If you are really new to linux and meamo at all I suggest you do not yet use whatsapp. It's still in (Can I say Beta?) beta version so bugs might occur and you might not be able to fix it yourself.

Otherwise read the first post from Scorpius. Yes, everything. If you do not understand certain words that are used like finding the location of the logs etc. Learn about that first.

Of course you can just install Yappari and try to register with your phone number when it starts up. Here's the download link: http://uppit.com/g3gue0ruw46a/yappari_0.0.27_armel.deb