I tend to format and reinstall my operating systems quite often. Usually every 6 months with each new releases of Linux Mint. I like seeing the changes they’ve done in the installation process steps and I like starting over from scratch, getting rid of all the useless softwares, configurations and tests that I’ve installed or done. It’s also more secure in case there’s a malware, virus or trojan that got installed.
Installing the latest Linux Mint is quite easy and fast, that is not a problem. However, having to install and configure everything else does take some time, it’s redundant and can be avoided. Here’s the terminal command that can be used to install and configure Linux Mint in a much better way. You can easily copy, modify it to your liking and create your own automatic installation script!
With these commands, it’s extremely easy and fast to do the whole configuration but it must be said that all my data is on a Network Attached Storage (NAS) so I have nothing to backup before a new installation. If you don’t have a NAS, then you should definitely get one, it’s a must.
I’m using dconf instead of gsettings, most examples on the web are using gsettings but for some reason, dconf gave me more control and less problem.
If you have a setting you’d like to modify, try this:
gsettings list-recursively > file1 # Make your Mate's modification gsettings list-recursively > file2 diff file1 file2
Since I’m using dm-crypt for encrypting the whole hard drive and also the nvidia driver, let’s fix a small bug first:
# Fix GRUB bug with nvidia driver and dm-crypt # https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nvidia-graphics-drivers-367/+bug/1638983 sudo sed -i -e 's/quiet splash//g' /etc/default/grub sudo update-grub
If you have a NAS, then to automount a drive, modify the command below and run it:
sudo sh -c "echo '//123.123.123.123/folder /media/folder cifs user,username=?,password=?,uid=?,gid=?,vers=3.0 0 0 _netdev' >> /etc/fstab"
Install youtube-dl:
sudo apt install curl && sudo curl -L https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -o /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl && sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
Install mp3gain manually because it is not in Debian’s repository:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:flexiondotorg/audio && sudo apt update && sudo apt install mp3gain
Install some basic applications:
sudo apt install gimp numlockx id3v2 p7zip-full ttf-mscorefonts-installer imagemagick lame mplayer mencoder tree lftp filezilla openclipart
Configure the GUI interface:
# Configure terminal dconf write /org/mate/terminal/profiles/default/background-color \'#000000000000\' dconf write /org/mate/terminal/profiles/default/bold-color \'#000000000000\' dconf write /org/mate/terminal/profiles/default/cursor-blink-mode \'on\' dconf write /org/mate/terminal/profiles/default/cursor-shape \'block\' dconf write /org/mate/terminal/profiles/default/foreground-color \'#0000FFFF0000\' dconf write /org/mate/terminal/profiles/default/scrollback-unlimited true dconf write /org/mate/terminal/profiles/default/use-theme-colors false dconf write /org/mate/terminal/profiles/default/visible-name \'Z\' # Configure the text editor xed dconf write /org/x/editor/preferences/editor/display-line-numbers true dconf write /org/x/editor/preferences/editor/wrap-mode-none dconf write /org/x/editor/preferences/editor/insert-spaces false # Configure the file explorer Caja dconf write /org/mate/caja/preferences/default-folder-viewer \'list-view\' dconf write /org/mate/caja/preferences/show-hidden-files true dconf write /org/mate/caja/preferences/executable-text-activation \'display\' dconf write /org/mate/caja/preferences/date-format \'iso\' dconf write /org/mate/caja/preferences/show-image-thumbnails \'never\' dconf write /org/mate/caja/preferences/show-directory-item-counts \'always\' dconf write /org/mate/caja/list-view/default-column-order "['size', 'name', 'type', 'date_modified', 'date_accessed', 'group', 'where', 'mime_type', 'octal_permissions', 'owner', 'permissions', 'selinux_context']" dconf write /org/mate/caja/list-view/default-visible-columns "['size', 'name', 'type', 'date_modified']" dconf write /org/mate/caja/window-state/side-pane-view \'tree\' # Configure the Desktop dconf write /org/mate/caja/desktop/computer-icon-visible false dconf write /org/mate/caja/desktop/home-icon-visible false dconf write /org/mate/caja/desktop/network-icon-visible false dconf write /org/mate/caja/desktop/volumes-visible false # Configure Window dconf write /org/mate/Marco/general/focus-mode \'sloppy\' # Configure the Panel dconf write /org/mate/panel/toplevels/bottom/size 40 # Configure screensaver / Power Management dconf write /org/mate/session/idle-delay 60 dconf write /org/mate/power-manager/sleep-display-ac 3600
Configure the keyboard with xmodmap which will replace the nobreakspace character to a normal regular space. The nobreakspace character is an hidden character which can cause problems when you code.
xmodmap -pke > ~/.Xmodmap; cat ~/.Xmodmap | sed 's/nobreakspace/space/g' > ~/.Xmodmap gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-keyboard delay 280 gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-keyboard rate 70 gsettings set org.mate.interface cursor-blink-time 1200
Configure the mouse:
gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-mouse motion-acceleration 3 gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-touchpad motion-acceleration 3 gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-mouse motion-threshold 3 gsettings set org.mate.peripherals-touchpad motion-threshold 3 gsettings set org.mate.Marco.general focus-mode 'sloppy'
Configure the printscreen key, this will open up the screenshot with GIMP so you can easily modify the image afterwards It’s also quite useful when you need to grab multiple print screen because it will just open up a new tab every time you press the printscreen key.
