Linux General Questions

trueheart78 wrote:

Still unsure how I feel about the Unity stuff, but so far, hasn't caused any headaches. I'll give it time.

Just change to another window manager and see how you like it, you can easily go back.

Looks like my experiment failed. Too much hardware just isn't working right. Between the screen brightness always at max, no power profiles for power saving and 3D hardly working because of horrible Nvidia drivers, it's probably better to run as a VM or to use my Raspberry Pi via ssh for most of my Linux needs.

Edwin wrote:

Looks like my experiment failed. Too much hardware just isn't working right. Between the screen brightness always at max, no power profiles for power saving and 3D hardly working because of horrible Nvidia drivers, it's probably better to run as a VM or to use my Raspberry Pi via ssh for most of my Linux needs.

In my experience this will be the most useful thing you can do. At my job you can use whatever OS you want for your machine, you'll be doing all of your work on the actual environments over SSH.

Scratched wrote:
trueheart78 wrote:

Still unsure how I feel about the Unity stuff, but so far, hasn't caused any headaches. I'll give it time.

Just change to another window manager and see how you like it, you can easily go back.

Been tracking the thread via favorites, finally figured I'd jump in. I have been using Unity on a 12.04 virtual machine and there are definitely some UI oddities that I'm not fond of. A couple of suggestions for alternative window managers - XFCE is great if you want a more old-fashioned UI - it's my preferred choice on my home NAS as well as on remote servers. Alternatively if you want a UI with a little more animation, you can look at Cinnamon, which is a fork of GNOME3 for the Mint distro.

SixteenBlue wrote:
Edwin wrote:

Looks like my experiment failed. Too much hardware just isn't working right. Between the screen brightness always at max, no power profiles for power saving and 3D hardly working because of horrible Nvidia drivers, it's probably better to run as a VM or to use my Raspberry Pi via ssh for most of my Linux needs.

In my experience this will be the most useful thing you can do. At my job you can use whatever OS you want for your machine, you'll be doing all of your work on the actual environments over SSH.

+1 to what SixteenBlue said. If you are trying to learn up on linux administration, working on the command line is key. A few other suggestions based on my limited experience:

- Keep a text file with build notes when installing & configuring packages. This will save you a lot of time when setting up/migrating servers as time goes on. Setting up a base LAMP stack with some additional hardening/monitoring thrown in takes me about 45 minutes now, compared to (the equivalent) of days in the past. I also check in my build notes into a git repository, which allows me to update versions across machines.

- If you are primarily working with Debian/Ubuntu then consider installing etckeeper. This package will turn your entire /etc folder into a DVCS repository, so if you screw up a configuration completely you can always pull a previous version of the config file from the repo and be up & running again. If you are paranoid (like me) you can also create a post-commit hook to push changes to a backup server (bonus paranoia points - backup server repo pushes to another cloud-based service like github or bitbucket), so you can do comparisons across servers if something works in one place but not another.

avggeek wrote:

- Keep a text file with build notes when installing & configuring packages. This will save you a lot of time when setting up/migrating servers as time goes on.

^This, the time spent making good notes on what works and how can be recovered many fold even in a single case of having to redo it all. Don't assume you'll remember it.

So doing everything by SSH has been a challenge. A good one really. But I've hit a wall and need advice.

So in order to get my RaspberryPi to load, I had to use Win32DiskImager to write the OS image to the SD card. Now the card thinks it's only 1.2 GB, and it's full, when it's really a 16 GB card. The SD card image is sized for a 2GB card.

Here is my current layout. NOTE: I bolded the command prompt so it's easier for you to read.

[b]root@raspberry-pi:~#[/b] df -h Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on rootfs 1.2G 1.2G 0 100% / /dev/root 1.2G 1.2G 0 100% / tmpfs 13M 332K 12M 3% /run tmpfs 5.0M 0 5.0M 0% /run/lock tmpfs 25M 0 25M 0% /tmp tmpfs 10M 0 10M 0% /dev /dev/sda4 932G 387G 545G 42% /media/usb0 /dev/sda3 932G 131G 802G 14% /media/usb1 /dev/sda2 932G 633M 931G 1% /media/usb2 tmpfs 25M 0 25M 0% /run/shm /dev/mmcblk0p1 75M 34M 41M 46% /boot

I'm using this guide, but my options don't seem to be the same.

