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Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:44 am
by ktemkin
This thread is for the general discussion of Linux- from everything from complete newbie help on installation and use to advanced technical support relating to kernel modification, compilation, and driver structuring. I, and the few other Linux-gurus here, will attempt to answer any questions.

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:29 pm
by epion04
Wow, how amusing.... This topic pops up right as I finish installing the new ubuntu 8.10 beta on my machine...

In terms of newbie help, I have messed with linux in the past, but not enough to really LEARN it. To save me (more) hours of digging, I am attempting to access shared files on a windows laptop i have sitting around. I have heard use samba for that, I tried to apt get install it, and it error'ed out one me, any ideas?

Man, I feel sorry for you on this one, I have used linux but never really USED it much... and now that my harddrive with XP crapped out and I dont have the key code any more.....you get the idea.

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:16 pm
by SpeedFreak
epi...first add sudo infront of any apt-get install because that gives the command admin rights. sudo any command that you want installed.

I personally have messed with about 10 different distros...debian is my personal favorate...ubuntu in 2nd.

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:22 pm
by epion04
SpeedFreak wrote:epi...first add sudo infront of any apt-get install because that gives the command admin rights. sudo any command that you want installed.

I personally have messed with about 10 different distros...debian is my personal favorate...ubuntu in 2nd.
Anytime I am gonna do something like that I run it in Sudo -s that way I dont have to mess with sudo ing everything during that terminal session.

I have not got it to work yet, but the other day when I was messing with it trying to get my webcam to work (v4l2 sees the cam but it cant seem to get anything from it) I found that duing a sudo make install ( name of app) run, it would get about halfway though it and then kick out on a permission denied error. Found out about Sudo -s and -i at this point being Ubuntu wont let you into root....

I have used a few debian based distros with a KDE interface... might end up dumping ubuntu if I cant get it work the way I want.

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:24 pm
by SpeedFreak
epion04 wrote:
SpeedFreak wrote:epi...first add sudo infront of any apt-get install because that gives the command admin rights. sudo any command that you want installed.

I personally have messed with about 10 different distros...debian is my personal favorate...ubuntu in 2nd.
Anytime I am gonna do something like that I run it in Sudo -s that way I dont have to mess with sudo ing everything during that terminal session.

I have not got it to work yet, but the other day when I was messing with it trying to get my webcam to work (v4l2 sees the cam but it cant seem to get anything from it) I found that duing a sudo make install ( name of app) run, it would get about halfway though it and then kick out on a permission denied error. Found out about Sudo -s and -i at this point being Ubuntu wont let you into root....
There is a way to get into root...I had my root account accesible. Do you have an IM client...if you do i can send you step by step instructions when my friend gets off school...he still remembers how to activate the root account.

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:27 pm
by epion04
SpeedFreak wrote:
epion04 wrote:
SpeedFreak wrote:epi...first add sudo infront of any apt-get install because that gives the command admin rights. sudo any command that you want installed.

I personally have messed with about 10 different distros...debian is my personal favorate...ubuntu in 2nd.
Anytime I am gonna do something like that I run it in Sudo -s that way I dont have to mess with sudo ing everything during that terminal session.

I have not got it to work yet, but the other day when I was messing with it trying to get my webcam to work (v4l2 sees the cam but it cant seem to get anything from it) I found that duing a sudo make install ( name of app) run, it would get about halfway though it and then kick out on a permission denied error. Found out about Sudo -s and -i at this point being Ubuntu wont let you into root....
There is a way to get into root...I had my root account accesible. Do you have an IM client...if you do i can send you step by step instructions when my friend gets off school...he still remembers how to activate the root account.
I only use msn messenger, the addy is in my profile if ya want it.

I tried installing samba from the package manager a few min ago, seemed like it took, then tried installing gnomba and it kept giving a error saying I didnt have samba ....Oh well.

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:31 pm
by SpeedFreak
Ok added...if your not on MSN when i figure it out...i'll post the solution to logging onto root here

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:33 pm
by epion04
SpeedFreak wrote:Ok added...if your not on MSN when i figure it out...i'll post the solution to logging onto root here
Thanks. I remember reading something about reactivating the root account on the ubuntu forums, but I was looking for something else at the time and kinds went right past it <<;

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 1:33 pm
by SpeedFreak
epion04 wrote:
SpeedFreak wrote:Ok added...if your not on MSN when i figure it out...i'll post the solution to logging onto root here
Thanks. I remember reading something about reactivating the root account on the ubuntu forums, but I was looking for something else at the time and kinds went right past it <<;
Haha no problem...ill have an answer for ya by 4-5PM EST

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 4:41 pm
by avwolf
If you need root (and don't want to hit sudo over and over and over again), use

Code: Select all

su
That's more-or-less "switch user" and by default, it'll switch to root. It'll give you a password prompt, which is waiting for your root password (not YOUR password). But if you don't know your root password, and you're a sudoer, there's another trick you can use to get root.

