ok when i try to type in lspci or lsmod it says command not found, but when i do a man lspci or man lsmod it shows me all the options for it, what gives?

I would think probably means the locations of those binaries are not in your PATH variable. Try using the full path and see if the commands work for you. If they do then I would add them to your path. Also, were you trying these commands as root? Just curious. Hope this helps.

your man files are manuals not help...
the man pages are a totally seperate app...
unlike --help
the manpages contain most of the linux documentation...
wether its installed or not..

use
# locate lspci

and choose the right path (copy and paste) is the easiest way.

Usually /sbin and /usr/sbin directories are not included in the $PATH of the regular users. Try /sbin/lsmod, or add /sbin and /usr/sbin to your $PATH (in your ~/.bash_profile)

thanks for the help guys, they were in the /sbin directory

how would i add those to my path though? i'm getting tired of having to type in the path and command

To add /sbin to your $PATH:

export PATH = "$PATH:/sbin"

To make this permanent, you have to put it in a configuration file that runs at startup---eg /etc/profile or ~/.bashrc

Where should i add that in?

# /etc/profile

# System wide environment and startup programs, for login setup
# Functions and aliases go in /etc/bashrc

pathmunge () {
if ! echo $PATH | /bin/egrep -q "(^|$1($|" ; then
if [ "$2" = "after" ] ; then
PATH=$PATH:$1
else
PATH=$1:$PATH
fi
fi
}

# ksh workaround
if [ -z "$EUID" -a -x /usr/bin/id ]; then
EUID=`id -u`
UID=`id -ru`
fi

# Path manipulation
if [ "$EUID" = "0" ]; then
pathmunge /sbin
pathmunge /usr/sbin
pathmunge /usr/local/sbin
fi

# No core files by default
ulimit -S -c 0 > /dev/null 2>&1

if [ -x /usr/bin/id ]; then
USER="`id -un`"
LOGNAME=$USER
MAIL="/var/spool/mail/$USER"
fi

HOSTNAME=`/bin/hostname`
HISTSIZE=1000

if [ -z "$INPUTRC" -a ! -f "$HOME/.inputrc" ]; then
INPUTRC=/etc/inputrc
fi

export PATH USER LOGNAME MAIL HOSTNAME HISTSIZE INPUTRC

for i in /etc/profile.d/*.sh ; do
if [ -r "$i" ]; then
. $i
fi
done

unset i
unset pathmunge

Hi,

Try to enter right below the line

export PATH USER LOGNAME MAIL HOSTNAME HISTSIZE INPUTRC

It should look as

export PATH USER LOGNAME MAIL HOSTNAME HISTSIZE INPUTRC
export PATH = "$PATH:/sbin"