Monthly News – October 2020

Many thanks for your support and your donations and many thanks to our sponsors, partners and all the people who help us.

Chromium

The Chromium browser is now available in the official repositories for both Linux Mint and LMDE. If you’ve been waiting for this I’d like to thank you for your patience.

To guarantee reactivity and timely updates we had to automate the process of detecting, packaging and compiling new versions of Chromium. This is an application which can require more than 6 hours per build on a fast computer. We allocated a new build server with high specifications (Ryzen 9 3900, 128GB RAM, NMVe) and reduced the time it took to build Chromium to a little more than an hour.

Although Chromium was present in Debian we noticed it was rarely up to date so the decision was taken to also build for LMDE. We had to adapt a few things and there were hurdles along the way but it’s finally here.

The package name is the same in Linux Mint and LMDE: “chromium”.

IPTV

Last month I mentioned we could develop an IPTV player and I received very positive feedback. Many of you showed an interest and curiosity towards it but I also noticed that the concept was often misinterpreted or not fully understood.

It’s still too soon to say whether this will be part of Linux Mint and how much we can focus on its development, but we got enough enthusiasm here to get the project started and build a prototype called Hypnotix.

You can download Hypnotix at:

http://linuxmint.com/tmp/blog/3978/hypnotix_1.0.0_all.deb

This is an early ALPHA, with no translations and a very minimal user interface and set of features.

It comes configured with a free content provider (FreeIPTV) which provides streams for a variety of TV stations. This was done so that anyone could use it and see how it works. The scope of the project is however limited to the development of a player application and does not include the maintenance or the provision of streams or multimedia content. This is done by the content provider.

Hypnotix doesn’t have preferences in its user interface, but you can configure it from the command line. If you have an IPTV content provider, you can specify its name and your M3U address this way:

gsettings set org.x.hypnotix providers "['Provider_Name:::https://m3u_url.m3u']"

You can follow Hypnotix’s development on Github at https://github.com/linuxmint/hypnotix.

Favorites

Do you often work on the same files? Do you rely on bookmarks and “recents” to find them? We are working on something which will help you access your favorite files faster than before.

Simply right-click a file and choose “Add to Favorites”. Similar to pinned files it becomes easier to spot by showing up at the top of your folder.

You can also get to it directly, no matter where you are, by using the “Favorites” section of your file manager:

Or the file selection dialog:

Or from the application you want to open it with:

Or in Cinnamon from a new section in the application menu or the newly dedicated “favorites” applet.

We’ve had bookmarks for years to quickly access some of our directories, it was about time we did the same for files.

Cinnamon

CJS 4.8 will use the newer Mozjs78. This was requested by other distributions and it makes Cinnamon easier to maintain outside of Linux Mint. In all distributions, including our own, this also results in slightly better performance, in particular during the startup phase.

Changes were made to the way Cinnamon interprets compatibility with spices. In the past, an applet or desklet which specified the versions of Cinnamon it was compatible with had to be updated to specify the newly released version of Cinnamon. Failing that it didn’t work properly. Starting with Cinnamon 4.8 this will no longer be necessary. Forward compatibility will be assumed and expected unless specifically refused by the applet/desklet. Multi-version (the ability for the spice to provide different source code for different versions of Cinnamon) will also become implicit. This will improve compatibility between spices and Cinnamon and reduce maintenance.

Improvements were made also to the way Cinnamon interacts with the spices server. Some data was cached by our global proxy and this sometimes introduced issues when updating spices. Future versions of Cinnamon will force the proxy to bypass the cache and always retrieve up to date spices.

Sponsorships:

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:

Gold Sponsors:
Linux VPS Hosting
Silver Sponsors:
Sucuri
ThinkPenguin: For Everything Freedom
Tibor Kaputa
Bronze Sponsors:
Vault Networks *
AYKsolutions Server & Cloud Hosting
hSo
Avery Tarasov / Chr0meiCe2 / @Abdomination1
BGASoft Inc
David Salvo
Feathercoin
HamoniKR
Look To The Right SEO
Michael Hathaway
Synapse Search
Uwe Schneider GmbH
Community Sponsors:

 

Donations in September:

A total of $10,727 were raised thanks to the generous contributions of 483 donors:

$108, Andrew M.
$108, Birgit N.
$100 (29th donation), Ray
$100 (6th donation), Matthew P.
$100 (2nd donation), Neil F.
$100, Douglas M.
$100, Claude M.
$100, Alexander A.
$90 (3rd donation), Neal K.
$80, dcm-thanks
$60 (2nd donation), David B.
$57, Holger T.
$54 (5th donation), Gerald H.
$54 (4th donation), Stuart H.
$54 (3rd donation), Roland H.
$54 (3rd donation), Jean C. A.
$54 (3rd donation), Stefan K.
$54 (2nd donation), Janez G.
$54 (2nd donation), Ulrich H.
$54, Jürgen J.
$54, Francois-noel F.
$54, Andrea C.
$54, Daniele B.
$54, Krzysztof D.
$54, Hannes D.
$54, Stefan L.
$54, Marc C.
$54, Peter P. aka “pp
$54, Eric P.
$54, Cyril I.
$54, Armin K.
$54, Mario P.
$51 (3rd donation), Suyog B.
$50 (43th donation), Anthony C. aka “ciak”
$50 (11th donation), Alfred H. aka “Varmint Al
$50 (9th donation), Ian L.
$50 (8th donation), Cody W. H.
$50 (7th donation), Arrowhead Computer Consulting, LLC aka “Jim (JR)
$50 (5th donation), Peter F.
$50 (4th donation), Brian M.
$50 (4th donation), Stephen T.
$50 (4th donation), Colin B.
$50 (4th donation), Roy V. K.
$50 (2nd donation), John F.
$50 (2nd donation), Terry P.
$50, Zach G.
$50, Stephen S.
$50, Sorin S.
$50, Daniel Z.
$50, Phong T.
$50, Steven C.
$50, Brendan F.
$50, Brandon P.
$50, John S.
$50, Bobby W.
$50, Scott P.
$50, Roy N.
$50, Priyesh P.
$50, Daniel L.
$50, Richard D.
$50, Jeffrey G.
$50, Simon B.
$50, Joe R.
$50, Elizabeth L.
$50, Aloysius R.
$50, Steven S.
$50, Ron S.
$50, Richard S.
$50, Randal B.
$50, Stephen N.
$50, Lance H.
$43 (2nd donation), Mathias P.
$43, Gianni O.
$43, Philippe A.
$43, Manuel López
$42 (5th donation), Martin K.
$40 (127th donation), Olli K.
$40, Eric D.
$40, Ian L.
$35 (8th donation), Ted S.
$35, Brian H.
$32 (11th donation), Stephen M.
$32 (8th donation), Steve Glyn.
$32 (4th donation), Thomas K.
$32 (2nd donation), David W.
$32, Mario S.
$30 (5th donation), Jonathan L.
$30, Jan Theake D.
$30, Steven L.
$30, Far West Computer Consulting
$30, Rob Z.
$27 (11th donation), Roger aka “Linux Workgroup Monitor Niel Belgium
$27 (2nd donation),
$27, Jewe S.
$27, Jan B.
$25 (8th donation), Scott O.
$25 (6th donation), John C.
$25 (5th donation), Marc B.
$25 (5th donation), Edmond I.
$25 (4th donation), Timothy L.
$25 (4th donation), Alex O.
$25 (3rd donation), Donald K.
$25 (2nd donation), Mark G.
$25, Walter R.
$25, Frederick C P.
$22 (22nd donation), Doriano G. M.
$22 (21st donation), Michael R.
$22 (9th donation), Anonymous User
$22 (8th donation), Ben E.
$22 (6th donation), Peter E.
$22 (6th donation), Alonso C.
$22 (4th donation), Christian K.
$22 (3rd donation), Thomas K.
$22 (3rd donation), Stefan Becker aka “Appeltaler”
$22 (2nd donation), Detlef N.
$22 (2nd donation), Angelos N.
$22, Marjan V.
$22, Herman M.
$22, Lars S.
$22, PZL Games
$22, Otto N.
$22, Antonio S.
$22, Werner W.
$22, Mr Md N.
$22, Wilm-gert E.
$22, Miguel S.
$22, Matthias B.
$22, Stefan M.
$22, Hans B.
$22, Johnny Riber L.
$22, Sean M.
$22, Lothar P.
$22, Etienne L.
$22, Pablo G.
$22, Marcel V.
$22, Steiner A.
$22, Emma Clotilde T.
$22, Jaume T.
$22, Jordi R.
$22, Dirk D.
$22, Wolfgang N.
$22, Roger H.
$22, Hussain F.
$22, Erkki Ruohtula
$22, Louis A.
$22, Stefan E.
$22, Thorsten D.
$22, Millon M.
$22, Achille A.
$22, Hans-peter W.
$22, Enzo C.
$22, Alastair S.
$22, Luis Javier G.
$21 (7th donation), Robert M.
$20 (76th donation), Tree Service Kansas City
$20 (48th donation), Fence Baton Rouge
$20 (26th donation), Bryan F.
$20 (23rd donation), Mike W aka “bajan52”
$20 (5th donation), Nathan H.
$20 (5th donation), Robert L.
$20 (4th donation), Ken R. S.
$20 (4th donation), Christopher V.
$20 (3rd donation), Hans G. H.
$20 (2nd donation), Brent P.
$20 (2nd donation), Charles T.
$20 (2nd donation), Daniel T.
$20 (2nd donation), Miles S. P.
$20 (2nd donation), Steven S.
$20 (2nd donation), Tony N.
$20 (2nd donation), H. P. .
$20 (2nd donation), Carlos R.
$20 (2nd donation), Jon D.
$20 (2nd donation), George P.
$20 (2nd donation), Andrew L.
$20 (2nd donation), Bryan A. P.
$20 (2nd donation), opalInteractive
$20 (2nd donation), Peter L.
$20 (2nd donation), J. S. .
$20, Terry H.
$20, Esteban F.
$20, Tony K.
$20, Larry M.
$20, Tom K.
$20, Thomas L.
$20, Rory B.
$20, Ryans Products LLC
$20, Alexander B.
$20, Mehdi
$20, Robert E.
$20, Brandon V.
$20, Ranald C.
$20, Vincent P.
$20, Adrian B.
$20, Steven G.
$20, Brian H.
$20, Brandon B.
$20, Tom C.
$20, Travis S.
$20, Scott V.
$20, William D.
$20, The Lawn Ranger Ltd. Co.
$20, Michael G.
$20, Steven W.
$16 (44th donation), Andreas S.
$16 (2nd donation), Thomas K.
$16 (2nd donation), Felix N.
$16, Ronald H.
$16, Romain P.
$15 (26th donation), ajgringo619
$15 (3rd donation), Vladimir Litvinenko
$15 (2nd donation), Harry T.
$15, Michael W.
$13 (3rd donation), Ivan S.
$12 (13th donation), Lance A.
$12 (9th donation), Tsatsorin E. aka “Eugene713
$12 (4th donation), Peter S.
$12 (2nd donation), Towing Service Las Vegas
$11 (14th donation), Nachtstuck Records
$11 (14th donation), Piotr L aka “xpil
$11 (11th donation), Slobodan Vrkacevic
$11 (9th donation), Antonio aka “pengu73”
$11 (8th donation), José G.
$11 (8th donation), Francois B. aka “Makoto
$11 (7th donation), Štefan V. aka “Thinker8”
$11 (7th donation), ThomaZ
$11 (7th donation), Wolfgang G.
$11 (7th donation), Daniel S.
$11 (6th donation), Soutarson P.
$11 (4th donation), Roberto R. D. T.
$11 (4th donation), Julien R.
$11 (3rd donation), Andrew L.
$11 (3rd donation), Juergen M B.
$11 (3rd donation), Lukas W. aka “Luk”
$11 (3rd donation), Adam B.
$11 (3rd donation), Dylan B.
$11 (3rd donation), Ravi S.
$11 (3rd donation), Nicolas R.
$11 (2nd donation), Vjeran B.
$11 (2nd donation), Viktor Jozsef H.
$11 (2nd donation), Giorgio S.
$11 (2nd donation), Philip W.
$11 (2nd donation), Peter S.
$11 (2nd donation), Paul O.
$11 (2nd donation), Dennis J.
$11 (2nd donation), Jaroslav K.
$11 (2nd donation), Petr K.
$11 (2nd donation), H. B. .
$11, Gabriele R.
$11, zzzzzzz .
$11, Jerome B.
$11, Sebastian S.
$11, José María G.
$11, jjb
$11, José H.
$11, Leonie H.
$11, Daniel S.
$11, Enrique S.
$11, Raphael S.
$11, Michael J.
$11, Johann F.
$11, Hansjörg G.
$11, Franz D.
$11, Stefan P.
$11, Daniel L.
$11, Wilhelm S.
$11, Dmitry P. aka “message”
$11, Christian W.
$11, David F.
$11, Karl-friedrich D.
$11, Daniel W.
$11, Giovanni F.
$11, Arend A.
$11, Laura G.
$11, Dennis V.
$11, Reiner H.
$11, Gorazd B.
$11, Christian G.
$11, F. Meneu
$11, Laura
$11, Bernhard H.
$11, Nabil R.
$11, Olivier R.
$11, Gian Franco G.
$11, Joerg P.
$11, Richard Z.
$11, Philip T.
$11, Jos K.
$11, Kurt Moraw
$11, Fafadji G.
$10 (71th donation), Tree Removal Raleigh NC
$10 (55th donation), Thomas C.
$10 (50th donation), Frank K.
$10 (34th donation), Rick R.
$10 (27th donation), LJNL aka “lauranl”
$10 (17th donation), Christopher R.
$10 (16th donation), Francois-R L.
$10 (14th donation), Sami Mannila
$10 (14th donation), Serhii B. aka “sinpavla
$10 (13th donation), Mike M. aka “GrouchyM”
$10 (12th donation), Screw Piles Edmonton
$10 (9th donation), Free Spins
$10 (8th donation), Edward A.
$10 (8th donation), Interactiv Médias aka “ITActiv
$10 (7th donation), Terry B.
$10 (6th donation), Dog Training Cheyenne
$10 (6th donation), Roy D.
$10 (6th donation), Locksmith Indio
$10 (6th donation), Kari H.
$10 (5th donation), Dmitry aka “Corpsee
$10 (5th donation), Ian C.
$10 (5th donation), Mark W.
$10 (5th donation), Robert W.
$10 (5th donation), anonymous aka “victorsk”
$10 (5th donation), Marriage Counselling Edmonton
$10 (4th donation), blueredgreen
$10 (4th donation), Cezary F.
$10 (4th donation), Flamingo Merch
$10 (4th donation), Sebastian B.
$10 (3rd donation), Victor W.
$10 (3rd donation), cemento portland
$10 (3rd donation), Timeless Leaves
$10 (3rd donation), www.bmoremovingcompany.com
$10 (3rd donation), Jennifer A T.
$10 (3rd donation), Stephen S.
$10 (3rd donation), Frank H.
$10 (2nd donation), ezday computers
$10 (2nd donation), Piotr S.
$10 (2nd donation), Oleg Y. aka “oyerko
$10 (2nd donation), Concrete Contractors Raleigh
$10 (2nd donation), Jorge R.
$10 (2nd donation), Aimee W.
$10 (2nd donation), Fence Company Raleigh
$10 (2nd donation), Wilfrid W.
$10 (2nd donation), Jose D. C.
$10 (2nd donation), aka “jl”
$10 (2nd donation), Glenn S.
$10, George D.
$10, Minzhe T.
$10, John S.
$10, John S.
$10, Dean L.
$10, Thomas D.
$10, Mauricio R.
$10, InAppDesigns
$10, ipmhigg
$10, Harold J.
$10, Kunal Gurnani
$10, Jose Luiz R.
$10, Magnus L.
$10, Rafaz P.
$10, Daniel G.
$10, Keep Mint running
$10, Leslie B.
$10, Wilfred Ivan C.
$10, Evan G.
$10, Carpet Cleaning Hertfordshire aka “OziClean
$10, Michael R.
$10, Todd A.
$10, David A.
$10, Terry D.
$10, Kenneth W.
$10, Marvin H.
$10, Fresh Lawns Mowing
$10, Durwood A.
$10, zzzzzzzzz .
$10, William C.
$10, José Clóvis A.
$10, Eric R.
$10, Brian D.
$10, Ngian Xin Terry L.
$10, Photo Booth Rental
$9, Kamil D.
$8 (4th donation), Helmut S.
$8, Alex C.
$7, Bernardus L.
$7, Тюмень
$7, Jose Dimas S.
$7, Hobbyist
$6 (4th donation), Recipe Library
$6 (3rd donation),
$6, Del Santo F.
$5 (53th donation), Eugene T.
$5 (44th donation), Bhavinder Jassar
$5 (32nd donation), Dmitry P.
$5 (23rd donation), William Menezes
$5 (22nd donation), GaryD
$5 (18th donation), Hristo Gatsinski
$5 (18th donation), Jan Miszura
$5 (14th donation), Tutos-Informatique aka “tutos-info”
$5 (11th donation), Thomas R.
$5 (9th donation), Painter And Decorator Gloucester
$5 (7th donation), dgtworx.com
$5 (6th donation), Javier V. B.
$5 (5th donation), Timo K.
$5 (4th donation), Alex P.
$5 (2nd donation), Drone Photography Melbourne
$5 (2nd donation), Sandro B. aka “SBonafin”
$5 (2nd donation), Pedro Paulo S.Silva
$5, Kyle Newsome
$5, zzzzzz .
$5, Keila M.
$5, Dolores Q.
$5, Willem L.
$5, Wendy L.
$5, Andre A.
$5, Kyle K.
$5, Nikola Y.
$5, Marcin C.
$5, Alberto P. aka “IW1PRT”
$5, Daniele P.
$5, Alejandro B.
$5, William G.
$5, Benjamin G.
$5, Jhonatan P.
$5, John M.
$5, Ekaterina B.
$5, Philip H.
$5, Nyikero Gordon aka “Nyik”
$5, Manuel B.
$5, Luis F.
$5, Ulrich B.
$5, Manfred H.
$4 (5th donation), Artur F.
$4, Landscaping Sacramento
$4, Dominik E.
$3 (46th donation), Йошкар-Ола Восточный
$3 (12th donation), Oleksandr P.
$3 (4th donation), Csaba V.
$3 (2nd donation), Landscaping Midland TX
$3 (2nd donation), Andrew C.
$3 (2nd donation), Szilard S.
$3 (2nd donation), Alex_Sander aka “Auberge”
$3, Godfrey K.
$56 from 48 smaller donations

