Linux Guides

• Restoring Grub Bootloader on Ubuntu
• Restoring Windows MBR
• Enabling wireless with a Dell 1350 wireless card using NdisWrapper - (Deprecated: Broadcom bcm43xx drivers are included in latest Linux kernels (2.6.17+)

SSH Tips & Tricks

• Common threads: OpenSSH key management: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Eleven SSH Tricks
• CLI Magic: More on SSH

Force removal of a RPM

If an application was removed uncleanly (i.e. 'rm -rf' instead of 'rpm -e'), then you may have trouble uninstalling the rpm, especially if the rpm relies on pre/post-install scripts. To force the uninstall, you can give the --noscripts option:

# rpm --noscripts -e <package>

GNU Screen

Help! I'm locked out of GNU screen!

If you are using GNU screen and the terminal has suddenly become unresponsive to keypresses, you may have accidently locked the screen through the command: Ctrl+A+S. You can unlock screen by simply pressing Ctrl+Q.

Edit your .screenrc to have a tab bar at the bottom

Add the following to your ~/.screenrc file

#change the hardstatus settings to give an window list at the bottom of the
#screen, with the time and date and with the current window highlighted
hardstatus alwayslastline
hardstatus string '%{= kG}[ %{G}%H %{g}][%= %{= kw}%?%-Lw%?%{r}(%{W}%n*%f%t%?(%u)%?%{r})%{w}%?%+Lw%?%?%= %{g}][%{B} %m/%d %{W}%c %{g}]'

Then type Ctrl+A, and type: source .screenrc to apply the changes.

References

• http://gentoo-wiki.com/TIP_Using_screen

Vim Tips

Tab navigation like Firefox in vim

Add the following to your ~/.vimrc file:

:nmap <C-S-tab> :tabprevious<cr>
:nmap <C-tab> :tabnext<cr>
:map <C-S-tab> :tabprevious<cr>
:map <C-tab> :tabnext<cr>
:imap <C-S-tab> <ESC>:tabprevious<cr>i
:imap <C-tab> <ESC>:tabnext<cr>i
:nmap <C-t> :tabnew<cr>
:imap <C-t> <ESC>:tabnew<cr> 

• http://www.vim.org/tips/tip.php?tip_id=1221

Space usage in local hard disk root directory:

Linux:

# du -chsx /*

SolarisL^?

# du -dhs /*

Indentation in vim

Add the following to your ~/.vimrc file:

set et
set sw=4
set smarttab

• http://www.vim.org/tips/tip.php?tip_id=83

Other vim tips:

• Essential Vim Tricks
• smart mapping for tab completion
• Convert tabs to spaces
• Getting rid of ^M - mixing dos and unix
• Use Vim like an IDE

References

• Vim Cookbook