Linux Mint 21.3 “Virginia” released!

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The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 21.3 “Virginia”.

Linux Mint 21.3 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2027. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop even more comfortable to use.

New features:

This new version of Linux Mint contains many improvements.

For an overview of the new features please visit:

“What’s new in Linux Mint 21.3“.

Important info:

The release notes provide important information about known issues, as well as explanations, workarounds and solutions.

To read the release notes, please visit:

“Release Notes for Linux Mint 21.3”

System requirements:

  • 2GB RAM (4GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
  • 20GB of disk space (100GB recommended).
  • 1024×768 resolution (on lower resolutions, press ALT to drag windows with the mouse if they don’t fit in the screen).

Upgrade instructions:

  • If you are running the BETA you don’t need to upgrade, use the Update Manager to apply available updates.
  • Upgrade instructions for Linux Mint 21, 21.1 and 21.2 will be provided shortly.

Download links:

Cinnamon Edition:

MATE Edition:

Xfce Edition:

Integrity and authenticity checks:

Once you have downloaded an image, please verify its integrity and authenticity.

Anyone can produce fake ISO images, it is your responsibility to check you are downloading the official ones.

Enjoy!

We look forward to receiving your feedback. Thank you for using Linux Mint and have a lot of fun with this new release!

66 comments

  2. Congratulations on an excellent release. Wishing you all the best for future development too, with the challenges of Wayland and libadwaita.

    Reply

  4. Dear team, I burned the new ISO onto a pen where I had a good 21.2 and it was not accepted by a Dell and an HP laptops. I will try on a different pen and update here.

    Reply

    1. Second pen also not recognized as bootable by both laptops. Using Rufus 4.3.2090 as usual, as it is usually flawless with creating bootable pendrives.

  5. Was hoping we would finally be able to remove “Application Comments” from the favourites menu -sadly this is not to be!
    Otherwise, thank you for all your hard work, providing Linux users with the worlds finest distro.

    Reply

  7. Sadly know using the new Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon, LibreMines will not start at all. It was running fine on all previous versions of LM and LMDE. I know there are lots of other Mine Sweeper clones out there, but LibreMines is my favorite.

    Reply

    1. What error do you get? I get this:

      flatpak run io.github.Bollos00.LibreMines
      error: runtime/org.kde.Platform/x86_64/5.15-21.08 not installed

      It seems to be a dependency issue with the Flatpak.

    2. After installation of LibeMines I try to run it. But absolutely nothing happens, no errors, no nothing.

    3. LibreMines is working fine when running on Linux Mint Cinnamon upgraded to 21.3 from 21.2

    1. I have already fresh installed Linux Mint 21.3 Cinnamon from scratch. installed successfully. but unfortunately when “Remove the Installation MEDIUM, And Press ENTER” my laptop is stuck. so i must force shut down via power button and turning back on. and i can boot to desktop successfully.

  10. Why does the upgrader switch to the default mirrors instead of using the local ones chosen by user? Download speed was slow about 60 kbps? Canceled it but gnome-font-viewer and youtube-dl were removed by the upgrader and will try the upgrade in the morning

    Reply

    1. Hi Tony,

      We’ll announce the upgrade on Sunday. I’d recommend to wait a bit, the servers are under heavy load right now.

      gnome-font-viewer was removed from the default selection.
      youtube-dl was replaced with yt-dlp.

    2. I recommend to use BTRFS and make a snapshot before trying to upgrade. I had the same issue and just went back a few minutes in seconds. I will try again later.

    3. FWIW Clem, Distrowatch are already saying its been issue, so Sunday might have been pre-empted.

    4. Thanks Clem. Tried the upgrade again. Download speeds were fast and upgraded without issues at time of comment.

  11. I don’t see the XFCE nor Mate versions, but they are normally launched at the same time with the Cinnamon version. Am I missing something?

    Reply

    1. Forget it… I was expecting 3 different blog posts… now I saw all the torrent links are here.

    1. Yep, same here (UK) even on a 1Mb connction.
      Hardly surprising really as god and his dog would be simultaneously downloading the upgrade …

      Worth waiting for though.

  13. Dear Clem and everyone in the Mint Team. Many Many THANKS for very smooth & error free upgrade to 21.3. I love Linux Mint and its become like an old friend. Wouldn’t want to be without it. Congratulations for such a good upgrade.

    Reply

  14. I think you wanted to write “Upgrade instructions for Linux Mint 21, 21.1 and 21.2 will be provided shortly.” instead of “Upgrade instructions for Linux Mint 21, 21.2 and 21.3 will be provided shortly.”.

    Reply

  15. Thanks for the relase, Clem and team!
    I noticed that the ISO verification tool in Cinnamon could use some improvements. When switching to local files, it doesn’t even try to look in the same directory as the ISO file whether there are suitable files to use as default, that could be added. After selecting them, the “verify” button stays disabled until you switch to the “URLs” and then back to “Local files”, that could be fixed.

    Reply

  16. Clem and Team,
    Congratulations for reaching a new mile stone and thanks for Mint21.3. Still on old rock solid 20.3 but 21.3 will be ready and waiting for when 20.3 reaches its EOL.
    I’m patiently waiting for the upgrade path to open so I can test it.

    Regarding GRUB and EFI / Legacy Bios.
    From the “What’s new” page for Mint 21.3, it states: “Grub is used in EFI mode. Isolinux/syslinux is used in BIOS mode.Grub is used in EFI mode. Isolinux/syslinux is used in BIOS mode.”
    I run all my systems on Legacy Bios. I have other OSs, including my daily drive Mint 20.3 and I boot them with GRUB. Will upgrading Mint 21.2 to 21.3 mess with GRUB? Do I need to reinstall it after the upgrade or will it be kept?

    Many thanks. Cheers.

    Reply

    1. Linux Mint is my preferred GNU/Linux distribution since a while. Congratulations to Clem and his Team! 🙂
      But now with its 21.3 version I’m also questioning myself with the following statement: “Grub is used in EFI mode (newer PCs). Isolinux/Syslinux is used in BIOS mode (older PCs).”.

      On my 14 years old HP dv8-1190ef laptop and few other also old desktop PCs all in Legacy BIOS, up to LM 21.2 Grub was used. We are smoothly running multi-boot configuration of Linux Mint 21.2 / Ubuntu Studio 22.04 / Manjaro 21.x / Windows 10.
      Up to now the only one key issue was to give to Manjaro the Grub leadership as the developers of these several distributions were not able to find an agreement on how to properly deal the same way with at least Grub.

      Now Linux Mint is introducing a paradigm change with its 21.3 Isolinux/syslinux when legacy BIOS is used; i.e ALL the older PCs and laptops. We have to protect the resources of our common planet, isn’t it?

      Q: Will this subject be properly covered, including the necessary warnings, in the coming “Upgrade instructions for Linux Mint 21, 21.1 and 21.2” to avoid breaking a lot of running systems?

      Thanks,

    2. No no… this only affects the ISO. Let me clarify this. Once installed Mint only uses Grub, no matter whether you’re booting in EFI mode or not. What’s changed is the way the ISO itself boots. I hope this makes sense.

    3. Yes it does make all sense now @Clem, thanks for clarifying.
      It might be useful for everyone to clarify this on the “What’s new” page.
      Cheers.

  17. i tried today lm 21.3 (normally LMDE 6).

    and somehow idk how to run secureboot. it asks for a Password and when i choose generate it doesnt work for me. under lmde it doesnt ask for password and secure Boot still runs. im linux noob. maybe someone an idea?

    for lmde: the notification connection (always appears even when disabled). Window is still a thing under lmde. ik you guys focus LM first but please check this too.

    greetlngs

    Reply

    1. also i have like one try to cofigurate secure boot under LM. or else reinstall. idk maybe im doing wrong.

      i should prob stay under LMDE . LM is too complex for me xD.

    3. Secureboot should not ask for a password. It is run in your computer’s BIOS. It looks for a software signature in the OS.

  18. I found a very annoying bug. When configuring a session in “autologin” mode (and opening a Wayland session) when trying to switch to a X11 session it starts again in Wayland. This can complicate many users.

