Adventures Learning Linux

From years ago I've heard of the advantages of using the Linux operating system and so I finally determined to make an all out effort to learn it. In 2003 I downloaded and experimented with several Linux distributions. All my previous attempts ended in discouragement. The Linux distributions I tried to install did not find all the devices on my machine, and I did not know how to configure it to install the necessary device drivers. I realized that if I, a person considered to be a power user in Windows and MS-DOS couldn't figure out how to install and use a Linux system, the common user who still has troubles with Windows certainly wouldn't be able to learn it either. So I determined to find a Linux distribution that I considered simple enough for the average person to install.

Finally in February 2005 I found the distribution that I like best and works for me -- Fedora Core 3 Clicking the hyperlink will take you to the download site.

If you can install Windows on your own, you can install Fedora Core 3 Linux. In fact, I would say it is even easier and more user friendly than a Windows XP installation. For one thing, Linux will give you your choice of a default language to use. That means if you are not a native English speaker and you would prefer to use the language of your mother tongue, that language is available in Fedora Core to use. Not so with Windows. You would have to buy that particular language version of Windows.

Fedora Core will also give you your choice of a keyboard layout. It was no problem for me to install an English setup using a Japanese keyboard layout. Not so with Windows. Windows will balk at you if you try to change to a Japanese keyboard using an English version of Windows and tell you you are making a mistake even though you know what you're doing, ha!

I am soooo pleased with Fedora Core 3 Linux! And Fedora Core 4 will be even better than 3 and have the newest version of OpenOffice. I read that Ubuntu is even better and more popular than Fedora Core, but because it doesn't yet support Asian character input, I will have to wait till it does before I try it.

Topics

• Why I switched from Windows to Linux
• Linux compared to Windows
• Linux alternatives to proprietary Windows software
• Can Linux get infected by viruses?
• What I can do so far in Fedora Core 3
• Cool things I like about Linux
• Gnome or KDE?
• Command line work in Linux
• Installing Linux
• Using WINE to run Windows applications

Lessons and tips

• How to add MP3 support for K3b - the painless way!
• Installing new updates automatically with "Yum"
• Installing NTFS file support in the Linux Kernel
• Making my SCSI scanner to work
• Installing the Java plugin for Firefox
• Fixing my LAN device
• How to automatically mount a second physical hard disk drive and assign write privileges as a user
• Using "wget" to download an entire web site
• Bible Time a KJV Bible program
• How to input Japanese within an English environment

Why I switched from Windows to Linux

I have become quite concerned over certain issues about Windows, namely virus attacks, registry cleaning, security questions, web bugs, trojans, and general maintenance. The average Windows user seems to be woefully ignorant of most of these problems. When something bad happens, they don't know how to fix it.

Though I enjoy helping my friends and associates fix their various Windows problems, it has been very discouraging to see them have the same problems over and over again. Their kids get on the computer and install junk games, malware, pick up web bugs and spyware. The user's computer gets slower and slower and eventually comes to a grinding halt. I heard that Linux is much stronger and wanted to prove it to myself and take up the challenge to see if I could actually use it to the point that I can live without Windows.

Here is a good comment about Linux from www.softwaredomain.co.uk/Linux/linux.html

"It is also worth noting that the linux operating system, once setup is unlikely to need any user intervention or changes for a long time to come unlike some commercial operating systems that continuously distract the user from their task."

Isn't that a good enough reason to at least try it?

Linux compared to Windows:

• Not as vulnerable to viruses. Most viruses were written to attack Windows systems.
• Does not get web bugs or spyware from surfing the Internet.
• No file defragmenting tasks. The Linux file system does not need to be defragmented!
• No Registry cleaning. There is no Registry!
  
  

Linux alternatives to proprietary Windows software

Check out this page to see a list of Windows applications and their equivalent applications available in Linux.

Can Linux get infected by viruses?

Here is a good page about that: http://www.netproject.com/wn/17aug00.html There are not many viruses written for Linux, and even if a user downloaded one by email, because the user is by default logged in to a limited account, the virus cannot modify system settings. Only a "super user" can make system changes or add more software by logging in as "root". Even a computer administrator would normally log himself in as a limited user in Linux and only log in as root to make changes. Though Microsoft encourages people to do the same in Windows XP or 2000, very few people actually do that. And because some Windows software will run properly only if run in an account with Administrator privileges, most users would prefer to be always logged in as the Administrator. They can therefore with administrator privileges damage the system by their own hand! Not so with Linux. There is no common user application that cannot be run with normal user privileges.

