- Useful Linux commands and tips for Ubuntu users
- How to unlock the root account on Ubuntu and Linux Mint
- Miscellaneous Linux commands that any Linux user would find useful
- Setting up Ubuntu for multimedia playback
- Setting up xorg correctly
Useful Linux commands and tips for Ubuntu users
How to unlock the root account on Ubuntu and Linux Mint
Use the passwd command to unlock the root account on Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
Use it like this:
sudo passwd root |
Then type a new password for the root account. This will allow you to use the su command to get a root prompt.
Miscellaneous Linux commands that any Linux user would find useful
The Linux command-line has some powerful features. The ability to filter the output of a command with grep(1) is very useful indeed. In the example below I am using the ls command and then filtering with grep.
$ ls -hula | grep conso**.wad -rw------- 1 flynn flynn 2.4M 2012-07-12 22:42 consoleCopy.wad |
Some incredible shell tricks. As seen in this posting: http://www.securitronlinux.com/bejiitaswrath/cispa-bill-still-a-threat-and-awesome-linux-shell-tricks/. Capitalising the first character of your username.
flynn@ubuntu:~/Documents$ echo -e ${LOGNAME^} Flynn |
And rendering the username in all caps.
flynn@ubuntu:~/Documents$ echo -e ${LOGNAME^^} FLYNN |
MSDOS styled command prompt for Linux. This is a controversial addition to your Linux system, but if you want this prompt then here it is.
PROMPT_COMMAND='export PWD_UPCASE="${PWD^^}"' PS1='C:${PWD_UPCASE//\\//\\\\}> ' |
Using the df command and Listing the free space on your Linux system.
Using the Linux rename command and other useful commands.
>How to use the text console on Linux to experience the Linux command-line: Linux Mint 13 text console usage.
How to install a vanilla kernel on a modern Linux distribution. Installing a kernel the vanilla way.
Some interesting Linux commands here: interesting and obscure Linux tips.
The ldd command for Linux when run against a Linux executable as I have, will return a list of the Dynamically Linked libraries that the program is linked against. This can be useful when debugging a program that you are trying to get running.
~$ ldd ./hello linux-vdso.so.1 => (0x00007fffb61ff000) libc.so.6 => /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6 (0x00007fedd9a55000) /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x00007fedd9e0c000) |
Returning a list of all processes owned by your user.
~$ ps -ef | grep $LOGNAME flynn 1603 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --daemonize --login flynn 1622 1476 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /bin/sh /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc -- /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc flynn 1655 1622 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/share/xubuntu/session.sh flynn 1658 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/share/xubuntu/session.sh flynn 1659 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:02 //bin/dbus-daemon --fork --print-pid 5 --print-address 7 --session flynn 1667 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/xfconf/xfconfd flynn 1673 1622 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:32 xscreensaver -no-splash flynn 1675 1622 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 xfce4-session flynn 1681 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:03:39 xfwm4 flynn 1683 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:23 xfce4-panel flynn 1685 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:16 Thunar --daemon flynn 1687 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:08 xfdesktop flynn 1690 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 xfsettingsd --force flynn 1694 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:14:42 /usr/bin/pulseaudio --start --log-target=syslog flynn 1696 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd flynn 1700 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/policykit-1-gnome/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1 flynn 1704 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfs//gvfs-fuse-daemon /home/flynn/.gvfs flynn 1715 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/evolution/2.32/evolution-alarm-notify flynn 1723 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 bluetooth-applet flynn 1726 1694 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/pulseaudio/pulse/gconf-helper flynn 1729 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:04 /usr/lib/libgconf2-4/gconfd-2 flynn 1731 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 gnome-volume-control-applet flynn 1740 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 nm-applet --sm-disable flynn 1744 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:01 /usr/bin/python /usr/share/system-config-printer/applet.py flynn 1747 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:26 update-notifier flynn 1752 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 zeitgeist-datahub flynn 1764 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/python /usr/bin/zeitgeist-daemon flynn 1771 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 xfce4-power-manager flynn 1774 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:01 xfce4-settings-helper flynn 1776 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 xfce4-volumed flynn 1785 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:01 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gdu-volume-monitor flynn 1787 1683 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:01 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libsystray.so 4 29360193 systray Notification Area Area where notification icons appear flynn 1800 1683 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:01 /usr/lib/xfce4-indicator-plugin/xfce4/panel-plugins/xfce4-indicator-plugin 5 29360194 indicator Indicator Plugin An indicator of something that needs your attention on the desktop flynn 1803 1683 