Is there is a tool that can provide me a maximum of information (such as cpu, disk I/O, network, nfsd, memory and more) about my Linux/Unix server in a minimum of space in a terminal?
…..
Say hello to Glances
From the project home page:
Glances is a free (LGPL) cross-platform curses-based monitoring tool which aims to present a maximum of information in a minimum of space, ideally to fit in a classical 80×24 terminal or higher to have additionnal information. Glances can adapt dynamically the displayed information depending on the terminal size. It can also work in a client/server mode for remote monitoring.
Audio Recorder is an amazing audio recording program, this small tool allows user to record audio from microphones, webcams, system sound card, media player or web browser & etc. It can save recording in various formats listed: Ogg, Mp3, Flac, Wav (22khz), Wav (44khz) and Spx.
Ubuntu does not have many open ports by default, but there are times when you want to restrict access to a port(ports) or a specific ip adress. Maybe you run a ssh server in your ubuntu machine and want to block everyone from connecting to it, except yourself. Have you ever thought how to accomplish such things or tried to do it? You need a firewall to do that. In this article I will explain what is a firewall and teach you how to use the ufw ubuntu firewall by giving real world examples of it.
Sometimes new Linux users want to know how to run a particular command or shell script every time a user logs in (which also implies that if it’s a single-user system, this could be a command that runs when the system starts). In Ubuntu and its many variants, you can simply place the startup command in Ubuntu’s Startup Applications Preferences, as we demonstrated in the article, Enabling a SOCKS proxy via SSH tunnel in Ubuntu or Mac OS X at startup.
However, you may be on a variant of Linux that doesn’t have a Startup Applications Preferences program, or maybe you simply want to add something from the command prompt. Or maybe you want to tweak an existing startup command to do something different. The key to this is that the startup configuration files for each user are stored in the ~/.config/autostart directory (where ~ is the user’s home directory). The actual format of the files may differ between different variants of Linux, and some versions may not utilize them at all, but if that directory exists on your system, that’s probably where they are stored. There are also system-wide autostart files; those are found in the /etc/xdg/autostart directory, at least on Ubuntu-based systems.
For example, referring back to the command to activate a SOCKS proxy when Ubuntu starts (the first example in the article referenced above), what happens when you create that command in the Startup Applications Preferences is that it creates a file named ~/.config/autostart/screen.desktop (the filename will be different for each autostart command), which in turn contains the actual script that’s run at startup (similar to this example):
The startup scripts can contain much more than just this. When you install certain programs that autostart, they will write considerably more complicated configurations. In Ubuntu, you can take a look at the /etc/xdg/autostart/update-notifier.desktop file as an example of a more complex configuration file.
Possibly the best way to figure out the format of these files is to take a look at several of them in the directories mentioned above, since they may well differ to some degree in different versions of Linux. There are other ways to start programs at startup in Linux, but they may run at system startup before a user has logged in, or they may only execute if a user logs in using a terminal session, but not when they bring up a desktop session. The method shown here is supposed to work no matter how a user logs into the system. And, it can sometimes be useful to know where Linux stores its configurations.
This is the program we always install first in any new Linux-based installation, and if for some reason we can’t install it, that system tends to get blown away and replaced by a different version of Linux (or whatever) almost immediately. Not being able to install Midnight Commander is kind of a deal-breaker around here.
File browsing in a Linux terminal is alright, but it could be so much better. Midnight Commander is the program you’re looking for – it gives you a two-paned file browser that makes working in the terminal so much easier. And the best part? It’s simple to get and use.
We’ll just add that even some Mac OS X users are apparently lost without Midnight Commander, since an older article on installing it under OS X is still one of the most popular on this site, even though for day-to-day use, we would think that most OS X users would be happier with the more recent versions of XtraFinder, which now includes dual pane functionality (and it’s free!). As for Windows users, there is always the venerable Total Commander.
Make Tech Easier has a few articles online that mention programs that Ubuntu users (and possibly users of other varieties of Linux) can install that more or less emulate the “Time Machine” feature of Mac OS X. The first article is from back in 2008:
The problem with the software mentioned in that article is that neither has been updated in years. However there is a much newer option, that would probably be the best choice for many users:
The problem with that one is that as the article explains, it will “…only backup and protect system files and settings. It doesn’t handle your data and document…” and apparently that’s by design. So if that’s what you’re looking for – and it could be useful, particularly if you like to try the latest and greatest versions of your system software – then go for it.
Your firewall is an important first line of defense on any publicly-accessible server. In previousarticles I listed how to set up a firewall without getting into any detail. This article goes into depth with configuring your iptables firewall.
The ufw (Uncomplicated Firewall) is an frontend for most widely used iptables firewall and it is well comfortable for host-based firewalls. ufw gives a framework for managing netfilter, as well as provides a command-line interface for controlling the firewall. It provides user friendly and easy to use interface for Linux newbies who are not much familiar with firewall concepts.
While, on the other side same complicated commands helps administrators it set complicated rules using command line interface. The ufw is an upstream for other distributions such as Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint.
If you run Ubuntu Linux, and you have a wired ethernet connection to your system, and it also has wireless connectivity, then at some time you might have tried to set it up as a WiFi access point. And what you probably discovered is that you can create a WiFi access point using Ubuntu’s “Create New Wireless Network” panel, but unfortunately this creates what is termed an “ad hoc” network, and for reasons we don’t fully understand, Android devices and some other types of wireless devices apparently can’t connect to that kind of network.
