Linux Mint 6 x64 released!

On behalf of the team I am proud to announce that Linux Mint 6 Felicia is now available in 64 bit!

I would like to thank all the people who helped us test the Release Candidate and who gave us some feedback. This release comes with all the innovations featured in Linux Mint 6 Felicia and for the very first time with the 64 bit versions of the Adobe Flash and Sun Java plugins!

Introduction to the x64 edition:

The purpose of the x64 edition is to offer the same desktop features as the Main edition but in a 64 bit environment. It aims to be as similar to the Main edition as possible.

More packages are available for i386 than they are for amd64 and the Main edition is also slightly more stable than its 64 bit equivalent. The Main edition only recognizes a maximum of 4GB RAM though and even on computers with less than 4GB RAM the performance gain provided by x64 over the Main edition can significantly enhance the user’s experience.

System requirements:

An X86_64 64 bit processor (Intel Core 2, AMD X2 64, etc…) .

A minimum of 512MB of RAM is recommended. Once installed the system works fine with as low as 256MB RAM. The installation process deals with 2.5GB of data compressed on a 700MB CD and it can hang or fail on systems with less than 512MB RAM. If you have between 256MB and 512MB RAM you may have to try to install several times.

Download Linux Mint 6 x64:

Europe:

Northern America:

Rest of the World:

Order Linux Mint 6 x64 on CD:

You can order Linux Mint 6 x64 on CD from our partner on-disk.com:

http://on-disk.com/product_info.php/cPath/28_153_277/products_id/612

Tell us what you think:

Depending on your hardware x64 Edition could be faster and show better performance than the Main edition. We’re interested to know how both editions compare so don’t hesitate to measure your boot time, and common scenarios and compare them on the same computer with the Main edition.

    Changes since x64 RC1:

    If you’re currently running Linux Mint 6 x64 RC1 you do not need to install the stable release. To get the 64 bit versions of Flash and Java, type the following commands in a terminal:

    • apt remove –purge flashplugin-nonfree nspluginwrapper
    • apt update
    • apt install mint-meta-x64

    Also note that mint4win doesn’t work on the RC1 CD and that it does on the stable one.

    Have fun!

    Have a lot of fun with the x64 Edition and thank you for running Linux Mint.

    91 comments

    1. Does opera 64 work in mint 6 x64?

      im using ubuntu 8.10 x64 and opera flash doesnt work properly.. i cannot watch youtube on it, just listen to the sound.
      and google finance doesnt work (again flash related)

      BUT .. on firefox everything works fine…

      so is this fixed in mint 64? or is that out of their hands and more to do with the opera people.

    2. Great Clem to think just last night i installed RC ‘cos it’s stable enough; however i’m still waiting for that KDE4.2 Community Version.

    3. hehehe I snarfed this when I saw it up on heanet yesterday afternoon. Great Job Clem. A very polished and snappy release. You’re ruining me for other Distros.

    4. Jungar: Yes. Just add Opera to the default install (apt install opera) and you’ll get version 9.63 working with the pre-installed 64 bit version of Flash 10,0,21,1. Youtube works very well, audio and video.

    5. Patriot Henry: There would be a 64 bit version of all CEs, and CEs wouldn’t even be CEs if we had more resources. In terms of income I don’t earn enough with Linux Mint to go and work full time for it yet. Releases are time-consuming and we want to keep some focus on developing the desktop and the tools as well, so we restrict our scope to the 6 editions we currently support.

    6. Hi Clem,

      you mention above the flash version should be 10,0,21,1, but mine says 10,0,15,3. did I do something wrong upgrading from the RC?

      Thanks.

    7. Clem: I think you misspelled: “there WON’T be a 64 bit…”.
      Unfortunately 🙁
      (Though you are absolutely right).

    8. Tunai: Maybe the Main Edition first as it’s a bit more stable and it has a wider selection of software.

      Paul: Make sure you’ve got mint-flashplugin-x64 installed. Reinstall it eventually.

    9. Tunai: I have used many distros, and I can’t think of any one that is better than mint for new linux users…so I would definitely recommend mint for you

    10. Clem: Thanks, your suggestion worked. I had mint-flashplugin-x64 installed, i just needed to reinstall via apt. Cheers.

    11. Does the new flash and java work to run games at pogo.com? That’s the only thing that’s held me from using x64, as java never worked quite right 🙁 If someone can confirm it, I’ll download this tonight 🙂

    12. clem,

      i got ubuntu 8.10 x64 and vista 64 dual booting … how do i remove ubuntu and install mint without messing up the Grub and all that? you have no idea how hard it was to install linux on vista for me ;p im not THAT good at it.. so do you know of any site or tips to help me with the transition?

      many thanks 🙂

      jungar

    13. clem,

      or could i simple install it OVER the partition that i have ubuntu on? that’d be the best/easies way… if possible..

