Installing Linux Mint 13 - Maya Cinnamon within Windows in HP Pavilion

Yes, I have upgraded to Linux Mint 13 - Maya Cinnamon in my HP Pavilion if you had read my previous post of installing Linux Mint 12:

http://topicalls.blogspot.com/2012/10/installing-linux-in-hp-pavilion.html

Actually I have un-installed the previous version and reinstalled the new version 13 which is code named as Maya. The reason behind reinstalling is that there is no feature of automatic OS upgrade in Mint unlike Ubuntu.

There are various editions of Mint namely - MATE (32Bit/64Bit) , Cinnamon (32Bit/64Bit), KDE, Xfce, etc and also Linux Mint Debian version. As you might be knowing we can create a USB boot loader and test run the OS without installing it. I tried all the versions of Mate, Cinnamon and Debian. I liked Debian very much because it allows you to choose between Mate and Cinnamon during your Login Session every time. So, you will be able to experience both the editions in a single install.

So, which is the right version to install within windows in HP Pavilion ? Cinnamon 64-bit is the only option you have because of the following reasons:
 - Only 64 bit is supported in Windows installer. 
 - Debian cannot be installed within Windows since it does not support wubi unlike ubuntu.
 - During the test run, the single tap click on the touch pad did not work for both Debian and Mate.

Installation:

Follow the same procedure mentioned in my previous post, i.e :
 1. Download the iso of Cinnamon 64 bit from linuxmint.com
 2. Download and install Virtual CloneDrive from:
        http://www.slysoft.com/en/download.html
 3. Once the installation is done. Right click the iso file and click the " Mount" option.
      A drive will be created under your "My Computer", on clicking it you will be able to install Linux. If you find it difficult : check this link: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/20079/install-linux-mint-on-your-windows-computer-or-netbook/

This software will create a virtual partition which will allow you to install linux in it.

Note: If you don't care about recovering your Windows OS, you can go ahead and install Linux, the distro of your choice (I prefer Linux Mint Debian) by deleting the "Recovery" Drive/partition in your HP laptop which is of 20GB size and it is more than enough to install Linux. And you don't have to worry about the above installation stuff.

Brightness Issue:

 Once the installation is complete in your Windows, you have to reboot your system. Now, you will be able to see the GRUB loader where you can choose between Windows or Linux Mint.
Choose Linux Mint and press enter. After a few seconds your screen will be still dark.  Don't worry press the F3 / Brightness  few  times which is to increase the brightness in your HP system.
The installation is not yet complete, once the login is completed. You will see a "Install " icon on the desktop. Click that and complete the installation.
After the installation is complete, go to Update Manager and install all the updates.

Fixing the Brightness issue in HP Pavilion:

The brightness issue can be easily fixed so that it will automatically adjust the brightness each time Linux is loaded. Follow the below steps :

 1. Open terminal and type the command : gksudo gedit /etc/default/grub
 2. This will open the grub file in the editor. Take a backup of it.
 3. Edit the original file by typing acpi_backlight=vendor in between the " " in the line as :  GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="acpi_backlight=vendor"
 4. Save the file.
 5. Run the command  sudo update-grub . 
  This worked perfectly for me, the brightness was automatically set every time I logged in.

Now that the installation is complete you can play around with personalization

Login Screen:

If you don't worry about security, you can select "Allow automatic login" at the time of installation or later in the settings.
Since, Linux 13 offers you a feature of MDM : Multiple Display Manager, the login screen is different from Linux 12. Linux 13 asks you to enter both your username and password every time. I wanted my Linux 12 login screen back where you can enter only the password.  This can be done by the below command :
 sudo apt-get install lightdm

During the installation it will give you a dialog box which asks you to choose between "Lightdm" and "MDM" . Choose Lightdm and hit enter.
You will get your Linux 12 Login screen back !!


Themes:

The settings also is different from Linux 12. You will not be able to find the Themes under the usual "System Settings" instead it is available in "Cinnamon Settings"
which can be opened from the Start Menu Favourites or from the Taskbar/ Panel Settings - Other Settings.  

I did not like any of the Window border themes in Cinnamon, all were grey with light colored text.

Installing themes is very easy. Thanks to one of the videos in Youtube.

Mint 13 Bug: 

When you change the Window themes under the "Other Settings" tab in the "Themes" window. The change is not reflected instantly as in Linux usually. The workaround is :  Press Alt+F2 and enter "R" - hit Enter.
You will able to see the change of the window theme reflected now.

Installing Themes: 

Download the required theme - it can be either the OS theme or the window theme, usually comes in a zipped file. Extract it.
Open the Home Folder. Press Ctrl + H. This will show the Hidden Files. If you don't find "./themes" folder. Create a New Folder with the name "./themes". Copy the extracted themes folder to the "./themes" folder.

When you open the "Cinnamon Settings -> Themes" settings, you will be able to see the saved New Theme. You can choose it and enjoy.

I downloaded the themes and window borders from the site :
http://linuxmint-art.org/

You can install Linux without losing your Windows. Linux 13 is fast and secure. Try it and Enjoy !! 

