Advice for newbies
 

Hi,
Ive been experimenting with Linux distro's for about a year now, I usually use XP but decided to learn about Linux.
I am no where near knowing much about Linux but I have tripped up a few times and have found work arounds and solutions on a few things so I thought Id come and share what I know.
I have used Mandrake 9.2, UBUNTU 4.1, and Fedora Core 3.

1, I was trying to find a good ftp client and was directed towards KBear and Gftp but Konqueror will also work in the same way as IE6 in windows, just go to your web site and then change the http to ftp in the address bar and then hit go and it opens the files just like a normal folder and files can be copy/pasted to and from. You have to put your username and password in to the dialog box first to get in though.

2,I prefer Mandrake to the rest because it mounts automatically and has added features like renaming files with a double click like in windows and some programs and installers run in a gui where as in the others they only run in the console.

3,I tried to set up my system with two HD's in a dual boot config, all ntfs on one and ext3,swap and fat32 on the other.
This caused a few probs at first.
The method I have found that works the best is to set up all your windows stuff on one HD but with only that HD pluged in, then put that as the 2nd slave drive and then install your Linux on the new empty Master drive and it will use Grub to boot into the windows system when selected.
The thing is if you get probs with linux you can just go back to one HD and you have your original config back with windows as it was, this is because that HD still has its MBR installed from the windows install.

4,The Main thing I found I had to do to dual boot on two HD's was to go into my bios and set up the drive configuration because my Primary Slave drive was set to off instead of auto so I could access it as a data holder but it wouldnt boot into it.

5,I use the MSN groups a lot and I like to post picture so I keep them in a folder on my website and link to them when I need to.
I down loaded this folder which had been created in windows and edited a few of the pics then uploaded them back to my site. They would not work ?
What I discovered was that the filenames had spaces in them and linux doesnt like that so it put % symbols in to replace the spaces and when I linked to them something got cconfused and they wouldnt show, so remember to remove spaces in file names or replace with _ .

One more thing I keep having problems with K3b the cd burner. it kept crashing when I tried ot import a session, I found if I ran the installer again it worked OK for a while, so something must be corrupting it. And if I was burning the first session on a cd I must go into the settings tab, data track mode and set it to mode 1, or that first session would not import next time, it just causes a crash, after this first session it doesnt matter.
So if you ave these problems try these work arounds and if you email the program writers from their site (just google for it) they will work on this error for the next version.

And if you use the CDCreator in the Gnome Nautilus file browser the data on the cd will only be accessable in linux and not in Windows where as the k3b stuff can even be session imported into a few windows burning apps.

Partitions:
If you create your partitions with the linux install cd and then try to use Partition Magic in windows it cant read them and will corrupt the table so you cant boot into your linux anymore because it cant read the Partition Magic MFT.
UBUNTU and Fedora cant use partitons created with Partition Magic but Mandrake can although the partitions made with the mandrake installer cant be read with PM.
Once Mandrake is installed onto partitions created with Partition Magic it is safe to adjust size and position of these Partitions with Partition Magic.

Well thats it for now, most will think this is basic simple stuff but it took me a year to find it all out and a lot of it I learned from forums like this one so Im giving a bit back so I hope it helps someone.
Thanks for listening :D