Newbie To Linux

Just updated some Linuxes quizzes that could answer many of your questions about Linux.

1. Starters
100 questions for beginners about what is possible and how
2. History
70 questions
3. From the Shell
130 questions and 3 levels
first level is an easy intoduction to the shell and then it gets tricker
4. Expert
75 questions and two levels
5. Wifi
10 questions (new quiz more questions to be added soon)
6. GIMP
30 questions with images on doing graphics with Linux

it's a quick & fun way to see what's possible with linux

oh! where to find them?
easy, just search 'linux quizzes'

Hi all,

Apologies if this is off-topic. I searched a while and couldn't find out whether or not the Newbie forum is strictly for technical questions or not.

I am new to Linux and have been using it the past 4 months or so. Currently I work in a support job as an MS technician. I'm mostly using it to advance my career. Management told me if I devote time to learning Linux to the point where I can do very basic maintenance tasks on the company Linux servers, and the ability to support our few Linux clients, I would be promoted to a senior support position.

One of the greater challenges so far is trying to figure out WHAT to focus on and how long to devote to it each day. I find that if I spend multiple hours/day trying to learn Linux (like 2-3 hours), I don't retain much of what I've learned. Conversely, if I don't spend enough time each day, I worry that I will not learn enough to become proficient in a reasonable amount of time. I sometimes start reading up on a Linux topic, for instance, how to send mail to users, and wonder if my time could be better spent learning another aspect. Then again, I feel like a lot of this basic knowledge can be built upon.

I'd like to become proficient enough to achieve this senior position in 1.5-2 years. Given my current job and personal responsibilities I am able to devote 1-2 hours of learning Linux each day.

In that amount of time, I've been learning new bash commands daily and practicing yum, tried setting up a web server, extracting/compiling software, messing around with inittab, cron jobs, etc. very basic things and building upon that.

Does this sound reasonable? I'd very much appreciate some pointers and to see if I am on the right track from a Linux community perspective.

Thanks.

I'm looking for a GUI version to start on. I've used Windows for many years and have gotten used to it so I would prefer something that has a feel like Windows but would allow me to learn to use Linux. Also appreciated would be a link to a good, free anti-virus app to go with it.

I tried Mandrake in the past with no success. Although it has a GIU front end, after installing programs, I could find no way to see the files that had been installed or even a list of executable programs (similar to the Windoze Start button).

It just seemed to me that it was saying told me, this is your disk data area, everything else is off limits. It's my disk, it doesn't belong to the writers of the OS, therefore, I should have access to ALL areas of it. I had that row with Windows telling me the Program Files folder was off limits to me, even when I upgraded my login profile to Administrator.

I want to to learn how to use it and how the OS structures it's own data areas so I'd want some way to access those areas of the disk as well, similar to accessing the system folders in Windows to learn how things work.

Mandrake seemed OK at first but then it was like the GUI was a door but either side of it was a completely alien landscape. The only familiar thing was the door itself. I'm looking for a windows type feel at the front end so I have familiar ground to work from with the alien landscape on the outside of the door only.

Thanks.

respected to all
i am EMPkrishna. i am a new learner of red hat Linux, looking for a job in Linux system administrating, i have a good knowledge in Linux but i don't have any real time organization experience in Linux administrating. so please suggest me to learn the real time scenarios questions and answer @ troubleshooting questions in Linux asked in at the time of interview.
please suggest me the best way to get the knowledge on that tell me if any other sites like that to get real time questions and answer

Dear Everyone,

I seem to have blown it when I first installed my OS.

All the updating messages when I run Muon's software
updates keep saying AMD and AMD64, and other things
that make me think my kernel and libs are confused as
to what processor I have.

What the sticker on the front plate of this Lenovo
V570 says it has, to quote exactly, is an "Intel
Inside(tm) CORE(tm)i5". In the bad old days of Linux
1.0, we would have to recompile the kernel, a prospect
not for the faint of heart.

I was hoping there would be something simpler that you
young whipper-snappers do nowadays.

Old Newbie,
Nerodog.

Hey all,

I've got an HP Pavilion dm4 Notebook that's been like a good friend to me in the past, but hasn't been running as well as it used to. I decided to move on to something new that I knew would work - some form of Linux. I chose Lubuntu, as I had heard so many good things about it and wouldn't need to run loads of processes.

I ran through the installer from a flash drive and installed Lubuntu 14.04 onto my machine, and was then prompted to reboot. Now I'm stuck on the Gnu Grub page, where *Ubuntu is listed instead of *Lubuntu. Whenever I hit Ubuntu to start, screen cuts to black, I see the HP logo and BIOS login note, and am dropped back in front of the Grub page. This is my first true experience with the Linux kernel (I've played with Raspbian).

Does anyone have any insight as to what's going wrong? I haven't yet been able to login and am unsure regarding where to go.

Thanks
-K

I’ve been fascinated by the Raspberry Pi since it was announced but have never gotten one. I think I am about to take a bite and I want to pair it with the LCD panel from an old laptop (LCD controller comes off of ebay) to create an information panel for my living room.
So far, I’d like it to display the current weather (Condition and temperature), network load, and automatically show a webcam feed from the front porch if it detects motion.

I’m new to Linux so I am not sure how to do all of this but that is for another thread. My question is: What would you do with a passive LCD panel in your living space?

Hi All! I'm new to linux world and I want to learn more about the OS and other stuffs. What linux distro is good newbie like I to start with. I want to learn the ebox can anyone help me? Thanks!

regards

Did it again!

Last week, with help from this forum, I was able to install Linux Mint 17.1 dual boot with Windows 8.1. It worked so well, I decided to explore other Linux distros recommended by forum members as some I wanted to check out.

I was using Unetbootin to download and install these as live sessions on my Windows 8.1 partition.

On my last such download, something went wrong, and no doubt I caused the error, but no clue as to how.

When I opened up this PC, I got the normal dual boot option for Windows and Mint. When I selected Windows, I found an additional dual boot option between it and Unetbootin! Somehow I created a partition (?) on my C Drive for Unetbootin (see Thumbnail below).
This Unetbootin option only goes to a page for me to choose another OS. Further, when I rebooted, the Windows/Mint dual boot option no longer existed, just the Windows/Unetbootin one.

Been checking out various articles and websites about BCD/MBR repair, but nothing definitive (that I can understand) about modifying these to delete the Unetbootin partition and restoring the Windows/linux dual boot.

Naturally, this is a newbie land mine area, so I'm very reluctant to try anything I can't fully understand, which is the category everything I've Googled on this topic falls into.

Anyone know how I can resolve this short of a complete start over
installation based on steps that basically a PC fence post can follow?

TIA
Cheers!

Fresh Newbie to Linux. Used to be good at DOS commands. Used Norton Commander a lot. Now have to learn the ins and outs of Linux. Need help with subject. Thanks.