Linux Tips

Quick Web Server

In Terminal:

python3 -m http.server 7050

…where “7050” is an arbitrary port number.

Grub-Customising

Updated: 2024-01-21

Dual-boot systems use GRUB to allow booting to one OS or another. Grub-customizer by Daniel Richter is quite nice but somehow doesn’t work for me.

So, to get GRUB2 to look decent, we need to first address /etc/default/grub - I’ve removed all the commented-out stuff so just the really important stuff remains:

GRUB_DEFAULT=0 GRUB_TIMEOUT_STYLE=hidden GRUB_TIMEOUT=15 GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian` GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=”quiet splash” GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=””

GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080 GRUB_FONT=/boot/grub/fonts/unifont.pf2

Key points to look at are the resolution - in this case 1920x1080 - and font, which lives in /boot/grub/fonts. So:

change the resolution to read: GRUB_GFXMODE=1920x1080

add the line: GRUB_FONT=/boot/grub/fonts/unifont.pf2

…ensuring, of course, that the file and path actually exist.

The next thing to look at is look in the /etc/default/grub.d folder, which will hopefully contain the following files, or something similar:

50_linuxmint.cfg

63_mint-theme-2k.cfg

In this case, the 63x file held the key to which theme is used by GRUB. If none of that sort of file exist, you might need to go to the Software Manager and load an alternate theme to the default, such as Grub2-theme-mint. Invoke:

sudo update-grub

and the missing files should appear. In that file (or one similar to it) are a two lines of interest:

GRUB_FONT=”/boot/grub/fonts/UbuntuMono32.pf2” GRUB_THEME=”/boot/grub/themes/creek/theme.txt”

The second line will tell update-grub where to find the theme. Save your changes and nvoke:

sudo update-grub

and you should be good.

Updating PATH

In Ubuntu, edit /etc/environment. Its sole purpose is to store Environment Variables. Originally the $PATH variable is defined here. This is a paste from my /etc/environment file:

PATH="/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games"

So you can just open up this file as root and add whatever you want.

For Immediate results, Run (try as normal user and root):

source /etc/environment && export PATH

Kivy and PyCharm

Kivy Virtual Environment Installation using PyCharm

Assumption

Assuming virtualenv or/and virtualenvwrapper already installed:

sudo pip install virtualenv virtualenvwrapper

Launch PyCharm. Then:

Click File

Click Settings

Click project Interpreter

Click cogwheel next to the Project Interpreter field, and choose Add…

New environment is the default selection.

Type kivyinstall for the Location e.g. /home/iam/.virtualenvs/kivyinstall

Select Base interpreter (Python 3.5, or Python 2.7) from the drop down

Do not select the Inherit global site-packages check-box.

Select the Make available to all projects check-box, if needed.

Click OK

After pip and setuptools have been installed:

click + beside the column heading, Latest.

Type cython in the search text input box under Available Packages Dialog.

Select Specify version check-box to load version 0.25.2 which is compatible to Kivy version 1.10.0

Click Install Package button.

After cython 0.25.2 version installed successfully, type kivy in the search text input box under Available Packages Dialog.

Click Install Package

After kivy installed successfully, create a new project. Opened a new project. If kivyinstall did not appear in the expanded External Libraries:

click File » Settings… » Project Interpreter

select Python…(kivyinstall) e.g. Python 3.5 (kivyinstall)

Brackets in Mint (Ubuntu)

Since PyCharm and Kivy currently (18.12.27) has issues, going to have a go with Brackets, which works a treat on the Mac. The following installation pointers came from It’s FOSS.

Method 1: Install Brackets using Snap

To install Snap, enter the following in Terminal:

sudo apt-get install snapd

Starting Ubuntu 16.04, Brackets is available as a Snap app. You can also find it in the Software Center and install it from there in a few clicks for Ubuntu 16.04 and higher versions.

If you want to install via the command line, you can use the Snap commands to install Brackets. This will work for all the Linux distributions that support Snap packaging. First, make sure you have snapd daemon installed on your system. Use the command below:

snap --version

Once you have made sure that snapd is installed on your Linux system, install Brackets with:

sudo snap install brackets

In mint, an error occurred with the above command:

This revision of snap “brackets” was published using classic confinement and thus may perform arbitrary system changes outside of the security sandbox that snaps are usually confined to, which may put your system at risk

This can be rectified by adding –classic:

sudo snap install brackets --classic

Method 2: Install Brackets using PPA

… in Ubuntu and Linux Mint (Not recommended)

Note: This method is redundant now. When Brackets was not officially available, the unofficial PPA provided an easy way to install Brackets on Ubuntu.

Open a terminal and use the following commands to install Brackets via the unofficial PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/brackets
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install brackets

Method 3: Install Brackets using DEB package

… or source code

If you do not like PPAs, you can get the .deb installation files from the link below. You will also get the source code of the latest version here:

Download Brackets Editor

These .deb binaries can be installed by double-clicking on it. It will be opened in Ubuntu Software Center by default. You can use a lighter alternative Gdebi as well.