I prefer to use vi to create the file, but it seemed to work for me.

You could also use leafpad if you have it installed.


You would go to the /home/user directory

You would type vi .profile and hit enter

after the vi editor opened you would type the letter i

then you would type the alias line you wanted

then you would type the esc key

then you would type :wq and hit enter

then you would be thru. close the xterm, reopen it and see if it works.