Ubuntu newbie needs help

I just acquired a laptop with only Ubuntu installed. I've toured it a bit on my own, but really lack Ubuntu experience. Two questions:

1. Within Ubuntu, is there a way to find system info such as CPU, GPU and HD info, or do I need a utility or two?

2. What does a smart Ubuntu user do for anti-malware protection? The laptop will occasionally share a home network? I may or may not install Windows.

 

Question #1 is answered. Even a mouse can find the cheese if he sniffs long enough.

 

It depends a bit on which Ubuntu version you've got, but when all else fails, "read the fine manual" - https://help.ubuntu.com/?_ga=2.113755399.1028391931.1522574271-1561777793.1522574271

 

There's a few command line utilities built-in, lscpu, lspci, lsusb, and others starting with "ls". What did you find that works for you? I'm curious.

I've been using clamAV on my computers when I thought I needed it, and I don't think I need it often. It seems to me that the worst days of malware are behind us, the people that make software now learned the hard way what not to do and so most of the stupid mistakes have been fixed. Download your software from trustworthy sources and you should be fine. If you do think you need something then clamAV is probably a good place to start, you can install it from Ubuntu Software Center.

 

In Ubuntu 16.04, the current stable release: click on the symbol that looks like the hub of a reel to reel tape recorder, top left on my screen. Look in Applications for a gear symbol with "Details" beneath . Click on that symbol for system details.

Look for Unity Tweaking Tool to alter settings.

on the bottom of this page, look for an A shaped symbol. click on it. click on Installed. Next to the word Installed you will see something like "See 167 more results" Click that to see every program installed on the computer, and some you uninstalled. To flush the residual traces of uninstalled programs from within this program, click on the AWOL programs icon and uninstall from within this program.

in the Home directory click View>Show hidden files. look for the ".config" folder - it will not show up without "Show hidden files" because the . before the config makes it hidden. this folder has parameters for installed programs, which do not get deleted if you uninstall these programs. You can install different browsers like Midori, Epiphany, Opera, Vivaldi, and use them for particular purposes: Job search on Opera, look for a divorce attorney on Vivaldi, et cetera. If you need privacy more than you need convenience, uninstall the browser used for a specific task. The folder for that browser remains in the .config folder, so just reinstall the browser and there are all of your bookmarks. if you need to purge your job search, trash the folder associated with that browser in .config

you have installed CQRLOG, I'm sure.

 

I use lots of Linux machines at work (mostly Centos, but a few Debian and Ubuntu). If it's thoroughly hidden behind a firewall, there's not much that needs to be done. But if you allow login from the Internet, there are a couple of things you should do:

1. Disable login for the userid "root". When you need root access, sign in as yourself, and then run "su".
2. Delete any standard ID/password combinations that came with your distribution. Use your own ID and your own password.
3. Choose a strong password for every account that exists on the machine.

Info on how to disable root login:
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/linux/security-tip-disable-root-ssh-login-on-linux
https://askubuntu.com/questions/27559/how-do-i-disable-remote-ssh-login-as-root-from-a-server

The reason for this is that there are many hackers that program computers to look around the web for machines that have ssh available. They'll try to "brute force" guess userid and password combinations to log in. Of course, any standard userid/password combinations that come with a common distribution will be the first ones they try (for example, userid "pi" with password "raspberry" comes standard on many linux distributions for the raspberry pi), but they'll also try the root account with all sorts of dictionary words and variations on dictionary words.

I had a server at home with ssh access, with only one nonstandard userid with a strong password. It was receiving tens of thousands of login attempts for root per hour, and almost as many attempts for other userids. If I had allowed root to login, chances are they would have eventually guessed the password, especially if it had been a dictionary word. I wrote a script to block any IP address that attempted to log in as root, and it would still receive thousands per day. Finally, I moved the ssh service to a nonstandard port number, and that stopped all the login attempts.

So I recommend you don't allow ssh access to your machine unless necessary, and if it is necessary, consider moving ssh to a nonstandard port.

 

As a best practice, do this. You'll save yourself some pain. Logging in as root is almost always a bad idea and should be reserved for emergencies only. Better yet, use sudo and limit your exposure even further.
Get familiar with file ownership and UNIX permissions, that way logging in as root will be a very rare event.

 

Great stuff, guys. Will heed your welcome advice. Actually, the fellow who sold it told me it's Ubuntu, but in fact it's Linux Mint 18.3. I've created robust (long alphanumeric) passwords already. Thank you one and all!
Gary

 

Mint is Ubuntu with better lipstick (desktop).

 

1.) Launch Terminal, type in "inxi -F". This will give you a full description of the hardware.

2.) Personally, I don't use anti-malware apps, since the number of exploits are so small, you can count them on the fingers of one of your hands. I do make sure all the updates are applied, as there are security patches embedded in many of them.

73s de KC8RLU.