Linux Mint first move#

First things I do after installing a fresh Linux (Mint)

Table of contents :

• Date format
• Personal Everyday Softwares
• DeaDBeeF
• yt-dlp
• Personal Linux Helpers
  • Mediaprefixer requires EXIFTOOL
  • x264-Expecto-Patronum requires FFmpeg
• SMPlayer
• Web development (Apache, PHP, MariaDB)
  • Apache \& PHP configuration
• VSCodium
  • Disable the Linux Mint Alt keyboard binding
  • VSCodium extensions
• Chromium
• Firefox
• Credits

Date format#

Right click on the date (from the bottom right toolbar), configure.

Date format : %Y.%m.%d ‧ %H:%M:%S

Personal Everyday Softwares#

sudo apt install \
curl \
nfs-common \
keepassxc \
filezilla \
pdfarranger \
exiv2 \
audacity \
mediainfo \
smplayer \
inkscape \
gimp;

Explanations :

• curl : a web browser from the command line, great for scripting
• nfs-common : to quickly share files in a local network
• keepassxc : passwords manager
• filezilla : ftp / sftp client
• pdfarranger : a smooth PDF page editor
• exiv2 : image EXIF metadata parser
• audacity : audio editor
• mediainfo : video metadata parser
• smplayer : video player (less buggy and faster than VLC) based on mpv
• inkscape : vector image editor
• gimp : bitmap image editor

DeaDBeeF#

See my DeaDBeeF dedicated page.

yt-dlp#

sudo wget https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/releases/latest/download/yt-dlp -O /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp; \
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/yt-dlp;

Also see my yt-dlp dedicated page, about the nice stuffs you can do with yt-dlp.

Personal Linux Helpers#

Some little scripts I've made

• pixmagic.sh : to quickly resize a picture, using strongly optimized parameters
• mediaprefixer2.sh : to add EXIF datetime to the tons of pictures, videos we are taking
• mediasubdir.sh : to move those renamed pictures and videos to sub folders
• x264-Expecto-Patronum.sh : to encode x264 videos, using strongly optimized parameters (thanks YIFY)

sudo wget https://codeberg.org/jrm-omg/pixmagic/raw/branch/main/pixmagic.sh -O /usr/local/bin/pixmagic.sh; \
sudo wget https://codeberg.org/jrm-omg/mediaprefixer/raw/branch/main/mediaprefixer2.sh -O /usr/local/bin/mediaprefixer2.sh; \
sudo wget https://codeberg.org/jrm-omg/mediaprefixer/raw/branch/main/mediasubdir.sh -O /usr/local/bin/mediasubdir.sh; \
sudo wget https://codeberg.org/jrm-omg/x264-Expecto-Patronum/raw/branch/main/x264-Expecto-Patronum.sh -O /usr/local/bin/x264-Expecto-Patronum.sh; \
\
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/pixmagic.sh; \
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/mediaprefixer2.sh; \
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/mediasubdir.sh; \
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/x264-Expecto-Patronum.sh;

Mediaprefixer requires EXIFTOOL#

wget https://exiftool.org/Image-ExifTool-12.59.tar.gz -O /tmp/Image-ExifTool.tar.gz; \
cd /tmp; \
gzip -dc Image-ExifTool* | tar -xf -; \
cd Image-ExifTool*/; \
perl Makefile.PL \;
make -j$(nproc) test \;
sudo make -j$(nproc) install;

x264-Expecto-Patronum requires FFmpeg#

Install it or, even better, compil it !

SMPlayer#

• preferences
  • interface
    • icon set : Dark

Web development (Apache, PHP, MariaDB)#

sudo apt install git apache2 php php-cli php-common php8.1 libapache2-mod-php8.1 php8.1-xml php8.1-gd php8.1-mbstring mariadb-server php8.1-mysql;

Apache & PHP configuration#

Allow htaccess rewrite :

sudo a2enmod rewrite;

Then limit Apache to your computer, only :

sudo nano /etc/apache2/apache2.conf;

Look for :

# <Directory /var/www/>
#         Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
#         AllowOverride None
#         Require all granted
# </Directory>

Replace by :

<Directory /var/www/>
  Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
  AllowOverride All
  <RequireAny>
    Require local
  </RequireAny>
</Directory>

Allow PHP errors

sudo nano /etc/php/8.1/apache2/php.ini;

Find and update those two lines :

error_reporting = E_ALL
display_errors = On

Let's conf MySQL/MariaDB

sudo mysql_secure_installation;

Then :

• Enter current password for root : yes, define & write down a strong one.
• Switch to unix_socket authentication : no
• Change the root password? : no
• Remove anonymous users? : yes
• Disallow root login remotely? : yes
• Remove test database and access to it? : yes
• Reload privilege tables now? : yes

Then create a superuser (which is different from the previous MySQL root user)

sudo mysql;

And when you have the MySQL/MariaDB prompt (MariaDB [(none)]>), type :

WARNING : please change TYPE_YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE with .. the password of your choice !

CREATE USER 'superman'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'TYPE_YOUR_PASSWORD_HERE';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON *.* TO 'superman'@'localhost';
GRANT GRANT OPTION ON *.* TO 'superman'@'localhost';
exit;

Then restart Apache

sudo systemctl restart apache2;

Then give /var/www/html the right permissions

sudo chown -R TYPE_YOUR_LINUX_USERNAME_HERE:www-data /var/www/html && chmod -R g+sw /var/www/html;

Then remove the /var/www/html/index.html preventing us from listing our web projects.

rm /var/www/html/index.html

VSCodium#

Let's install it :

wget -qO - https://gitlab.com/paulcarroty/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/raw/master/pub.gpg \
    | gpg --dearmor \
    | sudo dd of=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg; \
echo 'deb [ signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg ] https://download.vscodium.com/debs vscodium main' \
    | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list; \
sudo apt update && sudo apt install codium;

Disable the Linux Mint Alt keyboard binding#

This is so annoying for VSCodium, let's disable it :

system > window > behavior > special key to move and resize windows > disabled

Boom, this is cool.

VSCodium extensions#

See my VSCodium dedicated page (français)

Chromium#

Regarding web development, I'm using Chromium only for its DevTools :

sudo apt install chromium-browser;

Firefox#

See my Firefox dedicated page

Credits#

"Mint" by Ian Dick is licensed under CC BY 2.0.