Apologies for the downtime and delay

Hello everyone,

I would like to apologize for keeping you in the dark. You probably noticed our website and forums were down and even though it’s early December, Linux Mint 17.3 isn’t officially out yet.

We’ve been hit by a series of disk issues on our main server and we made a critical mistake which resulted in data loss when trying to solve them. We then discovered our daily backups only covered part of what we lost…

 

We’re working day and night to recover the data and to bring everything back to normal.

The affected websites are http://www.linuxmint.com and http://forums.linuxmint.com. The server also had to be rebuilt, so we’re expecting traffic/load issues until it is tuned and issues related to email/uploads until it is properly configured.

Only files were lost, no databases. On the forums, this means all the posts, accounts, etc.. are there, but users might miss their avatar, signatures etc..

On the website it means 404 errors, missing screenshots and release notes, outdated pages..etc.

I’m confident we’ll recover pretty much everything. If something is permanently lost, we’ll rewrite it. It is possibly the worst moment for this to happen. We should be enjoying a new release right now but we can’t afford to announce it in these conditions.

We’ll get there of course, and I hope we won’t be long. I’m learning a lot from this setback. I’m really sorry this has happened, I can’t wait for us to get passed this situation so that we can resume our work on the distribution.

195 comments

  1. Hey, anyone who has worked with computers for any length of time… and the inevitable hardware failures that _will_ occur (unexpectedly!) from time to time feels you’ll pain. Thanks for the update, Clem et al.
    .

  2. Dam you Murphy’s law!!!!
    It happens hopping for a 100% recovery, personally as long as the new version is out and ok the forum for now is minor …
    Ganbare

  3. Communication is everything-thanks for the update. Sorry you had to experience the moment of dread with that sinking realization that your backup strategy wasn’t as robust as you’d planned. Some things are worth waiting for and I wish you well.

  4. Hey Clem,

    thank you for the update. Like many good things, the release Needs some time! I cannot wait to enjoy LM 17.3. Until then, the BETA will do just fine on my VM. Wish you all the best.

  5. Remember the front page of the hitch hikers guide to the galaxy – “DON’T PANIC!!!!!!”

    keep up the good work, I’m sure it will be worth the wait for us users.

  6. Thanks for the update. Keep cool, we can all wait for LM17.3 a few more days. Things like that just happen sometimes. You will find a solution.

    Cheers
    ibot

  7. One thing you could do to improve the situation: Put a link to the torrent files (e.g. to http://torrents.linuxmint.com/ or directly link the 17.2/17.3 torrent files) and/or some download mirror links onto the “We’re Sorry” frontpage.
    I wish you good luck and good coffee!

    Edit by Clem: No.. technically we can release, that’s not the issue. The issue is that we shouldn’t.. documentation is missing, release notes are missing, many of the links the OS points to are missing (your start page for instance), the server isn’t tuned to respond to high traffic yet and there’s nothing worse than a release to bring that up… if people need help they might want to join the forums, they’re back up but we’re yet to test registration/captcha/email verification, that might need fixing as well.

  8. Don’t worry Clem, I’ve downloaded 17.3 from the link at Distrowatch
    which means: Real fans always celebrate it with you on time 😉
    17.3 is Super ! Tnx

  9. Thanks for the note, and I am very sorry for the trouble and the loss!

    Don’t worry (too much), LinuxMint is brilliant, and your work is very much appreciated.

    Good luck with the recovery,
    af

  10. Thank you for the update !
    I perfectly know how it feels unfortunately.
    Take as long as you need, just don’t do things rashly…that’s Windows’s job 🙂

  11. Hi Clem & Team,
    am feeling sorry for your situation.
    Hope that your issues will disappear soon and you can relax a bit 😉
    Kdrgds

  12. Murphy´s law is confirmed. Don´t worry!
    To users with 1st level language german:
    Devil´s 17.3 iso´s on sf.net are ready!

  13. That is OK. Don’t worry. I hope you get things up and running smoothly without any more of those unfortunate series of events with the site.

  14. good to see the site is back. sometimes the brown stuff will hit the fan when we least expect it. wish you well.

  15. No problem on the wait guys. I use your operating system for my single act that I have. 17.2 is still running strong and hope everything turns out ok for all of you.

    Gene Avey International CMA Modern Country Male Vocalist Of The Year

  16. Thanks for the update! Linux Mint is GREAT, and I can wait a bit longer.

    It just so happens my workplace suffered a similar loss with disk failure and failed backups. Groan! It’s a pain but you’ll get through it. This too shall pass!

  17. Thanks for letting us kmow. From working for decades in technology/hardware ranging from computers to particle accelerators the main thing observed is that hardware will inevitably fail.

    You and your team do excellent work! You will build a stronger system with even better backup. Don’t sweat it.

    And thanks for all you do!

  18. I hope all is well over there. You guys will bounce back. You guys are a juggernaut. You’re not going to be stopped by some server problem. You’ll keep on truckin’ and churning out the gift of the computer gods that is Linux Mint.

    I, and I think I speak for everyone, think you guys rock, and good luck with the 17.3 release and server repairs!

