I need some all around help...

Peeples Mcnasty · 2008-10-19 13:45:55

I'm brand new at linux, and I have been using Windows xp for years, so I have no clue what I'm doing. I'm all installed, and it works fine, no errors, but I need some tips on doing some stuff.
I am trying to mod my .bashrc to add color, as in the wiki, but it doesnt open the actual file. Instead, nano keeps wanting to create a new file from scratch. I went ahead and filled in a new one, but it does nothing, what do I need to do? Is the .bashrc under a different name in the directory?

Next question... I am using a windows laptop to do all my internet, etc stuff, and the arch box is separated from the internet. I'm using wireless, and the arch box doesn't have a card, so I cant get it on the web right now. I want to install a GUI, most likely kde, but I have no clue as to how to put stuff on the arch box. All I have availible for data transfer is a 4gb usb jump-drive, and it has all of the kde packages on it, but I'm not sure how to access them to install them.

Aaaand...... the last question... If possible, is there a command that will list the directories of the arch box, so I can see where I'm at and where things are; I havent the foggiest idea of how this thing is layed out, or where the usb drive would be in the directories.

robertp · 2008-10-19 14:08:05

To edit .bashrc run from console:

nano ~/.bashrc

It is possible that you don't have .bashrc file after installation and you have to create one. Or maybe you need to create/edit ~/.profile file.

The commands you need to check directories are: pwd, ls (e.g. ls, ls .., ls / ). Pendrive is usually in /media or /mnt.

ccosta · 2008-10-19 14:13:01

Hi Peeples,

You are really new at linux world So, I have 2 suggestions for you:
1) You can maintain your system as is and start to learn a lot. My first recommendation is the Arch wiki page to proper setup you machine, installing a DE and configure your network. Another good documentantion corner is the The Linux Documentation Project, to startup your skills about Linux stuffs.
2) Or, you should install Ubuntu and use it during your adaptation. Linux is very different from Windows, and from your comments, you are not familiar with several bascis aspects (like ls to list dirs) needed to run a meta-distributions like Arch Linux. Use Ubuntu for a time and when you think "hey man, I'm OK to be back to Arch now", be sure you are welcome back

Kind Regards!

Peeples Mcnasty · 2008-10-19 14:20:37

robertp wrote:

To edit .bashrc run from console:
nano ~/.bashrc
It is possible that you don't have .bashrc file after installation and you have to create one. Or maybe you need to create/edit ~/.profile file.
The commands you need to check directories are: pwd, ls (e.g. ls, ls .., ls / ). Pendrive is usually in /media or /mnt.

Right now, I am using root, not a user profile. I cant seem to write or create passwords. Whenever I go to fill in the user's passwor, the box doesn't register the key-presses. It will only register non-letters. I'm still tryig to get to the bottom of it, so, until then I'm resorting to root as my login. Now, if I had to create a .bashrc, where would I need to go to find out what all must go into it?

Procyon · 2008-10-19 14:29:24

If you're not on the internet, I guess using root isn't very dangerous

the box doesn't register the key-presses.

That is supposed to happen, it's a security feature.

1. about your own .bashrc, make sure you are in the right directory.
For root bashrc is /root/.bashrc
You can get to your home directory with a simple "cd" and edit it with "nano .bashrc". Or just "nano ~/.bashrc"
You can copy an example with
"cp -i /etc/skel/.bashrc /root"

2. if they are .pkg.tar.gz then you can use "pacman -U file.pkg.tar.gz" or "pacman -U *.pkg.tar.gz" to install them all (I think that works...) Make sure you are in the right directory (i.e. you see them with ls)

3. you can browse around with find:

find / -type d -maxdepth 3 | less

and omit / or change to . to go from the current directory.

USB will be in /mnt I guess. check /etc/fstab ("less /etc/fstab")

I have a line that says:
/dev/sdf /mnt/usb vfat user,noauto 0 0

I can't remember if I did that myself or if it was already there, but if you have that and you type "mount /dev/sdf" as root, the contents will show up in /mnt/usb

EDIT:

BTW
even nicer browsing directories is if you sort it:
find / -type d -maxdepth 3 2>/dev/null | sort | less

Last edited by Procyon (2008-10-19 14:37:09)

Garns · 2008-10-19 15:10:10

Peeples Mcnasty wrote:

Whenever I go to fill in the user's passwor, the box doesn't register the key-presses. It will only register non-letters. I'm still tryig to get to the bottom of it, so, until then I'm resorting to root as my login.

