desktop icon, user and alias weirdness

[bluebell]

hello, I have lots of niggling problems/questions for you :)
1. Are desktop icons destined to sneak back to the place you originally placed them every time you log on to your machine? I dragged some shortcuts onto the desktop from my 'K menu' and every time, they are arranged in the random pattern I first dumped them in.

2. I used the terminal to create a new user and gave them a password, but i can't log in as this user because they don't seem to have any desktop and so the login process crashes, leaving me with a blank screen. Do you have to configure/allocate an 'environment' for them as well as just create their account?

3. I have tried to create some simple aliases, for example using the command
alias mf='mount /floppy'
which works as long as I'm in the shell, but then forgets it as soon as that particular terminal session is finished.. am i doing something wrong?

*phew*

Thanks :)
> Bluebell x

[Tyr-7BE]

1) Try opening whatever configurator KDE has...there's probably a control to enable/disable a desktop grid. I know that Gnome has it, and I seem to recall KDE having something like it back when I was a user.

2) Doesn't sound like that's the problem. You don't need a desktop to log in. Linux is primarily a terminal OS. I'm not sure about the environment, as I've never created new users. If you were to create an environment, it would be /bin/bash in all probability. How did you create the new account (eg syntax)?

3) Try inserting the alias= mf command into your /etc/profile and/or your /home/user/.profile. I can't say for sure which one, because I only ever use alias ls=ls --color, and xterm sometimes likes it and sometimes doesn't, depending on the window manager. Give it a shot.

[ 07 April 2001: Message edited by: Tyr-7BE ]

[G-funk]

did you use adduser to add a user? also, another place to look for aliases could be in .bash_profile ot .bashrc if you are using bash (which i presume you are)

[kernel.panic]

Yeah, it's $HOME/.bashrc that holds aliases.

If you want ALL users to have the same aliases (like for yourself, and when you are logged in as root) you can save the time of editing all their .bashrc files, by just opening /etc/bashrc and doing the change there. /etc/bashrc is a global config file that affects all users on a system.

[ 08 April 2001: Message edited by: kernel.panic ]

[bluebell]

thanks for the help :)

i used the command syntax adduser username, and then gave them a password with passwd. An icon is appearing on the login screen for logging in as that user, alongside my normal user icon, but for some reason it just won't start up.