Linux Tips and Tricks

[Kevo]

This isn't written to be a definitive guide; however, feel free to add your own tips and tricks to it. These are all based off of the distribution Ubuntu, but some things apply across a great majority of Linux distros.

I hope to both clean this up eventually and have more thorough problems that people have with Linux, but this should do for now. It's all over the place and in no particular order. It was written in what ever order things came into my head while I was sitting here writing it. Nonetheless, I hope you find this useful or interesting and hope you could add any tidbits of help you have to pass on.

Background
Linux is a free and open source operating system (OS) and is considered to be the most widely used and prominent example of free and opened source programming. Linux is a Unix-like OS, and the core of the OS (called a kernel) was written in 1993 by a guy named Linus Torvalds, who, to this day is still involved with the development of it. Chances are you have used Linux before, many servers use Linux as well as cellphones, smartphones, routers, as well of course desktops.

The open source nature of Linux means many people can contribute to every aspect of it. For example, an estimated 3200 developers from over 200 companies have contributed to the core of the OS.

Since Linux is open source and free software, there are many different types you can find, also known as distributions, distros, or "flavours" even. Each distro uses the Linux kernel and builds the system around it, specializing it to their target audience's needs, then plopping a user interface on top of it, usually GNOME or KDE.

Now on to the tips and tricks:

How to install programs
There are 6 ways:
1)Using Add/Remove Programs under Applications
2)Using synaptic System-->Administration-->Synaptic
3)Using aptitude within the terminal Type "aptitude"
4)Using "sudo apt-get install xxxxx"
5)Using a .deb package
6)Compiling from source
Further reference: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/InstallingSoftware

How do I use Terminal?
The Terminal is something that you _must_ get used to using at least a bit in your time while using Linux. Most support documents or posts you'll see give advice for doing the work via terminal. Once you get used to it though you'll begin to remember the commands. Here are some simple ones:
*sudo use at at the beginning of a command to become a root user (administrator) so you can add, remove, or modify important system files. See also: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo
*ls lists the files in the current directory
*cd is for Change Directory. Type in cd followed by the directory "cd ~/" will bring you to your home directory.
*mv moves a file or allows you to rename the file. To rename type "mv file1 file2" renames a file named file1 to file2. To move things just type "mv file1 ~/Documents" where file1 is the filename and ~/Documents is the directory you want to move it to.

If you want to modify something in the filesystem as root but don't feel comfortable doing it with the Terminal, type this into

sudo nautilus

For more information: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UsingTheTerminal

How do I run Windows programs?
Using WINE or a virtual machine such as VMWare
In terminal type

sudo apt-get install wine

, press enter, enter in your password and it'll install.
To run a program, download the .exe and double click it to run it, not all programs run under it. For a list of programs that work check out: http://appdb.winehq.org/
Further reference: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wine

How do I get all of the cool desktop effects?
To install a control panel to use the different settings, download the following package

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

Under the System-->Preferences there will be a new entry called CompizConfig Settings Manager, and this has everything inside of it. Check the box beside a setting to enable and click the icon for each for settings.

Wireless cards
Option One:
Restricted-driver-manager (System-->Administration-->Hardware Drivers, alternatively it should pop-up with a notification in the top bar) should solve the need for ndiswrapper, it's finally working great on Intrepid for my broadcom drivers. [Thanks almiteycow]

Option Two:
If your wireless card doesn't work, there's a very helpful program for linux called ndiswrapper.
If you have Internet access on the computer, use

sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper

to install it, if not, you can get the source off of the install CD.
To add the CD to the software sources, go to System-->Administration-->Software Sources. Click Third-Party Software tab and check "Cdrom with Ubuntu x.yy 'Distro Name'". Put the CD in and press Close on the Software Sources box and let Ubuntu update the sources (so it knows what it has access to). Then in Terminal use the "sudo apt-get install ndiswrapper' command.
Next disable the default Linux driver to prevent conflictions:

echo -e "blacklist bcm43xx\nblacklist b43\nblacklist b43legacy\nblacklist ssb" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Once ndiswrapper is installed, download the Windows XP driver for it, open up ndiswrapper (System-->Administration-->Windows Wireless Drivers), press Add, browse for a file that ends with .inf and is for Windows XP.

