Here is a very short list of a few of my favorite applications and utilities that I seem to install on almost all Linux workstations I use (And some servers). I could really grow and evolve this article into its own section one day. One note, I typically will always look for a flatpak version (Especially for Evolution), and use that before looking for a native install. Just my preference as flatpaks are usually updated quite often.

What IP – Neat utility used mostly on my laptop when I am at remote sites to quickly find the external and local IP, or a virtual interface’s. Great for verifying VPN connections and finding other devices on your LAN.

Flameshot – Quick screenshot utility with several nice options. Unfortunately, nothing beats Snag-it on windows for an ultimate screenshot utility, but Flameshot does a better job than most others that are supported on Linux. A must-have for any Linux desktop.

Angry IP Scanner – Cross platform IP and basic port scanner. I use this mainly on my laptop to scan either for IP cameras or remote locations I am working in to identify network devices. Excellent tool, and not overbuden with features. Also cool feature to click on anything with a port and it can launch typical method to access (ie, web browser for port 80 and 443).

Grsync – GUI for rsync. Easier than using cli at times. I use rsync quite a bit to sync directories and files across network shares from my local machine or flash drives. Grsync is a GUI for the rsync utility that just makes it easier to use especially if you use any of the arguments such as always checksum.

Midnight Commander – A great file manager during shell access. If you remember the old Norton Commander for DOS, this is the Linux version. I use this to quickly navigate a filesystem, copy, move, and edit files and more.

Evolution – Gnome’s outlook type PIM client. Is compatible with O365. There is just really no replacement to the original Outlook client used in Windows. The web version is pretty good, but sometimes nothing beats using an actual client. Evolution has come a long way and now has support for O365 support.

Catfish File Search – GUI file search utility. I always struggle when I use the CLI for find. I never remember the arguments fast enough to be quick, so catfish helps me out.

Remmina – Remote client for RDP, VNC, SSH, etc. A nice program to organize all the remote machines you access regardless of protocol. SSH, RDP, VNC and more supported.

Updating the terminal shell

Fancy bash prompt is a script along with the powerline font to install on your machine to provide highlighting terminal inputs.

Neofetch is a system information app that almost everyone with a Linux system has. I added this to run every time I open a shell by adding the neofetch command to my bashrc file.

The result:

I’ve been using Cisco’s AnyConnect client to connect my Pop!_OS workstation to my work VPN. The AnyConnect client is ok, but I want to use the network manager built into my workstation. To do this, I needed to install OpenConnect. To do this, open a terminal and run the following command:

sudo apt install openconnect network-manager-openconnect network-manager-openconnect-gnome

Then go into Settings / Network, and add a VPN connection. Select OpenConnect.

From this window you can provide your VPN connection a custom name, and enter the gateway of the Cisco VPN server you are trying to connect to. Then click Add.

Once added, I click click the slide to enable the connection to test. I am prompted for my VPN username and password. This is good.

VPN Connection can also be accessed directly from the taskbar.

Several months ago, I switched companies that I work for. This morning, I am working from home and wanted to start Microsoft Teams flatpak on my Pop-Os! desktop and found it would not let me sign in with my new email address.

The application is set for a single user and I could not find a way to, “sign-out”. My solution was to go into the /home/.var/app directory and rename the existing com.microsoft.Teams directory to something else, then restart Teams. This worked. A new config directory was created, I was able to sign in with my new credentials and all is good.

When using Firefox on a touchscreen enabled laptop, I noticed that scrolling only worked using the scroll bar and I could not zoom or scroll like is done with mobile devices. I discovered a fix for this by editing the /etc/security/pam_env.conf file and adding a new environment variable.

MOZ_USE_XINPUT2 DEFAULT=1

Save, then reboot. Zoom and scrolling now work as expected on the laptop touchscreen.

I have been wanting to stand up a FOG Imaging server for quite some time on my home network. I have an Asus RT-AC86U router at home with the AsusWRT-Merlin firmware installed. If you have an Asus router, the Merlin firmware is a must regardless since an improved version of the default firmware the Asus routers come with.

To learn how to install a FOG Server VM, I follow the tutorials on the Practical IT Youtube channel. These videos have been my favorite reference for setting up and using FOG.

You can watch the first video in the series HERE.

During the FOG setup, you will see a summary of your FOG-Master setup. It is important to note the FOG Server IP addressed you have assigned and the bootfile name as seen in the example below.

Now, you will need to sign into the Asus router to enable and configure DNSMASQ. Once signed into the Asus router, go to LAN / DHCP Server. Make sure that DNS Server 1 is set to the IP address of your Asus router (In my case it is 192.168.1.1).

Now go into ADMINISTRATION / SYSTEM . Look for, “Enable JFFS custom scripts and configs“. Enable this option.

You will need to enable SSH on the router so that you can configure DNSMASQ. These settings are on the same page as the JFFS setting.

Now SSH into your Asus router. go to the /jffs/configs directory. I then run nano to create a file dnsmasq.conf.add

Enter the following line in the dnsmasq.conf.add. Be sure to use replace the IP address to your router and use the bootfile name you saw in the fog setup screen that I noted earlier. For my setup, I entered the line:

dhcp-boot=undionly.kpxe,,192.168.1.29

Save the file and exit nano. Now restart the DNSMasq service on the router using the command: service restart_dnsmasq.

Now, I booted a PC and had it boot from the network adapter (PXE), and the FOG boot menu appeared. Everything is working!

Check out the other videos on the Practical IT with Jeremy Leik channel for further configuring and using FOG to create and restore FOG images.

Usually when I need to install my HP color laser printer onto one of my desktops, I have to go the HP Linux Imaging and Printing website and download and install HPLIP. But downloading the files and making the installer work has been a royal pain for Pop OS. Luckily, the System 76 Pop OS website has an article HERE to show how easy it is to install using apt install.

Piece of advice before running: set the password for user root if you have not done so already. The hp-setup tool will ask for a user and password of an account with root capabilities to install. In Ubuntu and Pop OS this is not set normally, and using my credentials would fail. So, run the command: sudo passwd root and set a password for root.

Now, when you run hp-setup and are prompted for root user and password, the install can continue successfully after you enter root and the password you assigned.