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7   Miscellaneous 

7.1 Installing programs.

There are two major classes of program packages: .rpm and .tar.gz (or .tgz, .bz2, .gz) RPMs are precompiled, installation-ready packages. You might prefer those, if you are new to Linux. RPMS in KDE are handled by kpackage (it's in the 'Utilities' section). Open it and move around a bit. kpackage is opened by default when you left click a RPM in the file manager.  To download them in Netscape, hold the <shift>button and left-click the link (works for every other file, too). There is one obstacle, though: if you aren't root, you can't use kpackage to install or uninstall rpms. There are two ways to handle this, both involve opening a virtual terminal (click on the icon with the two screens or hit <Ctrl>-t in the filemanager), this is something like the DOS-window known from some lesser OS's. Type 'su' to become root. Now you may a) fire up kpackage (type 'kpackage' at the prompt) or b) install the rpms by hand. Some options are: rpm -i [Package_name]  : installs rpm -U [Package_name] : upgrades an installed package with a new version rpm -r [Package_name] : uninstalls Adding the -vv option (e.g. rpm -ivv) turns on verbose mode (useful if encountering errors). RPM keeps a database about all installed programs, so you won't be able to accidentally erase important programs or files which other programs rely on. Though be aware that you are doing your installs as root: rpms from obscure sites may be badly configured or even contain malicious content. Some common issues with rpm: failed dependencies. rpm checks if the package you are about to install has all the other packages installed that are required to run the program properly. Alas it only does these checks against its own database. So if you compiled and installed a prerequisite rpm won't find that and will refuse to install. In this case you may either: Install the prerequisite again via a rpm-package or tell rpm to ignore dependencies (option --nodeps and the ultimate --force). Be careful with these options, though... checking rpms without kpackage A pretty smooth way to get more information about a rpm is using the 'midnight commander' ('mc'), which runs on console or in a virtual terminal (e.g. kvt). mc allows you to browse a rpm just like a directory and have a look at all installation scripts (besides: it also makes a formidable file manager). 'install' or 'upgrade'? It is important to discriminate these two. An example: You want to upgrade a library (that's a collection of program routines) because you want to install a program that needs that new version. But some of your programs depend on the old version. If you now upgrade with rpm -U these programs perhaps won't work anymore. You may now get all these programs in rpms that are compiled against the new version of this library. Or you just use the -i switch. Most libraries can coexist in different versions on one system. Common resources are: ftp://ftp.redhat.com/ and (preferably) its worldwide mirrors. Mandrake-Linux is compatible to RedHat-Linux. Apart from the KDE-base rpm and system initialization stuff you may use original RedHat packages. For Mandrake specific updates check Mandrake's FTP server and its mirrors via Mandrake's main site at http://www.linux-mandrake.com
http://rufus.w3.org/linux/RPM/ The RPM repository at Rufus.org contains some 10.000 rpm-packages. You may choose every package with a RedHat-i386-glibc (5.2/contrib/update) tag. libc5 packages may also work. They also offer a tool 'rpmfind' which eases the process of finding and downloading specific rpms. So-called 'tarballs' are packages with the ending tar.gz, .tgz, .bz2 or .gz. These mostly contain programs in source-code that you have to compile yourself. Unpack them with 'ark' (via right click on file name). They contain files like README, INSTALL etc. Read them and follow the instructions. It's a matter of luck if they compile straight away or if you have to fiddle with path-or makefile settings or have to install other programs first (Check the Software Building mini-HOWTO for that). If you don't want to do that, check the rpm-repository at Rufus.org first, if they have a rpm of that program. Since Mandrake is compatible to RedHat, you have a vast choice.  It may be a good idea to keep large downloaded packages somewhere in case you need them again. (Why someone wants to compile a source anyway if it can be such a tedious task?), you may ask. Some reasons are: you may customize program features and install paths self compiled programs usually are even more stable and faster than precompiled ones because they are more suited to your system settings upgrading is easier: you just simply apply a patch and recompile. With rpms you have to download the whole program again. source code is more up-to-date. Programs are written in source code. To  make a rpm of them, you first have to compile them, write the installation scripts and (hopefully) test them. So if this program  has a flaw or is missing a feature you want badly you can do nothing but issue an bug-report or a feature request and hope for the next version. If you have the source chances are the author will write a fix/patch which you can apply soon. Common resources are: ftp://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/ ,ftp://tsx-11.mit.edu/pub/linux/ . These are mirrored at many university FTP servers.

