Basic Linux Help

[dandaman 0]

Well I will start off by saying I am a complete noob to Linux. Well anyways I was trying to get Half Life running under Linux and therefore I used WineX well anyways they wanted the latest drivers, xfree86 and glibc (oh ya naturally the latest linux kernal...) well anyways I downloaded xfree86 off their site and in order for it to configure correctly using -configure I had to boot into Linux without xfree86 being loaded. So I found the system startup thingy (the linux equivilant of "msconfig") and I unchecked the box that had it start the "x" or the xfree86 system.

 

Well I rebooted Linux and I was left with a nice command prompt and I was able to configure xfree86 and install it and the whole works... but the thing is how do I load it now? Well I mean how do I load it from the command prompt so I can set it to load on the system startup?

 

Oh by the way while I am at it, how can I configure my ISA Soundblaster AWE64 soundcard? (I am sure that is easily found on the net, hehe but it will save time )

Well thank you very much.

 

-DanDaMan

[Admiral LSD 0]

First off, what you did to stop X loading at system startup was change the systems default runlevel from 5 (I *think*) to 3. To change it back without X you have to open the file /etc/inittab in a text editor (I like to use the one in Midnight Commander, mcedit) and look for the line that reads:

 

Code:

id:3:initdefault:

 

and change it so it reads:

 

Code:

id:5:initdefault:

 

Then after a reboot the system should load X and your default display manager.

 

As for the second problem, I knew how to do it once but it was a long time ago and things (such as the requirement of isapnptools and all the fun that entailed) are most likely quite different now. Instead, I'll point you to the alsa-project page for their snd-sbawe driver which is probably the best place to start looking for how to set it up on modern distributions.

[dandaman 0]

Thank you very much for the help

 

that should solve everything and now I have sound, yay!

[martinw 0]

Hi guys,

I've ended up here, hoping to find some advice to the newbs. Here's my situation;

Been using XP for the last while, and am fed up with Windows, downloaded a few different Mandrake 9.2's, and each mirror gives a slighly different download. The one my gut feeling said to go with has four files (two .iso's, the md5 file and the md5sum). I don't even know what goes where to burn three disks, but know I did it wrong, as the install did not work.

So I got my hands on 9.1, did the install, and am stoked!

Is there a recommended site to learn the syntax? There are many newbs, but today, I think I'm the newbiest.

[frequencydrive 0]

Quote:

Is there a recommended site to learn the sytax?

You should buy some books about linux at your nearest bookstore or use Google. You can learn a hell of a lot on the web. I would suggest getting a book like Linux in a Nutshell by O'reilley press. This book is mostly just all the man pages printed out in book form. Still very handy to browse through and see what kind of Linux command are available to you. Also might want to pick up something like Running Linux[/] by O'reilley press also. These two will get your started.