YDL Install Problems

[yellowdog-newbie@lists.terrasoftsolutions.com]

Alan:

On Saturday, September 6, 2003, at 05:55  PM, Alan Waterfall wrote:
> I am entirely new to Linux.

Welcome aboard! Many of us are new here, too, though there are enough 
savants to be helpful. (Note that *I* am not a Linux savant, my 
experience is only slightly greater than your own. Like yourself, I am 
much more comfortable with the Mac OS.)

> As a Mac user who has never heard of a command prompt before, I am 
> very frustrated by the level of knowledge required just to install a 
> system.

Yup. Welcome to Linux. It's pretty much all like that.

There are many, many resources on the Web to help get moving with 
Linux. However, I recommend you first go to a library or bookstore and 
get yourself an introductory Linux or Unix book. The command-line and 
operating system concepts are *so* foreign to a Mac user, that you 
might need a really fundamental introduction. I have, and can 
recommend, _Running Linux_ from O'Reilly & Associates, but there are 
many others. Also, Yellow Dog Linux is based on Red Hat Linux, so an 
introductory Red Hat book would be a reasonable start, too.

> 1. I cannot get the system to start and present a GUI to log into.
>
> During the install I never got to the X11 configuration as depicted in 
> the
> install instuctions (p8). The complete install stalled towards the end 
> on CD
> 3 at KDE Additional Artwork,the error window said there was a bug, 
> hitting
> any of the prompts on the error window (I have got to this stage more 
> than
> once) exited the install to a text screen.
>
> Restarting into the system presented me with "local host login" (What 
> does
> local host mean? I assume this is not the main command prompt?).

This is the console prompt, inviting you to log in. I don't know what 
the "localhost" bit means, but it is a reference to the computer 
itself. When you installed YDL, you should have been given the 
opportunity to create two accounts, a "root" account (only for 
essential system chores), and a first user account (probably "alan" or 
something similar). For each of these accounts, you should have been 
asked to set passwords. DO NOT FORGET THESE PASSWORDS! You should be 
able to login as either "root," or, preferably, "alan."

> I followed the Xautoconfig and got to the GUI and altered the Display 
> settings (more of this later) to the correct monitor.

Excellent! That was exactly the correct thing to do. After that, you 
should be able to type "startx" and get a graphical user interface 
(called "X" or "X windows") to start.

> Again I was presented with "local host login". The only command this 
> understands is root.

Did you set up an ordinary user? If not, check out:

<http://www.mklinux.org/getting_started/whatnow/index.html>

Actually, I find that whole site useful in explaining very early Linux 
setup chores:

<http://www.mklinux.org/getting_started/>

If you are logged in as root, you have almost *too* much power. For 
instance, as root you could tell the computer to erase every single 
file, and it would gleefully do so. Therefore, it is safest to log in 
only as a user, except for special circumstances. There are even tricks 
to perform root-level tasks when logged in as an ordinary user (save 
those tricks for a little later).

> I do not understand the next stage in the instructions on p 11, 
> "pico/etc/inittab", Where do I type this and is this the exact 
> instruction?

The correct instruction is "pico /etc/inittab". Note the space between 
"pico" (the name of a friendly text-editor) and the "/etc/inittab" (the 
location, inside the "/etc" directory, of the file "inittab"). 
Unfortunately, this is one of those occasions when you will have to log 
in as root (or use one of the tricks). What the instructions are asking 
you to do is to edit a single line in the "inittab" text file. At 
present, there is a line in your inittab about 18 or 20 lines from the 
top that reads "id:3:initdefault:". You want to change the 3 (which 
means "always boot up to a command-line") to a 5 (which means "boot up 
past the command-line and proceed to a graphical login"). Save your 
changes (control-o), and quit from pico (control-x). Type "reboot," and 
you should see a friendlier login file when you are back in Linux.

> 2. I could not get a very useful desktop either before or after 
> altering the display settings. The icons are enormous. There is 
> insufficient room on the screen for the programme windows, part ofthe 
> window is missing off the bottom. When I altered from 640 x 480 to 800 
> x 600 the only change was a larger desktop that was off monitor which 
> could be seen if I moved the mouse to the extremes of the screen.

You will need help from one of the savants for this; it is a common 
problem, but I am too new to know the answer. :-( I do know that it is 
essential to get at least 800x600 video in order to use Linux, for 
exactly the reasons you point out.

> 3. As the install stopped before completion, Office is not present in 
> the Office folder.

This is not "Office" from Microsoft! Assuming you did not unselect it 
during the installation, OpenOffice.org should be installed. You will 
not have much luck in finding it in any kind of "Office" folder. 
Instead, look for it in the "panel" (the menu bar at the top of your 
screen), in the "kicker" menu (the Yellow Dog icon at the left of the 
panel), or by typing the command "oowriter" at the command-line. 
However, you will not like OpenOffice.org at 640X480 resolution, so try 
solving that problem first.

To tide you over until your video is fixed, try typing "kword &" (note 
the ampersand) at the command-line. This will open a less frilly word 
processor for your use.

> How do I install or copy this onto the hard drive? Why can't I just 
> drag it across from the CD-not that I can see the CD!

Installing software is still a complete mystery to me, though it is my 
next topic to learn. However, I don't think I am talking out of school 
by saying that installing software is still something for which Linux 
is way, way, way behind Windows or the Mac. Drag installs are not even 
a *dream* yet for Linux. Sorry.

Good luck!

Best wishes,
Clint

-- 
Dr. Clinton C. MacDonald | <mailto:clint.macdonald@sbcglobal.net>