Monthly News – February 2022

I’m sorry for the late blog post. I’ll be brief and to the point. Before I talk about Linux Mint, I hope everyone is safe and OK.

The roadmap for Linux Mint 21 is taking form. It’s currently available at https://tree.taiga.io/project/linuxmint-linux-mint-21-1/kanban.

The BETA release for LMDE 5 is out. We already received 22 bug reports. Many thanks to all the people who are helping us test it.

In preparation for Linux Mint 21 we are updating Cinnamon’s Javascript interpreter and rebasing its window manager on a more modern version of Mutter. This is a huge task and it requires many code changes in Cinnamon itself and causes a significant number of regressions. We needed a full development cycle for this so the timing is perfect.

Linux Mint 21 is likely to switch from Blueberry (which uses the gnome-bluetooth backend) to Blueman (which uses bluez). Feedback showed that it worked better with Bluetooth audio headsets and connected to a wider ranger of devices. On the development side of things, the latest version of gnome-bluetooth introduced changes which broke compatibility with Blueberry and its main developer isn’t keen on seeing his work used outside of GNOME. Blueman on the other hand welcomed a Mint migration and is open to changes. We’re currently testing Blueman and working on its integration within Linux Mint.

The lack of thumbnail support for some common mimetypes was identified as a paper cut issue in Linux Mint. To tackle it a new Xapp project called xapp-thumbnailers was started. The project currently supports the following mimetypes:

  • AppImage
  • ePub
  • MP3 cover art
  • Most RAW formats

I’d like to thank you for your support. Donations continue to be high and our project is doing well. Many thanks to all of you.

Sponsorships:

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:

Gold Sponsors:
Linux VPS Hosting
Simple Mobile Tools
Silver Sponsors:
Sucuri
ThinkPenguin: For Everything Freedom
Bronze Sponsors:
Vault Networks *
AYKsolutions Server & Cloud Hosting
hSo
BGASoft Inc
Feathercoin
HamoniKR
Ian Ghent
Laser Pointer Forums, LLC
LiteSpeedTest
Look To The Right SEO
Uwe Schneider GmbH

Donations in January:

A total of $18,769 were raised thanks to the generous contributions of 695 donors:

$539, Digitalcourage e.V.
$323 (6th donation), Jean-françois H.
$250, Eric E.
$216, Zoltan S.
$123 (4th donation), Robert L. T.
$120 (2nd donation), Clark B.
$120, Keith S.
$115 (7th donation), TM
$108 (3rd donation), Johan V. D. K.
$108, Lars Erik N.
$100 (2nd donation), Christopher G.
$100 (2nd donation), James K.
$100, Mehlika Ayla K.
$100, Victor C.
$100, James K.
$97 (3rd donation), Mario H.
$80 (7th donation), James L.
$65, Mihael M.
$54 (6th donation), Oliver E.
$54 (5th donation), Dave K.
$54 (4th donation), Bernhard M.
$54 (3rd donation), Reg O.
$54 (3rd donation), Daniel S.
$54 (3rd donation), Maximilian H.
$54 (2nd donation), Vincent
$54, David E.
$54, Karol T.
$54, Rolf S.
$54, Vencel D.
$54, Philippe W.
$54, Klaus T.
$54, Stefan S.
$54, Anthony M.
$54, Neal Haines – Home User of Linux Mint
$54, Martin W.
$54, R H F.
$54, Jean-Guy N.
$54, Toralf J.
$54, Tobias S.
$50 (57th donation), Anthony C. aka “ciak”
$50 (15th donation), George H.
$50 (12th donation), Douglas T.
$50 (7th donation), Greg C.
$50 (6th donation), Bill H.
$50 (5th donation), Karl B.
$50 (5th donation), Joe K.
$50 (5th donation), Don P.
$50 (4th donation), Keith M.
$50 (3rd donation), Joseph R. aka “FloodGate1
$50 (3rd donation), David B.
$50 (3rd donation), Peter B.
$50 (2nd donation), David A. D.
$50 (2nd donation), Jerry R.
$50 (2nd donation), Zack G.
$50 (2nd donation), Herbie P
$50 (2nd donation), Salomon G.
$50 (2nd donation), Luigi P.
$50, Jacob L.
$50, Joseph A.
$50, Michael P.
$50, Teobaldo R.
$50, Volodymyr V.
$50, Frank B.
$50, John B.
$50, Robert D.
$50, Joel K.
$50, Mike S.
$50, Michael T.
$50, Joe M.
$50, Steven S.
$50, Regis F.
$50, Patrick T.
$50, Thomas T.
$50, Ed G.
$43 (142th donation), Olli K.
$40 (5th donation), George T.
$40 (2nd donation), Trevor M.
$40 (2nd donation), R E B.
$40, Les J.
$40, Brenda C.
$36 (20th donation), Ted S.
$35 (7th donation), Jeff S.
$35 (4th donation), Phil S. aka “busdriver12”
$35 (2nd donation), Paul S.
$35 (2nd donation), JeffK969
$32 (6th donation), Harry F.
$32 (3rd donation), Neil M.
$32 (2nd donation), Anthony D.
$32 (2nd donation), Arminas A.
$32, Torsten R.
$32, Christian R.
$30 (11th donation), Rene H. aka “Hogi”
$30 (3rd donation), Clarence D.
$30 (2nd donation), John V.
$30, Ion V.
$28 (9th donation), Adam K.
$27 (2nd donation), Ian K.
$27, Rudolf D.
$25 (12th donation), Linux Mint Sverige
$25 (8th donation), Marc B.
$25 (7th donation), Ron C.
$25 (6th donation), Timothy L.
$25 (6th donation), Anton R.
$25 (5th donation), Mark H.
$25 (3rd donation), William L. F.
$25 (2nd donation), Michael R.
$25, Ross M.
$23 (66th donation), Johann J.
$22 (21st donation), Peter E.
$22 (13th donation), Janne S.
$22 (9th donation), Anne-christine U.
$22 (7th donation), Ralf O.
$22 (7th donation), Karl K.
$22 (6th donation), Ernest M.
$22 (6th donation), Holger B.
$22 (5th donation), Florian G.
$22 (5th donation), Karlheinz R.
$22 (5th donation), Kari B
$22 (5th donation), Thomas D.
$22 (5th donation), Ernie H.
$22 (4th donation), Björn H.
$22 (2nd donation), Marc H.
$22 (2nd donation), Amir Perviz
$22 (2nd donation), José María B.
$22 (2nd donation), Oliver B.
$22 (2nd donation), Мальцев М.
$22 (2nd donation), Francesco B
$22, Diego R.
$22, Kálmán V.
$22, Minty Kerman
$22, Gerhard R.
$22, Alan B.
$22, aka “JMT37”
$22, Alberto C.
$22, Pascal F.
$22, Stefan F.
$22, Lothar S.
$22, Robert L.
$22, Sylvain Brunerie
$22, Dennis J.
$22, László C.
$22, Oris O.
$22, Christian M.
$22, Raphael G.
$22, Peter O.
$22, Philipp H.
$22, Janus C.
$22, Ferdinand W.
$22, Bruce O.
$22, Olivier P.
$22, Shane C.
$22, Agustín H.
$22, Stefan W.
$22, Karl-heinz R.
$22, Andrew W.
$22, Francisca M.
$22, Len P.
$22, Tuomas L.
$22, Sebastian C.
$22, Stefan L.
$22, Fabio Fantoni aka “Fantu”
$22, Alain M.
$22, Marc-Alain L.
$22, Ivan Stamenov
$22, Senad K.
$20 (42th donation), Bryan F.
$20 (28th donation), John D.
$20 (18th donation), Brent P.
$20 (13th donation), Mr. Bee
$20 (12th donation), Robert S. aka “Bob”
$20 (9th donation), Peter R.
$20 (8th donation), Peter R.
$20 (7th donation), Clifton S.
$20 (6th donation), Peter L. aka “Myfathersson”
$20 (6th donation), Oblong Software Products
$20 (6th donation), Pete Ellinger aka “The Fencing Coach”
$20 (6th donation), Reel D.
$20 (5th donation), Thomas C.
$20 (4th donation), Derek B.
$20 (4th donation), Mihail S.
$20 (4th donation), Wladyslaw T.
$20 (3rd donation), Daniel R.
$20 (3rd donation), Ray W.
$20 (3rd donation), Mark C.
$20 (3rd donation), Christopher S.
$20 (3rd donation), zzzzzzzz .
$20 (3rd donation), John L.
$20 (2nd donation), George W. H.
$20 (2nd donation), Eric B.
$20 (2nd donation), Edwin B.
$20 (2nd donation), Simon H.
$20 (2nd donation), Shawn B.
$20 (2nd donation), James P.
$20 (2nd donation), Unitus.org
$20 (2nd donation), Josh T.
$20, Sergey S.
$20, Gary L.
$20, Ralph W.
$20, Frank B.
$20, Louise N.
$20, Sam Legha
