Some very useful Fedora 19 yum commands for querying the package database and installing software.

This is how you query the package database to see if a package is installed or not. root@neo homer# yum list installed | grep xterm xterm.x86_64 293-1.fc19 @anacondaroot@neo homer# yum list installed | grep xterm xterm.x86_64 293-1.fc19 @anaconda This is a more verbose way of doing this. root@neo homer# yum list installed xterm Loaded plugins: … Read more

Misc UNIX and Linux tricks for the desktop user and administrator.

Uptime. this is a useful command for finding out how long a Linux system has been running for. it also displays the load average over 1.5 and 15 minute intervals. deep-thought ~ # uptime 21:45:32 up 32 min, 3 users, load average: 1.88, 1.45, 1.08deep-thought ~ # uptime 21:45:32 up 32 min, 3 users, load … Read more

Mounting an ISO image with the command line and other useful commands.

Mounting an ISO image to a folder and accessing the contents of the image is very simple. Firstly we need to create a directory to mount the image to. |{/mnt/Elements/Files/ISOs}-{Fri Mar 22 23:52:17} -{john@adeptus-mechanicus } $ sudo mkdir /root/img [sudo] password for john:|{/mnt/Elements/Files/ISOs}-{Fri Mar 22 23:52:17} -{john@adeptus-mechanicus } $ sudo mkdir /root/img [sudo] password for … Read more

Some more useful Linux commands for the bash shell.

How to create an ISO image of a DVD or CDR disk easily with the command-line. dd if=/dev/sr0 of=/home/$LOGNAME/mydisk.iso bs=2kdd if=/dev/sr0 of=/home/$LOGNAME/mydisk.iso bs=2k This will rip a copy of the disk to the hard drive. To write this image to a blank DVD disk; use this command. sudo wodim -dev=/dev/sr0 -speed=8 -eject -v mydisk.isosudo wodim … Read more

A correction I have to make regarding the Powershell and wildcards. The bash shell is still better though.

I need to correct what I said in this posting: http://www.securitronlinux.com/bejiitaswrath/bash-shell-is-better-than-powershell-and-discussion-of-the-linux-desktop-versus-windows/ and also this one. regarding the Powershell and its handling of certain constructs that I mentioned in this posting: http://www.securitronlinux.com/bejiitaswrath/windows-powershell-not-as-good-as-bash-shell-and-other-thoughts/. It turns out that the Powershell does support this after all as shown in this sample below. PS C:\Users\Homer\Documents> ls STRIFE[0-9].wad   Directory: C:\Users\Homer\Documents … Read more

Useful commands for getting information about your computers memory status and hard drives.

This command used with grep will return information about your computers memory. jason@jason-desktop:~/Documents$ cat /proc/meminfo | grep Total MemTotal: 12219468 kB SwapTotal: 70311928 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB CmaTotal: 0 kB HugePages_Total: 0jason@jason-desktop:~/Documents$ cat /proc/meminfo | grep Total MemTotal: 12219468 kB SwapTotal: 70311928 kB VmallocTotal: 34359738367 kB CmaTotal: 0 kB HugePages_Total: 0 If you want to … Read more

Using the zsh shell and some useful tricks to make the most of this Linux shell.

The zsh shell is a nice alternative to the bash shell when you are using Linux and want a nice command shell for your day-to-day use. Below is my ~/.zshrc files that I am using now. Type sudo apt-get install zsh to install this in Ubuntu. If you want to use my ~/.zshrc files; then … Read more

BASH shell tips and tricks. Some useful tips for using the Linux CLI.

To get simple information about a Linux command, or to refresh your memory, use the info pages to learn more about the commands. Type info ls for example to get information about the ls command. Type help and then a bash scripting command like ‘echo’, and the help will be displayed. 4.4 Fri Oct 25 … Read more

Useful tricks when using the find command on Linux and backticks.

Using the Linux command-line allows a lot of flexibility when running commands and how they are run. Take the example below for instance. rm `find ./ -name "*~"`rm `find ./ -name "*~"` This command runs a command within backticks and outputs the result as an argument to the rm command. This command will therefore delete … Read more

Some very useful Linux command-line tips and tricks for the desktop user.