    14. Excellent, Been waiting for this edition for a looong time!

      Hats off and thanks to Clem and the rest of the team for such a good work!

    15. Hi Clem,

      I have all x64 Main Edition 6 RC1 updates done (mintUpdate)

      I coud not urdertand:

      Terminal

      apt remove –purge flashplugin-nonfree nspluginwrapper

      É impossível encontrar pacote -purge
      (It’s impossible to find -purge package)

      Well,

      Through Synaptic…

      I installed mint-java-x64 – version 6u12bo3-mint1

      Updated done to new versions:

      mint-flaashplugin-x64 – version 10.0.21.1 mint3

      mint-meta-x64 -version 6.0.3

      Restarted X for avoiding any annoyng surprise

      note: i do not have Romeo enable.

      Synaptic

      If somebody wants to know about packages versions
      installed just try to remove one and the information
      will jump to check it out. Of course, cancel any action
      check box to install mint-java-x64
      check box to update mint-flashplugin-x64 (this will update
      mint meta-x64 even to the latest version.

      make sure you have your system up to date.
      that’s the way i upgraded Mintx64 Main Edition From RC1 6
      to the stable one Mintx64 6 Felicia

      Now i am standing by to get the commands to upgrade XFCE CE 6
      to the final release.

      cheers

    16. Hey I was wondering, there are so many ubuntu speed tweaks for fstab, blah blah blah.. do you need to do these tweaks or do you even need’em, i have 64bit kubuntu running perfect.. but with java,flash at64 bit with mint..itmay be worth it..
      let me know what you guys think..
      thanks

    17. Does this support the new Intel i7? The only distros ive heard being ported to it so far ,are Red Hat, Gentoo, and StartCom.

    18. All I stated was that I was going to use Mist6 extensively. The comment after Geert Says; in heading 20′ is not from this writer.

    19. Roberto: I had the same error as you. It’s just that there are two distinct lines before “purge”: i.e. it is – – (without the space in between), not just a longer line. Somehow I think that Firefox renders them with a single line.

    20. Great package. The first 64 bit installation that works out of the box on my kit. Only slight gripe is that it is not Open Office 3, but the rest is great including all my favourite bits. This is great for Linux as most of the distros coming out now are very polished. The battle for the desktop is moving.

    21. Great¡ But my real love is kde. If kde 4.2 sucks like linus say.. what can kde lovers do? wait forever? for a better kde? or change to gnome? It’s a dilema

    22. it is – – (without the space in between), not just a longer line. Somehow I think that Firefox renders them with a single line.
      Yes – a well known bug in Firefox and probably other browsers

    23. Thank you Kanishka
      Thank you Husse

      I know i should try — but i like to deal with Synaptic ’cause
      I can have a good visual control over my system

      cheers

    24. peter.

      im using ubuntu 8.10 x64..

      OPERA

      Version 9.63
      Build 2474
      Platform Linux
      System x86_64, 2.6.27-11-generic
      Qt library 3.3.8b

      and youtube DOES NOT work fine..

      im using a sony vaio FW292 with an ATI mobility radeon HD 3650.

      i have no idea which version of flash i have on opera because when I right-click on the opera video i cannot get anything, it doesnt open the (about flash) so i can check what version i got.

    25. Jason: I am running Fedora 32 bit with PAE (Physical Address Extension) kernel in my i7 box. It detected my 4 GB DDR3 RAM. The other distribution which ran better than Fedora in my i7 box is openSUSE 11.1. Ubuntu 8.10 (both 32 bit and 64bit (worse)) was terrible on my i7 box. It got stuck whenever I did any IO operation. None of the other distributions with kernel below 2.6.27 booted as they had old kernel.

      Any distribution with recent kernel (2.6.27) should support i7 out of the box.

      Since mint 64 has 2.6.27 kernel it should boot. It will be a bonus with mint 64 since it will run 64 bit flash and java.

    26. Is it possible to use the same commands
      ( * apt remove –purge flashplugin-nonfree nspluginwrapper
      * apt update
      * apt install mint-meta-x64 )
      to install the 64 bit plugins n Mint 5 LTS 64 bit ?

