WareLogging. Useful things on a Debian GNU/Linux system. Also some stuff under [Ubuntu].

* http://canonical.org/~kragen/setting-up-keyboard.html
* http://www.debian-administration.org/

general package management
--------------------------

 apt-cache search whatever

mixed system
------------

[http://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/apt-howto/ch-apt-get.en.html#s-default-version How to keep a mixed system]. Useful if you don't want to risk hosing your entire system by running unstable, but need some packages it contains. Basically, put something like: 

 APT::Default-Release "version";

Where version is one of stable, testing, or unstable in /etc/apt/apt.conf. Then add a source for that version to /etc/apt/sources.list. You can now get stuff from the appropriate version by doing:

 apt-get -t ''distribution'' install packagename

This can also sometimes get you out of those weird dependency traps that a big upgrade will often generate.

useful packages
---------------

* [http://docs.php.net/en/install.unix.debian.html Command-line PHP] - Short version: apt-get install php5-cli
* aumix: quick and dirty console mixer; change those volume settings up - apt-get install aumix
* makedepend: apt-get install xutils-dev