What I can do so far in Fedora Core 3

• Internet browsing. Firefox is the default browser. So if you have been using Firefox already in Windows, you will be totally comfortable using it in Linux!
• Email with Thunderbird. I was already using it in Windows and it seems to work even better in Linux! I don't have to use a third party SPAM filter anymore in Linux like I did in Windows.
• Encryption with GPG. This is an open source version of PGP and just as good if not better than PGP.
• Type email and other documents in Japanese! The default setting for the Kanji imput method was "IIIMF" and is not quite as good as in Windows, but after I changed the setting from IIIMF to "kinput2-canna" it's much easy to find the correct characters.
• Word processing with OpenOffice. I was already using OpenOffice for word processing and spreadsheet in Windows, and so there was no pain to switch over.
• View PDF files with Gnome PDF viewer. It loads much faster than Adobe Acrobat!
• Listen to audio Cd's and MP3 files with Realplayer or VLC
• Watch movies including DVD, VCD, AVI, MPG etc with Video Lan (VLC). This is another cross platform program that I was already using in Windows. I played an entire DVD with it the other day.
• Burn CDs including ISO images with K3b -- better than Nero in my opinion
• Create web pages (including this one) with Quanta or Bluefish -- two very user friendly and powerful HTML editors! Quanta seems to be more powerful and has a built in link checker that I used and found broken links from my previous work using Windows HTML-KIT. But Bluefish is faster and easier to use.
• Upload web pages with GFTP.
• Edit graphics with GIMP
• View graphics rapidly with Kuickshow - much better than the default program in Windows XP. It can even do some basic editing!
• Look up words with Gnome Dictionary
• Have an applet running in the taskbar that tells me the outside temperature and weather.
• Automatically run Thunderbird calendar from startup.
• Run Textaloud MP3 with WINE
• Talk to other Skype uses! (Skype version available in Linux!
• Use Bittorrent to download big files

Cool things I like about Linux

• I don't hear as much hard disk activity. In Windows I would often hear my hard disk clicking away even though I was not doing a file copy operation.
• Lots of cool software that does things I haven't seen using Windows.
• Fedora Core 3 not only updates itself from the Internet like Windows does, but it even updates all the installed applications that came with it! What can be better? No more searching for updates for my favorite apps from the Internet. Think how much time I am saving!!
• I am free and perfectly legal to make copies of my CDs and give them to anybody I want!
• The HTML editor I am using now to make this page (Quanta) is very user friendly.
• In Windows my USB mouse would stop working sometimes. This could be because it was plugged in to a USB hub device. I had to unplug the mouse and plug it back in to get it to operate again. This never happens in Fedora Core 3 though I am using the same hardware setup as before.

Gnome or KDE?

Gnome is the default desktop interface for Fedora Core and Redhat, whereas KDE is the default for Mandrake Linux. Both have their good points. I have both installed. You can switch back and forth by logging off and on to another desktop. And there are even others. I prefer Gnome to KDE so far as it seems easier to learn and solid as a rock. I had problems using KDE. KDE's built in browser, Konqueror, is not as good as Firefox and doesn't interpret CSS code correctly.

Command line work in Linux

Some people seem to think that working in Linux is typing commands from the command line prompt as in the good old DOS days. This does not have to be so. You can work completely in the graphic interface of Gnome or KDE. There are only a few things like basic changes to the system that need to be done from the command line.

Windows XP has a command prompt too but most people don't use it. In Linux using a command line can be more powerful and even faster than clicking several times to run the program you want to run! Moreover you can put "switches" or "arguments" after the command to do certain things that the application is programed to do. Some Windows applications can do that too but most people don't know / care about it.

You can run handy little utilities from Terminal that cannot be run any other way.

For example, in Terminal enter the command:

# cal
You get an immediate output of a calendar of the present month!

Now enter cal and follow it with the number of the month and the year. Example:

# cal 6 1960
You will see the month of June in 1960! What a handy way to determine the day of any date in either the past or the future!

