Help! Disastrous start
 

Hi
This is my 2nd day as a Fedora user and it is turning out to be pretty disastrous. Everything is so different.
Now I have a problem. I can't view YouTube videos or watch .avi files.
In both cases, ppl have referred to using "Terminal" and typing in all sorts of codes but in all cases I have to be "root"
so it goes:
[Radwa@localhost ~]$
and i type in: su -
It says:
Password:
but i can't type in anything!!
not even paste stuff there..it won't accept my typing
what to do??
HELP!

Hello...

Unlike in the graphical world, passwords on the terminal window do not echo on the screen. So, you can type it, but it will not show. In short, if the password is "music", just type music and hit enter, it will not show, not even echoing "*", but it is accepting input.

EDIT: important to know, Linux is "case sensitive". So, if the first time you typed the password, you typed it as "Music", you must type it exactly the same from then on.

A great Linux for newbies is the Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, that may be better for you than Fedora. Or install Ubuntu since it also is more user friendly.

If you can't watch YouTube, there are two possible problems. Firstly, you might have Javascript turned off: click on Edit — Preferences — Content and make sure it's on. Secondly, you may not have Flash, although a site usually warns you about that. If so, go to Adobe's site and install it.

To watch videos in proprietary formats, you need the plugins. If you're in the USA or Japan you are supposed to pay. Elsewhere, you can download them for free from the Livna website.

Have a look at this site, which is full of useful tips:
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-f12.html
and, above all, don't panic! It's only your second day. How long did it take you to get used to your first computer?

Hi Radwa, welcome to the Linux community. Although it may seem very different at first, keep at it and keep asking questions, it's amazing how quickly you'll pick things up. Getting online can be a bit of a hindrance, so you've already got over that step :)

To get the non-free media files working (mp3 etc) you'll need to install the necessary codec, just ask around for what you want, users in general are extremely helpful. Have fun and enjoy your Linux experience.

wow
thank you so much for your help
Things are starting to look a bit peachy over here :)
I have now opened the terminal as root and exploring all around! but it feels good to have a change.
thanks a lot!!!

Hello again. A little bit of warning. Only use root user when you have to. "Exploring" should be done as your own user account. Root is pretty much for administrative tasks only.

Please PLEASE becareful exploring as root. Remember you can generally explore as a normal user, and then just `su` to root when you want to do something. This means you can't accidently go deleting or overwriting important system files!

Also it might be worth looking at sudo, which allows you to run commands as root, but while logged into your normal user.

to install stuff you will probably want to enable rpmfusion repos:for music and video vlc is probably good:
yum install vlc
for flash i normally go to something like youtube, then it says something like "click here to download the latest flash" ...

okay I will be careful with root. Thanks!

The following emerged:
[root@localhost ~]# yum install vlc
Loaded plugins: presto, refresh-packagekit
Could not retrieve mirrorlist http://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/mirrorl...a-12&arch=i386 error was
14: PYCURL ERROR 6 - ""
Error: Cannot retrieve repository metadata (repomd.xml) for repository: rpmfusion-free. Please verify its path and try again


What does that mean?

hmm, not quite sure.
maybe it is not able to access the internet...

could be possible rpmfusion is down at the moment ?

installing restricted codecs
 

I think there are built in restrictions on access via main repositories. Copyright law is as perplexing as it is varied. Perhaps try opening other repositories but be careful what you install.Using things like 'Unison' or samba will logically open you to malware that is designed for Microsoft unless you protect yourself.

Fred.