hi,
I hope this is not OT; I've lurked for a bit and this looks like the place to be.
This is the place.
I've been playing with Debian for the last few weeks and was looking for some help getting started.
I come from a M$ backgound with a total *nix experience as a "Well" user some 18 years ago.
I'm having trouble tracking down baby-step stuff. I installed (testing my
"from floppy" skills) including X-Win and when I couldn't figure out how to
get the shell out of there, reinstall with no added packages.
Or more properly, the "X Window System" or "X" or "X11". To shell out from X, press Ctrl-Alt-Fx, where x is the number of the virtual terminal (VT) to which you want to switch. A default Debian install will have 6 VTs, and then X will be running on VT 7, and additional X servers, including VNC servers, can run on VT 8, 9, etc. Of course, as the system admin, you can reconfigure this anyway you like.
So, to shell out to VT2 from X, you'd press Ctrl-Alt-F2. To get back to X, you'd press Ctrl-Alt-F7 (although the Ctrl is optional when going _from_ a non-GUI VT).
Examples of where I'm looking for help:
Are there any basic text based tools, like old DOS file managers, for navigation or inspection? (I'm trying not to think like DOS, but it's my native language and I'd like to start without any graphical interface.)
*nix is best run from the non-graphical console :-) And it's okay to think like DOS to some extent, but it won't be long before you're thinking, WOW! DOS was limited!"
Once you get to a command prompt (from either a terminal in X, or from a VT), you can install Midnight Commander with the command "apt-get install mc". That might get you started. (You'll have to run this command as root, or if you have sudo setup properly for your normal user, you could run "sudo apt-get install mc", which is the way I'd recommend it be done. But this can wait a few weeks while you get your sea legs.)
When wandering around how can I distinguish filetypes? Is there a good reference?
man file
Looking at a file (eg 'vi -R /etc/profile'), I'm assuming this is a script.
What's a good reference fot translating this stuff?
man bash
I've been using 'man' as much as I can relate, but my understanding is that
this is not the most up to date source on a lot of things.
It _should_ be up-to-date. It may not be particularly understandable . . . .
"info" is the new, "preferred" documentation reader. Me, I don't much like it. "pinfo" is a bit better.
I'm working through a few tutorials but what I'm looking for is reference material not tutorials.
man, info, google, the /usr/share/doc directory
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