After installing a *nix, and if you have not been given the choice, the most likely figure is
 that you will be brought to a command prompt. For the inexperienced, this can be a very
 disturbing, and even frightening experience. But worry not, there are very good commands
 to get you around in a shell environment.

Note that all the following commands can be preceded my 'man' without the apostrophe, to
 get a detailed description of variants on how to run those said commands. In fact, I would
 even recommend doing a 'man man' to know what it is all about.:

ls: lists directory content.

cd: will take you to a directory. Usually invoqued with a
following syntax related to where you want to go. eg: cd dirname to go down,
or cd .. to go up.

mkdir: will make a directory, used in association with the name
of the needed directory.

rmdir: will remove a directory, used in association with the name
of the unwanted directory.

rm: will remove given file, does not work for folders.

vim: editor based on vi, can be used at a command prompt or in a
gui. Used in association with a filename that is or that shall be.

tar: compression & decompression program, allows to bring
file size down, like 'zip'

dmesg: description of what is going on in with the kernel. Use as
follow to get to scroll through it: dmesg | less

less: the opposite of more.f a list to be desplayed, if the list
is bigger then the terminal size.

more: file perusal filter for crt viewing. What ever that
means...

mount: mounts a filesystem. Reads /etc/fstab to know where to
mount said filesystem.

xf86config: configuration utility to setup X11 (xwindows)

du: disk usage, used with '-h' disk usage in human readable
form.

ps: reports a snapshot of current processes. I tend to use it
with 'aux'

top: displays linux tasks.

fakeroot: run a command in an environment faking root privileges
for file manipulation. Good to use when building .deb files for example.

cp: copy files and directories.

The following commands need root priveleges (#) to be able to do any system
 changes. If you don't know what you are doing, don't do it, unless you are ready
 to learn from your mistakes:

apt: advanced package tool.

apt-get: APT package handling utility. I use it in the following
maner

apt-get update: reads the list of available packages for the
distro

apt-get upgrade: self explanitory, must have apt-get update run
prior.

apt-cache search nameofpackage: search in specefied source
nameofpackage. This one does not need root priveleges. I just put it here
because it goes hand in hand with 'apt-get install.'

apt-get install nameofpackage: install from specefied source
nameofpackage

ifconfig: configure a network interface

iwconfig: configure a wireless netwrok interface

ifup/down: bring a network interface up/down

fdisk: partition table manipulator for Linux, use with EXTREME CAUTION required.

hdparm: hard drive optimization. use with caution, will allow 
faster access to harddrives. Read the man pages with this one, or else...

base-config: Debian base system configuration

aptitude: high-level interface to the package manager

Mounting a filesystem on a *nix box:

Every partition under a *nix needs to be inputed into a specific file to be mountable. The
 exception is with OS X, which can use the standard, but by default does not.

Some filesystems will need root preveledges (#) to be mounted, and some can be mounted
 as regular user ($). This depends on how the fstab entry for that particular filesystem is
 setup. To show the steps that need to be root, there is a # at the begening of the line. If
 there is a #/$, those commands can be executed as both root and/or regular user. Lines
 within ** are comments.

Example:

Here is where I mount a Olympus D510-Zoom via usb under Mandrake 8.2 and 9. I don't
 believe it works in 10, since it has been changed to some different methode of file mounting.

Note that I don't run Mandrake on any of my machines anymore, and thus this part may be
 obsolete.

# vim /etc/fstab

*insert the following line into fstab after all the others*

/mnt/olympus /mnt /olympus supermount dev=/devsda1,fs=vfat,--,iocharset=iso8859-1,umask=0,codepage=850 0 0

*save the file* ie: esc wq enter

# mkdir /mnt/olympus
# mount /mnt/olympus

to unmount the said file system:

# umount /mnt/olympus

Here is how to mount a lexar media compacFlash via usb card in Debian:

# vim /etc/fstab

*insert the following line into fstab after all the others*

/dev/sda1 /media/lexar vfat rw,user,noauto 0 0

*save file* ie: esc wq enter

# mkdir /media/lexar
#/$ mount /media/lexar

Here is how to munt an iPod via usb in Debian, noting that the iPod was used on a Windows
 system, and thus was using fat or fat32 as a filesystem:

# vim /etc/fstab

*insert the following line into fstab after all the others*

/dev/sda2 /media/ipod vfat ro,user,noauto 0 0

*save file* ie: esc wq enter

# mkdir /media/ipod
#/$ mount /media/ipod (while it is connected)

to unmount the said filesystem:

#/$ umount /media/ipod
# eject /dev/sda (this will tell the ipod it is safe to unplug it, thus
removing the 'do not unplug' message)

*related topic to ipod: how to install linux on ipod. note that I haven't done it yet, since I don't own
 one.software to be used with the ipod: gtkpod, allows to search music on the ipod, listen to the music
 on the ipod via xmms, and copy music from the ipod to harddrive (unlike iTunes)

Hard Drive Optimization:

*disclaimer: read man page for hdparm, I don't really know much about this one, just that
 there is lots that can be done to improve system performances*

# hdparm -t /dev/hda
# hdparm -c1 -m16 -X (these functions are not to be used in that
particular order, they are just there as example.)

Once again, I post this as information, but I am not familliar with
hdparm, and thus can't go into details about it.

Decompressing tar balls:

if nameoffile.tgz
$ tar -xvf nameoffile.tgz

if nameoffile.bz2
$ tar -xjvf nameoffile.bz2

if nameoffile.gz
$ tar zxf nameoffile.gz

if nameoffile.tgz
$ tar -xvf nameoffile.tgz

if nameoffile.zip
$ tar xzf nameoffile.zip

Compiling tar balls:

$ cd nameoffile
$ ./configure
$ make
$ su
# make install

Xwindows:

So far, everything that has been covered can be executed from a terminal, with no gui
 environment what so ever. But often, we like gui, and so for *nix, we invoque the Xwindows.
 There are many Xwindows, some better known then others, some more featured then others.
 Most often, resources dictate, or restrict our choices. My Xwindow of choice is blackbox.
 There is a spin off of blackbox that handles key bindings without extra software installed,
 named fluxbox, but not everybody needs key binding, and so by keeping in the tradition of
 less is better, I opt usually for blackbox. Note that os X is an exception in that it can and
 will function very well without any Xwindows installed, due to it's Aqua interface, but an
 Xwindows can also be installed on top of Aqua to allow for native *nix applications to take
 advantage of gui. If there is no Xwindows, the only applications that are directly associated
 with the 'true' *nixness of os X will have to be run in a terminal, and will not be able to run
 in a gui form. In fact, if they are gui dependent, they will most likely not install, complaining
 there is no environment for them to work in.

Xwindows configuration:

The biggest file that is usually edited to get Xwindows up and running correctly is the
 XF86Config-4 file (some new systems want Xconf.org,), both live in /etc/X11/. Although
 most *nix distros now have an assisted configuration of this particular file, there is the
 occasional problem where the script will fail, and there will be need to edit it by hand. In
 my case, I had my first introduction to this file when trying to enable dual-screen support
 under Mandrake on a single card with dual heads. Of course it took me far too long to get
 it correctly, but one has to do things wrong first to learn how to do them right. If you are
 new to a *nix, try not to tamper with this too much. Only once you are comfortable with the
 shell environment, and once you understand how to edit a file in a terminal, only then
 should you attempt editing this file, since to my experience it will not allow for editing
 when logged into X. If you wish to edit this file, make a backup before hand.

Logging into Xwindows:

This can be done in different manners, some of which are dependent on your distro. In
 Debian, the most likely figure is that the Desktop environment was selected during install
 (especially if you are a beginner) and so GDM (Gnome Display Manager) will kick in
  automatically. I personally prefer XDM, because it allows me to execute different scripts
 when I log into my Window Manager. But GDM has it's advantages, such as allowing the
 user to choose which window manager to startup, just by selecting it. There is a third
 Display Manager KDM (KDE Display Manager) which is very similar to GDM.

For a beginner, I would recommend GDM, since it has the option of choosing which Xwindows
 to run (KDE, Gnome, Blackbox, Enlightenment, etc)

For an advanced user, I would recommend XDM. It is older, and doesn't look as good, but has
 the advantage of looking for startup scripts (.xinitrc or .Xsession depending on the distro)

There is also the option of disabling the Display Manager, and using the command: 'startx'
 or 'xinit' from the command line. I personally like the XDM option, since I do most of my
 work in a gui enabled environment. Note that 'startx' will allow for usage of startup scripts,
 but not xinit.

Here is a copy of my .xsession. For this version of the file to work, it is necessary to have
 blackbox, aterm, bbpager, bbkeys, and gkrellm installed.

For the systems that use .xinitrc, well, the file's content can be exactly the same as that of
 the .xsession, it's just a filename difference.

Blackbox configuration:

~/.blackboxrc: configuration file for most of the options of blackbox. It allows you to choose
 where you want blackbox to go find it's menu configuration file, and it's theme files amongst
 many other things.

*~/ means: in home directory*

iSight on Debian Linux kernel 2.4.27

More to come soon...

My hardware

© 2005 Solomon Latham