Make a Working Linux Mint Config

[shubhattin]

Setup Linux mint for your device with all the features, you use. Find replacements for apps, see how to access linux file system of windows and vice versa. try out VM and see its performance

[shubhattin]

OS Installation and Boot

• [x] How to manually partition the concerned drive to install Mint as a dual boot :- This was easy you just need to shorten your drive from which you want to allocate space. Then set it to ext4 and mount point to /. And should be fine
• [x] Figure out and fix the error which happens after when we delete the partition in which mint was installed and then merge it back into the original partition. The partition in which it was merged show Used Space unknown thus making the installer not being able to make a partition :- for this you should resize you drive in windows to allocate free space which you can use in linux installation.
• [x] Find a way to access linux's ext4 from windows :- Using Linux FileSystem for Windows by Paragon

Notes

• You should allocate free space into unallocated before the installer setup, and also have it merged if required or prepartioned according to usage.
• For / select unallocated space and ext4 with mount point \.
• If you want to have a sperate /home in a different partion then select ext4, :warning: only select format option if you want to format your preexisting /home directory.
• You can also have a swap partition instead of a swap file of desired size

[shubhattin]

Basic Setup

• Connectivity
  • [x] Bluetooth
  • [x] WiFi
  • [x] USB Devices
  • [x] USB tethering
  • [x] Mobile Devices
  • [x] Bluetooth Tethering
• [x] TouchPad Setup : Touchpad support is overall fine, but while scrolling the scroll feedback is not instant. I found that is a mint particular problem and there might be fixes around it.
  • :warning: It seems like the support for zoom in/out at a particular spot seems not not be working at least in x11. There might be some workaround in wayland.
• [x] Time and Date Issue
  • sudo apt install ntp -y for network time provider's newer version.
  • reconfigure sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata
• [x] Dual Monitor Support : You need to mirror screen and set the monitor's resolution while connected and laptop's resolution while disconnected, you might as well explore x11 config for that. Click Display Settings on the home screen.
  • Enable fractional scaling to enable ui zoom like 125%, 150% etc

  • You might face problems with fractional scaling in mint as its experimental. To fix this you could temporarily or permanently switch to resolution close dimension/scaling factor, although this would come at cost of reduced sharpness and reduced screen quality(this also save some power).

• [x] Setup GPU properly and optimize for battery usage
  • :heavy_check_mark: For now the intel integrated GPU seems to be working fine with mint.
  • For Dual GPU goto Driver Manager and install a NVIDIA driver. And it should be fine. You can either use dedicated NVIDIA or on demand NVIDIA
  • [x] Setup proper lid down, sleep button click, shutdown button click for with/without charger plugged in :- Suspend seems to be sleep alternative.
  • [x] Use Mission Center or Resources to verify and see GPU Usage as it lists all major hardware resources.
• Dsable Draw User Background fromLogin Window` to set different login screen wallpaper.
• Power Management : If you feel that your system is not utilizing space in optimal way you could use tlp and remove it see here

• :information_source: While using a usb drive or any any external storage device wait for the usb to eject and disappear from file explorer. Its because if something shows to be copied, deleted, moved etc, it still might be processing things in background. This also the reason why commands like rm -rf and cp feel faster than windows copy and delete.

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Software

• [x] CLI Based Application : These apps usually work all fine without ever having any major issues.
  • [x] Terminal Emulator :- Use tilix
• Browsers
  • [x] Brave
  • [x] Edge
  • [x] Chrome
• Video Player
  • [x] VLC Media Player
    • :heavy_check_mark: for now vlc seems to be fine and could not find a good alternative for advanced player like powerdvd
    • if facing problems with vlc flatpack install using ppa
• Partition Manager : GParted via sudo apt-get install gparted
• Video Converter
  • [x] Alternative(s) to Wondershare i converter
  • HandBrake
  • Shutter Encoder
• Others
  • [x] XDM or a better alternative if you can find like IDM
  • [x] Some file type downloads are not being caught like mp4
    • :heavy_check_mark: for now staying with this limitation as noother good tool tried or found. It is not a problem as it is just a longer process and we have to manaually right click on the link or see if video was detected in extension panel.
  • [x] YouTube Video Downloader :- Parabolic
  • [x] A Speed Monitor tool like DU Meter
  • You can use the built in system monitor or Mission center app.
  • [x] Clipboard Manager : Use Diodon.
    • Go to Preferernces and enable
    • Use Clipboard
    • Add Images to Clipbaord
    • Keep Clipbaord Content
    • Synchronize clipboard
    • Automatically paste selected items
    • Register a Shortcut with Win+v (like windows) with /usr/bin/diodon
  • [x] Screenshot
  • goto Keyboard>Shortcuts search for Take a Screenshot and change the shortcut to Super+PtrScr(.ie Wind+PtrScr)
  • [x] Eye Protector Apps
  • Safeeyes for 20-20 rule
  • Iris micro gui for a app like careueyes
  • [x] File Recovery App
  • free Linux recovery
  • Bootable Redo
  • [x] Rufus Alternatives
  • Use Ventoy for windows and linux as well. Windows Guide
  • Universal USB Instaler
  • Posicle

  • :information_source: If the default file explorer formatter gives problems goto Disks

  • [x] Pdf Editor
  • Libre Office Draw
  • [x] Compression tools
  • Peazip
  • [x] An IME to type Indian languages
  • Keyboard Layout Method (Simple and no IME)
    • Goto Keyboard > Layouts and then add the language or layout you need, for eg: Hindi -> Hindi(Wx)
    • Under Display Options unheck 'show country flag' and check 'show layout name instead of group name'
    • Input Method Editor
    • The above keyboard layout method can also be used in this approach as it has both keyboard layout and IME's
    • Search Input Method and choose a indian language displayed there(in my case was telugu) and click install. This should install ibus and related dependencies. or install using sudo apt install ibus ibus-m17n m17n-db fonts-indic fcitx-m17n ibus-clutter ibus-table
    • After installed logout and open method again and select input framework to be ibus.
    • Open Ibus Preferences, select input method and now you should be able to add both layouts and IMEs.
    • Restart the computer to ensure proper functioning
    • Use Win+Space to switch and change shall be reflected in taskbar

    • Keyboard Layout Access Scheme :- Left Bottom : no shift | Left Top : Shift || Right Bottom : RightAlt | Right Top : RightAlt+Shift

    • You can see keyboard layout either directly from taskbar if available(like for Hindi Wx) or goto ibus Preferences > Input method > Select the Layout > About
    • Recommendation : Use the first Approach described unless necessary
• [x] Screen Recorder
  • Simple Screen Recorder
  • OBS Studio for advanced purposes
  • Kazam

    To Create keyboard shortcuts goto Keyboard > Shortcuts > Custom Shortcuts

VS Code Keybindings Fix

Initially refer to Windows and Linux keybindings guide to see if the shortcut you is event present on you or platform.

• Alt+click issue in Linux mint, here. This is because Alt is used for window management so disable it.
• Others shortcuts problem here
• If a shortcut listed for your platform does not work then the DE might be interfering with it.
• If a shortcut is not present for your platform try adding yourself.

[shubhattin]

Others

• [ ] Test and use a Lightweight Windows Distribution in Linux on a VM. Avoid trying a major windows release as it would uselessly occupy space. Instead go for a patched lite version.
  • IDM :- This app on the VM as there no as good alternatives to IDM on Linux. Running this should not a problem ignoring storage issues on VM. storage issues relate to resizing the virtual disk before/after downloading files
  • Wondershare i converter :- It is known that VMs don't perform very well when it comes to utilizing hardware resources of the host.
  • You may install VM for use. But you should install the above mentioned apps in VM only if a good enough working substitute could not be found
• [ ] File Transfer Apps
  • Warpinator
  • Local Send

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Shortcuts, Notes

• Shortcuts
  • [x] Lock Screen : alt+ctrl+l to lock screen
  • [x] Copy/Paste in Terminal : shift+ctrl+c/v
  • [x] Registering shortcuts to open apps directly and finding a alternative to alt+f4 of windows. in Keyboard > Shortcut
• Font
  • to install fonts locally copy it to ~/.local/share/fonts folder. then sudo fc-cache -f -v
  • restart the computer to use the fonts properly in the terminal

[shubhattin]

Backup Instructions for /home directory

A better option always would be to have a separate partition for /home

Use rsync to backup as it is supposed to preserve file permissions

Getting ignorelist

save ignorelist

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/rubo77/rsync-homedir-excludes/master/rsync-homedir-excludes.txt -O /var/tmp/ignorelist

Edit the file to add .venv, node_modules, etc. Also go through the file once if required.

Backup

If the drive used lacks space then you should consider not system files like repos, video, audio and other multimedia somewhere else.

It would also be recommended if backup your git repositories in a tar file to avoid problems with file permissions

sudo rsync -avh --progress --exclude-from=/var/tmp/ignorelist /home/<username>  <backup_path>    # usually like /media/<username>/<drive_name>/<loc>

Also after successful backup to the external drive you should also replace old username with new username if they are not same. This should avoid some potential problems which may occur.

#!/bin/bash
directory="<backup_path>"
search_text="/home/<old_username>"
replace_text="/home/<new_username>"
find "$directory" -type f -name "*.txt" -exec sed -i "s|$search_text|$replace_text|g" {} \;

Restore

sudo rsync -avh --progress <backup_path> /home/<new_username>/

After successful restore also set ownership if it had gone wrong

sudo chown -R <new_username>:<new_username> /home/<new_username>