A few questions from a complete and utter Linux Noob.

[NRM]

I would like to thank anyone in advance for helping me with a few hopefully basic questions. I've read a lot of guides and a lot of docs but it's been hard finding exactly what I'm looking for since there are so many guides and docs out there, so I was hoping someone here could clear up a few questions for me. I just isntalled RedHat a few days ago in hopes of checking out a new OS. Many of the guides and walkthroughs describe what to do in a very basic manner, but I'm not up to that basic level and it still confuses me. Any help is very much appreciated.

Just a few questions.

What exactly is a kernel and how do I update/upgrade/install one?

I recently found out that XMMS in RedHat 9.0 cannot play MP3's, so I turned and installed MPG123 or at least thing I installed it. How are you supposed to install programs and how do you run them?

I've mounted my FAT32 partition and that came out fine, but when I turn to mount my NTFS partition, the filesystem was unsupported. I believe that I have to update my kernel for this to work... but I'm not quite sure what that means.

I think that's all the questions I have for now, if I run into anymore problems with RedHat, I'll try to add them and ask for help.

Thanks in advance.

[chrisP]

Alright first of all you are asking some very common questions so try searching this forum and you will probably find a lot of info.. FYI

But i understand its hard in the beginning so here goes...

1. The kernel is technically defined as the one program that is running all the time on a computer.. The kernel contains a lot of the low level system code whereas everything else is a supporting application.. For instance hardware support, filesystem support, memory and cpu code, etc.. Things that are necessities if you will, although "necessity" is a relative term..

1b.. There are a few ways to update or install a new kernel. Maybe a good place to start is in the library at this site http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Compiling_Kernels
and
http://www.tldp.org/

2. Xmms can play mp3s if you install the following rpm: xmms-mp3-1.2.7-13.p.i386.rpm.. If you goto redhat's site you should be able to search for this rpm.. Scroll to the bottom of this web page.. http://www.redhat.com/apps/download/

2b.. Installing programs in Linux is usually done in 1 of 2 ways, 1) installing a rpm file, or 2) installing a tar ball (.tar.gz) file. An rpm file is installed using the rpm command like so,
rpm --install filename.rpm

A filename.tar.gz or filename.tgz file is like a winzip file.. The tar command groups directories and files into one file and the gzip command compresses this file, thus a tar.gz file.. A good explanation of how they are installed is also at this site at,
http://www.justlinux.com/nhf/Compili..._Software.html

3. Yes, you are right.. by default a Red Hat linux kernel does not include support for the NTFS filesystem.. You will have to recompile you kernel or update it using the rpm command.. This is discussed in the link mentioned above at compiling kernels.. It is intimidating in the beginning but its really pretty easy..

Hope this is enough to get you on your feet!!

[NRM]

This cleared up a lot for me. Thank you very much.