Posted: 10/13/2009 4:09:31 PM EDT
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I installed Ubuntu on my laptop in order to familiarize myself with Linux. I'm having trouble getting into it. So, I'd appreciate it if you guys(and gals) could give me some tasks to perform in Linux. Such as installing a program, installing drivers, setting up Ethernet/wi-fi connections and settings. Anything that will help he get used to using linux. Also, I would like to familiarize myself with using the command line. Thanks! |
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Makeuseof.com has a list of downloadable guides. LINK
The PyschoCats Ubuntu Guide is a pretty resource as well. And there's always the Absolute Beginner forum at Ubuntuforums.org |
You could spend years. It is fun though  I'm only gonna cover a crash course into the terminal for right now.
Get to know how the filesystem is set up. the root of it is / everything branches from / /bin is where a lot of the basic programs like ls and cat dd mkdir are. /sbin is where system administration programs are located. /boot is typically where the kernel hangs out and some files for the boot loader are located. /dev is where all the devices are located. /etc is where system-wide configuration files are located /home is where the user directories are typically located. ~ is shorthand for your user's home directory. /lib is where libraries are located /media is where various block devices are mounted at. /mnt is the same. /media is kinda new. When I got started with Linux back in 2003 I don't think I remember /media at all /opt is where a lot of people install stuff to try out. /proc is used by linux and other programs for various reasons. You can find out a whole lot about your hardware, but it's confusing as hell. /root is the administrator's personal directory /sys is another directory used by the system. /tmp is a temporary directory, and you can find some things you have forgotten. I occasionally find old .flv files I've watched hanging out here. /usr is probably going to be the biggest chunk of used up space on a stock system. Things like the graphical system (X11), your desktop environment, more specific programs, just about anything that isn't the absolute basic requirement to get a system up and running is located here. then /var is where stuff like mail and print spools are located. I don't have much experience with print spools or in system mail, but some people need to keep a close eye on what goes on in here. When navigating around the filesystem, keep in mind that everything is case sensitive. It's also a good practice with Linux systems to leave spaces out of your file and directory names. My_Pictures is easier to type than My\ Pictures (\ is an escape character) in my opinion. Files and directories beginning with a '.' are hidden. If you do an ls -a (which lists everything in the current directory, including hidden files), you'll see two directories '.' and '..'. '.' stands for the current directory and '..' stands for one directory up. So, /home/user/files/.. would actually mean /home/user/ . To change directories, use cd. If you need help with anything. Not sure how to type a command in the proper context so the program knows what you want to do, or if you aren't sure what a certain program is for, type man command where 'command' is the program you want to know more about. Now the best way to get started is to actually go out and do it. Change directory to /bin (or list what's in /bin) and learn what those programs do, and how to use them. |
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Okay, now for setting up your system so it's usable. It's been a while since I've tried out ubuntu, and I'm currently using Slackware, so some things might be different.
Installing programs is pretty easy if you're connected to the web. There is a tool installed on your system called synaptic. You can use it to select what sources (like installation CDs and websites) you'd like to search for packages (a package is a software installation archive, sort of like a zip file in very simple terms). Then you just search for a program to install or update, select it and it automatically downloads and installs the package, and other packages that might be needed. You typically don't need to reboot your computer unless you've installed a new kernel. Back in the old days, people used to download the source packages and compile from source code. You might have to do that eventually, don't worry, it's not that hard. Linux drivers aren't really handled like windows drivers. The drivers are built in to the kernel, or are separate modules that are loaded and unloaded as required. If you have a somewhat current kernel release, your hardware should be pretty much working. There are proprietary drivers from vendors. The reason they aren't installed by default is license restrictions. You should be able to find these drivers for your hardware in non-free software sources. Don't worry, non-free doesn't usually mean you have to pay for these, it just means that the software license is a little more restrictive than the GPL. I don't have much experience with wireless and Linux, and in my limited experience, support for wireless cards was hit and miss. Maybe now, there are more hits than misses though. If your card works, configuring it shouldn't be too hard with the configuration tools available. |
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I just installed it last week, and I love it so far. Took a few days to get used too...and installing drivers and codecs is a little bit of a headache (to me), but everything else is great. One tip: INSTALL COMPIZ!!!!!!!!!! Not that it will make your system run better or anything, but it's frickin cool. |
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I found this site to be very helpful. It answered many of my first time (and current) questionss.
