Linux Mint Essentials

Table of Contents

Linux Mint Essentials

Credits

About the Author

About the Reviewers

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Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Meet Linux Mint

Why choose Linux?

What is a distribution?

Is Linux hard to learn?

What Mint does differently

Releases and support

Mint-specific tools

Interacting with the Linux Mint community

Creating community and forum accounts

Meet the community

Summary

2. Creating Boot Media and Installing Linux Mint

Which version to download

The Linux Mint KDE edition

The Linux Mint Xfce edition

The Linux Mint MATE edition

The Linux Mint Cinnamon edition

The different methods of installing Linux Mint

Creating a bootable DVD

Creating a bootable USB flash drive

Testing your live media

Planning your partitioning scheme

The installation process

To encrypt or not to encrypt

Summary

3. Getting Acquainted with Cinnamon

Getting familiar with Cinnamon

Logging in to Cinnamon

Launching programs

Monitoring tasks

Utilizing workspaces

Notifications

Creating launchers

Bundled applications

File management with Nemo

Configuring the settings of Cinnamon

Changing the default search engine in Firefox

Changing themes

Summary

4. An Introduction to the Terminal

Why should we use the terminal?

Accessing the shell

Executing commands

Navigating the filesystem

Managing files

The nano text editor

Reading manual pages with the man command

Searching for files

Using the watch command

Introduction to scripting

Summary

5. Utilizing Storage and Media

Accessing removable media

Formatting flash drives

Mounting and unmounting volumes

Automatically mounting volumes at boot time

Analyzing disk usage

Understanding gibibytes versus gigabytes and mebibytes versus megabytes

Burning CDs and DVDs

Using the USB Image Writer

Understanding how Universally Unique Identifiers work

Summary

6. Installing and Removing Software

Managing packages in Linux Mint

Using the Mint Software Manager

Installing new applications

Frozen Bubble

FileZilla

Minitube

Steam

Removing applications

Using the Synaptic Package Manager

Configuring software sources

Advanced package management

Keeping your system up to date

Summary

7. Enjoying Multimedia on Mint

Understanding issues concerning codecs

Playing music files

Ripping an audio CD

Editing MP3 tags

Playing video files

Playing a DVD

Viewing photos

Editing photos with GIMP

Accessing your webcam

Recording your desktop

Summary

8. Managing Users and Permissions

Creating new users

Changing passwords

Revoking access temporarily

Removing user accounts

Running commands or programs as other users

Administrative access via sudo and visudo

Understanding file and directory permissions

Modifying file and directory permissions

Summary

9. Connecting to Networks

Connecting to a wired network

Setting up a static IP

Connecting to a wireless network

An introduction to SSH

Accessing your system via SSH

Accessing FTP servers

Sharing files with Samba

Sharing files with NFS

Summary

10. Securing Linux Mint

Choosing secure passwords

Encrypting your home folder

Configuring and testing the iptables firewall

Installing and configuring ClamAV

Blocking access to specific websites

Backing up and restoring important data

Creating and restoring snapshots

Hardening your system

Summary

11. Advanced Administration Techniques

Creating command aliases

Making aliases persistent

Killing processes

Setting up cron jobs

Preparing to move to a new release

Exporting and importing package lists

Using variables and conditional statements in Bash

Monitoring resource usage

Monitoring CPU temperatures

Sending system reports via e-mail

Summary

12. Troubleshooting Linux Mint

Performing the initial triage

Troubleshooting in Software Rendering Mode

Diagnosing boot issues

Recovering data

Perusing system logs

Reinstalling GRUB

Testing the RAM

Pinpointing audio issues

Solving problems with networking

Solving slow frame rates in games

Getting help from the community

Summary

A. Reinstalling Mint while Retaining Data

Considering LTS releases

Why an upgrade utility isn't included

Preparing for the migration

Installing Linux Mint while retaining /home

Importing a list of packages for reinstallation

Summary

B. Using the MATE Edition of Linux Mint

Introducing MATE

Understanding the differences between MATE and Cinnamon

Launching applications

Customizing MATE

Desktop background

Screensaver

Panel applets

Desktop themes

Summary

C. Using the KDE Edition of Linux Mint

Understanding the KDE desktop

Using Dolphin – KDE's file manager

Adding Plasmoids to the desktop

Discovering Mint KDE's default applications

Utilizing Activities and Virtual Desktops

Configuring network connections

Summary

Index

Linux Mint Essentials

Linux Mint Essentials

Copyright © 2014 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the author, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

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First published: May 2014

Production Reference: 1150514

Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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Cover Image by Ravaji Babu (<[email protected]>)

