Use command-line MySQL for additional flexibility

Subscribe to Linux Tips Get Linux Tips Alerts

The MySQL GUI and phpMyAdmin provide great administration tools for handling your database, but the mysql command-line program works quite well also and is more flexible. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 04/07/2008 @ 07:52:27 AM in Linux and Open Source

View all Special Reports More on Linux Tips

Use Dovecot for POP3/IMAP services

Traditionally, if you wanted to set up POP3 or IMAP services on your Linux system, you would use Courier-IMAP, uw-imap, or cyrus-imapd. Vincent Danen introduces a lesser-known, but increasingly popular IMAP/POP3 server called Dovecot. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 11/18/2008 @ 06:30:16 AM in Linux and Open Source

Tips and tricks for working on the command line

Vincent Danen believes in the power of the command line as being faster and more powerful than a GUI, once you get the hang of it. Here are some of his favorite tips and shortcuts for working from the CLI. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 11/11/2008 @ 06:35:17 AM in Linux and Open Source

Using dnsmasq for DNS and DHCP services

Vincent Danen introduces an open source solution called dnsmasq, which provides both DNS forwarding and DHCP services for a small network or home office. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 11/04/2008 @ 06:00:58 AM in Linux and Open Source

Use DropBox to seamlessly sync files

Vincent Danen introduces open source DropBox, a file synchronization service that works for Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows clients. DropBox can be used to share documents, configuration files, photos, music, or anything else you want between systems linked to your account. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 10/28/2008 @ 06:00:15 AM in Linux and Open Source

Improve MySQL performance with MySQLTuner

Vincent Danen covers the basics of the MySQL Tuner tool, which analyzes your configuration and suggests changes that will boost the performance of your MySQL installation. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 10/21/2008 @ 06:00:10 AM in Linux and Open Source

Listen to music with open source Banshee

Vincent Danen reviews the Banshee media player for Linux, which has the capability of playing shared iTunes music, and it can be used to create "smart" playlists. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 10/07/2008 @ 06:00:46 AM in Linux and Open Source

Control Apache with the apachectl command

The apachectl command is an often overlooked program that allows you a great deal of control over Apache processes. Vincent Danen explains the basics of this command, which you can use to debug or test Apache configurations. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 09/29/2008 @ 06:00:00 AM in Linux and Open Source

Consider these Linux file management alternatives

Vincent Danen introduces Linux file management alternatives, Gentoo, Krusader, and Midnight Commander. Here are the basics about each if you want to try something different. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 09/22/2008 @ 06:00:42 AM in Linux and Open Source

Try command-line looping for added efficiency

Using loops, you can take often-used commands that would normally be executed in sequence manually, and have them done automatically. Vincent Danen tells you what you need to know about getting started with loops. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 09/15/2008 @ 12:39:59 PM in Linux and Open Source

Expanding text with Snippits in Linux

Vincent Danen admires the Mac text-expanding tools like Typinator or TextExpander and has been looking for a similar tool in Linux. The best counterpart he found is a program called Snippits. Here are the basics. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 09/08/2008 @ 06:00:46 AM in Linux and Open Source

Send messages and alerts from the command line

Vincent Danen introduces two command-line programs, wall and mail, that allow you to send simple alerts and e-mail messages to users. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 09/02/2008 @ 06:00:14 AM in Linux and Open Source

One-time scheduling of tasks with At

Scheduling services with cron and similar tools is great for repetitive tasks but inconvenient for one-time tasks. For tasks that only need to be accomplished once, Vincent Danen suggests the at command. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 08/26/2008 @ 06:00:25 AM in Linux and Open Source

Schedule periodic tasks with cron

Vincent Danen covers the basics of scheduling basic system and user tasks with cron, such as downloading e-mail at certain intervals and restarting services. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 08/19/2008 @ 06:00:16 AM in Linux and Open Source

Get a complete security toolkit with BackTrack 3

The BackTrack LiveCD provides over 300 different tools that can be used by security professionals or system administrators. It includes tools for penetration testing, wireless cracking, network mapping, information gathering, vulnerability identification, forensics, and reverse engineering. Vincent Danen tells you how to create a portable version on a USB keychain. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 08/12/2008 @ 06:00:01 AM in Linux and Open Source

