Not today...

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OS

Linux Mint

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After a long journey, I finally found the distribution which fits all my need: Linux Mint Debian Edition

Why ?

  • It is based on debian a distribution which I really like (and not Ubuntu).
  • The default tilling (similar to W7) is really comfortable.
  • Lot of configuration can be done for shortcuts.
  • Support for systemd (Yay \o/).
  • Beautiful UI out of the box (which I didn’t have with TWM).
  • And a lot more

Installation

As I am on Macbook (once upon a time, I was young and dumb), I need a particular configuration of the partitions for the installation.

Here is how my HDD is partitionned:

  • First, the /boot/efi partition with the boot flag is about 200MB
  • Then the Macintosh partition, in hfs+
  • The /boot, partition, as I will use LVM I need to have an external partition to hold the initram images, with an ext4 filesystem.
  • Finally, the LVM partition which is subdivided in two partitions:
    • lvm_root: which will hold the root filesystem
    • lvm_swap: my system swap

Mount the partitions in the right order into /mnt/target, follow the expert disk partioning in the installation wizard.

Install LVM into the new system (with chroot), then fillup the fstab file to look similar to something like this:

/dev/mapper/vg_ssd-lv_root  /	    ext4	rw,relatime,discard,data=ordered  0 1
/dev/mapper/vg_ssd-lv_swap  none	swap	defaults                          0	0

proc          /proc	    proc  defaults        0	0
/dev/sda3     /boot	    ext4  defaults        0 2
/dev/sda2     /boot/efi vfat  defaults        0 2

Configuration

Now that we have a running distribution there is some small details to fix. Here are some piece of configuration I needed to fix to have a satisfying install.

Chromium as default

First, I want to use chromium as the default browser, simply install it with the package manager, then just run the Preferred Application program to setup the default.

Microphone issue

As I use a Macbook I have an issue with my mic by default. To fix that, just create the /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base.conf file, and just past the following:

options snd-hda-intel model=mbp101 index=1

Reboot, and tadaaa!

Systemd

By default, on LMDE Betsy (my current installation), the init system is still sysvinit. I really like systemd and good news the skeleton of it is already present, so we just have to explain the system to change. And… it is simpler as I firstly thought, because there is a package for that: systemd-sysv.

Just run the installation and you will be good

Powertop

As systemd is already installed, here is the service file: /etc/systemd/system/powertop.service

[Unit]
Description=Powertop tunings

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/usr/sbin/powertop --auto-tune
Environment="TERM=xterm"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Note: I had to install xterm in order to make the service work, because powertop needs a shell at runtime to perform the auto-tune statement.

It is a systemd service which will be loaded at startup, so just enable it: systemctl enable powertop

Skype

This one is easy, but I also want my beautiful cinnamon skin on it ;)

Just download and install the .deb file from here

Enable multiple architecture if you are running x86_64 distribution: dpkg --add-architecture i386

And now install some complementary packages: apt-get install gtk2-engines-murrine:i386 gtk2-engines-pixbuf:i386

Last word

This article will evolve to fit the latest change on my system, stay tuned!