Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

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oba123

Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by oba123 »

Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet. A really cool feature I use all the time is to move windows by holding the Alt key and dragging from any part of the window.
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Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by Cosmo. »

This is a fine feature, but it can break functions in one or another application. Out of this reason I switch from Alt-key to Super-key for this; it can (at least in the Cinnamon edition) easily be done in the window-settings.
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Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by Rocky Bennett »

GregE wrote:Ubuntu Guide provides enough information on using and configuring Ubuntu to make any beginner's head spin. A new guide is published with each update, so is usually complete by the time the corresponding Mint is released.

http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Maverick

Man, that site has not been updated in a long while.
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Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by Leon8200 »

I have something I would like to add, I have succeeded in getting linux mint 13 XFCE to run on a 2001 Dell 8200 dimensions desktop.

256 MB of RAM
P4@1.8GHZ

how did I do it?

two drives, two SWAP's,
and of course a JFS file system 8)

I put it's HDD in my best pc and install mint 13 on it by flash drive, then placed the HDD back into my ol Delly and booted her right up, it runs really good even when browsing the web "using the midori browser" as my default web browser http://midori-browser.org/, and as for the setup, I have a 100 MB SWAP on /dev/sdA1, and another 100 MB SWAP on /dev/sdB1, mint is installed on /dev/sda2 on a JFS file system, and I have an EXT4 partition on /dev/sdb2 for extra stuff, like my linux mint 13 iso for example, hope that helps someone who also still has a heart for their "almost retired" pc's :mrgreen:
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ALF13

Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by ALF13 »

Leon8200 wrote:I have something I would like to add, I have succeeded in getting linux mint 13 XFCE to run on a 2001 Dell 8200 dimensions desktop.

256 MB of RAM
P4@1.8GHZ

how did I do it?

two drives, two SWAP's,
and of course a JFS file system 8)

I put it's HDD in my best pc and install mint 13 on it by flash drive, then placed the HDD back into my ol Delly and booted her right up, it runs really good even when browsing the web "using the midori browser" as my default web browser http://midori-browser.org/, and as for the setup, I have a 100 MB SWAP on /dev/sdA1, and another 100 MB SWAP on /dev/sdB1, mint is installed on /dev/sda2 on a JFS file system, and I have an EXT4 partition on /dev/sdb2 for extra stuff, like my linux mint 13 iso for example, hope that helps someone who also still has a heart for their "almost retired" pc's :mrgreen:

I wonder what do you do with this computer ? Browsing the web ?
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Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by Rocky Bennett »

ALF13 wrote:
Leon8200 wrote:I have something I would like to add, I have succeeded in getting linux mint 13 XFCE to run on a 2001 Dell 8200 dimensions desktop.

256 MB of RAM
P4@1.8GHZ

how did I do it?

two drives, two SWAP's,
and of course a JFS file system 8)

I put it's HDD in my best pc and install mint 13 on it by flash drive, then placed the HDD back into my ol Delly and booted her right up, it runs really good even when browsing the web "using the midori browser" as my default web browser http://midori-browser.org/, and as for the setup, I have a 100 MB SWAP on /dev/sdA1, and another 100 MB SWAP on /dev/sdB1, mint is installed on /dev/sda2 on a JFS file system, and I have an EXT4 partition on /dev/sdb2 for extra stuff, like my linux mint 13 iso for example, hope that helps someone who also still has a heart for their "almost retired" pc's :mrgreen:

I wonder what do you do with this computer ? Browsing the web ?

Wouldn't that computer be too slow to use to browse the web? Maybe just have one window open with no video or audio, just one forum window open maybe.
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Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by BigEasy »

There was a tip how to install, not how to use after.
Windows assumes I'm stupid but Linux demands proof of it
ALF13

Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by ALF13 »

BigEasy wrote:There was a tip how to install, not how to use after.
Sorry for the spam but your post made me laugh :lol:

Maybe this PC is going to be 300 Watts Router ? Why not? :)
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Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by MMcD488 »

I hope these count as tips. I learned this the hard way when trying to boot my Mint Cinnamon live disk. I couldn't get it boot into the desktop and after some research I figured out it was my Nvidia graphics card. I followed the instructions I found about it but it still wouldn't go into the desktop... Then I saw another write-up saying that monitors with different resolutions could cause the issue. Actually, I think i found both of those write-ups here while googling my issue from my iPhone.
So I guess my tip is to make sure you only have 1 monitor connected until you get everything installed and your graphics driver updated. It didn't expressly say that in either of the write-ups I followed so I thought I'd add it here.
Another tip I found, If dual-booting with Windows and using multiple drives, make sure all of the partitions from Windows are set up as "Basic" and not "Dynamic" because the dynamic ones aren't recognized in Linux.

