If you miss your old HP calculator, but think “dc” is a little bit too hard for daily use, then rpncalc may come in handy.

rpncalc is a text-only HP28 emulator for Linux. No frills, no fuss, just the numbers, delivered by means of pure RPN joy.

• Debian rpncalc page
• rpncalc page

Keywords: Daily Debian, bc, dc, rpncalc, rpn, calculator

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xprobe2 is a command-line tool that identifies what OS a given remote host is running. Xprobe2 employs techniques similar to those used by nmap to do its job, but unlike nmap, it concentrates on remote OS identification only.

• Debian xprobe2 page
• xprobe2 page

Keywords: Daily Debian, xprobe2, nmap, fingerprinting

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sysvconfig is a text-mode tool to help in the configuration of the package init links. Unlike update-rc.d, which is a pure command-line program, sysvconfig displays a curses based screen with all services currently in the system. Choosing services that will run at boot time is a simple matter of ticking (or unticking) a box.

Recommended for the command-line phobic or for those who prefer to have an “overall” picture of how the system is currently configured.

• Debian sysvconfig page
• sysvconfig freshmeat page

Keywords: Daily Debian, sysvconfig, update-rc.d

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The Linux VNC server works very well, but it creates a new session for each incoming VNC connection, making it impossible to “see” the screen of the current user on the console. Although this may look a little strange for those coming from Windows, VNC is just keeping with the multi-user philosophy of Linux; a new VNC connection is just a new session. This behavior, however, is not always desirable, as it makes it impossible to help friends with “that” strange error message on their screens.

If you find yourself helping friends or co-workers, and you need the same functionality provided by the Windows version of VNC, you may wish to try x11vnc.

X11vnc is fully compatible VNC server, but unlike the original VNC server, it allows the client to “remote control” the currently running X session.

• Debian x11vnc page
• x11vnc page

Keywords: Daily Debian, x11vnc, vnc, tightvnc, vncviewer, remote-control, X11

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Tired of your “good ole Debian standard” text-mode login? If you want to “jazz-up” your login screen a little (and provide some information about the current server name, specially when you have tons of them connected to a KVM switch), you should try linuxlogo.

Linuxlogo creates ASCII and ANSI art logos to be displayed by getty on every login screen. Logos can be configured to display a number of things about the computer such as the processor type, hostname, total memory, and many others.

The Debian linuxlogo package comes with an extra logo, the “Debian Swirl” logo, which is also the default one.

• Debian linuxlogo page
• linuxlogo page

Keywords: Daily Debian, linuxlogo, getty, issue.net, ascii-art, ansi-art

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