Hardware commands

  • Change the keyboard layout in Debian (don’t forget to logoff and logon to activate the new setting):
    dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration
    
  • Low-level format of the hda device:
    dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda
    
  • Same as above but for paranoïd, as random bits will be written 3 times before performing the “low-level format” (i.e. writting zeros):
    shred --verbose --force --iterations=3 --zero /dev/hda
    
  • Remove the MBR:
    dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda bs=446 count=1
    
  • Restore the original Windows MBR:
    apt-get install mbr
    install-mbr -i n -p D -t 0 /dev/hda
    
  • To add touchpad kernel support, add the following option to kernel at boot time:
    psmouse.proto=imps
    
  • Sometimes, depending of the laptop I use, the mouse pointer disappear from the screen when I plug a VGA cable to a projector. In this case, I do a CTRL + ALT + F1, then I login as a normal user and finally I start a new X session:
    startx -- :1
    

One thought on “Hardware commands

  1. Pingback: All my command lines | Kevin Deldycke

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