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Using the Bash complete Command

Category: Computer TricksLinuxTechnology
Posted on: May 22, 2009 8:19 PM, by Greg Laden

This is mundane but important.

A word on the command line. I recently read a critique of Linux written by some pinhead from Russia explaining in detail why Linux was not "desktop ready." Which is laughable. Anyway, Dweeb claimed that one of the reasons that Linux was not desktop ready is that it is not the case that every option can be managed with a GUI.

So, if having every option accessible under a GUI is a drop dead feature for an OS to be desktop ready then there are no such desktops. There is not a single operating system that does not have some options, often very important ones, either only accessible via a command line, or for all practical purposes only accessible under a GUI.

I have an experimental system with funky hardware and an overtaxed experimental installation of Linux running some questionable software in my blog cave. The other day I actually managed to freeze the desktop. Totally el-deado. What did I do?

Alt-Ctrl FunctionKey whatever (any of the lower numbers will generally work).

This got me to another instance of the system at at terminal. A big blank screen with a command prompt.

So I typed in:

sudo shutdown now

the system asked me for the password, and shut down, allowing me to reboot cleanly.

Say no more.

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