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im a scared new linux user :)
hey,
i have been reading through some stuff here, and im still scared. i just got redhat linux 7.3 and installed it as a workstation or desktop or whatever you call it (im lost already). it's on a 3 gig hard drive dual booting with a 10 gig winxp hard drive(fat32). i just wanna use this to do the following: look at the files on the fat32 hard drive, access my network with xp machines over tcpip, run a linux half life server and share out my cable internet that i will connect to the linux box when i learn how to :) sooooo, when i wanna log in as the root user, what username do i use? the setup didnt ask me what username i wanted to use, just asked me for a password. i have my default username called james, but im guessing that doesnt have all the privilages. well, if any of you could please help me with any of my :newbie: problems, i would be really greatful, thx ps. i tried those help sites, but i am completely and utterly lost -james |
I am EXTREEEEEEEEEEEEMLY newbie :D :D :D the only thing that I can tell you is that you can log in with "root" as username. The pass is what the setup asked you for the root password
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thanks! my first piece of knowledge on linux!
also, could someone please explain to me the linux filesystem? :) im used to my clean fat32, and now i have about 10 or so weird things, im soo soo lost |
ext2
linux runs off its own, ext 2 filesystem "second extended filesystem" which does absolutly not get along w/ dos/ windows fat32 16 and Ntfs fSystems.
qouted from http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/ext2intro.html After the integration of the VFS in the kernel, a new filesystem, called the ``Extended File System'' was implemented in April 1992 and added to Linux 0.96c. This new filesystem removed the two big Minix limitations: its maximal size was 2 giga bytes and the maximal file name size was 255 characters. It was an improvement over the Minix filesystem but some problems were still present in it. There was no support for the separate access, inode modification, and data modification timestamps. The filesystem used linked lists to keep track of free blocks and inodes and this produced bad performances: as the filesystem was used, the lists became unsorted and the filesystem became fragmented. |
thx for the info. so is there no way in which i can access my dos partition?
also, i have noticed that linux is very slow on my machine, everything it does is slow, and its a P3 256mb Sdram that runs xp really nicley... i have been told that linux runs on a Pentium 1, so i dont understand why it isnt amazing on mine. |
I was afraid you would say that "that it runs slow on ur machine" probably because you did thee partitionless install>?. when you install. I would sugest reinstalling" you must first select custom install. so you can partition ur hd for linux. so when you get there you need to do as follows make a root partiotion "linux native" you will usually have the ooption to select partition type" set the root partition as a linux native probabily about 5 gigs "5000mb" or whatever u can afford. then you need to set a swap partition "set it as swap not linux native" you say you have 256 mb ram? set the swap to 256 mb of ram then. that is rule of thumb.
then "PAY ATTENTION" this part messes people up alot so not set a boot partition! "assuming ur running windows" if u are not running windows and want a fresh install of linux then set a boot partition of 5megs or so "wghatever it allows" for linux to write the lilo on. but if you are running windows..... which im assuming you are do not bother just pay attentiion to the prompts on install and when it asks if you want to format the mbr and install lilo or create a boot disk. "CREATE A BOOT DISK" brecause it will write over ur mbr and u will not be able to boot into windows without reformatting the mbr "master boot record". but if you do happen to F*** up just boot into dos with a boot disk and "make sure u have fdisk on ur disk then type fdisk /mbr would look like ==== a:\fdisk /mbr and u should be set you will notice a tonnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn of difference in ur performance trust me this goes back to me saying ext2 and fat32 16 - ntfs |
Do not GET ALONG
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thx for all that.
whats 'three partionless install'? i just did the auto install thing, let rh installed control it. and where did u find out all this? i thought u were a noob :) |
also, i downloaded a few programs, and they end with, rpm, tgz and tar.gz, linux wont open any of them
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the partitionless install or "auto install" is where it dosent give linux its own partition it just installs it on ur current active partition and if its a window/dos ur linux is gonna suck major cahone's use the kde or gnome package managers to install those progs it should be easy enough to find.
