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Configuration of Debian based OS, such as: Ubuntu, Mint, and Elementary OS

PHP# Configuration of Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)

This guide is for Ubuntu, but also compatible with a other Debian based OS as well, like Mint, Elementary OS, etc.

There are configurations for other versions such as 18.04, 16.04, 15.10

All commands/configurations are tested (I am currently use this configuration), but anyway, everything you do is "at your own risk".

If you found any issue, please let me know on Issues Page or via email [email protected]


Table of Contents


(Back to top)

Optional Configurations

Get System Details

Operating System

lsb_release -a
lsb_release -as     # Short Information
lsb_release -sc     # OS Codename
lsb_release --help

CPU Info

sudo dmidecode -t processor

Or

nproc               # How many Processing Units
cpuid               # Must install cpuid from terminal
cat /proc/cpuinfo   # Lots of info

VGA Info

sudo lshw -C display

Motherboard Info

sudo dmidecode -t baseboard

BIOS Info

sudo dmidecode -t bios

Memory and Usage Info

free -h             # Human readable, or do --help for options
top or htop         # Must install htop
vmstat -s
cat /proc/meminfo   # Lots of info

Disks

Disk Space

df
df -B MB    # In Megabtyes,  etc

Or install ncdu and run

ncdu /

Disk Space Analyzer

sudo baobab

Disks UUID

ls -al /dev/disk/by-uuid/

GUI Processes

gnome-system-monitor

Startup Times

You can find out which service takes how much time to finish starting up by entering the following command in terminal:

systemd-analyze blame

Overall startup time you can find via:

systemd-analyze time

Packages

List all installed Packages

dpkg -l

List only packages which were expressly installed

aptitude search '~i!~M'

Other Commands

Screenshots

To taking screenshot from terminal run this:

gnome-screenshot

With delay 5 seconds

gnome-screenshot --delay 5

With delay 5 seconds and only window

gnome-screenshot -w --delay 5

For changing default save directory for gnome-screenshot, use the command

gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory "file:///home/$USER/Pictures/"
Print power consumption in watts
awk '{print $1*10^-6 " W"}' /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/power_now

Also, you can install powertop for listing consumption per process.

sudo apt install powertop

You might need calibrate powertop before first use. For calibrate, run:

sudo powertop --calibrate

List all Keybindings

gsettings list-recursively  org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings | sort | more

See your keypressed:

xev

Or for a lot of details:

xev | grep KeyPress

Use 32Bit on 64bit

You can use 32Bit applications if you like, sometimes this is useful.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y unetbootin

Networking

To enable Networking, and make it accessible to all computers such as Windows also, first install Samba:

$ sudo apt install -y samba

Then edit the Samba config:

$ vim /etc/samba/smb.conf

Under [global] change the workgroup to what you use, the default is WORKGROUP:

workgroup = WORKGROUP

Then you will have to reload your Session.

Order of Grub

If you are running Grub as your default boot-loader, you can use this application to make it easier to change the order.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y grub-customizer

Load the application either with <Super> and look for grub customizer or terminal gksudo grub-customizer.

Go to the General Settings tab, and you'll see default entry.

  • Click the drop-down list and you can either select Entry By Order (Left Column) Or a specific Item (Right Column).
  • If you are dual booting Windows and want Windows the default, Select the right column for Windows.
  • The reason is if more items are added, perhaps new kernels, then if Position 5 which held Windows will no longer be the default.

Mounting Drives

Mounting of Local Drives

Open /etc/fstab

sudo vim /etc/fstab

Add to /etc/fstab this line (You can get DISK UUID by command ls -al /dev/disk/by-uuid/):

For NTFS disk:

UUID=[DISK UUID] /media/D ntfs-3g defaults,windows_names,locale=en_US.utf8 0 2

For ext4 disk:

UUID=[DISK UUID] /media/D ext4 defaults 0 2

After run

sudo mount -a

Mounting of Network Drives

Open /etc/fstab

sudo vim /etc/fstab

And add:

If requires authorization:

username@remote_address:/remote/path /local/path fuse.sshfs delay_connect,_netdev,idmap=user,uid=1000,gid=1000,noatime,default_permissions,IdentityFile=/home/<user>/.ssh/id_rsa,reconnect,transform_symlinks,allow_other 0 0

If not requires:

//remote_address/remote/path /local/path cifs guest,iocharset=utf8,uid=1000,gid=1000,file_mode=0777,dir_mode=0777,noperm,_netdev 0 0

After run

sudo mount -a

Mounting Amazon Cloud Drive

Install Prerequisites

sudo apt install -y python3 python3-appdirs python3-dateutil python3-requests python3-sqlalchemy python3-pip

Install acd_cli (https://github.com/yadayada/acd_cli)

cd ~ && sudo pip3 install --upgrade git+https://github.com/yadayada/acd_cli.git

Initiate "sync" which will launch a browser (chrome/lynx/etc) to amazon.com and setup your oauth key.

acd_cli sync

Copy/Paste and store your oauth data. Note: it will most likely have improper newline breaks. Fixup in your favorite text editor.

vim ~/.cache/acd_cli/oauth_data

Add your user to the "fuse" group to allow mounting

sudo addgroup <username> fuse

Mount the root of your Amazon Cloud drive to the /media/amazon directory

mkdir /media/amazon
acd_cli mount /media/amazon

Upload

-d     exclude duplicate files from upload
-x     upload threads

e.g. Upload your local /media/videos directory to the root of your Amazon Cloud Drive.

acd_cli upload -d -x 4 /media/videos /

SSH

Generate a New SSH Key

ssh-keygen -t rsa -C "[email protected]"

Connecting to a Host

ssh [email protected]  (default port is 22)
ssh [email protected] -p 8000 (connect to specific port)
ssh [email protected] -i ~/.ssh/id_rsa (connect with specific ssh key)

.ssh Folder Permissions

chmod 700 ~/.ssh
chmod 644 ~/.ssh/id_rsa.pub
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/id_rsa
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/known_hosts
chmod 600 ~/.ssh/authorized_keys

Using the Config File

You can also create a ~/.ssh/config file and store entries such as:

Host aws
Hostname host.amazonaws.com
Port 22
Identityfile ~/.ssh/id_rsa
User myusername

Host my-vps
Hostname 34.16.67.129
Port 22
User root

You can then simply type:

ssh aws
ssh my-vps

Convert SSH to PEM

Sometimes you may need a PEM format SSH Key. You can easily add this alongside your other SSH keys.

openssl rsa -in ~/.ssh/keyname_rsa -outform pem > keyname_rsa.pem
chmod 700 keyname_rsa.pem

GPG

Generate a New GPG Key

Open a terminal and type:

gpg --gen-key

GPG will now ask you a number of questions about the type of key you want to generate. Follow the steps below to select the default option each time.

Check that your key has been generated by typing

gpg --list-secret-keys --keyid-format LONG

and, if successful

/Users/hubot/.gnupg/secring.gpg
------------------------------------
sec   4096R/3AA5C34371567BD2 2016-03-10 [expires: 2017-03-10]
uid                          Hubot 
ssb   4096R/42B317FD4BA89E7A 2016-03-10

Add variables in your .bashrc

export GPGKEY=3AA5C34371567BD2

Generate ASCII Armored Version of Public Key

gpg --output gpg.asc --export -a $GPGKEY

Uploading The Key to Ubuntu Keyserver

gpg --send-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com $GPGKEY

You can check your keys on the http://keyserver.ubuntu.com/

Signing Git Commits Using GPG

To configure your Git client to sign commits by default for a local repository, in Git versions 2.0.0 and above, run

git config --global user.signingkey {YOUR KEY}

git config commit.gpgsign true

To sign all commits by default in any local repository on your computer, run

git config --global commit.gpgsign true

If you want sign one commit manually:

git commit -S -m "commit message"

If you want to use GUI clients for committing, you have to add some options to your ~/.gnupg/gpg.conf file

no-tty
use-agent

Backup The GPG Key

cp ~/.gnupg/pubring.gpg /path/to/backups/
cp ~/.gnupg/secring.gpg /path/to/backups/
cp ~/.gnupg/trustdb.gpg /path/to/backups/
# or, instead of backing up trustdb...
gpg --export-ownertrust > ownertrust-gpg.txt

Restore The GPG Key

cp /path/to/backups/*.gpg ~/.gnupg/
# or, if you exported the ownertrust
gpg --import-ownertrust ownertrust-gpg.txt

If you just copy-pasted the .gnupg folder, you should register keys:

gpg --import pubring.gpg
gpg --import secring.gpg

Enable Native Virtualization

Check if supported by hardware

egrep -c '(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo

If 0 it means that your CPU doesn't support hardware virtualization.

