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Testing Out Linux. Part 1

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Testing Out Linux. Part 1

A windows users' journey into the world of Linux

from JoeUser Forums

I've known about GNU/Linux , and the whole open source thing, for sometime now. About a year ago I bought the 'Dummies Guide to Fedora Rore1' book. Hoping to get more into using Linux and also as my girl friend worked on Saturdays (the only day I could go to visit) I spent a lot of time in the town, so this book gave me something to do. I spent a few weeks flicking through it reading bits and pieces I then decided to try it out. I installed it on my test PC an old PII 350Mhz 128ram 3Gb drive. The install process of Fedora is quite easy with a nice GUI installer guiding you through what packages you want installed etc. After it had done its business installing, about 45-60mins install time, I was thrown into the deep end, with a rather dated looking desktop theme, my first mission was to connect to my main XP PC.
'Ok, how do I do that? Ah ha network tool. Oh, no card installed! Humm ok! Well I tried, where's my XP CD?'

So my first venture into Linux wasn't too successful.

After getting married and moving house I thought it would be great to have a file server for our music etc. I had already set up a network between my PC, my wife's, and her Mac. So adding a file server should be easy enough. Again out comes the old PII install Fedora on it again. This time I was more careful what I installed as I needed more space rather than toys, after the install I checked the space left on the 3Gb drive, only 400 or so Mb. Well there goes my conception that Linux was a smaller operating system than XP.
So now I'm on the hunt for a smaller distro, so google for 'lightweight Linux distro' all I come up with are the tiny distros eg50Mb. What I was after was something a little more fuller but not bloated. Then I came across Distrowatch.com in the packages list Ubuntu had all I needed, apache, php, samba, etc. and its on one CD (Fedora Core 3 is 4 CD's).
So set it up downloading overnight. The next night I had planned to install it (as long it downloaded ok, which it did). The next night I burnt it to CD and then got carried away designing a cover to print onto the CD. That was a week ago, last night I actually did the install. Even though it hasn't got a fancy installer like Fedora I actually found it easier than I thought to install. The only hard bit would have been disk partitioning but as it had Fedora on it previously I just reformatted the partitions that were already there. The only down side to the installation was the time, over 2 hours later I eventually had the login screen in front of me, (my only worry was I didn't remember putting the root password in?) anyhow login fine.
First objective, check root password, 'Great the same as my login password, really secure!' So promptly change it and then have a little nose around, the GUI still isn't as nice as XP or OSX it still needs some work, I then check the network, well the internet works so looks hopeful.
Next objective set up shared folder on the network. 'Oh, samba isn't installed'. At that point I decided to leave it for another day, as it was an hour later than I was expecting due to the lengthy install time.

More progress to follow as it happens.
48,125 views 80 replies
Reply #51 from WinCustomize Forums Top
My favorite audio player is Amarok: http://amarok.kde.org/ Try it, absolutely awsome. It supports every format that's intalled on your computer (in other words, if you have already something that will play wma, such as Xine, then Amarok will play it).
Reply #52 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Paxx - does it support MP3 and MPEG playback? I'm looking for a Linux player that plays everything WMP will.

How do I install it?
SoundPackager - Customize the Windows sound scheme
Reply #53 from WinCustomize Forums Top
BTW, I think you said earlier you installed SimplyMepis? Then use the Synaptic Package Manager to install or upgrade Amarok, it will be seamless.
Reply #54 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Kona, it doesn't install any codec. It will play all the codecs installed on your computer.
I know that some distributions such as Fedora or Redhat don't ship with MP3 decoders due to patenting issues. But I know that SimplyMepis and other Debian based distros will. In any case, with Fedora/RedHat, you can always install MP3 playback doing the following:
Alt-F2, gg:redhat mp3 kde, ENTER
Reply #55 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'll be using Unbuntu soon. I really don't like Fedora.
Reply #56 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I tried the Kubuntu for a while (didn't care for it that much and installed SuSE 9.2 instead, my favorite distro so far) but I seem to remember it being a Debian build, so you should be able to install Amorak.
Reply #57 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thank Paxx. Amarok was listed, but there was no package. I added another source and was able to get version 1.2.3-1 installed. I scanned my library on my windows partition ok, but it won't recognize or play .wma files. How do I do that?
Reply #58 from JoeUser Forums Top
While the wma file format is a proprietary micro$oft format, Mplayer will play them and just about anything else. You can use the Synaptic Package Manager to install it. Mplayer will play just about everything including DVD.
Reply #59 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Grrr, I can't edit my post.

