Quick Tips

A disorganised collection of helpful howto information consistent with the goals of the project.

Quick tips divided into three sections for:

  • Cinnamon Linux Mint users, also relevant for other Linux and for macOS users
  • VirtualBox users in Windows to run Cinnamon within Windows
  • Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL) users, for which many of the Cinnamon tips are also relevant

Quick Tips for Cinnamon

How to quickly find last few commands to avoid retyping

Keep pressing the up arrow key. One press shows last command. Two presses the second last command. Can edit.

How to stop a command and also cancel a command quickly before executing it

  • Ctrl+C will cancel a command before execution and give you a new empty command line
  • Ctrl+C MAY stop a command while executing
  • Sometimes several quick Ctrl+C MAY stop a command while executing
  1. Ctrl+R
  2. Type in a few search letters
  3. Ctrl+R multiple times to keep going back and find a used command close to what you want
  4. Ctrl+S to go forward. DO NOT USE UNTIL YOU HAVE SEEN NEXT HINT. Otherwise your terminal will get frozen. Use Ctrl+Q to unfreeze ot use CTRL+C twice.
  5. Use any other keys to cease, navigate, and edit in line if necessary (including enter to accept command as is)
  6. Use Ctrl+C to cancel quickly
  1. stty -ixon required once in shell
  2. Can now use Ctrl+S in step 4 above to go forward again, after having gone backward with Ctrl+R
  3. To avoid typing in command stty -ixon in shell, add command into to ~/.bashrc.

How to DIRECTLY generate a html file, and so also pdf file, from a .md markdown file

Suppose you have been editing your .md markdown file in VSCode (code . in directory file is in). Suppose, for security reasons, you do not want to risk running the markdown file through hugo or some other such markdown processor because the file contains passwords and you need to avoid accidental publishing.

  1. Install VSCode Extension ‘Markdown All in One’. This allows a .md file to be saved directly as a .html file
  2. With markdown file open: press F1 or Ctrl+Shift+P to open commands
  3. Search for ‘Markdown All in One: Print current document to HTML’ and execute the command with Enter
  4. Find html document with Nemo or other file explorer and double click to open in browser.
  5. From browser: File, Print, Save as pdf.

How to preview a .md (markdown) file in VSCode without a local web server

Ctrl+Shift+V OR right click on Tab of file then click on ‘Open Preview’. The preview cannot be converted to a html document. Hence reason for tip above.

What is ~ and cd?

cd is the change directory command. On its own cd takes you to your home directory. ~ in a shell is the home directory. The commands cd and cd ~ both have the same effect (change to home directory).

How to generate an image of a portion of a screen. Also enables a lower resolution image to be made of an image and also crop an image

In Windows: Shift + Win + S, Use mouse + Left Button to draw a rectangle, copy image to clipboard or save as file

In Cinnamon Linux Mint: Shift + PrtScn, continue as above

How to quickly access, save and crop photographs on a mobile phone from laptop (Windows or Cinnamon)

  1. Plug phone into laptop with USB cable
  2. Unlock screen
  3. Go to DCIM directory (for Android)
  4. Go to camera directory
  5. Double click on any image to view
  6. Draw a rectangle over portion of image you want (Shift + PrtScn in Cinnamon)
  7. Save image to file

How to quickly copy and paste within a Cinnamon Terminal

  1. Select text within terminal
  2. Shift + Insert pastes where cursor is

General copy and paste anywhere within Cinnamon

  1. Select text
  2. Right Click Mouse, Copy
  3. Place cursor, Right Click Mouse, Paste

How to quickly copy and paste within an editor such as xed and VSC code in Cinnamon

As above but you can also use Ctrl + C for copy and Ctrl + V for paste. Also Ctrl + X for cut.

How to quickly undo and redo within an editor such as xed and VSC code in Cinnamon

Use Ctrl + Z for Undo and Ctrl + Y for Redo

Copy and paste within a non gui console shell (if mouse works)

  1. Select text
  2. Right Click Mouse

How to keep Cinnamon up to date without Update Manager

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

How to keep Homebrew (brew) installed software up to date

To upgrade all software use brew upgrade. Note there is no sudo.

If you installed software through brew with --cask then also run brew upgrade --cask.

You can upgrade individual installations, such as yarn or firebase cli with the same command used to install, such as brew install firebase-cli.

How to naviagte desktop workspaces in Cinnamon

Ctrl + Alt with arrow keys

Shifting windows within a desktop workspace in Cinnamon

Ctrl + Win with arrow keys. Note this key combination in Windows with left and right keys shift the desktop workspace in Windows. In Windows the equivalent is Win with arrow keys.

Release keyboard capture in VirtualBox with keyboard

Use the right Ctrl

Open VSC (Visual Studio Code) in a directory you are already in, in a shell (Linux or Windows)

code .

In WSL this will still work even without installing VSC within WSL. An extension required will be also be autimatically installed.

Also, within WSL, run `code .` from within a WSL shell.

Do not use 'right click`, `Open eith Code' from Windows FIle Explorer into a WSL file share (\\wsl$\)

note the full stop at end.

