Linux mint 12 review: pt. 1 Installation

This slide-show shows you around, while you are waiting for the installer to finish.

I had so much to say about this Linux distribution, that I am breaking it up into several parts.

Live mode worked great for me to poke around, and get my bearings within Linux Mint. I am really grateful that my task-bar has been returned to me.

I used k3b on Linux mint 11 to burn the project. Which is great, because it takes a check-sum of the .iso before attempting the burn. Then after the disk is burned you can choose to save, &/or verify your data. Although I have had the problem, of k3b being rather picky about accepting discs.

 k3b is my preferred Linux burning program, no matter which platform it is on. I really wish that it had a windows equivalent. I have never had any burn failures, while using k3b.

BIOS chip.

Because my windows refuses to do the factory reset from the main HDD(hard-disk drive) hidden rescue partition. I am guessing because I had to replace the mother-board. The mother-board has the same exact physical make-up, except for a slightly newer version of the BIOS(Basic Input/Output system).

All that means is that I have another whole HDD to install and test Linux distribution's in bare-metal form. Although I do plan to test many Linux installs within Linux Mint 12. I have decided to keep my Linux Mint 11 intact on my other internal 360 GB HDD.

I want to go into some of the basics of choosing a partition scheme, file-system format, and mount-points. I do this so that you won't have any trouble making changes on your own computer. I will include slides from my own desktop, and net-book.

The complicated part of the install doesn't even start, until you get to this screen. Many people get scared of this step, because it could wipe out other operating systems, or personal data. If you have properly prepared, you will have nothing to worry about.

It is crucial that you click something else, if you want to multi-boot Linux mint 12 with other Operating systems. I would only use erase/install if you are sure your files are backed up, and you just want a simple

• PARTITION SCHEME:

  

  notice the 10gb partition(far right)_windows restore(primary)
  Notice that the extended partition has two sub-partitions.

  
  

  
  



creating a SWAP file.

•  Well There are two types of primary partition's main primary, and extended primary.
• Extended primary partitions, are partition's that have been sub-divided into logical partitions.
• Lucky for Linux is that it can boot from logical, or primary partitions.
• A SWAP partition is used when your programs can't fully fit into RAM, those files will be swapped to the HDD.
• Although HDD's are slow compared to RAM. So Ideally you want to have as much memory as possible. Windows has the same principle with it's Swap file. Although windows swap file is on the main system drive. This is a huge success in ensuring a stable Linux Operating system install.
• FILE-SYSTEM FORMAT:



Linux mint HDD partition scheme viewed
with Gparted partition editor.

• NTFS is the default windows file-system for many years now
• Ext4 journaling is the standard Linux desktop file-system right now.
• btrfs aka butterFS is getting ready to replace ext4 in the future.  
• the SWAP file should be @ least equal to double, the amount of physical memory in your computer. 
• MOUNT-POINT selection:

  

  My primary Linux drive partition scheme.

• / is the base of the Linux file-system. Also known as root.
• You can remap parts of the file-system to other partition's.
• /boot is often put on a separate 100-200 MB partition to ensure proper working of the GRUB2 boot loader.
• GRUB is what switches between Operating systems at boot time.
   
• /media is often set aside on a separate file system, So that the / partition including system files will not overfill. That would cause a real slowdown.  I would give as much as possible to this partition. These are where your personal files will be stored
• I am going to finish up this review with a slide-show from the install.
  
  
  
  

  

  Just click continue if you Live in the USA.

  
  

  
  

  

  just click continue if the right time-zone has been selected.
  It does not matter if the city is correct, only the time
  zone.

  
  

  
  

Compared to the partition steps all the rest of the steps as you can see, are really simple. 




Although I will not show it here There is a step where you input your user name, real-name, and password. On that same screen you can choose to login automatically, although I only choose this for guest accounts on desktop computers. 


You can also choose to encrypt your home folder, so that all of your personal files are safe from prying eyes. I choose not to do this, on my desktop, but do do this on my net-book. It is a lot more likely that my net-book could be compromised.




