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Category: Linux

Linux based Operating Systems

Useful Linux Terminal Commands

04/05/2019

Display details about firmware, cache, memory

$ sudo lshw -C memory
  *-firmware                
       description: BIOS
       vendor: FUJITSU // Phoenix Technologies Ltd.
       physical id: 0
       version: 6.00 R1.06.3012.A1
       date: 04/21/2011
       size: 110KiB
       capacity: 4032KiB
       capabilities: pci pnp upgrade shadowing escd cdboot bootselect int13floppynec int13floppytoshiba int13floppy360 int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb ls120boot zipboot biosbootspecification
  *-cache:0
       description: L1 cache
       physical id: 5
       slot: L1 Cache
       size: 64KiB
       capacity: 64KiB
       capabilities: burst synchronous internal write-through data
       configuration: level=1
...
  *-memory
       description: System Memory
       physical id: 2a
       slot: System board or motherboard
       size: 16GiB
     *-bank:0
          description: DIMM DDR3 Synchronous 1067 MHz (0.9 ns)
          product: 99U5471-021.A00LF
          vendor: Toshiba
          physical id: 0
          serial: DE131F7C
          slot: Slot-1
          size: 4GiB
          width: 64 bits
          clock: 1067MHz (0.9ns)
...

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Create bootable usb using DD

04/04/2019

This method depends on the iso file being designed as bootable, e.g Kaspersky Rescue Disk or Bitdefender Rescue CD, etc.

Plug in the USB flash drive and list its device name using fdisk

sudo fdisk -l
.
.
.
Disk /dev/sdc: 3.8 GiB, 4009754624 bytes, 7831552 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: dos
Disk identifier: 0x052e500d

Device     Boot Start     End Sectors  Size Id Type
/dev/sdc1  *     2048 7831551 7829504  3.8G  c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Unmount the device partition,

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Downgrade Linux Thunderbird

07/10/2018

For those who have upgraded to latest Thunderbird to find Calendar add-on is suddenly not compatible. The quick fix is to roll-back to last version as follows:

Display Thunderbird available versions

apt-cache show thunderbird | grep Version

Select last version to rollback to, e.g.

sudo apt-get install thunderbird=1:52.9.1+build3-0ubuntu0.14.04.1

Mount EFI Partition from Linux

25/02/2017

This blog (http://www.pjc.me.uk/efi-gpt/) is the only one that gets to anywhere close to answering this question. However you need to substitute “auto” instead of “fat32” in the mount command to get it to work. “xfs” and “fat32” threw out errors – actually the mount command after mounting shows it was “vfat”!

Here’s how I mounted the EFI partition on my external 500GB drive:

sudo parted -l print
Model: ATA ST3500630AS (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 500GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: gpt

Number  Start   End     Size    File system     Name                  Flags
1      1049kB  135MB   134MB                                          bios_grub
2      135MB   345MB   210MB   fat32                                  boot
3      345MB   479MB   134MB   fat32                                  msftres
4      479MB   54.2GB  53.7GB  ntfs                                   msftdata
5      54.2GB  108GB   53.7GB  ntfs                                   msftdata
6      108GB   162GB   53.7GB  ntfs                                   msftdata
7      162GB   172GB   10.7GB  ext4
8      172GB   184GB   11.8GB  ext4
9      184GB   185GB   1074MB  linux-swap(v1)
10      185GB   228GB   42.8GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_2
11      228GB   282GB   53.6GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_3
12      282GB   335GB   53.6GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_4
13      335GB   389GB   53.6GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_5
14      389GB   488GB   99.2GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_6
15      488GB   489GB   650MB   hfs+            Recovery HD
16      489GB   500GB   10.9GB  hfs+            Apple_HFS_Untitled_2

sudo mount -t auto /dev/sdb2 /mnt/test

cd /mnt/test/
ls
boot  EFI

Use kdesudo Dolphin (as Root) to view and edit files on the EFI partition

Note use of Parted (supports GPT drives) to get the partition number

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Increase VirtualBox Hard Disk Size

24/11/2016

From the Host Command line use the VboxManage resize option to increase the disk capacity

VBoxManage modifyhd \path-to-vdi-location\Windows\ 10\ Pro.vdi --resize 35840

This example is from a Linux host and increases the total size of the disk to 35GB (35 * 1024MB)

Once this is completed start the image and and use Windows Disk Manager to extend the volume to use the unused partition space.

How to mount NTFS volume

11/11/2016
  • ls /media
  • If you don’t see a folder for your Windows partition, you should create one with the following command:

    sudo mkdir /media/windows

  • Next, mount the partition in read-only mode onto this folder with this command:

    mount -t ntfs-3g -o ro /dev/sda3 /media/windows

Remove VirtualBox from Ubuntu

22/10/2016

If you need to completely remove VirtualBox, e.g. because a new version install fails preventing future installations then from the Console run commands below:

List VirtualBox installations

sudo dpkg -l | grep virtualbox

Example below

sudo dpkg -l | grep virtualbox
rc virtualbox-4.3 4.3.30-101610~Ubuntu~raring amd64 Oracle VM VirtualBox
iW virtualbox-5.0 5.0.28-111378~Ubuntu~trusty amd64 Oracle VM VirtualBox

Purge these installations in sequence replacing 4.3 and 5.0 with your versions  and answering ‘Y” to questions

sudo  apt-get purge virtualbox-4.3 virtualbox-qt

sudo  apt-get purge virtualbox-5.0 virtualbox-qt

After reboot you should be able to reinstall VirtualBox without errors

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Download project folder from GitHub using subversion

26/08/2016

Install Subversion (SVN) as follows:

sudo apt-get install subversion

This command exports the GitHub PROJECT folder and subfolders and to DEST

svn export https://github.com/USER/PROJECT/trunk/PATH DEST

Suffix the PROJECT folder with /trunk and append the folder /PATH you wish to download. If the DEST folder does not exist it is automatically created.

For example the following command copies Tutsplus 30-days-to-jquery/lessons folder to lessons folder on the local drive:

svn export https://github.com/tutsplus/30-days-to-jquery/trunk/lessons lessons

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