Aptitude (Command-line package manager)

Here are some commands to use (usually with sudo):
aptitude update -- update the package repo
aptitude safe-upgrade
aptitude full-upgrade
aptitude search 'part of package name'
aptitude show package-name
aptitude install package-name

Switching Linux Consoles

Turns out linux has several consoles going at once. From within my Gnome session I can press Ctrl-Alt-F1 and bring up console one. Gnome is running on console 7 so Ctrl-Alt-F7 brings me back into Gnome. Ctrl-Alt-F1 through Crtl-Alt-F7 work. Notice that Crtl-Alt-F1 takes you to TTY1 and Ctrl-Alt-F6 to TTY6. Having a full terminal to run from is handy when the session on TTY7 (Gnome) gets messed up some how.

Ctrl-Alt-F8 brings up some text, maybe system messages or something but it doesn't look like a command line I can do something with.

A little research suggest nothing runs on Terminals 8-12 initially.

Adding key to apt so ppa packages can be authenticated

I use a program called KeePass on Windows to manage passwords. There is a project called KeePassX for Linux that will use the same password database file I use on windows. To install it on Ubuntu 9.04 AMD-64, I did the following:

Add the source to Ubuntu (System > Administration > Software Sources)

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/keepassx/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/keepassx/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

Add the project signing key to apt:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 095F1873
The signing key from launchpad was 1024R/095F1873 (note the part after the slash is used in the apt-key command.
The ppa page from which I got this information:
https://launchpad.net/~keepassx/+archive/ppa?field.series_filter=jaunty

Adding key to apt so ppa packages can be authenticated

When you add Third-Party Software Sources to Ubuntu, you will likely want to add those sources' shared keys to the apt so that when you update your packages a warning stating that some packages cannot be authenticated can be avoided. I get tired of it coming up. So, In my case I added

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/keepassx/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/keepassx/ppa/ubuntu jaunty main

as sources.

Then I added the corresponding key to apt with this command:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 095F1873

095F1873 is part of the PPA's PGP signing key (1024R/095F1873)

Trapped in Terminal Server Client Full Screen

The Terminal Server Client (tsClient) that I use with Ubuntu (9.04) works quite well. But if you don't know how to escape full screen mode, it can be frustrating.

The key sequence Ctrl-Alt-Enter toggles full screen.

Killing processes in linux

I have a laptop running Ubuntu 9.04. Recently Lotus Notes was installed on it. Notes seems to become unstable some times. The instability is so bad that I can't close the program in the normal way (mouse-click the 'x' button in the upper right corner. I would have to run

ps ax | grep notes

to get the process id and then run

sudo kill -9 *procId*

to kill it.

Tyler, a coworker, pointed out to me that I could add 'Force Quit' to the panel at the top. When you press that you can just click on a misbehaving window to kill it.