Linux Mint 20 “Ulyana” Xfce – BETA Release

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This is the BETA release for Linux Mint 20 “Ulyana” Xfce Edition.

Linux Mint 20 Ulyana Xfce Edition

 Linux Mint 20 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2025. 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 20 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 20 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).

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 19.3.
  • Upgrade instructions will be published after the stable release of Linux Mint 20.

Bug reports:

  • Bugs in this release should be reported on Github at https://github.com/linuxmint/mint20-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://trello.com/b/9BY9I6Lp/linux-mint-20 and https://github.com/linuxmint/mint20-beta to follow the progress of the development team between the BETA and the stable release.

Download links:

Here are the download links:

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!

75 comments

  1. Hello Mint team,
    Greetings and best wishes for the success a new release. In the very beginning I noticed a discrepancy in the information provided on this page and the “New features in Linux Mint 20 Xfce” page. At the top of this page it is mentioned that Linux Mint 20 will be supported until 2025 while the New Features page says it will be supported until 2023. I assume it to be a typo on the New Features page and support should be expected until 2025. Please correct me if I have misunderstood something.
    Thanks and regards.

    Reply

  3. I found a bug in the XFCE edition. I set the style and the borders to Adwaita and the icons on the panel were gone and the menu didn’t work any more. Shutdown was still possible. Perhaps not al the themes were ported to the new panel ?
    Otherwise I am happy that the sound on my Atom PC now works without any fiddling with pulseaudio.
    The driver for my USB WLAN stick (RTL8812AU) was proposed but didn’t work and did not correctly install.
    But that’s not Mints problem. I use a different driver, could compile it and it works.

    Reply

    2. I know, that the RTL8812AU (USB 3.0 dongle) is not officially supported up to kernel4.15.x (Mint 19.3 / Ubuntu 18.04), at least..That’s why I was “amused” that the driver manager offered an (official ?) driver for it. I tried to use it but it did neither work nor was it installed as a module for use after the next reboot.

      I couldn’t reproduce the Xfce edition bug, unfortunately.

  4. As expected blazing fast with mint xfce, only a hiccup is not opening terminal with right click in Nemo that needs to be fixed as thunar file manager will not support dual pane

    Reply

    1. According to what I found ages ago, the following fix to make Thunar dual-pane work well for me in all versions of Mint 19:
      mkdir -p thunar-packages “$HOME”
      sudo apt-get remove –purge thunar -y
      cd $HOME/thunar-packages
      sudo dpkg –force-all -i *.deb
      sudo apt-get install thunar-archive-plugin thunar-media-tags-plugin thunar-volman
      sudo apt-mark hold thunar thunar-data thunar-dbg libthunarx-2-0 libthunarx-2-dev
      After that I can’t remember if you need to login again or restart thunar but it remains single pane until you press F3 to toggle the second pane on and off.
      I think I got it from here: https://unlockforus.com/thunar-split-view-for-linux-lite/ but currently it is blocked for me for some reason in Firefox

    2. Open Terminal and enter this command to get Terminal to open with Nemo
      gsettings set org.cinnamon.desktop.default-applications.terminal exec xfce4-terminal

  6. LibreOffice has two themes preinstalled: Tango (very ugly) and Colibre. Cinnamon version uses Colibre; Xfce version uses Tango. Please fix it this.

    In Panel Preferences > Appearance > Icons > Adjust size automatically is actived. Hence the icons are VERY BIG and the clock smaller than the rest.

    Mint-Y-orange and Mint-Y-sand are very hard to read, the contrast is very bad. The green is ugly, the teal version should be the default. Is still “green”, but better.

    Boot Repair is the only application has the “original” icon. Inconsistent Artwork. I prefer the original icons almost always because I prefer first a consistent artwork. The devil’s in the details.

    BTW, who’s still using HexChat?

    Reply

    2. > BTW, who’s still using HexChat?

