Linux Mint 18.2 “Sonya” Xfce – BETA Release

by ·57 Comments

This is the BETA release for Linux Mint 18.2 “Sonya” Xfce Edition.

Linux Mint 18.2 Sonya Xfce Edition

Linux Mint 18.2 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2021. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use.

New features:

This new version of Linux Mint contains many improvements.

For an overview of the new features please visit:

“What’s new in Linux Mint 18.2 Xfce“.

Important info:

The release notes provide important information about known issues, as well as explanations, workarounds and solutions.

To read the release notes, please visit:

“Release Notes for Linux Mint 18.2 Xfce”

System requirements:

  • 512MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
  • 9GB of disk space (20GB recommended).
  • Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution (1024×768 recommended).
  • DVD drive or USB port.

Notes:

  • The 64-bit ISO can boot with BIOS or UEFI.
  • The 32-bit ISO can only boot with BIOS.
  • The 64-bit ISO is recommend for all modern computers (Almost all computers sold since 2007 are equipped with 64-bit processors).

Upgrade instructions:

  • This BETA release might contain critical bugs, please only use it for testing purposes and to help the Linux Mint team fix issues prior to the stable release.
  • It will be possible to upgrade from this BETA to the stable release.
  • It will also be possible to upgrade from Linux Mint 18.1. Upgrade instructions will be published after the stable release of Linux Mint 18.2.

Bug reports:

  • Please report bugs below in the comment section of this blog.
  • When reporting bugs, please be as accurate as possible and include any information that might help developers reproduce the issue or understand the cause of the issue:
    • Bugs we can reproduce, or which cause we understand are usually fixed very easily.
    • It is important to mention whether a bug happens “always”, or “sometimes”, and what triggers it.
    • If a bug happens but didn’t happen before, or doesn’t happen in another distribution, or doesn’t happen in a different environment, please mention it and try to pinpoint the differences at play.
    • If we can’t reproduce a particular bug and we don’t understand its cause, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to fix it.
  • Please visit https://github.com/linuxmint/Roadmap to follow the progress of the development team between the BETA and the stable release.

Download links:

Here are the download links for the 64-bit ISO:

A 32-bit ISO image is also available at https://www.linuxmint.com/download_all.php.

Integrity and authenticity checks:

Once you have downloaded an image, please verify its integrity and authenticity.

Anyone can produce fake ISO images, it is your responsibility to check you are downloading the official ones.

Enjoy!

We look forward to receiving your feedback. Many thanks in advance for testing the BETA!

57 comments

  1. Wow… I didn’t expect a BETA realease for LM 18.2 XFCE so soon. Clem and team, thank you for your hard work on the most usable and stable GNU/Linux distribution.

    Reply

  2. In 18.1 Xfce, using Claws, ‘Message View’ unticked was not persistent; needed Ctrl-V pressed every time new message sent, received or opened. Did not occur in any previous Xfce Mint. Will look at 18.2 and report.

    Reply

  3. Bonjour ,
    le passage a : xfwm4 4.13.0-1mint1+sonya fonctionne mal : effet :
    les fenêtres ne sont plus “déplaçables”
    @+

    Edit by Clem: Did the WM crash? How do you reproduce the issue?

    Reply

  6. Hi!
    it’s possible to avoid update manager to pop-up in front of all to show only “hey i’m start downloading packages!” and “hey! i’m start updating packages” and stay in a background window?
    After asking for pass, of course.
    thanks!

    Reply

  7. XFCE and KDE Beta released just 5 days after the “main” DEs, that’s a nice surprise

    Notifications, like volume one, in XFCE don’t show up when fullscree

    Reply

  9. I am very excited for this distribution. Couple things:

    1) While listening to music on media player, I notice scroll arrows still appear in the tiny volume window that opens when clicked. Instead of having to scroll up and down in that tiny window, shouldn’t the window expand to match the new size as programs like Spotify and Media Player populate and grow the menu height as they are launched?

    2) I second io’s concern in comment 6.

    3) Would it be possible to drop an AI in that learns and internalizes my own ethical agenda and moral compass? This, with the goal of imbuing my laptop with problematic self-awareness, so that if I lose my computer, it seeks me out in a desperate quest for solutions?