If you want to help Linux Mint with a donation, please visit https://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php

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180 comments

  1. Awesome news for Linut Mint; as always!
    I have a question; when will we see a new design for the website ? and maybe the same design for all of Mint’s website (forum; community; main; news) ? I know you already mentionned it; but in what state the project is ?

    1. I know it’s not in your vision for the OS, and the Gnome-ish standard of putting menus into a single button (which is truly awful, in my opinion) is becoming the norm now, but I wouldn’t mind having a Global Menu applet as well. It might be nice to allow users to recreate a more Mac-like environment instead of the default Windows-like environment, which I’ve always changed as much as I could away from that Windows-y weirdness when I install Mint. I’ve never been a Windows fan, and a Global Menu is one of the features that I kind of miss from back in my Mac days. It saves a bit on window space by moving the menus to the panel.

      I also wouldn’t mind seeing the calendar/clock applet add an actually functional calendar that can view and add appointments, like we used to have way back when Gnome 2 was the default DE for Mint. Maybe link it to Online Accounts, so we can use whatever online calendar service we want to.

    2. @Mike F : “I also wouldn’t mind seeing the calendar/clock applet add an actually functional calendar that can view and add appointments, like we used to have way back when Gnome 2 was the default DE for Mint. Maybe link it to Online Accounts, so we can use whatever online calendar service we want to.”

      I vouch on that too. It would be a great productivity and organization booster.
      I find it a bit weird having to jump from my computer to my phone to check my agenda whenever I need to. Having it properly integrated would be a plus.

    3. Hi Bruno and Mike:
      I use the Lightning calendar extension for Thunderbird. Hopefully you might fund it useful. Best Regards.

    4. It used to have a applet for that, but it doesn’t work on the most modern versions of Cinnamon. TBH. most of the applets are kind of dated and there is not much thing to improve Cinnamon. Gnome extensions, on the other hand, there are many.

    5. For me, because I did not like Unity on Ubuntu, I moved to Linux Mint. Nor do I like global menus! So if Mint does implement something like that I hope there will be an option to not use it.

    6. @Scott: I appreciate the suggestion. I’ve used that, too. And there are other calendar programs available. But the flexibility of having it right there on the panel, easy to access at any time, no matter what I’m doing, without having to run another program, is what I want. Just a quick pop-down menu in the panel listing my appointments and events that’s quickly accessible is the goal here, I think. That’s what we had in the old Gnome 2 Mint, and that’s what’s available in almost every other DE. Cinnamon really needs it as well.

      @Bob: It would be done like any other applet. You can choose to use it, or not. Just drop the menu of your choice onto the panel and go. Just like changing from the default menu to Cinnamenu or anything else.

  2. Hypnotix looks great so far!

    The deb-package doesn’t seem to have a dependency for ‘libmpv1’ and fails with “Cannot find libmpv in the usual places” out of the box.

  3. Hi Clem. Are there any plans to rebasing on newer versions of Mutter? To e.g. benefit from the numerous performance and latency improvements made in the last 2 years or so? I know the fractional scaling got backported, which is great, but we hear a lot about other interesting improvements all the time from the gnome team.

    And what are the plans for Wayland support?

    Thanks,
    Martin

  4. I’ll probably not use the Hypnotix program, since I run a TVHeadend server on my home network (antenna and IPTV channels combined) and use Kodi on all my devices to access it. But for those without the knowledge to set that up, Hypnotix looks like a nice program. Although can’t the same be done with VLC? Anyway, will Hypnotix be able to run URL’s as well as local files? There is a great USA-based set of legal IPTV streams at https://github.com/notanewbie/LegalStream/blob/master/LegalStream.m3u. You just point whatever you use to play IPTV (VLC, Kodi/IPTV Simple, TVHeadend, whatever) at that address and it’ll give you lots of channels, and being an online URL, when channels are updated, removed, or added, you’ll be automatically setup without having to weed out non-functional channels. Just thought I’d share… 🙂

    1. Thanks for the the github tip. I use Kodi with TVHeadend and run both a Kodi client on a raspberry pi and TVHadmin (findable on github) which gives a very nice web-based UI for the EPG and control of recording functions without either the clutter of TVHeadend or the need to access Kodi’s much narrower view. Hypnotix may not be particularly useful to me but I could imagine it being very handy to people using a Linux Enigma2 based PVR. I set one up for a friend recently. It can stream live TV to VLC (or Celluloid on Mint). An app would be good for jumping straight to a known channel. A version for RaspiOS would be nice, though I’m hoping to see Mint on the Pi5 someday.

  5. Suggestion:
    Find a way to be able to ie resize/move/copy multiple files or folders. For example I have to resize several icons on desktop …right now I need to do them indivually, faster all at once ..

  6. @Clem, I’m glad to see you’re working hard and improving things, I’m patiently waiting for Mint 20.1.

    Regarding Hypnotix, I’ve tried it and these are my comments:
    The .deb you’ve provided didn’t check for dependencies. I have a very trimmed down Mint 20 installation and since I use VLC, I’ve purged Celluloid and its dependencies, in this case libmpv1.
    Hypnotix installed fine but from the Cinnamon menu it would do nothing. Starting it from a terminal gave me some clues regarding the lack of libmpv. Synaptic helped deal with it and now Hypnotix starts and runs properly.
    So, as a suggestion for the future, Hypnotix’s installation should check for the dependencies it needs.
    Probably something similar happened to me a couple of months ago regarding the WebApp Manager. The package manager detects 2 dependencies needing installation. It installs fine and starts, but clicking the Add button does nothing.
    Wither way, I know this is still under development and Mint Team’s hard work has been proven valid as I jumped from LMDE2 to Mint 20 and (apart from some aesthetic options and some retro compatibility being broken [not Mint’s choice, Linux is bad on this]) it has been proving itself a new pleasant home on 2 different computers, from very old, to old and a fresh new one. So thank you, Clem and Team!