Most Windows applications are installed in their own folders which are not necessarily included in the PATH. This means that from the command prompt the only things you know you can run for sure are Windows system applications. In Linux however all applications are installed in set directories that are included in the PATH. This means that if I type the command of my favorite HTML editor "quanta" at the command prompt, it will run! In Windows sometimes the menus were slow to respond to my mouse clicks.

Installing Linux

No matter what distribution of Linux you use, you should understand some basic things before attempting to install it on your PC. The main thing you need to understand is that Linux needs to make its own partitions and format them its own way. This can be done automatically if you have some free space on your hard disk. By "free space" I am talking about un-partitioned space, in other words, space that is not formatted and not even yet a partition. If no free space exists, the Linux installer will ask if you want to delete all existing partitions. You should only say yes if you are installing on a hard disk that has data you do not want to keep!! All data and your previous operating system will be erased forever if you let Linux delete any existing partitions!

If you have Partition Magic and know how to use it, you can create some free un-partitioned space by re-sizing your existing partitions. If you have Windows XP on your first partition and want to have a dual boot system, you could resize the Windows XP partition to make at least 10 Gigbytes free after the Windows XP partition. It is important that you do not make free space before the Windows XP partition or Windows XP will not be able to boot afterwards.

If you have two physical hard disks on your desktop PC, I would recommend you install Linux on the second one. You can therefore backup any data on the second HDD to the first one and don't have to worry about making a mistake of losing data when installing Linux. Just make sure that you have Linux create the partitions on the correct hard disk drive!

Using WINE to run Windows applications

Some folks refer to WINE as a Windows emulator, but the initials of WINE stand for, "Wine Is Not (an) Emulator!" What that means I have no idea.

The basic idea behind using WINE is to be able to use Windows applications that are not yet available to use in Linux. Some Windows apps will work - but they will be buggy. I've had only limited success in using TextAloud MP3 - sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. I have successfully used Irfanview with graphics (before I found out about Gthumb), but even that was a bit buggy. It would not delete files and would tack an extra .jpeg extension on the files even though they already had an .jpg extension. So I only recommend tinkering with WINE to try to use applications that are not yet available in Linux. Though I liked HTML-KIT in Windows, Bluefish or Quanta does the job just as well, and is in some ways even better for me!

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Lessons and tips in setting up applications in Fedora Core 3 Linux

I'm not a newbee to computer as I started out from 1987 using MS DOS, but I still am a relative newbee to Linux at this time. However thanks to all the documentation available on the Internet, I think I am making progress. It is worth it knowing that I will have a stable running PC free of worries of viruses and other assorted problems that plague Windows machines! Here are some things I learned in setting up my system:

If you are a beginning in using Linux, before you read the tips below, you might want to read the official and unofficial Fedora Core FAQs!

• The Official Fedora Core FAQ - Basic issues
• The Unofficial Fedora Core FAQ - Tips not covered in the basic FAQ

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Lessons from April 14-16, How to make audio CDs from MP3 files / how to add MP3 support to K3b:
A young man I live with asked me to burn an audio CD for him from MP3 files he downloaded from the Internet. I thought, "No problem for K3b! If Nero can do it, K3b can too!" But I was disappointed to see a message from K3b when I dragged and dropped an MP3 file on it that the format is not recognized! The MP3 plugin for K3b in Fedora is not added by default. I tried to install the plug-in but couldn't figure out how. So I searched the Net for an alternative CD burner and found one for Gnome called "GnomeBaker"! Because I prefer Gnome to KDE I thought to give it a go. GnomeBaker does recognize MP3. However, I still couldn't make an audio CD from MP3 with it. GnomeBaker is still apparently buggy.

Finally 3 days later I found a line on a Fedora forum that gave me a clue what to do: Use Yum! It was so easy! Just do this:

1. Open Terminal
2. Enter the following commands:
# su (log in as root by typing root's password
# yum install k3b-mp3
3. Enter Y when prompted to download the file.


That's all it takes! Yum added the MP3 plugin automatically to K3b and K3b recognized it. I tried to do it manually before based on instructions from another web site but with no success

.

