How to replace a system file on Ubuntu or Linux Mint that was deleted by accident.

If you executed a command on Ubuntu and messed up your system, there is hope. The apt-file utility can search the package repositories for the missing file and then tell you which package contains it. This is a good way to replace a system file that was accidentally deleted. This is impressive, and a good … Read more

Setting up your BASH prompt. How to get the most out of the BASH shell.

Setting up your BASH prompt. A nice BASH shell prompt. This shows the current time and the current folder you are in as well as a full directory path if you are in a subfolder. PS1="-\t– \u@\h [\w]\$ "PS1="-\t– \u@\h [\w]\$ " How to set the contents of the Xterm title bar. Using the PROMPT_COMMAND … Read more

Ubuntu 21.10 is now out. But the file-picker still does not have icons in it like Macintosh OSX has had for years.

The full release of Ubuntu 21.10 is now out, but the developers of GTK have still not fixed the file-picker not having icons in it. This patch fixes this issue but needs more work. https://gist.github.com/wfr/c8e431a61d300b4f3d15. And it would not take too long to add the option to have either a list view or icons in … Read more

New Linux version of the Far21 file manager, this is rather like Xtree Gold.

The venerable Far21 file manager for DOS-based systems was very useful for managing files on an old Windows system. Now there is a Linux version. This means that there is now another file manager for Linux to compete with Midnight Commander. The screenshot above shows the Far 21 file manager running on Linux. This is … Read more

Record a window in Ubuntu easily with the OBS studio application. This is very easy.

Recording a window with OBS is very easy, this allows easy streaming and recording of gameplay or a video window. The screenshot above shows an OBS studio window displaying a video window, you select the window by double-clicking the Window Capture (Xcomposite) 2 option. This brings up another dialogue to select any open window on … Read more

How to create a file named . on Linux easily. This is a very devious trick.

It is apparently possible to create a file named ., this will make the file unusable, but it is still very cool. I used this simple command. strace touch ‘.​’strace touch ‘.​’ Type a dot character “.”, then press Control-Shift-u and type 200b and then press ENTER, this will create a zero-width invisible character. Then … Read more