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Hello everyone, I'm new to Linux. I'm new to command line based anything. What I'm trying to do is set up a box with Fedora and a wireless network. If this were a Windows enviroment I would be set, but I know nothing about Linux. I bought a Fedora book, and while it has lots of information it doesn't help me with being a first time user. I've been searching for days for a helpful forum, and I'm hoping this will be my last stop. My biggest concerns right now are that I installed FC1 and ran up2date, but I'm not sure if that actually updated me to FC3. I don't mind staying on FC1 if I can run the wireless network on it. I don't have any hardware right now, and I'm trying to stay under $100 for the NIC and router. I prefer Linksys, but will use anything that's good quality. I understand that these are newb questions, so I appreciate any tips for Linux virgins you might be able to provide. Thank you in advance.

Thanks for the advice eric! While it's easy to assume that people who ask common questions didn't search before they asked, I'm not one of those people. But this has been the general assumption in every forum, and if it weren't for Dan, I would have quit. Not having been in this community long at all I haven't had the chance to see people looking for info handouts, I don't doubt that it is a common thing. So you all have my word that I will have read through several hours worth of posts and documentation before I post a question. I think the problem with my questions are that they are SO basic that no one ever answers them. And before I ask my next question I would like to say something: For all of the hell that Windows gets, I could teach an eighty-year-old blind and deaf amputee with advanced parkinsons to use that OS effectively. I used to work a tech support job for Bellsouth's DSL and talked people through fairly advanced procedures (for windows) over the phone. But Linux is not intuitive at all. While I'm not in MENSA, I'm also not an idiot and Linux is so tough that it stresses me out even when I'm at work. Once most of the command line work is taken out of Linux I think it will be better, but devs still seem to assume that people are going to want to always have a terminal up. Why in the hell would I always want to have that up? just another window clogging my view. Anyway, my biggest current problem is with trying to get samba to work. I've read a good chunk of the howto, searched google for answers, searched three forums, and searched the samba.org site (just so no one makes passive-aggressive accusations of me being an information freeloader). This search progress has taken me around five hours. I've come away with a vague idea of what samba would be like were it to decide to work. My issue is that I can't use the URL to open up SWAT because it gives me an error and my smb.conf file has confused me. I've tried to use the # testparm etc/samba/smb.conf and it gives me an error of "No such file or directory." Well I know damn well that this file exists because I can see it right now. Besides SWAT is there a UI to go with samba? If i type # samba i get an error saying "command not found". Basically (again) I have no real basic understanding of what I should even be seeing on my screen. I've looked in the package manager and the samba files are installed by default. I'm lost. My other issue is that any program that tries to access a browser pops up with an error saying that a specific location was not found. Well, I get this same error when I try to click on the desktop internet icon. I looked at the properties and found the file that this shortcut pointed to. Well the file is the redhat-web.desktop file located in my usr/share/desktop-menu-patches directory. I'm not able to open this file to edit it so I don't know how I can tell these programs to stop looking for firefox in the wrong folder.

Again, thank you Dan. Yes, there is a very good chance that I'm confused about everything right now. I keep on wanting to run back to windows, but I feel that if I keep with this I will end up liking better than windows in the end. I'm using the torrent from linux.duke.edu right now to get FC3. I'll do my "magic" tomorrow after work and let you know how things work out. It's not that I'm partial to up2date, it's just that I don't know how to do anything else. This is literally my second day with linux so many things that may seem obvious to most leave me feeling like a child at a quantum theory lecture. But with the help of patient people such as yourself I hope to make it through this. Thanks again.

Quote: I don't think you can do an upgrade with up2date to FC3 but am not sure. I know you can do it with apt-get which would be a simple matter of changing the apt repositories up to the ones for FC3. I wouldn't do it though. I know it seems like the best thing to do to get up to speed with the latest release, but that isn't always the best thing. Any newer release is going to have more issues and bugs that need to be worked out. I think it is always wiser to stay one version behind. FC2 is plenty new enough and will run the hardware I suggested. Then when FC4 comes out, that would be a good time to update to FC3. So what you're saying (and several other people too) is that to stay up to date I'll need to completly reformat and reinstall each time another core is released? I must be missing something, because that just doesn't seem to make sense to me. I don't mind doing all of that right now while I'm getting started, but I don't want to keep doing that every six months! If I wanted to reaload an OS+personal files a few times a year I'd stick with windows. I don't mean to come off as ungrateful, but I really don't think I'm getting it.

Thanks for the help Dan. I will order these soon. In the meantime, if wanted to upgrade to FC3 would simply running up2date update me all the way to FC3, or do I have to go DL & burn the .iso files and reformat everything? And a third question: If I do upgrade to FC3, will the router/card you reccomended still work? I'm glad to have found a nice forum to post on. Some forums have been outright rude to me for being such a newb. Thanks Again!