Alright, yesterday I finally installed Slackware 10 on to my system. Installation was a breeze. Configuration was pretty easy, too, apart from a few hiccups with getting my internet connection to work. I played around with various window managers, and settled on gnome. Here are a few questions I've come up with:

1) I'm running dual boot, Linux primary master, WinXP primary slave, works fine. I can see the WinXP NFTS partition from Linux, but I can only access it as root. How do I change permissions on an entire filesystem? Is it the same as changing permissions on a file? I would like the users to be able to access it (read only, of course).

2) I've created a user, let's say it's called einstein. So I have einstein and root. I need general advice here. When I install new software should I install it as root or as einstein? When should I use root and when should I use einstein? I'm just a bit confused sometimes as to whether I should be doing something in root or as a user.

3) Mozilla mail. I've entered all the settings. But the "Get Msgs" icon remains grayed out or disabled, so I'm unable to retrieve mail. Is this possibly a permissions issue? How do I fix this?

4) When I exit gnome (and x) by choosing logout, I find myself at the command line. One problem I find when I do this is that I lose access to many commands. I can't even do a shutdown. It just says command not found. Is this something to do with runlevel? Any idea what might be causing this?

This is a pretty cool OS and distribution. Great for tinkerers like me.

1) You will need to edit the /etc/fstab file(as root). Right now you should have a line that looks something similar this
You need to change it so it looks like this
2) For installing software, you will usually install as root to make it available system wide. If you want it available for only a certain user, you would just install it as einstien and then install it into his home directory. You should use your regular user as much as possible, unless you need to install a program or edit a system file.

3) Sorry, I can't help you on this one.

4) Only root can shutdown and reboot the computer from the command line. When you log off of Gnome and get to the command line, type in su and then enter the root password, and then type in either reboot to restart, or shutdown -h now to shutdown(I think there might be a halt command, but I'm not 100% sure on this).

I don't know much, but the answer to your last question is that many commands have to be run as root. including shutdown, ifconfig, ping, ya ya ya.

just type su - and enter root password, then you can use those commands as root

Comments:

Q1: In Linux, everything is considered to be a file, so changing permissions involves the same operation regardless of what you are changing permissions on (a file, a directory, a device, you name it)

Q2. You should run as einstein ordinarily. The only time you should run as root would be in specifc and limited situations, such as if you needed to install a new software package. The reason running as root is so strongly discouraged is because the chances of causing damage to your system are so high. All it takes to hose your system is to accidentally specify the wrong command, and the reason regular user accounts do not have root-level privs is to avoid the possibility that a regular user would do something that could corrupt the system.

Q3: Dunno, don't use it.

Q4: The reason you can't do a shutdown is because that is a root-level command, and the only way you can run it is to become root. As Lostboys indicated, you can use "su" to switch over to the root account. That being said, the fact that you can't run shutdown means that you must be running as einstein. Good move.

-- J.W.

4) open /etc/inittab . Now see that line that says:


# Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:3:initdefault:

Change it to:


# Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:4:initdefault:

now when u logout from gnome u will go to gdm not the command line

u must also type gdmsetup so that u could add an action button that contains (shutdown , reboot)

f u want make the computer to really shutdown when u write run the shutdown or halt command just open /etc/rc.d and uncomment the line /sbin/modprobe apm
in :

#### APM support ###
# APM is a BIOS specification for saving power using several different
# techniques. This is mostly useful for battery powered laptops.
#/sbin/modprobe apm

then type modprobe apm then when u type shutdown -h now , it will turnoff ur pc

Thanks to everybody for the quick and helpful responses. One more question:

5) I'm having a little problem understanding the behaviour of "su". Let's say I boot Linux and log in as einstein (a user). Then let's say I do a "su root". Now, if I enter the command "startx" I get an error saying "startx command not found". Similarly, if I had logged in as root, did a "su einstein", then startx would also not be found. So "su root" doesn't actually log me in as root? Is it just faking it? And it's not just the startx command that can't be found, but a host of others. I'm worried that if I want to install a new package, and do an "su root", that I'll get errors in the install process because it can't find certain commands.

