hello...
      i am not having any problem but i am asking this question just for my linux knowledge. i want to know that if i run any program from terminal, then is it possible to still continue using the terminal while ther program is still running in the foreground?

for example, when i run the following command xmms player pops up and the terminal gets busy.. till i close this player. so, my question is there any special flag i can give to let free the terminal once the program has started.

   [root@localhost /]# xmms

i know that i could start up another terminal session if i want... but just for knowledge sake i am asking to know if there is any possibility for such purpose.

Thanks

you type the command with an & symbol at the end (a space should be given in between the command and & that will work fine

eg:
#xmms &

many thanks... for the quick reply...

also i was wondering how i can manually add shortcuts for programs which dont add up automatically on the programs menu or on the desktop when installed?

for example if i want to add xmms into my programs audio video menu or on the desktop... how would be the correct way to do it?

thanks

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...and the hunger for knowledge continues!

You can also suppend your current process by doing a <Ctrl>+Z in that terminal window. After that, doing a bg will continue that process, but in the background, just as if you had run the command with the & originally.

I.e. (with output)

$ xmms
^Z
[1]+ Stopped xmms
$ bg
[1]+ xmms &
$

In case you forget to kick something off in the background. You can also use the jobs command to see what processes are currently running in the background.

To tell you how to make menu changes/desktop shortcuts we need to know what WM/DE you are running, such as Gnome,KDE or fluxbox.

Gnome or KDE both have control centres from which you can make these changes i believe.

Fluxbox:

to add desktop shortcuts you're going to need to isntall fbdesk or some other desktop shortcut program, and edit ~/.fluxbox/fbdesk.icons

to edit the fluxbox menu, you need to edit ~/.fluxbox/menu

both are in a pretty self explanitary format.

note: you can run XMMS and most day to day programs as a regular user, no need for root, just invites trouble

I am mostly using GNOME and KDE. I had never heard of Fluxbox.. but after googling it a big, i guess i am gonna try this one as well.

But for now, can you tell me the way to add links to programs on desktop or program group for GNOME and KDE.

Thanks

I'm not on linux box at mo, so forigve me for small errors but right click the desktop and you should have an option for 'create shortcut' or 'create launcher'.

select that and then take a look at what you can do, there should be a field for the shortcut name, and the program to execute (as well as icon etc.) for most programs just putting in the name should be enough. so e.g. xmms would suffice for a launcher to start xmms