Linux system configuration, kernel tuning, hardware, drivers, package management, and desktop environment setup. Explore Linux & Systems Administration Academy.
If you regularly switch between macOS and Linux, having consistent keyboard behavior across platforms cuts down cognitive load and keeps your muscle memory intact. The main difference is that macOS uses Command (⌘) for most shortcuts, while Linux defaults to Ctrl. You can remap your Linux keyboard to behave like macOS by making Alt function…
Each process on Linux has its own environment variable namespace. While normally isolated, there are scenarios where you might need to modify a running process’s environment—usually for debugging, testing, or dynamic configuration changes. The standard approach uses GDB’s ability to call functions within a running process. This works by attaching GDB to the target process…
Most programmers underestimate RAM until they’re juggling Docker containers, running a database locally, and compiling code simultaneously. Modern development involves multiple resource-heavy applications: your IDE, browser with 20+ tabs, container runtime, language servers, and build tools all competing for memory. For 2026 development workflows, 32GB RAM is the practical minimum. If you’re working with machine…
Linux Kernel 5.0 shipped in March 2019 as a symbolic milestone—the first major version bump from the 4.x series. The kernel project switched to semantic versioning at that point, so the jump to 5.0 was more about naming convention than revolutionary technical changes. That said, the release included several features and hardware improvements worth understanding,…
Wayland screen recording has matured significantly. Here are the tools that actually work well in 2026, with their tradeoffs and setup. GNOME Built-in Screen Recording GNOME 40+ includes integrated screen recording on Wayland. Press Ctrl+Alt+Shift+R to start. A red dot appears in the top-right corner. Press the same shortcut again or click the indicator to…
GNOME’s natural scrolling setting can be frustrating — especially when the GUI option is missing or doesn’t apply to your mouse while leaving your touchpad alone. The issue usually comes down to your session type, GNOME version, and how input devices are registered on your system. Check your session type first Before troubleshooting, verify whether…
By default, parted displays partition boundaries in bytes. To view start and end positions in sectors instead, you need to set the unit explicitly using the unit command. Using the unit command The unit subcommand in parted sets the display unit for locations and sizes. The syntax is straightforward: parted /dev/sda unit s print The…
If you’re getting this error when running bibtex on your auxiliary file, it typically means your document has no citations, even though BibTeX is being invoked: This is BibTeX, Version 0.99d (TeX Live 2015/Debian) The top-level auxiliary file: main.aux The style file: latex8.bst I found no citation commands—while reading file main.aux (There was 1 error…
alien is a straightforward package converter available in EPEL that handles conversion between .deb, .rpm, Slackware, and other package formats. This is useful when you need to install Debian packages on RPM-based systems. Prerequisites You need EPEL (Extra Packages for Enterprise Linux) enabled. On CentOS 7, 8, or Rocky Linux 8+: sudo dnf install epel-release…
When you modify /etc/fstab, systemd doesn’t automatically pick up the changes. You need to explicitly tell systemd to reload its configuration and apply the new mount points. The Basic Reload To force systemd to recognize changes in /etc/fstab, run: sudo systemctl daemon-reload This tells systemd to re-read all unit files and configuration, including the mounts…
The command journalctl -b -1 should show the previous boot’s journal, but on many systems it returns: Failed to look up boot -1: No such boot ID in journal This happens because persistent journal storage isn’t enabled by default. Without it, journald only keeps logs in volatile memory (/run/log/journal), which gets cleared on shutdown. Enable…
Fedora’s default repositories don’t include musl libc, but you have two practical options: install it from a community repository if available, or build from source. Building from source gives you full control and is the most reliable approach across Fedora versions. Option 1: Build from Source (Recommended) Start by installing the build dependencies: sudo dnf…
Deleted photos from your Samsung phone aren’t necessarily gone forever—they remain on disk until overwritten. Here’s how to recover them. Act quickly to preserve data The moment you realize photos are deleted, stop using your phone. Every new photo, message, or app activity risks overwriting deleted data. Turn off WiFi and mobile data to prevent…
ELPA (Emacs Lisp Package Archive) packages receive regular updates. Keeping your packages current ensures you have the latest features and bug fixes. Here’s how to upgrade ELPA packages in Emacs. Interactive Upgrade (Recommended) Use Emacs’s built-in package manager: Open the package list: M-x list-packages Press U to mark all upgradable packages Press x to execute…
If you’re running Google AdSense on your site, you might want to show ads only to desktop visitors and hide them on mobile devices. This reduces clutter on smaller screens and can sometimes improve user experience—though test your bounce rates to confirm it actually helps your metrics. Using CSS Media Queries The cleanest approach is…
GNOME’s default Alt-Tab behavior switches between applications, grouping all windows from the same app together. If you work with multiple windows in a single application—multiple browser tabs, text editors, or terminals—this becomes frustrating. Here’s how to change it to window-based switching. Using the Alternate Tab Extension The simplest approach is enabling GNOME’s built-in Alternate Tab…
If you’re running a dual-boot system with Windows, you’ll need to configure which operating system loads by default. The method depends on your Windows version and whether you’re using legacy BIOS or UEFI firmware. Windows 7 and Vista: System Properties Method For Windows 7 systems using the traditional boot manager: Open Control Panel and navigate…
When gthumb hangs during startup after connecting an iPhone, external drive, or other USB device, the issue typically stems from gthumb attempting to enumerate mounted storage devices during initialization. Certain filesystem states, permissions misconfigurations, or slow I/O can cause the process to block indefinitely. Quick fix: unmount the device The most straightforward solution is to…
If you need to boot Windows from the GRUB2 command line—whether during troubleshooting, recovery, or when your boot configuration is broken—you can do it with a few commands. This guide covers both BIOS and UEFI systems. Quick boot for BIOS systems Assuming Windows is installed on the first partition of the first disk in NTFS…
When you need to identify which package installed a command on your Fedora system, you have several reliable methods depending on whether the package is already installed. Quick lookup for installed commands The fastest approach combines which to locate the command with rpm to query the owning package: $ rpm -qf $(which ping) iputils-8.40-4.fc40.x86_64 The…