A collection of useful linux commands

Do not copy and paste anything in the shell without understanding it!

General

File management

ls

Lists working directory content (current directory)

ls

Enter a path to show the content of this path instead

ls /path

Various options available. One in particular is -la

ls -la /path

Disks

lsblk

Lists all available block devices (hard drives, usb sticks etc.) and shows their mounting points

lsblk

Write (iso) disk image to USB stick with progress

dd if=/path/to/iso of=/dev/sdXY bs=4M status=progress

mount

Mounts a partition to a existing directory

mount /dev/sdXY /mnt/mountDir

/dev/sdXY = your partition path /mnt/mountPath = your mount path

Required rights depend on the rights of the mount directory

The mount path can be any directory. /mnt/ is only an example.

cryptsetup

Powerful tool to manage LUKS-encrypted devices.

cryptsetup luksOpen

Opens a LUKS device (requires root rights):

cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/sdXY luksName

/dev/sdXY = your device or partition path

luksName = your desired luks mapper name

The luks mapper will be available at /dev/mapper/luksName

cryptsetup luksClose

Closes an open LUKS device

cryptsetup luksClose luksName

luksName = luks mapper name

Gnome-specific

Restart gnome

Press <Alt>F2, then type r.

nm-connection-editor

An advanced manager for network connections

nm-connection-editor

Change ALT+TAB behaviour (disable grouping windows by applications)

Open dconf-editor

Go to org/gnome/desktop/wm/keybindings

Move the value '<Alt>Tab' from switch-applications to switch-windows

Optionally move '<Shift><Alt>Tab' from switch-applications-backward to switch-windows-backward

If you want switch-windows to work across desktops, not just in the current desktop, you can also uncheck org/gnome/shell/window-switcher/current-workspace-only

Close dconf-editor

If using X11, press <Alt>F2, then type r to restart Gnome.

Credits to Mad Physicist and CharlBotha:

https://superuser.com/questions/394376/how-to-prevent-gnome-shells-alttab-from-grouping-windows-from-similar-apps

Arch (Manjaro) specific

Install VMware Player

General installation instructions

https://wiki.manjaro.org/index.php?title=VMware

Module compilation (on kernel 5.4, maybe others too)

git clone https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules.git
cd vmware-host-modules
git checkout workstation-15.5.1
sudo make
sudo make install

sudo vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

https://communities.vmware.com/thread/623768

https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules

Fix for BCM57780

Temporary fix (no need to reboot)

sudo modprobe -r tg3
sudo modprobe broadcom
sudo modprobe tg3

Permanent fix

Add broadcom and tg3 (in this order) to the MODULES array:

/etc/mkinitcpio.conf

MODULES=(.. broadcom tg3 ..)

Regenerate the initramfs

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_configuration/Ethernet#Broadcom_BCM57780

Kubernetes

Kubernetes Dashboard

Access via remote ssh (e.g. terminal-only server)

Activate the web-ui access on the k8s machine

kubectl proxy

Create SSH tunnel to the k8s machine

ssh -L 8001:localhost:8001 user@remote-ip

Access web-ui via

http://localhost:8001/api/v1/namespaces/kubernetes-dashboard/services/https:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/#/login

For older versions, use

http://localhost:8001/api/v1/namespaces/kube-system/services/https:kubernetes-dashboard:/proxy/#/login

Proxmox

Proxmox with systemd boot (used instead of grub for zfs boot)

Editing kernel boot parameters

https://pve.proxmox.com/pve-docs/chapter-sysadmin.html#sysboot_edit_kernel_cmdline

Image files location

/var/lib/vz/template/iso