Mint 5 questions - Updates, Xorg.conf, Nvidia Drivers etc

[Christof999]

Hi there,

I recently installed Mint 5 Gnome edition. I have to say its the finest operating system I have ever used. All of the previous issues I had with Mint were automatically fixed with Mint 5. I also made the switch from KDE to Gnome. I had become frustrated with KDE. I found it was often difficult to find configuration options, it had alot of programs and features I did not often use, was overly technical and bloated. I also found KDE 4 to be extremely frustrating. I really hate how there are thousands of options in KDE that I have used never or once. I have since grown to love Gnome. I seriously hope that Gnome is continued to be supported by the Linux community and by Clem. Thanks for turning me on to the simplicity of Gnome. I am getting so tired of having to spend time being intimate with the workings of the computers technicalities, the Gnome desktop, removes alot of that.Gnome has simplified my life. I love Gnome, and hope to continue to use it for years to come.

I do have a few questions however to get my system fully up and running and would greatly appreciate some help.

First of all..

This is my second install. I reinstalled after I screwed up my xorg.conf too much and I want to get it right.

1. I notice that the automatic updates want me to install updates with the letter 3 next to it. Now I noticed that these updates may not be from the Mint repositories themselves or fully tested. Is it safe or recommended to install updates with the letter 3 next to them or should I just stick to updates with the letter 1 and 2?

2. I am trying to get my nvidia proprietary drivers installed fro my nvidia 7 series card. I want to be able to configure my dual monitors. I have always used nvidia settings for this (if there is a better way, then please let me know). I also want to use compiz. What is the best way to get the drivers installed? Should I use the restricted driver manager, Envy or Synaptic?

3. Once the NVIDIA proprietary Drivers are in place (the last time I used Envy, and chose Automatic) I noticed that only one of my monitors configures properly (this was a problem in the last Mint edition as well). I have two LG wide screen LCD monitors. One is a 22" running of DVI and the other is a 21.6" running off of VGA. Now, the 22" detects and configures properly and is set to the proper high resolution, but the 21.6" VGA monitor gets listed only as "CRT-0" and is limited to either 320x240 or 640x480 resolution ( I think those are the resolutions). If I log onto nvidia-settings (either normally or as sudo) only two resolutions are listed in the pull down menu. I tried to do the dpkg-reconfigure xsever-xorg, but had no luck. Can some one tell me how I can get my xserver to display the second monitor as a high resolutions LCD instead of a CRT low res screen? This is a huge problem for me. I imagine that altering my xorg.conf would help, but I do not know which lines to add to tell it the second monitor is a widescreen lcd, and that it has many resolutions.

4. I have downloaded a Whole bunch of awesome icon sets from Gnome-look.org. Is there a way I can add an entire icon set so It chages all of them in the set at once? For example on KDE I had the crystal Icons set. I would simply add the crystal icons set from the icons menu, and it would change all the icons over to crystal icons. How can I do this with Gnome? For example I have the Green Oxygen retrofit icon set, how I can change all the icons at once?

5. I often see screen shots of a really neat Gnome setup where the Menu bar is at the top and at the bottom there is a MAC OSX like bar at the bottom with a bunch of shortcut icons. How can I add that to my Gnome set up?

6. Once I get my system fully the way I like it, with the packages I like, and the drives I like shared over NFS, other packges added and removed through synaptic and icons added, themes added etc. Is there a way for me to save all of that so that if I need to reinstall fresh from the Mint 5 disk I can restore all of the packages , themes, settings etc. I worked to hard to customize?

Any help appreciated, but I really need help getting my xserver to recognize both monitors properly.

Cheers
Christof

[proxima_centauri]

I can answer a few of those:

2. I've always use Envy in Mint to install my NVIDIA drivers without incident.
4. Right-click on desktop, Change Desktop Background -> Theme Tab. Drag your tar.gz packages into the window and it's automatically installed. To install for ALL users, untar the tar.gz packages to folders, say for instance this theme folder is on Desktop, open a terminal,
sudo mv /home/user/Desktop/themefolder /usr/share/themes
5. This is called Avant Window Manager, it is in synaptic. Note that you need compiz up and running before you can use it.
6. Yes, you can create a Remastered LiveCD of your system using remastersys.

Cheers

[Christof999]

Thanks for the info!

I have tried the Avant Window Manager. So far I can only get it to display icons of programs that are currently running, not shortcuts to programs that I want to launch. Is there a Docker program that will allow me to add a bunch of shortcuts to launch different programs like firefox, thunderbird etc? Also is there a Docker that I can place at the TOP of the screen? So far I have only seen them at the bottom of the screen, forcing me to move my Mint Menu bar to the top.


Man I am seriously LOVING Gnome now. I have even deleted all my old KDE stuff. Gnome rocks. I have the Oxygen retrofit icon theme installed and along with Compiz, its one of the most attractive desktops I have ever seen.

[proxima_centauri]

You should be able to drag applications to the bar, just like you would to the desktop or panel.
Check the properties and see what plugin's are available too, I don't think most of them are installed in the repo's. I'd suggest getting them from the methods suggested here:
http://wiki.awn-project.org/Distributio ... rd.27s_PPA
Cheers