If 1 or more it does - but you still need to make sure that virtualization is enabled in the BIOS.

To check if enabled, you may execute:

kvm-ok 

If you have KVM, you will see: "INFO: Your CPU supports KVM extensions INFO: /dev/kvm exists KVM acceleration can be used"

Install Necessary Packages

sudo apt install -y qemu-kvm libvirt-daemon-system libvirt-clients bridge-utils

Next, add your user to the KVM group and libvirtd group. To do so, type:

sudo adduser `id -un` libvirt
sudo adduser `id -un` kvm

Verify Installation:

virsh list --all

Format USB

Enter sudo mode

sudo su

List available disks and detect where it was mounted: /dev/sd[1 letter][optionally 1 number]. For example, /dev/sdc or /dev/sdc1

fdisk -l

or

lsblk

Unmount drive

umount /dev/sd[1 letter][optionally 1 number]

Format to FAT32

mkfs.vfat /dev/sd[1 letter]

You can use mkfs.ntfs for NTFS, mkfs.ext4 for EXT4 etc.

Eject drive

eject /dev/sd[1 letter]

Write iso Image to USB

List available disks and detect where it was mounted: /dev/sd[1 letter][optionally 1 number]. For example, /dev/sdc or /dev/sdc1

fdisk -l

or

lsblk

If you want write Windows ISO on the USB, use this method: USB Maker for Windows ISO on Linux

Make sure the USB device is unmounted (not safely removed, but unmounted) If it is mounted you can unmount it:

sudo umount /dev/sd[1 letter][optionally 1 number]

For writing image run:

sudo dd bs=4M if=path/to/your/iso/file.iso of=/dev/sd[that 1 letter]

Convert .ISO to .IMG format

Install the genisoimage

sudo apt install -y genisoimage

And after run

geteltorito -o dest.img source.iso

Add Printers

HP

You must install HPLIP software. Read more on https://developers.hp.com/hp-linux-imaging-and-printing

sudo apt install hplip hplip-gui

Find installed HP application and run.

Update BIOS on Laptop/PC

You can see BIOS version via BIOS Info command

Update BIOS on Lenovo

  1. Go to support.lenovo.com (or better use a search engine because the Lenovo website is ugly) and search for the BIOS upgrade of your laptop model.

  2. Download the most recent ISO file. Look for "BIOS bootable update CD".

  3. Convert the ISO image to IMG format via geteltorito -o bios.img g2uj18us.iso Convert .ISO to .IMG format

  4. Insert any USB stick into your laptop. The image file is just ~50 MB in size so even USB sticks with low capacity will work. Keep in mind that the stick will be completely overwritten.

  5. If you are in a graphical environment then unmount the USB stick.

  6. Find out the device name of the stick. For example /dev/sdb (show devices via sudo fdisk -l). Don't just assume it's sdb. If it's on another device on your laptop then you will destroy your data.

  7. Copy the image to the USB stick: sudo dd if=bios.img of=/dev/sdb bs=1M

  8. Reboot your laptop and press F12 for booting device from your stick.

  9. Make sure your laptop has its power supply plugged in. (It will refuse to update otherwise.)

  10. Follow the instructions.

Update Firmware

Ubuntu ships with Linux Vendor Firmware Manager tool fwupdmgr

For update firmware, you must run

sudo fwupdmgr refresh
sudo fwupdmgr update

Sniff Local Traffic

BetterCAP is a powerful, flexible and portable tool created to perform various types of MITM attacks against a network, manipulate HTTP, HTTPS and TCP traffic in realtime, sniff for credentials and much more. Full documentation https://www.bettercap.org

Install dependencies

sudo apt install -y build-essential ruby-dev libpcap-dev

And install BetterCAP

sudo gem install bettercap

You can run sniffing via

sudo bettercap --sniffer

Play Sound Through Multiple Outputs

Install paprefs package

sudo apt install -y paprefs

Go to the PulseAudio Preferences and on the Simultaneous Output tab check Add virtual output device for simultaneous output on all local sound cards

After that restart pulseaudio

pulseaudio -k

Then go to your sound settings and you will see the option to output to multiple sound devices.

Terminal Prompt Customization

Put the file ps.sh under /etc/profile.d directory.

In the ~/.bashrc and /root/.bashrc files add line:

source /etc/profile.d/ps.sh

Set CPU Governor to Performance

Install cpufrequtils and set governor

sudo apt install -y cpufrequtils
echo 'GOVERNOR="performance"' | sudo tee /etc/default/cpufrequtils
sudo systemctl restart cpufrequtils

Disable default ondemand governor:

sudo systemctl disable ondemand

You can check governor via

cpufreq-info

Or:

cat /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

Run Script on System Startup

The below steps will show you to run an example bash script which reports disk space usage of the /home directory and saves the report in the /root directory every time the Ubuntu system boots.

Create shell script in /usr/local/bin/ to run on startup.

vim /usr/local/bin/disk-space-check.sh

The below is an example of such script:

#!/bin/bash

date > /root/disk_space_report.txt
du -sh /home/ >> /root/disk_space_report.txt

Create Systemd service file under /etc/systemd/system/ folder.

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/disk-space-check.service

And put the content:

[Unit]
After=network.service

[Service]
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/disk-space-check.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Set proper permissions:

sudo chmod 744 /usr/local/bin/disk-space-check.sh
sudo chmod 664 /etc/systemd/system/disk-space-check.service

Enable the service unit:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable disk-space-check.service

Systemd helpful commands:

  • systemctl list-units --type=service List existing services
  • systemctl list-units --type=target List possible targets
  • systemctl list-dependencies <name>.target List dependencies for

Manage Swap

For more modern systems (>1GB), your swap space should be at a minimum be equal to your physical memory (RAM) size "if you use hibernation", otherwise you need a minimum of round(sqrt(RAM)) and a maximum of twice the amount of RAM. The only downside to having more swap space than you will actually use, is the disk space you will be reserving for it. More you can read here.

Check swap

cat /proc/swaps

The swappiness parameter controls the tendency of the kernel to move processes out of physical memory and onto the swap disk. Because disks are much slower than RAM, this can lead to slower response times for system and applications if processes are too aggressively moved out of memory.

The default setting in Ubuntu is swappiness=60. Reducing the default value of swappiness will probably improve overall performance for a typical Ubuntu desktop installation. A value of swappiness=10 is recommended, but feel free to experiment.

To check the swappiness value

cat /proc/sys/vm/swappiness

To change the swappiness value with a swappiness value of 10 can be made with

sudo vim /etc/sysctl.conf

And add/edit line

vm.swappiness=10

Install Fonts

Create (if not exists) ~/.local/share/fonts directory.

Put fonts files in the ~/.local/share/fonts directory and clear fonts cache:

fc-cache -rv

(Back to top)

Installation Packages

Login to your Linux user and go to your home directory,

cd ~

Run these commands and tweak them as needed. The -y flag installs without a prompt. Run these commands from the terminal.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Enable PPAs

PPA's are provided within categories below, I highly recommend using PPA's or at least installing this package in case you ever use them.

Enable Canonical partners repository

sudo add-apt-repository -y "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ $(lsb_release -sc) partner" && sudo apt update

Flatpak

Flatpak is a next-generation technology for building and distributing desktop applications on Linux

sudo apt install -y flatpak gnome-software-plugin-flatpak
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

And restart the system.