Credits

Author

Jay LaCroix

Reviewers

Vinay Balraj

Abhilash Hebbar

Scott Newlon

Michael D. Prothero

Commissioning Editor

Grant Mizen

Acquisition Editor

James Jones

Content Development Editor

Dayan Hyames

Technical Editor

Menza Mathew

Copy Editors

Janbal Dharmaraj

Deepa Nambiar

Karuna Narayanan

Project Coordinator

Swati Kumari

Proofreaders

Simran Bhogal

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Paul Hindle

Indexers

Monica Ajmera Mehta

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Production Coordinator

Kyle Albuquerque

Cover Work

Kyle Albuquerque

About the Author

Jay LaCroix is a Linux Administrator with over 12 years of experience and nine certifications. He is a technologist who enjoys all things tech, including (but not limited to) hardware, software, servers, networking, and development. When Jay is not buried in a plethora of computer books, he enjoys photography, music, gaming, and writing. Jay is passionate about open source software, especially Linux, and its long-term adoption.

Jay is also the proud author of the self-published Sci-Fi novel, Escape to Planet 55.

To my dad, Bill; my sons, Alan and Johnny; my brother, Gordon; my sisters, Cheri, April, and Christina; as well as their children; my dear friends, Krys and Jim; and all of the men and women who spend countless hours volunteering their time to make open source the best software on Earth.

About the Reviewers

Vinay Balraj is a mechanical engineer by profession and is currently pursuing his masters. He, like most open source programmers, is a hobbyist software developer and is well versed in the areas of Windows, Android, UNIX, Linux, Mac, and some other operating systems. He is also well known for his ability as an advanced cross-platform user and developer, contributing in many areas for improvements on computer software.

He balances life as a graduate student and as a software developer and also guides three batches of engineering students in their final year research.

Vinay started his career as a software developer, as a hobby, and now seeks other enthusiasts just like him who wouldn't mind spending time to make things better and learn more.

I would like to thank my mother for her patience and putting up with me sitting at the computer for long hours, perfecting the document. Without her patience, it would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Swati for her timely efforts and superb co-ordination in bringing out this wonderful book, and, of course, Google for being one of the most wonderful teachers in every aspect.

Abhilash Hebbar is a young and aspiring software professional with a passion for open source technologies. He got attracted to the world of open source and Linux by the various campus events held at his college, Sri Jayachamarajendra College of Engineering. During his college days, he worked on creating a Linux distribution, which was not a success. This gave him a great exposure to the ins and outs of Linux and open source technologies.

He has worked on building cloud applications and APIs on top of open source stacks, such as Node.js, Python, Java, Ruby on Rails, and so on. He is currently working as Head of Engineering in Openly. The company provides consultation and software development services on cloud applications.

Thanks to my family, friends, and colleagues for their suggestions and the time they have put in to help me review this book.

Scott Newlon is an enthusiastic ambassador of technology and an avid autodidact. He has built his own computers, way back when computers comprised of giant monitors and floppy disks. Technology was his hobby for years when he was working as a furniture delivery driver and freight logistics manager. This hobby later turned to passion and led him to pursue a degree in Computer Science and a new career in IT when he was in his late 30s.

Scott started working as a university technical support specialist. He helped others adopt newer technology by embarking on several support projects for non-profit organizations, including PACES, a conductive education facility for differently abled youth in Sheffield, England, where he helped them establish their first online resources for their clients' families. Scott went on from the support realm to network and project management for a large national corporation in Montana.

In 2007, Scott began using LINUX. He finds LINUX empowering and educational because of its universal accessibility in terms of usage and available information. He began with Fedora, openSUSE, and Ubuntu and landed on Linux Mint 7 (Gloria) as his distro of choice when it was released in 2009. Another aspect of LINUX that has resonated for Scott was the user community through which he educated himself, including mintCast, a podcast by the Linux Mint community for all users of Linux, covering general Linux news and events and the open source space.

When the hosts put a call out for replacements, three years ago, Scott jumped in and along with his co-host, Rob Hawkins, has been a force in honing and developing the podcast, which was named as one of the top five Linux podcasts by the Linux Format magazine.

Scott now lives with his wife in Durham, NC, and works as an IT project manager for a large data management firm in the healthcare industry. Linux Mint Essentials is his first book.

I would like to thank my wonderful wife, Adrienne, for all her support and understanding as I have fed my ever-growing appetite for all things open source. Without your patience, I would not be where I am today.

Michael D. Prothero retired after serving 21 years in the US military to join the honorable ranks of teachers and still continues to serve his nation. His love for learning has aided him in obtaining an MS degree in Information Systems, a BS degree in Education and Computer Science, and an AS degree in Electronics. His love for sharing what he has learned has earned him the respect of his family, students, colleagues, and employers.

