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Ask Ubuntu

Questions tagged [etc]

Questions about files beneath /etc: How to handle them, how they are important, how to make backups, how to find important information.

184 questions
162
votes
9 answers

After modifying /etc/hosts which service needs to be restarted?

After modifying /etc/hosts, which service(s) need(s) to be restarted for the change to take effect?
Ashish Karpe
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62
votes
1 answer

What is the purpose of /etc/default?

I've assumed /etc/default was a handy place to save the post-install/default state of configuration files so that when some poor sysadmin arrives at a new system she can quickly determine what has been customised on that instance. But having just…
John Mee
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58
votes
1 answer

What is etc/alternatives used for?

What does /etc/alternatives stand for? How and why is it used? I found gnome-tex-editor in /usr/bin which is linked as follows: /usr/bin/gnome-text-editor -> /etc/alternatives/gnome-text-editor /etc/alternatives/gnome-text-editor ->…
Pandya
  • 37,289
38
votes
3 answers

After accidentally renaming /etc, how do I rename it back?

I'm using Ubuntu 18.04. I renamed the /etc folder to apache2. That was my greatest mistake Now I can't rename it back because I need to use sudo, but when I try I get the error sudo: unknown uid 1000 How can I fix this problem? I don't have a live…
Bipa
  • 533
32
votes
5 answers

Sound only works from left speaker?

After installing Ubuntu 13.04 x64, I realised that my sound wasn't working (only headphone showed up in settings). Following this guide, I manually added my Dell Studio 1740 audio hardware to: options snd-hda-intel model=dell-m6 Within…
A T
  • 2,578
28
votes
3 answers

what is difference between /etc/shadow and /etc/passwd

Both files /etc/shadow and /etc/passwd seem to be the same, they just report some information about accounts. What is the difference between them?
Mohammad Reza Rezwani
  • 10,706
23
votes
3 answers

Should one use FQDN in /etc/hostname instead of hostname?

As I read in man page, it is recommended to put hostname(without domain name) to /etc/hostname. For example, host instead of host.domainsub.domaintld. But, as I know, some software relies on having FQDN in /etc/hostname. What should one specify in…
anon
18
votes
1 answer

How can I restore /etc/profile?

I'm working on a bash script that appends to /etc/profile, but instead of appending, I accidentally wrote over it, losing all of its content. How can I restore the file? Is there a system default profile that I can copy to restore my /etc/profile? I…
Alex
  • 433
16
votes
3 answers

How can I prevent auto-mounting of a partition in fstab?

Previously, I prevented auto-mounting of a particular partition at boot by the following line in /etc/fstab UUID= /media/windowsHDD ntfs user,noauto 0 0 At some point in the last year, this failed, and the partition was automatically…
Sparhawk
  • 6,969
14
votes
1 answer

What's the difference between the "group" and "group-" file?

I know what the /etc/group file is for, but I'm also seeing a /etc/group- file. What's the difference between the two? The same group names and ids appear in both files. Only the last column (users) is different. I'm running ubuntu 11.04
anushr
  • 253
14
votes
2 answers

How to run a script when suspending/resuming? - Sony VAIO Ubuntu 12.04

Question: How to assign a script to run when selecting the suspend option on the power menu? Context: I have a Sony VAIO laptop with an AMD Radeon graphics card. I would like to be able to disable/enable the discrete graphics card. I have no problem…
danielcooperxyz
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13
votes
3 answers

Change default shell when user not in /etc/passwd

Any ideas on how can I change the shell to fish? $ sudo usermod -s /usr/bin/fish jaan usermod: user 'jaan' does not exist in /etc/passwd $ getent passwd $USER jaan:x:15466:94:Jaan A:/home/jaan:/bin/zsh Related questions: user does not exist in…
Abhishek Bhatia
  • 1,114
13
votes
1 answer

What are the default settings for '/etc/hosts' and '/etc/hostname'?

I'm using Ubuntu 16.04. I recently started learning DevOps and got a bit crazy with my /etc/hosts and /etc/hostname files. In my frantic attempt to spin up a couple of servers from my local machine I lost track of the default settings, and was just…
user598599
9
votes
1 answer

Is there an application to manage config files in the /etc directory with version control?

I want to use version control for config files in Ubuntu server. But I found it's not easy to simply use git for the whole /etc directory, because many files don't need to be tracked and sometimes the system will write to files like logs which…
emj365
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8
votes
1 answer

Using HID compliant mouse like device in Ubuntu

Aim: I have a whiteboard which emulates as mouse. Thus, when you click and drag on the whiteboard it should move the cursor. I want to make a whiteboard work in Ubuntu It works on windows. Device information: the output of cat /proc/bus/input which…
Abhishek Bhatia
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