System Tools

This is for tweaking the UI

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y\
    gnome-tweak-tool\
    chrome-gnome-shell\
    gnome-shell-extensions\
    dconf-editor\
    synaptic

Install Nvidia Drivers

You can check your VGA Info

Find out the right driver version for your graphics card on https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/drivers/

Install Nvidia Drivers

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y nvidia-driver-XXX

Type your version instead XXX

And after select your installed driver from drivers tab

sudo software-properties-gtk

Remove Nvidia Drivers

sudo add-apt-repository -r ppa:graphics-drivers/ppa

To Edit Nvidia Settings; Type the following in the Global Launcher (Super Key/Windows Key):

nvidia settings

Install Nvidia Cuda Toolkit

The NVIDIA® CUDA® Toolkit provides a development environment for creating high performance GPU-accelerated applications.

The toolkit includes GPU-accelerated libraries, debugging and optimization tools, a C/C++ compiler, and a runtime library to deploy your application.

wget https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2004/x86_64/cuda-ubuntu2004.pin
sudo mv cuda-ubuntu2004.pin /etc/apt/preferences.d/cuda-repository-pin-600
sudo apt-key adv --fetch-keys https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2004/x86_64/7fa2af80.pub
sudo add-apt-repository -y "deb https://developer.download.nvidia.com/compute/cuda/repos/ubuntu2004/x86_64/ /"
sudo apt update
sudo apt -y install cuda

Install ATI Drivers

For installing ATI drivers, read this official documentation: http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/AMDGPU-PRO-Install.aspx

Utilities

Install the Utilities:

sudo apt install -y vim git mercurial meld curl htop xclip unzip gdebi preload bleachbit ubuntu-restricted-extras cifs-utils unace unrar zip p7zip-full \
    p7zip-rar sharutils rar openssh-server lm-sensors whois traceroute nmap font-manager sshfs mc libavcodec-extra libdvd-pkg nfs-kernel-server openvpn \
    easy-rsa network-manager-openvpn-gnome exfat-fuse exfat-utils apt-transport-https python-dbus ethtool net-tools dos2unix \
    liblz4-tool network-manager-openconnect-gnome network-manager-fortisslvpn-gnome openfortivpn tree duplicity xserver-xorg-input-synaptics screen lib32z1 \
    lib32ncurses5-dev libglib2.0-dev-bin pv software-properties-common cpu-checker libnss3-tools python3-pip libcanberra-gtk-module sshpass jq

To setup the git defaults

git config --global user.name "your name"
git config --global user.email "[email protected]"

That will create a ~/.gitconfig with:

[user]
    email = [email protected]
    name = your name

RedShift For Eye Strain

It is a program which adjusts the color temperature of your screen with GTK+ integration. Think about daylight and night light difference.

sudo apt install -y redshift

Create your configuration file:

sudo vim ~/.config/redshift.conf

Adjust the temperatures you prefer. I like mine to be very yellow and dim. (The lower the dimmer)

[redshift]
temp-day=3500
temp-night=3500
; Set the screen brightness. Default is 1.0.
;brightness=0.9
; It is also possible to use different settings for day and night
;brightness-day=0.7
;brightness-night=0.4
; There are more settings for Gamma, Location Provider, Manual Location, etc.

Close and reload redshift. If you cannot find the icon anywhere run this in terminal:

pkill redshift-gtk redshift

If RedShift gives you a Geoclue2 error do this:

sudo vim /etc/geoclue/geoclue.conf

Append these lines at the bottom:

[redshift]
allowed=true
system=false
users=

A newer version of redshift will install a desktop file so a Geoclue2 warning won't happen on newer systems.

Dark Theme

Ubuntu 20.04 ships with a new dark theme option, but it's not enough.

In the Settings > Appearance select Window Colors to Dark.

The "problem" stems from the factor that the new "Dark" setting only changes the look and feel of apps that run on the desktop. It does not change the colour of the desktop UI itself. To fix this, install the User Themes GNOME Shell extension and GNOME Tweak Tool:

sudo apt install -y gnome-shell-extensions gnome-tweak-tool

Open GNOME Extensions app and slide the toggle next to "User Themes" to on.

Restart GNOME Shell (Alt + F2, type r, hit enter)

Lastly, open the GNOME Tweaks tool and select "Appearance" in the sidebar, locate the Shell section and Select Yaru Dark from the menu adjacent.

Oracle Java

Download and install deb package from https://www.oracle.com/java/technologies/javase-jdk15-downloads.html

And update alternatives

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/java java /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-15.0.1/bin/java 1
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/javac javac /usr/lib/jvm/jdk-15.0.1/bin/javac 1
sudo update-alternatives --config java

Wine

To run windows applications Wine is the best option. I often use HeidiSQL with Wine.

Enable i386 architecture

sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 

Download and add the repository key:

wget -O - https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key | sudo apt-key add -

Add the repository:

sudo add-apt-repository -y 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ focal main'

Install:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y --install-recommends winehq-stable    

Nautilus-Actions

Use Nautilus-Actions to easily and graphically create custom context menu options for Ubuntu's Nautilus file manager.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:daniel-marynicz/filemanager-actions
sudo apt install -y filemanager-actions-nautilus-extension

After installing it, quit and restart the Nautilus file manager with the following command. You can also press Alt+F2 and type this command instead of running it in a terminal.

nautilus -q

After installation you can launch fma-config-tool.

You also can install some Nautilus extensions

sudo apt install -y nautilus-admin nautilus-meld nautilus-checksum-menu

Hardinfo

Hardinfo is a Everest/Aida alternative for Linux. Its shows system information

sudo apt install -y hardinfo

Caffeine

Caffeine is a tool used to temporarily prevent the activation of the screensaver / lock screen / sleep mode, when using full-screen windows. The application is useful if you're using a video player that doesn't do this automatically, when listening to music, etc.

sudo apt install -y caffeine

Note: After the installation, the command-line version of Caffeine is set to start automatically on login. If you want the indicator to start automatically, you'll have to add "caffeine-indicator" to your startup applications.

GNU Screen

Screen is a full-screen window manager that multiplexes a physical terminal between several processes, typically interactive shells. Each virtual terminal provides the functions of the DEC VT100 terminal and, in addition, several control functions from the ANSI X3.64 (ISO 6429) and ISO 2022 standards (e.g., insert/delete line and support for multiple character sets). There is a scrollback history buffer for each virtual terminal and a copy-and-paste mechanism that allows the user to move text regions between windows. When screen is called, it creates a single window with a shell in it (or the specified command) and then gets out of your way so that you can use the program as you normally would. Then, at any time, you can create new (full-screen) windows with other programs in them (including more shells), kill the current window, view a list of the active windows, turn output logging on and off, copy text between windows, view the scrollback history, switch between windows, etc. All windows run their programs completely independent of each other. Programs continue to run when their window is currently not visible and even when the whole screen session is detached from the users terminal.

sudo apt install -y screen

Neofetch

A fast, highly customizable system info script

Neofetch is a CLI system information tool written in BASH. Neofetch displays information about your system next to an image, your OS logo, or any ASCII file of your choice. The main purpose of Neofetch is to be used in screenshots to show other users what OS/Distro you're running, what Theme/Icons you're using etc.

Installation:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:dawidd0811/neofetch
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y neofetch

GParted

Partition editor for graphically managing disk partitions https://gparted.sourceforge.io/

sudo apt install -y gparted

Firewall

UFW

UFW, or Uncomplicated Firewall, is an interface to iptables that is geared towards simplifying the process of configuring a firewall. While iptables is a solid and flexible tool, it can be difficult for beginners to learn how to use it to properly configure a firewall. UFW is installed by default on Ubuntu. If it has been uninstalled for some reason, you can install it with

sudo apt install -y ufw

To enable UFW, use this command:

sudo ufw enable

Configuring examples:

To configure your server to allow incoming SSH connections, you can use this command:

sudo ufw allow ssh

However, we can actually write the equivalent rule by specifying the port instead of the service name. For example, this command works the same as the one above:

sudo ufw allow 22    

For example, to allow X11 connections, which use ports 6000-6007, use these commands:

sudo ufw allow 6000:6007/tcp
sudo ufw allow 6000:6007/udp

GUFW

GUFW is a GUI for UFW

sudo apt install -y gufw

Geekbench

Download archive from https://www.geekbench.com/download/linux/ and extract.

Move folder under /opt

sudo mv Geekbench-5.3.1-Linux /opt/geekbench5

Now you can run benchmark

/opt/geekbench5/geekbench5

Clonezilla

Clonezilla is a partition and disk imaging/cloning program. It helps you to do system deployment, bare metal backup and recovery.

