mintInstall 5.2

I know what you’re thinking.. third announcement about mintInstall in less than a week. Well, things go fast at the moment we’re getting good feedback and I’d like to finalize mintInstall so I can start working on something else (namely x64 and an upgrade tool).

Hopefully, this is the last mintInstall update until Linux Mint 6. Here are the improvements since mintInstall 5.1:

  • Under KDE, kdesu is used instead of gksu
  • The gksu/kdesu dialog now shows a simple “Please enter your password” message instead of a long and obscure command line (the message is localized of course).
  • Known categories (including all categories from the Software Portal) are now localized.

If you missed the previous announcements about mintInstall 5 you can read about them here:

MintInstall 5.2 is available in Romeo. If you don’t have Romeo enabled you can get the debs from here:

Let us know what you think, report any bug you may find and have a lot of fun with this brand new mintInstall.

To translate mintInstall into your own language, use this forum thread: http://www.linuxmint.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=43&t=16406

36 comments

  1. i thank to for the update (i like fast updates 🙂 ), and i have the same opinion, the 64bit version is not stable, and for the moment there is no “real” good reason to use a 64bit system (because there is a kernel with that we can use more than 3gb ram)

  2. Well I believe I found the problem. When I press the install button this is what I get in the console:

    kdesu: Unknown option ‘–comment’.
    kdesu: Use –help to get a list of available command line options.

    Any idea?

  3. I think the 64 bit version is a good idea. When i first got my new machine I had Hardy 64 bit loaded until Mint 5 was released. The 64 bit system was more stable than the 32 bit version at the time. The 64 bit version booted up much faster than the 32 bit system and a great deal of the applications are 64 bit specific, OpenOffice and Firefox come to mind.

    64 bit systems are the future and more and more people are asking for a 64 bit edition. The only drawback I saw with 64 bit was higher memory use but even with only 1GB of RAM I was able to run without any problems.

    I think the 64 bit edition is very important to Mint.

  4. I’m glad to hear that the team (or at least you) will finally be working on the 64 bit. I’ve been using Mint only on live USB and to show off Linux in general. But once mint 64-bit is out, I will definitely be moving to Mint full-time.

    To those who’s wondering why I need a 64-bit OS, it is because I work on MATLAB a lot. Having use both (School is using 32 bit, but I use 64), I can really tell the difference.

    Cheers and good luck,

  5. Hi, Clem.
    I found two problems and have a question in 5.2. I use Mint 5 XFCE CE.

    Problem:
    1. kdesu is called.
    When ‘Install’ button clicked, installing process doesn’t run and following messages appeared.

    kdesu: unknown option ‘–comment’.
    kdesu: use –help to show available commandline options.

    *Those English messages are my translation from Japanese. I don’t confirm exacting Eng. messages.

    2. msgid “Internet Relay Chat” doesn’t work.
    Translated string of above msgid isn’t displayed in category tree pane. (Displayed just English string)

    Question:
    I can’t find any messages when apt is locked by other application(e.g.Synaptic) such as “Another application is using APT”(mintUpdate). I can’t confirm it due to above problem. If there are no problem or have no relation, please forget my question:)

    Sorry for my English and best regards.

  6. I had tons of issues with hardy x64… none with the 32bit edition.
    maybe in 2 or three years it will be stable enough, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

  7. from linuxmint.com/software, when ‘Install’ button clicked, installing process doesn’t run.

    ^_^

    i don’t speak english…sorry

    bye

  8. 5.2

    a) reloaded app-cache => install button doesnt work anymore
    b) confirm IRC localisation doesnt work here too

  9. I tried to install one package by mintInstall during Synaptic is running. (Mint5 Main Edition)
    Synaptic output error message and mintInstall’s installing process was aborted.

  10. The “Internet Relay Chat” translation was fixed. All you need is to refresh mintInstall.

    I’m working on fixing the kdesu problem but:
    – it works fine under KDE CE
    – I can’t seem to find kdesu installed in XFCE CE..

    Nonetheless it checks the presence of kdesu.. and what it should do instead is to check the data in /etc/linuxmint/info. So I’ll fix that.

    As for Synaptic… mintInstall uses Synaptic in the background to proceed with the installation of packages, so I wouldn’t expect them to run well at the same time. In general, APT applications don’t cohabitate very well.

  11. debug says mintInstall 5.2 when clicking Install:

    wTree = gtk.glade.XML(gladefile, “main_window”)
    kdesu: unknown option “–comment”.
    kdesu: use parameter “–help”, to see available options

    sorry if i am wrong but shoul mInstall not use gksu in gnome and not kdesu?

  12. thanks Clem, i had no problem, but i’m impressed how much the community is respected by you, and how fast you fix the bugs.

