Note: The tips here are for Debian-based Linux distributions (Debian, Ubuntu, LinuxMint, Pop!_OS, AntiX, etc.).

Debian Specific

1. If you installed Debian without a desktop environment, and wants to install a customized desktop environment now, make sure to install a DE manager (e.g., gdm, lightdm, etc.) as well. without a login/DE manager, Linux won't boot into DE automatically. Of course, you can still manually start X using startx.

2. Edit the APT (advance package tool) configuration file /etc/apt/sources.list. By default, Debian uses the installing media as a repository after installation. However, the media is usually removed and thus unavailable after installation. So, you probably want to delete or comment out the repository using the installing media. Also, if you did not use a network mirror duing installation, you have to add a debian repository into the APT configuration file manually. For example, you can add the following lines into the APT configuration file.

   deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
   deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
   

   It is suggested that you include contrib and non-free in the repository. This ensures that you can also use many non-open source but cost-free softwares.

3. Install the sudo package and configure it. You have to switch to root to install packages. To switch to root, type in su (super user) in the terminal. You will be asked for the password of root. After authentication, you are in root user. Notice that the prompt character is # (instead of $) for the root user. You can type apt-get install sudo in the terminal (as root) to install the package sudo. After installation of sudo, you have to add your user name to the sudo group. To do this, run the following command as root.

   adduser your_user_name sudo
   

   However, this will not take effect immediately. To notify the change (of group permission) to the system, you can run the following command as root.

   newgrp sudo
   

   If this does not work, you can manually log out and then log in and the change of group permissions will take effect. Now you are in the sudo group, you can use sudo (instead of the root user) to run commands that need root permission. You can now exit the root terminal (by running exit) if you are still in the root terminal.

4. If the wireless network is not working, refer to Wireless for Debian for possible solutions.

LMDE Specific

1. By default, LMDE installs 486 on 32 bit computers. If your computer has more than 1 cores/processors, you can upgrade to 686-pae manually by running the following command in terminal and then reboot your computer.

   wajig install linux-image-3.0.0-1-686-pae
   

Other Debian-based Linux Distributions

1. Tune settings to make your Linux machine run faster. For more discussions, please refer to Make Linux Run Faster .

2. Install a good alternative package manager. apt-get is a very good package manager for Debian series Linux distributions, however, wajig is much superior choice.

   sudo apt-get install wajig
   

3. Upgrade the system.

   wajig update && wajig upgrade
   

4. Swap the Caps Lock key with the Escape key. Please refer to Map Keys in Linux for detailed discussions.

5. Install must-have software (using wajig).

   • aria2, uGet
   • Chrome, Firefox
   • Sogou Pinyin
   • Transimission
   • Dropbox, Baidu Netdisk

   This list might not be the best for everyone. For a general list of useful software/tools for Linux, please check the post Useful Tools in Linux.