Opening and Configuring Programs
 

I am grateful for all the help everyone here has already provided me, so here comes another one lol. I'm now all installed with Slack8 and in the command line, but being a Linux newibe, I have no idea how to start/configure/make sure progams are running. I want to get running and configure some options with(and I think all of these were installed with Slackware, at least I selected all of them hehe)
Apache webserver
MySQL
The Linux built in FTP server
The Linux built in Firewall
SSH(for remote access from this computer(winxp))
Okey. So would someone be kind enough to explain to me what commands and such I use and such to get these programs running and to configure the options with them. Also how I can check if these programs are running as well. If this is too complicated then just say so hehe, and I'll look around in a book maybe to get me started. Thanks again everyone!

Its too complicated, well at least to tell you how to setup all of those programs. So I'll just talk about what I know off the top of my head
Apache I have used several times and is a brilliant web server. I have never done any BIG projects with it just little ones. In slack 8 you can start apache by executing /etc/rc.d/rc.httpd this file might have it's permissions set so it doesn't execute. If it does execute it will start apache when slackware starts. You can see if apache is running if you type ps ax on the command line and apache will be listed as /usr/sbin/httpd on several lines in a row.
Once you have apache running test it by pointing a web browser at the linux box. If it's IP address is say 192.168.0.1 then try http://192.168.0.1 it should come up with a apache placeholder screen. You can test it on the machine its running on by putting http://localhost in web browser or http://127.0.0.1 this points the web browser at the box it is running on. If you can get the apache page then apache is running. If you can get the page on another machine then you have apache running on the network.
Third step: getting apache configured to your web pages. This is done by editing the file httpd.conf. This file is in /etc/apache/ on my machine in the last version of slackware I think it was in /var/$SOMETHING/apache. The easiest way to find out is to look at the apache package output cat /var/log/packages/apache will list all the apache files installed and where they are installed. Look for one called httpd.conf.default.
Altering httpd.conf can be troublesome as simple mistakes can be hard to pick up. The most important thing when you start is to find out where Apache thinks the html documents are stored. This is in the setting DocumentRoot which on my machine says DocumentRoot "/home/http/htdocs" and that points to where my web pages are. There are similar settings for images and CGI-BIN these are called Alias /icons/ and ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ note that the <Directory $directory> setting after these lines also needs to be changed. The file is well documented but if you have any trouble just ask.
Next I might look at another program you want to run.

thanks man. much appreciated. Anyway you could simply tell me just how to open or make sure that they are running:
MySQL
Linux Firewall
Linux FTP server
If not then don't worry about it. I appreciate your help a lot with all this! I think I need to buy a few books as well hehe

MySQL I don't know very well. For the firewall you need to setup a firewall script with rules which is fairly complicated and there is no way of knowing wether it truly works or not. But I do know that slackware does not come with firewalling setup you will have to implement it.

Ftp should be just about ready to go on the computer. It is usually run off the inetd super daemon. This daemon has a config file inetd.conf in /etc. To get FTP running uncomment one of the FTP programs (wuftp or proftp) in the inetd.conf file by removing the # from the start of the line. Example:

ftp stream tcp nowait root /usr/sbin/tcpd proftpd

Then you need to restart inetd after changing the config file. This can be done by sending it the Hangup signal with kill. kill -HUP $pid where $pid is is the process id of inetd. For example if as root I type ps ax
67 ? S 0:00 /usr/sbin/inetd
appears as a line listing 67 as the pid of inetd, I would then type kill -HUP 67. This doesn't stop inetd it just makes it restart and read in the inetd.conf file again.

After it is running you can check it with a ftp program. You should be able to access it from your windows box. ftp 192.168.0.1 assuming your linux boxes IP is 192.168.0.1 change to suit. It asks for a user name and password. This username and password is the same as for a user of the linux box. FTP uses the same usernames and passwords as login does. Except that people listed in /etc/ftpusers cannot log in. Root is one of those users. I don't know much more about ftp cause I don't really use it.

Thanks, I'll give that a try when I get home :)

There is an apache/php/mysql for slack tutorial here..