Quick reference of Debian, Ubuntu and Linux Mint

Last modified: Mar, 2016

Repositories

Use Mirrors

Sometimes use repository mirrors other than the official repository can be much faster.

For Ubuntu repository, the mirror list can be found in this link.

For Linux Mint repositories (which uses some Ubuntu repositories as well), one can get the fastest one via “Software Source” –> “LinuxMint Software” –> “Download from” –> “Other” –> “Select best server”.

The /etc/apt/source.list for my Linux Mint 13 is

deb http://mirror.umd.edu/linuxmint/packages/ maya main upstream import
deb http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu/ precise main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu/ precise-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://mirror.anl.gov/pub/ubuntu/ precise-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ precise partner

Google Chrome Repository Error (updated 2016)

Error message after “sudo apt-get update”

“Failed to fetch http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/dists/stable/Release
Unable to find expected entry ‘main/binary-i386/Packages’ in Release file (Wrong sources.list entry or malformed file)”

It may be because Google dropped the support for 32-bit version of Chrome browsers. The fix is to change the file at “/etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list” as follows:

deb [arch=amd64] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main

It should work again.

Reference: How To Fix The (Annoying) ‘Failed to Fetch’ Chrome apt Error

中文輸入法

Linux Mint 13 Chinese Input

對於本人而言， 用Linux的三大頭疼問題是無線網卡驅動、顯卡驅動和中文輸入法。之前試過ibus+pinyin, fcitx+pinyin, fcitx+sougou(見貼1,2)。最後發現fcitx-rime乃是一個不頭疼的解決方案。可惜Linux Mint 13 (基於Ubuntu 12.04 LTS) 上沒有打包好的package, 不過一個PPA就可解決問題。

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fcitx-team/nightly
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install fcitx-rime

然後重啓X, 就能在Linux Mint 13裏正常用了。

Install Sogou Pinyin in Linux Mint 17

This tutorial has been made a separate post here

Hardware Problems

(LM13 Cinnamon) Problem: The touchpad of ThinkPad W510 doesn’t work after waking up from a suspend

Solution: reload the mouse kernel module as follows and it will work:

sudo modprobe -r psmouse
sudo modprobe psmouse

(LM13 Cinnamon) Problem: The brightness of ThinkPad W510 is not adjustable with ‘Fn’ keybindings

The NVidia proprietary binary driver is installed. Similar problem also described here

Solution: See the answer in the some thread above. But the simplest way to fix this is to add an entry like Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1" to /etc/X11/xorg.conf, making a section something like:

Section "Device"
  Identifier "Default Device"
  Option "NoLogo" "True"
  Option "RegistryDwords" "EnableBrightnessControl=1"
EndSection

After a reboot, brightness adjustment with “Fn” key works.

(LM13 XFCE) Problem: The system sound (except the login sound) doesn’t work

Solution: The problem may be because Linux Mint loads wrong sound driver. The following command can fix the problem for the current session:

rm ~/.pulse && killall pulseaudio

To make this fix effective permanently, this post gives a fine solution: “Menu” –> “Settings” –> “Session and Startup” –> “Application Autostart” –> “Add”, and type in above command to create a startup entry. So this command will be executed everytime the session starts.