Got it working! First post from inside Damn Small Linux! Need more help pls
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From: RayLopez99 on 9 Jun 2010 04:37 On Jun 8, 11:15 pm, Mike Easter <Mi...(a)ster.invalid> wrote: > > If you just run this old board with 46 megs of ram and a 100 mhz cpu, > you aren't going to have very many options. BTW, just ran this command from root: " grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo Show RAM total seen by the system" And got, just like the BIOS says: "45760 kB". RL
From: Nico Kadel-Garcia on 9 Jun 2010 06:23 On Jun 9, 4:37 am, RayLopez99 <raylope...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Jun 8, 11:15 pm, Mike Easter <Mi...(a)ster.invalid> wrote: > > > > > If you just run this old board with 46 megs of ram and a 100 mhz cpu, > > you aren't going to have very many options. > > BTW, just ran this command from root: " grep MemTotal /proc/meminfo > Show RAM total seen by the system" > > And got, just like the BIOS says: "45760 kB". > > RL And it's still underpowered for work you might want to do, like use OpenOffice. But you know that. You don't need to be root to do that command, you can do that as a normal user. /proc is an interesting device in Linux: those "files" in it are hooks into the kernel for both reporting and manipulating the features of the system, including all the files currently open. Treat it cautiously, and *do not* try to "cp" it or back it up somewhere else, because its contents are fascinatingly dynamic, it's a special "file system" loaded directly from the kernel, and you can accidentally duplicate an incredible amount of debris doing so. Logging in as root is something to do cautiously, and as little as possible. Most Linux releases support the use of "sudo", which can be configured to allow you to be logged in as yourself, use "sudo" to enter your own password, not root's password, store the privilege so you don't have to enter the password again for about 10 minutes, and escalate to root privileges for a single command or for a working shell or for an X Windows program. There should be documentation for it on your system. It's very powerful, very flexible, and very useful in mixed environments to allow designated users to run particularly powerful commands, such as installing shell scripts, becomeing specific other users to run privileged software, or mounting CD's or USB drives. Some distributions make logging in as root directly very difficult by locking the password: they insist that you always log in as yourself and use "sudo" to escalate to root privileges, for fairly good security and logging reasons. And the default configuration of OpenSSH, the most popular SSH server, blocks direct root logins via SSH. It's usually safer to do most of the work as a normal user, and only when you're ready to install do it as root. Double checking, "Damn Small Linux" is Debian based and uses "apt" to manage packages. I'd expect that the "abiword" program mentioned by others can'be installed with that package manager, but its exact configuration varies from distribution to distribution, so I can't be sure if you'd need to enable access to some particular upstream repository to get it. Given your RAM limitations, I'd suggest it instead of OpenOffice for Word or RTF style documents. Me? I use flat text, maybe HTML written with "Amaya" when I need bulleted check lists for portability. But for collaboration with peoplw who require Word compatible documents, yeah, RTF works. Explaining to them that yes, RTF is Word compatible and far, far, far more stable than Word [flavor of the month] format can be an adventure.
From: Nico Kadel-Garcia on 9 Jun 2010 06:34 On Jun 9, 4:23 am, RayLopez99 <raylope...(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Jun 8, 6:40 pm, Mike Easter <Mi...(a)ster.invalid> wrote: > > > I don't think DSL is the best choice for a newbie - some/many newbies; > > nor do I think DSL on an alleged/currently 48 meg ram machine is the > > best choice for a newby - some/many newbies. > > Well too late--it's working now (for now). Might switch to Puppy on > the other machine (which is slightly more powerful) because I have to > install Linux, so I'll install Puppy rather than D.S.L. initially as > here. > > > > > The other LT machine comp2 is 512 megs and would do much better for the > > newbie with some other linux distro which is more graphical. > > that you have enough resources > > > to protect it with something light. > > > Personally I think - reiterate - the 48 meg ram machine should have its > > mobo accurately determined and if there is something wrong with the ram > > stick seating that is interfering with its maximum ram potential being > > met, you should fix that. > > Well it's working. > > > > > > My system info below--for you doubters. > > > P1 (P5) 100 mhz, sez 46 megs ram (?!), Via VP1 chipset, S3 virge > > graphics, Seagate 1.3G hdd, floppy, ps/2, usb1, serial, I didn't see > > anything about printer port, cdrom, audio > > > > I am surfing naked. This is OK in Linux land, right? > > > Yes. > > Thanks for that advice. BTW I figured out how to copy/move/link (do > you use 'link'--it's pretty cool, nothing like it in Windows, but can > it be abused?) in emelfm--you have to use the MIDDLE BUTTON!!! and > drag and drop between two views of the different directories but it > works. Also figured out how to change Unix permissions since, > strangely IMO, a lot of pdf files that should be read write are 'read > only' initially. > > Newbie questions: > > #1) logging into as 'root'--do I simply