Linux For A Beginner

[TheLetterK]

WOW LINUX IS AWSOME!, lol i cant belive what ive been missing, i dropped in the live cd and have been using it for 2 days now, im gonna get a blank hd and install it, so questions, will unbuto install easy what will i need to do first?

You'll need to backup your Windows data--you'll be repartitioning.

would i be able to run msn messesnger on it? (thats a biggie)

Why would you want to? You can run GAIM which supports all the major IM networks.

and i seen screenshots of linux with really cool desktops and such, how will i be able to do that in unbuto?

Any number of ways, what are you trying to do, specifically?

i would post a link of what i saw but ill have to re read the rules first about link posting as im not so sure about it. other then that you guys have been a huge help,.... thanks!

That would help tremendously.

Download the images you find interesting, and upload them to Imageshack, paste the Imageshack URLs in here.

[tictoc5150]

Just to add a couple things to TheLetterK's reply:

QUOTE

WOW LINUX IS AWSOME!, lol i cant belive what ive been missing, i dropped in the live cd and have been using it for 2 days now, im gonna get a blank hd and install it, so questions, will unbuto install easy what will i need to do first?

You'll need to backup your Windows data--you'll be repartitioning.

I read that as, you'll be getting a separate drive for linux, and is probably the best way to go for first time installs...But, you may want to read up on partitioning for your next time (especially partitioning with fdisk)...And yes, there will be a next time...You sound like you enjoy linux like I did when I first started messing around with it, which means you'll be trying out different distros and just tinkering in general....curious=installing new distros...tinkering=messing something up and reinstalling

Ubuntu's default partitioning is not ideal, IMHO a distro should at least set up /home on a separate partition from /, which Ubuntu does not, leading you to have to transfer all your personal files back to /home as well as reinstalling the OS when you bork something to the point of having to reinstall.

QUOTE

would i be able to run msn messesnger on it? (thats a biggie)

Why would you want to? You can run GAIM which supports all the major IM networks.

I second the vote on GAIM, it supports 8 different IM protocols and pretty much emulates their behavior well.

i seen screenshots of linux with really cool desktops and such, how will i be able to do that in ubuntu?

That's half the fun, figuring out how to do it....We'll be around if you can't find the answer.

But some of the sreenshots you have been seeing could be and very like are a different desktop environment entirely, such as KDE, Enlightenment, WindowMaker...etc. etc., these would need to be installed....very easy to do through synaptic (package manager).

The only other thing I can add is, http://ubuntuguide.org/ has just about all the basic answers on how to get things running that aren't present "out of the box" (adding repositories to synaptic for mp3 support, watching dvds, installing Java and flash etc. etc.)

Good luck and welcome to Linux.

[mercurymouse]

ok, wel the install went really well and i am up and running ubuntu. so i have a few more (more to come) quesitons about how the operating system is run,

i go to computer and try to create new folders so i can store stuff but it says im not the owner and i ahve no clue on how to change that, ive been to the permissions and they are all grey shaded so i cant click on them any clue on how to fix this problem, also where would i get themes to download for ubutu ( like the best ones) and is there a trick on how to do it or is it pretty straight forward? also when i try to play mp3's it says the file is not supported or somehting like "i dont hav ethe necessary codecs or something" any idea on a good program that plays mp3's?

anywho that's all my questions for now,\

thanks for all the great help guys i cant do it without you.

[TheLetterK]

i go to computer and try to create new folders so i can store stuff but it says im not the owner and i ahve no clue on how to change that, ive been to the permissions and they are all grey shaded so i cant click on them any clue on how to fix this problem,

Unix permissions are different. A superuser called 'root' owns most of the system (this is a good thing, you don't want to run as root--use su or sudo if you need to do something as root). Read the man files on both of these apps (man su and man sudo at a terminal emulator (can be found in Applications>System Tools>Terminal)).

Personal stuff should go in your home directory. This will be loced in /home/<username>, or accessable via Places>Home Folder.

also where would i get themes to download for ubutu ( like the best ones) and is there a trick on how to do it or is it pretty straight forward?

What kind of themes? Window decorations?

also when i try to play mp3's it says the file is not supported or somehting like "i dont hav ethe necessary codecs or something" any idea on a good program that plays mp3's?

You need the appropriate codec or none of the audio players will work. Open terminal and type sudo apt-get install gstreamer-ffmpeg and relaunch 'Media Player' (It's actually Rhythmbox, but Ubuntu calls it Media Player).

[Hai-Etlik]

ok, wel the install went really well and i am up and running ubuntu. so i have a few more (more to come) quesitons about how the operating system is run,

i go to computer and try to create new folders so i can store stuff but it says im not the owner and i ahve no clue on how to change that, ive been to the permissions and they are all grey shaded so i cant click on them any clue on how to fix this problem, also where would i get themes to download for ubutu ( like the best ones) and is there a trick on how to do it or is it pretty straight forward? also when i try to play mp3's it says the file is not supported or somehting like "i dont hav ethe necessary codecs or something" any idea on a good program that plays mp3's?

anywho that's all my questions for now,\

thanks for all the great help guys i cant do it without you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you want to store personal stuff, do so in your home directory. "Places" -> "Home Folder" You do not want your ordinary user account to have permision to do everything and anything. That's what the root account is for.

To add MP3 support

Open a terminal and

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

Then type your password.

You should get a Gedit window with sources.list. Find a line that looks like this

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hoary main

And add "universe" on the end to enable the unsupported packages. "Multiverse" will also enable "Non-free" packages, Things that are not under Free licenses or PD (Freeware, shareware, etc). "Restricted" is stuff that is supported but not free, like certain binary only hardware drivers. If you add all three you should get

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ hoary main universe restricted multiverse

Then save and close.

Now update the list of available packages and download the MP3 decoder

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gstreamer0.8-mad

Wait for it to finish, and you now have MP3 playback installed (for Gstreamer applications like Rhythmbox and Totem at least)

You could also do all of this through Synaptic, but it's easier to describe doing it via the terminal. If you haven't found Synaptic yet, it's under "System" -> "Administration" and will let you add and remove software packages.

There should be some packages containing themes for GNOME, you can install them from Synaptic. gnome-themes, gnome-themes-extra, metacity-themes

For more, you could look at http://gnome-look.org/ and http://art.gnome.org/

[mercurymouse]

on top of all that i cant seem to get the internet connected, im trying to use a linksys wireless-b usb network adapter (wusb11 ver.2.8) and i have no clue on how to do this (please keep in mind im a noob) will wireless even work? i have a linksys wireless router 2.4 ghz, please help

[TheLetterK]

on top of all that i cant seem to get the internet connected, im trying to use a linksys wireless-b usb network adapter (wusb11 ver.2.8)  and i have no clue on how to do this (please keep in mind im a noob) will wireless even work? i have a linksys wireless router 2.4 ghz, please help

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Getting that particular card working is well beyond your skill level.

[mercurymouse]

what about just a dsl (ethernet hookup through my router) ? how can i make it do that? ive been playing around with it for a while and cant seem to make it work

how do i go about connecting to the internet?

[hitest]

what about just a dsl (ethernet hookup through my router) ? how can i make it do that? ive been playing around with it for a while and cant seem to make it work

how do i go about connecting to the internet?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you've got yourself hooked up to your router you can try System------->Administration----->Networking

apt is usually configured during the install I guess that failed when you were installing as you had no net connection.