In this article on the shell Bash, we will try to explain in a simple way how to configure, operate and program in Bash. There are other command interpreters that are fully functional and powerful, but we will focus on Bash as it is the most used.

Every UNIX system administrator in general and Linux in particular, should learn a minimum of programming tasks in Bash so that he can automate and manage tasks and jobs in the system. There are many options, and once you take a liking to this programming language, you can not imagine a day as administrator without using these techniques.

First of all, I would like to point out that most of the times audio problems are due to misconfiguration.

Since Ubuntu 9.10, there is a default configuration tool called “Pulseaudio” with a new interface that we can configure to match our sound preferences.

Right click on the speaker icon next to the hour and choose “Sound Preferences”. We find the following tabs:

• Output volume -> will be in all tabs and is the main volume. We must disable “silence” as it comes enabled by default.
• Sound Effects -> To set up alerts.

With Ubuntu versions prior to 10.02, video files we watched on our browsers by using the flash plugin could easily be found in the /tmp/ folder. Giving the found file a human name and moving it to our home folder would make it all the way to enjoying those videos offline. But after the Flash Player plugin update to version 10.02 on Ubuntu 10.10 flash videos no longer appear in /tmp.

The story has changed, those of us who were used to download Flash videos, by looking for them in the mentioned directory and then copy the files to some other folder without any additional software, we’ve found that the technique no longer works because the files are no longer stored in that directory.

Checking  the temperature of your hardware (processor, graphics card, hard drive …) is important to know how our computer is doing and if you have problems with high temperatures, either by  degradation of the materials in contact with the micro or simply by a fan that stopped working.

To prevent any of these problems, we will see how to monitor the temperatures of a machine running Ubuntu 12.04.

INSTALL THE REQUIRED LIBRARIES TO DETECT SENSORS

To detect motherboard and processor Sensors we need to install the “lm-sensors” library  (lm-> is a lowercase) in a terminal with the command:

sudo apt-get install lm-sensors

Remote Desktop allows us to see and even control the desktop of another computer from your PC. For example, we have a shop and want to view and control some video security cameras that are connected to a computer from another point in our house.

Warning

This can be done by means of a local network and over the internet, but only if the computer you want to view and control has a static IP.

Nowadays, almost everyone is behind a “rooter” that provides a dynamic IP, which varies each time the system boots. If that is the case, rooter settings must be changed from a web browser by entering the following in the address bar: http://192.168.0.1/ (for example) and change the type of IP (static). Port  5900 should be open also, which is the one to be used, as the rooter usually has a firewall.

There are two ways to manage users and groups in Ubuntu:

1. Graphical -> The simplest way.

2. Command line text -> More technical but more powerful, several things can be done at once.

THE GRAPHICAL WAY IN UBUNTU

With Ubuntu 4.12, graphical user interface is now called “user accounts” and some options have been removed. Basically, users can only create/delete users, manage account type, language, password and startup options.

If options from earlier versions are needed, the “gnome-system-tools” package must be installed. This can be achieved by means of the software center or by typing the following in the command line:

sudo apt-get install gnome-system-tools

Evolution is the default mail client installed in Ubuntu. More than just an mail client, it’s a complete groupware tool that allows the user to manage contacts, tasks, notes and calendars. Evolution can be started in three different ways:

Click on the (envelope) icon in the top panel.

Go to Applications menu -> Internet -> Evolution Mail.

Executing the following command in a terminal window: evolution

G-MAIL SETTINGS AND EVOLUTION

Evolution must be setup to manage your Gmail account.

NOTE: Hotmail is very restrictive but Evolution has adapted itself and what used to be a puzzle, is now simple. Check out later for an article on setting a hotmail account with Evolution.

Iptables is the default firewall in Ubuntu and is a very powerful tool. The problem is that when it comes to perform administration tasks, the syntax is complicated and difficult to understand. For this reason, Gufw and Firestarter were created (it is a server level firewall for “humans”), which is simpler.

GUFW FIREWALL

Gufw can be installed from a terminal window with the following command:

sudo apt-get install ufw Gufw

By default, Iptables and ufw run from startup, allowing all outgoing connections and denying all incoming connections.

Gufw, the graphical interface for ufw, is ideal for normal users with little knowledge.

It can be run from System -> Administration -> Firewall Configuration.

XAMPP is a web server that is used to develop applications in PHP, with connection to a SQL database (LAMPP = Linux + Apache + MySQL + PHP + Perl)

Installing an Apache web server is not easy for newcomers and is even more complicated if it is required to add MySQL, PHP and Perl.

XAMPP is an easy to install and use Apache distribution that contains MySQL, PHP and Perl. It’s really simple to install and use, but keep in mind that it is not intended for use in production (explained at the bottom of the article).

It is also a multiplatform GNU project, currently distribute for: Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and Solaris.

Instant messaging is a text-based and file-sharing  real-time communication system that is established between two or more terminals connected to a network.

It has become a key tool of the Internet, allowing people to connect with their families, friends and have a direct way to chat, exchange files, photos, documents, web pages and more.

Instant messaging requires the use of an IM client that handles the service. It differs from regular email in that conversations are conducted in real time.

In Ubuntu you can install several IM clients:

• Empathy
• Pidgin
• aMSN

“EMPATHY” INSTANT MESSAGING CLIENT

Canonical has decided that starting Ubuntu 9.10, Empathy is the default IM client. Earlier versions of Ubuntu used Pidgin instead.