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Helpful information about linux that I have looked up

Mike Lippert
last edited on August 17, 2013

kde

Dolphin context menus are called service menus, they are implemented with .desktop files that are also used for the main KDE application launcher. I found a very helpful tutorial page on these .desktop files.

wifi networking

Setting the wifi password for all users requires superuser privileges which the KDE plasma applet doesn't have (at least not in Linux Mint). I suspect that is why the checkbox option all users may connect to this network isn't present. This archlinux page on NetworkManager is helpful, and I was able to accomplish setting the password for all users using the commandline. I also found additional documentation on the syntax of files in etc/NetworkManager/system-connections. That was a link from the Gnome NetworkManager doc.

sudo nmcli dev wifi connect <SSID> password <WIFI-PSWD>

bash

  • bash scripts normally start w/ a shebang (#!), in fact just use #!/bin/sh to indicate that the default shell (bash on linux) should be used to execute the script. Or you could specify that bash should be used w/ #!/bin/bash. responses on linuxquestions
  • To grep through only stderr redirect stderr to stdout and stdout to null:
    command 2>&1 >/dev/null | grep 'something'
    Note that the order matters, if you want to just combine the 2 and redirect them both to a file:
    command >outfile 2>&1

References

vim

plugins

actually, I have much more info in the readme in my dotfiles github repository, which currently only contains my vim dotfiles. (7-23-2013)

how to...

  • insert from a command
    for example to get a quoted comma separated list of js files use: :r ! ls -mQ *.js
    for more general info see Vim tips: Working with external commands

  • Using vi as a hex editor - The key to this isn't so much about editing as viewing which doesn't even really have to involve vim. Use the xxd utility to create the typical hex/text dump display.

general linux

info on things like users, groups, fstab, samba, nfs.

  • the medibuntu repository is no more. According to the maintainer all of its packages are now in the main ubuntu repositories, except for libdvdcss. It is available in a repository hosted by VideoLAN. The post explains how to add the repo where that package is now maintained. I found the post mentioned above from this one.
  • There's an issue w/ gnutls which is used by git that is causing an error accessing remote repos using https: GnuTLS recv error (-9)
    • the solution seems to be to uninstall libcurl4-gnutls-dev and install libcurl4-openssl-dev and then rebuild git

Potentially useful articles on the web

Using Git and Github to Manage Your Dotfiles

npm (node package manager)

The version of nodejs in the ubuntu repositories is dated. Use these instructions for Installing Node.js via package manager.

The Ubuntu repositories as of 14.04 have the latest nodejs. However because of a potential conflict it is installed as nodejs instead of node. Since we have no use for the conflicting node application add a symlink: sudo ln -s /usr/bin/nodejs /usr/bin/node

Installing npm (apt-get install npm) will install node.js as a dependency.

use npm list to see locally installed npm packages and npm list -g to see globally installed packages.

http-server a simple zero-configuration command-line http server

Chromium

I installed the Markdown Preview 0.6 extension from Boris Smus to be able to render markdown files like this one. Don't forget to check Allow access to file URLs.

This readme is in markdown syntax.

Firefox

To get the OK button on the left of the cancel button this forum topic from 2004 is helpful. What it says is edit the userChrome.css file (if it doesn't exist it create it in the firefox chrome/ subfolder) and add the following lines:

.dialog-button-box { -moz-box-direction: reverse; -moz-box-pack: right; }
.dialog-button-box spacer { display: none !important; }

installing the qtcurve package and setting the gtk+ appearance theme to qtcurve may also help.

Setting up a new release

Updating to the latest Linux Mint means re-installing. A fresh install is welcome, but it takes a while to get the environment settings back to just so.

I'm trying to keep a record here of what those setting are so that I can just run through the list and I'll be mostly ready to go.

System Settings

  1. Turn on 2 virtual desktops in Workspace Behavior
  2. In System Notifications turn on Play a sound for KDE Workspace Logout and Login

in a VirtualBox VM

The article Creating Shared Drives in Oracle VM VirtualBox, describes how to create a shareable virtual disk.
Assuming it already exists, add the SharedStorate/UserData1Ext4.vdi to SATA Port 1.
You may need the command:

    "\path-to-VB\VBoxManage" storageattach "Linux Mint 15 KDE" --storagectl "SATA" --port 1 --device 0 --type hdd --medium UserData1Ext4.vdi --mtype shareable
  1. Create the /userdata directory as a mount point
  2. Edit fstab and add: (the uuid is from the UserData1Ext4 created for my home VirtualBox)
    UUID=9ac7eda0-0b5b-47bd-ae44-fdf53dd6868a /userdata       ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1
  1. Remove the repository versions of the VirtualBox Guest Additions (3 packages dkms, x11 and utils)
  2. Install the guest additions from the VirtualBox Host install.

Dolphin configuration settings

  • Startup: check Editable location bar
  • View Modes Details: set both default and preview Icon size to 1 step above smallest
  • General Behavior: select Use common properties for all folders
  • Then change to display details, and set the zoom to 22 pixels
  • Add permissions, owner and group columns
  • Add Folders panel (from View menu)

KDE bottom panel

  1. Right-click on the launcher and Switch to Classic Menu Style
  2. Add the following widgets:
    • QuickLaunch
    • Pager
    • Lock/Logout
  3. Add the following launchers to the QuickLaunch
    • Synaptic Package Manager
    • Konsole
  4. Remove the Dolphin icon
  5. Lock the Widgets on the bottom panel

Create symbolic links from new home directory to userdata home files and folders

Additional repositories

See above for adding the node repository. pidgin repo? scootersoftware repo?

Oracle Java 8 (JDK 8)

See the TecAdmin.net Java 8 instructions for installing the webupd8team's PPA repository and installing Java 8 from there. You may also need to fix the binfmts (see stackexchange update-binfmts warning question)

Docker

See the docker blog entry from July 2015 about New Apt and Yum repositories

Node

To install the latest version of node see the NodeSource github repository readme. Don't forget to add users to the docker group.

packages

These are the packages that were not installed in the last release of Linux Mint KDE that I always want installed. I keep the list in the file installed-packages.lst.

There are some packages (such as for licensed software) that needs to be downloaded and then installed.

  • ScooterSoftware's Beyond Compare (they've got a repo that can be used)
  • SmartGit (needs git installed 1st)
  • jq

Rebuild software from sources

  • git (use prefix=/usr/local
  • KeePassX