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How to add command shortcut in Ubuntu shell

Habib Ullah Bahar — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 04:43:30 +0000

When you need to write long commands in Linux shell, like me, you must have been looking for a way (if you haven’t found the way already ) to create shortcuts for those long commands.
Based on your need, you can do any of the following:
alias: If you need a shortcut for only the current shell session, use alias.

To check current aliases list: alias
To check an existing alias: alias ALIAS_NAME
To add new alias: alias COMMAND_SHORTCUT = ‘LONG_COMMAND’ [example: alias apacheReload = '/etc/init.d/apache2 reload''']
To remove an existing alias: unalias ALIAS_NAME
Learn more about alias at Wikipedia, Bash Man Page for Alias

Symbolic Links: This is actually my favorite. Does not depend on current shell session. FYI. each command is actually an executable script.

To create a shortcut for all users, create a soft symbolic link of the executable script in /usr/local/bin. For example, to execute apache related commands using just apache, issue this command
ln -s /etc/init.d/apache2 /usr/local/bin/apache #this command will create a soft symbolic link of apache2 in /usr/local/bin directory. Now you can just manage apache by using apache command.
To create a shortcut only for current user, create a soft symbolic link of the executable script in $HOME/bin

Using your own shell scripts: This requires understanding of shell scripting. You can create a shell script which essentially provide the full ability to create new system commands. Make the script executable, keep it in home directory.

I hope it helps some one. Please use the comment section to provide your feedback.

How to restore volume icon in Ubuntu Gnome

Habib Ullah Bahar — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 04:09:39 +0000

So why would someone need this at the first place? When someone like me make a stupid mistake by removing them

Restoring volume icon is different in Ubuntu 9.10 or later versions.

So if you are in Ubuntu 9.04 or earlier,

1. Right click on the panel and click ‘Add to Panel’

2. Find Sound/Volume

3. Add it.

And if you are in Ubuntu 9.10 or later like me

1. Right click on the panel and click on Add to Panel

2. Find ‘Notification Area’ and add it. (IN case you have already have a notification area added like me, you can skip this step).

3. Right click near Notification Area

4. Find ‘Indicator Applet’ and add it.

By any chance if the above method does not work for you, you can restore your gnome panel by applying following commands in your terminal.

rm -f ~/.gconf/apps/panel sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart

Partial credit for this post: Ubuntu Forum

Let me know if you have any problem figuring this

How to prepare bootable flash drive of Windows 7 and Ubuntu

Habib Ullah Bahar — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 13:11:36 +0000

There are bunch of articles and softwares available online to achieve this. So instead of writing another tutorial, I am sharing the available tutorials which I have used often when I needed.

Here are the links:

Make your own bootable Windows 7 Flash Drive

Recommended: http://kmwoley.com/blog/?p=345
Without using any additional software: http://maketecheasier.com/boot-and-install-windows-7-from-usb-flash-drive/2009/01/23
With Microsoft provided software: http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool]http://store.microsoft.com/help/iso-tool (only 2.6 MB)
Using 3rd party software: http://maketecheasier.com/updated-boot-and-install-windows-7-from-usb-flash-drive/2009/09/ (only 6.7 MB)

Make bootable Ubuntu using Flash Drive

Actually this is very much easy, and same for all distro. all are free n opensource.

I hope it helps, if you need any help, let me know.

Ubuntu Maverick (beta) repository problem

Habib Ullah Bahar — Sat, 18 Sep 2010 04:06:28 +0000

I used to be a Fedora distro fan, but considering the popularity of Ubuntu, I have decided to try Ubuntu, and downloaded the latest one, Ubuntu Maverick (10.10 beta) .

After installation, first I enabled Ubuntu Multiverse repository then tried to install vlc applying the following command in terminal:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install vlc vlc-plugin-pulse mozilla-plugin-vlc

But I got this error:

Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
E: Couldn’t find package vlc

After some investigation, I found out that some Ubuntu mirror repositories aren’t fully updated for Maverick yet. Bangladesh Ubuntu mirror is one of them

Solution? Just change the active mirror server to US or main server. I changed mine to Singapore eznetsols.org mirror.

To change using GUI,

1. System->Administrator->Synaptic Package Manager

2. Settings->Repositories

3. Click on Download From drop down menu, select Other, then choose a better mirror server near your location.

4. Hit Reload

5. Now install any package you want

I hope it helps. For any query/help please use the comment from below.

How to verify an ISO image in linux before burning

Habib Ullah Bahar — Sat, 17 May 2008 10:24:19 +0000

There is no nice or 100% effective fast way to verify an ISO image of any OS [normally *INX based OS] without installing. But there are several ways one can test the ISO image. If the test(s) are successful, there is a high (to me which is almost 100% ) probability, that the ISO is perfect to be burned in a CD or DVD which one is desirable.

After downlaoding an ISO from any source, you must validate the SH1SUM or MD5SUM which one is required in your case to verify the security and integrity of your ISO.
You can manually mount the ISO image to check its content when you are in Linux using the code
```
su -c 'mount -o loop -t iso9660  
```
You can use VMware Player to boot your ISO image, even you can install it as a virtual OS in Linux. With this free software, you can not only verify the image but you can also test the installation without changing your current installation of Linux. Download it from here.

Some useful links about the topic:

Fedora 9 (Sulphur) is on earth…grab it!

Habib Ullah Bahar — Thu, 15 May 2008 03:49:02 +0000

So after a long time, Fedora 9 (Sulphur) has been released. The version includes some must need features.

Here is the list..

This release features GNOME 2.22. GNOME now includes a webcam photo and video creation utility called Cheese, improved network filesystem support, a new international clock applet, Google Calendar support and custom email labels in Evolution, a new Remote Desktop Viewer, improved accessibility features, and PolicyKit integration.
KDE 4.0.3 is available with more upgraded features and overall its more stable.
NetworkManager 0.7 provides improved mobile broadband support, including GSM and CDMA devices, and now supports multiple devices and ad-hoc networking for sharing connections. To me its the best feature of Fedora9.
The Fedora installer, Anaconda, now supports partition resizing for ext2/3, NTFS filesystems, creating and installing to encrypted file systems, improved Rescue Mode with FirstAidKit, independent locations for the second stage installer and the software packages.
Live USB images now support persistence, so your data and setting changes will be preserved even after rebooting.
PackageKit, a new set of graphical and console tools, with a framework for cross-distribution software management, has replaced Pirut in this release of Fedora. The PackageKit graphical updater is available instead of Pup. Behind PackageKit, the performance of yum has been significantly improved.
Ext4, the next version of the mature and stable ext3 filesystem is available as a option in this release. Ext4 features better performance, higher storage capacity and several other new features.
This release of Fedora uses Upstart, an event-based replacement for the /sbin/init daemon.
Firefox 3 brings a number of major improvements including a native look and feel, desktop integration, the new Places replacement for bookmarks, and a re-worked address bar.
The completely free and open source Java environment OpenJDK 6 is installed by default.
OpenOffice.org 2.4, with many new features, is available as part of Fedora 9.
Fedora now includes Perl 5.10.0, which features a smaller memory footprint and other improvements.
Fedora now includes TeXLive to replace the older, unmaintained TeX distribution.
Fedora 9 features a 2.6.25 based kernel.
And definitely Fedora 9 is much more stable than Fedora 8.

To see the detailed release note, click here. To grab your Fedora 9, please visit Get Fedora

So start enjoying the new Sulphar….

Source: http://fedoraproject.org