I hope this helps someone :)
New Linux enthusiast
Old Mint box - Dell XPS m140 running Mint 18.2 32-bit with XFCE and LXQt
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Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by InkKnife »

MMcD488 wrote:I hope these count as tips. I learned this the hard way when trying to boot my Mint Cinnamon live disk. I couldn't get it boot into the desktop and after some research I figured out it was my Nvidia graphics card. I followed the instructions I found about it but it still wouldn't go into the desktop... Then I saw another write-up saying that monitors with different resolutions could cause the issue. Actually, I think i found both of those write-ups here while googling my issue from my iPhone.
So I guess my tip is to make sure you only have 1 monitor connected until you get everything installed and your graphics driver updated. It didn't expressly say that in either of the write-ups I followed so I thought I'd add it here.
Another tip I found, If dual-booting with Windows and using multiple drives, make sure all of the partitions from Windows are set up as "Basic" and not "Dynamic" because the dynamic ones aren't recognized in Linux.

I hope this helps someone :)
Keeping things simple on during installation is always the best way to proceed and that is always a good tip..
i7 3770, 12GB of ram, 256GB SSD, 64GB SSD, 750GB HDD, 1TB HDD, Cinnamon.
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Tips, Hints, Tricks and Kinks--please add your own.

Post by all41 »

How have you customized your Linux Mint to do your bidding?
Custom commands, tricks, hints, tips, workarounds, shortcuts, scripts, how to's, guru magic, chants, etc.?
Perhaps something you have discovered that is useful that is not widely known.
Please add to this thread--sharing is caring.

Here is my starting example:

Custom keyboard assignments that I use often.

Ctrl+Alt+u - Update Manager
Ctrl+Alt+p - Package Manager
Ctrl+Alt+g - Gparted
Ctrl+Alt+s - Suspend
Ctrl+Alt+l - Lock screen
Ctrl+Alt+m - System Monitor
Ctrl+Alt+h - /home directory
Ctrl+Alt+d - /Downloads directory
Ctrl+Alt+x - xkill

There are others that are specifically tailored to my personal workflow.
Everything in life was difficult before it became easy.
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Re: Tips, Hints, Tricks and Kinks--please add your own.

Post by BenTrabetere »

I have a few "ls" aliases that make my life easier ... and an "rm" alias that has prevented me from making a stupid mistake on more than one occasion.
alias la='ls -A'
alias ll='ls -alF'
alias rm='rm -i'

But my real tip and trick is I use Yelp to view man pages.

When I first discovered Yelp as a Menu entry I quickly dismissed it as pointless. It touts itself as the GNOME Help Browser, but I find it fails on almost every level as stand-alone utility. It just did not seem to do anything useful.

And then I discovered an undocumented* feature - it can be used to view man pages in a browser-like environment. You can navigate the entire document quickly and easily, you can search the document, and the document can printed to a printer or to a file as a PDF. To use it to view the man man page, enter

Code: Select all

yelp man:man
*The documentation for Yelp is very limited, and its man page does not mention using it to view man pages. So I am calling this an undocumented feature. See for yourself.

Code: Select all

yelp man:yelp
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Re: Tips, Hints, Tricks and Kinks--please add your own.

Post by AZgl1800 »

all41 wrote: Thu Mar 15, 2018 11:44 pm How have you customized your Linux Mint to do your bidding?
Custom commands, tricks, hints, tips, workarounds, shortcuts, scripts, how to's, guru magic, chants, etc.?
Perhaps something you have discovered that is useful that is not widely known.
Please add to this thread--sharing is caring.

Here is my starting example:

Custom keyboard assignments that I use often.

Ctrl+Alt+u - Update Manager
Ctrl+Alt+p - Package Manager
Ctrl+Alt+g - Gparted
Ctrl+Alt+s - Suspend
Ctrl+Alt+l - Lock screen
Ctrl+Alt+m - System Monitor
Ctrl+Alt+h - /home directory
Ctrl+Alt+d - /Downloads directory
Ctrl+Alt+x - xkill

There are others that are specifically tailored to my personal workflow.
You really had me excited with this list, I am a keyboard shortcut fanatic.....
but alas, not a single one did anything for me. I was thinking these were built-in, but now, I think you built them custom, which is a good idea.

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Re: Tips, Hints, Tricks and Kinks--please add your own.

Post by AndyMH »

Echo the thoughts on Yelp, only discovered it myself a couple of weeks ago, so much better than typing man xxxx in a terminal.
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Re: Tips, Hints, Tricks and Kinks--please add your own.

Post by Pierre »

Hey AZgl1500 you can make your own Keyboard Shortcuts:
- Control Centre - Hardware - Keyboard Shortcuts - Add . .
to edit an existing shortcut,, click on the corresponding row & press backspace to clear it, & add in your combo
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Re: Tips, Hints, Tricks and Kinks--please add your own.

Post by wallyUSA »

AndyMH wrote: Fri Mar 16, 2018 6:12 am Echo the thoughts on Yelp, only discovered it myself a couple of weeks ago, so much better than typing man xxxx in a terminal.
+1 for Yelp :!:
> If your query has been resolved, edit your original post and add <SOLVED> to the beginning of the subject line. This may help others find solutions. <

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Re: Tips, Hints, Tricks and Kinks--please add your own.