[b]root@raspberry-pi:~#[/b] sudo fdisk -cu /dev/mmcblk0p1 Usage: fdisk [options] change partition table fdisk [options] -l list partition table(s) fdisk -s give partition size(s) in blocks Options: -b sector size (512, 1024, 2048 or 4096) -c[=] compatible mode: 'dos' or 'nondos' (default) -h print this help text -u[=] display units: 'cylinders' or 'sectors' (default) -v print program version -C specify the number of cylinders -H specify the number of heads -S specify the number of sectors per track [b]root@raspberry-pi:~#[/b] sudo fdisk -l /dev/mmcblk0p1 Disk /dev/mmcblk0p1: 78 MB, 78643200 bytes 4 heads, 16 sectors/track, 2400 cylinders, total 153600 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes Disk identifier: 0x00000000 Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System root@raspberry-pi:~# sudo fdisk -p /dev/mmcblk0p1 fdisk: invalid option -- 'p' Usage: fdisk [options] change partition table fdisk [options] -l list partition table(s) fdisk -s give partition size(s) in blocks Options: -b sector size (512, 1024, 2048 or 4096) -c[=] compatible mode: 'dos' or 'nondos' (default) -h print this help text -u[=] display units: 'cylinders' or 'sectors' (default) -v print program version -C specify the number of cylinders -H specify the number of heads -S specify the number of sectors per track [b]root@raspberry-pi:~#[/b] sudo parted /dev/mmcblk0p1 sudo: parted: command not found [b]root@raspberry-pi:~#[/b]

It sounds like you've probably got the BusyBox version of fdisk installed, rather than the standard version; BusyBox is a collection of lightweight alternative versions of a lot of standard Linux/UNIX utilities that's designed for embedded systems with limited space. I don't know what version of Linux you have on your Raspberry Pi, but it may well have a package available for the full version of fdisk.

Even without that, you might be able to manage with your existing version. Run it specifying just the drive, without any other options (and by the way, you don't need to use sudo in your case right now, since you're already logged in as root):

fdisk /dev/mmcblk0p1

That should get you in to an fdisk prompt, and it's from there that you need to start entering the other commands listed on that page (the "p" command to print the partition table, for instance).

Otherwise, the easiest option is probably to plug your SD card in to a PC, boot it in to a Linux live CD, and then use parted to do the resize from there.

I ended up doing that. I had an ubuntu live disk and used gparted to fix it. Now if only I could get my VirtualBox Ubuntu VM to see my damned SD card, I could fix a firewall rule that is blocking all network connections. Oh and to answer you question, I am using a XBMC optimized Debian install called XBian.

Edwin wrote:

Now if only I could get my VirtualBox Ubuntu VM to see my damned SD card

Try the following;
1) Grab the 'VirtualBox 4.1.18 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack' from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
2) load virtual box;
3) file - preferences - extensions - add button (on the right) - select downloaded file
4) restart vm.
5) ?
6) profit. (I jest, step 4 should finish it up)

So is there a way to pair a bluetooth keyboard only by CLI? I'm only finding guide and instructions saying the pin entry via GUI. Obviously since I am doing this all by a sort-of headless box via SSH, I need an all CLI way.

Edwin wrote:

So is there a way to pair a bluetooth keyboard only by CLI? I'm only finding guide and instructions saying the pin entry via GUI. Obviously since I am doing this all by a sort-of headless box via SSH, I need an all CLI way.

Maybe something like: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php...

Also, there are ways to run X apps over ssh, if the libraries and such are installed on the machine you're accessing.

ssh -X [hostname / IP], if you've messed with ForwardX11Trusted directive in ssh_config, or potentially just use ssh -Y [hostname/IP] if not.

My Linux desktop is now:

* Synapse
* Avant Window Manager
* Compiz + Grid plugin

At the moment, I am running these in Unity, as Unity comes stock running Compiz, but I may try getting Compiz running in Xfce and using it there.

Synapse I've already talked about. Quick keyboard-based launcher. It's the only way I launch applications.

I'm quite happy with Avant as a dock. In Unity, I've banished the Unity bar to one of my side monitors and autohid to keep it out of the way, and I use Avant for my icon clickin' to switch windows. Also really like the dock-based terminal. Even nicer pop-up terminal than guake IMO, though wish it were more customizable.