    Checking it corresponds to issue #13 (“Can’t return to login screen if user is autologin”) of the Mint thread about Wayland in Github.
    Regards

    Reply

  19. excellent, thank you very much to the entire team, it is still my favorite system, but since they changed the client from bluetooth to blueman in linux mint 21″vanessa” onwards, I have had problems connecting my logitech k480 keyboard.

    Reply

  20. How could I upgrade from LM21.2 to LM21.3 but have Thunderbird stay on v102.15.1? I do have an idea what I might try/test on another PC, but maybe there’s a smarter way.

    (Yes, I understand that valid points can be brought forward that staying on an older TBird version is bad for several reasons. My main reason for wanting to stay on TBird v102.15.1 for now is that with current TBird versions it is not possible to have a separate column showing the sender e-mail addresses any more, which, to me, is unacceptable. YMMV)

    Reply

  21. Hello, I try Wayland in Virginia with automatic login activated. Wayland crashs anda now I
    don’t know how to force to pronto the login window back. Any suggest?

    Reply

    1. Hi Pedro,

      Ctrl+Alt+F2 to drop to console. Log in in text mode.
      sudo nano /etc/lightdm/lightdm.conf
      Remove the lines about the autologin.
      Ctrl+O Enter to save
      Ctrl+X to exit
      Restart.

  22. The upgrade was slow because it didn’t use my local package sources, but maybe I did not configure them for my sys account I’m using for mint upgrades.
    But apart from that it was another smooth upgrade without any problems, thank you very much.

    Reply

  23. After upgrading to Linux Mint Cinnamon 21.3, I can’t open anymore my .gpg files in Nemo. Unencrypt menu doesn’t appear anymore after a right click on the .gpg files. Must I reconfigure something or is it a bug?

    Reply

    2. What changed after upgrading is that I still have Encrypt meny in Nemo when I do a rigt clic on a file but I no longer have the Unencrypt menu when I do a right click on a .gpg file.

  24. Upgrade went smoothly! Thanks Linux mint!
    But I have a question about software in Software Manager. When, who and how are those software updated? I know there is Flatpak, but those package at much larger and often less well integrated with the theme.
    I’m thinking about Musescore. The package version is 3.2, which dates back 2019. Now the latest version is 4.2.
    This goes the same with Inkscape, Blender, Converseen, and others.
    Is there a reason the package in the repos are so far behind? Could we help bring them up to date?

    Reply

    1. Using Musescore Flatpak version has problems:
      The title bar says it’s run “as superuser”
      And when I try to open a file, I don’t have access to other partitions/bookmarks. Sadly, it’s pretty much useless.

    2. The repos basically represent the status of the Ubuntu LTS version Mint is based on. So the current package base is Ubuntu 22.04. Software in the repos may receive security updates, but it generally stays on the major version that was up-to-date when the package base was put together. There are a few exceptions such as web browsers and Thunderbird.
      If you want to use newer software versions and don’t want to use Flatpak you may also look into PPAs.
      The next LinuxMint version will be based on Ubuntu 24.04 and will come with a lot of updated software.

    3. @vgStef
      The older versions in the Ubuntu repositories are not under the control of the Mint team, that is up to the Ubuntu developers. But you can download a normal .deb file for Musescore from their own website (its a Beta version), and only 31MB.

    4. Yes, as Tony said this is not under the control of the Mint team – they can’t possibly configure all the software out there for Mint. The Muse team could do this for Ubuntu (and thus Mint), but they don’t show any interest in doing so. Using Flatpak does have its pros and cons. Do you have Flatseal installed? Using Flatseal is the easiest way to configure Flatpaks, including access to your file locations. Personally, not wanting to use the .deb version, I had to resort to using the Appimage (which the Muse team do maintain and you can download here: https://musescore.org/en) so that I could use the Muse Sounds (15GB download for the lot!) and to get those you need the Muse Sounds Manager .deb file which is another download on that same page. All this is down to the Muse team, and also whether anyone cares to maintain versions for a PPA, or even integrate Muse Sounds Manager into Flatpak.

  26. Thanks again for the new version and your good work! One question: I upgraded from Mint 21.2 to 21.3. (Cinnamon Desktop). Everything works great, but the notifications are now in English. My system language is German, all language packs are fully installed. Why are the notifications suddenly in English, and how can I change them back to German?

