My Linux Experiences

Linux Mint Installation Notes

1. Using the USB boot

Do not use the hard disk boot option, it will cause a lot of problems.
As I am known, if you do that, the battery will be some weird problems.

2. Partition

You could do the patition base on your needs, or follow the advice in the Internet.
Normally, I just use /, /boot, /home and /swap parts.

Maybe the /usr needs to mount into another space, for what the software is almost install by
the package manager.(such as apt-get)

3. Dual Boot

This is extremely important,
(for me ,because I still can not leave the big game which is only can be run in Windows)
If you want to have the bennifits from each of these OS

3.1 Single Hard Disk

That’s nothing to say about, if only have one hard disk,
you must be care of the order of the installation,
because the first installed boot loader will be covered by the secound.

3.2 Dual or Multiple Hard Disks

you need to be awared of the boot loader’s position,
because if you install them into the same disk, the latter will cover the former

I recomend to use the Win to load the Linux, because the linux is actually a bit annoying,
you need to reinstall the system for many times at the very first time. If you use the grup to
boot the Win, when you need to reinstall the linux, it will be difficult to do it.

Improtant:

Use the USB driver to install the Linux, do not just use the hard driver to install.

Keep the USB driver, it will be more convient to REINSTALL the system

• The install position of the boot loader

  The position must contain the name of the hard disk.
  That is, you need to install it into /dev/sda or the /dev/sdb
  not the hard driver which has number with it.

  • If you want to let the Win to boot the linux, just place the boot loader into
    where the Windows C driver is not in it.

    I have two hard disks, and my Windows C driver place in the SSD, if I want to
    use win to load the linux, I just place it into the HDD

  • If you want to do the oppsite, just let the Linux to boot the Windows, you need to install
    the boot loader into the same disk which the Windows c driver has been installed.

• Supplement for Linux boot Windows

DO NOT FORMAT THE LINUX PARTITION IN WINDOWS!!!

if so, the two systems will not be able to start neither.

4. Proxy

Normally, I only use the socks proxy, but also the http proxy,
so, what I am using is the Shadowsocks + Privoxy to build up the
socks proxy and the http proxy

1. Down Shadowsocks-qt5 or install it by ppa

2. Using the apt-get to install Privoxy

   Edit the /etc/privoxy/config for the configuration.

   To enable the socks config, just edit the

   forward-socks5     /       host:port .

   Usually, it will be

   forward-socks5     /       127.0.0.1:1080 .

   Do remenber the <space> of the port and the . is necessary

   Use the IP instead of the localhost

   Defaultly, the HTTP listen port is 8118

3. Using the following command to start an service of the privoxy

sudo service privoxy restart

Remember it’s restart not the start,sometime, the start won’t work.

And the socks proxy is 127.0.0.1:1080, the http proxy is 127.0.0.1:8118

5. Enviroment Variables

Normally, the enviroment variables could be define and edit in the
~/.*shrc, now I am using Zsh,so the file is .zshrc,
normally, it will be .bashrc

Different from Ubuntu, when you need to run a program from the desktop enviroment,
such as IntillJ IDEA, you need to edit the ~/.profile to define the enviroment variables,
such as JAVA_HOME

6. About the unable to run "mate-settings deamon"

It might be cause by the incorrect NVIDIA driver,
use the default is just fine.

Do not change the NV driver from the driver manager.

7. About my battery problems

It might due to some weird problems,
if the battery cannot be reconized, try to install
acpi, it might be some help.

Actually, I not quite sure.

8. Zsh

Following the instruction of robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh
to install the zsh is ok, and don’t forget to install oh-my-zsh to customze the zsh

To enable the agnoster bulit-in theme of the
oh-my-zsh, need to install the Powerline-patched font, just
use the install.sh is okay.
And after that, change the terminal font to which has the powerline suffix.

9. Vim

The vim is almost the biggest problem for me.
After hours of hours test, I found a config that is suit with me.

What I use it the spf13/spf13-vim + suan/vim-instant-markdown
for supporting my vim usage and do the notes.

Just follow the instruction in each repo, that is okay.

Supplements:

• Change the theme of the status line in spf13-vim

  The status line is using the ariline, the instruction is place at
  https://github.com/bling/vim-airline/wiki/FAQ,
  click the Screenshot, it will list its themes and the theme name.

  What I like is the badwolf.

• Add MathJax support for the vim-instant-markdown

See this issue

Known Issue:

• The vim-instant-markdown will remain the chrome tab when the vim is leave.