If you forget your Mint forum username, you won't find it using your password. So, don't forget it. Mine's russellbateman.

Installing behind a firewall (behind a proxy) created a problem for Mint. Here's the installation process as it worked for me.

1. Boot from CD.
 
If behind a proxy, do this...

1. When desktop appears, open a console (Ctrl+Alt+T or click an icon that does it).
2. Express your proxy, i.e.:

       mint@mint ~ $ export http_proxy="http://web-proxy.austin.acme.com:8080"
       mint@mint ~ $ export http_proxy="http://web-proxy.austin.acme.com:8080"
   				

3. Right-click the Install Linux Mint icon and choose "Properties".
4. Scrape what's in Command: and paste into open console window; for me this was:

       $ ubiquity --desktop %k gtk_ui
   				

5. Press Enter and wait a while for the Mint installer to launch.

What does this do? It sets up your Internet proxy before running the Mint installer so that it can reach files it needs on the Internet.

 
If not behind a proxy, simply double-click the Install Linux Mint icon.
 
2. Welcome: Choose your language, click Continue.
3. Preparing to install Linux Mint: If Mint can see its files on the Internet, there should be a grey checkmark near is connecte to the Internet (instead of a red circle with an X). Click Continue.
4. Installation type: Choose desired installation, click Continue.
5. Click Install Name.
6. Do install (timezone, keyboard, owner/user, hostname, password, etc.)...
7. Reboot when prompted.

Once, I had the situation where clicking on launchers in the panel didn't launch anything. See Panel launchers don't launch when clicked.

A family member put me on to this link: Applications won't launch from panel applets. Neither the response to my question nor this bug report were particularly cogent, however, the latter did put me directly on to the solution:

1. From the command line, launch dconf-editor. If not installed, install it.
2. In the left-hand column, expand org.
3. Click on (no need to expand) cinnamon.
4. Scroll down to panel-edit-mode and uncheck it.
5. Click the close box to dismiss dconf-edit.

This resolved the problem in a way that, per the bug report, could not be solved except by mindless combinations of changing the setting in the GUI manager for Cinnamon Settings.

By default, /etc/resolv.conf is no longer a file, but a subdirectory on Mint distributions. This can get in the way of some incidental consumers of this file such as my own employer's VPN script, my inability to consume which a) put Mint at a disadvantage as a viable developer platform and b) forced me to keep another host running Maverick (or Precise, etc.) in order to perform deployments and other work.

I stumbled upon a solution to this. Answer affirmatively to all interaction this installation proposes:

    $ sudo dpkg-reconfigure resolvconf

I have observed no ill side-effects after doing this on two hosts at this point.

Create a new file, /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/95proxy with these contents:

Acquire::http::proxy  "http://web-proxy.austin.acme.com:8080";
Acquire::https::proxy "https://web-proxy.austin.acme.com:8080";
Acquire::ftp::proxy   "ftp://web-proxy.austin.acme.com:8080";

Edit -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Network -> Connection -> Settings...

    Manual proxy configuration:
    HTTP Proxy: web-proxy.austin.acme.com  Port: 8080
               x Use this proxy server for all protocols

Once everything is set up, these settings are available from the panel icon (that looks like a little computer with monitor), click it, then Network Settings, then Network proxy -> Manual, etc.

Menu -> Preferences -> Cinnamon Settings -> Panel -> Panel Layout -> Flipped

How to install a newly obtained application in the menus?

(Note made in October 2016:)

Now using Cinnamon on Fedora, CentOS and Mint, and details having changed, I found this link useful on CentOS 7:
How to add shortcut to Cinnamon taskbar. Also, alacarte is installable on Red Hat systems:
sudo yum install alacarte

1. Open a console.
2. Install alacarte if absent.

       mint@mint ~ $ sudo apt-get install alacarte
   

3. Right-click Mint menu, choose Preferences -> Main menu.
4. Select one out of Applications Group for the new application.
5. Click New Item.
6. Fill in Name, Command (path to the executable), and Comment (if desired), just as you would when setting up a panel launcher for Gnome.
(Usually, the icon will auto-fill, but if not, go download a suitable one from any page with something nice for the application you're insalling; it can be GIF, PNG, anything.)
7. Click OK.
8. Go to the Mint menu, find the application you just installed, right-click it and choose Add to panel.
9. Reorder the icon that shows up on the panel.

