by ·66 Comments

Current Status

  • It is not safe to upgrade any package unless your mirror points to UP5
    • Here is the current status of the LMDE mirrors:
      • debian.linuxmint.com (USA): UP5
      • http://debian.lth.se (Sweden): UP5
      • http://mirror.rts-informatique.fr (France): UP5
    • To change which mirror you’re pointing to:
      • make sure “mint-debian-mirrors” is installed
      • open a terminal and run the following command: mint-choose-debian-mirror
  • Make sure to read http://debian.linuxmint.com/latest/update-pack.html
  • If you experience issues or if you’re going through the update at the moment, don’t hesitate to connect to the IRC chatroom (irc.spotchat.org, #linuxmint-debian)

Introduction

Update Pack 5 was released as the “latest” update pack today. If you’re not using Linux Mint Debian, please ignore this post.

Using the Update Manager

… to update itself

The Update Manager always updates itself before other packages. If you see an update for “mintupdate-debian“, accept it and wait for the Update Manager to restart itself.

… to check your APT sources

  1. Click on the “Update Pack Info” button
  2. Make sure “Your system configuration” shows up as green and doesn’t show any warnings or errors
  3. If you see a warning or an error, follow the instructions given and repeat the process until they’re gone.

… to know more about Update Pack 5

In the “Update Pack Info” window, make sure to read all the information related to Update Pack 5. Some of it might be irrelevant to you, but it will only take you a minute and it might you save you hours.

… to upgrade to Update Pack 5

When you’re ready and you know all that there is to know, press the “Install Updates” button.

During the update you’ll be asked a few things. One is quite important.. the new kernel will ask you where to install Grub. Answer with the location of your current Grub menu (which on most systems is “/dev/sda“).

FAQ

Will LMDE get new ISO images with Update Pack 5?

Yes, in the coming weeks/months, the following editions will be released either with Update Pack 5 or Update Pack 6 (depending on whether UP6 is a quick/short follow-up update-pack or not):

  • Cinnamon
  • MATE
  • Xfce

by ·42 Comments

Sponsorships:

Linux Mint is proudly sponsored by:

 

Platinum Sponsors:

Blue Systems - Netrunner

Gold Sponsors:

Opera

Dedicated Hosting Server *

Silver Sponsors:

R1Soft

Milton Security Group

Bronze Sponsors:

ThinkPenguin.com

Vault Networks *

AYKsolutions Server & Cloud Hosting

7L Networks Toronto Colocation *

  

Community Sponsors:

To become a sponsor or see the full list of Linux Mint sponsors, please visit: http://www.linuxmint.com/sponsors.php

Donations:

$4698 were raised thanks to the generous contributions of 222 donors: http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php