    Thanks for your hard work. I donated.

    Reply

  10. Hi Clem and team.
    The xfce4-weather-plugin 0.8.6 seems to have stopped working. It either needs to be patched somehow or upgraded to 0.8.9 which seems to work fine.

    Thanks for the great work!

    Reply

  11. RE: UEFI install in VMWare – BUG?. There seems to be a bug when I install 18.2 XFCE as a VMWare client (12.5). I get a prompt after setting partitions manually (500G for UEFI, and 25G for install root) saying about forcing UEFI install and I get the back button as well as continue button. However choosing either does nothing. Can’t close this prompt with the “x” either. This prompt appears to be a debian prompt.

    I do not have this with Mint 18.1 UEFI install in same client config.

    Reply

  14. @io (June 12th, 2017 at 7:53 pm)
    You are right the update manager constantly popping up is really annoying.

    I also get this error:
    W: Can’t drop privileges for downloading as file ‘/var/cache/apt/archives/partial/python3-xapp_1.0.1_all.deb’ couldn’t be accessed by user ‘_apt’. – pkgAcquire::Run (13: Permission denied)

    I’m not sure if this happens because I’m booting up from a flash drive with a little persistence file.
    I remember I got the same error while updating on LM 18.1 Cinnamon, booting in the same conditions.
    I thought this would’ve been solved by now.
    I have a common data partition (NTFS) that I can access from both Windows and Linux, but here in XFCE I can’t see it listed in the left panel of the file manager like in other desktop environments.
    Another problem with the file manager is zooming in by pressing CTRL++ on the keyboard. It seems that it doesn’t work for me, while other types of zooming by keyboard are working OK.
    Other things:
    I like that Gparted is installed
    I don’t like that VLC is not installed
    I like that a torrent manager is installed, but I find Transmission way too simple and light on features.
    I prefer qBittorrent because it allows you to search the torrents list, files list, has torrents tagging with labels/categories, has a web interface and a remote control for Android, etc.

    Edit by Clem: VLC is installed when you install the multimedia codecs (you can do in the installation, or from the welcome screen or from the sound and multimedia menu).

    Reply

  15. Automated encrypted installation gives me a hard times, when I use two hard disk drives. When I try to select faster SSD (/dev/sdd), installer installs OS on it, but GRUB goes to my HDD (/dev/sdc). Also installer likes to install GRUB on installation media, when I use Multisystem boot stick which is recognized as /dev/sda. Behavior can be handled by using manual installation method, but I hope that automated installation can be improved in near future. Maybe installer could ask where user wants to install GRUB during automated encrypted version of installation?

    Reply

  16. Lock screen is activated on installation media and it requires user and password information. Could lock screen feature be disabled on installation media or could user be informed how to handle this issue?

    Edit by Clem: It’s on the roadmap for the next release. We’ll show live information in slick-greeter. In the meantime please use “mint” for the username and press Enter when asked for a password.

    Reply

  17. I can confirm that the xfce4-weather-plugin doesn’t work (it stopped working in current version of Mint some weeks ago). It needs to be updated (I simply installed a package from the newest Ubuntu repository, version 0.8.9).

    The second thing: I can’t receive files over Bluetooth. It doesn’t work in the current version of Mint either. I had to remove blueberry and install blueman, obexftp and obexpushd, and do some workaround (it works only if there is one user in the system): edit “Exec=/usr/lib/bluetooth/obexd” line in the file “/usr/share/dbus-1/services/org.bluez.obex.service” → “Exec=/usr/lib/bluetooth/obexd -r /home/USERNAME”.

    And the last thing: month names in Slavic and some other languages (ie. in date & time applet) aren’t handled properly. I am not a programmer, so I am not sure, but I think it has to do with strftime and the problem affects core system (some discussion can be found https://sourceware.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=10871). Dates are handled correctly by the KDE / LXQt DE’s and Qt apps (with exceptions), Chrome and Tomboy (at least I didn’t notice any problems with long dates). I checked it in the XFCE under FreeBSD – it is also wrong, but the other way. For instance in Polish locale as of today:
    • “%d %B %Y” in the applet: “14 czerwiec 2017” [Linux, wrong] and “14 czerwca 2017“ [FreeBSD, OK]
    • month name in the calendar heading: “czerwiec“ [Linux, OK] and “czerwca“ [FreeBSD, wrong]

    But anyway, thanks for all the good work.

