Question: I use a Toshiba Satellite A130 with 512 MB RAM, 80 GB Hard Disk, using Debian ( Sarge ). How can I load x Windows (graphical mode )?

Answer: To load X Windows, you can type "startx". Another method would be to use the command "su username";"startx-- :1" ( without the quotation marks of course ). This is if you are using the "root" account and would like to start X with a different user name. Please note that starting X using "root" is a bad idea.

Question: I use a Toshiba Satellite A135 with 512 MB RAM, 100 GB Hard Disk, using Debian ( sarge ). How can I uninstall all the packages on my distribution?

Answer: To uninstall all packages from your distribution, type "cfdisk".

Question: I use Redhat Fedora Core 6 on an Dell Dimension E520 with a 3Ghz Intel Pentium D 925 processor desktop computer with 1024 MB RAM and a 320 GB Hard Disk. I need a C compiler that is compatible with my distribution and ANSI-C. What do you recommend?

Answer: Redhat Fedora Core 6 comes with GCC, a compiler with a good reputation. To compile files simply use the 'gcc' command in a terminal window. For syntax of GCC refer to the manual pages using 'man gcc'. If for some reason GCC is not included in your distribution, you can check the relevant release and download it from the location: "http://gcc.gnu.org/releases.html".

Question: I have a Compaq Presario V6000 with a AMD Turion Processor and 768 MB of RAM and a 160 GB Hard Disk. I run Mandrake on this desktop parallel to Windows XP. I would like to know if there is any help available in Linux Mandrake and how I can use it?

Answer: For most Linux distributions, including Mandrake, help is provided through Manual Pages for most programs / packages. You can access these manual pages using the 'man' command. For example, if you need help with the 'su' command, type 'man su' at any terminal Window, and a manual page with information relevant to the 'su' command will appear before you. You can also check the 'info' command. Info pages are similar to 'man' pages, except that they provide more detailed, user-friendly explanations, when available. To use info simply type 'info' followed by the name of the utility you require information about in any terminal window, e.g. 'info su'. An information page will be listed before you.

Question: I have a Dell OptiPlex computer running at 3 GHz, using 1048 MB of RAM and a 500 GB Hard Disk. I use a regular user account for normal use. Sometimes, I need to perform operations as root. Is there a way I can do so without logging out and then logging in as root?

Answer: You can run operations as root from any terminal window using the 'su' command while logged in as a regular user. To do so, launch a terminal window, and type 'su root' followed by your root password. Your terminal window will indicate that you are now (root), and you can perform all the operation you wish to. Remember to type 'exit' after you are done to return to your regular user. You can also use 'sudo' command to run commands as root without having to change users. More information is available by typing 'man sudo'.

Question: I have a Toshiba Satellite A200 laptop with an Intel core 2 duo processor, 512 MB of RAM, and 200 GB of hard disk space. I frequently need to run two commands that take a long time, and would like a way to launch both commands simultaneously without having to wait for the first one to finish. How can I do this?

Answer: To execute two commands at the same time, you can from any terminal window type the two commands separated by '|'. This will tell Linux to run the first command, followed by the same command once the first one is completed. ( e.g; grep /etc/passwd | cat root ).

Question: I use an assembled P4 desktop computer running at 2.8 GHz, using 768 MB of RAM and a 100 GB hard disk. I normally use 'cat' to list the content of text files on the screen. However, for some log files, I prefer to view the files backwards (beginning with the end of the file). Is there a way to do this using the cat command?

Answer: To view files backwards in Linux, you can use the 'tac' command, which does the inverse of cat, i.e. list the content of files backwards.

Question: I use an HP desktop with 1.7 GHz processor, 512 MB of RAM, and a 40 GB Hard Disk. I usually use the 'cat' command to list the content of text files in terminal windows under Debian Linux. However, sometimes the contents of some files are too big and all I can see is the last page. How can I view the files page by page?

Answer: To list the contents of text files page by page you can use the 'more' command. To use it, simply type 'more' followed by the filename you want to view. For example, if you want to view the contents of 'apache.log' page-by-page, type 'more apache.log' followed by the [enter] key. A listing of the file will appear before you. To scroll to the next page simply press any regular key on your keyboard (preferably [space] or [return]). You can combine this command with other commands such as 'cat' for example, to list the content of multiple files page by page.