Open File Explorer Nemo in a directory you are already in, in a shell, such as Teminal, in Cinnamon

nemo .

note the full stop at end.

Open a shell (Terminal) at a directory in File Explorer Nemo in Cinnamon

  • Right Click on directory name or a space within a directory
  • Click on ‘Open in Terminal’

Open a shell (Terminal) with keyboard in Cinnamon

Ctrl + Alt + T

General autocomplete operation on files in Cinnamon terminal shell, including with editor xed

Normally Linux shell requires the directory to be specified as part of file name to confine autocomplete of filenames in a directory with Tab.

For example, suppose we want to operate on file with filename ‘filename_a’ in current directory with editor xed. Suppose no other files in directory start with name ‘fi’

Normally in Linux shells xed ./fi + Tab is required for autocompete to get the complete name xed ./filename_a

In Cinnamon Terminal the ‘./’ can be left out. So xed fi + Tab is sufficient to get the complete name xed ./filename_a

Also if you get no matches with a + Tab, then + Tab Tab will show you multiple matches, so you can add more letters and try + Tab again.

How to install VSC (Visual Studio Code) on Cinnamon

On macOS brew install --cask visual-studio-code may work

Copy and paste:

cd
sudo apt update
sudo apt install apt-transport-https
curl https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > microsoft.gpg
sudo install -o root -g root -m 644 microsoft.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/
rm microsoft.gpg
sudo sh -c 'echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/repos/vscode stable main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscode.list'
sudo apt update
sudo apt install code

Start with command code

How to install VSC (Visual Studio Code) on macOS

On macOS brew install --cask visual-studio-code may work

How to install OBS (Open Broadcaster Software) Studio on Cinnamon

From https://obsproject.com/wiki/install-instructions#ubuntumint-installation

Does not work with VirtualBox

Copy and paste:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install ffmpeg
sudo apt install v4l2loopback-dkms
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt update
sudo apt install obs-studio

Start with command obs

Yellow transparent circle around pointer cursors are commonly used with OBS presentations. By far the easiest way to achieve this is to modify the cursor itself, as it avoids many capture issues.

For use of OBS with Linux, a yellow transparent circle around pointer cursor package file is available from ycDmz at https://www.gnome-look.org/p/999856/. The ycDMZ folder needs to be copied into /usr/share/icons and ‘System Settings’, ‘Themes’, ‘Mouse Pointer’, ‘ycDMZ’ needs to be chosen.

For use of OBS with Windows, there are numerous .ico files to choose from.

No other approach works out of the box with OBS and no other approach lacks substantial frustrating issues.

If you do not use brew then use (and only use) ‘sudo -i’ with npm if -g (for global) is in the command (does not apply to Windows or if you use nvm).

Does not apply if you have used brew to install node/npm or install firebase-cli or if you are using nvm

There is an example of use in Basic Intallation

Firebase-tools occasionally advises upgrades to itself and other packages. Npm makes install and updates very easy. So if ‘-g’ is part of advice, prepend the advised command with ‘sudo -i’. If ‘-g’ is not part of advice, then do not prepend ‘sudo -i’

Make sure ‘-i’ is added to ‘sudo’ to allow the correct environment for install or update.

An npm command with ‘i’ or ‘install’ also updates.

VirtualBox on Windows

If you normally run Windows but intend supporting users who will only run Cinnamon then using VirualBox is helpful to run an instance of Cinnamon within Windows.

Obscure error if using older versions of VirtualBox with Windows

If you are using VirtualBox 6.1.30 or above this does not apply

If you are using VirtualBox 6.1.28 and WSL and cannot get VirtualBox to boot your VMs due to "...Call to NEMR0InitVMPart2 failed: VERR_NEM_INIT_FAILED (VERR_NEM_VM_CREATE_FAILED)..." please see https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=104175&start=15

Solution: turn off hyperv

  1. open a cmd with admin privilige
  2. bcdedit.exe /set hypervisorlauchtype off
  3. reboot

When running WSL: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype auto When running Visualbox: bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

If you are using VirtualBox 6.1.26 then you cannot use

apt update
apt upgrade

as this command will attempt to install the MESA upgrade that a fresh install of Linux Mint 20.2 wants

WSL Quick Tips. Most Cinnamon Tips Above Also Apply

Most relevant for those who use Debian and Ubuntu distributions for WSL2 for Windows 11.

Difference between ‘wsl’, ‘wsl ~’ and ‘wsl command’

The wsl command is specific to windows and is normally run from a PS (PowerShell) or CMD shell.

wsl on its own starts a wsl interactive shell (normally bash) in the Windows directory launched from. Handy to run commands such as grep text file in the bash shell to search for text within file.

wsl ~on its own starts an interactive shell in the wsl home directory, not the windows directory launched from

Type exit to leave WSL bash shell and renter windows shell.

wsl cmd enters bash shell, runs command and exits back to Windows,

For example wsl grep text file will search for text within file of the windows directory currently in.

However wsl grep text ~/file (note the extra ~/) will search for text within file of the WSL home directory.

The WSL2 file system, the Windows file system and the cross file system latency penalty

The WSL2 file system can be accessed from Windows through the \\wsl$\ file share and can be mapped to a network drive.

