# No commands



## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

Hi. I have had linux for over a year more like two. To this day I have not been able to get a command to work. I have the book Beginning Ubuntu Linux. I Have typed the commands out of it. Will not work. It says access denied or cannot access no such file or directory. If I could get the cammands to work things may work a little better for me. I have used Ubuntu,Mandriva, Pclinuxos. No fun with any of them. Any help would be great. Thanks Fred.


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## Skie (Mar 15, 2003)

Let's start with a few basic commands and work our way up. Tell us what you're trying to do and we'll see what we can do to help you.


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Also, some commands are distro-specific. Like one command that works in Ubuntu won't necessarily work in Mandriva.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

I tried to install RealPlayer. Did the download, open terminal, any thing typed in would not work. "chmod +x filename" Maybe I'm not doing the right filename? I need to get the typed command the way it's suppose to work, high or low letters.I need a step by step instructions. I have tried commands out of the book. Will not work. I'm doing some little thing wrong I know. But what? Fred


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Which distro? In PCLinuxOS it's available right from the repositories - no terminal needed.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

Ubuntu 6.06 is the one I'm on. Fred


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

```
sudo apt-get install realplay
```


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

Make sure you add the "sudo" in there, because that is what is giving you root access in order to do things like apt.


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

lol matt, so why was he lying there?


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## Skie (Mar 15, 2003)

K-B said:


> lol matt, so why was he lying there?


I can't believe I watched the whole thing yesterday... :embarased


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

"lol matt, so why was he lying there"? Did I miss something here, Lying ? To get back to commands. I tried to do the apt-get. E: type "dev" is not known on line 33 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list. E: the list of sources not be read. I think Ubuntu is messed up. I tried to run synaptic package manager & it would not do anything grayed out. Do I need to try to reinstall Ubuntu? Fred


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## hal8000 (Dec 23, 2006)

Looking at your error message, it would seem your apt/sources.list is corrupt

As youre running Ubuntu, open a terminal then type

sudo apt-get update

(you will need to enter your password, this is your password NOT the root password in Ubuntu)
then try
sudo apt-get install realplay again


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

E: type "dev" is not known on line 33 in source list /etc/apt/sources.list. This what keeps coming up. Will not do any commands. Look like it's time reinstall. Fred


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

fredobrien, I was talking about those funny smilies in TheMatt's signature - check them out if you haven't seen them:laugh:

Ok, have you ever edited sources.list? Could you post the contents? 

```
gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
```
copy & paste


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## removed82807c (Jan 30, 2007)

if you get problems with apt and as I hear, also with other commands, your disk might not be readable (crashed? bad sectors?)
try checking your disk, The Ultimate BootCD is an iso you can download, burn and boot up from, gives you a whole set of hardware checking tools.
If everything is ok, try repairing your installation from an install cd


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

[email protected]:~$ gksudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
"(gedit:6286): GnomeUI-WARNING **: While connecting to session manager:
Authentication Rejected, reason : None of the authentication protocols specified are supported and host-based authentication failed." It looks like a reinstall would be the thing to do. Fred


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

sounds like you have a bunch of problems, if you're not fazed by it, it would be good to do a reinstall.


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## TheMatt (May 9, 2006)

K-B said:


> lol matt, so why was he lying there?


Come on Kyle, I shouldn't need to tell you... :wink:


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

HI. This has been fun. I tried to reinstall ubuntu. Would not install do not know why. Act like a ATI video problem. Video is Nvidia. So I tried Mandriva 2006, Kubuntu, Pclinuxos .93, older ubuntu. It did install. Says it needed to be updated. On restart it did the same thing. No go. Adding updates something was not compatible. Acts like video problem. The video is a new Nvidia that took care of the ATI that would not let install earlier. I do have Simplymepis 6.0 installed & working. What is going on here? Any ideas? Do not know why Mepis installed & is working & the others would not. As you can see I have not gotten back to commands. Fred.


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## removed82807c (Jan 30, 2007)

I think it's about time to throw that damned thing in the bin and buy a new pc 

does a windows install on the machine (assuming you're more familiar with that) without any problems?