$20, Trevor S.
$20, Braden B.
$20, Mathieu S.
$20, William F.
$20, Waine C.
$20, L W.
$20, Rustin H.
$20, James T.
$20, Robert S.
$20, Mohamed A.
$20, Scott A.
$20, David J L.
$20, Shehzad K.
$20, Sukzez Marketing
$20, Kathryn C.
$20, Clifford W.
$20, Donald G.
$20, Gary D.
$20, John M.
$16 (60th donation), Andreas S.
$16 (38th donation), Michael R.
$16 (11th donation), Bjarne K.
$16 (6th donation), Jean-Marc B. aka “WD”
$15, Sushant B.
$13 (6th donation), Michael W.
$13 (2nd donation), Tomek B.
$12 (129th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
$12, Donald M.
$11 (23rd donation), Daniel S.
$11 (23rd donation), Jens-uwe R.
$11 (17th donation), Alexander G. B.
$11 (15th donation), Abdulkadir H. aka “Askari”
$11 (13th donation), Janne M.
$11 (12th donation), Marko U.
$11 (10th donation), Frank H.
$11 (10th donation), rptev
$11 (8th donation), Laurent M
$11 (8th donation), Athanasios F. aka “thanosfrag”
$11 (7th donation), Enrico C.
$11 (5th donation), Robert Z.
$11 (5th donation), Le M.
$11 (5th donation), Attila Á.
$11 (4th donation), niklas-e
$11 (4th donation), John V.
$11 (4th donation), Alex A. aka “cambiatealinux
$11 (4th donation), Rowen W
$11 (3rd donation), Thomas R.
$11 (3rd donation), Lazo L.
$11 (3rd donation), Giorgio C.
$11 (3rd donation), Nigel J.
$11 (3rd donation), Patricia E.
$11 (3rd donation), Adam P.
$11 (3rd donation), Massimo R.
$11 (2nd donation), Ronald R.
$11 (2nd donation), Alfred R.
$11 (2nd donation), Emanuele B.
$11 (2nd donation), Oren K.
$11 (2nd donation), Stephen L.
$11 (2nd donation), Phil B.
$11 (2nd donation), Bernd R.
$11, June B.
$11, William W. aka “M6WIQ
$11, GYE
$11, Julia B.
$11, Fraser M.
$11, Jeremy C.
$11, Kåre A.
$11, Albino S.
$11, Louis J.
$11, Ilya K.
$11, Derek S.
$11, Adrian Vasile I.
$11, Stavegus
$11, Rodolfo A.
$11, Anne T.
$11, Heinrich E.
$11, Antoni G.
$11, Stephane B.
$11, Tomáš G.
$11, Raphael C.
$11, Artur W.
$11, Rafaz P.
$11, Rainer R.
$11, Russell E.
$11, Carlos D.
$11, Sébastien F.
$11, Fabienne L.
$11, David S.
$11, Alessandro D.
$11, Gytis M.
$11, Matteo R.
$11, E T.
$11, Andrius A.
$10 (93th donation), Tree Service Kansas City
$10 (87th donation), Tree Removal Raleigh NC
$10 (71th donation), Thomas C.
$10 (66th donation), Frank K.
$10 (65th donation), Fence Baton Rouge
$10 (48th donation), Rick R.
$10 (32nd donation), Francois-R L.
$10 (31st donation), Serhii B. aka “sinpavla
$10 (20th donation), Garden Suite Edmonton
$10 (19th donation), Philip Woodward
$10 (18th donation), Fence Company Raleigh
$10 (16th donation), Botox Edmonton
$10 (16th donation), Platypus Products
$10 (15th donation), Viacheslav Е.
$10 (15th donation), Concrete Contractors Raleigh
$10 (14th donation), Solar Panels Saskatoon
$10 (11th donation), Owen D.
$10 (10th donation), Troy T.
$10 (9th donation), Minneapolis Towing and Roadside Assistance
$10 (9th donation), Roy D.
$10 (9th donation), Jorge R.
$10 (9th donation), Harold R.
$10 (9th donation), Minneapolis Commercial Cleaners
$10 (7th donation), William M.
$10 (6th donation), Minneapolis Commercial Painting
$10 (5th donation), Phil aka “Smithereens NZ”
$10 (5th donation), Kent J.
$10 (4th donation), Attila K.
$10 (3rd donation), Michaela B.
$10 (3rd donation), Hubbard T.
$10 (3rd donation), Alan C.
$10 (2nd donation), Wade H.
$10 (2nd donation), Louis S.
$10 (2nd donation), Stefan N.
$10 (2nd donation), Claudio J. F.
$10, Nathan J.
$10, Wedding DJ Buffalo NY
$10, Thomas E.
$10, Michel R.
$10, Bubby Rayber R.
$10, Daniel D.
$10, Murray D.
$10, John Adkins
$10, Milos B.
$10, Angela Ehrhardt
$10, Adam S.
$10, Dave B.
$10, Simon B.
$10, Photography Buffalo NY
$10, Steven P.
$10, Pravin B.
$10, William C.
$10, David S.
$10, Robert D.
$10, Peter P.
$10, Paul S.
$10, Timothy N.
$10, Elvis A.
$10, Alex O.
$10, Oliver H.
$10, Eugenio L C.
$8 (2nd donation), Max B.
$6 (19th donation), Sérgio D. S. S. aka “sersantos”
$6 (3rd donation), Jose Ronaldo S.
$6 (2nd donation), Ashiq R.
$5 (68th donation), Eugene T.
$5 (57th donation), Bhavinder Jassar
$5 (40th donation), William Menezes
$5 (32nd donation), Hristo Gatsinski
$5 (26th donation), Thomas R.
$5 (12th donation), Jürgen K.
$5 (11th donation), Timo K.
$5 (4th donation), Ernaelsten G. aka “MaitrePylos”
$5 (4th donation), Jacob Buhl M.
$5 (3rd donation), Car Detailing Redding
$5 (3rd donation), Diego A. O.
$5 (3rd donation), Sérgio M.
$5 (2nd donation), Adrian B. aka “Anonim”
$5 (2nd donation), Roman K.
$5, Jurgen D.
$5, Pedro A.
$5, Michael K.
$5, Ken C.
$5, pepp
$5, scruffyeagle.com
$5, Julian E.
$5, Kristina P.
$5, Marcus L.
$5, Mihai Domocos aka “Mihai”
$5, Matias Z.
$5, Víctor and David
$5, Keith E.
$5, Chanavat J.
$4 (16th donation), Szilard S.
$4 (10th donation), Marcin Ziółkowski aka Mario Nesta
$3 (2nd donation), Jeremy K.
$3 (2nd donation), Tibor T.
$3, Garrett G.
$3, Maximilian T.
$13 from 9 smaller donations

