Expect - automate your tasks

Expect is an automation tool which you can use to automatically put text into console, based on the expected output from application (telnet, ftp, ssh, scp...).

Pacman Howto

Pacman is a simple but powerful package manager used in Archlinux. To start using it, you need to know few basic parameters briefly described here.

Changing my default distribution...

Recently I tried to install ArchLinux. I've succeed and really got into it. It is minimalistic, rolling-release distribution, which is the right one for me :D
After a day or two of general tweaking my distribution was ready to use. Quickly it became my primary distribution.
My recommendations: if you like to use really customized system and if you like newest versions of software, don't hesitate to try ArchLinux.
I have to mention ArchLinux's great wiki and documentation where you can find almost everything.
For first-time installation I recommend The Beginners Guide. HF :)

How to change to LXDM and Openbox in OpenSuSE

If you like really minimalistic desktop environment you can try LX Desktop Manager and Openbox as your Window Manager. Here you'll find out how to configure all the necessary things.

SSH public key distribution and management

Recently I was working on a script which enables the distribution and management of public SSH keys to remote machines. If you need to distribute lots of keys or to delete lost of keys, this automation tool would be interesting for you.

Server availability monitoring with email notifications

I was searching for some tool to monitor availability of a computer in the network. Found some solutions, but they wasn't really satisfying. That's why I wrote this simple script inspired by one script I found.

Wrapper for googlecl calendar

Recently I was searching for tool to keep my TODO list synchronized with my laptop and my mobile phone. One simple and effective solution is to use googlecl tool to manage the calendar entries. I've written a simple wrapper to make it really easy to work with googlecl and to use it as a simple TODO list for console.

Remastering shell

Here you will find basic and more advanced shell (console) usage and some tips to make your work more effective and to save you some time.

IP Validator

This is a simple script, which validates IP addresses, converts them into binary form and assign to an IP class.

KDE 4.6 - kmix eating up CPU

It happened to me few times, the CPU load was high because kmix was pretty hungry. It also stopped responding. The problem was in the corrupted profile file.

SSH Login (long delay problem)

If you wait a few second before the password prompt appears read this simple tip to fix it.

VIM tips

Vim is a shortcut for Vi IMproved and  it is a powerful console-based text editor.
This article briefly describes some useful operations and tips you can do in vim editor.

Unmounting removable drives

This script is for safe removal of devices such as USB flash drives, portable HDDs etc. It's written in bash and uses notifications for KDE about the devices state when unmounting.

Internet Connection Sharing (ICS)

Do you want to share your internet connection from one PC to other devices? ICS is the solution for you.
Setting up ICS is pretty simple...

TODO list for console (bash, python, perl)

Another script from my console-based scripts. It is very useful and simple. I use it with conky. Basicaly it is a very simple list of tasks, notes, TODOs, etc.

Unable to turn off touchpad on Ubuntu 10.10?

I ran into a situation, that the touchpad on Ubuntu 10.10 always enables itself after a while. If this has happened to you either, here's a solution for you.

KDE 4.6: desktop switching with mouse wheel

The fastest way to switch desktops in system is with the mouse wheel. In compiz, you could assign shortcuts for mouse switching, but in KDE (kwin) this is not possible. I really liked the mouse switching, so I created a small script to handle this...

Controlling mpd with notifications for Gnome 3 and KDE

If you're using media player daemon, this script might be useful for you. It can start the daemon, controll the playback, delete actual playing song and create notifications of the player state with gdbus.

Change the login screen background and icon on Ubuntu 10.10

In the newer versions of Ubuntu there is no option to directly set backgroud for the login screen. After a bit of googling I found an working technique.

Installing Windows XP on a Netbook

Netbooks are very popular these days. They are very portable and handy, but if you need to install  Windows on them, it can be a pain. Here I'll describe how to install Windows (XP) on a netbook.

Clonezilla - system backup tool

Creating backup of files is very important. It's handy to create from time too time backup of the operating system, in case that it will get broken for some reasons in the future.

Very Secure FTP server

Folder sharing with FTP is fast and simple way how to exchange and share data between computers. Find out how to setup vsftp daemon.

DHCP server

Do you have small network or you are just lazy to setup IP addresses? You can run your own DHCP server to do this for you.

GRUB2 howto

GRUB2 has a lot of new functions. His configuration has changed compared to the earlier version.
Here is described how to set up few basic things.

Installing Windows over the network (LAN)

This howto demonstrates steps to install Windows XP, Vista and Seven over the network.

Moving on...

I am continuing with posts translation and I'd like to rewrite some of my scripts (maybe all of them) into perl and python language.

KDE and transparent conky

How to set up transparency for conky on KDE...

New mail count

This script is for showing new/unread email count in your INBOX.
You can use with conky or as a standalone script.

Conky - monitoring your system

Conky is a high customizable tool, which displays various system information and has a lot of option.

How to boot linux from USB flash drive

If you need to install or just to try out some linux distribution and you don't have free CD/DVD or you don't want to burn it, this article is for you.

Creating SWAP space from a file

If you don't have SWAP on your system and you need it, you can create it from a file.

Using sudo command without password

Is it annoying for you always entering the password when using sudo command?
Or you just need certain program/script to run with sudo without prompting for password?
If you've answered yes to one of the above questions, then this article is for you.

kosd - on screen notifications for KDE

If you don't like default KDEs notification for volume and brightness adjusting, try kosd.

Weather script (for Slovakia) (bash, perl, python)

This script displays weather for cities: BA, KE and PO.

Nameday (with Slovak names) (bash, perl, python)

This is a simple script to show whos nameday is today...

x11vnc VNC Server

Do you need remote connection to your desktop and you don't have time for complicated VNC server setup?

MAC address change

I suppose that not everyone knows how to change MAC address on Linux system, so this howto may come handy.

Splitting large files

Simple howto split large file into several parts.

Regular temp cleaning

If the temp directory gets pretty big, it can slow down your system or you can have insufficient space on your harddisk. Therefore is good to clean temporary files from time to time.

Midnight Commander settings/theme change

If MC is not saving your settings or you want to change its appearance, this howto is for you.

Removing password/copy protection from PDF documents

If you're working with several PDF documents and each one is protected with a different password, it can be pretty annoying to always enter the passwords.

Do you need to copy something from a PDF document, but it's copy-protected?

With this few simple steps you can get rid of these problems.

First post and translation bar

I had some time so I posted my first article to this blog. You can find it in the section openSuSE.

Also you can translate my blog page by selecting your language in the Translate this page widget.

openSuSE bootsplash, theme change

Here you can find instructions how to change openSuSE's bootsplash screen.

Preparing for migration...

As you can see, the design of the page has changed, probably to his final appearance.

In the upcoming time I will start with migrating and translating articles from my old blog page http://krisko.xf.cz

You can follow me on my twitter page https://twitter.com/#!/krisko210

What this will be...

I'm going to create blog mainly for my personal use.
It will contain information, scripts and howto's for Linux operating system.
Based on this you can make customizations to your own system.