      I can say the same when a distro ships CD/DVD burners like Brasero, k3b, Xfburn when actually no one uses CD/DVD anymore…

  8. What is the story with Samba? Are the problems as outlined in the 19.3 Release note all fixed? Is Samba installed by default again? I upgraded to 19.3 recently and was very pleased with it. But the absence of Samba had me confused for a while.

    Reply

    1. Please, add all categories en Xfce4-settings-manager (as Xubuntu).

      Printer is missing, and another config tools since ever in Mint Xfce (also in LMDE Xfce).

  9. Hexchat is the first thing i Will uninstall because of translation which is niet complete (dutch) . Mint is a fine os. Buy ik like tot use it in my own language

    Reply

    1. Or you could offer to contribute to the project by helping with the translation. Your native language… It wasn’t a case of the developer not including it because he didn’t like the language or the people who use it – it wasn’t included because, instead of people volunteering to provide translations… they decided it was someone else’s responsibility to fix.

  13. This runs so well I have a hard time believing it’s a BETA. Only a couple of quibbles. Why the 5 second grub menu? Seems an unnecessary stop on the way to the login screen. And …
    This falls under the heading of “Where Did It Go?” in LM 20 BETA.

    In LM 19.3 clicking on System Settings, General, Miscellaneous Options you can choose to “Enable support for indicators (requires Cinnamon restart). But … That option is missing from System Settings, General in LM 20 BETA. Where’d it go?

    Other than that … this is a fun ride.

    Reply

    2. The “grub timeout” in the boot menu is for all the people who run more than one OS and/or distro, and can easily be adjusted (or set to zero) by the end user. It can also be set to indefinite. See:
      https://askubuntu.com/questions/148095/how-do-i-set-the-grub-timeout-and-the-grub-default-boot-entry

      You can also, as far as I know, still configure things so that the grub menu is skipped, again if you only have one OS/distro (and wish to boot directly to the login menu). I don’t recommend that, though.

    3. You can use Grub Customizer to customise Grub – its the first thing I install and change it to a 2 second grub menu, but thats only because I tri boot LM, Windows and Fedora. I recommend a 1 second grub so you can go into recovery if you need to.

  14. I’d like to see a Budgie version of Linux Mint, since Budgie is not GTK and doesn’t plan to switch to Qt. KDE version was removed due to being Qt.

    Reply

  15. Random & intermittent ‘network disconnected’ – it doesn’t seem to have been or spontaneously is reconnected.
    Unexpected shutdowns – no errors apparent when restarted, with or without GRUB checks.

    Reply

  16. Hi … i tried Mint 20 Cinnamon and its really fast !
    sadly I am missing the wireguard plugin in the network-manager but i am sure it will come in the future …

    How does the Screen-Scaling work ? I can choose between Normal and HiDPI (double) and the scale factor is always 100% and can not be changed …

    But as always … fantastic work, thank you

    Reply

  17. The crucial question is: Will be possible safely upgrade from Mint 19.x to Mint 20? Even in a case when I have a lot of PPA activated?

    Reply

    1. If I remember correctly PPAs are deactivated when you do a version upgrade. If some of the software you have installed on your system is not compatible with/available for Linux Mint 20 the upgrade should warn you about it.

  18. 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 19.3.
    Upgrade instructions will be published after the stable release of Linux Mint 20.

    Reply

  19. Muchas gracias a todo el equipo desde españa, como siempre gran trabajo,ojala consideréis empaquetar a chromium como 2º navegador.
    Feliz dia y descanso que os lo mereceis.

    Reply

  20. Sorry for the “off topic” but, is there a plan for a Raspberry Pi version of Linux Mint ? It would be a killer Linux for use in schools to introduce linux for kids and they will use it later in bigger desktops and servers…

    Reply

    1. One step along the way could be to install the XFCE desktop, and Whisker menu, on your raspberry Pi, as they are available in the repos from Raspbian.
      Here in the UK the Raspberry Pi has still not gained the traction in the education sector it should have, with funding, curriculum support, and teacher training all contributing to poor adoption according to the RPi Foundation’s own survey.
      I’m not convinced adding a.n.other distro to the mix would improve this situation.

