HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Archived topics about LMDE 1 and LMDE 2
michael.conner

HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by michael.conner »

This tutorial assumes a couple of things.
a.) You are not scared of the command line.
b.) You can deal with a Debian text- or GUI-based installer without needing a walk-through.
c.) You have a wired (ethernet) internet connection or a wireless connection without WPA encryption (the Debian installer can't do WPA for some reason, only unsecured or WEP encryption.)

1. You need, first of all, a Debian live “standard” iso -- base system installer
http://live.debian.net/cdimage/daily-bu ... andard.iso
(This link will be the most current daily build, so very few updates will be necessary, if any.)

2. Install it, boot into it with ethernet cable plugged in.

3. Set up “sudo” after logging in. From prompt, type “su” and give the root password.
type “visudo” and scroll down to the line where it says:
# User privilege specification
root ALL=(ALL) ALL

beneath the “root ALL=(ALL) ALL
type “YOURUSERNAME ALL=(ALL) ALL”
(where “YOURUSERNAME” is, well, your user name.)
hit CTRL-X to save.
type “exit” to leave root mode.

sudo is now set up.

4. fix sources.list (if necessary) and install xorg, gnome-core, and a browser:
(If you installed via a wired ethernet connection, this step won't be necessary, because the installer will have asked you which mirror to use and will have automatically disabled the CDROM from the sources.list file.)
from prompt:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
change the line that refers to the cdrom installer to:
deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian squeeze main contrib non-free
(I’m in the US, so this is the closest Debian mirror to me. See: http://www.debian.org/mirror/list for a closer one.)
Note: if you want the distro to stay "rolling" once Squeeze goes "stable," substitute the word "squeeze" for "testing" above.

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install xorg xinit gdm3 gnome-core gnome-themes chromium-browser
This will take a little while, depending on your connection speed.

When back at the command prompt, reboot by typing "sudo shutdown -r now".

5. Optional step: Install new Liquorix kernel if desired.

Log into your very basic Gnome desktop.

From prompt (hit alt+f2 and type “gnome-terminal”):

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/liquorix.list
in nano: deb http://liquorix.net/debian sid main
save the file.

from prompt:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install '^liquorix-([^-]+-)?keyring.?'
sudo apt-get install ‘.liquorix*’

reboot into new kernel, either log out from Gnome, or type at the prompt:
sudo shutdown -r now

6. Make things Minty!
Log into Gnome.
Start Chromium and go to http://packages.linuxmint.com
Click on “Linux Mint Debian”
Click on “linuxmint-keyring” and save the file.
Next, go to http://www.debian-multimedia.org. Scroll down to where it says, The first package to install is debian-multimedia-keyring. Download the keyring package.

Now, open a terminal (alt+f2). Go to wherever the two *.deb files have been stored (probably ~/Downloads or perhaps just your home folder) and type:
sudo dpkg -i *.deb

The keyrings are now installed. Now you need to add the repositories for Mint and Debian-Multimedia.

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mint.list
in nano, type:
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ debian main upstream import backport romeo
hit CTRL-X to save the file

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list.d/multimedia.list
in nano, type:
deb http://www.debian-multimedia.org squeeze main non-free
hit CTRL-X to save the file

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install mint-meta-debian notify-osd
(the “notify-osd” part is necessary if you want to have the ubuntu-style passive notifications, rather than the old-school Gnome notifications.)

Once the install is over, log out of Gnome and log back in.

7. Add Mint Menu

Right Click on the Gnome Menu Bar (where it says “Applications Places System”) and choose “Remove from Panel.”
Right Click on where the Menu Bar used to be and choose “Add to Panel.” Find the Mint Menu (“Advanced Gnome Menu”) and click on “add.” This will take a second to load and appear.