  19. From Boston MA USA, I was sad, Now I am happyyyyyyyyyy. God bless you.
    I am Latin. Chaoooooo Que la Luz de Dios decienda sobre ti y a toda la familia de Linx Mint.

  20. Need my upgrade fix, need my upgrade fix *laughs maniacally* *sob*.

    Sorry for the server woes guys, I’ve been there and done that but this to shall pass.

    Tell you what, I’ll put on my priestly hat of certification and I’ll sacrifice a Windows Vista CD, an iMac and a SCO licensing agreement at the alter of the Techno Gods in hopes of gaining their favor and a quick return to the web for Linuxmint.com
    Disce aut Discede

  21. Take your time and bring us an excellent product as always. There’s no need to rush.
    I should say Thank You for your work, I’m very satisfied with LinuxMint.

    Good Luck

  22. Hey Clem, thanks for the clarification because we did not know, at least I, what was going on. Anyway, I’m eager to try to Rosa, the next version of Linux Mint. Greetings from Mexico.

  23. Hi Clem,I am a silver surfer and what you call a newbie to L/M,I am still finding my way around and cannot wait for 17.3 to be released,I am sorry you are having problems,but I am sure we will soon be able to d/l and install,good luck.

  24. It sounds not very well when I read this. Are you not able to run a simple web-server? My trust in you to build a solid distro is a little bit diminished. How can this happen?!? I can´t believe….

  25. Ok, deep breath Clem. Just take it step-by-step, and it will get done. We are all here for you, if not physically helping restore the files/server, then in spirit wishing you well. Hang in there and thanks for the update. 🙂

    All the best.

  26. Don’t worry : it will all sort out. Murphy is the one that also said:if you see the light at the end of the tunnel: it is probably the head light of an oncoming train !!!

  27. Hi Clem.

    Thank you for the update. I see no problem in 17.3 being released a little late. It’s best to get everything in order first.

    Cheers.

  28. Yeah…I was wondering what happen and then I realized you had trobs…good to see you up again. And this is what we..or should I say..”Technology”? LOL. Thanks for the update and All the best to you and yours over the holidays!.

  29. No worries, Clem. Just a small glitch in the scheme of things. Kudos on the excellent work getting back up, and the excellent work in general over the years…

  30. My sympathies — AND, my confidence that with only a few days’ extra work you’ll be back on track and going forward once again.

  31. This is the problem with community linux distros: they have sucess and another day disapear from internet. I like Linux Mint, but i feel this is a fragile distro. I hope and i whish the best for mint, but like zorin, linux lite and similares distros i feel they don’t have money and solids companies for support.
    Sorry my bad english.
    Good luck.

  32. I am very sorry for you guys, I know how it feels like when you have multiple failures… Keep calm and don’t rush 🙂

    I just want to congratulate with you and all the team, you built/are building the best linux distro I have ever used!

  33. Good luck on the recovery. I’ve been there and it’s a tough road to hoe. You’ve done so much good and I appreciate all that you and your staff have done.

    Have a great day and good luck.

  34. Hi Clem,

    Thanks for letting us know – most important to be kept informed – good job! All of us who have been in your position feel your pain…
    Best of luck.

  35. I’ll add my own comments – these things happen, even in big software companies with huge amounts of resources. We are a community, which is far better. We’ll learn from this, and move forward.

    I’ve installed the 17.3 beta. What a remarkable system. It’s stable, very well designed, and lets a user be as engaged in the system as they want. If you want to get under the hood, you can. If you are like me, and want something that pretty much “just works” – well,there it is. I’ve learned more from using Mint than any other experience in over 30 years as a computer user.

    Well done. Very well done. Thank you.

  36. Glad to see you back up, guys. I was going to the website the other day to see if 17.3 had been released because I wanted to give the Xfce version of Linux Mint a try.

    We’re a patient group, Clem That’s because we love Linux Mint. We’ll stand by you.

  37. For a short while I thought is was my own problem, but all the other sites I visited worked … so, then I knew. I think all of us who use Linux are “geeks,” so we know this stuff happens. And, if ya CAN’T live without your computer then you depend on it TOO MUCH! Thanks for the update and good luck.

  38. Dang, that sucks. Murphy’s Law always strikes at the worst time, doesn’t it? We all feel your pain, and we’ve all had this happen to us too (be it with computers or other things). Don’t worry, your userbase is an understanding one. Take your time to do things right; we can wait. 🙂

  39. Thanks for all the info. Sorry to hear that problem. At least, you are honest and open in communication, I am happy.

  40. This could not have happened at a worse time, thank you for keeping “us” informed. Good to see that bit by bit things are coming back online again.

    Wish you all the best with the 17.3 official release!

  41. Hi,

    This is my first attempt for trying mint! Now when I saw that website is down.. Got really disappointed. But I can feel the pain of loosing data. One thing that made me worried about your update is that how in the world you don’t have full backups or even backups of the backups for such critical sites like yours. Anyway I wish you best of luck and now I’m going to try mint anyway long after using Ubuntu. Now some could please suggest me what good about mint over ubuntu?

