teething troubles

Hi all, hope someone out there can point me in the right directions here.
Just got my aspire one last week, and love the little guy! But am having some issues.
1) When I try to run the live update, it tells me "Check if the network cable is properly installed, or 2 check your etwork status But I am online, is that not the same thing?

2) I managed to get the advanced mode up and running, and skype too (yaahhh me!) but now I want to get VLC onboard and rid of the media player that is already installed. I have no knowledge of linux so pls in simple term tell me how to do this? I tried following the instructions on this page www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/09/05/ten_as ... page4.html but every time i try to load vlc it tells me I am missing codecs....

3) Using the same site listed above I got skype and a skype icon up on the desktop, but....there are now 7 icons in the connect panel, but seems to be only room for 6? the final two icons are placed on top of each other, and won&t move to the empty spaces to the right no matter how I try click and drag them....

Help please..........

(But I did manage to get skype.....)
Pol.

 

I can't help with the other stuff, but I think I can help with you music...

You need to install the mp3 codec. To download it, you will need to add a 3rd party repository such as Livna. There may be other ways to do this, but this is the method I used.

1. Switch to Advanced Mode. This allows you to access many of the essential functions of a Linux OS by right-clicking anywhere on the desktop.[/*:m:3s1celwz]
2. Once you have the advanced menu option, you can install software using the Add/Remove software program:
   
   >> Right click over empty desktop
   >> select the 'System' option from the menu that appears
   >> Select 'Add or Remove Programs' from the top of the list.
   
   It will prompt you for your password, which you must enter correctly in order to proceed. You don't actually need to do anything with 'Add/Remove Programs' yet, but it's useful to know.
   
   Alternatively, you can use the terminal to install software yourself. It does exactly the same thing as the package manager GUI that comes with the system, but uses a text interface. It may appear daunting at first, but it's pretty much the same concept as the DOS prompt under Windows (except it's not broken and it's a very powerful tool)[/*:m:3s1celwz]
3. Now you can add a 3rd party repository. A repository is a data warehouse that stores software for download. It's different from sites such as download.com in that the process is generally automatic, with very little interaction from the user. You need to add the the Livna repository to your repo list. To do this:
   
   >> Open a terminal. (right-click on desktop.
   >> Select 'System'.
   >> Select 'Terminal'
   >> In the terminal, type :
   
   Code:

   sudo yum -y remove vlc

   >> Hit return, and YUM will remove VLC from your system.
   >> Again, in the terminal, type:
   
   Code:

   sudo rpm -ihv [url]http://rpm.livna.org/livna-release-8.rpm[/url]

   Hit return.
   >> When it's finished, the Livna repo is available to download from.
   >> While you're at it, you may want to install Yumex, which I prefer over Pirut, etc... - In the terminal, type:
   
   Code:

   sudo yum -y install yumex

   Yumex will now appear at the bottom of the 'System' menu on right-click. Start it up. It will take a while as it downloads and processes package information, but don't worry. [/*:m:3s1celwz]
4. In the left-hand icon menu, click the 'Repositories' button (the first from bottom one). Make sure that Livna is selected. Go to the packages icon, and then typ VLC into the search box and hit enter. This will bring up a list of packages. Make sure you select the "available" button, and that you select "VideoLAN-Client" or "VLC" from the Livna repositories, as this comes packaged with the mp3 codec.
   >> Select "process queue" in the bottom-right corner, and it will start processing VLC. It will process loads and loads of dependencies, including more video and audio codecs than you can shake a stick at.
   >> Once it's all finished downloading, you can quit the program. You should now be able to play mp3s in most Linux music players, although you should definitely be able to play them in VLC. [/*:m:3s1celwz]

This post took me bloody ages, so someone will probably post a 5-minute solution to this issue, or probably already has...