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

This pc is maybe one year old. Is a new pc. Two hard drives. Xp pro. It is working. I built the pc. Not new at pcs. Linux has been a little problem for me. I will get things to work. I learn something new evey day. Fred


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

Hi, fred -
Mepis is based on Ubuntu, so that is weird that it's working when Ubuntu or Kubuntu wouldn't.
I'd give PCLOS 2007 a shot when it comes out in the next coupla weeks.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

HI Bartender. I was thinking the same. I had ubuntu 6.06 on the pc. I would like to install pclinuxos. I have it on my home pc, it's working for me there, so I don't know why or what is going on with this work pc. Fred.


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Ok, so when you try installing PCLOS, exactly what happens? Do you get a blank screen?


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

HI Kyle. It starts up goes about 1/3 of way on the bar & stops. I would think it would go to the live cd. I can not use to live cd. Never goes that far. All of the os did the same thing. Mepis went to live cd & in to install. I'm going to wait for pclinuxos .94. Will give it a try. Something is not compatible, may find it or may never find out. Fun part of playing with pcs. Thanks Fred.


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Fred, how do you burn your Linux .iso files? What program are you using? Try burning with ImgBurn (freeware), and set it at the lowest possible burn speed. Make sure that Verify is checked. 
Also, is there any way that you could burn it using a different cd-burner? If possible, try using another CD-RW drive. (Even on another computer).
I've had almost that exact same problem several times, and it was either a bad burn, or my CD-ROM drive that I was booting from was too old and couldn't read the disks properly.


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## removed82807c (Jan 30, 2007)

I was starting to think the same thing... bad media.
First of all, when your linux iso download is done, use the md5 checkers to see if your download is actually correct.
Then you burn indeed on the lowest possible speed (could just be your cd burner you know...) and verify the written cd.
When you install the OS, usually there's an option to check the installation media (your written cds), check it again.
Only that way you can be 100% sure your installation media is correct.


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Just to help along with what yakkeh said, Nero has a tool to aid in checking MD5sums.
http://www.nero.com/enu/Nero_MD5_Verifier.html
It has instructions on that page, too. 
A couple of the times when I had bad media, I couldn't even get as far as the distro's media check function.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

Kyle & Yakkeh all of the os cds are all purchased. I have dial up way to slow to burn. I have checked & verified most of them. I have not had a bad one so far. Thanks for all of your help. It's nice to have other view points. I started out with command & ended up with an install problem. I'll keep working on this. Something will turn up. thanks Fred


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Ok Fred, is there any way you could try a different CD-ROM drive? Preferably an internal CD-RW or DVD-ROM as they tend to read better.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

I would have to get a new one. I have cd-rw on hand. This is a dvd rw. It is less than one year old. I guest it could be bad. Funny how at one time I had Ubuntu 6.06. No commands would work, Could not reinstall, However Ubuntu 5.10 did. Was working fine, Needed up dates. Up dated & restarted, would not start up. I could try 5.10 it did install. How soon is pclinuxos .94 released? I like pclinuxos, working nice at home. Fred


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Hmm, this is a tough one. So you updated 5.10 and it screwed it. Going by that, it would seem like a software problem, not hardware/media. 
So what happens when you try installing 5.10 now? Does it still work?

PCLinuxOS 2007 (.094) is supposed to be released at near/at the end of the month.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

To all of you a big Thanks. For right now I have Simplymepis 6.0. I'm going to work with it. Some of the problem with the commands the os was not installed right. I would like under stand commands & how to use them to my advantage. Will work with Mepis & learn. Will try pclinuxos .94 when it is released. The commands work the same for all linux os? I don't know why but this has been a problem for me. I will get it sooner or later. I appreciate your help & input. Thanks Fred


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## removed82807c (Jan 30, 2007)

well, most basic commands are the same, like fdisk, mv, rm, ls, cd, etc...
there are some distro specific commands though, but usually even those are compatible with other distros if you install them.
Package managers for example are different on the distros. In fedora/centos/redhat you'll find "yum" as package manager, rpm is usually also bound to these OSes but are working on distros as Mandrake among others. If you go to Debian based systems, you will work with "aptitude" or "apt". On Gentoo you'll "emerge" your packages and so on.

