Category: Mint

installing docker on linux mint 22 while using fish

whbeebe

I had a need to install Docker on my system in order to run a software test, because that’s what the source repo called for. So I set about finding instructions on how to install Docker on my Linux Mint 22 system while using fish (friendly interactive shell). A surprising number of how-tos in this area are wrong. When I did find a how-to that focused specifically on Linux Mint 22, the instructions were still wrong. I finally settled on using the official Docker instructions for Ubuntu (since Linux Mint is downstream from Ubuntu) with one key instruction properly edited to work with fish.

What is this instruction, and why must it be tweaked to work with fish? Before I answer that let me say that too many Linux/Unix users try to be too clever by half, especially the official documentation and how-to instruction writers. But I digress…

What you want to do is to create a one-line text file at /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list that contains this line for this version of Linux Mint:

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu noble stable

You’re welcome.

And this is the bit of overly complicated fish script that will accomplish this:

echo \"deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu \$(string split = $(grep UBUNTU_CODENAME /etc/os-release) -f 2) stable" | \sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list > /dev/null

All the fish specific magic is on line 3. It’s here we search for the line containing UBUNTU_CODENAME in /etc/os-release, split the line on the equals sign, and then use the second element returned in the string array. You can save yourself some aggravation by just copying the result line and then using sudo to echo that one line to /etc/apt/sources.list.d/docker.list. You still have to do some more work, which is at the official Docker documentation site, in the links below. What you want to focus on is “Install using the apt repository.”

Links

Install Docker Engine on Ubuntu — https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/ubuntu/

cleaning up my mint messes

whbeebe1 Comment
fastfetch

I’ve spent yesterday evening and today performing a clean installation of Linux Mint 22 and then moving my content over to it. I’ve been grumbling about abandoning Mint because of its atrocious update tool. I’d spoken about moving back to either Fedora (41) or Ubuntu (24.10). So I swapped a blank SSD into my system, downloaded an ISO of each distribution and installed them one by one onto my system to give them both a quick spin. They’re both excellent, but my personal preferences are still towards Linux Mint, regardless of its flaws. In the end I installed Mint 22 and I’ve been tuning it to my liking since late this morning.

Performing a clean install of any operating system allows you to start a-fresh with just the applications and setup you want. By the time I’d reached a point of operational parity with my older Mint installation, my SSD usage with Mint 22 was 10%, compared to 30% with Mint 21.3. And that Mint 22 usage includes all the tool and development folders I copied over from the older Mint system to new system. I don’t know where all the extra cruft came from on the older Mint 21 installation, except perhaps the applications I installed over the years left behind a lot of cache and configuration data when the application was uninstalled.

The newly installed system is performing much better than before. The desktop is snappier and it appears that running tasks finish faster as well. Desktop graphics, especially text, is clearer and cleaner. This is due in no small part to being based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and advances in the Cinnamon desktop, although the absolute latest Cinnamon desktop won’t show up until Mint 22.1 officially arrives with Cinnamon 6.4 in tow. It will be interesting to see if the next Mint release updates without any issues on my newish Mint system.