Can you rephrase that? I don't really understand what you mean by register. Are you aware that password prompts in general won't echo anything? So normally, when you enter your password, nothing will change on the screen but the password you just entered is there.

Now, if I had to create a .bashrc, where would I need to go to find out what all must go into it?

Nothing has to go in there . You don't even have to have one, it all depends on what you want. You can put aliases in there (see man alias), define functions and environment variables, set your prompt and lots of other stuff. If you want examples you can take a look at threads like this one. Some of this stuff might be a bit overwhelming, so perhaps you should leave that alone until you have your install completed . What are you referring to when you say "Add color" ?

Regarding your usb drive, notice that it won't be mounted automatically until you configure some kind of automount (KDE wil do that for you). Mounting means making your usb drive accessible at some directory in the filesystem. So to access your drive you do the following:

Plug in drive
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt

Your usb drive doesn't have to be sdb1, if you have multiple harddisks in your box, those usually come first, so your first harddisk is sda, the second sdb and so on. sda1 is the first partition on the first harddisk, in most cases your usb drive will come after the disks, so if you have one harddisk your usb drive is usually sdb.

Then you can install kde like this:
First change to the dir with the packages, if you put them in some subdirectory just hang that behind mnt/:

cd /mnt/

use ls to see if they are there. If that is the case copy them into your pkgcache.
* will choose everything in that directory, if there is something other than packages, you should choose the packages to copy by hand

cp * /var/cache/pacman/pkg

after that you can use pacman to install the kde group:

pacman -S kde

There might be some (or in case of kde probably many) dependencies which you didn't put on your usb drive. Pacman will tell you if there are. To get a list of urls to download those you can use

pacman -Sp kde

Good luck

I just refreshed Regarding pacman -U, pacman -U won't install dependencies automatically and will just stop if a dependency is missing, so if you use pacman -U to install packages with dependencies you will have to resolve those by hand and install them with --asdeps.

finferflu · 2008-10-19 15:32:02

Garns wrote:

There might be some (or in case of kde probably many) dependencies which you didn't put on your usb drive. Pacman will tell you if there are. To get a list of urls to download those you can use
pacman -Sp kde

I just learnt a new handy pacman option! What a cool package manager we have

Peeples Mcnasty · 2008-10-19 17:49:04

ok, after a talk with my brother, I hooked my box up to a dsl router via an ethernet cable. after spending 4 hours trying to get it to have internet access, I have gotten nowhere. It wont ping te gateway, it wont ping anything. I have gone through the wiki and nothing seems to be working... I'm not sure what is wrong, I've checked my hostnames, and my connections.

Last edited by Peeples Mcnasty (2008-10-19 17:49:38)

Acecero · 2008-10-19 18:08:24

Peeples Mcnasty wrote:

ok, after a talk with my brother, I hooked my box up to a dsl router via an ethernet cable. after spending 4 hours trying to get it to have internet access, I have gotten nowhere. It wont ping te gateway, it wont ping anything. I have gone through the wiki and nothing seems to be working... I'm not sure what is wrong, I've checked my hostnames, and my connections.

Did you try to hook your ethernet connection through dhcp?

# dhcpcd eth0

If it's not eth0, check for other interfaces with

# ifconfig -a

Peeples Mcnasty · 2008-10-19 18:35:10

Thank you so much... dhcpcd eth0 turned it on, its now pinging google. Thanks.

Misfit138 · 2008-10-19 19:03:48

Head over to the Beginners' Guide before going any further.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-10-19 13:45:55

I need some all around help...

#2 2008-10-19 14:08:05

Re: I need some all around help...

#3 2008-10-19 14:13:01

Re: I need some all around help...

#4 2008-10-19 14:20:37

Re: I need some all around help...

#5 2008-10-19 14:29:24

Re: I need some all around help...

#6 2008-10-19 15:10:10

Re: I need some all around help...

#7 2008-10-19 15:32:02

Re: I need some all around help...

#8 2008-10-19 17:49:04

Re: I need some all around help...

#9 2008-10-19 18:08:24

Re: I need some all around help...

#10 2008-10-19 18:35:10

Re: I need some all around help...

#11 2008-10-19 19:03:48

Re: I need some all around help...

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