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April 13, 2005, Enabling Japanese input in an English locale

I struggled off and on hours and hours over a period of weeks to figure out how to type in Japanese in the English locale. Linux in an English locale correctly displayed Japanese characters, but to type in Japanese I would have to log out and then log back in using the Japanese language locale. I searched and searched the Internet for a tutorial how to input Japanese characters while still in an English locale. Only finally today for the first time I found the answer from the Fedora Core web site http://fedora.redhat.com/projects/i18n/iiimf-faq.html - the first place I should have looked but it was the last....duh!

Do this:
Open Terminal and enter the following commands:

# mkdir ~/.xinput.d
# ln -s /etc/X11/xinit/xinput.d/iiimf ~/.xinput.d/en_US

Restart X. (Log out and then back in again)


Once you are back in your normal English language log in, open an editor and then press the shift key and tap space to enable Japanese input mode. Works great! Now I can finish typing all my Japanese emails from within the English log in.

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March 30, 2005, Downloading an entire web site with "wget"

I missed my Theophilos Bible software that I used to use in Windows and looked around for something for Linux to take its place. I could at first only find on-line HTML Bible sites and wondered if I could download a whole site to my hard disk with all the files linked properly. So I did a search on the Internet and found the wget command could do the job. I opened a terminal window and entered: wget

Sure enough, wget showed its existance by showing some output lines! I then typed at the terminal prompt:

# wget -r http://ebible.org/
Notice the "-r" switch meaning recursive to download all related links to the site.

Upon entering the above command, the download process and finally ended with the message:

FINISHED --19:15:35--
Downloaded: 330,750,211 bytes in 1909 files

Sure beats downloading page after page manually!



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On March 30, 2005 I learned how to install "Bible Time" - a Bible program for Linux. It was a bit of work to compile two different programs using the "./configure" "make" and "make install" commands. First I needed to compile "sword", then "bibletime" and then finally I downloaded the KJV module files and copied them into my home/.sword folder. When I entered bibletime at the terminal prompt, my first Linux based Bible program started up!!

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March 23, 2005, Installing new updates automatically with "Yum"

I learned about "yum" the automatic updater program. What can be easier to update your software? It's much better than what Windows offers for sure!
1. Download the yum.conf file. Here is the link for it.
2. In Terminal, log in as root (enter su and your root password).
3. If you downloaded yum.conf to your home directory, enter at the prompt:
   
   # cp yum.conf /etc/
   and enter Y when asked to overwrite the existing file.
Enter:

# yum update
4. Let yum do its thing! Enter Y when asked to download and update
Yum not only updates, but you can install software you don't even have yet directly from the Internet if that software is included in one of the Internet links listed in the yum.conf file! For example, I heard that Mplayer could convert MP3 files to wav. I didn't have Mplayer installed nor did I have the installation program. So I just opened a Terminal window, entered su to log in as a Super User as root, and entered the command: yum install mplayer
Yum did its thing, found the RPM files for Mplayer, and prompted me if I wanted to start the download or not. I justed typed Y and yum did downloaded not only mplayer, but all the library files I needed for Mplayer! What could be easier? It sure beats the old Windows way of searching for programs with a browser!!


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Lesson on March 21, 2005, Subject: Installing NTFS file support in the Linux Kernel

I wanted to be able to access files from my 40 gig USB portable HDD in Linux, but because Fedora and hence Redhat doesn't have support for NTFS (for legal reasons it is rumored), Linux recognized the USB drive when I plugged it in, but it could not read any of the files.

I knew other distributions like Mandrake does have NTFS file support, and that it was possible to add it to a Fedora/Redhat Linux kernel also. I found the answer how to do it on the Internet: NTFS RPMs for Fedora and Redhat

If you want NTFS support in Fedora, go to that page and download the correct RPM for your system. Read and follow the instructions carefully and may God be with you. That page and links from it has everything you need and will tell you everything you need to know!

