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I just installed - what next?


Gowator
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The idea of this thread is (hopefully a mod will sticky it) that we add those first steps to other FAQ's for a sucessful install.

 

 

The idea is someone has just installed so lets link the first things first and make sure they get the best out of it...

 

(We can also make a Im going to install for the first time thread if this works)

 

1) I installed - everything looks fine... and I have my <user>

First things first, make yourself another user, possibly two. Call these test and games for instance.

The password can be the same as your 'regualr account'

 

Now you have a user called test... when you want to try different desktops or customising them you can do it here. That way you have no chance of wrecking your working account.

 

Games can have a light WM configured by default, like ICEWM, fluxbox (a bit more work since it needs extra software) or fvmw2 etc.

 

2) Set up your URPMI sources...these are software sources on the internet... that can add/replace the Cd's with more and later software. It is one of the best features of mandrake and ... not mentioned very well in their guides... if you have broadband it will change the way you use mandrake... if you have dial up it

 

URPMI link

We also have a URPMI FAQ on the board.

 

3) Check what services are running ... if you have a slower/older machine you might want to streamline the background tasks which are not being used.

 

....

please add your start off tips here.

 

links to useful site's....

aRTee's site aRTee's site... contains articvles for new users, tutorials etc.

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Next tip....

How about backing up the whole of the /etc directory .. whilst everythings working.

 

Most config is in this directory so if something breaks having a copy is always useful.

 

open a terminal and su - (typing the root passwd)

if you included the - you should be in /root

 

tar cvf orig_etc.tar /etc

should make a file in /root called orig_etc.tar (if you like you can compress this with bzip2 orig_etc.tar

 

Now if you play about with the config and break something you can find the original file.

 

However whenever you edit something its a good idea to make a backup of the file

Say you want to edit lilo.conf

 

first

cp /etc/lilo.conf /etc/lilo.conf.orig

 

that way you always have an escape....

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  • 1 month later...

Install multiple desktops

 

I just recently installed mdk 10.0 Official and now 10.1 CE. Whilst exploring Linux i discovered that when you install a particular desktop specific and different application software is included and integrated with the menu. Eventhough you can always install them afterwards, being fresh to Linux i initially didnt know how to do that.

 

So my suggestion is during install selct all desktops, ie KDE, Gnome and Others to give you enough programs and alternatives for them to play with.

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Read aRTEE's log b4 u start

 

I found a very useful link to a log aRTEE created while installing mandrake including links and tips new linux users should or would like to know. The link is as follows:

 

http://www.mandrake.tips.4.free.fr/configuration101.html

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Prompt commands to list, edit and save files

 

One of the most anoying parts of my installation was not knowing the basic commands to use at the command prompt to list, edit, save or copy a file mostly config files. This is particularly handy if the instalation of your video driver failes and you are stuck without gui or graphical user interface.

 

The community admires Linux and its powerful command prompt, BUT many people especially the youngsters dont even know what a command prompt is to begin with.

 

So one of the first steps of anyone installing Linux is to understand and know the basic commands to be used at the command prompt.

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good points...

on the command prompt (CLI) a good trick is copy and paste this into a document you keep on the desktop (I use KDE mainly so I use kwrite) and as you do something useful highlight and paste then add a quick comment...

 

I call mine useful.txt and another postinstall.txt

useful is lots of tips and tricks all collected...

postinstall.txt is what i have done after the install (setting up urpmi etc.) all as much from possible under a cLI... (its easier to document than screenshots)

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Document your steps and setup

 

I always keep a document where i write down all the steps i took to install. That one proved to be a great asset when i had to go back for whatever reason.

 

The other thing handy to have at every os install is one simple textfile to store all your settings like:

1. what equipment, hardware is present

2. how is the hard drive organised/partitioned

3. what are your mail accounts and passwords

4. what is the configuartion information of your internet connection

5. what is the location of all the laterst driver information

6. what forums did u signup to and ther nicks and passwords

...

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This is less 'tip' and more 'question', but I like the way the CLI (bash) remembers what you have previously typed in a file somewhere, so if you repetitvely break something like I do, you just scroll untill you find the command you need. But I'd like to save a copy of the remebered commands to paste it into my re-installation, and hopefully the CLI will have all my saved commands.

But where is this file stored?

handy, if you can't type.....like me!

 

ps. I suppose this is not conducive to learning linux CLI, because you tend to 'type' less and 'scroll' more!

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How about beginning to learn about how things work.  Getting to know how things work, makes it easier to manage your own system, and makes (at least me) appreciate my system more.  Links like this are very useful as a reference, or general knowledge.  It has helped me out a bunch.

 

:D

 

I was going to suggest reading Using linux 4th Edition, but that rute guide is excellent too and in true open source tradition - free.

 

I know when I started using Linux - I was lucky because I love reading tech manuals and all things computer related. I would say that it is important to understand if this is the type of person you are. This alone should suggest what type of distro that you might choose. Love reading man pages = slackware, debian etc or Hate reading anything = Linspire etc.

 

Mandrake is kind of in the middle of those. IMHO

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This is less 'tip' and more 'question', but I like the way the CLI (bash) remembers what you have previously typed in a file somewhere, so if you repetitvely break something like I do, you just scroll untill you find the command you need. But I'd like to save a copy of the remebered commands to paste it into my re-installation, and hopefully the CLI will have all my saved commands.

But where is this file stored?

handy, if you can't type.....like me!

 

ps. I suppose this is not conducive to learning linux CLI, because you tend to 'type' less and 'scroll' more!

 

 

in your home directory is a file .bash_history , its just plain text..

 

another good tip after making changes is to copy this and then you have a documented record of what you just did!

 

you can use the envvar HISTORY to set the length of remembered commands!

 

but you can also do really cool things like substitution on the CLI ...

 

try a

man history

 

also learn to use pipes and redirection operators

for instance

lsmod > modlist_install

will make a file called modlist_install with the output of lsmod

lspci -v >pcilist etc will save a list of your pci bus and whats connected etc. etc.

>> will append to an existing file (if available) whereas > will overright it.

 

unless specified this only effects std_out and std_error will still go to the screen.

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indeed to see hidden files at the CLI type

ls -a (for all)

however hidden just means hidden... because files have real permissions (unlike FAT/NTFS) so hidden and not executable are different!

 

for instance

cp /home/me/.bash_history /home/me/backup_bash_h

will create a non hidden file directly, no need to unhide it first :D

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