Debian users can check out Havoc Pennington's Debian tutorial 's chapter 16 on dpkg and apt it's a bit old but still relevant

Recommended reading: man rpm, rpm --help | more, RPM HOWTO, Software Building mini-HOWTO 

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7.2 A quick list of commands. 
 
 
 

alias Make different names for commands
at Runs a program at certain times
atq Lists programs waiting to be run by at
atrm Removes programs from the at queue
cat Concatenates files and print to standard output
cd Changes to a directory
chfn Changes information displayed by finger
chmod Change access permissions of files
chown Change the user and group ownership of files
chsh Change your shell
cp Copy files
dd Copy disk images
df Available free disk space
dir List directory contents
dmesg list startup messages
du Disk space used
dump Used to backup filesystems
e2fsck filesystem checker
export Set environment variables in bash
find Finds files
fdformat Low level format a floppy disk
fdisk Used to create and delete partitions
finger Look up user information
free Information on RAM and swap usage
grep Find lines matching a certain pattern
groupadd or addgroup* Adds a new group
groupdel or delgroup* Deletes a group
groups displays a user's group
gzip Compress and decompress files
halt Shut down system
host Look up host information
ifconfig Used to setup network interfaces
init Change run levels
insmod Install modules
kill Abort system processes
less Filter for viewing files
ln Create links between files and diretories
locate Locate files that match a certain pattern
login Sign on to system or switch users
logout (ctrl+d) Sign off of current user
lpc Manage printer queue
lpq View printer queue
lpr Print files
ls List directory contents
lsmod View loaded modules
make Compile and maintain programs
makewhatis Build whatis database
man View manual pages
mcd Change to directory on a DOS diskette
mcopy Copy files to a DOS diskette
mdel Delete files on a DOS diskette
mdeltree Delete directories on a DOS diskette
mdir Lists directory contents on a DOS diskette
mformat Format DOS diskettes
mkbootdisk Makes a boot disk :-) ( you did make one right?)
mkdir Makes a new directory
mkswap Setup swap device
modprobe Installs modules
more filter for viewing files and directories
mount access or mount filesystems and devices
mv Move or rename files and directories
netcfg ( not in all distributions) Network configuration tool
netstat Displays status of network connections
nslookup Name server lookup tool
passwd Change passwords
ping Check a host on the network
printtool Used to setup printers
ps Display process tree
pstree Displays entire process tree
pwd Displays the present working directory
reboot Reboots system :-)
restore Used to restore a dump backup
rm Remove files
rmdir Remove directories
rmmod remove loaded modules
rpm Manage rpm packages
set Temporarily change environment variables
shutdown Shut down the system :-)
startx Start the X Window system
su Switch to a different user
sync Flush buffered data to hard disk
sysinfo Display system information
tar Create and manage archives
top Display running processes
touch Used to create a file or update it's time stamp
traceroute Displays route of IP packets
umount Unmount filesystems ( watch the spelling)
uname Display information about your system
unzip Extract compressed files
updatedb Builds locate's database
uptime Shows how long your system has been running
useradd or adduser* Adds new user accounts
userdel or deluser* Delete user accounts
usermod Modify user accounts
whatis Gives brief overview of commands
whereis Locate binary, source and manual pages for a command
which Display a program's executable path
who Show the users that are logged in
whoami Show the user that you are currently logged in as
xlock Locks the X Window system
* It depends on the distribution that you are using

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7.3 KDE keyboard commands.

Keyboard commands for for KDE

ctl+tab Switch between desktops
alt+tab Switch between applications
alt+f1 Opens application menu
alt+f2 Opens command window
alt+f3 Opens window menu
alt+f4 Closes window
f1 Opens help for a program
f2 Finds a word on the page
f3 Finds the next matching word on the page
space Selects/unselects files
ctl+n Opens file manager window
ctl+a Selects all files in the current directory
ctl+t Opens a terminal in the current directory
ctl+w Closes a window
ctl+f Finds files
ctl+c Copy
ctl+v Paste

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7.4 GNOME ( Nautilus)keyboard commands. 
 
 

ctl+b Bookmark
ctl+d Duplicate
ctl+f Find
shift+ctl+f Web search
ctl+i Show properties
ctl+h Home
ctl+u Up a level
ctl+n New folder
ctl+o Open
ctl+w Close window
shift+ctl+w Closes all windows
ctl+= Zoom in
ctl+- Zoom out
ctl+[ Back
ctl+] Forward
ctl+t Put in trash
ctl+r Refresh
ctl+a Select all

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