Linux Mint 19.1 “Tessa” Xfce – BETA Release

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This is the BETA release for Linux Mint 19.1 “Tessa” Xfce Edition.

Linux Mint 19.1 Tessa Xfce Edition

Linux Mint 19.1 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2023. 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 19.1 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 19.1 Xfce”

System requirements:

  • 1GB RAM (2GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
  • 15GB of disk space (20GB recommended).
  • 1024×768 resolution (on lower resolutions, press ALT to drag windows with the mouse if they don’t fit in the screen).

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 recommended 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 19. Upgrade instructions will be published after the stable release of Linux Mint 19.1.

Bug reports:

  • Bugs in this release should be reported on Github at https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-19.1-beta.
  • Create one issue per bug.
  • As described in the Linux Mint Troubleshooting Guide, do not report or create issues for observations.
  • 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.
  • The BETA phase is literally a bug squashing rush, where the team is extremely busy and developers try to fix as many bugs as fast as possible.
  • There usually are a huge number of reports and very little time to answer everyone or explain why a particular report is not considered a bug, or won’t get fixed. Don’t let this frustrate you, whether it’s acknowledged or not, we appreciate everyone’s help.
  • 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!

50 comments

  1. I’ve tested the 19.1 beta, we should be able to disable the new taskbar for a single application, otherwise the extra interaction cost of hovering the mouse, waiting and clicking the sub-instance is annoying for some applications like nemo where we do this very often, this is also a problem in windows. I’ve made a feature request in github for this, for all the people reading this that think the same than me, please post to show your support for this feature in this github post so maybe we can get the ball rolling:
    https://github.com/linuxmint/Cinnamon/issues/8104

    Reply

  2. Sudo now shows asterisks when we type our password. I have a question: wasn’t the original design (not seeing any characters when you typed your password) meant to be a security feature? As in, you wouldn’t see any characters, but neither would anyone looking over your shoulder, and so they wouldn’t even know how long your password was. Is it really a good idea to change this? Does accidentally sending the sudo password online happen that often?

    Reply

    1. You can turn off the asterisks with the following command:
      “`
      sudo mv /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback.disabled
      “`

    2. Thanks, NikoKrause. Do you have any idea if this feature can be toggled with a control center tool? That would be nice.

    3. Hi Gene,

      Like many security topics, there will be people arguing about it and there are valid concerns on both sides. On the one hand, showing the length of your password is by itself an issue.

      First, this issue is there, whether or not sudo shows feedback:

      – Typing on your keyboard (especially a short password) tells people the length of your password. It’s much easier to just listen to your typing than counting the little asterisks over your shoulder.
      – The display manager already shows the length of your password.
      – Pkexec (and gksu before it) already show the length of your password.
      – Websites already show the length of your passwords.

      Second, there’s a bigger security issue at play in our opinion: Clear passwords. If I know your password is 14 characters, it’ll take me less time to brute-force it, but if I know exactly what it is, I’m in already. When you type your password in a multiple-window environment it is absolutely CRUCIAL you make sure you’re typing it in the wrong place. Whether it’s alt-tab, a notification, a window mapping, windows being tiled side by side, or even a keybinding, there are many situations where you you might not be aware your keyboard is focused or grabbed by the wrong window. You can imagine the impact of showing a clear password. Locally, to the same crowd you didn’t want to show those asterisks (whether it’s over your shoulder or through a projector), but not only that… how about Hexchat, Slack, and connected apps in general?

      Do we see it happen often? do people mistakenly type their password online? Yes. After you’ve done it once or twice you’re definitely more careful, and you rely on typing feedback for it.

      Now as always, this is configurable. The setting for this is in /etc/sudoers.d/0pwfeedback.

  3. Thank-you for your work on 19.1. Just a quick note to let you know when I updated the beta version I lost my shutdown button in the menu drop down.

    Reply

    1. Hi Josue,

      I removed duplicated comments and by doing so, an answer to you doesn’t show up. I’ll paste it here. Jim S. said:

      “The ideal solution would be for everyone to agree on how to load the cpu firmware. (Arch loads it via grub, everyone else loads it some other way so they do the wrong thing when updating grub with an Arch installation in place.) But failing that, a simple search reveals that it is supposed to be possible to start the Mint installer from the command line as “ubiquity -b” to not install grub. Does this not work?”

    2. No… using ubiquity -b does not seem to be possible. typing man ubiquity doesn’t even show that option. Besides, what I’m asking for is for something that allows having that option within the regular installer, which (I have checked) is already launched with a couple of options by default.

  5. Reasonable good job on LM 19.1 beta. I chose word “reasonable because request for re sizable (or simple bigger) side slide bar was ignored again and again. It is not just me who complaining about this for months. Second: Software Manager screen is not re sizable, it is running under panel. Just those two request so far.
    I’ll be back…….Thanx for any answer in advance.