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

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93 comments

  1. I have converted all 6 of my systems( One Mini PC and 5 Laptops some comprised of various AMD Ryzen and Intel Core i series APUSOC Based processor designs) from Linux Mint 20.0 and 20.1 to Mint 20.3. And all of those point updates went surprising well with no issues and they all where quick do get done with. Thanks for all your hard work there.

    I do have one question with regards to Synaptic Package Manager’s update log and Mint’s Update Manager history of updates not being in sync for all updates done via the Synaptic GUI/APT Console sessions. And would it be possible to have that synced in the future? I’d also like to see there be some entry in Mint Update that has the Date/Timestamp of the most resent Timeshift Snapshot shown so I do not have to start Timeshift to query that when trying to see if there are any new Mint Updates added since the last Timeshift snapshot was run.

    Also any updates offered via the Show Linux kernels Part of Mint Update are not recorded in the Mint Update history if that Kernel Update is chosen manually without having been offered up via the Update manager’s Update alerting system where that’s offered via that method(Red Dot next the Tray Icon).

    Linux Mint needs some glossary of terms and nomenclature guides and ones that also includes the Windows terms and nomenclature and lists the equivalent Mint/Linux Terminology/Nomenclature, if that differs. As after being on Windows XP/Win 7 for over a decade that Windows Terminology gets so ingrained into one’s subconscious that it’s easy to recall that but I’ve only been on Linux Mint for a little over a year now! But I do like Mint Much better than any Windows XP or Win 7 and I’m so glad to be done with Windows for the most part there on that rarely booted into partition on all my systems that are dual booting Windows(7 and 10) with Mint 20.3 now.

    1. That would be extremely nice! Although I can see why that might be a fairly low priority for the team.

    1. That i wish me too, and if possible an energy bar for the Bluetooth devices. So often it is suddenly the power of the Bluetooth device is empty. Ugly. But on Smartphones i can see is it full, 3/4 full, half full, 1/4 full, or low energy warning. Is this not possible for Bluetooth Headsets, Audio boxes, mouse, game pad and other Devices?

      And the update GUI does not show Flatpak updates. For me its not a problem for doing it with terminal but for others may be. Or am I again the only person with this bug? I don’t know.

  2. for linux version 21 mint cinnamon i hope to see desktop effects like gnome extension magic lamp, wobbly widows and fire windows

  3. The only thing that lacks and kinda annoys me on LMDE is the missing driver manager from Ubuntu. It makes everything easier and good for newcomers. Debian likes to make our lives worst by making things harder and harder

  4. using a number that matches the year of release makes it easier to determine how old is an install and until when it will be supported.
    I vote for Mint 22 in 2022 !

