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Tips on working with Boot or Shutdown Sequence on Debian Linux:

Having trouble in setting your system time?

Most probably you are not running the 'hwclock' after changing the date. Do this sequence,

date MMDDhhmmCCYY; hwclock --utc; hwclock --systohc; hwclock --show

Alternatively, if you have internet connection do a ntpdate <server>

Do you know of make oldconfig?

If you just applied a patch to your kernel and would like to use the newly added options, this option is very useful if you don't want to spend an hour hitting Enter through all your settings. oldconfig will take current settings as defaults, and prompts for any new options that may have appeared in this version of the kernel.

How do I set default compiler options for gcc, for all the programs I compile on my system?

Have these lines in your ~/.bash_profile or /etc/profile as per your needs.

What is the correct pronounciation of "Debian"?

I myself got this question at one time. I got to know that Debian is pronounced 'deb ee n'. It comes from the names of the creator of Debian, Ian Murdock, and his wife, Debra.

How do I make use of my "windoze" keys on my keyboard?

Add these lines in your ~/.Xmodmap file:

Now add the following line to .xsession: modmap ~/.Xmodmap. Restart your window manager and now your F13, F14 and F15 keys represent the left-Win key, right-Win-key and context-menu key.

How do I have the special multimedia keys on my keyboard get working in X?

Lot of the newer keyboards like Microsoft Natural Pro have lot of multimedia keys, which can be programmed. You can either create Xmodmap entries for the keys if you know the keyboard configuration or use the hotkeys package (.deb available).

How do I get my PC camera working?

mknod /dev/video0 char 81 0
chmod 644 /dev/video0
chgrp users /dev/video0

Install the appropriate driver. You may get the instructions here: http://qce-ga.sourceforge.net , http://www.smcc.demon.nl/webcam/ Check if you see the picture in gnomemeeting or something else.

How do I get the multimedia keys in my keyboard get working?

First you need to find the keycodes for the new keys. Then make your xmodmap file (~/.xmodmap) and bind the new keys, by running xmodmap. An example .xmodmap file could be,

keycode 229 = XF86Launch0
keycode 230 = XF86ScreenSaver
keycode 236 = XF86Mail
keycode 160 = XF86AudioMute
keycode 174 = XF86AudioLowerVolume
keycode 176 = XF86AudioRaiseVolume
keycode 162 = XF86AudioPlay
keycode 164 = XF86AudioStop
keycode 144 = XF86AudioPrev
keycode 153 = XF86AudioNext

How do I setup the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name)?

For Static IP, /etc/hosts should have at least the following two lines:

where 192.168.1.1 is your statically-allocated IP. Make sure that, FQDN must be the *first* thing on the line after the IP address.

For Dynamic IP, in case of DHCP, PPP, BOOTP, PPP, /etc/hosts must contain the following line:

127.0.0.1 hotstuff.bc.hsia.telus.net localhost hotstuff

Again, the FQDN must be the *first* hostname on the line. Verify the output with `/bin/hostname --fqdn`

How do I hide a process from being listed in the 'ps' output?

exec -a $NAME $COMMAND $ARGS (for eg, exec -a /sbin/getty your_cmd -erase_all_files)

Remember that the above specification is shell specific, definitely works in bash - not tried in others.

How do I transform the "\n" character between Unix and Msdos formats?

Use "flip" (apt-get install flip, if you don't have it already). You may use this on text or binary files.

Last Updated: Apr' 2002
Any comments to the author?