This is a Debian/Jessie installation instruction on ThinkPad T460s (product ID: 20F9CTO1WW). First, update BIOS on Windows if necessary, since that kind of task is unfortunately typically much easier on it. Also make sure to create a recovery media for Windows 10. ... Continue reading.

Debian installation on new hardware can be a hassle when it depends on non-free firmware support. A typical workaround is to use a Debian install image that includes non-free drivers, which is available here: Unofficial non-free images including firmware packages. Choose the right image for the kind of USB media you wish to create. ... Continue reading.

Download a DEB file for the version of Chrome you want from here. Then $ sudo aptitude install gconf-service libgconf-2-4 libnspr4 libnss3 libpango1.0-0 libappindicator1 libcurl3 $ sudo dpkg -i google-chrome-stable_current_amd64.deb

Once in a while you need to deal with fancier PDF files which may allow you to type in using forms, but Linux applications like Okular might not be fully capable of handling Adobe’s proprietary features. In such an unfortunate event, you might need to use Adobe Reader. ... Continue reading.

The simplest way to create a bootable USB stick for Debian installation is to use command dd to copy an ISO image to an empty USB stick. First, connect an empty USB stick to a working Linux box, and see which device represents the stick: ... Continue reading.

Here is a quickie for customizing and install Linux kernel 3.5.x on Wheezy. Add yourself (with account username) to sudoer group: # adduser username sudo You need to logout and login for this change to take effect. You also need to be able to use sudo or su to install the new kernel in the end. ... Continue reading.

Since tp_smapi does not work properly on T430s, I am using TLP this time. I still want some traditional tools $ sudo aptitude install powertop but not others: $ sudo aptitude remove --purge laptop-mode-tools To install, follow the instruction. In short, first update the APT source list by adding the following line to /etc/apt/sources. ... Continue reading.

I don’t like to get stuck with a very old version of browser, so I install a Firefox binary provided by Mozilla, not the one by Debian. Make sure to download a 64-bit version (as I use amd64) from here. The tarball expands to a directory named firefox. ... Continue reading.

The goal is to make the system capable for Japanese input, while letting the base system remain English. For the Japanese input method, I had been using Anthy, but I will be using mozc, which is now better supported and presumably much better (it is). ... Continue reading.

Sometimes it’s useful to be able to install Linux off an ISO image on hard drive for whatever reason. My Dell XPS 630i has had some issues when I was installing Debian off an install CD/USB, likely related to how GRUB 2 does not gracefully deals with SATA configuration particular to this machine (the install process doesn’t appear to recognize /dev/sdaX properly at some point, ending up in IO errors or kernel panic). ... Continue reading.