  42. I remember one similar situation with avast website.
    Linux Mint is a great distro for beginner like me, with few bugs and easy to use. I wish the best for this distro, but it`s time to search anothers parterns for Linux Mint. I don’t believe in community concept. I remember Pear Os when things like this happen. We need resources and money to survive. With linux distros is the same thing.
    In my country only 234 persons use Linux Mint. Windows and Windows, why? Because they have money and resources to promove their OS.
    I expect use Linux Mint for many years. 20 years using windows, and i hope 30 using linux mint.
    Good luck.

  43. I have downloaded 17.3 Beta and – until now – it works perfectly. So don’t worry too much…. Hope you can manage your problems and face the challenge to get even better….

  44. I think that most of us had data loss happen to us in one way or another. I’m sorry that you have to mess around with this right now, but you’ll get there. Just take your time and be patient, and it will all be back up soon enough. Thank you so much for all of the tireless work you put into this project. We really appreciate it a lot! Keep up the good work.

    Bon courage !

  45. To Clem & Developers:

    Your fellow Linux Minters, in Indiana (USA), are sending you our “bestest vibes,” for a quick, full, and complete recovery, both physically and mentally. 🙂 Good luck with the restoration, the new release, and thanks for the open, honest communication!

  46. Hi !

    Thanks anyway to the team ! We will wait as long as necessary.
    Congratulations for your hard work !
    Wish you can fix it and recover what is nessary for Mint to go well !!

  47. You’ve done so much great works. I believe, you try to survive only with donation. Don’t worry about losses. We’re sure nobody blame you for this. Keep doing whatever you did until now. We should give more support -donation of course- for that thing not happen again.

  48. Thanks for the update – so disappointed for you. Your response to this challenge is spot on, though. Bravo! Take your time and be proud of yourself when the release does go out without all of the issues you have anticipated.

    Looking forward to 17.3. Cheers!

  49. I had thought you were suffering a hacker or virus attacks. I think your data lost by your servers should not be of critical importancy since you are not a (money) bank and new version-mint’s (17.3) data not only on those servers. (If it were the case than we as Mint-Fans would only a few days more to wait for upcoming 17.3 Mint (from Beta to Stabil version), actually no big problem.)

  50. Understand totally. Thanks for this update. Take your time, it’s OK. Appreciate everything you’ve done/are doing. This kind of stuff can happen to anyone. All the best 🙂

    Edit by Clem: If I understand Murphy’s Law correctly, the only way it won’t ever happen is if we were constantly trying to show somebody it was 🙂

  51. I hope you get your problems sorted out, and your server back on line, soon. It’s one thing to have a drive die, but if your main server died, that’s a big deal. Take your time, do it right, and I hope you will have your server up and running by Monday.

  52. I have made a return to Linux Mint in v.17.2 after the disappointment of MGSE in v.12 having worked with Linux Mint since v.3.0 Cassandra.

    I am a Gnome 2 junkie and the first time I tried MATE in v.13 it was far from the finished product so I decided to give Linux Mint a break for a while.

    In the interim period I switched to OS X as my primary platform running other platforms in Parallels Desktop virtual environments which along with Windows included other Linux distros but none had the draw of Linux Mint v.11

    So I hooked up with Linux Mint 17.2 MATE and ‘WOW’ an entire Gnome 2 experience and the complete Compiz experience in a virtual environment ‘AMAZING’.

    Also running Linux Mint 17.3 BETA in a Parallels Desktop virtual environment and its also ‘OUTSTANDING’

    Mint is back on the money to blow away other distros. with ease.

    Edit by Clem: Mint 12 and MGSE were a formidable achievement considering how little time we had and how little we could do when GNOME 2 was gone. That said, they were indeed way below expectations. We couldn’t wait to see them go and to replace them with Cinnamon. Mint 13 corrected that and for this reason, even though Cinnamon and MATE at the time were far from perfect, it is one of my favorite releases ever. From a personal perspective, I don’t think I ever told anyone, but no codenames used in Mint come from members of my family, except for Lisa and Maya.. it’s a bit ironic. Lisa obviously doesn’t like that story too much, Maya does 🙂 Anyway, welcome back to GNOME the way we liked it 😉

  53. Good things are worth waiting for. Good luck with getting everything restored and I look forward to 17.3. Cheers!

  54. Hi everyone,

    A quick update:

    – All important data was recovered.
    – We’re still fighting a few inconsistencies on the forums (the data is safe, but we’ve a few bugs to re-fix).
    – There are still a few missing bits (geoip for the LMDE installer, donors/sponsors interface, a new link section which needs to be written..etc) but nothing significant enough to hold the release any longer.

    We might take an extra day to review our backup policy and adapt tuning while ramping up traffic, but we’re very close to completion on solving this incident.

    That means you’ll soon see a release and we’ll soon get some sleep.

    Many many thanks for your words of support. It always helps, especially when we’re exhausted and depressed after an event like this.

    We’re really excited about the release, I hope you’ll enjoy it. Many thanks for your patience and understanding.

  55. I clean installed Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon 64bit a couple of days ago after finding it in the repositories. It runs beautifully! Not one trouble so far. Thanks for all your effort!