    1. Seconded, although I’d have the relation be the Ubuntu base version — but that’s the same as to the year part. The Ubuntu base version is very important for users as to e.g. compatible PPAs. For Mint 20 / Ubuntu 20.04 LTS it just so happened; I’d think it’d be much better to continue this relation into Mint 22 / Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and on.

    2. Pluses and minuses here, but overall may be a better naming convention!
      Clem?

    3. Good point! It was kind of cool to see Mint, Ubuntu, and the date all converge at 20, even if that year wasn’t the greatest.

    4. Yup. I totally concur. Please make the version numbers match the month and year of release!

  5. 2 questions/comments about this:

    1) Does the rebase means that somehow you will support (or start supporting) Wayland? Although improbable but you may need to be ready in case Ubuntu latest LTS decides to go with Wayland instead of X as a main graphic server, which in this case they seem determined to do so

    2) It is too bad that Blueberry will, somehow, stop to exist, I remember making an effort to port that to Arch Linux and now, due to the issues on gnome-bluetooth you will change that, I hope that Blueberry can “continue” spiritually inside Blueman or that they allow parts of it to be integrated

  6. > rebasing its window manager on a more modern version of Mutter

    I’m curious to know – which version, exactly? Will this improve performance ?

    > its main developer isn’t keen on seeing his work used outside of GNOME

    This is idiotic. We’re talking open-source software here, there’s no place for “not being keen on seeing [one’s] work used outside [project]”.

    And then GNOME devs wonder why they have such a bad rep…

  7. Hi, when I updated to Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon my “Creative H
    D 720p” stopped functioning. The mcrophone works but the video does not, neither on Skype nor on “Cheese”!
    I hope that in the next update it is solved.
    Thank you!

  8. please add TV-Effect (like that on ‘Burn My Windows’ GNOME Extension) as desktop effect if not all.

  9. Maybe you should focused on this Debian base build ? And you can collaborate with MX Linux team to packaging LTS kernel and add it on Linux mint repo.

    I think debian base is more stable and solid than ubuntu base. I have try to compare it between Mint Cinnamon 20.x vs LMDE 4 vs MX Linux. And you should consider make Debian base as flagship version too.

  10. I have been using Blueman for several years. I honestly prefer it over Blueberry. But recently I got a Logitech MX Keys mini and tried to pair it using Blueman and failed because Blueman would not pop up the window that shows me the PIN that I am suppose to enter via the keyboard in order to pair it. Then I decided to use Blueberry instead and Blueberry showed me the PIN in a pop up window and I was able to pair the keyboard. BTW, I was on 20.2 at that time.

    I hope that with this switch to Blueman, Blueberry will still be available in the repo in case such problem should surface again.

    Thank you very much for LM. Daily driver since 2014.

  11. while at it, thumbnail feature for folders is good too. one that you can preview the content of a folder.

  12. Reading the comments above, I can identify two trends:
    1. Cinnamon Effects and Themes.
    I believe that Cinnamon can offer something better than what it has today in these areas. I think LM Cinnamon is a bit behind in this area compared to other distributions/Desktops. Especially in effects like Blur, magic lamp, wobbly widows, etc…
    2. LM and Bluetooth.
    Good feedback above about the limitations of Blueman vs Blueberry. Please check PIN topic for pairing devices.
    Additionally:
    3.Cinnamons Spices (applets, desklets and extensions) These are part of the best of Cinnamon, however I still find some of them to be unstable or inoperative. A revision and update of these would be desirable.
    Thank you for the attention and the high-level support to the user community

  13. I’m especially impressed by a thumbnailer for EPUB files as these don’t always stick closely to the standards.
    Good to see LMDE5 is almost ready – although it seems to currently have problems with desktops that don’t use Bluetooth.

    For me, LMDE is the primary distro with the Ubuntu version of Mint very much in second place.

  14. Drop MATE or XFCE version (redundant projects, both are in theory for old machines) and launch a GNOME edition. Solus OS has Budgie, but they offer a GNOME edition after all.

    1. OMG, I hope they don’t, XFCE is a daily driver for several tower desktops and it is perfect for our needs.

    2. I used many flavors, but XFCE is the best for me.
      Simple, stable, reliable, and no unnecessary things.
      I could use any flavor in my notebook, is recent, but XFCE has everything needed to be productive and HAPPY.

    3. KEEP MATE!!! I don’t like cinnamon and don’t care much for XFCE. I would be more enthused about LMDE if in included MATE (the limux mint version of MATE, not the generic version).

  15. Thank you to all contributors for Linux Mint–this includes maintainers, admin, community, community support, documentation, translators, testers, bug squashers, and many more! You guys make this the best distro still (at least in my heart)! Well done!

