Really new newbie

[gubder]

Ok, what the heck am I doing? So far, I have bought 4 books and printed hundreds of pages of help files. I can't even type 'man man' on the command line and get that to work. I don't have the first clue as to how to use an editor or find files or just about anything. I hate MS but I'm beginning to have doubts about going to linux. Is there a SIMPLE step-by-step to learn what I need to know to get linux up and working? DO NOT tell me to RTFM! I have! Sorry... getting a bit frustrated... Let me ask a question. I've installed(?) debian (latest stable) and I think I've followed all instructions correctly. How do I get 'man' to work? Whenever I type 'man man' the response I get is 'BASH: man: program not found' or something similar. Any handholding would be appreciated. Thanks :confused:

[MichaelAnthony]

Which distro are you using? Are you sure man is installed on your system?

[ 27 March 2001: Message edited by: MichaelAnthony ]

[kuber]

So is Van Halen getting back w/ David Lee Roth or what? ;)

[Tyr-7BE]

Whoa...Debian for a newbie? That's kinda like giving a toddler a nuclear reactor to play with. I like it though...lets you have the full linux experience.
Go to http://www.debian.org/ Somewhere in the installation guide or kicking around, there should be a guide on how to use dselect. Check it out. You probably don't have the man command installed. In order to use dselect you have to make sure your network is set up correctly. Did you install from a CD or from something else? Do you have X-Windows set up? If not, be prepared for one freakin big headache.
If Debian proves to be overwhelming (it almost was for me, and I had been running linux for 6 months prior to install), you can always go with Progeny or Libranet. It's basically Debian, but a little more user-friendly and easier for the newbie to grasp.
Also, for assorted useful help, go to the NHF section of this website...plenty of useful info :) There's a guide to using the VI text editor there. One of the first things you'll want to dselect or apt-get install is vim. Try typing "apt-get install vim" and see if everything goes smoothly. Vim stands for "vi improved" and that's exactly what it is...a very nice text editor :)

[ 27 March 2001: Message edited by: Tyr-7BE ]

[Tyr-7BE]

Also, in response to your man question, try "apt-get install man-db" and "apt-get install manpages". This should install the man command. In case you're wondering, I got this from typing "dselect" at the console as root. MAKE SURE YOU DO IT AS ROOT! Best of luck :)

[Bradmont]

Originally posted by Tyr-7BE:
MAKE SURE YOU DO IT AS ROOT!

Hehe, but DON'T do everything as root. Root is DANGEROUS! Just recently, I was running as root (for a good reason... repartitioning stuff) And I accidently deleted the entire contents of one of my primary subtrees... (I think it was /var) I ended up having to reinstall.

The moral of the story: As root, BE CAREFUL! ;)

[gubder]

Originally posted by MichaelAnthony:
Which distro are you using? Are you sure man is installed on your system?

[ 27 March 2001: Message edited by: MichaelAnthony ]

I'm using debian 2.2 and no, I'm not sure I have man installed. All I know is that I come up with a command prompt where I can do a few commands (builtins, I assume) and such. What I'd like to do is learn my way around and know which programs to use and how to install them. I could use some recommendations for packages. I would like to get some kind of shell working that makes the commandline a bit more palatable. I don't have a clue as to what, when, how to do anything even with the reading I've done. :confused:

[gubder]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tyr-7BE:
[B]Whoa...Debian for a newbie? That's kinda like giving a toddler a nuclear reactor to play with. I like it though...lets you have the full linux experience.


Yah... Ok. I thought I could puzzle this stuff out. Trouble is, every time I think I have something figured, I find out I haven't got something else figured that needs to come before what I think I figured in the first place. Does this sound confusing? I have a new 42gig drive and I've installed debian on it from floppy (big pile if disks!). Went through all the instructions carefully. Get a command line prompt. Can su. I've been able to bring up an editor (I think it was vi) and don't have a clue as to how to use it or what to use it on. I would like to get my manual pages up so that I can use them but I don't know where to start. I belong to hand-holders-anonamous and I'm trying to quit... I would appreciate some VERY simple 'do this' things to get me over the hump. Thanks.

[gubder]

Originally posted by bradmont@bob:~$ ./bradmont:
Hehe, but DON'T do everything as root. Root is DANGEROUS! Just recently, I was running as root (for a good reason... repartitioning stuff) And I accidently deleted the entire contents of one of my primary subtrees... (I think it was /var) I ended up having to reinstall.

The moral of the story: As root, BE CAREFUL! ;)

I know what I can do to a disk. I've done it many times. I seem to have a knak for blowing things up. I've learned a lot about what NOT to do. Anyway, I'm not afraid of screwing something up. My adopted name is Reboot!

Would you mind explaining what /var, /dev etc. are for and how they are used? I seem not to be understanding the logic of linux at all. I'm very familiar with early DOS (ms,drdos,etc.) and thought that would help me but so far I can't make the crossover. All that you may want to share will be appreciated. Please just remember that I am VERY ignorant. Thanks :confused:

[bdg1983]

Why not start with the NHF's?

Filesystems, directory layout explained etc.

It should all be in there. Take some time and read as many as you can. Also the FAQ's.

When finished here, try reading all the documentation installed with your distro. Man pages 'man commandname', How-To's, docs in /usr/doc.

Thousands of documentation sites out there. www.linuxdoc.org (http://www.linuxdoc.org) is just one of them.

Free online books at Informit (http://infobase.informit.com/linux/)

Everything you could ever want is either sitting on your HD or on the web.

[dekemoose]

/var, /etc , /usr etc are all directories in the Linux filesystem. (/) is the top of the filesystem, also referred to as the root of the filesystem, careful not to confuse this with the /root directory. /var typically contains log files, printer queues, mail queues and other items that change frequently, think of it as a directory that /var(ies) a lot. /dev is the directory containing all your devices, Linux treats a device, hard disk, sound card and such, as a file, just like any other. /bin and /sbin will typically contain a lot of your binary executables and such. /etc contains most of your configuration files. /home contains home directories for every user. These are the major subdirectories you will run into, or at least quite a few of them. Keep in mind that this information is a generalization, there will be some variance, but it is a jumping off point. I recommend the book "Running Linux" from O'Reilly as a general resource for someone learning Linux the first time. For more advanced information, I recommend their "Essential System Administration". I am a big fan of the O'Reilly books.