  56. I have 3 letters for you. ZFS.

    Seriously man, ZFS on Linux is rock solid and the data integrity and fault tolerance is unbeatable. Not to mention it makes backup and restore dead simple via snapshots and zfs send/receive.

    I could rm -rf anything on my server and be back up like nothing happened in seconds. If by some cataclysm I lost a whole array I could put in new drives and zfs receive the entire backup in place in no time.

  57. I am an avid Ubuntu user, and I hope Canonical will not hate me for saying that I appreciate all your hard work. It stinks that you had a nasty accident with your website that delayed the release of a new Linux Mint version, but I am glad to see that you all have recovered so quickly. Keep up the good work! I look forward to trying it myself when I get the chance.

  58. Thanks for the info I have switched from Windows and now solely a LMDE 2 user. I had windows 10 but it crapped out so i just plugged in old faithful and now i am able to continue to use my computer again without the headache of messing with windows and all of its BS.I just wanted to see what the latest windows version was like and just didnt care for it so when it crashed i said thats windows for you.

  59. Computer : (1) electronic device to manage and manipulate information, which has the secondary property of demonstrating Murphy’s Law in ways you can neither foresee nor avoid. (2) machine to promote & demonstrate the Digital Paradox, that the smartest & best prepared people will be hit hardest & worst & first. The ‘lekky gods don’t like fools, but they hate a smart @$$.

  60. I am glad to see some things are getting back to normal. I wish the team well and thank you all for your hard work. It threw me off to see “Linux Mint 12 KDE Released” as the top result in the RSS feed “http://www.linuxmint.com/planet/rss.xml”. I know this is temporary. It was still strange, nonetheless, to see.

  61. I was bit worried to this down down…but elated with your comment/s. It is always good to be honest to your customers. Hope that you will overcome all such obstacles in the future.

  62. No worries Clem and Company, we know you’ll get everything right before long. Shi7 happens despite your best efforts and sound methods to prevent it. Welcome back to teh interwebs.

  63. Merci pour le travail que vous faite .
    Je suis débutant sur mint ,mais malgré tout fonctionne très bien .
    Je vou félicite pour votre travail .
    Cordialement .
    Jean-Louis

  64. It´s time for a new webspace agenda on Linux Mint? Also there is a need for a modern website nad many helpers for it. Few months ago I wrote to Linux Mint to help for making a new website, but nobody wrote back to me. So I thought, noone needs help!

  65. Thank you very much for the update, Clem!
    Murphys law… always in the worst moment; you will certainly overcome the troubles. Most importantly: Don’t panic and take some rest! Mint is great and we can all wait a few more moments for the actual upgrade. After this mishap you will be stronger!

    Markus

  66. Hi Clem and team.

    I believe bad things happen so that one can grow and get even stronger.

    And I’m happy you all made it so beautifully through. It will now have a hard time happening again, thanks to this.

    Wish you all the best, Mint team and Clem, and I always loved the concept of a free out-of-the-box-distribution, that just works, like Mint, so I can’t help it, feeling in the same boat as you guys, supporting the same thing; easing the life of many many computer users. Therefore I’m donating to your project sometimes. 🙂

  67. Sorry to hear on the server woes, am sure you’ll bring it up to speed sooner than later. re # 77 Comment of yours, Mint 13 was my first exposure to Linux and I just loved it. IIRC I initially ran the KDE version which was rock solid too until I messed it up with PPA’s. 😉

  68. These wonderful comments are true testament to the kind of people that Linux attracts… they are understanding, caring, and sympathetic to the issues…

    If it was (horrid) Facebook that had gone down, there would be complete outrage!!

    Keep up the good work, and good luck, Scott.

  69. Question: since the ISO are floating around, can one do a dist upgrade with the upgrade manager right now? or it could be bad for the servers?

    Edit by Clem: I don’t recommend dist-upgrades, but yes, you can. The servers are not the same ones, the repositories are not impacted.

  70. Can’t get it up? I Had that problem once. Took me a while to get it straightened out. I am sure soon it will be better.

  71. Good to hear that the end of the problems is near! Take it easy, go for a walk once in a while to sniff some fresh air, that clears the head from worries. And above all, sleep for eight hours. We can easily wait one or two days longer, there’s no rush….

    By the way: I’ve been using 17.3 final on several machines for the last couple of days, and it’s an exceptionally fine piece of work. I haven’t encountered one bug yet. Thanks! 🙂

  72. Ok, you are back, that’s good. Sh*t happens. I had feared MINT got attacked.
    But I have a question. I downloaded the four 17.3 from an Irish server already.
    I’m waiting for seeding over bittorent.
    Are they valid or are they corrupted?

  73. I appreciate the update on your situation. I also know that 17.3 will be worth the wait.

    Thanks for building my “gateway” distro. Mint got me into the Linux world, and for a host of reasons both practical and ethical, there’s just no going back to Microsoft/Apple for my OS.

    Keep you chin up, and good luck with the work ahead. All the best!

  74. Vielen Dank für die geleistete Arbeit und herzliche Grüße!
    Thank you so much for your engaged work and many greetings from Germany.

