How to change a file’s owner and group in Linux
Learn how to change the owner and group ownership of files and directories with the chown and chgrp commands.
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Linux file permissions
The basics of file ownership and permissions on Linux. Learn to understand who are the owners of a file or directory, how the file permissions work and how you can view them, and learn how to set basic file permissions yourself.
Installing software from source in Linux
The following tutorial we’re going to cover how to install Linux applications from their source code. Typically we would do this when a rpm or deb file isn’t readily available.
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Basics of Process Management
What do you do when you can’t make your process stop no matter how many times you click that little X in the corner?
Each of these different things happening on the computer is called a “process”, and your computer takes turns letting all of the processes run a little bit at a time. The computer works so fast that you usually don’t even notice.
But occasionally, a process stops responding to you. What do you do when you can’t make your process stop no matter how many times you click that little x in the corner? You try using the keyboard commands Esc and Ctrl + C. You even try Ctrl + Q, Ctrl + X, and Ctrl + Z; but they don’t work. What do you do next?
To discover the basics of how to manage processes in linux, watch and read the following tutorial.
Speed Up Firefox 2.x
Now alot of us have found the secrets on how to manipulate settings in “about:config” to drop the memory usage as long as possible and to increase the speed at which Firefox loads sites. Below is how to do this. Please take note, please tell your friends. Because i’m pretty sure us fans of all things not Internet Explorer are really tired of millions thinking Firefox has a bug when it doesn’t, and users feel hopeless in their want to use Firefox, but not deal with the memory issues.
Note, many of the memory issues are fixed in Firefox 3.0 and these tweaks do not need to be applied, but they would also aid in increasing the speed for FF3.0 as well.
Scanning for rootkits with chkrootkit
Defense in depth is one of the basic tenets of server administration. Up to date and secure installations, firewalls, limiting ssh access and strong passwords are the front line.
But what about ‘inside’ the server? One method of monitoring the content of a server is to scan for rootkits on a regular basis.
Perhaps I should clarify what I mean by defense. Scanning for rootkits will not stop them, it is not an active defense method but more of a passive defense method.
By saying that, I mean if your server has been compromised then a scan will not stop the rootkit and there is, to be blunt, not a lot you can do about it. By all means have a go but the general consensus is that if your server has been compromised then start again from fresh.
That seems dramatic. Well, yes it does and I don’t have the space to go into everything here but if someone has got past your defenses and placed a rootkit (as an example) on your server then you have little choice but to start again.
This article is about the scanning mechanism rather than how something may have entered your system. It is about checking the validity of the server content.
Scanning is easily done and can be automated so you spend less time with mundane and repetitive administration tasks.
from: http://www.usefuljaja.com/2007/6/scanning-for-rootkits
Disable Opera’s BitTorrent client
Platform: All desktop versions
Starting with version 9, Opera has a built-in client for BitTorrent, to simplify downloading and sharing of Torrent files.
Some may prefer to use a different third-party BitTorrent client with Opera, while others are on networks where all P2P activity is banned. Fear not, you can still use Opera!
Linux File System Review
Everything you do with Linux involves files in one way or another. You launch programs from files, read program configurations in files, store data in files, deliver files to clients via servers, and so on. Therefore, the tools Linux provides for manipulating files are extremely important to overall system performance. At the core, these tools make up a filesystem — a set of data structures that allow Linux to locate and manipulate files. Several Linux native filesystems exist, the most important of these being the Second Extended File System (ext2fs), the Third Extended File System (ext3fs), the Reiser File System (ReiserFS), the Journaled File System (JFS), and XFS. The filesystem you use will affect your computer’s overall performance and suitability for specific tasks.
Beyond picking a filesystem, you should be familiar with various filesystem tools. Filesystem creation options and performance enhancing tools can improve disk throughput, and partition resizers enable you to grow or shrink a partition to better suit your storage needs. Filesystems sometimes become corrupted, and fixing these problems is critical when they occur. Finally, one very common problem is that of accidentally or prematurely deleted files. Knowing how to recover such files can save you or your users a lot of time and effort.
Speed Up Start Time for OpenOffice.org 2.x
Time and time again I post on forums and make comments on digg and slashdot on how to speed up OpenOffice. Yet their seems to be a resounding opinion “is open office too slow” is a common inquiry whenever the application suite is brought up. In the Linux world, and for those that want a free Office suite it’s our only choice. Fortunately we can vastly improve the start time of OpenOffice.
Go to any Open Office application (Writer, Calc, Impress, Math, Draw, Base) and then proceed to the Tools Menu. At the bottom of that menu select Optoins.
Under the OpenOffice.org heading, select Memory
Now change these settings:
Undo:
Number of steps = 25
Graphics Cache
Use for OpenOffice.org = 30 MB
Memory per Object = 2.0 MB
Remove from memory after 00:05 hh:mm
Cache for inserted Objects
Number of Object = 15
OpenOffice.org Quickstarter (check this box)
Once the quick starter is loaded be sure to load OpenOffice from the quick starter and it should open any of the apps immediately. If the quickstart is not loaded, your load time still should be significantly increased.
And there you go, a faster OpenOffice.
Make the Windows Key on your Keyboard open KMenu in KDE
Many people want the KDE menu on Kicker (Kmenu) to open up using the “Windows Keys” that’s taken over every keyboard in the world. Below is how we accomplish this.
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