The Adventures of Linux (and excessive home networking)

This is a loosely grouped collection of notes and/or commands I'm finding useful as I venture into the world of setting up a home network with a few linux clients and a linux server. It's mostly a 'notes dump' that I'm putting all on this one page. I'm not going to do a lot of fancy formatting or anything else, but it's here in case anyone else stumbles on it through Google or something....

Networking

• Text file location of network settings

  /etc/network/interfaces

• Restart the networking service

  sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart

• View the current network settings

  ifconfig

• Name resolution

  /etc/hosts

  formatted as

  x.x.x.x	(name)

• View the disk config on command line (such as through SSH) with

  sudo fdisk -l

NOTE: There is NO NFS client for windows that is free. Use SAMBA to share with windows. NFS will perform better than SAMBA with linux clients.

NFS File Sharing

• Install the NFS client

  sudo apt-get install nfs-common

• Install the NFS server service

  sudo apt-get install nfs-kernel-server

• Config file location is

  /etc/exports

  sample

  {servername/ip}:/{nfs-sharepath}		/mnt/{folder}	nfs	users,auto,rw	0	0

• See available NFS shares from clients

  showmount -e (servername or IP address)

• Refresh the NFS share info (on server - verbose mode)

  sudo exportfs -rav

SAMBA File Sharing

• Config file location is

  /etc/samba/smb.conf

• Mount settings are stored in

  /etc/fstab

• SMB mounting fails with message about bad superblocks. Needs the SMB client (doesn't come with 11.04 by default).

  sudo apt-get install smbfs

File synchronization with UNISON

• Install

  sudo apt-get install autofs unison

• Execute

  unison /{remotefolder} /{localfolder} -log -batch -confirmbigdeletes

• DO NOT add a / on the end of the share names, it fails
• DO NOT map to something below the "root" share - you can't map /share/foldername, only to /share

XBox360 playback

• uShare installation

  sudo apt-get install ushare

• Config file edit

  sudo gedit /etc/ushare.conf

• Stop/start service

  sudo /etc/init.d/ushare (start|stop)

Disks / Hard Drives

• Mounting information

  /etc/fstab

• To find the UUID to mount with

  sudo blkid

Misc Scripts

Some of the scripts I use on my network. They should be useful as a template if you replace the names/folders for your own network.

• edit startup/logon script

  sudo gedit /etc/rc.local

• apt-get commands

  sudo apt-get update (updates package info)
  sudo apt-get upgrade (install available updates)
  sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade (update and upgrade in one command)
  sudo apt-get autoremove (clean up unused packages)
  

• Make folder through terminal for mounting

  sudo mkdir /mnt/{foldername}

  then

  sudo chown -R {username} /mnt/*

• Make home directory folder through terminal

  mkdir ~/{foldername}

  the ~ is a shortcut for '/home/user'

Misc Notes

• Adjust boot resolution, startup menu, etc.

  sudo apt-get install startupmanager

• Get the default windows fonts like Arial, Helvetica, etc.

  sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts

• FLASH support for Chrome in 64 bit; download the libflashplayer.so from Adobe

  sudo mkdir /opt/google/chrome/plugins
  sudo cp /home/{user}/downloads/libflashplayer.so /opt/google/chrome/plugins

  Then update the launcher for Chrome from "google-chrome %U" to

  google-chrome --enable-plugins %U

• Automated tasks (cron jobs)

  crontab -e

  and formatted as

  <min> <hour> <day of month> <month number> <day of week> <command>

• VirtualBox resolution over 800x60

  sudo apt-get install virtualbox-ose-guest-x11

Linux file structure summary

Fresh install script

# if not using instant messenger
#sudo apt-get purge pidgin telepathy

# if not bluetooth capable
#sudo apt-get purge bluez

# if not CD burning
#sudo apt-get purge brasero

# if not using IM
#sudo apt-get purge empathy

# if no printers
#sudo apt-get purge cups*

# if not wireless
#sudo apt-get purge wireless-tools

# if no torrents
#sudo apt-get purge transmission-*

# if not a streaming server or desktop
#sudo apt-get purge totem

# if not wireless
#sudo apt-get purge mintwifi

sudo apt-get purge overlay-scrollbar cowsay firefox thunderbird xchat nano hplip gcalctool simple-scan brltty brltty-x11 foo2zjs gwibber gwibber-service hplip hplip-cups hplip-data hpijs min12xxw pxljr splix ttf-indic-fonts-core ttf-kacst-one ttf-khmeros-core ttf-lao ttf-punjabi-fonts ttf-unfonts-core aspell bogofilter-* espeak-data evolution-common evolution-indicator evolution-plugins evolution-webcal firefox* foomatic* fortune-* vino simple-scan fusion-icon imagemagick indicator-me indicator-messages

# note: portmap is included with nfs-common)
sudo apt-get install nfs-common msttcorefonts sysv-rc-conf ccsm chromium

Programming/Web Development

• Install web server & PHP module & MySQL server & GUI management tools

  sudo apt-get install apache2 php5-mysql libapache2-mod-php5 mysql-server phpmyadmin mysql-admin

• Fix /var/www permissions

  sudo chown -R {username} /var/www/*

Ubuntu specific info

• Install UbuntuOne tray indicator

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:rye/ubuntuone-extras
  sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install ubuntuone-indicator

• install UbuntuTweak

  sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa 
  sudo apt-get update
  sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

• install Unity2D (for machines that can't run w/3D)

  sudo apt-get install unity-2d

Mint specific info

• Install the TEXT during boot up (default is a black screen in Mint 11/Katya)

  sudo apt-get install plymouth-theme-mint-text

• Install the LOGO during boot up (default is a black screen in Mint 11/Katya)

  sudo apt-get install plymouth-theme-mint-logo

• Remove the REALLY annoying "slim" almost hidden scrollbar in gnome

  sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar

• Change menu icon to MINT logo

  /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/mintMenu.png

Machines

The router handles all DHCP assignments. DHCP pool is .2 through .49; network infrastructure is as follows: