Linux for dummies by Emil Mikulic

Linux is a great multi-user, Unix operating system for the IBM PC. I've used it for a little while and I thought it was great. Installing it can be pretty hard, though, and it's strange to use at first.

You can get Linux on CD or you can download the bits you need from the Internet. Linux comes in many "distributions". I've only tried the Slackware distribution so if you're using another one and it doesn't work, then don't come crying to me.

First, you need to think about your hard-disk. Linux can take between 10 megs (for a bare system installation) to about 120 megs (for a full installation).

The scariest thing to do is to repartition your hard-disk because one wrong keystoke can mean the difference between partition heaven and tears before bedtime.

Linux (on the CD) comes with a great little program called FIPS. If you need to re-partition your hard-disk then all you have to do is DEFRAG it and then run FIPS. FIPS will cut your current partition into two and you get to say how big you want each to be.

You can install Linux into a DOS partition or you can run it off it's own (Linux native) partition. The UMSDOS (DOS partition) Linux installation will make a /LINUX directory and put everything in there. Linux will run a bit slower but there's no re-partitioning and your current DOS partition will be safe (safer than if you use Windows 95 - no FAT dementing long-filenames).

I've tried both a native and a UMSDOS installation and I didn't notice much difference.

To start installing, you need a bootdisk and a rootdisk. You will need to select which ones. There are bootdisks supporting installation from CD-ROM but you need to know what sort of CD Drive you have. Rootdisks mean whether you install to a native or a DOS partition.

If you're installing to a native partition then you'll need to use Linux FDISK (whoo, scary!). I won't cover that in this article but if you really have to use it then the rootdisk will give you a short summary of what to do when you log on.

Oh, by the way, make 2 partitions if you don't have much memory and you want a "swap partition".

Many of programs will need dynamic libraries, so make sure that you install plenty of the "Program Development" packages for Linux. Those nice GNU people have made a lot of really nice stuff for Linux. C and C++ compilers and some weird text editor called GNU Emacs.

When you install it you will probably want to mess around with it for a while. You will most likely be perturbed to see that only a few DOS commands work.

Here's a quick introduction to Linux for MS-DOS users:

CD - Change Directory

The most obvious and needed of OS commands. Fortunately, this stays the same in Linux (and a lot of other UNIX systems) but make sure you use / instead of \

DIR - Show directory

A very important part of any OS. This does work in Linux, but the Unix standard is "ls" (which also works in Linux). DIR or LS will give you something that looks like the DOS DIR /W so to get file sizes, you have to say "ls -l"

COPY - Copy file

Copying files is very important. In UNIX the copy command is "cp".

REN - Rename

The only way to rename a file is to move it to another name (see MOVE)

MOVE - Move file

Move a file between directories (also used as rename). In UNIX, move is done with the command "mv".

DEL - Delete file

Kill that space-eating scum. This has a really un-obvious UNIX equivalent: "rm". To have the system prompt you to make sure you really want to remove that file you should do: "rm -i".

EDIT - MS-DOS Editor

There are a lot of editors in UNIX. GNU Emacs is a very professional one but it takes a long time to load, while "vi" is like "edlin" meets cursor keys. I would reccomend JOE or JED which look and work like WordStar^TM and are great editors for beginners. (Heck, I still use them)

That's about all there is to it - except for one, very elusive thing. Linux (and a lot of other Unix's) have a window system called X11. Kinda like Windows 3.11 in DOS. X11 was by far the hardest thing to install - it keeps crashing and it takes forever to configure (which you have to do about 20 times to get it right). My ET4000 card doesn't work with the special accelerated X Windows server so I have to use the general SVGA server. And I know of another person who has an ET4000 and it doesn't work for him either, and my friend Andrew has a Cirrus Logic and the special Cirrus Logic accelerated server didn't work for him.

I managed to get it to work and it's not all that great but a lot of good programs need it.

I am the System Administrator. Grovel before me.

Have fun. :)

Emil Mikulic, 28/3/1997.