Question: I use an assembled desktop computer running Linux SUSE. This is a Pentium IV with a 2 GHz processor, 1 GB memory, and two 100 GB hard disks. I use the computer on the internet quite frequently. Sometimes, I notice hard disk activity, even though I am not using the computer. I would like to know if there is a process or a user using the resources. How can I do this?

Answer: To list the currently running processes on your machine, you can use the 'ps' command. To do this, type 'ps -A|more' at any terminal window. Using 'ps -ux' will also do the job on most Unix flavored machines. You can then use the 'kill' command to terminate the processes ( kill -9 process_id ). Please be careful when using the 'kill' command. More information can be obtain about both commands using the man pages ('man ps' and 'man kill' ). I suggest that you read this information before using the commands.
As to the active connexions, you can use the 'arp' command to view active connexions. More information is available in the 'man' pages ('man arp' ).

Question: I have a Pentium 4 running at 1.7 GHz, using 1 GB of RAM, two 100 GB Maxtor Hard Disks, and two Network Interface Cards. I am running Debian Linux on this computer since yesterday. I am using this computer as a server to share my internet connexion with another computer. I need to configure IP addresses manually; however, I cannot find IPCONFIG on Linux. Is there any other program similar to IPCONFIG under Linux?

Answer: Yes, under Linux, you can use the command "ifconfig" to configure LAN interface cards and IP adresses for your network. To configure your interface card, use the following command: 'ifconfig ethX Z.Z.Z.Z' followed by return, where X is your interface card ID number ( which you can find out by typing "ifconfig" alone at the command prompt ). The Z's stand for valid IP addresses. Please note that you need to provide a different IP address for each interface card even if they are on the same computer.

Question: I am using telnet to access my account with ISP hosting my website. I often upload my files on the server but when I try to access them, I am told that I do not have permission to view the file. I was told to use "chmod" to modify the file permissions, however, I am not familiar with the command. Can you provide me with more information on how to do this?

Answer: 'chmod' is a UNIX command that allows you to change access permissions to a certain file by yourself, your user group, and everyone else. To use the command, you have three parameters, which is simply one three digit number ( e.g. 'chmod 755' ). This three digit number simply represents the access rights granted to yourself ( the first digit ), your user group ( the second digit ), and everyone else ( the last digit of the number ). You can assign any value between 7 and 0 to any one of the three digits. 7 represents full rights, 6 represents read and write, 5 represents read and execute, 4 represents read only, 3 represents write and execute, 2 represents write only, 1 represents execute only, and 0 represents no privileges at all. For example, to publish a file on the internet, you need to use the command 'chmod 755' which will give you owner rights ( full rights ) for the file, read and execute rights for your user group, and Finally, read and execute rights for all users accessing the indicated file.

Question: I use an ASI 16779 ASBTS with a 2.17 GHz AMD Processor, 256MB of RAM, and 120GB hard disk. I run Windows XP and Linux Slackware on the same system. I normally use LILO to select the OS. Lately, after a Windows XP reinstall, LILO no longer functions and I can only access Windows XP, although Linux is still installed and the partition intact. How can I remedy this issue?

Answer: To fix this issue, you need to boot from your Slackware CDROM. Start a terminal Window, and change the user to Root.
Mount your Linux partition in read/write mode, then type lilo -v. In practice, this sums to:

mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 -o rw
chroot /mnt/hda1
lilo -v
exit
umount /mnt/hda1
reboot

Of course, hda1 should be the partition where lilo.conf is located. Otherwise, you should modify this to your configuration ( i.e. the partition where your lilo.conf file is located ). LILO should appear the next time you boot up your computer. Note that your Windows XP should be installed in the same previous partition. If not you need to reconfigure LILO in order to be able to load Windows using LILO.

You can also create a boot floppy for future use in case you run across this problem again (this will at least allow you to boot Linux from the floppy). To do so, insert an empty floppy in your drive, and type the following command:

# lilo -b /dev/fd0