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Linux Mint Essentials

By : Jay LaCroix
Book Image

Linux Mint Essentials

By: Jay LaCroix

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Linux Mint Essentials
Jay LaCroix
May, 2014 | 324 pages
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Table of Contents (22 chapters)
Linux Mint Essentials
Linux Mint Essentials
Credits
Credits
About the Author
About the Author
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Meet Linux Mint
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
Creating Boot Media and Installing Linux Mint
Which version to download
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 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
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
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
Installing and Removing Software
Managing packages in Linux Mint
Using the Mint Software Manager
Installing new applications
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
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
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 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
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
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
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
Reinstalling Mint while Retaining Data
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
Using the MATE Edition of Linux Mint
Using the MATE Edition of Linux Mint
Introducing MATE
Understanding the differences between MATE and Cinnamon
Launching applications
Customizing MATE
Summary
Using the KDE Edition of Linux Mint
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
Index

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.

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