How to Get Started With Linux
Posted: July 11, 2000
Written by: Keith "Farrel" McClellan

Introduction

Ok, you've spent all this time getting Linux installed in whatever configuration you please, and now you're sitting there at the login screen thinking, "What in the high holy blazes [ed. note: profanity removed] should I do now!?!" And you are looking at my guide and wondering why I didn't include a bunch of stuff on getting started with Linux along with it - well this guide is why. Rather than briefly explaining a few minor things, I'm going to go into depth about a few less minor things while still covering the minor things as well.

Basically, I'm going to cover a few very important topics in this guide, plus whatever else I feel like throwing in while I write the thing. I will be covering initial system setup, which will include logging in and making sure your video card is set up properly and you can connect to the Internet. I will hopefully be able to tell you which programs you are going to be using to substitute for your favorite Windows programs. Maybe I'll even throw in some stuff about recompiling your kernel.

Logging In

Assuming that you installed Mandrake 7.0 the same way I did, you are probably faced with the standard KDE login prompt for X Window. Here you have a field for your login name, password, and a drop-down menu listing a bunch of different shell/logins you can use to start X Window. To do some of the stuff we are going to be discussing in this how to guide, you are going to need to be logged in as the root - however, during normal operation, you really aught to be logged in on your 'other' account. If you didn't set up your 'other account' you can do it from within Drakconf using the Add Users applet. When you log in, make sure you choose Gnome from the dropdown menu. Yes, I know there is an ongoing debate between what is better, Gnome or KDE, but Gnome is much easier to use coming out of Windows.

Note: Drakconf is a distribution specific program. If you aren't using Mandrake 7.0 or later, you may not have the program - however, it is likely that a similar program comes with your distribution.

Setting up your Video Card Driver

Drakconf is the place where you will be going for all of your basic system changing needs, including basic video card information. There is a little video card button in Drakconf - if you click it, you will get the change resolution screen - which is just fine if you want to change the resolution but kind of stinky if you need to set up a driver - however, if you click cancel it will open up what you need - select the change video card listing. You will then get a very long list of video cards - find the one you have and select it. And there you go. If you are using an Nvidia card and would like to use 3D acceleration, you will also need to go and download Xfree86 4.0 off the Internet for 3D support - but that's a bit more complicated than I want to go into here. If you don't want to have to do that manually, install Mandrake Linux 7.1 (brand new - very large download too and it isn't available in stores yet…) - it will install it and configure it for you.





Logging on to the Internet

Personally, the easiest way that I've found to connect to the Internet is using kppp. This program is included in the KDE menus in the big 'start menu'-like button on the 'drawer' as it is called. This program can be used to set up a new dialup account or log into the one you 'should' have set up during your installation. Kppp, or any other Internet connection program for that matter, will not use DHCP at all to discover what DNS servers you should be using, so you will need to find this information out from your ISP before trying to connect to the Internet - unless you are keen on only putting in numeric addresses for computers on the 'net.

RAM Check

Sometimes, depending on your motherboard and BIOS, Linux may not be using or recognizing all of your system's RAM. This is a big problem, particularly because Linux runs much, much better on 128 Mb or more of RAM than it does on 64 (maximum it can detect by default if it is having this problem). The easiest way to check and see if you are having this problem is to load up Drakconf, click on the "Hardware Configuration" button, and check the memory section to see how much RAM your computer is recognizing.

If you find that it is recognizing 64 MB or less and you have more than that in your system, you can first try to download and install a new BIOS version for your motherboard. This will help in the majority of cases, and you won't have to continue on with the next steps - however, it doesn't always work. The other way to fix this problem is to specify the amount of RAM in the system at startup using LILO. However, before you add the appropriate line to the lilo.conf file, you should test it. You can temporarily use the setting from the boot line in LILO. Instead of simply typing in Linux, type in the following:

Linux mem=###M (where ### is the amount of RAM in your system - for you it might be 96, 128, 192, 256, etc…)

If your computer boots up with this startup line, you are doing just fine. However, if it locks up during the boot and doesn't load Linux, try reducing the number by a few megabytes in one-megabyte increments. Assuming that you reach a setting that works for your system, you will need to add the line to your lilo.conf file. There are several ways to do this, but the easiest way that I've found to get it done is to go into X Window logged in as the root, find the file lilo.conf in the /etc/ directory, and open it in gedit. From there, on the first line of the file, add the line:

mem=###M (where ### is the number that you found worked best for you)

Then feel free to save the file. You will need to run the LILO program (or nothing will change) and then reboot. Assuming that all goes well, your computer should boot up just fine and be able to access its entire range of RAM. If it doesn't work, hopefully you had the foresight to create a bootdisk so you can go back in and fix it.





