Linux Mint 22 “Wilma” – BETA Release

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This is the BETA release for Linux Mint 22 “Wilma”.

Linux Mint 22 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2029. 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 22“.

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 22”

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:

  • This BETA release might contain critical bugs, please only use it for testing purposes and to help the Linux Mint team fix issues prior to the stable release.
  • Upgrade instructions will be published after the stable release of Linux Mint 22.
  • It will be possible to upgrade from this BETA to the stable release.
  • It will also be possible to upgrade from Linux Mint 21.3.

Bug reports:

  • Bugs in this release should be reported on Github at https://github.com/linuxmint/mint22-beta.
  • Create one issue per bug.
  • As described in the Linux Mint Troubleshooting Guide, do not report or create issues for observations.
  • Be as accurate as possible and include any information that might help developers reproduce the issue or understand the cause of the issue:
    • Bugs we can reproduce, or which cause we understand are usually fixed very easily.
    • It is important to mention whether a bug happens “always”, or “sometimes”, and what triggers it.
    • If a bug happens but didn’t happen before, or doesn’t happen in another distribution, or doesn’t happen in a different environment, please mention it and try to pinpoint the differences at play.
    • If we can’t reproduce a particular bug and we don’t understand its cause, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to fix it.
  • The BETA phase is literally a bug squashing rush, where the team is extremely busy and developers try to fix as many bugs as fast as possible.
  • There usually are a huge number of reports and very little time to answer everyone or explain why a particular report is not considered a bug, or won’t get fixed. Don’t let this frustrate you, whether it’s acknowledged or not, we appreciate everyone’s help.

Download links:

Cinnamon Edition:

Xfce Edition:

MATE 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. Many thanks in advance for testing the BETA!

46 comments

  1. Great job on this very solid Beta release. Yes there are issues as people test different features and in different languages. Overall very impressive job! Just wanted to say thanks to all and the developers jumping in to help out during the beta squash rush.

    Reply

  2. Even though I am a stony LMDE user I thank Clem and his team for their sincere work to make this world a better place and to make such projects available for free. I have been with them for several years now and am grateful to be a part of it. Thanks Clem and Team.

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    1. But I will install this LM 22 Beta now too to help with Bug Fixes and also because i have nothing to now lol.

    3. Hi Paul from France.

      No I use Cinnamon. I like it and its their Main Project. Also I can choose there the Cinnamon or Debian Icon on my Taskbar which I love. The Icons in General feel very smooth and nice sized on Cinnamon.

      Yeah after all LMDE is still my favourite OS. I tried a lot of distributions (also LM Ubuntu based) and LMDE always felt the most smooth, stable and fast. The Install Process and Install Manager is easier in my opinion and as a full AMD System User I dont see a reason to change on LM- Ubuntu Based on the longterm. Both systems are nice but at the end of the day LMDE feels simpler and smoother with a rocksolid Debian base. Im Happy with it like many others. Its also cool that most thinks get tested first on the Ubuntu LM like Cinnamon and as a LMDE User you already get all the clean bugfixed Updates. So LMDE is my way.

      Greetings

      I could also imagine that LMDE will be one time the flagship of Linux Mint

  3. Even though I am a stony LMDE user I thank Clem and his team for their sincere work to make this world a better place and to make such projects available for free. I have been with them for several years now and am grateful to be a part of it.

    Reply

  4. So far so good, some minor bugs in the translations and a bug with flatpak in Software Manager, but nothing critical. Good work as always
    P.S. Did you remove gnome-logs or am I wrong?

    Reply

  7. i have a general question. many software manufacturers deliver linux packages in .run format. this is not so easy to execute. you need some know-how. @ clem: could you install a helper program that makes these .run files easy to execute/install? just like the .deb files. there is also a helper program pre-installed for execution.
    linux mint has the philosophy of being simple, especially for beginners and windows switchers, and that would make it even easier.

    by hiding unverified flatpaks, many programs are not displayed in the software manager. e.g. discord, teamspeak, openra. this could irritate new users because they were used to finding them even if they were unverified. but i understand the security concerns behind it.

    Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

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    1. Edit: Same for AppImages.

      to be a real alternative to windows, Mint needs to be as simple as possible and this is done through simple executable files (helper programs like on .deb executable) without having to make them manually executable through the command line.

