TL;DR: ncdu , du -h -d1 /.

On a system where you have root access, you should install the utility ncdu, which offers a friendly way of scanning and displaying the space occupied by the folders in the current directory ncdu (or in the folder sent as parameter when starting the utility: ncdu /).

If you don’t have root access, but you have the ncdu utility pre-installed, you won’t see the true size of the folders, so you should execute sudo ncdu /.

If you don’t have root access and you don’t have the ncdu utility at hand, you are stuck with the old du utility, which by default is pretty verbose (shows the size of each subfolder – if you’re in the root folder, it’s hard to get some meaningful info from the whole screens of data reported), so you should use some parameters to filter the output:

• du -h -d1 / – use the ‘human’-style display (-h) to show the size in Kb, Mb, Gb, and the depth flag (-d, –max-depth) to help control the depth of directories that the command reports on.
• du -cBM – max-depth=1 /var/lib/ 2>&1 | grep -v 'denied' | sort -n – to skip displaying errors in case of denied acces to some folders and to sort by size, descending, the remaining first-level folders.

Enjoy!

Linux Mint 12 Preview

As you can see it’s a mix of old and new. It’s a brand new desktop but with traditional components. We’re excited about the new technology but it’s important everyone feels at home. So a Mint desktop looks and behaves like a Mint desktop and this one feels both like Gnome 3 and the traditional Linux Mint desktops that preceded it. You can launch applications from the top left, easily switch between applications and workspaces using the window list or keyboard shortcuts, keep an eye on your notifications at the top and access Gnome 3 features like “activities” from the top-left corner.

The 5-Minute Essential Shell Tutorial @linuxmint.com

Alright, far too often (especially in the IRC channels) there is a time where even the most beginner of users are faced with the terminal.  It has many names: terminal, shell, console, “command prompt” even as a carryover from those familiar with Windows.  Many people are frightened by it for some reason or another, so this tutorial will attempt to provide you the most basic of commands to enable navigation and basic system actions from the comfort of your keyboard.

Let’s get started shall we?  Since everyone’s Mint version can be different, I’m not going to detail how to actually open the terminal.  I’ll assume you can find it in the menu or by right-clicking in the desktop.

Facts:

1. You can do almost anything in a terminal which you would also do from a GUI interface.
2. Most commands were designed first to work in the terminal, then a GUI put on top of them.  That’s why some GUI’s may feel clunky – they were an afterthought at times.
3. The default location for your terminal to open from the menu is in your home folder, also known as ~
4. Your current directory can be noted by the . operator.  Most commands when they act on the current folder selection, operate on .
5. Commands, locations, and files are case sensitive.  /home is not the same as /HOME or /Home.
6. Use the tab key to complete file names.  If you have a long driver titled, for example,
   driver-128947232jaseu.sh, simply type dri and it will fill in the rest, provided you don’t have 2 names starting with “dri” and if you do, add another character to make it “driv” and try again.
7. Almost any command can be read about in full using the manpage or by typing -h or –help after writing the initial command.  This syntax is either man command_name,  command_name -h, or command_name –help.
8. To get even more information, you can use info.  A command can be searched for by using info command_name.  For most of these commands which are part of the coreutils package, one can find info as well using info coreutils command_name invocation where command_name is replaced by the command searched for.
9. Almost any command can also explicitly display what is happening.  This is done usually by the -v or –verbose
10. You can specify multiple command flags to a command at a time to get more information (see the ls -alexample below.)
11. Command names are not always obtuse – due to space limitations in the old days of Unix they were shortened, and the conventions stuck.

Commands:

cd -> Used to navigate the directories.  You can move to any location by path.

1. cd This will move you back to your home, same as cd ~
2. cd .. This will take you back exactly one directory.  Starting in /home/justin/Desktop, cd .. will put me into /home/justin.  This can be expanded upon, cd ../../ from the Desktop location instead will move me 2 back, from my Desktop to /home.
3. cd foldername/ This will move you forward to the given folder in your current folder. Take note of the missing prefix / it is an important omission.  if I am in /home/justin and I want to get to Desktop, I must type cd Desktop/ without the / before Desktop.  Typing / before it places us in the root of file system, which is incorrect.
4. cd /some/other/path This will take you to the specified folder path, supposing it exists as typed exactly.  Don’t forget your tab completion!

ls -> Used to list folder contents.  You can view many kinds of file and folder attributes.

