Morpsetek

Archive for the ‘Linux’ Category

I have played with a lot of operating systems on my Dell Mini 9: Windows XP, 7, briefly Server 2008 (long story), OSX, and most of the Linuxs that are out there. This setup is the result of a LOT of playing around and testing, and I find it works well for me.

As a base, I’ve gone with Linux Mint 9, it’s basically Ubuntu, but I like the default package set better and I don’t have to fix the window buttons. As a side note, the only reason the buttons being moved bugs me is because I have so much muscle memory that it screws with me when they are in the wrong place (that may also be the reason I don’t care for Macs). Anyway, Mint is a good base and has enough things working out of the box that I don’t have to spend a ton of time tweaking before I can use my system. I used to use Arch almost exclusively, but I just don’t have the time it takes to build an arch desktop these days. I still lean toward Arch for servers, but for desktops I find the Ubuntu based stuff saves enough time up front that I can deal with a slightly less optimized setup. Easy to use Linuxs are still Linux, so take from that what you will.

The first thing after I install Mint is to get it up to date. So pop open a terminal and issue my favorite command: “sudo su”. This gets you into the root account without setting a root password. On Ubuntu based systems the root account initially doesn’t have a password set and the first account you create during the install will  be able to use the sudo command for administrative tasks. I like not having the root password set at all because that means it can’t be authenticated directly, you have to get into my account first meaning an attacker probably doesn’t know the correct user name to go after (and the 50742 attempts at the root account on my SSH honeypot tell me that this is a good thing).

At the root shell, the first command I throw is “apt-get update && apt-get upgrade”. This command tells the system to update it’s repositories and bring the system up to the latest package versions. This command usually takes a while, next I get some software that I like to have on a system:

“apt-get install ubuntu-restricted-extras prism wine vlc idle-python2.6″

I also prefer a taskbar similar to the windows superbar (albeit much smaller). To do that, I remove the mint menu from my gnome bar along the bottom of the screen (right click the menu and hit remove), then right click a blank spot on the bar, then Add to Panel, and then add the gnome menu. I also usually remove the show desktop button and the window list (this one can be hard to find, it’s the little bar next to where open windows show up in the task list). At my terminal I enter:

“add-apt-repository ppa:dockbar-main/ppa”

then “apt-get update && apt-get install dockbarx”

Then I go back and add the dock bar to my gnome panel. This is all personal preference and gnome can be configured in any number of diffrent ways with a bit of effort. I also usually move the panel over to the left side of the screen, as most laptops have wide screens, but web pages are big on vertical space; go figure.

The next big task is to get Firefox squared away. The netbook has limited screen space, so we need to maximize it’s use. As an alternative to all this, Google Chrome is a lot closer to the layout I end up with at the start, but chrome doesn’t have No-Script.

First up, The add-ons:

• HideCaptiontitlebar plus
• TabsOnTop
• TinyMenu
• No Script
• Ad Block plus

After installing all those restart Firefox, when it comes back up right click and remove the bookmark bar, right click any of the nav buttons and click customize. Then drag everything, one at a time, from the nav bar into the menu bar where the tiny menu text is. Once you have everything moved, right click and hide the nav bar. I also like to change some of the add-on settings, changing the tiny menu text to the tiny menu icon and turning off the no script warnings.

That’s how I setup my net books for long term use. I generally find the Linux terminal and Firefox alone are enough to let me get around 90% of what I do every day done on my net book. I usually setup Prism links for my e-mail accounts and skip using Thunderbird. I also have been having fun with Gwibber for my twitter account.

Edit: Thought I would add a screen shot: