Red Hat 9 biggest newbie questions ever
 

Ok I've been a windoze guy for my whole life. I've decided give redhat a try. I went out and bought a book about red hat (red hat linux 9 bible) hoping it would ease the transition.

So far I have to say I’m impressed with linux, even after a 50 minute install and the feeling I've fallen into a endless rabbit hole I’m not deterred.

My problems come when I want to get online.... First off I know that I will have to some how dig up compatible Linux drivers for my modem. Next I'm not sure how exactly I will be able to use my isp software. ATM I am with netzero (platinum package) they require you to use their crummy software to connect, there is no way to manually set the connection up in xp so I am worried about how to go about setting it up (if possible) under red hat. They also don't seem to offer any Linux compatible versions all I see is windows and mac on their site. They of course use Linux servers however....

Also once all of the above is accomplished I then need to figure out how to chat with all my friends. I realize microsoft will most likely not be making a Linux compatible chat client. So I will need a replacement.

Once this is all done I can hunker down and really start to play around with Linux. (no internet while using Linux is killing me :) ) BTW how exactly do I get the modem drivers installed... I mean since windows doesn't recognize the Hard Drive how do I get the drivers transferred..? I think the reason why it doesn't see the drive is because no drive letter is assigned (as far as xp is concerned) in disk manager it sees it and partition magic sees it.

Thanks for your patience with a newb like me I appreciate it.
:newbie:

You can't use NetZero in Linux, except for Lindows, and Lindows sucks.

Lindows has some deal with them.

But do not fear, NetZero said they were coming out with a linux client.

My suggestion is that you get a standard ISP though.


For a chat client: GAIM. Its the best out there, it handles EVERY protocol (at once).

get the latest version, the RH9 version is out of date (theres been some protocol changes):

gaim.sf.net

As far as your chat problem you can use GAIM which comes pre-installed. With GAIM you can connect to MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, Jabber, iCQ, etc. That should work for you in that respect.

Uhm, I'm not sure what to tell you about your ISP program. If you MUST use their software to connect then you may be in trouble.

You're also not going to be able to access your Linux partitions inside of windows. You CAN do this from Linux, meaning you can access files & programs on your windows partition inside Linux but not visa versa. Also the drivers that you use for Windows are not going to work for Linux. You need linux specific drivers.

I would suggest doing a google search for '<modem model> linux' which should hopefully pull up some drivers or links for setting that up.

Hope this helps a little...

Thanks guys... talk about a quick response.

Yeah that netzero thing is agravating but ohwell. I guess I could always use earthlink, they allow you to set up the connection manually.

In the book I have they said GAIM was a aol messenger they never mentioned it could do anything else. And since the name is g-AIM I never bothered to even see if it handled more. (50$ book too... I'm begining to think its a waste hopefully it will help me in more advanced things)

Great, everything seems to be moving along nicely I'm sure I can get ahold of some drivers for the modem and now the msn thing is adverted I'm happy.

Hey don't feel bad about askin' the questions. We were all at the newbie point at sometime and you're just lucky that you have the net & a site like this to get answers.

When I first used linux (WAAY back) I had no internet connection, a b&w monitor and... <shudder> anyway.

Go ahead & ask. That's what it's here for.

i need help, so i figured id post it in the noobs section under bigest noob question ever.

when i log in as root and type startx to give me the graphic display, it fails, what should i do?

im sure once someone tells me ill go "Doh" and smack myself on the head, but please help, i can be really stupid sometime
my email(for the sake of ease) is hrpdlr2@hotmail.com

this is in regards to this "there is no way to manually set the connection up in xp" i always set my connection up manually using XP. when you START--»Settings--»Open Network Conections--»choose "create a new connection"--»Click "next"--»Choose "Connect to the Internet"--»Choose "Set up my connection manually"(this should be the second choice)--»Choose Connection type exp:dial-up,Broad band w/ u/n p/w or always connected--»Choose modem--»Give connection a name like "Internet" or ISP's name whatever it does not matter--»phone number to there router/server(this is the number your pc dials to connect to the internet through there router/server)--»your user name and password. you can look at your current connection details to get this information including what modem your using. my isp supply's a cd to create the connection but i decided i didn't want all the other crap it also install's so i learned how to manually set it up without the CD. you can get the information from your isp usually there is a 24/7 number you can call. there not much help but they should be able to provide the above information anyway.
thx
Paladin :)

Yes thank you, however I knew this. I personally will only manually do it when possible. Except from what I can tell its impossible to do with netzero. After a few hours of tinkering I finally contacted customer support. They also claimed there isn’t a way to connect unless you use their proprietary software (could be lying).

Maybe there is a way to do it but I haven’t been able to find a way if you can find a way to do it while using netzero I would be extremely happy to hear how :)

The dialer, their crappy platinum bar, and pop up start page are driving me up the wall nothing annoys me more than netzero's take on what they think needs to be forced down your throat. AOL is out of the question Earthlink made a "glitch" and charged me 1000$ for 3 months of service so they are out of the question. I think I should look into msn they should have a manual way of connecting.

about AOL, I haven't use it but there is a way to connect with AOL in linux, so if you don't find anything else try AOL

Thank you very much. I will be sure to keep that in mind if things don't work out with MSN.

Slowly becoming annoyed... not with Linux specifically but with myself I guess I would say..

Since this is my first day ever using a different os other than windows, I'm finding it hard to locate things. I have no idea how to find my xp pro HD and get files from it. I’ve looked around and found my Linux disk and the cdrom but no xp disk. The reason is that I want to transfer movie files/music and drivers (mentioned earlier) over to the Linux drive.

But man the games included are great! Yes I prefer real 3d games but sometimes its fun to play 2d games. I noticed that kde had different games than gnome is there a way to have all of them on one? I ended up getting side tracked and spent a good hour playing some of them :D

Hi,
Refer to this thread. You can also make use of the "Search" utility.
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...threadid=97292

I usually use mc to do my editing.

Cheers

There is excellent software to access linux partitions from windows. I use Ext2FS Anywhere, from Paragon:
http://www.ext2fs-anywhere.com/

It's pretty cool