searching for comprehensive howto guide

Hello everyone,
I am an experienced winbloze user and I want to experiment with backtrack. Im have bt4 final on a dvd I can use to boot up on top of winbloze 7 or I can use bt4 in vmware. My problem is I am virtually inexperienced in a linux environment. For example, once I got the bt4 dvd booted up and managed to get logged in (only after using google to figure out how to even log in) I was stuck at the command prompt! It took some research to figure out "startx" I think im going to stick to the vmware version. Anyone know where i can find a comprehensive manual such as in pdf format that list all the commands and perhaps gives a synopsis of how each program module is used? Please forgive my newbieness

Apparently you missed the big huge sticky at the top of the beginners forum that stated http://www.backtrack-linux.org/forum...ad-thread.html

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Originally Posted by gamer30168

I think im going to stick to the vmware version.

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That's a wise move. If you installed to HDD without getting the hang of it you could break something. And in vmware you can take snapshots of the vm state and revert back if something goes wrong. Nevertheless, I advice you to have also an ubuntu install in vmware. Try to customize it and do things through CLI, and follow Archangel.Amael's link.

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Originally Posted by gamer30168

Anyone know where i can find a comprehensive manual such as in pdf format that list all the commands and perhaps gives a synopsis of how each program module is used?

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New command to your database: "man"
Example: man airodump-ng -> This will show you the manual pages for airodump-ng.
In addition to the above, normally there is an option in linux programs to show all possible options of the program. It is normally -h or --help (i.e. aircrack-ng --help).

If you're looking for a comprehensive manual of backtrack i highly doubt you'll find a really comprehensive one unless you go take one of the offsec courses. Backtrack is a great collection of many many tools and I would suggest that you go take a look at those individual tools and get a hang of linux before getting on Backtrack.

thank you gentlemen those are helpful