Then, in the menus, if you right-click the new application, you'll have the option to put it on the top panel, desktop, etc.

This happens to me every time I need to change my IntelliJ IDEA launcher in the top panel (I put my panel at the top) to reach the new version I just downloaded.

Because the edit dialog will not dismiss, check out ~/.cinnamon/panel-launchers, fgrep to find the ones containing references to the old version of what you're trying to change and delete those you identify.

That doesn't actually fix the problem, but it cleans up things.

Right-click on the desktop (not the panel) and choose Create a new launcher here.... Set up the launcher just as you would. You'll find it in the Start Menu under Other. Right-click that and choose Add to panel. Then, delete the new launcher from the desktop (unless you want it there).

...whatever has been chosen (Menu -> Preference -> Keyboard Layout > Layouts -> (keyboard language) -> Options... -> Compose key position -> (whatever you've chosen) doesn't work quite like Ubuntu. Instead, you must maintain the compose key while pressing both the diacritic selector AND the character to receive the diacritic.

...is in Menu -> Accessories. You can pin it to the top panel.

To make the active console window appear different than inactive windows, do Menu -> Preferences -> Cinnamon Settings -> Themes -> Other Settings -> Window theme and choose Adwaita. It's subtle, but it does produce a slightly different title bar in the active console window.

Using Window Tiling preference, turn off Enable Window Tiling and Snapping or...

• Maximize, instead of tile, when dragging a window to the top edge OFF
• Show snap on-screen-display OFF
• Show tile heads-up-display OFF
• Legacy window snapping OFF

I disengage the hot corner because I keep hitting it all the time.

1. Go to Menu.
2. Look for the icon with the gears in it (Cinnamon Settings).
3. Choose Applets.
4. Scroll way down to Workspace switcher.
5. Check the box.
6. Dismiss by clicking Close.
7. The old, old-style switcher will reappear (though it will not have any graphical representation of activity in it, but this is better than
   1. The Hot corner.
   2. Pressing Ctrl+Alt+Up Arrow.
   3. Pressing Crrl+Alt+Right/Left Arrow.

This can't be done if, as I do, you've disabled the workspace hot spot. Re-enable it, then put the mouse into it (usually the upper, left-hand corner) and then you'll see, to the right of the rightmost workspace thumbnail, a plus (+) sign. Click it and it will add another.

This promised to be a big mess, but really, it was all a matter of receding back into the days before plug and play and being okay with that. I've gotten altogether too lazy about expecting distros to do this sort of thing for me. It is a perennial problem with Ubuntu (and, to be fair, all Linuces). I Googled using the string "mint 13 won't enable wireless". The symptom had been that I couldn't enable my wireless.

De fil en aiguille, I got this link: No Wireless linux mint. It was suggested to a poster that he try this command (and you see what I got afterward—really import what's in bold):

    $ sudo mintwifi

    -------------------------
    * I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
      -- Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (rev 35)
          ==> PCI ID = 8086:4238 (rev 35)
    -------------------------
    * II. querying ndiswrapper...
    -------------------------
    * III. querying iwconfig...
    lo        no wireless extensions.

    wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:off/any
              Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=off
              Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
              Encryption key:off
              Power Management:off

    eth0      no wireless extensions.

    tun0      no wireless extensions.