1. ls By itself, ls will simply list all your files in the current folder.  From fact #4, this literally does ls .
2. ls -l Provides a longer listing format including owners, permissions, size, and date modified.
3. ls -a Displays hidden files and folders as well as the normal listing.
4. ls -al Combine options to display both hidden files and in the long format.
5. ls -h Show file sizes in human readable format (K, M, Gbyte) filesizes instead of bytes.  Often used in conjuction with the -l flag.
6. You can view files in directories you are not even in.  If I am in /home/justin/Desktop, and I want to view a file in /home/justin, I can do ls ../ list files one directory back (and not have to go back to do so.)

cp -> Copy files

1. cp file /path/to/folder Copies specified file to the given path.
2. cp -r folder /path/to/folder Copies recursively the contents of the folder to another folder.
3. cp *.extension /path/to/folder Copies files matching the given extension to the new folder.  To copy all .doc files, it becomes cp *.doc /path/to/folder and the folder must exist.
4. cp name* /path/to/folder Copies all files starting with ‘name’ to the given folder.  To copy all files starting with example, it becomes cp example* /path/to/folder and the folder must exist.

mv -> Move files

1. The syntax of mv is similar to the example above with cp exempt for example #2.  mv does not take the -r flag since moving a folder also moves its contents.  The syntax is not exact in all instances, but works with the above examples.  Consult your manpages for more details.

rm -> Remove files

1. For all intents and purposes, removing files via rm is permanent.  It does not use the Trash bin.  Use with caution and make sure you are deleting explicitly what you want, not what you think you want.  If you decide to get fancy with your delete commands, it’s probably going to come back to bite you.
2. rm file Remove the specified file from the system.
3. rm -r folder Remove the specified folder from the system
4. rm -rf folder Removes the specified folder forcefully from the system.  This command can severely break your configuration if used incorrectly as it will not prompt you if something critical is being deleted.  If you have to use this, chances are something more is broken or there was a mistake made.  This should only be used as an absolute last resort method and is not recommended.

nano -> full command line text editor

1. One can edit files using nano in a terminal to do quick and dirty files all the way up to full configurations.  It’s handy, but keep in mind it handles plain text files and programming files, things like MS Word documents will not open properly!
2. If a file is owned by root, it is not editable as a normal user.  nano must be prefixed with sudo in order to save changes.  Otherwise, it will open in read-only mode.
3. nano newfile.whatever Nano creates a new file of the specified name and opens it for editing.
4. nano existing_file Nano opens the existing file for editing.
5. From inside nano
   1. Save file using the ctrl+o key combination, and either change the name or press entier to keep the same name.  This will save the file.
   2. Exit nano by using ctrl+x key combination.  If you have unsaved changes, it will ask if you want to save.

mkdir -> Create directories

1. mkdir folder_name Creates the folder with the specified name
2. mkdir -p /path/to/folder/name Creates each folder as necessary.  To create folder /home/justin/newfolder/2ndfolder, and only /home/justin exists, using mkdir -p will make both directories newfolder and 2ndfolder.

ps -> List processes

1. ps aux List all processes in detail running on the system, including user, Process ID (PID), and name of process.  Using this, one can view their process list and if necessary, kill unnecessary or stalled processes.

kill / killall / xkill -> Kill offending processes.

1. kill PID PID is a number referencing the offending process.  One should obtain the PID from a command likeps aux.  If a process refuses to die, one can alternatively specify kill -9 PID which should terminate the process by any means, even uncleanly or if it will mess up the system.
2. killall program Killall kills *by name* all instances of said program.  If there are for example 3 firefox sessions open, killall firefox will do just that; kill all firefox sessions.  kill would simply take the specified PID of the offending firefox process you wish to kill, and kill that one only.
3. xkill is a GUI way to click and kill windows.  Typing in xkill should present a skull-and-crossbones icon, and the next window clicked on will be killed.

Pipes ->  The most useful thing you will learn in *NIX.  Redirecting output of a program to anothers input.

