A Few questions about linux

I have a couple questions. I'd really appreciate it if you could answer as many as you can.

1) TAR files, Tar.bz files... What are they? Come kind of compression? How can I use them via command lind? Why should I use them?
2) What is a book or tutorial or reference I can find for manually editting configuration files. Many distrobutions do not have a "Control Panel", so I would like to know how to mess around with that kind of stuff without a utility. And also, which files should I learn how to mess around with (I know that they're found in the etc folder... why is it called etc?)
3) How do I install drivers (modules) into the kernel, after I have installed my system?
4) How do I recompile the kernel and replace my old one
5) What is a makefile, and how do I use/create them?
6) Where are things installed to when I use a RPM or something? They're is bin, usr/bin, and a couple other bins. If I extract a zipped application, where should I install it to (ie mozilla firebird).
7) What is a book that will teach me things like what I've mentioned? I've seen two kinds of books really. 1) Teaches you how to use office applications, ect. Like.. Push file..new..wordfile to start a new wordfile 2) Network administration and very advanced linux topics.
How can I find a route between those two? I'm not intrested in network administration or hosting a web server or anything, I just want to learn how linux works and how I can get it to work for me

Thanks for reading!! I'd really appreciate any answers!

Also: What is a very active Linux specific forum? Most of the linux forums I've seen are dead/

1) similar to zip/rar/ace files for windows... just gives you ability to compress files.
2) STFW, and a lot of distros actually do have a control panel or something similar.

I don't really know solid answers to the other questions, and some are more than should be explained in a reply like this. You could try asking some of these questions on the Linux board or on a more Linux-minded board (ie. www.unix.com)

1) Compressed file, like .zip, .rar, etc in Windows. Tar shoves everything into one huge file, bzip2 and gzip compresses them. In bash I usually just type

Code:

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$ bzip2 -d file.tar.bz2 && tar -xf file.tar

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to take care of that. If it's a gzip file then just replace bzip2 with gzip above, both use -d to decompress.

I know KDE has a decompression utility if you want to do that from a nice safe GUI.

for more info check the man pages for tar, bzip2, and gzip.

2) Wish I had an answer for you, but I've learned all that stuff from experience and asking around. I.E. "How do I get Linux to see a new drive when I install it?" "Modify /etc/fstab"

3) Most distros have a utility that will take care of all that for you. SuSE has YAST2, etc. Tell us your distro and somebody who is used it will prolly help you out.

4) Forgive me for this, but I refuse to straight out answer that question. If you're asking basic questions like "what is a .tar.gz file?" then you are _not_ ready to muck with your kernel IMO. Not only could you totally muck up your OS, I've heard warnings about people physically breaking up their system with a f'ed up config/compile. If you absolutely must then upgrade your distro. (I've heard RedHat is putting the 2.6.0 kernel in their next release, FYI)

5) Don't feel I'm experienced enough to reliably answer this, skipping.

(6) Linux System Heirarchy from the Linux Documentation project. Probabally not the easy answer you wanted, but it is the answer. In GNU/Linux everything has its own place. That document explains it all. Also explains your "why etc?" question.

(7) Considering what you've been asking, I'd suggest Sams Teach Yourself Shell Programming in 24 Hours. I've found the beginning 1/3 of the book to be a very powerful tutorial on how to get around in shell.

Failing that, The Linux Documentation Project is your best friend. I would have probabally gone on a psychopathic rampage by now if it wern't for that site.

Congratulations on switching to the Tux side, btw! Your hand is no longer being held by the OS, you are now standing on your own two feet. Independance is scary at first but you'll soon find out how cool it really is as you begin to unlearn all those years wasted on Windows and open your mind to new ways to doing things. :)

Hey! Thanks for all the answers :D :D It helped me out a lot! You're my hero :D

Quote:

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Originally posted by JLPence

Tell us your distro and somebody who is used it will prolly help you out.

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Debian... I have three hardware devices that don't work.
*2 button wheel mouse (it all works except for the wheel)
*SB Live! Sound card (I don't know how to install ALSA or emu10k1 or w/e it is)
*ATI Radeon 9600 Pro 3D Graphics Acceleration

Think you can help me out with any of those three?

sb is emu10k1 (after that you can choose emu10k1 or audigy, choose the first)
Search debian boards for how to install it, if debian handles RPM's then you can go to google or freshmeat.org and search for it, it's a common driver and easy to use. For the graphics card, check ATI's site, they just started putting out drivers for linux.

How do i install the drivers

Quote:

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Originally posted by punkrockguy318
How do i install the drivers

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go back to windows

The FGLRX Driver does not work for 3d, and I can't get emu to work on debian

alright im goin to try and put this in a nice way

with the questions you asked above, you should not be using debian...try a more n00b friendly distro like red hat or mandrake (i recommend mandrake). I've had no problems getting emu driver to work i mandrake.