video driver updating problems in linux

[Nab]

i can go to the log on screen and it has the account that i made and i can get in, but when I tried to install the latest video drivers it said that I wasn't logged in as root so I got permission denied. How do I log on as root? Thanks in advance.

edit: title name

 

[xcript]

su

 

[n0cmonkey]

Don't login as root. It's a not very good thing to do.

 

[Nab]

ahhh thanks

 

[Nab]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Don't login as root. It's a not very good thing to do.

you're probably right for me :roll:

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Nab

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Don't login as root. It's a not very good thing to do.

you're probably right for me :roll:

It's a blanket statement. It applies from the best of the best, to the newest of the newbies. I only do it when I am going to type reboot, and even then I typically use sudo.

su - will be just as good.

 

[Nab]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: Nab

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
Don't login as root. It's a not very good thing to do.

you're probably right for me :roll:

It's a blanket statement. It applies from the best of the best, to the newest of the newbies. I only do it when I am going to type reboot, and even then I typically use sudo.

su - will be just as good.

ah thanks for the advice


i got another problem if you don't mind :-/

i'm trying to install the latest video drivers but i'm getting this error:

ERROR: Unable to find the system utility `ld`; please make sure you have the
package 'binutils' installed. If you do have binutils installed,
then please check that `ld` is in your PATH.


So i went and downloaded the latest binutils and when I went to install i got this:

*** The command 'cc -o conftest -g conftest.c' failed.
*** You must set the environment variable CC to a working compiler.


Any help?

 

[n0cmonkey]

This is going off of memory, so if it doesn't work post back.

rpm -qa | grep binutil

This should tell you if binutils is installed. -qa I believe searches the rpm db to see what is installed, and the grep limits the response to what you want to see.

If binutils is installed:

echo $PATH

It should look something like:

/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:.

I think (not positive -checked RH, no mandrake available) that ld is in /usr/bin. You can also try:
locate ld or find / -name ld

They should tell you where ld is, if it is installed.

The CC problem should be simple, if you have gcc installed.

CC=/usr/bin/gcc;export CC

It's an environment variable that should be set. But if you don't have gcc installed it might be a problem.

You can check out urpmi, I think it will help you install various packages. Another thing you can try is looking on the cdrom you burned for the appropriate packages. You should have some kind of development packages (binutils, gcc, etc) that should have been installed during the installation.

This is one of the problems for such a customized install, newbies don't always know what to install, and someone that is used to another system might skip something they need because of the unfamiliar install. *sigh*

 

[Nab]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
This is going off of memory, so if it doesn't work post back.

rpm -qa | grep binutil

This should tell you if binutils is installed. -qa I believe searches the rpm db to see what is installed, and the grep limits the response to what you want to see.

If binutils is installed:

echo $PATH

It should look something like:

/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:.

I think (not positive -checked RH, no mandrake available) that ld is in /usr/bin. You can also try:
locate ld or find / -name ld

They should tell you where ld is, if it is installed.

The CC problem should be simple, if you have gcc installed.

CC=/usr/bin/gcc;export CC

It's an environment variable that should be set. But if you don't have gcc installed it might be a problem.

You can check out urpmi, I think it will help you install various packages. Another thing you can try is looking on the cdrom you burned for the appropriate packages. You should have some kind of development packages (binutils, gcc, etc) that should have been installed during the installation.

This is one of the problems for such a customized install, newbies don't always know what to install, and someone that is used to another system might skip something they need because of the unfamiliar install. *sigh*

oh man its 4:15 in the morning over here so i'm going to sleep, i'll let you know how it goes tomorrow. Thanks a bunch for your help, this linux stuff is confusing to me.

 

[n0cmonkey]

I'm on the east coast too.

Do you speak a second language? If so, when you first started learning it, how hard was it?

*nix is a different language, philosophy, and quite possibly way of life. It will be confusing. It will be tough. It will take time and patience. But it could be worth it in the end.

Personally, I don't like Linux much, but it is still better than Microsoft. What I like the unix philosophy. I'd be lost without it.

 

[Nab]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey
I'm on the east coast too.

Do you speak a second language? If so, when you first started learning it, how hard was it?

*nix is a different language, philosophy, and quite possibly way of life. It will be confusing. It will be tough. It will take time and patience. But it could be worth it in the end.

Personally, I don't like Linux much, but it is still better than Microsoft. What I like the unix philosophy. I'd be lost without it.

Yeah I know how hard it is to learn a new language, took four years of Spanish in high school, so I'm going to keep working at it. I really do appreciate all the help that you're giving me now and in the future. Alright now, time to try and get my video card updated....letsee...

 

[Nothinman]

The long and short of n0c's post is that you probably didn't install any development tools when you installed Linux and now you need them to compile the driver.

 

[Nab]

yeah that's what happened, i went back to the mandrake disks and installed the tools. Its working now.

thanks for all the help.