    Reply

  19. Let me start thanking you guys for a fantastic distribution!

    @Clem

    On Linux Mint 18.2 Xfce Sonya beta, some application icons are too big in the Xfce Panel tray. I have experienced it with Clementine and the Google Drive client, Insync. I don’t know how big they get, but you almost can’t see the icon, that’s how big it gets.

    Reply

  20. In a few cases, installing the microcode package offered by Driver Manager, causes an unbootable system. It’s a sensitive package, which (if it would be a regular update) would need to be classified as level 4.

    Maybe it’s a good idea to remove this package from Driver Manager altogether, because it’s only seldom that the microcode in the BIOS isn’t sufficient. What do you think?

    Its description in Driver Manager is misleading, too: it reports that “this device isn’t working” when the microcode package isn’t installed. Obviously that’s untrue.

    Reply

  21. I suggest performing following actions during installation:
    sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
    sudo sensors-detect

    This would detect CPU fan and make it rotate with optimal speed. I think this patch should be tested with various h/w and maybe applied in mint 18.3

    By default now cpu fan rotates at default speed

    Reply

  22. Not compatible with Minix Neo z83-4, many devices are not detected.

    Although HDMI is pefect, primary and secodard memory peripherals are correctly deceted, No microcode driver support, no hdmi audio, no audio, no wifi, no bluetooth (NT-II stereo headset), no IR support (A2 Lite gyro remote). Lame.

    Reply

  23. I just installed this on my old Dell laptop. It is amazing how smooth it is on such an old computer. I really like lightdm and it seems to have a bit of a speed improvement over mdm without the hiccups of manually installing it. Thanks for another great release.

    Reply

  24. I have installed 18.2 xfce beta on a notebook. I have not noticed an issue, runs smooth, fast and reliable. Therefore I have also installed my backup files and some software – no problem. Whatever has to be fixed (if any), it can not be much. Thanks to the team, great work. I am looking forward to upgrade to the stable release as Mint is Linux as its finest.

    Post no. 20:
    Good point, Pjotr. I would like to add that almost all users, but not every user, should trust in updated “linux firmware”. In most cases linux firmware can handle microcode packages, instead of the latest evolution of technologies.

    Reply

  25. I’ve had problems with Dolphin not showing image previews since mint 18.0 does this version fix this problem, if I go to settings -> Configure Dolphin -> General -> Previews there’s just an empty box so I’m guessing Dolphin is expecting a particular programme for thumbnailing but can’t find it. Any ideas ???

    Reply

  26. Soy aficionado a probar toda clase de Linux, con Mint estuve un tiempo pero lo cargare de nuevo para participar en el Blog.

    Reply

  27. BUG, always:
    In the Installer, manual diskformating: It is not possible to set up non-encryptet lvm. It was possible in prerious releases.

    BUG, always: Codecs Installer is not in the menu after installation.

    Reply

  28. BUG, always:
    When I dont move the mouse for a while during Instalation, the screen look and I cant go back. => Maybe screen looking only on after installation.

    Reply

  30. Thanks for the updated release with Kernel 4.8 8)
    Installation went fine and the none-working ‘xfce4-weather-plugin’ has already been updated to the working 0.8.9 version…great job.

    BUG (maybe): The ‘Synchronize drawing to the vertical blank’ in compositor options always revert to off when i close the window and open it again.
    I’m a AMD RX480 user so anyway i installed the amdgpu-pro driver from AMD and afterwards i got rid off the annoying tearing with a change in “/usr/share/X11/xorg.conf.d/10-amdgpu-pro.conf” file…i just added…

    Section “Device”
    Identifier “RX480”
    Driver “amdgpu”
    Option “TearFree” “on”
    EndSection

    …everything is fine now 🙂

    Reply

  31. @jonas

    Which kind of installation did you choose? Did you verify your download (in case of an iso-file)? What does “BUG, always” mean?

    I would like to help, because I have not had any issues.

    Reply

  32. Where can I change the lock screen settings?

    R.I.P. XScreenSaver, will miss you!

    Edit by Clem: You can remove light-locker and install xscreensaver if you want. It’s still available in the repositories.

    Reply

  34. Lenovo Yoga 30011IBR

    Bluetooth problem

    detlef@LY300 ~ $ sudo systemctl enable bluetooth
    [sudo] Passwort für detlef:
    Synchronizing state of bluetooth.service with SysV init with /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install…
    Executing /lib/systemd/systemd-sysv-install enable bluetooth
    detlef@LY300 ~ $
    detlef@LY300 ~ $ sudo systemctl restart bluetooth
    detlef@LY300 ~ $ systemctl status bluetooth
    ● bluetooth.service – Bluetooth service
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running) since So 2017-06-18 17:21:03 CEST; 25s ago
    Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
    Main PID: 3223 (bluetoothd)
    Status: “Running”
    CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
    └─3223 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Current Time Service could not be registered
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: gatt-time-server: Input/output error (5)
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Not enough free handles to register service
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Not enough free handles to register service
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Sap driver initialization failed.
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.41 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSo
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.41 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSi
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Failed to set mode: Blocked through rfkill (0x12)
    lines 1-19/19 (END)…skipping…
    ● bluetooth.service – Bluetooth service
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running) since So 2017-06-18 17:21:03 CEST; 25s ago
    Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
    Main PID: 3223 (bluetoothd)
    Status: “Running”
    CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
    └─3223 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Current Time Service could not be registered
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: gatt-time-server: Input/output error (5)
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Not enough free handles to register service
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Not enough free handles to register service
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Sap driver initialization failed.
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.41 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSo
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.41 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSi
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Failed to set mode: Blocked through rfkill (0x12)
    ~
    ~
    ~
    ~
    ~
    ~
    lines 1-19/19 (END)…skipping…
    ● bluetooth.service – Bluetooth service
    Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/bluetooth.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
    Active: active (running) since So 2017-06-18 17:21:03 CEST; 25s ago
    Docs: man:bluetoothd(8)
    Main PID: 3223 (bluetoothd)
    Status: “Running”
    CGroup: /system.slice/bluetooth.service
    └─3223 /usr/lib/bluetooth/bluetoothd

    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Current Time Service could not be registered
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: gatt-time-server: Input/output error (5)
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Not enough free handles to register service
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Not enough free handles to register service
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Sap driver initialization failed.
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: sap-server: Operation not permitted (1)
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 systemd[1]: Started Bluetooth service.
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.41 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSo
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Endpoint registered: sender=:1.41 path=/MediaEndpoint/A2DPSi
    Jun 18 17:21:03 LY300 bluetoothd[3223]: Failed to set mode: Blocked through rfkill (0x12)
    ~
    ~
    ~
    ~
    ~
    ~
    ~
    lines 1-19/19 (END)

    Reply

  35. Beautiful work, I am looking forward to the stable release; there is not too much work left. Thanks to the team!

    Reply

  36. Used versions of OpenVPN and Network Manager seems to have some issues. Network Manager fails to save the VPN password for some reason. VPN service with no password works until next reboot and then fails to connect to it.

    Reply

  37. Does anyone have any idea on when XFCE 4.14 is due to come out
    and also good job Clem and team Linuxmint 18.1 runs great on my system
    as well as my mothers laptop its the best i have seen yet
    also no hurry for the next 18.2 release take all the time you need

    Reply

  38. @ post 32

    Thank you Clem, it worked!

    And this release its nice as allways. Thanks for the good work!

    Reply

  39. Just found the light-locker settings in the repositories. Now i can change the settings.

    This package should be in the stable release by default.

    Reply

  40. System requirements say Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution, but the mintupdate window doesn’t fit into a screen with 800×600 resolution.

    Reply

  41. I’ve been noticing that bt a2dp initial configuration has gotten progressively better over the few releases. With 18.1 I don’t think I even had to use that obscure little pactl switch. Awesome work team.

