New Linux

dale1966

Hello Everyone.

I am new to Linux, I did play with what was called Lindows many years ago and not really dug deep into it until in the last six months which I did use Ubuntu 11.10 and now using CentOs 6.2. I in April got my associate degree in networking and now working on my bachelors degree and I have found out a lot of schools just simply do not teach Linux just mainly Windows. I am looking for a job and coming across that want people to know a lot of Linux mainly Red Hat and be certified in it. Someone told me that CentOS 6.2 is like Red Hat. The question I have can I learn from using CentOS and still be able to pass the Red Hat certifications using this OS? How similar is CentOS and Red Hat? Or should I learn a different OS to. Let me know what you think.

Dale

Goineasy9

Centos IS RedHat, or should I say, it is created by recompiling the RedHat source code. Except for proprietary images, and possibly a few tweaks that the developers feel necessary, it is in effect the same as using RedHat.

If you're using Centos to study for a RedHat certification, you'll be doing what many have done before you. Have fun.

dale1966

Hello

Thanks for the response that is all I need to know. Thanks again.

Dale Henderson

floating dutchman

Hi, I'm doing a similar thing as the OP.

My question is how do I wipe my old hard drive before I install Linux?

I am not worried about any data on the hard drive and am running Linux from a pen-drive as I type.

Laptop has factory vista on it.

Goineasy9

During the install process you will be given options for repartitioning and formatting of your hard drive. You don't need to do it before the install.

floating dutchman

Oh. How cool is that!

Thank you, your awesome!

dale1966

There are also programs that lets you boot on start up like partition magic or partition wizard. Now if you have a working operating system just Google them. I know I use Partition Wizard and found it for free this will let you partition a hard drive. Just something to think about. I like the program myself. You could also shrink the hard drive in Windows if you have windows. I am sure Linux versions have the same. Just never had to use the OS ones always used Partition Wizard myself. Good luck

Dale

floating dutchman

O.K. up and running.

I've downloaded AVG anti-virus but cant get it to appear in the "dash home" thing and run it. help?

Goineasy9

AVG is for Windows, this is Linux.

floating dutchman

So do I need anti virus? I do do Internet banking and it is a bank requirement.

Also, a bigger problem I have is that I don't seem to be able to find a Linux version of Angry Birds!

woboyle

Well, Linux is not as susceptible to virus infections as is Windoze, but it is good to scan email attachments for viruses! Most of us use ClamAV - open source, freely installable, and in the software repositories of most Linux distributions. There are Linux versions of many commercial A/V packages such as McAfee, et al because they are used to scan for Windows viruses coming through Linux network gateways before they hit the Windows machines. Also, I use a commercial scanner, F-Prot (from an Icelandic company), when I am cleaning my clients' Windows systems of viruses. In those cases, I use 3 scanners (the other is McAfee for Linux) since they each catch things the others don't, and when scanned in the most sensitive mode, they all give false positives. So, in such a case, I look for the ones that at least 2 of them agree on! :-) This process takes computer time (not much of mine - I script the process), but is very effective in that I have always been able to clean my clients' systems and not lose any of their data! :-)

Goineasy9

Rubberman covered the anti-virus question well. If you want Angry Birds, you can always load up Google Chrome (or chromium, the open source alternative) and play Angry Birds on the Chrome browser.

Actually, I just tested it on Firefox, and it works there also:
http://chrome.angrybirds.com/

Have fun.

floating dutchman

Yee Haa, we have Angry Birds!

O.K. new issue: The cooling fan on my laptop doesn't seem to work properly. I'm sure its a new issue since I installed Ubuntu, It just seem to run on slow all the time and I've had a couple of times that the computer has gone real slow then just shut down. and seemed real hot around the cooling fan. Also I installed the GKrellM System Monitor and cant get it to show the CPU temp.

Thanks for all your help so far.

woboyle

Overheating. I've had the same problem on my system. You can monitor that with the lm_sensors package installed. The command to monitor system temperature as text is simply "sensors". You can also use the system monitor tool and add a tab that will happily chart the CPU and RAM thermal sensors for you. I do that on my 8 core system, and it has helped me fix an overheating problem. In any case, the fan issue is not unknown. Off hand, I know there is a solution, but I'm not sure what it is! FWIW, I am running another RedHat Enterprise 6.2 clone - Scientific Linux. Much the same as CentOS - RHEL with the copyrighted images swapped out for (IMO) cooler images of atoms and such.

And if you are interested, the reason I haven't dug into the solution (possibly a kernel configuration change) is that I was able to fix my RAM overheating problem by moving the SIMMs into alternating slots, thus giving them better air flow and less proximity to each other. That may, or may not, be an option for you. In any case, the lm_sensors data showed me that it was the RAM that was overheating, and once a SIMM would reach its maximum rating, it would be swapped out of use. Your motherboard may not allow that, but since I am using fully-buffered ECC RAM, mine can do that so it would keep working, but I would lose 2GB of capacity. After changing the slots the SIMMs were installed in, the problem has gone away, although I still monitor the temperature. When I run CPU/RAM intensive operations (like compiling a kernel on all 8 cores), the temperature spikes, but still remains in the "green" range.

Goineasy9

Rubberman covered it again. I also use gkrellm, but you do need lm_sensors to help it find all the info. Once you install lm_sensors, you have to do sensors-detect in a terminal to write the module info to the gkrellm config file. But that's not what I came here to tell you about. (Heh)

I use Jupiter on my eeePC and on an older Dell XPS 13 laptop. Link here:
http://www.jupiterapplet.org/

The Dell was not created very well, it's Intel Dual Core and the 2 Nvidia cards create problems with heat. With Jupiter, I can set the power consumption down to a power saver mode and it keeps the laptop cooler. I don't know if it's an answer for your problem, but it worth looking in to.