Post by smurphos »

I only recently discovered Cinnamon's Screen Recorder - Ctrl-Shift-Alt-R. It's pretty good.
For custom Nemo actions, useful scripts for the Cinnamon desktop, and Cinnamox themes visit my Github pages.
idle

Re: Linux: Tricks of the Trade -- tips from our members

Post by idle »

ALF13 wrote: Sat Feb 13, 2016 4:02 am
Leon8200 wrote:I have something I would like to add, I have succeeded in getting linux mint 13 XFCE to run on a 2001 Dell 8200 dimensions desktop.

256 MB of RAM
P4@1.8GHZ

how did I do it?

two drives, two SWAP's,
and of course a JFS file system 8)

I put it's HDD in my best pc and install mint 13 on it by flash drive, then placed the HDD back into my ol Delly and booted her right up, it runs really good even when browsing the web "using the midori browser" as my default web browser http://midori-browser.org/, and as for the setup, I have a 100 MB SWAP on /dev/sdA1, and another 100 MB SWAP on /dev/sdB1, mint is installed on /dev/sda2 on a JFS file system, and I have an EXT4 partition on /dev/sdb2 for extra stuff, like my linux mint 13 iso for example, hope that helps someone who also still has a heart for their "almost retired" pc's :mrgreen:

I wonder what do you do with this computer ? Browsing the web ?
Mines for Bitcoin :lol:
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Re: Tips, Hints, Tricks and Kinks--please add your own.

Post by Flemur »

Show all the executables in $PATH which match some string:

Code: Select all

$ W string
strings
x86_64-linux-gnu-strings
$ cat bin/W

Code: Select all

#!/bin/bash
if [ $# -lt 1 ]
then
  echo Usage: `basename $0` pattern 
  exit 1
fi 
echo $PATH | sed 's/^/ls -A /' | sed 's/:/ |grep -i '$1'; ls -A /g' | sed 's/$/ |grep -i '$1'/' | bash | sort 
exit 0
Quick (un)mount for /mnt-defined mount-points (mo and um):

Code: Select all

$ mo UBUN
$ df
/dev/sda1        9947028  4270476   5148168  46% /mnt/UBUN
$ cat bin/mo
#!/bin/bash
mount /mnt/$1
$
$ cat bin/um
#!/bin/bash
umount /mnt/$1
/mnt/UBUN = ubuntu OS installation; not mounted at boot.

Find files on the current file-system:

Code: Select all

$ cat sfind
# find things on the current file-system - i.e. omit mount points 
#
find -xdev -name "$1"
(this is extra-handy for me because I have ~/.mozilla and ~/.wine links to data partition (ln -s); .wine has > 7,000 files that I don't want to search thru - or get results from - when I'm looking in "/");

"Generous" case-insensitive find with one or two variables (find v1 AND v2):

Code: Select all

$ Find bin
./bin
./.cache/mozilla/firefox/profile.default/startupCache/urlCache-current.bin
...
$ Find bin Fire
./.cache/mozilla/firefox/profile.default/startupCache/urlCache-current.bin
...

Code: Select all

$ cat Find
#!/bin/bash
#
if [ $# -lt 1 ]
then
  echo Usage: `basename $0` pattern
  exit 1
fi

if [ $# -lt 2 ]
then
   find -iname "*$1*"
   exit 0
fi

find -iname "*$1*" | grep $2
exit 0
"cd" to common locations (needs a script and an alias) without making links:

Code: Select all

$ pwd
/home/username
$ data music
$ pwd
/mnt/DATA/music
$ data music/Stones
$ pwd
/mnt/DATA/music/Stones

Code: Select all

$ alias data
alias data='. ddata'
$
$ cat bin/ddata
#!/bin/bash
cd /mnt/DATA/$1
History with grep:

Code: Select all

$ hg fire
 1292  killall firefox
...
 1881  cd firefox
...
$
$ cat hg
#!/bin/bash
#
if [ $# -lt 1 ]
then
  echo Usage: `basename $0` pattern
  echo "---> history | grep pattern"
  exit 1
fi
history | grep $1
"Toggle" programs on/off with keypad (lines from fluxbox "keys" file):

Code: Select all

Mod1    88    :Exec toggle_running conky
Control 86    :Exec toggle_running qasmixer

Code: Select all

$ cat bin/toggle_running
#!/bin/bash
ps cax | grep $1 > /dev/null
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
 echo "Process is running."
  killall -s SIGINT $1
  exit 1
else
  echo "Process is not running."
  $1
  exit 0
fi
IIRC, it didn't work with all programs; it'll also kill multiple instances of the same name, e.g. terminals.
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
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Re: Tips, Hints, Tricks and Kinks--please add your own.

Post by BenTrabetere »

Flemur wrote: Fri Mar 16, 2018 1:31 pm "cd" to common locations (needs a script and an alias) without making links:
I was hoping this would show up.

I use something similar - I have a Data partition mounted under /mnt, and not all of the directories are linked in /home. It is handy for navigating to these directories quickly. I was tempted to post this tip here, but hesitated because I did not want to give the impression it was my idea.

I was almost certain what I use is based on one of your earlier posts, and this post confirms it. There is no way I would use something like ddata without outside help; I would, however, shamelessly stealborrow it. I do not remember the thread, but I recall it contained several nice tips worth adopting. Good stuff.
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