Re: 8 Newbie Questions
André Bell wrote:
>
> I just installed debian about three days ago and have several questions
> about navigating within debian and about accessing devices. If you can help
> me with one or more of these questions it would be greatly appreciated as I
> am growing a bit frustrated with not knowing what I am doing :)
Welcome to the wonderful but extremely frustration-prone world of
Linux.
> 1) How do I move from one partitioned drive to another? How do I know the
> drive letters to use too?
Drive letters are a DOS/Windows concept. In *NIX, each
partition/drive is "mounted" onto a directory name. For example,
if you've got two physical drives that DOS would refer to as C:
and D:, your Linux system might have them mounted on "/" (the
"root" directory) and "/my_other_drive" respectively. Or they may
be mounted on "/" and "/mount/d", etc. Then to list the files on
"Drive D:", you'd just type "ls /mount/d". Or you could "cd
/mount/d" to change to that drive/directory. The mounting process
is usually done by the system during boot-up, or by the system
administrator (known as "root" or sometimes referred to as the
SuperUser, which I believe is where the "su" command gets its
name, which allows you to temporarily become root).
In the Windows world, you log into Win95/NT and you remain that
user for the duration of the session. With Linux, if you know the
root password, you can temporarily become the SuperUser with the
su command; then "exit" back to your normal account privileges.
In the Windows world, Windows expects only one person to use the
computer; in recent years, Microsoft has mangled the system even
further trying to make it appear to be a multi-user system, but
at its heart, it is a single-user system. Linux on the other
hand, is a multi-user system at heart (although it works just
fine if only one person ever logs in). The ability to do things
on a Linux system is controlled by privileges assigned to the
user account by the root user. For example, normally, normal
users can not mount a floppy drive; only root can.
> 2) How do I copy files from my floppy drive to my partitioned debian drive?
I'm relatively new to Linux (9 months or so), and I never have
need to use the floppy, so don't take my word for it, but I
believe you need to "su" to the root account and then mount the
floppy with the command "mount /dev/fd0 /floppy". This assumes
that a directory named "/floppy" exists on your system. If not,
just create it with "mkdir /floppy" (as root). You could also use
any other name you want instead of "floppy", and it doesn't have
to be on the root. For example, you could use "mount /dev/fd0
/mount/little-plastic-cased-data-storage-device" (unless the name
is too long or something; I've never tried this).
(BTW, a neat trick you'll learn to love is command completion (NT
offers this with a registry hack). For example, suppose you
wanted to change to the above mentioned directory; you could
simply type "cd /mount/littl" and then press the TAB key and the
rest of the directory name would fill in for you automatically.)
> 3) Why does debian say 'only the root can do that' when I type the line below:
> $ mount /dev/fd0 (or any other floppy drive)
> I can't cd /dev/fd0 nor can I figure out how to access it.
See answers above.
> 4) How can i get a network connection or simulated network connection
> between my win95 pc & debin pc via serial or via their modems? Windows
> allows direct connect with other windows pc, what can I use with debian?
I know you can do a direct link, but I've never done it, so can't
give you any help. You can also use modems, but I've only used
modems to dial into an ISP, not directly between two boxes.
> 5) How determine hardware which is functioning properly and how determine
> which kernels need to be removed or changed? I know with windows I had
> device manager and msd.exe. What do I have with debian?
Again, I have to defer to the more experienced Linux users here.
> 6) How change kernels once I know the above? I'd like to remove the devices
> that I installed to the kernels during inital installation of debian but
> don't actually have in my system yet. I also want to add a new serial card
> since I never set one up when I installed debian. The new serial card is
> now in the pc. I don't know how to do this after the fact. I type
> 'setserial' and a bunch of stuff scrolls by that doesn't make sense to me yet.
Again, I have to defer to the more experienced Linux users here.
> 7) Why can't I access my floppy after booting from it? I have /floppy on
> my system. I can see it by cd / and then typing ls. When I cd to /floppy
> and then try to write to it I get 'permission denied'. I read from it
> without error messages, it appears to be an empty directory. I can't
> access either of my physical floppy drives attached to my system when I
> read from it with ls commands and /dev/fd(x).
The "/floppy" directory was probably created by the install
routine; however, until the floppy drive is actually mounted to
that directory, it's just an empty directory; once the drive is
mounted, it's a "pointer" to the actuall floppy drive. At that
point, simply typing "ls /floppy" should give you a file listing
of the floppy's contents.
> 8) Do I have to regularly compile my own linux software? Aren't binaries
> available like with dos and windows? So much linux software on
> the net that I've seen isn't in binary format, it's rpm or plain source
> format. Is this standard for linux software? Can I use these with debian 2.1?
As a general rule, look for a .deb package first. If you can't
find one, then you may have to compile the software. A .deb
package is kindda like Redhat's RPM package (only better); it not
only contains the software, but it also contains the instructions
for installing it in a form that the Debian package manager
(dpkg/apt, dselect/apt-get) can understand. So, if you wanted to
install some program such as minicom (a communication package
kindda like Kermit or ProComm), you could just use dselect (as
root), search for "minicom", instruct dselect to install it, and
dselect/dpkg would find everything needed and install it and
configure it (maybe asking a few questions along the way). MUCH
easier than compiling/installing/configuring software yourself.
An important thing to note since you're a beginner; the basic
install of Debian only installs the basics; it doesn't install
the man page reader or X Windows or a bunch of games or
WordPerfect or Netscape, etc etc etc. After the basic install is
completed, you can then use dselect to go find other stuff you
want and install it. It's kindda like the old days of Windows 3.1
when you installed DOS, then rebooted and installed Windows 3.1,
then installed WordPerfect, etc.
> * I hope you don't think I just posted without looking for the answers
> online. I've visited over 500 sites online, I've downloaded 40+ apps but
> can't use them because they are stuck on my win95 system or floppies, tried
> to access 'man man' to read the manual (but get an error "can't open the
> manpath configuration file /etc/manpath.config"), I've read the help menu
> by typing 'help' and then hitting CONTROL-Z to stop it from scrolling off
> the screen and then type each command to see if I can figure out what they
> do, and still haven't found the answers to my questions.
>
> I hope you can help. Thanks in advance!
>
> Andre
You haven't mentioned how your system is set up or how you
installed Debian or if you have a modem/lan connection or not. If
you have a modem on your Linux box, you'll probably want to get
it working with your ISP (as root, run "pppconfig"). Then run
"dselect" and configure it to use apt (if it's available; ftp if
not) and point it to www.debian.org or one of its mirrors. Then
you can Select software and download it via modem and dselect
will install/configure it for you automagically (more or less).
Be aware that dselect is confusing, so be prepared for
self-inflicted wounds.
> p.s. I've already downloaded mtools but since I can't copy the mtools files
> from the floppy to my partitioned debian drive, I'm stuck!!!
>
> My debian pc seems to be up and running just fine, I just can't do this or
> any other commands to the floppy:
> $ ls -a /dev/fp0
>
> The floppy disk drive light doesn't even light up on when entering
> commands. This indicates that maybe the drive is not mounted properly in my
> linux system (I'm guessing), though I boot into my linux system from floppy
> just fine. :(
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