I can get amarok to play the wma files if I go there and select them, but I can't figure out how to get all of it in my 'Collection'
Reply #60 from JoeUser Forums Top
There should be some way to set up play lists. I don't use Amarok so not sure. I mostly use RealPlayer, xmms, and xine.
Reply #61 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Take the time to explorer through amaroK, it has many many listing options. On the left-side tabs, there is your collection, your playlists, a media tab, and a file browser. You can drag and drop your files from any of these into your current playlist on the main center panel. If your songs don't show up in your collection, click on the Configure Folders button, at the top of the Collection panel. From there, you can check which folders to include in your collection. Note that there is a filter button at the top that allows you to filter your collection either by Artist, Artist/Album, by Album, by Genre, etc. I think by default it is set to filter by Artist/Album. If you don't have an album defined in your file information the songs won't show up, so change the filter to Artist. But, overall, don't be afraid to click buttons, and try it out. Explore. You'll discover how cool it is. The lyrics feature is cool too. There are plenty of tools to give you the most control and the best experience playing, displaying and filtering your music.
Have fun!

BTW: when you're a little more confortable with Linux, I'll tell you about Karamba! A DesktopX-like widget program. I have a widget that links to Amarok to play my music and display on the desktop the current song with the album cover. Very nice.
Reply #62 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Someone please fix this thread. It seems Barney has control over it!
Reply #63 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ARRRGGHHHH!!


I'm in linux. I've setup a share on my windows partition to copy files from linux session to the windows partition, but I keep getting an error saying it can't write to it. I've given that share write access. What's up? I even did the chmod 777 /mnt/hda5 thing to give all permissions.

Also how to I start an app at bootup? I've been looking in various forums, newsgroups, linux website all over the place....my head hurts.
Reply #64 from WinCustomize Forums Top
What's your file system? Writting from Linux on NTFS is still experimental and I wouldn't recommend it. But to answer your question, only root can write to a Windows partition, but there are ways to get your user access anyway by editing a file. Personally, I never write to my Windows partition because I don't want to change the possible loss of data.

As for the autostart question, go to your home directory, from the view menu select "show hidden files", then go to the .kde directory then to the Autostart directory. Drop a shortcut to any app in there and it will autostart at boot up.
Reply #65 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Also how to I start an app at bootup?


In Fedora, just keep it open when looging off/shutdown.
I know that some distributions such as Fedora or Redhat don't ship with MP3 decoders due to patenting issues


Open up Felix, open MP3 file, it says you need RealPlayer. Click link, and download and install.

I dont know if it plays WMAs, I only use RealPlayer on Linux.
Reply #66 from WinCustomize Forums Top
thanks Paxx for the startup info!! As for writing to NTFS, oh well.
Reply #67 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Where do I get to the color depth settings?
Reply #68 from WinCustomize Forums Top
http://www.mepisguides.com/color/color.html
There is no way under KDE to change the color depth on the fly, as in Windows. You have to edit a system configuration file and restart KDE. Be warned though that if you change the color depth to 32, since hardware support isn't 100% great yet, KDE may not accept 32 bits. Bette stick with 24, unless you have an AT or NVidia which are better supported.
Make sure you do a backup of the files you are going to edit, and take a few moments before you restart to make sure you know how to rename files in command line from the console. Cause if X Server fails because it won't run in 32 bits, you'll have to fix it in command line and retrieve your backup.
Nothing that can't be fixed, but I recommend knowing how to fix it before you have to.
Reply #69 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I use Mandrake 10 and XP Pro sp2. The are both great OS in either way. I really dont put these OS up against each others, because I use XP mainly for gaming and media playing, and Linux for development and office stuff. So for me XP is for fun and Linux for the more serious use.
Reply #70 from WinCustomize Forums Top
oooh, that was fun Didn't load the KDE environment and I guess I don't know as much as I thought about the command line. I found the files again, but I couldn't remember how to edit a text file. I ended up booting from the live CD and fixed the files from there. LOL I love this. I'm actually quite impressed by this OS. Quite fast and reasonably easy to figure out.
Reply #71 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well then, I guess you have no worry about doing Ctrl-Shift(maybe its Alt)-F1, it switches into runlevel 3 (what you were in).

I figured out typing poweroff (i think) started shutdown process.
Reply #72 from WinCustomize Forums Top
i do perfer Linux to Windows, there is just not an IDE that i like (Glade2 is ok i guess), but if you want Mac of PC, try Darwin Linux, it is the exact same source used to make OS X, just with out all of the "special" apple only hardware.
Reply #73 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hey quick question...how can I edit the mepis boot loader program so that windows is the default and not linux?

Thanks
Reply #74 from JoeUser Forums Top
Mepis uses the GRUB bootloader. The file you need to edit is /boot/grub/menu.lst

You'll see a line that likely reads "default 0" meaning the first menu entry is the default. Just change the 0 to a 1 and the second menu item will be the default.

Or, if you want to change the order of the entries, just edit the order they apppear in the file.
Reply #75 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks MasonM!! Wasn't set up exactly like that. Looked basically like paragraphs and the load list was in the same order as appeared in the file. Just rearranged the paragraphs and presto! Appreciate it!