Linux is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel.
The Linux kernel is an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds.
Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution. Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Popular Linux distributions include Debian, Fedora, and Ubuntu. Commercial distributions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. Desktop Linux distributions include a windowing system such as X11 or Wayland, and a desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE Plasma. Distributions intended for servers may omit graphics altogether, or include a solution stack such as LAMP. Because Linux is freely redistributable, anyone may create a distribution for any purpose.
In many Linux desktop environments (especially GNOME), the Super + . (Windows key + period) shortcut is used to open the Emoji picker. While useful for some, it can interfere with gaming, terminal workflows, or other custom keybindings. Disabling the Emoji Hotkey The cleanest approach is using gsettings, which manipulates the underlying dconf database without…
Zlib is a critical compression library used across the Linux ecosystem. You’ll need it for compiling software from source, as it’s a dependency for git, libpng, openssl, and countless other tools. If you’ve hit a “zlib.h: No such file or directory” error during compilation, this is what you need. Quick Install sudo apt update sudo…
ECDSA (Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm) remains a core cryptographic standard across blockchain systems, HTTPS/TLS, and cryptocurrency wallets. Understanding how to generate and work with different ECDSA curve variants is essential for secure key management. Why ECDSA? ECDSA offers distinct advantages over RSA for many use cases: Key size efficiency: A 256-bit ECDSA key provides…
Docker containers persist on disk even after they exit. For quick testing and one-off tasks, you don’t need that leftover cruft. Use the –rm flag to automatically delete containers when they stop. The –rm Flag The –rm option tells Docker to remove the container as soon as it exits. This is useful for: Quick tests…
Snaps bundle applications with their dependencies to work across distributions, but this isolation creates compatibility gaps. One common problem with Thunderbird snap is missing or incorrectly rendered fonts—a direct result of how fontconfig is handled inside the snap sandbox. Why Thunderbird snap doesn’t use system fonts Thunderbird snap includes its own fonts.conf located at ~/.var/app/com.thunderbird.Thunderbird/config/fontconfig/fonts.conf…
GNOME 3 and later versions include built-in screenshot functionality accessible via keyboard shortcuts. These work without opening any application, making them faster than the dedicated Screenshot utility. The shortcuts split into two categories: saving directly to the Pictures folder, and copying to the clipboard for immediate pasting. Save screenshots as files These shortcuts save to…
Linux kernel 4.19.178 is a stable release from the 4.19 LTS series, containing 248 patches addressing security fixes, memory leaks, and driver corrections. This release modified approximately 239,909 lines of source code compared to the base 4.19 release. Device Tree and Architecture Fixes Several ARM and ARM64 device tree updates improve hardware support and thermal…
Linux kernel 4.14.223 is a stable release in the long-term support (LTS) 4.14 series. This patch version includes 176 changes and bug fixes across 277,921 lines of code modifications compared to the base 4.14 release. Where to Get the Code The source code is available from the linux-stable tree with the linux-4.14.223 tag. You can…
This post covers the changes, bugfixes, and new features in Linux kernel 5.4.102. The release includes 338 patches totaling approximately 160,715 lines of changed or added source code compared to the 5.4 baseline. You can find the source code in the linux-stable tree, or download the 5.4.102 release package directly. The patch bundle is also…
The Linux 4.9.60 stable release was published on November 2, 2017, introducing 24 fixes and improvements across 64,224 lines of code changes compared to the 4.9 baseline. This point release addresses critical security vulnerabilities, buffer overrun issues, and device driver fixes that affected several subsystems. You can find the source code in the linux-stable tree…
The xt_quota netfilter module reports quota values back to userspace for tools like iptables-save and rule management. A critical kernel patch changed how these values are communicated to ensure proper handling of quota rule removal and persistence. The Problem Originally, the xt_quota module copied the current quota value back to userspace after each packet match….
ODT files often contain formatting that you don’t need. Whether you’re archiving content, preparing text for further processing, or just need readability without markup, converting to plain text is straightforward. Here are the practical approaches and their tradeoffs. LibreOffice Conversion LibreOffice’s –convert-to flag handles ODT natively: libreoffice –headless –convert-to txt input.odt The –headless flag prevents…
LibreOffice is the most reliable tool for command-line document conversion, offering robust support for Microsoft Office formats. Install it on Ubuntu/Debian/Linux Mint: sudo apt install libreoffice On Fedora/RHEL systems: sudo dnf install libreoffice For minimal headless-only installations without GUI dependencies: sudo apt install libreoffice-writer libreoffice-calc libreoffice-impress Converting .docx/.doc to .odt LibreOffice runs in headless mode…
Hex-encoded strings are common in system administration, debugging, and network packet analysis. Whether you’re examining binary data, decoding network protocols, or troubleshooting data encoding issues, you’ll often need to convert between hex and ASCII representations. xxd is the standard tool for this task on Unix-like systems. It creates hexdumps and reverses them back to binary…
This document provides the essential software versions and upgrade instructions for running Linux 2.0.x kernels successfully. It covers package compatibility, known issues, and practical solutions for system administrators upgrading from earlier kernel releases. Networking Configuration The loopback route configuration in many older network scripts is incorrect and will cause kernel errors in 2.0.x. Look for…
This document preserves the original Linux 1.0 release notes (source: linux-1.0.tar.gz), released in March 1994. It’s a snapshot of early Linux kernel development and shows the rapid pace of improvement during the pre-1.0 era. The original ASCII formatted version appears at the end of this post. Changes since 0.99 patchlevel 15 Removed all the bugs,…
This document preserves the original release notes for Linux kernel v0.97, an early milestone in kernel development that demonstrates the rapid evolution of core subsystems in the 1990s. The content below has been reformatted from the original ASCII release notes for readability while maintaining historical accuracy. Changes in 0.97 Display and graphics support VESA support…
This document covers the Linux v0.95a root diskette release from March 17, 1992. It documents the changes between v0.95/0.12 and v0.95a. For context on the base 0.95 release, read RELNOTES-0.95 first — this only covers the delta. Changes to the Root Diskette Shell replacement: bash → ash Bash was replaced with ash, the BSD 4.3…
Linux v0.12 is a historical kernel release from the early days of Linux development. This document preserves the original release notes with minimal modifications to improve readability and accuracy. These notes are primarily of archaeological interest to those studying early Linux kernel history. Copyright The Linux copyright was updated to conform with the GNU General…
This document preserves the original release notes for Linux kernel version 0.01, the first public release by Linus Torvalds in 1991. These notes provide historical context on the early design decisions and limitations of what would become the world’s most widely used operating system kernel. Contents The 0.01 distribution included: linux-0.01.tar.Z — kernel source code…