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🌱Linux Notes


Published by 
Scott Kingery
 on 

I've set up my laptop to dual boot Windows and Linux. My goal here is to document any changes I've made along the way as I get used to this new OS.

  • Installation

    • Preparing Windows 11 to Dual Boot
      • Used Windows Drive Management to shrink C: by 75GB (76800 MB)
    • Create USB drive
      • Used Rufus to create the USB drive for the Linux ISO
    • Partitions created during install
      • In the empty 75GB partition I created above I set it up this way
        • 300 MiB fat32 /boot.efi labeled boot flagged boot
        • 50 GiB ext4 / labeled OS flagged root
        • 15 GiB linux swap labeled swap flagged swap
        • The rest ext4 /home labeled home

  • Post Install

    • ctrl+alt+t will open up the terminal window
    • Update your System
      • sudo apt update
      • sudo apt upgrade
    • Check Drivers
      • Search the menu for Software & Updates (on Kubuntu, search for Software and click Driver Manager)
      • Click the Additional Drivers tab and let the system find any additional divers to install
      • Select them (usually says 'tested') and click apply changes
    • Enable the Firewall
      • sudo ufw enable
    • Install git
      • sudo apt install git
    • Install auto-cpufreq
    • Fix clock on dual boot installations
      • Windows uses local time and Linux uses UTC. This causes the clock to change in Windows if you boot into Windows after booting into Linux
      • This video will explain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ieh2zY1qsM
      • All you really need to do is set Linux to use Local time instead of UTC with terminal and entering timedatectl set-local-rtc 1 --adjust-system-clock
    • Set Sources to Local Repositories
      • This can help speed up your updates because your computer will be looking for updates from servers closer to you
      • Open the main menu and search for Software Sources
      • Next to the Main mirror and wait a minute for the list to build. One of the ones closest to you should have a high speed rating. Select on of those.
      • Do the same for the Base mirror
    • Trackpad Mint XFCE
      • To enable tap to click on your trackpad in Linux Mint with XFCE, go to System Settings, select Mouse and Touchpad, then navigate to the Touchpad tab and enable the "Tap to Click" option.
    • Windows shares
      • Install Samba sudo apt install samba
      • in your file manager: smb://computerName.local should let you browse and choose a drive or smb://computerName.local/drive if you know the drive (where computerName is the actual name of the Windows computer you are trying to access)

  • Zorin OS Notes

    • Super Key (aka Windows Key)
      • Set this to open the menu by going into Zorin Appearance, click the interface tab
      • Then set left super key to Zorin menu
      • Note, you can do this and other appearance settings right after install if you go through the tutorial
    • Display
      • Set scaling to 125% (this is how my Windows was set)
        • Settings - Displays - adjust scale by clicking the drop down
    • Trackpad
      • Right click doesn't work in Gnome, you have to tap with two fingers to get the same result
    • Install Gnome Tweaks
      • This is actually supposed to let you fix the right click but the option isn't there for me
      • Still worth having
    • Fonts
      • Install Microsoft Fonts for compatibility
        • The Aptos Fonts were a little trickier to install
          • Download Microsoft Aptos Fonts
          • Open the Files app and navigate to your “Downloads” folder.
          • Right-click on the downloaded “Microsoft Aptos Fonts.zip” file and select “Extract Here”.
          • Navigate to the newly-extracted “Microsoft Aptos Fonts” folder.
          • Find and empty space and right-click in the “Microsoft Aptos Fonts” folder and choose "Open in Terminal"
          • Enter cd /usr/share/fonts/truetype this will let you change directory to this folder
          • Create a new aptos-fonts folder by entering sudo mkdir aptos-fonts . Enter your password at the prompt
          • Go back to where you downloaded and extracted the fonts by entering cd ~/Downloads/'Microsoft Aptos Fonts' (Make sure you have those single quotes because spaces are bad)
          • Next enter sudo mv -v Apto*.ttf /usr/share/fonts/truetype/aptos-fonts which will copy your fonts to the new directory you created above
          • Enter sudo fc-cache -f -v to refresh your fonts
    • Interface Notes
      • Tapping with 2 fingers on the trackpad is like a right-click of a mouse (this is a Gnome thing)
      • To see hidden files in the Files app, click the hamburger menu on the top of the left pane and select the hidden files option
    • OneDrive Integration
      • To enable this integration, open the Settings app → Online Accounts → “Microsoft 365 + OneDrive” → click “Sign In…” and enter your login details. You’ll then be able to browse and manage your OneDrive files directly from the sidebar in the Files app.
    • Remote Desktop
      • Zorin OS comes with an app called Remmina that is a Remote Desktop client. If you forget the name, just type 'RDP' into the menu search and you'll find it
        • Remmina also works for VNC and SSH
        • If you are trying to access a local computer via Remmina, you might need '.local' after the name. For example, I have a computer called Syncserv to access it I enter Syncserv.local
    • Windows Apps

  • Terminal Commands

    • Quickly open the terminal
      • ctrl+alt+t
    • Check network settings
      • nmcli device show
        • To show just the DHCP/DNS details like Windows ipconfig /all you can use grep like this:
          • nmcli device show | grep IP4
    • Show details of your graphics card
      • -sudo lshw -C video

  • App Notes

    • Vivaldi Browser
      • If you already use Vivaldi on another computer and you have syncing turned on (if you don't already, do that to speed things up)
        • Know you account user name and password
        • Export your encryption key to a txt file and save it to a flash drive
        • Install Vivaldi on Linux
        • On first run, click the profile icon
        • Enter your username and password
        • Click on the link to load your encryption key and navigate to the flash drive and select the text file to load
        • Your browser will start to sync all your favorites and extensions
        • Set up any extensions that require set up like Bit Warden
        • In Settings, set your theme if you like to use dark themes
          • You can also choose to have websites appear dark in the Appearance tab
        • Change search engines to Duck Duck Go
    • Syncthing
      • Syncthing was already installed for me so I didn't have to install it
      • Open Gnome Tweaks (mentioned above) and add Start Syncthing to the Start Up Applications tab
      • On Kubuntu, you can search for Autostart and add Start Syncthing to that
    • Obsidian
      • For Obsidian to work, you have to enable permissions on the vault folder
        • Set it so Owner can "View and modify content" on the top level and all subfolders
    • OnlyOffice Desktop
      • I don't do a lot of Word or Excel work on my personal laptop but I've heard people say they have found OnlyOffice Desktop to be more compatible with MS Office documents
    • Espanso
      • Espanso is a Privacy-first, Cross-platform Text Expander. It is similar to AutoHotKey on Windows. Here are the details to get it installed on Zorin OS from Install on Linux | Espanso:
        • wget https://github.com/espanso/espanso/releases/latest/download/espanso-debian-wayland-amd64.deb
        • sudo apt install ./espanso-debian-wayland-amd64.deb
        • You can safely ignore any N: Download is performed unsandboxed as root note from apt.
        • sudo setcap "cap_dac_override+p" $(which espanso)
        • espanso service register
        • espanso start
    • Emote
      • Handy emoji picker

  • Helpful pages

  • Kubuntu Notes

    • Touch pad
      • Search for Touchpad settings to be more like Windows
        • Set tapping to tap-to-click
        • Set Scrolling to "Invert scroll direction"
    • Display
      • Set global scaling to 125% (this is how Windows is set up on my laptop)
        • Search for "Display Configuration" and move the slider or enter the value
      • Set Theme: Breeze Dark then Colors: Catppuccin.Mocha
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