# Sticky  Linux FAQs and Guides



## wmorri

*Welcome to Tech Support Forum
Linux Guide to Wireless Help*​
* Please post all the things that you are asked to post. This guide is here so that you will get help with setting up your wireless. If you have supply all the information needed in your first post then you will be setup and running faster.

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*How Soon Can I Expect Help?*
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Please be considerate of the fact that the people helping you are all volunteers, in many cases usually have a job, a limited amount of time to help, and therefore can only do so much. Please note that there are many more people in need of assistance than there are members to assist them. Patience for this free assistance is required. If there is an immediate need for wireless, please take the machine to a local technician.

If no one has replied to your thread within 48hrs after you posted, please reply in your thread with the words "BUMP, please" to move it to the top of the list. Do NOT bump the thread unless 48 hours has passed. We work from oldest to newest posts so your wait will longer if you bump it forward before the 48 hours is up. When looking at threads to respond to, we look for thread with 0 reply, or 1 reply. So, do not bump more than once. If you do, it may appear as though the thread is being handled, and it may be overlooked. 

Some members have in their Signatures that you can PM them if a certain amount of time has passed. You can do this if that amount of time has passed, but when you do so please include a link to your thread. That way the member doesn’t have to go searching for your thread. 

NOTE: We are aware that users sometimes seek help from several Forums at the same time. Unfortunately, this can cause confusion and actually wastes time and resources - yours, ours and other Volunteers across the community. _If you have already posted at another Forum, please advise us, or them, and choose just one._

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*Preparing for Wireless Setup*
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There are a couple of things that you need to know about the help that you will receive from Tech Support Forum.

*1.* We will be having you install some programs, it is possible that the install won’t go smoothly on the first try. Most of the time it will but Linux isn’t perfect. In the event that things don’t go as planned please write down on paper and post the *ENTIRE ERROR MESSAGE.*

*2.* We all recommend that you do a back up of anything that you deem important on your linux system. If you need help with that please look at *this*.

*3.*While cracked or illegal software isn't as prevalent in Linux, there is also the possibility for you to have some on your computer. To see our policy on illegal software click *here*

*4.* We need you to post what make and model of laptop your have, and what distribution and version of Linux that you are running.

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*Reports that are needed*
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In order for us to have a nice clean format to read all of the information that you will provide we have made a script that you need to run. There is a zip file at the bottom of the page that we ask you do download. When you download the folder it will come in .zip format. When you unzip the file you will see a README file included that will give you the appropriate steps to run the script. If you have any questions or problems.

If you have any problems with downloading or running the script please post a new thread in the Linux Section and we will help you with all your questions.

Once you have posted, subscribe to your thread by going to *Thread Tools* located at the top of the thread.
Select *Subscribe.* Make sure it is set to *Instant Notification.*

This concludes the basic steps required before posting your information for us. Thank you for taking the time to read this.


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## SteveThePirate

*Linux FAQs*

Here are some Frequently Asked Questions regarding Linux and it's Installation from the TSF Linux Support Team.

*Q: What Distribution should I choose?*

A: Choosing a distribution is a matter of personal preference as each one is created to meet different user criteria and it is best to do some research first to find which would be suited to you. For a detailed list of distributions available visit  DistroWatch.com
*
Q: What is GNOME, KDE, LXDE and XFCE?*

A: These are desktop environments. These are the Graphical User Interface (GUI) that you use to click and open your internet browser, open up your email and even type that essay or report with. Each one is designed with different benefits and features to meet a user's needs. For more information see  Linux Desktop Environments

*Q: I have a really old desktop/laptop lying around and want to install Linux on it, can i install any distribution.*

A: Depending on how old your system is, most higher end distributions that use Gnome or KDE have minimum specs starting from 512mb of RAM etc but usually recommend more for a better experience. However thanks to the versatility of GNU/Linux using lower end distributions that use either the XFCE or LXDE desktop environments or the extremely light 'window managers' such as openbox or IceWM the minimum specs can be as low as 40mb RAM.

*Q: I've downloaded the distribution file on to my computer, what now?*

A: Once you have downloaded your chosen distribution's image file you can chose to install via CD/DVD or USB. To install using a CD/DVD simply use an image writing software such as  ImgBurn to burn in to your CD/DVD and restart your computer with your BIOS boot sequence set to CD/DVD. To install using a USB flash drive, 4GB is recommended though it depends on the distribution size, simply download and install  LinuxLiveUSB and follow the easy step by step process to make your flash drive bootable. Restart your computer with the BIOS boot sequence set to USB.
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Q: During installation, should I choose automatic installation or manual installation?*

A: Generally it is recommended to manually set up your installation partitions rather than let the distribution install them for you. This is because automatic installation will partition your hard drive with a swap space and the rest is set as one partition for installation files and personal files. 
This is ok as it is similar to the way Windows paritions your drive (except without the swap). However as is recommended in any Operating System set up, it is best to keep your installation files(root) and personal files(/home) on separate partitions. Partly to do with keeping your files safe and partly because some distributions such as Ubuntu require you to upgrade every year and a half or so to the latest edition and instead of backing up your files and doing a clean install, you can simply upgrade the root partition with the new version of the distribution.

*Q: What is Swap space?*

A: Swap space is a portion of a hard disk drive (HDD) that is used for virtual memory. Virtual memory is the use of space on a HDD to simulate additional physical memory(RAM) when it starts to run low. Swap memory is much slower than physical memory and should only have to be used temporarily. If you find you are using swap space too much then you should either consider an upgrade of RAM or changing to a more low resource distribution.

*Q: How should I manually partition my installation?*

A: As a general guide you can follow this  guide however you may want vary some of the sizes depending on HDD size or specific needs.

*Q: Can I use software that was designed for Microsoft Windows such as Word or any windows based games?*

A: Most but not all Windows software will run under Linux using emulators such as  Wine. For a list of supported applications and games see  here.

*Q: Where's my C: Drive?*

A: Windows assigns a simple alphabet letter to each hard drive, partition or storage device. For example, D: could be a CDROM or a second hard drive or even a second partition on the same hard drive.
The letters alone, say nothing about the device or for example which partition it is or where it is located. This has been the case since Windows 3.0

By contrast, linux using a more elegant solution, each storage device uses a unique naming system that describes the type of device and its partition.
Hard drives, floppy drives, CDROMs are all identified as a device file followed by a letter identifying the device and then a partition number. 
For example:
/dev/hda1 is the first partition on the first hard;
/dev/hdb1 is the first partition on the second hard drive;
/dev/hda5 is the fifth partition (or 1st extended partition) of drive hda

Early distros used to name IDE hard drive hd, and SATA or SCSI drives as sd, now
all modern distros use scsi emulation and all hard drives are prefixed sd.

/dev/cdrom is a CDROM
/dev/fd is a floppy drive

If all this sounds complicated, remember that when you use windows, you give little regard to where your hard drive really is and know you can find your documents or pictures just from your My Documents folder.
Instead in Linux, everyone has a /home/username/ account, where "username" is the account name you created when you installed it. Linux also has documents, pictures. downloads and music folders, so the transition to using linux should not be too difficult.


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