Monthly News – November 2022

Hi everyone,

I’ll be very brief with the news this month because we’re extremely close to BETA and we want to get everything STABLE in time for Christmas. We’re in a bit of a rush 🙂 

Linux Mint 21.1 reached QA yesterday. A bug in Launchpad is preventing us from accessing some of our translations. We’re also chasing a few bugs related to packagekit and aptdaemon but we’re hoping to have these fixed pretty fast.

As always I want to thank all the people who donate to Linux Mint, and our sponsors. I hope you’ll enjoy the new release. Many thanks to you all.

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
Look To The Right SEO
Uwe Schneider GmbH

Donations in October:

A total of $8,237 were raised thanks to the generous contributions of 308 donors:

$300 (3rd donation), B
$216 (6th donation), Marcus H.
$200 (3rd donation), Ian S.
$194, Gianni T.
$150 (2nd donation), Peter Venton
$137 (3rd donation), Michael M.
$120 (6th donation), Alan H.
$120 (2nd donation), Daniel B.
$108 (8th donation), Uwe P.
$108, Nicolai Z.
$100 (4th donation), Pear D.
$100 (2nd donation), Jay V.
$100, Pulp Free Press
$100, Bruce K.
$100, Roman T.
$100, John B.
$65, Velmurugan K.
$54 (150th donation), Olli K.
$54 (6th donation), Jorge R. R.
$54 (4th donation), Catherine G.
$54 (3rd donation), SĂ©bastien B.
$54 (3rd donation), Ernst G. aka “Guldi”
$54 (3rd donation), Katharina G.
$54 (3rd donation), Ruediger B.
$54 (2nd donation), Frans D.
$54 (2nd donation), Afelemo O.
$54 (2nd donation), Jörg T.
$54 (2nd donation), Michael S.
$54 (2nd donation), Rolf-jĂĽrgen G.
$54, Enric P.
$54, Matthias R.
$54, Karl-heinz B.
$54, Frederic G.
$54, Marina T.
$54, Rainer O.
$54, Michael C.
$54, Jan J.
$54, Alexander K.
$54, Patrick R.
$50 (66th donation), Anthony C. aka “ciak”
$50 (11th donation), Adam H.
$50 (8th donation), Wallace P. M. J.
$50 (7th donation), Thomas B.
$50 (6th donation), Bob Tregilus
$50 (5th donation), Leonardo E.
$50 (4th donation), John L.
$50 (4th donation), Raymond H.
$50 (4th donation), Dean R.
$50 (3rd donation), Mark M.
$50 (3rd donation), Tom D.
$50 (3rd donation), Timothy S.
$50 (3rd donation), Frank F.
$50 (3rd donation), William N.
$50 (2nd donation), John Bekas Jr
$50 (2nd donation), Bobby L.
$50 (2nd donation), David R.
$50 (2nd donation), Ivan D.
$50 (2nd donation), Cuz
$50, James B.
$50, Krzysztof O.
$50, Constance W.
$50, Neil M.
$50, Schneider Wood Working
$50, Mark N.
$50, Robert H.
$50, Jason B.
$50, Charles W.
$50, Harry M.
$44, Sebastian B.
$43 (4th donation), Csongor
$36 (2nd donation), Mar R. R.
$35 (5th donation), Ricardo M.
$35 (4th donation), Tannis E.
$32 (7th donation), Andrew L.
$32 (6th donation), Daniel K.
$32 (4th donation), Lorenz K.
$32 (2nd donation), Peter Thornton Tate.
$32, Philippe G.
$32, Patrick K.
$32, Marcus R.
$30 (4th donation), David K.
$30 (3rd donation), Linden R.
$27 (7th donation), Juergen S.
$27, Martin H.
$27, Stefan S.
$25 (21st donation), Linux Mint Sverige
$25 (16th donation), George R. aka “Az4x4”
$25 (3rd donation), Michael H.
$25 (3rd donation), Timothy A.
$25 (2nd donation), John W.
$25, Mitchell L.
$25, Rick P.
$24 (2nd donation), Susanne K.
$22 (30th donation), Peter E.
$22 (14th donation), Luk
$22 (10th donation), H ScottB
$22 (8th donation), Karl K.
$22 (7th donation), Heinz K.
$22 (6th donation), Thorsten H.
$22 (6th donation), Raymond L.
$22 (6th donation), Stefan S.
$22 (5th donation), John V.
$22 (5th donation), Colin H.
$22 (5th donation), Zdravko S.
$22 (4th donation), Ivo S.
$22 (4th donation), Alan W.
$22 (4th donation), Stephan V.
$22 (3rd donation), Ravi S.
$22 (3rd donation), Peter D.
$22 (3rd donation), Arminas A.
$22 (3rd donation), Liz Mills
$22 (3rd donation), Jens G.
$22 (2nd donation), Roger T.
$22 (2nd donation), Benedikt L.
$22 (2nd donation), Thibault D.
$22 (2nd donation), Diego R.
$22 (2nd donation), Scot C.
$22 (2nd donation), Philippe B.
$22, Vincent H.
$22, Michael T.
$22, Jannis S.
$22, Felix W.
$22, Andreas G.
$22, Edwin R.
$22, Kevin C.
$22, Elodie S.
$22, Andreas A.
$22, Sebastian N.
$22, Malachy M.
$22, Reto E.
$22, Peter S.
$22, Arne K.
$22, Joachim K.
$22, Marin B.
$22, Georg L.
$22, Erik J.
$22, Andrew P.
$22, Sascha J.
$22, Aurelio H.
$20 (51th donation), Bryan F.
$20 (41th donation), Stefan M. H.
$20 (33rd donation), John D.
$20 (23rd donation), vagrantcow
$20 (12th donation), Bruno Weber
$20 (12th donation), Dana S.
$20 (7th donation), Ingo Luedeke aka “TheGo”
$20 (7th donation), J.M. Tremblay aka “JM”
$20 (6th donation), Kari B
$20 (5th donation), Jimmie D.
$20 (4th donation), Robert R.
$20 (4th donation), Keith M.
$20 (4th donation), Robert H.
$20 (3rd donation), Denis A. W.
$20 (3rd donation), Dimitrios G.
$20 (2nd donation), John L. H.
$20 (2nd donation), Clinton B.
$20 (2nd donation), Robert W.
$20 (2nd donation), M G U.
$20 (2nd donation), Gustavo D.
$20 (2nd donation), Evgeny T.
$20 (2nd donation), Michael N.
$20 (2nd donation), James G.
$20 (2nd donation), Eugenijus U.
$20, Sumanlal K.
$20, John G.
$20, John P.
$20, Bryan M.
$20, Grzegorz O.
$20, Howard G.
$20, David J.
$20, David G.
$20, Donald S.
$20, Luke Bartolomeo
$20, Rice H.
$20, Raymond L.
$20, Mel C.
$20, cpersons1960
$20, Dominic Z.
$20, Kevin C.
$20, Jacques F.
$20, Thomas B.
$20, Dusty Crossing
$20, Andrew S.
$18 (5th donation), Imre N.
$16 (3rd donation), JĂĽrgen S.
$16 (2nd donation), Brah Rah
$16, Claudia Cruz Sicard C.
$15, Darryl W.
$14 (46th donation), Michael R.
$13 (6th donation), Brian H.
$13 (4th donation), Terry R.
$12 (3rd donation), Arthur H.
$12 (3rd donation), David Fletcher
$11 (76th donation), Johann J.
$11 (41th donation), Francois-R L.
$11 (33rd donation), Thomas R.
$11 (31st donation), Daniel S.
$11 (19th donation), Raymond M. (retired)
$11 (7th donation), John Marakis
$11 (6th donation), Lazo L.
$11 (6th donation), Erik W.
$11 (6th donation), Denys G.
$11 (5th donation), Michael B.
$11 (5th donation), goppermann
$11 (5th donation), Jeanmichel T.