    -------------------------
    * IV. querying ifconfig...
    eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 88:ae:1d:ae:37:b1
              inet addr:16.86.193.103  Bcast:16.86.195.255  Mask:255.255.252.0
              inet6 addr: fe80::8aae:1dff:feae:37b1/64 Scope:Link
              UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
              RX packets:439098 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:46544 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
              RX bytes:57210957 (57.2 MB)  TX bytes:9162863 (9.1 MB)
              Interrupt:20 Memory:d7500000-d7520000

    lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
              inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
              inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
              UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
              RX packets:596 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:596 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
              RX bytes:48254 (48.2 KB)  TX bytes:48254 (48.2 KB)

    tun0      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
              inet addr:10.19.252.209  P-t-P:10.19.252.209  Mask:255.255.255.255
              UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1406  Metric:1
              RX packets:4644 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:5478 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
              RX bytes:816830 (816.8 KB)  TX bytes:384646 (384.6 KB)
    .
    .
    .

Then, I Googled for "intel corporation centrino ultimate-n 6300 linux driver" and got this link: http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/iwlwifi, clicked on the "Download" link, downloaded and exploded the tarball. I also noticed their advice of how to install the driver:

    $ sudo cp iwlfifi-*.ucode /lib/firmware

I ensured myself that /lib/firmware existed and contained drivers (it did) and followed these instructions. After copying the adapter, I clicked the network icon in my top panel and enabled wifi producing the following including some nearby wireless access points:

Previously, I had not been able to move the switch control for Wireless from OFF to ON. Then, I reissued the mintwifi command and got the following; the important differences are in bold, though I didn't tried to connect to these unknown points to get an address for wlan0:

    -------------------------
    * I. scanning WIFI PCI devices...
      -- Intel Corporation Centrino Ultimate-N 6300 (rev 35)
          ==> PCI ID = 8086:4238 (rev 35)
    -------------------------
    * II. querying ndiswrapper...
    -------------------------
    * III. querying iwconfig...
    lo        no wireless extensions.

    wlan0     IEEE 802.11abgn  ESSID:off/any
              Mode:Managed  Access Point: Not-Associated   Tx-Power=15 dBm
              Retry  long limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
              Encryption key:off
              Power Management:off

    eth0      no wireless extensions.

    tun0      no wireless extensions.

    -------------------------
    * IV. querying ifconfig...
    eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 88:ae:1d:ae:37:b1
              inet addr:16.86.193.103  Bcast:16.86.195.255  Mask:255.255.252.0
              inet6 addr: fe80::8aae:1dff:feae:37b1/64 Scope:Link
              UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
              RX packets:466445 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:57224 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
              RX bytes:88141997 (88.1 MB)  TX bytes:9966593 (9.9 MB)
              Interrupt:20 Memory:d7500000-d7520000

    lo        Link encap:Local Loopback
              inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
              inet6 addr: ::1/128 Scope:Host
              UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
              RX packets:596 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:596 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:0
              RX bytes:48254 (48.2 KB)  TX bytes:48254 (48.2 KB)

    tun0      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
              inet addr:10.19.252.209  P-t-P:10.19.252.209  Mask:255.255.255.255
              UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1406  Metric:1
              RX packets:4687 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:5521 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:500
              RX bytes:825292 (825.2 KB)  TX bytes:387309 (387.3 KB)
    
    wlan0     Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:24:d7:43:68:1c
              UP BROADCAST MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
              RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
              TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
              collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000
              RX bytes:0 (0.0 B)  TX bytes:0 (0.0 B)
    .
    .
    .

First, do not use the totally useless printer set-up dialog at Menu.

Launch the real one, installing it if need be, and use it instead. It's pretty self-explanatory once you launch it.

    $ sudo apt-get install system-config-printer
    $ system-config-printer

rdesktop works on Ubuntu post Unity fisco. And on Mint. So I'm no longer bemoaning the fact that Remmina can't be configured; I'm just ignoring it. Here's how to set up rdesktop.

1. sudo apt-get install rdesktop
2. Create a launcher.
3. Configure by modifying the Command property in the launcher to the appropriate arguments geometry, connection, username, domain, something like

       rdesktop -g1200x1080 op2-winrds1.hpd5.aus1.snapfish.com -u russellbateman -d AD
   

4. Launch rdesktop and fix whatever you didn't get right.

There isn't one, except GNOME's, but the solution is the same for Unity. This is done by root:

$ apt-get remove gnome-screensaver
$ apt-get install xscreensaver xscreensaver-gl-extra xscreensaver-data-extra

$ ln -s /usr/bin/xscreensaver-command /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command

To reverse (restore default functionality):

$ apt-get remove xscreensaver xscreensaver-gl-extra xscreensaver-data-extra
$ rm /usr/bin/gnome-screensaver-command
$ apt-get install gnome-screensaver

How to upgrade to a newer release.