Compiz's Grid plugin is the kind of window tiling I like. Less hardcore than a full-on tiling WM, but I have hotkeys for easily moving a window into any 1/2 or 1/4 of a screen. I use the living crap out of this, now that I have a 3 monitor setup and don't use virtual desktops much anymore.

That sounds delicious.

Isn't Compiz EOL?

Malor wrote:

Isn't Compiz EOL?

Nope, it's active - possibly by different people than the guy who seemed to be abandoning it. It is the compositing engine for Unity and that appears to not be changing anytime soon.

Latest commits to the project were 8 hours ago.

Hey, maybe this is not the right place to ask this, but it's the most appropriate thread I've found. I have my laptop to dual boot using GRUB between ubuntu and windows 7. I obtained a copy of windows 8 that I would like to replace my current windows 7 install with. Does anyone know if I will run in to problems with GRUB in terms of it recognizing that I have another operating system to load? In other words, If I wipe out my windows 7 install will GRUB suddenly only be able to boot in to linux? And if so, is there a way to configure GRUB to recognize the new OS? Thanks in advance.

Yes, you'll have problems to fix. This should help.

Widows loves to gobble up the boot sector! NOM NOM NOM!!!

IlleBellus wrote:

In other words, If I wipe out my windows 7 install will GRUB suddenly only be able to boot in to linux?

No, what will likely happen is that GRUB will disappear. Windows will install its bootloader in your MBR and GRUB will be clobbered into oblivion. You can only have one bootloader in your MBR, and Windows will oh-so-helpfully insert its own, with no regard for anything else on the system.

What you'll need to do is reinstall GRUB. trueheart's link above will point you the way. Unlike the Windows bootloader, of course, GRUB will make note of all OSs on your system and prepare a boot menu to access them all.

NeoSmart has a couple of utilities that might be of help. They used to be free but it looks like things have changed up some since I used them some time ago.

EasyBCD - (Windows) free for personal use with registration.
iReboot - (Windows) Lets you choose to reboot into any of the other boot entries you have. Nice if you want to just start a reboot and grab a cup of coffee rather than wait to catch the boot menu. $5.

awesome, guys. I really appreciate the advice. I'm much more comfortable with this now. Of course there is the problem that I will be installing windows 8.....

It's also worth noting that if you are currently using an old version of Ubuntu, then you might be using GRUB 1.x rather than the current GRUB 2. I don't know if GRUB 2 plays well with old versions of Linux, so you should check your setup to be sure.

I am pretty sure I'm using a recent version of Grub. I have natty narwhal (I think there might be a more recent one, but this is the one my most recent class requiring linux specified to use). I think I have decided to just wipe my windows 7 install and replace it with a clean windows 7 (non-messed with) and re-enable grub and update linux and such. Thanks everyone for the advice, it was suuuuper helpful.

I stumbled on to this show yesterday. Haven't really made up my mind about it.

However, this episode has an interview with Richard Stallman. Dude is out there. I found it entertaining.

http://www.jupiterbroadcasting.com/1...

I used to fairly religiously listen to Linux Action Show, as much for the off-the-wall as for the productive. I realized, in some form, that I wasn't the tinkerer, I wasn't trying all kinds of distributions and applications, and stopped listening. Might check it out again, though.

Dude is out there.

It's been said that brilliance is hitting targets no one else can hit; genius is hitting targets no one else can see.

Malor wrote:
Dude is out there.

It's been said that brilliance is hitting targets no one else can hit; genius is hitting targets no one else can see.

I'm not trying to imply whether he's right or wrong, and I'm definitely not implying he's anything less than brilliant. But he's definitely out there.

Anyone got any particular experience with kubuntu vs regular ubuntu?

Not recently, but it's pretty much Ubuntu with KDE, and if you don't like one you can just use the package manager to switch to the DM you prefer.

Scratched wrote:

Not recently, but it's pretty much Ubuntu with KDE, and if you don't like one you can just use the package manager to switch to the DM you prefer.

That's what I figured, and with the switch from Gnome to Unity, my reasons for sticking to vanilla are fading. But there might be something I'm missing so I figured I'd ask.