Re: Documentation for Newbies (was: win and linux)
Hi Joe,
thank you very much for your suggestions...
----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Bouchard <jpb@cybertours.com>
To: <serkan@altcommunicationarts.com>
Cc: <debian-user@lists.debian.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 08, 2000 4:52 PM
Subject: Documentation for Newbies (was: win and linux)
> On Sat, Apr 08, 2000 at 03:43:22PM +0300, Serkan ?nci wrote:
> > hi,
> >
> > I'm too new for linux and loaded to my computer linux yesterday. However
I want to use my old O.S.(windows 95) too but now I can only use linux. How
can I use linux and windows together. I have got some documnets but I
coludn't find any satisfactory answer. I added something to lilo.conf but
there is no change. I know this question is very simple for you but any
solution or reference to a document will be very good for me...
>
> /* answer this specific question */
>
> When you change lilo.conf, you must run the program /sbin/lilo to take
> the changes you made and write them to the boot sector. You didn't say
> if you did that, but if not, that is probably your problem.
>
> /* begin newbie documentation lesson */
>
> As a linux newbie, you may not realize it, but the answer to 90% of all
> your questions is already on your computer. Seriously. The only only
> answers that aren't there are the brand new ones (like what driver do I
> use for some card which just came out last month). Lilo has been around
> as long as linux, and the rules for lilo don't change much.
> Furthermore, you probably got the documentation for the version of
> software you installed, so you may have better documentation than anyone
> else. Therefore you should really get in the habit of looking for this
> stuff yourself. Personally, I feel a great deal of pride in finding my
> own answers. This is pretty arbitrary, but I figure if I have read
> documentation for at least 4 hours and I still can't find an answer,
> then it's time to post a question.
>
> Places to look:
> - cd /usr/doc and do an "ls". Wow, look at it all. There is a
> directory for almost each package you installed. Usually, this is a
> very good place to look, but now always. Some distributions (I'm on
> Debian Slink) use a different location than /usr/doc.
>
> - the "man" pages. There are millions of them. If you think there is a
> man page out there but can't find it, try "man -k <keyword>".
>
> - the "info" pages. There are a lot of these too. The info program is
> a browser of sorts.
>
> - There are "HOWTO" and "MINI-HOWTO" documents all over the place. Some
> documentation is stored in html files. Locate will help you find them.
>
> - "locate" - On windows you have the ability to "find files". You can
> do that on linux too. In both cases it scans the entire disk, and
> takes a few seconds. On linux, though, there is a scheduled cron job
> that runs (usually in middle of the night) which scans the entire disk
> and makes a "locate database". At that point you can type "locate
> lilo" and it will show you all the files with the phrase "lilo" in them.
> It's case sensitive, so try "locate lilo Lilo LILO", and in my case it
> shows a nice file called /usr/doc/HOWTO/mini/Multiboot-with-LILO.gz
> which I can view with "zmore /usr/doc/HOWTO/mini/Multiboot-with-LILO.gz"
> The job that runs at night is called "updatedb". If you try locate
> and just get some error message, then it's because updatedb hasn't run
> yet on your new system. Run "updatedb" as root (it takes a few
> minutes) and then locate should work fine.
>
> - Buy a decent book. This simple statement can spark many hours of
> debate regarding which books are best, but I won't go there today.
>
> - Poke around at http://www.debian.org There is documentation out there
> also. Typically it's the same stuff that is on your disk but it's
> worth a shot.
>
> - Web search. I like http://www.google.com (no need to start a debate
> here either), and you will find more documents and lessons learned.
>
> Hope that helps. I'm sure other people have other sources of
> information.
>
> --
>
> Thank you,
> Joe Bouchard
>
> Powered by Debian GNU/Linux
>
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