  16. Very happy Cinnamon user here, but on openSUSE. Really appreciate everything you guys are doing for the wider Linux ecosystem. I thought that Mint was the developer of Blueberry, which I have tested extensively against Blueman, and I have to say that I strongly prefer Blueberry. Is this change just going to affect Mint or will Blueberry stop working outside of Gnome?

    1. Hi Rahim,

      Blueberry’s only reason to be is to make gnome-bluetooth work outside of GNOME. Until now it was developed and used by Linux Mint. If we stop using it we might still maintain it a little bit but it obviously won’t get as much focus as before. That said it’s a very small/simple project.

      If we switch to Blueman in Mint 21 we don’t “need” to get Blueberry to work with the latest GNOME. We could consider doing it to get the project going for other distros and also for us to offer an alternative to Blueman (it’s nice to have 2 options for users to troubleshoot when something doesn’t work).

  17. I’m on Linux Min 20.3(Just recently updated from earlier versions) and have Firefox ESR installed and ever since I built this PC and Installed Mint 20.1(Edge) from the Live USB and installed the Firefox ESR PPA and uninstalled the Firefox Rolling release. But since I have Upgraded to Mint 20.3 Mozilla have been sending me build variants of Firefox ESR instead of the Finalized versions of Firefox ESR as was the case when I was on 20.1 with the Firefox ESR PPA.

    Is there any gsettings or about:config other methods to get only the Firefox ESR Finalized variants notifications from the Mint Update manager. The variant of Firefox ESR that’s being offered(FF 91.7esr ) to me is not officially scheduled to be released until March 8 2022.

  18. Finally one good news: Blueman over Blueberry. Long overdue in my opinion.
    Talji above complained about problems pairing devices. I had such problems occasionally too, usually solved by deleting device/searching/retrying pairing. Also searching can occasionally hang, requiring manually closing the assistant process. Hopefully these issues will be fixed before the integration.
    Otherwise Blueman works much better especially when the machine has more than one adapter connected.

    Any news about Cinnamon’s memory leak?

    One issue encountered a couple days ago with a 19.3 live DVD was that Nemo was unable to navigate without a mouse. System was partly defective – USB not working -, no PS/2 socket for mouse, and couldn’t navigate using Tab to Nemo’s sidebar to reach the unmounted partitions. Also a few days ago someone complained here on the blog about accessibility for visually impaired users in Nemo. Since that is the default non-replaceable file manager in Cinnamon I think it should get much more attention.

    Something that might be harder to achieve is finding and including a generic driver for mobile broadband USB sticks. Some people (like myself) may only have that as the unique means of connection to the Internet, and it would be useful and necessary to get such connection working even during installation when external packages are to be retrieved. Some of those sticks provide a CD partition containing a driver and installation scripts but in certain cases the driver may be buggy or the scripts may be broken. I have one such stick whose driver was leaking memory up to 1.6GB (!!!) even when not used – no stick connected – so a better generic driver would be great.

    There may be other things to consider, I’ve presented a few points in a past blog announcement (for 20.3 beta maybe). Try to think more and deeper of the nonstandard cases.
    Good luck!

  19. hello mint should consider changing once and for all the bad choice of ryhthmbox audio player since it just doesn’t work, it’s bad for the first impression it gives to new users since they will try to play some music and it won’t work and the first thing they will think is what is the system, for reason the most reasonable and effective is to use audius it is already the best linux player, if you find it simple you can add the newest version that looks like ryhthmbox but this one is functional greetings

    1. I’m not sure what your problem is with Rhythmbox. I use it to listen to music 5 days a week and I’ve never had problems with it.

    2. I totally disagree, I have extensively tested ALL the alternatives and is the only one which works fully. I have managed to test 23 other players recently and not one was with out major issues. Rhythm box only gets flakey when the plugin “alt toolbar” is installed, otherwise it is rock solid. Plus is one of only a few to implement Dynamic Playlists, and includes Genres as a filter/display option and more.

    3. I use QMMS.

      Old, but solid. Supports playlists. Has an Equalizer, and a visualizer.

  20. I love LMDE, over the last years I have migrated all three of my home computers from Windows and never been more satisfied with any operating system – in 20 years.

    For LMDE4, I managed to get chrome-gnome-shell working, which gave me Dynamic Panel Transparency working (extension to control transparency of top panel) a long time ago.

    For LMDE5, so far I cannot get chrome-gnome-shell installed at all. Honestly, I think it may be me not being able to comprehend the instructions, as I had a stroke last December.

