Section One: Linux Computers 🐧

1️⃣ Configure a Linux Operating System

• Navigate to https://pop.system76.com/ and click Download.

• Install Balena Etcher from https://etcher.balena.io/.
• Launch Balena Etcher and click Flash from file.
• Select the downloaded iso file.
• Click Select target and choose your USB drive.
• Click Flash and allow the process to complete

• Click Try or Install Pop!_OS.
• Choose your desired language, location, and keyboard.

• Choose clean install and select your internal drive.
• Click Erase and Install.

• Provide your desired user name and password.
• Select the default option to encrypt the drive.
• If desired, allow the same Linux password to be used for the drive encryption. This is more convenient but could pose a security risk. If you want an extra layer of protection, you could specify a unique password for each option of drive encryption and Linux, but this may be overkill for most users. I use the same password for both options.
• Allow the process to complete and click Restart Device

Continue through the one-time setup with the following steps.

• Choose your layout options for the dock and click Next.
• Choose your Top Bar options and click Next.
• Click Next twice to continue through the menu.
• Choose your desired appearance and click Next.
• Choose your Wi-Fi (if available), supply the password, and click Next.
• Keep location services disabled and click Next.
• Choose your desired time zone and click Next.
• Click Skip to bypass any online accounts then click Start Using Pop!_OS

• Launch the Settings application in the lower dock.
• Choose Users in the left menu.
• Click Unlock and enter your password.
• Enable the Automatic Login toggle.
• Close Settings and reboot the computer by clicking the upper-right menu bar and selecting Power Off/ Log Out > Restart > Restart.

• Launch the Settings application in the lower dock.
• Click Bluetooth in the left menu and disable the toggle.
• Click Privacy in the left menu and disable Connectivity Checking.
• Click File History & Trash and disable everything.

• Click Screen and change Blank Screen Delay to a longer period.
• Go back to the main screen, click Power in the left menu and disable Automatic Power Sever.
• Click Automatic Suspend and disable all options.
• Enable Show Battery Percentage

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri ´´

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri-dark ´´

The next modification I like to execute is to move the Dock from the bottom to the left with the following Terminal command.

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dock-position LEFT

Next, I prefer to decrease the default size of the icons since I will be adding numerous programs soon. You can change the number to any size appropriate for your screen size with the following Terminal command.

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.dash-to-dock dash-max-icon-size 30

When you right-click a file or folder to delete it, you currently have the option to Move to Trash. The following Terminal command adds a new option directly underneath the Trash entry titled Delete Permanently. This allows me to bypass the Trash altogether and simply eliminate any desired content.

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences show-delete-permanently true

By default, most Linux operating systems hide hidden files from view. These are typically system files but can also include cache and configuration files which we may need to access. Therefore, I execute the following two Terminal commands in order to make these valuable files visible at all times.

gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences show-hidden-files true

gsettings set org.gtk.Settings.FileChooser show-hidden true

You likely have pending operating system updates which should now be applied.

• Click the Pop!_Shop icon in the dock bar next to Settings.
• Click the Installed tab and then Update All.

2️⃣ Install Linux Applications

3️⃣ Apply Linux Updates

sudo apt update // updates package lists

sudo apt upgrade -y // applies pending updates

sudo apt full-upgrade -y // applies pending updates and removes unnecessary data

sudo pop-upgrade recovery upgrade from-release // updates the recovery partition

sudo pop-upgrade release upgrade // applies pending Pop!_OS stable release upgrades

sudo apt autoremove -y // removes unnecessary software dependencies

sudo apt autoclean -y // removes unnecessary data from local software repositories

sudo flatpak update -y // updates Flatpak applications

4️⃣ Create a Custom Linux Script

1. Download a Pre-Configured Script: Get started quickly with a pre-configured script that's ready to use.
2. Create a Custom Script from Scratch

cd ~/Documents && wget https://inteltechniques.com/data/linux.sh

chmod +x linux.sh && sudo mv linux.sh /usr/share/applications/

wget https://inteltechniques.com/data/linux.desktop

sudo mv linux.desktop /usr/share/applications/

• Open a text editor and create a new file.
• Copy the script text and paste it into the text editor.

