Linux for the first time

[Cooler666]

Ok i've just finished installing 3 cd's of Mandrake 8.2
All my hardware is supported, i'm a lucky guy.

I have a few questions like any other newbie:
1) What cd is Wine on?
2) Does Linux have a command prompt, as i will be programming in java and i need to compile files i will be programming in vi.
3) Do i need a seperate partition to install Linux? and what file system should i choose?
4) Choose i choose KDE2 or GNOME? What is the difference and what do you prefer?
5) How do i get to see other computers on the network (they are Windows XP computers), what program do i need to do this?

Thanks

 

[Jeff Bolton]

i would type out a thorough answer but to tell you the truth i really don't have the time right now..about to go home for easter..soo i'll jsut tell you about java, since that's something that i've been doing lately.

just use a simple text editor to write the file and save it as a .java file. then from the console (there will be an icon for the console in your panel/taskbar thing) is where you do the rest of the work. navigate to the folder where your .java file is (using cd to change directories) and type this at the prompt (assuming jeffbolton.java is the name of the file):

to compile: javac jeffbolton.java
to execute: java jeffbolton

notice i didn't add the .java to execute the file...took me a while to figure out why i couldn't get my programs to run . well i hope that solves at least ONE of your questions...nice to see another linux newbie!

jeff

 

[David]

Ok i've just finished installing 3 cd's of Mandrake 8.2
All my hardware is supported, i'm a lucky guy.

I have a few questions like any other newbie:
1) What cd is Wine on?
2) Does Linux have a command prompt, as i will be programming in java and i need to compile files i will be programming in vi.
3) Do i need a seperate partition to install Linux? and what file system should i choose?
4) Choose i choose KDE2 or GNOME? What is the difference and what do you prefer?
5) How do i get to see other computers on the network (they are Windows XP computers), what program do i need to do this?

Thanks

1) I would say 1 or 2, 3 is likely to be the source code.
2) Ctrl-Alt-2 - viola your text console
3) Seperate partitions - 1 about 200MB for swap space and another about 2GB+. Format the first one as swap, and the second one as ResierFS or ext2. reiser is IMHO better.
4) Install both. I prefer KDE, other people often prefer GNOME. Try them both and see which you like best.
5)Samba - www.samba.org

 

[Cooler666]

do i actually need disc 3 or is it just the source code for the whole thing?

 

[Cooler666]

ok i got it installed just now and the installation went very smoothly. Now i can login into linux but how do i get into the GUI?
all i see is the last time i logged in in a command prompt and some symbols like this [$user$], what should i type in to get in the GUI? i'm a complete newbie

 

[David]

ok i got it installed just now and the installation went very smoothly. Now i can login into linux but how do i get into the GUI?
all i see is the last time i logged in in a command prompt and some symbols like this [$user$], what should i type in to get in the GUI? i'm a complete newbie

Login as root and type:
kdm
If that doesn't work try:
startx

 

[Cooler666]

kdm doesn't work
when i type startx i get an error message saying: screens found but not configured correctly and it stays in the command prompt

 

[Jeff Bolton]

my friend was telling me about a similar error last night...this has never happened to me but i'm guessing that you need to get your video card configured right before you can run a gui.

jeff

 

[Cooler666]

yep it was the videocard and i fixed it, now it works and its great..

is there any way i can look at my NTFS partitions in linux? as i can only see my FAT32 partition

 

[Samurai_Punch]

There's a thread about NTFS and linux... but the short story would be yes, compiled as a kernel module, for both reading and writing, the writing however is dangerous and experimental, so it wouldn't be advised

 

[Cooler666]

i'll take that as a no

 

[David]

i'll take that as a no

Reading is safe, its only writing that is dangerous. You might want to try using a 1GB FAT32 partition as a sort of go-between that both Linux and Windows can read and write to.

 

[XWRed1]

i'll take that as a no

Err.... take it as a yes.

 

[Cooler666]

I'm on the Internet in Linux -WHHOOOO OHHHH
i'm on it now, and its great although KDE sucks and my graphics card driver is not working properly yet but it will