Here are some useful commands that you can use to find (almost) every information that you want to know about your system from the command line. Most of this commands can be run as non-privileged user, but more information can be obtained if (and should be) run as root.:

General system information:

# uname -a

Process information:

# top

(Shift-M to order the list by memory use)

Memory information:

# free -m

BIOS information:

# dmidecode | less

Distro information:

Ubuntu: # lsb_release -a

Redhat/Mandriva/Fedora:  # cat /etc/osname_version

Devices:

# lspci -tv
# lsusb
# lshw

Partitions:

# fdisk -l

Memory usage:

# free -m

Mounted filesystem:

# df -hT

Disk usage:

# du / -bh | more

Disk performance:

# hdparm -t /dev/hda

IP adress:

# ifconfig -a

Ethernet adapter:

# ethtool -i eth0

The /proc directory (cpuinfo, devices, filesystems, meminfo, partitions, uptime,  etc.)

E.g.:

# cat /proc/cpuinfo
# cat /proc/version
# cat /proc/swaps

If you know other commands fell free to mention them.

A new version of the excellent Archlinux distribution was released. What is new? Here is a copy of the announcement from the Archlinux official site:

The 2008.06 images are out. This release introduces many changes.

- ‘base’ category is always installed
- Use of UUIDs for persistent device naming
- Availability of USB disk images alongside traditional ISOs
- True live Arch installation environment
- Inclusion of the beginner’s guide from the wiki
- Documentation updates
- Includes the current stable kernel, 2.6.25.6

if you all ready use Archlinux, all you have to do for upgrading is to run the following command:

# pacman -Syu

If you are new to Archlinux or just want to find more about this distro read the excellent article on the Celletu’s blog. 

In my opinion Linux Mint smells much better than Ubuntu. I had on my PC for a few months Linux Mint 3, and I liked it. But I switched to Arch Linux. This release made me think again at Linux Mint. I’m downloading it right now. I will wait to check ‘er out (and, of course, I will post my impressions).

Here is the official anounce, from the Linux Mint Blog:

It is with great pleasure that I officially announce the release of Linux Mint 5 Elyssa. more…

We are used with well-known music players such as amarok or rhythmbox. But what other options are out there? After a little research I made a list with six audio players for linux that are not very well known, but could replace some of the top players:

Ariado Player

This software is a little music player allowing you to listen to music while being on a computer. Light and very portable, it runs on Linux, BSD, Mac and Windows download here …

.

Aqualung

(my favorite from this list) Advanced music player for GNU/Linux, also running on FreeBSD, OpenBSD and Microsoft Windows. Plays audio CDs, internet radio streams, podcasts and soundfiles in just about any audio format and has the feature of inserting no gaps between adjacent tracks. download here …

Gimmix

Graphical music player daemon (MPD) client written in C using GTK+2. Gimmix is very simple and easy to use, yet offers many features to make your audio experience a pleasant one. Gimmix main features are: Simple and Clean Interface; Compact and full view modes; Library Browser; Library search; Playlist management; ID3v2 Tag editing support; Support for controlling gimmix. download here …

MoreAmp

Audio player, transcoder and cd ripper for Mac OS X, OS 9, Windows, Unix, and Linux. Plays and creates ogg, flac, mp3, aac, m4a, mp4, wav, and aif, and plays wma. 31-band equalizer, repeat loop, variable pitch/tempo, ram or ramdisk preload. download here …

reBMP

REturn of the Beep Media Player ! Key words: Linux, cue, ape, flac, lyrics. it bases on the beepmp-0.9.7.1, and i hacked some code, it now natively supports APE, FLAC with cuesheet list. Added a lyric panel to show lyrics when playing. Enjoy yourself mus. download here …

Sonic-Rainbow

Linux GUI Multimedia Player that provides a CD Player, DVD Player, CD Ripper, Ogg Player, MP3 Player, CD Ripper, Sound Mixer, MP3 and Ogg file TAG editor enables the creation and modification of file TAGS. Utilises CDDB HTTP to download CD information and Tag Ogg and MP3 files as it rips them. Maintains CDDB information locally and displays it when playing CD’s. download here …

If you know other players that could be listed here, please comment …

Here is a flowchart that I found on http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/29948/Ubuntuforyou.jpg that helps to decide if Ubuntu is a suitable Linux distro for you:

I will show you how to make a fast backup of your windows partition from the command line. Of course, that is if you have enough space on your linux partition. Open a console and type the following command:

$ tar -cvzf win_backup.tar.gz /mnt/win

Where win_backup.tar.gz is the name of the archive and /mnt/win/  is the path to the windows partition (what to backup).

If there is a folder you don’t want to backup, use the exclude option. E.g.:

$ tar -cvzf win_backup.tar.gz --exclude= "/mnt/win/Downloads/*" /mnt/win

To restore do:

 $  tar -xvzf win_backup.tar.gz

Switch Explanation:
x -extract the contents of the TAR file
c -create a TAR file
z- uncompress it before extracting, used on file ending in .tar.gz or .tgz
v -verbose - display contents as it is tarring or extracting

f  -filename to follow

Who is a very used command, and, as most of us know,  is a command to find out who’s working on your system.). But the who command can do much more then showing who is logged on. On his blog, Mike presents 4 options to use with who that “make it a great troubleshooting and statistics gathering command”.  These options are:

who –r  : Prints the current runlevel

who –b :  Prints the system boot time

who –t  : Prints out the last time the System Clock was changed

who –d : Prints out a list of all the dead processes on your system

Read the full article …

Linux can do all most anything for you. Here is the proof (found on www.lessaid.net) :

Here is a tip about how to navigate in GNOME-the fast way.  While on the desktop (with no window focused), press the / key to open the Nautilus navigation bar.

To navigate to a specific location type the folders path in the bar.

Also, you can navigate to the special locations, using the paths as they are presented on killer tech tips:

burn:///
Opens the CD Writing Window.

computer:///

Shows Computer, lists the disk partitions

 

fonts:///
Lists the available fonts.

 

ftp:///

Connects you to the specified ftp address.

 

network:///
Lists network locations.

 

smb:///

Opens the Samba (file sharing) Window.

 

system-settings:///

Opens the System Settings Window.

 

themes:///
Lists the available GNOME themes.

If you know some others URI’s, please present them.

I’m sure that many of you are used with the <Win>+<L> key combination in
windows, to lock the screen. In Ubuntu (the distro I use), the
corespondent shortcut is <CTRL>+<ALT>+<L>. But, in many other distros
there is no shortcut for this command. Here is what you can do to assign a shortcut for locking the screen. (In order to do that, you have to activate the Win key. Read “How to use the Win key in Linux” to find out how to do it.)
Open the gconf-editor by typing “gconf-editor” in the terminal.

nongeek@mma:~$ gconf-editor

Go to: apps>metacity>keybinding_commands

Modify one of the commands (e.g. run_command_1). To do that, double-click
on it.
In the Value field of the window that will appear we will type the
gnome
screensaver command for locking the screen. Let’s type
gnome-screensaver-command - -lock and click the OK button.

Go to apps>metacity>global_keybindings.

Look for the “run_command_1″ and double-click on it.
In the Value field type the key combination you want for the lock screen
command. I typed <Mod4>L. Click “Ok”

Restart the Xserver pressing <ALT><Backspace>.After you relog in, try
the new shortcut. If nothing happens, check if you typed right the key
combination gconf-editor. If you get some error message about the
command, check if you typed right the command for gnome screensaver.
In the same way you can change the shortcut for the desktop from
<CTRL><ALT>D to <WIN>D