$11 (5th donation), Johann K.
$11 (4th donation), Janne M.
$11 (4th donation), Axel P. aka “Lukess “
$11 (4th donation), Keith W.
$11 (3rd donation), Jaroslav K.
$11 (3rd donation), Daniel A.
$11 (3rd donation), John W.
$11 (3rd donation), Axel R.
$11 (3rd donation), Alrik S.
$11 (3rd donation), Aghiles C.
$11 (3rd donation), Stefan V. B. aka “stefanvb”
$11 (3rd donation), Alexander P.
$11 (2nd donation), Mani D.
$11 (2nd donation), Roman M.
$11 (2nd donation), Johannes S. aka “JoeJoeTV
$11 (2nd donation), Gintautas F.
$11 (2nd donation), H.V. L.
$11 (2nd donation), Thomas S.
$11 (2nd donation), David H.
$11, Leonardo M.
$11, Jouko T.
$11, Ian R.
$11, Alberto F.
$11, Emilio G.
$11, Paulo C.
$11, Jewgeni S.
$11, Esa A.
$11, Klaus S.
$11, Benoît D.
$11, Reinhold G.
$11, Markku N.
$11, Patrick H.
$11, Harmen K.
$11, Gert P.
$11, Alexander W.
$11, Alex R.
$11, Fabio R.
$11, Loic D.
$11, Andrea R.
$11, Sten K.
$11, Roy R.
$11, Marjorie B.
$11, Samuel M.
$11, Thomas W.
$11, Vincent K.
$11, Rainer N.
$11, Roman C.
$10 (75th donation), Frank K.
$10 (57th donation), Rick R.
$10 (28th donation), Philip Woodward
$10 (26th donation), Hemant Patel
$10 (25th donation), Carpet Cleaning Winnipeg
$10 (13th donation), Harold R.
$10 (12th donation), Joshua O.
$10 (8th donation), Daniel Tan
$10 (8th donation), Stephen F.
$10 (6th donation), Carlos V. M.
$10 (5th donation), Vlad Gruetz (YouTube)
$10 (5th donation), Dave S.
$10 (5th donation), Nathan G.
$10 (4th donation), Samson K.
$10 (4th donation), Wojciech S.
$10 (3rd donation), Jon R.
$10 (3rd donation), Peter P.
$10 (3rd donation), BuyLightFixtures.com
$10 (3rd donation), Johannes W.
$10 (2nd donation), Vincent A.
$10 (2nd donation), Kenneth W.
$10 (2nd donation), Allyn G.
$10 (2nd donation), Ernest J.
$10 (2nd donation), New Computer Systems
$10, Brian H.
$10, Robert W.
$10, Terry L.
$10, AG
$10, Szymon R.
$10, Rohit V.
$10, Central Lab Services
$10, Andrew Craig M.
$10, Brian H.
$10, Giorgio D.
$10, Jeremy G.
$10, Matthew M.
$10, Juan L V.
$10, Andrew P.
$9 (2nd donation), Achillefs P.
$8 (4th donation), Francisco Quintero
$7, Eve
$6 (6th donation), Lucas Miller aka “lukmly013”
$6, Nikola B.
$5 (76th donation), Eugene T.
$5 (40th donation), Hristo Gatsinski
$5 (29th donation), Sami Mannila
$5 (22nd donation), Teobaldo D.
$5 (13th donation), Timo K.
$5 (12th donation), Michael V.
$5 (10th donation), Jacob Buhl M.
$5 (9th donation), Holger S.
$5 (7th donation), Daniel G. Lago
$5 (6th donation), Sinisa B.
$5 (5th donation), Caio C. M.
$5 (4th donation), Fabian G.
$5 (3rd donation), David W.
$5 (2nd donation), Alessandro M.
$5 (2nd donation), Juergen K. aka “Trelane”
$5 (2nd donation), Corey J.
$5 (2nd donation), Craig S.
$5, Ben T.
$5, Giovanni S.
$5, Matthew L.
$5, Jose Ronaldo S.
$5, Federico C.
$5, Daniel B.
$5, Aurélio Henrique F.
$5, Michael M.
$5, Johan F.
$5, Juan Noe H.
$5, Mario M.
$5, Gustavo F.
$4, Olivia H.
$3, Max H. aka “Max782”
$31 from 24 smaller donations

