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Going to Linux

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NeoSpawn

Member
Joined
Aug 27, 2004
Location
Maryland
A How to Guide in the world of Linux:

Alright, this isnt as much as a "How to guide" as it is me explaining what I had to do to get my Linux system up and running and all the programs behind it. What I mainly use my system for is 2D graphics, word processing, chatting (via Instant Messengers and Skype), a lil bit of gaming and surfing the net. Im hoping that though this like "log" per say people can hopefully use parts of it and it will help them along.

Here are the specs of my system at the moment:

Case: Sunbeam AC-T Transparent Clear Acrylic ATX Mid Tower

Motherboard: EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 (at 1.8GHz)

RAM: Rosewill 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200), mushkin 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 333 (PC 2700), Dell 256 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 333 (PC 2700)

HardDrive: Western Digital Cavier SE 160GB 7200RPM SATA 3.0GB/s

CD/DVD: Dell DVD/CD, Pinoneer DVD+-RW/CD-RW

Video: MSI NX6600GT-TD128E Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16

PSU: ASPIRE ATX-AS520W BLACK ATX 520W

Moniter: Acer AL1715B Black 17" 12ms LCD Monitor

Introduction
============
I know not exactly the greatest of systems but its good for what I need it to do. The Linux OS I used was Fedora Core 6, I know I know some would say its suppose to be an "easy version of Linux" But you know it does the job perfectly for what it should be doing. I dont need to do anything extremely complex that would require the use of anything else really. And I find it to be good for a new to moderate user of Linux.

Moving on....what caused me to go to Linux. Well long story short I had given Windows the middle finger, after it started to miserably fail graphic wise and OS wise. Unfortunately I didnt have the option to just run away from windows just like that. I had graphic programs I ran, doing my digtal art and very importantly talking with my girlfriend in Indiana using Skype. Well I started looking into the operating systems and running around I saw doing a Virtual Machine, using VMware or Xen. So I got to thinking.."Well I found out Skype has a Linux version, couldnt be that hard to set up sound and all, I can use Gimp for my painting stuff, there is definately stuff for using my Wacom Tablet, and my more advanced stuff I could get going on a VirtualMachine of Windows."

Getting Started
===============
So first thing is first, backing up all your data! I cannot express how important this is for you. Some dont understand that when you go about installing something like this you need to have all your data backed up on CDs/DVD/External HD. I spent 5 days burning stuff and moving other things onto my external drive, and making lists of what programs I need the most and what is on linux or an equivaliant of it. So finally to the downloading and burning!

Nero and the Pains
==================
I started off by downloading Fedora Core 6 via bittorrents, because I like them and I cant leave my computer on for 24 hours to download 3.8GBs. After downloading a the DVD ISO file it was to the point of me figuring out on burning it. I Googled and looked at the installation guide for burning it to a DVD. God I wasted 5 DVDs trying to get this thing running...me and my stupidity.

What to do simply is go into the Nero Express (Note: Nero OEM will not be able to burn the ISO file properly so it will boot off of the DVD, need the full package). Go to burn from Image, select your ISO, and just simply burn it. There is no need to undo the ISO, just burn the single file.

Finally the Time Has Come!
==========================
Kiss windows good bye! Well because of issues I installed windows on a lil 40GB IDE drive and I installed Linux onto my 160GB SATA drive. Before booting from the dvd, I unpluged power from my 40GB drive so I can easily plug it back in for emergencies.

So reboot the system and with the DVD in the drive it will boot up from there and you go onto the beginning of the installation page.

You see a boot: and instructions on top, I simply pressed Enter, so I would go into the graphical start up. Installing it is very simple and clean, just let it do its business and you'll be happy. From here you go to selecting the language and keyboard setting, both of mine is English aka default.

Now you get to lovely partitioning..I didnt do the default setting. I went to "Remove all partitions on selected drives and create default layout" Im assuming this means just wipe the drive and start fresh. Next is setting up your network, I have a network card that goes into my router so eth0 was already there and it was ready to go for me. After that you select your time and time zone.

Next is your root password. Now this is very important, root is your adminstrative abilities, installing software, doing important settings and such. Never just log onto root and do all you need to do, but do remember the password to it!

After that's done its going to install the packages you want it to install. I did Office and Productivity and Software Developement, with Fedora Extras. Fedora Extra's requires an active connection to the net.

Then you see a window with catagories of all the packages you can download and install onto your system. Each one comes with a description and the ability to select it and download it. Pick out what you like, and read the descriptions to make sure you'll probably use it.

Oks hit next, continue installation, then let it go for about 30-45mins installing itself onto the hard drive. Time for a lunch break if you ask me..

Welcome to Fedora Core 6
========================
Hurray you installed Fedora correctly, so you go though the windows of Welcome, Agreement, Firewall, Selinux, Time, UserName, and Sound Card. For the firewall make sure you have the important ports open like HTTP and such, or what other ports you know you'll be using. SeLinux Im not really sure what that is all about so I just left that on default. My sound card was really odd for some reason was set onto nVidia out of all things. With confusion I set it to my Sound blaster Live!.

Alright thats it for now you installed Fedora, Ill be adding more and more lil things like setting up programs, installing VMware and getting windows running and such for you all. I'll do my best to keep it updated as best as I can.


Table of Contents
  1. Installing Software
 
Last edited:
Nice guide, some handy tips :)

Here is another GREAT tip. If your new to linux, don't accidentally delete your /bin folder when logged as root =)
 
It's all so easy..............................until something goes wrong! :bang head

One more Linux user, good deal man. Welcome to Linux! :attn: :beer:

(Note to self: rm -rf /bin <---NO! )
 
Oh I've always been into linux, just that now I have a better chance at getting the stuff I need to do, actually done :p Having Skype issues on mic recording, seems to be a major thing that I hope to solve.

Im really hoping that this will be helpful to any and all who need it.

PS: What made you all get the idea of deleting /bin?
 
BlueFish Install

Alright Im trying to install BlueFish, its a web page developer, a very good one I find it to be just as good as Dreamweaver. Well after downloading BlueFish I ran into a lil problem. Apparently pcre was not installed, even though it clearly was.

Problem solved by downloading it from PCRE.org. It has to be built from the source code, which a lot of programs still do that, just not in neat lil RPMs you can download and install just by clicking it.

Installing from source
======================
Simply to install from the source code, you go into your terminal, and go into the directory. Note: You have to be as root to install software.

[root@localhost Desktop]$ cd pcre-6.3

Once you're in there you simply type ./configure like so

[root@localhost Desktop]$ ./configure

This will engage it into writting files and making sure that it can be installed onto your system. This also make what is call a make file. A make file of course allows you to make your application. Then simply type make then make installand let the installation begin.

[root@localhost Desktop]$ make
.......
[root@localhost Desktop]$ make install

Thats it to installing from the source code.



Installing BlueFish
===================
Well unfortunately this didnt work...What BlueFish needs is the package pcre-devel. So in your terminal you type su making you the root owner in the terminal. Next type out yum install pcre-devel

EX:[root@localhost bluefish-1.0.7]# yum install pcre-devel

This will download and install the proper packages that you need. Once that is done, follow the steps above once again for installing from the source.
 
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