No progress to report.  I had resurrected an unused machine for this purpose.  But I was having a problem writing to the CD that I wanted to download to.  Decided to go to another machine and download/burnburn the CD there.  That worked OK.  Then put the CD into the Linux box and found why it was unused.  It has two CD units, one is Read Only, the other was Read/Write that would not write as noted earlier.  But now I found that neither would read!  Not a lot of free time to experiment, so this will be a while until I get one of the CD units ro read, and then make sure that is the one I can boot from.

So, I will provide some feedback when available, but this is a spare time effort that may take a while......

Bob,

I use a Sams book called SUSE Linux unleashed. It is written well and is very helpful. I find the Sams books tend to be written for an average reader not an academic, so they are a little easier to follow.

If you get a chance check it out.

Robert

Thanks Mark, you may regret the offer.

Here are a few items"
1.  Printer set up.
I added a printer HP2600, was in the list.  Printer is an IP address on the network.  Printer seemed to install OK.
Sent Test Page, job goes into print queue, but never comes out.  I can ping to the Printer IP.  I turned off Firewall.  I am in root group.  I tried adding another identical printer, both using CUPS, with same result.  Then I tried to remove one/both printers, but Remove is greyed out.  Checking SUSE forums, it looked like I needed to be in group "lpadmin".  No such group.  So I joined the "lp" group with no success.  There is a group "ntadmin" but I did not join that group.
Questions:  How to remove Printers? / How to install printer so it does print from the queue.

2.  I downloaded WINE and want to install.  How to install?  Is there a default "Program Files" folder?  Can I make my own?  I thought I installed WINE but cannot find an icon, did a Search for "wine" with no success.

3.  I have Sesame Linux to install.   Suggestions on how to install that?  Hmmm, I bet the instructions are in the Sesame documentation, I will check that out.  By now some of the terminology is familar to me.

4.  When logging in, I get GAIM on desktop waiting for login.  I have no interest in using this.  Want to stop ir from starting.  Where is the "StartUp" folder and the Registry "Run" secttion and the WIN.INI Run/Load commands?  In other words, how do locate and edit the "startup" routines?  I need to learn the entire bootup/login/startup sequence.  Are there some default login scripts for all users and for individual users?

5.  I am able to connect to Internet with Firefox and have also downloaded Thunderbird as email client that I use in Windows.  How do I install that program.  I unzipped the tz file into a folder, and clicked on Thunderbird, and it looks like it is going to start up ok, but would prefer to have it installed in a parent folder like Program Files as noted above for WINE.  Need to know the folder contents.

6.  By accident I was able to browse to a Windows workstation by entering the IP and was then able to drag and drop from Windows folders into SUSE.  Need to learn how to map those drives.

7.  I installed PUTTY on windows, was able to connect to SUSE terminal.  But can only use bash.  Wanted to make Remote connection so I could actually run SUSE system from Windows workstation like I do now with Remote Administrator/Net Meeting/pcAnyWhere.  What commands do I need to enter with bash to get to the GNAME desktop?

These are questions just off the top of my head, not at the SuSE 10.0 system right now. 
I am using GNOME as Desktop Manager with Nautilus File Manager.  Things have been stable, only problem I have seen is closing Banshee CD player, hangs and need to Force Quit, but have not had to use CTL-ALT-DEL yet.  And no BSOD.  That is promising


If you have the time to tutor, I can be the most demanding student.
Thanks again for your offer to help ..... still willing to do this?

If yes, should another forum be set up so different subjects can have their own sections.  If you respond to above we will aready have seven different topics.  I think that many others will be interested in learning along with me.

No rush Mark, I am still picking away in spare time .....

Bob_Hansen wrote on Oct 11^th, 2006 at 7:35am:



Unix is multiuser (really multiuser). That means that you (the system administrator) need to decide the scope of access for any particular package you want to install.

If you want every user to be able to use Sesame, you should install the Sesame directory tree under the /usr/local directory. Check if the users (including yourself when not being the sysdamin, root, or "super user") have "/usr/local" in their paths.

Under Unix, executables are typically layed out in the following directories, based on the use of the executable:

/bin - minimal system executables
/usr/bin - system executables and distribution executables
/usr/local - user installed executables
/usr/PackageName - user installed large systems (much bigger than Sesame size)
/usr/share - shared data
/etc - system configuration files
/home - user directories
/home/UserName - a user's directories

These are merely traditional. Unlike MS, there are no hard fixed rules, you can set up your system any way that makes sense to you. Each of the directories above, of course, will have subdirectories containing numerous files and directories.

Typically, any particular user, other than "root", will only have write access to their own directories. If you want to use Sesame and you believe it is unlikely that any other user will want to use it, simply install it under your own directory: /home/BobHansen. If you believe it likely that you will have more than one executable that is "your's", you may want to set up: /home/BobHansen/bin and set up Sesame under that - adding the path to your executables path.

Generally, to set up very controlled access on Unix is much easier than on Windows in that each user will only have read access to anything outside of their directories. If you want to have very strict security, you can set up "restricted shells" for your users. This will prevent a user from even leaving their own directory, nevermind reading or writing to any other directories.

BOBSCOTT wrote on Oct 11^th, 2006 at 2:33pm:


Depending on which shell the user prefers, I would start with a standard profile (or .rc file) and copy it to the user's home directory, then let it change over time as the user's needs change.

Thanks for info Mark, still have some confusion, so I will be back as I respond to the info you have provided.

A few more questions:

1.  How to create a shortcut to put on Desktop or on Applications Menu?
2.  How to create a "batch file"?  What commands are acceptable?
3.  How to create a shortcut that calls a batch file?
4.  How to change "dir" colors used by LS_COLORS?  I did the printout database, but only got file contents.   How to change the settings?  Where is reference to colors and their codes?

RE separate processing, I have used Putty to make multiple Terminal connections, each one seems invisible to the other, and the actual SUSE workstation gave no indication that two other workstations were connected and using the machine.  Getting a better feeling about stability. 

Quote:

One of the problems that I have is the lack of icons and "standard" folders.  I think that I have installed three programs, but cannot find icons for them.  I am looking under "Applications" on the "Task Bar", there is a tree of applications in many branches, some programs in multiple branches.  That is OK, but I cannot find applications I have installed, and can't find this "Application Tree" on the "Task Bar".  May need to change from GNOME to KDE.  But haven't figured out how to do that yet.  BTW, I do have YaST, but still learning one icon at a time, in spare moments.

Quote:
Yes, I have been using "man" and "info".  But you need to call the command as a switch, and when you don't know the command it is tough.  I have been reading thru many of the commands, but struggling.  I have now started using "dir" and "ls" from / down to get familiar with contents of folders.  I did find an info document that goes through the "init" and "rc" process.  I also have a few more reference books and manuals, but nothing yet that I am happy with.  Not content to just add files, I want to understand how it works under the covers, so this will be a slow process for me.

I am expecting to need to support Linux in the future so I must really learn the OS and be able to develop my own work habits, architecture, storage and naming methods, etc.  I realistically don't expect to have 25 years of Microsoft knowledge replaced in 1-2 days, lots of work ahead of me.

Thanks again Mark for your inputs and your patience.