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libxfsm-logout-plugin.so 9 29360196 xfsm-logout-plugin Session Menu Shows a menu with options to lock the screen, suspend, shutdown, or log out flynn 1806 1683 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/wrapper /usr/lib/xfce4/panel/plugins/libthunar-tpa.so 24 29360206 thunar-tpa Trash Applet Display the trash can flynn 1807 1764 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /bin/cat flynn 1809 1764 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 [zeitgeist-datah] <defunct> flynn 1816 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-trash --spawner :1.10 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/0 flynn 1818 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor flynn 1820 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:01 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-afc-volume-monitor flynn 1824 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/indicator-application/indicator-application-service flynn 1826 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/indicator-messages/indicator-messages-service flynn 1828 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:01 /usr/lib/indicator-sound/indicator-sound-service flynn 1852 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:01:12 /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/ubuntuone-client/ubuntuone-syncdaemon flynn 1863 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-network --spawner :1.10 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/1 flynn 1886 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-dnssd --spawner :1.10 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/3 flynn 1991 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver --no-daemon flynn 4427 1683 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 bash /usr/bin/banshee --redirect-log --play-enqueued flynn 4432 4427 0 Jul12 ? 00:05:47 banshee /usr/lib/banshee/Banshee.exe --redirect-log --play-enqueued flynn 4448 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon flynn 4462 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/bin/python /usr/lib/ubuntu-sso-client/ubuntu-sso-login flynn 4528 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-metadata flynn 4794 1 0 Jul12 ? 00:00:02 /usr/lib/bamf/bamfdaemon flynn 13250 1205 0 13:52 tty2 00:00:00 -bash flynn 13450 1206 0 13:54 tty3 00:00:00 -bash flynn 13870 1 0 18:20 ? 00:00:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-http --spawner :1.10 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/4 flynn 15025 1 0 21:54 ? 00:00:08 transmission-gtk flynn 15165 13450 0 21:57 tty3 00:00:00 mocp flynn 15166 15165 1 21:57 ? 00:00:11 mocp flynn 15660 13250 0 22:10 tty2 00:00:00 mc flynn 15661 15660 0 22:10 ? 00:00:00 cons.saver /dev/tty2 flynn 15662 15660 0 22:10 pts/0 00:00:00 bash -rcfile .bashrc flynn 15727 1673 0 22:10 ? 00:00:00 glmatrix -root flynn 15738 15660 0 22:12 tty2 00:00:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/sensible-editor /home/flynn/Documents/Code/ldd.text flynn 15746 15738 0 22:12 tty2 00:00:00 /usr/bin/mcedit /home/flynn/Documents/Code/ldd.text flynn 15747 15746 0 22:12 ? 00:00:00 cons.saver /dev/tty2 flynn 15748 15746 0 22:12 tty2 00:00:00 /bin/sh /tmp/mc-flynn/mcusriqGpTv flynn 15749 15748 0 22:12 tty2 00:00:00 ps -ef flynn 15750 15748 0 22:12 tty2 00:00:00 grep flynn |
Counting how much disk space files in a directory are taking up.
flynn@ubuntu:/media/Elements/Movies$ du -ackh | tail -n 1 65G total |
Viewing only certain files in a folder. Using the ls command and wildcards.
~$ ls -hula ../../Desktop/*.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 28K 2012-07-10 21:39 ../../Desktop/0817-Australia-collar-bomb-suspect_full_600.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 99K 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/101031unknown1b.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 3.0M 2012-07-09 21:29 ../../Desktop/1341805787928.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 371K 2012-07-10 21:52 ../../Desktop/1341828408233.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 2.7M 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/1341907701198.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 635K 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/1342007983380.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 59K 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/1342008134206.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 205K 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/1342008295830.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 204K 2012-07-12 22:53 ../../Desktop/1342096201790.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 61K 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/640x480, wretched_and_filthy_640_25.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 52K 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/iphone-3gs-camera.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 949K 2012-07-10 21:36 ../../Desktop/iphone-insides.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 117K 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/iphone-insides-motherboard-sml.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 1.3M 2012-07-10 21:37 ../../Desktop/iphone-rear-of-lcd-screen.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 150K 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/iphone-rear-of-lcd-screen-sml.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 1.0M 2012-07-09 21:29 ../../Desktop/london-stadium.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 44K 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/oap_home4.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 59K 2012-07-12 22:46 ../../Desktop/wretched_and_filthy_640_20.jpg -rw-r--r-- 1 flynn flynn 60K 2012-07-11 22:45 ../../Desktop/wretched_and_filthy_640_22.jpg |
Printing out various information about your system easily. Seeing how much memory your system has and how much has been used up.