  75. Hey guys,

    Good luck with the recovery. I guess most of us can understand this kind of stuff happens. 🙂

    Cheers.

  76. Hola Clem y equipo siento mucho lo sucedido pero se que todo se arreglara muy pronto. Yo baje la versión estable de linux mint 17.3 rosa cinnamon y mate de la pagina heanet.ie y quiero saber si realmente es la versión estable. Gracias y se que todo se solucionará

  77. Thanks for the update and really apperiate all your work. This things will make Mint stronger. we are root for you guys.

  78. Everyone is happy reading your update in #80. No hurry please. Don´t forget to eat&drink and sleep some hours. And don´t forget to smile: No rose without a thorn. Maybe indeed nomen est omen. Rosa the “Sleeping Beauty” (german: Dornröschen) is alive and running on my home computer. Quick and stable. Both cinnamon and mate edition of 17.3 are great. Very well done Clem and team! Best regards!

  79. Everybody working in the IT bizz experienced the situation the backups failed in the fail case 🙂 This happens even to big business sites (a leading french internet provider with loss of thousands of websites…)

    Yesterday I could download the “Mint 17.3 Mate full release” from the german server chip.de. It was disponible on other IT-platforms too. Today I can read that 17.3 has yet not been released…?!?!

    Franky

  80. I had some bugs with the beta, came to check on possibly R.C., saw the site was down, good to see it going again. I don’t blame the software for the bugs, my box is getting old too. Everyone needs a little down time 🙂

  81. Ah – Hardware! – By definition it breaks, and I’ve never know it do when it’s convenient. Patience. Fingers crossed. Keep it up Clem. We all appreciate it.

  82. Everyone is happy reading your update in #80. No hurry please. Don´t forget to eat&drink and sleep some hours. And don´t forget to smile: No rose without a thorn. Maybe indeed nomen est omen. Rosa the “Sleeping Beauty” (german: Dornröschen) is alive and running on my home computer. Quick and stable. Both cinnamon and mate edition of 17.3 are great. Very well done Clem and team! Best regards!

  83. Ouch!

    my condolences to the whole team, and please keep up the good work.
    Linux Mint rocks!
    Best regards from Austria

  84. Dear Clem and Linux Mint Team,
    Thank you and for your efforts to bring back to what it was.
    I always love and respect your enthusiasm to the Linux Mint and Community.
    Actually, We all love it, I am sure.
    Please, Take your time to recover this situation and
    Also, Please Take care your health too.

    Best Regards!

    from your firiend

  85. Good Day Clem, and to all the Linux Mint Team. sorry to hear what happened, i just want you, and the whole Linux Mint Team To Know that i am one of The So Many Linux Mint Users who appreciates all the great work, and Effort that You and The Linux Mint Have Done. to provide users A Really High Quality Linux Operating System. I just Hope That The Problem Will Be fixed Soon. I am Really so Excited to download and install the latest stable release version of 17.3 Cinnamon. Take Care Clem, and Your Team. Thank You Again For all your Efforts. Can’t wait to have the Linux Mint 17.3 Cinnamon. I’ll Be waiting 🙂 God Bless To You And Your Team. – User From Philipphines

  86. I know how stressful that can be! Thanks for all the good years and many more to come! The 17.x series of releases have been fantastic and I know 17.3 will turn out great.

    On a side note I’ve been a distro-hopper for years and yet I always seem to come back home to you guys! Best of luck for a speedy data recovery!

  87. Hello,
    The wonderful service that you’r providing is invaluable! Just take your time and recover! The user community is very much indebted to you for the fascinating work done by Mint developers!
    So, please take it easy and we will look forward to 17.3, when it is ready!
    Love you all!! And Wish you Happy Recovery without too much pain!
    Kalyan

  88. Hi Clem,
    I can feel your pain as my HDD happened to crashed irrecoverably within 10 minutes last month… I just had to collect bits and ends of my files from pen-flash drives and archives (outdated 2 or three years ago).
    Right now Linux Mint 17.2 (Mate) is running absolutely smoothly and you can take your time recovering the lost data (to the extend possible naturally.)
    My best wishes to you and your bright team
    Vladimir

  89. Hi, Clem and team!

    After two days these are really good news! I’m using Mint 17.3 Mate 64 since beta release. No failure! Updates from other mirrors.
    Excellent work!
    All the best!

  90. Hey, if someone who is something more that an average user says it never happened to him he’ll be lying.
    My guess is that people using linux in general, and mint in particular are more than average users.
    I’ve had a few disk failures in the past, they always happen the worse time-the murphy law.
    Which reminds me, its time for a “save the day” backup!

    Keep up the good work!

  91. Hi, Clem and team!
    Many thanks for your work !!!
    I look forward to the official release of Linux Mint 17.3 !!!

  92. Fiouf ! I tough Microsoft successfully shut you down. You are getting way to good for their taste. Just kidding … As for Mint 17.3, John Karmac always said, “it will done when it’s done”, then Doom became a planetary success. I have no problem with that philosophy… Running KDE 17.2 now with no issue.

    Cheers !

