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Transparent start menu
You can make your start menu transparent by
applying a different theme. Go into the control center and then
select "look n feel" and then "style". To save you the trouble,
I have tested the themes out and there are three that offer this
feature: KDE default, Keramik and .Netstyle.
Enable Numlock
on boot
Someone on a forum was nice enough to share this
tip with me. In order to enable Number Lock when you start your
Red Hat, you just need to go into the K menu and look under Preferences,
Peripheral and then click on Keyboard - under advanced there is
an option to enable Number Lock. It's as easy as that!
Add themes to
your KDE desktop
In order to do this all you need to do is visit
the freshmeat
website and/or kde-look.org
and then pick out whatever themes you like. Then in the Kde menu
under Control Center look at the Theme Manager. From there I clicked
on the "Add" button and browsed to where I saved my theme files
and added each one - one at a time to the theme manager list.
After that, I just get to pick whichever theme I want. Some themes
come with four different wallpapers for different desktops, others
use the same one for each. You can modify the wallpaper manually
if you want too.
Icon themes, Wallpapers,
Splashscreens and more!
See this
website for more details, I would elaborate but it is pretty
easy to do and the site explains it well.
Change your login
Screen aka graphical greeter
Just go here
and download them to a directory of your choice and then click
on your kde kicker, then system settings, then login screen and
go to graphical greeter and then at the bottom click on 'install
new theme', browse to where you saved your new themes and then
install them. Once done, you should see a new login screen when
you login next.
Configuring Your
Printer:
Make sure your printer is turned on during the
bootup - if your distro has kudzu then it may configure it for
you! I will use mine as an example - this is only a general guideline.
It worked for me but I can't say for sure it will work for you.
As usual things need to be done specific to your distro and your
hardware, but this is certainly a good place to start. If this
doesn't work, then you might want to visit linuxprining.org
or try to use CUPS. Anyway, here is how I configured my Epson
c40ux USB printer: First (as user as far as I recall, but you
might want to do it as root) I went into the kde menu and selected
preference-system-printing manager, then I clicked on the 'add
printer' icon in the top left of the new window - this is for
Red Hat 7.3. If you are using Red Hat 9 then you need to click
on the KDE menu, then "system settings" then "printing" and click
on "new" and then enter a name for your printer and click next.
You need to highlight the name in the list (usually /dev/lp0)
then click next. Either way, whether you use Red Hat 7.3 or 9,
on the next screen you need to select your printer from a list
and in Red Hat 7.3 make sure to click on the plus sign next to
it and then highlight the name of the driver. In Red Hat 9, you
just need to select which printer model it is and it will automatically
select the right driver for you. At the bottom of the window I
used the Generic UNIX LPD Print System (default) - you may need
to use something different depending on your printer. Then to
double check I went into system and printer configuration - you
may have to manually add in your printer here. As far as I remember
mine was already there after performing the previous steps. Printing
works very well with everything now, hopefully it is as easy for
you as it was for me! *If you are using Cups, you need to make
sure you have cups running when you start your computer or at
least when you are about to print.
How to preview
your saved pictures instead of seeing them as icons
Easy enough to do, open up your file browser (usually
konquerer) and then at the top menu select "view" then go to "preview"
and make sure "../images" has a check mark next to it.
How to see the
partitions used
Open the terminal (konsole) and then type df
-h This will show you what partitions represent what on
your system. Someone on a forum tipped me off to this one - thanks!
How to Access
and Write to your Windows FAT32 partitions
Step 1 - When in Linux, create a directory wherever
you like, called whatever you like. For example - /home/user/windows
Step 2 - To test it out, log in as root in the terminal (type
su, then press enter, then enter your root password then press
enter) Then type (I'm using the sample created directory above)
mount /dev/hda1 /home/user/windows
This should allow you to see all of your windows files in that
created directory. (I used hda1 because my windows is on the first
partition of my first drive, you need to adjust yours as necessary
- ie: hdb1 is the first partition of the second drive) I also
mount my first partition on my second drive because that's where
I keep all my mp3's, so I create another directory - /home/user/winmusic
and therefore to mount that drive again as root in the terminal
type: mount /dev/hdb1 /home/user/winmusic
Step 3 - If you want to have linux automatically mount these drives,
you need to edit your /etc/fstab file as root. In my case, I use
the terminal and I use pico as a text editor, but if you like
using point and click you can do that too. If you are used to
using text editors or like nano, you can do it like this:
in terminal as root type:
cd /etc
nano -w fstab
press control and O and then add .backup to the filename which
creates a backup for you.
then press control X
then type nano -w fstab
then you will see your fstab file open again - use the arrow keys
to move things around
scroll down to the bottom and add these lines
*using the above directories as examples:
/dev/hda1 /home/user/windows
/dev/hdb1 /home/user/winmusic
*this will allow you to see the windows files as user, but you
have to be logged in as root to add file or write to those directories.
*if you want to be able to add files and write to your windows
fat32 directories as user, then you can do this:
This next part was contributed by Eric London - much thanks!
