HUGE Newbie Rant!! and a Question...

[sickb0y82]

You don't understand how utterly excited I am about RedHat 8. I have NO IDEA about ANYTHING having to do with Linux in general and I am so eager to learn! Yesterday I recieved these 3 suspicious disks from a co-worker containing RedHat Linux 8.0 on them. He gave me a brief explanation. I went home to my Windows 2000 Pro machine and decided to partition my drives to install this alien OS on my system. After installation, I went back to Windows 2K and deleted it. I am now a permanent Linux user. The only problem is...I have no idea what I am doing. I am learning slowly but surely.

Thats my story, here's my question. I've been having trouble getting Themes installed on RedHat 8. I've downloaded a few, tried to do the install thing in the theme prefs, nothing happens. Then I figure out that they are GZ files, which, in my puny Microsoft mind is like a ZIP file! So I decompress it, drag the directory in which the theme is located, and do the install thing, again, nothing happens. i *THINK* my "Window Manager" is GNOME, but I am not sure on that one. I want to install Enlightenment, and I am having trouble with that too. If you can solve my problem or give ANY kind of tips to a DAY OLD newbie to Linux, PLEAAASSSEEE!!! Any info will be more than appreciated, I might even send you a fruit basket if it really helps me!!!! HAIL LINUX!!!! FREE INFO AND OS TO ALL!!! (can you sense the enthusiasm?)

[sickb0y82]

by the way, my GAIM is sickb0y82 and my email is, well, sickboy82@aol.com....so if you want to contact me feel free. I LOVE THE PENGUIN!!!

[cyberhwk]

I'm not sure about the themes. They never seemed important enough for me to try to learn. But welcome to linux. Also please support me in my conquest to take over the world. Thank you.

Remember tux is your friend.:D

[P. N. Guin]

Well, if nothing else, I'll give you credit for being brave. Deleting your Win2K partition after one day on Linux...wow.

Other than my vote of confidence for your juevos grandes, I can offer little technical support. I am still a newbie myself, and haven't had as much time to devote to Linux as I would like.

I will say you may want to approach future endeavors in Linux with a tad more caution, from what I gather, it is quite easy to botch things up when administering your system as root.

Good luck,

the P. N. Guin

[mychl]

Welcome aboard. There are a few things you should know so that you can find your own answers when no here can help.....

MAN pages are your friends.... any command, program, utility you want to know more about... type man NAMEofWHATyourLOOKINGfor and you will get the MANual pages for it.

This is done in a terminal.... you'll have one in your menu somewhere..look under system tools.

Another thing to know... the command line. Linux has a great GUI, but sometimes you just need to get down to business, and the command line is the best way to do this. You will learn linux 10x faster using the command line than any gui around.

If you are familiar with getting around in DOS then you should be ok.... ls = dir, cp=copy, mv=move, cd ..=cd.. etc........

Another thing to keep in mind is that there are more help documents and sources for linux on the web than for any other OS. GOOGLE will be your very best source of info.

Then you should know the differences in rpm and tar.gz files... 2 ways of installing/uninstalling packages in linux.... so to learn more about rpm, type man rpm and start reading....(although man pages can be a pain in the a$$, so go get a nice book to reference)

Other than that, I think your attitude will get you far in linux, you seem to want to learn it enough to excell.

Good Luck, and again, Welcome to LNO.

[Dizzybacon]

For installing software from .tar.gz files have a look at this (http://www.linuxnewbie.org/nhf/Compiling_Kernels/Compiling_Software.html). that should get you started.

RH will probably come supplied with most of the new software that you'll want to begin with. Have a look through the menus for something like a software manager.