    If anyone has a ‘very’ simple procedure to install gnome shell working on LMDE5, I would seriously be grateful

  21. I would like to see an alternative for KDE connect. Zorin OS has built one without installing KDE dependencies.
    Also an option to copy text (such as OTP) from notifications. The current notification system doesn’t allow to copy anything.
    Finally system wide shortcut keys support.

    1. @Clem. I don’t get it, how is Warpinator a replacement for anything stated in the OP? As long as I know, Warpinator is a file transfer program, nothing else.

    2. Great idea! I tried KDE connect exclusively for the SMS feature. Guess what was the only feature that didn’t work properly… Yup, SMS. Constant crashes. Wouldn’t send or receive texts. Please add an app for connecting to android for screenshare and SMS. I don’t want to touch my phone when i’m sitting at my computer that has 500 times the power. I want to control my android screen from my linux mint desktop and get notifications and send/receive SMS. (yes, I’ve tried scrcpy over adb and a half dozen other programs that don’t work well. scrcpy is the closest I’ve come but it’s a pain in the rectum to have to reconnect the phone Every. Single. Time.) You can do it!

      Anyway, great job Mint! Been my main OS for almost a year now. Don’t listen to those knuckleheads that say to ditch cinnamon. Cinnamon is awesome!

  22. any plan to replace p7zip with latest official 7-zip? coz p7zip is too old and outdated compared to the official one, even the jinheifan fork doesnt seem active since last year.

  23. Feature, rather than bug, but, very disagreeable feature change: Installer DEMANDS minimum 8 chars. If I need genuine protection from hackers, how does a 32 character password protect me from someone observing every keystroke on my desktop from East Pakistan? Those who enjoy 8 chars to login, should have that option–(“passwd”). Those of us who don’t, should not be compelled to use the same superfluous quantity. Note that in this Beta version, passwd will not accept fewer than 8 chars for user’s password.

  24. As a lot of laptop manufacturers are now having the Sata mode either hidden or blocked, is the new version of LM going to be able to detect this and install on those laptops that have Optane/Raid and RST set as default?.
    On some brands they use the InsydeH20 bios and that is causing a lot of problems and the forum is getting more cries for help with this.

  25. Except for a few ‘bleeding edge’ distributions, that is the case for 90% percent of the Linux distributions out there. LTS (Long Term Support) distributions are always going to be a year or two behind in new hardware support. It is not fair to blame Linux Mint.

  26. Are there any chances for the new release to have the client-side decorations apply to all the Apps?

    1. The mutter rebase can lead to a switch from Metacity to GTK for all windows in Cinnamon. This means all windows would be rendered the same way, follow the GTK theme and show the exact same shadows.

    2. Mint 20.3 XFCE has client-side decorations and as in XFCE 4.16 in general there is no way to disable CSD. I use Cinnamon but checked XFCE – some apps have shadows, others don’t (when Compton is used to avoid screen tearing), looks really really bad. It would be better if the user could decide whether he wants CSD or not. For me Cinnamon is elegant due to a couple of things, one of which is visual consistency. Please keep it or let the user decide if CSD is used or not (just in case you change your plans).

  27. I have a question. Will you be adding driver manager to LMDE5 for easier updating of NVIDIA Drivers or will the latest drivers be made available in the repositories?

  28. Note: Mint DOES NOT work with Acer Aspire Timeline X (especially with a Radeon graphics card) and there is still no recognition of the HDMI port and switchable graphics. Disabling switchable graphics in the BIOS to exclusively use the Radeon graphics displays a boot screen followed by a black screen after log-in. This problem does not happen in Windows 7 and 7 works perfectly, but Windows 10 also fails to even see the Radeon graphics card and HDMI.

  29. Why is Steam halting and becoming unresponsive?

    I don’t experience this issue with Origin, Uplay, Epic, Gog or even iTunes. (iTunes is running beautifully in WINE! I’m amazed!) Only the PC and Linux versions of Steam seem to have a problem.

  30. Is the plan to stay on the Mutter 3.36 base as a hard fork (and add any new necessary Wayland-related features once they are standardized), or is the plan to continue updating to newer versions of mutter indefinitely?

    (Sorry I put this comment in the wrong place before.)

    1. It’s a bit like GJS, they’re forked by necessity to keep compatibility across distributions. So ideally, it’s to continue to update. The purpose isn’t for them to deviate from upstream. Muffin got a few unique features but they’re either dropped or integrated into Cinnamon itself.

  31. I am checking out Linux Mint Cinnamon as a Windows 11 replacement. My first impression is positive, nearly all what I need in my daily PC work. But, there are some points which are incredibly missing:
    – an out-of-the-box working hibernation mode
    – fingerprint or camera (face scanning) user logon identification support
    – set mouse wheel scroll amount
    – a professional virus scanner (periodic, on access) – yes I know, many treat it not neccessary for Linux but what about file exchange with possible Windows/Office users?