  • $250, Anjum S.
  • $200, Michael B.
  • $128
  • $119.74, Laurens van Hoorn
  • $119.74, Hubert Leber
  • $100, aka “manankanchu”
  • $100, Adrian J.
  • $100, Forrest D.
  • $100, Andrew F.
  • $100, Lloyd P.
  • $100, Leonard R.
  • $100, Alexander S.
  • $59.87, Jose L. G. G.
  • $59.87, Gilles D.
  • $59.87, Marco H.
  • $59.87, Jean-Michel L.
  • $59.87, Calltrix L.
  • $50 (7th donation), Ralph Siegler aka “ziggy“
  • $50 (6th donation), Peter S. aka “Pierre”
  • $50 (6th donation), Richard H.
  • $50 (5th donation), Alex V. aka “Karashata“
  • $50 (4th donation), Carlos H. G.
  • $50 (4th donation), Jan C.
  • $50 (3rd donation), Sri Gadis Ranti Junus aka “ranti“
  • $50 (2nd donation), Gary M.
  • $50, Edwin B.
  • $50, Erdal TASKESEN
  • $50, Clovis F.
  • $50, Anthony C.
  • $50, Edward F.
  • $50, Rodney I.
  • $50, Mark B.
  • $50, Roman B.
  • $47.9, Marco S.
  • $40 (35th donation), Slavoljub aka “slw”
  • $40, Rohan W.
  • $40, Mark E.
  • $35.92 (30th donation), Olli K.
  • $35.92, Harmiton aurinkolampo
  • $35, Jonathan C.
  • $29.94 (2nd donation), Lars H.
  • $29.94, Frank B.
  • $29.94, Dick H.
  • $29.94, Johannes W.
  • $29.94, Peter de Vries
  • $29.94, Kenneth A.
  • $25 (14th donation), John M.
  • $25 (11th donation), Ronald W.
  • $25 (2nd donation), John C.
  • $25 (2nd donation), Gary P.
  • $25, Meta N.
  • $25, Marcelo G. V.
  • $25, Erick C.
  • $25, Jerry B.
  • $25, Ratish R.
  • $25, John U.
  • $25, Marjorie W.
  • $25, Robert S.
  • $23.95 (2nd donation), Josue M.
  • $23.95, Victor C. aka “Acquaforte Media“
  • $23.95, Simon Tutek
  • $23.95, Gerhard K.
  • $23.95, Pekka P.
  • $21.55 (4th donation), Dominik K. aka “doke“
  • $20 (18th donation), Tsuguo S.
  • $20, Brenda S.
  • $20, Richard M.
  • $20, Brian T.
  • $20, Helio C.
  • $20, Cameron
  • $20, Vincent B.
  • $20, Christopher A.
  • $20, Meide A.
  • $20, John B.
  • $20, Widar H.
  • $20, Peter D.
  • $20, Chris M.
  • $20, Kurt K.
  • $20, Ronnie G.
  • $17.96, Jean P. O.
  • $16.76 (4th donation), D. Manoj Prabhu aka “Munna”
  • $15 (3rd donation), Marcelo Parrela aka “Marcelo Parrela“
  • $15 (2nd donation), Kevin S.
  • $15, Suneel K.
  • $15, George H.
  • $15, Dayo A.
  • $12, C R. S.
  • $11.97 (16th donation), Marco R.
  • $11.97 (10th donation), Orlando M. M.
  • $11.97 (2nd donation), Werner G.
  • $11.97 (2nd donation), Lucien G.
  • $11.97 (2nd donation), Match Learner – Math for kids
  • $11.97, Petri K.
  • $11.97, Web agency Nantes
  • $11.97, Mathieu P. aka “Pyros65”
  • $11.97, Joachim J.
  • $11.97, Mikko L.
  • $11.97, Bernard A.
  • $11.97, Roberto S.
  • $10 (18th donation), John A.
  • $10 (18th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
  • $10 (6th donation), CW P.
  • $10 (4th donation), Belak Adam
  • $10 (3rd donation), Thomas E.
  • $10 (2nd donation), Benceno el Sepulturero
  • $10 (2nd donation), Andrew B.
  • $10 (2nd donation), Antonio Alcides Salinas
  • $10 (2nd donation), Hans A. N.
  • $10 (2nd donation), Jens G.
  • $10 (2nd donation), Tony W.
  • $10, Jonathan D.
  • $10, Alistair G.
  • $10, Gary F.
  • $10, Larry M.
  • $10, Nadeem K.
  • $10, CouponCodeSwap.com
  • $10, Tristan L.
  • $10, Michael M.
  • $10, Johan S.
  • $10, Antonio Alcides Salinas
  • $10, Jason R.
  • $10, Robert S.
  • $10, Bob H. J.
  • $10, Shaun K.
  • $10, Paul C. aka “pacman67”
  • $10, Michael P.
  • $10, Prabhu S.
  • $10, Christopher D.
  • $10, Tyrone Slothrop
  • $8.12, Stephen H.
  • $7.18, Michael V.
  • $7.18, billynick
  • $7, zhangxinlong
  • $6.47, Librestickers
  • $6.15 (2nd donation), Shane K aka “BeyondCr”
  • $5.99 (6th donation), Marco aka “Dictionary-Maker“
  • $5.99 (5th donation), Marco aka “Dictionary-Maker“
  • $5.99 (3rd donation), Ke C.
  • $5.99 (2nd donation), Benjamin B.
  • $5.99, Zalando kortingscode 20
  • $5.99, hotel capvern
  • $5.99, Matteo O. aka “Theo81“
  • $5.99, Georgiy K.
  • $5.99, Clas R.
  • $5.99, Torsten O.
  • $5.99, Mario L.
  • $5.99, Mario G.
  • $5.99, P M. R.
  • $5.99, Cataldo S.
  • $5.1, Orange Poker
  • $5 (13th donation), Antonina K. aka “Tonya”
  • $5 (3rd donation), Happy Mint aka “😎“
  • $5 (3rd donation), Jerry Jones
  • $5 (2nd donation), Cliff’s C. C.
  • $5 (2nd donation), James Selvakumar
  • $5, Bejnamin O.
  • $5, William F.
  • $5, Agence W. S.
  • $5, Christelle aka “voyance par telephone“
  • $5, Christelle aka “voyance par telephone“
  • $5, Glauber M. Gallego aka “ggallego”
  • $5, Daniel N.
  • $5, Avinash G.
  • $5, Gustavo H.
  • $5, Kenny B.
  • $5, Joaquim M.
  • $5, Azconceptphoto.com
  • $5, Damion H.
  • $5, Pavel V. aka “Pajous”
  • $5, Eliraweb
  • $5, Herman B.
  • $5, Mal de dos
  • $4.87, Alan L.
  • $4.79 (5th donation), SilFox
  • $4 (2nd donation), Fastest Hosting
  • $3.59, Diego Langos
  • $3.47, Alberto S. R. aka “albertosalvdor“
  • $3.1, Laurent D. aka “Rock”
  • $3 (3rd donation), Web Design Company
  • $3 (2nd donation), Michael P.
  • $3, Madrass
  • $3, Referencement strasbourg
  • $3, zhangxinlong
  • $2.39, Mauro Di Dio aka “beneventoturismo.it“
  • $2.39, Sven-erik M.
  • $2.39, Thomas G.
  • $2.39, Maik B. aka “Android Developer“
  • $31.36 from 35 smaller donations

