A former Windows user.
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grub problems after installing Linux to external drive
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Linux now thinks your external drive is the primary booter.
Unmount & unplug the external drive.
Open a terminal and...
sudo grub-install sda6
(or whatever partition you use)
sudo grub-mkconfig
sudo update-grub2
Now everything is back to normal, hopefully.
You can also plug the drive back in and run the grub commands.
The external drive becomes part of the boot system but not the primary.
I still have not figured out how to get just the external drive to boot.
You know, on another computer, all by itself.
This all came about trying to make a rescue system.
Best just to use the Live CD you originally installed from.
Sometimes after doing a LOT of file maintenance things get a little buggered.
Then your system will not boot right.
Best to put that Live CD in and run:
fsck /dev/sda6
(or whatever partition you use)
this fixes all the messed up links & files
the autofix option usually will not work, fsck will tell you
just answer all the fsck questions to fix things
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make booting more interesting
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be verrwy careful...
mess up grub and you will have to install Linux again
or use that Live CD to edit things right
edit as superuser
/etc/default/grub
add
GRUB_BACKGROUND=your_picture_here.png
make sure it is your screen size or the same ratio
it will not fit like the desktop does
no spaces in the name just to be safe
a PNG or JPG work fine
sudo update-grub2
now when you boot you will have glorius color instead of b&w
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caja crashing when opening a directory?
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this is for those migrating from Windows
WMF's!
It is the thumbnail view of a WMF that crashes the caja file browser.
Move all those pesky WMF's to their own directory.
Turn off image preview in caja.
Use an image viewer to find the BAD WMF & isolate it in its' own directory.
WMF's do not work well in Linux anyway.
I also find that my old CDR (Corel Draw) files do not import well to inkscape.
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make auto-fortunes format correctly
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Desktop Settings: mintdesktop -> terminal -> Show fortune cookies
add the -n option
that way auto-fortunes format correctly
you will have to edit this file with root privlages
/usr/bin/mint-fortune
...
esac
/usr/games/fortune | $command -f $cow -n
}
...
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remove all empty directories
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'rmdir', unless forced to, will not delete non-empty directories
WARNING! this might make some things fail
but I live dangerously
OH MY!
Where did my directory in the home dirctory go...?
Duh, I just deleted it...
the script: ~/bin/rm-empty -or- ~/.local/bin/rm-empty
#!/bin/bash
find ~ -type d ! -path '~.*' -empty -exec rmdir -v {} \;
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DOS XCOPY /S /E Clone
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another tip for those who used to be Windows
I also use rsync for backups to an external drive
BAH! on all those backup utilities
rsync makes a clone of your directories
you can access them just like your home directory
note: there are two ways of getting rsync imitate DOS XCOPY
rsync -avmn --delete --progress --include='*/' --include=$file_nam --exclude='*' $file_pth $2
rsync -avmn --delete --progress --include=$file_nam --filter='hide,! */' $file_pth $2
the script: ~/bin/xcopy -or- ~/.local/bin/xcopy
#!/bin/bash
if [ "$#" = 2 ]
then
file_nam=$(basename "$1")
file_pth=$(dirname "$1")"/"
rsync -avm --progress --include='*/' --include=$file_nam --exclude='*' $file_pth $2
else
echo -e "\nusage: move /src/pattern /dst/"
fi
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safely remove external drive from the terminal
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this finds the mount point, unmounts, & powers off the device
I use this a LOT!
usage: x-drv [drive label]
the script: ~/bin/x-drv -or- ~/.local/bin/x-drv
#!/bin/bash
if [ "$#" = 0 ]
then
echo -e "\nusage: x-drv drive_name\n"
else
dev_pth=/media/`whoami`/$1
if [ -d "$dev_pth" ]
then
tgt_dev=`findmnt -n -r -o SOURCE "$dev_pth"`
echo -e "\nejecting: $dev_pth - $tgt_dev"
umount "$tgt_dev"
udisksctl power-off -b "$tgt_dev"
echo -e ">>> safe to remove <<<\n"
else
echo -e "$dev_pth - not mounted\n"
fi
fi
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list home directories & sizes
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does not list hidden stuff
a 4.0K directory is empty
the script: ~/bin/lshmdir -or- ~/.local/bin/lshmdir
#!/bin/bash
echo > temp.txt
find ~ -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -name '.*' -exec du -hs {} \; >> temp.txt
sort -k2 temp.txt
rm temp.txt