Hi.
As this is my first post, let me first say "hello" and thanks for any replies I might get.
I recently bought "Linux for Dummies" which includes a dvd containing several flavours of Linux. Here's a copy of an email (for which I never got a satisfactory reply) that I sent to the publishers "help" line.

"From the "Linux.." dvd, I've burnt an iso image of "MEPIS" to a cd.
I can boot up ok; I'm asked for login and password, and I enter "demo" to both (as it says in the book). I'm presented with
(in red)
"demo@tty1[~]#" (With "root" I get "root@tty1[~]#"),
and
can get no further. "mediacheck" says the cd is ok, and there are no error messages during boot up; I have no problems with the knoppix
distro.
What is happening?
Laurence."

The book contains no clue as to what "demo@tty1[~]#"
means, or even just "#" or "~" !!
How much of a Dummy do you have to be?!!
Can anyone help?
Cheers,
Laurence.

It seems you've been dropped to the command line, and X (the graphical server) has not started. Commonly "~" is translated to mean the home directory of the user you're logged in as; in this case it means your parent working directory is your home directory. If you used cd command (like in DOS) to switch to another directory, that dir should read instead of ~ (so it basically just tells "where you are").

The "#" means you've got superuser privileges. Ordinary users usually have a $ instead of # so they'll see when they're logged in as root user and when not. It's simply the command prompt after which you can type your commands. You can try to start X, the graphical server, by typing into that command prompt
Note that it might not work as root, or then it could only work as root, or both. More information about different kinds of commands you can get using
Where you write something in place of keyword, like copy. Then you get a list of man pages (manual pages). You can read them by typing
like for the "cd" command, you get a manual using
and so on.

You should be dropped into X, I think, so you've got a problem; it might be because of your hardware, screen or graphics card, that Mepis can't deal with, so X can't be started...but I can't say more before I see some error messages or you tell me more about this. Try the "startx" command..then you should either get X or some error message which we can start with.

You don't say what version of Mepis you have. If it's not 6.0 Final I'd suggest you get either the ISO to try, or perhaps get the CD from the Mepis web site. 6.0 is the latest & greatest!

A "Linux for Dummies" book with an outdated, unofficial install disk is surely supposed to be someone's idea of a joke. It's probably distributed by Microsoft. There are no Dummies using Linux. Not for long anyway. Just newbies.

Get real official installation media from one of the Linux distribution web sites, google "linux newbie", get a feeling for what you're getting into ... and you're on your way.

I knew I'd come to the right place!
Thanks rickh for your humour - it wouldn't suprise me if Micros--t was
involved!
Thanks b0uncer for your tech insights (a couple of things are clearer
now!
Thanks esage - I've checked and Mepis is v3.3.1 !!
So the first thing I'll try, is downloading a new version.
Thanks to anyone I've missed, and I'll let you know how I get on later.
Cheers!
Laurence.

By all means get a good copy of SM 6.0. I have been using Mepis for over 2 1/2 years and it just keeps getting better with each new release. So far I have 6.0 installed on four boxes and am burning in a ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe system with a 6.0 CD and it is doing great. Sadly it is going to be an XP machine but I'm having fun with it at the moment. If your hardware is halfway decent you should have few problems. If you have video problems after booting up you can reboot and hit the F3 key when you see the splash screen and try another screen resolution or choose one of the other video options. Don't give up.

Hi Maury and Everyone else.
Downloaded Mepis6, burnt an iso and (so far), it's recognised all the hardware i've thrown at it!; 2 ext. HDs, Audio & midi interface, scsi zip drive and cdrw, usb flash drives, networked printer - even my HIMD minidisc recorder (though only as a data storage device, not an audio player - (but that's down to sony's crappy "sonic stage"!)). Everything
seems rock solid so far; unlike my xp system, which crashed while I was writing this email!!. So the next thing I have to do, is setup full networking between my 2 systems, and hence Internet access via Mepis.

Then, what I'm really trying to work towards, is full integration with my modest home music studio. I have a VS1680 (Digital multitracker; which can be accessed via midi (at the moment on my xp system , An
S2000 (Akai sampler, also midi linked with "mesa"),a VL70m (synthesizer controlled with midi wind controllers) and a midi drum machine (last 2 also have pc programming capabillities). These are my main pieces of gear
and if anyone can offer help/suggestions, or links elsewhere, I'd be over the moon.
By the way, if anyone's interested in links to any of the above, just let me know!
Thanks again,
Cheers,
Laurence.
PS I'm also interested in an "AutoCad" type Program.

Wow that is great. I'm not into any of that but you might try Mepis Lovers Forum and also Ubuntu Forum. Between the three you should get some help.

Congratulations on the successful install.

This link may be some help http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html

The only cad program I've tried in linux is QCAD. Very basic but also very easy to use. Just like in windows, the best stuff costs $$.

Hi Muddywaters,
Thanks for the link to QCAD; as you can tell, I'm also pretty basic - so I'll give it a try.
Let you know how I get on.
Cheers,
Laurence.

Ya know whats great about Linux besides the system itself? It's users,creators,and how friendly they are. I am soooo new at this,only having the system for a little over two weeks. Yet,all I have to do is keep reading the posts,and find out so much. A girl can become quite proficient by sticking to these forums. I came in tonight because I am having problems with my floppy not reading. I'll go to the right forum in a second,but I stopped in here for a moment to say thank you for being so good to the newbies.
Take care,
Me
ps,
it's true,there are no Linux Dummies,just Newbies. Well Said.

The REALLY new "old guy" is just getting started and I like what I have seen so far. I loaded the Simply Mepis CD from Morgantown, and blew away my trial copy of Vista. (I'll try anything to fix XP Pro) and I was able to boot right up except for the screen resolution is wrong and the highest it will go is 800x600. Previously the screen was either 1280/1060 (think that is it) or 1020 X 768. I am booting from a Trios box and the other two HDs on the system use the latter. Vista worked with the first on. Now all I get is as mentioned, the only one. It also says this is NVIDA and the built-in video is AGP-Rage I think.
Not at my set at the time but will be back later tonight and am going to try to boot again from the CD and see if I cannot load other. Also would like to load the drivers for the motherboard, but all I have is a CD which is Windows. It is not a bootable CD.

Any suggestions?

Regards
Frank

My first suggestion would be that your problem is specific enough to start your own thread.