Setting up Linux Mint

How-tos
Some notes to my future self, for the next time I set up Linux Mint
Published

April 13, 2025

Modified

January 15, 2026

Setting up Linux Mint

Some notes to my future self, for the next time I set up Linux Mint.

Install . . .

  • Vivaldi
  • pCloud Drive
    • Move it somewhere sensible (e.g. an Applications directory in Home)
    • Make it launch on startup:
      1. Startup Applications (Gnome-session-properties)
      2. Add
        • Name: pCloud
        • Command: path to the applet
  • VS Codium
    Quick VS Code settings: json { "editor.fontSize": 16, "terminal.integrated.fontSize": 16, "terminal.integrated.profiles.linux": { "bash": { "path": "/usr/bin/flatpak-spawn", "args": ["--host", "--env=TERM=xterm-256color", "bash"], "icon": "terminal-bash" } }, "terminal.integrated.defaultProfile.linux": "bash", "window.zoomLevel": 1.4, "workbench.colorTheme": "GitHub Dark High Contrast", } And the GitHub Theme extension.
  • Vale and the Vale VSCode extension.
  • git
  • Python:
    • Mint 22.1 came with Python 3.12.3 pre-installed 🎉
    • In Software Manager, install Python-is-python3.
    • Install virtualenv seperately: sh apt install python3.12-venv
  • NodeJS. Use nvm.
  • In Software Manager, get the following:
    • Alien (to convert .rpm to .deb)
    • Smile emoji picker.
  • Slack:
    1. Download the .rpm
    2. sudo alien <FILEPATH>/<PACKAGE_NAME>.rpm
    3. sudo dpkg -i <PACKAGE_NAME>.deb
  • Discord
  • PowerShell (fine to use the easy method, once done launch with pwsh)
  • Signal
  • Threema

Set up . . .

GitHub and git:

  • git config --global --add --bool push.autoSetupRemote true
  • Make sure to set username for commits.
  • Set up GitHub SSH

Troubleshooting

Problem: no GRUB boot menu

You’re dual booting, but you’re not getting shown the GRUB boot menu. Instead, your system is booting straight into Linux Mint.

Last time, you found the solution in How to Show and Hide GRUB Menu on Ubuntu 18.04

Key points:

To display hidden GRUB, we need to edit the script from the grub file in the /etc/default/grub directory.
…
To display GRUB automatically, you can edit the menu in GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=“hidden” and replace it with GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE =“menu”.
…
sudo update-grub

Problem: Can’t install Material Insiders theme

The usual method of installing Material Insiders with pip failed: it keps asking for a GitHub password but still failing when I provided it.

The workaround was to clone the Insiders repo separately, then install with:

pip install -e ~/<FILEPATH>/mkdocs-material

Annoyingly unsure what caused this:

  • Clearly still have access as I can clone the repo.
  • My PAT is working to install it for deployment on Cloudflare Pages.
  • I am able to clone and push to other repos (no general problem with GitHub authentication).

Archive

NoteTo my future self (2025)
  • This guide continues a tradition of setup notes to myself started back in 2022 with Setting up a new Windows PC.
  • You didn’t drink nearly enough tea while doing this. That’s probably why you ended up on Reddit arguing with Linux fans. Less Reddit and more tea will make this a less annoying experience in future.