Category: Tutorials

Get System Information With The ‘uname’ Command In Linux

Today we’ll be learning about a basic Linux command that’s known as ‘uname’ and it will be available in every Linux you are likely to touch. The uname command is one way to show some important system information in the Linux terminal.

You won’t even need to install anything. That’ll keep things easy and short!

The uname command stands for ‘Unix Name’ and is a part of ‘coreutils’, meaning it’s a default application included with Linux. If you’re using Linux, you almost certainly have the uname command available to you. I suppose someone might have stripped it out of an embedded system somewhere, but even that’s unlikely.

The uname command is used for displaying system information. It’s a bit limited in scope, but it still has useful information and the command is one you’ll see referenced often enough.

As I said, it’s a core utility in Linux. That means that uname is included with a bunch of other core utilities. If you want, you can easily check the man page with this command:

If you do that, you’ll see this:

uname – print system information

So, this command can and will show system information. That’d be what I told you it did in the first paragraph. I do my best to not steer you wrong and that’s exactly what we’ll do with this article.

So, let’s learn how to use the uname command in Linux:

Use The uname Command:

As mentioned above, you use the uname command in the terminal. That means you’ll need an open terminal. You can usually press CTRL + ALT + T to open your terminal. So, do that…

With your terminal open, you can just run uname in the terminal and it will tell you what sort of system you’re running. Try it…

It’ll happily spit out that you’re using Linux – if you are indeed using Linux.

It’ll also happily tell you the kernel name with the -s flag.

It should again spit out “Linux”, as that’s the kernel’s name.

If you want to know the kernel release information, use the -r flag.

Do you want to know if it’s 32 or 64-bit (or if it’s ARM? Try this command:

If you want to know the specific kernel version:

Then, you can learn the machine’s name with the -m flag.

You may just remember ‘mrs’ as that’s commonly  asked for in some support circles (and worth remembering):

There’s more to it but all you need to know is how to get all the information at once. That’s all you need to know. That’s just using the -a flag, like so:

You’ll get an output similar to this:

Which is quite a bit of system information and makes the uname command a useful command in and of itself. It’s an easy-to-remember command and one available in any Linux you’re likely to touch.

Closure:

I was a bit surprised that I’d never covered the uname command before. It’s a pretty basic command and so I’m surprised that I overlooked it. No worries. I’ve covered it now. There’s more to it but you’ll be fine with just the flags I mentioned.

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How To: Clear the DNS Cache

Today’s article will be a nice and easy article where we learn how to clear the DNS cache as a simple exercise. This isn’t very difficult and won’t take too much time, so this article should be relatively short.

If you don’t know what DNS cache is, that’s fine. I’ll do my best to explain.

Chances are good that you do not need to clear your DNS cache. This isn’t something you’ll need to do all that often, maybe not ever. I only clear the DNS cache when I need to.

What is DNS?

DNS stands for Domain Name Service. When you type a domain name into your browser’s address bar, it relies on an IP address behind the scenes. DNS is the interface between those two.

You can think of DNS like a phone book, translating names to numbers.

While not important, a single IP address can host many websites. So, think of DNS as the phone book and nameservers are like the names of people who live in the same apartment complex.

As you browse, your computer tries to save you some time. It saves a cache of DNS hits. It saves a cache of domain names and their IP addresses. With a speedy connection, you won’t notice this as much today. However, it’s meant to speed up browsing when you revisit a site you’ve already visited.

Make sense? 

Let’s say you’re like me and have a website. For reasons, you decide to change your hosting company. You do so and update the nameservers. You now have a new IP address for your domain name, at least you will when the changes propagate.

Suddenly, you have an old IP address cached for that domain name. Because it is in the cache, your system won’t look that address up again. What do you do to get access to the site again?

Clear DNS Cache:

We’ll learn to clear the DNS cache in the terminal. In fact, I don’t know of a GUI way to do this for the system. (It’s possible to clear the DNS cache in Chrome via a GUI.) So, open a terminal. Many of you can just press CTRL + ALT + T and your default terminal will pop open.

