Linux Tips

Contents

• Find Linux Programs
• Get a list of all running programs with their RAM and CPU usage
• Mount smbfs Shares Permanently
• Qucs: Quite Universal Circuit Simulator Tips
• Learn more about Linux
  • How to untar a tar.gz file using the command line
  • Read TUX Magazine
  • Listen to the Linux Reality Podcast
  • Use the Super Grub Disk to restore Grub after installing Windows
  • Access Windows Shares reliably using Samba
  • Irssi: how to keep Private messages from disappearing in other windows
  • Easy way to count occurances of a string
• KDE Tips
• Get Kopete working with Google Talk
• Fix yuvscaler error in digikam
• Arch Linux Tips
• Cool Linux Games
• X-Moto
• Koules
• Frozen Bubble
• LinCity-NG
• Debian Linux Tips
• Linux Video Editing Tips
• Edit DVDs with Avidemux
• Burn Video DVDs with K3b
• Easily Create DVDs with Menus
• Make Cinelerra look much nicer!
• Get DVDShrink working under Wine
• Familiar Linux Tips
• Networking
  • Connect to the Internet through the USB connection of your cradle.
  • How to copy files to and from your Pocket PC
  • How to ssh into your Pocket PC
• Installing
  • Settings I used when installing Familiar with minicom
• Samba Tips
• Linux Programs I Use
• General Linux Tips
• Graphics Editing Tips
• Linux Kernel
• PCLinuxOS Tips
• Tips for the LILO Boot Loader
• Text Editing Tips
• Git Tips
• CentOS 5 Tips
• Hardware

  Learn more about Linux

ps aux

Learn more about Linux

• Read Linux Partitions From Windows - Added: 2007-04-19 01:55:42
  http://www.fs-driver.org/

• Tips for Advocating Linux - Added: 2007-05-07 14:25:17
  http://liw.iki.fi/liw/texts/advocating-linux.html

diff --git a/.bashrc b/.bashrc
index 6e6d1e1..2464e23 100644
--- a/.bashrc
+++ b/.bashrc
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@
 alias rm='rm -i'
 alias cp='cp -i'
 alias mv='mv -i'
-
+alias untar='tar zxvf'
 # Source global definitions
 if [ -f /etc/bashrc ]; then
        . /etc/bashrc

• HOWTO Dual Monitors - Gentoo Linux Wiki - Added: 2007-03-13 12:06:37
  http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Dual_Monitors

Configuring the Margins

Run the following commands:

cd /tmp
wget http://www.linuxprinting.org/download/printing/alignmargins
wget http://www.linuxprinting.org/download/printing/align.ps
chmod 755 alignmargins
su
./alignmargins

This will print an alignment page. Text at the top of the page should indicate the currently set Margins and HWMargins. If these aren't all set to 0, enter 0 at every prompt and start over.

The first task is to align the output within the physical page. Measure H and V (in inches) from the edge of the page and calculate x and y as explained on the print out. Enter 0 for all the m* values and the calculated x and y values. 

settings = {
 core = {
   real_name = "Elijah Lofgren";
   user_name = "elijahlofgren";
   nick = "elijahlofgren";
 };
 "fe-common/core" = {
   autocreate_own_query = "no";
   autocreate_query_level = "NONE";
   use_status_window = "no";
   use_msgs_window = "no";
   autoclose_windows = "no";
   reuse_unused_windows = "yes";
   windows_auto_renumber = "no";
   print_active_channel = "yes";
   theme = "elho";
   beep_msg_level = "msgs";
   window_auto_change = "yes";
   autocreate_split_windows = "yes";
 };
};

KDE Tips

[Xdmcp]
# Whether KDM should listen to incoming XDMCP requests.
# Default is true
Enable=false

[Xdmcp]
# Whether KDM should listen to incoming XDMCP requests.
# Default is true
Enable=true

#*           #any host can get a login window

*           #any host can get a login window

Shortcuts

Arch Linux Tips

• How to upgrade Arch Linux

  Fetch list of updates updates and Upgrade all packages:

  # pacman --sync --refresh --sysupgrade

  Just Upgrade:

  # pacman -Su

• Install Packages from UNSUPPORTED

  In the ArchLinux User-community Repository there are packages for Arch Linux that are not available elsewhere. For instructions on how to install a package from UNSUPPORTED see How to use the AUR in the ArchWiki.

