brand spanking new to linux
 

Hello everyone, My name is Scott here in Habersham Georgia, Love this forum. Can anyone give me a link or information on How to get started in Linux Mandrake 10.1. I know nothing I mean nothing about Linux, but my nephew installed it on my computer and I love it. However, I know nothing at all about Linux and My Radeon 9200 video card is not working. I need to find out how to fix that. I have windows xp home on the same machine. I look forward in much reading here and who knows some day I will have some knowledge about Linux to help others. God Bless....
Scott....

You should check out the official mandrake (now Mandriva) site. Here's the link to the site. www.mandriva.com. Mandrake comes with a package manager which install, upgrades or removes the software packages. You need to learn to use it. You will also have to add repositories to get some additional software.

Tux,

Thank You Tux, I placed the site on my favorites. I could really use a lot more help though any more help and I will be very gratefull..:newbie:

Greetings from a few [hundred] miles up the road...

The best way to "learn Linux" is to start by reading. You've found one of the best sites on the web (and its companion, "linuxanswers.com.") There are many areas to this site besides just this forum. The wiki, for example, is an on-line encyclopedia. There are FAQs and in-depth articles.

Next, prepare your computer. Purchase another disk-drive and the mounting-kit, and install it. I presume that you are running Windows now, and the second drive will be strictly used for Linux. In due time you can select that drive to be the one that you boot-from (in the BIOS setup-screen), but you can always drop back to "what you're used to," having never made any substantial changes to that configuration at any point in time. You don't have to deal with "repartitioning," you don't cut yourself off from access to Windows ... all that you have to remember is that your primary system drive for Linux might be /dev/hdb, c, or d.

(And if you don't know what I'm referring to, then that is one of the things that you should make it your business to find out before you "plunge.") The old Boy Scout "Be Prepared" is still a good motto.

Before you "dive in," do some more reading. Test the water. Observe what other people :eek: ran into, what a :cry: pickle they found themselves in, and how they :study: .. or a guru :jawa: .. did to help them get back on track. If you observe these experiences of others, ahead of time, then you will be less likely to encounter the same gotchas yourself. (No, you'll find some altogether new and interesting gotchas! :D )

Then, eventually, you do dive-in. And what you try to do is to plan what you're going to do and how you might have to get back out. So you carefully tie one end of the rope to the dock, the other to the life-ring, then you check the straps on your life-vest, make sure you've got dry clothes and a strong drink (or cappucino) waiting ... and then you "plunge in."

When that time comes, and come it must, then you first must be prepared to do it, and then you must not be afraid to do it.

I find it very helpful to keep a diary ... a loose-leaf notebook and a number-two pencil. If I have a question, I write it down. Once I've done that, I'm not going to forget what it was, and I can choose when and how to address it. These sort of things help "you to control the process" instead of "the process controlling you."

Finally, establish a reasonable set of expectations. Rome wasn't built in a day. You're getting into a world that is, on the one hand, completely different from what you're used to (for one thing, it's a lot bigger...), but on the other hand, also very much the same. There will be times when you go :eek: !! There will be times when the computer makes a stupid-fool of you. Your forehead might come out somewhat flattened (<slap!> "doh!"). But that's what learning a new skill is all about. And I daresay that there is not one person among us who does not periodically have that very same experience, no matter how long they have worked with Linux. I can freely say that there are many times that I wish that I had better observed my own advice, :rolleyes: but so it goes.

Thank You for the info Sun, this weekend I will dive into your suggestion, busy week here in GA.

One step at a time....

As one already said, start by learning the package management system to install SW that Mandriva has already set up for you.
Then, one at a time, take on specific problems---eg installing a non-supported app, or changing some configuration.

Before you go too far, take the time to learn the CLI. Ideally, write a few simple shell scripts as confidence builders.
Free book: "Bash Guide for Beginners" by Machtelt Garrels. Avail at TLDP.org

There are at least 3 ways that I can imagine to make Linux really hard:
1. trying to treat it like Windows
2. trying to learn it all at once
3. assuming that it is going to be hard**

**When anyone says "I cannot learn that", they are really saying "I do not want to exert the effort to learn that."---ie "I can't" usually means "I don't want to"

Hi, first of all I would like to say that I am also a linux newbie. However, I have found the book
Linux for Non-geeks to be a good book to start out. It does use FC1 though so I don't know how usefull it will be for someone who uses mandrake.

Welcome Scott -

there are tons of material online for you - at this stage, everything you could want to know. http://www.tldp.org/ is a great site for docs, and check out Rute's guide: http://rute.2038bug.com/rute.html.gz

also here: http://wwwnew.mandriva.com/en/commun.../documentation

of course, run searches at http://google.com/linux and here at LQ: if you run into trouble, there's a good chance that others have had the same problem.

:cool:

Fixed
 

Thanks everyone for the help. I am now running Mandrakelinux 10.1 with the Radeon 9200 video card.
I simply reinstalled and played with the Radeon selections and it now works... :)