Download live USB image: https://clonezilla.org/downloads/download.php?branch=stable

Prepare USB device

mkfs.vfat -F 32 /dev/sd[1 letter]

And Write iso Image to USB

Screen Testing Soft

This is a program for testing the quality of CRT/LCD screens. It displays various patterns and allows you to estimate the quality of your CRT/LCD monitor.

sudo apt install -y screentest

Ventoy

Ventoy is an open source tool to create bootable USB drive for ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files. With ventoy, you don't need to format the disk over and over, you just need to copy the ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files to the USB drive and boot them directly. You can copy many files at a time and ventoy will give you a boot menu to select them.

Download the installation package, like ventoy-x.x.xx-linux.tar.gz from here and decompress it. Run the shell script as root, where XXX is the USB device, for example /dev/sdb:

sudo sh Ventoy2Disk.sh -i -L "MY-USB" /dev/XXX

Attention that the USB drive will be formatted and all the data will be lost after install.

You just need to install Ventoy once, after that all the things needed is to copy the iso files to the USB. You can also use it as a plain USB drive to store files and this will not affect Ventoy's function.

You can configure how Ventoy will work using configuration file /ventoy/ventoy.json on the USB drive.

My configuration file looks like:

{
    "control": [
        { "VTOY_DEFAULT_SEARCH_ROOT": "/install/iso" }
    ],
    "theme": {
        "display_mode": "CLI"
    }
}

Full documentation you can find here


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Other Tools

Google Chrome

Add google chrome repository and install

    sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list'
    wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -
    sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y google-chrome-stable

Then launch it with $ google-chrome and you can pin it to a gnome bar.

PlayOnLinux

Installation

sudo apt install playonlinux

Dropbox

Installation

sudo apt install nautilus-dropbox

Sublime Text 3

A sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose

Add repository:

wget -qO - https://download.sublimetext.com/sublimehq-pub.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt install apt-transport-https

Stable version:

echo "deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/stable/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list

Dev version:

echo "deb https://download.sublimetext.com/ apt/dev/" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/sublime-text.list    

Install:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y sublime-text

Configuration of synchronization between devices explained here

Pidgin

Installation

sudo apt -y install pidgin

Configuring google talk account

Basic

  • Protocol: XMPP
  • Username: [username without @]
  • Domain: [username domain after @]
  • Password: [account password]

Advanced

  • Connect Port: 5222 Connect Server: talk.google.com

DBeaver

Download from http://dbeaver.jkiss.org/download/

VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a powerful x86 and AMD64/Intel64 virtualization product for enterprise as well as home use.

Check latest version number on https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

During writing this manual, latest version was 6.1

Installation

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian $(lsb_release -sc) contrib" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/virtualbox.list'
wget -q http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian/oracle_vbox_2016.asc -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y virtualbox-6.1 virtualbox-ext-pack

Suggested to Enable Native Virtualization

Also you can read Virtual Machine Related

Android Studio

Installation

I recommend to install JetBrains Toolbox from https://www.jetbrains.com/toolbox-app/ and install Android Studio from toolbox.

After downloading android sdk, update PATH variable:

vim ~/.bashrc

add lines:

export PATH=${PATH}:/path-to-android-sdk/tools
export PATH=${PATH}:/path-to-android-sdk/platform-tools

Smart Git

Download deb bundle from https://www.syntevo.com/smartgit/download/

FileZilla

Installation

sudo apt install -y filezilla

Google Music Player

This is a beautiful cross platform Desktop Player for Google Play Music.

deb file can be downloaded from https://www.googleplaymusicdesktopplayer.com/

Spotify

Installation

sudo sh -c 'echo "deb http://repository.spotify.com testing non-free" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/spotify.list'
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y spotify-client

TeamViewer

Download from http://www.teamviewer.com/en/download/linux.aspx

Meld Diff Tool

sudo apt install -y meld

Vagrant

To install Vagrant, you need to download and run the installation kit. Before going further, be sure that you have dpkg and Virtual box installed:

sudo apt install -y dpkg-dev virtualbox-dkms

Make sure linux headers already installed

sudo apt install -y linux-headers-$(uname -r)

Go to the https://www.vagrantup.com/downloads.html page of Vagrant and check for the latest release. During writing this manual, last version was 2.0.1

wget https://releases.hashicorp.com/vagrant/2.0.1/vagrant_2.0.1_x86_64.deb
sudo dpkg -i vagrant_2.0.1_x86_64.deb

Reconfigure the VirtualBox DKMS:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure virtualbox-dkms

Docker

Installation

wget -qO- https://get.docker.com/ | sh

Working with Docker is a pain if your user is not configured correctly, so add your user to the docker group with the following command.

sudo usermod -aG docker $(whoami)

Log out and log in from your server to activate your new groups.

sudo apt install -y docker-compose

Audacious Audio Player

Installation

sudo apt install -y audacious

XnViewMP

XnView MP is the enhanced version of XnView Classic. It is a powerful cross-platform media browser, viewer and converter. Compatible with more than 500 formats such as PSD etc.

Download and install from http://www.xnview.com/en/xnviewmp/#downloads

Sticky Notes

Just like Google Keep and Windows Sticky Notes, it allows you to jot down thoughts, lists, and reminders on desktop.

Installation

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:umang/indicator-stickynotes
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y indicator-stickynotes

Guake

Guake is a dropdown terminal made for the GNOME desktop environment. Guake's style of window is based on an FPS game, and one of its goals is to be easy to reach.

Installation

sudo apt install -y guake

Skype

Installation

wget https://go.skype.com/skypeforlinux-64.deb
sudo apt install ./skypeforlinux-64.deb

Telegram

Installation

sudo apt install -y telegram-desktop

Slack

Install via terminal:

wget -O - https://packagecloud.io/slacktechnologies/slack/gpgkey  | sudo apt-key add -

Create the file /etc/apt/sources.list.d/slack.list with the following content

deb https://packagecloud.io/slacktechnologies/slack/debian/ jessie main

And run:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y slack-desktop

Or download .deb from https://slack.com/downloads and install manually

Viber

Since new versions of Ubuntu are shipped with libssl1.1 or have this package in their repositories, viber.deb can be tinkered to state libssl1.1 as a dependency.

Ensure that libssl1.1 is installed:

sudo apt install libssl1.1

Download viber.deb from the Viber webpage and copy it to a temp folder. I have used /home//temp for this.

Now we need to make some changes to the package:

mkdir viber
cd viber 
ar x ../viber.deb
tar xzf control.tar.gz

Now we need to change dependencies:

  • Open the control file with a text editor.
  • Change on line 6: libssl1.0.0 to libssl1.1. (Note: in case of newer version of libssl use the new version).
  • Save the file and exit.

Repackage the .deb file.

tar --ignore-failed-read -cvzf control.tar.gz {post,pre}{inst,rm} md5sums control
ar rcs viber-new.deb debian-binary control.tar.gz data.tar.xz

Install the new deb:

sudo dpkg -i viber-new.deb

Gimp

Installation

sudo apt install -y gimp gimp-data gimp-plugin-registry gimp-data-extras

VLC Player

VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.

Installation

sudo apt install -y vlc

KDEnlive Video Editor

Installation

sudo apt install -y kdenlive breeze

Httpie

You can easily use httpie from terminal: http get https://google.com

Installation

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y httpie

Peek

Simple animated GIF screen recorder with an easy to use interface

Installation

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:peek-developers/stable
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y peek

OBS

Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming https://obsproject.com/.

Installation

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y obs-studio

USB Maker for Windows ISO on Linux

You can easily use Startup Disk Creator and UNetbootin to create Linux to USB. But if you need to create Windows bootable USB from your Linux OS use woeusb:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:tomtomtom/woeusb
sudo apt install -y woeusb-frontend-wxgtk

StarUML

A sophisticated software modeler for agile and concise modeling (http://staruml.io/)

You can download .AppImage file from http://staruml.io/download

Make downloaded file executable and run.

Gramps

Gramps is a free software project and community. It is a genealogy program that is both intuitive for hobbyists and feature-complete for professional genealogists.

To install, run:

sudo apt install -y gramps

uGet

uGet is a powerful download manager.

