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This is first part of handy and time saving Debian and Ubuntu tips and tricks. Most of them can be applied to other distributions as well.

If you are in X-windows and want to switch virtual among virtual desktops, use

CTRL+ALT+arrow keys

To swith to a virtual console from X, use

CTRL+ALT + F1 through F6

The first line will show TTY1, 2 etc letting you know at which console you are

Once in virtual console, you switch to another virtual console with

ALT+F1 through F6

To switch back to to X, type

ALT+F7

To scroll through text in console, use

CTRL + pgup

To see who are using the system right now, type

who

To see who are using the system right now and what they are doing, we use

w

Sometimes, name of a right tool for a job just slips off our memory but we do know what that tools does. To see tools relevant to a word,

apropos browser 

or

man -k consoles

Often times we see log files ending in gz ie gzipped. To see then, use

zless  ( Same as less but for zipped files)
zcat   (Same as cat but for zipped files)

Many of us are unaware that we have all the LDP (Linux Documentation Project) howtos, guides and tutorials right in our distribution.

Install it with

aptitude install doc-linux-text

You will find them at

/usr/share/doc/HOWTO/en-txt

Use zless to read them.

To cut text to left on command line in bash

CTRL+U

and cut text to the right,

CTRL+K

and to paste that text, use

CTRL+Y

To clear screen in terminal

CTRL+-l

Say you started compiling a large program and you don’t want to wait for it to finish. You can suspend for while or send it to the background so it frees the terminal for you to work on something else.

So to suspend a running job (I remember it by saying zuzpend instead of suspend)

CTRL+z

To send it to the background

bg

and it will continue it in the background.

If you have more than one suspended or background jobs, you can see them using

jobs

[number] shows job number and + next to it means default job. The job to which any of the following commands will be applied if no job number is specified
.
To background job number 2

bg %2

To make it foreground

fg %2

To kill it

kill %2

To cancel it

cancel %2

To change screen resolution quickly, simultaneously press

CTRL  ALT + or - 

To start application automatically when X starts, place them in

.xsession

Instead of typing cd $OLDPWD, use

cd -

which takes you to the old working directory

More in part 2