Samsung Galaxy S3 . The Next Big thing.. Really ?

Decision Making - iPhone Vs Samsung Galaxy S3.

I set out to buy my first smartphone to an AT&T showroom. Confused to choose between iphone and samsung s3. Called up my friends who were using these phones and got their opinions. And finally chose S3 over iPhone because of the following reasons :

        -  I did not own any of the apple products so I had no compulsion of buying an iPhone to do cloud computing, etc, etc. Also I did not find iTunes user friendly - the syncing up every time, no easy copy - paste files (drag drop like in an usb drive)

        -  I'm a GPS user, S3 offered two good GPS products free of cost.

        -  iPhone 5 was not yet released, so the available iPhone 4 would be outdated in a month. 

        - S3 being the latest smartphone available in the market.    

         (Probably these reasons might have made S3 the largest selling phone outselling iPhone in the month of August)  

I started using Samsung Galaxy S3 from August first week, 2012 which is now being advertised as the Next Big Thing !! But is it really so ? I want to share my personal opinion and experiences about this phone after using these many days.  The phone is available in 3 colors - Pebble blue, red and white. Mine is pebble blue.

What I liked ...

First I start with the good things about this phone.
Design: Its sleek, slim, stylish, big. (Nature inspired curves as claimed by Samsung).
Software: Android Icecream Sandwich. Its fast, the screen resolution and clarity is amazing. The touch sensitivity is very good.
Cool features: There are some cool features as shown in the video commercials like:
- The retinal identity - uses the eye retina to control the screen brightness, awake-ness, etc. (I'm not sure if it really works). Lock /unlock phone using your face. (Don't worry, there is a backup security code feature, if it fails to identify you :-) )
-NFC- Allows to exchange data when touched with another NFC enabled device or samsung NFC posters, etc.
Motion features :

It allows to try the feature, by doing a demo.

There are some cool motion features like :
         - When you swipe your palm across the screen, it takes a screenshot and stores automatically in a folder named "Screenshots" in the Gallery. (Thats how is used the screenshots effortlessly in this blog)
         - If you are at the bottom of the page (like end of contacts) , tapping on top of the phone takes you to the top, the first page.
         - If you are typing a message / opened a contact . then moving your phone towards your ear calls the contact number automatically.
         - If you want to mute the phone - an alarm or an incoming call, turn and keep the phone upside down. Also you can mute a music player by covering the phone with your palm.
         - And some image zooming and panning features using motion.
Voice Features : - Similar to the SIRI in iPhone, there is a S Voice in here. But not so impressive.
-GPS - Google Maps, Google Navigator - both are good GPS softwares which comes along with the phone.
-Camera - 8 mp camera with flash is impressive, with HD video recording. It has many features to explore too.
-Android Market -Now as Google Play - Millions of Apps available for usage.

What I didn't...

Its pretty big, - wondering why I'm saying it here again even after I said I like it. Yes its not for small hands. You cannot reach the extreme corner of the screen with your thumb, making it difficult to operate the phone with one hand. If you have a big hand and you are willing to use both your hands at all times, then you may like it. Even though it is big, it is sleek which slips in easily and smoothly into your pockets.

-If we use this phone continuously for more than 15-20 mins, the back of the phone which has a metal casing heats up like anything.
-I also didn't like the headphones, it is kind of earplug model, where we need to insert it hard into our ear holes and it easily falls off. Should have been like the apple's one. Hope samsung was afraid of the patent/ design infringement.

Poor Battery Life issue /bug..

Other than this, I have no complaints with the overall usage of the phone.
BUT... the one thing which I Hate is the Battery Life..

You may find hundreds of people complaining about the battery life on the web. And I'm one of them.
When I searched the net, I found that there seems to be a bug in the battery usage reporting. And Samsung is aware of this and are planning to release a fix soon. I'm anxiously waiting for it.

In the first month, I had no issues with the battery. I don't use the phone much - like always listening to the music, watching videos, browsing the net, playing games, etc. etc. So, it will be always idle and my usage will be around 5-10% only a day. I used to get battery life for 2-3 days in the first month.

Then I installed some applications, widgets, etc. During the night, when the phone is idle, the battery drains out drastically and becomes dried out in the morning even if I had turned off the Wifi , GPS etc.
The Battery report says, the battery usage is more during Cell Standby. But it is not telling which application or widget is using it.

             (The steep decline happened during the night, when the phone was idle WiFi, GPS was off)

When I searched the net, many had reported this problem and many suggested that its because Google is trying to Sync the Google+ photos, Gallery, and other Google applications.
So, I tried to turn off them too. Still I was experiencing the same problem.

Then someone advised me to install an app JuiceDefender which will save the battery. I did the same and the battery life was much better now. But during the night I had the same problem. Later I found out that the culprit is the widget "YouBible - Verse of the Day" I had enabled which is trying to access the net even when WiFi , Mobile Data, is off. I uninstalled it immediately.

After that the difference was much better, but still during night, the percentage of Battery discharging is high. Another Samsung S3 user advised me to install an App killer. I have tried that too.

