##### cursor theme ################################ use gcursor package OR manualy add the theme to /usr/share/icons to get X11 support, change /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme to point to the new theme (Inherits=) ! ##### search in a man page from terminal ########### hit "/" and type the query term :-) ##### fonts ############################### after un/installing fonts, update the caches: sudo fc-cache -f -v ##### netstat ############################## sudo netstat -p -e --inet --numeric-hosts ##### pdnsd ############################### sudo pdnsd-ctl status manual restart: sudo /etc/init.d/pdnsd restart check /etc/resolv.conf fortelenet / openDNS nameserver hierarchy ##### privoxy / polipo ########################## activated this proxy combo system-wide see bookmarks in firefox for web-interface configuration manual restart: privoxy --> sudo /etc/init.d/privoxy restart polipo --> sudo /etc/init.d/polipo restart ##### Compiz scripting ######################### run compiz-dbus-send.py with arguments i.e. activate the toggle key for the ADD Helper: compiz-dbus-send.py addhelper toggle_key run compiz-dbus-viewports.py with arguments i.e. on the fly viewport creation/destruction: compiz-dbus-viewports.py hsize 1 compiz-dbus-viewports.py vsize -2 --> compiz script control has arrived :D ##### AUDIO MIXER ########################### Using PulseAudio system-wide, see the toolset that comes with it (paplay, padevchooser, paprefs etc..) BUT, all this doesn't do jack if the mixer mutes the speakers :) gnome-volume-control and triplecheck all settings ... ##### clean i18n files (i.e. compiz ccsm) ############## sed -e '/xml\:lang/d' crashhandler.xml -i.bak NOTE: integrated this in thunar to be able to run it on all selected .xml files ##### hardware info ########################### Use sysinfo and/or commandline: sudo lshw -html > /path/to/where/you/find/it/SysInfo.html ##### swap ################################ After using GParted (to set swapon flag or other), check the UUID and adapt /etc/fstab entry for swap drive ! ##### backup routine ######################### sbackup --> System > Simple Backup Config sbackup --> System > Simple Backup Restore ##### cron format ############################ Operators There are several ways of specifying multiple date/time values in a field: * The comma (',') operator specifies a list of values, for example: "1,3,4,7,8" * The dash ('-') operator specifies a range of values, for example: "1-6", which is equivalent to "1,2,3,4,5,6" * The asterisk ('*') operator specifies all possible values for a field. +---------------- minute (0 - 59) | +------------- hour (0 - 23) | | +---------- day of month (1 - 31) | | | +------- month (1 - 12) | | | | +---- day of week (0 - 6) (Sunday=0 or 7) | | | | | * * * * * command(s) to be executed (separate commands with';' ##### audio alerts ############################ aumix -v75 (75%) (volume) paplay note: combined this makes a nice tool for audio alerts that don't shatter you're ears.. :D todo --> create a 'unmute if muted', go to 75% and after playing return to former level, or look into pulseaudio to see if there's a way... ##### check status of firestarter (firewall) ############# sudo /etc/init.d/firestarter status ##### preload ############################## Config --> /etc/preload.conf Monitoring If you want to check up on what resources Preload is using, you can monitor its logfile by running: sudo tail -f /var/log/preload.log By default (you can manually set the verbosity of Preload with the "-V" flag; for more information, check Preload's man page) this won't tell you much information about Preload except for the amount of memory it has allocated and how many files it's watching. If you want more information about the specific files that Preload is caching for you, look at this file: sudo less /var/lib/preload/preload.state The beautiful thing about Preload, however, is that you can ignore these files completely; you might want to check up on the log every once and a while, just to make sure that it's running, but Preload will happily sit in the background and stay out of your way. ##### prelinking ############################# http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-74197.html Disclaimer: Prelinking might break your system! Only consider for use if you can risk the chance that your install might mess up. Most of all make sure that it gets to run the whole thing through the first time you prelink. Stopping in the middle can lead to system failure. Prelinking is a powerful device and needs to be used with care. UPDATE 1/2/07: Prelink is no longer necessary in Feisty. Feisty uses a new linking mechanism called DT_GNU_HASH which dramatically speeds up the linking process without the need for continuously running this prelink program. Again, prelink is NOT useful starting from Feisty Reason to use Prelinking (from the Gentoo Linux Prelinking Guide) Most common applications make use of shared libraries. These shared libraries need to be loaded into memory at runtime and the various symbol references need to be resolved. For most small programs this dynamic linking is very quick. But for programs written in C++ and that have many library dependencies, the dynamic linking can take a fair amount of time. On most systems, libraries are not changed very often and when a program is run, the operations taken to link the program are the same every time. Prelink takes advantage of this by carrying out the linking and storing it in the executable, in effect prelinking it. Prelinking can cut the startup times of applications. For example, a typical KDE program's loading time can be cut by as much as 50%. The only maintenance required is re-running prelink every time a library is upgraded for a pre-linked executable. Yet there is a chance that prelinking might mess up something, so use at your own risk. How to enable prelink 1. Activate Ubuntu universe sources 2. Put this command into terminal to install Prelink: sudo apt-get install prelink 3. Now put this command into the terminal: sudo gedit /etc/default/prelink 4. Change where it says "PRELINKING=unknown from unknown" to "yes" 5. Adjust the other options if you know what the heck you're doing. 6. To start the first prelink (the longest one!), put this in terminal: sudo /etc/cron.daily/prelink Automatic Prelinking After Program Are Installed One problem with prelinking in that when you install new programs those programs are not prelinked. So to avoid this problem when installing programs with apt-get or synaptic, use the directions below. Created /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99-prelink which contains the line DPkg::Post-Invoke {"echo Running prelink, please wait...;/etc/cron.daily/prelink";} General Notes About Prelinking In the future, prelink performs a quick prelink (a less-than-1-minute procedure on most systems) daily, usually at midnight. Every 14 days, or whatever you changed it to be, a full prelink will run. If you just did a major apt-get upgrade that changed systemwide libraries (i.e. libc6, glibc, major gnome/X libs, etc etc etc) and experience cryptic errors about libs, rerun step 6. To undo prelink, change step 4 from yes to no, then rerun step 6. Prelinking will make the binaries it prelinks change, so it's not appropriate if you have tripwire or another checksum-based IDS system, or if you do incremental or differential backups to save on space. # check prelink activities prelink -p ##### mail via ssmtp and mailx ################## look at sompe examples in cron.daily and crontab this is way easier now than via exim4 also made mail-from-cron script based on this ##### send mail from scripts via sendEmail ########## check docs for further options http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=140920 VIA TELENET: sendEmail -f glitsj16@gmail.com -t dirk.maetens@gmail.com -u "testing xubuntu" -m "Testing xubuntu's ability to use cdmline mail" -s mail-out.telenet.be -q VIA GMAIL sendEmail -f glitsj16@gmail.com -t dirk.maetens@gmail.com -u "testing xubuntu" -m "Testing xubuntu's ability to use cdmline mail" -s smtp.gmail.com:587 -xu -xp -q ##### clean cached .deb packages ############### note: changed this in Synaptic's conf ! :D sudo rm -f /var/cache/apt/archives/*.deb ##### clean unsupported locales from desktop files ####### via python script (some settings inside the script!) sudo python /home/dirkos/bin/cleanDesktop.py ####### root terminal ######################### gksu /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator