic6666

The newest version of gaim does support file transfers. It's .60 and up I believe.

And you are very right xmms is cool.

I agree that if you don't have anyone nearby to ask linux questions to, IRC is the best thing.

Get synaptic as well for apt. Great for a newbe.
Nice gui for downloading and installing packages

Ok i have a compaq presario 6000 and i got the xwindows to work but it will only work in low res. I have a view sonic 90ef monitor and dont see why it is having trouble it worked fine for rh 8.0 any buddy got idea?

The new version of gaim is 0.66 and still does not support file transfer in MSN. There is some possibility of receiving files but not sending yet.

this according to the gaim website is being worked on.