8. Fix Firefox’s locale.

Open a terminal and type
sudo aptitude search firefox-l10n

You’ll notice that firefox-l10n-af has an “i” by it, meaning "installed". That means that if you start Firefox, all of your menus and such will be in Afrikaans. Why? Presumably, since the LMDE installer asks for your language, it installs Firefox with the correct language. The Afrikaans package is the first one on the list, so I suppose that's why it gets installed by default. If you're a native speaker of Afrikaans, this might not matter to you :wink: Otherwise, you have to manually install the correct language package:

sudo apt-get install firefox-l10n-en-us (or whatever package matches your current locale -- I just happen to be in the US.)

apt-get will now install the American English package (or whichever package you’ve chosen) and automatically remove the Afrikaans package.


9. Have fun! Now you can do all kinds of things. Move the panel where you want it. Delete the bottom panel and add the “Show Desktop” and “Window List” applets to the remaining panel. Or don’t! It’s your choice.

Want compiz?
sudo apt-get install compiz compizconfig-settings-manager
hit alt+f2 and type “ccsm”
Click on “Gnome Compatibility”, “Window Decoration”, and everything under “Window Management.” All other eye candy is optional.
Close ccsm and hit alt+f2 and type “compiz --replace”. If you want it to start automatically, add "compiz --replace" to the startup applications.

Want openoffice?
sudo apt-get install openoffice.org

Want Gnome Office? (Abiword, Gnumeric, Gimp, etc.)
sudo apt-get install gnome-office

Want anything else?
sudo apt-get install whatever_you_want (got the idea?)
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 4 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
k3lt01

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by k3lt01 »

Excellent work, this is basically what I have done except I haven't really changed the basic Debian-Gnome base. I then installed the LMDE items using the MInt-Meta package.
michael.conner

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by michael.conner »

k3lt01 wrote:Excellent work, this is basically what I have done except I haven't really changed the basic Debian-Gnome base. I then installed the LMDE items using the MInt-Meta package.
Thanks, yeah, there's a number of ways one could do this -- you could use a standard Squeeze install CD or DVD or the Debian Live Gnome installer, then Mintify-it, only install a limited number of LMDE items, et cetera.
michael.conner

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by michael.conner »

As an addendum to the above:

I discovered if I wanted to use the new mint-flashplugin package (that has the new Square plugin) that's in Romeo (it's the same version that's in Mint 10 RC), it conflicts with not only the flashplugin-nonfree package, but also the mint-meta-debian package (and everything installed by it!), so instead of just replacing the older flash plugin, it sets everything installed by Mint to autoremove.

What I did was to just do a "sudo apt-get autoremove" command, copy all of the names of packages to be removed into gedit, then let it autoremove them, then just do a mass "sudo apt-get install" of everything that had just been autoremoved. Took less than 5 minutes and nothing had to be downloaded, since it was still in the package cache directory.
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Carl
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Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by Carl »

Excellent! thanks very much I'll try this out when I get some spare time =]

Also I think there's a slight error under point 4
Note: if you want the distro to stay "rolling" once Squeeze goes "stable," substitute the word "testing" for "squeeze" above.
I think you meant substitute the word "squeeze" for "testing" :wink:
michael.conner

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by michael.conner »

Carl wrote:Excellent! thanks very much I'll try this out when I get some spare time =]

Also I think there's a slight error under point 4
Note: if you want the distro to stay "rolling" once Squeeze goes "stable," substitute the word "testing" for "squeeze" above.
I think you meant substitute the word "squeeze" for "testing" :wink:
D'oh! Indeed -- thanks :D
asymmetros

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by asymmetros »

Thanks a lot, well written. If i want to install kde instead of gnome, what is the right package for minimal installation?
secipolla

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by secipolla »

asymmetros wrote:Thanks a lot, well written. If i want to install kde instead of gnome, what is the right package for minimal installation?
kde-plasma-desktop
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Carl
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Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by Carl »

Any ideas? happens every time I try and add the mint menu to the panel :? running it inside virtualbox on Mint 10
Screenshot-6.png
asymmetros

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by asymmetros »

by secipolla on 08 Nov 2010, 23:25
asymmetros wrote:
Thanks a lot, well written. If i want to install kde instead of gnome, what is the right package for minimal installation?

kde-plasma-desktop
Thanks
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Carl
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Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by Carl »

seemed to have solved my problem although I couldn't tell you how :roll:
michael.conner

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by michael.conner »

Carl wrote:seemed to have solved my problem although I couldn't tell you how :roll:
Glad you solved it, regardless of how it happened!

