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So totally lost... from Win to Lin

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tweak

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  • "tweak" started this thread

Posts: 1

Location: va - the greater washington, dc metropolitan area

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Friday, April 11th 2008, 1:03pm

So totally lost... from Win to Lin

Myself and my uncle are sooo totally lost. From Win to Lin, I'm new to Mandriva 2007 and he's just converted to Linspire. So far, I've added some good stuff, but the basics still elude me. (He's in his 80's, so he just wants to throw the computer on the floor.)

I can't log in as root with a GUI, and bash doesn't seem to give me the commands I need. (I do know how to go out of GUI, into the konsole, and back to GUI. That's all.)

Unfortunately, regarding CUPs, I can't unzip the ppd tarball into the proper model folder in my GUI because I don't have root permissions despite how I've assigned them to several user logins. I'm unable to find an extract command to use in the konsole, and even unzipping as a GUI user and going to the konsole to move it doesn't work. In bash, I'm always told no such command, directory or file exists. I guess I need to go completely out of the shell.

Does anybody have a good total resource... glossary, build instructions for complete idiots, an insight to enlighten us . . . anything? We're desperate here.

(added): So far everything I find has language that is a "given" understanding that I'm not experienced enough for. I'm finding no clear "step-by-step" instructions for complete idiots. Those few I have found just don't work with this distro. (Except for the one to go totally out of the GUI to konsole out of shell and back.)

Right now we need to:

1. Address the issues with gutenprint & cups & KDE to get the printer(s) to work.

2. Somehow either login to root through a GUI or in the konsole (I guess using bash) find the commands to move, copy and extract the files into the proper location from the user accts.

3. Complete the installation process by initiating the execution of the software and placing it into the proper menu.

4. Understand the basic trees for program files and where to put things, and how to have permission access to them. (Assigning permissions in GUI doesn't seem to work.)


Thanks. I know it's a lot to ask for, but I'm hoping somebody else remembers being
hatched.
"Communication is in the mind of the beholder." ~ cyn m

This post has been edited 4 times, last edit by "tweak" (Apr 12th 2008, 3:50pm)

JThrawn2000

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Sunday, April 13th 2008, 9:50am

Right now we need to:

1. Address the issues with gutenprint & cups & KDE to get the printer(s) to work.

To configure printers you have to be root i guess but that depends on your system...
Normaly you can go to root when you enter the application that configures the printers "start as superuser", im not a fan of Mandriva so I cant give you the specifics...

2. Somehow either login to root through a GUI or in the konsole (I guess using bash) find the commands to move, copy and extract the files into the proper location from the user accts.

open a konsole (terminal) enter "su -" and type the password for root.... now you are root

3. Complete the installation process by initiating the execution of the software and placing it into the proper menu.

Cant help you with Mandriva but they also have a package tool that you will have to learn, in Debian/Ubuntu etc its handled by apt, In Redahat/Feodora its rpm (redhat package manager), might be that Mandriva uses yum but I dont know so you have to check on Mandrivas site.

4. Understand the basic trees for program files and where to put things, and how to have permission access to them. (Assigning permissions in GUI doesn't seem to work.)

You cant assign permissions for anything your not allowed to change, login as root. The command is chmod, to get the help on it use "man chmod". Dont start putting files in to the system without geting to know some more, basicly use the package manager mentioned above to install programs and put all your user files in your home directory, something like /home/"username"