Ready the ISO...

1. Go to and download (e.g.:) the Linux Mint ISO (not the torrent).

For some years, I have been using K3B.

1. Launch K3b.
2. Choose Tools → Burn image.
3. Navigate to select the ISO downloaded above.
4. Click OK (or rather probably Start).
5. Eject (usually automatic) and label the new DVD (or CD).

I used to use Brasero. If absent, install as root:

# apt-get install brasero

Find in Menu → All Applications. Use option, Burn an image.

Frequently, Brasero gives the message at the end, "Please eject the disc from (device) manually."

Note: Once I installed Brasero (under Mint Sonya) and it wouldn't accept some blank DVD+R discs I had. I installed K3B and it did accept them. Go figure.

1. Install K3B.
2. Insert blank disk into optical drive.
3. Click New Project at upper left, a pane opens below.
4. Navigate in upper, filesystem browser pane, to find what you wish to reproduce on the new disk—click and drag it to the pane below.
5. In the pane below, click Burn.
6. When the filesystems chosen have been copied to the blank disk, the drive will open offering the disk to you. It's ready to use at this point.
7. Without taking special steps, the disk is burned closed and cannot be added to.

The major problem I have with these instructions, which I got here, is that if they fail, and I'm struggling with my display support (why I'm doing this in the first place), the only choice I've found so far is to reinstall.

1. Save off a copy of /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
2. Make this file writable.
3. Edit the file and search for the section named, ### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/10_linux ###.
4. Search again for "quiet splash" under this section and add " text" (minus the quotes) just after those words.
Important note starting with Mint 17 LTS
5. At least by Mint 17, you must...
   1. Look for GRUB_CMD_LINE_DEFAULT="quiet splash".
   2. Add "text" to the end of that command.
   3. Exit the editor (with update).
   4. Run update-grub to integrate these changes.
   5. Cross your fingers.
   6. Reboot the system.

This sort of worked the same for Mint 13.

1. Find and launch the Network setting manager.

   

2. Choose Wired and click Options.

   

3. Click the IPv4 Settings tab and enter the desired values.

   

4. Make the General tab look like this and click Save....

   

This worked a little differently in Mint 13 where there was a Calendar setting in Settings.

How to change date format properly in Mint 17:

1. Menu → All Applications → Applets → Calendar (or Settings → Applets)
2. (Select Calendar.)
3. Click Configure button.
4. Use custom date format.
5. Change Date format: to %a %e %b %Hh%M to get Mon 11 May 15h12"
6. %A %e %B %H:%M to get "Wednesday 2 February 16:59"

...or:

1. Right-click at upper right, the date and time displayed,
2. Choose Configure,
3. Do as above.

Sometimes Cinnamon freezes, though in fairness, it's only happened when I've screwed around with the computer case or something.

1. Switch tty. I usually try Ctrl+Alt+F6.
2. Log in, get root.
3. Type w and press Enter to see the number of the display in use, for example :0.
4. Type export DISPLAY=:0 ; cinnamon &
5. Go back to the graphic displays, to find the one you were on, just start doing Alt+Fn, where Fn is successive function keys, until you "get back" to the screen that froze.

A link to peruse is How do I restart Cinnamon from the tty?.

I found this here, but these are the steps:

1. Launch whatever passes for the GUI filesystem explorer (Nautilus, etc.).
2. Under the File menu, find Connect to Server....
3. Type in the server address or name if you've got that in /etc/hosts.
4. Select Type: SSH and (likely) Port: 22.
5. Add your username and password.
6. Click Connect.

This should do it.