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Lesson on March 15, 2005, Subject: Making my SCSI scanner to work
From the command line I entered:


# xsane
But xsane came up with a message saying it could not find my scanner! My scanner was turned on and plugged in the SCSI port from startup. The message said that one possible reason is that the scanner is "owned" only by root. So I logged in as a Super User (by entering the su command and root's password) and ran the xsane command again. Sure enough, sane ran and recognized my scanner! However a message came up warning me:

You try to run XSane as ROOT, that really is DANGEROUS! ...... Continue at your own risk

So from the lesson I learned on March 8, I knew I had to somehow allocate ownership to my log-in user name. I knew the command but not the device name. Using Hardware Browser I found my Epson scanner was assigned as /dev/sg2

Logged in as root I entered the command
# chown -R jamesjpn /dev/sg2
I exited root and again entered xsane at the command line. Success! I scanned an image from a printed page, edited it with GIMP and uploaded it to my web page, The Magic Green Shirt.

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Lesson on March 11, 2005, Subject: Installing the Java plugin for Firefox:
I just spent at least a couple hours trying to figure out how to install the Java plugin for Firefox! The Flashplayer installation was easy and installed automatically from the Internet, but the Java plugin can only be installed manually. Here is what I finally did. I hope it will save you time and not have to bungle around like I did! Just follow the directions below. After every command at the command prompt, hit enter. You don't have to write all all the long commands but just copy and paste them into the terminal window. Exit all Firefox windows before starting this procedure.

1. Go to the Java Download page and download the J2SE(TM) Runtime Environment 5.0 Update 1. The Java installation file should download in your Home directory
2. Open a Terminal window (command line prompt)
3. Enter the command:
   # ./jre-1_5_0_01-linux-i586-rpm.bin
4. The Java installation process should start. Just follow the simple instructions given and type Yes when asked to.
5. After the Java installation process is completed, at the command prompt enter:
   cd .mozilla/plugins
6. You should now be in the Mozilla plugins directory. Now enter:
   
   # ln -s /usr/java/jre1.5.0_01/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so libjavaplugin_oji.so
7. Enter the ls command to see if the libjavaplugin_oji.so link has been created in the directory. The file name should appear in Cyan color.
8. Run Firefox and go to a page that has a Java applet to test it. You can use my page. It has two Java applets on it. If Java installed correctly and Firefox recognizes it, you will see an analog clock and a flowing lake in front of Mount Fuji.

Later I learned that the ln -s command is used to create a "symbolic link". In Windows terminology this is known as a "shortcut". What I was doing was creating a link from the libjavaplugin_oji.so file located in /usr/java/jre1.5.0_01/plugin/i386/ns7 to the mozila plugin directory located in my Home folder. In my case the full path to the Mozilla directory is: /home/jamesjpn/.mozilla/plugins So if you are having problems following the above instructions, make sure you are typing the command from the correct mozilla plugin folder and that you are using the correct path to libjavaplugin_oji.so file in your system. You can know for sure by using the File Browser.

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Lesson on March 10, 2005, Subject: Fixing my LAN device:
I couldn't connect to the Internet after running some updates. I finally realized that Linux was not recognizing my LAN card correctly anymore. I went to:
Applications
System settings
Network
Was asked to type the root password
The Network Configuration window came up. I saw that the status was inactive.
I clicked on the Hardware tab and then clicked on the Edit icon. I saw that the IRQ setting was "Unknown" This meant that Linux was not recognizing the LAN device correctly. What to do? I used brute force! I just down the machine, removed the power cord, removed the LAN card, turned on the machine and booted into Linux. I was asked if I wanted to remove the LAN device from the settings. I said Yes. After it booted into the Log in screen, I click shutdown, turned off the machine, removed the power cord, put the LAN card back in, turned on the machine and booted into Linux. I was asked if I wanted to configure the LAN card. I said Yes. Linux configured it automatically and my Internet and Email was restored!

Later I had a similar problem, but instead of physically taking the card out, I deleted the LAN device completely from the Network Configuration dialog box, rebooted the computer, and added it again. This time when I clicked on "Activate Device" it activated properly!



Also today I discovered why I was getting an error message when logging into Gnome. It kept telling me it couldn't find my Internet host and therefore may not work correctly. So I put in my yahoo.com provider host name in the Hostname under the DNS tab of the Network settings, and that seemed to satisfy Gnome!

I was using KDE before but always seemed to run into problems with it. KDE seems more powerful and user friendly in some ways, but it also seemed unstable at times. I like Gnome more than ever now and appreciate the cool applets, like the weather applet for example.