1. Pipes are represented by the ‘ straight bar ‘ otherwise known as the ‘ | ‘ key.
2. It is a rarely used key in Windows, it is often found on the backslash key.
3. They are used to link commands together.  Pipes take the output of one command and route it to be used as input for a second command chained together.
4. Consult more online resources with information about pipes and their use as there are volumes.

> and >> redirectors  –> Send output to a file instead of the terminal.

1. > is used to *overwrite* currently existing files contents and replace with the output from the new command.
2. >> is used to *append* information to currently existing files.  This is useful for logging.
3. Example: ps aux > processes.log Sends the output of ps aux to the file processes.log for viewing the command output in a text editor and overwrites the current contents of the file.

tee -> Send output to both a file and the terminal

1. tee is used in conjunction with a ‘ | ‘ in order to take the command output and send it elsewhere.  This is useful if there are errors which fly by the screen before you can read them, this way whatever goes on the screen is also captured to a file.
2. Example: dmesg | tee boot.txt would run the command dmesg which shows the initial boot info, and the ‘ | ‘ sends the output of dmesg to tee, which then does its job by sending it to the terminal and to the log file boot.txt.

File Execution

So you want to execute files or programs from the terminal?  Make sure it’s  marked executable.  If not, see Quick Tip #4 below.

1. Need to execute a file in the current directory after it is marked executable?  The ./ operator can execute the file as a normal user provided you do not need root rights.  ./ literally means “in the current directory” so it does not work on files outside of the present directory.
2. Need to execute a file not in the current directory?  You must pass the path to the proper executing program.  If it is a python program, it’s python /path/to/file and if it is a shell file, it is sh /path/to/file as an example.  There are of course other programs, but these will be the most common for beginners.
3. Need to execute a file with root rights because you received operation not permitted?  Prefix the command with sudo.  Thus, from the above example, sudo python /path/to/file will execute the script with root rights.
4. Need to execute a GUI program from the terminal?  Simply type the program name (case sensitive!) and it will launch.  This will render the current terminal unusable.  Closing the terminal while the program is open will kill the program.  A better way is to background the program, using program_name & and then typing the word exitat the terminal to close it and keep the process running.
5. Need to run a GUI program with root rights from the terminal?  Prefix it with gksudo or gksu and not sudo.  Using sudo to launch GUI applications is a bad habit and should be avoided.
6. Do not, do *not* use sudo simply because something receives “Operation not permitted.” Keep in mind what you are doing as you can absolutely *destroy* systems by running commands in the wrong place with root rights.  This point cannot be emphasized enough. Make sure your files come from reputable sources.

Quick tips:

1. Lost yourself in a directory?  Not sure where you are?  Type pwd to print working directory.
2. Want to calculate your disk space quickly?  df -h can give you a quick checkup.
3. Want to calculate the size of a folder or file quickly?  du -cksh target_name can do exactly that.  Want to calculate the size of the current folder?  du -cksh .
4. Need to mark a file executable?  chmod +x filename can do that.  Next time you see a file you need to execute and it is not marked executable, now you know how to fix it.
5. Want to mount an iso like Daemon-Tools on Windows?  Linux has this functionality built in.  Simply create a directory somewhere, say /home/justin/isomount, and issue the command mount -o loop /path/to/myisofile.iso /home/justin/isomount and the contents will be mounted inside that folder.
6. Run a command before, you need to re-run it, but you can’t really remember what it was exactly?  Type historyinto the terminal and it will print out your command history.  Want to clear your history?  history -c will wipe the information.

RadioTray not playing some http urls

open ~/.gstreamer-0.10
remove or rename the registry.x86_64.bin
Open your music player.
It’ll regenerate the registry file and correctly use the aac plugin.

Source: here

Reparare sistem de fisiere ext4:

sudo fsck.ext4 /dev/sda3 [-p|-a]  sau

e2fsck -f -v -y /dev/sda3 [aceasta comanda e utilizata de gparted, la aplicarea optiunii “Check”] (alte informatii aici si aici)

Firefox intra in modul “Work offline” la fiecare pornire

Motiv:

Se foloseste alt manager de retea (wicd, in cazul meu), iar firefox-ul interogheaza doar network-manager, nu si wicd, care il inlocuieste, si nu stie ca computerul este conectat la net (fie cu un modem USB, fie wireless / cablu / PPPoE).