To install, run:

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:uget-team/ppa
sudo apt install -y uget uget-integrator

You can also install browser extensions for uGet integration:

Xournal

Xournal is a GUI application primarily developed for note-taking and sketching use case. As the name implies, Xournal is quite a handy tool when you are keeping a journal especially on a touchscreen-capable laptop. Beyond this use case, Xournal has in fact an excellent PDF editing capability, and can export a modified PDF file as well.

To install, run:

sudo apt install -y xournal

It's very useful tool for adding a Signature Image to a PDF Document with Xournal. There are two ways to add your handwritten signature to a PDF document with Xournal. You can directly draw your signature using built-in Pen drawing. Alternatively, you can create an image file of your signature using another tool, and import the image into the PDF document using Xournal.

To hand-write your signature, click on Pen icon at the top-left of Xournal's GUI menu. You can also print and type anything (e.g., date) by clicking on Text icon. To add an image of your signature on Xournal, click on Image icon at the top of Xournal's GUI menu, or go to ToolsImage in the menu option.


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Development

LAMP

Linux Apache MySQL PHP

- Installation for the following:

  • PHP 5.6/7.0/7.4/8.0/8.1 (and Modules)
  • Apache 2 (and Modules + Dynamic hosts)
  • Nginx (Optional)
  • MySQL
  • Redis
  • and more.

PHP

PHP 5.6

It's important to install php5.6-dev if you want to compile any add-ons later.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y php5.6 libpcre3-dev php5.6-cli php5.6-cgi php5.6-common php5.6-mysql php5.6-curl php5.6-gd php5.6-geoip php5.6-imagick php5.6-imap php5.6-json php5.6-ldap php5.6-mcrypt php5.6-memcache php5.6-memcached php5.6-tidy php5.6-xdebug php5.6-xmlrpc php5.6-xsl php5.6-dev

If you are looking for more PHP modules try:

sudo apt-cache search php5-
PHP 7.0

It's important to install php7.0-dev if you want to compile any add-ons later.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y php7.0-bz2 php7.0-cgi php7.0-cli php7.0-common php7.0-curl php7.0-dev php7.0-enchant php7.0-fpm php7.0-gd php7.0-gmp php7.0-imap php7.0-intl php7.0-json php7.0-ldap php7.0-mcrypt php7.0-mysql php7.0-odbc php7.0-opcache php7.0-pgsql php7.0-phpdbg php7.0-pspell php7.0-readline php7.0-recode php7.0-sybase php7.0-tidy php7.0-xmlrpc php7.0-xsl php7.0-sqlite3 php7.0-mbstring php7.0-bcmath php7.0-soap php7.0-zip php-xdebug php-imagick

If you are looking for more PHP modules try:

sudo apt-cache search php7.0-
PHP 7.4

It's important to install php7.4-dev if you want to compile any add-ons later.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y php7.4-bz2 php7.4-cgi php7.4-cli php7.4-common php7.4-curl php7.4-dev php7.4-enchant php7.4-fpm php7.4-gd php7.4-gmp php7.4-imap php7.4-intl php7.4-json php7.4-ldap php7.4-mysql php7.4-odbc php7.4-opcache php7.4-pgsql php7.4-phpdbg php7.4-pspell php7.4-readline php7.4-sybase php7.4-tidy php7.4-xmlrpc php7.4-xsl php7.4-sqlite3 php7.4-mbstring php7.4-bcmath php7.4-soap php7.4-zip php7.4-xdebug php7.4-redis php7.4-igbinary php7.4-imagick php-sodium

If you are looking for more PHP modules try:

sudo apt-cache search php7.4-
PHP 8.0

It's important to install php8.0-dev if you want to compile any add-ons later.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y php8.0-bz2 php8.0-cgi php8.0-cli php8.0-common php8.0-curl php8.0-dev php8.0-enchant php8.0-fpm php8.0-gd php8.0-gmp php8.0-imap php8.0-intl php8.0-ldap php8.0-mysql php8.0-odbc php8.0-opcache php8.0-pgsql php8.0-phpdbg php8.0-pspell php8.0-readline php8.0-sybase php8.0-tidy php8.0-xmlrpc php8.0-xsl php8.0-sqlite3 php8.0-mbstring php8.0-bcmath php8.0-soap php8.0-zip php8.0-xdebug php8.0-redis php8.0-igbinary php8.0-imagick php-sodium

If you are looking for more PHP modules try:

sudo apt-cache search php8.0-
PHP 8.1

It's important to install php8.1-dev if you want to compile any add-ons later.

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ondrej/php
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y php8.1-bz2 php8.1-cgi php8.1-cli php8.1-common php8.1-curl php8.1-dev php8.1-enchant php8.1-fpm php8.1-gd php8.1-gmp php8.1-imap php8.1-intl php8.1-ldap php8.1-mysql php8.1-odbc php8.1-opcache php8.1-pgsql php8.1-phpdbg php8.1-pspell php8.1-readline php8.1-sybase php8.1-tidy php8.1-xmlrpc php8.1-xsl php8.1-sqlite3 php8.1-mbstring php8.1-bcmath php8.1-soap php8.1-zip php8.1-xdebug php8.1-redis php8.1-igbinary php8.1-imagick

If you are looking for more PHP modules try:

sudo apt-cache search php8.1-
Switch PHP Versions

For example switch from 8.0 to 8.1

Apache:

sudo a2dismod php8.0
sudo a2enmod php8.1
sudo service apache2 restart

Command Line:

sudo update-alternatives --set php /usr/bin/php8.1
sudo update-alternatives --set phar /usr/bin/phar8.1
sudo update-alternatives --set phar.phar /usr/bin/phar.phar8.1
sudo update-alternatives --set php-config /usr/bin/php-config8.1

Composer

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php && sudo mv composer.phar /usr/local/bin/composer

Disable XDebug for composer

sudo phpdismod -s cli xdebug

And add this lines in your .bashrc file:

# Load xdebug Zend extension with php command
alias php='php -dzend_extension=xdebug.so'
# PHPUnit needs xdebug for coverage. In this case, just make an alias with php command prefix.
alias phpunit='php $(which phpunit)'

PHPUnit

wget https://phar.phpunit.de/phpunit.phar && chmod +x phpunit.phar && sudo mv phpunit.phar /usr/local/bin/phpunit

Apache

Apache: Installation

For PHP 5.6

sudo apt install -y apache2 libapache2-mod-php5.6

For PHP 7.*

sudo apt install -y apache2 libapache2-mod-php7.*

For PHP 8.*

sudo apt install -y apache2 libapache2-mod-php8.*
Apache: Enable php-mcrypt & mod_rewrite

Enable mod_rewrite

sudo a2enmod rewrite

Enable php-mcrypt

For PHP 5

sudo php5enmod mcrypt && sudo service apache2 restart

For PHP 7 (if mcrypt is available)

sudo phpenmod mcrypt && sudo service apache2 restart

If you are looking for more Apache modules try:

sudo apt-cache search libapache2-mod
Apache: Configure dynamic virtualhosts

Enable module vhost_alias

sudo a2enmod vhost_alias

Next, open /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

sudo vim /etc/apache2/apache2.conf

and add the following lines before IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*.conf line.

UseCanonicalName Off

LogFormat "%V %h %l %u %t \"%r\" %s %b \"%{Referer}i\" \"%{User-Agent}i\"" dynamic_vhosts
CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log dynamic_vhosts

<VirtualHost *:80>
    VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/domains/%-2+/public_html
    VirtualScriptAlias  /var/www/domains/%-2+/cgi-bin

    <Directory /var/www/domains>
                DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
                AllowOverride All
                Order allow,deny
                allow from all
                Require all granted
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

If you want to disable all configured virtual hosts, then comment this line in your config file:

#IncludeOptional sites-enabled/*.conf

This sets up a catch all for any domain coming in over port 80 (the default port for http traffic, if your using https you will need to use 443 - alternatively you could remove the port restriction). The important line here is the VirtualDocumentRoot. The tells Apache where your files will reside on disk. The %0 part takes the whole domain name and inserts it into the path. But I didn't want to have the .test part of the domain in my folders on disk, otherwise we use %-2+ To illustrate this if we went to a domain somesite.com.test the VirtualDocumentRoot would be:

/var/www/html/domains/somesite.com

Now you have to add automatic .test domain resolving on your local machine:

Edit the file /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf, and add the line dns=dnsmasq to the [main] section, it will look like this:

[main]
plugins=ifupdown,keyfile
dns=dnsmasq

[ifupdown]
managed=false

[device]
wifi.scan-rand-mac-address=no

Let NetworkManager manage /etc/resolv.conf

sudo rm /etc/resolv.conf
sudo ln -s /var/run/NetworkManager/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf

Add custom tld:

echo 'address=/.test/127.0.0.1' | sudo tee /etc/NetworkManager/dnsmasq.d/test-tld

Reload NetworkManager:

sudo systemctl reload NetworkManager

Now domain somesite.com.test should work.