      Thanks

    27. Hi! Im actually having some trouble with the sound of linux mint 6. At first, when i installed it, it made a weird sound every time i turned it on. A friend helped me by installing a sound driver but i still cant hear anything. It stopped making the noise, but now the sound is completely mute. He told me that my sound card was “too advance” for this version of linux and that i needed profesional help. The mute button on my computer always looks red as if it was off all the time but when i touch it it appears on the screen the image telling me that it’s on but it doesn’t work. My friend also told me that i wouldn’t be able to do anything with the sound unless someone has the type of computer that i have and make a new sound driver suitable for it. I dont even know what he’s talking about! Please, i need help! I’ve got to be switching between Vista and linux every time i want to play music. My computer is a HP Pavilion dv4 1145 (4GB memory, 250 GB RAM, Windows Vista 64 bits, Intel Core 2 duo Processor…) This is the first time i write for this kind of thing and i’d really appreciate your help. Hope to hear good news soon.

    28. I’ve just installed mint6 32-bit yesterday and works fine and everything but what i want to know, is it worth it to install the x64-bit version over the 32-bit? And how much faster will it be? coz the 32-bit is fast as is.

    29. Clem, right now I am running Mint 6 (32bit ed.) with a separate /home partition…
      I just downloaded Mint 6 (64 bit ed.). I plan to install it whenever I have some time to my PC, mounting my /home without formating it…

      -What do you mean when you write Main is more stable than x86_64 ?

      -Shall I stick to Main ??? (I need stable…)

    30. Congratulations for another great achievement! 🙂 Can anyone offer some benchmarks of “x86-32 vs. x86-64” editions? It would be very nice to know what to expect with the move to the 64-bit version. Thank you.

    31. Caraibes: i386 simply receives more focus than x86_64, not just from us, but from a lot of upstream projects. Some proprietary applications don’t even build for x86_64 (how long did we wait for 64 bit versions of Flash/Java?). The same is true for drivers, and also for testing. Because it receives less focus, it’s more likely to come with deviations. I can’t think of anything right now (well maybe… acroread isn’t available in 64 bit for instance) but if we’re recommending a hassle-free system to novice users then it should be an i386 one, no matter what CPU they have. The present mainstream architecture is i386. x86_64 will eventually take over, but this hasn’t happened yet. As an x86_64 user you’re acting as a pioneer.

    32. I have tried several live cd distos of linux over the past few years, and am now convinced that Mint6 is my best choice for a first time install. I am just finishing a new computer build (AMD 64 X2 7750, Biostar TA790GX) Is it possible/difficult to dualboot both 32 and 64 bit versions of Mint6? For comparison and education. I am planning to test Windows 7 in VirtualBox, both 32 and 64 bit. Is there any problem doing this as well? I am excited at the prospect of using what appears to be a great labor of love by you folks. I really want it to work, as I am not very pleased by the products of MS. But I am a bit concerned about the learning curve. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

    33. Thanks for this release. I’v downloaded it and installed it on a few computers I have and gave the CD to a mate for his laptop that has a broken HDD so he can still use the lappy for the net.

      I love Linux Mint 6. & am looking forward to version 7.

    34. Hey…everything is working flawlesly on my laptop with 2X Turion and ATI-graphics. Out of the box flash is even working better than on my previous 32 bit (Felicia) install. Also have removed Vista now completely from my system. Keep going Clem and team! Greetz from Holland.

    35. I’m being using the 64bit for 3 weeks now .. pretty good for the most part..

      Problems:
      > Firefox is taking up a ton of memory (like 1.8GB worth at the moment) (now granted this could be a mem leak from an extension – but doesn’t happen in x86)
      > VMWare (x64 version) clogs and is rather slow
      > Adobe AIR won’t install (I tried installing the x86 version as adobe suggest (http://www.adobe.com/go/kb408084), but won’t work)

    36. Since I first tried 32 bit Felicia, I’ve been dieing for a 64 bit version. This is gonna be great.

      Btw, for all those ppl who mentioned that they’re new to linux and inquired as to whether mint was a good distro to start with:
      A) Easy User Interface
      B) Mint Install makes installing programs a breeze
      C) System Monitor similar to Windows task manager
      D) Many open-source alternatives to mainstream programs like MSoffice

      It’s really a great distro

    37. Fantastic release, this is the OS I have been waiting for to replace windows on my laptop. Been running Mint 6 (64) RC1 for the past few weeks. Outstanding job bringing this along and into reality. Keep up the good work!!!!!

      Joe

    38. This is really good. The main problem is that right click alternatives are not supported on my Macbook. Everything else works great. My only other complaint is the erratic capitalization. mintDesktop, mintInstall etc. yet it’s called Linux Mint? Just call it Linux mint or “mint” in that case.

    39. fyi the mint version of GnomeDo (0.8.0-0-1mint1) doesn’t work in x64 (no idea of 32) .. I’ve reverted back the ubuntu version. The keystroke to bring up the window doesn’t work.

