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Thread ID: 25716 2002-10-10 07:14:00 Is Linux To Hard BootyLicious (526) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
87821 2002-10-10 07:14:00 I have RedHat 8 and can install it easy, but after that i don't have a clue.
I can't even find how much space left on my hard drive.
I can us windows in my sleep and wan't to do the same with linux.

BUT IS IT TO HARD. where does a linux new be start.
BootyLicious (526)
87822 2002-10-10 07:18:00 Have a look in the Press F1 FAQ on Linux. ;-) Susan B (19)
87823 2002-10-10 07:21:00 There is a FAQ above on GNU/Linux. There is a great local mirror given in the FAQ which has how-to and tips etc.

Windows is familiar - anything new will be a challenge but don't let that stop you using RedHat. At least give it a good go. :)

Jen
Jen C (20)
87824 2002-10-11 04:26:00 I've added some more links to the FAQ ... especially for new users. Linux is different. I find Windows hard. I learned computers with switch registers, papertape, cards, and keyboards and command lines. ;-)
Have a read of those NU manuals, and feel free to give your opinion of them here.
Graham L (2)
87825 2002-10-11 09:42:00 THe problem is with most of the stuff to read on Linux, is that it is written Geekoian, and contains a lot of preamble like the names of the 15,000 people that contributed towards writing the document, and overview, and under view...

I recently download a 600kb text document. I got halfway down the friggin scrollbar before I got to Chapter 1!

Where's a good down-to-earth user manual? The one that came with my Mandrake only tells me how to install Linux. Nothing about using it.
JohnDoe (2202)
87826 2002-10-12 09:37:00 Hi Graham,
I've been interested in Linux for a while now and checked out a lot of sites(including your FAQ links) but I still don't have any idea how Linux works at a practical level. Most of the info seems to be provided in small technical bites. Or a long drawn out do this, do that, with no idea WHY. Is there somewhere I can go lookup to give an overview of all the main components and what they do (even with examples)and how they inerreact. Preferably a site that does not assume you have ANY knowledge of Linux. Sounds like I should look at buying Linux for Dummies!! (but I'm too cheap.)
Rod ger (316)
87827 2002-10-12 10:00:00 yea me too my mum too poor (tight) JohnDoe (2202)
87828 2002-10-12 10:42:00 You don't NEED to get a book for linux. It's all available on the CDs and on the web. -=JM=- (16)
87829 2002-10-13 08:35:00 Sure - you do not need a book and there is plenty of info on the web. But if you are a book type person like me, you cannot beat buying a book like "RedHat 7.3 Bible" by Christopher Negus. It comes with the CDs and you work through it chapter by chapter. JohnD (509)
87830 2002-10-14 07:51:00 OK Here is my experience with Linux (Knoppix 3.1.) If you check I'm pretty sure I was the first one to note Juha's item on IDG about Knoppix on this forum. It excited me, a version of Linux that I could play with that wasn't going to destroy my carefully tuned 98 O\S and had little chance of doing any damage to my data, a newbies dream!!!

I could learn about Linux to get confident enough to use a O\S (or is that O/S?) that would not be put on the scrapheap and become outmoded in a few years, and was being continually being refined in a co-operative environment. Heady stuff!!

After a 42 hour download(I was away part of the weekend) I found I needed a boot disc even though my older M\B did boot from CD. I figured that out from the readme's annnd YES Knoppix!!

A bit different, but you figured out how some of it seemed to work,except Konsol which looks like a DOS window only not, but anyhow of course the first thing was to get on the net and see how things were, wearing LINUX shades- cool! So I found kppp (dailup) and tried to configure it. Terrific it knows Paradise already(seems like an old ph number though, and scripting, which does not seem to work[hangs]) Find out a bit about CHAP and PAP(F1 again)(PAP's the one) and find its trying to keep track of the bills as though I was in Argentina (disabled). Fill in the a\c name and password and login! Yes! Yes! I hear the modem music, that old familiar tune, last note- Wait for it Yes! Yes! NOOO!#%$#, at the point of connection Knoppix can't find some message and log files ( Use the B.... word here)

OK F1 to the rescue. there is lots of Linux Gurus there. No wait don't want to appear the complete prat.Google first F1 second. After a certain amount of searching you get stuff like this:
----- ----- ------
kppp or isdn-config [4] are pro-vided.

Security issues All user passwords, including the root password, are dis-abled and locked by default. That makes it impossible

to log in via network or even on a local console. There-fore, all processes must descend from the shells running on the system console(s) or from the X-Window sessionthat is spawned by init.
____ ____ ____

Must make perfect sense to someone.

So this isn't working -back to F1:

pressf1.co.nz

Not too much help for the ignorant there, except it appears that Knoppix
can only use EXTERNAL modems.

Browsed the Knoppix site and sent an on site E-Mail,using their on-screen mailer suggesting if Knoppix ONLY works on external modems, as I had been advised, it might be a good idea to put into FAQ( this after having spent a few days spare time trying to make it work)

Got a Reply from KLAUS KNOPPER!
Saying Knoppix will connect using REAL modems Quote:

If you have an ISA modem card, and this is a REAL
>modem (as opposed to a so-called "winmodem" which has no controller chip
>and therefore only works with a special windows driver that "simulates" a
>serial port), you just need to connect to the port that this modem
>provides with kppp. Check for /dev/ttyS0, /dev/ttyS1 ... /dev/ttyS4. One
>of these should be the modem port the card provides (if it is, again, a
>real modem. Some ISA/PCI cards are cheap "winmodems" and don't work.).

Realized I was embarrassing myself, and completely ignorant, as all this stuff must be there somewhere but I did not have a clue and Mr Knoppix was NOT my Linux tutor.

Discouraged( gave it a break)

Hey! here's someone on F1 who is having much the same problems as me!!--
(See above)
Rod ger (316)
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