Terminal commands

[Siberian Bear]

OK I'm really new to linux and I haven't had much experience of operating systems besides DOS and windows.

The plan was to give cedga a go and see if I could run some games on linux.

I'm trying to check what kernel verion I have of linux so that I can download the correct ATi drivers. Anyway, in the terminal I can navigate to where I downloaded this file which checks for me, but I don't know how to run it...


....and I can't get any sound.....

[Siberian Bear]

Well I managed to run that check application, but it has just opened another can of worms.

I'm having real trouble trying to install XFree86, when I go through the steps in the install the first problem that I encounter is:
"$Display is set"
it suggests that I am running it from an X session while I am running it from the terminal in mandrake.

If I contine with the installation almost every command that it displays has "Permission denied" after it.

Suffice to say that when I run the ATi check program it can't find the Xfree program.

EDIT: I managed to install it, and I also tried to install java as a plug in for Mozilla, however when I restart the system I don't get a GUI, only a prompt.

Help! What's going on?

Thanks in advance.

[MichaelS]

Generally, Runlevel 4 is used for GUI on startup, but it depends on the distribution.. The easiest way to see if your system is configured like that, is to run

init 4

as root in a non-GUI/XWindows terminal. X Windows should pop up with a login box at this point.

If that works, and if your distribution is standard, you can edit the /etc/inittab file so that it defaults to Runlevel 4. If not, we'll need to run through the longer way (which is not necessarly bad).

Regards,

Michael

EDIT: XWindows login on Mandrake might be on Runlevel 5.. If 4 doesn't work, try

init 5

There is no harm in trying different runlevels using init providing your not running a server (which would go down each time you change Runlevels).

[LocoCoyote]

Hey MichaelS, I beg to differ. On most distros, runlevel 4 is undefined. 5 is multiuser with GUI. This is how I usually see it:
Runlevel
1. Single User Mode
2. Single User Mode with Networking
3. Multi-User Mode - boot up in text mode
4. Not Defined
5. Multi-User Mode - boot up in X Windows
6. Shutdown
As for the original question: I am afraid I am a bit confused. If you want to check what kernel you are running, I use uname -a. This gives me output that looks like the following:

loco@DoDEA-42H820J:~> uname -a
Linux DoDEA-42H820J 2.6.8-24.14-default #1 Tue Mar 29 09:27:43 UTC 2005 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux


The "2.6.8-24.14-default" part is which kernel I booted to.

I do not understand what you mean when you say "I am running it in a terminal under Mandrake". Did you get anything other than a text based log-in prompt after boot?

If you can, send (or post) the command sequences and output and I will help you get it straightened out.

One last note: Don't let linux frustrate you too much. I, too, had serious issues when I first started using it. 99% of the problem was my lack of understanding. Once you get it all figured out, you'll never go back!