The problem you describe is caused by the path of the user. Usually /sbin and /usr/sbin is not in the path of a regular user. That is why when you simply type halt or shutdown as a user it can not find it.. If you typed /sbin/halt as a user, it would find it but would complain about your lack of permissions. When you type su, you change to the root account but you are still in your environment. To change to root with root's environment type " su - ".

To install slack packages, you must be root. You use installpkg or upgradepkg (if upgrading) to install. If you are installing from source, you should untar, configure and make as user. YOu will then su to root to run make install. For more info you might look at the book www.slackware.com/book

try

the - opens a new shell

-Joey

I'm not sure if you've used other distributions of linux before, but based on your first questions here, I'd say you're the perfect "linux candidate". You're thinking exactly the right way to start finding the answers to your own questions and begin helping others.

You've obviously done your homework as far as understanding the way permissions work, the distinctions between users and "admin" or root, and a good idea of when to use which.

For your question #3, I find your problem odd... I haven't used mozilla at all, I use firefox mainly -- but opening mozilla and going to the mail function, without any setup at all, still shows the "Get Msgs" button as active. Look closely through your settings to make sure all the port numbers and server addresses are right, for incoming -- pop3.

Another suggestion (though maybe a cop-out of solving this specific problem) would be to use a different mail program, like sylpheed, evolution, or Mozilla Thunderbird. Many people seem to like thunderbird. If you want something very lightweight, I'd try sylpheed. Evolution is designed to work best with Gnome, I believe -- though it will work under any other WM as well. I prefer the whole idea of "do one thing, and do it well" when it comes to applications. I have a web browser -- Mozilla Firefox -- and a mail program -- Thunderbird. In my opinion, they should remain seperate... But we're getting into philosophies here

If all else fails, try a different program for your mail
Mozilla is a tried-and-true browser suite, so it should work just fine for you. But don't be afraid of installing and trying different things.

Another thing -- if you start compiling things from source to try them out, I highly suggest using a utility called "checkinstall". This program takes the place of the usual "make install" command which places the program and binaries, and instead creates a slackware package which can be easily uninstalled later. Sometimes, source packages come with a "make uninstall" command, but what if it doesn't? Or what if you delete the source after installing it? Checkinstall makes dealing with source installations much easier.

Anyway, I've gone into way much more than what your questions were, I apologize.

Happy Slacking!

--Shade

Thanks again for all your answers and advice. I've switched to Thunderbird for mail, and it works fine. I actually had many more questions than this to begin with, but a bit of tinkering and a bit of searching on linuxquestions.org reduces the number of my questions to a handful. I have one last question:

6) I downloaded the latest NVidia drivers, installed it and everything seemed to install successfully, but I noticed one error or warning message which said:

I edited xorg.conf like I should have, and when I did the startx thing, I didn't see an Nvidia logo. But it still booted X and put me into my default window manager. So now I'm not sure whether these drivers did in fact install properly. I did an lsmod to see if the rivafb module was loaded, but it wasn't. How do I know if linux is actually using the nvidia driver, and if it's not, how do I fix this problem?

An easy way to verify if nvidia driver is loaded is to use the nvidia tool that comes with the new driver : type nvidia-settings in a terminal, you will be fixed quickly.

I think I remember getting getting the same error message that you cite. But have had no problems since.

Sorry, please ignore this post. I created a new thread with my question.

as long as in xorg.conf you changed the Driver "nv" (might be rivafb dun remember lol) to Driver "nvidia" you should be set.

Thanks once again everyone. I ran nvidia-settings and it showed the correct driver version. The logo does come up, but you have to be quick to notice it because it disappears in the blink of an eye. I guess that comes from having a blindingly fast computer (woe is me )