n9ne

Hey all,

new to nix and I just finished installing Slackware 10. Im currently on my Windows pc so I can post this messege, if that tells u anything.... Anyway I want to know how I can get to my desktop. Currently all I have is a text format/command line. What command do I need to use to switch between the two "text mode" and "graphical" ?

I would really like to be able to choose what mode I boot into at each boot if thats possible but being able to start the graphical mode from the command line each boot will be sufficient.

cpugeniusmv

did you install Xorg and some other window manager during the installation?

try typing startx

n9ne

when I do ls -al I can see .gnome and kde direcoties but nothing is in anyof them. So before I reboot is there any other commad I should use? And is startx all I need to do once i login?

j79zlr

did you install and configure Xorg during the install?

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n9ne

quote: cpugeniusmv
the command "startx" worked for me but I have several questions now if U all dont mind.

From Terminal, Howto:
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- change user name

- add windows 2 hds so they are view able in nix (I disconnected during install just in the event I formated the wrong drive)

- no sound but my cd drive is detected and seems to be working

- set up using "mail" command I had two messeges from slackware which I read/replied to but I cant seem to config

- ok so I just said I could send mail but I cant connect to any websites when using mozilla, odd huh

- where will i find a basic tut for basic security: I want to config some form of tunneling, openSSH, and iptables

-how do I "fetchmail" I did "fetchmail hotmail.com" but I cant figure out how to include username before prompt for pwd

- can chm files be read under nix?

sean.ferguson

if you installed Xorg then yes all you require to type is startx

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n9ne

^think we posted right after each other

c my last post

cpugeniusmv

Change User Name:

Presumably you're using the root account? definately need to change to a different user you should only use the root account for things that can not be accomplished with a normal user account...because root can do anything on a system. Slackware has a nice script to create a new user, just type adduser at a console.

Add windows hard drives:

What is your current hard drive setup? how do you want them set up? primary/secondary channel, master/slave, partition info...i need details

All questions relating to mail:

You will likely want to use a graphical program for your mail...the builtin command-line mail programs are a bit of a hassle.

Internet:

What's your network (or lack of one) set up?

Sound:

I'm rusty on that...maybe someone else can help out there.

CHM Files:

I doubt it.

How to make X (the GUI) start when you turn on your computer:

As root, use an editor (probably from the GUI, as i'm guessing you don't know vi commands yet) to edit /etc/inittab and edit this line: so that it reads like this:

n9ne

Quick Question does Console=Terminal cuase I know there are different command terminals, I think.

Anyway the adduser seems simple enough.

All I did was unplug 2HDs during install since then I have plugged them back in just need to know how to add them to /dev or is it /etc/fstab

I have learned a bit about the "mail" command as I have stated above in the past hour or so and I would prefer to use this and some common news reader which is found in most linux distros.

I dont known I know really I remeber selecting /dev/ttyS4 cuase I wrote it down. Im on a LAN or is WAN since I have a router.....

No worries, I would still like to get this setup soon though cause I cant go long without tunes.

Thats not good to hear


Thats great info but I like the way it is now...This way I will force myself to learn the commands which is the real deal but thats MO

cpugeniusmv

as far as i know, yes.


right, but i need to know how they are connected so that i can tell you what to put in fstab...also it may mess up booting into linux...definately if one of those hard drives has windows on it. but if you managed to put linux on the same hard drive as windows, and can get to either one now...here's the basics on fstab and hard drives:

the first IDE hard disk is referred to as /dev/hda. that is the master disk on the primary IDE controller. the slave on that controller is /dev/hdb. the second controller's master and slave, respectively: /dev/hdc and /dev/hdd.

on each hard disk, you can have up to four primary partitions...let's say /dev/hda has 4 partitions, here's how we can address each partition:

/dev/hda1, /dev/hda2, /dev/hda3, and /dev/hda4

now fstab. here's a basic line that i would use to mount a windows partition. this particular partition is the first partition on the master hard disk connected to the primary IDE channel.
the first option (options are delimited by spaces) is the location of the partition...we discussed that earlier. the second option is the mount point. it's basically an empty folder that you should create for the partition to be mounted to. these are often found in the /mnt/ directory. the third option is the filesystem type. this partition is Fat 32, so i'm using the vfat option. if your partition is ntfs...you would use ntfs (support for ntfs must be compiled into the kernel...i believe it is in the default slackware kernel.) next is the options option (these options in the option section are delimited by commas) the user option allows a regular user to mount and unmount this partition. the quiet option tells the kernel "hey...don't tell me that you can't write linux permission information to this partition, i know." i usually use that for vfat, but it really isn't necessary for ntfs due to the fact that it's not a good idea to write to ntfs partitions from linux. another option worth considering is ro it makes the partition read only. simple enough more of these options can be found in the manpage for mount (man mount). the last two options (after the options section) are "dump" and "pass". you can read more about them in the fstab man page (man fstab). i'd just leave them both at 0.


if i'm not mistaken, the built-in "mail" command can only be used to check local system mail. most *nix systems run mail servers whether they serve the public or not. often they are used to send logs to the root user or notices if something goes wrong. there are other console mail clients that will check pop accounts, i'm sure. but i don't know of any.


LAN. try this command: ifconfig eth0

that should give you information about your ethernet adapter, and whether or not it has picked up an IP address via DHCP.

j79zlr

netconfig is the ncurses based config program. Run that to setup your card.

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cpugeniusmv

i new i was forgetting something. i was thinking netcardconfig, but that's in knoppix.