5 Ubuntu Linux Tweaks – Simple Yet Powerful

Every time you install ubuntu linux on your workstation, it comes preconfigured with some features which are least required and are nothing more than an annoyance. In most cases, simple command line workarounds are easy to use instead of the oftentimes buggy GUI.These are the five tweaks I have on my to-do list each time I install a fresh copy of Ubuntu.

• When was the last time your ISP blocked you on the network for too much torrent or erratic logins, and you were looking around for any way to get through that “You are not allowed to login!” page?
  Here is the inside scoop. Your ISP identifies you on the network through your computer name and your network interface’s MAC address. Changing the computer name is possible with the GUI in almost any Linux distro nowadays. Similarly, to change the mac address, all you have to do is:

1. Enter the root mode.
2. Turn off the device.
3. Change the mac address.
4. Turn on the device.

• Sometimes it might so happen that your display manager freezes. Now as the display manager manages pretty much all of the nautilus and a lot more, you are left with no choice but force a restart. An alternative to this is:

1. Go to a terminal login window.
2. Supply username and password. Make sure you are root.
3. Key in this code to stop gdm.

   /etc/init.d/gdm stop

4. Key in this code to restart gdm.

   /etc/init.d/gdm start

5. Only your display manager is restarted, not the whole computer.

• UAC to me is just an annoyance, be it either in Windows or Linux, because when I
  
  double click on a setup or a configuration I am pretty sure that I want to run it. To disable UAC:

1. Open

   /etc/sudoers

   in gedit window.

2. Change

   %admin ALL=(ALL) ALL

   to

   %admin ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

• Power management in ubunut linux is known to spoil hard disks at times. It did spoiled mine when I installed a ZFS file system. It is safer to disable power management. To disable power management:

1. Key in

   sudo hdparm -B 255 -S 240 /dev/hda

• To disable the annoying pc beeps in Ubuntu Linux:

1. Edit the blacklist file using

   gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

2. add

    blacklist pcspkr

3. Save the file.