I would like to add a few comments to help smooth out some remaining
wrinkles. I have only been using Linux for about 5 years, but I like
to think I have come a long way as far details and features are
concerned. If you want to view hidden files in a file manager, there
should be a "View" menu that has an option related to hidden files. If
not, then use the "Help" menu or go to the file managers project site
and look for instructions. Might take a while. For getting YouTube
videos to work, you need to install Firefox or Opera and go to Adobe's
web site to download the appropriate plugin and Flash Player for
Linux. Please note that the Linux version of Flash is very resource
intensive, meaning it will run slowly on older systems. If you don't
have at least 512MB of RAM and a 1GH processor, then don't even bother
with Flash. Flash is absolutely required to view videos on YouTube
because they use embedded Flash objects to show the video. If the
video lags a lot in the page, then install a Firefox extension called
Fast Video Download. Once installed, you can click it (maybe more then
once) to bring up a download screen so you can save the video and then
view. Don't worry about the .flv extension. Use MPlayer to view the
file. Note that video and sound may be out of sync. This is due to
errors in the file that is stored on YouTube's servers and can not be
fixed. Most videos you may watch will not have this problem, but it is
still annoying. Also, about MPlayer, you can use it to view/play Real
Media files with a Win32 codec pack (forgot download link, Google it).
Also, in order to get Wine to work, I beleive you have to first open
up a terminal and run "winecfg" (without the quotes), that is, you
type it in and press enter. It should set up your fake Windows drive
(.wine) and allow you to run some Windows applications. The only thing
I use Wine for is some Windows games, as I have found adequate
replacements for frequently used Windows programs. I don't know what
could be wrong with your sound card, but you may want to go to
Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) and read the articles on
Enlightend Sound Deamon, ALSA, and OSS. All sound systems have there
on set of modules. Certain modules will not work with certain cards.
Also, you may have to go to a system control panel of some sort and
specify wither the multimedia engine, sound system, or other settings
to use. Because you never posted the make or model of your sound card,
I can't recommend anything. I find that Sound Blaster compatible cards
work pretty well. Also, about the /home and root partitions. I
personally keep all the Linux directories one drive. That way, backup
is a snap. Just use the GPartED live-CD to copy the whole partition
onto another disc big enough to hold it, then restart the computer and
compress everything on the drive either tar.gz or tar.bz2. A lot of
people may frown upon this, saying that you shouldn't backup certain
directories, but if the data on your drive is corrupted to the point
where you MUST reformat, it doesn't matter. Also, I highly recommend
sticking with a Live CDs to fin the right Linux for you. I have also
experienced problems with laptops and notebooks, and I have only been
able to find one solution: KNOPPIX. Knoppix is an amazing Live CD
distro with an advanced hardware auto-detection and auto-configuration
system. If the laptop has sound, there's a good chance Knoppix will
find it. Hope some of this helped.
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