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Questions tagged [debian]

Debian GNU/Linux is a widespread Linux distribution focusing on stability, security, and the free software philosophy.

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Debian GNU/Linux is a widespread distribution. Debian is one of the most popular Linux distributions available today, and is used as both a server and desktop operating system.
This distribution focuses on stability and security, rather than frequent releases of new features.

Many other popular distributions, including and , are based on Debian. Debian is a package-based Linux distribution.

New versions of Debian are released approximately every 2 years.

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Reload a Linux user's group assignments without logging out

When assigning a user's secondary group list using: # usermod -G is it possible to force this group assignment to take effect without logging out all running sessions? This would be very useful in the situation where a Screen…
Simon
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Find what package a file belongs to in Ubuntu/Debian?

I frequently find myself missing a program, man page, or other file when working on my Ubuntu 8.04 system. Is there any simple way to look up what package contains a given file (whether it is installed already or not)? Maybe some obscure option for…
Jay Conrod
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How to list files of a Debian package without install

This command can only list contents of installed packages, dpkg -L PACKAGENAME but how to list contents of a non-installed package, to preview/examine the package?
Lenik
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How can I produce high CPU load on a Linux server?

I’m currently in the process of debugging a Cacti installation and want to create CPU load to debug my CPU utilization graphs. I tried to simply run cat /dev/zero > /dev/null, which works great but only utilizes 1 core: Is there a better method of…
Oliver Salzburg
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How to reinstall a package using 'apt-get'?

It seems that my aptitude is somehow broken: sudo aptitude update 0% [Working]Segmentation fault dmesg [223282.616599] aptitude[30972]: segfault at 67707f ip 7f954dcfae5d sp 7ffff5a5f950 error 4 in…
Vokuhila-Oliba
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How to install local .deb packages with apt-get

Is there a way to install packages store on your HD with apt-get, like apt-get install ./package.deb? If not, how to handle the dependencies in a very very easy way?
Louis
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How to tell from what Ubuntu or Debian repository a package comes?

On a Debian-based system, including Ubuntu, how can one tell which repository a package will be downloaded from, without actually beginning the download? aptitude show and apt-cache info will show the section (e.g., metapackage, base, graphics), but…
gotgenes
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How to install the real Firefox on Debian?

Debian 6 ("Squeeze") uses a rebranded version of Firefox called Iceweasel. It, however, lacks plugin support, and most of my favorites don't work. So what is best way to install the "real" Firefox on Debian?
kravemir
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How can I resolve the error "cannot execute binary file"?

When I login using SSH, all I can see is this... -bash: /usr/bin/id: cannot execute binary file -bash: [: : integer expression expected I couldn't do anything in here. Commands such as halt, poweroff, reboot will return command not found. How can I…
superuser
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How do I find out which package owns a file?

How do I find out what Debian package a file came from?
A Student at a University
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mount dev, proc, sys in a chroot environment?

I'm trying to create a Linux image with custom picked packages.What I'm trying to do is to hand craft the packages I'm going to use on an XO laptop, because compiling packages takes really long time on the real XO hardware, if I can build all the…
Patrick
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logrotate configuration file syntax - multiple wildcard entries possible?

Since the man page doesn't answer my question and I don't want to force a rotation cycle, I decided to ask the question here. The man page for logrotate gives the following example: "/var/log/httpd/access.log" /var/log/httpd/error.log { …
0xC0000022L
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Aptitude vs. apt-get: Which is the recommended (aka the "right") tool to use?

Some time ago I read that aptitude is the preferred tool for installation on Debian-based systems. But when you search around on how to administer a Debian-based system, then aptitude is rarely mentioned. Most people seem to prefer apt-get - and…
Vokuhila-Oliba
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How do I remove all i386 architecture packages from my Debian installation?

I added foreign architecture i386 to my Debian amd64 installation. How do I remove it? When I try this command: dpkg --remove-architecture i386, I am told to first remove all i386 packages.
kevinarpe
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What's the difference between "adduser" and "useradd"?

I wonder: Why are there these two commands on Debian Linux, with very similar names and functionality? This has always been confusing for me. Is any of them superior to another? Why aren't they merged into one? Is there any significant difference…
Petr
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