Linux Newb

Okay, I'll probably take a lot of time to say almost nothing here, but here goes:

I'm NOT a computer newbie, I've been messing with computers all my life (literally, I'm right at that age...) And I've been building them since long before anyone else I knew even understood such a thing was possible. However, in most of this time, I've only used DOS-based, (and now NT-based) Windows systems. When I was in school I also became totally familiar and comfortable with Mac OS systems.

In the next couple of days I think I'm going to take the plunge and start one of my machines on a Linux system. I just need to figure out which one. At the moment, I have my business running off our laptop (all my web folders, design software, etc...) and our "entertainment" machine is an 866 desktop with a DVD drive. It works well for data storage, DVD/Divx viewing, web, and music playing. But this week I plan on getting a third system to put in it's place, slightly faster in every way, with more RAM and a decent video card. This one will do everything the previous system did, but also run my design software (so I can run the business on it instead of the laptop) an play certain 2-player games on the network.

So... Now I'm going to have an extra box to mess around with. I plan on putting it into our sewing room to be a movie/music machine. I want to install a Linux system on it, but I'm having a hard time figuring out what distribution will be good for me. Bare minimum right now - I need something that will connect/fileshare over a wireless network with two computers running XP. It also needs to play DVDs, DivX, and mp3s. Can anyone recommend a good version to check out? A good website for downloads and information? I can't find a good source of beginner's info on Linux that isn't written for retards. Right now I know next to nothing about the system but I'm a quick learner. Any advice will be appreciated!

 

Ack, okay, now I've done more research and I feel almost more lost. There are so many distros available! For those most basic features I mentioned earlier (wireless networking w/ XP, web browsing, and media[dvd,divx,mp3] playing) will Ubuntu do the job? At least for the time being, so I can familiarize myself with the system? It's like landing on a foreign planet here all of a sudden! I don't entirely understand the real difference between all the distros, but everyone else argues them w/o realizing I hae no clue! I guess we all hae to start somewhere!

 

Adderall_Assasin, and Raysun, know a lot about Linux desktop stuff by the sounds of it and would probably be specific about best distro for video etc - but my personal preference for Newbies is Suse - simply because I found it more intuitive than other distros' but my advice is check back here and see if anyone replies that knows more about the specifics of what you are trying to achieve - I know more about linux servers than linux desktop stuff.

 

I think Ubuntu would be a great Linux distro for a newbie, but still be technically savy. Most the tasks that you want to perform will require programs that will need to be downloaded from the internet after the initial install since the video and audio formats are not open source. Wireless networking can either be a breeze or very painful it depends on your wireless card and how well it's supported. (Example: My wireless card is not naitively supported and only has Windows drivers but I was able to configure it to work properly with a little work. I'm using it right now.) You'll find HowTo's on the net about networking with XP. I use samba to network with my Win-boxes. Once you get on the internet you'll be able to browse with Firefox, it's pre-installed on almost all distros.

The main differences between all the distros are what kind of computers they are meant to run on (eg: server, desktop, workstation), what packages they come preloaded with, and what kind of package management they use (rpm, deb, or from source code). When the linux zealots argue about which distro is better at this for whatever reason it's usually a matter of personal preference. Under the hood it's basically the same.

If you ever get stuck first Google it then go to: http://www.LinuxQuestions.org it's a wonderful resource for newbies and their questions. I recommend joining a support forum specialized in whatever distro you decide to go with. Happy penguining!

 

Ubuntu 6.06 and Fedora Core 5-6 are great choices for beginers. Ubuntu="easy install" Fedora="easy customization".
i think that all wireless cards are supported now even though some are more difficult to setup.

for a Fedora Core system this will get you started.
http://stanton-finley.net/fedora_core_5_installation_notes.html

for movies, music, and media, you just copy some codecs into 2 directories and copy/paste a command into a terminal. btw, the command "su" means sudo, super user, or root user. the root user can do anything he/she wants to the system. your 'normal' user can only change his/her sessions and home folder contents. home folder location="/home/(your user name)" alias "~/". try not to log in as root unless you need to change a setting or install something. if you want to manually parttion a hard drive on Fedora Core then you will most likely need 3 partitions: (1) 'swap', which works kinda like ram 256mb-1gb, partition type=swap (2) "/boot", put in the first sector of hard disk (grub or lilo), partition type=ext2 or ext3 (3) "/" the place where Linux installs itself, parttion type=ext3

The more you learn about Linux=the easier it will get. The more you learn about Linux=the happier you will be. The more you learn about Linux=the more you will know about computers.

