Common Answers for Ubuntu and Linux Issues
Organizing a LUG and being active on Linux forums, I find that the same questions get asked over and over. Here are the most common questions that I’ve answered.
- Why Linux?
- Troubleshooting
- Booting
- Best Practices
- Security
- Privacy
Why Linux
- Why I run Linux?
- Why Use Ubuntu?
- Why Use Ubuntu LTS?
- Why Linux Noobs Hate Linux – wrong expectations
- My Linux Setup – an interview about my system(s).
Troubleshooting Linux Issues
First, understand that below the GUI layers, Linux doesn’t change very much from release to release. There is no need to find a how-to for a specific release 99% of the time. The older how-to guides work just fine, unless they don’t. ;)
- Linux 101 – Log Files
- Linux 101 – Know YOUR Hardware
- Linux 101 – Network Issues
- Linux 101 – Scripting
- nVidia Dual Monitor Setup
- nVidia Dual Monitor Setup – more pictures
- System Maintenance for Linux PCs – updated in 2013.
Booting Issues?
- HDD data gathering with Boot Info – works for any OS.
- Correct 95+% of common boot issues with Boot Repair – works for any Linux or MS-Windows OS, except WUBI installs.
4K sector HDDs (also called AF Drives), UEFI, encrypted disks and OSX and Windows8 have made this more complex.
Learning Linux
If you use just the GUI on Linux, you are missing out on 80% of the power. Learn the CLI.
Nobody can know everything about Linux. It just isn’t possible. What you want to know is how to find the information you need, when you need it. The apropos command will search locally installed documentation.
apropos musicshould return a list of music players on your system. There are more than just what is in the menus, almost certainly.
Linux is simple, but more complex than every living creature on Earth. Most of the time, thinking that everything is a file in Linux will serve you well.
Best Practices
- Backup Best Practices
- Secure SSH More
- Desktop Security 101 – if you stay patched, avoid nasty parts of the internet, don’t click on URLs or email attachments, selectively allow JavaScript, and are behind a properly configured router, that is 95% of desktop security.
- Browser Security 101 – Don’t run the default browser, block ad networks, block flash, block java, block javascript …
- WiFi Router Security Checklist
UNIX/Linux Security
Want to Learn Linux/Ubuntu Security? That’s a big topic.
- Basic Security
- More Security
- Versioned Backups
are #1 Security Technique - System Configuration Management: Ansible, Puppet, Cf Engine, Chef, Rex, Salt … and Orchestration
- Monitoring is #3 Security Technique
- Desktops
- Servers are more complicated. Nagios, OpenNMS, Cacti, Munin, SysUsage, Splunk, and probably 50 others.
- Encrypted Email with GPG
- About VPNs
- About Reverse Proxies
Virtualization
I’ve written 20+ posts on the Virtualization topic. The most popular one is:
- Solution for Slow VirtualBox – ideas apply to KVM, VMware ESXi, Player, Xen, OpenVZ, and other VM technologies. Following those recommendations, anyone running a VM should be able to achieve 90-95% of native performance for non-GUI workloads.
Build a Better HDTV Antenna
People willing to run Linux are probably willing to build a $20 HDTV antenna rather than pay $50-$150 for a commercial solution. In my situation, the $20 DIY works better than the $50-$100 commercial antennas. BTW, there is no such thing as an HDTV antenna. Antennas from the 1950s get the same frequencies as a newly advertised “HDTV antenna” today. Antenna designs have changed slightly over the years, but any existing antenna is probably worth a try before spending time or money.
Privacy
- Encrypt all email with GPG. Do better than Gen. Petraeus
- Block all ads / tracking that you can.
- Don’t post things on the internet you don’t want on the frontpage of the NYT.
- Don’t use Facebook, Twitter, G+, google, MSN, Yahoo, Instagram, etc… pretty much anything on the internet. Even if you use TOR, it is very difficult to hide your identity.
- Android is a tracking device. Fully encrypt it if you must have it, but you can still be tracked.
- iPhones are a tracking device for the same reason as Android.
- Any cell phone is a tracking device. Realize that cellphones do not have to ring to be turned on and listening.
- Put electrical tape over unused webcams, smartphones, and laptop cameras. The red LED means NOTHING.
- Enabling a microphone on a smartphone or PC or laptop remotely has been displayed.
- Adobe Flash can enable the microphone and video camera on any computer. The LED is an extra call to the driver and is not mandatory for everything else to work. Just sayin’.
Older Articles
Summary
There you have it, more than you can stand, I’m certain.
I started taking notes for myself in a wiki-like way in 1998. Writing helps me to collect my thoughts, organize them, and see if they make sense, which doesn’t always happen. Around 2005, I started putting that data online – mainly just for myself. That is still my main purpose in writing here. The wayback machine will let you see the old stuff – it will never go away. ;)
- HTML – 1994-ish
- YaWPS – 2004-ish
- TiddlyWiki as more content gets added, the file gets huge and slower.
- Solowiki – great for local use, 1 person. I think the project died. The link here is NOT for the same software.
- Typo – a friend was going overseas and wanted to post his experiences along the way, so I needed a multi-user blog.
