Taken from: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/tips-and-tricks-mint-after-installation-mint-13-cinnamon-edition.htm
Linux Mint is one of the top free operating systems widely used in the world and currently receives the highest hits atDistroWatch.
The Cinnamon Edition of Linux Mint 13 Maya uses Cinnamon, instead of GNOME shell, as a user interface for the GNOME-3 desktop environment. And unlike Ubuntu Unity sporting a vertical launcher on the left side of the screen, Cinnamon maintains a traditional layout with a bottom panel and a Mint menu. If you're using this Edition, you might find these tips and tricks useful for working with the system on a PC.
Linux Mint creates two workspaces by default, but you can add more and manage your workspaces pretty easily in several ways:
Windows Explorer allows for users to set a default view to all folders. In almost the same way, Linux Mint's Nautilus File Browser allows for these settings:
To disable a shortcut, press Backspace when it shows "New accelerator..." after the step 3 above.
Keyboard shortcuts can also be set by changing keybinding values with Configuration Editor. Press Alt+F2 and enter gconf-editor, then navigate to apps > metacity > global_keybindings and window_keybindings.
Tips and Tricks for Linux Mint after Installation [Mint 13 Maya - Cinnamon Edition]
Introduction
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Linux Mint is one of the top free operating systems widely used in the world and currently receives the highest hits atDistroWatch.
Even though it's an Ubuntu-based system, Linux Mint features only one panel at the bottom which looks closer to the taskbar in the Windows system, and a well-organized start menu complete with a useful Search box. It also pre-installs some proprietary software such as necessary media codecs by default so that you play mp3, mp4 or most other media files with a player right away out of the box.
The Cinnamon Edition of Linux Mint 13 Maya uses Cinnamon, instead of GNOME shell, as a user interface for the GNOME-3 desktop environment. And unlike Ubuntu Unity sporting a vertical launcher on the left side of the screen, Cinnamon maintains a traditional layout with a bottom panel and a Mint menu. If you're using this Edition, you might find these tips and tricks useful for working with the system on a PC.
Note: The steps described in this article work best with Linux Mint 13 Maya [Cinnamon Edition]. If you're using the MATE Edition, please check out this article.
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Panel
Window
Desktop
File Manager
Keyboard Shortcuts
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Sound
Add Fonts, Screenlets and More Software
Drive and Partition
Startup and Shutdown
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Frequently used programs can be easily pinned to the panel.
- Browse to a program from Menu.
- Right click a program, then select "Add to panel" (Alternatively you can drag a program and drop it to the panel launcher).
- Re-order the program icons on the panel launcher as you like by drag-and-drop.
Note: In the same you can also add a program shortcut to the Desktop or the Favorites located at the left column inside Menu. The Favorites support drag-and-drop and re-ordering. See also "Enable Superbar".
An applet is a small tool or application which you can access directly from the panel for performing a task. Some applets have been enabled by default but you can disable the applets you don't need to use or enable the ones you like pretty easily:
- Click the Settings (the "^" sign) from the panel, or right-click any applet in the notification area.
- Select "Add/remove applets"
- Tick the applets to enable or untick the ones you want to hide from the panel, then close the Cinnamon Settings window.
Note: You can also add more applets for selection by clicking "Get new applets".
In Windows 7, frequently used programs can be pinned to the taskbar (hence called Superbar) for launching the programs and their icons are highlighted when the programs are running. Likewise, an applet called "Window List with App Grouping" can be added to the panel to achieve almost the same effect.
Install the applet "Window List with App Grouping" by entering the command lines below in the Terminal.
- sudo add-apt-repository ppa:bimsebasse/cinnamonextras
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get install cinnamon-applet-windowiconlist
- Follow the tip above to enable the applet "Window List with App Grouping".
- Click the Settings (the "^" sign) from the panel and switch on the Panel Edit mode.
- Drag the applet to the spot you like on the panel, then switch off the Panel Edit mode.
Note: A thumbnail preview of a running program is also available in this powerful applet. Since it serves as a new launcher and running programs are indicated, you can disable these two applets "Panel Launcher" and "Cinnamon Window List". To add a program shortcut to this new launcher, just drag a program from Menu and drop it to the launcher, and you can pin or unpin programs from the panel as well with a simple right-click.
