Request For an FAQ (or IRC channel)

Forum: User Feedback
Topic: Request For an FAQ (or IRC channel)
started by: jerome2

Posted by jerome2 on Aug. 27 2004,03:17

After using this distro for a couple of days and having to come to this forum with problems and having to wait till I get a response form one of the users before I can move on has been inconvenient.

I was told that this forum forums search too was the best help (and it does help much) but am still having some problems.

I am extremely new to Linux and need to spend an insane amount of time getting things to work right, and I was wondering if a FAQ could be started that would have easy and well explained answers to common problems.

Q. Can DSL Play DVDs?
Q. How do you eject the cd rom from while booting from the live CD?
Q. How do you capture a screen shot?
Q. Why doesn’t DSL detect my modem.
Q. How do I install other programs that don’t come with DSL or that cant be found in .dsl packages?
Q. Why doesn’t my sound card work?

And dozens more I could think of would be an excellent resource in one document rather than having to search the forums. And I think it would save time.

I know I am a real knob at this but I hope others think its a good Idea?

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Aug. 27 2004,04:01

the question has never been "do we need an FAQ?"

the question has always been "who has time to write an extensive FAQ that will cover all of the rediculously common questions that newbs ask?"

writing a good FAQ takes time, and since DSL goes through frequent, dramatic changes, no one has been willing, or maybe, more like able to keep up with it to make a good FAQ.

i might try to draw up an FAQ over spring break, but it greatly depends on how evil my professors are about vacation homework...

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed

Posted by DonttPanic on Aug. 27 2004,04:17

Quote (jerome2 @ Aug. 26 2004,23:17)

Q. Can DSL Play DVDs?
Q. How do you eject the cd rom from while booting from the live CD?
Q. How do you capture a screen shot?
Q. Why doesn’t DSL detect my modem.
Q. How do I install other programs that don’t come with DSL or that cant be found in .dsl packages?
Q. Why doesn’t my sound card work?

I'm in no position to make any kind of FAQ, but I'll try to answer your questions. (I'm a noob, so bear with me)

A. Try a DVD for yourself. You will probably need to download a program (i believe mplayer should work). then just try sticking the dvd in the dvd drive, mount it using the mounting app, and check it out. I haven't tried it yet.
A. If you use the "dsl toram" option when the boot screen opens, you should be able to eject the disk.
A. I havent tried capturing a screenshot. It may be as simple as pressing the Print Scrn button on the keyboard, or you may need a program such as the Gimp.
A. Your modem is probably a winmodem. It's microsoft's fault.
A. You need to enable apt-get. Then you should be able to use .deb files using the dpkg command or dselect.
A. My sound card doesnt work either.

It's something about the chipset. If you have a faster computer, you may want to try downloading and burning Knoppix, which is another liveCD, which is what DSL is based off. See if that can give you any help. When you boot Knoppix, type "knoppix alsa" on the boot screen. I have been told that may help support the sound drivers, but it didnt help me.

Posted by jerome2 on Aug. 27 2004,04:37

So ff I started on an faq with simple questions and anwsers like this and ask others to contribute stuff that I dont know does that sound reasonable?

Posted by ke4nt1 on Aug. 27 2004,08:27

There is a good bit of info in the "getting started" screen that
comes up when you first open the desktop..
For now, that is a "faq" of sorts, which helps explain new features.

The challenge is that, while your particular computer has issues we will call
A, B, and C, another person with a different computer has issues
X,Y, and Z , and also issues A,B, and C, with different hardware.
Your solutions won't fix his problems, and his solutions don't help you at all.
Multiply this by how many different hardware configurations there are,
Multiply again by how often DSL releases new builds, with new packages,
and new methods of accomplishing tasks, and you can see
how a "faq" would be useful to only a few, and will quickly be
"out-of-date" ..

Short of a WinDVD distributed package,
which is the only "licensed" DVD player for linux
that I know of, there are not any "DVD players" that can be offered
for distribution by a linux distro...
The WinDVD package alone is larger than all of this 50 meg DSL distro.
Obviously, it will NEVER be included with DSL..
I am not aware of ANY distro offering DVD support in their package.
The libs for DVD playback can be found thruout the web, and can be
added to either MPlayer, Xine, or any number of other players, which will
allow them to decode DeCSS from comercial DVD's

XPaint will easily make screenshots.. So will gimp..
Search the forums for these packages to learn how to use them..

Once you've installed the dsl-dpkg.dsl file, you will have the
"apt-get" utilities.. All of the debian repository, except for the
XF86 files and a few others, can easily be installed to your computer..

As far as your modem and sound card, this will be specific to your
computer.. What kind of Modem and Sound card do you have.?
Is there any info in the forums on those 2 hardware names ?

