Linux Mint

Folders, Files, Updates & Installs

Table of Contents
What is a Folder and how are they organised?.....................................................................................1
The ‘Home’ Folder and ‘Places’ shortcuts............................................................................................2
Other “Places”......................................................................................................................................3
Creating a New Folder..........................................................................................................................4
Moving and Copying Files & Folders..................................................................................................4
Using the Update Manager...................................................................................................................6
Installing New Software.......................................................................................................................7

What is a Folder and how are they organised?

A Folder (or Directory in some nomenclature) is, at its most basic, a container for files and other
folders. If a Folder contains another Folder, it is known as a ‘parent’ and the folders it contains are
‘children’. As there can be multiple children, any organisation is branched therefore it’s
unsurprising that the structure is known as a ‘tree’ and the ultimate parent folder is the ‘root’.

The root folder is expressed with a forward-slash:

Users’ files are kept in /home, so your user folder is:

/home/dennis/

This is known as the ‘directory path’ – the full route to the folder from root.

A file in that folder called ‘readme.txt’ would be referenced with the ‘full file path’ of:

/home/dennis/readme.txt

An MP3 in your Music folder could be something like:

/home/dennis/Music/Abba.mp3

Most of the time though, you’ll just be dealing with their icons in a File Manager window (see page
4). It might be important, however, to understand the underlying principle.

One last thing on the ‘tree’ just for reference: DOS/Windows treat each drive/disk/volume as a
separate tree, Linux instead ‘mounts’ the drive into a Folder in the main system tree. This is pretty
much hidden from you if you use the ‘Computer’ Place icon from the menu/desktop (see page 3).
The ‘Home’ Folder and ‘Places’ shortcuts

Figure 1: File manager window showing 'Home' folder

The “Home” Folder is one of the icons/menu buttons you’ll probably use the most. If you’ve used
MATE before, you’re probably used to clicking on the “Home” icon placed on the desktop. When
windows are opened and when the desktop is not completely visible, the menu can prove useful by
providing you with a way to quickly access your “Home”.

Your “Home” folder exists to give you a place to put all of your personal data.
Home contains several other default folders for organising your files: Documents for Office
productivity, Downloads as your default place/folder that your web-browser puts your downloaded
files, Music, Pictures and Videos for those respective media.

The “Desktop” folder corresponds to what is shown on your desktop, so placing a file here will also
place it on your desktop. The same effect can be achieved by simply dragging the file onto the
desktop.

These folders are also represented as “places” – convenient shortcuts to these folders – at the left-
hand side in both the main system menu and the standard Save windows:

Figure 2: Places examples

Other “Places”
The “Browse Network” Place simply shows you the other computers, shared services, domains, and
workgroups present on your network.

The “Trash” Place is where files end up after you delete them.
When you right click on a file you can either “Move to Trash” or “Delete”. If you choose to
“Delete”, the file will be permanently deleted and you normally won’t be able to recover it. If you
choose “Move to Trash” it will be moved to the “Trash” Place, which is accessible from the menu.
From there you will be able to drag and drop it somewhere else if you want to restore it,
permanently delete one or more files, or select “Empty Trash” if you want to permanently delete all
items from the Trash.

The “Computer” Place, accessible from the Desktop or main system Menu, shows you the storage
volumes present in your computer, such as Hard Drives, CD/DVD drives, USB thumb-sticks etc. If
your partitions are already mounted and “Desktop Settings” is set to show “Mounted Volumes” on
the desktop, then you probably don’t need to access this Place very often. However, if you choose
not to show the mounted volumes on your desktop, or if you need to mount a partition which is not
mounted by default, this Place can prove very useful.

Figure 3: File manager window showing 'Computer' place.

Creating a New Folder
Open a File Manager window of the ‘parent’ folder in which you’d like to create the new one.
Either:
-Right Click in a blank area of the main panel of the window, select ‘Create Folder’, or
-Select ‘Create Folder’ from the ‘File’ menu on the menu bar, or
-Press [Ctrl]+[Shift]+[N] on the keyboard,
then name the folder underneath its new icon in the main panel.

Moving and Copying Files & Folders

The most direct way to move files and folders around is to drag them from one File Manager
window to another, with the source and target folders open in the respective windows. If the files
and folders are on the same volume, they will be moved, else they will be copied (for example from
hard drive to USB stick). More complex operations are achieved via Cut/Copy/Paste operations,
much like a block of text in a word-processor or range of cells in a spreadsheet. Select the files and
folders you wish to operate on, Cut (Move) or Copy them (via [Ctrl]+[x] or [Ctrl]+[c] respectively
or via the Edit menu on the menu bar) from the source folder, traverse to the target folder and Paste
([Ctrl]+[v] or Edit menu) into it.

To select an individual file or folder, left-click on it.

A group of files may be ‘lassoed’ by holding the left mouse button down and drawing a lasso box
around the files:

Figure 4: Lasso example

OR
A range of files can be selected by clicking the first in the range, holding [Shift] and clicking the
last in the range:

Figure 5: Range (Shift-click) example

Multiple individual files can be selected by clicking on the first file/folder, then holding [Ctrl] while
clicking further selections:

Figure 6: Multiple individual (Ctrl-click) selection example.

Just remember to let go of [Ctrl] if you need to scroll!
Using the Update Manager
Linux Mint comes with a tool called the Update Manager. It gives more information
about updates and lets you define how safe an update must be before you want to apply it.
It looks like a shield and sits on the bottom-right corner of your screen.
If you place your mouse pointer on top of it, it will tell you either that your system is up
to date or, if it isn't, how many updates are available.

Figure 7: Update Manager Window

If you click on the lock icon, the Update Manager opens and the first time it will ask you
if you want to switch to a local mirror for your updates. Everywhere in the world there
are organisations that want to help Linux Mint to spread updates in order to give users the
best experience when downloading or updating packages. If you don't want to use a local
mirror then you can change this under Edit-Preferences.
The Update Manager shows you the updates that are available. The interface is very easy
to use. For each package update you can read the description, the changelog (this is
where developers explain their changes when they modify the package), and eventually if
Linux Mint assigned warnings or extra information about the updates. You can also see
which version is currently installed on your computer and which version is available for
you to update to. Also you have a symbol showing if it's a {down arrow icon} Package update or a
{exclamation ! Icon} Security update.
Finally, you can see the stability level assigned to the package update. Each package
update brings improvements or fixes security issues but that doesn’t mean they’re risk-
free and can’t introduce new bugs. The stability level is assigned to each package by
Linux Mint and gives you an indication of how safe it is for you to apply an update.

Once you have decided your selection, click on “Install Updates” on the toolbar. You will be asked
for your password and to confirm any additional library files required. You might need to do this
twice if the Update Manager itself needs an update!

Installing New Software

From the main system Menu (the equivalent of Windows’ Start Button), the “Software Manager”
button launches the Linux Mint Software Manager. This program is the recommended way to install
software in Linux Mint.

There are thousands of programs to install, all free, available via the categories or the search box at
the top of the window.

Figure 8: Software Manager main window.

If you, for example, searched for Backgammon, selected the top example ‘GnuBG’ then all you’d
need to do is click install at the top, and enter your password. See next Figure.

If it doesn’t appear in the ‘All Applications’ section of the main system menu, then a quick reboot
will fix it.
 Figure 9: Installing GnuBG

Switching between ‘Favourites’ and ‘All Applications’ is at the top-right of the main menu. Right-
clicking on programs can add (or remove) them to Favourites/Desktop/Taskbar Panel via a menu.

Figure 10: The main system menu (start button)