Some technical newbie questions post install

[mistermentality]

Hello, first post so best explain I`m a total Linux newb though been using building and (some years ago) programming computers since the spectrums and Amigas were the in thing so not a computer newb but these questions will sound dumb to an experienced linux user I expect....

Fed up of Windows so installed the latest KDE release of Sabayon. Had a few problems, which with some googling were easily solved, and loving it now so got to ask the simple questions now though lol

Anyway, onto a few basic questions I hope I can get an answer to....

1) I created a root account, which at moment is my default account simply because when I had set my programs up how I liked I didn`t fancy starting from scratch as a new user. When I want to do things like update software etc I get asked for the root password, even though I am logging in with that password.

Does this mean that I can`t screw the system up accidentally though? I understand being root is not recommended so alternatively is there a way I could make a copy of my root setup (eg program settings, bookmarks, wallpaper, etcetera) so that user account is identical but without the root privelege?

2) Is there any way I can make a copy of how my system is setup, including the installed software, so that if need be I could reinstall it exactly as it is right now in the future? Basically is there a way to create a backup of how the system is, then reinstall it after doing a fresh install should anything ever cause me to need to reinstall?

3) Is there any way to rescue a failed game install? I installed Nexuiz from the sabayon repositories using Sulfur. It downloaded fine, said it needed 190 odd megabytes of space, then right at the end the KDE handler crashed saying KBuildSycoca failed. It had this error data....

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Application: KBuildSycoca (kdeinit4), signal: Bus error
#0  0xffffe430 in __kernel_vsyscall ()
#1  0xb5f77db6 in nanosleep () from /lib/libc.so.6
#2  0xb5f77bc9 in sleep () from /lib/libc.so.6
#3  0xb707673a in ?? () from /usr/lib/libkdeui.so.5
#4  0x00000001 in ?? ()
#5  0x00000000 in ?? ()

Does this mean I have to re download all the files again and hope each time it doesn`t crash, or is this data needed now saved to my hard drive and if so can I access this to install it?

Newbie questions over

EDIT: actually one more. What does the red exclamation mark over an icon on the desktop mean?

[mistermentality]

Beginners question, you have been warned lol

I have downloaded and installed some games such as Torcs, Tux Racer, and so on but they don`t show up in the games section of the Sabayon menu (latest Sabayon release, KDE version) nor via a file search.

Found them on the hard drive, some are shell scripts and some executable files with the cog symbol.

How can I add these to the menu under games heading?

The shell scripts, most of them, do not run. They point to .py (python) files which when I double click to run just open in a text editor. For example fretsonfire.py, how do I open these to play them?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[donnie]

1) Your root is /root. Your user is /home/user. Try replacing, but I never did that.
2) Yes.

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man equo | grep backup


But never used that!

For reinstalling in the future you better can create image of your system / partition, image of your home partition (if it is separate, or you may just copy a /home/user), and image of your boot partition + master boot record (if it is separate, or you may just create an image of / with MBR option chosen). Clonezilla installed to USB will do that well.

Or, you may create separate partition for backups, install bootloader (GRUB2) there, and install SystemRescueCD there. So that you can always boot to SystemRescueCD and make backup/archive/restore, or boot to Sabayon or other Linuxes.

HOWTO: Sabayon 5.2 dedicated GRUB2 rescue partition(4 noobs)
viewtopic.php?f=86&t=20327

For example, you can install new Linux without writing to MBR during setup, then find its /boot/grub/grub.cfg (or grub.conf, or menu.lst, depends on GRUB version etc), find in that file "menuentry" for your new Linux, and copy that "menuentry" field to your boot-partition's /boot/grub/grub.cfg. Reboot, done

3) Try World of Goo.
4) Never see any red marks in Sabayon. Maybe they want to tell you, It is time to Backup?

[mistermentality]

Thank you

Looking at CloneZilla now, looks a little complex for a newb like me but that`s probably because I need sleep so will re read the Clonezilla site again tomorrow.

Loving the os though, aside from slight teething problems which are primarily due to not being experienced with Linux yet jumping in feet first lol

Thank you again for the help

[donnie]

Actually Clonezilla is for noobs, just get it installed on a USB once, from Windows it was usually a two-click.

[mistermentality]

You`re right, I was reading a page there about setting up a DRBL server and completely missed the point that clonezilla live negates that need.

I shall restrict my replies until I am more awake I think

[Stupot]

The red exclamation marks in kde4 are somewhat of a new development for kde. Basically, once you verify that you trust the shortcut, the exclamation marks will go away. It's been a while since I had to do it, but that's the gist of it.

As far as you thinking you are already root, do you literally log in as the user "root"?

If the output of

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id -u

is anything besides 0, then you are not root. You may have the same password as root, which makes for easy remembering, but you are not technically logging in as root (a good thing).

[mistermentality]

Thanks, I`m learning a lot

I type the root user name and password to log in but the command you mentioned returns the value of 1000 so hopefully means I`m not literally root when logged on.

[joeoden]

Right click kickoff application launcher
select menu editor
click on new item
add the item you want
save and exit menu editor

Your question has been asked many times
If you use the search function in the forum or google you will find most of the answers you are seeking, to make searching a lot easier add the wolfden search plug-in
viewtopic.php?f=57&t=8536

Beginners question, you have been warned lol

If you do not wish to RTFM, I suggest you post in the Beginners|Newbies Area

[mistermentality]

Thanks for the help

In regard to RTFM I have been using the search feature, and googled, and tried the various solutions to the menu problem but it would not let me add things. It got caught in a constant "updating configuration" loop hence why I was hoping there was an alternative method.

That and a few other issues with KDE encouraged me to try the Gnome version instead so thankfully I can do what I wasn`t able with the KDE install. I really did try the different things I found, sorry if I pigged people off asking what to most is obvious questions but for whatever reason things weren`t working with KDE on my system.