Please excuse this one ...

[asearle]

I've recently moved from SuSE to Knoppix (HDD install) and find Knoppix great.

Everything works fine but, to install my printer (a Canon i560) I need to install specific drivers. I've downloaded the drivers but in the instructions I am told to create 'symlinks'. For example ...

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 35 Jun 25 23:37 libcnbpcnclapil56.so -> /usr/lib/libcnbpcnclapil56.so.2.2.0

I have searched in my manuals and found no reference to symlink (mostly, I imagine, because I have general linux manuals) and I have googled the internet and, although I found hundreds of links to 'symlink' (all telling me to use a symlink), they don't tell me what a symlink actually is or how to handle/implement one. Arrgghh!

So is it something specific to Debian? Is it an entry in a configuration file? Or a command-line entry? Or is it a path declaration? Or is it an action of compiliation (i.e. an library file created from a source file)?

I think that I have a basic hole in my understanding and so am hoping that someone can either explain it quickly or can point me towards an suitable 'howto'. I'm sure I'll be OK once that hole is 'plugged'.

Or maybe I need to buy a Debian handbook? Can someone recommend a good one? One that is easily understandable but doesn't treat you like a complete beginner.

Many, many thanks.

Yours,
Alan Searle.

[Markus]

markus@mrk-fujibox:~/temp/sym$ touch to-here
markus@mrk-fujibox:~/temp/sym$ ln -s to-here from-here
markus@mrk-fujibox:~/temp/sym$ ll
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 markus markus 7 May 8 12:00 from-here -> to-here
-rw------- 1 markus markus 0 May 8 12:00 to-here

Include the whole path when you symlink while it's easier to get it right. Symlinks are not debian specific.

[fingers99]

Or maybe I need to buy a Debian handbook? Can someone recommend a good one? One that is easily understandable but doesn't treat you like a complete beginner.

Download rute and/or Linux Cookbook

Both are available as debs, so a search in Synaptic should turn them up.