At 01:49 PM 9/28/99 -0400, Joseph Poplawski wrote:
>Hi Everyone!
>
>I'm taking the leap into the world of Linux and need some good advice. I'm
>not shy about RTFM'ing,
The manuals are so many and so elaborate that you will have to reconsider you
lack of shyness. It makes the Bible small and easy to read.....
So you will have to be selective.
Anyway you started off right by asking. (you loose some points with
cross-posting
though....).
INFOsources in sequence of ease-of-access:
man <command or topic>
is the first stab at finding information. Most MAN pages are technical and
very detailed. It's just a few keystrokes though.
Great for later when 'you know everything but for forgot something'.
If you want to print them use:
MAN <topic> | col -b > file.txt -to get a WINxx (and Linux) readable file.
MAN <topic> | col -b | lpr -to get hardcopy.
Many programs come with a README file.
MC, Midnight Commander, saves you loads of time here. Find and read with MC.
(The programmers must have named from experience: commonly used
when the world is sleeping....).
HOWTOs. Reason for answering your message: I overlooked HOWTOs.
If you need beginners or general info, or want to get started on a new
subject, look for HOWTOs. I found them a great introduction to topics
that I did not know enough about. I have not found this basic information
anywhere else. Advantage is taken of the magnetic medium. A book cannot
afford this elaborate information for cost reasons.
OTOH the authors often abuse the fact: They could have said their say in
half the volume. Skipping is easy, so it is not a real problem.
I overlooked them because they were in one big tar.gz. on my CDROM (RH 5.0
from Cheapbytes).
Also I just found out that ARJ of MSDOS/Windows can decode them. But the first
decode of this multi-MB file had to be done in Linux because ol' DOS has a
640MB size memory limitation.
Here is my list, it's end 1997 status, but very readable today.
Available in 3 forms: ASCII-text, html and sgml(?).
SEARCH for the keyword HOWTO, usually uppercase.
This is a newbie-treasure: (I have read 1/10 of it)
I put them in one directory for fast electronic searching.
3Dfx-HOWTO 48,297 09-03-97 2:13a
AX25-HOWTO 133,148 07-01-97 2:05a -amateur radio
Access-HOWTO 64,589 03-30-97 8:53p
Alpha-HOWTO 22,533 09-03-97 2:18a
Assembly-HOWTO 48,674 09-14-97 9:38p -assembly programming
Benchmarking-HOWTO 41,969 08-18-97 1:32a
BootPrompt-HOWTO 82,379 12-16-96 3:29a
Bootdisk-HOWTO 93,632 04-17-97 12:18a
CD-Writing-HOWTO 33,140 08-12-97 3:43a
CDROM-HOWTO 68,784 08-06-97 2:56a
Commercial-HOWTO 191,906 10-13-97 1:44a
Consultants-HOWTO 212,427 10-13-97 1:44a
DNS-HOWTO 60,811 06-19-97 1:10a
DOS-to-Linux-HOWTO 44,584 03-30-97 9:10p -very good if you know
MSDOS
DOSEMU-HOWTO 53,249 04-17-97 2:46p -run MSDOS pgms under
Linux.
Disk-HOWTO 142,343 09-03-97 2:25a -hardware mostly
Distribution-HOWTO 44,271 08-08-97 1:27a -nice Linux-distro
history.
ELF-HOWTO 53,793 08-03-96 2:50a
Emacspeak-HOWTO 61,879 10-13-97 1:22a -Emacs the big native
wordprocessor
Ethernet-HOWTO 216,496 02-03-97 3:14a -sounds like made for you
Firewall-HOWTO 54,279 11-14-96 4:25a -and you
Ftape-HOWTO 53,216 03-30-97 12:46a
GCC-HOWTO 61,207 03-14-96 5:16p
Glibc2-HOWTO 30,028 10-08-97 3:12a
HAM-HOWTO 77,483 04-01-97 4:26a
HOWTO-INDEX 33,083 10-15-97 3:25a
Hardware-HOWTO 58,569 09-14-97 9:07p
INFO-SHEET 32,927 01-20-97 11:12p
IPX-HOWTO 77,335 03-30-97 12:59a
ISP-Hookup-HOWTO 32,746 09-26-97 1:59a
Installation-HOWTO 55,421 09-26-97 1:43a
Intranet-Server-HOWTO 38,986 08-08-97 12:36a
Italian-HOWTO 0 09-25-99 4:44p
Java-CGI-HOWTO 24,473 12-16-96 5:10a
Kernel-HOWTO 56,612 05-26-97 3:48p
Keyboard-and-Console-HOWTO 59,459 09-03-97 1:28a
META-FAQ 12,929 01-03-97 4:30a
MGR-HOWTO 26,347 06-02-96 11:24p
MILO-HOWTO 45,328 08-18-97 3:49a
Mail-HOWTO 30,495 03-14-96 5:19p
NET-3-HOWTO 184,992 09-03-97 1:58a
