Hi,,,, Help me to tell abt LINUX>>>>>

Discussion regarding the installation and configuration of Linux distributions.
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viconly
Cadet
Posts: 12
Joined: Wed Mar 19, 2003 7:03 pm

Hi,,,, Help me to tell abt LINUX>>>>>

Post by viconly »

Aslam o Alikum 8)
Hello Every one,,, I m the very first time here, and also want to switch over to LINUX frm Windows (98,xp). :)
Now I don't know the much about LINUX. So plz if any one knows the answers of mine quiestion :?: plz go ahead, and give it to me, I'll be thx for him.
1. Is Linux Red hat 8.0 is GUI? (looks like Windows)
2. What is the difference between Linux Red hat and Linux Bluecurve? if I m not wrong?
3. Can I install both Windows and Linux install at a time on my machine?
4. I have P3 computer, so tell me when I'll install Linux, Will I have to give the drivers of mine sound card, AGP card, and Modem? If yes then from where I can find these drivers.
5. What is the format of files, like windows is using NTFS, FAT32, etc.....
Gie me the answres of these questions, I'll be very thankfull...

Allah Hafiz
fawad
Site Admin
Posts: 918
Joined: Wed Aug 07, 2002 8:00 pm
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Re: Hi,,,, Help me to tell abt LINUX>>>>>

Post by fawad »

viconly wrote:Aslam o Alikum 8)
Hello Every one,,, I m the very first time here, and also want to switch over to LINUX frm Windows (98,xp). :)
Now I don't know the much about LINUX. So plz if any one knows the answers of mine quiestion :?: plz go ahead, and give it to me, I'll be thx for him.
1. Is Linux Red hat 8.0 is GUI? (looks like Windows)
2. What is the difference between Linux Red hat and Linux Bluecurve? if I m not wrong?
3. Can I install both Windows and Linux install at a time on my machine?
4. I have P3 computer, so tell me when I'll install Linux, Will I have to give the drivers of mine sound card, AGP card, and Modem? If yes then from where I can find these drivers.
5. What is the format of files, like windows is using NTFS, FAT32, etc.....
Gie me the answres of these questions, I'll be very thankfull...

Allah Hafiz
Welcome. Here are the answers

1. Redhat does have a GUI (several actually). The GUI is not integrated into the kernel like it is with Windows, so the OS will run with or without a GUI, depending on your preference. You get the option of booting into a GUI or not at installation time (tweakable later).
2. They are two different things. Redhat Linux is the operating system (kernel+apps). BlueCurve is the Redhat enhancement (window borders, icons, colors, themes etc.) to the GUI to make the different GUI desktops more consistent. It's your choice whether you want to use bluecurve or not (I like bluecurve, but I prefer to start with the Keramic theme and tweak it to my preference).
3. Yes you can. When you install Redhat, it'll detect that you already have a Windows installation. When it gives you the option to create a bootdisk or install a bootloader, it'll tell you that it will make a boot menu item called 'DOS'. This indicates that Windows was detected, and can be used. When installation is complete and you reboot, you'll see a menu kinda like the NTLDR menu (shown by the GRUB boot loader). Within it, you'll see at least 2 items; DOS and Redhat Linux. When you select DOS, you'll see the bootloader you saw before the installation (for example, if you had NTLDR, you'll see that. If you were using plain XP, it'll load XP).
4. That we can't tell for sure. You'll have to tell us what hardware you have on your machine. Before installation, try to take an inventory of the hardware you have and note down the exact specs. You might need it in case you want to look for drivers. In my experience, the video card, sound card, Network card and USB devices will get picked up out of the box. Modems on the other hand are a sticky topic (search for winmodem, linmodem or soft modem in the forum for previous discussions on the topic).
5. Linux has several native file formats supported. The most common ones are ext2 and ext3. Other filesystems that Linux supports include HPFS, JFS, ReiserFS etc. I'd go for ext3 as it strikes a balance between backward compatibility and features and security.
For Windows file access, I know that FAT does work out of the box. In Redhat's opinion, the NTFS support is not stable (this same OS runs enterprise servers, you know!), however in mine it's very. NTFS write support is not stable though, so it should be avoided. You can download the driver from http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/redhat.html and drop it into your kernel module directory. Do not enable write support on it, though.

Feel free to shoot any specific questions you have on this forum.

-fawad
AamirAkbar
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Posts: 33
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Post by AamirAkbar »

Asalam o aliakum fawad....

wel its fine that u have told a lot of details in reply to above mail but wouldn't it be fine that we make a file or document so every such question asked(frequently asked questions) is answered and put there and its link being given to new commers instead of writing again and again these issues... in this way we will be able to manage a lot of information on one location also there must be a link under which we could find useful links to other websites... plz do consider these points and comment on these...
wasalam
Aamir(MS iiu islambad.)
Back Office Engineer
http://www.nsn.com/
(+ 92 345 200 1132)
mrkkhattak
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Posts: 285
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Post by mrkkhattak »

Assalamualaikum,

Oh ... I was thinking the same. So, do something about this. I would then InshAllah translate them in Urdu too, to put on http://www.linuxchopal.com

Regards,

-Meraj
fawad
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Post by fawad »

Guys,
we do have a knowledge sharing system (in the form of a wiki) right now, but over time it's becoming clear to me that it has some faults that make it not very suitable for our use. Inshallah over this weekend, I'll try to replace it with a faster, more slim wiki and then we can try to fill it up with as much info as humanly possible. I'll keep you posted on the progress.

-fawad
mrkkhattak
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Post by mrkkhattak »

Assalamualaikum,

Okay. I will look forward to see that InshAllah. wish u good luck.

-Meraj
fawad
Site Admin
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Post by fawad »

Guys, the new wiki is up and running (all data from the old one has been imported). This on is darn fast, and the database is several MB smaller (only 5 tables as opposed to 98!). Go to the main linuxpakistan.net page and click the 'Knowledgebase' link. The app is inside /phpwiki on the server.

You can try out the features of the wiki within the Sandbox (linked on the main wiki page) and post pages freely when you are comfortable. Only the frontpage of the wiki is locked. You can freely create or modify any other page. Let me know if you need any help with this.

-fawad
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