[Sussex] Linux Newbie on the street

[Steve Dobson]

Hi Angelo

Welcome to the Sussex LUG Mailing List

On Sat, Nov 02, 2002 at 11:21:59AM +0000, Angelo Servini wrote:
> My name's Angelo, I've been a programmer for >20 years but alas I find
> myself in the unenviable position of "I am a LINUX newbie".  So far, I
> get the feel that its a great system and has lots of potential and
> power.  Its just so frustrating knowing what you want is achievable, and
> yet not knowing how!

Another person coming over from the dark side :-)  Your more than welcome

> I'm running Red Hat 8.0 + Gnome as a multi boot (at least until I am
> more familiar with it and get all I want from a system from Linux)  I
> wonder, Can you help me with a few questions.

Red Hat 8 - A good starting point - but I don't use it myself.

> 1/  I need to get acess to the other partitions so I can transfer data
> back and forth.  I know how to mount a partition - create the directory
> in root etc. etc.  but I dont know how to release priveleges so that
> mount can do its work.  I know my root password etc.  I would also like
> to get the system to mount the partition at startup.  So I suppose that
> means editing a particular file?

There are several ways of doing this:

   1: Build a kernel that supports NTFS.  But this is only read only for
      Linux so you'll only be able to get files from the WinNT, Win2K, ...
      part of your system.

   2: Create a small disk area that is formatted as a DOS partition.  As 
      both Windows and Linux can read and write to this partition it can
      be a scratch area for transferring files.

   3: If you have more than one machine (and a network at home [this can
      just be a cross over CAT-5 cable]), then Linux (I think DH has one
      running out the box) can ran a FTP daemon.  You can then transfer
      files that way.

   4: This is the coolest option (and the most complex).  Use VMWare
      (commercial product - Single user licence > 100 quid) this will 
      allow you to run both system at the same time ON THE SAME MACHINE.
      Told you it was cool.

> 2/  Is it possible to get Mozilla to connect to the internet (I have a
> modem 56k connection) as soon as I click on its icon?  At the moment I
> have to first activate the modem connection then click on the Icon.

That's the way I do it - so I don't see what's wrong.  I like separating
the dial up from the browsing.  Does anyone else know of way of doing this?


> 3/  Also, Evolution's fonts are really tiny (even with a 17" monitor) is
> there some default I can set somewhere?  Or do I move over to another
> Email Client which will do what I want.

Before changing font I would check the DPI setting of the X server your
running (in case you don't know) it the program that is driving your 
display.  Type the command (the '$' is the prompt):
  $ xdpyinfo | grep resolution
I get the results of:
    resolution:    100x100 dots per inch
If you see something like:
    resolution:    75x75 dots per inch
(with is the default) then I would recommend that you first change
the server to a 100 dpi.  If Evolution does it right then it will
choose a bigger font for you.  It will also make things closer to their
real size.

I'm afraid that I can tell you how to change it without knowing more
about your setup.

> Thanks People, I look forward to your reply/s

Hope this helps and let me know how you get on.

> PS.  do you know of any online training material / ebooks / CBT's on the
> subject of linux?  I would appreciate any linx you may send my way.

That's a wide brush you have there.  For technical details on how to 
configure the different parts of the system look for the HOWTOs (prob
installed on you disk - they should come with your DH media).  There's
also the Linux Documentation Project and a source of material and of
course: www.google.com/linux.

Steve