How To: Interesting Terminal

locke.dragon · 11:05 AM

Since I'm a noob myself and don't know much about the inner workings of the terminal, I won't shed any light on that subject. But, I would like to share some interesting and useful terminal code I've found. This code was only tested on Ubuntu Feisty Fawn, but it will also work on most Mac OSX computers and should work on all Ubuntu releases.

I plan on updating when I find something new.

If you have any others, please post them!

Entertainment

Watch Star Wars

Code:

 
telnet towel.blinkenlights.nl

Chat with a bot

Code:

 
telnet the-funk.net 7000

Custom ascii text

Code:

banner

See how long your machine has been running

Code:

uptime

To see the arbitrary precision calculator (7^500 is interesting! That's 7 to the 500th power)

Code:

bc

Must enter below code to use the next few

Code:

sudo apt-get install cowsay

See your fortune

Code:

fortune

Use cowsay (replace “message” with your own text in single quotes)

Code:

cowsay 'message'

Cowsay your Amarok lyrics

Code:

dcop amarok player lyrics | cowsay

Must enter below code to use the next few

Code:

sudo apt-get emacs21

--------------------------------------------------

To play 'snake'

Code:

emacs21

Once emacs21 opens, hit...

Quote:

Esc>>”X”

Type in...

Code:

snake

--------------------------------------------------

To play 'tetris'

Code:

emacs21

Once emacs21 opens, hit...

Quote:

Esc>>”X”

Type in...

Code:

tetris

--------------------------------------------------

Useful

Show some computer stats

Code:

lspci

Access a dictionary through terminal (must have a working internet connection)
Note: Replace 'word' with whatever you'd like to search for (without quotes)

Code:

curl dict://dict.org/d:word

Check system temperature and battery charge

Code:

 
acpi -t

See a list of all running processes

Code:

ps aux

View the current time, date, and year

Code:

date

Show a simple calendar

Code:

cal

See what programs are running with the path names

Code:

ps -aux

See your current IP address

Code:

ifconfig -a

See what your system is doing at startup

Code:

dmesg

Show information about the computer users

Code:

finger -l

Show current Ubuntu version

Code:

cat /etc/issue

System Recovery

Backup xorg.conf

Code:

 
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup

Replace current xorg.conf with a previously made backup

Code:

 
sudo cp /etc/X11/xorg.conf_backup /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Delete auto xorg.conf backups

Code:

 
sudo rm /etc/X11/xorg.conf.2007*

Use nano to edit xorg.conf (works in “terminal-only” mode)

Code:

 
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf

Keyboard Shortcuts

Terminal keyboard shortcut for paste

Quote:

Ctrl>>Shift>>Alt>>”V”

Or...

Quote:

Shift>>Insert

Advanced Users Only
Open up a file browser with all privileges

Code:

gksudo nautilus

Edit color options (advanced users only)

Code:

gedit .gtkrc-2.0

Give a .sh file executable priveledges

Code:

chmod +x <file name>

dev_person

Those are some useful tips. Thanks for posting them.

Iarwain ben-adar

Keyboard Shortcuts

Terminal keyboard shortcut for paste

Quote:

Shift-Insert

That's the one i always use

Iarwain

locke.dragon

thanks! i'll put that one in!

Iarwain ben-adar

Entertainment

Fortune

Quote:

fortune

Cowsay (need to apt-get it

)

Quote:

cowsay 'message'

Cowsay your amarok lyrics

Quote:

dcop amarok player lyrics | cowsay

Banner

Quote:

banner

Hope to help

Iarwain

nhandler

Those are pretty cool. Especially the Start Wars thing. I never new about these things.

ubuntu27 · 04:14 PM

This is not for the terminal perse but:

If you use Ubuntu (if you use GNOME)

Alt+F2 in your keyboard

and then type "free the fish"

2) SUPER COW POWERS:

Code:

aptitude -h

[Comments: Read the last line]

Code:

apt-get moo

Code:

aptitude moo

Code:

aptitude -v moo

Code:

aptitude -v -v moo

Code:

aptitude -v -v -v moo

Code:

aptitude -v -v -v -v moo

Code:

aptitude -v -v -v -v -v moo

Code:

apt-get moo

3) Debian's Top Secret List of planned Release Names:

Code:

zcat /usr/share/doc/linux-image-`uname -r`/changelog.Debian.gz | egrep -e "Release"

Code:

zgrep "The.*Release" /usr/share/doc/dpkg/changelog.Debian.gz

locke.dragon

Seidojohn

I love it! Especially the ASCII Star Wars. Thanks locke.dragon!

Iarwain ben-adar

Locke,
it's ALT-F2 instead of ALT-F4 for the 'free the fish' thing

Nice list, gets big!

Iarwain

April 26th, 2007	#2
dev_person First Cup of Ubuntu Join Date: Apr 2007 Beans: 3	Re: How To: Interesting Terminal Those are some useful tips. Thanks for posting them.

April 26th, 2007	#4
locke.dragon Dipped in Ubuntu Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Genova, Italy Beans: 517 Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn	Re: How To: Interesting Terminal thanks! i'll put that one in! __________________ Niklas Schröder is the new Locke Dragon

April 26th, 2007	#6
nhandler Ubuntu Developer Join Date: Aug 2006 My beans are hidden! Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala	Re: How To: Interesting Terminal Those are pretty cool. Especially the Start Wars thing. I never new about these things. __________________ Be sure to check out the Community Ubuntu Documentation and the Ubuntu Team Wiki.

April 26th, 2007	#7
ubuntu27 May the Ubuntu Be With You! Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: USA My beans are hidden! Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic Koala	Re: How To: Interesting Terminal This is not for the terminal perse but: If you use Ubuntu (if you use GNOME) Alt+F2 in your keyboard and then type "free the fish" 2) SUPER COW POWERS: Code: aptitude -h [Comments: Read the last line] Code: apt-get moo Code: aptitude moo Code: aptitude -v moo Code: aptitude -v -v moo Code: aptitude -v -v -v moo Code: aptitude -v -v -v -v moo Code: aptitude -v -v -v -v -v moo Code: apt-get moo 3) Debian's Top Secret List of planned Release Names: Code: zcat /usr/share/doc/linux-image-`uname -r`/changelog.Debian.gz \| egrep -e "Release" Code: zgrep "The.Release" /usr/share/doc/dpkg/changelog.Debian.gz __________________ 1)Can't play mp3, wmv and other files? Check here. 2)Free OpenOffice.org Tips, Tricks & Training Proyecto para crear Software Libre en Quechua* Last edited by ubuntu27; April 26th, 2007 at 04:14 PM..

April 26th, 2007	#8
locke.dragon Dipped in Ubuntu Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Genova, Italy Beans: 517 Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn	Re: How To: Interesting Terminal bump __________________ Niklas Schröder is the new Locke Dragon

April 26th, 2007	#9
Seidojohn First Cup of Ubuntu Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Chicago, IL - USA Beans: 9 Kubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon	Re: How To: Interesting Terminal I love it! Especially the ASCII Star Wars. Thanks locke.dragon!

April 27th, 2007	#10
Iarwain ben-adar Has an Ubuntu Drip Join Date: May 2006 Location: Belgium Beans: 708 The Feisty Fawn Testing	Re: How To: Interesting Terminal Locke, it's ALT-F2 instead of ALT-F4 for the 'free the fish' thing Nice list, gets big! Iarwain

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