i highly sugest reinstalling. or you will regret it. highly |
theres 2 hard drives in the computer
a 10 gig and a 3 gig, windows is on the 10 gig, and linux on the 3gig, there was nothing on the 3 gig when i installed linux on it. |
right, but you still need to repartiotion the hard drive if you havent done so, i recommend disk druid
im nnot necessary saying linux is being installed on the same partition as windows but its gotta be installed on a dos/windows "fat16 32 -ntfs" if its running that slow |
2 more questions and i may shut up :)
where can i get disk druid :) and how do i open tar.gz, tgz and rpm files? i downloaded aladdin, but i couldnt extract it :) |
hmmmmm ok i believe disk druid is included wih the redhat cd you are installing redhat right?.
if not just use the prog it provides. heres what you should do back up any lin stuff you have and wajnt 2 keep then. put ur install cd in and reboot go through all the junk until you reach the type of install Do a CUSTOM INSTALL then it will ask you if you wanna manually partition or something to that effect choose the prog. Use anything but FDISK so you dont mess up any other partitions know once ur in the partitioning program "which ever one is provided" delete all the partitions "on the 3 gig hard drive" then set your swap partition to your amount of ram after that set your root partitionto nopthing just make sure you set it to grow to fill the disk, this way it will use the whole 3 gigs. "make sure you set your root partitions mount point as "/" without the "" "the 3 gig one" and the swap partition as nothing. if you set the swap right it will just say "swap partition" in quotes"" then once you have your partitions set it is really really easy from there HAVE FUN! |
thx alot
im actually just asking other ppl in the house if they really care what i do to that computer, so i can use the 10 gig :) |
och! asking a newbie to partition... ;)
hey, it's just 3 gb. if it were me, i'd just go for one partition and the swap. or leave it as it is first. you can learn about partitioning in your own time. i don't see where regrets come in. as for the speed, don't worry about it. bear with it for now, try out some stuff first on you new linux box, and as you learn more and more, you'll get the hang of it and learn how to "speed up" the things you need to do. you open tar.gz files like this: gunzip yourDownloadedFile.tar.gz after it's done, you get a file with only the .tar extension. you "untar" it like this: tar -xvf yourDownloadedFile.tar it'll then unpack itself. you should be able to do the same to .tgz packages. to find out more about gzip/gunzip and tar commands, type "man gzip" and "man tar" to see the manuals/info on them. for rpms, you install it like this: rpm -i yourDownloadedFile.rpm or if you're upgrading: rpm -U yourDownloadedFile.rpm if you want to remove the package: rpm -e yourDownloadedFile again, type "man rpm" to see what all the options are and what the heck all this is about ;) good luck |
word from the wise
"TRY IT ON THE 3 GIG FIRST" run through the install one time on a hd that you dont need to make sure that everything is smooth |
oh yea... and if you want more info on partitioning...
check out: http://pw1.netcom.com/~kmself/Linux/FAQs/partition.html and http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/mini/Partition/ |
and yea... like what h2007 sayz, don't throw out your 10GB. ;)
just play with the 3GB first. you don't want to spend your time pulling out your hair... ;) |
we are all newbies on this site, until u have posted 25 or 26 times then they list u as member, then after god knows how many posts, they list u as "LQ addict"
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im gonna work on that soon, but could i please just ask someone, what do i use to open different file types in redhat 7.3?
i cant open tar.gz, tgz or rpm :( |
Oh and while I'm thinking about it, if you happen to make a bollox's of the linux install, I suspect that you can re-install over the top " afresh". LIke the man sed, just make sure u read the prompt carefully, specially if it offers u the chance to put ur boot loader on to floppy, My SuSE intall went ok first, but as they don't even acknowledge the existence of my usb adsl modem I slung mandrake 8.2 over the top and didn't watch the prompt carefully enough (complacency) and it overwrote my xp boot record, and it took a millenium to re-install all the windows stuff before re-install the SuSE (which I am comfortable with - probably becos of the ease with which it installed) and am having to wait for my bruvver (an experienced IT professional) to come and config my modem/system devices etc.
www.google.com/linux then anything regarding linux will give u a mountain of shit to read!! regards bigjohn |
banelion... i replied to that question in an earlier post. all you have to do is get a console running (can be xterm, rxvt, or any other console) and type in the commands i told you about earlier.
