I use Ubuntu Linux, but these tips should apply to anyone using Gnome.

Shortcuts

gconf-editor

This is basically the Gnome equivalent of the Windows registery, only slightly less evil. A few handy options lurk here, amidst a ton of stuff most people could care less about. The location of some useful options follow.

Desktop icons

Add or remove system desktop icons from the desktop

/ > apps > nautilus > desktop > *

Use dektop as /home/$user

Kinda odd, this one. It uses the contents of your home folder as the desktop icons.

/ > apps > nautilus > preferences > desktop_is_home_dir

Command Line

Mount ISO files

sudo mkdir /media/iso

sudo modprobe loop

sudo mount file.iso /media/iso/ -t iso9660 -o loop

To unmount Image (ISO) file

sudo umount /media/iso/

To convert dvr-ms file

ffmpeg -i Heroes_KTAL_29_01_2007_19stream_58_02.dvr-ms -vcodec mpeg2video out.mpg

slowmo, no sound

Grab realmedia file

mplayer -dumpstream rtsp://a445.v78703.c7870.g.vr.akamaistream.net/ondemand/7/445/7870/v0001/mitstorage.download.akamai.com/7870/8/8.01/f99/videolectures/wl99lec8-80k.rm

Dump the soundtrack to stream.dump

mplayer "myfile.flv" -dumpaudio

play FLV files

gmplayer filename.flv

62x24 - ideal terminal window size for irssi

captive ntfs

Checking installation archive integrity... done.

Extracting Captive... done.

Initializing Captive...

./install: line 58: /sbin/chkconfig: No such file or directory

touch: cannot touch `/var/lock/subsys/captive': No such file or directory

Initialization done.

NTFS disk drives can be now mounted by:

You can later uninstall Captive by executing: /etc/captive-uninstall.sh

Install a new font. (For a single user)

If ~/.fonts does not exist, create it:

$ mkdir ~/.fonts

Copy the font, from the command line, run the following:

$ cp fontfile ~/.fonts

From the command line, run the following:

$ fc-cache -f -v ~/.fonts

or alternatively, log out, and log back in.

How to make deb packages