Jump to content

The Terminal Is Where Linux Begins - and Where You Should, Too


V.T. Eric Layton

Recommended Posts

V.T. Eric Layton

The Terminal Is Where Linux Begins - and Where You Should, Too

 

By Jonathan Terrasi

Mar 8, 2017 1:43 PM PT

 

 

Once you have a sense of the vast potential of Linux, you may be eager to experience it for yourself. Considering the complexity of modern operating systems, though, it can be hard to know where to start.

As with many things, computers can be better understood through a breakdown of their evolution and operation. The terminal is not only where computers began, but also where their real power still resides. I'll provide here a brief introduction to the terminal, how it works, and how you can explore further on your own.

 

Read the rest of this article HERE.

  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

abarbarian

Terminals - in xterm , how do you copy and paste ?

 

Highlight text with the left mouse to copy and use middle button to paste. Darned if I know how to do it with a keyboard :Muahaha:

Edited by abarbarian
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I highlight the text then use Ctrl+C to copy and Shift+Ins to insert it.

 

I believe Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V work and Ctrl+Insert and Shift+Insert also work.

Edited by Ed_P
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Terminals - in xterm , how do you copy and paste ?

 

Highlight text with the left mouse to copy and use middle button to paste. Darned if I know how to do it with a keyboard :Muahaha:

 

That's what I use - highlight the text, then middle mouse button to paste. With the keyboard, looks like it depends on your keyboard setup; on one computer here, in Debian Jessie, I cannot paste with Shift+Insert. On another, in Antergos, pasting with Shift+Insert works fine.

 

However, with xterm, any combination with the Ctrl key does NOT work for copying and pasting here. Not like in xfce-terminal and other terminal emulators.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In Debian, I have Synaptic set to show terminal output when applying changes; does that window use xterm? To copy anything from that window, Ctrl+C does not work so I have to select the text and then I use a middle mouse click to paste (into a text document, for example).

 

synaptic_output.jpg

 

Other than that, as I recall I've had a few installations where the only thing that was available at first was xterm. Or so I thought. I think I remember that in a Debian netinstall, when I've added only Openbox, I'd see xterm listed in the Debian menu. In that type of situation, though, one of the first things I'd do is install xfce4-terminal or something.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

V.T. Eric Layton

Umm... I don't think that is a terminal that you're seeing there. It's just a display tool for Synaptic. Do you get a cursor? Can you actually type commands in that window?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

xterm is so 1970s. Why are you attempting to use that thing, anyway? ;)

it is the default terminal on the system when selecting from GUI menu. I'll try to come back later today with the OS and the GUI. Edited by crp
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Umm... I don't think that is a terminal that you're seeing there. It's just a display tool for Synaptic. Do you get a cursor? Can you actually type commands in that window?

 

Right, it isn't a terminal, it's a window that displays "terminal output." I wrote, "does that window use xterm?" which is probably the wrong way of looking at things.

 

Again, that window seems very similar to xterm when I try to copy text from it -- same behavior, Ctrl-C doesn't work, and neither does Shift-Ctrl-C, so of course I can't use Ctrl-V to paste selected text from that window into a text editor. But simply highlighting text from that window and then pasting it into a text editor with the middle mouse button does work. Maybe Synaptic is getting its output for that window from xterm? I don't know. It does seem to be the same type of behavior as described here:

 

The “PRIMARY” selection buffer receives data when the user highlights text with the mouse. The text in this buffer is pasted when the user presses the middle mouse button in an application’s text entry field. This cut-and-paste buffer is a legacy function which new users are generally not told about, in the interests of avoiding mass confusion. Most modern applications support this buffer. This is the only buffer used by xterm.

 

https://www.starnet....sting-in-xterm/

 

And:

 

https://en.wikipedia...indow_selection

https://wiki.archlin...RY_or_CLIPBOARD

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

abarbarian

Eric your post inspired me to try my hand at some command line creations.