(and a console is something like a dos window) |
As far as I can work out, u first goto get into command line set up with "shell" or something like that, then u've got to either "untar" a tar file, or gunzip a gz file, can't remember wot it is u do 4 the rpm's as at the moment, I have to download to floppy thru xp, then "mount" the floppy in linux to get access to it etc etc.
the only snag is that you have to remember the commands to unzip/install etc it's something like "tar xvf -filename" or some shit like that. If you can open a "shell" u cud try typing "man tar" or "man gz" it might give u a clear enough explanation what these file types are. Just don't forget linux IS case sensitive!!! bigjohn |
we have a glossary section with tar and rpm, including some examples of the uses and installation of these files.
for tar: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ryid=35&long=1 for rpm: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ryid=65&long=1 |
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if you search, you'll find many ways to customize you linux install. my linux systems wipe out my windows machines in speed. i have a 400mhz celeron, 128 mb RAM, with 100 mb swap that boots in 27 seconds and enlightenment loads in about 7/10ths of a second literally after starting X. yes i timed it one day and then timed my win98 which boots on a 800mhz duron, 512 mb of ram in about a good minute or so. keep reading and you'll learn you can do about anything in Linux that you can in windows with a whole lot more. :) |
sorry about asking the question again, i dont know what happened there, maybe i didn't see the 2nd page :)
thx for all your help everyone. also, does anyone know how i would go about installing half-life on linux? do i just put in the install cd and click install? or do i need a special linux version? also, i did a full install of redhat, so maybe thats why :) does anyone know of any service viewer like in winnt so i can just disable all the useless stuff? i hear people talking about window x or something, i take it that's the gui like kde etc..? i know that u can click on a thing to open a window like the command prompt in windows, but is there a way to get to a native command prompt? i think i heard someone talk about that. by native, i mean closing down window x complety. thanks again everyone! btw, dont worry about me killing my xp machine, all my files are on a file server, its just a backup internet browser and word processor, i rebuild it all the time with ghost. on that point, i have my internet running through xp's internet connection sharing on another computer (laugh all you want but ill get around to putting internet on the linux box later), does anyone know how to get linux to use the internet through that? thanks in advance, -James ... and on the point of my name, yesterday i reinstalled linux coz i couldnt get into it, and today realised that it was because my username was case-sensitive :) ------------ :Pengy: :newbie: ------------ |
ouch! well, you won't be the first one ;)
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No, you can't (normally) just open your cd and click 'install'. That is a Windows installer. I don't know if that game is available for use native in linux, but you may be able to 'port' it over with a program called Wine. You can read more about that program at The Wine Homepage or by doing a search on here. Quote:
(You actually hear people, like voices in your head? he he he j/k)Yes, X windows, better known as simply X is exactly what you are used to in Microsucks Winbloze, a GUI. Yes KDE is 1 option out of about a zillion that you can use in an X environment. While you are X you can access Virtual Terminals, or Consoles. These are what you may think of as DOS. It's a command line interface. There are several programs that allow this. Xterm, Eterm, and Konsole are just a few that I just glanced at in my distro. To run them... You probably have a menu at the bottom of your screen with icons in it. In KDE this is known as kicker. In kicker you have one that looks like a small monitor, if you click it, you will have the Konsole or something like it. There you can enter the 'command-line' commands. If you want to leave your GUI and go to a 'command-line' only interface you would type: CTRL+ALT+F2 (any F key 1-6 will work the same). Then to return to your GUI type: (most likely) CTRL+ALT+F7. If that doesn't work, try F8. And welcome to Linux, it's the best thing since sliced bread. |
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When starting up RedHat, when it gets to the login screen, you can run KDE instead of Gnome. (pick it from the drop down list) Once in KDE, start up the file browser (called "Konqueror") and then you can un-tar and un-gzip all your files by pointing at them, right clicking, and pick "Extract". Also, in KDE, the RPM file is associated with kpackage, so if you double click on an RPM, you will get a wizard that will install it for you. So I guess the point of all this is, if you are a newbie to linux and you are using RedHat 7.3, I recommend KDE over Gnome. (If you think you can handle it, if you look around on the Gnome Menu, you can actually start Konqueror from inside Gnome and do your extracts and RPM installs that way.) |
thx alot for all your help again!
