[tht00]

Yeah, I forgot about the video drivers -- if you've got either an Nvidia or ATI card, you'll get a decent performance boost (video-wise, of course) from installing the correct drivers. I can point you in the right direction for either of those if needed.

For the resolution problem, open up a terminal and put in:
sudo gedit /etc/X11/xorg.conf
Sudo (Superuser do) will give you root privileges, gedit is the program we'll be using, and the last part is the file we're editing.

Scroll down to the section labeled:
Section "Screen"

You should find subsections as such:

SubSection     "Display"
      Depth       24
      Modes      "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection

Go ahead and add the resolution you want in there. It looks like the monitor you have can support up to 1280 x 1024, so to add it to the above entry, it would look like this:

SubSection     "Display"
      Depth       24
      Modes      "1280x1024" "1280x800" "1024x768" "800x600" "640x480"
EndSubSection

So long as you follow that format, you should be able add as many (valid) resolutions as you want in there. You'll see multiple "Display" entries, all having different depth (color depth), so I'd recommend changing them all.

Save the file once you've made the modifications, and then X needs restarted before the changes take effect. You can reboot, or Ctrl+alt+backspace _should_ also do it (not positive).

If you didn't follow making the modifications to the file, I can do it for you as well -- you'll need to either post the contents of your xorg.conf file or attach it (zip it or something).

Also, the process should work, and you should be able to select the resolution(s) you added to the file. If it doesn't work, I'll look into other solutions.

[thyfunkispure]

It worked!! Your awesome. Period.

[thyfunkispure]

Ok so the cpu just shut-down and when I started it back up the resolution was back to 800 x 600. Are the above instructions only temporary or was it the mysterious shut-down that caused this? As far as the shut-down goes the only thing I was doing was playing Battle for Wesnoth. I hope it wasn't the game because that game is super fun.

[Stain of Peace]

Ok I have a question. Im thinking about getting fedora to use as my OS. I have XP now and I have virus problems, I want to get fedora because its more secure. My question is, with fedora can I only use open source apps? Because I want to keep using iTunes, AIM, and Photoshop.

[FreakShiny]

Originally Posted by Stain of Peace

Ok I have a question. Im thinking about getting fedora to use as my OS. I have XP now and I have virus problems, I want to get fedora because its more secure. My question is, with fedora can I only use open source apps? Because I want to keep using iTunes, AIM, and Photoshop.

Yeah, sorry to say but you aren't going to be able to use iTunes or Photoshop in Linux. Fedora may not be the way to go if you are new to Linux, either. Check out Ubuntu or even Kubuntu. I have nothing against Fedora, in fact I really like it but the Ubuntu versions of Linux are very smooth and very user-friendly (as far as *nix goes...). Plus, it is incredibly easy to set up as dual-boot with Windows--it will resize partitions for you without destroying your Windows install.

Linux does, however, have GIMP which, coming from someone who used Photoshop heavily for four years straight, I have yet to find something in Photoshop that I cannot do in GIMP. Plus, there's a port of GIMP called GIMPShop which someone made to look nearly identical to Photoshop.

As far as iTunes, you may be stuck there. If you dual boot Ubuntu and Windows then that may end up being the one app that keeps you going back to Micro$oft's products (I know it is with me). Linux has lots of software to interface with an iPod but that's only good for your own files, not iTunes.

Anyhow, good luck! Perhaps you will become the next CGR Linux convert.

[ApparentlyNothing]

GIMPshop being "nearly identical"? That may be a bit of a stretch. The layout of the menu items is nearly identical. The rest is hardly identical to Photoshop. My number one annoyance with GIMP, the palates take up so much screen space, especially the tools one on the left screen. Adobe knows how important screen real estate is, which you'll see once you try out Photoshop CS3. The tool bar on the left is one column. If GIMP can accommodate that, I think I'd like it more.

If you already own Photoshop, certainly no reason to throw out all that money just to use Linux. Dual booting would probably be the ideal situation for you.

[tht00]

Originally Posted by thyfunkispure

Ok so the cpu just shut-down and when I started it back up the resolution was back to 800 x 600. Are the above instructions only temporary or was it the mysterious shut-down that caused this? As far as the shut-down goes the only thing I was doing was playing Battle for Wesnoth. I hope it wasn't the game because that game is super fun.

That should have been a permanent fix. Can you be more specific as to what is going on? Can you not change the resolution back to where it was? If so, does xorg.conf still have the modifications you made?

Originally Posted by Stain of Peace

Ok I have a question. Im thinking about getting fedora to use as my OS. I have XP now and I have virus problems, I want to get fedora because its more secure. My question is, with fedora can I only use open source apps? Because I want to keep using iTunes, AIM, and Photoshop.

Ok. Make sure you understand what you're doing here, or else you can end up pretty frustrated.

Linux (in it's various flavors) is not Windows. It is not meant as a replacement for Windows. It is an alternative to Windows. The difference is subtle, but important, and you need to be aware of this before jumping in headfirst.

That said, there is a lot of software run-able on a Linux systems -- most of it is open source, and most of it you likely haven't heard anything of. With web browsers, for instance, you've likely heard of (or use) Firefox or Opera. Firefox is an excellent example of an open source application. Opera is another popular, closed source, browser. Both are cross platform and available on Linux. Some Linux-only alternatives include Epiphany, Galeon, Konquerer, etc.

