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[moocapiean]

The tar -jxf accessx.tar.bz2 instruction decompresses the file you downloaded.  All the error messages you got after that command were basically telling you it couldn't find the file.

I just tried downloading it and you're right, the download link doesn't appear!  That's strange.

Anyway, the file probably downloaded to /home/olpc or a subdirectory (directory is just the term for folder in Linux).  /home/olpc is your home directory, where all your files and directories should be stored.

Instead of searching manually, here's a command that should find the file for you:
find  /home/olpc  -name  accessx.tar.bz2  -type  f

If that fails, then try this one:
find  /  -name  accessx.tar.bz2  -type  f  2> /dev/null

The second one searches the entire drive.  Not only will this take longer than the first, but you're also going to run into errors saying you don't have permission to access certain places.  The "2> /dev/null" just hides those errors.

Ok, so let's assume that the file was found in /home/olpc/accessx.tar.bz2.  To use tar, type in this command instead of what I had in my post above:
tar  -jxf  /home/olpc/accessx.tar.bz2

When you move the files to /usr/bin, you'll have to use the full pathnames too:
mv  /home/olpc/accessx  /usr/bin
mv  /home/olpc/ax  /usr/bin

Good luck and let me know if you have any other problems!

[tacotaxi]

Moocapiean,

Sorry for taking so long to respond but everything takes me long to do.

Staus when I type -
  find /home/olpc -name accessx.tar.bz2 -type f
and the other find line the system comes back with
  [olpc@xo-10-ED-02 `]$

so I redownloaded the accessx file from the email and continue to receive the [olpc@xo, etc.

SO I saved the accessx file from my windows machine to a 2 gig flash drive this way I know where the file is stored.  The flash drive is partitioned into 2 drives and of course I put the file on the first drive.

Can you "again" direct me on the next steps as I have no Linux background.

Getting late in Chgo, I'll look for your reply tommorrow late p.m. when my homemaker comes back  Adios.

Thanks

[moocapiean]

Strange that it isn't downloading.  Oh well.  Good idea with the USB drive.  This way was how I moved it onto my XO.

After starting up your XO, plug the USB drive into the laptop.  Open the Terminal activity and type:
mount

Look for a line that starts with "/dev/sd"  It'll probably be at the bottom and it'll probably be "/dev/sda1".  If you look at the end of that line, you should see something that starts with "/media/".  That's where your drive is mounted to.  In other words, it's where you can access the files on the drive..

For me, it was /media/OLPCRoot, but it'll be different for you.  Try:
cd  /media/OLPCRoot
replacing /media/OLPCRoot with where your USB drive was mounted.  You can do ls (that's a lowercase L) to list all the files and folders in the current directory.  You should see the file you downloaded.  If you don't, then there are either gremlins playing tricks on you or you put it in a folder on the drive.

If you have gremlins, I hear cameras scare them away: http://olpcnews.com/forum/index.php?topic=1436.msg15709#msg15709

If you put the file in a folder, you can use the cd command to move into the directory.  So if you put the file in the xo folder, you can do:
cd xo
or if you put it in the xo\accessx folder on that drive, you can do:
cd xo/accessx

Ok, so the point of all of this was to get you into the directory where the file is.  This should save on typing because you won't have to give the entire path for the next set of commands.  At this point, you can type:
tar  -jxf  accessx.tar.bz2
su
mv  accessx  /usr/bin
mv  ax  /usr/bin

Good luck!

[eden]

Hi.  I thought I would interrupt this excellent stream of effort to throw in possibly superfluous information.

First, moocapiean, I admire your facility with Linux and hope to be like you one day.

Second, tacotaxi, I admire your pluck in trying all this.  I feel like every time I go to do something with Linux it takes three times as long for me, even though I am really coming to love it.

Just for fun, I wanted to say that these are the meanings of the commands listed here (in case anyone who didn't know already cares--I am just learning all this myself).

cd  change directory
ls    list files
mv  move or rename a file
su   become superuser or administrator
tar  (get this: originally for a "tape archive"!)

Anyway, a ton of Linux info for beginners is available online...like at http://tldp.org/LDP/intro-linux/html/index.html

And I will be trying out accessx this weekend too.

PS: I just downloaded the attached accessx file from the above post.  And thank you again for compiling it.  moocapiean, you used Gentoo to get it?  Like the distro?  Where was it?

PPS: (looking at the post below...)  Nice!  I love my Tab key!   

[moocapiean]

Thanks for the explanation post!  It's hard to balance explaining everything with writing concise posts.  I don't want to overwhelm those new to Linux with too much information and scare them away from it.

So after explaining how to get to the location of accessx.tar.bz2, I decided to save a tip for another post, which I quickly forgot about until your post.  So, I guess I'll say it now: In a terminal, there's a shortcut that I find very useful for cutting down on typing.  When you're typing in commands, you can press the tab key to "autocomplete" the name.  This won't work for argument switches, or when you're running a program; it'll just work for file names and program names.

Instead of giving a long explanation of how to use auto-complete, let me give a few examples.  When I write <tab> it means the tab key.

Let's say you were following my directions above and wanted to move into the /media/OLPCRoot directory.  Well, you could type cd /media/OLPCRoot, but that's a lot to type!  This is where the magic of auto-completion comes in.

