Terminal basics

You can use Boykisser Linux without ever opening a terminal. But a handful of commands make a lot of things quicker, and most help you find online assumes you have one.

Opening it

Press Ctrl+Alt+T, or find Terminal in the menu. You’ll see a pink system summary and a prompt:

user@boykisser:~$

That’s username@computer:folder$. ~ is short for your home folder, /home/username. The shell is bash.

Handy keys:

Tab completes commands and file names. Press it twice to see the options.
↑ and ↓ scroll through commands you ran before. Ctrl+R searches them.
Ctrl+C stops whatever is running.
Ctrl+Shift+C / V copy and paste (plain Ctrl+C means “stop” in here).

Getting around

pwd                 # where am I?
ls                  # what's in here?
ll                  # same, with sizes, dates and hidden files
cd Downloads        # go into a folder
cd ..               # go up one level
cd                  # go home

Files

cp file.txt backup.txt        # copy
mv old.txt new.txt            # move or rename
mkdir projects                # new folder
rm file.txt                   # delete (no recycle bin!)
rm -r folder                  # delete a folder and everything in it
xdg-open file.pdf             # open with the default app

Installing and updating

boykisser update              # update everything
sudo apt install vlc          # install from Debian
sudo apt remove vlc           # remove it again
apt search "image editor"     # search Debian
flatpak install flathub org.gimp.GIMP
flatpak list                  # what Flatpaks do I have?

sudo runs one command as administrator. It asks for your password, and nothing appears while you type it. That’s normal.

Boykisser shortcuts

These aliases are set up for you:

Type	Runs
`update`	`boykisser-update`
`cleanup`	`boykisser-cleanup`
`doctor`	`boykisser-doctor`
`bk`	`boykisser` (so `bk theme light` works)
`ll`	`ls -lah`
`la`	`ls -A`

Finding out what’s going on

boykisser doctor              # quick health check
df -h                         # disk space
free -h                       # memory
htop                          # live process list (q quits)
fastfetch                     # the system summary again
journalctl -b -p err          # errors since this boot

Getting help

man ls opens the manual for ls (q quits).
command --help gives a short summary for most commands.
Debian’s own docs apply here too: debian.org/doc.