simple things :D

[W]

hey all

i'm extremely new to linux :D
basically absolutely have no idea wat's going on :confused:

i have rh 7.1 and have that succesfully installed.
need to know

1) how to install my modem, if possible w/out goin to command line, but if so, please as simple as possible. didn't understand half the rants on other bbs for this step

2) how do u install software? ones u dl from the net? like the *.tar.gz files? and also *.rpm files?

3) installing drivers, how do i go about this? i guess it's related to (2) 'cos i've already dled the drivers, but no idea how to install.

Thanks in advance.

Cheers.
:D

[bdg1983]

Seems you have a lot of reading to do. You do have loads of documentation installed on your system. man pages (man <command> ), faq's, how-to's with some in text format and some in html. Fire up your file manager and have a look around the filesystem.

You'll be amazed of the amount of reading material in /usr/share/doc

1. The brand new Modem NHF (http://www.linuxnewbie.org//nhf/intel/modems/modem-how-to.html). Just make sure you don't have a winmodem.

2. The Compiling Software NHF (http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/intel/compiling/softinstall.html) explains it quite well.

'man rpm' for info on installing rpm's or just use the gui rpm package manager.

3. Read the install/readme from the package if it's driver related. Modules can be loaded with insmod or modprobe (man <either one> ) and started upon boot in /etc/rc.d/rc.local or rc.modules. Of course the startup files all depend on the distro you use. Some are different from others.

Hope this helps some and get reading.

Don't forget to review the other NHF's here and also the Linuxnewbie FAQ's.

[ 19 August 2001: Message edited by: mdwatts the 3rd ]

[Disciple]

In reguards to your how do you install tar.gz files.

go to command prompt (of course)
type: tar -zxvf filename.tar.gz


That will extract the file it's own dir. The dir should be a subdir of the current dir you are in (man if that makes since =/).

You need to then switch to that dir and open the readme file. Follow the instructions from ther. Any questions don't hesitate to ask. D|s

[bahgheera]

Hey man, don't be scared of the command line. It can be your best friend at times.
One tool that will help immeasurably at the command line is Midnight Commander. Type 'mc' at a prompt and you will get a nice and simple interface to your file system.
I do all my rpm installations with mc, you can enter an rpm or .tar.gz just like a directroy, and rpm's usually have an install script inside. All you have to do is highlight INSTALL and press enter and presto - you are installing an rpm.
Of course, right at first you will get a lot of messages saying that you need another package to install the current package. Just look through your cd's until you find the package you need, and install that one, then go back to the original package.
I hope this helps you out. Remember - mc, man, /usr/share/doc/. The three most important resources for a newbie!

[W]

Thanks for the help pplz :D

Will try and get this thing running. Man it's harder than I thought ;)