Within wsl, windows drives, such as C:, are accessed as /mnt/c.

There is a severe latency penalty running WSL2 commands on Windows file system files, as also running windows commands on WSL file system files.

Please see archive example below for an example to minimise this impact. Copying an already packaged archived file across file systems involves far less file system operations than creating the packaged archived file, no matter what file system it was created within.

How to determine if a command crosses a file system (and so might be better if rewritten to avoid latency)

This is applicable to WSL2, not WSL1.

Note to execute Windows commands in wsl you need the full file name of the command, so if the command includes .exe in its name this must be included.

  1. If you pass a parameter to a wsl command with /mnt/x in it, where x represents a Windows drive, then you are crossing.
  2. If you pass a parameter to a windows command with \\wsl$\ (or with a mapping with same), then you are crossing.
  3. If you execute any command that includes files or directories from one file system to another, for example creating a packaged archive of files from one file system to another, then you are crossing.

For the last example, it is far more efficient to package within the same file system and then copy the finished package across. There is an example below.

Paradoxically, executing a windows command within wsl that does not include \\wsl$\ does not necessarily cross. For example within wsl notepad.exe 'C:\Users\john\hello.txt' does not cross. However the system environment used by such Windows commands within wsl is really not appropriate, so you need a good reason.

For illustrative purposes, executing from wsl notepad.exe /mnt/c/Users/john/hello.txt is incorrect and will not work. If you do startup a Windows command that includes .exe, it is going to expect to use a name consistent with rules recognised by normal Windows. VSC is an exception. So is the MINGW64/MYS2 shell, but it parses and corrects the path of arguments, so it is not the same.

How to use File Explorer Nautilus (and other GUIs) with WSL2 on Windows 11

Have a look at https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/gui-apps

There is no need to install VSC (Visual Studio Code) under WSL2. Running code . in a WSL shell will open its VSC GUI part in Windows but will interact with WSL using WSL commands through a network extension, including visible terminal (or shell) commands.

Why use Nautilus instead of Windows File Explorer with WSL2?

If you prefer to move around large files and directories within WSL2 with a GUI, rather than a shell, then Nautilus avoids a severe and well known latency issue between Windows and WSL with regards to files.

So instead of explorer.exe . in a WSL2 shell use nautilus . in the WSL2 shell. Please see above tip for more information.

How to execute WSL shell commands directly from a Windows shell

Contrast entering interactive WSL shell

PS C:\Users\john> wsl ~           # append ~ to start interactive shell in WSL home directory
john@DESKTOP-JOHN:~$ ls -l hello  # show permissions of hello that were changed with command chmod 550 hello
-r-xr-x--- 1 john john 21 Jan 31 14:05 hello
john@DESKTOP-JOHN:~$ cat hello    # show contents of hello executable file
#!/bin/sh
echo hello                        # send 'hello' to standard output
john@DESKTOP-JOHN:~$ ./hello      # execute script file hello
hello
john@DESKTOP-JOHN:~$

with direct execution of WSL commands from a Windows shell without entering interactive WSL shell

PS C:\Users\john> wsl ls -l ~/hello
-r-xr-x--- 1 john john 21 Jan 31 14:05 /home/john/hello
PS C:\Users\john> wsl cat ~/hello
#!/bin/sh
echo hello
PS C:\Users\john> wsl ~/hello
hello
PS C:\Users\john>

Please see a more practical example below.

Backup to archive within WSL2 and copy archive file from WSL2 filesystem to Windows filesystem with four different shells

This incomplete example avoids inefficiently creating an archive across file system boundaries of WSL2 and Windows. See above also

Enter a WSL shell with wsl ~ and copy and paste:

cat <<EOF > ~/wsl_home_backup
bufile=wsl_home_backup.tgz
cd ~
tar -zcvf \$bufile --exclude=\$bufile --exclude=./.* --exclude=.git --exclude=node_modules --exclude=*.log --exclude=generated --exclude=target --exclude=cache  . .bashrc .profile .git*
EOF

chmod 770 ~/wsl_home_backup

Remove \ before $ above (twice) if you do not use cat <<EOF.

Following are four simple examples of controlling the backup, with three different shells from Windows and one WSL shell. These commands can be placed into script files and made more robust by testing for existence of ~/wsl_home_backup file and for the backup directory as well as with further variable use.

Using Powershell:

wsl ~/wsl_home_backup
Copy-Item -Path \\wsl$\Debian\home\john\wsl_home_backup.tgz -Destination D:\backups\wsl

Using CMD:

wsl ~/wsl_home_backup
powershell Copy-Item -Path \\wsl$\Debian\home\john\wsl_home_backup.tgz -Destination D:\backups\wsl

Using MINGW64:

powershell 'wsl ~/wsl_home_backup'
powershell 'Copy-Item -Path \\wsl$\Debian\home\john\wsl_home_backup.tgz -Destination D:\backups\wsl'

Using WSL:

~/wsl_home_backup
powershell.exe 'Copy-Item -Path \\wsl$\Debian\home\john\wsl_home_backup.tgz -Destination D:\backups\wsl'
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