Mint Linux Annoyances
Debian Nerds Remove ALL RTSP Support
(rtsp stream playing does not work in Ubuntu 21.04 and Debian 11)
Mint 21.1 Vera Ubuntu 22.04 LTS has limited support for viewing rtsp protocol. It seems ffplay still supports rtsp, however vlc does not. Debian builds remove rtsp. Bug report claims, " We had to disable those plugins as liblivemedia constains non-free code. "
- ffplay on mint supports rtsp
- no packages for livemedia-utils in default repositories
- vlc will not play rtsp unless you use the snap or build from source. - never - use the snap!
- mvp player works, apt install mpv
Reset / Restart Cinnamon w/o closing all other programs
Enter ALT + F2 to go into "run command" then type the letter "r" and press enter - this will restart cinnamon, however, your cinnamon preferences will also be reset.
From console
pkill -HUP -f "cinnamon --replace"
Edit the mimeinfo.cache file
vi /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
Furthermore, the file -> click "Properties" -> click "Open with" is based on a list of .desktop files in /usr/share/applications
And there is also a tool called "alacarte" and using it to move or create an application a new .desktop file gets placed inside ~/.local/share/applications
If you want to delete applications from this list you have to edit the following file from command line
- /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
If you added item by yourself, or you want to add new item you need to edit the following file from command line
- ~/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
deafault actions you need to edit the following file from command line
- ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
Canonical assumes everyone uses public wifi
A new feature in Ubuntu and Mint as part of the Network Manager is a connectivity checker that creates unnecessary and potentially suspicious looking network activity on your computer. It is an ugly hack developers came up with to address certain shortcomings with Ubuntu and Mint's ability to stay connected to public Internet wifi hotspots.
- You can disable connectivity checking inside the menu: Preferences -> System settings -> Privacy -> Connectivity.
In the System Settings dialog under "Internet connectivity" is an ON/OFF toggle with the description: "Check that network connections can reach the Internet. This makes it possible to detect captive portals, but also generates periodic network traffic."
You DO NOT NEED nor benefit from connectivity checks if you are on your home computer connected to your own LAN or on an office computer connected to an office LAN, especially if connected via an Ethernet cable as opposed to wireless. It is best to disable it unless you are using a laptop and plan on visiting an Internet Cafe (or public wifi)!
Font anti-aliasing
This one is not for everybody. Desktop fonts, text fonts in the web browser, and in many areas of the mint desktop environment are made to look soft and smooth, this is purely an aesthetics quality that offers no functionality. It looks pretty. It also gives some people a headache trying to read text on a web page or on the desktop that is fuzzy. If you disable what is called HINTING and ANTIALIASING then, with a good LCD monitor, your fonts will be sharp and crisp, but will also take you back in time to the 1990's in that they will appear jagged. So, therefore, this modification is a personal preference. I will trade the clean refinement of soft text in an effort to relieve my headache and eye strain.
To enable old fashioned jagged nasty looking (but sharp and easy on eye strain) fonts I have found this 1 - 2 punch combination to work.
1. drop to terminal shell and execute the following commands:
sudo mv /etc/fonts/conf.d/10-antialias.conf /etc/fonts/conf.d/.disable.10-antialias.conf sudo mv /etc/fonts/conf.avail/10-antialias.conf /etc/fonts/conf.avail/.disable.10-antialias.conf
2. In Mint Cinnamon desktop goto MENU -> Preferences -> Fonts and in the "Font Settings" area change HINTING to "slight" and Antialiasing to "None"
In the case of Firefox I did not notice a difference right away. It seems like the system had to flush some visual cache but once that happened I got those good old fashioned jagged sharp text back. This impacts desktop icons, menu text, browser text, but some things are not impacted such as Konsole (the KDE terminal uses different font properties) and similar software.
The changes are easy to undo. Simply reverse the process above.
