Manual installation MintPPC

Posted byadmin September 21, 2019

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As I am not yet able to successfully install MintPPC with an installer medium, I will give
some guidance on how to manually install the Mint layer on top of Debian sid. Debian sid can
be installed as described in my other post.

We are first going to adapt the /etc/apt/sources.list file:

sudo apt edit-sources
Add the following line:
deb http://u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl/repo unstable main
Then we update the repo:
sudo apt update
You will see that we will need my public gpg key:
gpg --keyserver pgp.surfnet.nl --recv-keys D7A223ABAA7CE436
gpg -a --export D7A223ABAA7CE436 | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt update

Now we are going to install MintPPC specific packages and some other packages to install a
desktop. As times passes by, I will add more packages to the repository. For the moment we
will install these:

sudo apt install mint-artwork mint-artwork-lxde \

mint-common mint-lxde-default-settings mint-x-icons \
mint-y-icons mintinstall mint-themes \ mint-backgrounds-tina mintsystem \
arcticfox spidermail

Installing MintPPC in the past was done within an installer medium and a preseed file.
Packages were installed and only after that, regular users were created. In this way, the newly
created user got all the MintPPC specific tweaks. As we now start from a system where
user(s) are already set up, installing these MintPPC specific packages will not affect those
users. So, in order to have a nice desktop, we have to create a new user which will be you.
Give that user administration rights and then after everything is set up, delete the old user
account. Users can be created and deleted from the Menu, Preferences, Users and Groups.
After the new user is created, logout from this session (Menu, Logout and click Logout).

Now log into into LXDE with your new user account and choose the Mint-LXDE session.
You will then see the MintPPC desktop. For some reason I don’t know yet, the file manager
PCManFM does not display the icons the first time I log in. After logging out and in again,
you will see the nice icon set in the Home folder. There is one thing I don’t like, which I have
to fix, is the background. Right click on the desktop and click Desktop Preferences (can also
be done via the Menu, Preferences, Desktop Preferences). Choose Wallpaper mode ‘Stretch
and crop to fill the monitor area’.

Debian installs lightdm as display manager. If you think this is too heavy on the resources,
you might want to try lxdm.
sudo apt install lxdm
sudo dpkg-reconfigure lxdm
Now select lxdm as display manager. Reboot, or, as root in a tty:
service lightdm stop
service lxdm start
and you will have a lighter display manager (login screen).

I hope that you will enjoy your new desktop. Please give me feedback!

Posted byadminSeptember 21, 2019Posted inInstallation