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…
dd is a powerful utility for reading and writing raw data to block devices. While it’s a Linux standard, you have several options for using it on Windows systems. WSL2: The Modern Approach For Windows 10 (21H2+) and Windows 11, Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) is the best choice. It provides a full Linux…
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 want Emacs to run in the terminal without opening an X window, you have several practical options depending on your setup and workflow. Option 1: Install emacs-nox (Recommended for servers) The cleanest approach is installing the no-X variant of Emacs, which is built without X11 support. This reduces memory overhead and startup time…
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…
When you run crontab -e, git commit, visudo, or similar commands, Linux applications need to know which text editor to launch. This is controlled by environment variables and system configuration, with several methods available depending on your needs. Understanding EDITOR and VISUAL The EDITOR environment variable tells applications which text editor to use. A related…
By default, libvirt stores VM images as files in /var/lib/libvirt/images/. While functional, this approach limits flexibility. LVM (Logical Volume Management) provides better control over disk space, snapshots, and performance tuning. Using LVM volumes as libvirt storage pools lets you manage VM storage like block devices rather than files, giving you faster provisioning, atomic snapshots, and…
By default, ibus isn’t automatically started on Fedora with Cinnamon. You might try launching the daemon manually: ibus-daemon This starts the ibus service and adds an icon to your system tray, but you’ll find that Chinese input doesn’t work even when enabled through the tray icon. The missing piece is integration with Cinnamon’s input method…
If you need to remove excess white space or trim margins from PDF files, several graphical tools can handle this on Linux. Here are the most practical options. Krop Krop is a straightforward tool specifically designed for PDF cropping. It lets you define crop regions visually and apply them to single pages or entire documents….
When you start a VNC server with the -geometry flag under GNOME 3, you’ll notice the display resolution doesn’t match what you specified: vncserver -geometry 1024×768 This works fine with GNOME 2 and window managers like twm, but GNOME 3 ignores the setting. The actual resolution will be whatever was last used in that session,…
Accessing Linux filesystems from Windows is useful when dual-booting, migrating data, or recovering files. Read-only access is essential to prevent accidental corruption of ext4 metadata and data. Why Read-Only Access Matters Ext4 is designed for Linux environments. Windows drivers lack complete understanding of ext4 journaling, extended attributes, and other advanced features. Writing through an incomplete…
HP printers work well on Fedora when you install the right packages and drivers. Here’s what you need to do to get a USB or network-connected HP printer working reliably. Install HPLIP and Related Packages Start by installing the HP Linux Imaging and Printing (HPLIP) suite: sudo dnf install hplip hplip-gui hpijs On modern Fedora…
Linux routing tables exist in kernel memory during runtime. To persist routes across reboots, you need to store them on disk and have them reloaded during system startup. The mechanism varies depending on your network management setup. systemd-networkd and netplan (modern systems) On contemporary distributions using systemd-networkd or netplan, define routes in YAML configuration files….
iTunes backups are stored in device-specific directories. The location depends on your operating system: macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/ Windows: %APPDATA%\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\ On Windows, the easiest way to navigate there is to press Win + R, type %appdata% and hit Enter, then navigate to Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\. Understanding iTunes Backup Files iTunes stores backups as a collection of…
Chrome supports proxy configuration via command-line flags, which is useful for scripting, automation, or testing without touching the GUI settings. This works across all major Linux distributions. Basic proxy configuration Use the –proxy-server flag when launching Chrome: google-chrome –proxy-server=”socks://localhost:8080″ Proxy scheme formats The proxy specification follows this format: [<proxy-scheme>://]<proxy-host>[:<proxy-port>] Supported schemes: http — HTTP proxy…
MKV (Matroska) containers frequently contain multiple audio tracks. You can cycle through them during playback using keyboard shortcuts. Using mplayer Press # to cycle through available audio tracks while the video is playing. This works for MKV, AVI, MPEG, and other container formats that mplayer supports. mplayer video.mkv # Then press # during playback to…
GNOME Keyring stores passwords, SSH keys, and certificates. If you need to update your keyring password, you can do this through the Seahorse graphical interface or directly from the command line. Using Seahorse (GUI Method) Seahorse is GNOME’s visual keyring manager. Open it with: seahorse Once open: Go to the View menu and select By…
GNOME Keyring stores encrypted credentials, SSH keys, and secrets for applications. If you need to disable it or start fresh after forgetting the password, you can remove the keyring database. Keyring Storage Locations The location of keyrings depends on your GNOME version and configuration: GNOME 3.0+: ~/.local/share/gnome-keyring/ or ~/.local/share/evolution/calendar/ Older GNOME: ~/.gnome2/keyrings/ XDG Base Directory…
Keeping home directories synchronized across multiple machines is a practical problem for anyone managing several laptops, workstations, or servers. You need something that handles bidirectional sync, understands which changes win when conflicts occur, and doesn’t destroy data on either side. Unison Unison remains a solid choice for this. It’s a bidirectional file synchronizer that works…
Dropbox on Linux has two main approaches: the official daemon (headless) or the sync client with GUI. Which you choose depends on your use case. Official Dropbox Daemon (Recommended for Servers) The daemon is lightweight and works well on headless systems. Download and extract it: cd ~ && wget -O – “https://www.dropbox.com/download?plat=lnx.x86_64” | tar xzf…