Resources

LinuxNewbie.org is one of those sites that should be bookmarked in every Linux user's web browser. They have these articles called NHFs, or Newbitized Help Files, that are extremely helpful when you are getting started with Linux. They have stuff that covers almost everything a 'newbie' would need to know, and they even have some NHFs that are specifically written for intermediate to advanced users. All of the NHFs are a great deal easier to read than the FAQs and HOWTOs on Linuxdoc.org (which is another great resource for this kind of information). The HOWTOs on Linuxdoc.org tend to be more technically inclined and more difficult to read, but for a lot of things it is the only available source for the information.

Another good place to go for information is your distribution's web page (for me that would be Linux-mandrake.com). They will very frequently post patches and the like for your specific Linux installation, as well as other very useful information.

Various Program Replacements

Seeing that many of you that are reading this guide have little or no experience with Linux or its applications, I though I would point out some of the most common application 'replacements' for common Windows apps in Linux.

Licq - This is one of the many ICQ clients available with Linux. It is distributed with many different distributions and as such is one of the most common clients you will find.

Gxedit/gedit - These two programs are text editors (and in some ways, mini-word processors) like notepad and wordpad. They are nice for really basic stuff and that's about it.

Netscape / composer - Netscape and it's companion programs are your web applications of choice for Linux. This is, for the most part, because it's the only readily available and full featured web browser for Linux at this point.

Gterm - Gterm really isn't an application replacement, but it is one of the most common command prompt emulators for Linux. It is similar to a DOS box in windows.

Gnumeric - This program is one of the many available spreadsheet programs and as such is one of the possible replacements for Excel.

StarOffice - This is an application suite much like Microsoft Office. Depending on how you work this program can either be a godsend or something of a disappointment - it's worth a shot though if you need an office suite.

Corel WordPerfect 8 - This is, well, the Linux version of WordPerfect. It's a reasonably good replacement for a program like Word but it is significantly less aesthetically pleasing.

Gnucash - This is on of the possible replacement programs for financial programs like Quicken and MS Money.

XMMS - This is a Winamp clone. It can even use Winamp skins (but not Winamp plugins…darn…). It is an excellent MP3 player and has the familiar layout we all know and love.





More Program Replacements...

Grip - This is one of the available CD ripping programs. What it does is read the table of contents off of a music or data CD and then gives directions to the actual encoding/decoding program as how to copy the data. Several companion programs exist, the most popular being cdparanoia and cdda2wav. Cdparanoia is generally considered to be a better ripper but cdda2wav is much faster.

LAME - Lame is a wav to mp3 encoder and is generally thought to be the best MP3 encoder available for Linux.

If you are looking for more information on some of these applications, or just need to find a place to download them, Freshmeat.net is the place to look. Freshmeat.net also has information on new applications and the like, so it is definitely a place to check out.

Compiling a New Kernel

Originally, I was going to describe to you how exactly to go about compiling a new kernel revision (or your current revision to add/remove features). However, Linuxnewbie.org has an excellent article on the subject so I will give you the link to that and leave it to that. When I decide to write a kernel-tweaking guide (there is a veritable cornucopia of tweaks to perform within the kernel), I will go into the subject in more depth. When you are recompiling your kernel, particularly the first time, there are a few things that should really be taken into account that I would like to reiterate from the NHF.

The first thing to make sure you have is a working boot disk. If you royally screw things up, at least then you can get back into your system and 'hopefully' fix everything. Another thing to think about when compiling is to make sure you backup your current compiled kernel (this will facilitate in fixing the computer if you screw something up). It might also be wise to do a backup of the system if at all possible. It's more difficult to do it within Linux (disk imaging programs aren't quite as…evolved in Linux as they are in Windows - they aren't put to use quite as often because less errors crop up), but it is definitely worth the effort if you run into a problem.

Conclusion

Hopefully, you have found this article to be enlightening and it has solved at least some of your Windows-to-Linux migration problems. As always, feel free to email me with your comments and questions, but remember that by Linux world standards I'm not the most experienced kid on the block, so I might not be able to help with as many of the problems that crop up in Linux as I can with Windows questions.

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