This category is designed to help beginners get started using Linux, especially those transitioning from Windows. Learn essential Linux commands, system setup, and configuration tips to make the switch easy and smooth.
Easily Change Ownership of File or Directory in Linux. Changing file or directory ownership in Linux is a common administrative task. Whether you're managing a server, developing software, or organizing personal files, understanding how to use the chown command effectively is essential. This guide will walk you through the process, explain its syntax, and provide practical examples.
Learning how to find a file in Linux from the terminal can save time, reduce frustration, and significantly improve your productivity. Whether you're hunting for misplaced files, organizing a complex directory structure, or managing storage space, the find command in Linux is a powerful and versatile tool you need to master.
Learn how to untar, unzip, and extract tar files or tar.gz archives in Linux. In Linux and Unix-based systems, files are often compressed using formats like .tar, .tar.gz, or .tgz. These methods are widely used for packaging software and other downloadable content. Mastering how to create a tarball, view the contents of a tar archive, append to a tar file, and extract or untar files is essential for efficiently managing and using these archives.
LZMA compression (Lempel-Ziv-Markov chain algorithm) is a high-performance data compression algorithm known for its high compression ratio. It is widely used in various applications where space efficiency is critical, such as software distribution, embedded systems, and large datasets. This tutorial will guide you through installing and using LZMA on Linux. We'll cover everything from installation to basic and advanced commands, including how to compress and decompress files using this powerful tool on popular Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch Linux.
How to manually create a bootable USB from ISO Files Using the Linux dd Command. You can manually create a bootable USB from ISO files using the dd command from within Linux or any Unix-based system. The dd command is powerful and can be used for copying data bit by bit from a source to a destination, in essence making an exact copy of the source at the destination.
The chmod command is an essential tool for managing file permissions in Linux and Unix-based systems. It allows users to control the access rights to files and directories, ensuring that only authorized users can read, write, or execute specific files. The term CHMOD stands for CHange MODe, representing a fundamental skill for maintaining a secure and efficient system.
How to Install WINE on Ubuntu. This compatibility layer allows Linux users to run Windows executables .exe files in Linux. The acronym is actually "WINE is Not an Emulator", because it isn't. But we will get to that here in a bit. This software is not included in default Ubuntu installs, though it is available directly from the official universal or WineHQ Ubuntu repositories.
Rename File in Terminal from Linux: At first it might not be obvious, but you can easily use the mv command to rename files in Linux. From the terminal, this Linux command can be used to move a file from one location to another or to rename a folder in Linux.
Permanently erasing a flash drive: Have you ever wondered how to permanently delete files from a USB drive so no one can recover them? In this tutorial, we show you how to wipe USB drives using Linux, making sure that your files are gone for good.
Accessing Linux files from Windows (Linux Windows file sharing). How do I read Linux files from Windows or access files from Linux on Windows? The following section, I cover several methods that can be used to share files from Linux to Windows. Enabling you to read ext3 or ext2 partition data on Windows.
How to easily check Linux version and display installed kernel information. In this post, I walk you through multiple methods to check your Linux operating system (OS) version using simple terminal commands. Whether you're using Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, Fedora, or any other Linux distribution, these methods will help you identify your OS version quickly. Keep reading to learn how to check your Linux version with commands like lsb_release, cat, and others. Plus, we’ll also cover how to find your kernel version and other useful details.
It is inevitable that at some point you'll need to find and kill processes running on Linux. Like any other operating system, the programs or applications run on it can lock up, malfunction and become unresponsive. At which point you'll want to locate the process and stop or terminate it. Other use case examples might be to free up system resources for other tasks or to put a halt to security threats.
And Linux Command; && in Linux, logical operators are used in various contexts, including shell scripting and command line operations. Logical operators are used to perform logical operations on values or conditions, and they are typically used within conditional statements to control the flow of a script or to evaluate expressions.
For Loop Bash. For is a loop command in Linux; A bash command used in Linux and other Unix like operating systems to loop through a series of commands. It is most commonly used in shell scripts or bash to help automate tasks or routines.
