General Linux Tips

Help & Support Apps & Software
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Here are some general tips for new Linux users, and things often overlooked by more seasoned users (including myself).

  1. If you can not access a particular resource, such as serial ports, don’t get any sound, etc. then check to be sure your user account is in the appropriate group for access.

Resource - group

Serial ports - tty
Sound - audio
CD/DVD readers/writers - cdrom
USB devices - usbdev or usb

These groups may be different, depending on the distribution of Linux you are using, so check the /dev group to see what group the device(s) you want to access are in and then put your userid into those groups.

  1. When installing Linux, be sure you have /home (8 GB), /var (8 GB), and /tmp (8 GB), and /usr (16 GB) on a separate partition. This partition grows faster than one would expect, even with just one or two users. I’ve shown the values I always use and have never had problems with them, except for /home overflowing. If you do not have a separate /usr/local partition, 16 GB is the minimum you should have for /usr. /var gets most of the VARiable data, such as databases, websites, logs, etc, so should never be less than 8 GB - it can grow very quickly. The same goes for /tmp, but it can actually go as small as 4 GB (or even 2 GB) depending on how you use your system.

  2. I also like to have /usr/local (16 GB) and /src (16 GB or larger) on separate partitions. I use /src for building all new software I add, including my own development. Having a separate /src partition makes it very easy to reload Linux without losing anything. Depending on your distribution, /usr can fill up pretty fast because a lot of stuff gets put in /usr and /usr/local. Size these according you your needs and space available. I have found that having these less than 8 GB is generally a mistake and it’s real hard sometimes to go back and fix that. Think of /usr as similar to your C: drive for Windows - this is where everything gets stuffed, new software, data, etc.

  3. For some distributions, you will not be able to su (become superuser) to root (the master administrator account) without being in the wheel or root group. Check this and be sure you can su to root. I guarantee there will be times you want to do something and won’t have the privledges necessary without becoming superuser, so be sure you can su to root.

I’ll update this thread as I find more things that need to be here or get suggestions for them.

8-Dale

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Nice tips linuxguy! I myself am a linux newbie, But I do have some Small Linux tips :

] To restart the X Server, hit Ctrl + Alt + Backspace/:m]

Ok, I’ll edit later when I can remember more tips…

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This is not the type of “tip” I have in mind.

This is not the proper way to restart the X Server. It should only be done as a last resort when the window manager stops responding or there is some other problem that can’t be fixed in other ways.

8-Dale

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Its also acceptable if your really really lazy. :laughing:
It allows me to ‘reboot’ my computer in about 5 seconds which can be useful sometimes.

I usually just have a big fat / partition, a 200mb /boot partition and maybe a couple others for more specific purposes.
Never saw the point in having separate ones for /home and the like. I just ran out of space all the time.

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Yeah, I guess thats not really much of a tip, Its more of an answer. :laughing:

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Hi linuxguy,
Nice tips man. It is very helpful to me. I am a new to Linux and your tips is very interesting.
Thanks

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Well I am totally a new user to Linux and don’t know much more about its usage. I just know the basic concepts. Actually I want to work with it to avoid some typical risks with my applications and system. If you can have some tutorial or material which help me to gain knowledge of Linux than share it with me.