Peter Hunter peterslinuxbox@ntlworld.com wrote:
As a 'novice' I have no idea what 'ls -al' is all about, but I certainly would like to know, maybe you would explain it for me. [...]
ls -al shows all files (including files with a . at the start, which are usually not shown) in a long format. It could be remembered as: LiSt - All, Long
[...] Knowing that Linux is based on UNIX, can I assume that this book will help me with Linux, or are the two separate?
If it's the command-line, then that's similar. If it's about the internal programming, I don't know.
[...]
The big problem first: When I boot the system (or re-boot), once it's all loaded I get an error box on the screen that says: "Failed to load image ximian - openoffice - writer.png" Details: icon not found. I click ok and the box goes and never comes back. Open Office loads okay (it's OO02) and everything about it 'seems' to be working. So what do I need to do to stop that error message, and, HOW do I do it?
*groan* Something is trying to be cleverer than it is. My guess is to look at the startup and session options in the Gnome Config Centre.
[...] But I cannot mount the CD or DVD drives as I don't have permission (as a user). I can re-boot the machine and log in as root, and then mount the drive and copy the files over, and then re-boot as user. But if I do that I still can't access fy info (address book etc.) as they 'belong' to root! So, how do I mount the drives as user?
In the /etc/fstab file, the cd and dvd line needs to contain the option "users". Alternatively, look to install autofs or automount from your distibution. I'm not going into those in detail, as you really ought to read the F manuals before playing with them, because there's scope to break things more.