Ubuntu Tips & Tweaks Articles

How to Edit Your Hosts File on Windows, Mac, or Linux

On occasion you will need to edit the hosts file on your machine. Sometimes because of an attack or prank, and others so that you can simply and freely control access to websites and network traffic.

Christopher Welker Apr 17th, 2017

The Best Keyboard Shortcuts for Bash (aka the Linux and macOS Terminal)

Bash is the default command-line shell on most Linux distributions, from Ubuntu and Debian to Red Hat and Fedora. Bash is also the default shell included with macOS, and you can install a Linux-based bash environment on Windo...

Set the Default Terminal Emulator on Ubuntu Linux

Ubuntu has a number of terminal emulators that you can use, including xterm and the gnome terminal. If you install the kubuntu desktop package you can also use konsole under ubuntu.

Lowell Heddings Jan 12th, 2017

Clean Up the New Ubuntu Grub2 Boot Menu

Ubuntu adopted the new version of the Grub boot manager in version 9.10, getting rid of the old problematic menu.lst. Today we look at how to change the boot menu options in Grub2.

Trevor Bekolay Nov 29th, 2016

Boot From a USB Drive Even if your BIOS Won’t Let You

You’ve always got a trusty bootable USB flash drive with you to solve computer problems, but what if a PC’s BIOS won’t let you boot from USB? We’ll show you how to make a CD or floppy disk that will let you boot from ...

Trevor Bekolay Jul 15th, 2016

How to Make Password Asterisks Visible in the Terminal Window in Linux

When you run a command using sudo in Linux, the Terminal prompts you to type in your password with no visual feedback as you type. We’ll show a quick tweak that will show asterisks (*) when you type in your password in the ...

Lori Kaufman Aug 4th, 2014

How To Disable the Amazon Search Ads in Ubuntu’s Unity Dash

Upgrade to Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) and you’ll run into a surprise – Ubuntu now shows you advertisements for Amazon products when you search in your dash. There’s also an Amazon shortcut pinned to Unity’s launch...

Chris Hoffman Oct 19th, 2012

How to Make Your Linux PC Wake From Sleep Automatically

Want to put your Linux PC into sleep or hibernate mode and have it automatically wake at a specific time? You can easily do this with the rtcwake command, included by default with most Linux systems.

Chris Hoffman Aug 8th, 2012

10 Awesome Indicator Applets for Ubuntu’s Unity Desktop

If you’ve used Ubuntu a while, you might remember GNOME applets – icons that sat on your panel and gave you access to controls and information. If you miss panel applets, try installing third-party indicator applets for U...

Chris Hoffman Jul 14th, 2012

How to Swap the Two and Three Finger Touchpad Tap Actions on Ubuntu

By default, Ubuntu uses a two-finger tap for right-click and a three-finger tap for middle-click on laptop touchpads. You can swap this behavior, but Ubuntu doesn’t provide a graphical utility for configuring it....

Chris Hoffman Jul 13th, 2012

7 Quick Tricks for Ubuntu and Other Linux Desktops

Linux is very flexible, but the amount of power it puts at your disposal can sometimes be overwhelming. These quick tricks for your Linux desktop will give you something you can put to use immediately....

10 Package Management Operations You Need Synaptic for on Ubuntu

The Ubuntu Software Center is a solid, user-friendly application, but sometimes you need more power. The Synaptic package manager – previously included with Ubuntu by default – can do many things the Ubuntu Software Cente...

Chris Hoffman Jul 11th, 2012

11 Ubuntu One Features You May Not Be Aware Of

While Ubuntu One might seem like a Ubuntu-only file synchronization service, it’s more than that – you can use Ubuntu One on Windows, Android, iOS, and from the web. Ubuntu One offers 5GB of free storage space to everyone...

Chris Hoffman Jul 9th, 2012

How to Create AppArmor Profiles to Lock Down Programs on Ubuntu

AppArmor locks down programs on your Ubuntu system, allowing them only the permissions they require in normal use – particularly useful for server software that may become compromised. AppArmor includes simple tools you can...

Chris Hoffman Jul 7th, 2012

How to Disable Ubuntu’s Guest Session Account

Ubuntu and Linux Mint come with a “Guest Session” account, which anyone can log into from the login screen – no password required. If you’d rather restrict access to your computer, you can disable the guest account....

Chris Hoffman Jul 3rd, 2012

How To View and Write To System Log Files on Ubuntu

Linux logs a large amount of events to the disk, where they’re mostly stored in the /var/log directory in plain text. Most log entries go through the system logging daemon, syslogd, and are written to the system log....

Chris Hoffman Jul 1st, 2012

How to Change Your Default Applications on Ubuntu: 4 Ways

There are several ways to change your default applications on Ubuntu. Whether you’re changing the default application for a particular task, file type, or a system-level application like your default text editor, there’s ...

Chris Hoffman Jun 29th, 2012

How to Install KVM and Create Virtual Machines on Ubuntu

If you’re using Linux, you don’t need VirtualBox or VMware to create virtual machines. You can use KVM – the kernel-based virtual machine – to run both Windows and Linux in virtual machines.

Chris Hoffman Jun 28th, 2012

7 Ubuntu File Manager Features You May Not Have Noticed

The Nautilus file manager included with Ubuntu includes some useful features you may not notice unless you go looking for them. You can create saved searches, mount remote file systems, use tabs in your file manager, and more...

Chris Hoffman Jun 26th, 2012

How to Share Files Online with Ubuntu One

Ubuntu One, Ubuntu’s built-in cloud file storage service, allows you to make files publically available online or share them privately with others. You can share files over the Internet right from Ubuntu’s file browser....

Chris Hoffman Jun 20th, 2012

7 Tips to Get the Most Out of BleachBit, a “CCleaner for Linux”

Like CCleaner on Windows, BleachBit frees space by deleting unimportant files and helps maintain your privacy by deleting sensitive data. And, just like CCleaner, there’s more you can do with BleachBit than just clicking a ...

Chris Hoffman Jun 19th, 2012

How to Easily Add Custom Right-Click Options to Ubuntu’s File Manager

Use Nautilus-Actions to easily and graphically create custom context menu options for Ubuntu’s Nautilus file manager. If you don’t want to create your own, you can install Nautilus-Actions-Extra to get a package of partic...

Chris Hoffman Jun 18th, 2012

8 Ways to Tweak and Configure Sudo on Ubuntu

Like most things on Linux, the sudo command is very configurable. You can have sudo run specific commands without asking for a password, restrict specific users to only approved commands, log commands run with sudo, and more....

Chris Hoffman Jun 18th, 2012

How to Create a Separate Home Partition After Installing Ubuntu

Ubuntu doesn’t use a separate /home partition by default, although many Linux users prefer one. Using a separate home partition allows you to reinstall Ubuntu without losing your personal files and settings....

Chris Hoffman Jun 17th, 2012

How to Turn Your Ubuntu Laptop into a Wireless Access Point

If you have a single wired Internet connection – say, in a hotel room – you can create an ad-hoc wireless network with Ubuntu and share the Internet connection among multiple devices. Ubuntu includes an easy, graphical se...