• Get auto-starting of KDE screensavers working

  See my KDE Tips page.

• Set up Apache, PHP, and MySQL

  See the LAMP (Linux Apache MySql PHP) ArchWiki page.

• Easily disable a kernel module from being automatically loaded

  You can easily disable a kernel module by adding a line to /etc/modprobe.conf. I disabled one of my sound cards by adding the following line to the bottom of /etc/modprobe.conf:

  blacklist snd_ens1371

• Enable any user to write to a FAT32 partition

  See the Writing on a FAT32 partition as a normal user ArchWiki page.

• Get display of embeded PDFs in Mozilla Firefox working

  Install mozplugger and kpdf.

• Get playback of MIDI files in background of web pages working

  1. Install timidity++
  2. Install mozplugger
  3. Get a soundfont:

     wget ftp://ftp.personalcopy.net/pub/Unison.sf2.gz

  4. Extract soundfont:

     gunzip Unison.sf2.gz

  5. Make directory for soundfont:

     mkdir /usr/share/soundfonts

  6. Move soundfont to soundfont directory:

     mv Unison.sf2 /usr/share/soundfonts

  7. Add the following line to the bottom of /etc/timidity++/timidity.cfg

     soundfont /usr/share/soundfonts/Unison.sf2
     

  8. Open /etc/mozpluggerrc and change:

     audio/x-midi:midi,mid:MIDI audio file
             controls noisy stream: timidity -Od "$file"
             controls: playmidi "$file"

     to:

     audio/x-midi:midi,mid:MIDI audio file
             controls noisy stream: wget "$file" -O midifile.mid && timidity midifile.mid
             controls: wget "$file" -O midifile.mid && timidity midifile.midi
     

Cool Linux Games

Note: For a list of much more cool linux games, please see: Ubuntu Linux Games Page

Debian Linux Tips

I ran Debian Etch (Testing) about the time I wrote most of this page.

Hardware

• Disable second sound card so that flash will work

  1. Add a line like the following to /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

     blacklist snd_ens1371

  2. Reboot.

• Get KDE Media Daemon to pop up when inserting CD or removable device

  Install "hal".

• Enable mounted CDs to be ejected when eject button is pushed

  1. Open /etc/sysctl.conf and add the following line:

     dev.cdrom.lock=0

  2. Reboot your computer.

• Enable USB devices to be mounted by users without adding entry in /etc/fstab

  Install pmount.

• Install Nvidia Graphics Driver

  Follow the NvidiaGraphicsDrivers guide in the Debian wiki and then install and run nvidia-xconfig to enable the Nvidia Driver.

Microsoft

• Allow all users to write to Windows 98 partition

  Add a line like this to /etc/fstab:

  /dev/hdb1       /windows    vfat    users,rw,umask=000   0  0

• Run old DOS games

  Install and use dosbox:

  apt-get install dosbox

Multimedia and Plugins

• Enable install of multimedia codecs

  Follow the instructions at the bottom of the Unofficial Debian Packages page.

• Make Fullscreen in MPlayer work

  Open /etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf and find:

  zoom=no                 # Enable software scaling (powerful CPU needed)

  change it to:

  zoom=yes                # Enable software scaling (powerful CPU needed)

• Get playback of embedded MIDI files working in Firefox

  Install timidity and newest mozplugger from http://mozplugger.mozdev.org/. Find the newest Debian (.deb) package from http://dagobah.ucc.asn.au/mozplugger/ and use that.

