Have have installed linux 8.0.
Startx gives me server 0 already running.. i do have a graphical login... so that might be the issue.. roamed around the bin directory and found some fimiliar options.. however i want to connect to my home network and cant seem to figure that out.. i am extreme new to this and any help would be greatful. can anyone recommend a site for newbies to help with with linux 8.0.. some basic commands , etc...

First of all, you're going to irritate a lot of people by referring to "linux 8.0". There is no such thing. The "8.0" is the version number of whatever distribution you are using, and that is the information we need.

Onward...

If you have a graphical login (xdm, kdm, gdm) it IS running X so unless you have killed the login, there's no reason to issue 'startx'. Just log in with your root login (or whatever user) and it should give you your distro's default operating environment (KDE, GNOME, etc.)

As far as your home network, we can help you if you give us some information on it, such as:
How many other machines are on it?
Do you have any networked printers you need to access?
Is your network connected to the internet?
If so, it is via dial-up and M$ internet connection sharing?
or are you on ADSL?
If on ADSL, do you have a modem connected to one machine or a router connected to your hub?

Things like this wil make it a lot easier to help you.

Also, if you want to learn Linux, I'd recommend using the Slackware distribution. If you just want to use Linux, you're probably fine with Mandrakw (which is what I'm assuming your 8.0 refers to).

Hope this helps, and do post back with that info!

...has already started to bug me
"8.0"... hmmm.., it's probably Red Hat.


root? ;(
dmighty, a little piece of advice, NEVER use root as your user account


This may help,
http://jgo.local.net/LinuxGuide/
http://www.onlamp.com/linux/cmd/

Small digression, yes...

...but I've heard the whole "never use root as regular login" speech. But I've been a Linux end user for a little over three years now and I've never logged in to any of my boxes as anything other than root. I've never had any problems from this and it prevents much headache. i.e. commands always work, I always have permission to do what I want, I never have to be annoyed by 'su', maintaining my system on a daily basis is a piece of cake, etc, etc, etc...

Carry on!