# Configure PrintScreen key gsettings set org.mate.Marco.global-keybindings run-command-screenshot "disabled" dconf write /org/mate/desktop/keybindings/custom0/action \'"scrot -e \"mv \$f /tmp; gimp /tmp/\$f\""\' dconf write /org/mate/desktop/keybindings/custom0/binding \'Print\' dconf write /org/mate/desktop/keybindings/custom0/name \'PrintScreen\'
Configure GIMP’s fonts:
# Configure GIMP fonts if you need to have special fonts: mkdir $HOME/.fonts cp /somewhere/backup/fonts/*ttf ~/.fonts/
Configure GIMP’s image orientation:
# Configure GIMP image orientation cat << EOF > $HOME/.gimp-2.8/parasiterc # GIMP parasiterc # # This file will be entirely rewritten each time you exit. (parasite "exif-orientation-rotate" 1 3 "yes") EOF
Configure file association:
cat << EOF > $HOME/.config/mimeapps.list [Default Applications] video/x-matroska=vlc.desktop video/mp4=vlc.desktop video/x-msvideo=vlc.desktop video/webm=vlc.desktop video/mpeg=vlc.desktop message/rfc822=thunderbird.desktop video/mp2t=vlc.desktop audio/mpeg=vlc.desktop [Added Associations] video/x-matroska=vlc.desktop; video/mp4=vlc.desktop; video/x-msvideo=vlc.desktop; video/webm=vlc.desktop; video/mpeg=vlc.desktop; message/rfc822=thunderbird.desktop; video/mp2t=vlc.desktop; audio/mpeg=vlc.desktop; EOF
Install trash-cli, very useful software, it will automatically delete files in your trash that are X days old. You don’t need to think anymore about emptying your trash. Debian’s repository has an old version which is buggy, use these commands to install the latest version:
cd $HOME git clone https://github.com/andreafrancia/trash-cli.git cd trash-cli sudo python setup.py install cd .. rm -fr trash-cli
Configure crontab:
# Configure crontab crontab -l > tempCrontab echo "30 */8 * * * trash-empty 7" >> tempCrontab echo "@reboot sleep 30 && DISPLAY=:0 xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap" >> tempCrontab crontab tempCrontab rm -f tempCrontab
That’s it! With these commands, my new installation is almost totally configured, it took only a few minutes and it’s all automatic!
Finally, some last personal configurations that isn’t automated unfortunately. Here’s the one of Firefox. Note that AdBlock Plus is in blacklist mode instead of the default whitelist, this means that only websites added in this plugin will have their ads blocked. Else, I find that it will break webpages too often.
about:config : browser.bookmarks.autoexportHTML true browser.urlbar.clickSelectsAll true browser.urlbar.trimURLS false mousewheel.min_line_scroll_amount 50 View Image https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/view-image/ Web Developer https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-developer AdBlock Plus Settings / Advanced / My Filter List: @@*$document,domain=~youtube.com|~speedtest.net
Configure Filezilla:
Edit / Settings / Interface: Do not save passwords Edit / Settings / Interface: Show the Site Manager on startup Edit / Settings / Interface: When starting a new connection: Connect in current tab Edit / Settings / Interface / File lists: Double-click action on files: View/Edit Edit / Settings / File editing / Custom editor: /usr/bin/xed Edit / Settings / File editing / Always use default editor Edit / Settings / Filetype associations: uncheck
Configure LibreOffice:
Tools / Automatic Spell Checking Tools / AutoCorrect Options... / Options / URL Recognition: Disable Tools / AutoCorrect Options... / Options / Replace dashes: Disable Tools / Customize / Keyboard: delete CTRL-Down and CTRL-Up
Configure VLC:
Tools / Preferences / Interface / Use only one instance: Disable Tools / Preferences / Interface / Display playlist tree Tools / Preferences / Video / Video snapshots / Directory Tools / Preferences / All / Interface / Main interfaces / Qt / Systray icon: Disable Tools / Preferences / All / Interface / Main interfaces / Qt / Show notification popup: Never Tools / Preferences / All / Interface / Main interfaces / Qt / Resize interface to the native video size: Disable Tools / Preferences / All / Interface / Main interfaces / Qt / Continue playback?: Never Tools / Preferences / All / Playlist / Subdirectory Behavior: Expand
Leave a Reply