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Lesson on March 8, 2005, How to automatically mount a second physical hard disk drive and assign write privileges as a user:
I had lots of fun trying to make Linux automatically mount my second physical HDD! It took me a long time but I finally figured it out. You can save lots of hours by following the instructions below if you want Linux to automatically mount a secord HDD.
1. Open a Terminal Window
2. Enter the su command:
   # su
   and type your root password. This will make you a "Super User"
3. Enter the command:
   # mkdir drv2
4. This will make a folder with the name of drv2. You could even use a different name if you wish.
5. Find out what device name Linux gave your second hard disk. To do that use the Hardware Browser by clicking on Applications / System Tools / Hardware Browser.
   You will be prompted to type your root password.
   In Hardware browser click on Hard drives. You should be able to recognize your second hard drive. It should ideally be formatted in etc3 file system. In my case, my Linux named my second hard drive /dev/sdb1
   Later I learned another way to find out the Linux names of my hard disk drives by working in Terminal:
   
   su - (enter the root password)
   fdisk -l
   This will give you a quick list of your drives. Notice the hyphen after the su command. Adding the hyphen will add root's PATH. If you don't add the hyphen, fdisk will not run.
   
   Remember the device name of your second HDD for now you need to do some real geeky work and edit your /etc/fstab file!
6. Go back to the Terminal Window. If you did not exit it, you should still be logged in as a Super User. If not, type su and your root password again.
7. Now enter the command at the prompt: kedit /etc/fstab Note that there is a space between kedit and /etc/fstab
8. If you typed that correctly Kedit should have called up the /etc.fstab file Now type in this line in that file on its own line:
   /dev/sdb1 /mnt/drv2 ext3 rw,auto,user 1 3
   Please note the variables being the name of your second hard disk device and the name of the directory you created in the /mnt directory.
9. Save the file and reboot your computer
10. Almost there! Linux should now mount the drive automatically, but it may still only be in the Read Only mode. This is because Linux recognizes that the drive is owned by "root" and not you, the user yet! So you have to change owership of the drive by opening a Terminal Window, enter su and your password, and enter the following command:
    
    # chown -R username /mnt/drv2
    Note that you need to substitute username for your login name. Also if you named your folder under /mnt something other than drv2, you should use the name you named it.
11. Done! After this you should be able to copy files into your second hard drive.

I like to use my second hard drive as a backup for the home directory and for large files like ISO images downloaded from the Internet. This is because my second HDD is 80 Gigabtyes in size, whereas my Linux system drive is only 33 gigs. Why did I make my smaller drive the Linux drive? It is because it is a fast 10,000 RPM Western Digital and the other larger one is slower at 7200.

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My history in working with PCs

I've been working with computer from 1987 or the time of MS-DOS. Learning DOS and computer in general was a challenge for me as I had to grasp a whlie new set of concepts like "file", "directory", "save" etc. The first version of MS-DOS I ever used was 2.11. Eventually after a few years I got to to the point I knew DOS commands inside and out and could even make complex batch files using the "for in do" command. I was able to do everything I really needed to do in computer. And then Windows 3.1 came along....

The first thing I noticed about Windows 3.1 was that certain tasks took a bit longer. Programs crashed, the system crashed at times. The only good thing to be said about it was that using a graphic interface to tie all the software together was more user friendly.

Then Windows 95 hit the market. Windows 95 was supposed to be a substantial improvement over Windows 3.1 using 32 bit applications. But unless you had enough memory and good hardware to support it, it ran even slower than Windows 3.1 So of course the common solution to the problem was to upgrade one's hardware. At the time this was an expensive option for me.

I did eventually upgrade and continued to upgrade and upgrade to keep up with all the new versions of Windows that came along. And I learned a lot about Windows and how to maintain it. I soon learned that every Windows system I ever used would run slower and slower over time. The Windows Registry needed to be cleaned at least once a month, the file system needed to be defragmented, temporary files need to be purged, the system needed to be scanned for web bugs, trojans. I really wanted to be free from doing all these constant maintenance tasks which became almost an oppession with me! This was my main reason for dropping Windows in favor of Linux. The only time I really need to use a Windows system is to do a certain report on the 25th of each month using software will only run in Windows. I have a laptop PC for that.

Remember: Windows is for the masses. Linux is for the computers.

Copyright 2005 by James Arendt

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