desktop – Greg Laden's Blog

How do I tell what version of everything I’m running (Linux)

Greg Laden — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 01:18:21 +0000

Linux has a kernel, there is a desktop manager, a desktop environment, a distribution, and a whole bunch of other stuff. All these things and other things have version numbers and similar information associated with them. If you are a casual user, you probably don’t know the exact version of any or all of these things you are running at any one moment in time. Then, suddenly, you find out that “Version this-or-that of this thing-or-another is out, have you tried it?” or “The whatchamacalit version of the thingimijob is broken, if you have that upgrade or you will all die!!!” or similar. So then, you want to know what version you are running.

Here are a few ways to find out that information.

In KDE, go to the command line and run the command

kinfocenter

That will pop up a box with all sorts of information about what you are running, and about hardware, and all sorts of other things. The current version of kinfocenter has the most annoying tool tips on the planet, but otherwise, is useful.

There is a similar thing in Gnome. Go to the standard toolbar on the top and open up the thingie by that looks like an off on switch or audio level adjuster. That will open a spooky looking box that includes the actual audio volume control, an actual on switch, some other stuff, and a toolbox icon. Open the toolbox icon, and in there, click on about. You won’t get as much info as KDE gives you, but you’ll have the desktop name, version, your computer name, and some basic hardware information.

A lot of information is stored inside variables and system files on your computer. There are therefore a large number of different command line ways to access this information. Here are some examples:

I’m running a current version of KDE, so I get this answer:

greg@cj:~$ echo $DESKTOP_SESSION plasma

The type of window manager is stored in the name of a file in a system directory, and you can get that like this:

greg@cj:~$ ls /usr/bin/*session /usr/bin/dbus-run-session

There is a command called “env” which invokes a long readout of way more information than you will ever want. But you can grep it. For example:

greg@cj:~$ env | grep DESKTOP DESKTOP_SESSION=plasma XDG_SESSION_DESKTOP=KDE XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=KDE

This is a command that prints out various system information data about the kernel, the machine, the processor, etc. With no options, or just the -s option, it prints out the kernel name, like this:

greg@cj:~$ uname -s Linux

But you can get much much more

greg@cj:~$ uname -srm Linux 4.15.0-42-generic x86_64

To see all the options, run “man uname” to see the man page.

The Linux command “cat” prints out a file. There are a few cat tricks you can use.

greg@cj:~$ cat /etc/os-release NAME="Ubuntu" VERSION="18.04.1 LTS (Bionic Beaver)" ID=ubuntu ID_LIKE=debian PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS" VERSION_ID="18.04" HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/" SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/" BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/" PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy" VERSION_CODENAME=bionic UBUNTU_CODENAME=bionic


greg@cj:~$ cat /etc/issue

Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS \n \l

There is a command to print out distribution specific information, with the handy -a switch to dump it all to the screen.

greg@cj:~$ lsb_release -a No LSB modules are available. Distributor ID: Ubuntu Description: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS Release: 18.04 Codename: bionic

And finally, the command hostnamectl, which allows you to change the hostname (don’t do this if you don’t know what it is) or get information about the hose.

greg@cj:~$ hostnamectl Static hostname: cj Icon name: computer-desktop Chassis: desktop Machine ID: c9c8b3b223c34d14ae7fcabfbf1f2c1c1ba Boot ID: 6dba797cc332bbababb58c7373dba9797c Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS Kernel: Linux 4.15.0-42-generic Architecture: x86-64

So, now you know how to find out a whole bunch of information you almost never really need, but when you do …

Computer Terms Definitions — “D”

Greg Laden — Fri, 29 Jun 2018 02:30:58 +0000

Terms used in the personal computer world that begin with the letter “D”

Desktop: The screen “real estate” that coveres a monitor on which icons may be placed, and which is generally covered up when an application is open.
Desktop: A type of computer which usually includes a “box” containing a CPU, hard drives, and other hardware, a separate keyboard, separate monitor, and so on. Sometimes the monitor and the “box” are integrated.
Desktop: Also called a “Desktop environment,” the main all encompassing user interface associated with a specific distribution of Linux. Examples are “Gnome Desktop” and “KDE” (note that the “K” in KDE originally stood for “kool” so that KDE meant Kool Desktop Environment.” This is a wordplay on the “Common Desktop Environment” or CDE, which was a unix system based on x11 technology. Soon after the name first went into use the meaning “kool” was dropped and everyone tried to forget about it. Some have suggested that KDE is a typical recursive term, like GNU (GNU = “GNU is Not Unix”), and would thus mean “KDE Desktop Environment.”)
Desktop: The surface of a piece of furniture typically with a legwell, drawers, etc., on which one puts a computer for normal use. See also “Lap” and “Laptop”
Desktop: An individual “workspace” consisting of a virtual desktop, icons and other things that go on a desktop, which may or may not be part of a particular desktop environment’s capabilities, allowing a user to expand screen real estate by a factor of how many separate virtual desktops are defined.

Which Linux Do I Turn To In My Hour of Need?