Apache: Configure SSL for dynamic virtualhosts

First of all Generate SSL certificates for local domains

After you can use this small script, for generating SSL certificate for all virtual domains (folders).

#!/usr/bin/env bash

cmd_array=( mkcert -key-file key.pem -cert-file cert.pem  )
for d in /var/www/html/domains/*/ ; do
    cmd_array+=(`basename "$d"`.test)
done

"${cmd_array[@]}"

And add the generated cert.pem and key.pem to the apache configuration file, edit /etc/apache2.conf

Add new VirtualHost section:

<VirtualHost *:443>
    VirtualDocumentRoot /var/www/html/domains/%-2+/public

    SSLEngine on
    SSLCertificateFile    /path/to/generated/certs/cert.pem
    SSLCertificateKeyFile /path/to/generated/certs/key.pem

    <Directory /var/www/html/domains>
                DirectoryIndex index.html index.php
                Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews Includes
                AllowOverride All
                Order deny,allow
                Allow from all
                Require all granted
    </Directory>

</VirtualHost>

Make sure the mod_ssl is enabled and restart the apache.

Nginx

Or if you prefer to use nginx

For stable version

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:nginx/stable

For latest (recommended)

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:nginx/development

And after install

sudo apt install -y nginx

Generate SSL certificates for local domains

mkcert automatically creates and installs a local CA in the system root store, and generates locally-trusted certificates.

Download mkcert precompiled binary from https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert/releases

wget -O mkcert https://github.com/FiloSottile/mkcert/releases/download/v1.4.3/mkcert-v1.4.3-linux-amd64
chmod +x mkcert

Generate and install root certificates:

mkcert -install

Root certificates will be placed under mkcert -CAROOT. For Ubuntu its /home/<user>/.local/share/mkcert

After you can generate certificates for your domains:

mkcert -key-file key.pem -cert-file cert.pem example.test *.example.test example2.test *.example2.test

Now you can add the generated cert.pem and key.pem to your webserver configuration.

If you use Apache Dynamic Virtualhosts, you can generate certs automatically. Read more in Configure SSL for Dynamic Virtualhosts

MySQL

Installation

You can get latest version number on https://dev.mysql.com/downloads/repo/apt

wget https://dev.mysql.com/get/mysql-apt-config_0.8.17-1_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i mysql-apt-config_0.8.17-1_all.deb
sudo apt update & sudo apt install -y mysql-server

For start configuring MySQL server, run:

sudo mysql_secure_installation

If you are not able to login with root user, run:

sudo mysql

and run:

ALTER USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'YourPassword';
Allow remote access for root:

Login in MySQL shell and run:

CREATE USER 'root'@'%' IDENTIFIED BY 'secret';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'root'@'%';

Also Update mysql server config:

For MySQL 5.*

sudo sed -i 's/bind-address/bind-address = 0.0.0.0#/' /etc/mysql/my.cnf

For MySQL 8.*

echo 'bind-address    = *' | sudo tee -a /etc/mysql/mysql.conf.d/mysqld.cnf

Restart the service:

sudo service mysql restart

Check if mysql listens port correctly

sudo netstat -tulnp | grep mysql

Output should be something like:

tcp6       0      0 :::33060                :::*                    LISTEN      13143/mysqld        
tcp6       0      0 :::3306                 :::*                    LISTEN      13143/mysqld

You can also run the nmap command from a remote computer to check whether MySQL port 3306 is open to the remote host.

nmap {server-ip}

Percona Toolkit

Percona Toolkit is a collection of advanced open source command-line tools, developed and used by the Percona technical staff, that are engineered to perform a variety of MySQL® and MongoDB® server and system tasks that are too difficult or complex to perform manually – freeing your DBAs for work that helps you achieve your business goals.

sudo apt install -y percona-toolkit

MyCLI

This is a very nice utility https://github.com/dbcli/mycli

pip install mycli

Usage (See the documents from the git link above for more example):

mycli -h localhost -u root
mycli -h localhost -u root -p

PostgreSQL

sudo apt install -y postgresql libpq-dev

Memcached

sudo apt install -y memcached php-memcached

Redis

Install redis latest stable version

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:chris-lea/redis-server
sudo apt install -y redis-server

Add to startup:

sudo systemctl enable redis-server.service
Multiple Redis Instances

Disable default instance

sudo systemctl stop redis
sudo systemctl disable redis

Repeat these steps to configure a Redis instance for every instance you want to set up:

In this case we set up first instance called "redis_1"

Create folders and configs:

sudo mkdir /etc/redis/redis_1
sudo cp /etc/redis/redis.conf /etc/redis/redis_1/redis.conf 
sudo chown -R redis:redis /etc/redis

In the config file edit lines:

daemonize no
supervised systemd
pidfile /var/run/redis/redis_1.pid
logfile /var/log/redis/redis_1.log
dir /var/lib/redis/redis_1/

Define a "port" number.

port 6379

Warning: Remember that each instance should be running on a different port.

Create the database directories at the location given in the configuration file.

sudo mkdir /var/lib/redis/redis_1
sudo chown redis:redis /var/lib/redis/redis_1
sudo chmod 0750 /var/lib/redis/redis_1

Create the service unit file "/etc/systemd/system/[email protected]" with the following contents:

[Unit]
Description=Redis persistent key-value database
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=redis
Group=redis
ExecStart=/usr/bin/redis-server /etc/redis/%i/redis.conf
ExecStop=/bin/kill -s TERM $MAINPID
PrivateTmp=true
PIDFile=/var/run/redis/%i.pid
RuntimeDirectory=%i
RuntimeDirectoryMode=2755
LimitNOFILE=65536
Restart=always
TimeoutStopSec=0

UMask=007
PrivateDevices=yes
ProtectHome=yes
ReadOnlyDirectories=/
ReadWriteDirectories=-/var/lib/redis
ReadWriteDirectories=-/var/log/redis
ReadWriteDirectories=-/var/run/redis

NoNewPrivileges=true
CapabilityBoundingSet=CAP_SETGID CAP_SETUID CAP_SYS_RESOURCE
RestrictAddressFamilies=AF_INET AF_INET6 AF_UNIX
MemoryDenyWriteExecute=true
ProtectKernelModules=true
ProtectKernelTunables=true
ProtectControlGroups=true
RestrictRealtime=true
RestrictNamespaces=true

# redis-server can write to its own config file when in cluster mode so we
# permit writing there by default. If you are not using this feature, it is
# recommended that you replace the following lines with "ProtectSystem=full".
ProtectSystem=true
ReadWriteDirectories=-/etc/redis

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Start the new redis instance:

sudo systemctl start redis@redis_1
sudo systemctl enable redis@redis_1

ELK Stack

Install ELK stack: Elasticsearch, Logstash, and Kibana

wget -qO - https://artifacts.elastic.co/GPG-KEY-elasticsearch | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt install -y apt-transport-https
echo "deb https://artifacts.elastic.co/packages/7.x/apt stable main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/elastic-7.x.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y elasticsearch

To configure Elasticsearch to start automatically when the system boots up, run the following commands:

sudo /bin/systemctl daemon-reload
sudo /bin/systemctl enable elasticsearch.service

Letsencrypt

Install certbot (https://certbot.eff.org)

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:certbot/certbot
sudo apt update

Generating for nginx:

sudo apt install -y python3-certbot-nginx 
sudo certbot --nginx

Generating for apache:

sudo apt install -y python3-certbot-apache 
sudo certbot --apache

You can test automatic renewal for your certificates by running this command:

sudo certbot renew --dry-run

Java Runtime

sudo apt install -y default-jre

Phalcon

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:phalcon/stable
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y php5-phalcon

Phalcon Dev Tools

This is an easy to use install script that will cleanup after itself. It can also be used for updating:

sudo bash install_phalcon_devtools.sh

To test it run: $ phalcon

Secure Permissions

We will use the Access Control Lists (ACL) or (Filesystem Access Control List). We will use group permissions for folders so you don't have to make the public writable, because 777 is dangerous.

