Know how to operate your terminal. In Kubuntu, it's called Konsole. It's a way to control your computer by typing commands for doing certain jobs. Unfortunately, you cannot avoid using terminal completely, but on the other hand, you will find it truly useful if you know how to use it. This sixth part of the series want to make you know how to use terminal by listing common, mostly used commands in Kubuntu. Enjoy!
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Read also Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.
Where is My Terminal?
Your terminal is Konsole in Kubuntu. Find it out on menu.
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| Konsole logo |
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| Konsole on Kubuntu menu |
What is Terminal?
Terminal or Konsole in Kubuntu is a place where you type a command and press Enter button to do a job. It's similar to Command Prompt on MS Windows. Here's how Konsole looks.
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| The terminal window in action |
1. Getting Started
Learn more about 3 commands in the Basic APT Commands.
To begin with terminal in Kubuntu, try these 3 commands:
- Reload (get list of software available from the internet):
$ sudo apt-get update
The result should looks like this:
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| Reloading, downloading index files |
Then, you can find software you want by this command:
- Search for software:
$ apt-cache search [software-name-here]The example for GIMP should looks like this:
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| Searching |
Then, you can install software you found by this:
- Install software:
$ sudo apt-get install [software-name-here]
The example of installing GIMP should looks like this:
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| Installing |
Tricks you could use for whole daily life:
- Press Y for yes, and N for no while asked to install.
- Press Ctrl+C to cancel a command.
- Press Ctrl+L to clear screen.
- Press TAB to autocomplete typing file name.
- Uppercase and lowercase matter, so don't type incorrectly.
2. Navigate
To master terminal is the same as to master file manager. Do you use Explorer on Windows? What is the first thing you learn? That's simply the same: you first learn how to navigate between folders, that is, knowing your position and find your files. In the terminal language, that is using pwd, ls, and cd commands.
Try out these commands:
$ pwdAnd it should looks like this:
$ ls
$ cd ~
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| Left=Konsole, Right=Dolphin, both showing the same folder ~/Pictures |
3. Edit
You can edit files in Konsole, too. This is needed for changing sources.list, resolv.conf, or even squid.conf or any settings available in the Kubuntu system. How to do that?
The rule: press Ctrl+O to save file, press Ctrl+X to exit.
Editing common file:
Editing system file:
Terminal in Dolphin!
Despite this has been already explained in the fourth part, it's very good to repeat that you can open Konsole inside Dolphin. This is much more easier for you so you don't need to type long folder address. This is most useful when you try to install .deb package (say, by you reading a tutorial from the internet) or fixing something on the system folders (e.g. installing WordPress).
to be continued...
This article is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.