 

Ubuntu,Fedora and Suse are good choices for multimedia I would choose Ubuntu because it has a great online comunity and also it is noob friendly....
http://ubuntuforums.org/
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/

 

Ack. Okay, I'm halfway there, kind of! I decided to install ubuntu 6.06, but it got messed up partway through the install. I think I was confused as to the necessary partitioning. The drive I'm trying to install to is a 40 gig with two partitions. The way I normally have this set up (in windows I mean) is to run my OS from the first, 10 gig partition, and have my files and whatnot on the remaining space.

I thought, incorrectly, that I could wipe the 10 g and install to that, while leaving the files on the other partition intact. I know now that I'm wrong. I need to read more on this, but from what I gather I will need to wipe the entire drive and repartition it several times over... I just need to figure out what size to make the partitions and what to assign them as. But first, I need to hook up the hd to back up a few things left on that partition. Wish me luck, and thanks for all the advice, guys!

 

no problem. you sound like you are catching on quickly, for someone without an instructor.

here is my recomended minimum partition sizes:
/boot=100mb
swap=256mb-1gb
/=5+gb

if you like the multi-partitiion thing then you can also have a:
/home=(the rest of your hard drive)
this is where you save all your files like movies, music, documents, images. the operating system uses "/". it is really handy if you want to load Ubuntu and then later on you can switch to a different distro without losing your personal files.

 

^^ Yeah, that's exactly what I'm thinking about - since I'm still playing around and getting used to this whole thing, there's a very good chance I'll end up wanting to switch once I know better what I want/need.

It was a headache and I lost a little data (my bad, and oh well it's all downloadable and replaceable anyway...) But I'm finally all formatted and installed. I ended up following a combo of the "recommended" settings in the install, along with some stuff I read online. It's a 40 gig drive, and I partitioned it as

10 gigs (or 9.1, I think, after formatting) as /
768 mb for swap
Remaining space is /home

^That was pretty much the config recommended by a bunch of places where I read. I didn't partititon a /boot, though. What's that one for? Should I have, and could I still possibly go back to do it?

I *think* I have all my codecs working. mp3s run, as do my divX files. I havn't tested all formats yet, so there may still be kinks to work out. But I'm fairly confident that I can figure that out when/if it comes up. The package manager and everything is surprisingly intuitive once you get into it!

My confusion right now is over networking. The wireless isn't even an issue yet (don't have the card yet) but I'm still trying to get a 10/100 connection going. From here, I can see the windows network that the xp computer is set up on, and I can browse/access the files and folders shared on that machine. But I haven't yet figured out how to share folders from this machine so that the network xp computers can see them.

This is so fun. The whole time it was installing I was running around the house jumping up and down saying "this is exciting!" I'd forgotten what a blast it is to enter new territory on the computer!

 

Okay, another update... I've figured out how to use samba, how to edit my smb.conf file and change the workgroup name. Also how to add the proper commands to share a directory as public. When I save this and go to the file browser, if I rightclick on the folder I want to share and click "share folder" the settings within the gui confirm that everything is set properly. BUT, the Windows Network window within ubuntu still doesn't recognize that folder as part of the network. And the other computer (running xp) still doesn't see this machine as part of the workgroup, or the folder I'm trying to share. I think I'm partway there, and whatever I'm missing is probably totally obvious and right in front of me, but I'm still stumped.

 

i dont know much about net sharing. never done it. but you are catching on quik! faster than i did. dont forget the mozilla-mplayer plugin. are you using KDE or Gnome?

 

one thing you must do because windows is unforgiving on this score - IF you are running a windows server as a domain controller make sure the windows machine is a master browser and make sure master browser status is turned off in Samba (at least - when I have problems at work with linux-windows networks) I have found this to be a solution of sorts
try these addrtesses - it tells you a lot about the problem

This is probably the best doc for you
http://us2.samba.org/samba/docs/using_samba/toc.html

config by example
http://us1.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-Guide/

main samba site
http://us1.samba.org/samba/

linux headquarters
http://www.linuxheadquarters.com/howto/networking/samba.shtml

sorry I havent the time right now to add more info but will return here later this evening - see if you can find the relevent info there and if youre still having problems I will dig around on those sites and find some juicy bits of
the text for you

One more thing - I may have overlooked where you said this but can you just remind me what version of windows your other computers are running?
Are you running a windows domain controller with windows advanced server or 2K3? or is it just xp - I only ask because different versions of windows can present different problems interfacing to samba on linux

I'm impressed BTW that you find all this so easy considering this is your first proper attempt at it. Infact if youre finding it that easy with Ubuntu I'm thinking of having a look at the distro myself now for the same purpose you've got in mind

 

congrats....
I never used samba before how many network cards do you have? to see if the the card is up and running you run
sudo ifup eth0 or sudo ifup eth1 in your terminal

 

Thanks for all the help, everyone! I'm making progress, slowly but surely, and learning a lot along the way! (Yes, I'm still jumping around and having a lot of fun with this - I'm starting to think that won't ever stop! )

I'm running ubuntu 6.06 with gnome. It was a tossup for me, I couldn't decide whether I wanted Gnome or KDE. Gnome won out because the download finished first. Once I get more familiar with this wonderful world of Linux and the way things work, KDE is probably the first next thing I will check out, followed by some other distros... But I will mess around with this one for a while first.

As far as the network setup goes, it's a very simple p to p net. No domain controller, no server yet, Just a router where the cable internet connection comes in, and two computers - one running xp (sp2) and this one running ubuntu. We have a few purchases coming up... after I get some more RAM for this machine (still just running on 256 pc133). We will be getting a second desktop to run xp and all my design software, from which I will run my online business, and sometime soon after I want to set up a network server box to serve as a print server and storage location for all our extra hd space...

I know my ethernet card is working, because that's where my internet connection is coming from. So far I've managed to get Samba configured properly partway at least - now it shows up as a workgroup computerand from this computer it sees that the folder I've been trying to set up is shared. But from the windows machine it doesn't yet see the computer because it says it doesn't have the permissions to access the samba server. BUT I think this will work out before long, I've just got to go back and find the code I need for that permission... I will get to that now. Thanks again everyone! btw, I got a way better and more helpful response here than on any of the ubuntu forums where I posted! go figure...

 

Okay, I'm officially lost. I had thought that theproblem was with the password encryption - according to the documentation I read, samba uses unencrypted passwrds and windows uses encrpted paswords. I tried to follow directions I found to switch this end to encrypted but continued getting the same errors. I tried then to switch it back on both machines to plain text paswords, and succeded only in messing up the windows network (now the xp machine says I don't have permission to view the network). I even tried switching everything back the way it was before, and it's still messed up.

edit: I was wrong, neither computer will allow me to view the network now! And after I was sooo close, too!

 

I found this forum post a nice how to samba under ubuntu 6.06....

Code:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=202605

hope it helps....

 

Thanks! that looks like a good one, and deep. I'm still messing with it, I'm determined to get it right...

 

I'm running ubuntu 6.06 with gnome as well, and like it intensely. It sounds like you're way ahead of me, and doing fine! You may want to try "Automatix" as that fixed a few things that I'd not even yet encountered.

At some point, maybe take a look at shell documentation, most popularly the bash shell (default shell type is a /bin/bash). A very detailed manual is at

http://www.faqs.org/docs/bashman/bashref_toc.html

If nothing else, just to have a good idea of just how far you can go with scripting basic tasks with very little programming knowledge. Personally, I can't program worth a damn, but I could still write a script to do some useful things, though my code would cause anyone skilled in the art to simply laugh.

 

first thing to do when this happens is always open a command lineon the xp box and type
ping xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (replace x's with ip address of the linux box youre looking for)
then do the same from tlinux and look for the xp box (but dont forget to terminate the pings with "ctrl c" as the linux box will keep pinging forever.
when youve established both boxes can see each other (if not check cables - reboot etc) go to the next bit when you establish that both boxes ping each other - oh and remove ANY firewall software.

This can be a fairly straightforward job to complete or it can be a nightmare
but if you work this out youre about 3/4 way to being an IT network guru

now I know more about your setup I can see you will need to add a user to your linux box with the same name and password as on your xp box (the user that you normally log into your xp box with)
the samba server is by default set to share resources
did you get swat running? if not then you need to edit the smb.conf file
by hand and setup a security option in smb.conf.

also make sure these options are set whichever mode you run in
domain master = yes
local master = yes
preferred master =yes

the global section of smb.conf should have these options at least like this
[global]
workgroup= work_group_name (whatever your wg name is)
make sure the work group name is same on xp box
security = share (try this first then try security = user)
encrypt passwords = yes (try yes first - or no if it dont work)

There is more to do but for now this may get you running
I have to say that in my experience of multiplatform domains and sharing hosts this bit is more of an art than a science but essentially its the above parameters that you need to work with

If youre still stuck can you copy and paste your smb.conf and samba.conf files and I will check them over for you

 

Umbuntu is great. If you are behind a home private router, you may see signifigant internet performance increase by hard-coding some DNS servers in, many home routers handle nslookup very poorly.