Guest stevek Posted October 26, 2004 Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 Hi everyone... Having decided to ditch "windows" I have managed to get Mandrake 10.0 up and running on my computer and even get my modem working. So I have a nice "stable" computer system with internet access. Which was all I ever wanted. However..!!! I have done this using just my knowledge of "windows" as Mandrake seems so good at recognising hardware etc. I have never used a "console" in my life... I WANT TO KNOW MORE...!!! But I don't quite know where to start. There are so many websites etc. I need a real "idiots guide" to start with, but I know that I have the computer skills to move on from there... Can any give me advice on a good starting point for Linux, either books or on the web.. Thanks Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tyme Posted October 26, 2004 Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 check out the FAQ's and Weblinks and read anything that interests you. That's a good starting point... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spinynorman Posted October 26, 2004 Report Share Posted October 26, 2004 You might like to check out RUTE - you'll find copies of it all over the web. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VeeDubb Posted October 27, 2004 Report Share Posted October 27, 2004 in addition to the great tips you've allready gotten, my advice is this: Break it. The best way to learn how to use a new system is to repeatedly do stuff you're told not to do, break the system, and fix it. Do this over and over and over. I'm really serious here. Play with beta software and try to compile a kernel following the faq mentioned above and skip the steps that don't sound important. Of course, it won't work, but you'll learn a lot in the process. Try to delete files that should be important. Go into the directory /etc and just start reading. It's full of all the files that controll the settings for most of you system and some of those files are REALY well commented and can teach you a lot. When you find something in /etc that you don't understand, try to change it, and when your computer won't boot into linux anymore, try to fix it. And break all the common sense rules. Run realy stupid commands as root just to see what they do. May favorite is rm -rfv / It will remove your entire file structure, it's almost as good as formatting, and best of all, it will list off every file while it goes. Then, when you've broken it so badly you can't fix it any more, format your harddrive, re-install and do it again. I know it probably sounds like I'm being a smart-ass, but I'm not. There are a couple of things you will need though. The first thing you'll need, is a lot of people who are willing to help, who know more about linux than you. Wlcome to the MandrakeUsers Board. The second thing you will need is a back-up of anything that isn't easily replaced. Since you just mved from windows to linux, I'm guessing you already did this. So far you're two for two. The Third thing, which you probably don't have, is a back-up OS. A way to get to the web to get help when you realy screw things up good. For this you should take a loot into 'live' linux distributions. Basicaly a Live distro is one that will run entirely from a CD, and give you all the basic software you might need to fix things and access the web. A few to look into are Knoppix (Based on Debian linux), PCLinuxOS (Based on mandrake by a third party) and mandrake move (actualy made by mandrake). If yo want to spend moeny on a commercial version, go with mandrake move since the commercial version plays nice with a USB key so you can actualy have place to store a /home directory. Of the others I prefer knoppix. This is one of those thingsthat nobody should be without. The last thing you need, in spades, is patients. It can be very frustrating learning a new system, especialy the hard way, but the rewards are great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aRTee Posted October 27, 2004 Report Share Posted October 27, 2004 My advice: start reading my website, then go ahead and write some additional info that is useful for beginners. I'd be happy to put it up and give you the credit. Other things you can do: add to the twiki: http://mandrake.vmlinuz.ca/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arctic Posted October 27, 2004 Report Share Posted October 27, 2004 Run realy stupid commands as root just to see what they do. May favorite is rm -rfv / It will remove your entire file structure, it's almost as good as formatting, and best of all, it will list off every file while it goes. here are some good links to start with: http://linux-newbie.sunsite.dk/ http://www.tldp.org/guides.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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