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Re: [TCLUG:179] A Linux newbie needs some advice



On Tue, 12 May 1998, Bob Nolte wrote:

> Problem is, I don't have a clue about what to do next. I got myself into a
> beginner Unix class at the Eden Prairie VoTech, starting in August. I
> guessed that I should start at the beginning. Then plan to take the advanced
> course which may be more useful.

That's a good idea.

> Right now, I don't know what to do to mount a CD disk, which gives some idea
> as to how much ignorance I have as to how Linux really works.

Carl gave you the short answer, but the long answer is this: do a 'man
mount' (without the single quotes) and you will learn a little bit of
useful stuff about using 'mount', and also a lot of confusing crap. That's
what 'man' pages are good for. The man page *should* read like this:

"The command line for 'mount' should look like this:
mount -t type-of-filesystem device mount-point

Some example mounts:

Mount a DOS floppy
mount -t msdos /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy

Mount an ISO 9660 CD-ROM
mount -t iso9660 /dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom

Mount a DOS hard disk partition
mount -t msdos /dev/hda3 /DOS

Note that '/dev/floppy' and /dev/cdrom' are really aliases to the actual
devices. Mount points must sometimes be created with 'mkdir' if they don't
already exist. For CD-ROMs, the default file system type is ISO 9660, and
this option can be left off the command line. For floppies and hard disk
partitions, the default is ext2fs (Linux second extended file system)."

Not that all of the above information is guaranteed to be 100% correct,
but you get the idea. :)

> Here's my questions. Given that I've been able to get this far...
>     What's the best way for me to learn the Linux OS from the ground up

Read *Running Linux* by Matt Welsh and Lar Kaufman, published by O'Reilly.
It's the one and only resource you need, besides a Unix tutorial.

>     Is there a newbie group within TCLUG focused on people like me and
> mentored by someone
>         who knows what's going on?

No, but there should be, as Carl said.

>     I'd like to rebuild the kernel, just for the drill. Not sure how to do
> this properly.

Visit /usr/src/linux, and read the README in there. Follow the directions
given in there to the letter, and you'll be happy. As Carl said, the
Kernel-HOWTO is also good reading, and Welsh and Kaufman have good tips
too. when you get to the configuration, use 'make menuconfig' if you're in
text mode and 'make xconfig' if you're in X Windows. The plain 'make
config' sucks and I never once had any luck with it. The latest stable
kernel is 2.0.33, that's what you want, so compile using that source. RH
5.0 should already have it, but if not, just visit sunsite.unc.edu and
poke around in the /pub/Linux directory until you find it.


Good luck, and keep us posted on how things are going! :)

_____________________________________________________________________________
Christopher Reid Palmer : jaymz@acm.cs.umn.edu : innerfire on IRC (EFNet)

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