After using virt-manager to set up a Scientific Linux 6 virtual machine, I was surprised to find ‘man’ and several other commands missing. So, here is a list of missing commands I found and their corresponding packages.
| Command | Package |
|---|---|
| host | bind-utils |
| man | man |
| rsync | rsync |
| scp | openssh-clients |
Note: I used the command ‘rpm -qf <file>’ on a Fedora 14 machine to determine the packages.
Update: I’ve also seen this happen with a base install of RHEL 6.
If you’re using OS X, you can burn a .dmg image to a CD/DVD via the Disk Utility. But what if you don’t have a CD/DVD burner on your Mac? Well, you can use the following command to convert your .dmg into an .iso.
hdiutil convert image.dmg -format UDTO -o new_image.iso
Your output file will have a .cdr extension, but you can just remove this. Now you can use a non-OS X machine to burn your CD/DVD.
Note: If an install image is broken up into multiple .dmg files (e.g., Install.dmg, Install.002.dmgpart, Install.003.dmgpart), this command will still work if the .dmgpart files are in the same folder as the main .dmg.
If you’ve ever written something in plain text (e.g., a README file), you know that formatting can be extremely troublesome. This is especially true when editing. Thankfully, *nix systems provide a useful tool called fmt.
The fmt command simply reformats a file and writes to stdout. I usually use fmt to unify my line length.
$ fmt -70 input.txt > output.txt
See the man page for more info.
If you use the command line in OS X, drutil allows you to interact with CD/DVD burners. Examples:
$ drutil eject # unmount disc and eject it. $ drutil list # list all burning devices connected to the machine. $ drutil burn options path # burn valid directory or image file to disc.
See the man page for additional actions.
If you’re looking for free web design templates, checkout Open Source Web Design. They currently have over 2,000 designs that you can download and modify to fit your needs.
A few of my favorites include Zenlike, TerraFirma, and deep.
As a student I’ve worked with several different groups on various projects. Of course the hardest thing is finding a time when we all can meet. WhenIsGood.net provides a free service to help you determine… well… when is good.
So this is how it works. First, you go to WhenIsGood.net and click “Get Started”. You don’t have to create an account, and they keep your email address private. Next, you create a calendar of times when you possibly might meet. You then email everyone in your group a link to the calendar, and they mark the times that are good for them. In the end you get an interactive calendar that highlights the times that are good for everyone. Too easy.
One day at work my coworker answered a call from a faculty member. The faculty member asked him, “How can I open .bz2 files in Windows?” When my coworker repeated the question to me, I simply replied, “Did he try googling it?” Sure enough, the first couple of hits had references to software the faculty member could download.
As a system administrator, I use Google a lot. Whenever I hit a wall configuring a server or receive some cryptic error message, Google is my one-stop-shop for finding forum threads and help documentation. Of course, this is because I typically follow the Tech Support Cheat Sheet. As for those who are “Google inept”, here’s a little webapp to help guide them.
LetMeGoogleThatForYou.com (or lmgtfy.com for short) asks for a query and then generates a how-to video. Now you have another way to say, “RTFM,” to all of your lazy friends.
Checkout this example I did for my friend Sir Robin of Camelot.
If you’ve ever used a package manager on Linux (apt-get, dpkg, pacman, yum, etc.), then you know how easy it can be to update all of your installed software at once. AppFresh is an application for OS X than lets you keep all applications, widgets, preference panes, and application plugins up to date.
I’ve been using AppFresh for over two years now, and I love updating all of my apps from one location, versus launching each app individually and checking for updates.
Whenever I’m checking out YouTube or Hulu, occasionally my screen saver will launch right in the middle of a video. Caffeine is a nifty little app that prevents your Mac from going to sleep, dimming the screen, or launching your screen saver. Now you can enjoy hours of cute kitten videos without interruption.
I use several different keyboard layouts when I’m typing. Most of the time I use Dvorak, but there are times when I have to switch to U.S. or even Japanese. Here are a few things that I’ve done to make switching fast and easy.
In System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts, there is a section called “Input Menu”.
“Select the previous input source” allows you to switch quickly between two keyboard layouts, while “Select the next input source in the Input menu” simply cycles through all of the keyboard layouts you have enabled. Set these two options to your desired keyboard shortcuts.
Note: To enable keyboard layouts, go to System Preferences > International > Input Menu, and select the ones you want.
In my .bashrc file, I added these two functions.
function aoeu { setxkbmap us; }
function asdf { setxkbmap dvorak; }
Now I can switch quickly between the two keyboard layouts by typing ‘aoue’ or ‘asdf’ on the command line.