NES's questions

When i use the cp or move command in a terminal window, i'm currently with bash in a certain folder like this.

NES@server:~/Desktop/dir1$

And now i wanna copy a file from here ~/anotherdir/dir2 into the current chosen folder in bash (dir1) i would use the command

cp ~/anotherdir/dir2/file ~/Desktop/dir1

does a shortcut string exist to refer to the current chosen directory? So that in this example i don't have to provide the full path to the target dir, but the command knows it should use the current chosen directory in bash? i.e. as ~ stands for the home directory?

I'm searching for a way to remap certain keys in ubuntu.

i.e.

I'd like to change PgUp to Home or PgDown to End.

Does a built-in command or a tool exist reassign keys in Ubuntu/GNOME?

Is there a way to show the history of packages that were changed by apt-get via command line?

How can I create an empty file from the command line?

Assuming i have a line that i want to add to a file without opening an editor.

How could i append this line

alias list='ls -cl --group-directories-first'

to this file

config.fish

Is there a option to search within manpages?

I was asked for root credentials to setup my printer in Ubuntu. This seemed to be caused by a bug. And the suggested workaround is to create a root password. Since it is default that no root password is used in Ubuntu, i wonder how i could revert this changes.

Once i have set a password for root, is there a method to disable it again?

What are transitional packages and what exact purpose do they have?

Are there any differences between insmod and modprobe?

I often see tutorials on the web or posts on this site which make heavy use of the following characters at the command line. Often it seems that they are used for pretty similar purposes. What are the differences between them when used on the command line or for shell programming? For what purpose do I use which of them?

" " double quotes

' ' single quotes

` ` backticks

I'd like to use a beep sound in a shell script. Unfortunately none of the methods I found via Google work for me.

I tried

echo -e '\a'

echo -ne '\007'

and the command beep after I installed it via apt.

What could be the reason?

Recently when I tried to open a video with VLC, my system slowed down, the open applications webbrowser, VLC and filemanager and others didn't react any longer. The mouse just reacted still very slowly.

On a windows machine i would press a keycombi CTRL-ALT-DEL to open the taskmanager, search the process which caused the hang and kill it.

Since i'm fairly new with the use of linux i haven't figured out the best practice for solve such a situation in Ubuntu.

Which quick and effective way would you recommend to identify the hanging process and close it, when the system already reacts very slowly on user input?

How can I automatically shutdown the system after a certain customizable time?

When I make some changes to the shell/bash behavior, such as setting up an alias, is there a quick command to reinitialize the terminal window instead of closing and opening a new window?

What is the equivalent option for the ls command to activate pagination as in DOS the dir /p does?

I'm searching for a good filemanager in style of the classic norton commander 2 panel design? Since i had my best experiences with Total Commander in Windows, which one would you recommend for use in Ubuntu?

Is there a command to close a terminal window via commandline?

I read about how to enable and disable services in Ubuntu and it seems that there are different possibilities to manage them.

The first method I found is update-rc.d to add new services to startup, which aims on the /etc/init.d folder and its contents.

The other one I found is to edit .conf files in the /etc/init folder.

What's the recommended way to enable / disable / add services and why?

Could you please give a short bulletproof step by step example on how to add a service in Ubuntu and enable and disable it?

I remember a longer time ago there was an anouncement that some Ubuntu developers were planing to bring the possibility to Ubuntu to run Android Apps on an Ubuntu and planned to write an environment for this purpose.

Since this announcement i havn't heard again anything about this plans. And via Google nothing couldn't be found.

Are these plans abandoned?

For a bash timer i use this code:

#!/bin/bash
sek=60
echo "60 Seconds Wait!"
echo -n "One Moment please "
while [ $sek -ge 1 ]
do
   echo -n "$sek "  
sleep 1
   sek=$[$sek-1]
done
echo
echo "ready!"

That gives me something like that

One Moment please: 60 59 58 57 56 55 ...

Is there a possibility to replace the last value of second by the most recent so that the output doesn't generate a large trail but the seconds countdown like a real time at one position? (Hope you understand what i mean :))