    1. See the “What’s new in Linux Mint 20 Xfce” link above. Linux Mint 20 features Xfce 4.14.

    2. Mint 19.3 (Xfce) has Xfce 4.14 (unfortunately, lol), so its inclusion in the Mint 20.x version series is basically a given.

  23. How to deal with snapd the right way >:)

    On the terminal:
    $ sudo apt install snapd
    $ Are you crazy? (y/N)

    Sorry, I couldn’t resist doing this…

    Reply

  25. This is the first Mint XFCE I’ve known where tap to click doesn’t work, easily fixed by installing “xserver-xorg-input-synaptics”, but in Mate and Cinnamon it works out of the box.

    Reply

  26. nice work, thanks
    bug in mate/live & xfce/live on macbook pro 15″ :
    compete freeze when loading libreoffice toolbar (mouse can move but thats all)
    idem with mate installed
    resolved with “nouveau.noaccel=1” in grub

    Reply

  27. Esta versão, a 20 do Linux Mint está apresentando sérios problemas recorrente na hora de fazer a instalação em disco. Por favor, gostaria que os desenvolvedores tivessem um pouco de atenção a este problema sério que o imposibilita de correr em desktop.

    Reply

    2. O Mint não é um software comercial e vc não pagou 1 centavo por ele. A melhor atitude deve ser contribuir ao invés de reclamar. Abra uma issue, detalhe ponto por ponto do que está dando erro, procure descobrir pq para auxiliar a equipe. Ou então, se quiser manter essa atitude pedante, vá ali na Microsoft, compre uma cópia do Windows e ligue pro suporte se precisar. Melhor do q vir num projeto feito por quem acredita na comunidade e se comportar como um consumidor. Aqui não é Microsoft, nem Apple, nem vc tem qq direito de exigir coisa alguma. Fique somente se quiser contribuir.

  28. Hi Team Linux Mint, I came from Windows. I tried Mint before many years and due to lack of knowledge and experience I accidentally lost all my disk data in the installation process. Till now I tried many other distros (i.e. Ubuntu and Xubuntu, Elementary OS, Fedora etc.). I am a fan of XFCE, as my laptop is quite old and XFCE gives best battery backup. I am using Mint XFCE latest version but my in-built Lenovo B50-80 wireless card is not working. I have to use portable wireless hardware to connect to the Internet. To fix this issue, I tried some online troubleshoot solutions, but no luck. I wish if this issue could be fixed in the next major release.

    Reply

  29. Buen dia instale Ulyana Xfce beta pero Wine no Corre descargue por el centro de software y nada por linea de comando igual…

    Reply

  30. No Audio … When I boot Ulyana Xfce beta from usb stick, I/O going to HDMI monitor, the system displays HDMI image but says that HDMI audio is unplugged or unavailable. (Previously, both audio and video work fine via HDMI with Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia Cinnamon).

    Reply

    1. I also hope there is a 32 bit version. Two of my computers have _no_ moving parts so they will go forever, IF I can keep them secure.

  34. I hope that this time in version 20, sound and webcam will work in the HP Pavilion x2 laptop – 10-n110nw. I checked the sound quickly and it works, just a webcam …

    Reply

  35. I believe Mint should pack Chromium as a deb instead of just pointing to another source to the user to download. People are saying Mint is just using and sucking everything from Canonical, Ubuntu instead of creating their own distro.
    How would Mint deal if Ubuntu keeps turning debs packs to snap? Mint wouldn’t be able to point for solutions outside of Linux Mint like you’re doing with Chromium.
    This is a real problem.
    Also, Linux Mint seems to be the 2nd distro that more uses snaps after Ubuntu. If they block or make it hard for snaps to be installed, a lot of people could just go back to Ubuntu or even other distro. I think Mint should do the same as Pop!_OS repack Chromium as deb instead of just putting a dummy packages that does nothing and will make newbies lost.

    ** That’s it **

    Reply

    2. No

      People are calling Mint’s move of not adding chromium as deb as laziness. This is bad for you. I don’t like snap, but let’s be honest that Pop!_OS hasn’t done such move and ship a chromium as deb anyway, even though Ubuntu ship it as snap.