Customize the Joe text editor

The Linux text editor Joe has easy-to-remember keystrokes and allows you to customize it to suit your needs. Vincent Danen tells you how to tweak the configuration file to create keybindings and map your favorite commands. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 08/05/2008 @ 06:00:07 AM in Linux and Open Source

Install extra packages on the ASUS Eee PC

Installing extra packages on the Asus Eee PC is possible if you want more software than the average user. Vincent Danen explains how to set up Xandros repositories to make it easier to add packages. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 07/28/2008 @ 12:02:48 PM in Linux and Open Source

Installing Mandriva 2008.1 on the ASUS Eee PC

Out of the many distributions that work on the Eee PC, Mandriva Linux 2008 Spring (or 2008.1) is one that works exceptionally well. It can be installed to the built-in SSD or onto an external SD card. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 07/21/2008 @ 06:00:08 AM in Linux and Open Source

GUI scripting with Zenity

Vincent Danen introduces you to Zenity, a tool that allows you to create GUI prompts for shell scripts. Zenity creates GUI widgets and windows that can be used in a shell script. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 07/08/2008 @ 07:15:50 AM in Linux and Open Source

Chroot users with OpenSSH: An easier way to confine users to their home directories

With the release of OpenSSH 4.9p1, you no longer have to rely on third-party hacks or complicated chroot setups to confine users to their home directories or give them access to SFTP services. Vincent Danen tells you how to take advantage of this new addition to OpenSSH. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 06/24/2008 @ 06:07:32 AM in Linux and Open Source

Use Fuse to mount remote ssh directories

Vincent Danen introduces the Fuse Project, a way to edit files remotely with plugins like sshfs, which transparently makes an SFTP connection to a remote system seem like nothing more than a local file directory. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 06/17/2008 @ 06:54:19 AM in Linux and Open Source

Realize the flexibility of OpenSSH

Vincent Danen explains the flexibility and power of OpenSSH. With it, you can access systems remotely and securely; transfer files securely (using scp, sftp, or even rsync over ssh); execute single commands on remote systems; secure normally insecure services; and much more. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 06/10/2008 @ 07:01:23 AM in Linux and Open Source

Delegate privileges to users with sudo

Vincent Danen offers a quick primer about sudo and how you can use it to delegate different privileges to users. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 06/02/2008 @ 12:02:17 PM in Linux and Open Source

Dig for more data in the /proc directory

Vincent Danen introduces you to the /proc filesystem, which you can mine for a lot of helpful information about your system and running processes on your system. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 05/23/2008 @ 07:42:46 AM in Linux and Open Source

Find and fix weak OpenSSL/OpenSSH keys: Debian-based Linux vulnerability

Vincent Danen reports on a recent vulnerability that affects Debian-based systems, including Ubuntu. This vulnerability caused OpenSSL to generate weak keys for anything relying on OpenSSL, including SSL certificates, OpenSSH keys, and OpenVPN keys. Here's what you need to do to protect your system. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 05/19/2008 @ 07:38:40 AM in Linux and Open Source

Log Linux services with runit

Vincent Danen explains how to configure logging for supervised services with the runit program. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 05/12/2008 @ 06:55:40 AM in Linux and Open Source

Use runit to supervise Linux services

Gerrit Pape's runit is similar to djb's daemontools and allows you to run supervised services, like daemontools, and also allows you to replace SysV init completely if you so desire. Vincent Danen tells you how to get started with runit. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 05/05/2008 @ 06:53:46 AM in Linux and Open Source

Learn to use the openssl command-line program

OpenSSL can be used to create, request, sign, and revoke certificates and can also be used to perform other cryptographic operations such as creating hashes for files, testing SSL connections, and more. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 04/28/2008 @ 07:16:33 AM in Linux and Open Source

Try IRC with Irssi to communicate via chat

Vincent Danen recommends the command-line based Irssi client as an extensible and powerful tool for communicating with peers via IRC. He tells you how to set it up. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 04/21/2008 @ 06:00:15 AM in Linux and Open Source

Using vi key bindings in bash and zsh

If you prefer to use vi or vim for command-line editing, you can configure shells to use vi key bindings instead of emacs-style key bindings. Here's how. [Read More] Posted By: Vincent Danen on 04/14/2008 @ 06:00:29 AM in Linux and Open Source