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HOW TO create ISO images and burn ISO and AUDIO CD's from terminal

To burn cd from terminal you will need to use wodim. It comes preinstalled, but if you don't have it installed you can install it typing:

yum install wodim

Next thing is to find out the location of the cd/dvd-rw burner in dev folder. Type:

wodim --devices

The output will be something like this:


sh-4.0$ wodim --devices
wodim: Overview of accessible drives (1 found) :
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
0 dev='/dev/scd0' rwrw-- : 'MATSHITA' 'DVD-RAM UJ-860'
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
sh-4.0$

Next type:

wodim -v -dao speed=4 dev='/sda/scd0' myimage.iso

Here's a short explanation:

-v - shows the progress bar
-dao - burn disk at once
speed=4 - determines the speed of burning process
dev='/sda/scd0' - location of your cd burner determined by wodim --device command
myimage.iso - complete path to your iso image

If you don't have iso file ready, you can create one like this. Type:

mkisofs -o myimage.iso /path/to/folder/containing/files

To burn audio CDs you will need to convert your music to wav. You can do this as follows. Navigate to the folder where are located only those mp3 files that you want to burn to cd, then type:

yum install mpg123
find . -name "*.mp3" | xargs -i mpg123 -w {}.wav {}


Now you will have the .wav files that you can burn to cd. To do this type:

wodim -v -dao speed=4 dev='/dev/scd0' -audio *.wav

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How to reset your MySQL Password

1. Stop MySQL server
# service mysql stop
Stopping mysql [ OK ]

2. Start MySQL server in safe mode and fork it to the background
# mysqld_safe --skip-grant-tables -u mysql &
[1] 75725
Starting mysqld daemon with databases from /var/db/mysql

3. Now start mysql
# mysql -u root mysql
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 2 to server version: 4.1.22

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.


4. Change your password
mysql> update user set Password=password('password') where User='root';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)
Rows matched: 0 Changed: 0 Warnings: 0

5. Flush privileges
mysql> flush privileges;
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

6. Quit
mysql> quit
Bye

7. Restart MySQL server
# service mysql restart
Stopping mysql [ OK ]
Starting mysql [ OK ]

8. Try your new password
# mysql -u root -p mysql
Enter password:

Fedora 11 introduced a great new feature: delta RPM updates. This feature creates delta RPM packages (.drpm) that are binary “patches” to the existing RPM packages.

Instead of downloading all files, regardless of whether they have changed or not, a delta RPM will only download the files that have changed compared to the previous RPM package.

Once the delta RPM is downloaded by the Presto plugin for yum, it will try to reconstruct a full RPM based on the contents of the previous RPM, plus the newly changed files from the delta RPM. The newly-created RPM will then be installed by yum.

To enable delta RPM's, you need to install presto plugin for yum (yum install yum-presto).

Random knowledge

From BBC News

To return to Earth the space shuttle must make a series of complicated manouevres to align itself into the correct position to achieve a safe descent.



1. The shuttle flies upside down in orbit to control its heating.
2. To re-enter the atmosphere, the shuttle is turned tail first to the direction of travel, and fires its engines to slow its speed.
3. The orbiter is then flipped the right way up and enters the top layer of the atmosphere at about a 40-degree angle from horizontal with its wings level.
4. The orientation keeps its black thermal tiles facing the majority of the heat – as high 1,650C (3,000F) on the leading edges of the wings and nose.
5. As its speed drops, the shuttle starts to fly more like an aircraft, using its rudder and wing flaps for control. It banks sharply to slow its speed still further.
6. The shuttle falls from a height of more than 360km at speeds that top Mach 30, and at an angle of 19 degrees, far steeper than that of a commercial aircraft. The spacecraft comes to a dead stop half a world a way from where it began the descent.

A few linux commands to

1. Suspend computer
echo -n mem > /sys/power/state

2. Hibernate computer
echo -n disk > /sys/power/state

3. Check if a file is empty
echo $(stat -c%s am_tired.sh) (where am_tired.sh is the file we are interested in)