raspian-cinnamon-modified

Install RaspianOS with a customizable Cinnamon-desktop and some modern styles.

'Cinnamon' uses more ressources than other desktops. You can try if it's suitable for you on a Raspberry 3b+ or 4b. Otherwise you can install RaspianOS with an also costumizable mate-desktop: https://github.com/TRMSC/raspian-mate-modified

There is plan for making a theme or an image in this repository. Till then you can use the description in this file.

The wallpaper on the image in this repository is from https://wallpaper.dog/dark-linux-mint-wallpapers. Got inspirations for this article from https://mike632t.wordpress.com/2015/08/10/installing-cinnamon-jessie/.

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1. Download the image:

Get the latest RaspianOS LIGHT-image on https://www.raspberrypi.org/software/operating-systems/

Flash the image on a SD-Card.

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2. First settings

Login - userame: pi - password: raspberry (if it doesn't work you have to use a 'z' instead of the 'y')

sudo raspi-config

Localitation options:

• Select time-zone
• Change keyboard layout (for example Generic 105-Key-PC)
• Select wifi-country
• Press escape

Make a reboot.

sudo reboot now

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3. WiFi

If you have an internet-connecion by lan-cable you can skip this step.

sudo nano /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

Add to the end of the file:

network={
    ssid="networkname"
    psk="networkpassword"
}

Press CTRL+O - Enter - CTRL+X

sudo reboot now

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4. Select language

Now you can change the language.

sudo raspi-config

Localitation options - Change Locale:

• Select with space for example en_US.UTF-8 or de_DE.UTF-8.
• Unselect the languages you don't need if they are selected.
• Press enter.
• Select the default language und press enter again.
• Press escape when finished.

Make a reboot.

sudo reboot now

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5. Update & Upgrade

Let's do an update and upgrade.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

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6. User

Create a new user for example 'monica':

sudo useradd -m monica -G sudo

Select a password:

sudo passwd monica

sudo reboot now

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6. Login

Login with your new useraccount.

If you want you can delete the pi-user by typing in:

sudo deluser -remove-home pi
sudo rm /etc/sudoers.d/010_pi-nopasswd

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6. Install the desktop

Now everything is done for installing:

sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core xfonts-base xinit cinnamon-core lightdm libgl1-mesa-dri x11-xserver-utils gnome-terminal --no-install-recommends

Make a reboot:

sudo reboot now

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7. Style the cinnamon.css

In further versions I want to make a whole theme or finished image in this repository.

For now you can make some changes manually.

sudo nano /usr/share/cinnamon/theme/cinnamon.css

Change some stylesheets by replacing the following sections or individual parts:

.menu {
    border-radius: 35px 5px 35px 10px; /*rounded corners*/
    background-color: rgba(80,80,80,0.9);
    border-width: 1px;
    border-color: #ffffff;
    color: #ffffff; /*textcolor*/
    min-width: 100px;
    margin-bottom: 5px; /*distance to the panel*/ 
    margin-left: 5px; /*distance to the left*/
}
#panel {
    color: #ffffff; /*textcolor*/
    background-color: rgba(80,80,80,0.4);
    border: 1px solid rgba(80,80,80,0.7);
    border-radius: 18px; /*rounded corners*/
    font-weight: normal;
    height: 50px; /*change high depended on your screen*/
    width: 32px;
    padding-left: 15px; /*left distance to the menu-button*/
    padding-right: 15px; /*right distance to the clock*/
    margin-left: 5px; /*left distance to the screen*/
    margin-right: 5px; /*right distance to the screen*/
}

Press CTRL+O - Enter - CTRL+X

Go to menu - settings - themes and activate 'cinnamon' for desktop.

You can get the original cinnamon.css back here: https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/blob/master/data/theme/cinnamon.css

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8. More changes

The changes you made are only for the menu and panel. Further you can make the following changes:

• You can change 'controls' to 'Adwaita-dark'
• You can download more themes by clicking 'Add/ remove' - for example 'Adapta-Nokto' for the window-borders

Application-symbols in the middle of the panel:

• Rightclick on the panel - 'Add applets to panel' and choose 'panel launchers'
• Rightclick on the panel - 'Panel editing mode'
• Take the new symbols to the middle of the panel
• Rightclick on the panel - 'Panel editing mode' (deactivate)
• Now you can get more symbols there by rightclick on applications in the menu - 'add to panel'

You also can change the following:

• Rightclick on 'menu' - configure for deleting the menu-text and choose an individual icon
• Change the background image by clicking right on the desktop

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9. Optional packages

You have a distribution without recommended software. If you want you can for example install the following tools:

sudo apt-get install chrome-browser #browser
sudo apt-get install firefox-esr #browser
sudo apt-get install geany #editor
sudo apt-get install gnome-utils #eg screenshot-tool
sudo apt-get install synaptic #paketmanager