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41 comments

  1. Will LMDE5 get the latest core app changes from mainline Linux Mint? The newest changes look catchy and waiting for implementation in LMDE5.

  2. Problem opening openvpn 2.5.5 not connecting in Linux Mint (Cinnamon) 21.0. Connection worked on Linux Mint (Cinnamon) 20.3 with openvpn 2.4.7 Can this be possibly looked into as I had revert back to Linux Mint (Cinnamon) 20.3.

    Thanks for an excellent Product.

  3. I discovered strange mouse behavior when migrating several machines with Logitech wireless mice m185 and m190, from Windows 8.1 to Mint 21.
    Within days I got feedback from different users that their mouse had worn out and had to be replaced asap because of strange clicking behavior. Sometimes the mice do double clicks instead of single clicks. Or they click once when actually pressing the button and a second time when releasing it. I checked that and can confirm! Left and right buttons are affected. I’d say that one of 30 clicks gets doubled. Sometimes some unwanted double clicks in a row.
    To double check I reinstalled Windows 8.1 on one of the machines and the strange behavior immediately disappeared. When reverting back to Linux Mint, double clicking came back.
    The standard mouse driver in windows must have some debouncing function while the Linux Mint one does not. I also tested an expensive mouse model (Logitech MX) and didnt recognize such problems.
    I have no idea if this bug is new to Mint 21 but I don’t think so. I remember that some years ago another cheap Logitech mouse “died” with the same symptoms shortly after I switched my own PC from Windows to Mint. My solution was to buy a better mouse. But now I’m very confident, that while it feels like broken micro switches it is just a driver thing. I’d love to See this fixed soon. 🙂
    Keep up the good work!

    1. Strange because Logitech mice are all well supported by Linux. Take a look to mouse settings, you can adjust the double click speed there.

    2. Thanks, but tried that already. The double click settings are definitely not the problem here. Obviously low end Logitech mice are prone to have bouncing problems right out of the box. But the Windows mouse driver must have debouncing measures in place for that. Yes, thats a hardware flaw, but in Windows the user experience is completely fine, while on Linux the same mice drive you crazy over time. And now I have not one or two but ~20 mice showing the same horrible behaviour ONLY with Linux – in completely different machines. Lenovo-Thinkpads to self assembled Desktop-PCs.
      Single Clicks geht doubled sometimes. Drag and drop files is a hit and miss game because the mice send random clicks while the left button is constantly pressed. And sometimes releasing the button generates another click. Linux Minz might not be the right place for complaining about that mouse driver problem but I have no idea where else to dig. I decided to bring this up here because as simple as it is this kind of bug ruins the day to day user experience for people coming from Windows.

    3. With Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon, our mouse doesn’t always recognize the right mouse click. We pause 1 second and then try the right-mouse click again. Didn’t have this issue with Linux Mint 20.3 Cinnamon.

    4. Sorry, should have also written that the issues are with a wired (not wireless) mouse from Lenovo (not Logitech) with 2 buttons and a wheel.

    5. this may be a case that those devices all indeed have a hardware issue on the click button

      those hardware failures might not have been revealed on windows usage (yet) because linux drivers don’t implement a small click-button failure tolerance feature that’s typically seen in windows mouse drivers where inhumanly rapid double-clicking is ignored and counted as a single click, so the button failure is tolerated there (up to a threshold)

      I observed the same thing when first moving to linux several years ago and eventually I found Logitech to be quite prone to this particular issue

    6. Search for mouse debounce there is a setting for it but no GUI (hint hint) so changes have to be made using terminal or text editor

    7. Try removing the battery if possible and with the battery removed Clicking all the mouse buttons for a min or 2! And that’s to fully drain some capacitors on the mouse that have degraded over time. And sometimes that will resolve the issue while you can get time there to replace your mouse. I have had Logitech M325 mice that came down with double-click disease and that process of removing the battery and clicking the mouse buttons for a min or 2 help there for a while before I got a replacement.

    8. This bug has been reported a long time, both in Ubuntu and upstream.
      https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-input-libinput/+bug/602809
      https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=11833
      But the upstream developer refused to implement an adjustable software debouncing. They hardcoded a threshold and turned a deaf ear to further complaints.

