April 2, 2021

662 words 4 mins read

Basic kit survival guide when you have no GUI on Linux

I took bare Xmonad for a spin, quickly I realized I have no graphical apps installed for do most of the things I needed to do, so here is a quick cheat sheet for those moments of despair.

How to get date and time from the command line?

I had no visible clock, so use this to get the time (and date):

$ date
Wed 14 Apr 2021 08:43:54 PM CDT

How to setup WiFi from the command line?

Ok, missed that webinar, too bad, at least my internet is fixed, but wait, it’s a new WiFi 🤔, need to set it up, let’s see what’s available:

$ nmcli device wifi list
IN-USE  BSSID              SSID                 MODE   CHAN  RATE        SIGNAL  BARS  SECURITY
        X4:0B:YC:98:ED:BB  GutierFi-D0          Infra  1     270 Mbit/s  100     ▂▄▆█  WPA1 WPA2
        X4:0B:YC:98:ED:BB  GutierFi-D0-5G       Infra  128   405 Mbit/s  100     ▂▄▆█  WPA1 WPA2
        XC:12:Y5:DD:E3:22  IZZI-FC10            Infra  6     405 Mbit/s  47      ▂▄__  WPA2
        XC:A2:Y6:A6:E7:22  UbeeD79A-2.4G        Infra  1     195 Mbit/s  35      ▂▄__  WPA1 WPA2
        X8:47:Y2:60:EA:77  UbeeD79A-5G_2.4GEXT  Infra  2     270 Mbit/s  35      ▂▄__  WPA2
        X8:97:YD:87:EF:77  IZZI-2D6E            Infra  6     405 Mbit/s  24      ▂___  WPA2
        XC:EB:Y6:FA:EC:BB  INFINITUMBFA2_2.4    Infra  9     130 Mbit/s  24      ▂___  WPA2
        X4:98:Y3:50:E6:88  IZZI-5A2F            Infra  6     405 Mbit/s  20      ▂___  WPA2

Great, I think is easy to spot which one is mine, let’s set it up:

$ nmcli device wifi connect GutierFi-D0-5G password T0PS3CRETy0uN3verGues5
Device 'wlp8s11g8' successfully activated with 'a4b6738c-49fa-8df5-c756-a373baca54e9'.
$ ping 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=108 time=65.1 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=2 ttl=108 time=75.1 ms

Donzo Alonzo.

How to setup Bluetooth device from the terminal?

Now let me do a call, I just need these Bluetooth speakers set up some how:

$ bluetoothctl
Agent registered
[CHG] Controller 10:AA:FF:BF:99:30 Pairable: yes

We should see a prompt open and if you don’t see Agent registered then try entering agent on on it, then start scanning:

> scan on
Discovery started
[CHG] Controller 84:5D:AE:EF:76:11 Discovering: yes
[CHG] Device 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87 RSSI: -76
[CHG] Device 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87 TxPower: 4

Let it marinate for a while, and then turn it off:

> scan off
Discovery stoped
[CHG] Controller 84:5D:AE:EF:76:11 Discovering: yes
[CHG] Device 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87 RSSI: -76
[CHG] Device 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87 TxPower: 4

Nice, my device must be from Tennessee, because that’s the only ten I see, good luck guessing in case you have multiple devices, mine was easy, let’s pair it:

> trust 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87
Changing 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87 trust succeeded
> pair 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87
Attempting to pair with 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87
Failed to pair: org.bluez.Error.AlreadyExists  # Previously I've paired it in my case
> connect 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87
Attempting to connect to 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87
[CHG] Device 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87 Connected: yes
Connection successful
[CHG] Device 10:E8:B8:10:D3:87 ServicesResolved: yes
> exit

Nice, the light has stopped blinking.

How to configure audio input/output from the terminal?

Let’s jump into that call, I hook up this USB microphone but how do I switch to it? The answer is pulseaudio, we can query sources (devices for audio IN) and sinks (devices for audio OUT):

$ pactl list short sources
0	alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 48000Hz	SUSPENDED
3	alsa_output.usb-RODE_Microphones_RODE_NT-USB-00.iec958-stereo.monitor	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 44100Hz	SUSPENDED
4	alsa_input.usb-RODE_Microphones_RODE_NT-USB-00.analog-stereo	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 44100Hz	SUSPENDED

Why the hell a mic appears as output? let’s not pick that and choose the one with input instead using pacmd:

$ pacmd set-default-source alsa_input.usb-RODE_Microphones_RODE_NT-USB-00.analog-stereo
$ pactl list short sources
0	alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo.monitor	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 48000Hz	IDLE
3	alsa_output.usb-RODE_Microphones_RODE_NT-USB-00.iec958-stereo.monitor	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 44100Hz	SUSPENDED
4	alsa_input.usb-RODE_Microphones_RODE_NT-USB-00.analog-stereo	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 48000Hz	RUNNING

If you want to change the output device then look for sinks:

$ pactl list short sinks
0	alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1f.3.analog-stereo	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 48000Hz	RUNNING
3	alsa_output.usb-RODE_Microphones_RODE_NT-USB-00.iec958-stereo	module-alsa-card.c	s16le 2ch 44100Hz	SUSPENDED

I will not set my microphone as an output device, but if you have an extra device you can try pacmd set-default-sink <device>.

How to suspend, shutdown or restart the computer from the command line?

We can use systemctl for all of that:

$ systemctl suspend  # Suspend the system
$ systemctl poweroff # Shutdown the system
$ systemctl reboot   # Restart the system

Have fun!