As a complete new comer to Linux I installed Mandrake 8.2 from
Linux Format cover disks and it works fine except that I have failed to connect to the Internet via my modem.This is via courtesy of Windows.
My main concern however is that I can not install further programs
and get them to work.
I get lost in the mandrake help files.
Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you.
Bob.

try kppp or gnome-ppp

usually all you need is a phone number, username and password

it it's no go then you will need to go through a ppp howto

What "further" programs do you want to install? Where are you finding these programs? And, your modem may possibly be a "Win-Modem" so you may have a few more problems than anticipated. Check out www.linmodems.org to see if it's listed.

Mostly word processing programs such as AlbiWord and Open Office supplied on CD Roms / DVD's via magazines such as Linux Format a respected UK mag.
Mandake RPM wizard says it has installed the programs but I can not find the files any where on my hard drive.
Many thanks for your inerest.
Bob.

Woops,
inerest should of course be interest.
Bob

Normally they are already installed, what level of install did you do.

I am afraid that this question does not mean anything to me either !

I know that I must seem a complete idiot but I do have 20 years experience of computing but only 20 days knowledge of Linux.

Bob

I think he was asking did you do a full install, recommended, minimal, or custom. And did you do it in recommend or expert mode.

But as he said, they are probably already there, open a terminal (the icon at the bottom of your screen that looks like an old monitor) and type 'abiword' to check. Or you can use the whereis or whatis commands preceding whatever you are checking for.

If the programs you have on discs are RPM's (they have a .rpm extension) then you can open your disc and just click on the icon representing the program you want to install. Mandrake will open a "package manager" and install the software. If there are dependency issues (the program requires libraries from other programs to be able to install) then the package manager will tell you. Then you will have to locate (try www.rpmfind.net) the rpm's that contain the libraries or whatever it is dependant upon.

Does that make any sense?

After it's all done, and the program gets successfully installed, you can open a terminal and type the name of the program. Usually it's in the .rpm filename.

Cool

Oh and bob, I understand how frustrating it can be when you get an answer that doesn't make any sense to you. You may want to hunt around the board and find a post by Acid_Kewpie. Click one of the links in his signature called "things we wish we knew before we started" something like that. And also check out www.linux.org They have a tutorial there that will help you with Linux quite a bit. And The Linux Documentation Project is a big help when trying to find How-To's.

Good Luck

Many thanks for the sugestions.You have given me new hope.I was getting to the stage of giving up on Linux altogether.

Bob.

you are probably using gnome or kde.

You should check out the menus, there are usually a lot of things installed that can be run from the main menu. There's also usually a lot that's not on the menu, so you need to do some digging around to see whats there. For instance you can open a shell ( that's like a command prompt in dos that you login to and type commands) and hit the tab button twice. It will show all available commands. There are well over 3,000 commands in the full install. If you can't remember a command but know what letter or letters it starts with type a letter or two and hit tab twice like this..

[david@FireDragon david]$xc
xcalc xclipboard xcmsdb xcutsel
xchat xclock xconsole



And it will get much easier once you have screwed up, Oh I mean fixed a few systems