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Utilities

Utilities facilitate everyday tasks, such as keeping the clock up to date, archiving utilities, and more.

Archiving Utilities

ZIP

The command-line terminal utility ZIP creates files that are compatible with the time-honored PKZIP and WinZip. It is included in (K)Ubuntu by default. Extracting zip files can be done with the unzip utility. using the -P option allows using a password for the files:

zip -r -P mypassword desination.zip *

Note: The -r option indicates to include all subdirectories recursively.

FileRoller (Archiving GUI)

FileRoller is a GUI for many types of archival utilities.

X-archiver (Archiving GUI)

Xarchiver is a GTK-based GUI front-end for many archiving utilities. Install:

sudo apt-get install xarchiver

BChunk

BChunk is a command-line utility that allows you to convert .cue and .bin files into an .iso file (so that they can be opened and manipulated in Ubuntu). Warning: If the bin/cue image has audio tracks, they will be lost.

Get BChunk

sudo apt-get install bchunk

To convert .cue and .bin files, navigate to the folder and run this command (replacing filenames with your own):

bchunk inputfilename.bin inputfilename.cue outputfilename.iso

After the file is converted into ISO you can mount it using:

sudo mount -o loop outputfilename.iso /media/output

Navigate to /media/output and you should see all the content there. You can then copy it anywhere.

To unmount:

sudo umount /media/output

HJSplit Files Joiner/Splitter

HJSplit for Linux (Java version).

Make sure you have Java Runtime Environment installed:

sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre

Download the HJSplit JAR file:

wget http://www.freebyte.com/download/hjsplit/hjsplit_g.jar

Create the directory for HJSplit:

sudo mkdir /opt/hjsplit

Move the file to an appropriate directory:

sudo mv hjsplit_g.jar /opt/hjsplit/

Run:

cd /opt/hjsplit/ && java -jar hjsplit_g.jar

Note: You could also make a terminal shortcut (menu item) in K Menu Editor.

Rar

Rar archives files into the proprietary .rar format.

sudo apt-get install rar

This application is a 40-day trial.

Unrar

Unrar extracts files archived with the proprietary .rar format. A free version can be installed:

sudo apt-get install unrar-free

or the proprietary version (also free for noncommercial use) can be installed with the ubuntu-restricted-extras package or with:

sudo apt-get install unrar

7-Zip

The open-source 7-Zip archive format was originally designed for Windows (and DOS) but is also available for Ubuntu. The GNU/Linux version of 7-Zip does not come with a GUI, but Ark can hook into 7-Zip to handle 7z archives. Install:

sudo apt-get install p7zip-full

To allow the 7-Zip extension for Ark to extract .rar files, also install:

sudo apt-get install p7zip-rar

Hard Drive Utilities

KDiskFree (Hard drive properties monitor)

KDiskFree is a KDE utility for monitoring free disk space, etc.

sudo apt-get install kdf

Clock Utilties

Screensavers

A screensaver is useful as a security precaution as well as a power and screen element saver. Using even a simple "Blank Screen" screensaver with a password can slow a potentially malicious passerby from gaining access to your keyboard and computer while you are away from your desk.

Menu -> System -> Preferences -> Screen Saver

Set a security password:

Screen Saver -> Lock screen when screensaver is active (ticked)

Partition Managers

Also see these tips for partitioning scheme suggestions, other partitioning tools and methods, and usage of multiple partitions for multiple OSs.

GParted Partition Manager

Gparted is a GTK (Gnome)-based partition manager that can also be used with KDE.

This utility works best when run from a LiveCD. Recent versions of the Ubuntu LiveCD have a copy of GParted on them. Start the Ubuntu LiveCD in demo mode (not in install mode) and then start GParted:

Menu -> System -> Administration -> GParted

An alternative is to download the Gparted .iso image here. Follow these instructions to burn this .iso image to CD. Use this GParted LiveCD as your partition manager.