Dizzy

[Wallex]

Well.. about Enlightenment.. you haven't mentioned what kinds of problems you have... E is not that difficult to get, it just takes a bit of patience because it has a lot of dependencies. If I were you I would pop in again those installation disks and do an 'upgrade', look carefully for the packages you have available, and see if you can find enlightenment among them. I use Suse 8.0, it by default only provided me with 5 windows managers (from which the only ones non-crappy where KDE and windowMaker), but after checking the cd's I found blackbox, fluxbox, Enlightenment among others... the default installation gives you lots of programs, but there are probably more in there waiting. Or if you are gonna go and download/install them...
Remember there are two paths (at least for a Red Hat user): RPMs or Source. Rpms are the easiest to install.. but to avoid dependency problems, you should use a package manager like Ximian red-carpet (there are others, too). Rpms are easier to install since they come precompiled for your computer. Source files are more generic in the sense they are the very source from the program, and these need to be compiled before being installed. Read the INSTALL file included in these programs you'll be set. Just go and enjoy the ride... and when the problems arise remember you have LNO to help... just be sure to first do a search to see if someone else had the same problem before, some questions are amazingly popular around here.

[windoze killa]

Originally posted by sickb0y82
by the way, my GAIM is sickb0y82 and my email is, well, sickboy82@aol.com....so if you want to contact me feel free. I LOVE THE PENGUIN!!!

You have been using linux for a day. You are connected to the net. You got gaim working. You have email set up. AND you say you have no idea what you are doing. Well I wish I had just as much of no idea as you have. Took me months to get on the net and get things going properly.

Congrats

[Wallex]

Originally posted by windoze killa


You have been using linux for a day. You are connected to the net. You got gaim working. You have email set up. AND you say you have no idea what you are doing. Well I wish I had just as much of no idea as you have. Took me months to get on the net and get things going properly.

Congrats

I would say he was 'lucky' to get all his hardware detected on the fly... unless.. he really did checked the hardware compatibility list. If he has just clicked here and there and is not used to the terminal, then he was 'lucky' by all means and could very well be a newbie... not everyone has problems with hardware recognition/software installations the first time....

[adhall02]

I have posted this URL before, but it has helped me with some of the basic commands: http://www.oreillynet.com/linux/cmd/

[sickb0y82]

Wow, let me start by saying you people are so much nicer than anyone I have ever encountered on a Microsoft forum. Coincidence? I dunno. As far as the hardware thing is concerned, I did actually check the hardware compatibility thing, because my NIC wasn't working at the beginning, and I found out it was because NETGEAR is not linux-supported, so I had to go out and cough up $80 for a 3com. And yes, I DID run the hardware checking thingy at startup, set it to DHCP, and BAM! internet on the fly. I am forever endebted to those of you who have replied to my little thread and have helped me significantly. I was an MCSE and a Microsoft loyalist for several years. I know there is a terminal console for commands, and I'm still trying to figure out the basics. I have yet to learn how to actually INSTALL applications. I can download them, but I have had NO luck with installation. Actually, its better that GNOME will have nothing to do with InstallShield!!!! It will force people like me to learn more. On that note, I would like to call out to the overly kind people who have replied to ask a new question.....how the hell do I install applications on this thing???

P.S. I have been digging really deep into the RPM and TAR.GZ how to's and other documents concerning those extensions. By the way, to those of you kind enough to help, send me an address if you would like a fruit basket!!!

[blakelock]

keep in mind that I'm a bit of a newb myself but have been digging my way through for a few months.

Installing usually begins with downloading a gzipped, tarred, or both file. You unzip/untar with commands you can find in the NHF on this site. Then you can compile and install (also described in the NHFs). If you download .rpm files you can use the 'rpm' command at the command prompt. Type "man rpm" to get info on using that command. There should also be info on package management (install, uninstall, upgrade, etc.) in the red hat documentation. using rpm is nice becuase (I think) it checks for and lists any unsatisfied dependancies. If there are unsatisfied dependancies, you should install those programs first.

Themes (and applications for that matter) usually have a readme file. After decompressing your downloaded file(s) look for a readme or similar file. It should have useful info on what to do next.