Greg Laden — Sun, 30 Sep 2012 02:06:51 +0000

RIP Ubuntu. Ubuntu was great. For years, I kept trying to get my own Linux box up and running, initially so I could relive the halcyon days of UNIX and later so I could avoid Windows. But every time I tried to get Linux working some key thing would not be configurable or would not work. Well, I’m sure it was configurable and could work but configuring it and making it work was beyond me. Those were also the days when what little support was available on the Internet was limited mostly to the sort of geeks who prefer to give answers that are harder to parse than one’s original problem. In other words, studied unhelpfulness was all that was available to the novice. Then, one day, two or three forms of Linux that were supposed to be installable and usable by the average computer-savvy person came on the scene at once, including Suse Linux, some thing called Lindows or Winlux or something, and Ubuntu. I tried the first two because they seemed to have more support, and I got results, but the results still sucked. Meanwhile, I has a computer working on downloading an install disk for this strange African thing, Ubuntu, which seemed to have a problem with their server being really slow. But, because it was South African, and at the time I was living about one fifth the time in South Africa, I thought that was cool so I stuck with it.

Eventually, I had a usable install disk for Ubuntu, I installed it, it worked. I installed it on a laptop as a dual boot system with Windows, and on a spare desktop. Within a few months, I installed it on my main desktop instead of Windows, and a few months after that, I realized that I had never booted up the Windows system on the dual boot laptop, so I reconfigured that computer to be Linux only. And that was it.

Ubuntu was based on a version of Linux called Debian. There are many Linux families out there, but the two biggies are Debian and Red Hat/Fedora. The former is very non-commercial and very free-as-in-software free Open Sourcey, while the latter is all that but also has a significant business model. People like to pay for their operating systems, so Red Hat/Fedora gave large companies and institutions the opportunity to pay for what was really free, and in so doing, they would get (paid for) support and training.

In a way, Debian is what makes Linux go around, and Fedora Linux is what makes the world (of the internet, etc.) go around. Sort of.

Debian and Fedora are two different systems in a number of fundamental ways. All Linux families use the same kernels, the underlying deep part of the system. But this kernel is associated with a bunch of other stuff that makes for a complete system. This includes the way in which software is installed, upgraded, or removed, and some other stuff. Each family has it’s own (very similar) version of the original UNIX file system, and so on. Back when I was first messing around, I did get to play with Fedora and its system a bit, and I quickly came to like Debian’s system better than Red Hat/Fedora, especially because of the software management system (apt/synaptic) which I thought worked much better than the Fedora system (yum).

As I said, Ubuntu was based on Debian, but from the very start, Ubuntu included some differences from the standard. For example, the exact configuration of the underlying file system was different. The original Debian file system was there so that software would know what to do, but everything in that file system (or almost everything) was a pointer to the Ubuntu file system. This actually made messing around under the hood difficult until, eventually, a strong Ubuntu-only community developed. You would see people refer to Ubuntu as opposed to Linux, which is a noob mistake and wrong, but over time, in fact, Ubuntu, even though it was based on Debian, became fundamentally different from both Debian and Red Hat/Fedora to the extent that it really had to be thought of as a different family of Linux.

And that was fine as long as Ubuntu was doing what most other Linux systems did, meaning, remain configurable, don’t change the work flow or how things operate too dramatically, don’t make up new ways of doing things just to make everyone upgrade to a new product, don’t try to be Windows, don’t try to be a Mac, and always follow the UNIX Philosophy, more or less. Over the last several months, though, Ubuntu has in my view, and the view of many, jumped the shark. It may well be that future new desktop users will appreciate Ubuntu as a system, and that’s great. If Ubuntu continues to bring more people into the fold, then I support the idea. I just don’t want it on my computers any more.

I have a desktop that I’ve not upgraded in way too many releases because I’ve not liked the new versions of Ubuntu. I have a laptop that I upgraded to the most current version of Ubuntu, then undid a lot of the features, and I’m using the desktop Xfce instead of Unity, the desktop that Ubuntu installs by default. And, I want to put Linux on a G5 Power PC.

So, this is the part where I ask for suggestions. I have a feeling that there will be more suggestions on Google+ when I post this there, so please be warned: I’ll transfer actual suggestions from G+ over to the original blog post comments sections, at least in the beginning of this discussion, unless a commenter tells me not to.

The following table shows what I want to do. Notice the question marks. There is an advantage to having the same system on all three machines, but that is not a requirement. The desktop has two monitors, and assume I want to run a 64 bit system on it, and the laptop is a bit slow. The primary uses for all the computers are simple: Web browser and running emacs for text writing, and a handful of homemade utilities for managing graphics and files, and a bit of statistical processing with R-cran now and then.

So, what do I fill into this table?

Hardware	Base System (Ubuntu, Fedora, Etc)?	Desktop
Older intel dual core HP workstation	?	?
Dell laptop	?	?
Mac G4 PowerPC	?	?

I’m intentionally avoiding a lot of details. I’ll get a new graphics card for the desktop if I need it, and other adjustments can be made. Also, this workstation may well get replaced with a different computer that makes less noise than a Boeing 747 taking off during a hurricane. The point is, desktop with dual monitors running a 64 bit system.

What do you think?

Some Linux/Ubuntu related books:
Ubuntu Unleashed 2016 Edition: Covering 15.10 and 16.04 (11th Edition)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS Desktop: Applications and Administration
The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction