Tweaks to set up my environment in Linux Mint Cinnamon

Mint-Tweaks.md

🌱 Step 01

• Desktop settings

  • Desktop colors: Dark
  • Check for driver updates
  • Disable the startup dialog
  • Install language packs from system reports
  • Configure startup applications

• Terminal setup

  • Size: 98x30
  • Hide scrollbar and menubar
  • Disable cursor blinking

• Core tools setup

  • Set up Firefox
  • Use Hiddify to install Warp
  • Install Chrome, VSCode and LocalSend from the deb files.
  • Setup Chrome

• Create required directories

  sudo mkdir /opt/{softwares,sources}
  sudo chown -R <username>:users /opt/{softwares,sources}
  sudo mkdir /mnt/{windows,iso}

• System update and cleanup

  sudo apt update
  sudo apt upgrade

  • Remove old kernels

• Install Neovim

  • sudo apt install software-properties-common vim git
  • Add PPA or use binaries
  • Set up AstroNvim
  • Install Hack & FiraCode Nerd Fonts
  • Update and sync
  • Install Treesitter for: rust c go cpp python bash markdown toml yaml html css dockerfile json xml sql

• Panel applets

  • Workspace switcher
  • Taghvim → set date format to %a %m/%d
  • Uptime
  • Night Light Switch

• Localization

  • Add Persian keyboard and set the shortcut to: Alt + Caps
  • Install Persian fonts
  • Install IntelOne Mono

🏁 Step 02

• Install essential packages

  vim-gtk3 build-essential lm-sensors psensor tmux fonts-noto-core fish eza bat ncdu
  simplescreenrecorder persepolis vlc htop btop zathura software-properties-common tree duf tldr gnome-clocks gparted
  zoxide evince gedit gedit-plugins lf meld ubuntu-restricted-extras amberol gtkhash
  

• Optional: st terminal

  sudo apt install libx11-dev libxft-dev libharfbuzz-dev

• Additional installations

  • Telegram
  • rustup

• Keyboard shortcuts

  Action	Keybind	Command
  Document Viewer	Super + D	evince
  Telegram	Super + Ctrl + T	telegram
  Terminal	Super + Return	st -g 92x30 -e tmux new-session -A -s main 'fish'
  Terminal 2	Super + Shift + Return	alacritty -e fish
  Browser	Super + B	google-chrome
  Text Editor	Super + C	code
  Text Editor 2	Super + Shift + C	gedit
  Media Player	Super + V	vlc
  Close Window	Super + W	-
  Shutdown	Ctrl + Shift + Esc	-

• System settings

  • Windows → Behavior: Set Window focus mode to Sloppy.
  • Accessibility → Keyboard:
    • Enable Use visual indicator on Caps
    • Enable Use audio indicator on Caps
  • Sound → Sounds:
    • Disable Switching workspace
    • Disable Tiling and snapping windows
  • Themes → Settings: Enable Show icons in menus

• Change screenshots directory

  mkdir -p ~/Pictures/Screenshots
  gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory ~/Pictures/Screenshots

• Move dotfiles

  • alacritty
  • fish
  • shell
  • tmux
  • zathura
  • source bashrc stuff
  • vimrc
  • zsh

• Setup VSCode

  Enable Settings Sync (applies settings below):

  • Font: 'Intel One Mono', 'Hack Nerd Font', monospace
  • Font size: 18
  • Extensions:
    • Code Spell Checker
    • Color Highlight
    • Even Better TOML
    • GitLens
    • Image Preview
    • Markdown Preview GitHub
    • Material Icon Theme
    • Rainbow CSV
    • Two Monokai Theme
    • Prettier
      • Default formatter: prettier
      • Auto save: OnFocusChange
      • Enable format on save

• Configure VLC

  • Disable “Resize interface to video size”
  • Encoding: Arabic Windows
  • Font: B Koodak
  • Font size: Normal

• Change preferred applications

• Git configuration

  Configure the SSH key for GitHub and gitconfig file:

  git config --global user.name "<name>"
  git config --global user.email "<email>"
  git config --global --list

  Append to gitconfig:

  [core]
      editor = gedit
  [diff]
      tool = meld
  [difftool]
      prompt = false
  [merge]
      tool = meld
  [mergetool]
      prompt = false
  [init]
      defaultBranch = main
  

• Virt Manager:

  # Install required packages
  sudo apt update
  sudo apt install qemu-system-x86 libvirt-daemon-system virtinst libvirt-clients bridge-utils ovmf
  
  # Enable and start libvirtd service
  sudo systemctl enable --now libvirtd
  
  # Add user to groups
  sudo usermod -aG libvirt $USER
  sudo usermod -aG kvm $USER
  
  # Install virt-manager
  sudo apt install virt-manager
  
  # Verify KVM is working
  kvm-ok

  Restart the system to apply the changes, then verify:

  # Check network interface status
  sudo virsh net-list --all
  
  # If it is inactive start it using
  sudo virsh net-start default

• Add binaries to PATH

  • .local/bin/: nitch, mdBook, mdbook-admonish

• Update shell configuration

  Append the following to .profile:

  # For QT themes
  export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct
  
  # Source additional files
  source $HOME/.config/shell/alias
  source ~/.config/lf/icons
  export PATH=$HOME/.cargo/bin/:$HOME/.local/bin/:/usr/local/texlive/2023/bin/x86_64-linux:$PATH

  Append the following to .bashrc:

  take() {
      mkdir -p "${1}"
      cd "${1}"
  }
  
  ds() {
      du -h --max-depth="${1}" "${2}" | sort -hr
  }
  . "$HOME/.cargo/env"

• Install TexLive ISO

  • When prompted, select “Create symlinks in standard directories” to ensure binaries can be used as root and to make tlmgr accessible.