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Jaunty |
| I take the same approach towards anything computer related. Install whatever new software or OS you are wanting to learn, afterwards if there is something you do not know how to do by simply clicking around or reading the help files/manuals that are installed with the software packages in Linux, Google the crap out of it, then if I still cannot figure it out, I buy a book. There are many linux books out there that are geared towards new users and I strongly recommend picking one up as its nice to have some type of hard copy references around. The most important thing for me when I was learning how to use it was to install it on a machine I use everyday because I had to know it to perform daily tasks at work and home. Now I use it on my laptop at work and it is more stable than windows has ever been for me. |
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Quoted:
Hmmm, You guys appear to be misunderstanding me. The way i learn is by doing. I'd like you guys to give me certain tasks to do in Linux and I will figure out how to accomplish them(or Fail epically). Uh...what are we, your college prof or boss? Surely there are things you need to fix/get working that you have noticed on your own before you've run out of obvious things. But, sure, I'll play your game: Load up YouTube, make sure video and sound work. Try to connect and synch your MP3 player. Try to rip and burn a CD, and for a real challenge, try a DVD. Try getting various games to work under WINE. Setup a web or FTP server. Heck, just try to get it to talk to your printer and other computers. For reference, I have been teaching myself Linux since 1998. I ran Ubuntu for about a year and a half exclusively. Got tired of dicking around with it to keep shit running and/or having to spend 3 days researching any little thing I wanted to do with it, so I'm back on Windows. |
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Quoted:
Hmmm, You guys appear to be misunderstanding me. The way i learn is by doing. I'd like you guys to give me certain tasks to do in Linux and I will figure out how to accomplish them(or Fail epically). You are learning by doing when you try to figure out what programs do. Learn the shell and the other basic underlying systems and the higher tiers of user interface will fall in line. Like I suggested above, you learn the shell by learning what programs do what. You learn what they do and how to get it to work by using the man pages and the program it's self. If you want a pretty hefty challenge right out of the box, configure the kernel. Once you get the sources installed you only need to know how to use one program: make. There are instructions on how to configure and compile it in the README. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Hmmm, You guys appear to be misunderstanding me. The way i learn is by doing. I'd like you guys to give me certain tasks to do in Linux and I will figure out how to accomplish them(or Fail epically). Uh...what are we, your college prof or boss? Surely there are things you need to fix/get working that you have noticed on your own before you've run out of obvious things. But, sure, I'll play your game: Load up YouTube, make sure video and sound work. Try to connect and synch your MP3 player. Try to rip and burn a CD, and for a real challenge, try a DVD. Try getting various games to work under WINE. Setup a web or FTP server. Heck, just try to get it to talk to your printer and other computers. For reference, I have been teaching myself Linux since 1998. I ran Ubuntu for about a year and a half exclusively. Got tired of dicking around with it to keep shit running and/or having to spend 3 days researching any little thing I wanted to do with it, so I'm back on Windows. Thank you! that is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for! You're not my Boss or Prof. I was just having trouble thinking of things to do. I installed a IDS and am currently trying to get it working. |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Hmmm, You guys appear to be misunderstanding me. The way i learn is by doing. I'd like you guys to give me certain tasks to do in Linux and I will figure out how to accomplish them(or Fail epically). Uh...what are we, your college prof or boss? Surely there are things you need to fix/get working that you have noticed on your own before you've run out of obvious things. But, sure, I'll play your game: Load up YouTube, make sure video and sound work. Try to connect and synch your MP3 player. Try to rip and burn a CD, and for a real challenge, try a DVD. Try getting various games to work under WINE. Setup a web or FTP server. Heck, just try to get it to talk to your printer and other computers. For reference, I have been teaching myself Linux since 1998. I ran Ubuntu for about a year and a half exclusively. Got tired of dicking around with it to keep shit running and/or having to spend 3 days researching any little thing I wanted to do with it, so I'm back on Windows. Thank you! that is exactly the kind of thing I was looking for! You're not my Boss or Prof. I was just having trouble thinking of things to do. I installed a IDS and am currently trying to get it working. I'll byte...lol...sorry What IDS? Tripwire? Can you interpret this data? Can you fix the items your IDS reports? Have you configured IPtables to dynamically assign ACL's to encounter the threats found from your IDS? Get the IDS data to a syslog server and see what great things await you. Linux is a very modular OS and there are a million and one ways of doing the same thing. I think it's great you're tackling it...have fun! |
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I guess I was lucky, as I learned FreeBSD shortly after windows. I had a few great friends that make their living with *nix systems. I learned on a box without any xwindows installed. It don't take long to get a general idea how to get around the system. Learning BSD was the best thing I ever did. I have played with several linux distro's and it is a good alternative to windows. However when you get serious with learning *nix, learn the command prompt and directory's. Everything else will fall in place with time.
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