Like the Windows' Start button, Linux Mint has a Menu button where you can start doing things like running a program, looking for files, log out or quit the system and so on.
The Menu allows you to set your personal preferences with the steps below, for example:
Right click "Menu", select "Panel settings".
- Replace Menu text to any other word if needed.
- Change the Button icon from /usr/share/cinnamon/theme/menu.png to /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintWelcome/templates/logo.svg, as shown in the screenshot. (Caution: avoid changing to a huge size image which might affect the panel.)
Note: In this Settings window, you can also set Menu hover delay, auto-hide panel and more.
Quite often a shortcut is automatically added to the Menu when you install an application. But you might also download a program which requires you to manually add a shortcut for it to run from the Menu. This can be done without breaking a sweat.
- Right-click the Mint Menu and select "Edit menu".
- Click a software category for example Sound & Video under Applications.
- At the right panel, click "+New Item".
- Type in a name for the application, for example, ClipGrab.
- To the right of "Command", browse to the application where you've downloaded, for example,/home/username/Downloads/clipgrab-3.2.0.9
- Click OK and Close buttons.
Note: If an executable file is not accessible, try to add permission to execute the file in the Terminal, for this example assuming the file is extracted to the "Downloads" folder:
cd ~/Downloads
chmod +x clipgrab-3.2.0.9
chmod +x clipgrab-3.2.0.9
When you select a theme from Menu > Cinnamon Settings > themes, the theme may come with a non-transparent or semi-transparent panel. But you can adjust the level of transparency for the panel if you like. For example, I've selected a theme called ICS, and I can make it more transparent with the steps below. (Caution: changing the code incorrectly might result in a non-responsive desktop environment.)
- Press Alt-2, type gksu gedit and press Enter.
- Browse to the folder /usr/share/themes/ICS/cinnamon and open this file cinnamon.css
- Search for a section beginning with #panel
- Adjust the alpha value in the panel's background color from 0.82 to lower such as 0.35, so that it reads as background-color: rgba(0,0,0,0.35); (The alpha value ranges from 0 [full transparency] to 1 [full opacity].)
- Click Save and close the file.
- Switch to another theme and back to the ICS theme.
When you double-click the title bar of a window, the default setting is to maximize a window. Since there's already a maximize button you can use for this, I always like to change the default setting to rolling up (or 'shading') a window when I double-click on its title bar.
- Go to Menu > Cinnamon Settings
- Click "Windows"
- For "Action on title bar double-click", select "Toggle Shade" from the drop-down list.
Now you can roll up a window when you double-click its title bar, and roll it down by double-clicking the title bar again. Simple as that.
Linux Mint (Cinnamon Edition) provides you with several settings for Themes. You can easily select a theme and get a new look for the panel, windows, icons and more in the system.
Go to Menu and click the "Cinnamon Settings" icon.
- Click the Themes icon.
- Under the "Cinnamon themes" tab, select a theme such as ICS.
- Under the "Other settings" tab, select a window theme from the drop-down menu to change the window frame and controls (requiring log out and back in to see the results)
You can also make changes by selecting a cursor theme, an icon theme and other themes under the "Other settings" tab.
Linux Mint creates two workspaces by default, but you can add more and manage your workspaces pretty easily in several ways:- Go to a workspace: get your mouse cursor to the top-left corner of the screen (aka "hot corner" or "Expo") to show all workspaces, then click a workspace to jump to.
- Open an application in a workspace: mouse over a workspace to see all applications in the workspace (aka "Scale"), then select an application.
- Move an application from a workspace to another: drag an application and drop it to another workspace.
- Add a workspace: press the "+" sign on the right when in Expo mode.
- Remove a workspace: mouse over a workspace and click the "x" button when in Expo mode.
These shortcuts are also helpful:
- Ctrl+Alt+Up goes to Expo.
- Ctrl+Alt+Down goes to Scale.
- Ctrl+Alt+Left/Right switches to the left/right adjacent workspace.
- Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Left/Right moves the active window to the left/right adjacent workspace.
In addition to the Computer and Home icons, Linux Mint adds an icon to the desktop for every removable drive that you attach to your system. The icons can be hidden by these steps:
- Go to Menu and click the "Cinnamon Settings" icon.
- Click the Desktop icon.
- Untick the "Computer icon visible on the desktop", "Home icon visible on the desktop" and "Show mounted volumes on the desktop", then close the window.
The drive icons as well as Computer and Home icons would then disappear from the desktop, simple as that. Remember that you can always access the drives from Menu > Files.
You can right click your desktop, select "Change Desktop Background" and choose any one of the wallpapers pre-installed, but you need to do it each time you want to change a wallpaper. What about changing a wallpaper automatically within a certain time interval? Try Wally.
Go to Menu > Software Manager, enter wally into the Search box and click "Install".
- Press Alt-F2, type wally and press Enter to run it.
- Right-click the Wally icon on the system tray or the notification area, select Settings.
- Click "Folders" in the left column, then add /usr/share/backgrounds to the Folder box and tick "Include subfolders".
- Click "Settings" in the left column, then tick "Play automatically on application starts". You can also check the option to disable splash screen and auto quit if you wish.
- Set the application to auto start, using this tip Auto Start Up an Application (as Wally's option to "Start automatically when system starts" being disabled).
Your wallpaper on the desktop will automatically change following these basic settings when you log back in the system (or right click the Wally icon on the system tray and select "Play").
Windows Explorer allows for users to set a default view to all folders. In almost the same way, Linux Mint's Nautilus File Browser allows for these settings:- Go to "Menu" and click the Files icon.
- At the top of the File Browser, click "Edit" and "Preferences".
- Under Default View, change "Icon View" to "List View", to see more details in columns.
- Tick "Show hidden and backup files" if that's your choice.
Other various settings, such as single or double click to open items, icon captions, list columns and preview files can be done in the same window as well.
The Linux Mint system has a quick previewer tool Sushi pre-installed for the Nautilus file browser. While running the file browser, you can preview text, PDF, audio and video files, and other supported documents in a single step.
- Select a file, press Spacebar to preview.
- Press Spacebar again or Escape to close a preview.
When running a Nautilus file browser, you will see that the folder icons are predetermined by the theme you set. If you wish to change a folder icon to another for it to stand out from the system-wide icons, follow these steps:
- In Nautilus file browser, right click a folder icon, select Properties.
- Under the Basic tab, click the icon image to open up the "Select Custom Icon" window.
- In the Location field, type /usr/share/icons, press Enter. (You can hide or unhide the Location field by clicking the Edit button on the top-left of the window.)
- Browse and select an icon you want.
- Click the Open button on the bottom-right of the window to confirm.
Note: You can change your custom folder icon back to the default by clicking the "Revert" button in the "Select Custom Icon" window at Step 2 above.
In the Mint file system, you can use Nautilus file manager to browse most files but can only write files in your home folder /home/your_name and its sub-folders such as Desktop and Documents. If you have to rename a folder or write files outside of your home folder using the file manager, you won't be able to but you can create an advanced file manager for this purpose.
- Go to Menu > Preferences > Keyboard
- Under the "Shortcuts" tab, select Custom Shortcuts, then click the "+" sign to create a custom shortcut.
- Enter a name such as Advanced Nautilus in the "Name" box.
- Enter gksu nautilus in the "Command" box, then click the Apply button.
- Click on Disabled at the Advanced Nautilus row in the Keyboard Shortcuts window (Disabled is then changed to New accelerator...).
- Press a new key combination, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+N (New accelerator... is then changed to Ctrl+Alt+N).
Now you can easily access the Advanced Nautilus by pressing the shortcut key you assigned. But be careful since you can use it to delete or change any files on your system.
Keyboard shortcuts are preset in the system, but you can add new ones or change them easily. For instance, change the default shortcut Ctrl+Alt+T (Run a Terminal) to Super+R (press R while holding down the Super [aka Windows] key) by the following steps:
Go to Menu > Preferences > Keyboard.
- Under the "Shortcuts" tab, select "Launchers" on the left panel
- Click "Launch Terminal", and it shows "New accelerator..."
- Tap Super+R, and it shows Super+R
- Close the window and try the new shortcut. (Note: In this article, I use Ctrl-Alt-T as a default shortcut to Terminal.)
To disable a shortcut, press Backspace when it shows "New accelerator..." after the step 3 above. Keyboard shortcuts can also be set by changing keybinding values with Configuration Editor. Press Alt+F2 and enter gconf-editor, then navigate to apps > metacity > global_keybindings and window_keybindings.
Xkill is part of the X11 utilities pre-installed in Linux Mint and a tool for terminating misbehaving X clients or unresponsive programs. You can easily add a shortcut key to launch xkill with the steps below.
Go to Menu > Preferences > Keyboard.
- Under the Shortcuts tab, click the "+" button to create a custom shortcut.
- Enter xkill to both the Name and Command boxes and click the Applybutton.
- Click on Disabled at the xkill row in the Keyboard Shortcuts window (Disabled is then changed to New shortcut...).
- Press a new key combination, e.g. Ctrl+Alt+X (New shortcut... is then changed to Ctrl+Alt+X).
Xkill is ready for use. Press the above key combination to turn the cursor to an X-sign, move the X-sign and drop it into a program interface to terminate the unresponsive program, or cancel the X-sign with a right-click.
If you press Ctrl+Alt+Delete, Linux Mint brings you a menu to log out your system. But for some reason you might encounter that the system freezes, the mouse cursor can't move, neither pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delete can work.
Remember that there's a shortcut key Ctrl+Alt+Backspace that can bring you back to the log-in screen immediately without the need to reboot the system. That's a time saver.
As an alternative, you can also use Alt+PrintScreen+K to do the same.
If you use a PC with an integrated audio device and it has no sound when playing a media file on a player, try these simple steps to set Sound Preferences for your PC. It works for me for the audio device I have.
- Go to Menu > Preferences > Sound to bring up the Sound window.
- Under the Hardware tab, change Profile to Analog Stereo Duplex from the drop-down menu. Click "Test Speakers" to check if it works.
- Under the Output tab, change Connector to Analog Output from the drop-down menu.
As the items available from the drop-down menus might differ depending on the hardware devices detected by the system, you might want to try other items in the menus to see if they work for your devices.
Each time when you login to Linux Mint, it plays a login sound. If you don't like to listen to it each time you login, you can easily disable it, or change it to your favorite sound.
- Go to Menu > Administration > Login Window.
- Under the "Accessibility" tab, change to a sound you like from the drop-down menu for "Login successful", click "Play" to try the sound if needed.
- If you want to disable the log-in sound, untick "Login successful"
Log out and log back in to check the new setting for login sound. Similarly you can try out sounds for "Login screen ready" and "Login failed".
Do you prefer Windows TrueType fonts to the default fonts installed by Linux Mint? The mscorefonts package containing most Microsoft fonts can be installed and configured easily in a few steps below:
Go to Menu > Terminal.
- Paste sudo apt-get install ttf-mscorefonts-installer into the Terminal (by pressing Ctrl-Shift-V in the Terminal after copying the highlighted code).
- When prompted, use the arrow left/right keys to navigate and agree to the EULA license terms for the install.
- Go to Menu > Cinnamon Settings > Fonts.
- Click each of them, pick a font, such as Verdana, and size to configure for window title and so on.
How about installing more TrueType fonts? With your font files, you can manually add them into the system following the steps below:
- Press Alt+F2, paste gksu nautilus /usr/share/fonts/truetype into the box and hit "Enter" to open Nautilus in the right folder.
- Create a new sub-folder and copy your files ending with .ttf into the sub-folder.
- Enter sudo fc-cache -f -v in the Terminal to rebuild the font information.
Besides this, you can run an application such as Font-Manager to view, install, remove fonts and so on.
Note: If you like the Tahoma font which is not included in the mscorefonts package, you might want to copy the two files tahoma.ttf and tahomabd.ttf from /Windows/Fonts and install them.
Screenlets are small applications to represent things such as sticky notes, clocks, calendars around on your desktop. You can launch a pre-installed screenlet from Screenlets manager, or install a new one into the manager for launching it. Here are the steps for installing and launching a screenlet, for example, WaterMark System Information.
Install Screenlets manager if it has not been added from the Ubuntu Apps Directory. (Note: You can also install it via Software Manager by searching for this application.)
- Download the screenlet "WaterMark System Information" to a folder.
- Press Alt-F2, type Screenlets into the box and press Enter to run the manager.