/dev/hda1 /home/user/windows vfat user,uid=500,gid=500 0 0
/dev/hdb1 /home/user/winmusic vfat user,uid=500,gid=500 0 0
*this will allow you to write to those directories. All you need
to do in either case is save this as your new fstab file.
*to make sure your id's are 500, type "id" in your terminal, if
they are something different than 500, substitute that number
instead for both uid and gid.
For ntfs file support see these sites:
ntfs
ntfs
If you want to be able to access your linux files from windows,
see here.
Important: Make sure you
leave at least one blank line at the end of your fstab before
saving.
That's it, enjoy!
How to Customize
Hotkey Shortcuts
Open the terminal and then type: killall (exact
name of program)
How to get out
of the desktop if there is a total freeze:
It all depends on which distro you have - the
instructions are different for each distro. See here
for directions.
How to Optimize
the Speed of Linux (steps may differ)
Go to your KDE menu and go to system and then
service configuration. You will a bunch of services that are checked
off - if you click on their names, it will tell you what service
they perform and you can decide what you want to continue to use
or start to use. This is a very personal choice, so I won't specify
anything, it will be up to you. If you want more info on a certain
service, then try typing man followed by the name of the service
in your terminal and see if there is any inform ation on it. If
not, there is always Google.
How to configure
the look of your terminal
I had seen
people with transparent terminals on their screens for a long
time and didn't know how to do it. I found out when I was talking
to some people on the Gentoo forum. If you are using "Konsole"
in kde for example, you just need to open it and then click on
'settings' and then 'schema' and then select whatever type you
want. I use transparent Konsole now - it looks way cooler than
that bland white background. Don't forget to save your settings
there or it will go back to white.
How to use Samba
in Linux/Windows
The first thing to do is get your network configured
in windows. Make sure you have those files installed and then
designate the folders you want to share and set the permissions
on them. You can do this by right clicking on them and then adjusting
the sharing and permissions that way. Once that is done, you might
have to reboot (windows, lol). In linux, you need to make sure
samba is installed. You can get it from the samba
download page. Once you have that installed, you can take
a look at the folders that are shared on your windows box by opening
a terminal (might need root permissions) and then typing smbclient.
This will give you a list of all the commands. To directly see
what shares you can access, you need to type in: smbclient -L
remotehostname. In place of remotehostname, obviously you need
to enter your remote host name from windows. Mine was 'mainframe'
so I typed this: smbclient -L mainframe. If it asks for a username
and password, just use the one you would use while using windows
if you have set any. If you haven't set any, then you should be
able to press enter at the password prompt. Then it lists all
the folders that I have shared in windows. Just like mounting
folders from windows on the same box to a linux install on the
same box, you need to create the directories where you want to
mount those windows folders. So, for example, let's say you have
a folder on windows called "music" (important: in windows, to
make things easier, make sure you use folders with one word and
no spaces or weird symbols, it is easier for linux to see them
that way), then you could create a directory in linux (using user
mode) called music in /mnt/music. So, your mount command would
be "smbmount //mainframe/music /mnt/music". You should see all
of those files appear in that directory. You can do the same steps
for any of the other folders you want to have access to in linux
from windows.
If you want it to be permanent and want to add it to your fstab.
Then you would use this line for the example I used: "//mainframe/music
/mnt/music smbfs username=User,password= 0 0" - given that your
username is "User" and you have no password. Just substitute your
own in this line. (no quotes in fstab obviously and rememeber
to leave one blank line after your last typed line). Repeat these
steps for the rest of them and you should be all set. As far as
I know this only gives you read permissions so users can't delete
or transfer files.
*If you want more details on how to set up samba - especially
for College Linux (based on Slackware) check out this
site.
How to get to
text mode from graphical mode
type "ps -e" in the terminal.
To check to see
what packages are installed for a certain application
this is a lot easier than one would think. Basically,
all you need to do is (as root or with root permissions) edit
your /boot/grub/menu.lst file.
Here is an example of my latest one:
------------------------------------------------------------------------
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes
to this file
# NOTICE: You have a /boot partition. This means that
#all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /boot/, eg.
#root (hd1,1)
#kernel /vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb5
#initrd /initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda
default=0 ***************** the first entry is default 0 so just
change this to default 1 for red hat 9 (2.4.20-8) or default 2
for Windows Xp Pro.
timeout=10
splashimage=(hd1,1)/grub/splash.xpm.gz
title Red Hat 9 (2.4.20-18.9)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-18.9 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-18.9.img
title Red Hat 9 (2.4.20-8)
root (hd1,1)
kernel /vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi
initrd /initrd-2.4.20-8.img
title Windows Xp Pro
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
then save it and when you reboot, it should boot the distro or
OS you want to automatically.
Configuring
Grub
I am going to give generic instructions here on
how to add a distribution to an already existing grub configuration.
So, allow me to give an example to with which to work, yours may
be different but hopefully the same rules will apply. So, let's
use my example of a triple boot system with Jamd, Gentoo and Windows
Xp Pro. Here is my grub.conf file which is stored on my Jamd install:
(this is the entire /etc/grub.conf file)
Note - you can choose to either have a /boot partiton or not.