[email protected]:~$ vmstat -s 5912404 K total memory 5390012 K used memory 2066764 K active memory 2935616 K inactive memory 522392 K free memory 1481900 K buffer memory 3049064 K swap cache 2559996 K total swap 7096 K used swap 2552900 K free swap 1107650 non-nice user cpu ticks 87719 nice user cpu ticks 313550 system cpu ticks 23468879 idle cpu ticks 24232 IO-wait cpu ticks 8 IRQ cpu ticks 64063 softirq cpu ticks 0 stolen cpu ticks 4082004 pages paged in 3292808 pages paged out 0 pages swapped in 1774 pages swapped out 32197903 interrupts 158362281 CPU context switches 1342080281 boot time 48176 forks |
Viewing information about a zipfile with the Linux command-line. Using the zipinfo command.
flynn@ubuntu:~/Downloads$ zipinfo cratnew.zip Archive: cratnew.zip Zip file size: 189895 bytes, number of entries: 2 -rw-r--r-- 2.3 unx 531385 bx defN 07-Jul-15 18:54 cratnew.wad -rw-r--r-- 2.3 unx 1752 tx defN 07-Jul-15 18:58 cratnew.txt 2 files, 533137 bytes uncompressed, 189609 bytes compressed: 64.4% |
To view a list of the partitions mounted on your machine, you may use either of these commands. Firstly; the cat /proc/partitions command.
flynn@ubuntu:~/Documents$ cat /proc/partitions major minor #blocks name 8 0 488386584 sda 8 1 440320 sda1 8 2 358400000 sda2 8 3 126976000 sda3 8 4 1 sda4 8 5 2560000 sda5 8 16 488386584 sdb 8 17 225280000 sdb1 8 18 33792000 sdb2 8 19 1 sdb3 8 21 229238784 sdb5 11 0 5930586 sr0 8 32 1953514584 sdc 8 33 1953511424 sdc1 flynn@ubuntu:~/Documents$ |
Or the mount(1) command, this will also list the mounted partitions on your system.
flynn@ubuntu:~/Documents$ mount /dev/sdb1 on / type xfs (rw) proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw) none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw) none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw) none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755) none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620) none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev) none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755) none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev) gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/flynn/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=flynn) /dev/sda1 on /media/e01436e0-4aa5-420b-94aa-0b35bd00020e type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,commit=0,commit=0) /dev/sda3 on /media/a6f66737-afea-48c3-9694-f6da22904d37 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,commit=0,commit=0) /dev/sdb2 on /media/3fabc97d-c76a-4922-8705-5536e89cfd21 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,commit=0,commit=0) /dev/sdb5 on /media/52d826a6-7de5-45db-b693-dd7c7e82af37 type ext4 (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,commit=0,commit=0) /dev/sda2 on /media/c84b3630-79a5-4ab3-85a5-f50bc23a3da9 type xfs (rw,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks) /dev/sdc1 on /media/Elements type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,allow_other,blksize=4096,default_permissions) /dev/sr0 on /media/300 type udf (ro,nosuid,nodev,uhelper=udisks,uid=1000,gid=1000,iocharset=utf8,umask=0077,dmode=0500) |
Setting up Ubuntu for multimedia playback
DVD playback on Linux.
The best way to get the right program to playback DVD discs is with smplayer, type this command to get it: sudo apt-get install smplayer. To get DVD playback in Ubuntu Karmic Koala, you need to download the libdvdcss library and compile and install with ./configure && make && make install. Then you need the libdvdread library and repeat the process with that tarball and then you can play back DVD discs with smplayer. The libdvdread library would not work on my system after I installed the libdvdcss DVD decryption library, so I built it again from vanilla source and that fixed it. The libdvdcss library is not supplied by default with most Linux distributions, but installing it is easy. The overall impression of the Ubuntu Karmic Koala distribution is that is quite polished and I do not bother with the accelerated 3D graphics drivers like Nvidia but I am sure they would be easy to install. I have found it easier when I have tried them, that it is easier to download the drivers from the Nvidia website and compile them from source. That is a good way, but is not always successful with a vanilla kernel but I am happy with the distribution kernel as the driver support is sufficient for my needs and I get the automatic updates from Ubuntu to keep my system up to date.