Add user to sudoers file, list or group so that you can give a new user root access or privilege. How do I add a user to Sudoers? How do I give a user Sudo permission? How do I edit Sudoers? How do I add a user to Sudoers Visudo? Believe it or not, these are fairly common questions and in all reality the answer is quite simple.
Updating Linux: Keeping your Linux system updated is essential for maintaining stability, security, and getting the latest features. This guide will walk you through updating and upgrading packages and moving to the latest release on several popular Linux distributions, including Ubuntu, Fedora, CentOS, and Arch Linux.
Clear Terminal History in Linux; How do I clear bash history? How can I remove command line history or delete typed commands from the terminal? Is it possible to search and view terminal history? These are common questions asked by new Linux users.
How to easily add a context menu item that enables a Linux user to open files as root or administrator via right mouse click when browsing a file system. This feature allows the user to navigate their file system and open or edit any file or directory as the root user or admin of the system. It is a great solution for those that are not completely comfortable using terminal commands.
Restore Grub after Windows Install: After installing Windows alongside Linux, the Windows bootloader overwrites the Grub bootloader. This results in not being able to boot into Linux, which is where a Grub fix comes in.
Easily Create Your Own Live Linux distro, remix or spin; Creating your own custom Live Linux distro and resulting ISO file is not overly complicated. However, there are many different approaches depending mainly on which Linux base you decide to use. Many popular Linux distributions such as Knoppix, Ubuntu and DSL were originally based upon Debian.
Use the Linux persistent USB file creator to make a casper rw persistent file or writable persistence loop file for Ubuntu based distributions. Written for use from within Windows, this tool enables you to quickly create a loopback filesystem image to use for saving and restoring Ubuntu changes while booted from a live USB.
Install GRUB2 on USB from Windows: Need a reliable way to create a USB stick that boots from both BIOS and UEFI? This guide will show you how to install the Grub2 bootloader onto a USB flash drive directly from Windows. Using the grub-install.exe utility, you’ll prepare a highly compatible bootable USB device.
Mount exFAT USB from Linux. How to access and use an exFAT formatted USB Flash Drive from within Linux. Most newer Linux distributions already ship with exFAT FAT64 filesystem support via the FUSE library and related utilities. However, many older Ubuntu based distributions did not. The following solution covers the simple process of enabling exFAT detection from older Ubuntu based distributions.
How to Install Grub2 on USB from Linux to make a BIOS an UEFI bootable USB that can boot on all Machines. In the following tutorial, I'll show you one way of easily installing Grub2 Bootloader to a USB flash drive from an up and running Linux Operating Environment.
Learn How to Set Up Ubuntu Remote Desktop Screen Sharing: Looking for an easy way to access and control your Ubuntu desktop remotely? This guide shows you how to set up Ubuntu Remote Desktop Screen Sharing using VNC Viewer.
Create a Casper-RW Larger than 4GB; The following tutorial will show you one way to create a writable Casper partition on your USB flash drive. The benefit of using a casper-rw partition as opposed to a casper-rw block file is that you can expand your persistent storage beyond 4GB. This is useful if you have a large flash drive and want to use more space for persistent storage. The only drawback is that Windows will not see the secondary casper-rw partition. So in Windows, your drive will appear to be smaller than it actually is.
The following tutorial explains how to create a larger casper-rw loop file (or writable file) for your Ubuntu based flash drive install. For example on: Ubuntu, Xubuntu, Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Crunchbang or Linux Mint. A larger casper-rw loop file is particularly useful for those who have performed a Linux install to a large thumb drive using a Windows USB tutorial and need more persistent storage space for saving changes. The default casper-rw loop file we used in the Windows USB installation tutorials is only 1GB.
Sharing Files Between Ubuntu and Windows. In the following tutorial, I cover how to modify the casper script to allow you to mount your USB Flash Drive with read/write access. By default casper only allows the root user to gain full access to the drive, preventing the live user from saving files back to a fat formatted device. This tutorial allows for the default Ubuntu user to also have the same read and write access. Enabling you to share files between Linux and Windows.
