Hi,

ive got some noobs linux questions i want to ask...

how do i navigate to desktop in a terminal window? Ive worked out the commands are mostly like dos. just dont know where the desktop is.

how do i view a windows drive that im gonna hook up as a firewire external drive? its how ive backed up my stuff from my old machine. i know you used to need samba but dont know if this is the case anymore?

how do i run the installer i downloaded for the radeon graphics? its come down as a .run file...

appreciate the help here fellas...

Matt

Quote from: bytejunkieHi,

ive got some noobs linux questions i want to ask...

how do i navigate to desktop in a terminal window? Ive worked out the commands are mostly like dos. just dont know where the desktop is.

how do i view a windows drive that im gonna hook up as a firewire external drive? its how ive backed up my stuff from my old machine. i know you used to need samba but dont know if this is the case anymore?

how do i run the installer i downloaded for the radeon graphics? its come down as a .run file...

appreciate the help here fellas...

Matt

1. use "cd", so:
matt@ubuntu:~$  cd Desktop

or to go back to your home directory:
matt@ubuntu:~$  cd ..

2. It should simply mount as mass storage. With Ubuntu, it should open automatically, or be available under "places". Samba is only used for networking machines together, not to read MS formatted drives per se.

3. First make sure that its permissions are set to be executable, by right clicking and choosing properties. That sorted, pop open a terminal and run it as root:
matt@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo ./nameoffile.run

or

matt@ubuntu:~/Desktop$ sudo sh nameoffile.run

Itll prompt you for your password.

However, using this tutorial is probably your best bet:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RadeonDriver#head-a0bf0ca17168200ea3dd810ae505419bdc7f2e6d

Yeah, its some command line jumbo and a text file edit, but its really straight forward and transparent. If something goes wrong, dont panic, as you can get plenty done without X.

Dont forget the handy command to reconfigure your X server:

$ sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

Dont forget to remove the fglrx 2D open source driver so you can get full acceleration.

Quote from: bytejunkiehow do i run the installer i downloaded for the radeon graphics? its come down as a .run file...

http://wiki.cchtml.com/index.php/Ubuntu_Edgy_Installation_Guide

used the tut and firefox still scrolls a bit dodgy like. jumps rather than scrolls smoothly.

am i expecting too much?

thanks for the help for the other stuff too, must remember linux expects the case to be correct.

Matt

edit/preferences/browsing/use smooth scrolling

Quote from: maximusotteredit/preferences/browsing/use smooth scrolling

not worked chap, is there some other place i need to enable it?

Ive assumed you mean in firefox above.

its slower to scroll with that option turned on.
Im wondering if the drivers have applied correctly, cos the ati catalyst control panel wont open.

Im also getting the gnome settings daemon wont start up after a massive 161 file update earlier tonight.

Matt

They didnt get installed properly or youve still got the fgrlx drivers installed conflicting.

Dont worry if the gnome-settings-daemon wont start if youre running feisty. They break a bit sometimes and another update fixes them.

Quote from: maximusotterThey didnt get installed properly or youve still got the fgrlx drivers installed conflicting.

Dont worry if the gnome-settings-daemon wont start if youre running feisty. They break a bit sometimes and another update fixes them.

sorted. went back to the document and followed the section about removing the fglrx stuff, even though i didnt need to.

gfx working perfectly now. thanks chap

so got gfx, got sound... not much left to do but bin windows!!!

Matt

couple of reinstalls tonight, cos im a bit of a noob and i tried to label my disk. oops.

how do i mount a freshly created partition? not sure how to do this?

Matt

If youre gonna keep reinstalling, make sure to make seperate /home and / partitions. If you do a lot of video, sound, or even Gimping, a gig partition for /temp.

For managing partitions, Gparted is a wonderful gui tool:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php

Open up a terminal:
$ sudo apt-get install gparted

youll need to run it as root, so pop open a run dialog, alt+f2 then:

gksudo gparted

ive installed gparted i just dont know how to mount the partition ive created so it appears in filesystem.

Matt

use gparted as root to mount it. right click on the empty space, format it as ext3 or your preferred system, then mount it using the program.

hmmm, im struggling with that. where will i find the drive once ive mounted it. got the option to unmount it so it must be mounted.

another strange one too.

theres new ati radeon drivers out tonight and they wont install properly. following the tut above but changing the version numbers i get to the line.

sudo aticonfig --initial

and it says
Warning: Could not find configuration file
Please copy configuration file template to /etc/X11

Ive googled and the fix is apparantly to run this
aticonfig --initial --input=/etc/X11/xorg.conf

but that errors with exactly the same thing.

Im rapidly going off the idea of linux. theres no wonder its now mainstream...

Matt

ubuntuforums.org

Ill sum it up like this: ATI sucks with linux. Expect problems, and blame them on ATI, not Ubuntu. Still, you had working drivers, and decided to install brand new drivers on a brand spanking new distro that was officially released today. Write ATI and complain about their sh*te drivers. I get pretty annoyed when yet another person starts bitching about *nix support of their various cards and devices, when its the manufacturers that are the problem.

Those of us with Intel and Nvidia chipsets rarely have problems.

As far as the drive goes: gparted is really straight forward, and you havent given enough info to give advice. Go search ubuntuforums.org till I get talented enough to read your mind.

max,

i sense some anger.

let me clear it up a bit. i didnt explain it too well.

wed night, it appeared to upgrade to FF. so thursday night after i trashed my disk by trying to label it, I rebuilt it with the 6.10 disc i had to hand.

as an aside, the drivers werent working very well. scrolling was smooth but i couldnt get to the ATI catalyst control centre.

the servers were far too busy to process the upgrade to FF, so i just carried on building it. it took 3 hours to get to ATIs site and when i finally did, the 404 had been because they were shifting to a new version of the driver. so i got that down and tried to go through the tutorial, hence the issues above. its new drivers against 6.10 ubuntu.

I wasnt aware ATI sucks for linux, when I say Im a linux noob, I mean it. I wasnt bitching about the support, more about the sh*t you have to go through to install the friggin drivers. my dad can handle a refresh of drivers in windows but asking him to drop to a terminal window and sudo install and dpkg etc etc. thats why linux will never be mainstream when you have to compile your own drivers.

the problem with gparted.

I can use it to create my partition. i just dont know where to find the partition with regards to in file manager. does it show up as a drive? mounted as a folder? i want to copy and paste my mp3s from my external drive into a folder on the new partition. but i cant find the bloody thing. its /dev/sda3 i believe. but this naming partitions like that is new to me so i dont know how to access it? any clearer?

Matt