Notes on Linux Mint 19.1 on a Lenovo T440s

1. Overview
2. Disable Trackpoint
3. DONE Install AWS CLI – "ModuleNotFoundError – setuptools"
4. Use TLP to set battery charge threshholds
5. Pandora: Use Pithos
6. Making Alt-ESC send windows to the background
7. Transpose Left-Control and Caps-Lock
8. Brave browser
- 8.1. Installation
- 8.2. Shortcut/applet on task bar
9. Software package repository management
- 9.1. Packages installed (PPAs, additional repos)
10. Big titlebar icons

1 Overview

I installed Linux Mint 19.1 on my old corporate Lenovo Thinkpad T440s (since the company didn't want it any more and didn't want to pay recycling costs). These are some of the things I had to figure out.

2 Disable Trackpoint

Hitting the trackpoint while I type can do dumb things with the mouse, so I wanted to disable it.

Charon$ xinput -list | less
⎡ Virtual core pointer                          id=2    [master pointer  (3)]
⎜   ↳ Virtual core XTEST pointer                id=4    [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad                id=13   [slave  pointer  (2)]
⎜   ↳ TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint                     id=14   [slave  pointer  (2)]

Charon$ xinput list-props 14 | less
Device 'TPPS/2 IBM TrackPoint':
        Device Enabled (143):   1

Note: I haven't tried to change this yet.

3 DONE Install AWS CLI – "ModuleNotFoundError – setuptools"

CLOSING NOTE [2019-03-07 Thu 22:15]
Solution: pip3 install setuptools (assuming you're using pip3 to install the awscli).

    ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'setuptools'

    ----------------------------------------
Command "python setup.py egg_info" failed with error code 1 in /tmp/pip-build-vx9id3mw/PyYAML/

4 Use TLP to set battery charge threshholds

So you don't constantly charge your battery to 100%, which hurts its life.

I haven't quite figured out if this thing is working properly, since the "power manager" applet on the task bar reports that the laptop is always charging.

5 Pandora: Use Pithos

The Pandora web app doesn't work so well on Linux, but there is another app that you can use: Pithos seems to work.

6 Making Alt-ESC send windows to the background

I love getting rid of a window in Windows with Alt-ESC to send it to the background. To do this in Mint (19.1, Cinnamon):

Run the "keyboard" preferences applet (hit the "windows" key and type "keyboard" to search for it).
Select "Shortcuts".
Select "Windows" in the "Categories" pane (for shortcuts pertaining to windows).
Select "Lower window" in the right pane.
Enter your desired shortcut sequence (Alt-ESC).

7 Transpose Left-Control and Caps-Lock

Probably similar to the above for Alt-ESC.

8 Brave browser

Stupid Brave repository keeps going offline or whatever. Brave people can't seem to manage it properly and I get "unable to update"-type messages from Mint Update or Aptitude or whatever.

So… repository management. See below (Software package repository management).

8.1 Installation

Brave install commands ([2021-03-27 Sat]):

sudo apt install apt-transport-https curl gnupg

curl -s https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/brave-core.asc | sudo apt-key --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/brave-browser-release.gpg add -

echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://brave-browser-apt-release.s3.brave.com/ stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/brave-browser-release.list

sudo apt update

sudo apt install brave-browser

8.2 Shortcut/applet on task bar

Just kind of magically showed up after installation and logout/login, BUT… maybe right-click on app icon (in system menu, where installation puts it) and selecting "Add to Panel" had something to do with it.

9 Software package repository management

Use one of:

Mint Updates (system software)
Synaptic (GUI)
aptitude (cmd-line)

9.1 Packages installed (PPAs, additional repos)

ichthyo/zeug: For Electric Sheep. Upgrades apparently require building from scratch?
Brave: There is a repo, under Mint Update | Edit | Software Sources | Additional Repos.

10 Big titlebar icons

Default icons are too small to use on a 14" T440s, so I googled. Found this:

https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=208&t=272414&hilit=metacity

"VBB" window borders (as opposed to "controls") seem to do the trick. Yay.

Quoting from the above link, in cae it disappears:

Installation

Open a terminal (Ctrl-Alt-T) and enter the following commands
cd /tmp
wget https://github.com/smurphos/Window_Borders_Mint_19/releases/download/v.0.8/metacity_for_mint19_cinn.zip
unzip -o metacity_for_mint19_cinn.zip -d ~/.themes
Open the Themes app and the new Window Border's themes should be available for selection.