Linux ahoy!

Weirdwolf · Post by **Weirdwolf** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 1:17 am

FINALLY got around to getting a PC for me to play around with. I had some old Red Hat Linux discs laying around here, and since it had no installed OS when I got it, I installed Linux.

If I remember correctly, didn't one (or more) of you here at TransFans run Linux on your home machine? If so, any pointers? I feel kinda lost, and bumfuzzled about how to get it to play mp3's and play video. I've got XMMS installed on it, but it plays nothing.

Post by **Kaylee** » Sat Sep 24, 2005 7:18 pm

Which version of Red Hat? The freebie redhats are very old now and shockingly out of date (Linux moves startingly fast).

I'm assuming your soundcard is detected and the system makes some noises?

Weirdwolf · Post by **Weirdwolf** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 12:41 am

It's Red Hat 8.0, I kind of figured it was way out of date when I went to try to find an update and I find that Red Hat has split into two different branches now (Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Ed.).

I do indeedy have speakers and it works fine making sounds when I use Gaim. Gimp is da bomb.

Would you suggest that I download Fedora and do a fresh install? Insane Galvatron (formerly HomerSimpson from here) has a version of Linux that is called KDE if I'm not mistaken.

Post by **Kaylee** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:32 am

KDE is the desktop.

If you want a good linux I recommend paying about $14 for SuSE home. Linuxes are rarely free now, and whilst Fedora is still free and has a good kernel architechture (the actual 'linux' bit) the Desktop software provided is buggy as hell.

Just be aware with SuSE that it might have mp3 disabled, tho it should say on their website www.suse.com (due to licence restrictions) tho I think they might have resolved that.

Weirdwolf · Post by **Weirdwolf** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:41 pm

Thanks for the tip.

I'm in the process of burning the install discs for Fedora now, I'll give it a whirl. If all else fails, I can go back to Red Hat 8.0 until I can get ahold of SuSe.

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 9:51 pm

Karl Lynch wrote:Linuxes are rarely free now.

Man.. that sucks total ape-sH*t...

How is that btw?? In the begginning it couldn't be so because Torvald wanted it freeware, and everyone was working on there own little enhancements of the core, it was progressing nicely, with OS's sold free, and only the program-bundles that they were packed with, being charged.

But now all of a sudden...

It's not so anymore?!

Weirdwolf · Post by **Weirdwolf** » Mon Sep 26, 2005 11:47 pm

I've got Fedora installed now and it seems to be running fine. Only thing I see that's goofed up is that many of the icons are just generic looking "page" or "paper' icons. Is there an easy fix for that?

Post by **Kaylee** » Tue Sep 27, 2005 8:54 am

I'm afraid thats the kind of irritating bug that just plagues the Fedora project, WW. I hope it works out for you otherwise tho, you've got mp3 support from it?

Pred- 'linux', as in the kernel, which is what was created by Linus, is still and always will be free as will most of the apps. The problem is that people also want commercial apps like RealPlayer and commercial drivers like nVidia. Hence if a linux distribution wants to come with out of the box support for real, nVidia/Radeon cards etc. the distributor must pay for the licence which is then transferred onto the consumer.

As Linux becomes more mainstream these are things that are simply vital to the home user in many cases and without opensource equivalents due to code copyrighting.

Weirdwolf · Post by **Weirdwolf** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 12:53 am

Solved the desktop problem, it had reset to the default theme. I just used a different theme (currently using the Red Hat 8.0 KDE theme--I liked the way it looked.

It seems that I still have the MP3 problem. It seems Fedora has MP3 support turned off as well, and finding something that turns it on is confusing as hell. Doesn't anyone know how to make a blasted installer for Linux? :-p Everything I find needs to be compiled, configured, etc and I am clueless as to how to do that.

Also, I've been trying to get my screensavers to work (which also stopped working after the upgrade) but may have found the fix here. I figured that you have to perform this in Terminal, however after the first line it asks me for a password. I provide the root password and it doesn't recognize it. I try my login password, and it says that I don't have permission to be using the sudo command and tells me it will be rreported.

Don't get me wrong, I like the setup of Linux, it seems to have a lot going for it, however there's issues like this that leave me less happy than I would be otherwise.

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 8:02 am

im afraid linux is a programming environment, certainly RedHat and Fedora are definitely.

To compile source code you have downloaded:

Navigate to the directory your source code is in using terminal
type
./configure && make && make install

(nb you might need to install from the Fedora/RedHat disks some of the programming utilities, as compiling from source uses these. It's a real round the houses way of installing I appreciate but it means your program is custom built for your particular setup)

mplayer used to be the best player for Linux- it had an installer and played EVERYTHING, then it was taken to court because stuff like mp3 is a proprietary format which you have to pay for to use. Hence why it's turned off in all the free Linuxes, otherwise they get sued.

Weirdwolf · Post by **Weirdwolf** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 11:30 am

So I can't legally turn mp3 support on with my Free Linux? That sucks.

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 12:33 pm

That posilutely correct

Doncha love software patents?

Post by **Kaylee** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 3:15 pm

also, you might find this useful -> http://www.redhat.com/advice/speaks_80mm.html

Weirdwolf · Post by **Weirdwolf** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 4:34 pm

Success! I can now view Flash media, listen to MP3s, and a bunch of other cool bean activities on here. I downloaded and installed 'yum' as described here, and used it to update a few things, as well as install a few plugins/turn on some features. Apparently all legal as well.

Geez, this is a pretty sweet OS....

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Sep 28, 2005 10:37 pm

Karl Lynch wrote:im afraid linux is a programming environment, certainly RedHat and Fedora are definitely.

Sorry, Karl, but I really do feel the need to correct you on your terminology here.

Linux can be a programming environment, but it's not essentially a programming environment.

That said, however, it is most assuredly a developing environment, as your next line showed:

To compile source code you have downloaded:

Code compilation does not require the compiler to have previously programmed the source, in fact, I know many compilers who wouldn't know the first thing about programming.

Then again, I also know many programmers who've never compiled a program in their lives.

Weirdwolf · Post by **Weirdwolf** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:46 am

Am I correct in assuming that Linux is built upon a Unix core, in like manner as Mac OS X? I've noticed some similarities, and also found out today that Fedora Core 4 is compatible with PPC Macs (such as my iMac). Cool, though I'm happy with Tiger. Fedora pisses all over Windows, IMO, though.

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 12:23 pm

Linux is a UNIX clone, so it looks and acts like it

Weirdwolf · Post by **Weirdwolf** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 2:03 pm

Ah. The Terminal interface was a dead give-away. What do I do when an application (such as my OpenOffice.org) won't open when I click on the icon? I tried reinstalling to no avail.

Post by **Kaylee** » Thu Sep 29, 2005 7:08 pm

tbh it could be any number of things. If you try looking up the command to launch it from the terminal (ooowriter might be it) you can at least get some error info if it's not running.