its a bit odd that half-life wont work in linux, coz i have seen hundreds upon hundreds of linux countersrike and team fortress classic servers. well, ill try to figure that one out. also, does anyone know how i would go about getting my internet working on linux? my home setup just includes cable internet coming in through my main computer, with micro$oft internet connection sharing, and im not allowed to change that. how would i go about getting linux to use the internet through that? |
if you want to see your files in your windows box you could add a line to your /etc/fstab file. At the in of the file add a line something like this
/winxp /dev/hda1 vfat auto 0 0 then in your '/' directory you would make a directory called winxp like this prompt/>mkdir winxp what this would do is that every time you start your machine linux will mount your Windows Xp harddisk/file system to the /winxp directory. This will Allow you to look through your windows files. You can edit text files but you won't be able to run executables. HTH NOTE: BACK UP THE FSTAB FILE!!! if you make a mistake in the file it may cause problems, depending on the mistake. IF you don't want to mess with the file, then stiil create the directory and use the mount command. prompt>mount /dev/hda1 -t vfat /winxp Look in the man files to make sure I have the syntax correct. |
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No you can't (usually) just click the 'install' file, but that doesn't mean you can't get half-life on Linux. Go here for Half-Life on Linux. Second part, if you do a search on here, there are probably more than 100 ways to set this up. You may find a program called netconfig that will help you. Good Luck. |
thx..
i hope things will clear out for me, im so confused, i feel so crouded by the strangeness of linux, like the filesystem, it scares me. |
Not to bash on your terminology, but alot of people say 'filesystem' I think they mean file structure, meaning they are used to C:\ rather than /
I am guessing that is what you meant, and what many others mean when they say this. |
take your time banelion. there's no rush. look at it as an adventure, something interesting to learn. it'll be more fun that way. if you pressurize yourself too much, you might end up getting stressed.
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thx for the advice tundura.
i found something out for myself today :) how to open bin files through konsole. one thing tho.. im going to a lan party in about a week, and im bringing the computer as a linux half-life server, and i want it to run really nice. when you press ctrl+alt+f2, does that shut down all the system stuff and put u into the command prompt? or does it leave all that stuff going? also, i reformatted, and re-installed linux, but it still runs slowly :( i have hda(3gig) with just "/" and hdc with a 512mb swap and the rest "/home" is there anything i have done wrong? is there a way to edit what services you want running on linux at any one time? so i can shut them all down to run the half life server on its own. thanks, -James |
Linux has 7 different terminals. when you are in a normal terminal you press alt+F(1-7) to switch between the 7 terminals (with everything that was in the terminal you switched from still running). X runs on Terminal 7. When you are in X you press ctrl+alt+F(1-7) to get to another terminal. That means that X is still running on Terminal 7, but you are just viewing another Terminal.
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well, running/stopping services can be done by issuing commands. but these commands are specific to the programs(daemons) running. you will have to check the man pages of these commands. (ie. type "man sendmail" to see the commands related to the sendmail program). you can see what services are running by running the program "top" at the console).
another way to permanently disable the services at start up. the services that run at start up are started in the /etc/rc.d directory (if you're on Sys V style linux/unix. Sys V is just a standard/style of configuring stuff. redhat, debian and a few other distros have Sys V style init scripts). in this directory you will find a number of other directories, mostly starting with rc*.extension (where the * is a number and "extension" is the extension of the directory) the numbers correspond to the the respective runlevel (in redhat and debian -like distros, 3 is for running all local services, network services but do not start X session and 5 is similar to 3 except that X session is also started. 1 is for maintenance mode = local services but not network, i think). go to the directory that your computer boots up to. (ie. if you start with X session, then its rc5.d or something like that -> sorry i am not at my box). inside this directory, you will see a number of files. these are the services that are run when you start your computer at this particular runlevel. create a directory called "disabled" (mkdir disabled). move the unwanted services into this directory ( mv M22unwantedFile disabled). the next time you start up your computer at this particular runlevel, these services will not be run. the other style is the BSD-style init scripts. slackware uses this BSD style. the configuring is a little different. it's done through text scripts. just go into the /etc directory and look for the directory with the letters "rc" in it (sorry i can't remember what it is. i'm not at my box). oh and for slackware, runlevel 4 is for starting all local services, network and X. just use a text editor to read through the various scripts. you'll get an idea of how it works. i think the more important scripts you might want to check out are rc.M (for multiuser) rc.S and rc.K from these 3 scripts you can comment out what ever services you don't want (put a # at the beginning of the unwanted line that starts a service). |
thx, ill try that stuff, but i doubt im good enuff :)
does anyone know any distro's that just load me up a nice simple clean interface that will run really fast? i just wanna make a half-life server. also, i have been trying to get internet through my microsoft internet connection sharing from my xp box, into my linux box. the first time i installed rh7.3 it didnt work, and couldnt pick up an ip with DHCP, the 2nd time i formatted the hard drive and installed rh7.3 again and it automatically got the ip through DHCP and the internet worked no worries, and today i installed SuSE, but had no luck with that. im not having much luck with linux :( suse had heaps of different bugs, errors starting most programs, and redhat was slow, and had to many services. how does mandrake differ from the others? how does debian differ from the others? im gonna try one of those two next. thanks again everyone, -James |
I think Mandrake is a bit worse for being 'bloated' than Red Hat. Debian is fast, so is Slackware. And easy program to configure your network stuff with is Webmin.
