I’ve been trying a few different Linux distros recently, trying to find something better than my previous combination of Xubuntu with AWN. Unfortunately AWN hasn’t been updated in quite some time, so time to find something new.

I tried Elementary OS, but found it’s complete lack of desktop icons annoying. The developers seemed dismissive of user comments on this, which is annoying. You *can* run nautilus to draw the the desktop icons, but that leaves with two file managers depending on where you click and potentially illegible icon text if you use the wrong colour wallpaper. The program launcher also seems a little sluggish.

After a long time avoiding it, I have decided to give Mint a shot. Version 15 was released recently, so it seemed a good time. My only issue with it was that the laptop fan was stuck at full speed after a wakeup from suspend. A little googling came up with this solution:

sudo touch /etc/pm/sleep.d/99_cooldown.sh
sudo chmod +755 /etc/sleep.d/99_cooldown.sh
sudo nano /etc/pm/sleed.d/99_cooldown.sh

In the file paste (ctrl+shift+v) this:

#!/bin/sh
# Stop fan in HP2510p after resuming from sleep
/bin/echo “0” >/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device0/cur_state
/bin/echo “0” >/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device1/cur_state
/bin/echo “0” >/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device2/cur_state
/bin/echo “0” >/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device3/cur_state
/bin/echo “0” >/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device4/cur_state
/bin/echo “0” >/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device5/cur_state
/bin/echo “0” >/sys/class/thermal/cooling_device6/cur_state
/usr/bin/synclient tapbutton2=2 tapbutton3=3
exit 0

The line before exit is optional, but super awesome, allows you to middle click on the trackpad by tapping with two fingers. Useful for opening new tabs from links, closing tabs etc.