• Get embedded PDFs in Firefox with Acrobat Reader working

  1. Install newest mozplugger from http://mozplugger.mozdev.org/. Find the newest Debian (.deb) package from http://dagobah.ucc.asn.au/mozplugger/ and use that.

  2. Open /etc/mozpluggerrc and replace:

      ifelse(esyscmd([acroread -helpall | grep openInNewWindow]),[],[
       define(ACROREAD,[ACROREAD_FLAGS(): acroread ACROREAD_OPTS() +useFrontEndProgram "$file"])
      ],[
       define(ACROREAD,[ACROREAD_FLAGS(): acroread ACROREAD_OPTS() -openInNewWindow "$file"])
      ])
     

     with:

     # ifelse(esyscmd([acroread -helpall | grep openInNewWindow]),[],[
     #  define(ACROREAD,[ACROREAD_FLAGS(): acroread ACROREAD_OPTS() +useFrontEndProgram "$file"])
     # ],[
       define(ACROREAD,[ACROREAD_FLAGS(): acroread ACROREAD_OPTS() -openInNewWindow "$file"])
     # ])
     

• Get embedded WAV files working in Firefox

  Install mozilla-mplayer:

  apt-get install mozilla-mplayer

• Install Sun Java Plugin for Firefox

  Enable the Debian Unofficial repository and install the "mozilla-sun-j2se5.0-binary" package.

• Easily create flash video tutorials

  Enable the Debian Unofficial repository and install the "wink-binary" package.

  You can find out more about Wink by visiting the Wink Homepage.

Packages

• Find which files come in which packages

  I needed to find out the packages that provided "sane-config". I found out that using "apt-file" allows you to search and find in which package a file is included.

  To search packages file contents with apt-file:

  1. Install apt-file:

     apt-get install apt-file

  2. Resynchronize the lists of the contents of packages from their sources:

     apt-file update

  3. Find which packages contains a certain file. (Example: "sane-config"):

     apt-file search sane-config

• Install a few packages from unstable and keep everything else on testing

  1. Open /etc/apt/apt.conf and add this line:

     Apt::Default-Release "testing";

  2. Open /etc/apt/sources.list and add the following 2 lines:

     #### unstable #########
     deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian unstable main non-free contrib

  3. Run:

     apt-get update

  Now you can choose to install packages from unstable but your packages from testing will not be upgraded to be unstable versions.

Improving Looks

• Make GTK apps look better

  1. Run:

     apt-get install gtk2-engines-clearlooks gtk-theme-switch

  2. Run:

     gtk-theme-switch2

  3. Choose "Clearlooks" and click Apply.

• Remove KDE Dragon from Logout menu

  Run this command:

  rm /usr/share/apps/ksmserver/pics/shutdownkonq.png

Old stuff

I run Debian Sarge (Stable). On this page is fixes for problems I have run into and some tips for setting stuff up.

• Work around inconsistent naming of network interfaces by the kernel

  I had trouble with the names of eth0 and eth1 being switched randomly each time I booted up. This made network configuration very troublesome. Read below for the solution that I found.

  From Dealing with inconsistent naming of interfaces by the kernel and Laptop Ethernet Configuration

  1. Install the get-mac-address.sh script:

     # install -m770 /usr/share/doc/ifupdown/examples/get-mac-address.sh \
             /usr/local/sbin/

  2. Open "/etc/networking/interfaces" and make it have a section like this in it (change the MAC addresses to those of your network cards):

     mapping eth0
             script /usr/local/sbin/get-mac-address.sh
             map 00:0C:6E:B3:A0:C0 net1
             map 00:05:5D:4B:96:7F lan1
     
     mapping eth1
             script /usr/local/sbin/get-mac-address.sh
             map 00:0C:6E:B3:A0:C0 net1
             map 00:05:5D:4B:96:7F lan1
     
     auto eth0
     auto eth1
     
     # Internet
     iface net1 inet dhcp
     
     # Lan
     # iface eth0 inet dhcp
     iface lan1 inet static
             address 192.168.1.7
             netmask 255.255.255.0
             # gateway 192.168.1.1
     

