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…
For any current Windows system, netsh winhttp is the standard command-line tool for proxy configuration. WinHTTP handles system-level proxy settings used by Windows Update, built-in applications, and services that don’t rely on browser-specific configuration. Set a proxy with bypass list netsh winhttp set proxy proxy-server=”proxy.example.com:8080″ bypass-list=”localhost;127.0.0.1;*.internal.local” Use semicolons to separate multiple proxy servers or bypass…
The @ symbol in Makefiles suppresses the echo of the command itself before execution. When you run a target, make normally prints each command to stdout before running it. Adding @ before a command hides that echo, showing only the command’s output. Basic example Without @: all: echo “For correctness test of basic get and…
When your HP printer runs out of paper mid-job on Linux, the print queue pauses and won’t resume automatically once you reload paper. You need to either clear the error state physically or use CUPS commands to resume printing. Physical Reset Method The quickest approach for most HP printers is to trigger the paper-detect sensor:…
When you need to download large files faster, parallelizing across multiple connections can significantly improve throughput. Standard tools like wget and curl use single connections by default, but several alternatives support multi-connection downloads that can achieve 3-5x speedups on capable networks. aria2c aria2 is the most powerful option. It handles HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, BitTorrent, and…
The nl command is purpose-built for adding line numbers to text files: nl text-file By default, nl numbers all non-empty lines and skips blank lines. This behavior is controlled by the body section style, which defaults to t (text only). Common nl options Number all lines including blanks: nl -ba text-file Start numbering at a…
The lp command is the standard tool for printing from the Linux command line. It interfaces with CUPS (Common Unix Printing System), the printing backbone on virtually all modern Linux distributions. Basic Printing Send a file to your default printer: lp text-file.txt Specify a particular printer: lp -d printer-name text-file.txt List available printers and identify…
When converting PostScript to PDF using ps2pdf with certain PDFSETTINGS options, you may hit this error: GPL Ghostscript 9.10: Set UseCIEColor for UseDeviceIndependentColor to work properly. Unrecoverable error: stackunderflow in .setdistillerparams This occurs when Ghostscript’s internal stack runs out of expected values during PDF distiller parameter processing. The root cause is usually conflicting color space…
Thunderbird stores message filters in per-account configuration files, making it inconvenient to replicate filters across multiple accounts or installations. Rather than recreating filters manually, you can copy filter files directly or use symbolic links to keep filters synchronized. Where Thunderbird Stores Filters Thunderbird saves filter rules in msgFilterRules.dat, a plain text configuration file. Each account…
Emacs startup time matters when you’re opening files frequently from the command line or in scripts. A few targeted optimizations can reduce perceived startup overhead from seconds to near-instant. Run Emacs as a daemon with emacsclient The most effective optimization is the server/client architecture. Start Emacs once as a daemon, then reuse that instance for…
When you need to combine multiple video files (like video1.mp4, video2.mp4, and video3.mp4) into a single output file, FFmpeg is the standard tool on Linux. It’s faster, more reliable, and better maintained than older tools like mencoder. Using FFmpeg with the Concat Demuxer The most robust approach uses FFmpeg’s concat demuxer, which properly handles file…
Broken symbolic links accumulate over time and can cause confusion or errors when scripts rely on their targets. Identifying and cleaning them up is a regular maintenance task. Basic approach Use find with the -xtype l test to locate broken symlinks: find /path/to/directory -xtype l The -xtype l flag specifically matches symbolic links that point…
The passwd command is the standard tool for changing your password on Linux systems. It works across all distributions and doesn’t require administrative privileges for changing your own password. Basic password change Log in to your Linux system and run: passwd You’ll be prompted for: Your current password (to verify your identity) Your new password…
A4-sized PDFs—particularly technical papers and academic documents—render poorly on Kindle devices. The small fonts become nearly unreadable, and Amazon’s “Send to Kindle” feature often destroys formatting in the process. You need a tool designed specifically for this workflow. Why Standard Conversion Fails Amazon’s email-to-Kindle conversion assumes reflowable text content. Technical papers with multi-column layouts, equations,…
Several tools can convert .doc and .docx files to PDF from the command line. Here’s what works in practice. LibreOffice (most common approach) The standard command is: libreoffice –headless –convert-to pdf –outdir /path/to/output/ /path/to/file.docx This works well on systems with X11 available. However, on truly headless servers, –headless doesn’t fully suppress X11 requirements—LibreOffice will still…
GNOME 3 removed the GUI option for customizing window title fonts that existed in earlier versions. The setting is still configurable, but you’ll need to access it through command-line tools or configuration editors. Using gsettings (Command Line) The simplest approach is gsettings, which directly modifies the configuration: gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences titlebar-font ‘Sans Bold 10’ To…
utop is an improved OCaml REPL with line editing, history, context-sensitive completion, and syntax highlighting. While powerful, its key bindings differ from standard GNU readline, which can be jarring if you’re used to standard shell behavior. Getting the key bindings list The simplest way to see all available bindings is to run the #utop_bindings directive…
If you have emails stuck in Evolution’s local directory structure that you want to move to an IMAP account via Thunderbird, you’ll need to convert them to a format Thunderbird can import, then push them to your mail server. Step 1: Prepare Your Evolution Mail Directory Evolution typically stores mail in a Maildir format with…
When a program appends data to a file, you need to know how much space remains on the partition containing that file. This determines whether the file can grow or if you’re about to hit a capacity limit. Quick answer To find available space for a file, use df: df -B1 /mnt/logs/app-log.log | tail -1…