I’ve recently found myself doing more Linux based tasks so brushing up on my CLI and getting my head back around Ubuntu and it’s derivatives was a must.

Here’s my list of essential Ubuntu and Ubuntu WSL fresh install tweaks…

Installing the following apps – all are command line driven and can be installed with:
sudo apt install ...

nmap – Great for port scanning individual IP addresses either broadly or for specific port and protocols, very good if used to probe a range or subnet as well if you want to get quick visibility. One of my favourite one liners with this at the moment is:
nmap -p80 192.168.0.0/24 -oG - | grep 80/open
This will run a sweep across the IP subnet or range you enter along the given port and print a clean list of what responds.

net-tools – Over the years I’ve seen Ubuntu change the way it handles networking and sometimes you just need a fast way of getting what you want. A common one for me is needing your gateway IP on the computer you are using by using, annoyingly Windows does this well with ipconfig but this allows you:
route

ncdu – I found this super handy little app when trying to figure out what was eating away at my home directory, it’s a disk usage visualiser, you can run it broadly or point it at a particular directory and it will calculate disk usage and allow you to drill down through sub folders:
ncdu /path/to/directory
ncdu /

htop – Very common one, let’s you see what’s going on with your system in a similar way to top but with a nicer and colourful graphic:
htop

iperf – Not one I use too often as rarely do I have the luxury of a Linux box at either end of the network I’m working on. Still good for testing throughput in your network though. I do need to get around to switching towards iperf3 but for the rarity I use it – original iperf does me well for now:
iperf -s
iperf -c IP.OF.SERVER.HERE

whois – A good IP lookup tool, ideal if you’re trying to figure out what or where owns the IP you’re seeing traffic going to or from. It gives credible information back and offers larger network information if you are trying to build firewall rules or access lists:
whois IP.ADDRESS.YOU.WANT

arping – Another one I don’t use massively regularly but is very handy in situations where you suspect a duplicate LAN IP or need some more info on the MAC address:
sudo arping IP.ADDRESS.YOU.WANT

Other tweaks I like to make…

Command history adjustment: This one allows you to use the “page up” and “page down” to scan through your command history, ideal if you can remember the first letter or word but need a nudge to remember the full command (aside from history of course):
sudo nano /etc/inputrc
Then search for the lines with the following and remove the “#” pre-cedeing these lines:
alternate mappings for "page up" and "page down" to search the history
"\e[5~": history-search-backward
"\e[6~": history-search-forward

Bonus Tweak
This one is shortly about to become “not a thing” and I know it uses the oh so dirty “snap” which has it’s security issues.
MikroTik Winbox Easy Installation:
sudo snap install winbox

There you go!
From being a Linux daily driver, forced migration to Windows for 5 years and then re-emerging back towards Linux primarily with the use of WSL this is where my starting point is and for going forwards as I undoubtedly start rebuilding my virtual estate.