With your terminal now open, enter one of the following commands to see the state of affairs regarding your DNS cache:

Or:

One of those two commands should work for you.

Here’s an example output:

Now, let’s clear that cache.

One of the following commands should work for you:

Or:

There won’t be any output from that command to confirm that the cache has been cleared. If you run the first command all over again, you should see something like this after you’ve run the command:

See? It’s pretty easy to clear the DNS cache!

Closure:

This is only something a few people will need to do. If you’re having issues visiting a site you recently were able to access without issue then this might be something you try. You can try to clear the DNS cache to see if it helps but there are a million and ten reasons why a site may suddenly be down and DNS is unlikely to be the issue unless you have a specific reason to expect this particular problem and solution.

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Short: The Halt Command

Today’s article is intentionally short because we’re simply going to learn about the basics of the halt command. There won’t be much to this article, because there doesn’t need to be.

If you have a Linux system, you can access the halt command. The halt command is one of the commands used for power management but not one you’re likely to use. You’re more likely to run reboot or shutdown command.

Why the halt command? Well, it’s archaic these days. I really can’t think of all that many, or any really, reasons to use it. I’m told you can use this command for low-level maintenance but I’ve never been able to use that for anything.

The Halt Command:

Under the hood, when you issue the halt command, the operating system goes through a series of steps to ensure a clean shutdown. It stops all running processes, unmounts filesystems, and sends signals to devices and services to shut down gracefully. Once everything is properly shut down, it halts the CPU and powers off the system hardware.

If you check the man page (with man halt) you’ll see that it agrees with the above statement and is a tool for managing your power state.

halt, poweroff, reboot – Halt, power-off or reboot the machine

While there’s more to the command, we’ll just cover the basics. So, press CTRL + ALT + T and open your default terminal emulator.

Or not… You only want to run the halt command when you need the command. It will shut everything down and that’s not something you necessarily want to do while reading this article.

The syntax is quite simple:

This will halt all the processes and leave the computer running. To completely turn it off, you’ll need to use the power button.

You can also try this command:

Now the -p is handy. After halting the computer, it will initiate a shutdown.

Then, you might find this a bit handier…

If it’s not obvious, the --reboot flag will reboot the computer. This means you needn’t use the power button for anything. It should just halt the system and then initiate a reboot sequence.

Closure:

That’s all there is today. I told you, it’s a short article. We just covered the halt command and nothing more. This isn’t complicated enough for a full-length article but is still a command that deserves to be mentioned. So, it has been mentioned. The good news is that there might be a future article that refers to this article, so my time might not be wasted.

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Installing Flatpaks In Linux

Today we’re going to have a pretty easy article where you’ll learn about installing Flatpaks in Linux. I’m writing this article because I want to write another article. Once I write this article, I can write that article!

I did write a previous article about installing Flatpaks in Lubuntu. I want this to cover more distros than that, so that’s one of the reasons for this article.

So, I asked AI to tell us about Flatpaks… Let’s see how it did.

“ChatGPT, explain Flatpaks in Linux please.”

Flatpak is a modern packaging format for Linux that aims to simplify the distribution and installation of software applications across different Linux distributions. Here’s a breakdown of Flatpaks in under 600 words:

What is Flatpak?

Flatpak is a technology developed for Linux-based operating systems that allows developers to package applications and their dependencies into a single, portable format. These packages, called Flatpaks, are designed to run on any Linux distribution, regardless of its specific package management system.

How does it work?

Flatpak packages contain everything an application needs to run, including libraries, dependencies, and runtime environments. This eliminates compatibility issues with different distributions and ensures that applications run consistently across different Linux systems.

Key Components:

  • Flatpak Runtime: A standardized environment that provides essential libraries and services needed for applications to run. Runtimes are shared among multiple applications, reducing duplication and ensuring consistency.

  • Flatpak Builder: A set of tools that developers use to create Flatpak packages. Builder automates the process of bundling applications and their dependencies, making it easier to package and distribute software.

  • Flatpak Repository: A centralized location where Flatpak packages are hosted and made available for download. Users can add repositories to their system to access a wide range of Flatpak applications.

Benefits:

  1. Cross-Distribution Compatibility: Flatpaks are designed to work on any Linux distribution, simplifying software distribution and installation for developers and users alike.

  2. Isolation: Each Flatpak application runs in its isolated environment, with its own set of dependencies. This improves security and stability by preventing conflicts between different applications and system libraries.

  3. Sandboxing: Flatpak applications can be sandboxed using various security mechanisms, such as containerization and permission controls. This reduces the risk of malicious software compromising the system.

  4. Upstream Compatibility: Flatpak packages are often built directly from upstream sources, ensuring that users get the latest versions of software with minimal delay.

How to use Flatpak:

  1. Installation: Most Linux distributions provide tools for installing Flatpak support. Once installed, users can add Flatpak repositories to their system to access a wide range of applications.

  2. Searching and Installing Apps: Users can search for Flatpak applications using the command-line interface or graphical software centers. Installing a Flatpak is as simple as running a single command or clicking a button in the software center.

  3. Running Flatpak Apps: Once installed, Flatpak applications appear alongside native applications in the system menu. Users can launch them like any other application, and they will run within their isolated environment.

Drawbacks:

  1. Storage Overhead: Flatpak applications include their dependencies, which can lead to increased storage usage compared to traditional package management systems.

  2. Performance Overhead: Running applications in a sandboxed environment can introduce some performance overhead compared to native installations, although this is usually minimal.

Final AI Thoughts:

Flatpak is a promising technology that addresses many of the challenges associated with distributing and installing software on Linux. Its cross-distribution compatibility, isolation, and security features make it an attractive option for both developers and users looking for a more streamlined and secure software ecosystem on Linux.

So, that explains Flatpaks according to ChatGPT. I think it did a great job in this role, but that’s all I wanted ChatGPT to do for me.

Installing Flatpaks In Linux:

This is going to require a terminal. Some distros will have Flatpak installed and be able to install Flatpaks from the GUI. So, open up a terminal before proceeding. You can usually open a terminal by pressing CTRL + ALT + T but some of you will have to open a terminal via your application manager.

Some distros will come with Flatpaks already enabled. If you have Flatpaks already enabled, you can skip this article. To find out if you have Flatpaks already enabled, run this command:

If that returns a version number, you already have Flatpaks installed.

By the way, if you have Flatpaks enabled but not the centralized repository (FlatHub) then you may still need to run the following command:

Anyhow, now on to the installation instructions:

Debian/Ubuntu:

Linux Mint:

Already Installed.

Fedora/CentOS:

Already Installed.

RHEL:

Rocky Linux:

SUSE/OpenSUSE:

Arch:

Manjaro: 

Already Installed.

There you go. Those are the distros I usually cover. One of those commands is going to work for most of you. If those commands do not cover you, you can likely install Flatpak from your repositories. It should be fairly easy.

As you can see, more and more distros are starting to ship with Flatpaks enabled by default. I’ve seen more of this since Ubuntu started shipping Snaps by default, so maybe those distros are trying to provide something similar while not relying on Ubuntu.

Anyhow, once you’ve done this, you can visit FlatHub to start installing software:

FlatHub

Then, I shared the command earlier, if you find the repo isn’t working properly, you can run the following command to try to fix it:

That should do it. You can now use Flatpaks and I can write that future article!

Closure:

If you’ve ever needed to know about installing Flatpaks in Linux, this is a start. This is the preparation and, once done, you should be able to install software from the repositories easily enough. There are a ton of great applications that you can use after installing Flatpaks in Linux, or at least enabling Flatpaks in Linux.