    2. Ok with AppImages its easier:

      right-click on the downloaded .appimage file and select Properties -> “Allow executing file as program”. But that doesnt work on .run. It works with the chmod command line but for all that you have to look into it. It has to become simpler somehow. Out of the box. Ok i think Ive said everything. Greetings

    3. For AppImages, there is a program called AppImage Launcher. It runs a daemon that watches certain locations (such as ~/Downloads) for *.AppImage files. When it sees one there, it automatically places it in a location of your choice, and installs it in your application menu as if it was installed as a .deb or Flatpak. If you don’t want to do it automatically, you can do it manually, but that’s more complicated.

    4. LMDE ENJOJER,
      You are a steadfast LMDE user according to your own statement. Why asking for some instructions to install (.run) files? All you have to do is to use the file manager [Files]. Just go to the file, use your mouse, and double click the file. It installs right away.

      I use [f.e.] the program FreeFileSync for a long time on my LMDE OS (now v6). I download updates regularly as “FreeFileSync_[version]_install.run”. All I have to do is to go to the Download folder, use the mouse and double-click the file. It doesn’t get easier.

    5. I don’t think there is anything Mint (or any other distro really) can do about .run files.
      Those are just some scripts, they don’t follow any standard.
      They might be coded in any way. They might contain harmful code.
      When you are trying to execute a .run file, or .sh file, or whatever, you are on your own.

      Beginners should not be downloading .run files.
      If you are downloading a .run file from some software vendor then you are not really a beginner.
      You are getting software from some website, not from Ubuntu / Mint trusted repositories.
      You should not be just executing some .run file you get from the Internet.
      It’s a security issue. Beginners should not be doing that.
      Beginners should not be running possibly insecure .run files from a website they don’t understand.
      (Beginners should change their Windows habits: go to website, get .exe, run it. This is very bad.)
      So in that case, you need the know-how.
      There is no way to avoid the know how.
      And it should not be avoided.
      You SHOULD be required to know it.
      You should look into the file and understand what it does.
      We shouldn’t make beginners more unsafe in the name of “beginner-friendliness”.

      You need to talk to the developers of those softwares.
      From those developers point of view, they will probably say
      “we made it easy for you, just follow the instructions and run the script.”

  8. On the whatsnew site it specifies that: “…the following applications were downgraded back to GTK3 versions: Celluloid, GNOME Calculator, Simple Scan, Baobab, System Monitor, GNOME Calendar, File Roller, Zenity.”

    LM was always behind with its Celluloid version. My question is: is this wise? And if not, will we be getting an alternative in the future?

    Reply

  9. Congratulations! Due to where I am in life right now I don’t have time to extensively test the beta but I look forward to the stable release.

    Reply

  10. Hello.
    Tried LM22 Cinnamon Beta and sadly had to go back to LM21.3 with timeshift. There was some instability problems with the screen. I have noticed that with some distros with newer kernels my 6 y.o. laptop did not seem to like them. My laptop is not new but (I hope) not old yet but it does have a repaired mother board. The instability made the screen jump a bit and was really bad while playing gnome-games. Almost bad to the screen blinking point of last thanksgiving. Was annoying. Back to LM21.3 without any problems.
    I have even older Dell laptop that also does not seem to like newer kernels but the instability is very much not a problem. On both laptops the live USB take a very long time to load: more than 4 min.. LM 21.3 takes not even 1 minute.
    But apart from this screen instability, LM22 was working good. The screen jumping was just annoying.
    Regards
    François Proulx, Longueuil, Québec, Canada

    Reply

    2. It does. During my mother board problems last year LMDE 5 & 6 worked very well. I was just missing using PPA’s.
      LMDE rocks
      Regards
      François Proulx, Longueuil, Québec, Canada

    3. So at least this would be an option when LM 22 wont work for you at all. Or an LM 22 with an older Kernel.

      Greetings

  12. I tried Mint 22 in a VM but windows tried to resize themselves if I moved them, Firefox locked up if I switched to my host [LMDE6] machine for a few minutes.
    Didn’t really get much chance to test it as it needed several restarts to get anywhere.
    So “lacking in stability” in a VM.

    Reply

  13. Hi there,

    When using LibreOffice Calc under Cinnamon edtion, it’s not possible to move/copy/swap columns by using ALT + dragging one of the cells in selected region to the new location via mouse (like described here: https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/how-to-move-columns-rows-in-calc/8234). Of course, I deactivated system-wide option to move windows via ALT + dragging windows with the mouse in system settings. This bug existed in Cinnamon some versions ago, then it was fixed, and again broken (at least from Cinnamon 5.8.4 which was included in LMDE6; a bug reappeared after “big rebase” of code). Described functionality works as expected under XFCE, so the bug is in Cinnamon desktop.

    How to reproduce this under Cinnamon? Open a spreadsheet in LibreOffice Calc. To move columns or rows, click on the header(s) to select them, then hold down Alt and drag one of the cells in the region to the new location. To make a copy hold down Alt+Ctrl. The mouse cursor should change when moving cells, but this is not happening under Cinnamon. Described procedure doesn’t work under Cinnamon, but works under XFCE.

    Is there a chance of fixing this before final release?

    Reply

    1. Bug reports for the beta are meant to be filed at the address given in the blog post. Those bug reports are meant to be reports of _regressions_, i.e. of things that work in the immediately previous release but which do not work in the beta. Bugs that are not regressions are to be filed against the appropriate Linux Mint repository.

  14. Linux Mint 22 Beta MATE edition, no volume/sound icon in the tray.

    Doesn’t seem to remember my hardware settings, IE under the ‘Hardware’ tab I have Built-in Audio, IE motherboard sound in/outputs and GP104 HD audio controller, IE my GTX1070 graphics card which is to my screen speakers via the HDMi cable. After I reboot it always defaults back to Built-in Audio on the hardware tab of the sound settings. Soon as I click on GP104 HDMi it works even though the ‘Output’ tab remembers GP104 HDMi.

    I turned Built-in Audio ‘off’ and it still defaults to it, however that option is gone from the ‘Output’ tab of the settings.

    HDMi output, on the ‘Hardware’ tab, after rebooting, once selected, the keyboard multimedia keys and the volume slider in sound preferences work. The multimedia keys otherwise appear to work but no sound to confirm, IE they display the speaker icon and sound level on screen.

    Had similar issue with remembering sound preferences on LM20 and/or LM21 but that was because I had a USB sound card plugged in for my microphone and it was always defaulting to USB until I changed /etc/pulse/default.pa to stop it always favoring USB, IE assuming I wanted to use USB for both input/output. I only use input on USB and output via HDMi.
    USB sound card has been removed for the above testing.

    Sorry I don’t do Git hub or where ever these issues should be posted so hope Clem sees them here.

    Reply

  15. I installed Linux Mint 22 on my Honor magicbook 15 laptop to test and I don’t have audio, with Linux Mint 21.3 the audio works. It’s a shame because it is the only Linux distribution where audio worked on this laptop, after 2027 I will have to buy another device. This laptop has the Realtek ALC256 chip.

    Reply

    1. *whispering ASMR*: L – M – D – E – 6

      greetings

      PS: maybe this works for you and you still have your system then up to date

  16. Cinnamon and Mobile Broadband (USB modem)
    —————————————————————————–
    Thank you for the new Linux Mint release.

    A small note.
    Still can’t connect using a USB modem.

    This only applies to cinnamon.
    Xfce4 works correctly.

    Three attempts:
    1.
    Click on the Network Manager applet
    Mobile Broadband – ON.
    Click on “Auto broadband”.
    Failure, message:

    “Execute of `cinnamon-settings` failed.
    Array element (type file name) may not be null.”

    2.
    Click on the Network Manager applet
    Click on “Network settings”
    Mobile Broadband – ON.
    Network: “Add new connection”.
    No response – failure.

    3. It worked.
    Click on the Network Manager applet.
    Click on “Network connections”.
    Click on “+”.
    “Hardware – Mobile broadband”, Create
    After setting the parameters – the network started.

    PS.
    I got archived Linux Mint 18.2 and 18.3 images from http://download.nust.na/pub/linuxmint/stable/

    Conclusions.

    Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon 3.4.3 – connection works without any problems.

    Linux Mint 18.3 Cinnamon 3.6.6 – cannot connect, must use workaround (item 3).

    So something happened in Cinnamon between versions 3.4.3 and 3.6.6.

    Similarly in the case of Debian:

    Debian 9.13 Cinnamon 3.2.7 – connection works without any problems.

    Debian 10.13 Cinnamon 3.8.8 – cannot connect, must use workaround (item 3).

