Category: VAULT Treasures

Misc. Linux Commands

  • finger – Prints user information in a human readable format.
  • pwconv – creates a shadow entry for an existing passwd user. Even if shadow entry is missing. Check out grpconv, pwunconv, and grpunconv for related functionality.
  • pwck – Check integrity of passwd file.
  • hwinfo – Program generates and displays a list of specific information about the devices installed on your system. (Suse specific?)
  • iostat – Display CPU and IO system statistics.
  • id – Print UID and GID information.
  • cut – Remove sections for each line of a file. (ex: cat /etc/group | cut -d: -f1,3)
  • newgrp – Log into a different group. UID stays the same but rights are changed to reflect new group membership. User must be a member of said group or a group password must be set for this to work. sg is an alias to the newgrp command.
  • passwd – Make changes to a users password. Actually this is a commonly used (i.e not misc) command but two options it has that I didn’t expressly know about. -l will lock a user account (when issued as root) and -S will display users password information (expiration date, warn before lock days, maximum number of allowed days with same password, etc.)
  • chage – Print or change a user accounts password information (expiration date, warn days, etc..)
  • wall – Sends a message to all system users. Root messages are the only ones displayed if user has blocked user-to-user messages.

Seeing Dots

I generally don’t get too excited about optical illusions; but this is one very cool illusion. If you follow the rotating pink dot you will only see pink. If you look at the “+” in the center you will see a green dot. Stare at the “+” long enough and you will only see the green dot.

If you are interested in this kind of thing here is a site listing 60 common optical illusions.

Kconfigure 2.1

Its really late, but I have just released version 2.1 of Kconfigure.  Externally the program has added support for Qmake, bzip packages, “What’s This?” functionality, and custom checkinstall options.  Internally the program has changed a great deal.  Settings have been moved from the preferences class to a resources class that will allow me to do things like create a setup wizard and distribution (and for that matter program) specific build templates.  tar and rpm sources are available on sourceforge.  Also added (probably more noticeable to the end users) are a F.A.Q. and an on line copy of (an admittedly old version) The Kconfigure Handbook.

If you don’t know what Kconfigure is, check out the screen shots on the project homepage.

My Desktop

I have posted two pictures of my current Linux system in my Desktop Image gallery. Generally these pictures are for reference (say forum posts on ArsTechnica ) but I also enjoy the nostalgia value of them. Some of those desktops are five years old.

Both images are my current SuSE 9.2 desktop running on my Dell Latitude D800 laptop. The first of the new pics is shown with three of my more commonly used applications showing. The applications running are:

  • amaroK — Possibly the best audio application available for any OS. Notice the album covers and album information sidebar. amaroK has a quick tool for downloading the covers and music meta information.
  • Kontact — A Personal information Management Suite (i.e. Outlook XP for Windows) for KDE. Notice the contact pictures used for address book icons.
  • digiKam — A photo album and digital camera management application. Think iPhoto for Linux.

The second new desktop picture is the same desktop without any applications showing.

Whip it, into shape

KDE Automated Test Report is a series of scripts that can be run against C++/QT/KDE applications to test for known problems before package release.  Not only are things like memory allocation bugs found but many tests find optimization bugs through the use of less-then-idea function calls for known object types.  The kind of bug testing and optimization scripts (along with uber powerful tools like KCachegrind and Kdexecutor) make for more secure, faster, more consistent, and more dependable applications.  The vast majority of application “shortcomings” can be found simply by using some or all of the above listed tools.

Yes it builds itself

kconfigure is a KDE build tool for the autoconfig build environment.  It allows you to perform build configurations, compile, and install capabilities from inside of a GUI.  I have been working on it as a side project for the last 3 months or so and have finally completed work on Version 2.0 .  If you get a chance, come and check it out.  It’s my first “hard core” contribution to KDE; and it even got me a free iPod mini.  Who says that Open Source doesn’t pay.