  13. Looks very good, installed easily and refreshed successfully. Everything works great until you ask it install a package and nothing happens. Has anyone else had this problem ( Running Elyssa Gnome )

  14. Clem,
    i noticed after my last words this morning that isntall didn’t work.
    I run Gnome desktop and now with MintInstall 5.2.1 and MintSystem 5.4 it runs perfect.
    Thanks again.

  15. Hi,

    mintinstall 5.2.1 installed
    mintsystem 5.4 installed

    Still all in English

    The first message i received when i open the mintinstall 5.2.1
    was: Please, refresh mintinstall by clicking on the the refresh
    button

    OK

    Translation – Por favor, atualize o mintinstall clicando no botão
    atualizar

    OK

    I refreshed mintinstall 5.2.1 and the operation took 25m to be
    completed. I got a good broadband connection.

    477 applications loaded
    477 screenshots loaded

    Mintinstall 5.2.1 is working good here. I have tested buttons,
    screenshots, categories, etc.

    I installed through mintinstall 5.2.1 Inkscape and Frostwire
    Perfect.

    I am a bit confused. Should i have reloaded synaptic or apt-get update
    before starting running mintinstall 5.2.1 for the first time?

    Note: Maybe i am wrong but mintinstall does not show if an application
    is already installed. (you must know by yourself)

    Thanks! Nice Work!

    cheers

  16. Last comment : mintinstall does not show if an application
    is already installed.
    If you select an application and click on version button you got the information.
    It works for me.

  17. Add to previous comment : if Roberto means that you dont know at first sight wich applications are allready installed, perhaps could it be possible to show in the left upper array a column to display if the applicatioon is already installed or show lines in a different color for already installed application.

  18. Roberto take 25m to refresh, for me it take a time but not so long. I have see that at every refresh the screenshots a redownloaded again, and that is it what take the time. So is it not possible that the refresh, check the date of the .mint files, and only when there is a new date/version the screenshots are redownloaded??

    but for the rest, everythink work flawless 🙂

  19. I’m not sure I understand when you say that mintInstall doesn’t show when the application is already installed.

    How do you reproduce that?

    – Select an application that’s already installed
    – Click Install
    – mintInstall (the installer, not the frontend) appears and asks if you want to upgrade it.

    That works fine for me. If it’s not the case on your system, please run the tool from the command line and tell me what you see (behaviour and error messages): /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/frontend.py

  20. Clem

    Running from terminal gives the following:

    wilf@Mint-Elyssa ~ $ /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/frontend.py
    /usr/lib/linuxmint/mintInstall/frontend.py:254: GtkWarning: gtk_scrolled_window_add(): cannot add non scrollable widget use gtk_scrolled_window_add_with_viewport() instead
    wTree = gtk.glade.XML(gladefile, “main_window”)
    kdesu: Unknown option ‘–comment’.
    kdesu: Use –help to get a list of available command line options.

    Hope this helps.

  21. @Clem – – Select an application that’s already installed
    – Click Install
    – mintInstall (the installer, not the frontend) appears and asks if you want to upgrade it.

    Yes correct. You are right.

    MintInstall 5.2.1 is working very good for me.
    Both
    Mint Gnome Main Edition 5 Elyssa
    Mint KDE CE RC1 5 Elyssa

    Thanks for the feedback.

  22. Fornhamfred: That looks like version 5.2 to me, make sure you’ve got version 5.2.1. Also, copy the content of your /etc/linuxmint/info, the version of your mintsystem package and tell me what edition you’re running.

  23. Clem since you mentioned adding other portals to MintInstall like GetDeb, I thought I’d mention a new portal I just found that would be great to have included, PlayDeb.

    They repo: deb mirror://www.getdeb.net/playdeb-mirror/hardy/// hardy/

    And here is the website: http://www.playdeb.net/

  24. Clem

    Checked and yes even though I downloaded 5.2.1 from this blog it did not install. Have now re-installed 5.2.1 and all is working great. All these improvements make it easier to get windows users to change to Mint.

    Info is: RELEASE=5
    CODENAME=Elyssa
    EDITION=Main Edition
    DESCRIPTION=”Linux Mint 5 Elyssa – Main Edition”
    DESKTOP=Gnome
    TOOLKIT=GTK

    Thanks for all your work.

  25. It took _more than an hour_ to “refresh” on a 256 kbps line. Horribly slow 🙁 At the same time synaptic “reloads” in less than a minute. MintInstall downloaded more than 50 megabytes of screenshots during refresh.. Is it really needed?

  26. How is mintInstall different from gnome-app-install (“Add/Remove Software” in Ubuntu) from user’s perspective? It seems essentially the same.. Have I missed anything?

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