    It is still relevant:
    https://github.com/linuxmint/cinnamon-control-center/issues/246

    Best regards.

    Reply

  18. LM Xfce beta tested using USB stick session. I don’t know which issues may relate to Wayland and how to use Github so I put my feedback here. Sorry for that, and thank you for all the improvements in LM 22, I like them a lot! Now my beta feedback. One, while booting I don’t see the animated Linux Mint logo. Something appears on the screen two or three times but it disappears so fast that I have no chance to see what it is. Second issue: system tray icons other than the three default tray icons: Pulse Audio, Battery an Notifications plugins. The tray icons like Network Manager icon or others like those for Rhythmbox, Notes etc misbehave. There is very little spacing between such icons and they are not scalable. I can get the default tray icons bigger but those misbehaving ones stay the same. You mention in the beta release notes that tray icons size can be configured thanks to the Xapp status plugin, but it is not configurable at all… I removed the Xapp plugin and the CPU use increased. I added the plugin again, but now there are no Rhythmbox or Network plugin icons on the system tray and I can’t get them back in any way.

    Reply

  19. Its great that the installer removes fonts and spell-checkers irrelevant to the selected locale.

    Reply

  20. My nickname Testy Ted doesn’t mean I’m irritated as I appreciate what you do and I think you deserve anything but praise. I just made a nickname following the Ubuntu version naming convention. So, no offence.

    Reply

  22. Dear Developpers,
    Please prepare “fcitx-mozc” in place of “ibus-mozc” for the defaut of Japanese input method when installing the choice of “Japanese” in the languages at the next release of Linux Mint certainly.
    Because “ibus-mozc” isn’t enough and “fcitx-mozc” is more convenient than “ibus-mozc” and installing “fcitx-mozc” takes some steps. It’s annoying.
    Please, Please promise it to Japanese users.

    Reply

  23. “In Xfce, the xfce4-xapp-status-plugin tray applet features configurable icon sizes for fullcolor and symbolic icons.” How do I access this feature?

    Reply

  24. Great news!
    Glad to see the Portuguese language pack included in the ISO.
    Congratulations to the team for all their hard work and dedication.

    Reply

  25. about a helper to easily execute .run files:
    1) i agree that windows users have a habit of downloading .exe and excuting them without being overly careful about the file’s origin
    2) i agree that on linux this attitute, when applied to .run files, poses a security risk
    3) i agree that users should be educated to avoid this behaviour
    4) on the other hand, i agree that a helper for double-clicking executable file formats would be useful… just maybe disputing what the helper should do to help

    my proposal is that a helper should be invoked on double-click, then
    a) if the file is already marked executable it should do the sensible default action (eg: for bash scripts it would show a menu offering to run it, run it in a terminal or edit it)…

    b) if it’s not yet marked executable, it should display a dialog:
    – suggesting/asking if the user already checked the Mint Installer repo for the desired software, and that it’s better to get software from repos first and look outside it only as a fallback (plus offer a link to run Mint’s Software Manager)
    – warning that running arbitrary executables is dangerous… plus offer a link to a mint blog post or some GUI guidance pages like Mint Install offers for distro version upgrades) explaining why
    – give the user some basic concepts on how to select what to trust (eg: foss vs. proprietary, well known contributors vs. random joe, someone you already trusted for other critical software pieces like the OS vs. a new source, curated sources vs. anyone for each thing, etc)
    – suggesting the user to look for foss alternative software from the repos (alternativeto.net can help find them)
    – maybe suggesting online malware multi-scanners (virustotal, jotti, …) for the remaining cases
    – at the end, explaining how to mark the .run file (or whatever) executable (and maybe offering a one-click button for it on the helper too)… or how to install it, in case of AppImages and such

    ps: maybe this should be used for .debs in front of the .deb installer app… heck, i know *plenty* windows users who just downloaded steam.deb from Valve’s website instead of using the version in the distro’s repos, including new Mint users, so this would definitely help reshape some habits sooner rather than later

    Reply

    1. ps: this was supposed to be a reply to LMDE Enjojer post from July 1, 2024 at 6:50 pm, not a standalone post…

    2. Offering a one-click action to set it as executable will likely lead to people just clicking it and not reading the text.

    1. If it’s like all other Mint releases, it will be released when it’s ready. You can subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed to get a notification when it’s released.

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