    40. Just installed Felicia 6 x64 on a Sony VAIO PCV-RC50 and cannot access my D-Link DNS-323 NAS (firmware 105). I can see the shares and when clicked can enter the password, but then get the “Unable to mount location” error message. I also have a Buffalo LinkStation Mini 1TB on the same network that does not have access problems.
      Any suggestions?

    41. Wow! This is possibly the most tremendous release I’ve ever used! flash and java work *exactly* like they do in 32-bit on several tricky sites (Yahoo and Yahoo games, pogo, etc…)

      This is phenomenal. I consider this the first *true* 64-bit release, as it gives EVERY functionality that 32 can give, plus the raw power.

      I’ve installed this now on a variety of machines, and it’s even made my wife decide to give up Vista on her lappy and install this instead. That’s a milestone in itself!

      Great job and kudos to Clem and all of his hard-working gang!

    42. Outstanding workmanship, Clem !!! My Q6600 4GB Ram Nvidia 8800GTS 512 LOVES this distro … flawless install. Wacom tablet working out of box. I am hoping to use this distro to host Newtek’s Lightwave Core / QT may be an issue … but I really hope to find way to make the two work together !!! Sincere thanks to Clem and everyone involved !!!

    43. Most of Linux x64 distro is multilib, thus any applicantion (even 32 bits base) will run well. Dunno sure is LinuxMint x64 also multilib ? if yes …. then there will be no problem to install all applications.

    44. Gotta say Clem .. .this is great !!! Installed QT and only needed g++ and libx11-deb to get it going / then installed KDE 4.1.4 / seems pretty stable so far. I am one happy camper !!! Thank you again !!!

    45. Hello Mint-enthusiasts! Give me some reasons why I should change my nice, well running Mint5 to that x64-Version of Mint6? Where are the advantages for me? Should I try the Main-Version, because my PC is more than 6 years old or would it be better to held the current one?
      I’m not such a Linux-Pro as you might see… Thanks for your answers!

    46. Edward: There’s going to be a new newest and shiniest version every 6 months, your choice should be motivated by how often you want to update your OS. Mint 5 is a long term support release which is going to be supported for the next 3 years, if you’re happy with it and if it works for you you shouldn’t be looking for reasons to replace it. Mint 6 isn’t going to be around that long.

    47. thanks clem! (wow, it’s the chief! :D) now i’m so nosy, that i will try the felicia-xfce-community-version-livecd and then i’m gonna decide… if upgrading is easy, i always want to have the hottest version! 😉 keep on! without linux-mint winxp would still be installed on my pc, because former linux-distris were too geeky for me…

    48. I’ve been running Mint 6 x64 on my quad-boot (Mint6/Vista/W7) Toshiba A215 lappy for a couple of weeks, and this release has been extremely stable. The only problems I’ve run across are WiFi (had to compile my own driver) and SSH (had to uncomment a line in the SSH config file). That’s it! Kudos!!!

    49. Awesome release once again Clem and Team,

      I always use Mint for my laptop/other peoples PC’s….

      On my HP dc5850 it rocks! Nice one!

      -John

    50. I have to say I absolutely loooooooooooove this version you making me switch from MS all the way with this one. When I get a little money together I will surely donate to this distro as well thanks alot Clem and the rest of the team. 🙂

    51. I love Mint BTW better than
      Sloppy distribution of Debian and for most part you got alot of features that save my but that Ubuntu lacks on its distribution like AptToCD and Backup as well as preset stuff that I usually have to futz with also Mint didn’t destroy root access like other distrobutions I can’t even do an install without thirty prompts for SUDO and then totally fail.

      Also even though it doesn’t work with my dual monitors NVIDIA was at least able to install on Mint, I tried the exact same thing on FEDORA it was not the latest stuff and UBUNTU had issues on compiling using root and I got a blank screen and it never came up so I couldn’t fix the video without going into shell and figuring out what I have to edit as root in /X11 messing with all the configs with Display in the end it was easier to reinstall so this time I installed Mint instead.

      Major problems I had:
      Dual Monitors that program doesn’t work when you start mixing LCD, VGA output with different resolutions also positioning gets messed up.
      Not Mints fault it does that on all Linux versions that tool needs a rewrite but I know graphics are one of major draw backs for all Linux distributions.

      NVIDIA drivers working with two monitors.
      I have a 8800 GT nvidia card and have two ACER 22 inch monitors hooked up on that same card. But it only works with the stupid VGA hookup on the back and it’s max resolution is like 640×480. I boot into windows I got a huge selection of resolutions. Also this is not Mints fault but I thought I put this out there.

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