I'm trying to understand how Linux works, and i figured i'd start by figuring out where certain files in the OS are contained. Problem is, i've used Beagle and Tracker(MetaTracker) and they don't seem to be searching much of my files.

For example, I'm using Linux Mint, which comes with several desktop backgrounds pre-installed, in .png or .jpg file formats. Neither Beagle or Tracker come up with anything searching for *.jpg or *.png. Plus, i have a storage drive using an NTFS partition that i'm able to browse and open files from just fine using the default file browser. The disk contains all types of data files: music, text, video, etc... but i come up with 0 results when using wildcards to search for specific file extentions(*.txt or whatever type of file it is).

In the Beagle config options there is the ability to index stuff manually... so i figure to be able to find the stuff i'm looking for, i'll just index the entire file system(everything under /). 5 hours later, Beagle still isn't finished indexing, and i still can't find basic files that come installed with the OS, or anything I have on my storage drive.

I would start by using the more basic "find" command in a terminal. This accepts wildcards and Regexes and is probably faster than the GUI searchers.

Example:
To find all .jpg files in /home and below:
find /home -name '*.jpg'

To find "letters" or "Letters":
find /home -name '[Ll]etters'

there are also options for searching by modification time and many other attributes

1st Beagle sucks. In fedora it uses up so much background cpu time most users shut it off.

I do not know if it is available for all distros, but in RH based ones locate is pretty handy. You have to run a updatedb (not a typo) as root to add new files to the db but once the db is built it is really fast. I usually use |less for most searches becuase the results scroll off screen before I can read them.

Good Luck
Lazlow

This is my preferred method as well. Just make sure to run updatedb whenever you add/move/delete files. This comes in the slocate package if you don't already have it installed.