The terminal (a.k.a. console) is a non-graphical way to run commands on the eeepc.
To open a terminal in easy mode, simply hold <Ctrl> + <Alt> and press the <T> key.
Unlike with the standard desktop you can run any program on your computer. Example if you type “xclock” in the window, and press Enter. Then the xclock program should run, it should look like a very simple analog clock.
Even though you can only interact with the terminal in text, you can still navigate to different directories/folders. To do this, you can use the “cd” command which stands for “Change Directory” For example, to go to your “My Documents” directory you would type:
cd "My Documents"
One thing you need to remember is that in Linux everything is case sensitive. So just typing “my documents” won't work, because “My Documents”, “my documents”, and “MY DOcumenTS” are all different. Quotes (””) are only required if there's a space anywhere in the folder name. Now, let's say you are done in “My Documents” and want to go back to your home directory, you would type this:
cd ..
The two dots are periods, they mean one directory “above” where you're at. For example, when you typed while you were in ”/home/user/My Documents” you ended up in ”/home/user” and if you typed it again you would end up in ”/home”, and the next would put you in ”/”, the “root” folder. It should also be noted that the terminal will always start in your home directory, which is ”/home/user”. You can also move through multiple folders at once. Try typing “cd /” to get to root, and then “cd /home/user”. You'll end up right back where you started.
Your “path” is basically the directory you're in. Example when you first open a terminal your path is your home directory or ”/home/user”. There are actually two forms of paths, absolute and relative.
An absolute path is any path that is fully typed out meaning if you type
cd "/home/user/My Documents"
That will always lead to the exact same spot. It wouldn't matter if you were currently in ”/media/MMC-SD/partition1” playing with your sd card.
Relative paths on the other hand depend on where you are at the moment. If you are currently in ”/media/MMC-SD/partition1” and type.
cd "My Documents"
You will most likely get an error saying “No such file or directory” that is unless your SD card happens to contain a directory by that name. However if you are in ”/home/user” when you type it, you will end up in ”/home/user/My Documents”.
If you're typing any command and have something long to type, tab completion can go a long way towards saving you a bit of typing. To use it, type in the first bit of what you're trying to do, and hit <Tab>. For example, sitting in any folder, you could type “cd /home/u” and then hit tab. The console will complete it at “cd /home/user”, as “user” is the only folder inside that starts with a “u”. If you don't enter enough for the console to uniquely identify something, then it won't appear to do anything (except that it might beep at you). Hit tab again, and it'll display a list of possible matches. For example, in a folder with the subfolders “folder_1”, “folder_2” and “folder_of_doom”, typing “cd fol” and hitting tab will change the text to “cd folder_”. Hitting tab again will list all three. After that, you could just type “o” and hit tab again, and console will fill the rest of the command out for you.
When someone says you need to become a “Super User” or “Root” then all you have to do is type.
sudo -i
What this does is give you complete control over your system. When you are a super user you have to be careful, because you now have the power to damage the system, and even render it unbootable. Doing so may require an F9 reset or even a restore from flash.
lsThis command is essential to navigation. It “lists” the files and folders in your current directory. You can also type it as “ls /some/folder” to list the contents of any folder.
df -hdf shows your current disk usage the ”-h” makes the output human readable. It's useful so you can tell just how much room you have left on a device.
