Some useful Linux scripts for the desktop Linux user who likes the command line.

There are many useful Linux tips that make the life of a Linux user much easier. One is for the VI or VIM editor. To open a file at a specific line; use this command. homer@deusexmachina ~/Documents/yadex-1.7.901 $ vim src/x11.h +33homer@deusexmachina ~/Documents/yadex-1.7.901 $ vim src/x11.h +33 This will open the file x11.h at line 33. … Read more

FreeBSD. A very useful UNIX distribution that makes using your computer a lot of fun.

I have just setup FreeBSD with a high resolution framebuffer console easily. I just typed vidcontrol -i mode to list all available framebuffer video modes and then I set the appropriate mode for my laptop screen. I then added this line to the /etc/rc.conf file: allscreens_flags=”MODE_332″. This sets a 1366*768 resolution for the framebuffer console. … Read more

Using OpenSolaris UNIX for the first time in ages. This is a very good OS.

I have just installed OpenSolaris UNIX in VMware. First impressions really are good; the LiveCD environment works very well indeed. The Gnome desktop is a breath of fresh air compared to the crap Unity desktop that comes with Ubuntu 14.10. Firefox 3.1 Beta 3 is the default web browser; this is due to the fact … Read more

Some more useful UNIX commands available for the Mac.

There are a few very useful UNIX commands available on the Apple Macintosh. Mountain Lion is what I am using in Virtualbox and I am having a look at some very useful shell commands and tips. The iostat command. This shows statistics of disk Input/Output. Homers-iMac:Documents homer$ iostat disk0 disk1 cpu load average KB/t tps … Read more

Some more good themes for the Linux Mint MATE desktop.

Some awesome themes and wallpapers for the Linux Mint MATE desktop Themes http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/LiNsta+3+%28Linux+is+Not+Vista%29?content=44570 Linux is not Vista. A Windows Vista styled theme for Gnome and MATE. http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/MacOS-X+Aqua+Theme?content=13548. Mac OSX Aqua theme for MATE. http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Murrine+GTK%2B+Cairo+Engine?content=42755. Murrine GTK+ Cairo Engine. http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Faenza-Cupertino?content=129008. Faenza-Cupertino icon theme. http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/OSX-Nostalgie?content=157390. OSX Nostalgia icon theme. http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/E17gtk?content=163472. E17 GTK. This is a theme for … Read more

How to use the watch command to update a terminal every 2 seconds with an updating file.

I am using this command to search the Internet for open ports on port 80 with nmap. sudo nmap -sS -iR 0 -p 80 -oG nmap.grepablesudo nmap -sS -iR 0 -p 80 -oG nmap.grepable Then I use this command in another terminal tab to view the updating file. This will be updated every two seconds … Read more

Looking at the Macintosh OSX desktop and the Darwin UNIX operating system.

I am having a quick look at the Macintosh OSX desktop on an Apple Macintosh computer and the interface is very annoying indeed. The Finder does find files; but most of the results are not what you were looking for. And to take a screenshot you have to use quite a complex combination of keys … Read more

How to copy a file to the Internet to share it with others easily without using Pastebin.

This Linux command will copy the text file given, “myfile.txt” and send it to the sprunge.us website. This allows you to share a text file with others without too much fuss. curl -F ‘sprunge=<myfile.txt’ http://sprunge.uscurl -F ‘sprunge=<myfile.txt’ http://sprunge.us You may also install the PastebinCL utility on Fedora 19, this allows you to upload text to … Read more

How to get the weather forecast for your US postcode using the weather command.

Getting the weather forecast for your US postcode is very simple when you are running either Ubuntu or Linux Mint. The weather-util package contains the weather command that makes this possible. Use this command to install the weather-util package. sudo apt-get install weather-utilsudo apt-get install weather-util This is the output that you get when you … Read more

Playstation 4 console to be running the FreeBSD UNIX operating system.

The new Playstation 4 console will have the FreeBSD operating system running on it. This will provide a solid UNIX base for the gaming platform. The actual name of the operating system that will power the PlayStation 4 is Orbis OS, which is a Sony spin of FreeBSD 9.0. It’s not a huge surprise FreeBSD … Read more

Some very good Linux resources for learning programming and BASH scripting.

http://gentoomen.org/tutorials/resources.html. The gentoomen.org resources page. Very good list of links to various tutorials and help pages. http://tldp.org/LDP/abs/html/. The Advanced BASH scripting guide. ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/doc/book/vimbook-OPL.pdf. The VIM guideboook. http://stommel.tamu.edu/~baum/programming.html. 3000 useful guides to programming and Linux documentation and help pages. http://samizdat.mines.edu/howto/HowToBeAProgrammer.html. How to be a programmer. A short but comprehensive summary. http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/index. Ubuntu resources page. Everything you … Read more

How to add a swapfile with Linux and thoughts on the Die Hard 4.0 movie.

To create a new swapfile on your Linux machine to complement the existing /swap partition; the dd command will come in handy. This command will create the swap file as a loopback filesystem. adeptus-mechanicus ~ # dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile bs=1024 count=524288adeptus-mechanicus ~ # dd if=/dev/zero of=swapfile bs=1024 count=524288 This command will make the filesystem a … Read more

New version of the NetBSD UNIX distribution released.

The new release of the NetBSD UNIX distribution has just been released. This distribution based on the 4.4BSD operating system gives the user a super secure and reliable server operating system that is fully capable of powering an Apache http server; a mail server or MySQL database. This operating system using a UNIX kernel and … Read more

Definition of the kernel versus the operating system. What it is and is not.

The kernel in an operating system is the interface that handles loading drivers and configuring hardware; the operating system that runs on top of the kernel provides a usable interface; i.e a command-line or graphical user interface that the computer operator may use to interface with the computer system and give it commands that are … Read more

Usage of computers in the movies. Some get it wrong. The Matrix and Tron Legacy are the exceptions.

The usage of computers in movies has always been quite hit and miss. The Matrix Reloaded movie had realistic depictions of the usage of the NMAP port scanning command and the use of the ssh command to login remotely to the target machine and execute commands to shutdown the power plants to buy the keymaster … Read more

Using the UNIX/Linux sleep command to pause a shell script or command for a short time. And other useful commands.

The Linux sleep command will enable you to pause a Linux command for a short time. The example below has our command halting for 5 seconds before executing. The suffix s means seconds, this is useful for halting a script whilst you are waiting for something else to run. C:\HOME\FLYNN\DESKTOP> sleep 5s ; ps PID … 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