• Fix "Superblox last write time is in the future" error"

  Open "/etc/default/rcS" and make sure the following options are set:

  # Set UTC=yes if your system clock is set to UTC (GMT), and UTC=no if not.
  UTC=yes
  # Set FSCKFIX to "yes" if you want to add "-y" to the fsck at startup.
  FSCKFIX=yes

• Enable install of msttcorefonts

  Open "/etc/apt/sources.list" and change the following line from:

  deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main

  to:

  deb http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ unstable main contrib

• Easily install Java plugin for Firefox

  Follow the instructions about the Java packages for Debian.

• Get Minolta-QMS Magicolor 2300 DL Printer working

  Follow the instructions on this page: Linux Hardware Info Minolta Magicolor 2300DL < Main < TWiki:.

Linux Video Editing Tips

Familiar Linux Tips

Tips on this page are for Familiar Linux which runs on iPAQ Pocket PCs. I use the Open Palmtop Integrated Environment (Opie). I have a H3850 iPAQ Pocket PC.

This page is a work in progress. ;)

Networking

mkdir ~/pocketpc/
sudo scp -rv ipaq:/home/root/ ~/pocketpc/

sudo scp ~/LQ-Podcast-033006.mp3  ipaq:/home/root

ssh ipaq -l root

Installing

Samba Tips

• Share Windows files with VMware

  Here's what I have set in /etc/samba/smb.conf to share my Windows files with VMware:

  # Security mode. Defines in which mode Samba will operate. Possible
  # values are share, user, server, domain and ads. Most people will want
  # user level security. See the Samba-HOWTO-Collection for details.
     security = share
  
  [Windows]
  path = /mnt/windows
  comment = Windows Files
  available = yes
  browseable = yes
  public = yes
  writable = yes
  

Linux Programs I Use

Web Browsing & Email

• Mozilla Firefox

  Mozilla Firefox - A fast, highly configurable web browser. Check it out! Also take a look at the Firefox Extensions Page.
  

• Mozilla Thunderbird

  Mozilla Thunderbird - The companion to Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird is a great light-weight email client.

File Management

• Konqueror

  Konqueror - Konqueror is the file manager that is included with KDE. It is both intuitive and powerful. It also doubles as a Web Browser and FTP file transer client.
  

Word Processing

• OpenOffice.org

  OpenOffice.org - A complete office suite to rival MS Word.

• K Desktop Environment

  KDE - KDE is a powerful fast Desktop Enviroment. It rocks!

General Linux Tips

• Easily copy files between computers using scp

  The scp command allows you to easily copy files between computers using ssh. See the Secure Copy page in the Wikipedia.

• Easily Run X Sessions over network without need for VNC!

  Today, I worked for hours and hours trying unsuccessfully to get TightVNC or RealVNC working correctly. I finally came across a post on the Gentoo Forums that suggested running:
  X -query $HOSTNAMEOFCOMPUTER
  Sure enough, IT WORKED!. I found out more info about it by running X --help:
  -query host-name contact named host for XDMCP
  So now I've put X -query tux in the .bash_profile of the users on two of my low powered boxes. I then just login through the text console and the KDM login screen from my high powered box shows up. Also, the performance seems MUCH better than VNC ever was!

• Use Special Keys on Keyboard

  I got the special keys on my new wireless Micro Innovations keyboard working in Gentoo Linux by following the instructions for Setting Linux up to use the Cherry CyMotion Master Linux USB keyboard and by configuring KHotKeys to map the special keys to actions.

