I am a linux newbie who has installed slackware and have run into a few problems. Currently I am able to log into Windows and Linux, but only with a command line prompt

1) During the package installation from CD some messages flash up on the screen, but they don't appear long enough for me to read them before the next screen covers them up. Is there any way to have them sent into a log file to see what's happening (or not happening, more liklely)?

One of the messages seemed to relate to the CD (access or file not found?) and the other one seemed to indicate that the device was full?? even though the minimum partition size for either of /root,/usr,/usr/local,/home is 10GB and the initial screen on setup says that the full install is only 2GB. Most package items do not have any messages. I downloaded and burned 4 CDs through bittorrent via the linuiso website. Only the first two were used for installation, and the second one did Gnome.

2) When I try to get X Windows going from the command line prompt - nothing happens: No error message, no file not found - it apparently runs but nothing seems to happen.

3) I selected the font GohaClassic16pt and I find that I would like a larger sized font, e.g. default. How do I change the font?

4) I find that the space utilized by the "desktop" is slightly larger than my actual monitor screen - the first letter on the left of the screen for many lines is partially obscured. Also the command line prompt and the command I type is slightly cut off the bottom. I have a Mitsubishi 21" monitor, and the monitor settings should be 1024x768. How do I fix this?

5) Can I change the order of listing in the /etc/lilo.conf file to have Windows be the first item? Would that make Windows the default? My spouse uses Windows and doesn't like ending up in Linux. At least for now.

6) I tried using the man pages by typing "man help" "manualpages ls" and other things but it doesn't work. After reading some stuff in info I found that I could get it to work if I type "man -k ls". Why does it only work with -k argument?

7) "find" and "locate" are not available - when I type them I get a file/directory not found error message. This makes it difficult to find anything I can't locate like, uh, find and locate and any editor like vi, vim, etc.

I find this system to be somewhat frustrating. I have read a lot of manuals etc. so far, which have been helpful, and yes I plan to read a lot more - I don't mind - that's the price of membership in the Linux club, at least at the present time.
But I find that I only retain so much information from reading the manuals: I need to actually use the commands/software to do something and then I can remember for a lot longer how something works. Also descriptions of graphical elements can be completely accurate but are a vague abstraction until you actually see the graphic.

Okay, I'll give your questions a shot:

1. I'm assuming you can get to a boot prompt? If so, type df and see how much free space you have. It seems like some things installed.. possibly a bad download or bad burn onto CD? Did you check the MD5 checksum?

2. You need to run xf86config and get a base configuration. Are you sure you installed XFree and at least one window manager? What are the contents of /var/log/XFree86 log?

3. Where are you using this font? On your terminal screen?

4. Not sure.. I have the same problem I believe it's related to the framebuffer. You should run a higher resolution on that big a monitor though.

5. Yes. If Windows is listed in lilo.conf, just put a line in near the top that says 'default=Windows' or whatever that OS is called in lilo.conf. Then run lilo from the command line.

6. Sorry, not sure.

7. Might be related to a bad download and not everything was loaded. You can do an ls on /bin and /usr/bin and see if the programs are there. You might also have a bad PATH setup.

Hope some of this helps.

Barbara

hmm. i think i can help with a few of these problems.

4) your monitor should have some buttons on it somewhere for this sort of thing; you want to shrink the horizontal and vertical, but I'm pretty sure this is something you need to do on the monitor hardware, not in software.

5) yes. the options lilo gives you at bootup are simply listed in the order they appear in /etc/lilo.conf. change the order in the file, run /sbin/lilo, and reboot. *note: sometimes there is a default=linux setting in lilo, i'm not sure how this affects things, but if what i suggested doesn't work, try commenting that line out.

7) locate works by checking a database that keeps track of all your files. you can update by typing updatedb at the command line. anytime you change your files, you need to updatedb before locate will find the new things. also, for editing i like emacs, which comes with almost every distro. at command line just type emacs <filename> to get started. (hint: to save press ctrl-X then ctrl-S, and to quit ctrl-X then ctrl-C)



ah, lets see. the second 2 cds are for source code, so you don't need them during installation. i'm not sure how to get the logs of what errors came up during that process, but you might check /var/log. maybe someone else can help you more with that

. now when you try to run X, are you typing startx? have you run xf86config yet? if not you probably need to do that. there are a number of good step-by-step guides for that, you can get started here: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ticle&artid=16

i have no idea about the man -k thing, sorry =(

I took your tip and ran "df" at the command prompt, and found that my /usr partition was only 1GB, not 10 and that it was full. I repartitioned the drive, adding an extra partition with space on the end of the drive, and put /usr on a large partition. I reinstalled slackware and wallah!!! everything works. More or less. I least I get KDE to start with "startx" and I fixed the lilo problem, too.

The other problems I can live with or figure out later, although I really would like to fix problem 4. When I am running KDE I can run the commands in a console window, which eliminates the problem of cutoff text, but the screen is still going slightly off the monitor edges.

This is not a hardware thing - doesn't happen in Windows.

This is not a Linux thing - didn't happen when I tried Debian and couldn't get X windows to run.

So it must be a slackware thing. Or rather I suspect that it is something that is mis-set by the 9.1 slackware installer relative to the monitor parameters.

Anyway, thanks a lot for the help. It made a big difference.

the man -k thing....
the -k argument searches all man pages for a string, which will find what you're after.
Have you tried just man ls (or man command, replacing command with the name of the command)?
If you know the name of the command you want to use, typing it as the only argument to man will bring up the info you want. Typing man listing won't work beacause listing is not a command. Using the -k option will find the string listing so has worked....
hope this helps and makes sense.

oh and don't worry about forgetting information from the manuals. noboy remembers from front to back, as you say practice is what ingrains the knowledge. And there's always somebody able to answer your questions. Just don't give up on GNU / Linux because it will all be worth it.

Not sure if you worked out this problem or not, but when going through the Slackware book and looking at the xf86config listings, i found this paragraph that may help:

Hope that helps, me=newb too hehe