# Make sure you have ACL installed
sudo apt install -y acl

Look for your main partition with:

$ df

Mine happens to be dev/root, yours may be dev/sda or something. Make sure to replace that below:

# T
sudo /sbin/tune2fs -o +acl /dev/root

To see what file system you are using ext3, ext4, etc, use the partition:

sudo file -sL /dev/root

We have to put the partition in read-only mode, then remount it:

sudo /bin/mount -o remount /dev/root

Apply Group

# This sets the Defaults
setfacl -Rd g:www-data:rw /var/www
# This sets future file
setfacl -Rm g:www-data:rw /var/www

To Modify

setfacl -Rm g:www-data:rw /var/www

Otherwise you could always set up a crontab such as:

crontab -e

Then append this to run every five minutes.

*/5 * * * * /home/<user>/backup.sh chgrp -R www-data /var/www && chmod g+rw /var/www

Lastly, you could have a deploy script that does this for you, such as Python Fabfile, but that's another topic.


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Python

- Installation packages: - Pip - Virtualenv

Python is installed by default on Ubuntu, version 2.7 is suitable. I strongly recommend installing python-dev for headers to compile certain PIP packages.

sudo apt install -y python-dev libmysqlclient-dev
sudo apt install -y python-pip
sudo pip install fabric virtualenv virtualenvwrapper django

Manually install Python. python installation required packages

sudo apt -y install build-essential checkinstall
sudo apt -y install libreadline-gplv2-dev libncursesw5-dev \
                             libsqlite3-dev tk-dev libgdbm-dev libc6-dev
sudo apt -y install libjpeg-dev libpng-dev
sudo apt -y install zlib1g-dev libbz2-dev
sudo apt -y install krb5-multidev
sudo apt -y install openssl libssl-dev
sudo apt -y install libffi-dev
sudo apt -y install libgmp-dev

Download and extract Python using following command from python official site. You can also download latest(3.6.0) version in place of specified below.

wget https://www.python.org/ftp/python/3.5.2/Python-3.5.2.tgz && tar -xvf Python-3.5.2.tgz
sudo mv Python-3.5.2 /opt/ && cd /opt && cd Python-3.5.2

Use below set of commands to compile python source code on your system using altinstall.

./configure
make
sudo make altinstall

Check the Python version installed, using below command

python3.5 -V

Pip

Pip is a tool for installing and managing Python packages. Install Pip with Wget and Python.

wget https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py
sudo python3.5 get-pip.py

View a list of helpful commands

pip --help

Check the version of Pip that is installed

pip -V

Virtualenv

Virtualenv is a tool to create isolated Python environments. install the virtualenv package

pip install virtualenv

Create an Environment with virtualenv

virtualenv -p python3.5 --no-site-packages env

Activate script

cd env
source bin/activate

Deactivate

deactivate

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Go

Install Golang. You can check latest version of Golang here https://golang.org/dl/#featured While writing this article, lastest version was 1.9

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:gophers/archive
sudo apt -y update && sudo apt install golang-1.9

After that your installation will be in the /usr/lib/go-1.9 I recommend create symlink:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/go-1.9 /usr/local/go

And Add /usr/local/go/bin to the PATH environment variable. You can do this by adding this line to your /etc/profile (for a system-wide installation) or $HOME/.profile:

PATH="$PATH:/usr/local/go/bin"

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Ruby

Install Ruby 2.X with header files in ruby2.0-dev, this will keep your gems from having issues.

sudo apt install -y ruby2.0 ruby2.0-dev

For Ruby RVM (Version Management)

gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.gnupg.net --recv-keys D39DC0E3
\curl -sSL https://get.rvm.io | bash -s stable

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NodeJS

I recommend install NodeJS using Node Version Manager

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.37.2/install.sh | bash

To download, compile, and install the latest release of node, do this:

nvm install node # "node" is an alias for the latest version

To install a specific version of node:

nvm install 6.14.4 # or 10.10.0, 8.9.1, etc

To install a latest LTS version of node:

nvm install --lts

You can list available versions using ls-remote:

nvm ls-remote

And then in any new shell just use the installed version:

nvm use [version]

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Yarn

For installation Yarn package manager run:

curl -sS https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/pubkey.gpg | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb https://dl.yarnpkg.com/debian/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/yarn.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y yarn

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Ansible

sudo apt install -y ansible

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Gaming

Steam

Ultimate entertainment platform. http://store.steampowered.com/

sudo apt install -y steam

PCSXR

PCSX-Reloaded - PlayStation 1 Emulator. https://pcsxr.codeplex.com/

Install emulator:

sudo apt install -y pcsxr

pscxr can simulate a bios file. However if you need to use a bios, download and move the file into ~/.pcsx/bios/.

Download games from http://redump.org/discs/system/psx/ or https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4496017 and put under ~/.pcsx/games/

After that run PCSX, configure and play

Customizations

System Tweaks

Increase Inotify Watches Limit

Open sysctl.conf

sudo vim /etc/sysctl.conf

Add this line:

fs.inotify.max_user_watches = 524288

And after run

sudo sysctl -p

Disable Git Certificate Verification

Note: for security reasons, not recommended

sudo git config --global http.sslVerify false

Shortcuts

  • "System Settings" > "Keyboard" > "Shortcuts" > "Custom Shortcuts" ctrl+r Terminal gnome-terminal
  • "System Settings" > "Keyboard" > "Shortcuts" > "Custom Shortcuts" ctrl+e Files nautilus -w

VIM Customization

Setup VIM

git clone https://github.com/VundleVim/Vundle.vim.git ~/.vim/bundle/Vundle.vim

And copy .vimrc file in your home folder (/home//.vimrc) After run

$ vim
:PluginInstall

Add Georgian Keyboard

Go to System "Settings" > "Keyboard" > "Text Entry" and add Georgian layout. Also enable "Allow different sources for each window"

Touchpad Settings

Change Scroll Speed

List input devices tofind the id

xinput --list

You have to find input device, like "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad". In my case id was 12.

To list supported settings for device, run:

xinput list-props {id}

To change scroll speed, you have to update "Synaptics Scrolling Distance" setting. e.g.

xinput --set-prop {id} 'Synaptics Scrolling Distance' -200 200

To persist this setting you have to put command in the /etc/X11/xinit/xinputrc file.

Sometimes id can be changed between reboots, so, you have to update file with following lines:

idd=$(xinput --list | grep 'SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad' | awk '{print $6}'| cut -d'=' -f2)
xinput --set-prop $idd 'Synaptics Scrolling Distance' -200 200

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Ubuntu Fixes

These are solutions to fix problems I've encountered.

Ubuntu Infinite Login

When you try to login to Ubuntu and it relogs you back into the login screen, this is an infinite loop. The only way I was able to fix it despite all the guides was combining a few of these together.

The first step is to login to a terminal.

CTRL + ALT + F1  (Or F3)

Next, Login as your user who must be able to run sudo.