• Run Windows 98 under Qemu

  See the following links:

  • Mounting a qemu created root disk image
  • Qemu - ArchWiki

Graphics Editing Tips

PDFs

• Convert a TIFF image to a PDF document

  You can use the tiff2pdf command to convert a TIFF image to a PDF document. An example command for converting a TIFF to a PDF using Zip/Deflate compression is below.

  tiff2pdf tiff_input_file.tif -z -o pdf_output_file.pdf

• Easily Rotate PDFs 90 Degrees using PDFjam

  PDFjam comes with a script called pdf90 which you can use to rotate PDF documents by 90 degreee increments. I use it to rotate PDF documents that are supposed to be landscape but were created in portrait mode.

Linux Kernel

Tips

• Use /search in menuconfig
• Remember to mount /boot before copying over new kernel.

Some of the options I enable when I compile the Linux Kernel

• File systems --->
  • Network File Systems --->
    • <*> NFS file system support
    • <*> NFS server support
    • [ ] Provide NFS server over TCP support
• Device Drivers --->
  • IEEE 1394 (FireWire) support --->
    • <M> OHCI-1394 Video support
    • <M> OHCI-DV I/O support
  • Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) --->
    • <*> PCI NE2000 and clones support (see help)
    • <*> VIA Rhine support
  • Networking support --->
    • <*> PPP (point-to-point protocol) support
      • <*> PPP support for async serial ports
      • <*> PPP support for sync tty ports
    • Networking options --->
      • [*] Network packet filtering (replaces ipchains) --->
        • IP: Netfilter Configuration --->
          • IP: Netfilter Configuration --->
            • <M> FTP protocol support
            • <M> IRC protocol support

PCLinuxOS Tips

• Get auto-starting of KDE screensavers working

  See my KDE Tips page.

• Fix /dev/dsp sound permission denied errors

  When you add a user during the install of PCLinuxOS they only get added to their own group. To keep from getting permission denied errors about sound when multiple users are logged in just add each user to the audio group.

• Install VMWare Player

  VMWare Player needs to be patched to be able to install on PCLinuxOS. Here's how to install it:

  1. Download and install VMWare player
  2. Download the vmware-config-1GB-lowmem.patch
  3. Patch vmware-config.pl:

     patch /usr/bin/vmware-config.pl /path/to/vmware/vmware-config-1GB-lowmem.patch

  4. Run vmware-config.pl

Tips for the LILO Boot Loader

• Add option to boot into Windows on slave drive

  Do be able to boot into a windows partition you need an entry in you /etc/lilo.conf file like the following:

  other=/dev/hdb1
          label="windows"
          map-drive=0x80
             to=0x81
          map-drive=0x81
             to=0x80
  

Text Editing Tips

• Turn off auto-wordwrap in Nano

  See the: TIP Nano No Auto-wrap entry in the Gentoo Wiki.

Git Tips

Useful git-related pages

Elijah's Git cheatsheat:

How To Use git-svn to Easily Create NICE Patches for All Your SVN Commits

Checkout starting from an SVN repo:

svn log https://svn.perl.org/parrot/trunk|head
git-svn fetch -r17048

Or:

elijahlofgren@kubuntu:~/www/silverstripe-gsoc$ mkdir sharethis
elijahlofgren@kubuntu:~/www/silverstripe-gsoc$ cd sharethis/
elijahlofgren@kubuntu:~/www/silverstripe-gsoc/sharethis$ git-svn init http://svn.silverstripe.com/open/modules/sharethis/trunk/
Initialized empty Git repository in .git/
elijahlofgren@kubuntu:~/www/silverstripe-gsoc/sharethis$ svn log http://svn.silverstripe.com/open/modules/sharethis/trunk/ --limit 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------
r39763 | lperera | 2007-08-08 17:56:25 -0500 (Wed, 08 Aug 2007) | 1 line

Changes to the README file
------------------------------------------------------------------------
elijahlofgren@kubuntu:~/www/silverstripe-gsoc/sharethis$ git-svn fetch -r39763
        A       images/icons/reddit.gif
...