  93. Clem & team,

    I sadly encountered a similar scenario, where I thought I was responsibly backing up everything, and when the inevitable failure reared its ugly head, I discovered I wasn’t as diligent as I should have been. Since then, I lie awake at night wondering what I’m not doing now that I should be doing.

    With that, once everything is back in working order, and LM 17.3 is out the door, and you’ve had a chance to clean up & catch your breath, I’d love to see a blog post from you to share what happened, what was done incorrectly, and what you see as your proper backup strategy.

    Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to make Clonezilla images of all my drives. 🙂

    Joe

  94. Just made an additional donation to help with the costs of the crash.

    Keep up the great work, all you members of the Mint Team!

  95. Hang in there!

    As a sysadmin and network administrator I feel your pain and I know that no matter what, even the best of strategies will fail.

    Good luck and thank you for all you do!

  96. Hi, Clem, we all stand with you guys and we can wait, so there’s no need to rush.
    But i have a question.As #11 and #51 posted above,there is a non-beta 17.3 iso on the download websites.
    Is that approved/a official release?

  97. Clem and team, hang in there guys and girls :). One byte at a time and things will get back to normal and then better than ever, uh?

    Sorry about what has happened and thanks for letting us know. I commend your being honest with us. You have all been doing an amazing job. Just know that you all have our support.

    Much worse than this has happened to many large ‘for profit’ organizations.

    You (the team) have given up much more than just your time to give the world something quite worthwhile and the very least we can do is let you know we are appreciative. We feel with you; do not worry we will wait for 17.3.

  98. I do not understand, I’m enjoying Rosa 17.3 stable since the first of December and everything is perfect, no crash! … Because Softpedia is ISO? … Are already many who have downloaded and happy!

  99. I have been using this OS since 2010, in all that time this is the only crash of any type that has affected me ( and only because I’m a big fan)
    This distro has never hurt my hardware and has always run fast and consistent. Unlike 10 that just burned up the graphics card on my wife’s Lenovo laptop. you guys are the best, keep up the good work Clem.

  100. Well, isn’t this a fine howdy doody.. I got so tired of Murphy and his law of showing up just at the wrong time that I bought 3 external HDD’s and one wirless HD, then I backed up all my Internal SSd’s and HDD’s and made copies on the 4 External HDD’s. Take that you Murphy! I picked him up and slammed him down and kicked him out.

    Ahhh, I sleep well these days, very well indeed.

    Love Linux-Mint-Mate-&-Cinnamon so I have lots of back ups now.

    Bill S. in North Carolina Mountains

  101. Oh, I forgot to say, I made backups by making image files, so they restore thieving exactly as it was. Ahhhhhh.

  102. I’ve just replaced Ubuntu on this laptop, tired of a couple of issues (suspend & resume not working, keyboard language switching randomly to English). Mint MATE works flawlessly. I can wait for 17.3, because 17.2 works sooooo well.

    In other words, thanks Clem and all the team for your excellent job.

  103. Thanks for the update Clem, I hope everything comes back to normal and up and running smoothly again.

    As for 17.3 there will be plenty of time to celebrate its’ release 🙂

    A big thanks to you and everyone involved for all your work.

  104. @Bill S. Says
    :)))) yes for me it’s the same
    I have my backups in 7 places, 2 of those are in cloud

    @Clem & Team
    I forgot to tell you, THANK YOU FOR YOUR WORK !
    Sometimes it is not said enough

  105. Hi Clem,
    If it is possible to do so without breaking LinuxMint security policies, could you later give us a blow-by-blow exactly what happened and then what you did about it? That would be a very, very valuable lesson to all of us.

  106. I’m sorry, but I can not figure out whether the release of Linux Mint 17.3 officially stable or it is still in the beta-branch?

  107. Thanks LinuxMint team!

    It looks like this is a good time to double my contribution, you might need to buy some new hardware…done!

  108. Clem and team, I’m truly sorry that you’ve had this hiccup with disks/servers and I can guess how much extra work that means for you.

    Mint is a great product, and I greatly appreciate your efforts.

  109. Confucius said: That which didn’t kill Linux Mint’s website permanently only made Linux Mint’s website Stronger. (:

  110. I must admit I had a small panic seeing the site down. Then I realized it must be a server failure – as posting #1 said – these things happen; and then as #154 above said it – it will ultimately make Mint stronger.
    Lousy timing though, just as you guys are 100% spinning to get Rosa launched, this. I hope that the final ISO for Rosa will contain the already numerous updates which the beta has been receiving. 17.3 beta has been running very nicely on a Samsung i7 laptop since about 6 hours after it was announced 🙂 No wrinkles. It is fast and contains so many improvements – some are blatant like Office 5.x, others you only notice when going to another system, and “oh, that also changed”.

  111. Hello, Clem. You and your team have always done such an amazing job.
    These incidents are normal and those who work in IT knows, that I work for 16 years as a computer technician I’ve seen lots of problems.
    Instead you and your team deserve a sincere praise for all your work and dedication.
    Good work, Clem.

