Newbie's gotta little list going...

[WebThingy]

Hey antidrugue thanks for the info! I'll runt hose commands to find the discs. Yeah Linux seems to have some killer software, I just got partial to the software with my sound card, it had a ton of options that I won;t be able to use on Linux without it unfortunately. Ah well.

Ok, this isn't a question, just letting you know how Dapper Dan and I got my internet connection working with my Linksys WMP54G card and my Linksys Wireless G Cable Gateway.

First, the Internet Connection area in the Control Center never detected my hardware, and had nada to do with me getting online. So if anyone new to Xandros sees this, ignore that thing if you use the same wifi card and wifi cable gatweay I do.
Also, I kept trying to install the ndiswrapper everyone reffered me to with no luck, but didn't realize even until just now typing this that the Windows (NDIS) Wireless Drivers tab in Network Connections is actually the ndsiwrapper, it's bult in. (bangs head on desk, sorry Dapper Dan)

techieMoe is right, I had to diable my onboard ethernet to get Xandros to use my pci wifi card. Once I did that I was able to set things in the Network Conncetions area properly. But another reason I was having no luck getting an internet connection was because I needed the driver for my card to be installed.

I took the rt2500.inf file from my Linksys disc and copied it to my wifes desktop on her Windows machine. (I couldn't just run my Linksys install disc on Xandros because it auto runs then locks up the computer when CrossOver automatically tries to run.)
Then I took that file and using a flash usb drive I moved it over to the desktop of my computer. I went back into the Network Connections are in the Control Center, clicked on the Wireless tab, then clicked the button at the bottom left that says "WIndows (NDIS) Wirless Drivers". From there I clicked on "Add" then browsed for the .inf file on my desktop and it installed the driver.

Then still under the Wireless tab, I added the name of my network (essid) using the select button, and it set the mode to "infrastructure" and set the right channel and transfer rate automatically.
I clicked on "Enable Encryption" set the type to "128-bit WEP", key format "Hexidecimal" and then entered in my key for the modem/router.
Then I clciked on the Interfaces tab under Network Connections and selected the Network Interface drop down menu, and it finally had just my Linksys card "ra0 (RaLink - Wireless Device)".
Then I clicked on "Use Dynamic Address (DHCP)".
Then I checked the box that says "Set gateway as the default gateway for the system".
After that I clicked on "Enable Network" to check the box. I clicked on release, then on renew and then restarted the computer.

At this point I had a weak 12% signal to my modem/router. But no internet connection, and everything listed for the ip address, subnet, and gateway was the default junk you get when the thing isn't working properly.

Unfortunately, I was completely stuck on what to do next, enter Dapper Dan!!!

With Dapper Dan's very patient and very newbie friendly help, we got the internet connection running. He had to walk me through a lot of stuff, but finally he had me using the command line to do the follwing which made it all work....

He had me enter in:

/sbin/ifconfig

then:

/sbin/ifconfig ra0 down

then:

sbin/ifconfig wlan0 up

then:

/sbin/ifconfig

and I finally got online!!! YAAAAAY!

I did a reboot a couple times to see if I still had internet, and I still did/do!

In the start up it said ra0 OK, since then it usually says ra0 pending but it still works, so it's all good. lol

Dapper Dan, I totally owe you!

[scottghall]

I realize you have received answers from others on this forum, but I thought I would bring a little more explaination and background to them, so that you can understand better what is going on. (I am going to combine portions of your main posts)

1.) On Windows you can see and browse files through Windows Explorer, on Xandros there is a File Manager that looks very similar.
I see everything listed on the left in the file manager, my linux, my cd-rw, my dvd-rw drive, etc..... but no C: and D: drives. Did I screw up the install? No drive letters in Linux? But it shows drive letters in the file manager screen shots for Xandros. I'm confused. This thing has a file manager with it so do I still need Knoqueror?

The Xandros File Manager is the equivalent to the File Manager from Microsoft. Xandros has done a great job of providing a very similar interface.

In UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems like Linux, all devices are accessed through the filesystem as if they were files themselves. If you look in the /dev directory, you'll 'special files' that are hooks to the device drivers themselves. So in linux, /dev/disk/hda1 represents 'harddisk a, partition 1'. What you used to see as 'C:', 'D:' and so on are now /dev/disk/hd?? Here is a short reference:

MS-DOS/Windows:    UNIX/Linux:
------------------    -----------
a:                          /dev/disk/fd0
b:                          /dev/disk/fd1
c:                          /dev/disk/hda??   (partition number varies)
d:                          /dev/disk/hd???   (depends on number of disks and partitions)
com1:                    /dev/ttys0
com2:                    /dev/ttys1
lpt1:                      /dev/lp0
lpt2:                      /dev/lp1
scr:                       /dev/video
?:                         /dev/disk/cdrom?
usb1:                    /dev/usb/???

where fd=floppy disk, hd=harddisk, ttys=terminal-teletype serial, lp=line printer, and so on

The exact label may be different for different versions of UNIX or Linux, or they be further organized subdirectories, but you get the idea.

