pavroo 
In the next list of the 10 Most… I have listed the 10 most popular commands used in Linux systems (and not only) in 2024, published as part of the Admin Tips series on the Linuxiarze.pl portal
The list takes into account the views of posts from the Admin Tips category and their comments.
1. fdisk
fdisk is a Linux command used to create and manipulate the partition table of a disk. It is used to view, create, delete, change, resize, copy, and move partitions on a hard disk using a dialog interface.
Admin Tips: fdisk
2. fsck
fsck is used to examine and optionally repair one or more Linux file systems. A file system can be a device name (e.g. /dev/hdc1, /dev/sdb2), a mount point (e.g. /, /usr, /home), or a file system label or UUID (e.g. UUID=8868abf6-88c5-4a83-98b8-bfc24057f7bd or LABEL=root). In order to shorten the total time needed to check all file systems, the fsck program will attempt to check file systems located on physically different disk drives in parallel.
Admin Tips: fsck
3. dmesg
dmesg (ang. diagnostic message) – a Unix family system command that displays the kernel ring buffer. It allows, among other things, to display system boot messages. dmesg is used to check or control the kernel ring buffer. The default action is to display all messages from the kernel ring buffer.
Admin Tips: dmesg
4. dd
dd is a powerful and useful tool available in Unix and Unix-like operating systems. Its purpose is to convert and copy files. In Unix and Unix-like operating systems such as Linux, almost everything is treated as a file, even block devices: this makes dd useful for things like cloning disks or wiping data. The dd utility is available out-of-the-box in most, if not all, Linux distributions.
Admin Tips: dd
5. sed
Sed is a text filtering/transforming editor. The sed program reads data from specified files or from standard input if no files are specified, makes edits according to a list of commands, and writes the results to standard output.
Admin Tips: sed
6. unrar
RAR is one of the most popular tools for creating and unpacking compressed archive files (.rar). RAR is available for free on Windows operating systems to handle compressed files, but unfortunately the rar tool is not installed by default on Linux systems.
Admin Tips: unrar
7. ifconfig
The ifconfig command is used to configure or view the configuration of a network interface. On some Linux systems, the ifconfig command has been replaced by the ip command.
ifconfig stands for “interface configuration”.
Admin Tips: ifconfig
8. xargs
xargs is a tool that searches for files that meet the specified criteria and performs various actions on the files found. xargs reads from standard input a list of items separated by spaces (arguments containing them can be enclosed in single or double quotes, or spaces in arguments can be preceded by backslashes) or newlines.
Admin Tips: xargs
9. chroot
The chroot command in Linux/Unix is used to change the root directory. Each process/command in Linux/Unix has a current working directory called the root directory. chroot changes the root directory of currently running processes, as well as child processes.
Admin Tips: chroot
10. adduser
The adduser package (in Debian and Ubuntu) provides 4 tools: adduser, addgroup, deluser and delgroup, we will deal with the first two. adduser creates new users and groups and adds existing users to an existing group.
Admin Tips: adduser
A full list of console commands available on the Linuxiarze.pl portal can be found in the Porady Admina category.
Ten post jest również dostępny w języku polskim: https://linuxiarze.pl/top-10-polecen-linux-2024/
The 8th monthly Sparky project and donate report of the 2024: – Linux kernel updated up to 6.10.7, 6.6.48-LTS, 6.1.107-LTS & 5.15.165-LTS – Sparky semi-rolling 2024.08 & 2024.08 Special Editions released – added to repos: PeaZip Many thanks to all of you for supporting our open-source projects. Your donations help keeping them and us alive. Don’t forget to send a small tip in september too…
EndeavourOS is a rolling Linux distribution based on the Arch Linux. The project is intended to be a spiritual successor to Antergos – providing easy configuration and a pre-configured desktop environment based on Arch.
After the failure of the previous installation of CachyOS, I decided to test another system from a similar segment, also based on Arch Linux, so my choice fell on EndeavourOS.
The ISO media allows you to run the live system with closed Nvidia graphics drivers or open-source ones. The live system is equipped with only a few basic applications.
The live system is not a speed demon, but it is quite fast, despite the default KDE Plasma desktop – the desktop with basic services uses 2.5GB of RAM on iddle.
For the installation in the VirtualBox virtual machine, I allocated 25GB of disk space, 2 processor cores, 4GB of RAM and performed it in UEFI mode, with full disk encryption. The ISO media used was EndeavourOS 20240625 x86_64.
The live system automatically loaded the welcome window in English, but after selecting “Change language” I changed the language to my one (Polish).
Starting the system installation from the Welcome window allows you to choose the installation method:
– online – you can choose one of the available desktops; an active Internet connection is required; packages will be updated to the latest versions
– offline – the system is installed in the same form as the live system, with the KDE Plasma desktop and without package updates
Due to the high resource consumption of Plasma, I chose the online installation to install another, lighter desktop.
The well-known Calamares installer in Polish started – choosing the default settings did not require any changes to the configuration.
Now I could choose another desktop, my choice was Xfce. I also checked the installation of an additional kernel from the long-term support (LTS) line. In this case, the 6.10.4 kernel was installed as the default and 6.6.46 LTS.
In the next step, the installer allows you to choose the boot loader: systemd-boot (default), GRUB or without installing the bootloader – I chose the default one.
Since I install the system on a clean disk, I chose the option to clean and use the entire disk with encryption (for testing purposes).
Then configure the target user and confirm the settings.
Now you can start transferring EndevaourOS to your computer’s disk.
The installation process went without any problems, you can close the installer window and boot the system from the hard disk.
Since I chose full disk encryption, during system startup I was asked to enter the disk decryption password – the password was accepted, so so far it’s going well.
Then a graphical login window was launched, after logging in I received the Xfce desktop, selected during installation.
The Welcome window launched automatically offers many options to facilitate management and configuration of the system and desktop.
First, I chose to update packages – all were updated during the system installation on the disk, but I wanted to be sure.
Of the many options available in the Welcome application, one of them allows you to install selected programs from various categories.
Summary
The live system with the KDE Plasma desktop on the virtual machine was not a speed demon, but working on it was quite bearable. It is not my favorite desktop, but the possibility of installing one of a dozen others solves this inconvenience.
The 2.5GB RAM consumption in the live system by the KDE Plasma desktop is definitely too high for me.
The installation on the disk with the Calamares installer took place in the background, i.e. without any terminal windows popping up.
The installation itself took about 15 minutes, which I consider a very good result.
The target system with the Xfce desktop did not contain many applications, I would rather say that it is ascetic in this respect. RAM usage was around 700-800 MB, which I consider a good result, but considering Plasma, you shouldn’t expect anything better (you may need to disable some unnecessary services).
Installing additional software using your own graphical tool is useful, as is the ability to configure many aspects of the system, especially for beginners in Linux.
Considering that the system is based on Arch Linux and AUR packages and repositories, a good solution would be to include a graphical Pacman GUI frontend in the system – Octopi, which I missed here.
However, considering the entire test performed with EndeavourOS, I am pleasantly surprised and I can recommend this system to beginners in Linux who are fans of Arch Linux.
Ten post jest dostępny również w języku polskim: https://linuxiarze.pl/endeavouros-instalacja-systemu-i-pierwsze-wrazenia/
There are new iso images of Sparky 2024.08 Special Editions out there: GameOver, Multimedia and Rescue. It is based on Debian testing “Trixie”. The August update of Sparky Special Edition iso images features Linux kernel 6.10, updated packages from Debian and Sparky testing repos as of August 18, 2024, and most changes introduced at the 2024.08 release. The Linux kernel is 6.10.3…
CachyOS is a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux with advanced optimizations and multiple architectures for the ultimate desktop experience. CachyOS has support for the following file systems: btrfs, zfs, wew4, xfs, f2fs and several desktops that can be selected during system installation directly from the installer window.
The ISO media allows you to run a live system with closed or open-source Nvidia graphics drivers.
The live system is equipped with only a few applications, such as the Cachy Browser web browser, VLC media player, Konsole and Alacritty, Dolphin file manager, GParted, lftp – a console FTP client.
The live system launched in a virtual machine is sluggish, loads slowly, the desktop with basic services uses 1.1GB of RAM.
Launching a web browser called Cachy Browser, based on Librewolf, which is based on Firefox, took several seconds, which is not a good sign of the system’s responsiveness.
For installation in the QEMU(KVM) virtual machine, I allocated 30GB of disk space, 4 processor cores and 3GB of RAM and performed it in UEFI mode, with full disk encryption. The ISO media used is CachyOS Desktop 20240714 x86_64.
There is no icon launching the CachyOS installer in the program menu and on the desktop – access to it is only possible through the Hello CachyOS application.
After choosing how to install the bootloader in a small window (I chose Grub), the actual installer, the well-known Calamares, launches.
Choosing your time zone and keyboard layout is one of your first tasks.
Then I chose the brtfs file system and the option to encrypt the entire disk in automatic partitioning mode. You must enter the password twice to decrypt the disk.
In the next step, select the default desktop for the target system – I chose the relatively light Xfce.
After entering the new username and password, I completed the configuration of the target system.
Tasks requiring package installation were displayed in the terminal emulator, above the Calamares window; usually these tasks in Calamares are done in the background.
If I noticed correctly, installing the system in online mode in this case does not involve copying the live system from the ISO media and its subsequent configuration with the selected new desktop, but all system packages are downloaded and installed from the server.
After 20 minutes the installation hung on updating packages, and after another 5 minutes I closed the VM with an unfinished installation.
The second installation attempt was no frills: default KDE Plasma desktop, no encryption, UEFi, and automatic disk partitioning as before. This time I chose systemd-boot suggested as the default bootloader and the ext4 file system.
after 20 minutes the installation hung again on updating packages, I took a coffee break and after another 30 minutes I closed the VM with the unfinished installation.
And that’s how I finished installing CachyOS.
I did not make the third attempt due to lack of time and lack of hope for success. Maybe the next release will be more polished.
Summary
Equipping the system with only a few basic applications has its advantages and disadvantages.
– Good: you can install your own favorite applications without having to remove unwanted ones
– Bad: beginner Linux users may have problems installing additional programs, especially after switching from another system where the applications for specific tasks are completely different.
I did not install the system on the disk correctly, all because of an installer error. I was unable to test the system after installation, booted from disk. For this reason, I cannot comment in any way on the performance of the target system, package updates, installation of new packages, or its responsiveness.
However, the live system with my hardware configuration worked hard and slowly, applications started with a significant delay, which has a significant impact on my poor assessment of the live version. From this observation alone, I can conclude that CachyOS is not aimed at owners of older computers, but rather newer ones with better parameters.
Maybe one of the next versions of CachyOS will encourage me to try the installation again.
Ten post jest dostępny również w języku polskim: https://linuxiarze.pl/cachyos-instalacja-systemu-i-pierwsze-wrazenia/