 

Like so

 

@mx16reserve:~/ZZZ/Picture conversions
$ ffmpeg -framerate 1 -i tp-%02d.jpg -c:v libx264 -profile:v high -crf 20 -pix_fmt yuv420p output.mp4
ffmpeg version 2.8.6-1mx150+1 Copyright (c) 2000-2016 the FFmpeg developers
 built with gcc 4.9.2 (Debian 4.9.2-10)
 configuration: --prefix=/usr --extra-version=1mx150+1 --build-suffix=-ffmpeg --toolchain=hardened --libdir=/usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu --incdir=/usr/include/i386-linux-gnu --cc=cc --cxx=g++ --enable-gpl --enable-shared --disable-stripping --disable-decoder=libopenjpeg --disable-decoder=libschroedinger --enable-avresample --enable-avisynth --enable-gnutls --enable-ladspa --enable-libass --enable-libbluray --enable-libbs2b --enable-libcaca --enable-libcdio --enable-libflite --enable-libfontconfig --enable-libfreetype --enable-libfribidi --enable-libgme --enable-libgsm --enable-libmodplug --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libopenjpeg --enable-libopus --enable-libpulse --enable-librtmp --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libshine --enable-libsnappy --enable-libsoxr --enable-libspeex --enable-libssh --enable-libtheora --enable-libtwolame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libvpx --enable-libwavpack --enable-libwebp --enable-libx265 --enable-libxvid --enable-libzvbi --enable-openal --enable-opengl --enable-x11grab --enable-libdc1394 --enable-libiec61883 --enable-libzmq --enable-frei0r --enable-libx264 --enable-libopencv --disable-i686
 libavutil      54. 31.100 / 54. 31.100
 libavcodec     56. 60.100 / 56. 60.100
 libavformat    56. 40.101 / 56. 40.101
 libavdevice    56.  4.100 / 56.  4.100
 libavfilter     5. 40.101 /  5. 40.101
 libavresample   2.  1.  0 /  2.  1.  0
 libswscale      3.  1.101 /  3.  1.101
 libswresample   1.  2.101 /  1.  2.101
 libpostproc    53.  3.100 / 53.  3.100
[mjpeg @ 0x9951840] Changeing bps to 8
Input #0, image2, from 'tp-%02d.jpg':
 Duration: 00:00:09.00, start: 0.000000, bitrate: N/A
   Stream #0:0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj422p(pc, bt470bg/unknown/unknown), 1812x1200 [sAR 300:300 DAR 151:100], 1 fps, 1 tbr, 1 tbn, 1 tbc
[swscaler @ 0x9960e20] deprecated pixel format used, make sure you did set range correctly
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] using SAR=1/1
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2 SSE3 Cache64
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] profile High, level 4.2
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] 264 - core 142 r2431 a5831aa - H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec - Copyleft 2003-2014 - http://www.videolan.org/x264.html - options: cabac=1 ref=3 deblock=1:0:0 analyse=0x3:0x113 me=hex subme=7 psy=1 psy_rd=1.00:0.00 mixed_ref=1 me_range=16 chroma_me=1 trellis=1 8x8dct=1 cqm=0 deadzone=21,11 fast_pskip=1 chroma_qp_offset=-2 threads=3 lookahead_threads=1 sliced_threads=0 nr=0 decimate=1 interlaced=0 bluray_compat=0 constrained_intra=0 bframes=3 b_pyramid=2 b_adapt=1 b_bias=0 direct=1 weightb=1 open_gop=0 weightp=2 keyint=250 keyint_min=1 scenecut=40 intra_refresh=0 rc_lookahead=40 rc=crf mbtree=1 crf=20.0 qcomp=0.60 qpmin=0 qpmax=69 qpstep=4 ip_ratio=1.40 aq=1:1.00
Output #0, mp4, to 'output.mp4':
 Metadata:
   encoder         : Lavf56.40.101
   Stream #0:0: Video: h264 (libx264) ([33][0][0][0] / 0x0021), yuv420p, 1812x1200 [sAR 1:1 DAR 151:100], q=-1--1, 1 fps, 16384 tbn, 1 tbc
   Metadata:
     encoder         : Lavc56.60.100 libx264
Stream mapping:
 Stream #0:0 -> #0:0 (mjpeg (native) -> h264 (libx264))
Press [q] to stop, [?] for help
frame=    9 fps=0.9 q=-1.0 Lsize=    2896kB time=00:00:07.00 bitrate=3389.2kbits/s   
video:2895kB audio:0kB subtitle:0kB other streams:0kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead: 0.031100%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] frame I:3     Avg QP: 9.70  size:472415
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] frame P:5     Avg QP:12.25  size:257826
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] frame B:1     Avg QP:12.98  size:257534
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] consecutive B-frames: 77.8% 22.2%  0.0%  0.0%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] mb I  I16..4:  7.6% 66.9% 25.5%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] mb P  I16..4:  4.5% 41.1%  7.9%  P16..4: 14.1% 19.8% 11.7%  0.0%  0.0%    skip: 1.0%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] mb B  I16..4:  1.3% 32.8%  1.9%  B16..8: 20.9% 20.6%  8.5%  direct:13.6%  skip: 0.4%  L0:20.6% L1:61.0% BI:18.3%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] 8x8 transform intra:72.8% inter:52.7%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra: 97.0% 93.7% 91.1% inter: 82.1% 67.1% 29.3%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] i16 v,h,dc,p:  5%  3%  8% 84%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] i8 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 17% 14% 16%  7% 10% 10%  9% 10%  9%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] i4 v,h,dc,ddl,ddr,vr,hd,vl,hu: 14% 13% 12%  8% 14% 13% 10%  9%  7%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] i8c dc,h,v,p: 47% 22% 17% 13%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] Weighted P-Frames: Y:20.0% UV:0.0%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] ref P L0: 95.9%  1.1%  1.7%  1.3%
[libx264 @ 0x9953ca0] kb/s:2634.58