Further reading: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Wi...er/Ndiswrapper

Security
Linux is inherently more safe than Windows because the default user is not the administrator. When any programs need to be installed, updated, or removed or anything important to the system needs to be modified (meaning almost everything that is not in your /home/ folder), you need an administrator password. This means to get a virus you need to willingly let that virus into your system by typing your password. For this reason, it is important to always try to get programs and updates for them from the official Ubuntu repositories (they're what come with the OS by default) because these packages have been checked and verified by the developers first. Also you will find that Ubuntu will have updates quite frequently, this is because small files (called dependencies) used by one or more programs can be updated. The OS updates a list of current versions from its sources daily to check for any updates. Since Linux and Ubuntu are both open source, anyone can update and improve the code. This means that there are potentially hundreds or even thousands of programmers going through the code to check for problems. Even large companies or government organizations will contribute security updates or programs to the project for anyone to use (ex: the National Security Agency/NSA).
Nevertheless, it's always good to have some sort of protection for your computer, especially since, in the end, it's the user who plays the biggest part in keeping the computer secure. Ubuntu does have a firewall, but it works in the background so you may want a GUI to control it with. To install one, type:

sudo apt-get install firestarter

To open the control panel you can get to it through either Applications-->Internet-->Firestarter or System-->Administrator-->Firestarter. Go through the wizard and once completed the icon will appear in the top toolbar near the date & time.

See also: Set up a firewall -- https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/keeping.../firewall.html
Further reference: Keeping Your Computer Safe -- https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/keeping-safe/C/index.html


Playing MP3s, XviD, DVDs, etc.
Since Ubuntu is completely free, it does not come with non-free decoders installed since it may be illegal in some countries unless a fee is paid (which is hard to pay for when people don't pay for the OS). To get access to these type this into the terminal and enter your password when asked:

sudo apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras

This should install support for MP3s, DVDs, Flash, Quicktime, WMA and WMV across the entire system and all of the programs.

How do I see hidden folders and files?
Hidden folders and files begin with a period "." in front of their name. To see them in Nautilus, the file explorer, press Ctrl+H or go to View-->Show Hidden Files. Do the same to hide them again. The Ctrl+H shortcut will work in dialogue boxes too, which is useful if you need to save or open files that are hidden.

How to install fonts
Option One:
Installing fonts system-wide can be done with alt-f2 and "gksudo nautilus" and dropping them into /usr/share/fonts/truetype [Thanks almiteycow]
Option Two:
If you'd like to install fonts, simply unhide the folders using Ctrl+H and copy and paste the font files into the .fonts folder in your home directory. Then, open up Terminal and type:

sudo fc-cache -f -v

Enter your password and it'll add it to its font cache so you can use it in all of the programs.

Enabling Smooth Fonts
To enable smooth fonts, go to System-->Preferences-->Appearance. Click on the Fonts tab, press "Subpixel smoothing (LCD)" and then click the "Details" button. Change the Hinting radio button to "Slight".
See also:http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2008/1...er-appearance/ and follow the guide for adding further font smoothing to achieve a MacOSX type of look.
See also:http://rewind.themasterplan.in/2007/...ts-on-kubuntu/ and follow the short guide near the bottom of the page for the best font smoothing (the most like OS X's font rendering).
Nicer Font Set for Ubuntu
I found that this font set goes well with the font smoothing shown above. It makes everything look crisp.
First, download the font set that is hosted on this blog. This font set is from the Google Android OS that's being used on mobile phones. Once they're unzipped, use one of the two methods mentioned above for installing fonts. Once you've followed those steps, go to System-->Preferences-->Appearance, click the Fonts tab, and change the first three fonts to Droid Sans, the fourth to Droid Sans Bold, and you can leave or change the last font as is depending on your preferences for areas of the OS such as the Terminal (change this one to Droid Sans Mono if you'd like to change it).

Reset Forgotten Password
Since this guide is better and has screenshots, I'll just link directly to it: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux...nutes-or-less/