And obviously, if your booting and running from the CD,
you can't take it out.. If your have 128+ ram, you can use the
toram option when you boot, which will load all of the CD image
to your ramspace.. Then the CD can be removed and the CD Drive used
for playback of Audio CD's , etc...

The 0.8 is now available...
More hardware support is offered with this new kernel..
Perhaps it will help you with your particular computer configuration.

Hope this helps,
73
ke4nt

Posted by jerome2 on Aug. 27 2004,09:08

Quote

The 0.8 is now available...

Have mercy upon us poor 56k users. It takes a whole night to download.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Aug. 28 2004,06:39

okay, I am biting the bullet so to speak.

I am working on a FAQ that will answer as many of the common questions that we get asked as possible, as well as listing EVERY application and what it does.

i will even put my lame HTML coding skills to work and make it indexed. you know, where you click a question at the top of the page and it takes you down to where that question is answered. (I'll use the old FAQ page for reference)

It will take a while, but i will get it done. probably a week if i don't get swamped with homework. but i'd bet on something like 2 or 3 weeks. college sucks like that sometimes. -_-

when i get closer to being done, i'll probably post the beta-FAQ here and ask for suggestions.

eventially, i'll also need to send it to John (if he wants to put it on the site).

anyways. I'll post updates every now and then as to the completion of the super-faq.

as for right now.

FAQ COMPLETION IS AT5%

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed

Posted by jerome2 on Aug. 28 2004,07:35

Since I am new to this, I will be of aid to you because I have a heck of alot of questions.

So a team effort?

Oh BTW the forums are nice but an IRC channel would be MUCH more convienent and can I can get anwsers to questions in a few seconds where It would take mins-hrs-days to get an anwser.

If I dont find a the channel for this forum I will see If I can make one.

Posted by John on Aug. 28 2004,08:31

There is a very quiet irc channel:
irc.freenode.org #DamnSmallLinux
nIRC off of the menu will plug you right in.

Posted by jerome2 on Aug. 28 2004,08:51

well if it matters to anyone I will be in there regularly, (while I have time and while I stick with this distro)

Posted by Alisdair Kelly on Aug. 28 2004,12:34

Quote (SaidinUnleashed @ Aug. 28 2004,02:39)

okay, I am biting the bullet so to speak.

I am working on a FAQ that will answer as many of the common questions that we get asked as possible, as well as listing EVERY application and what it does.

Morning J.P.
Your idea and volunteerism will be appreciated. Feel free to use anything that I have contributed in posts about xsceensaver and gcombust.

I think that in many cases the differences between individual hardware may play a role in how DSL functions. Examples would be the soundcard or modem issues.

On the three computers that I have tried DSL on over the last 7-8 months I've run into only very few problems that were truly hardware related. My problems have been mostly software and, lets call it 'wetware' related. "Wetware" being ye aulde analog brain

Anyhow, I'm willing to help out with the FAQ bassed on my own experiences. You can leave me notes or we should start a different thread.

Posted by jerome5 on Aug. 29 2004,12:06

I lost XP again, and had to register under a new name because I didnt have the old passowrd saved. I must make it a point to get cfdisk included in the faq. That is to say stay the hell away from it.

Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 29 2004,14:04

Quote (SaidinUnleashed @ Aug. 28 2004,02:39)

i will even put my lame HTML coding skills to work and make it indexed. you know, where you click a question at the top of the page and it takes you down to where that question is answered. (I'll use the old FAQ page for reference)

It will take a while, but i will get it done. probably a week if i don't get swamped with homework. but i'd bet on something like 2 or 3 weeks. college sucks like that sometimes. -_-

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed

If you want any assistance, I'm free quite frequently (i don't work when it's too hot or raining). My html skills are also limited, but I did do it professionally for a while

Posted by DonttPanic on Aug. 29 2004,14:17

Quote (SaidinUnleashed @ Aug. 28 2004,02:39)

The html is pretty simple for making the indexing.

Quote

Code for link

<a href=#link1>Link1</a>

Quote

Code for reference point

<a name=link1>Link1</a>

Those should be all you need to index the FAQ

If you need any more help, the < HTML Code Tutorial > should help.

Posted by SaidinUnleashed on Aug. 29 2004,14:29

Thanks guys, I'll probably put you to work, milkshaw, when i actually get the text down.

And I know the HTML for the indexing is simple, but this will probably be a little more complicated that the present FAQ. Unless I just decide to be even more lazy than normal ^_^.

anyways, didn't get to work on it yesterday, had to repair my truck. stupid 22 year old piece of crap...

-J.P.
SaidinUnleashed

Posted by jerome5 on Aug. 30 2004,03:36

Seems we need to get organised now to avoid wasted parallel effort.