Re: Help!

Adamski wrote:

Hi there, apologies in advance for the length, and also for possibly
posting in the wrong type of group. I am completely reliant on the
kindness of strangers here.

A long time ago, I got really fed up with Windows and decided to give
Linux a go. Someone recommended Mandrake and perhaps through my
inability to follow the instructions(?) I couldn't get the damn thing
to install, let alone run.

Now though, after getting even more annoyed with Microsoft's products,
I became determined to install Linux. unfortunately, determination
doesn't really help much when you have no idea what you're doing!

First off, I couldn't get my monitor to work, it said the signal was
out of range, I searched the internet (using Windows, I assume that
means I have a dual boot system?) for an answer but I couldn't
understand a lot of the answers I found, in the end I reinstalled Suse
a few times until I could at least get the system to boot.

Now the problem is, I can't read the writing on the screen. I have
tried fiddling with the resolution, but to no avail. I also opened Yast
as one site suggested, but once I got in there, my only instructions
were, (edit manually in Yast) which is great if you have even a basic
understanding of Linux, I don't.

My other problem is that I can't access the internet at all. Again, I
was told to go to Yast, edit and configure manually. Apart from the
writing being really hard to read because I messed up my monitor
settings, I wouldn't know what to do once I got into the system anyway.

I feel as if I have been dragged out of a cave, which is full of people
in forums telling each other to root the boot to x and edit, if that
doesn't make sense to you, you can have an idea of how I am feeling!

Please don't let me fall back into the evil hands of Microsoft! And
also if anyone does respond, could they please give me simple step by
step instructions I can print out and follow?

I'm not an idiot, in fact, I can fix most crashes on Windows, it's just
a completely new operating system which I have never been introduced to
before, I am willing to learn, but I need some help, please!

Oh and before I forget, here's what I know. I am using a 32 bit
processor to run Suse Linux 10.1, I have partitioned the drive so I can
run Windows (mostly because I knew I'd get into trouble somewhere along
the way!) I connect to the internet using an internal ethernet card. I
don't know my IP address and I am pretty sure it changes every time I
reboot my system. I hope that's enough info.

Thank you for your time

Adam

First do what houghi said so that you can see the screen.

Ready? Ok.

Now language. Forget that Linux is a different OS to Windows, use your
knowledge of language to find your way around. Lets have a look at Yast,
open it up.

First is the software handler page. You could 'install software', no
oddities involved, just search for the items you are interested in and let
Yast install them. Remember to read the screens, you get Description,
Technical Data, dependancies and Versions when ever you click on a package.

As an example in the search box type 'editor'. In the list you will see
'jedit' hilight it with your mouse. The description is telling you what the
software is, in this case an editor that is particularly useful for
programmers. Installing it is a simple matter of selecting the tick mark in
the list then pressing the 'Accept' button.

No unusual language involved so far, and nothing that you could say is
specifically 'Linux'.

Next page in Yast is Hardware. There is a hardware page in your MS Windows
and it has all of the same items as this page has. graphics, printer,
bluetooth etc.

If you were to select 'Graphics' you get a set up dialogue, it may look
different to the Windows one, but it asks exactly the same questions. What
card have you got and what monitor?

So still nothing specifically Linux. Just the same language you are used to
using every day.

System page, these are more items that are also in the MS Windows configure
dialog. You said you can work your way around MS Win, well there isn't
anything we have hit so far that shouldn't already be familiar to you.

Network devices and Services. This is the first place where we might have
come across an area with more options than the MS Win network tools, but
still the basic setup of a single card network is the same. Probably
nothing at all to be setup because it is very likely that you receive your
information via DHCP, as you will on your MS Win machine. So as a client
there is nothing to do here other than to set your hostname, but not
setting your hostname will not stop your network connection from working.

Security Page, obviously a very important area and because of it's
importance it is made easy. The Firewall is just a matter of allowing the
areas that you want and leaving switched off the areas that you don't. On a
one NIC card network your one card is obviously the local network, so by
default you don't actually need to set anything in here, it has been done
for you. You will probably need to come back here to allow some extra
services, but at the moment the settings are fine.

So there we have it, all the way through Yast and we haven't done anything
that is specifically Linux. Forget what the dialogues look like instead
use your language knowledge, then they aren't any mysteries.

.

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