Annoying problems

[Carl Parrish]

On Mon, 2002-04-08 at 17:27, Kevin Brown wrote:
> > I'm a brand new user to Linux (escaped from Big Brother Bill), and there
> > are a few pretty minor things I have been having trouble with.
> > 
> > The first is that every time I start my computer, the keyboard setting
> > comes up in German. I can't count how many times I've tried to fix this.
> > I change it easy enough once I log in to KDE, but it never stays from
> > session to session.
> 
> look for kbdconfig to reconfigure the keyboard (at least I have that on RH7.2).
> 
> > The second is that my binary files won't execute. I've been trying to
> > download Java Runtime Environment 1.3.1 and a java based P2P application
> > called Limewire. Both are binaries, but they never execute.
> 
> chmod 755 <filename>
> gives permissions of rwxr-xr-x
> 

chmod 755 is proably the better way and once you get used to the numbers
its pretty easy. But an even easier way is to just say
 chmod +x <filename> 
which just makes the filename executable. 
but here is the quick and easy way to learn the number system.
You have three numbers one for the owner of the file (usally the user
that created it). Then for the group of the file (typically named after
the owner) then for everyone else). 4 is read. 2 is write and 1 is
excute. so 
chmod 421
would give the owner read permission the group write permission and
everyone else execute permission. To add permissions simply add the
number up. So...
chmod 764
Gives the owner read, write,and execute permission(4+2+1 = 7)
the group read, write (4+2 = 6)
and everyone else just read (4). 
Hope that helps. 

Carl P.