[clug] Linux challenges

[Lana Brindley]

2009/7/15 Wesley Bruce <wesleybruce at iinet.net.au>

> I'm a microsoft refugee interested in FOSS but not a programmer.
> I'm new to linux and am finding that it ain't as easy as Microsoft.
> Generally I'm running into problems with software that assumes a lot
> about the users level of information linux/Unix. The Jargon's atrocious
> and unintelligible and not in the glossaries or the help pages. They
> always start and step B or C Assuming you know where to put code. That's
> got to be A. For those of us that are used to microsoft's automatic
> installation it unbelievably frustrating.
>
> Where do you get a basic out line of what "Make" means and most
> importantly where you type these puzzling little bits of code that are
> listen in and around the make or build code functions in FOSS? Its
> particularly a problem with dependant software. The writers of the main
> software forgets to instruct you what dependant software is needed and
> how to make it and if you need to make it. The writers of the dependant
> software like Atlas-c++ assume their always dealing with people who have
> done computing courses. The last computing course I did was back when
> Bill Gates still owned money to people.
>
> Does any one do house calls?
>
> PS Hi Chris.
>
>
Again, it seems we've failed to go back to basics quite far enough. From
Wesley's question: "Where to type these puzzling little bits of code?":

The place you need to put the bits of code is in the "terminal" or "shell"
(they call it the "command prompt" in Windows). It depends on your distro,
but you can probably get to it by looking under "system tools", or
"accessories", or possibly by right-clicking on the desktop. If none of
those work, let us know what distro you have (Fedora, Ubuntu, Suse, etc) and
we'll be able to be more specific.

When you open the terminal, you should get a prompt that looks something
like this:
[Lana at localhost ~]$

Except of course, yours won't say "Lana", it will probably say "Wesley", or
whatever you've chosen as your user name. The main thing to worry about on
this prompt is the $ sign. That $ sign tells you that you're running as an
unprivileged user. You should now be able to run most commands that you'll
need.

If you find you can't do the things you need to do (if, for example, the
commands you put in aren't giving you a response, or are giving you an
error), then you will need to change to become the "root" user. (This is the
same as the "Administrator" in Windows). You can do that by typing "su -"
("su" stands for "switch user", and the hyphen tells it what directory to go
into) after the $ sign and pressing enter, like this:

[Lana at localhost ~]$ su -
Password:

Now it's asking you for a password. If you installed Linux yourself, you
would have set the root password up when you did that. Otherwise, you might
need to ask the person who did the installation for you. Enter the password
(you won't see anything as you do this, but rest assured it's recording it)
and then press enter. Your prompt should change to this:

[Lana at localhost ~]$ su -
Password:
[root at localhost ~]#

See how the user name has changed to "root" and the $ sign has changed into
a # sign now? The # means you're running as root. Now of course, be careful
running as root, you have control over the entire system, so make sure you
*really* want to do things before you run them.

I hope that helps.

L

-- 
Cheers! Lana

The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to
be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time
to read reviews.
 - William Faulkner

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