    Reply

  44. Thank you for your progress, spezial that you fixed that bug i wrote about in 18.0.
    unfortualy I have still the feeling 17.x has much less bugs than 18.x
    I hope with 19.x the quality will grow.
    good luck – happy days

    Reply

  46. …in contrast with what Pjotr says / thinks above – no, please do not remove microcode. This has to be one of the worst suggestions possible. Obviously Intel & AMD know better.

    Reply

  47. installed 64 bit in laptop Dell 1525, went OK. During install, tick to have third party and proprietary drivers to install. yet when run after install, no wireless connection in Network Settings after password entry.no idea how to proceed it, really

    Reply

  49. Important message for Clem and team
    I heard the new 4.8 series kernels are rolling releases
    and HWE kernels I do not think it is a good idea
    to run these on older computers with older hardware
    there is a very good chance that by running these newer series kernels
    that you could break your system and possibly render it unbootable
    now for the 4.10 series kernels i do not know if they are the same kind
    of kernel if they are i would avoid those as well
    i think at least give the older computer users a choice for either some series that is stable enough or if they want let them test out the 4.8 series or the 4.10 series
    please do not introduce HWE kernels or any kernels that could break the boot of mint if there is other bugs thats fine they can be fixed
    but know what kernels will break the boot and do not release those type i do however see the advantages of HWE kernels such as 4.8
    adding support for newer hardware I hope linuxmint 18.2 is just as rock solid as 18.1 right now 18.1 is rock solid and reliable
    keep up the good work Clem and team

    Reply

  50. another idea Clem for the 4.8 series kernels may need to be tested on old computers first before they are released to the public
    hopefully these newer HWE kernels wont break older computers
    mine for example is from 2008

    Reply

  51. Skype has launched its online-centered client beta
    towards the entire world, right after starting it broadly
    within the U.S. and U.K. previously this calendar
    month. Skype for Online also now can handle Chromebook and Linux
    for instant online messaging communication (no video and voice however,
    all those require a plug-in installation).

    The increase in the beta contributes help for a longer set of languages to help bolster
    that worldwide usability

    Reply

  53. This is more feature request than bug, but could all of the installed wallpapers be linked to single folder at some point at near future?

    Reply

  56. Weather app: works perfectly for me. Auto-detected everything nicely. No problems.

    Creating USB key: For an old bios machine, I was never successful, it looks like it only supports an efi type of situation, but burning a dvd was fine. I used USB Image Writer from Mint 18.1, and from Win7: Universal USB Installer, LinuxLive creator, unetbootin, and Roofus. iso was verified and same one used to burn dvd. Have seen quite a few people in #linuxmint-help talk about not being able to create the usb so possibly the same issue and maybe those people go elsewhere. Any way to have some duplication of the loader stuff? I’d write up a sweet instructional if I could pinpoint the exact issue anyway…

    Thunar: keyboard shortcuts for zoom in/out, US keyboard English. Numpad ctrl + ‘+/-‘ work, and keyboard ctrl + ‘-‘ works but keyboard ctrl + ‘+’ does not. If you use ctrl + SHIFT + ‘+’ it will zoom, but consequently if you use ctrl + SHIFT + ‘-‘ it will not. Don’t know if that’s Thunar or Mint system, but mentioning it.

    “Slick” greeter?: Using default, the screen turns off after inactivity, then we wake the screen and log back in when we get back. If you select a different desktop background in the Desktop configurator, the screen never turns off, just hangs around with the slick greeter and the selected background. Nothing was changed in the “Login window”(LightDM settings or whatever) configurator, and after selecting that desktop background from the Desktop, this LightDM config doesn’t seem aware of that desktop background we selected(configurations are still empty).

    Network Manager panel icon: Like mentioned above with Volume popup, the context menu acts weird. Sometimes it expands to include everything, sometimes its limited and using a fairly small scroll situation for the contents.

    Reply

  57. 1717 379834Hiya. Extremely cool website!! Man .. Beautiful .. Fantastic .. I will bookmark your web website and take the feeds additionallyI am happy to discover numerous helpful info here within the post. Thank you for sharing 309090

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *