Linux

[Padma]

That's fine, bgast1.

The best way to learn Linux is to play, and experiment on your own, and then ask questions when you run into problems.

 

[bgast1]

By the way, also with my purchase of Discovery/Lx, I get 30 days membership in the Mandriva Club, which I think gives me all the software for the power packs and other RPM's for download, just by being a member. Plus they have a forum as well.

 

[Padma]

Yes, indeed. "The benefits of being a member."

The Mandriva Club is a good thing. I just won't spend the kind of money they want for it.

 

[bgast1]

I probably won't be renewing when my 30 days are up.

Oh, by the way, I just read that Linux is virtually immune to viruses? But this does not make sense. If I am root (I did set up myself as a user account as well and probably will do so for my wife and son) and somehow my computer got infected with a virus, couldn't it infect my system? Of course if there are not many viruses out there for Linux then I could understand the immunity.

 

[Padma]

First of all, never log in as root.

If you need to do something with root privileges, either use a pre-existing tool (e.g., Mandriva Control Center) which prompts you for the root password, or open a terminal window (Konsole) and use the command "su". Only the applications started by you from that window will be as root. *ALL* other things, including your gui, and anything you start from it, will be as your humble user. You should *never* enter your root password to any prompt unless you know why it is asking -- and normally you know why because you are deliberately running somethiiing that you know will need it.

There *are* Linux viruses. Maybe about 50-60 in the wild. But none can actively exploit a current version of Linux. Maybe if you were running an unpatched version of Mandrake 8.0, or something.... But Linux was designed around multi-user security. It wasn't a badly-designed add-on feature (like in another OS we know).Each user runs in his own "sandbox", and if he screws something up, he can only hurt his own files, not the entire system. (Some distros (Linspire? Xandros?) have the user run as root all the time, to make it easier to transition from WIndows. Bad, bad idea!)

WIth a decent firewall to keep out the hackers and script-kiddies, and a little common-sense, a Linux box should never be compromised.

It boils down to the point that the only anti-virus programs for Linux actually just check email for WIndows viruses, so you don't unwittingly pass them on to your less-protected friends.

 

[bgast1]

After time isn't preferable or even easier to enter commands at a konsole rather than GUI? I find myself sometimes missing DOS.

 

[bgast1]

Padma (Kevin) Hope you don't mind me calling you by your real name. I appreciate the help, you have been great.

I think I finally have come up with a non-stupid question. Last night it would appear that I downloaded and installed some 1511 packages. Quite unintentionally I might add, but nevertheless did so. At the "Mandriva Linux Control Center 2006" Software Packages Installation - I ticked - All Packages, By Medium Repository. At the bottom of the window it says --
Selected 3361 MB/ Free Space: 3964 MB. To say the least I could not figure out what was going on here as I have 2 hard drives, one is 200 GB, and the other 250 GB. Surely I did not use up all of that diskspace. No way After that I went to istall the non-free packages and I got an error message something like being short disk space.

Well, I learned how to check the space on my hard disk and it reads partially

363718 tmp
21831973 My Downloads

So, since I have considerable amount of disk space left I'm thinking that the reason I can't install the non-free packages is because of 363718 tmp. Is this a temporary file that can be deleted? And then would I be allowed to install those packages?

I realize I don't need all those packages, but I was confused and still trying to learn urpmi, and how it works. Thanks for your help -- Bob

Nope -- Looks like I went from non-stupid to stupid again. Later on after work 1920 hrs. (I'm not in the Navy anymore, just that 24hour clock works a lot better when talking to ex-military people, and I still have to use that time daily) I went to try to install plf-nonfree and the bottom window said -- Selected: 1205MB / Free Disk Space 3071MB. Now I really don't know what gives. Plus the figure is different than last night.

In Windows -- "View" pull down menu you can switch icons to "details", if you want to see a list instead of icons. I haven't discovered how to do this yet in Linux - GUI. Can it be done or do you have to issue a command at a konsole.

If I am being too much of a pain in the neck let me know, and I will back off. It just seems the more I learn, the more questions I have.

 

[Padma]

Hmmmmm.. I'm guessing you did not actually use up that much space. But when you installed Mandriva, it probably made 3 partitions for you: one for the system ('/'), one for swap, and one for '/home'. /tmp will reside on your '/' partition, which may have had a default size of less than 5 G.

To answer your specific question: yes, you may delete the contents of /tmp safely. It is there simply as a temporary storage location, and is often set up for auto-purge on reboot.

As you may have found, the easiest way to check your disk space usage is to go to a Konsole window and type "df". It gives an output something like this:

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda1              10G  5.6G  3.9G  60% /
/dev/hda8              42G   12G   30G  30% /home

And from your earlier post, yes, the command line is often the best way to run commands. It is also the most powerful way, because you have total control over any commands you use, including *all* its options. And you will find that the Linux shells ('bash' being the default) are much better than a poor old DOS window. )

 

[Padma]

Heh, you're posting faster than I am.

Assuming you're using KDE (the default desktop in Mandriva), open a Konqueror (file manager) window. CHeck the "View" menu item. On mine, the very first entry is a sub-menu for "View Mode", which includes Icon, Multi-Column,, Tree, Detailed, etc.

 

[bgast1]

We were posting at the same time, I guess. I still want to get some Civ III in but it looks like I will have to go back to windows tonight, install Links 2003, go to Links Corner and download Augusta. I want to play the Masters. I don't think Links can be played with Cedega in Linux. Of course that wouldn't matter to you, if you aren't interested in golf.

 

[Padma]

Looking at the games database at transgaming, I would say you can *try* to install/play Links in Cedega, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.

And back to a previous question/comment: I don't mind helping, at all. Because:

1. I love Linux, and I enjoy helping people, so putting the two together ...
2. We old farts gotta stick together!

 

[bgast1]

A copy of my file system follows:

[bob@bob-a81e1249dba ~]$ df
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1 5.8G 4.1G 1.5G 74% /
/dev/sda6 177G 307M 177G 1% /home
/dev/hdb1 233G 3.7G 230G 2% /mnt/windows
/dev/hda 696M 696M 0 100% /mnt/cdrom
[bob@bob-a81e1249dba ~]$


I think I already looked for Links on transgaming, I think there is an old version on there and I think I happen to have it too, except I won't be able to download Augusta. I didn't look for Tiger Woods though, and I have 2005 for that as well.

What does /dev/sda1, let me guess, that drive or partition contains my system files? I think that is all of the packages that I could get from urpmi. And the others I got tonight. I guess there is no reason to delete any of them yet as I still have 1.5G left and I doubt there is anything left out there that I would need. Except Cedega

I have nothing to speak of in my home dir. By the way, my drive is not a scsi. It is a sata, but I read somewhere that Linux treats it like scsi.

Also nice to see that Linux utilized my other drive.

You are right about us old farts, and I love this There is another forum that I frequent and my smilie over there is an old man walking with a cane.

Never did get over to Windows tonight. Having too much fun with Linux. Trying to figure things out.

 

[Padma]

Looking at the "df" output, I guessed you had a SATA system. You're right, Linux treats it like a scsi drive. You have what looks to me like an odd system, though. On your ide cable, your CDROM drive is the master, and your Windows drive is the slave!? It obviously works; it just strikes me as ... odd.

And please tell me that you are not running everything as "root". Use your own non-privileged login primarily, and only do things as root when you absolutely have to. Cedega, in particular, will need a big chunk of that space you have under /home. It builds a complete logical "C: drive" for each game you install. That adds up pretty quickly. And I still shudder about the security implications of a root-user being out in the internet, exposed to all the crap that could compromise it.

Enough preaching.

Linux is fun. It works as well as Windows, and gives me greater control over exactly what my system is doing.

 

[kingjoshi]

And please tell me that you are not running everything as "root".

It shows the username as 'bob'

Cedega, in particular, will need a big chunk of that space you have under /home.

he has 177GB! Cedega better not hog that much space!

sorry, just had to nitpic...

 

[Padma]

It shows the username as 'bob'

It's late - I didn't notice.

he has 177GB! Cedega better not hog that much space!

True, but it could pretty quickly consume the 1.5 G he has left on '/'

sorry, just had to nitpic...

 

[bgast1]

No, I'm not running in root. Never once except when I had to. Unless, and I don't think this is the case, when you close out a konsole window if you were in root you are still in root.

Well, here's the deal on my system. It came with a DVD ROM and a DVD-RW. I had my other large hard drive filled with MP3's and I didn't want to lose them, so I uplugged the DVD ROM and installed the other hard disk. The cables wouldn't reach properly so I was limited as to space I could install it. I probably could take it out and check the jumpers, or try to reconfigure it in BIOS, but it worked so I left it alone. Actually I probably should go back into BIOS and make my hard drive the first bootable device, but I needed to change it otherwise I couldn't use my old Windows 98 disk, so I could get to fdisk and remove and reinstall XP. I would have stuck with a straight Linux box, but my wife needs some some software that runs on windows for her work.

 

[bgast1]

kingjoshi you crack me up

 

[kingjoshi]

True, but it could pretty quickly consume the 1.5 G he has left on '/'

That's one thing I don't understand. Why only create root directory with only 6GB on a HD with nearly 200GB? that's so short sighted by Mandriva. Unless bgast did it, then it's a newbie move

That would have been enough space 2 years ago. But these programs nowadays. And the # of applications are accumulating..

kingjoshi you crack me up

I help how I can

BTW, right now, the standard on Linux is to put apps in /opt directory if it's not automagically installed. So if it's not done through urmpi, you should put it in /opt. You should probably do it in /home/opt just to be safe.

 

[bgast1]

It's late - I didn't notice.
True, but it could pretty quickly consume the 1.5 G he has left on '/'

So, couldn't I install it in the home directory if I ever figure out how to install it?

 

[kingjoshi]

yeah. But you want to maintain the spirit of "multiusers". so if ever there was another user on your computer and they signed in, they wouldn't be able to use the apps unless you allowed read access there. Not that it's a big deal in your situation. But it's just my nature from comp sci training to think in worst case scenarios and such.

If you creat an opt folder in /home as root and give it read/execute privelages, then it'll just be like normal.