That's a weird error, though. I used to get it if I installed gnome-core under Ubuntu from a minimal iso, but it would be for the fast-user-switch-applet, which isn't installable under Ubuntu, but is referred to by the gnome-core package.

Makes me wonder if something went wrong while you were installing packages (maybe something only partially configured) that got corrected when you installed something else subsequently.
knireis

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by knireis »

Carl wrote:Any ideas? happens every time I try and add the mint menu to the panel :? running it inside virtualbox on Mint 10
Screenshot-6.png
i encounter the same problem here, did a fresh install but left the /home partition (from mint 9) untouched
msuggs

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by msuggs »

Carl wrote:Any ideas? happens every time I try and add the mint menu to the panel :? running it inside virtualbox on Mint 10

Image
Make sure python-nautilus and python-xdg are installed
knireis

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by knireis »

omns wrote:
Carl wrote:Any ideas? happens every time I try and add the mint menu to the panel :? running it inside virtualbox on Mint 10

Image
Make sure python-nautilus and python-xdg are installed
thanks, that did it

Next issue, the software manager does not start, it is in the menu but when i click it nothing happens. The package manager works fine.
michael.conner

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by michael.conner »

knireis wrote:thanks, that did it

Next issue, the software manager does not start, it is in the menu but when i click it nothing happens. The package manager works fine.
I've not been able to get it to work either, FWIW. Then again, I tend to use the command-line or synaptic to install packages.
sneaky

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by sneaky »

So what are the main differences between this and the regular LMDE installation?

Obviously, it is minimal, but I'm curious what in particular y'all are wanting to leave out? Just lots of packages you don't use?
msuggs

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by msuggs »

knireis wrote:Next issue, the software manager does not start, it is in the menu but when i click it nothing happens. The package manager works fine.
Hmm, I only installed the menu. The rest I never use. To be honest I removed the menu as well after testing and went back to a modified gnome menu. It is after all a Debian install :) If I want LMDE I'll install it with all these apps functioning correctly.

I wonder how long it would take to remove all the apps from LMDE that you don't need and clean up with autoremove. I'd wager it would be somewhat faster than fiddling with getting all this running properly. Food for thought.

That said, I imagine it will be another missing python module. Hopefully someone will know which one.
asymmetros

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by asymmetros »

By reading carefully michael.conner's instructions (and vincent's tutorial) i gave it try. I m planning to continue with LMDE Testing so my objective was to dual-boot with something extremely stable, as a secondary option (you know, just in case).
So i ended up installing a plasma-kde-desktop without trying to "mintify" it. Ii took me less an hour and it the installation process was easier than i was expecting. Maybe it is difficult for people that are fond of pictures or for completely newbies: if it was my very first linux installation, i would get lost in no time (sorry for my english).
My big disappointment though was KDE: Debian+KDE seems slower than LMDE+Gnome, and KDE itself is so "decorated' , with sub-sub-menus into sub-menus into menus...
So, when i find some time i ll go for a Xfce (or even gnome) installation, as my stable backup, pointing constantly in squeeze.

PS: Netinstall is great. I wish that it will come in the future as an alternative option for MInt too
PS2: After the installation, splash screen was changed and Debian KDE is the automatic selection. So, i have to manually select LMDE in every startup. Tried to change it with startup manager but no lucK. Any idea?
michael.conner

Re: HOWTO: Create a custom, minimal LMDE install

Post by michael.conner »

The Debian Live site has a *great* KDE 4.4.5 live ISO. I'm running it right now off a USB drive -- the only things that aren't nearly perfect out of the box are that Iceweasel is ugly (no GTK appearance control panel installed) and touchpad tapping isn't working immediately. Might be worth checking out if one wanted to use Mint tools with a KDE system with very little work.
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