    Reply

  27. Thanks Clem. Great upgrade experience!

    I upgraded to Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia on four machines. For the oldest machine, which I did second, I saw what ended up being just a diversion in an otherwise successful install.

    There was an error downloading panel.
    There was a “Trying to recover from package failure” process
    There was a 45-mint-y-icons_1.7.2_all.deb … kingsoft-spreadsheets.png error panel
    After acknowledging each panel the upgrade process continued and the final reboot prompt panel reported success.
    After a reboot an upgrade was reported as available and “mintupdate-cli upgrade” successfully installed the mint-y-icons upgrade.

    This impressed me more than the first upgrade which was uneventful and took less than 5 minutes not counting the timeshift snapshot before and reboot after (or maybe even counting the reboot time). The oldest machine is the only without an SSD drive. All the other machines had the uneventful fast upgrade. I don’t think the SSD had anything to do with the upgrade interruption but it does have do do with the speed. What impressed me was the progress of the install after an issue had been encountered during the install. What at the end I categorized as just a diversion gave me detail that helped me determine at the end that all was well. I considered taking screenshots but decided to just proceed without.

    I have been using Linux Mint on my personal computers for at least 9 years since just before I retired. Prior to that it had been PC Linux OS and both were used because of support for using a workstation or laptop to consume multimedia.

    I actually do extra steps including making a new timeshift snapshot and pushing the latest etckeeper repo commit to a remote before doing an upgrade. I upgrade my server last and the laptop just prior to that and the other machines are considered my test.

    Reply

  28. Wonderful. I have just upgraded my truly ancient laptop (BIOS dated 07/27/2011). Mint 21.3 upgrade only took 10 mins, despite the pre-historic hardware. Acer Aspire 5252, AMD Phenom II P960 4 core CPU, 6Gb RAM & 1Tb SSD. Too old and slow for 1080P video, but everything else I use it for works perfectly. https://termbin.com/oudc

    Reply

  29. Hi
    Everything went well. However, the weather applet reported an error. I had to remove it, reinstall it and configure it, again. I had the json file save before so that was not a problem.
    However, the display of 5 days came in two rows instead of one row as before.
    I did not test printing, videos or music, yet.

    Gjs-Message: 20:36:28.344: JS LOG: [LookingGlass/error] [weather@mockturtl#69]: Generic Error while refreshing Weather info: TypeError: SessionAsync is not a constructor,
    Gjs-Message: 20:36:28.344: JS LOG: [LookingGlass/error] HttpLib@/home/norbert/.local/share/cinnamon/applets/weather@mockturtl/3.8/weather-applet.js:13812:29

    Reply

  30. Depuis la mise à jour de Cinnamon 6.04 on LMDE 6 j’ai remarqué cetains dysfonctionnements. En particulier la prise en compte des paramettres de la gestion d’énergie. Pour récupérer l’écran de connection après une mise en veille, il faut appuyer deux fois sur marche arrêt ou même rebouter. J’ai installé en dual boot LM 21.3 pour comparer. No such dysfunctionnemts with LM 21.3.

    Reply

  31. Unfortunately I reinstalled LM 21.3 in erase disk an install mode, but just like in the first version LM 21, it installs S.O. but after restarting it does not see my storage unit. I resorted to the bootable memory stick to reinstall LM 20.3 then upgrade from 20.3 to 20.3, the system is functional. Excuse my language, I am not a native English speaker.
    Good luck to everyone and thank you very much.

    Reply

    1. I resorted to the bootable memory stick to reinstall LM 20.3 then upgrade from 20.3 to 21.3, the system is functional.

  32. Another fantastic release of the best distro in the multiverse. Thanks guys for all your hard work.

    Couple of bugs: keeps locking up intermittently, lasts for about 10-20 seconds; gimp color picker doesn’t work.

    Reply

  33. After a fresh install of LM21.3 on my laptop I manually installed from the LM logitech Chromium ( my favorite browser) but it did not launch ??? I had to install the Flatpack version instead which works normally. This did not happen after a fresh install of LMDE 6 on the same laptop ???

    Reply

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