Time Saving Linux Desktop Tips?

dan_polt asks: "I currently use a Linux desktop system, at work. One of the great things about the Linux desktop is that there are lots of ways to save a lot of time from useful widgets and configuration to minimize the pain of repetitive tasks. Most of my work involves web/e-Mail/SSH access, and I have a very high spec'd machine with dual-head 1600x1200 screens. What software or configuration tips might Slashdot have for me to: make better use of my time; make the most of my screen real estate; and make my use of the desktop more effective?"

Comments

Mount remote filesystems in KDE via ssh

[gtoomey]

You can mount a remote filesystem in KDE without using NFS, ftp, rsync, Samba etc

Just enter in Konqueror
fish://user@yourdomain.com
(yes that is fish) and you will be asked for your ssh password.
Your remote files appear in Konqueror & you can then copy/paste etc to your local filesystem.

Re:Mount remote filesystems in KDE via ssh

[Yrrebnarg]

You missed the real power-feature here. Try using fish (or ftp or even http) while you're attaching something in kmail or editing a file with kate, or even koffice. Now try doing a drag-and-drop into a konsole...now try it with a URL. Now try it while in a ssh -X session. Or maybe man:screen or info:glibc as a URL in konqueror. One last trick is KDE's alt-f2 dialog. It does integer arithmetic and opens URLs. KDE really is cool if you use it, but nobody here in the USA ever seems to give it a chance.

And for the flamebait part, why is kde so unloved here in the USA?

Re:Mount remote filesystems in KDE via ssh

[ananke]

Not to mention the quickie acronyms. Type 'gg:whatever' in that alt+f2 dialog, or any konqueror, and you'll be taken to google. Same thing for imdb, fm [freshmeat], etc.

Bind everything to a key combination

[elconde]

Bind everything! Use the spare windows key to bind every application that you use regularly.

http://hocwp.free.fr/xbindkeys/xbindkeys.html

Some good ones from my .xbindkeysrc:

"xmms --stop" Mod4 + Up

"xmms --play-pause" Mod4 + Down

"xmms --fwd" Mod4 + Right

"xmms --rew" Mod4 + Left

"emacs" Mod4 + e

"firefox" Mod4 + m

"oocalc ~/aspreadsheet.sxc" Mod4 + c

Automation

[zorander]

Learn ruby/perl/python/something and automate *everything* the each time you find yourself repeating a task that could be easily parametrized. Most of this is an attitude thing. If repetitive tasks don't annoy you, then you're not going to be able to eliminate them from your life. It will never seem worth the effort.

Also, get a decent window manager like ion and learn its shortcuts. Developing more than a passing knowledge of Ion and Vim has doubled my productivity when debugging code. Ion makes one monitor feel like two, so I can imagine that on two it would be pretty damn good.

Re:Linux Desktop

[Anonymous Coward]

multiple terminals visible at the same time

The utility screen will let you split your terminal space between an arbitrary number of applications (and each one recognizes that it has its own tty).

quick cut-and-paste

Once again, screen has you covered, and will allow you to transport text between hosted applications; it even provides a spiffy vi-like interface for selection, and freezes the program output (no, it doesn't suspend) while you're doing this.

My best

[nerdwarrior]

In no particular order:

• ion | ratpoision; Pane-based (v. window-based) window managers. Little to no wasted screen real estate. Significantly reduced mouse usage.
• emacs: Wickedly powerful text editor/operating environment.
  • WhizzyTeX: Updates DVI in another window as you edit TeX/LaTeX.
  • AUCTeX: Very powerful emacs extensions for TeX/LaTeX.
• fetchmail + procmail + mutt + spamassassin + msmtp: No-nonsense mail reading and sending.
• bash completions: Quasi-telepathic tab completion.
• Firefox
  • Adblock: Saves an astonishing amount of screen real estate.
• screen: Among many other abilities, screen+ssh can provide VNC-like capabilities for your terminal sessions.

Control-R

[Waffle Iron]

IMO, the single biggest timesaver in bash is the Ctl-R history recall search feature. (It was quite a while before I found out about it, and I wish I had found it sooner.)

If you crank up your history list to a few thousand entries and set it to forget dupes, you can recall any command you've issued in the last couple of months with just a couple of keystrokes.

Re:Outsource

[Janitha]

First find a good window manager (initially spend the time if you have some exploring gnome, kde, enlightenment, twm, fluxbox, *box, what ever). Find something you like from that. Simple is good. Bling Bling is bad. I personally choose enlightenment. Multiple desktops! Use them. I have a 3x3 array setup with edge flipping so hitting the edge of the screen would push me to the adjacent desktop and have wrapping around. So within any desktop, I can access any other. Of course this is a personal preference. (I would imagine this taking someone a long time to get used to, but once you do its like gold). Create a convention on how you would use your desktops, for example the top row for work, middle for shells/web/information, middle last for email, and bottom row for shells. Something that you will feel good with. Learn your shortcuts (either for window manager, editor, or what ever software your using). Things I find useful are scrolling through desktops, autocomplete, saving/copy/paste, locking computer, open applications, change music. Personalize your enviornment and applications. Configuration files are there for a reason. Set up shortkut keys and use them. Of course when you are customizing it, do it only once (or twice) initially not everyday tweaking more than you edit your actual work. If its a work computer, do not even think about installing games. And get rid of those bookmarks, my productivity shot up as soon as the slashdot and other bookmarks went away. Organize all the work related bookmarks in a way thats easiest for you. Lot of other things I was planning to say are already written below. Enjoy.