Which brings us to the final step:











Just click install now. You still have the user information screen, but after which you are treated to a slide-show to introduce you to Linux mint. It will tell you when to reboot your computer, marking the finish of your Linux mint 12 install.

What you can do if your Linux is slow, or not responding well...

I am under no illusions that Linux is a perfect Operating system. I personally believe that no matter what operating system you choose, you will have problems. I believe that the more information that a user has, the smoother the experience that user will have.

What I am going to try to explain today is what I do if my Linux based Operating system freezes. What I mean by freezes is stop responding to user input, and stop giving feed-back to the user.

My favorite Linux distro's are debian/Ubuntu based. For example ubuntu, mint, pinguy, or backtrack for example. Although the reason for this problem whether using Linux or windows is the same. Basically the reason is that you don't have enough memory in your PC for what you are trying to do.

In windows this is the cause for the infamous "Not Responding" error. On my Ubuntu computers the screen will darken/lighten to show that a PC is busy doing something. This happens quite often when I am using my net-book, because unfortunately I only have a single gigabyte of memory.

Obviously a pound of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So if you know that your a bit scatter-brained like me, then you should try to think of how much tabs you have open that you don't need. Also you might need to do some research to find out if your computer is capable of a memory upgrade. Or you could get a SSD(Solid State Drive).

With all that said if your computer is starting to lock up on a regular basis, you need to be prepared. There are several programs that can get you back in control of your PC. The most common on a Linux system are the shutdown & xkill programs.

I usually use these from the command line, because even if the GUI(graphical user interface) isn't responding; you can always to a tty terminal session.

in Linux  the easiest way to move to a tty is to use the shortcut:

 ctrl. + alt. + F2.

(Although you could substitute F3-F5)

You can always get back into the graphical console b entering:

ctrl. + Alt. + F7.

Once you enter a tty session your first step before you can do anything, will be to login with your user name/password. Once this is accomplished you will see some text followed by a $ sign. The $ sign means that you are logged in as a standard user. That simply means that you will have to enter "sudo" before any command that requires administrator access, and type your password. Both xkill and shutdown require root(administrator) level access.

Now if you want to shutdown, &/or restart your system you will need to use one of these commands:

$ sudo shutdown -h now

(shuts down the PC right away)

helpful if your packing up your laptop that won't shut down.

orlinux cli system information

$ sudo shutdown -r 5

(reboots the system in 5 minutes time)

now the xkill program is for aborting programs, that are causing your system to slow down or crash. This program can be used from the run menu, or a tty session. If possible it is preferred, and easier to use the run menu to use xkill.

step one>

alt. + F2 = enter run prompt

 This is what my run dialog looks like in Ubuntu 11.10.

step two>

sudo xkill.

(although you won't need the sudo, unless you are trying to stop a program that has root(administrator) access. An example of a program that would have root access would be a software manager, or update manager.

This command will pop up a small x that you can move w/ your mouse. When you get the "x" over the program you want to kill, just Left click it. Nine times out of ten this will kill the process.

On rare occasions you won't be able to get the run dialog. In this case the easiest way to kill an offending program is to use the "top" program. Top is a system monitor, that is similar to MS Windows task manager, but from the terminal.

This is what my top program looks like running in a graphical terminal session. 

After entering the top command into a terminal, you will notice a blinking cursor towards the top of the process listing. If you want to kill a program like firefox. If say firefox's PID(process IDentifier) were 1234, you would type:

k

(kill)

1234

then either enter for the default 15 kill, or 9 for a more abrupt stop.

There is a ton more that you can do w/ the top command, but for now I will settle for teaching you how to kill an unresponsive program that is dragging your box down.


There you have it. A way to make sure that you are the one in control of your PC while using Linux. I know that the best thing to do might be to go for a coffee break, and patiently wait for your computer to finish what it is doing. Especially if it is installing/un-installing software, or updating your Operating system. I hope this Blog post has made you feel a little more in control, and more empowered in your adventures in Linux.