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greetings from a complete newb


daniewicz
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Greetings all from a longtime windows user who boldly took the plunge and installed Mandarake 10.

 

This looks like a useful forum, and I thought I would make my first post a combination of observations and questions.

 

I was hoping/antiicipating that Linux would recognize my PCI hardware modem during installation. It didn't happen, and I had to run setserial. Unfortunately, this was not included in the 3 installation CD's. Though easily located with a quick google, this sort of hassle is why many people are afraiid to try Linux.

 

I installed Firefox without a hitch. I am a long time Mozilla user and I love this browser.

 

My next step was to install a firewall. Firestarter seems to have issues with the 2.6 kernel, and I couldn't get it to work. GuardDog is now installed and appears to be functioning.

 

Why is there a floppy icon on my desktop? I would like to remove this, but a search of this forum and the web did not reveal any solution.

 

Maybe I have been using Windows too long, but I am very comfortable with Windows Explorer file management. I like the 2 pane view where the directories are shown on the left and the individual files are shown on the right. Is there a way to do this using gnome?

 

Thanks for reading. I am looking forward to becoming a longtime member of this forum.

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Welcome to linux and MUB :D

 

I tend to use KDE and i know the two pane is possible in explorer ... but I presume it will be under Gnome too.

 

However I tend to use it less like that. I use XP at work and I hate it more every week becuase of it forcing me to do things a certain way...

 

Im sure a gnome user will post and answer soon ....however the thing with linux is it can be more or less what you want... customisation is the norm, not unusual (see the post your desktop thread)

 

I hope you soon start feling more at home in linux and this is a very friendly place to ask dumb questions....

 

we all started off asking dumb questions and the worse that will happen is someone says read the FAQ... noone will (should) have a go at you for not understanding they cryptic language we still us :D

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Greetings, "complete newb", and welcome to this forum :D

 

IMHO (I mean honestly), this must be the most useful forum for Mandrake users on the web.

 

Could be that your modem is a winmodem, or maybe you just got unlucky. Remember, it always pays to check out hardware compatibility *before* buying something... Linux runs on many, many hardware but some things do give trouble.

 

FireFox is a smoking browser, as you will discover when you do a search for "smoking browser" B)

 

Why is there a floppy icon on my desktop? I would like to remove this, but a search of this forum and the web did not reveal any solution.

 

To access your floppy drive, of course. I suspect you can remove it by right-clicking on the icon then picking a "remove" or "delete" option.

 

So you are using Gnome? I know Konqueror (KDE) has a 2 pane view, but I am sure nautilus must have something similar.

 

Thanks for reading. I am looking forward to becoming a longtime member of this forum.

 

I hope so too. If you ever run into problems, you can always come to this board. They're very friendly people.

 

Gowator is right, you *can* ask dumb questions around here, hey I do it all of the time! Isn't that right Gowator? ;)

 

Again, welcome!

Edited by Darkelve
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I'd also like to welcome you to the world of Linux and the MUB. All of us at one point were noob's, no need to feel silly asking silly questions. We all have. Best way to learn would be to ask, read, but the best way would be to just tinker with it and break it time and time again. I've must have broken it so many times before I learned what I was doing and now it is such a rock solid system. I know Nautilus has a 2 pane view, but I would try using all kind of software and just experiment with all the flavors available to you. You will find this is probably the friendliest forum on the net today. Welcome aboard! :thumbs::headbang:

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hey welcome fellow noob ;0)

 

this is one of The best forums i know of.

 

it is a mine of really useful info, and not just about mandrake either!.

 

and everyone so far has been really friendly and helpfull to me.

(even though i type stuff maybe i wouldn't if i'd just thought it through sometimes)lol.

 

they all seem very forgiving (thank heavens for that).

best regards

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Let me join in on the greetings, I think I just hit my one month here, so we were all noobs sometime.

 

I was hoping/antiicipating that Linux would recognize my PCI hardware modem during installation. It didn't happen, and I had to run setserial. Unfortunately, this was not included in the 3 installation CD's. Though easily located with a quick google, this sort of hassle is why many people are afraiid to try Linux.

 

True, this is a hassle but there are plenty of hardware pieces you need to download drivers for with Windows as well, but I don't think it's near the issue it used to be with Linux, you just had one of those pieces.