  112. No biggie. Like they used to say…Stuff Happens. Clem and Team take your time so you can get it right. We’ll be here. Thanks for letting us know what’s going on.

  113. Hi Clem and the team! I appreciate all the effort that goes in to develop the best Linux distribution and maintain the website.
    Happy the website is back. Awaiting KDE release for Mint 17.3.

  114. Congratulations Clem & team, nice to see you back on the air. Downloading the production 17.3 from an Australian mirror now. Like IanP said, back at #7 – “DON’T PANIC!!!!”

  115. Hello from NC. We have all been there and know what you are going through. Been playing with 17.3 Cinnamon and I am quite pleased with it so far – but the I am a BIG Mint fan – came over from Ubuntu a few years ago – Suse before that. Guess it’s time to donate. THX much for all the hard and good work – hoooah!

  116. That sucks, pays to be safe and keep backups but when they fail too what can you do, learn from our mistakes or oversights.

    I thought it was weird the Download Mirror page just leads to a MySQL error.

    Keep up the good work on Mint tho 🙂 Always my goto Distro, others are just tinkers

  117. Parabéns a toda a equipe pelo trabalho, estou ansioso por usar mint 17.3.
    Que Deus ajude a vocês a superar todos os obstáculos.

  118. hi Clem and everyone

    First let me say thank you for this update. Because I also noticed that this website http://linuxmint.com was down the last days and I also wondered what was going on.

    But: such server-problems can always happen. We had that here in Germany the last days with one of our big telecom-provider. He also suffered a big server-outage. For several hours, many parts of Germany had been taken down from the Internet through this.

    So I think, it would be better, to have redundant-servers running. Perhaps LinuxMint should improve its server-park. And LinuxMint should do regular Backups from its files. Then the loss might not be that big. I have my files on external hard-drive, so if my internal hdd would break down one day, I will not lose my files. Only the OS would be lost. Then I would only have to replace the internal hdd and reset my LMDE. 😀

    Greetings and happy second Advent to Clem and everyone,
    Mintkatze

  119. The way I normally go to the Mint Forums is through the link on the Welcome Screen, and when I try to do so, I get this error message:

    “General Error
    SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

    Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/var/run/mysqld/mysqld.sock’ (2) [2002]

    An sql error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact an administrator if this problem persists.”

    I don’t know if that’s important or not, but I thought I ought to let you know…

    Sorry about the hard drive failure…
    “La vie est pleins de petit desastres.”, n’est-ce pas?

  120. I know it doesn’t seem little now, especially since it’s been costing you precious sleep, but I think in the context of Linux Mint’s success, it’s not that big a deal.

  121. Sorry to say there is still an issue with the forums site.
    When I navigate to forums.linuxmint.com I get a functioning front page.
    I can login or continue as a guest ok. When I select [Releases and Announcements] that page opens ok.
    But, if I then click on any of the Announcements or Topics, all of them give me:

    General Error
    SQL ERROR [ mysql4 ]

    Table ‘./lms14/phpbb3_posts’ is marked as crashed and last (automatic?) repair failed [144]

    An SQL error occurred while fetching this page. Please contact the Board Administrator if this problem persists.

    The same error occurs with [Newbie Questions] etc.

  122. The link I mentioned is now working- THANK YOU!

    I just posted in a thread on the Mint Forums.
    When I actually posted, it worked, but the next page that showed, showed this at the top:


    Strict Standards: Non-static method utf_normalizer::nfc() should not be called statically in /var/www/forums.linuxmint.com/includes/utf/utf_tools.php on line 1781

    Strict Standards: Non-static method utf_normalizer::nfc() should not be called statically in /var/www/forums.linuxmint.com/includes/utf/utf_tools.php on line 1781

    Strict Standards: Non-static method utf_normalizer::nfkc() should not be called statically in /var/www/forums.linuxmint.com/includes/utf/utf_tools.php on line 1663

    Strict Standards: Non-static method utf_normalizer::nfkc() should not be called statically in /var/www/forums.linuxmint.com/includes/utf/utf_tools.php on line 1663

    Strict Standards: Non-static method utf_normalizer::nfc() should not be called statically, assuming $this from incompatible context in /var/www/forums.linuxmint.com/includes/search/fulltext_native.php on line 1523

    Strict Standards: Non-static method utf_normalizer::nfc() should not be called statically, assuming $this from incompatible context in /var/www/forums.linuxmint.com/includes/search/fulltext_native.php on line 1523

    Not really a problem for me, since it didn’t get in the way of DOING anything I wanted to do, but it looks broken so I’m sure you’ll want to fix it sooner or later.

  123. Knowing 17.3 was imminent I initially assumed you had been overwhelmed by by people downloading the latest version. Sorry to hear about the glitch, by hey if billion dollar outfits like NASA and ESA aren’t immune to glitches then why should we expect to be? Its not IF your hardware crashes, its WHEN. Get some sleep and release when you are 100% ready. Only places like micro$oft let the marketing department set the release dates, and we know how that works for them…

  124. Gentleman…no need for excuses !

    i think we all know how hard you doing in bringing mint forward to the next level… so dont blame yourself ….. the next level will come

    shit happens , nobody can be save from that.

    thanks guys… and keep up the good work…

    greetings from germany
    pet

  125. Hi Clem.

    I notice that on the donate page (http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php) the amounts have odd decimal point totals. Also – were the amounts in Euros before or were they always in Dollars?