Michael is serving as an IT Instructor for ECPI University in Charlotte, NC. He conducts various courses on computer security and network infrastructure, as well as programming and operating systems.

This was the first book that he has worked on; however, he is eager to continue.

I would like to thank all of my students who patiently allow me to share my knowledge with them and are polite enough to share their experiences and knowledge with me. I believe that everyone has something to contribute.

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Preface

Welcome to the world of Linux Mint! With this book as your guide, you'll explore this exciting Linux distribution from its installation all the way to its administration and maintenance. Geared toward the Linux novice, this book will build skills that will not only help you use Linux Mint for your day-to-day computing tasks, but also build a foundation on which you can expand your knowledge. Whether you simply want to benefit from a bird's-eye view of Linux Mint or get started on the road to becoming a Linux admin, this book will help you get there. Along the way, we'll work through how to complete day-to-day tasks such as creating/managing files and documents, and we'll also work on configuring our Mint installation, managing packages, connecting to networks, increasing security, adding/removing users, troubleshooting, and more!

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Meet Linux Mint, discusses what Linux Mint is and what sets it apart from other distributions. We'll also talk about some reasons you'd want to choose Linux in the first place.

Chapter 2, Creating Boot Media and Installing Linux Mint, will walk you through the process of installing Linux Mint on your computer. Several methods of installation, such as bootable DVD and bootable flash drive, are covered in this book, and you'll also learn about some of the best practices for the installation of Linux Mint, including tips on partitioning your hard disk.

Chapter 3, Getting Acquainted with Cinnamon, discusses Cinnamon, a fresh and exciting desktop environment (a graphical user interface) that is taking the Linux community by storm. In this chapter, we'll tackle this interface head-on.

Chapter 4, An Introduction to the Terminal, will explain how to navigate the filesystem, execute commands, search for files, and even work through an introduction to scripting. Although using a Terminal is not required in order to use Mint, learning the basics of the terminal will further empower your skills.

Chapter 5, Utilizing Storage and Media, discusses how to work through the examples of accessing various types of media in Mint. The examples shown in this chapter include formatting and mounting removable storage, along with analyzing disk usage, burning CDs and DVDs, and utilizing Mint's USB Image Writer.

Chapter 6, Installing and Removing Software, discusses how to work through the examples of installing and removing software on our Mint installation, as it features a large repository of free software packages. Also, several different methods of software management will be covered, with examples of both graphical programs and terminal commands.

Chapter 7, Enjoying Multimedia on Mint, is all about enjoying multimedia on Mint. This chapter covers features such as listening to MP3s, ripping audio CDs, editing audio tags, watching DVDs, and more!

Chapter 8, Managing Users and Permissions, talks about users and permissions. You'll learn how to create/remove users and groups, as well as how to configure user access to administrative commands with sudo.

Chapter 9, Connecting to Networks, is all about networking. Concepts such as wired and wireless networking will be covered, as well as accessing your machine via SSH and also how to share files.

Chapter 10, Securing Linux Mint, will work on hardening our Linux Mint system with concepts such as choosing strong passwords, encrypting your home folder, blocking access to specific websites, and even backing up and restoring important data.

Chapter 11, Advanced Administration Techniques, will cover advanced concepts for managing your installation. In this chapter, setting up cron jobs, moving to new Mint releases and killing processes, and monitoring resources will be covered.

Chapter 12, Troubleshooting Linux Mint, concludes our journey with Mint by providing certain tips and tricks for what to do when things go wrong. In this chapter, you'll learn about dealing with problems such as booting issues, audio and networking woes, as well as how to access system logs for troubleshooting.

Appendix A, Reinstalling Mint while Retaining Data, discusses a technique on how to move from one release of Linux Mint to another, as Linux doesn't really feature a direct utility for you to do this.

Appendix B, Using the MATE edition of Linux Mint, discusses another edition of Linux Mint, MATE. In this appendix, we'll explore the various specific features of the MATE edition, which runs better on older hardware.

Appendix C, Using the KDE edition of Linux Mint, discusses another popular desktop environment, and Mint features it as the default desktop edition. In our final appendix, we'll explore the KDE Mint flavor.

What you need for this book

In order to work through the examples within this book, you'll need a computer with at least the following specs:

10 GB hard drive space (30 GB or higher recommended)

512 MB system RAM (1 GB or higher recommended)

1.0 GHz Processor (1.6 GHz dual-core or higher recommended)

Video card with 128 MB video RAM

DVD drive or 2 GB or higher flash drive (to create installation media)

Given the lightweight nature of Linux, you can certainly run Mint on lesser resources, of course. The better your system's resources are, the faster and more efficient your experience will be.

