21. September 2021

How to install Podman on Linux Mint 20

Podman binaries for Linux Mint / Ubuntu are hosted by OpenSuse.org.

You need to add the repository to /etc/source.list.d. Common instructions for Ubuntu might not work, because VERSION_ID for Mint is not the same as for Ubuntu.

Instructions for Linux Mint 20.2 from Ubuntu 20.04 repository:

export VERSION_ID="20.04"
sudo sh -c "echo 'deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/kubic:/libcontainers:/stable/xUbuntu_${VERSION_ID}/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/devel:kubic:libcontainers:stable.list"
sudo wget -nv https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:kubic:libcontainers:stable/xUbuntu_${VERSION_ID}/Release.key -O- | apt-key add -
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y podman

Example of running container for IoT development:

If you’d like to develop for ESP32 chip connected to /dev/ttyUSB0 using C++ or Rust language, just start the container:

podman run --device /dev/ttyUSB0 -it docker.io/espressif/idf-rust-examples

14. July 2018

How to install Brother DCP-1610W on Linux Mint

Brother DCP-1610W and DCP-1610WE are laser printers with WiFi support. The problem is that configuration files for printing are not part of common distributions like Linux Mint.

You can try to use Foomatic driver for DCP-1200, but the result won’t be great. It’s necessary to install drivers from Brother.

There is one gotcha. If you install just a CUPS Wrapper from Brother, it won’t work. You need to install LPR and CUPS packages.

Download two deb files:

LPR printer driver (deb package)

CUPSwrapper printer driver (deb package)

Install them:

dpkg -i dcp1610wlpr-3.0.1-1.i386.deb
dpkg -i dcp1610wcupswrapper-3.0.1-1.i386.deb

The last command should add a printer to your system. CUPS should be also able to discover the printer on WiFi using mDNS. The important part of the configuration is:

Maker and Model which is set to: Brother DCP-1610W for CUPS

2. July 2018

How to switch tabs in Xed

Xed is the default text editor in Linux Mint. Xed has some neat features. E.g. it has support for tabs.

How to switch between opened tabs?

Ctrl+Alt+PgUp - switch to the next left tab
Ctrl+Alt+PgDown - swith to the next right tab

The other option is to use the mouse wheel and switch between tabs by the scrolling.

1. July 2018

How to display line numbers in Xed

Xed is the default text editor in Linux Mint with Cinnamon environment. It is fast and simple to use for editing source codes or text documents. The default configuration comes without enabled line numbers. Here is how you can enable line numbers.

Open menu Edit and select Preferences.

Click checkbox Display line numbers.

The change will take place immediately.

Here is the recording of “How to”:

28. June 2018

How to install .NET Core 2.1 on Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia

Default instructions for installation of .NET Core 2.1 do not contain instructions how to install the technology on Linux Mint.

You may have a temptation to go with Ubuntu instructions, but you’ll end up in troubles with installing libicu60 or libicu57.

The instructions compatible with Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia are instructions for Linux Debian 8 (not 9).

Commands for repository configuration:

wget -qO- https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc | gpg --dearmor > microsoft.asc.gpg
sudo mv microsoft.asc.gpg /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/
wget -q https://packages.microsoft.com/config/debian/8/prod.list
sudo mv prod.list /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-prod.list
sudo chown root:root /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.asc.gpg
sudo chown root:root /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-prod.list

Commands for installation:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install dotnet-sdk-2.1

Just for the record, the content of /etc/apt/sources.list.d/microsoft-prod.list is:

deb [arch=amd64] https://packages.microsoft.com/debian/8/prod jessie main