Linux Tutorial

If the latest edition of Ubuntu will have disappointed or you do not completely convinced, Linux Mint “Debian Edition” is a candidate to become a practical alternative. Increased speed, lightness in startup and in memory, compatibility with packages. Deb and GNOME are just some of the strengths of this distribution.

Installed the system and presented some of its aspects, we pass to the initial configuration needed to get the most out of Debian Mint.

Updates

Once installed you should immediately update the distribution to get the latest versions of programs and receive the improvements made to system files.

Just click on the icon shaped like a shield present in the system tray.

We will ask the system password. We type and click OK or press Enter.

After entering the password, the operator will connect to the server Mint to check for updates.

Click Select All at the top, followed by Install updates.

The first update can be quite long, because of the numerous packages available for download.

After downloading the necessary packages must close the log window to start the update

During the upgrade confirmation window may appear or configuration, in particular if the update is GRUB or other vital components for the system.

Simply respond yes to every request, for example, clicking on Replace.

When upgrading the GRUB window looks like this.

Simply select the first item (in my case /dev/sda) to install GRUB to the MBR of the new hard drive.

The first update may take away over half an hour, but subsequent updates are much lighter and faster.

Language and Translation System programs

Unfortunately, the distribution is not equipped with a graphical tool to change the system language or to “translate” the programs of the distribution.

The only way to change the system language is to act as terminal.

Open a terminal window and type sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales and insert the system password.

The configuration window will allow us to choose the desired language.

For the Italian language select en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8, using the scroll keys on your keyboard and pressing Enter to continue.

The next window will let us choose which language to use package.

Choose your language Italian en_US.UTF-8 with the keyboard and press Enter.

The translation of the warning messages and certain components of the system is not complete: you can get a full translation by activating only the repository of Mint Debian unstable (Romeo), shown later in the article.

Translation Programs

The packages to translate the individual programs are installed from package manager.

Just look for the string l10n followed by the name of the program that interests us.

To translate Firefox for example, type firefox l10n

Scroll down the list and install the package selected in the figure.

Just give to translate OpenOffice openoffice l10n

Install the package highlighted.

To update and install Thunderbird Thunderbird l10n insert its package for the language

Selected packages of interest to us, we click on Apply at the top to make the changes effective.

Other programs are looking for translatable language pack.

Video driver installation and activation 3D Acceleration

Let’s see how you can install the appropriate video driver for the type of video card and how to activate 3D acceleration.

Open source video drivers

The driver works with pre-installed in the system and used upon any VGA: ATI/AMD, NVIDIA and Intel.

It is recommended if you do not want to install proprietary drivers, or if they are not compatible.

If you have a model AMD / ATI does not fall into the category “HD series” or an Intel graphics card can only use this driver and if you use a model AMD / ATI HD series or NVIDIA can use the proprietary driver, usually much more powerful and stable than Open.

Open the driver should not be installed, but is disabled by default.

To activate open the package manager and look for the package libgl1-mesa-dri

Install the package by double-clicking, then click on Apply.

After installation, reboot the system.

Now to test the graphics acceleration drivers and launch a terminal glxinfo | grep render

If the output is similar to that of the image, the driver is up and running.

NVIDIA Video Driver Owner

If we want the most out of our card we have to install the NVIDIA proprietary driver.

To do this open the terminal and type

displays in pure Text printed copy of notes?

    at -> enter password
    apt-get install module-assistant
    apt-get install nvidia-kernel-common
    apt-get install nvidia-glx
    apt-get install kernel-source-NVIDIA
    apt-get install nvidia-xconfig

Installed packages activate the driver by running from the same terminal

    m-to prepare
    m-a a-i nvidia
    modprobe nvidia
    nvidia-xconfig

Reboot the PC.

Test the driver by running the command from terminal glxinfo | grep render

Proprietary Video Drivers ATI / AMD

Proprietary drivers are available only for newer models, those identified by the initials “HD series.”

All previous models can only use the open drivers.

Here’s how:

• We download the correct driver from here

• The downloaded file is moved to the Home of your system

• Rename the file driver.run

• Open a terminal and type cd/home username (insert our user name)

• We make the file executable by typing chmod a + rwx driver.run

• Execute the file by typing sudo /driver.run

• We follow the prompts until installation is complete.

• To activate the driver by typing sudo always aticonfig - initial-f

• Reboot and check the operation of the driver with the command glxinfo | grep render

See the next :

- Guide to Linux Mint “Debian Edition” : Presentation distribution
- Guide to Linux Mint “Debian Edition” : Initial Configurations