Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post here if you are a new Porteus member and you're looking for some help.
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francois
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Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#1 by francois » 19 Jul 2011, 00:13

This FAQ thread is for newcomers, or for those who forget some interesting tricks that come out handy when forgotten. In this first post I will update FAQ for newcomers. The original idea for this thread came from the following thread:
http://www.slax.org/forum.php?action=vi ... hlight=FAQ

Your suggestions are really welcome, especially newcomers.

1) Is there a FAQ on the porteus site? (Francois)

Yes. There is an access at the upper right of the page of this forum. The intent is not to replace it, but to complete it. Maybe some interesting FAQ within this thread will make their road to the official FAQ. Who knows?

2) What is a command line interface. (CLI)? (Mocabilly)

It's a program that will allow you to control your computer/server by typing commands
instead of clicking on windows and icons.

There are two sorts of CLI:
CLI in "text-modus" (any without graphics, only text)
CLI in "graphical modus"

2) How do I get into command mode, also called CLI (Command Line Interface)
or in Konsole (Graphical Command Line Interface)?
(Cichlasoma)

In the KDE environment you are in graphic mode.
At bottom left of your display in the KDE taskbar, there is a small black box.
By double-clicking it you start Konsele, a graphical command line program.

If you want to use a CLI in "text-modus" hold "ctrl + alt" down and press F2
Any F-key from F1 till F6 will do.
You can switch back to your graphic mode (KDE) by holding down "ctrl + alt" and pressing "F7"

It's very easy to get a lot of useful system information by using a few simple commands.
For example, try the "lspci" command, which will list detailed information about your
hardware components, the "poweroff" command will immediately shut your computer down.


4) How do I mount the iso image so to get an access to its files? (Brokenmand and Francois)

a. to mount the iso file, example for iso file in /root/Downloads/:
bash-4.1# mloop /root/Downloads/Porteus-v1.0-i486.iso
Your image has been mounted at:
/mnt/loop
You can unmount it by typing uloop

to unmount
bash-4.1# uloop

b. iso image can be mounted with the following commands in cli mode:
bash-4.1# mkdir /mnt/iso
bash-4.1# mount -o loop -t iso9660 /root/Downloads/Porteus-v1.0-i486.iso /mnt/iso

5) What would be an efficient way to ask questions on Porteus or Linux forum (CaptainPicard's suggestion)?

Strictly speaking you should have a look at the following thread on How To Ask Questions "the smart way or the hacker way":
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

However, on the Porteus forum there are a lot of nice people, so try but don't be so nervous about the hacker's way.

6) What is a partition? (Francois)

A partition is a segment of a hard disk.


7) What is a file system?( Mocabilly)

The way files are stored in partitions on your hard disk, is arranged by
the file system you use.
If you want, you can choose a different file system for every partition on your hard disk.
Examples of file systems are FAT, NTFS, EXT3 XFS, reiserFS

Most common used filesystems at this time are NTFS for Windows operating systems and
EXT3 for Linux operating systems.

An important note, your operating system will only be able to read from a file system
if it supports that file system.
For instance, Windows operating systems, can not read files from file systems like EXT3.
(Not unless you install a EXT3 driver.)


8. What is a module? (Francois)

A module is a compressed program, like for instance Firefox.
Extra device drivers are also packed in modules.
Modules for Porteus have the ".xzm" filename extention.

There are many modules available for Porteus. But you can also look at the compatible Slax modules. All you have to do is to convert these lzm module into xzm modules. You can find them in the modules pages:
http://www.slax.org/modules.php

If you want to know more about modules, take a look at:
http://www.slax.org/documentation_create_modules.php

9) How can I start automatically some commands at bootup?

Scripts are executable files that contain command lines. They have to end in .sh. These could be started automatically at bootup if you put them in the autostart folder.

Example 1, (Setting keyboard language): setkeymap is a command to set the keyboard language. For multilingual canadian or french canadian keyboard the script called ca-keyboard.sh is simply:

Code: Select all

setxkbmap ca
Example 2 (Dual display): for my MSI 340dx and its accompanying its standalone BENQ G2220HD I have a script called dual-display:

Code: Select all

xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1366x768 --output VGA1 --mode 1920x1080 --right-of LVDS1
Working with porteus 32 bit edition these files is automatically started at bootup by placing it in /root/.kde3/Autostart


10) For any other concerns, what is you best advice?

Look at the team's documentation leaded by Ahau:
http://porteus.org/forum/faq.php

And take some counselling from Captain Picard:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=59


Edited as of 2010708, 2230h, Montréal.
Last edited by francois on 09 Jul 2012, 02:23, edited 10 times in total.
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Re: Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#2 by brokenman » 20 Jul 2011, 03:22

iso image can be mounted with the following commands in cli mode:
mloop /path/to/isofile.iso
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Re: Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#3 by francois » 21 Jul 2011, 10:52

That is good to know. I imagine that it will be then found in media?
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Re: Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#4 by brokenman » 21 Jul 2011, 13:23

Sorry, should have mentioned that. After 'mloop file' the loopback can be found at /mnt/loop

It can be unmounted by typing: uloop

If mounting to another location is required, you will need to manually loop. I was going to rewrite mloop to allow custom locations, but so far nobody has complained. I guess most people that know a little about mounting on loops know how to mount one elsewhere.
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Re: Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#5 by francois » 21 Jul 2011, 14:36

I imagine that the mounted iso will resist a shutdown of porteus in a hdd install with save changes folder.
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Re: Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#6 by fanthom » 21 Jul 2011, 17:20

@francois
"I imagine that the mounted iso will resist a shutdown of porteus in a hdd install with save changes folder."
rc.6 umounts all media/network folders (sshfs) with 'umount -a' command executed during shutdown.
no need to worry :wink:
Please add [Solved] to your thread title if the solution was found.

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Re: Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#7 by francois » 22 Jul 2011, 14:44

@brokenman:
your suggestion has been included in the alternate faq.

@fanthom:
I am very calm about this issue. But thoughtfully, maybe instead of asking I should have tried it. I am not always using the hacker's way (see alternate faq 4).
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Re: Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#8 by francois » 28 Jul 2011, 22:55

Ahau's revamp of Captain Picard is great for newcomers:
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php?f=39&t=59
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Re: Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#9 by francois » 04 Aug 2011, 01:08

FAQ updated now, and added other material 8) .
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Re: Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#10 by francois » 09 Jul 2012, 02:17

Going Alzheimer once and a while. I just add an entry on script and the way to get them automatically at bootup.
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Re: Alternate FAQ for newcomers

Post#11 by brokenman » 09 Jul 2012, 04:40

Thanks Francois.

A section was added under the 'boot' screen in the latest "Porteus Settings Centre" that allows the user to either type in a startup command that they want to run, or to select a script that they want to run. This makes things much easier. One over site is that each time you open PSC and enter in a new command to run at startup it will overwrite the other one.

One command per line cn be used for multiple commands.
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