  36. Why should people go back to ubuntu? For the lack of QA in the last years? Why are we using Mint? Because it’s focused on the desktop, because it’s focused on quality.
    And if more and more apps are published as snaps, why do you think there is the LMDE?
    This aside, although I don’t use Chromium (not for technical reasons…) I would appreciate to find it as deb.

    Reply

  37. Bug report (I know about the request to post on github/issues but they don’t let me do it there without email verification):

    The ISO boot menu option “memtest” does not work. memtest+ 5.01 comes up and starts testing the RAM. After no more than 1 second, everything freezes except for the blinking + sign next to memtest+. From this point on, no reaction to keyboard input, no rotating progress cursor, no further progress, nothing. Also, it always happened at the same point (12% into first test).

    Observed on Intel NUC8i7BE with 32GB RAM. Two different USB sticks, same outcome (Kingston and Sandisk). Verified sha256 of downloaded ISO image OK.

    The same box runs memtest+ 5.01 fine when booted off a centos7 minimal install ISO (boot menu, troubleshooting, run a memory test). Of course I don’t if it is really the same version, but the visual appearence is the same.

    Maybe something is wrong with the ISO? If not, let me know here so I can troubleshoot further.
    Marc

    Reply

    1. Why did you add a PPA from another distro?
      Unless you perfectly know what you’re doing, I’d avoid that completely.

  39. Bug report (github doesn’t let me post without email verification):

    Install with LVM + encryption does not work.

    Reproduce: Boot, run “Install Linux Mint”. Accept all defaults, except destination disk options. Select advanced, then enable LVM and also encryption. Set a security key and finish install. Then boot the computer.

    Expected outcome: plymouth asks for security key and system boots.

    Observed outcome: security key is NOT being asked for. system does NOT boot. Instead, it goes from the round “LM” logo directly to a textmode busybox “(initramfs)” prompt. No error messages are shown, just the textmode prompt.

    Tested on NUC8i7BE with Samsung EVO970 nvme ssd.

    Reply

  40. Bug report (github doesn’t let me post without email verification):

    Grub boot options editor uses unacceptable keyboard mapping.

    Reproduce: Use a standard office USB keyboard (e.g. Logitech K120). Boot, run “Install Linux Mint”. Accept all defaults, except select keyboard mapping “English (UK)” and location “Berlin” (Germany). Finish the install and reboot the computer. Press TAB to get the grub menu, then “e” to edit the boot options. Now try to input an underscore (e.g. to add kernel option intel_idle.max_cstate=1).

    Expected outcome: It’s possible to input an underscore.

    Observed outcome: It’s NOT possible to input an underscore. I tried all non-modifier keys. Just the keys, shift+keys, alt+keys, altgr+keys, ctrl+keys, also numblock with alt+keycodes.

    Apparently grub is configure to use an unusuable keymapping, and/or some modifier keys are filtered away from input to editor control shortcuts. The result is that kernel options with underscore “_” cannot be set.

    On Mint 19.3 the problem did not exist.

    Tested on NUC8i7BE with Logitech K120 USB keyboard (QUERTY spanish variant).

    Reply

  41. Excellent light/dark option in the welcome window. I missed the traditional/modern desktop option in the same window, as in the past versions. Great job, anyway… Thanks!

    Reply

  42. What happened to Linux Mint 20 for 32 Bit, it would not be fair, since many require something new on their 32 Bit PC, it is necessary to remember that they do not all have a 64 Bit Computer

    Reply

  43. Linux Mint 20 is based on Ubuntu 20.04LTS.
    In Ubuntu’s release notes, we can read:

    Users of the i386 architecture will not be presented with an upgrade to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. Support for i386 as a host architecture was dropped in 19.10.

    Reply

  44. Great work. I love it. Just did a fresh install , used LM 19.3 before. Works smoothly. Quick boot, nice system, good improvements. Wanna say thanks to the team who worked on it! Will donate of course.

    Reply

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