type 'root' then the password, > or '0' then the password at the login? [UPDATE: I figured out how to > do this while as a ordinary User--there's a red icon in emelfm called > "root" that you click on and it takes you to the root via a shell > outside of the GUI--but please tell me if you can also log-on > initially as root? BTW, I would think--maybe my password permissions > are not set up right--but you should NOT be able to click on the red > icon to get into 'root' so easily--without asking for a password. In > Windows they ask for a password to log in as the 'Administrator' --not > a big deal for this system since I'm the only one running it, but for > this girl this could cause a problem (she clicks on everything like a > monkey). Does Puppy have something more 'secure'?) > > #2) installing a program--let's forget compiling for a moment--but say > I download a binary executable file. Presumably I log in as > 'root' (but *** below says usually this not necessary). What's the > best directory to but this binary executable in, and, second, how to I > put an icon on my desktop (let's say the executable supports whatever > GUI I'm logged in as under D.S.L.--I think the GUI in D.S.L. is called > "Dillo" and is some variant of "X Windows", if that makes sense) or is > this done (icon on desktop) automatically? > > Thanks in advance, appreciate your help so far. > > RL The red icon is probably using "sudo" to elevate your privileges. Not running DSL myself, I'm not sure. Software installation privileges have been a recent source of security infighting among several operating systems, and I personally think you should have to actually put in a password to run such powerful commands. It can be your own password, not root's password, if sudo is set up correctly. > *** Root privileges are usually required for installing software in > RPM (Red Hat Package Manager) package format because of the need to > write to system directories. If an application program is being > compiled (i.e., converted into runnable form) from source code (i.e., > its original, human-readable form), however, it can usually be > configured to install and run from a user's home directory. Root > privileges are not needed by an ordinary user to compile and install > software in its home directory. Compiling software as root should be > avoided for security reasons. DSL is Debian based, not RPM based, so its packages are in ".deb" format, not RPM format. So translate appropriately. Most well bundled RPM software can be compiled as a non-root user, in a local directory, with settings in $HOME/.rpmmacros to set the RPM compilation locations correctly. It can even be compiled inside of "chroot" cages, built from local setups, so that you get a spanking clean new build repository every time you compile instead of dealing with whatever debris you happen to have modified or installed in your local, development setup, and to assure that other people can compile it too with all the requirements set. One tool for this is called "mock", and it is my friend. That said, most RPM's are built from well constructed source tarballs that can be extracted from the source RPM, or "SRPM", and played with or tested locally in a user's home directory. The standard is to use a set of configuration tools called "autoconf", that creates a "./ configure" script, which is then used to set up target directories, turn features on and off, and prepare the source directory for compilation. It's very handy stuff, very powerful, and somewhat arcane. abiword is a good candidate to pull down a source tarball, use "./configue --prefix=/home/raylopez99; make; make installl", and try to install to your home directory. Stay away from hand-compiling Perl or Python modules for the moment, if you can. Integrating those with a live OS can get tricky.
From: J G Miller on 9 Jun 2010 10:04 On Wednesday, June 9th, 2010 at 01:08:22h -0700, RayLopez99 asked: > Yes, I would like to try this program. Can you please tell me how to > install it? Abiword is available as a myDSL extension, so you install it through the myDSL extensions framework. Full instructions for how to install software available in the myDSL extensions repository should be consulted at <http://www.damnsmalllinux.ORG/wiki/index.php/Installing_MyDSL_Extensions> A list of all the software available in the myDSL extensions repository is available at <http://distro.ibiblio.ORG/pub/linux/distributions/damnsmall/mydsl/>
From: ray on 9 Jun 2010 10:39
On Wed, 09 Jun 2010 01:08:22 -0700, RayLopez99 wrote: > On Jun 8, 5:12 pm, J G Miller <mil...(a)yoyo.ORG> wrote: >> On Tue, 08 Jun 2010 06:35:46 -0700, RayLopez99 wrote: >> > I also want to install OpenOffice 1.0, which is the only thing that >> > will run on this old hardware... >> >> If you only need to prepare and read documents, have you considered >> abiword instead? >> >> <http://www.abisource.COM/> > > Yes, I would like to try this program. Can you please tell me how to > install it? It would literally be my first Linux program I installed > (other than what I did with RHAT over 10 years ago, which I don't > remember). Would it, for example (I am using default directory names > that came with installation for Damn Small Linux) go under "/sbin"? Do I > log in under 'root' (http://www.linfo.org/root.html), then what, drag > and drop (i.e., copy) the executable binary I download from > abisource.com to what directory? > > Thanks in advance, > > RL Hey NoBalls - there is a reason that Linux distributions have 'repositories' and 'package managers'. This ain't MS - it's easy. |