    Reply

    1. Hi rtep,

      Are we talking about scrollbars?

      mintinstall is resizable and it’s not running under the panel. I’m testing this in 1024x768px which is the required minimum resolution.

    2. Hi Clem, so why do you think I’m complying about Software Manager screen? How/where can I post picture of it for you to believe me? It IS running under panel on my Dell laptop in 1366 x 768px and I cannot resize it! Also, no comment on resizing right slider? Why? I’m not the only one who talks about that for months. Now after all those update, same thing occurred in LM 18.3, which I still running. Do not get me wrong, I have great respect for all LM teams, BUT………..

    3. Hi rtep,

      It’s not a question of believing you, of course I believe you. I can’t reproduce it, so there’s something different you’re not telling me and until we find out what that is, I can’t reproduce the issue. The most common culprit for “inflating” windows is a verbose locale (Russian, German etc..). Another possible cause could be a particular featured image. A screenshot and knowing the locale might help. You can use imgur for this.

      Regarding the resizing of the window, if it’s too big or just big enough for the screen resolution, it won’t let you resize, that’s normal, it’s a WM restriction.

      I still don’t know what you mean by “right slider”. Are you talking about scrollbars?

      I do also have great respect for all LM teams. I don’t get you wrong.

    5. Window size depends on the theme and HiDPI scaling settings. But a screenshot would be helpful.

      I also don’t like the default scrollbar size. You can override it in themes by creating this file:

      ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css

      with this content:

      scrollbar.vertical slider,
      scrollbar.vertical .slider {
      min-width: 8px;
      }

      (adjust the width to your preference, the above is how I use it)

    7. bm10, thanx for your info. Because I’m still LM newbie….can you please post step by step “how-to” for me? I’m talking about resizing left scrollbar. Thanx in advance for any help.

    9. I’m not sure what you mean by “left scrollbar”. My solution was for the vertical scrollbars (typically at the right side of the window).

  6. Thank you Clem and NikoKrause for the clarifications, I see your point now. I haven’t already said this and I should have, big thank you to you, Clem, and the rest of the Linux Mint dev team for all your work over the years and for this new release. I’ve been testing Linux Mint XFCE 19.1 these past few days and right now I don’t see any issues with it. Looks great, very nicely polished with the new available themes, behaves very well too. Congratulations! Looking forward to the final release of 19.1

    Reply

  7. 19 still has a bug not fixed from previous versions – When resuming from suspend, no mouse pointer. Happens mostly on AMD systems.

    Reply

  8. Hello. I want to contact the developers of “linux mint” I have a laptop with a geforce 710m video processor. The driver manager offers me version 340. According to the description, it is suitable for my model, but when installing and rebooting, the screen simply does not turn on. On the manufacturer’s website there is another newer version, but how to install it on this system is not clear. How to be? And I would also like regular users to conveniently configure components without a lot of commands. To make the system easier to use for those who are not used to using text commands. Greater compatibility with windows programs. I will wait for an answer. thank

    Reply

  9. Installed 19.1 BETA XFCE to VMware ESXi virtual machine and upon first logon set display resolution to 1680×1050. The display increased in size, but the desktop did not stretch correctly, the toolbar which would normally be at the bottom of the screen is now about 1/3 from the bottom of the screen, and mouse is unusable. I can see the mouse move, but it’s movements don’t correspond correctly. Managed to open a terminal and reboot, but still N.G. Suggestions for how to fix?

    Reply

  10. Re: Sudo now shows asterisks when we type our password.
    Lotus Notes adds multiple asterisks for each character typed. This always struck me as a good idea.

    Reply

    1. Hi Chris,

      It is actually, it could tackle concerns on both sides of the argument. This would need to be implemented in sudo itself. Thanks for the feedback.

  11. Suggestion: it would be nice if the low battery notification disappears only by clicking on it or plugging in the power cable, because the display delay is too short and I do not always see it (the PC goes to sleep by surprise).

    Reply

  12. it is true that if you open the terminal in linux mint 19.1 beta version and then reboot in fills without having to use sudo he does not ask for a password.

    Reply

    2. Hi Clem,

      stefan may be referring to post install?
      Terminal: ‘sudo reboot’ is no longer required, just ‘reboot’ now works, its the same in 19, not checked 18.x.

  13. The default search in Firefox seems to be yahoo.com, which fails to load on my system, for unknown reasons (I’m running from the “Live CD”).

    Duckduckgo (which was the default search in LM19.0?) works fine though.

    Reply

  14. Would also be good (far too late and too complex a request, I know) is the user could select which main apps are installed during the system install.