Who this book is for

This book is geared primarily toward the Linux novice. Perhaps you've heard of Linux and are curious about it, or you just want to experience a new way of computing. In this book, we'll start our Linux exploration from the ground up using Linux Mint as our guide, so someone who is just starting out with Linux (or even someone who has never used it before) would see the maximum benefit. This book is also great for those who want an overall guide to Linux Mint, as we'll be covering all the core concepts required to make the most out of this exciting distribution.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. The following are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: In addition, feel free to join the #linuxmint-help IRC chat room and speak to other users there as well.

Any command-line input or output is written as follows:

ls -l /dev/disk/by-uuid

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: Clicking on the Apply button will save your settings.

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

Any terminal output is written as follows:

# cat /var/log/syslog

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Chapter 1. Meet Linux Mint

Welcome to Linux Mint Essentials; your exciting journey into the world of Linux Mint starts here. There's no better place to start your adventure than Mint. Its user friendly nature along with its scalability caters to both beginners and power users alike; the out-of-the-box Mint includes everything you need to work and play. In this book, you'll discover how to master this amazing distribution from the initial installation all the way to maintaining and troubleshooting it. We'll start with an in-depth look at how to complete the installation, and then we'll proceed through each of Mint's core technologies to help boost your knowledge. Along the way, we'll work on some fun activities to put your new knowledge to use.

Before we get started though, it's very important that you understand the core concepts behind Mint and what makes it so great. In this chapter, we'll explore key concepts such as the Linux kernel, what a distribution is, and some reasons why Linux Mint is so awesome. If you are already aware of these concepts (or you're itching to get your feet wet), skip ahead to Chapter 2, Creating Boot Media and Installing Linux Mint, where we'll set up our very own Linux Mint installation.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

What is Linux?

The difference between Linux and a distribution of Linux

What makes Mint such a great distribution?

Sign up for forum and community accounts

While getting accustomed to Linux, there's most likely a great deal of things that you'll want to learn. Mint comes equipped to help you handle most tasks, such as checking e-mail, working with files, editing documents, and sharing files. We'll tackle most of the common use cases in this book to help you become productive with Mint.

Linux isn't only about getting work done. Whether you enjoy listening to music, watching videos, or just having fun with your leisure time, we'll cover those concepts as well. In fact, Chapter 7, Enjoying Multimedia on Mint is dedicated to consuming multimedia, and I may throw in a Linux game or two for good measure.

As we reach the end of our journey, we'll go over concepts of how to maintain our installation as well as how to troubleshoot it. Most of the troubleshooting and maintenance tasks in Mint aren't distribution specific, so you'll learn some real-world skills that you can take with you to other platforms.

Why choose Linux?

It may surprise some to discover that they use Linux every day, even if they don't realize it. If you checked your e-mail today or posted a social networking status update, you've used Linux. Since Linux servers make up a large portion of servers on the Internet, chances are you interacted with a site or service hosted on a Linux server and you probably do so every day. If you own a smart TV, chances are it's powered by a stripped-down version of the Linux kernel. In fact, if you are reading this book on an e-reader, the device was most likely built on top of Linux. And even if you purchased a print copy, the point of sale software used to facilitate your purchase of the book quite possibly ran on Linux. Linux is everywhere! And on the desktop, it's a powerful alternative to proprietary operating systems.

To be fair, most computer users don't care which operating system is installed on their computer or what underlying software the websites they visit runs on. When someone purchases a computer and powers it on for the first time, they are typically presented with a license agreement; they type in their desired user name, and then they're ready to connect to the Internet so they can check their Facebook account and watch cat videos. Even though there are several different operating systems that one can install on a computer, most of the users aren't aware that there is a choice. When a typical user thinks of an operating system, they immediately think of Windows since it's what the majority of PCs ship with. When an Apple user thinks about a Mac, the OSX operating system is largely assumed. This is why when two people have an argument regarding Mac versus PC, they are actually arguing over which operating system is superior since Windows isn't the only operating system available for the PC, much like the fact that OSX isn't the only operating system you can install on a Mac. They aren't aware that there is a choice other than what comes preinstalled from the factory.

While Linux isn't technically an operating system (we'll discuss more on this later), it represents another choice for installation on your computer. Linux comes in many flavors (also known as distributions), each catering toward a specific purpose, and some of which aim to be a full-featured replacement for proprietary operating systems such as Windows or OSX on your PC or Mac.