 

which gave me this

 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/0m99ctzn7an7o16/output.mp4?dl=0

 

on this old Dell

 

$ inxi -C
CPU:       Single core Intel Pentium 4 (-HT-) cache: 1024 KB
          clock speeds: max: 2992 MHz 1: 2992 MHz 2: 2992 MHz

 

The code ran pretty quickly which suprised me and cpu usage was between 60% and 88% which left me enough umph to surf.

 

 

:breakfast:

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

xterm is so 1970s. Why are you attempting to use that thing, anyway? ;)

it is the default terminal on the system when selecting from GUI menu. I'll try to come back later today with the OS and the GUI.

okay, it is Debian Wheezy , desktop is KDE Plasma. There is xterm and uxterm - have no idea what the difference is. No menu for copying and pasting. Shift-Insert does paste (as does middle mouse button) but still have not figured out highlighting and copying with keyboard only.
Link to comment
Share on other sites

abarbarian

xterm is so 1970s. Why are you attempting to use that thing, anyway? ;)

it is the default terminal on the system when selecting from GUI menu. I'll try to come back later today with the OS and the GUI.

okay, it is Debian Wheezy , desktop is KDE Plasma. There is xterm and uxterm - have no idea what the difference is. No menu for copying and pasting. Shift-Insert does paste (as does middle mouse button) but still have not figured out highlighting and copying with keyboard only.

 

Q There is xterm and uxterm - have no idea what the difference is.

A below

https://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2016/11/msg00780.html

 

Q but still have not figured out highlighting and copying with keyboard only.

A possibly below

 

https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/225062/how-can-i-copy-text-from-xterm-ahttps://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/225062/how-can-i-copy-text-from-xterm-awesome-debian-virtualboxwesome-debian-virtualbox

 

:whistling:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

V.T. Eric Layton

If you're using KDE, you should have Konsole installed. That's a much better terminal emulator than xterm.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...