Linux Mint 19.x

Posted 2019-11-01

Linux Mint 19.x

These are my notes on Linux Mint 19.x. If you find this and think it is useful, leave a comment and say what you like or don’t like. Keep in mind these are my own notes and are not intended to be a HowTo for the general public.

Install the OS from the USB Flash Drive. I chose to simply overwrite the existing version of Mint (19.1) that had already been installed on my laptop. I also chose to encrypt my home directory.

My first order of business is to make the native monitor and external monitor both set to the same resolution of 1920x1080 (16:9). The native laptop monitor supports a higher resolution of 2560x1440 but the screen is so small that it is very hard to see at that resolution so I’m standardizing both monitors at 1920x1080.

Get up and Running:

Here’s what I did to get up and running and customized the way I like it:

The first thing to do is open the Update Manager and update everything. The Update Manager is the little shield icon in the task bar down in the right hand corner. Open that up and click OK to dismiss the initial startup screen.
You will be presented with a prompt to take a System Snapshot. I’m going to put this off until I have updated everything.
You will see a message that a new version of Update Manager is available. Click the ‘Apply the Update’ button to install it.
Once that is installed you will be presented with a list of updates that can be applied.
Apply all the updates. It is a good idea to reboot after all the updates.
First you have to have had installed the base OS with BTRFS file system for this to even be an option. In my case I did not want to use the BTRFS file system.
Second the snapshot can only be installed on the same disk from which they are created. If your drive goes bad you’re screwed. Choose RSYNC.
RSYNC snapshots are created by creating copies of system files using rsync and hard-linking unchanged files from previous versions.
All files are copied when the first snapshot is created. Subsequent snapshots are incremental.
Snapshots can be saved to any disk formatted with a Linux File system which means the snapshot can be external. In my case an attached USB memory stick.