Using the install-mbr command to install a main boot record (MBR) onto a disk. [flynn@flynn-grid-runner media]$ sudo install-mbr –force –partition 1 /dev/sdi [sudo] password for flynn: [flynn@flynn-grid-runner media]$[flynn@flynn-grid-runner media]$ sudo install-mbr –force –partition 1 /dev/sdi [sudo] password for flynn: [flynn@flynn-grid-runner media]$ This command would be useful if you are building a custom image and you … Read more

Getting information about an ISO image and many obscure Linux commands.

This command shows the filesize of an ISO image. -21:19:07– flynn@flynn-grid-runner [/media/Elements/Files/ISOs]$ isosize -d 1024 en_windows_7_ultimate_x64_dvd_x15-65922.iso 3149108-21:19:07– flynn@flynn-grid-runner [/media/Elements/Files/ISOs]$ isosize -d 1024 en_windows_7_ultimate_x64_dvd_x15-65922.iso 3149108 This may also be achieved with the ls command. -21:19:06– flynn@flynn-grid-runner [/media/Elements/Files/ISOs]$ ls -Hula en_windows_7_ultimate_x64_dvd_x15-65922.iso -rw——- 1 flynn flynn 3.1G 17-03-12 10:48 pm en_windows_7_ultimate_x64_dvd_x15-65922.iso-21:19:06– flynn@flynn-grid-runner [/media/Elements/Files/ISOs]$ ls -Hula en_windows_7_ultimate_x64_dvd_x15-65922.iso -rw——- 1 … Read more

Some more useful Linux commands that are very useful indeed.

Using the Linux last command to view re-boot history. C:\HOME\FLYNN\DOCUMENTS> last reboot reboot system boot 3.4.0-rc2-bejiit Sat Aug 4 12:50 – 14:29 (01:39) reboot system boot 3.4.0-rc2-bejiit Fri Aug 3 21:11 – 21:16 (00:05) reboot system boot 3.4.0-rc2-bejiit Fri Aug 3 20:21 – 20:57 (00:36) reboot system boot 3.4.0-rc2-bejiit Fri Aug 3 11:35 – 20:00 … Read more

Some obscure but very useful Linux commands for any user.

Linux xgc program. A simple utility to test various options to create X Graphics Primitives.

To view the contents of an ISO  image, the isoinfo command for Linux will come in very useful indeed. Just type isoinfo -f -i myiso.iso to view the contents of the ISO image as shown in this example. C:\MEDIA\ELEMENTS\FILES\ISOS> isoinfo -f -i linuxmint-11-gnome-dvd-64bit.iso /BOOT /CASPER /EFI /ISOLINUX /MD5SUM.TXT;1 /PRESEED /_DISK /BOOT/GRUB /CASPER/FILESYSTEM.MANIFEST;1 /CASPER/FILESYSTEM.MANIFEST_DESKTOP;1 /CASPER/FILESYSTEM.SIZE;1 /CASPER/FILESYSTEM.SQUASHFS;1 … Read more

Using the Linux rename command and other useful commands for Linux Mint 13.

The rename command for the Linux shell allows you to rename a directory full of files en-mass. This first example, based on the examples in the rename manual page. Firstly renaming a directory full of xhtml files to the html extension. rename ‘s/\.xhtml$/.html/’ *.xhtmlrename ‘s/\.xhtml$/.html/’ *.xhtml And renaming a folder full of Jpeg files with … Read more

More TRON legacy goodness. UNIX commands and how they got it right.

Flynn using the UNIX machine in the TRON legacy movie. He is logging in with a user that does not have a home directory defined so the / folder is used instead. This is what happens with a Linux system as well. The second screen-shot shows the /bin/history command being used to view the command … Read more

Managing processes with the UNIX command line.

The Linux command-line has many powerful tools for viewing and managing running processes on your UNIX/Linux machine. The lsof command is a very useful command, it will display a list of all open files owned by active processes running on your system. Below is an excerpt from the output this command will give you. root@deusexmachina:/home/neo# … Read more

Tron Legacy UNIX commands revisited.

http://www.securitronlinux.com/uncategorized/tron-legacy-unix-operating-system/. As seen in this posting above, the Tron Legacy movie used computers with a variant of the Solaris UNIX operating system. The ps -ef command works in the FreeBSD UNIX distribution, you need to mount procfs with this command: mount -t procfs proc /proc this will enable the proc file-system. The login -n root … Read more