After you've typed cd /me, there's only one possible (correct) thing you're going to type next, dia (to complete media) and the terminal knows this.  How does it know? Well, in the / directory, there are a few files and directories.  Only two of them start with "m" (media and mnt) and only one of those starts with "me" (media).

So, when you're at cd /me, you can press tab to have the terminal automatically fill in the rest of the directory name for you:
cd /me<tab>
becomes:
cd /media/

You can then do the same thing to get into /media/OLPCRoot:
cd /media/O<tab>
becomes:
cd /media/OLPCRoot/

This works for files too:
tar -jxf a<tab>
becomes:
tar -jxf accessx.tar.bz2
Note: You can't see this in my post, but there's a space after the 2.

Why do I bother pointing out that there's a space?  Well, it's how you know auto-completion worked (for files, for directories, the '/' at the end tells you it worked).  Let's take a look at an example where it doesn't work.  Let's pretend there are two files in the current directory that start with 'a':
tar -jxf a<tab>
comes:
tar -jxf a

Nothing happen!  There's not even a space after the a; that's how we know auto-completion didn't complete.  However, the program writers gave us the ability to see why.  Let's try pressing tab twice:
tar -jxf a<tab><tab>
produces:
accessx.tar.bz2     account.txt     additional/
tar -jxf a
The stuff in italics is what bash printed to the screen.  We see that there are two files and one directory (the directory ends in '/') that start with 'a'.  In fact, if we typed up to "acc", we would still have had problems auto-completing.  So, you need to type up tp "acce" to get auto-complete to work:
tar -jxf acce<tab>
produces:
tar -jxf accessx.tar.bz2

That's it!  I hope it made some sense and that you find it useful!

[moocapiean]

PS: I just downloaded the attached accessx file from the above post.  And thank you again for compiling it.  moocapiean, you used Gentoo to get it?  Like the distro?  Where was it?

Yep, I used Gentoo the distro.  Unlike other distros that have you download and install pre-compiled programs, with Gentoo you download the source code and compile it specifically for your needs (that's all automatic, so it's not scary).  So all I had to do was run:
emerge -f accessx
and the source code was downloaded to /usr/portage/distfiles/.  I just extracted the files and compiled them myself.  Compiling programs is a lot easier in Gentoo because everything's compiled, so all the dev packages other distros don't install by default are automatically installed in Gentoo.

If you want to download the source code Gentoo provides, you can get it at: http://ftp://ftp.snt.utwente.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo/distfiles/accessx0951.tar.gz

[tacotaxi]

Moocapiean and Eden,

Thanks for sharing your knowledge with me.  I'll be reading the above posts a few times before my helper shows up so we can rock and roll the minute she shows up after 4:00 CST.  Will post results (I'm guessing) between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m.  Until this issue is solved, I'll be playing on my Windows PC.

I saved Eden's Linux link to my favorites, I know it will come in very handy.  I'm so grateful for your help... this is so much fun - I love learning about computers.

BR

[tacotaxi]

I will definitely be trying the 'autocomplete' this evening.  Muchas gracias

[tacotaxi]

here i am again... i'm getting closer.

i can now view the file in my mounted USB /media/KINGSTON folder.  while in KINGSTON folder when i type;
     tar -zxf accessx.tar.bz2

i receive the follow;

  gzip; stdin; not in gzip format
  tar; child return status 1
  tar; error exit delayed from previous error

br

[moocapiean]

Oh, I made a mistake!  That should have been:
tar -jxf accessx.tar.bz2

The 'j' is for bz2 compression; 'z' is for gzip2 compression.  Now it should work.

[tacotaxi]

My apologies it was my mistake:  you had it correct on your first message. I wrote it wrong.

when we type  --- tar -jzf accessx.tar.bz2  -- while in the KINGSTON directory system returns following:
           [olpc@xo -10-ED-02 KINGSTON]$

getting sloppy in my typing!

[moocapiean]

No, you were right.  I went back and changed all my posts to the correct letter.

When it returns to the prompt ("[olpc@xo -10-ED-02 KINGSTON]$"), that means everything worked.  In Linux, no output is usually a good thing.

[tacotaxi]

ok

so we typed:
   tar.-jxf accessx.tar.bz2

and received [olpc@xo, etc.  -- (I type) su at the [olpc@ xo, etc prompt.

  then I get --  bash -3.2# (I type) mv accessx /user/bin
  then I get --  bash -3.2# (I type) mv ax /user/bin

system returns ---  mv:  cannot stat 'ax' : No such file or directory

NOTE:  I just checked the /usr/bin directory and the accessx.tar.bz2 is not listed

[moocapiean]

Hmm, it's claiming that the file ax isn't there.  Try running ls to see what's there.  If you don't see it there, maybe it wasn't extracted for some reason.  Try running tar -jxvf accessx.tar.bz2.  The 'v' option says to print out everything being extracted.

You can also try running ls after the tar command to see what's extracted.  If the ax file is there, you can try the move (mv) instruction again.

Those move commands are moving the extracted files (accessx and ax) into the /usr/bin directory.  You should hopefully be able to find accessx in the /usr/bin directory.

[tacotaxi]

I have very good news.... SUCCESS!!!  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

GOOD NEWS ->  I've attached my numbers keypad to my OLPC and now I'm able to drag mouse and use sticky keys by myself. Getting the program on calls for a celebatory glass of wine... I'm toasting to you.  I hope you like Merlot. 

If you're ever in Chgo, I owe you a drink.  Have a good evening.  You are AWESOM!