Ubuntu’s method for creating a WiFi access point will NOT allow Android devices to connect
Why this should be so difficult in Ubuntu is hard to fathom because Windows users can easily set up an access point using Connectify. This provides an actual access point. It turns out that there’s a similar program for Ubuntu but it’s not well known, because it’s not in the official Ubuntu repository. The program is called Wiconnect Infrastructure Wireless Connection Manager and it is described as follows:
Wiconnect is an infrastructure wireless connection manager built specifically for ubuntu. This is an Ubuntu’s open source alternative for connectify. It aims to provide network that is compatible with android devices.
current features:
– Compatible to connect with android devices
– Flexibility to change wifi username and password
– ability to check devices that connects to your wifi
future aim :
– ability to create repeater
– a much better gui
– ability to check devices that connects to wifi via device name and not mac address
The program is hosted on Launchpad and is available as a .deb file. So, go to the download page and download the software to your system. Then, double click on the file once it’s been downloaded, and Ubuntu Software Center will load and display this:
Wiconnect Install page as displayed in Ubuntu Software Center
Again, just in case you didn’t quite understand what we wrote above above, you cannot at this time find Wiconnect by searching for it in the Ubuntu Software Center – you have to download the .deb file and then double click on it to cause Ubuntu Software Center to bring up the above page. Once you read the page, if you want to install the software, just click the Install button. Once the software is installed, you need to run it to configure it. We have Classic Menu Indicator installed, and it appears under Other | Wiconnect, but you can also start it by going to the Dash and typing in Wiconnect. The first screen you will see when you invoke the program is this:
Wiconnect Connection tab
Before you go any further, you should check your network connections and make sure that “Enable Wireless” is on (there should be a check mark next to it) but also make sure you are not actually connected to a WiFi network. Unless you have two network adapters, you can’t both be connected to a WiFi network and simultaneously acting as an access point.
Now on the Wiconnect Connection screen, click the About tab to bring up this screen:
Wiconnect About tab
Click the button that reads “How to use this software” – it should bring up a text file that will help you if you get stuck at any point. Now click the Connection tab to go back the original screen, and then click the Setup/Resetup Wizard button. It will then bring up several screens asking for information:
The above two windows are asking for the password you use on your system when installing new software or making system changes. Some of what it has to do requires root privileges, so that’s why it needs the password.
Wiconnect Wifi Settings
On the above screen it wants you to enter the name of wireless network as it will be seen on your WiFi devices, also called the SSID. Use something unique, but not too personally identifying, so that if you are in an area where there are multiple WiFi networks you will be able to easily find your access point. As for the password, this might be called either the “password” or “key” on some devices, but you should use a really strong one here if you don’t want to be hacked. If you don’t have a program that you can use to generate a truly random password, then search online for a random password generator. The longer and more random the password is, the better. Remember that if a hacker can see your access point, he can run a program that can try millions of password combinations over time, so don’t make yourself an easy target.
Wiconnect Connection Settings
On the above screen you need to select your internet source, which in most cases will be your wired ethernet connection on eth0.
Wiconnect Save Root Password query
On the screen above, it is asking whether you want to be prompted to enter your password any time you make a change, such as starting or stopping your wireless access point. By saving the root password, it won’t ask for it each time, but as it notes, that is less secure. If you are not the only user of your system, you probably do not want to save the root password, so that no one else can start or stop your access point without your permission. After you have answered that question, you should see this screen:
Wiconnect Setup Completed screen
This completes the setup but doesn’t start your access point. To do that, go back to the original window and select the Connection tab:
Wiconnect Connect Tab, updated with correct ssid name
Note that the SSID name should now be showing the name you selected (if not, you might need to restart Wiconnect). Now click the Create Connection button. After several seconds, your access point should be operational. Whenever you want to turn it off, click the “Stop Connection” button. Note that if you answered “No” to the question about saving the root password, then you will be prompted to enter it each time you start or stop the wireless connection.
Note that if your device (that you want to connect to your access point) asks you to specify what type of connection this is, it will be something like “WPA/WPA2 PSK” – the exact terminology may vary but the most important thing is that it is WPA2.
In case you are wondering, the Advanced tab in Wiconnect looks like this:
Wiconnect Advanced Tab
The first four buttons give you the ability to change individual settings in the configuration without re-running the entire setup. The fifth lets you see a report of what is connecting to your access point at any given time – with one device connected, it looks like this (the MAC address in the image has been replaced by x characters for security):
Wiconnect “Who is connected to my WiFi?” Window
Just as a final note, we used this with Ubuntu 12.04, the most recent LTS (Long Term Support) version of Ubuntu, and it allowed us to create an access point that an Android tablet could connect to. It’s not the most beautiful program out there, but at least for us, it worked, and that’s what’s important. We particularly appreciated the convenience of being able to start or stop the access point just by clicking a button. But just in case anyone can’t seem to make this work, here’s another article that shows a bit different method to achieve nearly the same result:
Ubuntu wants to enable TRIM for SSDs by default in Ubuntu 14.04. In other words, Ubuntu isn’t already using TRIM, so your SSD is slowing down over time. But why isn’t Ubuntu already using TRIM?
This news will likely come as a surprise to many people, who assumed that Ubuntu and other Linux distributions were already using TRIM. TRIM prevents SSDs from slowing down over time and is a necessary part of SSD maintenance.
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