Good luck,

[Wallex]

Since we are talking about installation basics... one thing that is suggested is to stick to the package management system. Rpms are easier to install and update if you find the rpms that were made for your distro and architecture... rpmfind.net is a good site for rpm users. Now... tar.gz or tar.bz or whatever (source files) are also good to use (well... sort of. At least you can 'always' install a source file if you can't find the right rpm for you), but be warned.. when you install stuff from source, the rpm database will not 'know', and thus you could have dependency problems later on... that's why it is usually not a good idea to mix rpms and source-installed programs. I guess one way around this is using checkinstall, you'll 'create' rpms on the fly from the sourcecode you are trying to install, and thus it'll keep the rpm database as you install the files. I use SuSE... and you can hardly ever find rpm's for this distro, and I usually end up downloading source files... until lately when I tried installing rpms... note: if you pick the 'wrong version' of an rpm you'll likely to end up with tons of dependency problems with programs that could very well be already installed, and that is annoying. Yeah it would be easier if all distros would install the packages in the same directories...

[digitalnick]

well by your enthusiam and egerness to get rid of windows and hunger to learn linux i might suggest trying to install gentoo linux on your other partition ..... not too bad if youi follow the instructions and it is a distro that really embraces the commandline so it might help you get used to it just a thought good luck inj youir endevor

[dictd]

my advice: get a book called
Red hat linux 7.2 weekend crash course
here (amazon) (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0764536427/qid=1034789308/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-8771943-8844164?v=glance)

It will get you up to speed quick.

When you feel ready for more advanced stuff, get this book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130333514/qid%3D1034789447/sr%3D11-1/ref%3Dsr_11_1/102-8771943-8844164), which is also available free here (http://rute.2038bug.com/index.html.gz)

or as a pdf (http://www.icon.co.za/~psheer/rute.pdf.bz2) if you prefer.

Welcome to the open source world.

quick tip... install apt4rpm and synaptic... the apt tool makes life easy. If you decide that you want to try debian, give me a holler.

-kit

[sir_tal]

I, too applaud your enthusiasm for Linux. I am a bit more cautious. I have WinXP installed on another hard drive, and as soon as I get a chance to get WINE (Program that allows you to run Win programs on Linux) working, I'll be good to go. :)

I also concur with everyone on this forum that RPM's are the way to go when installing files, but some stuff just does not come in an RPM format. In such a case, you'll need to compile from source. I don't know the address for the Software Compiling Newbieized Help File, but you can click on NHF at the top of the linuxnewbie.com site, then click on Compiling the Kernel, then click on Compiling Software. This will walk you through it.

One more thing. I had problems with the same things...installing software. Red Hat's installation program does not mention that you need the Developer Packages installed on your system in order to compile software to be installed on your system. Make sure you have these installed by popping in the 1st installation disc and checking.

And finally posters on this forum are infinitely nicer than Linux users on other forums. Quite often, a newbie is likely to get a rude RTFM, or Search Google you Lazy bastard reply. here, this is not the case, and I thank all of the users of these forums for your kindness in helping others learn to love Linux.

L8er.

-Chris

[dictd]

Originally posted by sir_tal

I also concur with everyone on this forum that RPM's are the way to go when installing files

DEB's are the way for me, actually.
Most of the RPM's available haven't gone through peer review that is as extensive as the official DEB's get.

Just my $.02

-kit

[Wobbly]

I bought "Sam's Teach Yourself SuSE Linux in 24 Hours", locked myself in my room for a weekend and had at it. By the end I had a pretty good knowledge of the basics. I'm sure there's one for RH, too. Best of luck, Juevos Grandes (I still have a windoze drive on my machine!)

Wob.

[Vm.]

Hi all,

I am pretty much of a newbie myself so I will not dare teach anyone here. Instead, I will just share my experience. RTFM is not rude... It means "Read The Fine Manual", if you have some other interpretation of it, then it's your problem. ;) j/k

Besides, about the 'installing thing'...

When installing 'rpm' packages, I prefer to do it through the command line. I usually need to be a super user to install RPM packages. Then I just type in this command:

rpm -ivh file.rpm

...and it does everything for me.

When I install from a .tar.gz file, I have a recognised a basic pattern in all software installations.

First of all, I found that GCC is absolutely necessary to compile most of the programs I get. And things like Wine even asked me to install 'Flex' and 'Bison'...

The basic pattern I found was this:

tar -zxvf file.tar.gz
(then switch to the directory where the files were extracted)

then type: ./configure

and then type: make

and then type: make install

Boom! That's it. But I don't install anything without reading the README files that come with the software.