Setup Linux Mint on a New Computer
I have been using Xubuntu since version 17.10. This week I read some articles on Linux Mint and I decided to give it a try. It is not a big change because Linux Mint is an ubuntu based distro.
Linux Mint has a very nice user interface built on Cinnamon desktop system. It definitely looks better than Xubuntu which is known for its lightweight Xfce desktop environment.
Omg!ubuntu website has an article about Wine 4.0 in Linux Mint 19. Linux developers backported Wine 4.0 to the Linux Mint repositories. It becomes very easy for users to install Wine 4. Here is the single command to install:
$sudo apt install --install-recommends wine-installer
I find two issues when setting up Linux Mint. The first one is that when I run
sudo apt upgrade command after installation, the system reports an error like this:
Fetched 902 kB in 3s (247 kB/s)
Preconfiguring packages ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent processing triggers for gconf2:
gconf2 depends on dbus-x11; however:
Package dbus-x11 is not configured yet
A Google search finds a solution posted on Linxu Mint forum. Running two commands below solves the issue.
$sudo dpkg --configure -a
$sudo apt-get install -f
The man pages of dpkg and apt-get have the following paragraphs about those two commands:
dpkg
--configure package...|-a|--pending
Configure a package which has been unpacked but not yet
configured. If -a or --pending is given instead of package, all
unpacked but unconfigured packages are configured.
To reconfigure a package which has already been configured, try
the dpkg-reconfigure(8) command instead.
Configuring consists of the following steps:
1. Unpack the conffiles, and at the same time back up the old
conffiles, so that they can be restored if something goes wrong.
2. Run postinst script, if provided by the package.
apt-get
-f, --fix-broken
Fix; attempt to correct a system with broken dependencies in place.
This option, when used with install/remove, can omit any packages
to permit APT to deduce a likely solution. If packages are
specified, these have to completely correct the problem. The option
is sometimes necessary when running APT for the first time; APT
itself does not allow broken package dependencies to exist on a
system. It is possible that a system's dependency structure can be
so corrupt as to require manual intervention (which usually means
using dpkg --remove to eliminate some of the offending packages).
Use of this option together with -m may produce an error in some
situations. Configuration Item: APT::Get::Fix-Broken.
The other issue I encountered is that the system does not respond to logitech wireless mouse and keyboard after going into suspend (sleep).
An article on askubuntu.com provides a working solution. Here are the commands to make it work:
george@STK2M3:~$ grep . /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/product
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-3/product:USB Receiver # PORT !!!
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-5/product:USB2.0 Hub
/sys/bus/usb/devices/2-3.1/product:Flash Drive
/sys/bus/usb/devices/2-3/product:USB3.0 Hub
/sys/bus/usb/devices/usb1/product:xHCI Host Controller
/sys/bus/usb/devices/usb2/product:xHCI Host Controller
george@STK2M3:~$ grep . /sys/bus/usb/devices/*/power/wakeup
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-3/power/wakeup:disabled # DEFAULT DISABLED !!!
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-5/power/wakeup:disabled
/sys/bus/usb/devices/1-7/power/wakeup:disabled
/sys/bus/usb/devices/2-3/power/wakeup:disabled
/sys/bus/usb/devices/usb1/power/wakeup:disabled
/sys/bus/usb/devices/usb2/power/wakeup:disabled
george@STK2M3:~$ lsusb
Bus 002 Device 003: ID 090c:1000 Silicon Motion, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 2109:0813 VIA Labs, Inc.
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 8087:0a2b Intel Corp.
Bus 001 Device 003: ID 2109:2813 VIA Labs, Inc.
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 046d:c52b Logitech, Inc. Unifying Receiver # DEVICE !!!
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
george@STK2M3:~$ sudo vim /etc/udev/rules.d/10-wakeup.rules
[sudo] password for george:
Add the contents below to the 10-wakeup.rules file. The idVendor and idProduct
values are from the lsusb command, and the path /sys/bus/... is from the first
grep command.
ACTION=="add", SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTRS{idVendor}=="046d", ATTRS{idProduct}=="c52b"
RUN+="/bin/sh -c 'echo enabled > /sys/bus/usb/devices/1-3/power/wakeup'"
After the above steps, the logitech mouse and keyboard wake up the Linxu Mint just fine. I never got the sleep/wakeup function working properly in Xubuntu system. So, this is a large improvement for me.
Update: 9/4/2020
Linux Mint 20 has been released for a few months now. I install a copy in my desktop and it is awesome. Here is a link to install Wine 5 in Linux Mint 20. I follow the steps and it works well.