Linux Mint 21.1 Cinnamon - customization after fresh installation

[N2LM21]

Hello everyone.

Newbie here, after a fresh installation of Mint "Vera" (21.1 / Cinnamon / 64bit).
I have been searching around the paramters, in the forums and in the web, but I could not find some customizations I was looking for, and that starts becoming an issue ... so I try to write here my questions, in the hope that you can address me to the right resources / answers. Thank you in advance for any support you could provide.

My situation: laptop often connected to external keyboard / display (I would call it "desktop setup"). Laptop bought in one country (= keyboard layout "A"), external keyboard from another country (= keyboard layout "B"). Internal screen FHD 15" vs external display FHD 24"; mirrored.

Questions:

a) I cannot find how to switch the keyboard layout on the Mint login screen. I could find how to display the current layout in use, but not how to change from "A" to "B" or viceversa, depending if I am using the internal or the external keyboard. Any suggestions? If there is no easy (consindering the noob level here) solution, I was thinking about a activating a virtual keyboard on the screen ... again, I can find how to enable it in the desktop, but not on the login screen ...

b) when the laptop is connected to the external display, I would prefer to switch off the internal display (to save battery when I am not charging it, or, even when it is connected to the power supply, to avoid being distracted by a screen that I do not use). Where is that right set up in Display or Power Management? I could only reduce brightness, but it cannot reach a fully black screen...

c) After some time of inactivity, the system locks automatically. When I try to log in again (which is a different screen than the one in a) ), I find the login window a little small, on the external display. How can I increase its size? I have already gone through the settings for the question a), and in that case I managed to increase the size + place the login window on the external display, but unless I am wrong, I could not find anything for this case ...

c) I find the window buttons (minimize / maximize / close) and the vertical scrollbars quite small (even on the external display). How can I increase them? I could see that the font of the titles of the windows can be adjusted (as well as all the other fonts), but again, I could not find it for the buttons and the scrollbars...

d) In the shut down window, how can I remove the "Suspend" button?

Thank you in advance for your patience and support

[2xtrm]

The easiest thing you can do is figure this out 1 step at a time, and if you follow the steps you will be able to change, control, set, etc.
1- Click on LM button in lower left corner to open the menu.
2- Go straight up the symbols in the bar on the left of menu, near top, look for description in lower right corner of menu as you pass over them. You want 'Control Center' System Settings.
3- This opens Control Center and you can scroll down as you go.
4- Take your time and go through each button and become familiar, you can search any setting in MINT Documentation as well, OPEN each button you'll be surprised what is there.
5- Make note of changes in case you want to go back and change.
6- MOST IMPORTANT >>> Make sure to use the 'BACK ARROW' at the top left when you finish a setting. This will take you back to the main application and you can go onto the next setting until you have personalized your Desktop, colors, Firewall, etc. If you FORGET THE BACK ARROW you have to go back and reopen the Control Center again.
That will get you well on your way and if your not sure, make a list of questions and then search for the answers. Some are easy and some are harder to find. But once you get close you can come back here for help, just print and paste PC info (see how on article on front page of LINUX MINT FORUM)for more in depth and enthusiastic help from the MINT community
And welcome, I am almost 2 years in with Mint and once you get use to it, you will not want to go back ... Not me. Enjoy.

[kato181]

You need to read the forum rules with regards to Sect 5. Information is required of the system you are using. In terminal copy & paste the following command and post the results back here in between the code display brackets, 5th icon above the text box. You have a number if issues here, using different hardware from different countries especially KB are set to those countries language and kb settings. What's wrong with the laptops kb? If you are not going to use the laptop screen then go into your bios and disable it. To remove the "suspend" that is done in the Power Settings.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

[N2LM21]

4- Take your time and go through each button and become familiar, you can search any setting in MINT Documentation as well, OPEN each button you'll be surprised what is there.


That will get you well on your way and if your not sure, make a list of questions and then search for the answers. Some are easy and some are harder to find. But once you get close you can come back here for help, just print and paste PC info (see how on article on front page of LINUX MINT FORUM)for more in depth and enthusiastic help from the MINT community
And welcome, I am almost 2 years in with Mint and once you get use to it, you will not want to go back ... Not me. Enjoy.

Thank you for your reply.
I will have to consider step 4 and the last comment ... I have tried to have a look around, and even if I managed to customize some settings, I was not able to do what I wanted. Perhpas they are hardware related ...
Thank you very much for welcoming me. After some hours of use, I can see that for basic internet browsing / document viewing / saving and printing files / scanning documents Mint is just fine... I will have to see when some office automotation tasks come ...

[N2LM21]

You need to read the forum rules with regards to Sect 5. Information is required of the system you are using. In terminal copy & paste the following command and post the results back here in between the code display brackets, 5th icon above the text box. You have a number if issues here, using different hardware from different countries especially KB are set to those countries language and kb settings. What's wrong with the laptops kb? If you are not going to use the laptop screen then go into your bios and disable it. To remove the "suspend" that is done in the Power Settings.

Code: Select all

inxi -Fxz

Hi @kato181,
Thank you for replying.
Apologies if the requests were not so detailed, I thought they were generic and hardware related. I will be more careful next time.
I will come back with the output as soon as I can get hold of my PC when I am back home.

Laptop keyboard works fine, as far as I can tell. For convenience (desk already set up like that), I use another keyboard (and the external display) with a different layout when I can instead of using the internal keyaboard. I would like to be able to choose the keyboard layout so that I can login while working on the laptop or on that desk. For this reason, I do not feel that disabling the screen in the BIOS is the option I prefer. In the OS I used before on the same laptop, I could easily do it, and this is why I thought about asking in this forum.
I will check again the Power Settings.

Thank you

[N2LM21]

Apologies if I have not come back to this post, due to work reasons I have been out for some weeks, and I will come pe replying as soon as I am back to my PC at home. Thank you for your understanding

[N2LM21]

c) I find the window buttons (minimize / maximize / close) and the vertical scrollbars quite small (even on the external display). How can I increase them? I could see that the font of the titles of the windows can be adjusted (as well as all the other fonts), but again, I could not find it for the buttons and the scrollbars...

Hi,

What worked for me: please see this post / thread: viewtopic.php?p=2260611#p2260611
You can set the size of the button of the controls by adjusting the line in the file

Now I just need to find solutions for the other points, and I may become a happy Linux Mint user