aRTee

Like I explained, there is no reason that without graphics you would not be able to read the manual. Linux is often used without graphics, and basically the manual is made in a way that it is accessible without having any graphics system running, like on a server. BTW without a mouse, you could also have hit the windows-key (between the alt and ctrl keys) which opens the menu, then use the arrow keys to get to the info/help/doc section. But, yes you are right, it is easy to forget how it was before, to use linux as an absolute beginner. Also, when I was an absolute beginner, there were always plenty of more advanced users around (uni, computer room). Don't worry about stupid questions, as long as you put in some effort yourself. Hey, you're new, and there is soo much info it is hard to find what you are looking for. Welcome to linux, hope you enjoy it!

I think it helps to tell people about where to find info in the same place where you explain the first things they need to know. I will definitely put a clear mention on my website about this info, in the section about looking for info/help/troubleshooting. I already have man:/ in konqueror all over the place on my site, I believe it helps when people are actually told which friendly manual is actually meant when people tell them to rtfm... About the 9.1 documentation, isn't it released under some form of GPL? In which case it could be put on this site somewhere, or if the site admins think Mdk wouldn't like it, I could put it on my site..? Don't know how much work that would be though, I have too little time as it is...

Once you are in the console, you only have to press alt+F[1-7], F1 to F6 are your consoles (remember, linux has been truly multitasking from the beginning.... contrary to some other os-es), F7 is for the graphical stuff. Actually, F7 to F12 is for graphical sessions, but usually you only have the first one (F7).... Read the howto section of my website for more info, or check the tips and tricks forum here. One friend of mine uses a second graphical session for his wife, so he can have his stuff (download p2p etc) and she can do email, without messing with his account, all at the same time, at the switch of 3 buttons... :)

Motts, I'm impressed; I hope this works for KShots, and if it does, I'm just going to have to copy paste that message to the Howto section of my website... ;)

No but I will, thanks for the link! Back to more important stuff: my website (see sig, working on some articles).. (should have taken the nick "preacher" instead of aRTee,... I'm in an advocating mood.... :) )

Can you ping the windows machine from the server? Other than that I have no idea.. Oh yeah, the vncserver doesn't care about video cards, if your pc boots without a card it can even work!! (normally pc's won't boot without though) So that's why vnc is no nice... Oh and you can even use it at a higher resolution than your video card would allow too and higher colour depth... (btw it is not ssh-ing into X, you just need ssh if you have no keyboard/mon attached to the server and want to control it.. you need vncserver on the server and vncviewer on the client) What if you start a vnc session on the linux machine (skip the ssh part)? Can you connect to that? I'm just guessing here, it may be that in MCC -> network (you can run this on the console too I think/hope) internet connection sharing you have to indicate that you want to allow all traffic to connect. (Don't know if this is a firewall or not, maybe just iptables..?? Don't know much about this..) Oh yeah, can you do: ps -ef | grep ssh to see if your ssh deamon is running? Also, can you ping the linux machine from the win machine? If not, somehow the linux box is just still refusing all connections, you won't get far if it doesn't respond to ping....

Good points, but I treat this on another page, acquisition, so no need to go in detail in this article. Nonetheless, I will add that comment that powerpacks really are that: powerpacks... ;) I'm currently getting ready to put this on the web,... guess OSnews posts anything lately, so why not this... :) Or should I go for some zdnet site?? In any case, I would like to get this on sites that are (also) oriented towards windows users, for people on linux sites this advice may just come too late.. What do you guys (and girls) think?

Hooray! Congrats! Some extra info, in case you are interested in doing the same: from memory, how it was at this friends place: just modprobe the driver (/etc/modules.conf only gets read upon boot AFAIK) ... then ifconfig [drivername] eth# [address] up (hmm, try man ifconfig for correct order/syntax, but I think you have done this before...) then once it is up, just connect to it with any other machine, if you have only win machines, use putty, else use ssh (make sure on the linuxserver sshd is running), then login (under normal user), start a vncsession, if you can figure out how to set it you may want to use icewm instead of kde (less resource hungry), then use vncviewer (tightvnc on linux, vncviewer.exe on win, google to find it..) to connect to the server, and voila, you have a graphical desktop that runs on the (headless) server displayed on your client pc... Anyhow, maybe you already knew a lot/all of this, but in short this is the way I like to set things up....

Tried this, but then http://java.sun.com/openstudio/applets/clock.html crashes my opera... Ah well, java works fine on mozilla...