Rankings:

  • Distrowatch (popularity ranking): 3608 (1st)
  • Alexa (website ranking): 7,621st

Events:

Developer of the month:

Each month we feature one developer and explain his contributions to the community. Development is a lot of fun and it doesn’t take much to get started. If you’re tempted to join the team, don’t hesitate to follow our development on http://github.com/linuxmint and come and chat with the developers at #linuxmint-dev (irc.spotchat.org).

This month’s “developer of the month” is: esteban1uy, 13 years old!

Don’t be fooled by his age, he’s new in the development team but he did 3 really cool things this Summer. Have a look:

  • First, he helped people on the forums troubleshoot a bug in Cinnamon 1.4 which made the desktop crash when using LibreOffice. The developers were running out of ideas, people didn’t know what to do so esteban1uy led the investigation, spent a lot of time talking to people, learnt about debugging C code and finally found the cause of the problem. A week later he had a patch ready, muffin was upgraded and people’s desktops didn’t crash anymore… that was on the forums and it made people very happy 🙂
  • Then, he made Cinnamon2D happen. The development team had given up on using llvmpipe. He led the R&D on software-rendering, clutter configuration, and came up with the idea of removing shadows… It’s a bit technical to describe in simple terms, but although he didn’t implement Cinnamon2D, it wouldn’t be in Cinnamon 1.6 if it wasn’t for him (note that Cinnamon2D is there for troubleshooting, there’s still a lot of work to be done before it enables anyone to have a decent Cinnamon desktop using software-rendering).
  • Right now, he’s working with dalcde on “bumpmaps”. The gaming industry calls this “tessellation”. The idea is to give artists the ability to define transparent textures which look a bit like sculpted glass. For instance, a honeycomb bumpmap would make your menu look like that:

Bumpmaps will come in Cinnamon 1.8. If you see esteban1uy, don’t buy him a beer, that would be inappropriate, but don’t hesitate to give him a pat on the back.

News and summary:

  • In its October 2012 issue, Linux Format ranked Linux Mint as the “Best Distro 2012”.
  • Very few announcements were made during the summer but a lot of work was done in preparation for Linux Mint 14. MDM received important bug fixes, compatibility with all GDM themes and support for user lists and user “faces”. Nemo was announced as the new Cinnamon file browser and received a lot of usability improvements. Cinnamon itself is getting ready for a massive 1.6 release and a huge number of new features. MATE continues to impress with an even more polished 1.4 release. All of these technologies are significantly ahead of the versions used by Linux Mint 13 and the gap between now and the end of November, when Linux Mint 14 is out, means they can mature and receive bug fixes to ensure a stable and impressive release.
  • There are now less LMDE mirrors than before but they sync the entire 600GB LMDE archive, including “latest” and “incoming”. This, along with a new feature in LMDE which tests the speed of each mirror and interactively asks the user which one to use when the list of mirrors is changed, should guarantee a better upgrade and better speeds than previously observed with UP4. Update Pack 5 itself is almost ready and received positive feedback from “incoming” testers.
  • This release cycle was a breath of fresh air for the development team. The ability to rely on Cinnamon, MATE, Xfce and KDE and the limited scope for regressions coming from upstream allowed us to spend more time and focus in development. With UP5, Cinnamon, MATE, MDM and Nemo almost ready, we’re switching focus towards mintInstall and Jockey (which is being replaced upstream and which features we’d also like to see working in LMDE).
  • Finally, we received a lot of donations despite the summer holidays. Many thanks to all our sponsors, partners and donors!

