First things to do on fresh Linux Mint install are....
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First things to do on fresh Linux Mint install are....
Thought it would be good/fun (and I'll probably learn a lot about Linux Mint in the process) to try to make a basic guide of the first things your average, not Linux-tech-savvy home user should do after they install Linux Mint.
First 3 things I thought of were:
Install gufw from Software Manager and use it to turn the firewall on
Install updates from Update Manager
Restart
Well, the updates are on top of the list any time, always a good move, but I install the "wanna-haves" like VLC, Libre and such alongside the updates so these get an update as well...
Firewall is not an issue here, the next step behind the modem...is a firewall for the network
Melissa
Thought it would be good/fun (and I'll probably learn a lot about Linux Mint in the process) to try to make a basic guide of the first things your average, not Linux-tech-savvy home user should do after they install Linux Mint.
First 3 things I thought of were:
Install gufw from Software Manager and use it to turn the firewall on
Install updates from Update Manager
Restart
What else would you guys recommend?
Hi...
Well, for me, every time I do a Linux install, I make sure that I take care of any needed "web essentials" like Flash Player or Java. If Ubuntu based, I get the latter from here.
rjo98, I think you might get as many opinions as you get responses, but there will likely be a consensus that installing the latest updates should be a priority.
You won't have to restart Mint (or any Linux distro) after updates unless the updates include a new version of the Linux kernel.
After a new install, I commonly install updates, reboot if needed, edit my /etc/fstab for any external drives (I have several external USB drives on various computers), then I install my mostest favoritest bits of software that may not have been included in the default install (Fluxbox, Enlightenment, VLC, terminator, GIMP, Konqueror, LibreOffice). Less favorite bits of software that I use regularly, but not daily (Audacity, K3B, Ksnapshot, for example) get installed as I need them.
The Linux firewall (iptables) is part of the kernel and does not have to be installed. Gufw (which is an excellent choice, by the way) and similar programs are frontends for configuring it. See man iptables for more.
I run my update.sh script which does 99% of all my configuration for me.
It depends on my backup.sh script - which creates the backup archive that update.sh uses as the source for files.
Using those scripts, I can install Linux Mint and make it virtually identical to the original Mint in much less than 30 minutes.
Code:
#!/bin/sh
# save this file in the backupscript folder as update.sh
# make it executable with "sudo chmod u+x update.sh"
# boot into the newly installed OS
# establish wireless or cable internet connection
# Check Software Sources (Linux Mint) for fastest connection
# right-click on the backupscript folder & open a terminal
# run the script with "sudo ./update.sh"
echo Did you check Software Sources for the fastest connection?
while true
do
echo -n "Enter y(es) to continue or n(o) to abort:"
read CONFIRM
case $CONFIRM in
y|Y|YES|yes|Yes) break ;;
n|N|no|NO|No)
echo Aborting - you entered $CONFIRM
exit
;;
*) echo Please enter only y or n
esac
done
echo You entered $CONFIRM - continue...
echo Remove unused stuff e.g. firefox, thunderbird, and rare fonts
apt-get -y --purge autoremove firefox firefox-locale-en
apt-get -y --purge autoremove thunderbird thunderbird-gnome-support
apt-get -y --purge autoremove fonts-kacst fonts-kacst-one fonts-khmeros-core fonts-lao fonts-lklug-sinhala fonts-nanum fonts-sil-abyssinica fonts-sil-padauk fonts-takao-pgothic fonts-tibetan-machine fonts-tlwg-garuda fonts-tlwg-kinnari fonts-tlwg-loma fonts-tlwg-mono fonts-nanum fonts-tlwg-norasi fonts-noto fonts-tlwg-purisa fonts-tlwg-sawasdee fonts-tlwg-typewriter fonts-tlwg-typist fonts-tlwg-typo fonts-tlwg-umpush fonts-tlwg-waree ttf-indic-fonts-core ttf-punjabi-fonts ttf-wqy-microhei fonts-droid fonts-wqy-zenhei
# replace /etc/default/grub and /etc/grub.d/40_custom and /etc/grub.d/06_mint_theme with my customized versions
cp grub /etc/default/
cp 40_custom /etc/grub.d/
cp 06_mint_theme /etc/grub.d/
cp dan /etc/sudoers.d/
echo Get rid of the annoying Warning No support - en_US.utf8
locale-gen --purge --no-archive
# Restore all repository keys - optional. Use only when cloning the same version !
# apt-key add ./repo.keys
# install ubuntuzilla ppa (Seamonkey) and MultiSystem ppa (additional-repositories.list)
cp ./apt/sources.list.d/additional-repositories.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
echo Install ubuntuzilla ppa key
apt-key adv --recv-keys --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com C1289A29
echo Install MultiSystem ppa key
wget -q -O - http://liveusb.info/multisystem/depot/multisystem.asc | sudo apt-key add -
# copy Google Chrome ppa
cp ./apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/
echo Install Google Chrome key
wget -q -O - https://dl-ssl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub | sudo apt-key add -
echo Copying all old .deb files
cp ./archives/*.deb /var/cache/apt/archives/
apt-get -y update
echo Install all the programs I use:
apt-get -y install acetoneiso album apport-gtk asunder avidemux avidemux-plugins-gtk bluefish boot-info-script clipit cthumb dconf-tools filezilla flegita-gimp fsarchiver gimp glines gnome-brave-icon-theme gnome-color-chooser gnome-search-tool google-chrome-stable gparted gpick grml-rescueboot grml2usb grsync grub-pc gsmartcontrol gtkhash gufw gwenrename hardinfo htop imagemagick-doc leafpad medit meld multisystem nemo-image-converter pinta pithos pmount preload puddletag roxterm seamonkey-mozilla-build shutter smartmontools smplayer smtube swapspace tuxpaint xsane
# alternative program installation commands:
# apt-get -y install $(cat installed-software.list | awk '{print $1}')
# The aptitude command works great. Better than dpkg/dselect.
# Enter the next 4 commands to use the dpkg/dselect method.
# apt-get install dselect
# dselect update
# dpkg --set-selections < installed-software.list
# apt-get dselect-upgrade -y
# clean out unused .deb files
aptitude autoclean
echo Restoring personal configuration
cp -a .avidemux $HOME/
cp -a .gconf $HOME/
cp -a autostart $HOME/.config/
cp -a Pinta $HOME/.config/
cp -a roxterm.sourceforge.net $HOME/.config/
cp -a smplayer $HOME/.config/
cp -a vlc $HOME/.config/
cp -a clipit $HOME/.config/
cp -a .filezilla $HOME/
cp -a .grsync $HOME/
cp -a .icons $HOME/
cp -a .local $HOME/
cp -a .multisystem $HOME/
cp -a .puddletag $HOME/
cp -a .themes $HOME/
cp -a .wallpapers $HOME/
cp -a google-chrome $HOME/.config/
cp -a clock@cinnamon.org $HOME/.cinnamon/configs/
cp -a seamonkey $HOME/.mozilla/
cp -a .asunder* $HOME/
cp -a .bash_history $HOME/
cp -a .gimp-2.8 $HOME/
# .bashrc contains my custom aliases
cp -a .bashrc $HOME/
cp -a .face $HOME/
cp -a bin $HOME/
echo Restoring dconf settings
# "Perhaps first do a "dconf reset -f /org/cinnamon/" or "dconf reset -f /org/nemo/"
# to reset all values to their default, before you load the customized values"
# - was not necessary for me on a fresh install of Mint 17.3 Cinnamon
# might be necessary on a cloned OS
# This worked beautifully to restore a boatload of configuration!
dconf load /org/cinnamon/ < dconf.org.cinnamon
echo sleeping... waiting on dconf.org.cinnamon to complete...
sleep 5
dconf load /org/nemo/ < dconf.org.nemo
# make symlinks to my themes
ln -s $HOME/.themes/Dans_BurntOrangeLonghorn /usr/share/themes/Dans_BurntOrangeLonghornLINK
ln -s $HOME/.themes/Dans_MintyGreen-V3 /usr/share/themes/Dans_MintyGreen-V3LINK
ln -s $HOME/.themes/Dans_RainyDayBlues /usr/share/themes/Dans_RainyDayBluesLINK
# create a mount point for my data partition:
mkdir $HOME/sdb2_data
# add data partition to fstab
echo "# mount sdb2 on /home/dan/sdb2_data" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
echo "UUID=a299e544-0371-4856-912b-70458aa37ee1 /home/dan/sdb2_data ext4 defaults,noatime 0 2" | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab
mount -a
echo DONE !