Rezolvare:

se tasteaza ‘about:config‘ in address bar (se accepta indicatia firefox-ului de a nu ‘strica’ nimic), se cauta optiunea  ‘toolkit.networkmanager.disable‘ (se poate folosi campul de filtrare) si se seteaza pe true. (kudos: openbala.com)

Dupa update de kernel, Kubuntu nu mai vede placile de retea (wired/wireless)

Motiv:

• update-ul (automat al) kernel-ului.

Rezolvare:

• /sbin/ifconfig -a
• sudo dhclient3 eth0 (wlan0)

Alternativa:

• instalare wicd: sudo apt-get install wicd

Pango-WARNING **: shaping failure, expect ugly output.

I had the same problem with firefox 3.6.3 (not that the version matters…).

Motiv:

Este o eroare provenita de la fonturi instalate incorect sau cu drepturi de acces nepotrivite.

Rezolvare:

I tried some simple things:

• I ran firefox as normal user (firefox in the console) -> it happened as described in this forum (no text, and the console was full of errors like: “Pango-WARNING **: shaping failure, expect ugly output. shape-engine=’BasicEngineFc’“).
• I ran firefox as root (sudo firefox from the console) -> everything was OK (the console was clean).

So, the most simple solution was to delete all the fonts (as root):
cd /usr/share/fonts/truetype/msttcorefonts
rm -rf *
and reinstall them (as normal user):
sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts
here i ran into another smaller problem with a ttf font installer, so I had to do:
sudo apt-get remove ttf-mscorefonts-installer
sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

Starting KTTSD failed

Este o eroare provenita de la lipsa pachetului KTTSD (text-to-speech).

Motive:

pachetul kttsd nu e instalat si apoi:
1. exista o instalare anterioara de KDE (sau un backup/restore) care lasa in urma directorul .kde ce contine setari care implica acest feature
2. ceasul analog/digital este setat sa spuna ora prin text-to-speech

Rezolvare:

1. cea mai simpla: instalati  pachetul KTTSD  si dependintele sale, cu un total de ~ 24 MB – daca nu aveti limita/penurie de spatiu;
2. cautati si stergeti directorul .kde din home de la o fosta instalare KDE care instalase pachete din gama Accesibility, sau dezactivati folosirea feature-ului text-to-speech din programele/utilitarele care ruleaza – mai multe detalii aici si aici.

Redenumire fisiere din majuscule in ‘minuscule’

Motive:

Am incercat sa uploadez pe photobucket.com niste poze preluate de pe camera mea , iar uploader-ul lor nu vedea decat fisierele cu extensiile scrise cu litere mici (minuscule?!), asa ca a trebuit sa le modific..

Rezolvare:

In Dolphin (managerul de fisiere default din Kubuntu) nu se pot modifica numele de fisiere bulk, si nu aveam chef sa fac iar comparatii intre file-managere, asa ca am trecut in clasica linie de comanda si am rezolvat usor (bine, dupa 5 minute de incercari si la sfarsit apeland la man [rtfm!]):

Postari relationate:

• Comenzi utile
• The 5-Minute Essential Shell Tutorial – @linuxmint
• Erori Ubuntu / Kubuntu si rezolvarile lor

Aplicatii utile:

consola: konsole (pt KDE–Kubuntu) sau terminal (pt Gnome-Ubuntu) sudo apt-get install terminator (o consola ‘evoluata’ – [l]userii stiu de ce!)

vim (text editor), wicd (network manager – interactiv install), mc (file manager [text-mode]) or krusader sau gnome-commander (file-managers [graphic mode]), sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts sun-java6-jdk (java – for netbeans++ – interactiv install), sshfs (mounts ssh locations as folders), cvs, hg (version control system), htop (process viewer), ailurus (ubuntu apps tweaker), synaptic (apps manager – graphical interface)

• sudo apt-get install vim mc terminator sshfs htop ailurus hg rar unrar arj p7xip-full xarchiver pidgin thunderbird tomboy xvnc4viewer wine filezilla ffmpeg mencoder alien
• sudo apt-get install wicd sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts sun-java6-jdk

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