thinksinbinary's questions

I'm just reading about how lost+found is/was used to store corrupted files that came out of system recovery. However, searching my computer i can only mklost+found files and what appears to be binaries of that name.

Was there a reason for removing this folder?

I just came up with an idea for a useful computer program, but this would mean I would have to know how bash commands could be used to "click" on the gui buttons. Do you know anywhere I can find a list of explanations on how to do this or any examples to get me started?

I don't understand why my apt-cache would be empty, as there is a gazillion packages installed on my system (like all Ubuntu systems). I tried installing a random program and running it thinking that it might just show temporary packages, but got the same result.

I used find to make a text file containing everything on an external hard drive that has the .mp3 and .wma extension. I wanted to try using grep on the file in order to view the files without the preceding directories (just the lines themselves, it will look less cluttered). However, when i type this:

grep -h "*.mp3" mp3sCIR.txt 

nothing pops up. Yes, it's spelled correctly, and the file does actually contain the listing. I tried removing the -h and still nothing. Egrep works but does not suppress filename/path like requested.

I figure there has to be a way of making ls only display non-directories, but the man page doesn't make it obvious

I'm trying to install Bombono the DVD editing tool, and the readme tells me to build it with scons, only scons stops me with this warning:

scons: Reading SConscript files ...
Creating new config file: config.opts
Checking whether we are using the GNU C compiler ... yes
Checking whether we are using the Clang compiler ... no
Checking for pkg-config ... yes
Checking for C header file sys/types.h... yes
Checking for C header file sys/stat.h... yes
Checking for C header file stdlib.h... yes
Checking for C header file string.h... yes
Checking for C header file memory.h... yes
Checking for C header file strings.h... yes
Checking for C header file inttypes.h... yes
Checking for C header file stdint.h... yes
Checking for C header file unistd.h... yes
Checking for C header file dlfcn.h... yes
Checking for C header file sys/timeb.h... yes
Checking for C header file sys/time.h... yes
Checking for C header file time.h... yes
Checking for C header file io.h... no
Checking for struct timeval ... yes
Checking for C function ftime()... yes
Checking for C function gettimeofday()... yes
Checking maximum supported data alignment ... no
Checking whether compiler understands __builtin_expect ... yes
Checking return type of signal handlers ... void
Checking for inline ... yes ('inline')
Checking for restrict ... yes ('restrict')
Checking for DVDOpenFile() in C library dvdread... no

****************************************************
Can't find library libdvdread!
****************************************************

Researched the problem a bit and tried several downloads, one of them being updating gstreamer but it seems like the solutions are outdated

I thought of a possibly more convienient way to alter my home directory, and would like to know if I could alter the directories in the side bar of the file manager or if I would have to recompile it.

So I'm the only the user of my computer, and I eventually figured out how to enable the "su" user on my account with a password (really quite simple actually), just in case I ever needed to do something where I would keep having to authenticate permission.

I have no fear of hackers because I'm such a discrete/boring internet user, but I was curious if enabling my su would make my computer more vulnerable to cyber attacks, or what your concerns would be if your computer contained more sensitive information or you had more of a reason to be paranoid.

Or do the Ubuntu makers just try to stop you from making a su account just to keep you from screwing up your computer?

I have no problem running my C programs by switching to their directory and starting them with ./. However, I'm not sure why changing to the directory and then typing sh [Program Name] gives me this error:

Fortune_Teller_5000: 1: Fortune_Teller_5000: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

and:

./Fortune_Teller_5000: 1: ./Fortune_Teller_5000: Syntax error: "(" unexpected

I read in the bash man pages that the sh command is a shell that doesn't read the .bashrc file, so I'm a little confused as the why I can't use it to run programs I made. I did use it to install my printer drivers according to the directions on the HP Linux Imaging and Printing page.

Today I noticed that most bin/"executables" don't have the black arrow right of the bottom-of-the-logo-diamond, but a few do. From the ones i've seen, I think they're programs that are currently running.

Is this the case or is it something else?

Thanks

im familiar with wildcards and ?, but what I want to do is move albums into their appropriate directories using the "(Disc X)" located in the middle of the file.

So, I've switched to the directory of the flashdrive in the /media/ folder (too long to list here), and i tried this, but it just put ALL the albums into the destination folder:

mv *(Disc 3)* home/username/Music/WesRiverside3

now, mind you, the disc 3 will appear italicized when I put the asterisks around the word, if any editor wants to change it I would be happy to see how

and also all my bracket attempts have failed too

Grep works when I use is with ls | but when I try the command by itself, it just gives me a blinking cursor that never goes away on the next line (as if it's running a command).

For example, I tried:

ls | grep zip

while in the bin directory and got a list of files, but plain grep zip in the same directory gives me the problem stated above.

So, mount is supposed to show all file systems mounted in the OS file system. However, this is not the case for my system: the drive is called cdda//:sr0/, and no part of this is revealed in the mount command.

Did the Ubuntu developers get the idea to abandon the "one file system for all devices" scheme and create a separate file system for the cd-rom drive? This is what my intuition tells me.

Thanks

So in my "the linux command line" book, it says this

"The PATH variable is often (but not always, depending on the distribution) set by the /etc/profile startup file and with this code:

PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin"

when i open the etc/profile to see if it's there, it's not....but surely this bit of code has to be in the system? In the environment, there is the path variable, but it's not the same, there are several paths seperated by colons.

Where is this bit of code on my system, if at all?

So when im in recovery mode, if i scroll down to system-summary and press enter, the screen just goes black for a second then goes back to the recovery screen.

How can I actually do a system summary?

I'm just curious because I know the configuration for the password is located in /etc/passwd, but in the document I don't see my actual password anywhere, obviously for security reasons. I opened passwd- with less in the terminal and it can't be found there either.

How does Ubuntu know and read the password you give it?

When I use nautilus to browse a directory (the specific example in this one is the /media folder) I see nothing, but when I type ls -a in the terminal it shows:

. 
.. 

in blue. I'm aware that blue highlights are directories and the . and .. can symbolize parent and working directories, but why are they in the /media folder?

so i type do-release-upgrade -d and I get this:

Checking for a new Ubuntu release
No new release found

and I've tried upgrading the software in every way, it claims my version is up to date. I feel that upgrading is the only solution to stopping these computer crashes.

So before I reformatted (to get rid of Windows), I simply used this command to open documents by putting it at the end of the ~/.bashrc file:

alias commandless= 'gnome-open ./Documents/the-linux-command-line.pdf; gnome-open ./Documents/linux.odt'

But now everytime I start the terminal, it says:

bash: alias: gnome-open ./Documents/the-linux-command-line.pdf; gnome-open ./Documents/linux.odt: not found

before even typing anything in, and when I run the command nothing happens, not even error messages.

I've tested the cp command, and it will only copy individual files. For example, I typed cp followed by the exact filename, then typed the directory and the file got copied. However, when I typed the directory and the destination directory, nothing on the computer changed. I thought cp was supposed to copy contents in the directories.

I've tried this multiple times.