Linux Newbie ?'s

[Ouroboros]

Finally, after months of pissing and moaning about it, I have successfully installed and configured a dual-boot system of Win98 and RedHat 7.3 (Kernel 2.4.18-3). (Disk Druid is useless in this situation...use FIPS )

I am completely immersed in the functional learning process right now, but have a couple of questions...

When I do have a cable modem (anytime now, Mr. Landlord), will both Windows and Linux be able to recognize them without changing configurations every time I boot into one system or the other?

Also, I am having a hard time understanding the file permissions protocols in Linux...is there a good tutorial or website that I could check out to simplify things a bit? (I am the root user, after all...although the other users consist of my wife and daughter ...but hey...might as well know how to do everything, right?)

And as far as mounting applications...I am experimenting with Civilization 2 (made for Windows)... GNOME/Nautilus display the CD and its contents, but I am at a loss in installing and/or playing the game. Am I looking at things the wrong way, or taking a wrong turn somewhere?

All thanks for any advice, and I would RTFM, but manuals are so lifeless that I get bored rather quickly...

Ouroboros

[preacherman481]

Hi,
1)I use Windows XP and Mandrake 8.2 dual booted, and I use a cable modem (Road Runner). Windows
and Mandrake both work fine. All you should have to do is boot to either one, and away you go.
2) Try www.linuxnewbie.org or the Linux Documentation Project for tutorials on file permissions.
3) I think you're out of luck on running the game under Linux unless you can get it to run under
Wine. But Linux does have a game called Freeciv, and it might be similar to CivilizationII. You might
google it and see if you can find an rpm for it. Freeciv comes with Mandrake 8.2 and you might
have it on Redhat 7.3. Hope this helps.

[chefer]

1. covered by preacherman481
2. covered by preacherman481
3. Get direct X support! Your more popular games seem to be working for *nix systems : http://www.transgaming.com - this is really Wine on steroids for those that are into gaming but don't really want a windoze system.

Regards.

[VictorKaum]

Originally posted here by Ouroboros

Also, I am having a hard time understanding the file permissions protocols in Linux...is there a good tutorial or website that I could check out to simplify things a bit? (I am the root user, after all...although the other users consist of my wife and daughter ...but hey...might as well know how to do everything, right?)

Do I understand correctly, you made user accounts for your wife and daughter and you use the root account? That's nog good idea at all.
You should only use the root account to do administration. For all other (normal) use you should use a normal account too. Do not graphical login with root, just do a su or su - at command line. If you login as root but forget that you are root you can easily damage your system a lot, or create easy holes for others while surfing or chatting... therefor all users including admins should have user accounts not as powerfull as root.

[anuapsap]

"I am the root user, after all...although the other users consist of my wife and daughter "

what the **** is U are doing by login as root.. Don't do it anyway..

[zepherin]

here's a quick sumerization on file permissions. Chmod is used to change to change the file permissions on a file. take this file permssion -rwxr-xr-x. read this left to right and in sections of 3 after the first charicter. If the first char is a - it's a file if the first char is a d it's a directory. the next three are rwx. which means the creator of the file can read write and execute the file. The second set of three are r-x which means that anyone in your user group can read and exexecute and the last three is a r-x which means that anyone can read and execute the file. Chmod is used like this chmod a+r file. With the file equaling any file. You can put u,g,o,a in the spot of the first letter with u=owner g=group o=other/everyone and a=all. You can put r,w,x,t,s in place of the r or with the r like chmod g+rx file, r=read w=write x=execute t=stickybit (you shouldn't need this) and s=set group or user id. There can be used a - + or equals in setting the permission which is the equal is set it to that permission the plus is add a permission and the minus takes away that permission I personally have most of my chmods for my websites set to chmod a=xr file and chmod o=rwx file and for my other files I have it to a=r o=rwx. Another way to do it is to use the numbers. 1= --x 2= -w- 3= -wx 4= r-- 5= r-x 6= rw- 7= rwx so chmod 711 file will make read access to group and all and all access to your stuff.

[eeshman]

anuapsap, that's not the way to treat a newbie. sure we know that logging on as root directly can damage the system, but he didnt' know that. An attitude like that is gonna give you a bad rep.

-the eeshman