Linux

Shows how to turn a USB stick into Ubuntu install media from a Windows PC using the free Rufus tool. The page notes it has been superseded by a newer guide, but the steps still explain the idea.

A walkthrough for installing Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 LTS from a USB stick. It covers writing the image, booting the installer, choosing a disk layout and creating your account.

Covers choosing a Mint edition, verifying the ISO, making bootable media, booting the live session and installing. It also has post-install tips on drivers and codecs plus troubleshooting for EFI, dual boot and partitioning.

Answers common questions about the Debian installer, including shrinking a Windows partition, collecting logs, rescue mode, RAID/LVM and preseeding. Good when an install misbehaves or needs something beyond the defaults.

The official installation manual for Debian 13 (trixie), available in HTML, PDF and text for six CPU architectures and many languages. It is the reference for preparing media, partitioning and installing.

Explains what firmware is and why most of it is non-free, and how Debian 12 and later includes it on install media. Covers what to do on older releases or when a device needs firmware Debian does not ship.

Covers copying and moving files in the GNOME file manager using copy/paste, cut/paste or drag and drop, with modifier keys to force copy or move.

The official user help for the GNOME desktop used by Ubuntu, Fedora and others. It covers apps, files, networking, sound, settings, accessibility and tips.

The index of the official Mint user guide, linking to pages on Update Manager, boot menu, Bluetooth, printers and scanners, and upgrading between releases. The site says it is still being expanded.

Shows several ways to open programs in GNOME: searching in Activities, using the dash or app grid, and launching by command with Alt+F2.

Explains the Super+Tab window switcher and how to cycle through apps and an app's grouped windows.

A list of GNOME shortcuts for switching windows and workspaces, opening Activities, locking the screen, copy/paste (including Terminal variants) and screenshots.

A multi-part online tutorial covering navigation, viewing and manipulating files, redirection, expansion, permissions and job control. It opens with a short example of why command-line skills are worth learning.

The free PDF of William Shotts' book, hosted on SourceForge as linked from linuxcommand.org. Read it start to finish or dip into chapters.

A free 596-page book that teaches the shell and shell scripting from scratch and then moves on to common programs and advanced topics. The page links the PDF download.

A gentle introduction to the terminal: opening it, moving around the file system, creating and deleting files, pipes, man pages and safe use of sudo. The page says it has been replaced by a newer version and targets Ubuntu 18.04.

A broad post-install guide to the Debian system using shell examples. Chapters include Unix tutorials, package management, networking, authentication and data management.

Introduces shell scripting: writing and editing scripts, variables, functions, flow control, user input, positional parameters and error handling with traps.

Practical advice on avoiding self-inflicted breakage: do not mix releases, prefer packaged drivers, avoid make install and read APT's removal lists before confirming.

Explains how to install Flatpak on Debian, add the Flathub repository and install and run sandboxed apps, with notes on security trade-offs.

A short disambiguation page that explains the difference between the APT package system and the apt command-line tool, and points to deeper pages.

Explains how to update package lists, install, remove, purge and upgrade software with apt, plus pinning, mixing releases and cleaning up automatically installed packages.

How to control which repositories APT uses, including the newer deb822 .sources format, fields like Suites and Components, and migrating old sources.list files.

Official documentation for Ubuntu Server, including a section on managing software packages, updates and upgrades alongside installation, networking and security.

Graphical steps for creating another user account in GNOME Settings, including account type, password and parental controls.

Explains what sudo does, how to install it and add a user to the sudo group, and how to safely edit sudoers rules with visudo and /etc/sudoers.d.

Describes Debian's special system groups, how to list a user's groups and add members, and which groups (like disk or sudo) carry serious privileges.

Describes /etc/passwd, /etc/shadow and /etc/group, how to edit them safely, and the tools for changing, locking and disabling accounts and managing groups.

An index of common network problems such as missing Wi-Fi networks, slow connections and dropouts, each pointing to a more detailed fix.

Explains what a driver is, why most are built into Linux, and why some devices only partly work or need manual installation.

A step-by-step guide to diagnosing Wi-Fi problems: initial checks, gathering hardware info, testing the hardware, connecting to the router and checking modem and router.

Shows how to join a Wi-Fi network from the GNOME system menu and what the signal icon means.

Explains how to get Wi-Fi working using NetworkManager, IWD, wpa_supplicant with ifupdown or systemd-networkd, and how to verify the connection.

Covers configuring networking on Debian with NetworkManager, systemd-networkd, Netplan or /etc/network/interfaces, including DHCP, static IPs, DNS, bridges, VLANs and bonding.

Shows how to make your user own a folder and everything inside it with chown -R, and optionally the group too. It's useful when files created with sudo have become unwritable.

du -hs gives a single human-readable total for a folder. The answer explains the -h (human-readable) and -s (summary) flags and how to sort folder sizes.

On Ubuntu, members of the sudo group can already use sudo, so you just add the user to that group instead of editing /etc/sudoers. The change takes effect at the user's next login.

Explains how dpkg, apt and the graphical installers relate, and how to install a downloaded .deb package from the terminal, including fixing missing dependencies afterwards.

A clear reference to shell redirection: > overwrites a file, >> appends, 2> captures errors, and tee shows output on screen while also writing it to a file.

sed -i 's/old/new/g' file edits a file in place, replacing every match. The answer breaks down each part of the command. Note that -i overwrites the file, so test without it first.

Joe Collins (EzeeLinux) gives a beginner's guide to the Bash terminal.

A roughly 40-minute Linux command line tutorial from Robotics Back-End, per the title.

The opening episode of Learn Linux TV's Linux Commands for Beginners series.

NeuralNine presents a crash course on the Linux terminal for absolute beginners.