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Tips & Tricks

Miscellaneous Linux tips & tricks. If an example would only work on a specific OS (i.e. Debian-family only), there will be a message stating so; otherwise, these commands should work across different Linux OSes.

Configurations

Enable CLI boot (disable GUI)

Set your machine to "CLI" boot, where the computer will start at a shell prompt and without a GUI:

Set CLI boot
sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

To undo this change, run:

Set GUI boot
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target

Allow passwordless sudo

Warning

This is not recommended! This configuration is insecure, and allows running all commands as root without entering a password.

There is almost no environment where this is suitable or advisable. The main reason this is documented is so you know where to undo it if you come across a machine that allows sudo commands without a password.

Allowing sudo commands without a password is very risky and inadvisable. This is the state most Windows machines run in (the user is admin/root by default). With the guardrails off, you are free to mistakenly edit or delete files/directories, and your machine is highly insecure; any attacker able to access the user's account could run any command as root without being prompted for a password.

To grant a user password-less sudo rights, run the command visudo (the sudo package must be installed) as root/with sudo, and add the following below the line that reads # Allow members of group sudo to execute any command:

Allow passwordless sudo
# Allow passwordless sudo for specified user(s)
<username>    ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD:ALL