  7. Cool idea with the IPTV … just a sugg. if feasible to implement:
    -adjustment for stream quality is missing (not all lines are bIIIIg)

  8. Happy to hear the Mint team has taken on Chromium builds. You guys continue to fight the good fight, please keep up the great work!

  9. Bravo pour cette première version de IPTV.
    Il manque maintenant seulement à LinuxMint une fonction de recherche sur le contenu des fichiers, comme le permet MacOS, ou mieux KDE, ou encore Fedora 33 (avec Tracker ?). À intégrer à Nemo !

  10. What will happen to the snap block since you guys now decided to package Chromium as a deb? Will you guys link chromium-browser to chromium as a deb or something?

  11. On MInt 19.3 Cinnamon printing worked great. On Mint 20 not at all.
    How about adding a feature that makes it possible to use the printing that worked on Mint 19.3
    to the new Mint 20 ?

    1. What s the issue? Have you checked using google? posted on mint forum? tried install driver (newer)?

    2. What printer are you using? Going from Mint 19.3 to 20, there was absolutely no change in printing for me. All works just as before.

    3. Gary
      Your printer comment was somewhat short on detail, especially the printer you are using.
      I too had an intermittent reliability printing issue with my HP color Laserjet pro M454
      when I moved from 19.3 to Mint 20.

      Check out Linux Mint monthly news letter for September [under USB printer support]
      where Clem mentions that the team has noticed a regression in Ubuntu 20.04 and Linux Mint 20.
      Some of the USB printers and scanners which worked perfectly fine in Linux Mint 19.3
      no longer work in Linux Mint 20. He goes on to talk about testing driverless printing.

      Another issue is that the hplip driver in LM20 software manager is v3.20.3 & doesnt officially support Mint20
      although may still work. HP released hplip v3.20.9 five or six weeks ago which does support Mint 20.
      Although not difficult, it is a bit of a pain to uninstall the old version & then jump through a few hoops
      to setup as per HP’s instructions.

      If you have a USB printer that is not working on Mint 20, check out my comment on Linux Mint monthly news for September [titled ‘USB Printer Support – driverless printing feedback’]. It provides instructions on how to setup driverless printing. It is easy to setup and has worked for me on a laptop & PC.

    4. Check out Linux Mint monthly news letter for September [under USB printer support]
      where Clem mentions that the team has noticed a regression in Ubuntu 20.04 and Linux Mint 20.
      Some of the USB printers and scanners which worked perfectly fine in Linux Mint 19.3
      no longer work in Linux Mint 20. He goes on to talk about testing driverless printing.

      If you have a USB printer that is not working on Mint 20, check out my comment on Linux Mint
      monthly news for September [titled ‘USB Printer Support – driverless printing feedback’].
      The post provides instructions on how to setup driverless printing. It is easy to setup &
      works for me on a laptop & PC. Aternatively, wait until the backend of December for Mint 20.1
      & cross your fingers the issue is resolved.

  12. What if Ubuntu starts to make other packages as a snap using the same methods they used to Chromium? Won’t it be a problem long term for Mint, since it depends on Ubuntu?

    1. Mint depends more on debian than ubuntu ..the food chain is as follows: debian->ubuntu->MINT
      That s why they have LMDE…in case ubuntu tries to force things on users, you switch to debian or get rid of snap components (like in ubuntu-mate)…Linux is NOT like Windows ….

    2. That’s what LMDE is for. Debian edition was always intended to be an exit strategy for if it became unreasonable to be based off Ubuntu.

  13. What about creating a proper Linux Mint launcher for searching stuff more faster? Something like Alfred, Albert, Cerebro, Ulauncher.

    If not, what adding one of than preinstalled and adapting to Linux Mint? Sometimes searching in the menu doesn’t bring some stuff we might want faster.

    You can also fork one of the pre-existent app for Linux Mint demands. It would be soooo useful.

    1. I second this. I am currently using one called Synapse, which imo is the best, and I dread the day it stops working. If I understand correctly, the magic of it comes from the Zeitgeist engine. It’s just too good.

  14. When will Linux Mint website look more modern and appealing to new users? All the time I show my friends the distro, when they see the site they think the distro is not something serious, it’s like it doesn’t look “professional” and hide so much of Linux Mint functionalities.

  15. Finally, Chromium packaged as a proper deb. Sometime Ubuntu couldn’t be able to do anymore “because it’s too hard”. LOL, Anyways, thank you for packaging it!!!!

    Suggestion: Something that would be a huge differential for Mint would be Picture-in-Picture like ElementaryOS, but implementend system-wide. Not something limited to the browser, but anything video-based.

  16. The Chromium build time and processor choice. Does the build use all cores or is it mostly single thread?

    I ask because I find the most time consuming things in Linux are single thread. That makes some of the “slower” processors faster because their single thread performance is better.

    1. The build definitely utilizes multiple cores (as long as you tell the build to do so) though there are always portions that don’t.. There is a limit, however – it didn’t seem to utilize more than 12 logical cores at once (on an i9, using 12-16 made no difference in build time.) I didn’t perform any deliberate testing, however.

  17. With chromium 86, I’m not able to set google as my default browser and the new tab customization option is not present. Are these know issues? Can someone help?

    1. Are you using an existing profile or new one? I can’t reproduce either of these issues. Is there no option to set a default search engine, or does it just not apply the change?

  18. Hypnotix is great. I tested it out and it works. I hope you all will be succesful in adding new features and improving the stream.

  19. Thank you for Hypnotix IPTv. Like the name and it works fine. Using old Dell Latitude D830 with only 2 GIB RAM.
    Found Sky 1, Sky 2 From UK. Now can watch the Melbourne Cup race on my computer with out overloading the cpu”s. Runs very smooth without crash or buffing. Awsome effort for first alpha release.
    Although I already feel like l’ve back the winner? Called Linux Mint 20. Cheers to Clem and the Linux Mint Team

  20. I like very much Linux Mint Cinnamon, I just made a donation on https://linuxmint.com/donors.php
    What is the difference between Hypnotix and FreetuxTV ?
    I found some little bugs in Ubiquity :
    https://github.com/linuxmint/linuxmint/issues/310
    https://github.com/linuxmint/linuxmint/issues/311
    https://github.com/linuxmint/linuxmint/issues/316
    And in LM 20 Cinnamon :
    https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/issues/9654
    https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/issues/9665
    An old bug that prevent to make screenshots and documentations : https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon/issues/9649 and https://bugs.launchpad.net/kazam/+bug/1900284

  21. Cool … there is however a small problem if you want to install the language package chromium-browser-l10n – it says it depends on >= 1:85.0.4183.83-0ubuntu0.20.04.1

    1. For the version just released, all languages are included in the ‘chromium’ package, that i10n package is unrelated.

  22. The flatpak version of deja-dup requires a gnome-setting > applications > backups to be set in order to enable automatic backups, but the cinnamon settings manager does not offer this feature. Is it worth looking at this inconsistency in order to maintain compatability with the gnome applications?

  23. > Although Chromium was present in Debian we noticed it was rarely up to date so the decision was taken to also build for LMDE

    Did you consider instead of building your own Chromium to simply join forces with maintaining the Debian package? I doubt the Debian packages is rarely up-to-date because they don’t want it, I think it’s just lack of time. If you would instead help them with maintaining that one package, everyone would benefit.

  24. Are there any thoughts of bringing LMDE out from under the umberella of Linux Mint and giving it an identity/brand of its own; maybe a separate blog page and/or webpage etc. Its definitley mature enough to warrant it.

  25. Hi Clem, great news about Chromium.

    Re Hypnotix, I downloaded/installed to try it out, but it won’t run from the menu. If I launch from the terminal I get ‘AttributeError: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpv.so.1: undefined symbol: mpv_render_context_create’

    I’m assuming there’s a clue in the AttributeError message but not sure what I need to do to resolve?
    On Cinnamon, 19.3 here.

    Cheers,
    Mick

    1. On Mate 18.3, after download/install, running from terminal shows error: “Cannot find libmpv in the usual places”. After installing libmpv-dev, this error shows: “AttributeError: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpv.so.1: undefined symbol: mpv_stream_cb_add_ro”

    2. Quick update: Solved my problem by updating libmpv to a later version using a third party PPA.

    3. Hi David, it was this one: https://launchpad.net/~mc3man/+archive/ubuntu/mpv-tests

      I already had MPV installed and the update manager picked up a newer version of libmpv (and some other packages) during a refresh. Hypnotix has been running fine since.

      Maybe Clem will come back with a Hypnotix update to include dependencies? but this worked for me in the meantime anyway.

    4. Hi again David, I just had a look on GitHub and it looks like Clem may have already added the missing libmpv dependency. It might be worth uninstalling / reinstalling first to see if that works (before tryingthe 3rd party PPA).

    5. Thanks Mick, both of your suggestions tried but to no avail. Probably need to upgrade to LM 20.0
      Thanks again

      AttributeError: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpv.so.1: undefined symbol: mpv_render_context_create

      Digging through /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/
      libmpv.so.1 is a symlink to libmpv.so.1.25.0

  26. Thanks again for another great update.

    Love the idea of Favorites for commonly accessed files and folders. Is there a way to show them in Tree view? Or maybe a hybrid view, where Tree view is on the top and Places view underneath (below the File System icon in Tree view)?

    While I’m dreaming, something like the MacOS Dock Stacks would be a great way to browse your Documents without fully opening a file browser. 🙂

    see: https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/02/28/how-to-take-advantage-of-the-docks-stacks-to-easily-access-your-most-used-files

  27. Unfortunately, no major changes are expected! It would be better in Pix to move between photos using the mouse wheel, like in KDE. The refusal to make a minimal assembly is generally surprising!

  28. You are such hard workers. /Thank you/ for dealing with the Chromium problem. …Can I very politely bring up the other SNAP cornering? FWUPD requires SNAP. Hughsie often makes hardware-specific updates that require using the current or near-current release. Those USB Logitech ‘Universal Recievers’ are an easy example. The flatpak for FWUPD is no replacement — it cannot go online to check for and install updates. You have to search for CABs manually, and install these individually with the flatpak version. FWUPD needs to be kept right up-to-date just like a browser — it’s the same security problem.

    Clearly what’s wanted is to move this firmware tool into the Update Manager, as others have done. But we’re not there yet. People on 18.x get cornered into needing SNAP for FWUPD. Soon enough, people on 19.x too, depending on their hardware makeup. This has been an uphappy problem for a while now.

    1. > FWUPD requires SNAP

      It really doesn’t. The fwupd daemon does however need to be updated to support new hardware, and that’s just not the case in Ubuntu LTS. Fedora uses a traditional package just fine.

      > Clearly what’s wanted is to move this firmware tool into the Update Manager

      That makes no sense. You can’t go back in time and add support for hardware that didn’t exist when Ubuntu LTS came out… Just update the package!

      Source: Am upstream maintainer.

    2. fwupd does not require snap. It’s distributed packaged in a Debian package. It’s up to distribution vendors to update it to newer versions. If they are not keeping up but a newer version is needed then you can install the snap *instead*.

    3. Richard — Thank you for adding clarity. That’s really appreciated. I guess my confusion is because here on LTS the daemon has needed to be updated for hardware that did pre-exist — the mentioned Logitech Unified Receiver — and could not be updated, because the LTS maintainers were not moving it forward.

      Hence my uneducated point that it needs to be a special case, like our browsers, and kept at the latest version.

      But if it’s just Logitech being odd-man out somehow, then it’s not a worry. (Swear I had another example, but that’s months buried…)

      I do think fwupd should become part of our Update Manager though, like Fedora has been doing, IIRC. So one Update Manager updates all of our updateables. That’s all I mean there.Seemed sensible to do that along with fixing on the current version.

      But if you and Clem together think things are fine, then I’m going to blame confursion on my increasing senility and drop it. Thanks.

  29. Each time I post a comment in this blog, the comment is moderated and not published. I think there’s a problem with the filtering software.

    1. There used to be a game called chromium (which eventually got renamed to chromium-bsu), but I believe this screenshot was never updated. We’re fixing it, thanks for pointing it out.

  30. Menu
    I think the standard LM Cinnamon menu is very outdated , I am running LM xcfe on old notebook with the whisker menu it looks very modern, on my desktop Iḿ running LM Cinnamon , with cinnamenu applet now
    and could tiled the apps in css , like the KDE tiled menu. Hope LM team can make the standard menu more modern. Iiptv works fine , webapps and Warpinator also. Anyway LM is a great OS system.

    1. Hi CVD:
      I respectfully disagree. Being “outdated” is fine with me, as I am a 75 year old geezer. Recommend Cinnamon interface changes be made only when genuinely necessary. In the words of the late Burt Lance quote it it ain’t broke don’t fix it unquote. Best Regards.

    1. Thank you to Linuxmint team first of all.
      Yeah I also discovered B00merang themes recently and fell for it. I like ‘Acrylic dark’ [https://b00merang.weebly.com/windows-10-acrylic.html] the best and ‘dark’ [https://b00merang.weebly.com/windows-10.html] too. Dark theme lovers may love it.

  31. Thank you for your work! Chromium in debs and favourite files in Nemo are my personal winners. And please look into the window management system in Cinnamon 20. The default xapp to view pictures (not Pix but its smaller companion) has problems with tile manager and e g. it’s hard to pin into the upper left corner, and when it’s not full screen and the forward/ backward buttons to display photos are pressed, the app is immediately positioned in the centre of the screen, whatever its previous location was. There is no animation effect of maximising and unmaximising windows when the scale animation is turned on. More than new features stability improvements are welcome. You might say the bugs above are petty but there are more such little annoyances and they do influence the desktop experience. After such less urgent problems appear, they tend to remain unattended. The above is not meant to undermine your work, which is excellent.

  32. Whilst I am pleased you have filled the snap free chromium void,
    could you complete the job and build a chromium-ffmpeg-codecs-extra package please.
    Without this I would have to use snap to get the video functionality which kinda defeats the purpose.
    I have no intention of doing that so for the moment chromium is hobbled without full video support.
    I’d be happy if the codecs were integrated into the new chromium package, it compiles into a single library as I understand it.
    I cant really see why you’d want to exclude it from the “chromium” build but I dont known the full history of these things, I just see the need to watch video as an integral part of chromium or any browser for that matter.

    I totally agree with the security/trust reasons not to use snap.
    I also object on principle to using 1 GB of my 128GB SSD eg. for a 10Mb application as is often the case with a snap (and incidentally a flatpak).

    1. Can you provide some links to websites or media that aren’t working? I haven’t observed any issues with the new packages, though maybe we’ve missed something. The packaging was purposely kept simple (only two packages – the main one and a debug) but should be fully functional.

  33. Interesting to see what you did with the IPTV idea. Not exactly a concern on my end but then again… neither was Chromium. Glad to see improvements to Cinnamon. Always good to see progress on that front.

    Congrats again to everyone supporting Linux Mint!

  34. Once again we must thank the effort of the entire team mint.
    I would like to suggest that for the next release you update to the latest version of flatpak which brings important improvements.

    best regards

  35. I appreciate all the features and software mentioned in this blog entry.
    Hypnotix? I just installed it, opened it up, clicked a random (local) TV station, and it worked. And… this is an alpha release, you say? Keep your release candidates, I’ll be keeping this one!
    Pinned files and folders? Sign me up yesterday!

  36. In the LinuxMint MATE 19.3, under the Software Manager the individual “chromium” package does not appear. It also does not appear under the Synaptic Package Manager (the Store?) as an individual “chromium” package. In both applications I see “chromium-browser” instead, and possibly as a result, confused users seem to be posting bad reviews.

    In the LinuxMint MATE 20 the individual “chromium” package under the Synaptic Package Manager shows with “86.0.4240.75~linuxmint1+ulyana” as the latest version. The “chromium-browser” Transitional package narrative isn’t all that informative. In the Software Manager (the Store?) the “chromium” package has a Debian icon, which isn’t too informative for someone looking for the LinuxMint team build.

    I hope this package will be backported to LinuxMint 19.3 (my main workstation) as it will likely work better for me with using the Jitsi remote video services.

    1. On going back to LinuxMint MATE 20, closer examination showed “chromium-browser” acting as a Transitional package pointing to loading the “chromium” package (my previous mirror site must not have been updated). The Synaptic Package Manager shows the “chromium” package that previously was acting as Transitional package, now as the latest version of “86.0.4240-111-linuxmint1+ulyana”. Going back to LinuxMint MATE 19.3 the Synaptic Package Manager shows the “chromium-browser” with “86.0.4240.75-0ubuntu0.18.0.4.1” as the version. So, I’m now assuming that I won’t need to wait for a backport or seek out a PPA.

  37. Dear Mint Team,

    great news. The Favorites are a convenient extension. Also nice to read that Cinnamon will be switched to Mozjs78.
    Thanks for providing chromium yourself now. How about the “chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra”? Is it still possible to install them?

    Best regards,
    Jacob

    1. Okay, thanks. Is this also available for other browsers? Opera for example requires libffmpeg (which was included in chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra).

    2. Not sure why I can’t reply to replies here.. but, the existing chromium-codecs-ffmpeg-extra isn’t even a real package anymore in Mint 20/Ubuntu 20.04. This happened once chromium itself became a snap. It was only still there to allow transitioning to the snap version. I think other browsers bundle their own codecs (probably the same way we do, if they’re chromium-based).

    3. Favorites are not shown as in screenshots above in my Nemo v 4.6.5. although I have some. Work in progress?

  38. Bonjour Clem,
    Merci pour tout le travail réalisé.
    Vraiment impossible pour moi d’utiliser un autre os à ce jour.

    Serait il possible d’ajouter un raccourci « supprimer » à Nemo (sur le modèle de création de dossier dans la barre supérieure ) ?
    Merci d’avance et bravo à l’équipe pour votre implication.

  39. Thank you LM Team! LM Cinnamon works better than ever on my late 2008 MacBook. What surprised me the most is that the Nouveau Display Driver works better than the nvidia-340 driver ever did in LM 19.3
    The screen would always flicker and freeze for about 3 seconds then flicker again and unfreeze. It would happen while running different applications. Now I can also adjust screen brightness which had never worked with nvidia driver.

  40. Packaging chromium? Ok, but doesn’t it sound like reinventing the wheel? And that silly snap battle is so annoying…

    1. Figured it out. Was receiving error “Providername not found” changed freeiptv.m3u to providername and it works.

  41. Thank you for providing the Chromium build and for your continuing efforts to prevent Ubuntu from making Linux their own proprietary OS. In recognition I have just made a new donation.

  42. Mint menu closes everytime I add a program to the panel and it’s pretty annoying. I want to give a try Debian version but because it’s kernel is old, I can’t use it on my new laptop. Thanks for Chromium build and “add favorite” option, they were necessary.

  43. Hi,
    I am a new user to Linux Mint, I was wondering if anyone knows what steps to take to get Gamin Express to work on the latest version of Mint 20
    I tried to follow a few YouTube videos without any luck

    1. I have never managed to find a way, but if you do find out would love to know. I just keep a very old dual boot linux20/Windows 7 machine for Garmin updates (My main machine is running mInt 19.3 and no windows)

    2. Garmin express works on Windows OS only
      To make it work on Linux 20 it is a bit tricky for a beginner.
      You can use WINE or a virtual machine like VIRTUALBOX

  44. Hi every ones,
    I have tested Hypnotix, it works very well on my netbook.
    I tried to configure it from the command line
    gsettings set org.x.hypnotix providers “[‘Provider_Name:::https://m3u_url.m3u'%5D
    But I did it wrong, thus I tried to comeback to the freeIPTV provided, but I got into troubles:
    Uninstall + reinstall did not worked, restore all with Timeshift either .
    Finally I found the way around to get it working again:
    I used the command line below :
    $ gsettings set org.x.hypnotix providers “[‘Free-IPTV:::https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Free-IPTV/Countries/master/ZZ_PLAYLIST_ALL_TV.m3u'%5D
    May be this may help some of you
    Best regards

  45. hello mint I look forward to version 20.1 with the great optimization and quality that they give to later versions .1.2.3, at this time in linux mint 20 with speed and performance losses mainly in games so I am waiting for your new version now that this also happened in 19 before version .1 onwards, everything was super fluid until version .3 that brought out all the power and performance that version 20.1 always gives for that reason, I think it will exceed my performance expectations, thank you linux mint and keep up your great effort and work

  46. I’ve been using Wireguard running on a Raspberry Pi based Pihole to filter ads etc on my Android tablet and phone when away from home, and recently got around to getting Wireguard working on Mint. It works well but not quite as simply as I’d like (esp for friends who I’ve got using Mint but who are command line averse). Ideally, the functions shown in this Wireguard GUI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c800mGS0C_Q should be integrated into the Network Manager.

  47. Hi Clem,

    In Linux Mint 20, Thunderbird seems to be stuck on version 68.10.0 which is a “former release; no longer supported” [1].

    Thunderbird’s “current supported release” is version 78.4.0.

    Is Ubuntu not updating the Thunderbird “deb” version as they are only focusing only on the “Snap” version?

    Should Linux Mint by default install Thunderbird flatpak from Flathub.org [2] as the flatpak version closely follows the “current supported release” [3]?

    Having a supported release of Thunderbird by default in Linux Mint will ensure that “Security Vulnerabilities fixed in Thunderbird” [4] will be available to all Linux Mint users.

    By default on the Linux Mint installations, should the Thunderbird deb version not be installed and Thunderbird flatpak version be installed?

    What do you think?

    Thank you

    Óvári

    [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Mozilla_Thunderbird#Release_history
    [2] https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.mozilla.Thunderbird
    [3] https://github.com/flathub/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/commits/master
    [4] https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/security/known-vulnerabilities/thunderbird/#thunderbird78.4

  48. Is there any progress with HPLIP in Mint 20 or 20.1 ? This is all the side effect of total transition to Python 3. hplip-3.20.3 shipped with Mint 20 does not work, at least, with printers that require HP’s proprietary plug-in. The latest hplip-3.20.9 available at developers.hp.com seems to be a step closer to the working state, but it requires some Python 3 dependencies. In fact, all of them seem to be either installed or available from Mint repositories, but are named in a different way than expected by HP team. Who is in fault and who should be asked to fix that – Python, HP, Mint?

  49. Bug report to Linux Mint

    Please fix LMDE so that it would be possible to run (once) or install an appimage.

    I made the appimage executable chmod a+x ./appname.AppImage
    Then ran ./appname.AppImage

    It returned

    FATAL:setuid_sandbox_host.cc(158)] The SUID sandbox helper binary was found, but is not configured correctly. Rather than run without sandboxing I’m aborting now. You need to make sure that /tmp/.mount appname chrome-sandbox is owned by root and has mode 4755

    If I run with sudo first I get

    FATAL:setuid_sandbox_host.cc(158)] The SUID sandbox helper binary was found, but is not configured correctly. Rather than run without sandboxing I’m aborting now.

    Also, please ask Debian to fix the bug so it would be possible to switch on NVIDIA GPU on demand for a specified app by running primusrun mpv (though this app can be hardware accelerated by clicking Ctrl-h on video runtime). primusrun mpv or primusrun hypnotix (for example) are supposed to work if having installed bumblebee packages and primus on Nvidia Optimus laptops. I am running this with the nouveau GPU drivers. I have not installed the bumblebee-nvidia packages. I would prefer to get it to work with the Nouveau drivers.

    primusrun mpv or primusrun hypnotix yields:

    primus: fatal: Bumblebee daemon reported: error: [XORG] (EE) Unable to locate/open config directory: “/etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.d”

    1. Edit

      I meant if I run the command to install the appimage with sudo I get

      FATAL:electron_main_delegate.cc(264)] Running as root without –no-sandbox is not supported. See https://crbug.com/638180

      I notised there is a forum on chromium.org discussing this bug, but I didn’t read through that yet so I don’t know at the time of writing if they have a solution.

  50. Edit

    I forgot to mention. I downloaded and installed an app called appimagelauncher_2.2.0-travis1012.64a086e.bionic_amd64 (not available in the LMDE repository).

    This app is supposed to make it easier to install an appimage. But I still could not run it (once) nor could I install it. I got a long list of error message in the terminal when I tried to use this launcher to install the appimage. The appimage ended up in the app menu, but when clicking on it, it would not run (unsuprisingly, given the long list of error messages in the terminal when I tried to install the appimage. I did not take notice of the error messages when trying to install the appimage with this launcher.

    It is not supposed to be necessary to use this launcher to run or install the appimage anyway.

    I have uninstalled the launcher and deleted the unsucessfully installed appimage from a folder created in the home folder – named Applications.

  51. I like the look of Favorites. At present, I have a folder on my desktop called Often Used Docs where I place links to docs I use on a regular basis. This is to help me easily find them if they drop out of the Recents list. It’s a habit I developed quite some time ago on Windows.

  52. Driver manager does not seem to be working. When I click in it (from the menu Administration), he shows a screen saying “Looking for hardware drivers” for 10 seconds or so, and stops without doing anything. It does not even ask for the administrator password, as he used to.
    This is happening since about two or three days.

    1. I did not experience that problem in Mint 19.3 and it is not an issue in Mint 20. I have used both on two different machine 1TB Lenovo ThinkCentre Desktop (8gb ram) & 1TB DELL Inspiron (16gb ram) I am still, presently on Mint 20 on both. I am curious what is causing the issue for some but not others. FYI, I had not come across that issue on the forum but I might, simply, have missed it.

  53. Hypnotix looks awesome to me I am surprised that I can watch the BBC here in New Zealand and I’m surprised the BBC haven’t blocked this. But this program is really good

  54. Please let readers change the paper colour in Xreader. Now it can be either white, wchich burns eyes, or hellish black, which hurts just as much and is very unpleasant. To read any longer text is difficult…

  55. Hypnotix is pretty good! The app is only in version one, but the video playback and picture quality is pretty good! I like the drop-down choice menu

  56. This couldn’t be less important, but there’s this annoying bug where every time you click on the update manager icon on the panel (Cinnamon), the update manager window creeps down. After a few times, you have to move the window up on the screen, and it all starts again. This happens on both my Mint Cinnamon 20 machines. Update Manager won’t stay put.

  57. LMDE4 still will not connect to the internet on my dell laptop. I am using a wired ethernet connection. This was reported to the mint team more than a year ago and has not been corrected yet. My desktop computer running LMDE4 connects without any problem.

  58. Once you add KDE Mint returns to the awesomeness that it was in version 18.3 I added the plasma environment and could not be happier. Mint is the best but sadly Cinnamon and Mate are lacking in my humble opinion.. Been a Mint User for 10 years now.

    Thanks for all the hard work Clem.

  59. Why is both ntp and ntpdate installed by default? They conflict with each other. When both of these are installed, the time on my computer stays wrong for a long time. When I uninstall ntp the computer shows the correct time right away.

    1. Why would NTP ever be needed? One’s computer should instantly get the correct time when it connects to your ISP. This is the way my cell phone works.

      Am I missing something here? Clem: your comment on this would be most appreciated. Thanks.

  60. I just wanna give my two cents about how much I like the new IPTV app – works great – I had no idea there was so much streaming French TV I could watch – I’m usually using a vpn – (been studying it for a few years) – I hope it just gets better and better!

  61. Can anyone from the Linux Mint team give an explanation to this:

    In the LMDE repos there are two “different versions” of Firefox.

    1: 78.4.1esr-linuxmint1+debbie – The Firefox web browser
    2: 78.4.1esr-1~deb10u1 – Mozilla Firefox web browser – Extended Support Release (ESR)

    As everyone can see, they are both essentially the same version, being version 78.4.1 and they are both the Extended Support Release (ESR). But one seems to come from the Linux Mint repository, while the other seems to come from the Debian repository.

    I thought that the first one from Linux Mint was supposed to be four versions ahead of the ESR version as Firefox (non-ESR) is now in version 82.

    If I remember correctly that was also the case a couple of years ago. But now they are both actually the ESR version that is always 3-4 version behind.

    Is it possible to get version 82 from Linux Mint (non-ESR) via the official LMDE repository, so that it would be updated with other system updates through Update Manager?

    1. I see now that it is possible to get Firefox 82 as flatpak.

      It is also possible to go to the homepage of Mozilla and download version 82, but doing the latter will download an archive which can be extracted, and Firefox 82 can then be run without installation.

      If anyone knows why we can’t get the latest version from the Linux Mint repo (apt), it would be interesting to hear your explanation (for educational purposes).

  62. Just wanted to say I upgraded to LMint 20 on my 2014 AMD Radeon laptop and it is glorious. Mint has been my go to for a few years now but Ulyana is flatout amazing. Well done dudes.

  63. Just installed IPTV – extremely easy and fast. Couldn’t believe how many sources there are and the fact that they all worked (at least all the ones I tried). Even UK BBC, which doesn’t normally work outside the UK. Much better than sources in Kodi, which rarely work from my home in Canada. Well done, very useful as it is – don’t make it too complicated.
    Thanks

  64. Hi, thanks for this month’s update. I tried out the trial Hypnotix program – looks good. I have two comments/suggestions. Some of the TV feeds do not display – they just show black screen. Whether they are off-air, region locked, or need a subscription I don’t know, because the UI doesn’t give any feedback. Secondly it would be good to be able to de-interlace the video – when there is movement especially scrolling headlines for example, the interlace lines show up.

  65. Hi Clem

    Since you are from France. This one is for you.

    There is something spooky going on with your search engine partner Qwant.

    After having added this as the default search engine, my query is redirected to https://lite.qwant.com and the search query is empty, regardless of what is being searched for. At first I see the padlock appear with the correct address https://www.qwant.com, then the search query seems to be hijacked and I end up at lte.qwant.com with an empy result.

    Ironically when ending up at lite.qwant.com an offer to add Qwant Lite as search engine is given in the search bar (toolbar area). Which I did not click to accept.

    In the beginning my searches went to https://www.qwant.com and my search query worked as they should.

    Is there anything you can do about this?

  66. Clem

    Update:

    The NoScript add-on seems to be the culprit for this problem. When setting temporarily trusted (the option to permanently trust web domains seems not to be available anymore) for qwant.com, the search query worked (not being redirected to lite.qwant.com with an empty search result).

    I still find this a little strange. Maybe this a great example of the French’ subtle humor? 🙂

  67. Had look at Hypnotix, very impressive.
    Can you full screen it?
    Get rid of that side menu bar until needed
    Annoying on the big screen televisions

  68. Hi everybody,
    Seems like the last net manager update for Xfce Mint 20 has a bug. Time to time I loose wifi connection and the only way to get it back is to reboot my HP laptop.
    Not very sure it’s proper place to report this problem here, but hope somebody could it take into consideration.
    Cheers,

  69. Tried running Hypnotix (Mint Cinnamon 19.3), but get an error:
    AttributeError: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libmpv.so.1: undefined symbol: mpv_render_context_create

  70. Good Day Crew,
    Very well done with the upgrades and tweaks. There is an issue with Camorama, I open program and when I switch to view/small, it freezes up and locks, get our normal request-Force Quit or Wait.
    Can we have a look and see if it is a bug with conflict between webcam and software?
    Look forward upgrade for that too. 🙂

  71. Warpinator stop working (!)
    It did operate on two LM 20 Machines without problem. Now after the 10.11.2020 it doesn’t work anymore (the PC does not find each other) and I did not change anything except the installation of the official updates (??!!!). I don’t want to apply a timeshift only because warpinator does not work (properly).
    Something to do?

  72. I’m just getting started but someone else mentioned this…… Some of the TV feeds do not display – they just show black screen. Whether they are off-air, region locked, or need a subscription I don’t know, because the UI doesn’t give any feedback. http://www.fencebr.com

  73. Having functional muffin which disables window composition and allows variable monitor frame rates with nvidia g-sync will be nice Cinnamon improvement. At last for us, suckers who spent fortune on g-sync monitors 🙁
    So far (LMDE4) only ‘workaround’ is to install MATE (just basic) – logout Cinnamon – login MATE – disable window composition – play.
    Note: Also, if You have more than one monitor, g-sync will not work until You disable all but one (g-sync capable) monitor.