Code: Select all

sudo su
Since root is permitted to su to any user on the system without a password, by using sudo to run su, you can pretend to be root while you switch to it. Then you only need to enter your password to get permission to use sudo.

I'm a Gentoo man, personally. But I run a batch of Debian boxes now; we tend to run Debian on our production boxen. And I've sworn to never install another Red Hat machine by choice. :P

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:56 pm
by epion04
avwolf wrote:If you need root (and don't want to hit sudo over and over and over again), use

Code: Select all

su
That's more-or-less "switch user" and by default, it'll switch to root. It'll give you a password prompt, which is waiting for your root password (not YOUR password). But if you don't know your root password, and you're a sudoer, there's another trick you can use to get root.

Code: Select all

sudo su
Since root is permitted to su to any user on the system without a password, by using sudo to run su, you can pretend to be root while you switch to it. Then you only need to enter your password to get permission to use sudo.

I'm a Gentoo man, personally. But I run a batch of Debian boxes now; we tend to run Debian on our production boxen. And I've sworn to never install another Red Hat machine by choice. :P
I see, hmm, thanks for the advice.


As for the Red Hat comment, I installed it once, overwrote it within an hour.
Doesn't hurt now that Red Hat is no longer free, and the free version has been replaced by fedora.
I have used some Debian based distros in the past, but never Debian itself, might have to look at it.

Re: Linux

Posted: Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:06 pm
by avwolf
epion04 wrote:I have used some Debian based distros in the past, but never Debian itself, might have to look at it.
*shrug* It's pretty much the same as Ubuntu. I haven't really noticed very many differences (thanks to Ubuntu being based on Debian). It's a little frustrating because they don't like to tell you how to do anything, and they don't explain what you're doing at any given stage of their how-tos, but there's really not a whole lot of difference between the two distros, so far as I'm aware. My biggest complaint about Debian is trying to get it to the point where it can successfully compile very many things; when you're used to Gentoo, which must be able to compile everything you want since the distro is based on compiling every package specifically on your system, it feels very strange and irritating to have to go looking for missing library dependencies when you run into something that doesn't have a convenient binary package. (And I like emerge better than apt, but I'm not complaining too much about that...Apt is way beyond yum.)

Don't know anything about unlocking root under Ubuntu, I'm afraid, though. I could ask (some of the guys at work are big Kubuntu fans), but that seems like the sort of "feature" that would drive me up the wall, much like Vista's UAC. If it's something as simple as a scrambled password, well, as a sudoer, that's easy to fix.

Re: Linux

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 6:58 am
by epion04
avwolf wrote:
epion04 wrote:I have used some Debian based distros in the past, but never Debian itself, might have to look at it.
*shrug* It's pretty much the same as Ubuntu. I haven't really noticed very many differences (thanks to Ubuntu being based on Debian). It's a little frustrating because they don't like to tell you how to do anything, and they don't explain what you're doing at any given stage of their how-tos, but there's really not a whole lot of difference between the two distros, so far as I'm aware. My biggest complaint about Debian is trying to get it to the point where it can successfully compile very many things; when you're used to Gentoo, which must be able to compile everything you want since the distro is based on compiling every package specifically on your system, it feels very strange and irritating to have to go looking for missing library dependencies when you run into something that doesn't have a convenient binary package. (And I like emerge better than apt, but I'm not complaining too much about that...Apt is way beyond yum.)

Don't know anything about unlocking root under Ubuntu, I'm afraid, though. I could ask (some of the guys at work are big Kubuntu fans), but that seems like the sort of "feature" that would drive me up the wall, much like Vista's UAC. If it's something as simple as a scrambled password, well, as a sudoer, that's easy to fix.
After the last 4 hours...... I see what you mean about looking for missing dependencies........been trying to install a gnomba ui for samba, but I need a gtk package, for gtk i need glib, atk , pango, and cairo..... for pango i need either freetype, x11, cairo,......it just keeps going on........

Re: Linux

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:03 am
by avwolf
Aren't you glad you have a package manager which handles most of that for you? Imagine if you didn't have apt, and had to download all those programs and libraries yourself, but, of course, you had to find them first. :P

Re: Linux

Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2008 7:12 am
by epion04
avwolf wrote:Aren't you glad you have a package manager which handles most of that for you? Imagine if you didn't have apt, and had to download all those programs and libraries yourself, but, of course, you had to find them first. :P

Eh, I have found a lot of that is not showing up in the package manager...... so I have resorted to finding them all manually..... I guess it is probably a good thing, learning something new every time. While frustrating, it is almost quite enjoyable learning stuff the hard way like this.