        A       README
W: +empty_dir: javascript
W: +empty_dir: templates/Includes
W: +empty_dir: templates/Layout
r39763 = 797a01c72d170d45a7f884a61a231fa0852fe27b (git-svn)

Checked out HEAD:
  http://svn.silverstripe.com/open/modules/sharethis/trunk r39763
 

Download new revisions from SVN:

git-svn fetch 

Create a branch in order to push to http://repo.or.cz/w/silverstripe-elijah.git 

 git-checkout -b tiny_mce2

 git push git+ssh://repo.or.cz/srv/git/silverstripe-elijah.git tiny_mce2

Pust to git repo:

push git+ssh://repo.or.cz/srv/git

Committing (I use Cogito so I can use a commit-post hook for CIA)

Can use cg-commit, cg-diff, etc, like SVN. :) 

Fix "update-index --refresh: command returned error: 1" error

elijahlofgren@kubuntu:~/www/silverstripe-gsoc/cms$ git-svn rebase
.dotest/0002: needs update
...
.dotest/whitespace: needs update
update-index --refresh: command returned error: 1
 elijahlofgren@kubuntu:~/www/silverstripe-gsoc/cms$ git-log
commit ac3cf2659cab01afe99e5952c3501d6617b24af7
Author: Elijah Lofgren <elijahlofgren@kubuntu.(none)>
Date:   Thu Aug 16 12:49:03 2007 -0500

    Merge in SVN stuff

commit d7b488f81157b2143fa2c4a0d76a779af31dbcf3
Author: Elijah Lofgren <elijahlofgren@kubuntu.(none)>
Date:   Tue Aug 14 14:37:13 2007 -0500

    Fix silverstripe_version

commit 67096a4bd9dec9e4e06b49100fe94600373d8695
elijahlofgren@kubuntu:~/www/silverstripe-gsoc/cms$ git reset d7b488f81157b2143fa2c4a0d76a779af31dbcf3
lang/en_US.php: needs update

 elijahlofgren@kubuntu:~/www/silverstripe-gsoc/cms$ cg-commit --no-hooks -m "Fix git lang merge file"
M lang/en_US.php
Committed as d056fe23423ad7f62228c933f36ec1c759d81e95
elijahlofgren@kubuntu:~/www/silverstripe-gsoc/cms$ git-svn rebase
Current branch master is up to date.

Some commands  I used when working on SilverStripe: 

git-svn rebase (NOT git-svn fetch in order to actually apply new updates to local)
git-svn add
git push git+ssh://repo.or.cz/srv/git/silverstripe-elijah.git tiny_mce2
git-format-patch -o ~/silverstripe/patches/

CentOS 5 Tips

Hardware

Learn more about Linux

Comments

Pages

• Linux Tips
  Tips for various Linux programs and distributions.
  • KDE Tips
    Tips for the K Desktop Environment and some KDE programs.
    • Konqueror Tips
      Tips for the Konqueror, the KDE file manager and web browser.
    • Quanta Tips
      Tips for the Quanta Plus Web Development Enviroment.
  • Arch Linux Tips
    
  • Cool Linux Games
    A list of Linux games that I think are cool.
  • Debian Linux Tips
    Tips for the Debian Linux distribution.
  • Video Editing Tips
    Tips for people who edit video or create DVDs on Linux.
  • Familiar Linux Tips
    Tips for Familiar Linux which is a Linux distribution that runs on iPAQ Pocket PCs.
  • Samba Tips
    
  • Linux Programs I Use
    
  • General Linux Tips
    Various Linux tips that I have found to be useful.
  • Graphics Editing Tips
    Tips for people who edit graphics on Linux.
  • Linux Kernel
    Options that I enable when I compile the Linux Kernel myself.
  • PCLinuxOS Tips
    Tips for the PCLinuxOS operating system.
  • Tips for the LILO Boot Loader
    
  • Text Editing Tips
    Tips for the people who edit text files on Linux
  • Git Tips
    
  • CentOS 5 Tips
    
    • How to easily make a service such as named start at boot
      

Last Modified: June 29, 2008 04:00 PM

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