Also, this seemed like a bit ‘over-the-top’ as far as ChatGPT responses go. It was more verbose than it usually is. I did decide to include all of the output as it does make for a more interesting article. That’s far more than I’d have written about the subject. 

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View Detailed Hardware Information

There are many tools for showing your hardware information and today we’ll get to view detailed hardware information. This is going to work in a variety of distros, so you probably won’t be left out.

We’ve covered many ways to view hardware information, be it all of the hardware or just some particulars. For example:

How To: Find Your CPU Information
Show RAM Information With Ramfetch
Let’s Install INXI
Find Your Graphics Card Information
Gather Storage Disk Information With ‘smartctl’

The list goes on and on and on… After all, knowing about your hardware is an important step in a lot of your activities. If you don’t know what you have for hardware, you’re quite limited in the steps you can take. You need to know that your system supports 64-bit to install some distros, for example.

So, today we’re going to examine another way of learning about your hardware. We’ll be doing this in the terminal and we’ll be doing it with a tool known as ‘hwinfo’. It’s a handy application that’s available nearly universally.

hwinfo:

You’ll find that hwinfo is a terminal-based (CLI) tool. If you look at the title of the application you can surmise its function – and it’s very much fit for function.

We’ll get to installing hwinfo, but you can see hwinfo is already installed with the following terminal command:

If it is installed, the output should look like this:

If it’s not installed, we’ll get to that in the next section.

Once installed, you can check the man page with this command:

There, you’ll see that hwinfo is fit for purpose. It’s described as:

hwinfo – probe for hardware

There’s also this blurb:

hwinfo is used to probe for the hardware present in the system. It can be used to generate a system overview log which can be later used for support.

So, you can see that this is indeed a good tool for showing detailed hardware information in the terminal. There are other such tools, but we’ll just be covering hwinfo in this article. There will be other articles and have been other articles. This is one of those subjects you’ll see more than once because there’s always more than one way to learn about your hardware.

View Detailed Hardware Information:

I mentioned that this is a terminal-based application. There are GUI tools but this is not one of them. Most of you can open a terminal by pressing CTRL + ALT + T. Others may need to find a terminal option in their application menu.

With your terminal open, you can install hwinfo easily.

Debian/Ubuntu/etc:

Arch/Manjaro/etc:

RHEL/Fedora/etc:

Gentoo/etc:

SUSE/OpenSUSE/etc:

Once you’re done with installing hwinfo, you can ‘just run it’ like so:

As you can see, that’s rather overwhelming. You could use grep, but there are many flags you can use to make this information more useful. If you check the man page (with man hwinfo) you’ll see this:

all, arch, bios, block, bluetooth, braille, bridge, camera, cdrom, chipcard, cpu, disk, dsl, dvb, fingerprint, floppy, framebuffer, gfxcard, hub, ide, isapnp, isdn, joystick, keyboard, memory, mmc-ctrl, modem, monitor, mouse, netcard, network, partition, pci, pcmcia, pcmcia-ctrl, pppoe, printer, redasd, reallyall, scanner, scsi, smp, sound, storage-ctrl, sys, tape, tv, uml, usb, usb-ctrl, vbe, wlan, xen, zip

Those are all the available flags. The syntax is simple:

So,  you could run this command to learn about your CPU:

The output from that is still more information than most folks are going to want. That information is there for those who need it. For everyone else, there’s the --short flag. That works like this:

In the case of the CPU, the command would look like this:

You can quickly get a list of all the flags (as you may not remember them all) with the following command:

Note that this is different from the --all flag which will display everything.

Closure:

Well, there you have it… You now know how to view detailed (and less detailed) hardware information, you get a choice with hwinfo. You can view detailed hardware information or you can use the flag to show just a summary. Use hwinfo according to your needs and enjoy it!

This seemed like a fine article to write. It’s a pretty basic application but it does have some useful output. It’s worth installing hwinfo just for when you need it, rather than waiting for when you need it and installing it then. That way the tool is read and waiting for you and one less step when you need support or trying to resolve a bug on your own.

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