Five Useful Ubuntu Tips

These are nothing ground breaking but these are some things i find helpful.

1.) Mounting an ISO file.
* To mount Image (ISO) file

sudo mkdir /media/iso
sudo modprobe loop
sudo mount file.iso /media/iso/ -t iso9660 -o loop

* To unmount Image (ISO) file

sudo umount /media/iso/

This is helpful for games that require a CD to play. I run all my games inside a custom script and this way i can mount the iso start wine and then unmount the iso.

2.) Read/Write NTFS
The /etc/fstab file controls what is mounted and how it is mounted on startup. Editing this can allow you to automount ntfs partitions for read/write. Install ntfs-3g and then edit your fstab file so that it looks like this:

/dev/partition /media/mntpoint ntfs-3g defaults,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0


3.)Nvidia Twinview
If you are running Linux hopefully you are using an Nvidia card. And if your video card has dual outputs it's quite simple to take advantage of it. All it takes is a quick addition to your /etc/X11/xorg.conf file.
Under the device section add:
Option "TwinView" "True"
Option "TwinViewOrientation" "RightOf"
Option "UseEdidFreqs" "True"
Option "MetaModes" "1280x1024,1280x1024; 1024x768,1024x768"
Option "UseDisplayDevice" "$" (where $ is replaced with CRT, DFP, or TV)

4.) Familiarize yourself with the linux file structure.
See picture below:


5.) Copying DVDs
Even if you are using Gnome, I still suggest installing the libraries for KDE so you can use K9Copy. Doing "sudo apt-get install k9copy" automatically installs the application and the libraries for you. There is no easier to use application for copying DVDs.