    Edit by Clem: Some of the fixes we applied to this page in the past were lost unfortunately and are pending re-implementation. The amounts were always shown in dollars, however they were rounded. The page also showed donations for the last 30 days and there were fixes regarding how donations per donors are counted. We’ll re-implement all that soon.

  126. Sorry to hear this happened. I had been wondering what was up. Hey, everyone makes mistakes. If we’re fortunate, most of the time we’ll catch them but sometimes not until they’re made. Live and learn. Still my favorite current distribution, and I grew up Loving Redhat and supporting them. I check in regularly. The mistakes come but…. what’s important is learning and moving past it. We’re all still here.

    I know I’m not going anywhere.

  127. To our community:

    I am very pleased to use an operating system with this kind of colleagues. Clem and the rest of the Linux Mint team must be at least grateful to count on us.

    There are compliments, congratulations and words of support; both about the incident and in general for the hard and useful work they dedicate to Linux Mint.

    I would really want us to embrace ourselves and hope this organisation helps to make a better world.

    Peace for you all.

  128. I am so sorry the web site had gone down as I too have experienced that problem in times past. Wish I was able to be of help to the Development team and group at large. If I may be of help be more than willing to assist just do not know what kind of help may be needed is all.

    I am promoting Linux Mint to all whom will hear me and take my suggestions of going to the Linux Mint community at large. Plus encouraging those new to contribute financially with donations as well.

  129. I have not been able to get into my collins credit union web site for at least 5 days they say their web site is ok so it must be here. can you help me ? 319 377-4290 home phone thank you

  130. Currently it’s not possible to change the scroll speed of the mouse,.
    is there a setting somewhere i can change the scroll speed?
    I’m not seeing one: github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/blob/master/files/usr/lib/cinnamon-settings/modules/cs_mouse.py
    permalink
    [–]weisbrot 1 point 10 months ago
    disable smooth scrolling maybe?
    permalink
    [–]55chevytruck [S] 1 point 10 months ago
    that didnt make any difference for me
    permalinkparent
    [–]EnforcerZhukov 1 point 10 months ago
    Is like a lag or just the scroll is slow?
    If you’ve got lag and you’re using Firefox, try this out:
    Edit>Options>Advanced>tab General>sec. Navigation>Use Smooth Scrolling (try disabling it); and also the Hardware Aceleration can make things different, try enabling it.
    permalink
    [–]55chevytruck [S] 1 point 10 months ago
    it doesnt appear to be lag just slower than my liking. when i was using windows it scrolled up and downs faster.
    permalinkparent
    [–][deleted] -2 points 10 months ago
    Preferences > system settings > mouse and touchpad
    permalink
    [–]55chevytruck [S] 1 point 10 months ago
    maybe we running diff versions of mint because i dont see that a option to change scroll wheel speed
    Imgur[1] WHY??????

  131. credit union says their sever is fine it must be on my end my firewall is not letting credit union in to my computer

  132. I’m an extreme Linux Newbie.. a friend recommended Linux Mint very highly, so I am trying it out.

    It was sold to Me as: “It’s way better than Windows.. it installs everything in Your computer – without driver nonsense.. like Windows does.

    I installed Linux Mint on an older system (thank god it’s not on my main pc .. to try it out) everything “except” the net works on my 4 year old netbook.

    I read as much as I could from the Forums .. and posted questions.. in the 3 days that the forums were working.. no-one was able to lead me to the solution to my problems.

    Every 2 – or 3 years I try a version of Linux to see if it “works” yet. This is my latest attempt to say goodbye to Microsoft.. but once again ..like the previous 3 tries – Linux is not up to the task of being an “everyday operating system”!

    Not only does Linux Mint not work (completely) on my netbook, but the forums – where I would find to fix the problem have been MIA for about a week now.

    I’d love to say: “Man Linux Mint is awesome” but that has not been my experience!

    I hope You get Your site fixed.. but for Me anyway, Linux Mint is just not ready to be an “everyday operating system”!

  133. I feel for yall. I was keeping quit about it because we are having DNS issues with our carrier too. Did you know that someone actually tracks out of service conditions and they can let know when a problem is occurring with connections? I also recently lost my disk copy of Petra when my notebook’s HD failed. I had clone copies of the entire OS and backups. No matter what I did I couldn’t get the image rebuild to the exact replication of what I had before thats when i discovered the Grsync tool alias rsync. I also changed my backup plans a bit to have multiple copies 3-minimal, and separate data from ISO, build, and run-time. It’s best not reply on one single disk, so redundancy is very important so using tools like Gparted for cloning or disk-copy are critical if you want to keep what you have.

  134. Hi Clem and Team,

    Sorry to hear of your current situation. All the best in recovering and keep up the good work 🙂

  135. Send an email that will allow me to download the Linux Mint 7.3 O/S
    when you have the glitzes fixed. Thank you.
    Theo

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