echo Do you want to reboot now?
while true
do
echo -n "Please confirm y(es) or n(o):"
read CONFIRM
case $CONFIRM in
y|Y|YES|yes|Yes) break ;;
n|N|no|NO|No)
echo Aborting - you entered $CONFIRM
exit
;;
*) echo Please enter only y or n
esac
done
echo You entered $CONFIRM - rebooting...
shutdown -r now
Last edited by TxLonghorn; 04-24-2016 at 06:50 AM.
Good posts so far. Think you're right on your first comment Frank, but that's what makes it interesting, to me at least.
Pretty cool script there longhorn.
I saw some articles online like that similar to the one you posted un1x, but a lot of them half the steps are "install a bunch of stuff you'll probably never use" or "bog down your system with these extras" type stuff. Figured a post here would avoid that type of stuff.
Guess I'll leave this open to see if anyone else replies too. The more the merrier.
I have found generally that web articles about "The first X things you should do after installing Y" tell me more about the posters' tastes than they do about whatever the heck Y may happen to be.
I ignore such posts relentlessly. I have no relents left.
It's my bash_history from a new install. This is more of a note for me to come back to if I need to reinstall, than anything (since I've already done it a few times). There's perhaps a few wrong turns, but it's a decent start for general instructions.
Mainly, in LM Rosa and Ubuntu 14.04 (and Debian also), bluetooth comes hopelessly broken out of the box.
Two operations are needed to fix it properly.
First install the blueman_1.23-git201406261335-deb-1_amd64.deb package (or compile it... google search for it).
The second is to compile and reinstall bluez-4.101. I usually use a variant of the LFS method for this.
In a roundabout way, my bash_history shows how I did that.
Also, I compiled and updated my va,vdpau video stack and Intel video drivers for the GM45 express chipset.
This won't apply to many... but it gets me this: http://pastebin.com/vttSz1q8
Also, I like to recompile cairo to enable the Opengl backend, like so:
Code:
--enable-glesv2
From what I can tell, this makes a decent improvement in Mozilla FF HTML5 benchmarks (and other programs that use Cairo to draw with).
Last, I don't like the LM branded browser. I downloaded a generic replacement from the web:
firefox-mozilla-build_46.0.1-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb, uninstalled the original via synaptic, and installed the new via dpkg. This browser also benchmarks slightly better than the original.
BUT...
it also makes system maintenance much harder, because you manually (not via package management) installed stuff. not recommended for newbies.
Yeah... I couldn't figure out why my internet has been DOSed this past day, and then you had to go and remind me.
Lemme say, I'm not Snowden and I know next to nothing on Skynet AI and Pakistani wedding parties, but I do enjoy a good wedding party just as much as the next guy.
Also, I ran into exactly the problem you mentioned on my last system. I manually updated the entire Intel video stack. https://01.org/linuxgraphics/downloads
(which includes, Xorg-Xserver...).
Soon after which an intermediate update for the very same was pushed through. I didn't dare accept it because I just knew it would break my Xserver (which is purposefully designed so as to not operate without having complete version matching drivers/libraries), thereaby pretty much breaking my update ability.
Lesson learned, I'm staying away from that for now. (I really don't see vaapi getting updated, plus it wouldn't break anything anyway).
The bluetooth thing, I fail to understand how three MAJOR distributions can have such a bug(s) and nothing is being said or done about it... no official updates forthcoming.
There's not just one bug in the bluetooth subsystem, but three (missing pyapp-indicator is one, blueman not loading bluetooth-discovery-module watchamacallit is two, and bluez not making for automatic connections is three). Almost seems intentional to me. I mean obviously someone has to know and check these things out before sending them out the door. Even if Debian failed that, surely the Ubuntu team should have... and the mint team as well.
But anyway, I turn my BT speaker on now and it automagically connects (which is how it should be).
BTW, I like how mint mate is setup. Pretty much did all the work for me. I would have spent much more time achieving the same with another distro.
All looks good, and works good (even if it does come shipped with systemd).
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