You will find that every name and command is a mneumonic or abbreviation, so you can say in your head: I want slash-device-slash-disk-slash-harddisk-A-partition-4

The device accesses above are not very useful though, as they reference the raw devices, not filesystems or a way to dig into them (well can in binary, but that is not very fun!). Therefore in UNIX/Linux storage devices, harddisks, usb sticks, memory cards in a card-reader, CD-ROMs and so on are 'mounted' within the rest of the filesystem. You can use the 'mount' command display what has been mounted where. Some devices are removable, so they are mounted automatically, and you'll see that reflected in their mount-point or device name.

2.) I cannot figure out where I am suppossed to put files. All these tutorials tell you everything to do with a file to make it run except where to put the file first. This would be useful info for a newbie. I can put files in any folder? Where do they install to then? I'm still used to the Program Files folder with Windows. Yeah, there is a home directory.

The theory in UNIX/Linux is that each user has a 'home directory' into which he can place everything he wants to and not interfere the system or anyone else on the machine. Call this your 'personal workspace'. In fact, this is the ONLY place you be putting things as a user. (That's why its your home, and not your vacation house or motel)

In Windows-XP this concept is all over the place, such as 'C:\Documents and Settings\(username)', C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\*', and so on.

As to where programs install in UNIX/Linux? There are some organized hierachy that may need to know; /usr is the main directory that corresponds to the Windows 'Program Files' directory:

/usr/bin = program binaries
/usr/lib  = program libraries and loadable libraries
/usr/man = program documentation
/usr/opt = optional software -- this is where stuff you download and run install scripts should go
/usr/local = same as /usr/opt, but the old name for it; it represents the software 'local to this machine and unique to this from other machines in the enterprise'
/bin      = POSIX (UNIX) binaries
/lib       = libraries needed by POSIX programs

/var in UNIX/Linux represents the kind of place similar to Windows' 'Application Data' directory. This is the place for 'variable' or 'volitile' data that may change as programs run.

3.) When I type commands into the command line, nothing happens. Nothing happened when I typed in commands,I hit run and the box disappeared. That's it. I just looked in the options tab though and clicked on "Run in terminal window" and now it shows some text...

The 'run' box is just for running graphical programs, just like in MS-Windows.
To run a command-line command, you need to open a 'terminal window', and type commands into a 'shell', exactly like in MS-Windows. In Windows you open a 'MS-DOS' window which runs the 'command.com' or 'cmd.exe' shells. In UNIX/Linux you can open a 'konsole', or 'xterm' window (or others), which runs your desired shell: sh, csh, tsh, ksh, or most likely bash.

(These stand for: shell, C-Shell, Ted's shell, Korn shell and Bourne-again shell.) A shell is simple a 'command line interpreter', and on the old Amiga systems they called theirs 'cli'.

I'm guessing it's KDE, I saw reference to it being the default.

You can know for sure by typing this at a command prompt:

echo $SHELL

4.) My Audigy ZS sound card isn't working, no sound. I did what it said on the FAQ at Xandros website and it didn't work.

Sorry, I've had no problems. Like the other poster said, this better asked in another forum where those guys hang out.

5.) Can I use Windows softwares on Linux? They were cool and had lots of options I liked. The discs don't say anything about what operating systems they run on.

Like someone said, almost every program you have in Windows has an equivalent in Linux. However even beyond that, Xandros (the paid-for version) comes with a commercial version of WINE called Crossover Office that allows you to install some Windows software and run them directly in Linux. If you have the Surfside or Open Circulation versions of Xandros, you can always download and install the free WINE package and and get much of the same capability. I run MS-Office directly (have to -- work standards and problems with Open Office and Star Office not formatting some files correctly or properly running some elaborate Excell macros), and Quicken 2005, Tax-Cut, MagicDraw, Eclipse (both programming tools), RFFlow, and even Atlas' Model Railroaders Layout Planning tool.

I too strongly recommend some of the introductory tutorials others have mentioned, but don't dispair, everything your are used to doing in Windows has its Linux counterpart.

[WebThingy]

Wow man, thanks for the detailed and comprehensive answer!

Some of what you have above I've since discovered on my own, as everyone suggested by reading tutorials, manuals, etc.

I'm still in the learning process of course.

I'm going to copy your post to a text file and save it though for reference.

Thanks again!