Author Topic: Damn this is hard!  (Read 542 times)

devlkore

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Damn this is hard!
« on: 21 March 2003, 01:13 »
heyo,
I'm a complete newbie to Linux and I've just bought a book (although I just found out it's aimed at Caldera users) and I've just been searching the interenet, I actually read the WHOLE internet!

Anyway, are there any sites that have tutorials and info for complete newbies that don't know shit?
The thing is, I can't even use the command line to shut down my computer, I have no idea how to change my screen resolution or change between KDE and GNOME without running setup and I'm having no end of troubles trying to mount one of my NTFS drives.

I'm using Topologi-Linux, if that makes any difference.

Oh, just so you know, I'm not an idiot, I'm proficient in DOS (well, quite a lot) and I've had loads of Windoesn't experience, but I need to make this small gap into Linux, before all the other STufF I know can be of any use to me.

ThanX.

BYEEEEE!!
sono sain wa nihongo desu

mobrien_12

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Damn this is hard!
« Reply #1 on: 21 March 2003, 01:21 »
"The thing is, I can't even use the command line to shut down my computer,"

As root

/sbin/halt

 or if you have a newer computer you can take advantage of APM

/sbin/poweroff

"I have no idea how to change my screen resolution"

When setting up X, set up 2 or 3 screen resolutions.  You can toggle between them with Ctrl-alt-keypad"+"

Hang in there.  It's worth it.

[ March 20, 2003: Message edited by: M. O'Brien ]

[ March 20, 2003: Message edited by: M. O'Brien ]

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slave

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Damn this is hard!
« Reply #2 on: 21 March 2003, 01:29 »
Excuse my ignorance, but what's Topologi linux?

devlkore

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Damn this is hard!
« Reply #3 on: 21 March 2003, 02:13 »
M O'Brien, ThanX for that info.
But I don't know how to set up one desktop resolution, I don't know what I'm running at cuz I thought it was 1024x768, but when I loaded up one of my 1280x960 .BMPs as a wallpapeer, it had a border, go figure.

Linux User, Topologi Linux can be installed on a FAT or NTFS drive without partitioning and is based on Slackware, and it doesn't use UMSDOS, because it uses a hardfile for the install, kinda like BeOS. here's the link http://topologi-linux.sourceforge.net

Umm... what's the best file system to use, or maybe more appropriately, what are the pros and cons of each?
sono sain wa nihongo desu

slave

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Damn this is hard!
« Reply #4 on: 21 March 2003, 04:54 »
Just use ext3 or ReiserFS.  I hear Reiser's a bit faster.

Master of Reality

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Damn this is hard!
« Reply #5 on: 21 March 2003, 05:39 »
ext.3 is the standard linux file system. It used to be ext2. Ext.3 has journalling which saves open files or soemthing to prevent corruption in case of an accidental power failure. Not just too sure how it works. ReiserFS had journalling before Ext3 did, but i dont find any difference between the speeds of the two.

www.tldp.org - the linux documentation project, it contains thousands of HOWTOs for anything about linux.... even using your linux box to make coffee.
You can also get lots of help from here, www.linuxquestions.org , www.newtolinux.org.uk , and http://voidmain.kicks-ass.net

Most programs come with manual pages (called "man" pages) and to see them type "man program" replace program with whatever its actual name is.

and... (just to show up whoever told you the ways to shut down above)... There is several different ways to shut down your computer. You can use the command "shutdown -h now" to shut down, try "man shutdown" to see what all the options do but "-h" means halt and at the end of the shutdown command you must specify a time such as "now".

You can also use the runlevel way.... there is 6different runlevels in linux and normally you will be on runlevel 3, 4, or 5. 3 is normal without a GUI (graphic user interface), 4 and 5 are often the same and are just 3 with a GUI.
runlevel 2 usually takes off networking.
runlevel 1 doesnt run any unesacary things and is usually only used to repair stuff.
And runlevel 0 shuts down the computer
runlevel 6 reboots the computer.
To switch between runlevels you type "init x" where x is the runlevel you want.
So, to shutdown the computer you can type "init 0" and to restart you can type "init 6".
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TheQuirk

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Damn this is hard!
« Reply #6 on: 24 March 2003, 08:46 »
YOU KNOW WHAT ELSE CAN BE REALLY HARD AT TIMES?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

mobrien_12

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Damn this is hard!
« Reply #7 on: 26 March 2003, 00:00 »
quote:
Originally posted by devlkore:
M O'Brien, ThanX for that info.
But I don't know how to set up one desktop resolution


I don't know about Topologi-Linux but usually to set resolutions.
Backup the file /etc/X11/XF86Config or XF86Config-4

Then as root, in console mode, run XF86config, or XF86Setup.
In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight....

Calum

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Damn this is hard!
« Reply #8 on: 26 March 2003, 13:40 »
actually, directly invoking /sbin/halt is not a good idea, compared with using 'shutdown -h now' because halt just halts the machine, whereas shutdown shuts everything down first.
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