Hey all. I just switched over from Ubuntu and would like to know if anyone could direct me to a tutorial that explains basic terminal commands and whatnot.
Thanks.
Here’s a good tutorial for Linux in general, doesn’t matter what distro.
Believe it or not, good 'ol Wikipedia has a lot of info on common Unix commands.
List of Unix utilities - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I’m assuming that you’re using KDE? If so, you can start a Konsole with System -> Terminal -> Konsole in the K menu. That’s a great place to start and you can try the commands at the wikipedia link to see what they do. On any of these commands, you can also enter “man [command_name]” in that terminal to get a manual page. Enter “q” to quit the manual page when you’re done reading.
You can also open the KDE Help Center from the K-Menu and look under “Administration,” then select “man pages.” You can keep that window open while your Konsole is opened and switch between them.
The commands you might be most interested in, as a new user of the command line interface (CLI), are:
ls - “list files” – displays the files in a directory
cd - “change directory” – allows you to move between directories
For example, when you first start a Konsole or terminal, you’ll be in your home directory. An “ls” on a typical Opensuse system will show something like
Desktop Documents [perhaps other directories ...]
You could then switch into “Documents” with
cd Documents
Do another “ls,” and you’ll see any files that are in that directory. To get back out of Documents to your home directory, enter “cd …” (a space, then two periods after the “cd”).
That’ll get you started. I’m sure others here will suggest other guides. Welcome to Opensuse!
Thanks for the help. Specifically, I am trying to install macchanger. I have downloaded the rpm but it won’t install because of some missing dependencies. How do I download said dependencies?
Actually, ignore the above post. If I dont figure it out on my own, I’ll never learn. Thanks!
Out of respect for your desire to be self sufficient, I won’t answer. But, I will hint. :X
*yast
webpin*
But, that’s it! Now, you’re on your own.
Generally, installing a RPM intended for another distro will not work and give rise to broken dependencies. If you want a particular package, do in this order:
-
See if it’s already in the standard repos. This may sound obvious, but I see people trying to install MySQL, Java, Apache, PHP, etc from the vendor site, when they are already supplied by OpenSUSE. Only if you can’t find it there, or there is a reason you can’t use the out-of-the-box version should you go on to the next steps.
-
See if it’s in one of the major community repos like Packman.
-
See if someone has packaged it at Software.openSUSE.org.
-
See if the vendor has a generic version, usually a .tar.gz or a .bin.
-
If there’s an older version, and you are comfortable with rpmbuild and can modify the spec file to use the up-to-date source, you could build a new RPM. You could then be a contributor to software.opensuse.org via the OpenSUSE Build System (OBS), help other OpenSUSE users, be world-famous and enjoy the adulation of millions of fans. Ok, maybe not the last two benefits. lol!
-
Even if there isn’t an older version, you could learn how to write spec files, and proceed as in number 5. Still no pop-star benefits though.
-
Build from source.
Maybe I missed one or two other possibilities, I’m sure others will pipe in.
HAH! Good ol’ Rute! I used that thing years ago; I didn’t know it was still around! 
I also forgot about that (having seen it a long time ago).
I’m thinking now that I should add that as a link to the new users installation guide.
It used to be at the Linux Documentation Project. I don’t see it there anymore. I guess it’s getting old now. But I still think it’s useful.
if you want to know about a program / command look at the man-pages (manual-pages) first.
use: “man command”
for example, getting the man-page of the command “cp” type:
man cp
if the program / command doesn’t provide a man page try the option help (shows possible command / program options).
use: “command –help”
e.g. help of “mkdir”:
mkdir --help