by ·52 Comments

The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 16 “Petra” KDE.

Linux Mint 16 Petra KDE Edition

KDE is a vibrant, innovative, advanced, modern looking and full-featured desktop environment. This edition features all the improvements from the latest Linux Mint release on top of KDE 4.11.

New features at a glance:

For a complete overview and to see screenshots of the new features, visit: “What’s new in Linux Mint 16 KDE“.

Important info:

  • Recommended packages and 32-bit libraries
  • EFI Support
  • PAE required for 32-bit ISOs
  • mint4win

Make sure to read the “Release Notes” to be aware of important info or known issues related to this release.

System requirements:

  • x86 processor (Linux Mint 64-bit requires a 64-bit processor. Linux Mint 32-bit works on both 32-bit and 64-bit processors).
  • 1GB RAM
  • 8 GB of disk space
  • Graphics card capable of 1024×768 resolution
  • DVD drive or USB port

Upgrade instructions:

Download:

Md5 sum:

  • 32-bit: 1d05326903d52a0608f9661d774721e9
  • 64-bit: ce590f819c125730bedf234bd374e4d8

Torrents:

HTTP Mirrors for the 32-bit DVD ISO:

HTTP Mirrors for the 64-bit DVD ISO:

Enjoy!

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

by ·165 Comments

Introduction

The most significant improvements in Petra are being backported to Maya.

Among other things, this gives Linux Mint 13 LTS users access to the following packages:

  • MDM 1.4
  • Cinnamon 2.0
  • MATE 1.6
  • The latest versions of mintwelcome, mintstick, mintnanny, mintupload, mintupdate, mintinstall, mintsystem, mintmenu and mintdesktop.

How to

To enable the backports in Linux Mint 13, follow the steps below:

1. Open the “Software Sources” tool from “Menu -> Preferences -> Software Sources”
2. Click on the “Backported packages (backports)” checkbox as illustrated in the picture below

3. Launch the “Update Manager” from “Menu->Administration->Update Manager”
4. Select all level 1, 2 and 3 updates
5. Click on “Install Updates”

Once you’re finished installing the updates, restart your computer.

Enjoy 😉

FAQ

– Why isn’t this happening automatically via the “main” components of the repositories?

It’s an opt-in. Some people are interested in getting the latest features (and they can follow the easy steps described above). Others prefer not to change what already works. By using the backports component of the repositories, which are disabled by default, people have the choice to upgrade these components or to keep them from being upgraded.

As with every upgrade and new version of software, there is a risk of regression. These upgrades have been thoroughly tested in Petra and are known to work in Maya, but the decision to stick with the current versions or to upgrade to the newer ones is entirely yours. Note that both versions are available in the Linux Mint 13 repositories (via main and backports) and that although the process is a bit tedious, it is possible to downgrade all or some packages back to their original versions.

– Will these backports also find their way into LMDE?

Yes, LMDE will receive these backports as well as a major upgrade called Update Pack 8 in January 2014.

Upgrade Notes

Cinnamon 2.0:

  • Cinnamon 2.0 no longer needs nautilus or gnome-session-fallback. Feel free to remove these components. If you don’t need support for bluetooth and wacom tablets you can also remove gnome-control-center.
  • Make sure to install mint-meta-cinnamon to retrieve all the new important packages coming with Cinnamon 2.0
  • Cinnamon 2.0 uses a Cinnamon backend. Your current settings applied to the GNOME backend, so you will lose your default Cinnamon configuration.

MATE 1.6:

  • MATE 1.6 uses gsettings. Your current MATE settings are stored in mateconf. You will lose your MATE configuration during this upgrade.

MDM 1.4:

  • MDM triggers the installation of numlockx. This may activate numlock on your behalf. If on a laptop you find yourself unable to type your password, please make sure to disable numlock. You only have to do it once. After that, your preference is configurable in MDM.
  • Make sure to install the package “mint-mdm-themes”
  • Make sure to restart your computer after the upgrade, especially if you upgrade MDM.
  • If MDM complains that it cannot find a theme and consequently fails to start, do the following:
    • Make sure you have a file called /usr/share/mdm/distro.conf, if you don’t then upgrade the package ubuntu-system-adjustments
    • Delete your MDM configuration with the command: sudo rm -f /etc/mdm/mdm.conf
    • Reset the MDM configuration with the command: sudo touch /etc/mdm/mdm.conf
    • Reboot the computer

by ·93 Comments

The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 16 “Petra” Xfce RC.

Linux Mint 16 Petra Xfce Edition

Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment which aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly. This edition features all the improvements from the latest Linux Mint release on top of an Xfce 4.10 desktop.

New features at a glance:

For a complete overview and to see screenshots of the new features, visit: “What’s new in Linux Mint 16 Xfce“.

Important info:

  • Recommended packages and 32-bit libraries
  • DVD playback
  • EFI Support
  • PAE required for 32-bit ISOs
  • mint4win

Make sure to read the “Release Notes” to be aware of important info or known issues related to this release.

System requirements:

  • x86 processor (Linux Mint 64-bit requires a 64-bit processor. Linux Mint 32-bit works on both 32-bit and 64-bit processors).
  • 384 MB RAM (1GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
  • 5 GB of disk space
  • Graphics card capable of 800×600 resolution
  • DVD drive or USB port

Bug reports:

  • Please report bugs below in the comment section of this blog.
  • Please visit https://github.com/linuxmint/Roadmap to follow the progress of the development team between the RC and the stable release.

Download:

Md5 sum:

  • 32-bit: f14e182a2238d6f42cc1accee4e27734
  • 64-bit: 10e1d878789d46e9d624528406177ec2

Torrents:

HTTP Mirrors for the 32-bit DVD ISO:

HTTP Mirrors for the 64-bit DVD ISO:

Enjoy!

We look forward to receiving your feedback. Thank you for using Linux Mint and have a lot of fun testing the release candidate!