Linux

Linux refers to one or both of two things.

The heart of a Linux system is the Linux kernel, originally written by Linus Torvalds from Minix by Andrew Tanenbaum, and now maintained by hundreds of developers. It is a clone of Unix for personal computers and forms the heart of a system that is, to a reasonable extent, POSIX compliant.

Linux also refers to the name of the complete operating system built upon the Linux kernel, and there are literally hundreds (possibly thousands) of Linux operating system distributions, each one tailored to a specific need or set of needs.

Useful links:

Cards tagged Linux:

Adding Text to a Line in Ed(1)

If you're used to visual or full-screen text editors, switching to ed can be a challenge. One of the challenges for an ed novice is ...

Tell XChat to delay automatically joining channels until identified with NickServ

Some IRC networks, most notoriously Freenode, have NickServ services that are slow to respond to `/msg NickServ identify <password>` commands. If NickServ is too slow, ...

How to make a Windows shortcut that runs a Cygwin Bash script that runs X11 programs

ArielMT's use case was a one-button access to rdesktop (because Microsoft's remote desktop application doesn't respect keyboard localization) in Cygwin. Just ...

Fallback Base64 Encoder and Decoder in Bash

The GitHub gist markusfisch/base64.sh is a Bash script for encoding and decoding things in Base64, using base64 if installed, falling back to ...

Encrypted PC Triple-Boot with TrueCrypt and LUKS Howto

Update Regarding TrueCrypt

TrueCrypt should not be used. It has an undisclosed vulnerability that resulted in the shutdown of the TrueCrypt project and withdrawal of ...

IBM's malware oops, and more Linux stuff

IBM was represented at AusCERT this year, and they gave away complimentary USB flash drives at their booth. However, ... ...

August 25, 2014 - Remove from Debian an ancient package crashing on install-info

Swiped from this StackExchange question: If you can't uninstall an ancient package from Debian, the package axe for example, because you ...

January 31, 2014 - Kickstart CentOS 6.5 from Minimal or Netinst CD-ROM

Problem

I don't like Red Hat or RPM-based Linux distros, but I maintain a CentOS server farm. After building a new server, I sought ...

January 5, 2013 - Random Wallpapers

I can't decide what image I want to use for my desktop background/wallpaper, so I set it to be changed every 10 minutes to ...

Jauary 1, 2013 - I Have Keyed My Operating Systems

I continued toying with encrypted multibooting, and I've written so far two journal entries about my attempts. My first attempt was a ...

December 25, 2012 - A Far More Elegant Encrypted Multi-Boot Solution

So immediately after hacking together something with TrueCrypt (described in my my previous journal entry) and realizing how unworkable it is with ...

December 16, 2012 - The Ugliest Multi-Boot Hack I Have Ever Seen

And I wrote it. Installing multiple operating systems with full encryption should not be as hard as it is. Installing multiple versions of Windows ...

August 24, 2012 - Create a Local Ubuntu Mirror Using Apt-Mirror and Apt-Cacher

It's three years old now, and it's geared toward Ubuntu specifically, but this is a pretty neat explanation of how to save ...

August 6, 2012 - Day After Patch Tuesday Cron Job

How do you schedule a cron job to run on a specific weekday of the month, but on only one of the four or ...

April 23, 2012 - Fun with Linux window managers

I got tired of GNOME on Ubuntu, and I wanted to upgrade artpad (my Toshiba Portégé M200 tablet) to something ...

February 25, 2012 - Linux Compose Key

One thing I really don't like about how the universe works is how becoming frustrated with trying to do something seems to be the ...

AT&T Blocks Linux Configuration of DSL Service

Apparently, there's a great deal for DSL Internet service in AT&T's service areas: $14.95 a month for a two-year contract. That's not a bad ...

Useful UNIX-Linux Commands

20 Linux System Monitoring Tools Every SysAdmin Should Know My 10 UNIX Command Line Mistakes Both from NixCraft. ...

AT LAST! SCO Fired Dalek McBride!

What a news story to start off the week with! SCO CEO Darl McBride has been fired! ...

May 31, 2009 - Music Player Applications

The closest thing I ever found to a perfect unified music player application was Amarok 1.4. It let me:

stream and/or download

...