How to remove the Ubuntu eject CD prompt: The following tutorial covers the process of removing the "Please remove the disk, close the tray (if any) and press ENTER to continue" prompt entirely from your USB Ubuntu installation.
Ubuntu Installer not detecting hard drive: I recently experienced a problem installing Ubuntu on a particular computer. Ubuntu's Ubiquity Installer was not detecting my SATA hard drive, although a fdisk -l command found the drive just fine, and the drive also appeared in gparted. As it turns out, the SATA drive had left over raid configuration information that was telling the installer to skip the drive (as if it was unsupported).
Persistent Linux - What is it? After looking through some of the tutorials offered on Pen Drive Linux, you may be wondering what USB persistence means. So in the following segment, I will cover my understanding of persistence in relation to Linux, data storage and recovery on USB flash drives. In addition, I will try to explain some of the limitations of using a USB persistent overlay partition, image or other persistence file data storage structure.
How to resize casper-rw partition images. TopoResize is a Free Image resizing tool originally written by Chris Semler. Initially created to resize images containing an ext2 or ext3 file system within Windows, such as those found in Colinux. You can use this nifty tool to create a new filesystem image as well as shrink or enlarge your existing persistent overlay images.
How to Mount NTFS Partition in Linux to Access Windows Files. In this guide, I'll show you how to easily mount and access a Windows NTFS partition from a running Linux environment. Whether you need to repair a Windows system, recover files, or just share and access data in a dual-boot setup, knowing how to work with NTFS partitions on Linux can be invaluable.
This step-by-step tutorial explains how a user can install Compiz on Ubuntu. Compiz is a composite window manager that allows the Linux user to attain stunning, 3D desktop effects with their personal desktop environment, as can be seen in the example Ubuntu Beryl Cube effect.
This tutorial explains how to fix the Ubuntu Boot to Ram or "toram" feature that was broken in Ubuntu 7.04. Boot to Ram will enable a user to copy the entire Ubuntu live environment to system ram and run the Ubuntu Operating System entirely from there.
The following explains how to fix the Compiz missing title bar problem in Ubuntu. If you've been toying around with Ubuntu and have enabled Desktop Effects "Compiz", you might notice that the title bar or window decorations have disappeared. This is a fairly common problem amongst systems using ATI or Nvidia video cards and commonly occurs after switching to a higher resolution.
The following is a quick reference list of some useful Linux shell commands along with a short description of common usage. There are several more, but this basic list was created to help familiarize the newly introduced Ubuntu users. Those who might be migrating from a Windows operating environment.
What is the default root password in Linux? Most Live Linux distributions are created without a root password. Before installation, the root account is inactive. This is particularly true with Debian and Ubuntu based Live distributions.
The following tutorial covers the process of changing the default Debian Menu Icon to a custom Icon and in addition change the Debian Menu name. This is for those who prefer to customize things while still using a pure Debian Linux Operating environment or a remix that is based on Debian.
The following tutorial covers the process of installing ipw3945 wireless drivers in Debian, Ubuntu or CentOS. Enabling you to get your Intel® PRO Wireless 3945ABG Wireless network card working in Debian or CentOS. The Intel® PRO Wireless 3945ABG network cards are older cards that were commonly used in various laptops ranging from HP to Dell.
Installing Compiz in Debian is a relatively simple process. It can be used to enhance the visual experience and usability of the Linux desktop environment. Probably one of the most popular effects is to create a Desktop Cube to navigate multiple screens or virtual desktops in a 3D space like shown in the Pendrivelinux homepage picture.
The following tutorial covers the process of installing the Proprietary NVIDIA video card drivers from the Nvidia Website into your Debian Lenny Linux system. We have known a lot of people who have had some issues trying to get the NVIDIA drivers to install and work with Lenny, so we decided to write this tutorial to offer up some tips and help. This tutorial should have you up and running video hardware accelerated in just a few minutes.
Looking to set up and create a local Ubuntu mirror or Debian mirror or host your own Debian repository or Ubuntu Repository? You can use your local hard drive or a network drive and share your mirror over a network or even on the internet. Having your own Debian Linux or Ubuntu mirrors enables you to drastically speed up the process of installing packages or complete netbuilds on one or more networked Linux PCs.
One of the drawbacks to installing NVIDIA Proprietary drivers in Linux is that when the kernel is updated, you have to reinstall (recompile) the software to match the new kernel. This tutorial explains how to upgrade Proprietary NVIDIA video card drivers after your Debian Lenny Linux system has been upgraded to a new kernel version. The process is pretty much the same as installing Proprietary video card drivers from scratch with the exception that we assume your already at the shell, unable to boot into X windows due to a kernel upgrade.
How to Install Deb Packages or .deb files using Debian Linux or Ubuntu. Are you using Ubuntu or Debian and have downloaded a .deb package that you want to install? Typically you can Install Debian packages that are available in the repositories by using synaptic, apt-get or aptitude. However, if the package or file is not available via repositories you will need to download and then manually install them, yourself.
How do I exit man page from the terminal? Once you have finished viewing a Linux manual page for a program, you'll obviously want to exit or quit. Most likely so that you can and go back to the same open terminal window to proceed to enter new commands.
This tutorial covers how to easily install proprietary drivers for your Nvidia or ATI video card using envy. These are the drivers that are listed in the download section of the ATI and NVIDIA Websites. Advantage to installing these drivers over the nvidia-glx or xorg-driver-fglrx are that you get a nice GUI control panel and advanced features to work with.
The following tutorial is for Debian or Ubuntu users who are looking to install proprietary drivers for their ATI or Nvidia video card. Installation of proprietary ATI or Nvidia video card drivers will allow you to take full advantage of all the 3d capabilities your Video card may have to offer. In this tutorial, we will be using a script called "envy" created by Alberto Milone.
How to Remove Old Linux Kernels; At some point in time, almost every Linux user will have updated their kernel image. After you've used Linux with the new kernel image for a while and you're content that everything is working properly, you might want to remove the old Linux version or images that still reside on your system and appear as grub boot options.
How do I upgrade Debian versions? The other day, one of our subscribers had asked us just that. Upgrading to a newer version of Debian is actually relatively simple and for the most part, can be done in very short time with just a few quick steps.
In Linux, if your mouse pointer disappears after switching users or after logging out and then back in, the problem is most likely caused by a bug with your video card driver. In most cases the mouse will still continue to work even though the mouse pointer is hidden or has disappeared completely from screen view. The fix is actually quite simple and only involves adding a single options line to the xorg.conf file.
Help, I'm getting a GRUB Error 21 after a Ubuntu USB Hard Drive Install. We recently received an inquiry from someone who experienced a GRUB Error 21 after attempting to install Ubuntu on an external USB hard drive.
A straightforward way to set your linux VGA modes, screen resolution and color depth for most Live Linux distributions is by using the vga= parameter boot option. For instance, at boot, you might type: vga=795. This command sets your Linux system to boot with a screen resolution of 1280x1024 at 24-bit color depth.
Checking your Linux Kernel Version: Once your up and running with your favorite Linux distribution, you might find the need to install additional software packages or drivers. Some of these software applications or drivers can be specific to a Linux Kernel in which case you will need to find this information. Finding the Kernel Version, Release information and Operating System from a running system is fairly straight forward and can be done directly from a terminal.
Directory Structure in Linux: Once you have migrated from Windows to Linux you may notice that the filesystem is not what you are accustomed to. Of the first things a new Linux user needs to understand is the inner workings of the file system hierarchy in Linux. Knowing this early on will help you to become oriented with and hopefully confident in navigating and using this directory structure.
Install NVIDIA Drivers Ubuntu: Many Linux versions including Ubuntu do not enable proprietary video drivers by default. This means that NVIDIA 3D acceleration is not working by default.