I advise you to read through all the documentation and howto's to learn more about your distro of choice. When you're comfortable with that, try to move on to other distros and see that there's basically not that much difference. The core is always Linux. Even on Unix and other systems, you'll feel comfortable using the same or very similar commands.

If you don't know what a command does, type in "man <command>" (e.g. man ls) and you'll see what the syntax is and what the different possibilities are. TRY THE DIFFERENT OPTIONS and get comfortable with the different capabilities of those commands.

When you're comfortable with the different commands and their options, try to make some scripts. There are plenty scripts available on your installation (just have a look in /etc/init.d/ for example where you'll find a lot of startup scripts).

Using dummies books is a good way to start, however, they might not cover the distribution that you're working with and you might not find commands and/or find them in different locations on the filesystem. Do let that disencourage you. There's also a good tool called "locate". With "updatedb" you will create a filesystem database so you can "locate ls" for example to see the path where "ls" is located. This works for all types of files (and in linux, even devices are "files"!)

First of all, start getting comfortable with moving around the filesystem, get comfortable with permissions, what they do and how to change them, opening and editing files, user and group management, devices and their drivers and when you're done with that... you can do just about anything you want with your system.

If you're done with this and you want to get a very good understanding of how linux works and how you can manipulate things... try installing Gentoo or Slackware. They have pretty good installation guides that explain you a lot of what you are doing and what happens with the system.

Good luck and Njoy!


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

Kyle is pclinuxos .94 released. Where can I get a disk? Dialup sucks so I need a disk ready to go. Thanks Fred.


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Hi Fred, unfortunately 2007 (a.k.a. .094) Final hasn't been released yet. They announced Test Release 3 on Sunday, it should be the last test release, next should be Final. Hopefully another week.
You can order disks for a small price from www.pclinuxos.com click the Order Online link. Once final is released, they should have it up for sale.


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

fred -
I feel your pain. I'm on dialup too. 
I work a rotating shift. After the bosses have gone home I plug in my 1GB USB thumb drive and borrow a little bit of their broadband. Have successfully built several Linux install CD's using this technique.
I'll be downloading PCLOS 2007 when it's out. Why don't you PM me with your street address and I'll snail mail you a PCLOS 2007 CD or two. Will double-check by using the CD(s) to install to my test PC before sending to you.
A thought keeps coming up while reading thru this thread - are you using some sort of new-fangled wireless keyboard/mouse, or USB devices? I use plain old PS/2 keyboard/mouse because I just don't trust the extra steps that are involved in getting USB or wireless input devices to work. If your input devices aren't working right you're pretty much dead in the water...


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

LOL Bartender. Neat way of getting your ISOs:grin:
btw, I don't know about Fred, but I use a USB keyboard with no problems/extra config.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

Hi Bartender. I have a PS2 keyboard & a USB mouse working fine no problem. I have no wireless devices. I would like it if you don't mind doing a disk for me. I will PM address for you. Thanks for your time doing this for me. Fred.


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

OK, done deal.
Now all we need is the PCLOS 2007 final!


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

Just checked - no 2007 final yet...


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

I read where there is a problem with dial up modem. The .93 works great, .94 is not working. I do not know if something like this could be why they have not released .94. May be longer than we would like for it to be. Fred


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Well there are a couple reasons why 2007 (aka .94) is taking so long. For one thing, they won't release it until all the bugs are ironed out. Also, the head developer had gone on a 2 week vacation, and he's returning today, supposedly. I'm hoping for a release within the next week.


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

Thanks for the updates!


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

Kyle where are you getting all your information on pclinuxos? I have been looking all over for any little bits I can find. Not a lot out there to find. Fred


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

I just spend some time scanning the forums every day, and pick up bits here and there.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

What is the MD5? Fred


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

An MD5 sum is used to verify the integrity of for example, and .iso Linux file that you've downloaded.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MD5


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

I can not find any where about a new release time for pclos. Any date? Fred


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

No, no release date. We're just waiting and hoping


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

Hi, fred -
I'll check the download md5 before burning to CD, then test the CD by using it to install PCLOS 2007 to my old test PC before sending it to you.

