sudo ?

[Kithmo]

Excuse my ignorance but I'm an absolute newbie to linux and have limited knowledge of programming in Basic from 30 years ago. I have my raspberry pi up and running in the gui after using the Fedora ARM installer. I have a couple mistakes of my own making from setting up. I entered the wrong time zone and I set the pi up to boot into the gui by default. After reading around the forum I discovered I should be able to change the time zone with "sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata" on the command line, but when I open the terminal window and type this in, it asks me for my sudo password. I've tried my normal logon password and it says I am not on the sudoers file. What is this sudoers file and how do I get on it ? Also, can and if so how, do I change the pi to boot up in command line mode ?

[stevepdp]

The instructions you are referring to apply to the Debian reference image, not Fedora.

Fedora out of the box doesn't use sudo. In order to gain administrative privilages you would typically need to switch to the root user by issuing a command like "su" or "su root" and then enter the root user's password.

Given that you're new to Linux, I would suggest dropping the Fedora image in favour of the officially supported Debian image which is up to date and in much wider use. It boots to the command line by default too

Because it's the more popular image of the bunch, you will naturally find a lot more documentation for it too.

[rew]

Apparently I skimped over an important part of the original post. You'd found this already.

As an example for "being able to get help more easily".

For your timezone problem. that's "dpkg-reconfigure tzconfig" under Debian. As the dpkg command is debian specific this is CERTAINLY different from what you'd do under fedora. Sorry.

[Kithmo]

Thankyou, I went for the Fedora because it was the easiest way to set up the SD card. Will I have to re-partition the SD card now to fit the Debian image on it.
I typed "su" and password into the command line an got to the root, is there a command for changing the time zone in the Fedora ?

[stevepdp]

I've very little Fedora experience, but I'm aware that there's a tool called system-config-date which should be easy to follow.

Do you have that with the Fedora ARM image? It might be a case of just running "system-config-date" or "/sbin/system-config-date" as root.

If anybody knows please chip in

This post at Red Hat (which is a downstream of Fedora) details a manual process and should be the similar for the Fedora ARM image.

[Kithmo]

Ok, I've scrapped the Fedora image and installed the Debian image, this seems quicker and looks better than the Fedora. The only problem now is the partition size on SD card. I have a 16Gb card and 13Gb of it is unmounted. I watched the Youtube video on how to resize the partitions but it says the SD card must be unmounted so it has to be done on another machine. I don't have another linux machine and a couple of the Linux for windows programs I tried to install on my PC wont install with the error message saying they are for a x86 machine and all 3 of my PCs are not. Can anyone recommend a Linux for windows application that will work with Windows 7 machines ?
Also I cannot access some of the Settings in the Debian desktop due to it asking for a password, I've tried the Pi login password but it doesn't work. Is this the case where I have to create a new user with sudo access ?

[AndrewS]

Resizing the partitions can be done solely on the RPi http://elinux.org/RPi_Resize_Flash_Partitions

Alternatively you could try booting your computer (temporarily) from a Linux LiveCD/LiveUSB

And for the final password problem, see http://elinux.org/R-Pi_Troubleshooting# ... y_password

[deej1976]

Hi,

For resizing and a little more experience with Linux I would recommend a LiveCD distribution like ubuntu. You can then install gparted and do the resizing of your SD card with. So basic these steps:

1)Download and burn ubuntu.iso to cdrom
2) Boot your PC from the cdrom
3) Start a terminal and run "sudo apt-get install gparted" answer "y" to any questions about additional packages.
4) Once complete run "gparted"
5) In the top right corner you will see /dev/sda depending on how many hard disks you have this will go up with the last letter changing. You should be able to work out which one your need to modify. Once found do the following:

a) Move the swap to the end of the disk, change the mode to cylinders
b) Apply changes
c) Now resize the middle partition to use the remaining space, again change the mode to cylinders
d) Apply changes

Now plug the card into your Pi and power on.

Good luck

[bbncomms]

Even easier use the latest 'wheezy' OS and this provides the ability to sort out the 'larger' than original 2G footprint. You just select this option and it does all the work for you from a gui rather than keyboard! - I used it on a 16G SD Card.

Wheezy was not on the PI's official download list but there are lots of references to it. It is a beta @ present but seems a lot better than the original Debian 'Squeeze' that I started with.

[Joe Schmoe]

I don't have another linux machine and a couple of the Linux for windows programs I tried to install on my PC wont install with the error message saying they are for a x86 machine and all 3 of my PCs are not. Can anyone recommend a Linux for windows application that will work with Windows 7 machines ?

I'm pretty sure that your machines *are* x86 machines. Just a hunch...

Also, what is a "Linux for windows application"? Never heard of that...

[rpdom]

what is a "Linux for windows application"? Never heard of that...

I'm guessing something that runs under cygwin

[AndrewS]

what is a "Linux for windows application"? Never heard of that...

I'm guessing something that runs under cygwin

I assumed he was referring to something like Wubi. But who knows...?

[Kithmo]

OK guys, I guess I used the wrong terminology "Linux for windows", but I am a newbie. What I meant was a program that let me run Linux in a window on Microsoft Windows 7.
Anyhow I followed AndrewS & deej1976's advice. I now have a Ubuntu Linux live USB stick, which I plugged into my tablet PC after changing the boot drive to USB in the BIOS, then ran GParted and moved & resized the partitions and I now have over 15Gb space to use on the SD card. I also cured the password problem thanks to AndrewS.
Many thanks guys, much appreciated.
BTW, Ubuntu runs very smooth and fast on my Tablet PC, the only thing is there is no touchscreen keyboard, but touchscreen mouse operations work ok.

[jpwalker03]

To go into root user you say sudo nano eto/sudoer and I don't know what to do after that. hope I helped a bit

[RaTTuS]

Thread Neco warning ...
please check the dates when posting to random threads