      I wish someone patch it downstream, or better yet, get rid of those anti-environment mindset. Some OSS developers are irrationally hostile towards users of less-than-ideal hardware.

    9. Thanks for your advice. I’ll search for that mentioned terminal setting. Would indeed be nice to have this available in GUI somewhere. On the other hand I don’t See any reason why inhumanly fast click-release or release-click sequences should not be filtered out as default setting. @Clem and Team: I love your project anyway <3, but would be nice to have this annoying Linux thing being fixed in Mint, when you find time. 🙂

    10. @CAPenFtastic: The thing is that now for the first time I have evidence, that also brand new Logitech mice are affected. While your method may indeed work for worn out better quality mice that degraded over time, it makes no sense to replace new affected mice with other new ones that are also affected. These hardware flaws seem to be by design – and I even understand hardware manufacturers. Why investing in upgraded debouncing hardware if software handling is already in place and works great (on Windows).

      @Billy Wong Thanks for pointing us into the right direction. It is so sad that these issues are ignored for so mich time now. Reason for that might be, that developers tend to have high quality input devices and don’t see these problems. If it happens to them, it is most likely worn out micro switches and replacing the affected mouse with a new top of the line model indeed fixes the issue. Reality is that cheap mice, which come with office computers, rely on software debouncing right out oft the box. ;-(

  4. Do you plan a Beta Release before Christmas, if you don’t finish it in time?
    Do you put in Memtest86+ again?

  5. Please consider upgrading the flatpak version and add the option to sort app search results alphabetically in mintinstall [LM 21.1].

  6. Mint-X theme seems to missing button highlights on certain dialog windows when using keyboard to navigate between buttons. For example, when opening the shutdown dialog (Ctrl+Alt+End) I can’t use Left and Right keys to navigate between dialog’s options (Suspend, Restart, Cancel, Shutdown).

    1. @Taapa
      Left and Right keys still work visually with current Mint-Y theme and *used* to work with Mint-X theme in previous LM releases.

      So it looks like a problem with the new/revised Mint-X theme version in LM 21.

  7. Can’t wait for it!

    I hope the LM team will at some point get rid of systemd entirely (I’ve heard that they have stopped using some of systemd’s pieces recently).

    1. I haven’t seen any evidence that LM will move away from SystemD, as much as I would like to see that happen…

  8. Some interesting changes to default mouse pointer & icon themes. Applet devs might encounter an issue if their code assumes Cinnamon applet configurations are in ~/cinnamon/configs because it seems they have moved to ~/.config/cinnamon/spices.

    1. Correction of typez:
      “all Cinnamon applet configurations have been moved from ~/.cinnamon/configs to ~/.config/cinnamon/spices”

  9. Can you add better font rendering on Linux Mint? It seems that all distributions lack a good font rendering, let’s make a differential.

    1. Hello Calvin:

      A rather interesting comment. Have you checked the “Font Settings” under “Font Selection” in “System Settings” in Cinnamon? Set hinting to ‘slight’. I’ve always considered that Cinnamon Edition has the best font rendering available in any desktop I have used. I do a lot of desktop publishing and coding. Keep in mind for QT applications the quality won’t be as high. In addition, the open source (Linux and Google) based fonts are actually better than the legacy Windows fonts because they were developed with more modern displays, printers and because of copyright issues couldn’t use the old Linotype forms.

      This link and comment confirms what my eyes see.
      https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/q9vl3y/is_it_just_me_or_ubuntu_has_a_noticeably_better/

  10. Installed Linux Mint 21.1 Beta and the new Manila Folders look great !!!
    Adding Mozilla VPN fails to add an Authentication Key to Update Manager (bug report added).
    Adding AirVPN works OK,
    Adding Category Link to Hypnotix makes a nice tool for Free TV !!!!
    Will it be possible to upgrade from Mint 21.1-Beta to a stable release ???

    1. Hello Gary:
      After the final round of updates for the Beta release, you will have the same on your system as the Stable Release. No need to upgrade.

  11. Upgraded one of my systems to 21.1, did not want to put back all the custom settings and tweaks. Everything works great and the refreshed look and feel is excellent!

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