I never use one, but some people do. When you install grub it
should automatically point to your boot partition, but if it doesn't
for some reason you may need to make the adjustment to read that
partition.
* This mini tutorial is a generic way of adding or editing your
grub.conf and may not work with all distributions. For example,
SuSE seems to have its own style and you may have to be creative
with getting that to work in a different bootloader other than
the one it provides. Otherwise, these steps seem to work for almost
any distro.
(anything with a "#" in front of it is information and is not
actually read during boot time)
*My remarks are in red.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
# grub.conf generated by anaconda
#
# Note that you do not have to rerun grub after making changes
to this file
# NOTICE: You do not have a /boot partition. This means that
#all kernel and initrd paths are relative to /, eg.
#root (hd1,1)
#kernel /boot/vmlinuz-version ro root=/dev/hdb2
#initrd /boot/initrd-version.img
#boot=/dev/hda - this signifies that I have
installed grub to my primary master hard drive (/dev/hda)
default=0 - this means that it will load
the first entry on my grub list by default if I don't select something
else (entries start counting at 0, your first one is 0)
timeout=10 - this is the amount of time
that grub will wait before booting into the defaul os/distro -
10 here appears to be about 10 seconds.
splashimage=(hd1,1)/boot/grub/splash.xpm.gz -
this is where your splash image is loaded, it can be changed,
but be careful (for cosmetic freaks only)
title JAMD (2.4.20-9) - this is the title
you want to use for your os/distro, you can use anything you want
really, just don't use crazy weird characters.
root (hd1,1) - location
of your root partition for this distro - notice that hd1 = second
hard drive, the other 1 = second partition (counting begins at
0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-9 ro root=LABEL=/ hdd=ide-scsi -
this shows where my exact location of my kernel is and I added
scsi emulation also.
initrd /boot/initrd-2.4.20-9.img - this
line is not necessary when adding other os/distros to your grub.conf
title Windows Xp Pro
rootnoverify (hd0,0) - this is the style
in which windows is added.
chainloader +1
title Gentoo
root (hd0,2) -
located on my first hard drive, third partition (counting starts
at 0 - remember)
kernel (hd0,2)/boot/bzImage root=/dev/hda3 hdd=ide-scsi -
(it is crucial to get the spacing right for this. you need the
kernel location on the hard drive, and then the exact name of
the kernel as well. If you used a separate /boot partition, you
need to use that one because that it where your kernel resides.
Then you need to use root=/dev/hd?? to show where grub can find
your root partition for this distro - counting starts at 1 for
this so my root partition is on my first hard drive and third
partition.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
end file
You can edit your grub.conf file by changing directories in the
terminal and getting root priveleges and opening it and editing
it with your favorite editor. I use nano, so here is what I would
do (while booted into the install where I had my grub.conf I was
using)
cd /etc/
su
yourrootpassword
nano -w grub.conf
(edit and save - changes take effect upon reboot)
*you can also test out different ways to boot your other distros
but using the edit function on the grub boot screen. These are
not permanent changes so when you find something that works, you
need to get into your grub.conf and edit and save it with the
new information. Unlike lilo, you do NOT need to run grub. Changes
will automatically take effect when you reboot.
Edit your file
types
This means you can control what application opens
which file when you double click on it. For example, let's say
you have an mp3 file that opens in kaboodle when you double click
it, well, you can change it so that xmms opens it instead. All
you have to do it right click on the file and select "edit file
type" then a new window pops up and you need to look at the bottom
half of it where it says "application order" - you can add or
remove and move things up and down there. Whichever application
name you put at the top will be used to automatically open the
file when you double click it. I find this expecially useful for
video files. My preference is to use Mplayer so I have things
set so any video files will be opened by mplayer when I double
click them.
Playing
DVD's
My movie player of choice for playing dvd's is
Mplayer. You can install it quite easily via rpms using the Software
page of this guide for Red Hat 7.3, 8 and 9 - for Red Hat 9 also
see the Red Hat 9 page on the homepage for a specific list of
dependencies and where to get them. Anyway, you do need to do
a couple of things to get this to work properly. One thing is
when you open mplayer, you need to change a setting - go into
"preferences" and then "misc". To look at a screenshot of what
I mean, click here.
If your dvd rom drive is your secondary master like mine, you
would pick /dev/hdc, if it is secondary slave, pick /dev/hdd and
so on. You can verify this by checking your hardware browser (kde
menu-system settings-hardware browser in Red Hat 9 for example)
You can see a screenshot of where to look here.
Once this is done, there is one more thing to do only. You will
need to enable DMA for your dvd rom. You can do this in Red Hat
8 or later version by adding this line: "options ide-cd dma=1"
(without quotes) to your /etc/modules.conf file (need root permissions
to edit this). Once these things are done, put a dvd in your drive
and open your terminal and type this: gmplayer -DVD 1 You should
then see your dvd start playing.
Special thanks to Tahoe_Strider for allowing me to post this information!
How
to add graphical bootdisk creation to rpm based distros if you
don't already have it
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