 

And much like most of the other replies, I am a KDE user so you'll have to wait until a Gnome user drops by and they'll sort you out in a few seconds. The nice thing about Linux is that it's very difficult to break anything so feel free to tinker, most changes are easily undone (except those made with tools like DiskDrake, be wary and make backups). Good luck. :D

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howdy :bvc:

look in the Preferences menu for gnome.....do you see an entry that says

File Browser (I think)

that's it. All it is, is the command

nautilus --browser

SEE: nautilus --help

for more info.

 

In the gconf-editor (configuration utility) >apps>nautilus><somewhere?> you can make the browser mode the default. Sorry, I'm on win2k rt-now at work.

 

Floppy on the Desktop? If you're like me and NEVER, EVER use it. Comment out (#) the floppy entry from your /etc/fstab file. Or, remove from its entry

supermount

and replace with noauto, or somthing like that, sorry it's been a while.....there's lots of fstabs entries here and on google. It is a critical file so be careful with it and back it up! You could also search the Tips and Tricks forum with my name and icons and use the tip I posted and got from DOlson.

 

Modem? If it's a winmodem that can be made to work in linux, I'd post a new thread for it......to give it special attention and so someone that has the same modem may see the thread, so they can help.

 

HaVe fUn!

Edited by bvc
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*says hello*

I've only have Linux about...5-6 months now...I still consider myself a noob...there's always something to learn! (A lot more so if you forget to read the documentation or are just too lazy - sorry for all the times I've done that BTW :P)

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Thanks for all the warm welcomes.

 

Right clicking on the floppy icon does not give me the option to delete. I will look into using the fstab file.

 

Regarding the explorer view, I did not see any File Browser option in Nautilus....

 

Lastly, regarding the PCI modem that Linux would not recognize. The modem is a US Robotics hardware modem.

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http://mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=6379&hl=icons

 

how about Browse Filesystem? Is that in the menu?

open a terminal and do;

nautilus --browser

 

Use that command and Create Launcher by rt-clicking the desktop or Add a Launcher by rt-clicking the gnome-panel. You can use menudrake to add it to the menu. Or in a terminal do;

gconf-editor

If nothing happens install gconf-editor with;

urpmi gconf-editor

Go to apps>nautilus>preferences and check off, always_use_browser.

 

Is the usr modem a 5610B? There's a thread about getting that to work recently. It was an easy fix if I remember right.

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Thanks for all the warm welcomes.

 

Right clicking on the floppy icon does not give me the option to delete. I will look into using the fstab file.

 

Regarding the explorer view, I did not see any File Browser option in Nautilus....

 

Lastly, regarding the PCI modem that Linux would not recognize. The modem is a US Robotics hardware modem.

In the KDE control center there is an option to disable "dynamic icons" on the desktop. This would remove that floppy icon. I assume there's something similar in the gnome-control-center. I haven't used Gnome in a while, so I wouldn't know where to begin to look for it.

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trust me...there's not.

 

Also FYI in gconf-editor>apps>nautilus>preferences there's a window_always_new option.

 

the gconf-editor is nice, but be careful with it. Though things are much more repairable than with regedit in windows, that's pretty much what it is. What you find in it varies between distros and there are many hacks, which I've forgotten because most have become standard. Most that you see in gconf-editor were 'hacks', or had to be manually added, back in gnome2.2.

 

I'm on fedora_2_core. In

gconf-editor>apps>nautilus>desktop, by default there was a key

computer_icon_visible

but I didn't like the name 'Computer' though I've changed it back so I said "well, there are keys

home_icon_name

trash_icon_name

why not

computer_icon_name

????"

made the new key and it worked.

 

So, go to

gconf-editor>apps>nautilus>desktop

and you'll see

computer_icon_visible

trash_icon_visible

So why not a

floppy_icon_visible

????

add a Boolean key>set it to true and see if the icon disappears. Logout and back in if you have to.

 

Hope it works.

:bvc:

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bvc:

 

yes, the offending modem was a 5610B

 

playing around with the sidepane, I was able to get the explorer type view I wanted

 

to remove the floppy icon, i edited fstab and replaced the floppy related line with:

/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy auto defaults,noauto,sync,user 0 0

 

this removed the icon

a right click on the desktop enables me to select floppy, at which point the icon will reappear

a right click on the floppy icon allows me to select eject, at which point the icon disappears

and so I am happy :thumbs:

Edited by daniewicz
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