  • Home Folder Permissions
    • ls -ld ~ should have these permission exactly as: drwxr-xr-x
    • The user:group must be your, e.g. john:john
    • To Fix: sudo chmod 755 ~ and sudo chown -R john:john ~
  • Temp Folder Permissions
    • ls -ld /tmp should have these permission exactly as: drwxrwxrwt
    • The user:group must be root:root on /tmp
    • To Fix: sudo chmod a+wt /tmp
  • Xauthority Ownership
    • ls -lta | grep .Xa should be owned by your user, for example john john
    • If it is root root or anything than your user/group it's wrong
    • To Fix: sudo chown john:john .Xauthority
  • Xsession Errors
    • This is just to make sure there are no syntax errors for your reference:
      • To Check: cat ~/.xsession-errors
      • You don't need to do anything if there are syntax errors, we will move the file
  • Try Moving XAuthority
    • Sometimes it's as easy to moving Xauthority so a new is generated at login
    • To Fix: sudo ~/.Xauthority ~/.Xauthority.bak
  • Try Reconfiguring LightDM
    • Fix: dpkg-reconfigure lightdm, then select lightdm in the menu
    • Lastly restart lightdm: sudo service lightdm restart
  • Apt Auto Remove Problem
    • I read that it's possible apt-autoremove may accidentally remove xubuntu-desktop, ubuntu-desktop and LightDM reports no errors.
      • The ubuntu-desktop will load the Gnome interface
      • The xubuntu-desktop will load a different interface I'm not familiar with
      • To Fix: sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop
    • If you are using Gnome, try following the post at OMGUbuntu
      • After the Above Try: sudo apt autoremove gnome-software && sudo apt install gnome-software
      • I was able to get Gnome-Classic working but not Gnome
  • How to Ensure it Works
    • You might be able to login after one of the steps above if you don't reboot. However, to be certain, you want to reboot to ensure it is fixed, otherwise you'll be doing this over and over

PCI Device Is Not Recognized Correctly

If your lspci | grep "VGA" output looks like this:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation Device 1f95 (rev a1)

Instead of this:

01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation TU117M [GeForce GTX 1650 Ti Mobile] [10de:1f95] (rev a1)

Then you're affected by the issue.

This can be caused by your /usr/share/misc/pci.ids\* files being outdated and you can fix it by running:

sudo update-pciids

If the list is not updated even after running the command above, that means your PCI device is brand new, and no one has registered your device to the pci-ids repository.

You can submit an issue/contact us through gitter, or you can add it yourself to https://pci-ids.ucw.cz/. Make sure you have the right vendor ID and the device ID by checking lspci -nn and read the guidelines.

Restore Screen Brightness and Keyboard backlit on Reboot

On my device screen brightness and keyboard backlit always resets after reboot, so there is a fix.

First, find config files where your brightness and keyboard backlit state is stored. In my case, it was /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/brightness and /sys/class/leds/tpacpi\:\:kbd_backlight/brightness

Test your configs:

echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi\:\:kbd_backlight/brightness
echo 70 > /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/brightness

Settings should be changed. If not, check configuration files path.

Max brightness you can check via cat /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/max_brightness and cat /sys/class/leds/tpacpi\:\:kbd_backlight/max_brightness

Create script under /usr/local/bin/

sudo vim /usr/local/bin/setup-brightness.sh

And put the lines below:

#!/bin/bash

echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi\:\:kbd_backlight/brightness
echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/tpacpi\:\:kbd_backlight/brightness
echo 70 > /sys/class/backlight/nvidia_0/brightness

Create systemd service file:

sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/setup-brightness.service

And put content below:

[Unit]
After=graphical.target
Description=Set up the screen and keyboard brightness

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/setup-brightness.sh

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Set proper permissions:

sudo chmod 744 /usr/local/bin/setup-brightness.sh
sudo chmod 664 /etc/systemd/system/setup-brightness.service

Test your script by running:

sudo /usr/local/bin/setup-brightness.sh

Enable the service unit:

sudo systemctl daemon-reload
sudo systemctl enable setup-brightness.service

Disable UEFI Choice Screen

The easiest solution is to define the undocumented GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT variable in /etc/default/grub. For example:

sudo vim /etc/default/grub

and add variable:

GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT=$GRUB_TIMEOUT

Also set GRUB_TIMEOUT to 0. After run:

sudo update-grub

Example:

GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_RECORDFAIL_TIMEOUT=$GRUB_TIMEOUT

GUI

Move Dock To Bottom

I prefer dock like Mac. To do this, run commands:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock extend-height false
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dock-position BOTTOM
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock transparency-mode FIXED
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dash-max-icon-size 34
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock unity-backlit-items false
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock click-action 'minimize'

Easy Window Resize

You can resize windows very nicely:

  • Focus on a window
  • Hold ALT + Middle Mouse Click + Drag
  • Note: Depending on where you position your mouse to will resize up/down/left/right

Left or Right Close Buttons

Run this simple command in the terminal and you will see the positions change right away.

Move to right (terminal)

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout ':minimize,maximize,close'

Move to left (terminal)

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout 'close,minimize,maximize:'

Fix Gnome Lockscreen

In terminal make sure this is false, then try your hotkey ctrl+alt+l or if you set it like super+l in the settings:

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.lockdown disable-lock-screen 'false'

Gnome Extensions

You can toggle these items at https://extensions.gnome.org I suggest creating an account so you have a record.

  • OpenWeather - Weather extension to display weather information from https://openweathermap.org/ or https://darksky.net for almost all locations in the world.
  • No Title Bar - No Title Bar removes the title bar from non-GTK applications and moves the window title and buttons to the top panel.
  • Extension Update Notifier - Shows a notification when extension updates are available.
  • Hide Activities Button - Hides the Activities button on the panel
  • Remove Dropdown Arrows - Removes the dropdown arrows which were introduced in Gnome 3.10 from the App Menu, System Menu, Input Menu, Access Menu, Places Menu, Applications Menu and any other extension that wants to add dropdown arrows.
  • Status Area Horizontal Spacing - Reduce the horizontal spacing between icons in the top-right status area
  • NoAnnoyance - Disables the “Window Is Ready” notification and changes the policy of the window manager so that new windows are always focused.
  • Clock Override - Customize the date and time format displayed in clock in the top bar in GNOME Shell. My format is: %a | %e %b | %H:%M
  • Panel OSD - Configuring where on the (main) screen notifications will appear, instead of just above the message tray.
  • Draw On You Screen - Start drawing with Super+Alt+D and save your beautiful work by taking a screenshot.
  • Caffeine - Disable the screensaver and auto suspend.
  • CPU Power Manager - Manage Intel_pstate CPU Frequency scaling driver.
  • Todo.txt - A Gnome shell interface for todo.txt.
  • Jiggle - Jiggle is a Gnome Shell extension that highlights the cursor position when the mouse is moved rapidly.

Reload Gnome Freeze

This is a rare things, it happens much more in Gnome and requires a lot more "damaging" things. To fix a gnome that seems frozen do the following:

ALT + F2 enter in r (lowecase) and press Enter


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Virtual Machine Related

This has to do with VirtualBox

Fix Mouse Side Buttons in VMWare

Append the following to yourbox.vmx with the machine off.

mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
mouse.vusb.useBasicMouse = "FALSE"
usb.generic.allowHID = "TRUE"

Vagrant VBGuest Fix:

vagrant plugin install vagrant-vbguest

vagrant ssh
sudo ln -s /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-4.3.10/lib/VBoxGuestAdditions /usr/lib/VBoxGuestAdditions

Windows 8 VirtualBox Fix

Running Windows 8 in Virtualbox has an odd error, run this in cmd or powershell, or terminal on linux.

vboxmanage list vms
vboxmanage setextradata "The Box Name" VBoxInternal/CPUM/CMPXCHG16B 1

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Synchronize Configurations

Sync Sublime Text

I am using Dropbox for syncing configurations

Install Package Control https://packagecontrol.io/installation#st3

After:

cd ~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages/
rm -rf User
ln -s ~/Dropbox/workspace/appdata/sublime-text-3/Packages/User

Sync FileZilla

cd ~/.config/filezilla
rm -f sitemanager.xml
ln -s ~/Dropbox/workspace/appdata/filezilla/sitemanager.xml

Chrome Addons


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Other Applications

  • DragonDisk S3
  • Kazam (Screen Recorder)
  • Shutter
  • gnome-system-tools
  • Terminator
  • Gdeb
  • MySQL Workbench
  • Bleachbit (Trash Cleaner)
  • Preload (Intelligent Bootup Time)

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Clean System

Remove not neccessary apps from startup

Show system apps in Startup Applications

sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop

Open "Startup Applications" and uncheck apps: Chat, Orca Screen Reader, Zeitgest Datahub

Hide system apps

sudo sed -i 's/NoDisplay=false/NoDisplay=true/g' /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop

Remove any unwanted applications.


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By Avtandil Kikabidze aka LONGMAN

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