No worries


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Quote from Texstar (PCLOS developer):
I suspect final to be released some time in April. We are trying to clear as much as we can from final but we are a volunteer group with a small staff who do what we can when we can. Thank you for your understanding and patience while we try to clear some bugs from our final release.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

I have mepis on my computer. When I'm on some web pages it will just shut down firefox. Not all web pages do this. You can pull the page up & in a little bit it will shut down. What is not set right. Fred


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

Jeepers, fred -
I haven't any idea what that could be. Does FF stay up long enuf to download Opera? 
I was thinking if you could run Opera, see if it does the same thing or if it behaves. Try to figure out if it's a glitch in the OS, the browser, or maybe even some weird hardware phenomena.


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## K-B (Oct 24, 2005)

Hmm, have you noticed if there's any content that's related on the websites? Like, i was thinking perhaps it's when there's some Flash content, then a bug in the Flash player would cause FF to shut down.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

It has not been a problem today. I was trying to find out if one thing was causing the shut down, but you know computers!!! Fred


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

The latest Firefox update (2.0.0.3) has crashed once every time I've started it. It'll run for a few minutes, then crash, then I Restart Session, and everything appears to be OK :upset: 

This is on a Windows 2000 PC


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

Yes the same thing here. I updated to 2.0.0.3 on all of our cps. Is there a problem with it? The other day things worked good. Since then it is crash after crash. I am also having a hard drive problem. 250g. Says it's completely full, no
free space. Scandisk and defrag will not work. Any ideas? Fred


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

We're wandering off the Linux field here, but wth.
Browsed the last few pages of Mozillazine Firefox forums this morning. Firefox is having some "victim of its own success" problems - so many people using it on so many different PC's that the forum is getting a little bit overwhelmed with questions, especially after updates. However, the complaints about problems since last update were wide-ranging, not targeting what you and I mentioned.
Don't know how things are going at your place, but FF did not crash this morning nor yesterday. Crossing my fingers. I've read several times to hold off on letting FF update automatically, and wait a few weeks before doing the update. Since we're on dialup I brought 2.0.0.3 home on a thumb drive and let it overwrite the previous install. Don't know if results woulda been different if I let it update in the typical fashion.
Here's a link with some info about what to do with crashes

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_crashes

At least tells you how to report them if not fix them.

As far as your not-full HDD reporting free space inaccurately, that's a new one on me!


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## justo (Dec 29, 2006)

I have loaded PC Linux 2007 versions TR2 and TR3 on several computers plus my Toshiba Satellite M55 laptop.. It is one of the best of all Linux versions . I have Mint Bianca KDE and PC Linux tr3 on this and they work fine. Do not get the Mint updates though.


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

Anyone know what's going on over at the PCLOS website? It's been down for two days now with a weird "Account Disabled" message...


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

Important News re: PCLinuxOS Site and Forum

Forum members attempting to log in will get a message that the account is Temporarily Disabled. We are looking into this at present. It may be that the host is not able to deal with the huge increase in traffic the site is experiencing. We will, of course, keep you informed of what is happenning.


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## fredobrien (Nov 18, 2005)

Meanwhile, development on PCLinuxOS TR4 is imminent. If the main site is not back up soon, there will be an announcement here about the release and where to download it. We are hoping that TR4 can be tested in particular by those who experienced the occasional lockups when booting up. It looks like it may be a little longer before there is a final release on PCLinuxOS. I didn't know of the lockup problem. Fred


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## Bartender (Jun 10, 2005)

Hi, fred and everyone else -
Just finished installing Mepis 6.5 to my Linux test PC - Pentium III, ASUS P3V4X motherboard - and it's beautiful. I liked the installation process, and the desktop carries a nice blue background with colorful icons. It looked very sharp on an old IBM P200 monitor.

I think you'll like it.

During the install, Mepis ran some little factoids across the screen, similar to what that other OS does during installation. One of the factoids claimed that Mepis 6.5 provides drivers for "some" winmodems. An interesting point for those of us stuck in dial-up hell. I don't know how to explore that further. Posted a request at Mepis forums asking for elucidation.

Also including a DVD of the Mint Bianca KDE full version. It looks very impressive too. I didn't go far into either one of them, just looked around, then put the discs into some jewel cases for mailing.

Those two distros oughta keep you busy until PCLOS goes final :grin:


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