Completely new to Linux in every single way, and having problems.
 

Yes. I just installed Mandrake 10.1 with Gnome 2.8 and when I boot into i get the dos-like linux screen. I put in my username and password and after that I'm totally lost about what to do. Could anyone help me and maybe instruct me on how to get the Gnome front end run? Please?

After you log in type startx at the prompt. If all goes well the GUI will start. Post any errors.

I'm assuming that everything installed correctly.

Will things like my Keyboard and Mouse drivers install ok to it? And will I be able to get things like Word and MSN installed on it?

Edit: Can I also change the duel boot prompt screen so that the first option is Windows? I share this PC with my family and I think they'd get rather confused when they encounter that screen...

Woody, search around a bit, the stuff you're asking is actually quite common. there should be a way to change the login prompt to a GUI login. And yes, look up either grub or lilo (the boot manager, which one did you pick?) and you should be able to change it.

Word and MSN are microsoft tools, and they are for windows and can't easily be installed on linux. However, OpenOffice.org is a good altenative to Word (and MSOffice as a whole) and gaim is a nice IM tool. (which works with MSN)

remember to talk... (post) because we can't read your thoughts. :)

titanium_geek

I was just getting frustrated. I apologise. I shall indeed look about. I'm not sure which one (grub or lilo) I picked. I just left everything as it was when I was installing it as I didn't want to mess anything up cause I know very little about Linux.

at your first prompt where it says "log in":

type root, then your root password

if it logs you in, type adduser, and follow the onscreen instructions (just basically type your new username, and password. Don't skip this step.)

when it's done creating the account type exit, it should put you back in the login screen, use your new account.

Type: startx

when it boots I have no idea what it'll recognize, Ubuntu seems to do pretty well with that. Here's what I know so far, although I'm a noob.

Printer: type into your browser... localhost:631
Mouse: This is a pain. (Not hard, just a pain.) Write back if it doesn't work.
Mounting Drives: type mount to see the list, then, for example, type:

mount /dev/hdc /mnt/cdrom

to mount your cd rom drive. I don't know about dvds, it'll mount them, just won't play them for me.

The Mandrake graphical setup program is called 'mcc'. You can also select 'configure your computer' from the kmenu. You can change the boot loader there if you want to, but if it works, you don't really need to.

If you go to the 'screen resolution' setup dialog, the last question is whether you want to boot up to a graphical environment.

You can also run the program XFdrake as root to run this setup graphically.

Another way to do the same thing is to change the run level manually by editing the default runlevel.

You can do this by editing the /etc/inittab file (as root), changing the line that contains 'id:3:initdefault:'
Changing the number from 3 to 5 will change to a graphical default.

for example using vim:

vi /etc/inittab
:%s/id:3:initdefault/id:5:initdefault/
:wq

An easier way for you may be to run the command 'kdesu kwrite /etc/inittab' in kde and edit the file using the kwrite program.

Ok. So I'm now in Mandrake (which is where I'm typing this reply from) and I downloaded aMSN but it's not letting me install it for some reason. Any ideas on how to install it? I always want to get the drivers for my monitor and I'm unsure as to wither or not they are on the driver disk I got with it or not (it's probably highly unlikely that they are). Does anyone know where I could maybe get these?

Sorry for being such a pain, but I haven't even SEEN any kind of linux in action before today.

EDIT: I'm lying. It is actually installed. I just don't know how to get to it to open it...aMSN that is.

The fact that it's "a"MSN may have already answered this, but does it specifically work with linux? If not, go to www.winehq.org and (under support) download their no-debug version of wine. Install it. (I haven't used mandrake so I'm not sure the procedure for this on your system.) Then in commandline, inside of X (your window manager) type:

wine name-of-your-program

Hope it helps.

By the way, you said you don't know how to get to it, here's browsing if you don't know already:

list current directory: ls (or ls /directoryname for remote)
list a large directory: ls | less
change directory: cd /directoryname
up one level: cd ..
change to a local directory: cd ./directoryname
move a file: mv filename /directoryname
delete a file: rm filename (use rm -r for folders with contents, be careful)
extract certain files (man for details): tar -zxvf filename
run an install script in a file: sh filename

Let me know if it has anything to do with anything =)

aMSN is infact a linux program, if you really have it installed try typing 'amsn' into Konsole. Did you install a .rpm file or did you download a .tar.gz file?

You will struggle to learn all the ins and outs of using the console but once you get it you'll be right, very easy really.. I promise ;)

Here's a simple way to do this with vim (changing your computer to boot up into GUI), that i wrote up on another thread:

Type "vim /etc/inittab"
Move the cursor over the 3 that you see above (id:3:initdefault)
press <Insert>
press <Delete>
press <5>
press <Esc>
press <:> then <w> then <q> then <Enter>

Really newbish.... :p