If not already installed:
sudo apt-get install smartmontools
Run with:
sudo smartctl -a /dev/diskname (e.g. sda)
Installing Nvidia drivers on Linux Mint 17.1
Booting the Mint Live DVD on a HP Pavilion with an AMD Phenom quadcore, I get to the desktop but it starts lagging, and is barely responsive. Selecting the compatibility mode boot option gets me to a lower res desktop but without the lagging issue. After I installed to my hd using compatibility mode, when booting up for the first time I ran into exactly the same issue.
At the Grub menu, if I edit the boot option and add nomodeset, then again, I can boot into a low res with no lag. This desktop has a Nvidia graphics card, so I tried following the instructions here, but I couldn’t get these steps to work, every time I ran the Nvidia installer, it kept telling me that the nouveau drivers were still loaded.
This page suggested to install via ‘sudo apt-get install nvidia-304’ – this approach seemed to download all the deps, build local, install, setup and configure, all in one go. When I rebooted, all looked good, and no need to manually add the nomodeset at the grub menu. Success! So far very impressed with the slickness of the Mint Cinnamon desktop!
Linux shell command history
List history:
history
Execute prior command:
!n
where n is command listed from history.
Mounting Atari ST floppies on Ubuntu
I’m transferring some apps downloaded for my Atari ST (don’t ask) to floppies that are formatted with 80 tracks and 8 or 9 sectors, on double density disks (formatted on the ST). From what I understand these are MS-DOS readable but not exactly FAT format. Anyway, they don’t seem to mount by default on Ubuntu as it doesn’t know what format they are, but forcing a mount with this seems to work:
sudo udisks --mount /dev/fd0
seems to do the job (tip from here)