Just type the following in Gnome Terminal:

sudo apt-get install fortunes-ubuntu-server -y

Now execute below command several times to get really useful Ubuntu command line tips:

ubuntu-server-tip

Here are some examples:

Use lsof to find out which process has open handles for a file. ‘lsof +D /path’ will find all processes for the given path. This is useful for unmounting media.

If you know you typed a command or password wrong, you can use ctrl + u to delete the whole line or ctrl + w to delete just a word.

If you are using a PostgreSQL database, use “ptop” to monitor real time usage.

Browse the command line history with ctrl-r and then type a few characters that you know are part of the command you are looking for.

A for loop in bash syntax: ‘for i in * ; do echo $i ; done’.

To make a backup without typing the full path twice: ‘cp /long/path/to/file/name{,.orig}’ to create a copy with the suffix .orig

Looking for equivalent of wget’s –limit-rate option for apt-get/aptitude? No problems, see below how to set download speed limit to either apt-get or aptitude. Rather bearded Ubuntu hint but still handy if you don’t have 100 Mbps Internet connection (I don’t).

aptitude -o Acquire::http::Dl-limit=25 safe-upgrade

Above command starts upgrade of your Ubuntu and makes aptitude to download new packages at up to 25 kB/s (kilobytes per second) that equals to 200 kbps (kilobit per second).

Mentioned command line option for aptitude also work for apt-get:

sudo apt-get -o Acquire::http::Dl-limit=25k upgrade

Moreover, if you wish to set up certain download limit permanently just add the following line to /etc/apt/apt.conf:

Acquire::http::Dl-Limit "25";

(don’t forget to change 25 value according to your needs)

Hope it helps somebody!

Pidgin is multi-platform and multi-protocol chat client software that makes it possible to keep all contacts in one place and talk to GTalk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ etc. buddies using one application. Honestly speaking I found it literally the best application for my IM communication purposes and my choice was just double-confirmed as now Pidgin allows to add also Skype and Facebook contacts and communicate with them! See below how to enable this under Ubuntu (no matter Lucid or Maverick).

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Today it was announced that the latest version of Shotwell 0.7.1 has been released. Shotwell is smart digital photo organizer for Gnome environment. In general it brings a lot of common features like importing photos from digital camera, non-destructive image editing, rotate-mirror-crop and many-many more other handy features.

The latest Shotwell version fixes multiple bugs, has improved translation languages and in general looks more attractive than previous versions. It is available either as tarball or through PPA. If you run Ubuntu Lucid Lynx or Maverik Meerkat you can install Shotwell 0.7.1 in a few quick terminal commands:

Lucid Lynx:

sudo bash -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/yorba/ppa/ubuntu lucid main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E549B1AC
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install shotwell -y

Maverik Meerkat:

sudo bash -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/yorba/ppa/ubuntu maverik main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list"
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys E549B1AC
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install shotwell -y

Once the installation is finished you will see Shotwell Photo Manager link in Graphics section of Ubuntu main menu.

Get Things Gnome or simply GTG is Ubuntu organizer for Gnome desktop environment that is focused on usability and ease of use. GTG is written in Python and thus is smart in comparison to other heavy organization tools like Mozilla’s Sunbird. If you need light and handy todo-manager Get Things Gnome is for you.

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While writing articles for Ubuntuka I usually make some screenshots of my Ubuntu Lucid Lynx desktop. This is absolutely ok to capture just whole desktop or certain window (PrntScrn or Alt + PrntScrn keys) but it gets really annoying to edit every screenshot in gimp to cut something out or add a label/note etc. Thankfully there is extremely powerful and useful software to make life easier — Shutter screenshot tool for Ubuntu.

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This post continues Ubuntu Command Line Tricks posts series which I try to publish here on regular basis telling you about useful terminal commands. As it comes from the name “terminal command” or “console command” should be executed in Terminal: open Gnome Terminal in your Ubuntu menu to go on.

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Currently Firefox 4.0b2 is the latest beta version of long awaited browser that is going beat Opera, Google Chrome as well as previous versions of Firefox in safety, speed and performance. There is a bunch of improvements which are already available for testing in Firefox 4 Beta 2 on Ubuntu: tabs on the top, crash protection, full webgl support, html5 video native support and many-many more. Now it is possible to install Firefox 4.0 Beta 2 in Ubuntu using PPA repository.

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RAW image file is minimally processed data from DSLR camera. Depending on photo camera’s manufacturer RAW files can be named with the following file extensions: arw, srf, sr2 (Sony), crw, cr2 (Canon), nef, nrw (Nikon), orf (Olympus), ptx, pef (Pentax), raw, rw2 (Panasonic/Lumix). Most of photographers use Windows or MAC OS image editors to convert RAW images into compressed images like JPEG, PNG or TIFF. At the same time there are several free but competitive software applications for the same purpose in Ubuntu Linux.

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