NFS-HOWTO 30,810 03-30-97 8:02p
NIS-HOWTO 26,997 01-13-97 12:45a
News-HOWTO 31,559 03-14-96 5:20p
Optical-Disk-HOWTO 15,842 08-12-97 3:50a
PCI-HOWTO 93,975 03-30-97 7:27p
PCMCIA-HOWTO 87,750 10-15-97 3:23a
PPP-HOWTO 158,718 04-17-97 2:21a
Pilot-HOWTO 15,479 08-18-97 3:33a
Printing-HOWTO 47,153 09-26-97 1:35a
Printing-Usage-HOWTO 20,732 03-30-97 7:11p
RPM-HOWTO 33,103 07-07-97 1:27a
Reading-List-HOWTO 17,588 08-18-97 3:31a
SCSI-HOWTO 146,991 09-26-96 2:02a
SCSI-Programming-HOWTO 130,738 05-19-96 12:26a
SMB-HOWTO 32,362 08-19-96 12:48a
SRM-HOWTO 23,824 09-03-97 2:18a
Serial-HOWTO 65,681 07-07-97 3:53a
Serial-Programming-HOWTO 23,125 07-07-97 3:53a
Shadow-Password-HOWTO 68,292 06-05-96 11:25p
Sound-HOWTO 75,216 08-06-97 2:57a
Sound-Playing-HOWTO 29,023 05-27-97 1:20a
TeTeX-HOWTO 84,661 09-03-97 1:51a
Tips-HOWTO 26,662 01-20-97 11:23p
UMSDOS-HOWTO 22,973 03-14-96 5:22p -run Linux under MSDOS
(I think)
UPS-HOWTO 130,898 04-01-97 4:31a
UUCP-HOWTO 19,855 03-14-96 5:22p
User-Group-HOWTO 44,286 10-13-97 1:22a -Linux User Groups
VAR-HOWTO 25,049 10-13-97 1:44a
VMS-to-Linux-HOWTO 44,718 03-30-97 9:08p
XFree86-HOWTO 23,552 10-08-97 2:15a
XFree86-Video-Timings-HOWT 64,876 08-12-97 4:21a O
========== I omitted foreign-languages HOWTOs.
Start making your own notes from the beginning. Put the 'paper-mess' in an
editor to keep it manageable. I use an editor to update and hardcopy.
It's my main-reference for details: tar? RPM? gzip? print a MAN-page?
chmod? bash-cmds?
(lots of good newbie-list remarks on there)
I make notes on the printout, edit them, hardcopy when it gets messy.
Started under WINxx, move to Linux when my Linux-tools are sharp enough.
> ..... so if there are good help files geared to people
>*new* to Linux, please point them out. I just ordered Redhat Linux 6
>Unleashed and that should be here in a few days.
>
My copy of same is ETA nov 1 (Oct 30 to be optimistic, joke only). I ordered
it in July.
> a /boot partition of 16 megs
> a / partition of 2000 megs
> a /usr partition of 2500 megs told to grow to fill hard drive
> a /home partition of 2500 megs told to grow to fill hard drive
> a /var partition of 1500 megs
> and 2 swap partitions of 128 megs each
>
It's all very big. After you have everything loaded, try 'df' command to see
how much of it is used/'wasted'. But if you have the space, using it ot let
it sit idle makes no money-difference.
Use 'df' before deciding on your next '1TB' harddisk.
You can run Linux standalone in 2GB (1GB if it would eat your lunch) with
spare,
if you only load the programs that you are actually using more than once a
year.
>The installation went fine. However, booting the system can take a good
>15-20 minutes.
This is wrong. Is that default setup? Hard to believe.
Could there be some conflicting software?
You (or RH 6.0 install) must have configured the pgms to do some job at
startup.
My sendmail gets loaded in a fraction of a second. Started in a wink.
My Linux startup is about 5 times faster than WIN98, same machine. Default
setup.
> It seems to hang up for quite a while on the following steps
>of the boot process: "Starting system logger:" then a *much* longer hang up
>for "Starting sendmail:" and then another long hangup for "Starting httpd:".
>Then it takes a while for "Starting INND system:"
>
It smells like a conflict.......
I hope the gurus can tell you what to look for. I am a newbie.
>I can see that I will definately enjoy Linux, but it is definately a jump
>from the Windows world.
>
Linux put the fun back in computing for me (Windows robbed me of it). I have
not done much practical work with Linux yet.
I hope to get email working today, testing sendmail today. Receive is working
already.
---Herman Aa <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>From a mountaintop on Cebu island, Philippines.
List: Direct copies (extra copy) welcome.