Owww how could I have missed that! LOL ;) with all the links you posted! Anyhow, I hope KShots will manage, so KShots, please post if you do! (I'm really hoping to read a message from you stating: hey, writing this from a linux machine connected to my inet server... :) )

I also like mplayer for .avi but also dvd playback. Just no menu support, but it directly starts the movie (meaning: skipping all crappy commercials), and you can easily right-click then choose language, subs, skip to chapters etcetc... Usually I take xine for dvds though.. But I'll have a look at this lindvd anyway. [edit] seems it's for manufacturers only, darn, I'd be interested in this dvd authoring and pvr stuff.. ;)

I recently helped a friend with his setup, similar: 2 nics, one to the cablemodem (gets address via dhcp), the other to share the net. He also gets this eth0:9 or eth1:9, happens on both cards! ....whichever is connected to the modem gets that... if he fiddles with the modem, switches it off, then on, then restarts the network or so (forgot which order), somehow it suddenly takes shape in the normal way, i.e. no more :9, just plain good addresses... and then the connection to the internet is functional. As I don't have the same cards I couldn't try if it would be the same for me (I also have one machine as server and gateway, with two nics).... BTW to make sure things are ok, if you don't have a monitor/keyboard/mouse on that pc, just connect to it with another pc via ssh, then start vnc, then you can do everything graphically. Naturally for this to work, at least one nic must be functional... :) In MCC, network, there is some entry for safety/firewall (forgot what it says), make sure you turn it off for testing, if it's on (what gets set when you choose internet sharing) the dumb box doesn't even respond to ping anymore, ..... Oh yeah, this colleague only had a tv connected to his server,... that was a b*tch to set up..

Hi, nice you managed to fix things. Just wanted to say: write things down??? You have this on the same computer, you could have just mounted that other partition, if you don't know how to do it with mount you could just go into MCC, hardware, disk, (or run diskdrake), config, then click the partition mdk9.0 was on, make/select a mountpoint for it, then mount it. I have all my other partitions mounted, my alternative linux root at /alt and the alternative /home (I need that so I can run anything, incl very instable stuff, as the alternative linux, but want to mimic the final setup) under /althome. You can just make mountpoints under /mnt/ No writing down (risking mistakes...) anymore....

Small addition: how I test my (new or modified xfconfig): with X -xf86config newconfigfile :1 & as user I start a new X without any wm (you just get the cross-shaped pointer), with the file [newconfigfile] which must be in the standard /etc/X11 dir (if started as root, you can point to any file anywhere, just a safety mechanism that a user can't just run any xf86config). So then I can test if my new configfile works. To use it, I do: export DISPLAY=:1 and then one of the following: xvidtune & startkde & gnome-session & or icewm & with xvidtune, or any other normal program, you can run it, but since there is no wm, you can't resize/move etc any window, there will be no windowframe. Of course you can do all this whilst there is no X running at all, if you boot to init3.... So you can have X with no wm at all in various ways...

I didn't want to be unconstructive so I waited for others to post the useful answers, but just so you know, you can easily access all stuff without your mouse, and even without graphics functioning. man [command] on the console will help you out to find out how to use [command] (yes you are new, so this would not help you since you don't know which command to look for) info [command] can also give insightful information If you want to browse help files in html format, just use lynx [file.html] on the console. A mouse is not a necessity, just a nice plus. ;) (and yes, of course we all want it; just to let you know it is possible to get by without, which I do regularly when connecting to another machine via ssh for instance...)

Type free at a command line. If it tells you that swap is being used, more ram could speed things up. If no swap is used (under normal use), then more ram would do nothing, just sit there unused.... My results: free total used free shared buffers cached Mem: 904376 896736 7640 0 16228 689588 -/+ buffers/cache: 190920 713456 Swap: 1044184 0 1044184 (ok, I have too much money and so 1GB of ram. But I want to run loads of apps at the same time, and this makes sure things won't slow down...) Note also that when I had only 512MB of ram, linux tended also not to use swap, it just knows now that it can, and so will, use it...

Hi mousematt, the funny thing is, my computer has a gf4, my girlfriends a gf2mx, same driver.... but then again, our problems may be only slightly related, with the same visual end results... Hope you have better luck at fixing things than I... no good sofar...

Fixed is maybe not the word, howabout: getting it to work again by working around things in a nasty way... And no, if I turn on java, it doesn't want to be turned on (risk of instability), and when I start from commandline, it just tells me it turned java off. However, you can run it with java on, just give the proposed option upon start (from konsole)...

Thanks for that link to that thread,... tried, didn't work (at first it did though). Had 2 serious crashes.... no way to even ssh into my machine. I think these were my first true linux crashes.... Since all works fine under another user, I just migrated all from my account to another user account, then did a mv on my account, copied all the stuff from this new user account, then chown/chgrp the whole thing and logged on. Opera is working fine now. If this happens again, I'll figure out how to setup moz (or phoenix or whatever) to work as I like, and use that...