Plugged my microphone into the backplane of my computer and headed for the adjustment:

Once I found that I had to install pavucontrol...

~ $ sudo apt-get install pavucontrol
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  pavucontrol
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 35 not upgraded.
Need to get 116 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,041 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ trusty/universe pavucontrol amd64 2.0-2 [116 kB]
Fetched 116 kB in 0s (136 kB/s)
Selecting previously unselected package pavucontrol.
(Reading database ... 167955 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../pavucontrol_2.0-2_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking pavucontrol (2.0-2) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.6.7.1-1ubuntu1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.54ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.10.1-0ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu1) ...
Setting up pavucontrol (2.0-2) ...
~ $ pavucontrol

(This launches pavucontrol:)

Skype

Reputedly, one must never leave in a checked state the box Allow Skype to automatically adjust my mixer levels at Skype → Options → Sound Devices.

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/how-to/internet/how-stop-shockwave-flash-crashing-in-google-chrome-3332967/

I went here from a link in that article:

http://www.adobe.com/products/eula/tools/flashplayer_usage.html

1. I clicked on Downloads near bottom.
2. I clicked on Adobe Flash Player under Downloads at the right.
3. I selected .rpm for other Linux (there is an option for Debian apt^*).
4. I clicked Download now and saved the file in ~/Downloads.
5. I went to ~/Downloads and did this:

   $ sudo  rpm -Uvh flash-plugin-11.2.202.540-release.x86_64.rpm
   

^* However, at some point, this had already made it onto my Mint 17 box.

After that, I bounced Firefox completely. Back up, it was then able to run France2 news, YouTube and Classical 89 streaming. I don't think it can do those without this plug-in.

I bounced Chrome and looked at its plug-ins. It has only the PepperFlash plug-in, which I'm pretty sure is at the root of my system freezing.

I ensured Shockwave Flash disabled in Chrome:

1. Launch Chrome.
2. Type "about:chrome".
3. Scroll down to and click chrome://plugins.
4. Scroll down to

       Adobe Flash Player - Version: 18.0.0.233
       Shockwave Flash 18.0 r0
       /opt/google/chrome/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so
   

   and click Disable.

My theory is now to use Firefox to play content while still being able to use Chrome for normal work (not including playing content).

When you install Linux Mint fresh, you'll usually find some menus you're used to seeing have gone missing, like Programming. This is because, fresh, there are no items for that menu. Once you add some, the menu will show up. The easier one (or ones) to add are Python (e.g.: v2.7 and v3.5) because they're installed, just not items in the menu yet.

Here's what to do:

1. Ensure alacate is installed because, usually, Main menu won't be found in the Preferences menu unless this program is installed and it doesn't come by default:

       mint@mint ~ $ sudo apt-get install alacarte
   

2. Go to and select Menu → Preferences → Main menu.
3. Click on Programming in the left pane.
4. Check at least one program from the center pane.
5. Likely, you'll find Programming now shows up.

Likely, openssh hasn't been installed. Do this (on the new system you're trying to get into):

$ sudo apt-get install openssh-server

$ sudo hostnamectl set-hostname new-hostname

If the workspaces don't exit (4 of them generally do), enable Hot Corners via the System Settings dialog under the panel menu, then go see them or create them.

To get the squares representation on the panel, for convenience in reaching them, go to the panel menu and look for Applets, then launch it. Scroll down to the bottom to Workspace switcher, right-click and choose Add to panel.

If these land in the wrong place, right-click the panel, and enable Panel edit mode, then move whatever icons fell to the left past to the right of the workspace switcher. I found this doesn't work yet—still trying to fix the problem.

Here's how to upgrade from 18 Sarah to 18.2 Sonya. This is simple because both are based on the same codebase, Ubuntu 16.04.

1. Diable screensaver.
2. Launch Update Manager and apply all updates.
3. Relaunch Update Manager. In menu Edit, choose Update to "Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya".
4. You get a wizard that conducts your preparation for the installation. Here are some notes I found to be potentially useful. They are available at https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_sonya_cinnamon.php. You will be asked to overwrite some configuration files with newer copies. I always chose to overwrite them. There are issues introduced by the upgrade to 18.2 Sonya. In particular, ...