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well i've never set up a half life server before... i think you just download the linux tarball (.tar.gz) for half life, then just do the following: 1. gunzip and untar the package 2. go into the directory that you just untarred 3. read any README files 4. run the configure script (just type "configure" at the console) 5. type "make" 6. type "make install" you linux half life server should be able to be run i think. you just have to read the README file to see what the command to run the server is. if you're running an internal LAN with no connection to the outside world, then ok you're probably all set to go. but if you have a connection to the Internet, i'd suggest you look at security if you're running a server, i think you can do it without running X (ie no graphical screen). that way, it'll speed up tremendously. or you can upgrade your hardware (hard disk, RAM graphics card etc etc ) |
oh yea... and the debian installation requires you to know what hardware you have and a little detail about them. be prepared.
the other distro i reccomend you try is slackware. it's not all that difficult to install. except that the installation is of a different style from redhat or mandrake. check out http://www.slackware.com/install/ before installation you can try mandrake. it's quite easy to install. as for performance wise, i've not used mandrake for a long time, so i'm not sure. as for redhat, you just have to disable the services you don't need and performance will speed up quite a bit. debian and slackware seems to have "faster/better" performance because they have lesser services enabled by default . |
i got my half life server up and running and working last night, but it was slower than it would be from a win9x machine.
that was coz i had to many services and shit running under redhat. is the only way to stop all the useless services by editing that file? i also wanna exit x windows, not just switch so its still in memory and shit, i wanna shut it right down, how do i do that? |
Well best way I think to do that, is maybe just have Linux boot to the command prompt by defualt rather then X.
to do this, goto /etc here edot the inittab file, by looking at a line that looks like this: id:5:initdefault: and change that number to 3, to boot to console on bootup. |
thx for that! im doing it right now, but can someoen please reply with how to edit files from the console? coz ill prolly be stuck there :)
slightly less :newbie: ish im on my way up :) |
with a text editor, vi;pico;joe or emacs (there are tons more, those are just a few on my mind)
vi is a bit less newbie user friendly, so either right down a list of commands before commiting yourself to it, or use a diff one. |
how u access em form the console?
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type the command "vi theFileNameYouWantToEdit" to edit a file. vi is one of the de facto text editor program in the unix/linux world.
as for starting / stopping services, banelion, please re-read my earlier long post. read the man pages of those services (eg. man ). starting or stopping services are specific to that particular service. there are no standard commands to do it. don't worry about this one. it's not difficult. just have to do some reading. if you have a local unix/linux expert, it'll be easier. he/she can guide you through the steps. also, try to run the server in the console mode. ie. don't use any window manager (don't run KDE, don't run GNOME etc etc). you'll find the performance going up a notch or two. |
actually, i think most of your questions have already been answered. it's just waiting for your eager eyes to read. put some effort into it and you won't regret. what we're doing here is not only re-inventing the wheel but also probably wasting time as you have to wait for our replies and we have to spend a lot of time typing out stuff that have already been written.
i recommend this online book to you. read it. it's good and it's free. (if you want, you can also buy it at the bookstore) disclaimer: i didn't write the book. http://www.dsl.org/cookbook |
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