Linx, I agree, and that is what I advice people on my website -- try the complete version before you buy. If you buy at all. This article is intended to get people to think things over, and prepare well. To use linux is one thing, to properly install and configure is another. Most can do the first without any problem, the latter is more problematic... I'm just sick and tired of reading articles about how great and easy linux is and then articles about how much it sucks. Both opinions are fully valid, but the people in the latter group could most likely have avoided all trouble just by thinking things over, for instance guided by my article.... There are plenty of caveats for new or aspirant linux users, and one of the most important things is to make them see that it's perfectly ok that linux is not windows, nor that it should be. Many overly positive articles about switching to linux from windows or osX are done by people who either had good guidance, got lucky, had the right mindset (thinking out of the box) or whatnot. Many negative articles, about how linux is userunfriendly, isn't ready for the desktop etc are by people who completely 'voilated' (parts of) one or more of the three main points I discuss: motivation, expectation, preparation. If you are off on any of these in a major way, linux is bound to disappoint you. I don't want to scare people into using/ moving to linux, but too many don't have their feet on the ground, finally resulting only into becoming linux bashers, and from where they stand, they're not even wrong.... Most of all, I want people to realise that linux has lots to offer, but they have to have an open mind.... that's why I hammer on the point of linux not being free as in free beer, it costs! But this is not a bad thing, everybody easily forgets that getting to use windows or osX also does not come automatically. BTW I'm also working on a page debunking the Myth of userfriendlyness or lack thereof in linux vs windows (and yes, for day to day use and administration linux is, for me at least, way more userfriendly than windows)... more about that later... Anyhow, any more comments? Sometime this week I will post the current version of the article here, it's just been updated slightly, partially as a result of the comments here.

Well, interestingly, I did the following: I logged on onto the console and started another x-session, and did a gnome-session. Then started opera. Voila. Then started a kde session as another user. All ok. Even with my .opera/ copied to that user. So the difference must be somewhere in my kde settings stuff. I will first try to delete all those settings, then see what happens. (For my website it's actually nice to start all over, then I can keep track of all the things to change to get where I am now in terms of KDE config...) But if that should fail, I will do as you advice, and thanks for your comments. (BTW current version: 6.12 mdk with shared libs)

All of a sudden, opera refuses to start. I didn't change anything, (welll, did install the vera bitstream fonts).. Can't start from the panel. Ok, then from a Konsole: $ opera & [1] 4514 [robert@zurich robert]$ /usr//bin/opera: line 138: 4516 Segmentation fault "${BINARYDIR}/opera" "${@}" [1]+ Exit 139 opera So I look in /usr/bin/opera, it's just a script that starts /usr/X11R6/bin/opera which also segfaults. Then I do su - testuser [testuser@zurich testuser]$ opera & [1] 4461 [testuser@zurich testuser]$ java: Disabling java due to potential dangers. If you know what you are doing, you can set the environment variable OPERA_FORCE_JAVA_ENABLED to '1' to override this. Start Opera with '-debugjava' argument for more information. and everything is fine. So now I'm running opera as this testuser (after copying over my settings, so I didn't even have to log on onto this board.. BTW searched with google and on some forums, all I could find is one guy who had managed to fix things by deinstalling and reinstalling. No go for me.... Even if I do a mv .opera .opera.old it doesn't help.... There is probably some setting wrong somewhere, but I don't know where. (env variable?) (I also tried gdb opera, but no debugging info is present...) Any hints?

Ok, I'll put that in one of the reasons for using linux, you get a distro and are done with paying. I already changed some things (that are not in the above text), like putting in the advantages of no-lock-in, no single supplier etcetc. I'll put in free downloads/upgrades too, and open standards so no forced upgrades in that respect... Thanks for your comments. Keep 'em coming ;)

qnr, thanks!! Exactly why I posted here first, I knew I would take things for granted... I will put in an explanation of 'free speech' etc.. About being petty for wanting MS/BG bankrupt,.. I don't know how that comes across, I don't want to sound to harsh/blunt,... I just don't want my site to seem like a site from and for people that just like to bash MS... I don't mind if you want to see MS bankrupt, if it motivates you to get out the word about linux and help people out etcetc... My personal take: I think the MS monopoly must be broken. All that I can do about it is not use any MS products and help other people to do likewise. I inform them about it on one hand, and help them move to linux on the other. This site is the 'other' hand. It seems people like it, I have had 1000 hits since I started a month ago... pretty good. (The counter counts ip addresses, so it's not like I am upping the counter by hitting reload..) I will (time permitting... ;) ) at some point put up a site for the 'one' hand, probably just link to any reasonable (non-vulgar, serious) piece about why the MS monopoly is bad, should be broken asap etcetc. I've been collecting links and data for the last year or so.. but I wanted to concentrate on the more positive, building up kind of thing..... But maybe I should rephrase, and just put that moving to linux from windows helps on the scale of things, so the monopoly can be broken in time... (which is a better goal than to want to see MS bankrupt.... who knows, without a monopoly they might even become innovative...!! ;) )

As you may know, I'm working on my website, and last week I got inspired to write something about how to avoid a problematic transition to linux, wasting time etc. Basically, I'm trying to make my website into something like a guide, mostly aimed to mdk users, but (I think) with a lot of info for anyone new to linux (or even not using linux but curious about it); it currently looks like a 'book' with the chapters home (intro) - (to appear, see below) successful switching - acquiring linux - installation - configuration - console (more in depth) - links (will be revamped soon) - howtos (that I really have to work on..) If people want to start with linux, I have found that it is not good to pass them the cd's and a link to an install review. So here is my take on what people should consider before switching, what they should investigate etcetc.. Please tell me how you like it, how it comes across. Am I making sense or not? Am I downright mistaken about things? Does this lack important comments? Hey, thanks for reading all the way!! Now hit that reply button and give me your feedback!