I'm such a linux n00b

[GhostCow]

Ok, I conviced my grandmother to try linux out since she doesn't play any newer games (I'm forced to dual boot for the moment) and I really don't have much of a clue at all what I'm doing. As of right now I have a couple of questions (I'm sure this thread will get put to good use once I start to learn more) What I'm wondering is how do I log in as root in Mandrake? I installed wine on the computer I'm using to learn and wine the dirs didn't show up after I ran the rpm, I'm assuming I'm not seeing it because I'm not logged in as root.... I'm also wondering how I would go about compiling programs and such. I downloaded xpde to test it out and see if it makes the learning curve a little easier (I actualy like the windows gui anyways, just not windows it's self....) but rpm wasn't an option, just zips that I assume I have to compile myself, I'm totaly clueless  :confused:  thanks in advance for any replies. Hopefully within a month I can totaly ditch windows unless I feel like playing a game.

[Faust]

XPde will probably require compiling - I'd stay away because it will prob make the learning curve harder, not easier - also its beta ( I think... )
You shouldnt log in as root is the answer - instead go to a terminal and type "su", then it will prompt you for the root password.  Once your root, do what needs to be done and then "control D" to leave root.  Never do anything as root that a normal user could do (ie play games on the root account - this is for security reasons.
Dont worry about the cluelessness, everyone was there once.     If you want a pretty GUI try looking at the latest versions of KDE / Enlightenment.  Some of the themes are beatiful, especiall "keramik."
You'll have to clarify the wine bit further sorry, I kinda dont understand what your trying to say.  

[GhostCow]

Wow, thanks for the quick reply. The thing with wine is this: I ran the rpm, it never asked me where I wanted to install it too or anything like that (been the same with every rpm I've ran so far) Anyways, this is what it says on the wine page:

In order to run Wine needs some files and directories.
You need at least a fake windows drive and config file, however the source code wineinstall program, as well as most binary packages, will have already done this for you.

It doesn't seem to have, the directories aren't there as far as I can tell (I thought I had to log in as root to see them?)

To check, try running the notepad program

I got some kind of error when trying to do this, it said notepad was an unrecognized command or something along those lines.

If notepad doesn't work for you, you may need to create these directories yourself. To do that, create the following directories in your home directory:

.wine/

.wine/c_drive
.wine/c_drive/Windows
.wine/c_drive/Windows/Fonts
.wine/c_drive/Windows/Start Menu/Programs
.wine/c_drive/Windows/System
.wine/c_drive/Windows/System32
.wine/c_drive/Windows/Temp
.wine/c_drive/Program Files
.wine/c_drive/Program Files/Common Files



.wine should have already been there under home as that is where wine should install too, correct? It wasn't there.... I tried to make a .wine dir but it didn't seem to work so I just made one called wine and all the sub dirs but I still can't get notepad to run.

After this copy the following files from wine-YYYYMMDD/documentation/samples to $HOME/.wine/Windows

that only served to remind me what a noob I am, I assume they expect you to have a zipped version you can get that from instead of a rpm or something?     :confused:    That's pretty much all I know about trying to do this, thanks again in advance

Edit: I also have another question, why do you think that XPde would make the learning curve harder?

[ July 28, 2003: Message edited by: GhostCow ]

[flap]

Try running wine once (just type 'wine') and the directory should be created. Check it's there with
ls ~/.wine

In order to run a windows program you have to pass the name of the executable to wine e.g.
wine /windows/wherever/notepad.exe

[GhostCow]

I tired typing ls~/.wine into the console but it said no such file or directory, otoh, when I try to run the rpm again it says that wine is already installed, what gives? I also tried going to run command and just typing in wine, that did nothingf, no error message or anything. I'm so confused =/

[Stryker]

There's a program called winesetuptk or tkwinesetup or something like that, it should handle that stuff for you.

[GhostCow]

Thanks so much! I finnaly got notepad to pop up and even installed a windoze game. Unfortunatly Holy Word games doesn't appear to work with wine >.< I guess I'll try winex or one of those other programs tommarow unless someone knows a linux equivilent of the hoyle type games or maybe just some good games for old people       . I also have another question while I'm at it. Is there something you can pop up to end a proccess like when you hit ctrl+alt+del in windoze? Well, I have 6 hours left before I need to be at work so I guess I'll give it a rest for tonight     Thanks again! It's nice people in the linux community that are willing to help that make me think I can learn this stuff  

[ July 29, 2003: Message edited by: GhostCow ]

[Stryker]

so what'd u do to get it working?

[GhostCow]

I just had to run winesetuptk, I didn't look really hard for it or anything but I didn't see that mentioned in the faq. Maybe I'm just stupid? A rpm is basically like an install.exe and not like an unzipper or something, right? Basically what I'm wondering is if when I ran winesetuptk was I just setting wine up or installing it? Look at that, I'm back to feeling like a n00b, lol

[Stryker]

it installs it.

winesetuptk makes your ~/.wine and sets up the config files for the user that ran it.

in case u dont know...

~ is the home directory of the user that used it (or you can do ~otheruser/)

.wine is the hidden folder where wine will put it's config files and such.

an rpm is a package. not an executable like an install.exe. an executable (rpm) will open an rpm file as a word processor would open a word file. But instead of showing (unless u want to just see it) rpm will use the contents of that file and install them. The difference? an install.exe requires windows to work. an rpm requires rpm to work.

i suppose that might get confusing with the an rpm and rpm, i should find a better way to differentiate(spelling) the two.

It's 4:30 and i think i'm going to bed... again.