Newbie Needs Help!

[Derick Centeno]

Greetings Juan:
First off, some precautions.  Before you download or try anything get  
into the habit of seeing if the software you are interested in (which  
in this situation is the current YDL operating system) even runs on the
machine you have.  Fortunately, TSS provides a means of doing just  
that.  Click on the link:

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/support/hardware/breakdown/index.php?hw_cat_id=6

And scroll down to where your computer is listed.  You should notice  
several things:
1.  Information regarding the video card you have installed and how YDL
runs with that card.
    For details click upon the phrase "Video information", which  
appears in blue without the quotes, of course.

2.  Notice that although the internal soft modem is NOT supported,  
links to downloading UNSUPPORTED modem drivers which may work are  
provided.  In order to access these drivers click upon the word "here"
highlighted in blue -- without the quotes.  As you do so, you will be
taken to another website where you may follow the directions there.
However, even if you follow all the directions there is no guarantee
that the drivers found there will in fact work for you. 

Consider it more on the order of, "they should work".  Note that the  
recommendation is that you purchase a USB modem, if your softmodem (or
internal modem) is not seen or recognized by YDL.  Note that because the
internal modem is  unsupported, your resort to assistance is limited to
coming to these lists here or anywhere else on the net gathering
whatever information you can.  For the sake of fairness, downloading and
installing drivers is not as much work as other rather sophisticated
demands Linux places upon users, but it is perhaps unfair to expect a
complete newbie to engage in such a process.

Refer to this link regarding modems, just to get an idea:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Modem-HOWTO-2.html

How can you determine whether your modem is seen by YDL or not?
Once your YDL system is up and running and you can login and choose a
particular desktop -- for this example, we will choose Gnome.  The enter
your user name and password and then you will be brought into the
standard Gnome desktop environment.  Look for the yellow on blue image
of a dog, this is your desktop menu.  Click upon it and look for a label
called System Settings, from there move onto select a label called
Network.  This will open a Dialog Box where you will be asked for the
password used by the System Administrator -- this is the same password
which is the password for root.  Once this is done then something
appears called Network Configuration with a group of tabs and it's own
menu.  Click upon the Hardware tab.  Click upon the icon New; this
brings up a new dialog box called Choose Hardware Type.  You will first
see:

Hardware type: Wireless

following the last s will be a wide v which is intended to be a downward
pointing arrow.  Press that arrow, it signifies a pop-up where other
options... pop-up.  Move the cursor over the selections and choose
Modem.  Now you should see:

Hardware type: Modem

Now click on Ok.  You will see a dialog box appear called Modem
configuration.  Note that each option offers pop-ups. 

You are now more familiar with the use of Network Configuration.  This
is the same dialog box one will have to get to to configure or set up
the Ethernet port so that YDL can communicate over DSL.  The difference
is that when you select the Hardware tab Linux should immediately find
the Ethernet hardware within your machine and you should see it
associated with eth0 as your device of Type Ethernet.  Under the Devices
tab you should see:
Profile Status    Device Nickname Type
        Inactive  eth0   eth0     Ethernet

All you need do is make sure Profile has a check under it; then click on
the word Activate and as far as Linux is concerned you can start up your
browser of choice and complete the process of logging onto or
registration with your broadband provider through that browser.
You can also use that same browser to configure or setup the router or
wireless router provided by the broadband ISP.

You could get around the problem of configuring or setting up your modem
entirely if you can afford either DSL or other high speed internet.  In
such a situation you don't need a modem at all, you use your Ethernet
port which accepts an Ethernet cable connected to either a DSL or other
high speed device.  This option will save you time and the details of
working through modem details few utilize any more -- it depends upon
your needs and what fits you best.  Consider also that some companies
will say, like Verizon, that they don't support Linux.  That doesn't
mean that you can't use Linux with their DSL service, but rather they
can't or won't help you link YDL (the version of Linux you use) to their
DSL or other highspeed networks.

Why was the above discussion necessary? 				
It turns out that some ISP's offer prices very close to the same pricing
as those services called dial-up services which require the use of a
modem.  The top speed of the modem is 56K, by U.S. law.  At that rate
you can easily spend 6-8 hours downloading just one file needed with
which to burn the first install CD.  There are 4 such files which 
need to be downloaded, and checked that they are entirely free of error
-- this is done via using an md5sum check before one creates or burns
the CDs.  It is after the CDs have been created then one can begin with
the installation process.  CD's today are pretty inexpensive.  However,
if you don't know the details I've explained, you cannot easily turn the
fact of inexpensive CD's into something which works for you.

In considering the vast amount of time using dial-up technology consumes
it should become a bit clearer why broadband services are appearing more
reasonable.  The slowest DSL available from Verizon cuts the download of
one file discussed above to just under 3 hours.  If you can afford to
pay for more, the same file download time can be cut down to just
slightly under 1; there are faster rates at a higher pay rate of course.

Not all files are that huge but some programs and projects remain large
and seem to be getting larger (and therefore requiring more time to
download).  The download time doesn't even include the setup procedures
necessary to build, or modify the application for use on your system.
It could be that an application exists which you want to use running
within a Linux environment on an Intel machine.  You will then either
hope that someone created a binary of that program for use on your
PowerPC -- if that doesn't exist you will have to learn to create your
own version on your own.  This skill is called building an application
from source.

Let's say for the sake of discussion that a working version of YDL
exists already. You have a DSL connection and you can access the net.
How do you keep your system updated?  Well, that is where a program
called yum comes in.  Yum does the heavy work for you such as finding
where on Earth the programs you are looking for are, what they need to
function and many other really neat things.  However, discussing yum is
a separate subject.

I may have provided a wee bit too much information, but once you've
selected or narrowed down what it is you need or researched a little
further regarding Linux System Administration (several books exist on
this subject) you'll see that all I really did is cover general
fundamentals since your plea was a bit general in the first place.

The Linux Documentation Project is a great Linux resource to have as a
newbie.
Check them out here:  http://www.tldp.org/

Best of Luck....

> On May 28, 2006, at 12:56 AM, Juan R.Leon wrote:
> 
> > Hey folks,
> >  I am so newbie that I need help in knowing what to download and  
> > install on a PowerMac G4 Sawtooth. I checked out the various YDL  
> > mirrors but it looks like hieroglyphics to me!What exactly do I need  
> > to download? Is any one up to providing me with some discs?Please  
> > excuse the naive questions,this is very new to me.
> > Thanx!
> > Juan
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > yellowdog-newbie mailing list
> > yellowdog-newbie at lists.terrasoftsolutions.com
> > http://lists.terrasoftsolutions.com/mailman/listinfo/yellowdog-newbie
>