Command Line Workflows

Almost everything that can be done with GUI can also be done with CLI.

Here is a selected list of common Linux workflows with CLI with some esoteric examples. The commands listes here may not be preinstalled on your system, and you may need to install the appropriate packages. For more examples consult various AI chat tools. As of 2025 the AI chatbox are extemely good at answering questions like “How to connect to a usb on Linux?”, which has a definite and correct answer presented on some obscure online forum which no human being is able to find.

Controlling the Computer

Wifi, sound, etc.

Cli can command the computer to shutdown now reboot.

$ shutdown now # shutdown the computer immediately
$ reboot # reboot the computer

You can connect to wifi on cli

$ nmtui # a terminal user interface for network manager
$ # nmtui requires `network-manager` 
$ iwctl # an alternative to nmtui

Cli can also control sound, brightness, and display. This is useful for automatic tasks and system ricing.

$ # These commands may not be present on all systems or may not work for all environments
$ brightnessctl set 10%-  # increase the brightness of screen by 10%
$ amixer set Master 5%+  # increase audio by 5%. Only works on pulseaudio systems.
$ nmtui  # An intuitive tool to connects to wifi
$ gammastep -O 4000  # set the display color tempreture to 4000K. (For night light)

Many system configurations, such as controlling the mouse speed, set the display screen and resolutions, are controlled by the desktop environment. Desktop environments often offers some cli tools for more control.

Here are some examples for Gnome:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri "file:///path/to/your/image.jpg"

Know About your Computer

$ sudo lscpu # list cpu information 
$ sudo lshw # list hardware information 
$ sudo lsusb # list usb devices 
$ sudo lsblk # list block devices 
$ sudo lspci # list pci devices 
$ free -h # show memory usage 

Rare but useful examples

Flash iso image onto a USB and make it a bootable device

The first step of installing an operating system is to flash its installation image onto a usb. This can be done with the command cp on Linux.

First, find the path of your USB.

$ lsblk  # short for list block device
sda           8:0    1  58.6G  0 disk  # This is the USB
├─sda1        8:1    1   4.4G  0 part 
├─sda2        8:2    1   4.9M  0 part 
├─sda3        8:3    1   300K  0 part 
└─sda4        8:4    1  54.2G  0 part 
nvme0n1     259:0    0 476.9G  0 disk # This is the SDD
├─nvme0n1p1 259:1    0     1G  0 part /boot
├─nvme0n1p2 259:2    0    16G  0 part [SWAP]
└─nvme0n1p3 259:3    0 459.9G  0 part /

USB devices are usually named as sda , sdb, etc. It can be distinguished by its capacity; or just compare the output of lsblk before and after plugin a USB. The path for the USB will be in the form of \dev\sda.

Assuming the path for the required image is live-disk.iso, the following command will flash the image to the usb and make the USB a bootable device.

Note, the destination is not /dev/sda1, but /dev/sda, without the number.

$ cp live-disk.iso /dev/sda  # This may take a while.

There are also other methods; check this arch wiki.

Esoteric Examples

$ browsh # open a browser in terminal
$ tiv image.jpg # view an image in terminal
$ beep # make a beep sound.