- Click Install, select Install Screenlet and click OK.
- Browse to the folder, select the file downloaded and click "Open" to install the screenlet into the Screenlets manager.
- Select the screenlet "WaterMark" and click "Launch/Add". (Tips: you can add more than one WaterMark screenlet and set it to display other system information.)
More screenlets are available for installation from screenlets.org.
Linux Mint uses OpenJDK by default, but some web services might need the Oracle Java Runtime Environment (JRE) to be installed for running the services properly. If you would like to get the proprietary Oracle Java package for your system, you can download and install it with the steps below:
- Go to Menu > Terminal.
- Enter sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java to add the partner repository.
- Enter sudo apt-get update to update the source list.
- Enter sudo apt-get install oracle-java7-installer
At any time, you can check the Java version you're using and configure it when necessary:
- Enter sudo java -version to check the version of the Java used in the system.
- Enter sudo update-alternatives --config java to choose the default Java for use in the system.
Linux Mint's Software Manager lets you search and get free software. You can go to Menu > Software Manager, type in an application to search, download and install it. You can also go to Menu > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager, type in an application name to search and install a software package from the repositories.
Besides this, you can also go to Ubuntu Apps Directory to find the software products you need. If you like a product on the Directory, just click the orange download button and it opens up in a package manager for you to confirm the install.
Alternatively, you can get the latest freeware applications by clicking the Install this now button from theGetDeb Repository after the getdeb package is installed with the instructions given.
See also our Best Free Software for Linux.
Linux Mint is capable of reading and writing files stored on Windows formatted partitions, but partitions must be 'mounted' before they can be accessed each time you start up the system. With these steps, you can auto mount the drives or partitions without the need to manually mount them for access.
Go to Menu > Administration > Storage Device Manager. (If not available, go to Software Manager and search pysdm to install it, then log out and back in the system.)
- Extend the list of sda and select the sda you want to auto mount, click 'OK' to configure.
- Click the "Assistant" button.
- Uncheck "Mount file system in read only mode" and keep "The file system is mounted at boot time" checked.
- Click the "Mount" button to mount the partition, then click "Apply" "Close", and restart the system.
In case you wish to remove the auto-mount of a certain drive or partition, you can similarly use Storage Device Manager to do the setting.
Note: If you need to identify disk partitions by label, paste ls /dev/disk/by-label -g in Terminal, or to view partition sizes and file systems, enter sudo fdisk -l. Disk Utility mentioned in "Name or Label a Partition" also gives you a glance of device numbers, partition types, sizes and labels.
A USB storage device plugged into the system usually mounts automatically, but if for some reasons it doesn't automount, it's possible to manually mount it with these steps.
- Go to Menu > Terminal.
- Enter sudo mkdir /media/usb to create a mount point called usb.
- Enter sudo fdisk -l to look for the USB drive already plugged in, let's say the drive you want to mount is /dev/sdb1.
- Enter sudo mount -t vfat /dev/sdb1 /media/usb -o uid=1000,gid=100,utf8,dmask=027,fmask=137 to mount a USB drive formatted with FAT16 or FAT32 system. OR:
Enter sudo mount -t ntfs-3g /dev/sdb1 /media/usb to mount a USB drive formatted with NTFS system.
To unmount it, just enter sudo umount /media/usb in the Terminal.
Nautilus file manager shows the root directory as File System for your Mint system partition. If you have other partitions (or volumes), it shows them as xx GB Filesystem if they’re not named or labelled.
Using Disk Utility is one of the effective ways to name a partition easily:
- Go to Menu > Preferences > Disk Utility
- Select the item Hard Disk.
- In the Volumes section, click a partition you want to label.
- Click "Edit Filesystem Label" (Note 1)
- In the Label box, enter a name, e.g. Data-Disk, and click Apply.
The file manager should now show the partition label, such as Data-Disk, instead of xx GB Filesystem.
Note 1: If the option for "Edit Filesystem Label" is not shown, click "Unmount Volume" before hand. In case you can't unmount a volume, try Storage Device Manager to unmount it. See Auto Mount Drives at System Startup.
Note 2: This tip is for naming a partition using Disk Utility, use other advanced features such as format, edit or delete partitions with caution as they can delete data on your disk.
