Hello,

I'm new to Linux and I need help with getting started with Linux.

Here's the situation: I introduced myself to the forum and made a plea for help. One of the respondents stated that I should pick a distro. Not knowing what a distro was I checked the sight for the meaning. From there I was guided to Gentoo which was referred to as being user friendly.

I Googled Gentoo download which led me too a sight where I downloaded Gentoo hardened stage 3.

After unpacking the files I snooped around until I came across some instructions for compiling in Microsoft Windows with Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0. I copied the cmd.exe to the build\msw\ folder and ran the following command: nmake -f makefile.vc.

It took awhile for that process to complete and I fully expected to find a new folder with an exe file, however there was no new folder nor was there an exe file.

I desparately need to get in touch with that user friendly aspect of Gentoo.

C4C

First, Gentoo is definitely NOT for beginners! Try something else, like Ubuntu, openSUSE, or Fedora.

Second, you will not find any .exe files. Linux is not a program that runs in Windows, it is a whole operating system instead of Windows.

Your PC must have a CD or DVD burner in it, you must burn the .iso file(s) you downloaded to the CD(s) / DVD(s), set your BIOS so that it tries to boot from the CD drive before the hard drive, and then boot up your computer with the disc in the drive.

And when burning the .iso file, do not burn it a a data disc. The .iso file should be burned as a disc image. When you are done, look at the disc with Windows Explorer. You should see a bunch of folders and maybe a few files, not a single .iso file (that means you did not burn is as an image).

Note that Windows XP does not have a built-in program to burn disc images, you should get a program that can. There are a few to download for free.

1 members found this post helpful.

That is right.

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Respondents,

Good Job Guys! I had ubuntu-9.10-server-i386.iso burnt to disk, but I was trying to access it through a previous ubunt(EMC) installation. I'm have 42% of ubunt installed and just recieved an error messagepertaining to fonts and the inability to dwonload them. Apparently ubuntu is trying to access the internet and I do not have the test machine connected. I'm at least on the right track now and I thank you for that.

As the Terminator would say: "I'll be Bach"

C4C

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Sorry...I don't laugh at posts often, and it's not the op's fault...but that is the funniest line of the day "I was guided to Gentoo which was referred to as being user friendly."

Nothing against my beloved gentoo...that just caught me the right way.

Good luck C4C...ubuntu should treat you right

1 members found this post helpful.