In this tutorial we will show how easy it is to enable Adobe Flash player to your Linux Mint 12 Live CD. As usual, please click each screenshot for a larger view.

Linux Mint 12 Live CD -no flash

First step is to boot up your Live Disc and open Firefox. This screenshot shows what will happen by default if you try to view content that relies on Adobe Flash to display.

Type mint-flashplugin-11 into Software Manager

Well, obviously that is going to severely limit the functionality of your Live CD, so the next step is install Flash the easiest way I’ve found. Click on Menu and choose the Software Manager (the yellow star). In the search box, type mint-flashplugin-11  then click on it in the list.

Click Install

Once you’ve clicked on the mint-flashplugin-11 that appears in the list, you’ll see the next window that will have the Install button. Click Install and the Flash player will install to the Live CD environment.

Now, once it’s installed, close the Software Manager and reload Firefox. Voila! Your Youtube page you were trying to watch earlier is now working!

Linux Mint running Firefox with Flash installed

That’s really all there is to it. If you follow these steps you will find installing Flash much easier than trying to click the “Missing Plugins” button that first appears.

©2012 Linux.Bihlman.com

post written using Firefox on the Linux Mint 12 Live CD!

default linux mint 12 Menu

So, you downloaded Linux Mint 12 and are excited to try out all the fancy stuff that people have been saying about it. You have your Live CD burned, you boot into the desktop, you click on Menu in the bottom-left corner, see the popular folders listed there, but one seems to be missing– the games folder!

In just a few simple steps, we will show you how to get the Games folder to appear, complete with a nice selection of popular games for the Gnome desktop environment.

Step 1

Click on the terminal located under the Menu:

click on the terminal

 Step 2

Type sudo apt-get install gnome-games at the prompt:

terminal window

Press Enter when it asks if you want to continue, then it will download the games, and all the dependencies, all within your Live environment!

Step 3

Finished! Enjoy your new games, as you can now see, there are quite a few games to try out, for all ages. Here is a screenshot of the final product, that just took a couple of minutes of your time:

Finally, we have games!

Here is a list of the games we just installed:

AisleRiot Solitaire, Chess, Five or More, Four-in-a-row, FreeCell Solitaire, lagno, Klotski, Mahjongg, Mines, Nibbles, Quadrapassel, Robots, Sudoku, Tali, Tetravex

©2012 Linux.Bihlman.com

post written using Firefox on the Linux Mint 12 Live CD!

As the title suggests, a technically-inclined computer user probably gets more satisfaction running a PING test in Linux than Windows XP, as the screenshots below should indicate.

pinging google in linux mint 12

and now, Windows XP:

pinging google in windows xp

That’s the difference!

I downloaded the latest version of Linux Mint 12 (Lisa) and I decided to try it out and write about some of the basics to get you started.

(Please click on each screenshot for full size)

TEST SYSTEM:

• Via 1.5GHz microprocessor
• Nvidia GeForce 8400GS video card
• 1 GB of RAM
• 1 GB of Linux Swap space on the HD
• onboard NIC

The first boot attempt from the Live CD failed, so I had to add acpi=off to the Live CD boot parameters to get the OS to boot successfully. Once I booted into Mint 12, I was greeted with the desktop:

Linux Mint 12 desktop

The first thing I decided to do is change the location since it always bothers me that Ubuntu-based distros always have the time many hours off, so, I clicked on the time at the top of the screen and selected my location:

adjusting the time/location in Mint 12

Next, I decided to open a terminal, in this case Xterm from Applications | System Tools and execute one of my favorite tools, top to check the amount of RAM usage and a few other fun details:

The "top" command in Xterm

 I would call those steps the first ones I always take when trying out a new distro. They work with just about any Linux distribution imaginable, but Linux Mint is special, and it’s quickly taking market share away from Ubuntu. “What’s next?”, you may ask…Well, I would take a look at all the cool apps available to you just a couple of clicks away in the Software Manager, located under Applications | Other:

Linux Mint 12 Software Manager

Now that you’ve had a chance to peruse all the great games, graphics, productivity software available (and even installed a few with the Live CD!) you may be ready to install it as your primary operating system, or at least in addition to an existing OS. That is easiest enough to find, it’s got a handy icon on the desktop for your convenience!

p.s. This review was written using Firefox on the Linux Live CD!

©2011 Linux.Bihlman.com

Buy Linux Mint today!