As a student I had to use a Linux distro in my classes, especially to learn bash. I chose Ubuntu because it was easier to me before trying any other distro such as Debian…

Bootloader

The bootloader is launched at the beginning of the boot. And guess what ? We can custom it! Like modifying the bootsplash.

sudo update-alternatives --config default.plymouth

With this command line, we get the list of screens we can choose from to change bootsplash. Basically, the command do this:

1. Move in the directory.
2. Edit the file.

Computer peripheral devices details

sudo lshw > maconfig.html && firefox maconfig.html

sudo lshw is a command line to display computer peripheral devices details.

lshw can be useful while running Ubuntu on a VMWare Virtual Machine to get logical name (eth0, eth1…) like this sudo lshw -C network

sudo lshw > maconfig.html gonna write in maconfig.html file the result. You can use any filetype, I use html to have a satisfying display for me.

firefox maconfig.html will open the page on firefox.

If it doesn’t work, you cant try:

{path to firefox} maconfig.html

The path can be /usr/bin/firefox, run type -a firefox to get the right path.

Creating ISO

Creation

dd if={include device path} of=mycd.iso

dd if=/dev/hdd of=mycd.iso will create ISO on HDD. You can create ISO on DVD or CD. If you’re not sure of the path, this command wil show you the path: ls /dev/ | egrep "^dvd | ^cd"

Mounting/unmounting ISO

To mount the iso, make a directory named « iso » in /media, then you could mount the iso in:

$ sudo mkdir /media/iso
$ sudo mount -o loop -t iso9660 mycd.iso /media/iso

(Of course, we’re not forced to mount the iso in /media)

To unmount : $ sudo umount /media/iso

VLC

Because I want to end this short post with a funny note : vlc screen://