I want to (have to) try a Linux distro


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bins are binary files, or executables. So you can just do ./whatever.bin in a terminal and it'll execute it - assuming you have permission to execute it.

tarballs usually contain the sourcecode of an application. It needs to be extracted from the tarball and compiled. Way too much effort these days. Usually, software will have packages in various distro's repositories that are much easier to install.

As far as I know, just installing openoffice.org-writer will just install OO.org's word processor, and not all the other stuff that comes with openoffice (spreadsheet etc).

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@markjensen Let's say I've understood half of what you said :p ... but I'm liking Linux :o

:laugh:

Read up what I added to the post about your nvidia drivers. It will help you.

Yes, Linux package management is a lot different than Windows. Think of "yum" as a sort of combination of Windows Update for the whole install, plus a supermarket of software, so you can do all your shopping at the "repo mall".

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As far as I know, just installing openoffice.org-writer will just install OO.org's word processor, and not all the other stuff that comes with openoffice (spreadsheet etc).

OOops! I need to full package. And yes, it only installed OO writer. So can you remove OO writer using yum, how?

More questions. So basically, if I had to install a package from a downloaded file it won't update automatically. If I install from the repository (or whatever it is called) it will update and the packages would be more manageable. Is this right? Sorry for the English but I'm getting lost :blush:

@markjensen: so basically you can get the packages from two places... anywhere from the internet or from yum (which is this sort of a software supermarket :p ).

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OOops! I need to full package. And yes, it only installed OO writer. So can you remove OO writer using yum, how?

More questions. So basically, if I had to install a package from a downloaded file it won't update automatically. If I install from the repository (or whatever it is called) it will update and the packages would be more manageable. Is this right? Sorry for the English but I'm getting lost :blush:

Remove with

yum remove packagename

Yes, you are understanding the package manager and repositories a lot better now (Y)

It is a strange concept at first, how everything you need could be right there with no need to manually download and install, and they all keep updated for you. But it makes managing a Linux box much easier than Windows (with their different manually installed apps that don't update).

And your English is just fine. I didn't even know you were a non-native speaker until you kind of alluded to it in your post (and I looked at your listed location).

EDIT:

@markjensen: so basically you can get the packages from two places... anywhere from the internet or from yum (which is this sort of a software supermarket :p ).

Yes. And the package manager is strongly preferred. :yes:

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I've removed OpenOffice-Writer using yum. Then, after some research on the net I've found this:

yum list|grep openoffice

openoffice.org-brand.x86_64 1:3.0.0-9.10.fc10 installed

openoffice.org-core.x86_64 1:3.0.0-9.10.fc10 installed

openoffice.org-ure.x86_64 1:3.0.0-9.10.fc10 installed

openoffice.org-writer-core.x86_64 1:3.0.0-9.10.fc10 installed

...strange!

More questions... why isn't the numpad working? All Assistive technologies are turned off.

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I've removed OpenOffice-Writer using yum. Then, after some research on the net I've found this:

yum list|grep openoffice

...strange!

It would seem that Yum has removed the OOo-writer package, as you requested, but it has left behind other files that were pulled-in as dependancies when you originally installed it. If you're going to install the full OOo package, I wouldn't worry about this, because they need to be installed anyway for it to work (ie, the package depends on these files to be installed to work), but if you really don't want anything left behind, then simply yum remove packagename for each file to get rid of them. I'm not overly familar with Yum, but I expect there is a command that would automatically remove the requested package and it's dependancies too at the same time.

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Just install a GUI package manager already... :laugh:

You can install something like synaptic (it's common on Debian-like systems but it also works great with Fedora). This is a graphical tool that let's you add/remove software in a very easy way, it can show you what is installed, what is available to install and you can easily search for packages you wish to install. Basically, something like this does the same as yum but it's a lot easier to use.

yum install synaptic

EDIT: Also: http://www.fedorafaq.org/

This page will answer most of your simple questions.

Edited by Lechio
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Thanks mate. I've installed that RPM thingy... but I'm not sure I did the right thing.

I will install Synaptic, but I really want to get used to Terminal... since it doesn't look that difficult.

EDIT: What if there is something which is not found by YUM... like Picasa I guess.

Edited by Daninku
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EDIT: What if there is something which is not found by YUM... like Picasa I guess.

Those are OK to install manually.

But from what I can see the Google Picasa package available for donwload is not native to Linux, it runs on top of WINE.

The same result can be obtained by installing WINE and downloading the Picasa .exe installer file...

EDIT: There's a yum google repo: http://www.google.com/linuxrepositories/testrepo.html

Edited by Lechio
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Here's the complete process using the terminal:

Get the google Signing Key and import it:

cd ~
su
wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
rpm --import linux_signing_key.pub

Create the google yum repo file:

cd /etc/yum.repos.d/
touch google.repo

Edit the google yum repo file:

nano /etc/yum.repos.d/google.repo

and copy>paste the following to the file opened in the terminal:

[google64]
name=Google - x86_64
baseurl=http://dl.google.com/linux/rpm/stable/x86_64
enabled=1
gpgcheck=1

Press CTRL+X to save the file and exit from nano.

Finally install picasa:

yum install picasa

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Do you have the "linux_signing_key.pub" file in that directory?

The command "ls" lists what files you have in that directory.

You can even import it directly from the web:

rpm --import https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub

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I'm sorry for that Symod. Did you ask in any of their (distros used) official forums if any? I'm not using a wireless connection for the PC and I think the connection is way better than in Windows in terms of speed... I think.

@Lechio... isn't cd change directory? So... change to which directory? I'm just trying to understand the code instead of copying and pasting.

[root@localhost Daniel]# wget https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
--2009-01-13 10:16:19--  https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub
Resolving dl-ssl.google.com... 72.14.221.136, 72.14.221.91, 72.14.221.190, ...
Connecting to dl-ssl.google.com|72.14.221.136|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 1745 (1.7K) [text/plain]
Saving to: `linux_signing_key.pub.3'

100%[======================================>] 1,745	   --.-K/s   in 0s	  

2009-01-13 10:16:19 (31.2 MB/s) - `linux_signing_key.pub.3' saved [1745/1745]

[root@localhost Daniel]# rpm --import linux_signing_key.pub
error: linux_signing_key.pub: import failed.
[root@localhost Daniel]# ls
Desktop	google-repo-setup.sh	 linux_signing_key.pub.2  Pictures   Videos
Documents  linux_signing_key.pub	linux_signing_key.pub.3  Public
Download   linux_signing_key.pub.1  Music					Templates

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isn't cd change directory? So... change to which directory? I'm just trying to understand the code instead of copying and pasting.

"cd" with no arguments takes you to your home dir.

Also, "~" is an alias for your home directory, so both "cd" and "cd ~" will take you to /home/youruser.

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Oh ok. I'm confusing it with the 'cd' of DOS then. Thanks ichi :) nice avatar hehe

What do you think is wrong? Looks like I've downloaded the key 3 or 4 times, but then something goes wrong when importing.

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Still unable to import:

[Daniel@localhost ~]$ md5sum linux_signing_key.pub
b5ea17f4838a77bb6f7bb83eff7f78f7  linux_signing_key.pub
[Daniel@localhost ~]$ cd ~
[Daniel@localhost ~]$ su
Password: 
[root@localhost Daniel]# rpm --import https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub   
error: https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub: import failed.

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