How-to: Mint 7 Gloria from Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty

[emorrp1]

EDIT: gloria RC has now been released, so just use that instead. If I had known it would only take 10 days to get to this stage, I wouldn't have bothered with this at all, I just didn't want to wait for 2 months!

EDIT: so maybe I should have made this clearer: This will NOT give you gloria; for the full mint experience, you should wait for the official release. It will however give you a good view of the goodies which are coming up.

Ok, so it took quite an effort for me, thankfully you can learn from my mistakes. However this still does not make it trivial, and things can still go wrong, especially since gloria is still in active development. Note that if you're more interested in the new mint features of gloria (see clem's blogpost) than the jaunty features (boot time, notification, ext4) then you can just enable the repos and upgrade: edit /etc/apt/sources.list - change all references of felicia to gloria. Ok, so I start off assuming you've just installed jaunty, and have a working internet connection:

1) add gloria repos, make sure /etc/apt/sources.list contains the following lines:

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deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://gb.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-backports main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb-src http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ jaunty-security main restricted universe multiverse

deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ jaunty partner
deb-src http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ jaunty partner
deb http://packages.medibuntu.org/ jaunty free non-free
deb-src http://packages.medibuntu.org/ jaunty free non-free
deb http://packages.linuxmint.com/ gloria main upstream import community backport
deb-src http://packages.linuxmint.com/ gloria main upstream import community backport

2) add the following in a new file at /etc/apt/preferences:

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Package: *
Pin: release o=linuxmint
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: *
Pin: origin packages.linuxmint.com
Pin-Priority: 700

Package: *
Pin: release o=Ubuntu
Pin-Priority: 500

3) install mint, the mint-info-main is there due to a packaging bug that will try to install kde info:

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sudo aptitude update && sudo aptitude install mint-info-main mint-meta-main && sudo aptitude upgrade

it will warn you about conflicts with brasero, you can just answer yes to all

4) fix grub:
4.1) grub uuids don't work properly, so change the line with "groot" in it to e.g. (hd0,2) for my /dev/sda3 partition
4.2) the gfxmenu line is missing (note that my boot menu is still not graphical after this step):

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gfxmenu /boot/gfxmenu/linuxmint.message

4.3)

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sudo chmod u+x /usr/sbin/update-grub && sudo update-grub

5) if you don't want your ubuntu to slowly turn into mint (e.g. splash screens etc.) then change all the values in /etc/linuxmint/mintSystem.conf to False rather than True.

6) Log out, log in, and enjoy. That's all for now, will hopefully have more mintification later

EDIT: updated for new grub info.

[Husse]

You won't get Gloria - but a glimpse of her beauty
Quite a large glimpse actually

[emorrp1]

indeed, I don't for instance have the nautilus-actions integration. I'm looking forward to the full release, but it's pretty good as a preview for the impatient.

[Joejc]

Husse is right its a glimpse, but if you really want mint 7 its worth it.

To the ubuntu people that might find this do not do this install mint from the cd this isn't the full mint experience

[emorrp1]

updated to present husse and Joejc's concerns more prominently. Given the kind of instructions I gave, I assumed anyone who actually did this would have to know enough that they would know the risks and the results.

[JuEUS-U]

don't forget that you can change usplash theme with

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sudo update-alternative --config usplash-artwork.so
sudo update-initramfs -u

* the 1st line changes the target of /etc/alternatives/usplash-artwork.so.

ps. I think it's possible to write ubuntu2mint script

[emorrp1]

I considered it, but figured if I made it too easy to do then people would do it without the necessary mindset, and I only did this cause I was too impatient to wait for the RC. Now, you should just install mint.

[walterav]

Is it possible to do this with ubuntu 9.04 alternate "whole system encryption". So you get a encrypted wannabe linux 7 mint?

[emorrp1]

I don't see why not, it shouldn't remove any encryption utilities you've got installed. As always though, this was little more than a documented hack. You won't end up with "a encrypted wannabe linux 7 mint" you'll get an encrypted mintified ubuntu, especially if you've made many changes to the base install.

[walterav]

Almost Perfect!

I did the ubuntu 9.04 alternate installation with the following help on a 8gb usb stick. I did it manually instead of guided so I can chose ext4 fs instead of ext3 fs.
http://rlugubuntuhelp.blogspot.com/2008 ... ypted.html
Than I rebooted and updated everything.
Than I followed this guide and stopped @ step 4, I didn't care about grub and splash screen etc!
Than I rebooted again and was almost finished...

problems:
missing key for medibuntu #fixed
wget -q http://packages.medibuntu.org/medibuntu-key.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - && sudo apt-get update

GnomeDo opens when starting up... #go to startup applications and disable it!
Nautilus context menu doesn't show "Open as Root".# don't know how to fix...

questions:
But is this "almost" really the same as a mint 7 gloria installation except full system encryption and ubuntu grub/ splash screen?

I only would like to disable journaling, but I heard I need a newer kernel, this to reduce write actions to the stick...

[emorrp1]

Yes, it'll be almost the same, that's why I did it in the first place, that "almost" was better than being stuck with plain ubuntu.
Nautilus context menu: this is one of the things added manually to the live CD, you can add it by using "Nautilus Actions Configuration", add a new one that uses the command "gksu nautilus" with the argument "%M", then set the various properties to show on all folders by using the * wildcard. No idea about the journalling, sorry.

[walterav]

Yes, it'll be almost the same, that's why I did it in the first place, that "almost" was better than being stuck with plain ubuntu.
Nautilus context menu: this is one of the things added manually to the live CD, you can add it by using "Nautilus Actions Configuration", add a new one that uses the command "gksu nautilus" with the argument "%M", then set the various properties to show on all folders by using the * wildcard. No idea about the journalling, sorry.

I'll try the open as root tip

Journaling can be disabled when using kernel 2.6.29 and above... but I'll try that later

[walterav]

More quirks!

Grub:
Well doing an "grub update", after some program requested it, I ended with a non working mintified encrypted ubuntu, but by changing /boot/grub/menu.lst and replace UUID with (hdx,x) all was running again.
Update manager:
Some how ubuntu's update manager came back alive...
keyring weirdstuff...

Other Method:
Is it possible to get a list of all the codecs, flash, java , firefox quicktime playback, etc, so that I can change ubuntu with just exactly the same media playback/recording possibilities as mint? Also mint menu? Those are the only things I really like about mint...
Or is there someone already making a alternate install cd for mint with uuid support

[walterav]

Nautilus context menu: this is one of the things added manually to the live CD, you can add it by using "Nautilus Actions Configuration", add a new one that uses the command "gksu nautilus" with the argument "%M", then set the various properties to show on all folders by using the * wildcard. No idea about the journalling, sorry.

It works thanks, I also wanted a red background for nautilus working as root, there for I had to do:
terminal:
gksu gconf-editor
#apps/nautilus/preferences/
backgroundground color FF0000
set checkbox "background_set"

#nautilus advanced permissions menu "also handy"
set checkbox "show advanced permissions"