             (The steep decline happened during the night, when the phone was idle WiFi, GPS was off)

Now I'm thinking to do a Factory Reset,  so that I get back my new phone which had good battery life.
But what is the use of a smartphone without the apps !!
The phone is not to be blamed for the battery life, but the OS/ software.  If Samsung can come up with a fix to identify the apps which is causing this and optimize the battery life, this would be a great phone.

Installing Linux in HP Pavilion

I recently bought an HP Laptop with Intel core i3 processor, 500 GB HDD installed with Windows Home Premium edition.

I'm a big fan of the Linux OS and wanted to install one along with the Windows 7 as dual boot system. I would like to share what I have gone through.

Why I mentioned specifically HP in the title because, it was such a pain installing in a HP laptop and I had to search for help in the entire web.  So, thought this might help some soul who is wandering in search for help for the issues faced in a HP.

Many may feel that installing Linux isn't a big deal these days as the installation process has become very user friendly. Yes you are right, if you want only Linux to be installed as a single OS removing the existing Windows it can be easily done. But, if you want to keep the Windows and install it along with it as a dual boot, its not easy particularly in HP.

Why ?
The usual method is to create a new drive by doing a disk partition and delete it.
And install the Linux in the deleted partition.
But in HP, you cannot create a partition. There are 3 partitions available. C:\ = 450 GB, D:\ - 20 GB (The HP Recovery drive - to restore your system if it crashes) and E:\ = 4 GB (HP Tools) . When I tried to create a new partition out of C:\, I was getting a warning message that "This partition will be created as a dynamic disk and all the other existing drives will also become dynamic and the operating system will not be loaded".

If the E:\ had a few more GBs we could have deleted that partition and could have happily installed in it. Who cares about the HP Tools.

Only other option left is to delete the D:\ the Recovery drive and use that.
We can make Recovery DVDs (5 is required) and delete it. There are some forums which advice this method.
But I didn't want to take such a risk in a new system since it is Windows.

Which Distro to choose ?

The Linux Distro iso can be used to copy it to a USB and make it as a installer with the help of softwares (I used Universal USB installer) instead of writing it to a CD/DVD.


I chose Ubuntu first, downloaded the latest iso and created the USB installer. When I tried to install, after the first page, the screen went black and something was vaguely seen. When checked in the net, many has reported problems in installing Ubuntu in a HP system. Later I found out that there is bug which makes the screen brightness to low. And I pressed the f3 button which is also used to increase the brightness.
So, the screen got displayed and Ubuntu was loading endlessly.

Next I chose Fedora 16 and tried the same with the USB installer. After the first page nothing happened. So had to abort that too.  Then from the forums I found that USB installer would not work for fedora and has to be installed from a CD. So, I burned the iso to a CD and then tried. But, still nothing happened.

Later I chose Linux Mint. There were 3 versions available, 32-bit DVD version, CD version with Windows Installer and a Linux KDE DVD version.

http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

Created the USB installer, first tried the DVD version, it didn't work. Then tried the KDE DVD version, it worked fine.
In all the Linux installers, you can do a test drive using the Live CD option and try as you are working in the real OS without installing it.
The Linux KDE Live CD was awesome, I fell in love with it at the first sight. The UI was too good and I wanted it to install it somehow. (I highly recommend this, just give it a try)

This is when I started facing the partition issue. Because as per the user Manual, the installer should give 3 options :
1. Install along with Windows
2. Linux  Full installation
3. Do Manual installation.
But for me, it asked only the last options and the first option was missing. When I tried to do the manual installation, no free partition were available. Tried many options with the Windows Disk Management. But unfortunately, nothing happened. 

I then tried the 32bit CD version, the Windows installer using the USB installer, the Live CD worked perfectly , but could not install this too due to the partition issue.
I was thinking that if I install this cd inside the Windows , I should every time login to Windows to go to Linux. So, I didn't want to try it.


Later I stumbled upon the below page and it inspired me to install the Linux Mint in windows. It will be installed as a Windows application and it can be un installed any time as a regular application uninstall. And it boots with a option to choose between Linux or Windows (Not from within Windows) and you don't have to worry about the partition issues.
 
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/20079/install-linux-mint-on-your-windows-computer-or-netbook/

I followed the steps and installed Linux Mint successfully. The USB installer didn't work here too had some issues completing the installation. So, I burned the iso in a CD and it worked fine.

In all the above installations using the different Live CDs, the screen went black upon booting and I had to press the f3 key to increase the brightness.
I had the same issue in this installed Linux Mint too. I fixed with the help of the below link, by changing few lines in the grub loader as suggested in the method 1.

http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=45271

Finally, Linux Mint is up and running beautifully without any issues. Its a joy to work in it.
Once the installation is complete, there is a option given in the menus to "Upgrade to DVD version' , you can click it and get the full version with all the applications installed.
Otherwise too, if you go to the Software Manager , there are more than 35k applications available freely under various categories. You can install them freely.

The default File Manager does not show your C:\ drive files. So, you can download the Dolphin File Manager and use it. It will show all your drives and files.

Below are a few screenshots of my Linux Mint.

Try it . You will Enjoy.
You can always do a test drive without installing.
Note: This post is created using the Mint.