THERE ARE PROBABLY BETTER WAYS TO IMPROVE FONTS to find a happy middle ground between modern anti-aliasing and not having fuzzy headache inducing text. Some examples are making use of resources such as installing "Typecatcher Fonts"
sudo apt-get install typecatcher
Another option people recommend is installing something called "Droid and Noto fonts"
sudo apt-get install fonts-droid fonts-noto
And finally, going back to MENU -> Preferences -> Fonts you can configure the environment to use one of the new fonts you just installed.
Stop Automatically mounting partitions I don't want automatically mounted
These are partitions not even listed in /etc/fstab and Mint mounts them all even if I don't want them to be mounted. For example, I don't want sda3 to auto mounted, because I don't want userlevel access to that partition unless I manually choose to mount and access it.
Solution: Even though it isn't listed in fstab, and here is the logic... You have to add it to fstab and tell it not to auto mount. ?!?!?!?! yeah that's right! -or- you can do it the GUI way by the following steps:
- Mint Menu -> Accessories -> Disks -> select the partition on the left.
- click the "gear" icon below the partition table image (settings) and choose "Edit mount options"
- turn off "use session defaults" and uncheck "mount at startup"
Command not found, did you mean
An annoying little waste of programming code feature added to recent distributions:
$ baby Command 'baby' not found, did you mean: command 'laby' from deb laby Try: sudo apt install <deb name>
Can be disabled for the current user shell by doing this:
unset command_not_found_handle
Or always for the current user:
vi /etc/bash.bashrc
and add "unset command_not_found_handle" Or globally disabled for all users on the system:
sudo apt-get remove command-not-found command-not-found-data
Cannot run a Bash shells script from a Launcher in Mint 19.2
A cinnamon launcher on the desktop is like the shortcut used in MS Windows. Since the update it is been difficult to get a launcher to start a shell script from the desktop. Here is the solution.
If you have a shell script called nicolescript.sh and you wish to launch it from the desktop using a launcher shortcut so that the script launches in a terminal window with an active shell available use the following in the Launcher Properties for "Command"
gnome-terminal -e "bash -c /chooser/nicolescript.sh; bash"
Just checking "run in terminal" when you initially create the launcher shortcut does not work since 19.2. See this discussion on linuxquestions.org for details.
Gaming Annoyance: Control Shift + Arrow key switches workspace
Don't you love it in the middle of FPS combat you hit a key combination that not only takes focus away from the game you're playing, but moves you to another virtual workspace? The assholes that made Mint didn't give us an option to disable this. However, we can remap the default to a different key combination. Here is the recommendation:
- System Settings -> (Hardware) Keyboard -> Shortcuts
- Categories (General) -> remap Show the Window Selection Screen to Shift-Control-Alt-Down
- Categories (General) -> remap Show the Workspace Selection Screen to Shift-Control-Alt-Up
- Categories (Workspaces) -> remap Switch to left workspace to Shift-Control-Alt-Left
- Categories (Workspaces) -> remap Switch to right workspace to Shift-Control-Alt-Right
We basically just added an additional key combination requirement that is less likely to interfere with gaming.
Software Manager Annoyance: flatpak listings in software manager
Remove flatpak from Mint Software Center; flatpaks completely absent from Software Center. See Flathub for details on the following command:
sudo apt-get remove --purge libflatpak0
Window List Popup Thumbnails and Open Applications Alighment
Issues like the annoying application thumbnails and the alignment of the Window List applet can be customized:
Control-Alt-Backspace Closes Everything Causing Data Loss
x.org control + alt + backspace closes everything and returns to login: This is actually a Linux x.org annoyance. The Ctrl + Alt + Backspace key combination is an X server shortcut that terminates the X session, logging you out and returning to the login screen. Nerds tell you this is a necessary safety net you might need if your system hangs. I call BS. There are other ways and a hard reboot with a journaling file system is not as fatal as they might have you believe. You're more likely to lose data from the keyboard combination itself. Bad idea nerds!
See: Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
disable the multi desktops environment
To disable the workspaces feature
gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.wm.preferences num-workspaces 1
Troubleshooting Linux Mint
Additional problems and known resolutions are documented in Mint Linux Troubleshooting.