Re:My advice...

[novakreo]

putty is not a linux program, it's only for ms windoze - it's not needed on linux though, we just use ssh.

Putty is actually available for both Linux and Windows (even NT on Alpha!).
While it probably is overkill for just 'ssh hostname.tld', it is useful if you need to use features like port-forwarding and want to use a saved profile instead of supplying command-line options or hand-editing ~/.ssh/config, or for migrating from Windows while keeping the same SSH client.

screen is your friend

[rjoseph]

Set your login script (.bashrc or whatever) to:

exec screen -D -R

Will reattach a remote session or create a new one if none exists: allows you to continue screen sessions across logins completely transparently. Brilliant!

Re:Linux Desktop

[nmb3000]

Can you really do this with screen?

Of course! Screen can do anything!

I'm not sure exactly what you're shooting for, but you can "split" a screen session like this:

In a console, run screen. This will create a new session inside screen. Tell screen to split the window by sending the keystrokes CTRL+a S (that's a capital 's'. If you send a lowercase 's' you will freeze the display. Resume it by sending CTRL+a q).

The screen should split into two vertical windows. Tab into the lower window by sending CTRL+a <TAB> . Now create a new shell by sending CTRL+a c. You can go back and forth using CTRL+a <TAB> . Once you have a shell running in each you can do and/or run anything you want to. To close a split session, give it focus and send CTRL+a X (note the capital 'x').

Gentoo's Wiki site has a nice writeup of screen. It makes it real easy to get up and running with screen. It includes the above example as well as instructions on how to resize the split and do many other things.

I'd recomend root-tail

[Vrejakti]

Root-tail home page and freshmeat link. random screen shot.

About: root-tail is a program that allows printing of text directly to the X11 root window wherever you choose, much like running rxvt with a pixmap background but without the hassle and with more features.

Some code I use with it (there's TONS of options):

sudo root-tail --justify -g 600x250+20+350 /var/log/messages,lightblue

Multi-monitor management

[toastydeath]

I recommend running Xdmx and xmove. Possibly NX as well.

Xdmx will allow you to have very, very flexible control over how your dual monitor setup works. It not only supports your local two monitors, but will allow you to strap network pc's/monitors on to your existing setup with little fuss. I ran a six induvidual laptops as my primary display at work for some time with xdmx, and it worked very well. The only downside was my desktop was not quite beefy enough to handle a display size of 3072x1536. It also handles bezel sizes, if you prefer the "looking through a window" perspective versus xinerama's standard continuous desktop. It will support just about any monitor layout you want.

xmove gives you screen-like functionality for your desktop. Get up from your workstation, jump on a laptop with wifi, and xmove will pull the display output across the network - just like screen. Send the applications back to your desktop, and shut your laptop down. Bazing!

NX suppliments this with fantastic compression and will allow you to do stupid things, like do xmove/remote x work at home. Or resume a particularly stunning game of bejewled.

Fix Less and vim

[TopSpin]

in .vimrc:

set t_ti= t_te=

from any of the various places sh/bash/etc source:

LESS='X'; export LESS

Now, Less and vim won't restore the @#*$!%ing terminal on exit, permitting you to cut/paste/transcribe whatever you were just editing/viewing.

(whomever caused this behavior to be default; a pox on you)

p.s. Some bonehead in Usenet advises frobbing your terminal type to vt100 to get the same result. Do not do this. If you don't know why then especially don't do this!

Re:Time saver

[leuk_he]

YOu should realy use

0.0.0.0 www.slashdot.org
0.0.0.0 .slashdot.org

I wonder how this habit of using 127.0.0.1 came into fashion if 0.0.0.0 is the more correct solution.

Configuration and useability tips:

[lkcl]

1) install KDE 3.4 (it's faster, it's better all-round).

2) run prelink -v --conserve-memory -q -a
      but first add /usr/lib/mozillaNNNNN and /usr/lib/kde3 to
      prelink.conf (and any other software such as openoffice)

3) on debian, edit /etc/default/rcS and replace
      FSCKFIX="n" with FSCKFIX="y"

4) on debian, install hal, dbus-1 and udev, and then edit /etc/default/hal and make sure DROP_DAEMON_PRIVS is
      commented out (this will make it possible for you to
      mount auto-detected USB drives etc.)

5) cd to /etc/hal/device.d and do this:
        ln -s /usr/bin/fstab-sync 50-fstab-sync.hal

5) edit /etc/profile and add this:
      export KDE_IS_PRELINKED="1"

these simple things will make your system faster, more robust in the face of complete technically incompetent blithering idiots who would otherwise blindly press ctrl-d when faced with a prompt saying "your filesystem is corrupted. give root password for maintenance or press ctrl-d", and also provide automatic access to USB devices that is otherwise bloody inconvenient.