Where Do Installed Apps Go?

[bfifteenv]

Hi,
I'm a total noob at this whole Linux thing. I got tired of persistent problems with Windows, so I wanted to try out Linux for a while before I breakdown and buy a Mac. :)

Anyway, I downloaded Knoppix and it seems to be running fine from the CD, I don't want to do a HD install until I am sure that I want to stick with Linux. I have a lot of expensive engineering software that I would like to still be able to boot up in Windows and run so I don't want to make a permanent switch just yet, but I'd like to really get a feel for Linux.

I want to download and try a few Linux Apps that aren't on the Knoppix Live CD that I am using. If I download and install those, presumably they will go on one of my harddrives somewhere right? Can I specify which drive - like can I make 1 of my hard drives (I have one that I can reformat now, it is empty) my Linux drive and make the other off limits to any Linux apps? Can I setup all my programs to use that drive as a default - so like Mozilla will automatically dump things (like my history folder) there? Should I do anything to that drive before designating it for that purpose (if I can)?

I searched but searching "download" or "harddrive" or "applications" turned up a whole lot of stuff that didn't apply.

Thanks!

[maxIT]

AFAIK all you need to do is to mount the '/usr' directory, as his own filesystem, to the drive you select for linux apps.

[Dave_Bechtel]

See ' man hier ' (don't type the quotes)

--Short answer: /bin, /sbin, /usr/local/bin, sometimes /opt. Depends on the distro and the package(s) you install. Rarely, something will install in /usr/X11R6/bin as well.

' echo $PATH ' == Which directories are being searched for executable files

' whereis ls ' == Tells you where "ls" lives on your system.
' dpkg -S /bin/ls ' == Which (installed) package owns ls ( I just learned that one today myself! )
' dpkg -L coreutils |grep bin ' == List contents of package coreutils, and only display lines that contain "bin"

--I too got tired of Win problems; but if you have some $$ to spare, I highly recommend Vmware. Recompile your kernel (or install Ubuntu - Workstation has precompiled kernel modules for that distro) and create a VM for Windoze, a VM for Knoppix live-cds, a VM to test Linux installs, a VM for your dog... ;-)

--It's kind of addicting. Except for games and stuff that requires realtime display, much easier than running 'Doze on the bare hardware, and far easier to backup. But you should have a decent processor (600MHz+) and a good amount of ram (384MB or better; actually I'd say 512MB is a good start) and especially disk space.

--If you install to HD, yes you can say "everything goes on hdb" and tell the installer that /usr should go on /dev/hdb6, /home goes on hdb7, etc.

An example using my system:


' fdisk -l /dev/hda /dev/hdb '

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 638 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 639 1021 3076447+ 8e Linux LVM
/dev/hda3 1022 1022 8032+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 1023 9729 69938977+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 1023 1086 514048+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda6 1087 2131 8393931 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 2132 2784 5245191 8e Linux LVM
/dev/hda8 2785 3355 4586526 83 Linux
/dev/hda9 3356 9729 51199123+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/hdb: 81.9 GB, 81943142400 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 1 204 1638598+ b W95 FAT32
/dev/hdb2 * 205 206 16065 83 Linux
/dev/hdb3 207 207 8032+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb4 208 9962 78357037+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hdb5 208 239 257008+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hdb6 240 848 4891761 8e Linux LVM
/dev/hdb7 849 1471 5004216 83 Linux
/dev/hdb8 1472 9962 68203926 83 Linux

' df -h '
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda8 4.4G 3.2G 1.3G 72% /
/dev/hdb7 4.7G 2.7G 2.1G 58% /home
/dev/hde6 15G 13G 2.2G 86% /mnt/drived
/dev/hde8 12G 11G 1.2G 90% /mnt/drivef
/dev/hde7 8.7G 6.3G 2.5G 72% /mnt/cdtemp
/dev/cdtemp2lvm/cdtemp2lvm
13G 9.6G 3.2G 76% /mnt/cdtemp2
/mnt/cdtemp2/cdtemp.mnt
8.9G 463M 8.5G 6% /mnt/cdtemp2a
/dev/hdb8 66G 48G 18G 74% /mnt/bkps
/dev/hda9 49G 37G 13G 76% /mnt/bkps2
/dev/hdc6 107G 89G 18G 84% /mnt/bkps3
/dev/hda6 8.1G 6.0G 2.1G 74% /mnt/vm98
/dev/extralvm/extralvm
7.5G 4.0G 3.6G 53% /mnt/extralvm
tmpfs 253M 4.0K 253M 1% /dev/shm



--You can go to www.vmware.com and trial Vmware Workstation for 30 days to see if it fits your needs. (Standard disclaimer, I have no affiliation with Vmware but I really like their work.)


Hi,
I'm a total noob at this whole Linux thing. I got tired of persistent problems with Windows, so I wanted to try out Linux for a while before I breakdown and buy a Mac. :)

Anyway, I downloaded Knoppix and it seems to be running fine from the CD, I don't want to do a HD install until I am sure that I want to stick with Linux. I have a lot of expensive engineering software that I would like to still be able to boot up in Windows and run so I don't want to make a permanent switch just yet, but I'd like to really get a feel for Linux.

I want to download and try a few Linux Apps that aren't on the Knoppix Live CD that I am using. If I download and install those, presumably they will go on one of my harddrives somewhere right? Can I specify which drive - like can I make 1 of my hard drives (I have one that I can reformat now, it is empty) my Linux drive and make the other off limits to any Linux apps? Can I setup all my programs to use that drive as a default - so like Mozilla will automatically dump things (like my history folder) there? Should I do anything to that drive before designating it for that purpose (if I can)?

I searched but searching "download" or "harddrive" or "applications" turned up a whole lot of stuff that didn't apply.

Thanks![/b]

[belboz]

Dave -- what a great idea to use VMware in the way you describe. Would you mind letting us know which base distro you use for it? Then I suppose I have to figure out whether I can take backup CDs of WinXP Pro off a laptop and re-install from them ..

Thanks.

Wayne

[Dave_Bechtel]

--I use Knoppix hdinstall, natch. ;-) With a recompiled kernel, using gcc-3.3

--But it might be simpler all around if you just install Ubuntu; less having to wait for things to recompile.


Dave -- what a great idea to use VMware in the way you describe. Would you mind letting us know which base distro you use for it? Then I suppose I have to figure out whether I can take backup CDs of WinXP Pro off a laptop and re-install from them ..

Thanks.

Wayne