Here is a comments thread with some varied experiences with early releases of Ubuntu Karmic Koala. http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/6/2009/11/03/karmic_koala_frustration/.
Setting up xorg correctly
You might have noticed that the xorg.conf is missing, this is because xorg can auto-detect everything and does not need it, but if like me you want one, then read on… You need to press Ctrl->Alt-F2 to switch to a text console and login and then type: sudo /etc/init.d/gdm stop to stop the gdm process and then type Xorg -configure to generate a Xorg configuration file in /root. You can then copy this file into /etc/X11 as xorg.conf and then setup your resolutions in the file. My xorg.conf for Ubuntu Karmic is below. I had problems with my graphics card and took it out and booted without it and the graphics would not work until I setup a xorg.conf file. My integrated graphics chipset works perfectly and is quite fast, but it was not going to work until I set it up manually. Now I have a fast 1280×1024 24BPP desktop.
Section "ServerLayout" Identifier "X.org Configured" Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0 InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer" InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard" EndSection Section "Files" ModulePath "/usr/lib/xorg/modules" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/misc" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/cyrillic" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi/:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi/:unscaled" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/Type1" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/100dpi" FontPath "/usr/share/fonts/X11/75dpi" FontPath "/var/lib/defoma/x-ttcidfont-conf.d/dirs/TrueType" FontPath "built-ins" EndSection Section "Module" Load "dri" Load "extmod" Load "glx" Load "dbe" Load "record" Load "dri2" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Keyboard0" Driver "kbd" EndSection Section "InputDevice" Identifier "Mouse0" Driver "mouse" Option "Protocol" "auto" Option "Device" "/dev/input/mice" Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5 6 7" EndSection Section "Monitor" #DisplaySize 320 240 # mm Identifier "Monitor0" VendorName "PHL" ModelName "PHILIPS 107B" HorizSync 30.0 - 92.0 VertRefresh 50.0 - 160.0 Option "DPMS" EndSection Section "Device" ### Available Driver options are:- ### Values: <i>: integer, <f>: float, <bool>: "True"/"False", ### <string>: "String", <freq>: "<f> Hz/kHz/MHz" ### [arg]: arg optional #Option "SWcursor" # [<bool>] #Option "HWcursor" # [<bool>] #Option "NoAccel" # [<bool>] #Option "ShadowFB" # [<bool>] #Option "UseFBDev" # [<bool>] #Option "Rotate" # [<str>] #Option "VideoKey" # <i> #Option "FlatPanel" # [<bool>] #Option "FPDither" # [<bool>] #Option "CrtcNumber" # <i> #Option "FPScale" # [<bool>] #Option "FPTweak" # <i> #Option "DualHead" # [<'bool>] Identifier "Card0" Driver "nv" VendorName "nVidia Corporation" BoardName "NVCrush11 [GeForce2 MX Integrated Graphics]" BusID "PCI:1:0:0" EndSection Section "Screen" Identifier "Screen0" Device "Card0" Monitor "Monitor0" SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 1 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 4 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 8 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 15 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Depth 16 EndSubSection SubSection "Display" Viewport 0 0 Modes "1280x1024" "1024x768" "800x600" Depth 24 EndSubSection EndSection |
You should not have to go to all this trouble to set up your graphics, you should be able to use something like this: http://en.opensuse.org/SaX2. That can be run from the framebuffer console and then you can setup all of your X hardware like mouse, keyboard and your monitor. I used to use this when I was running Suse 10.1. It is very easy to use and configure your xorg.conf file to get it just right, and you can test the desktop resolution before you apply it.
Cool Linux screensavers I enjoy that Windows users might never see. Not even
in LongHorn.
Xearth. http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~tuna /xearth/
GlMatrix. A screensaver that renders 3D falling code just like the beginning sequence in the first Matrix Film.
OpenGl Bouncing Cow. A Cow on a Trampoline. Need I say more?
OpenGl Flying Toasters. Shiny chrome toasters. Flying toast. A great combination.
3D Rendered Fractal Mountains. http://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk/~spb/xmountains/
For more information on Xscreensaver, including updates: visit http://www.jwz.org/xscreensaver/.
