help using the command line

[Kojak Peg]

Hi Everyone
If I had any hair left I'd be pulling it out, around about now. I've read the instruction website telling you how to execute some basic commands in the terminal, but I can't get them to work

I'm trying to check my iso is good before I burn it. So in the terminal is saids

kojak@kojak-OptiPlex-760:~$

so I type in pwd and it says
/home/kojak
kojak@kojak-OptiPlex-760:~$

then I typed in ls and it says
Calibre Library Documents Music Public Videos
Desktop Downloads Pictures Templates
kojak@kojak-OptiPlex-760:~$

so then I type in
cd /home/kojak/downloads

and it says
bash: cd: /home/kojak/downloads: No such file or directory
kojak@kojak-OptiPlex-760:~$

and I've tried all sorts of combinations, but nothing. So what am I doing wrong

Thanks

[Vaphell]

names are case sensitive, Downloads is not the same as downloads

learn to use tab for autocompletion
eg cd Do[tab] will put the whole name for you so you minimize risk of typos, in case there are multiple matches to what you typed you can get them printed with [tab]x2, eg
cd D[tab][tab] will produce Desktop Downloads, so you can add few more chars to remove ambiguosity and use [tab] again to autocomplete.

and use ~ as a shorthand for /home/yourname
eg cd ~/Desktop

[arsenic23]

It's case sensitive. 'Download' not 'downloads'.

[grahammechanical]

When we open a terminal we are already in /home/ourusername. This is what you confirmed when you typed pwd. The command means print working directory. So, you did not need to type the path /home/kojak/Downloads. Just cd Downloads. If you type pwd when you are in the Downloads directory you will get /home/username/Downloads. But the command prompt should be telling you which directory you are in. kojak@kojak-Optiplex-760:~Downloads $. A change from kojak@kojak-Optiplex-760:~$

It is as clear as mud.

[Kojak Peg]

Thanks everyone I know it would be simple, but is b***d hard when you don't know how, lol

cheers

[3rdalbum]

You can also drag files and folders to the terminal to fill in their paths.

For instance, type 'cd ' and don't hit Enter. Drag the Downloads folder to the terminal and its full path will appear. Press Enter and you will change directory to the folder you dragged in.

[oldos2er]

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CommandLineResources

[cortman]

+1 for tab completion. It's possibly the single handiest feature of the shell.
Keep learning and trying, once you are somewhat familiar with the CLI GNU/Linux in general becomes much, much less scary.