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linux mint

Last update: Thu Jun 5 22:25:41 2025
My old tiny laptop stated to have a hard time under windows 7, and its small disk forced me to reinstall. So reinstalling for reinstalling, let's go Linux! Under the advice of a friend of mine (thanks Ivan), I installed a Linux mint 17.3 "Rosa".
It's a good distribution, and over the last 20 years Linux made so much progress from those debians or redhats I installed when I was 15 (ah youth). Come to think of it that was also under the suggestion of my Linux senpai "Christophe".
Enough rambling, down to business...

Burn the iso on a USB

  1. find the /dev/sdX of your USB key (mount -l)
  2. run the magic command : sudo dd bs=4M if=the-linux-iso.iso of=/dev/sdX conv=fsync status=progress (no partition number!) (the bs block size parameter can be set to the least common M/s speed both input/output disk support
  3. make sure to properly unmount the drive, to avoid missing pending writings
  4. Then enable SSH and Wifi for headless
  5. ssh default credentials are pi/raspberry

Install

Use synaptic to do the installs unless otherwise specified:
  • arduino
  • eclipse (article about avr dev under eclipse and another about Arduino and eclipse cohabitation)
  • avr-gcc and most of the avr* packages, avrdude, etc...
  • binutils and binutils-avr (should be installed as dependency anyway)
  • emacs
  • htop
  • iBus for Japanese input
  • keepassX
  • git
  • owncloud client
One shot apt-get: 
sudo apt-get install emacs-nox htop git

Additional setup

Cool bash prompt

export PS1="╔\[\033[38;5;6m\]\u\[$(tput sgr0)\]@\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;202m\]\h\[$(tput sgr0)\]-\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;3m\][\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;6m\]\w\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;3m\]]\[$(tput sgr0)\]\n╚═>\[$(tput sgr0)\]\[\033[38;5;14m\]\\$\[$(tput sgr0)\] \[$(tput sgr0)\]"

Using USB ports

You need to be sudoer to use the usb ports :( Found the explanation here. Problem is udev that is acting a bit.
  • You need your user to be in the group dialout
  • You need to add a rule in /etc/udev/rules.d/ folder. Basically copy the following code in a file like 10-local.rules to override rules by default. You can find the details of your USB programmer with lsusb -v (mine is a avrisp mkII and has Product ID 2104)
    • SUBSYSTEM!="usb", ACTION!="add", GOTO="avrisp_end"

# Atmel Corp. JTAG ICE mkII
ATTR{idVendor}=="03eb", ATTR{idProduct}=="2103", MODE="660", GROUP="dialout"
# Atmel Corp. AVRISP mkII
ATTR{idVendor}=="03eb", ATTR{idProduct}=="2104", MODE="660", GROUP="dialout"
# Atmel Corp. Dragon
ATTR{idVendor}=="03eb", ATTR{idProduct}=="2107", MODE="660", GROUP="dialout"

LABEL="avrisp_end"
  • a small restart of udevd might be needed, but the README file in the config folder says not needed... anyway, unplug and replug your programmer, you don't need to sudo anymore

    • Burnin CD/DVD on USB

    Found that on the net, used on the Xbmcbuntu pc, should work the same: 
    sudo growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/sr0=whatever-iso-you-want-to-burn.iso
    /dev/sr0 is my DVDRom, might be different. Use dmesg to see where it's mounted for you.

    OwnCloud client

    Things got easier with time, no just read this page: https://owncloud.org/download/

    Canon printers

    If you are like me living in Japan and using second hand laser printers from Canon (MF4200 for instance) you'll be happy to know that Canon has a set of drivers for your printer. Go to the following link, download, run and RTFM. Thank you Canon!
    https://cweb.canon.jp/drv-upd/lasershot/linux/lipslxlinux.html

    Netflix

    Just install google Chrome and you're done. Go to https://www.google.com/chrome/browser/ and you're done...

    Shortcuts

    My usual shortcuts to add to .profile for instance... 
    alias als="ls -alF"
alias gitpush="git push origin master --tags"
alias gitadd="git add -A"
alias gitcommit="git commit"
alias gitALL="gitadd;gitcommit;gitpush"
alias gitupd="git pull origin master"

    Disable root login via SSH

    First, disable root login. Just make sure you have another sudoer user somewhere, or you'll just lock yourself out of the admin mode. 
    passwd -l root
    Then, to be clean, disable root login in /etc/ssh/sshd_config: 
    PermitRootLogin no

    Troubleshooting

    It doesn't work and I fixed or worked around it. So if it helps you...

    ⇒　My Linux Mint keeps on loosing internet (Mint 18.1 Serena)

    Situation: in fact Wifi does work, try putting an IP and you're good. Restarting your wireless connection fix the problem. So it drills down to "DNS resolution failing after a few minutes".
    Guilty: dnsmasq.
    Solution: deactivate that "addition" by editing /etc/NetworkManager/NetworkManager.conf and #comment out the line dns=dnsmasq, and reboot (you can restart the NW manager only but ...)

    ⇒　My Linux Mint lost Windows 7 in double boot

    Situation: you finally decided to give up on Windows 7/8/10 and install mint, double boot setup but no "Windows" option on the grub boot.
    Guilty: grub
    Solution: update grub: sudo update-grub and that should fix it. If not, enjoy updating grub manually...
    All content on this site is shared under the MIT licence (do what u want, don't sue me, hat tip appreciated)
    electrogeek.tokyo ~ Formerly known as Kalshagar.wikispaces.com and electrogeek.cc (AlanFromJapan [2009 - 2025])