   Known issues

   Cinnamon freezes when changing resolution (Intel GPU)

   If your Intel GPU is recent enough (2007 or newer) it is recommended to remove the legacy Intel driver "xserver-xorg-video-intel" and to use the built-in modesetting driver instead:

   apt remove xserver-xorg-video-intel
   sudo reboot
   

   Not only will the modesetting fix the freeze issue when changing resolutions, it should also work better with Cinnamon and produce better performance.

   The legacy driver is no longer maintained and only useful for the old i800x and i900x family of chipsets.

   If you are using one of these old chipsets or if you do not want to use the modesetting driver, an alternative is to continue to use the "xserver-xorg-video-intel" driver, but to disable VSync:

   echo CLUTTER_VBLANK=none >> ~/.profile
   

   Log out for this change to take effect, and please be aware that disabling Vsync might result in video screen tearing.

   Sound and microphone issues

   If you're facing issues with your microphone or your sound output, please install pavucontrol.

   This will add "PulseAudio Volume Control" to your menu. This application has more configuration options than the default volume control.

5. After the last step, the installation starts; be patient, it won't always give warm fuzzies that it's doing something.
6. After installation, a reboot is required.
7. From Linux Mint: how to upgrade quickly and safely to Mint 18.2 Sonya, I also did:
   1. Install the new display manager LightDM of 18.2.
   2. Correct the Grub bootloader menu items.

When Mint/Ubuntu come with VirtualBox and you attempt to install it (directly) a second time, a big mess results. When you power up your VM, you see:

virtualbox RTR3init failed with rc=-1912

The best advice is to uninstall VirtualBox (every one):

# apt-get purge virtualbox-5.2
# dpkg --purge virtualbox virtualbox-dkms virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11

Then install properly (which, at the time, was using apt-get):

# apt-get install virtualbox-5.2

Incidentally, bounding my installation left configuration such that I never lost the VM definitions I had set up. After re-launching VirtualBox, I was able to continue on installing the OS.

Installing Linux Mint 19 Tara on a Dell Precision 5520 with docking station, once up I had no wired network connection and the USB ports did not work for keyboard, mouse, external drives, etc.

I found a post in the Linux Mint Forums that described an identical failure for another notebook computer and dock. I added to it:

On my first, completely new installation of Linux Mint 19 Tara, I could not get Google Chrome to come up. It launched, was represented by a title on the panel, but no window on the desktop. When I clicked on the Google Chrome title on the panel, a window would briefly flash, then disappear. Note that I have multiple monitors.

I tried all the wiggles recounted here (and elsewhere, such as in Ubuntu forums) of uninstalling using the Software Manager, using apt-get, doing updates, and also I tried:

$ rm -rf ~/.config/google-chrome

Nothing worked until I did this:

$ rm -rf ~/.local/share/applications/chrome*.desktop

(There were many of these.) Then I launched Google Chrome again from the Menu → Internet. Same symptoms, but I right-clicked the panel title again and chose to move it to a different monitor whereupon the window did open on another monitor. I found I could drap the window off that monitor on to my primary display and, after that, the window remained open. I signed in (to Google Chrome), then closed the whole window. Then I relaunched and Google Chrome started up, window open on my desktop just as it should.

1. Menu → Software Manager
2. Type "ntp" into the search box.
3. Click on ntp in the list.
4. Click on the Install button.
5. $ sudo apt-get install ntpstat
6. $ ntpstat.
7. It's probably working as long as
   • you do not see unsynchronized
   • stratum is loger than 16
   • time correct is a "lower" number (like 35 ms)

See How to force Ubuntu (and Mint) updates that are being held back

Install Solaar:

# add-apt-repository ppa:daniel.pavel/solaar
# apt-get update
# apt-get install solaar ( or solaar-gnome3)

This will install solaar at /usr/bin/solar. You must run it as root

$ gksudo solaar