In Windows, you can place a program shortcut in a startup folder for running a program automatically when the system starts. In Linux Mint, you can do the same in this way:
Go To Menu > Preferences > Startup Applications
- Click the "Add" button.
- Name a program.
- Click the "Browse" button and navigate to File System > usr > bin, where programs are usually installed.
- Select a program, click the "Open" button followed by the "Add" button.
The above program will then be listed in additional startup programs. Check if the program runs automatically by logging out and back to the system.
Linux Mint offers you a Mint Display Manager (MDM) to configure a login session. You can use it to change a login screen or a theme you like in a few steps:
Go to Menu > Administration > "Login Window" to open this window "Login Window Preferences".
- Under the "Local" tab, select a built-in theme such as "Circles", then log out and back in to try a new log-in screen.
Get a Theme showing User Names
Under the same tab, you can choose a style "Themed with face browser", which lists user names on a login screen and saves you the trouble of typing out a username each time you log in:
- Download an MDM theme for example Super Brothers mdm, which supports this style, from gnome-look.org.
- Add the theme file (.tar.gz) by drag-and-drop to the MDM, under the "Local" tab with the style "Themed with face browser" chosen.
- Click "Install", select this new theme and enjoy a new login session with a user list.
Tweak a GDM Theme for MDM Display Manager
Some themes are made for Gnome Display Manager (GDM), but you can also add it to MDM with just a minor tweak:
- Right click a downloaded theme file (.tar.gz) and select "Open With Archive Manager" from the context menu.
- Double click the folder inside the archive manager, then double click this file "GdmGreeterTheme.desktop" in the expanded folder.
- In the opened text editor Gedit, change this line [GdmGreeterTheme] to [MdmGreeterTheme], click "Save", "Update" and close Gedit.
- Right click the file "GdmGreeterTheme.desktop" and rename to "MdmGreeterTheme.desktop", then close the archive manager.
The archived theme file is then tweaked and can be added to the MGM for use.
After full installation, Linux Mint is set to be the default operating system to boot up if no key is pressed within a few seconds on a multi-boot system. You might want to set your preferred operating system to boot up by default. This can be done easily with Grub Customizer.
Press Ctrl-Alt-T to call up Terminal, copy following codes and paste (Ctrl-Shift-V) them inside the Terminal to install Grub Customizer.
- sudo add-apt-repository ppa:danielrichter2007/grub-customizer
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get install grub-customizer
After installation, run Grub Customizer to set the default boot options with the following steps.
- Press Alt-F2, type grub-customizer into the box and press Enter to run it.
- Click "Preferences" from the menu
- Under the "General" tab, select the default entry you like to boot up from the drop-down menu.
- Adjust the timeout value if needed, then press the Close button and the Save button.
Avoid changing timeout to 0 seconds if you need to select a system to boot up from a multi-boot menu.
Each time when Linux Mint updates to a new Linux kernel, the old one is left behind and the boot menu gets longer. If your new Linux kernel works well, it's safe to clean up the boot menu. Do take these steps carefully as incorrectly hiding the items can make your system unbootable. You can check the Linux kernel version you're running by entering this command line uname -r into the Terminal.
To clean up the boot menu, it's pretty straightforward with Grub Customizer used in the tip above.
- Press Alt-F2, type grub-customizer into the box and press Enter to run it.
- Uncheck the entries you want to hide from the boot menu.
- Click the Save button.
A simple command can be entered in the Terminal to schedule a time for the system to shut down.
- Go to Menu > Terminal.
- Enter sudo shutdown -h +m (replace m with the number of minutes, e.g. +60).
OR: enter sudo shutdown -h hh:mm (replace hh:mm with the time on the 24hr clock, e.g. 23:15). - Enter password and minimize the Terminal window.
The system will then shut down within the minutes or at the time specified. To cancel a scheduled time, entersudo shutdown -c in the Terminal.
Alternatively, you might want to download and install GShutdown, which is a GUI program for scheduling a time to shutdown the system.
Editor
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This article is maintained by volunteer editor Jojoyee.
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things to do after installing Linux Mint, Linux Mint tips and tricks, tweak Linux Mint, Linux Mint 11 Katya, Linux Mint 10 Julia.
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