Most software I run is open-source and some is Linux-only. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with what alternative software is out there.

For the ones you mentioned:
iTunes - For music players/organizers, there are a number of good ones. I use Rhythmbox -- it has an iTunes/Winamp-like interface. Some interface to iPods decently (can't vouch for that feature). No music store ability (not sure that iTunes DRM is supported in Linux either).

AIM - I think AIM was ported to Linux a while back. Just stay away from it. Gaim is an excellent IM client that supports tabbed browsing and AIM, Yahoo, etc. protocols. One program, multiple IM accounts. Doesn't work perfect for all transfers; sometimes that acts funky. Excellent basic IM client and has a Windows port.

Photoshop - Gimp was mentioned and it is excellent for basic image editing. I'd suggest trying it (it has a Windows port as well). If it works for you, great. If not, then there some options -- Wine, virtual machine, dual boot, etc. You don't need to concern yourself with them now.

Now that all that is covered, I'd also like to suggest Ubuntu Linux. I'm sure that Fedora is an excellent distro, but for easing into Linux, Ubuntu would be hard to beat. It is very polished and 'just works' many times. That said, Ubuntu (or any distro) may not work for you, so there are tons of other flavors to try in that case.

Be ready to learn and keep an open mind. It is quite different than Windows, but I find it to be different in a good way.

Also, I'd suggest keeping Windows around to fall back on. I didn't transition very well to start with, and I would go back to Windows when I got frustrated. It was my safety net. Setting up a dual boot isn't too difficult, but if you are going to reinstall Windows, do it before you install any form of Linux. It is possible to (re)install Windows afterwards, but with complications of getting Linux going again.

So, I've covered a decent bit of info -- feel free to keep asking questions as they come or if you want more info/reexplained/etc.

[thyfunkispure]

Originally Posted by tht00

That should have been a permanent fix. Can you be more specific as to what is going on? Can you not change the resolution back to where it was? If so, does xorg.conf still have the modifications you made?

Today it just kinda magically went back to the right resolution so problem solved.

[Stain of Peace]

Alright thanks for the help. I take a PC class at a school, and we had a guy from Red Hat talk to us about linux, and I got to look at fedora there. That is why I was thinking of switching, im still thinking about it, if I do I will do a dual boot, because I don't want to loss XP yet. And I already use firefox and like it way better than IE, so no problem there.

Question about Gaim: With Gaim I can still use my AIM name and use it just like AIM?

[corporate]

Originally Posted by Stain of Peace

Question about Gaim: With Gaim I can still use my AIM name and use it just like AIM?

Yes.

[ThousandFootScore]

Originally Posted by tht00

If you want a software based firewall, there is firestarter.

I know it's been a while, but I need to suggest using smoothwall. Basically, grab an old machine, slap a couple NICs in it, install smoothwall and you have a firewall, a proxy, and router all in one, with a web interface. It's great :-)

[guitarguy90]

Whenever I try to install software packages, it gives me this error message: Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: libc6. Any ways to fix this?

[tht00]

Originally Posted by guitarguy90

Whenever I try to install software packages, it gives me this error message: Error: Dependency is not satisfiable: libc6. Any ways to fix this?

Yeah. Could be a couple things.

What distro/version are you running?

I'm assuming Ubuntu/Debian (Package managers change among distros). Anyway, it sounds like it can't grab the libc6 package for whatever reason. The first thing I'd try is to re-sync to the repositories. If the packages have been updated, it will be looking for a file that isn't there, so an update will point to the correct (new) version. In Synaptic, the reload button in the upper left does this, or in a terminal: ' sudo apt-get update '.

This should take care of your problem, but I have run into a circumstance where I updated the list and still couldn't retrieve a package -- a bug in the repository, but keep in mind that I was running a late Alpha build of the OS, so it's no surprise that there would be glitches. Something like this after the stable release would be pretty rare, as packages aren't updated nearly as often (security, mostly) rather than being rebuilt and updated on a daily/weekly basis. Anyway, you can manually download .deb packages here if you need to: http://packages.ubuntu.com/

Speaking of updates... I almost have 500 waiting on me that I've been putting off (got to love Alpha/Beta software).

[guitarguy90]

Yes, I'm running Ubuntu. I just intalled it, so I know basically nothing about Linux. I don't really know what you mean by re-syncing the repositories. I'm using gdebi to open the package.

[tht00]

Ok. So, you've downloaded a package and you're trying to install it?

The recommended way of installing things is through apt-get (terminal)/Synaptic (interface). You can find Synaptic under 'System' -> 'Administration' -> 'Synaptic Package Manager'.

When you open that up, there is a refresh button in the upper left. This access straight to the Ubuntu repositories, where there is a (virtual ) ton of mostly up-to-date software -- over 20,000 packages.

The dpkg utility also hooks into apt-get/Synaptic and packages can be manually installed through it, and if there are missing dependencies (other packages required for installation), it will check to see if they are downloadable and installable in one of the repositories.

It sounds like the libc package isn't available to download for some reason. Make sure the machine has internet access and refresh the repository list, as I described above. You might see if the application you are looking for is in Synaptic as well. Try to install the package again, either through Synaptic of with the dpkg manager again.

I hope you can follow that better.