    1. Will not happen.
      I search the web about this and its already a problem for a long time.
      G-Synk it self works. I can play the witcher 3 with wine and some tweak around.
      But it not works with linux native / steam games that in winowed full screen mode.
      As you say it works with Mate or xfce.
      Muffin team have to find a solution but it looks like this have no priority.

  74. Is there any medium/long term plan to move away from Ubuntu’s package base to either Debian, or even something else like Fedora’s? (I guess that’s why LMDE exists…)

    I’m assuming that the snap issue will only get worse, and I’m sure Canonical will do something else to the detriment of Linux privacy/security in the future that may make it difficult to work with…

  75. HI All, I’m new to Linux and I am having trouble trying to get linuxmint 20 to recognize my Canon Pixma TR4522 all in one printer’s features. I can print from my computer, but that is all. I needed to be able to scan from the computer command, no joy. I have the disk that came with the printer. My Dell E6410 laptop will not install using Linuxmint but it did install when I had Windows 10 (which I don’t have now). Will someone help me get this printer up and running with full features?

  76. Linux Mint Team. I am new to Linux Mint. I started using Linux since June 2020. I am having trouble installing outside of the software manager. Example: I have a Canon Pixma TR4522 All in One Printer. I have a intall disk that came with the printer, but it doesn’t run. I then went to canonusa.com web site and downloaded the drivers and other software associated with Linux_IJ. None of the three associated software will install. What am I doing wrong? Is there a manual to help me install other software?
    A lot of the programs on Software Manager that I looked at leaves me wondering what they do. Some I can guess at but it only a guess. It would be great if there was an explanation of what a program does.

  77. The Webappmanager is great.
    I would like to see it developed further.

    At the moment you can’t turn the menu show function on or off when editing an Wepapp. This can only be set when you creating a new Webapp, but you can’t changed it later.

    greatings
    Mancus Nemo

  78. Hello Mint folks,
    Cisco Webex works on mint 20, with firefox 83, and broadband connection. Audio video capability is there. In order for this to work, i used a desktop computer with a USB linux 720p webcam. A windows based webex host has to send you an invite link that you can click, then you type in a pseudo name, any email address you want, then you are connected. You receive 30 minutes free webchat per connection. Run out of time? Reset your internet connection, and you’re good, for another 30 minutes. Keep in mind, this is the same service that CNN news network uses; really. Just saying, FYI.

  79. Thank you for developing a wonderful product in Linux Mint 20 (Cinnamon). I was quite nervous about upgrading my computers, but I was able to upgrade them both and I love the OS as much as I loved Linux Mint 19. I’m not very computer-smart, but everything went well. As soon as I can afford it, I plan to send you a donation.

  80. I’ve noticed that sometimes app icons in the panel on Cinnamon stretch themselves. Are you going to fix that eventually?

  81. Apparently Linux Mint 20 does not even recognize my HP Probook’s Radeon 7650m GPU and I can not figure out why as it does show the Laptop’s Intel Core i7 3632QM’s Integrated graphics but it’s as if the system has no discrete mobile GPU hardware at all and that AMD Radeon 7650M is soldered to the laptop’s Motherboard.

    To top that off that same laptop’s windows 7 pro dual boot partition(Dual booted with Mint 20) will not boot and any attempts to boot up a recovery DVD is met with a the bios in this system is not fully ACPI compliant when trying to boot the Windows 7 Recovery DVD.

    So can Linux Mint actually corrupt the devices firmware as I’ve never actually flashed the Probook’s BIOS/Firmware from Linux Mint?

  82. I would like to see shell-based feature so that my scripts and utilities can SEND an email to announce things. I find instructions but they all seem to want a full-features mail-transfer-agent, often with name-services. If I can configure a desktop mail client to SEND messages without all of that baggage, I believe that there is some way that command line SEND can be implemented as well.

  83. Hipnotix brilliant idea!!

    Kodi is way to complicated and is more for media centers.
    I can use mpv or vlc,
    but they are not focused on streaming.

    I was thinking exactly this a few months ago.

    Nice work.

  84. still running 19.3 – terminal copy paste is messed in 20.x along with Roots environment when you need to escalate privs as root not sudo – no can run any X11 or GTK gui scripts, Compiz fusion desktop is also messed up no window frame controls when enabled. kina takes the wind of ones coding sessions. When 19.3 works like a charm

  85. why do you make it so hard to go from mint 19.3 to latest program I am so tempted to go back to windows. Not everyone on the planet is a programer.

  86. I am so over linux I find it hard to believe that you are promoting a product that can only be used by computer programers . I was very happy with Linux Mint 19.3 wanted to upgrade . What a pain in the ass it has been I am so pissed that I have to go back too windows .I liked your product and efforts People should not have to be programers to update . Have a nice day

  87. Hello,
    I was a very happy mint user, from the 17.3 version, until this all new version 20 I installed on my laptop. I think that before of this question of IPTV, it would be much more important to improve a good and easy functionality of a basic item like an HP standard wifi printer and scanner. That was very easy until the 19.3 version, that I still use with satisfaction on my desktop PC, without any problem. I thought it was resolved with a complicated installation of a the ultimate HPLIP version, but the problem came back, probably because of a system update. I have installed it too on my neighbor’s computer, how can I explain to him that it is so complicated to make a HP wifi printer works on linux ? I already posted about this problem, without reaction. If this kind of troubleshooting is not a priority for the linux mint team, but iptv software is, I think I will need, sadly, to go back to Windows…

  88. Favorites in File Manager AWESOME Idea. I just installed Linux Mint 20 XCFE, I do not see Favorites in my File Manager, certainly would like to. Do you know if this is a planned addition to the XCFE Version. Thank You!

    1. Thanks Glen, I suppose there are many little things to whinge about 🙂 We’re doing our best to tackle them. I don’t think we’ll ever be finished, but as long as problems remain small and we keep getting better, we can be happy and proud of the work we do. Personally I’d actually like even more feedback on things which don’t work well, but with more quality, precise descriptions of what fails, how and why, so we can tackle it quickly and efficiently. User frustration is understandable but it doesn’t help us fix problems. Most problems aren’t there because we don’t want to fix them, they’re there because we either don’t know their cause or how to reproduce them.

      Lately we got insufficient feedback on mpv’s hwdec and ipp-usb. We did get quality feedback from a few people, but that wasn’t enough for us to make an informed decision. We’ll probably rely on the BETA to position ourselves with a change and rely on the BETA feedback to either drop it or confirm it for the stable release. No matter what decision we take we’ll document the alternative in the user guide, so in the end the situation will be improved no matter what. It’s hard to explain that lack of empowerment from the development team on issues where the cause isn’t perfectly understood, the key to solving certain issues really lies with the users which are affected by it… and yet I understand this isn’t obvious at all from a user’s perspective. There is frustration on both sides sometimes. When it clicks though, when a user puts the finger on the relevant piece of information and the developer is there to use it, there’s a really good feeling of cooperation, of team work between the two and of achievement.

      Anyway, I digress. We also do hear happiness and excitement and not only here but in the forums or even directly by email. And we know there are many people also who enjoy what we do but who aren’t active on the blog or other parts of the community. It’s visible in the level of donations we receive and also sometimes when we face difficult challenges, in tough times we do get a huge amount of solidarity and support.

  89. hello mint and noticed a lot of sudden crashes in the at first it was not frequent but now these random crashes are too noticeable and used both kernel 5.4 now 5.8 and it’s the same, please can review this detail thanks

    1. Hi Freddy,

      I’m sorry we can’t help at all if we don’t know the cause of the crashes. Try to identify what exactly crashes (which piece of the OS), when and how to make it happen consistently. If you’re new to Linux don’t hesitate to ask for help on the forums and IRC so people can help you troubleshoot and pinpoint what’s happening and what’s causing it.

  90. The Webappmanager is great.
    I would like to see it developed further. Keep the good work.
    Thanks.

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