    I, for example, remove a load of stuff right after the system install: Thunderbird, Hexchat, Transmission, Rhythmbox, XPlayer.

    Reply

  15. I can see the issue with screen resolution and mintinstall; testing 19.1 on an old netbook with 10″ screen that is only 1024×600 looses some of the important buttons at the bottom of the screen.
    A default minimum resolution of 1024×600 would make many netbook users with such small screens VERY happy!

    Reply

    2. Hi Mark,

      We might remove or adapt features (the big banners for instance) based on resolutions. Long term though, it’s a lot to ask for UIs to fit in 600px in 2018. I know netbook manufacturers pushed ridiculous resolutions to bring prices down and we have to take this into account. It’s annoying to see such a regression (it is a pretty big regression in terms of hardware history when you consider XGA was already dominant back in the early 00’s).

  16. One further observation of my own:
    None of the mint utilities or Xapps respond to the keyboard shortcuts of [Ctrl] [W ]or [Ctrl] [Q] to close the window / quit the application.
    Is this an intentional feature, an oversight, or a bug?
    I don’t use a mouse and rely heavily on keyboard shortcuts which is why this stands out for me.

    Otherwise, LM19.1 looks superb, is very stable in beta and is another testament to the capability of the LM team; WELL DONE!

    Reply

    1. Hi Mark,

      Xviewer and Xreader quit on Ctrl+W.
      Xplayer quits on Ctrl+Q.
      Pix on neither.
      Xed closes docs on Ctrl+W and quits on Ctrl+Q.

      I’ll add this to the roadmap so we harmonize all this.

  17. I want to try Linux Mint on a Raspberry Pi 3. I downloaded several of the ISO’s and wrote them one at a time to my SD card to be placed in the Pi for booting. I noticed the SD card each time only had 1.79 GB as the E drive with no partition for the remaining volume of the 64 GB SD card. How do I get a bootable SD card for LinuxMint for my Pi? What would I see for the directory on the SD card.

    Reply

  18. Hello, your Rapsberry Pi uses an ARM CPU architecture (typically ARMv7 software may be used on Raspberri Pi 2 and 3). Linux Mint only supports x86 32bit and x86 64bit, so only PC and Intel based Mac basically.

    In theory Linux Mint on Raspberry Pi is possible but this would require significant work of building (compiling), testing and so on.
    The closest thing would be to run Ubuntu Mate : https://ubuntu-mate.org/raspberry-pi/
    Ubuntu Mate 16.04 is similar to Linux Mint 18.x with Mate.
    Go to “MATE Tweak”, “Panel” and choose a panel layout there : “Redmond” (a reference to Microsoft) means a task bar on the bottom as in classoc Windows desktops, and as in Mint.

    Reply

  19. When ever GRUB is updated on a OS, it becomes first in boot line. It would be nice if “Linux Mint Mate”, “Linux Mint Cinnamon”,” Linux Mint Debian”, Linux Mint Xfce” are listed with version number.

    If it is just “Linux Mint 19” I don’t have a clue, most of the time, password for that OS as have up to five versions of Linux on the four boxes. Just hard on the MINT versions. LOL

    Most of the time SOLAAR doesn’t see Logitech Keyboard / mouse on boot. Have to quit then open again. Not much of a pain as do not have to “pair” very often.

    Debian version is one of my favorites. Thanks for reading old fart post, Keep up the GOOD WORK on Mint. Mike

    Reply

  20. Just a minor thing. I would like to see: Xfce, Mate, Cinnamon, Deb listed in the GRUB listings. It would make it easier for booting with the Desktop I would want to use at that time. Have many OS on four desktops.

    Small one would have SOLAAR find the Logitech keyboard / mouse 100% on boot up versus <10%.

    Keep up the good work on all Linux Mint OS's …. really like the Debian version a lot. Thanks Mike

    Reply

  22. Please know Ubuntu is now based on 10 years support 18.4 so how is possible Linux Mint is only good till 2023?
    Linux Mint is good till 2029 . Am i right or wrong please let us know .

    Reply

    1. The Ubuntu base on which Mint is based may be good until 2028. But Linux Mint adds its own tweaks & packages. These will only be supported for 5 years.

  23. 1. We tested Linux Mint 19.1 Xfce and can not be installed anymore none Office into the PlayOnlinux. That’s how it was and in Linux Mint 19. It seems that on the new base it is not possible anymore. See if anything can be done.

    2. When I installed Linux Mint 19.1 Xfce, luminosity adjustment worked, after I updated the system, the brightness adjustment no longer works. So it is not possible to adjust the luminosity. I think the issue needs to be resolved by a new update rather than Timeshift.

    Are two things that should be solved off.

    Reply

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