Introduction

Ubuntu may be a user-friendly Linux distribution, but as i80and pointed out, it isn’t perfect. What should you do if you happen to be stuck in the wilderness of the terminal? Well, since Google SERPS (Search Engine Result Pages) can be hard to read in Lynx, it’s best if you know some basic commands and the locations of files.

Stuff related to X Window System

Location of xorg.conf, a configuration file for X.org: /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Start the X server: startx

Configure the X server: X -configure

Stuff related to KDE

Start KDE: startkde

Start the Kwin window manager: kwin

Have Kwin replace another window manager: kwin –replace

Stuff related to sound

Configure ALSA (Advanced Linu Sound Architecture): alsaconf

Stuff related to scanning

Use your scanner: scanimage

Convert the PNM from scanimage to a PNG: pnmtopng

How to use the above two together: scanimage | pnmtopng > filename.png

If you don’t know what the “|” and “>” do, you can read “Input/Output redirection made simple in Linux” even though that stuff applies to all UNIX-based operating systems. The previous one will teach you about input and output redirection, while the next one, “Intro to Unix: Pipes and Filters“, will tell you about UNIX pipes.

Miscellaneous

Location of group table: /etc/group

Get information about processing running on the computer: ps -e

Location of GRUB bootloader configuration file: /boot/grub/menu.lst or the less common /boot/grub/grub.conf

Get information about a command on your computer: man <command>