OK, this post comes after literally half a day trying to learn the bare basics of Linux. I consider myself very computer savvy, but for the life of me, I can't just dive into Linux as I have been able to do with everything else in a computer thusfar. I've been searching and reading and testing and trying now for hours upon hours and have finally broken down and decided to outright ask people.

I am using Mandrake 8.1

First, all I want to do is play an mp3. I figure this would show I am on the right path to learning to use Linux as the task combines several basic operations. I have finally mounted my NTFS partition from Win2k, but now I need to know how can I change the ownership of a protected folder. I have tried logging into the root account and simply switching permissions but it wont let me change them always giving an error about a specific file in my NTFS partition that wont let its properties be changed.

Second, after I install an .rpm package (in my case FreeAmp), how do I run it? And I guess as a follow up question, how do I find where it was installed or even uninstall it?

My long term goal is to be able to use Linux for all the tasks I now use Windows for. I am considering going out and buying an O' Reily book as I have heard great things about it. Any and all advice, help, experience, tips, whatever you all can give me would really be great. I'm determined not to get tripped up and quit like I have with Linux in the past.

-Muchos gracias in advance

Hard work often pays off in time, but laziness always pays off now.

Half a day, huh? Hmmm.

1. You've probably already got xmms or mpg123 installed, and they will play mp3s just fine. I'm betting you can play your mp3s by just double-clicking them in Nautilus (or whatever filemanager you're using). Odds are you've mounted the NTFS partition read-only. Type 'mount' in a shell, and see if you're mounted rw or not. Mandrake may only support read-only mounting of NTFS partitions. You'll have to check in the docs, or ask in the Linux Mandrake forums.

2) rpm -i yourrpm.i586.rpm. The rpm is the package, not the application. The app will usually go into /usr/bin or similar, with config files under /usr/* or /etc. rpm -qilp yourrpm.i586.rpm will tell you lots about the package. rpm -e yourrpm will remove it. All of this is made easy through the rpmdrake, gnorpm, and many other gui package managers. Seriously, read the man page or the rpm howto.

Have a look at the previous posts. There have been a lot of recommendations of various books, and places to go online for info.

I have 3 major gripes about Mandrake:
1. Default KDE desktop looks skank-ugly.
2. Default Kernel comes without NTFS writing support (if you want this, you will need to compile a new kernel, easier than it sounds).
3. Nautilus/GNOME config does not bind applications to file types (can't play an mpeg even if you have xmpeg).

Sounds like you're hitting all three of these problems at once. If you're running Nautilus, I urge you to look for "Naultilus scripts" on google, where you will find an archive of very useful scripts.

O'Reilly's "Running Linux" is a great way to really get a feel of the OS.

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

Are you sure about number 3? By default it at least sets up the viewers in GNOME. Eg html, text, images. Or is this something that's broken in the default 8.1 install? You can certainly set them up manually.

Definately sure about number 3, but I guess its more of a Nautilus thing than a Mandrake thing. Nothing more irritating than seeing "Nautilus has no viewer capable of opening X, Would you like to add one?"

I love Nautilus, my favorite file manager (yeah, I know its slow). But simple apps, like if you double click on an rpm you get a message "rpm libfoo already installed", or "Enter root password to install this rpm" Actually, maybe I should write something like that, it would be fun , seeing as how I haven't done any GtK.

Simple apps like that would really help Nautilus. Hell, Nautilus cant even open tgz's on its own! You're right about most of the file types being supported, but for specialty files (for instance mpeg), it is the DUTY of a distro to associate these files with the best installed app capable of using them. This concept of interoperability is one that's really lacking in the Linux World as a whole (eg RPM vs apt-get vs SuSE).

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

Have to agree with most of that. It's the sort of thing that should be done by the Distro, or the application rpm. Your rpm viewer app shouldn't be too painful, probably some glue to gnorpm code, or even just the rpm libs would do the trick.

I guess it's all a bit historical, Nautilus being a "graphical shell" still means an interface to your apps, rather than being the app itself... I don't think Nautilus should be able to do much my itself, but more useful "viewers" or apps should come associated/setup with the distros, by default.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by poorboy on 02/13/02 02:00 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

Uh, ok I've heard a lot of this stuff before and realize there's not a whole lot I can do about it right now with my lack of Linux knowledge. But can you answer two of my question's if at all possible (I prefer KDE over Gnome):
1)How do I run a program after I run the rpm file and install it. I have tried double-clicking the executable file in /usr/bin directory but it gives an error (forget what it is, I'll post it if I need to).
2)Is there a way to change the access permissions on mounted drives? I have mounted my NTFS partition as read-only (which is fine by me) but it's locked under the root account. When I log into the root and try to change it, it says that the drive permissions cannot be changed.

If there is any more info that you would need to help me out, just say and I'll post it up. Thank yous a bunch.

The holder of <i>this</i> pass is <b>exempt</b> from all forms of <font color=red>flaming</font color=red>.

Hi,

1) Double-clicking the executable should run it. It it doesn't, then there's a problem. Try running it from the shell, and it'll usually tell you a bit more about what's gone wrong. Post the error(s), and we'll be able to help out.

2) You can change the access permissions by changing the mount options, but how have you set up the mount point? Did you edit /etc/fstab, or use the "mount" command? Or did you use a GUI tool?

As I've said before, Mandrake does not ship with a NT-writing Kernel. Even changing permissions will not help anything. Even worse, ordinary users are not even able to SEE NTFS by default.

This is something that should be changed for 8.2!

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

I used the standard mount command, I think it went something like "mount /dev/hda1 -t ntfs /mnt/disk". Yea that looks right. But I realize it is read-only and that's fine by me because as it stands, I have no reason to right to the NTFS partition, I more want to play mp3s in linux.

The holder of <i>this</i> pass is <b>exempt</b> from all forms of <font color=red>flaming</font color=red>.

Yes it is read-only, but that's not the problem here is it? See if this command lets users see it: "mount -t ntfs -o umask=022 /dev/hda1 /mnt/disk". By default ntfs mounts with root ownership, and isn't readable by anyone else. The umask option should let everyone read files.

If you want to make it happen each time you boot, open up /etc/fstab in a text editor, and add your ntfs disk to the list. The file format will probably make sense - it's really just the mount commands reordered slightly.

cool thanks. Also is there a limit to the number of drives you can have mounted? If I try to mount my second NTFS partition under /mnt/disk2 it gives me the error "mount point disk2 does not exist". I congratulate Mandrake on recognizing that fact, but is there a reason it won't mount two NTFS partitions? And if so, how do I unmount a drive? Again, thanks for all the help.

The holder of <i>this</i> pass is <b>exempt</b> from all forms of <font color=red>flaming</font color=red>.

I'll take a stab here. Not 100% sure so use my advice as direction only.

AFAIK, you can mount however many drives you want under linux. They don't even have to physically be in your computer.

To unmount a drive:

umount /dev/hda_1 or whatever...

I don't know what the limit is, but it'll be big... It sounds like you haven't created the directory /mnt/disk2. You need to have the "mount point" before mounting the disk.

Edit: umount /mnt/disk works too.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by poorboy on 02/15/02 10:05 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Do you think that Linux would be better served by having a mount command that automatically created the target folder if it didn't exist?

"If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test" - George W.

Maybe? I can see it being a double-edged sword (isn't everything?), but it could be useful for people.

Possibly adding a -t (temp) or -c (create) switch would be a good way to go about it. I guess it should probably delete the directory afterwards too.