  32. I like BlackMate theme.

    It reminds me of Gnomish Grey, which was my favourite theme.

    I would really love it if someone could “massage” BlackMate and make it a medium grey, and put it up in the repositories. I hate flat themes.

    I’m fairly adept at linux, but my XML knowledge is nearly non-existent.

    look…I’ll pay you for it…what the heck…

    1. +1 this looks nice & better than current system monitor. maybe the current ui could be revamped to look like this but less compact than this, its look cramped a bit?

    1. It’s been answered before. Apps choose whether to ship their own icon or use themed icons. Firefox uses a themed icon. The icon in Mint-Y was approved by Mozilla. There are icon themes without app icons for people who prefer their apps not to be themed.

  33. To Clem & crew; awesome job as always: You all make tech fun for us; anticipatory even; thank you all! There has been an ongoing issue, and I know you all are really busy with more important things, but I thought I’d report this (seeming bug or ?) one more time, in the hopes that you all get a chance to look into it — and perhaps fix it before 21 — when things subside a bit there. (And now you’re thinking: Subside? Here? | 😉

    The Chromium line of browsers it seems (Chrome & Chromium, and for 1 trial week, Edge, back when it first was made Linux-available); they keep overwriting, or in some other way, changing Preferred Apps settings for .html files. I’ve always-always had it set to Text Editor, and yet, whenever it helps itself to opening in a Chrome-based browser anyway, I will also right-click on a .html file, select “open with” and then “other app”, and then select Text Editor (again & again), but eventually, it reverts itself back to rendering, on a click of the file, into a Chromium-based browser.

    I only render .html files in Firefox (for inspection before uploading to site), and yet, FF never takes over this function. If I only have FF installed, it never assumes the preferred settings for .html files; it always works as it should. And whenever I go back into Preferred Apps, it’s still always set at Text Editor; Chrome never changes the settings there. And, it does this on my NUC-PC, and my laptop, both always auto updated and running Mint-C. So it’s not unit-specific. Just an FYI!

    1. To clarify: I do not have Chrome browser on any of my units: Only Chromium & Brave. When it does this, and I right-click on an .html file, the top option there is Chromium. My default browser is always FF.

  34. Now I can fluently see Youtube 1080p video with both Edge and Firefox with this very, very, very modest little machine running happy on LMint Una:
    Machine: Type: Desktop System: RKM product: MK36S v: 0.38
    Mobo: RKM model: Cherry Trail CR

    Great.

    1. Full screen, miniPC energy consumption 9 Wats plus 7Wats IPS 24″ monitor = 15W.
      Not bad 🙂

  35. Linux Mint is very popular with people new to linux and for a good reason. Would it make sense to include safe-rm by default to make it more robust against noob mistakes?

    1. Do you have any specific suggestions? Otherwise this is not very valuable for mint developers. I personally am very satisfied with Nemo

    2. In a small amount of files or in the solid state hard disk NEMO is indeed very good, some times even better than the Windows file manager
      But when the volume of files is relatively large, and mechanical hard disk to open the folder will need to wait a while, more than the Windows file manager even longer
      Rename with a lot of rename when it will cause NEMO crash
      ext4 to NTFS to move or copy files will be a bug https://github.com/linuxmint/nemo/issues/2927
      After the search to modify the view will be followed by a new search
      No search keyword record
      Sometimes it is impossible to operate on files or folders before thumbnails are loaded.
      When moving or copying files to the phone, NEMO sometimes has no response until the end of copying or moving
      Automatically scrolls after renaming

  36. Dear Clem, Dear Linux Mint,
    If I may, I wanted to ask if you could make a MATE-edge image, like the current Cinnamon-edge image. It doesn’t have to right away, just whenever you need a break from coding, it is nice to do something different from time to time, even just for a few minutes.
    Thank you in advance!

  37. There seems to be a problem getting bugs fixed on Timeshift: for a long time now, it takes a _very_ long time for bugs to be fixed. Timeshift’s developer seems overworked . .

    1. As Timeshift is the system backup of many users, could you tell us more bout these bugs ? I never had problems but this does not mean they don’t exist, so any info would be appreciated.

  38. Suggestion for an improvement in Nemo :
    Could the Nemo Bookmarks include the possibility of a keyboard Shorcut ?
    When opening Bookmark / Modify, you can re-order, remove, go to, change Name or Place. It would be nice to have the possibility to have a keyboard shortcut associated with.
    Thanks for reading my suggestion

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