#!/bin/bash

clear

PS3="Selection: "

options=(
  "Apply All Updates"
  "Launch Files with Admin Privileges"
)

select opt in "${options[@]}"
do
  case $opt in
    "Apply All Updates")
      sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y && sudo apt full-upgrade -y &&
      sudo pop-upgrade recovery upgrade from-release && sudo pop-upgrade
      release upgrade && sudo apt autoremove -y && sudo apt autoclean -y &&
      sudo flatpak update -y
      ;;
    "Launch Files with Admin Privileges")
      sudo nautilus
      ;;
  esac
done

• Save the file with a .sh extension (e.g., linux.sh) in a location of your choice (e.g., your home directory)
• Open a terminal and navigate to the directory where you saved the script.
• Make the script executable using the following command: chmod +x linux.sh
• run the script using the following command: ./linux.sh

1. Open a text editor and create a new file.
2. Copy the following code and paste it into the text editor:

[Desktop Entry]

Type=Application

Name=Maintenance

Categories=Application;Maintenance

Exec=/path/to/.linux.sh

Terminal=true

1. Save the file with the name linux.desktop in a location of your choice.
2. Move the linux.desktop file to the /usr/share/applications/ directory using the following command:

sudo mv linux.desktop /usr/share/applications/

3. Update the Exec path in the linux.desktop file to point to the correct location of the linux.sh file.
4. Make the linux.desktop file executable using the following command:

sudo chmod +x /usr/share/applications/linux.desktop

1. Go to your Applications menu and look for a new shortcut titled "Maintenance".
2. Clicking this shortcut should launch the linux.sh script.

5️⃣ Store Documents Locally in Linux

6️⃣ Create a Linux System Backup

1. Running the Maintenance script to apply updates and remove unnecessary items.
2. Checking for additional updates in Pop!_Shop and Settings -> OS Upgrade & Recovery.
3. Running BleachBit as root to clean the system (excluding Free Disk Space).
4. Rebooting the machine.

1. Install the free and open-source program FreeFileSync, available in Pop!_Shop.
2. Format an external USB SSD (recommended) specifically for backups:

• Launch Files, right-click the external drive, and select Format.
• Choose Internal disk for use with Linux systems only (Ext4) and consider encrypting the drive via Password protect volume

3. Configure FreeFileSync:

• Browse to your Home folder and select it as the source.
• Browse to your external hard drive, create a "Backup" folder, and select it as the destination.
• Click the right arrow icon next to the green whell near "Synchronisze" and choose the Mirror option to ensure an exact replica of your computer's data.

4. Run the backup:

• Click Compare to analyze the data.
• Ignore the warnings and click Synchronize to begin the backup process.

1. Connect the external drive and unlock the encryption (if used).
2. Open FreeFileSync and select the Compare button to identify modified files.
3. Run the synchronization process to update the backup.

7️⃣ Create an Off-Site Linux Backup

• 3 copies of your data
• 2 types of media (e.g., external hard drive and micro SD card)
• 1 copy off-site

8️⃣ Configure a Dual-Boot Laptop

1. If you prefer to have full-disk encryption, activate BitLocker.
2. Open the Disk Manager to view the connected drives and their partitions.
3. Identify the drive or partition where you want to install Pop!_OS, right-click on it, and select Shrink Volume. Allocate a minimum of 40GB or more for the new partition.
4. Insert the Pop!_OS USB installer and restart your computer.
5. Enter the BIOS settings (usually by pressing ESC, F2, or F9) and make the following changes:

• Enable USB boot
• Set the USB drive as the primary boot device in the Boot order settings
• Disable Secure boot
• save your changes and exit the BIOS settings.

1. Identify the drive or partition with the free space you previously allocated for Pop!_OS.
2. Click Modify Partitions to begin configuring the partitions.
3. Create the boot partition:

• Right-click on the unallocated space and select New.
• Set the partition size to 1000MB using the slider.
• Choose Primary Partition and fat32 as the file system.

4. Create the root partition:

• Right-click on the remaining unallocated space and select New.
• Use the entire free space for this partition.
• Choose ext4 as the file system.

5. Click Apply All Operations to apply the changes and proceed with the installation.

1. Select the fat32 partition (the boot partition) and configure it as follows:

• Toggle on Use partition and Format.
• Set Use as to Boot.
• Confirm the file system is set to fat32.

2. Select the root partition and configure it as follows:

• Toggle on Use partition and Format.
• Set Use as to Root.
• Leave the file system set to Default (ext4).

3. With the partitions configured, click Erase and Install to begin the installation process. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install os-prober
sudo os-prober

lsblk
sudo mount /dev/nvme0n1p2 /mnt
sudo ls -la /mnt/EFI/
sudo cp -ax /mnt/EFI/Microsoft /boot/efi/EFI
sudo ls -lh /boot/efi/EFI

Conclusion 🎯

Resources 📚