by ·10 Comments

Donations & Sponsorships:

Many thanks to the following donors and sponsors for financially supporting Linux Mint:

Donors:

  • $1000 (6th donation), Ian M. aka “bcc4foss“
  • $150, Bernard S.
  • $100 (2nd donation), Nicholas H.
  • $100, Yves L. aka “amadeus128”
  • $71.85, Marie M.
  • $59.87, Devaraj D. C.
  • $59.87, Josue M.
  • $50 (28th donation), Matthew M.
  • $50 (6th donation), Ralph Siegler aka “ziggy“
  • $50 (2nd donation), Roy B.
  • $50 (2nd donation), Philippe Desjardins-Proulx
  • $50, Edward M.
  • $50, Manz Web Designs, LLC
  • $40 (11th donation), Robert D B.
  • $40, Christian L.
  • $35.78 (29th donation), Olli K.
  • $35 (34th donation), Slavoljub aka “slw”
  • $35, aka “Lin_ux friend”
  • $35, Gastao V. C.
  • $30, Guillaume T.
  • $30, Anton M.
  • $29.94, Kees-Jan
  • $29.82, Michael Dewes
  • $29.82, Thomas K.
  • $25 (10th donation), Ronald W.
  • $25 (3rd donation), Vallin E.
  • $25 (3rd donation), Internet Beacon SEO Services aka “Internet Beacon“
  • $25 (2nd donation), Robert R. aka “Sandgroper”
  • $25 (2nd donation), Kevin B.
  • $25, Michael O.
  • $25, Andy C.
  • $25, Rich Lee aka “laughingblade”
  • $25, Brad S.
  • $25, Geoffrey T.
  • $25, Robert W.
  • $23.95 (9th donation), Orlando M. M.
  • $23.95, Paulo N. aka “uLusu”
  • $23.95, Vadim M.
  • $23.95, Tobias T.
  • $23.95, Thomas K.
  • $23.85 (3rd donation), Dittmar S.
  • $23.85 (2nd donation), Marcus L.
  • $22, Chris N.
  • $20 (3rd donation), Daniel A.
  • $20, wb
  • $20, Daniel M.
  • $20, Ostap M.
  • $20, Charles B.
  • $20, Maria S. F.
  • $20, Shane N.
  • $20, Jonas H.
  • $20, Gregg L.
  • $17.96 (2nd donation), Lars K.
  • $17.96, aka “Roullio_n3”
  • $17.9, Livio G.
  • $15 (4th donation), James Day
  • $15 (2nd donation), Angus B.
  • $15 (2nd donation), Marcelo Parrela aka “Marcelo Parrela”
  • $15, Andson de Lima Gomes aka “Mitraton“
  • $14.37, Keith W.
  • $11.97 (3rd donation), Kris G.
  • $11.97, Florian N.
  • $11.97, James P.
  • $11.97, Alrik S.
  • $11.97, Nicola G.
  • $11.97, Serverflux.com
  • $11.97, Werner G.
  • $11.97, Sebastiano C.
  • $11.97, José J. A. A.
  • $11.93 (4th donation), Bo J.
  • $11.93, Robert C.
  • $10 (17th donation), Tsuguo S.
  • $10 (17th donation), Tony C. aka “S. LaRocca”
  • $10 (17th donation), John A.
  • $10 (3rd donation), Belak Adam
  • $10 (2nd donation), Fyodor Kupolov
  • $10 (2nd donation), John M.
  • $10, Liborio Y.
  • $10, Delmir F.
  • $10, Mislav E. L.
  • $10, Mathias B. aka “Sorglos”
  • $10, Vladimir P.
  • $10, Jim E.
  • $10, Wwg.loewenstark I. I. G.
  • $10, Larimar Media aka “Larimar Media“
  • $10, Chrull
  • $10, Tansel C.
  • $10, Mike C.
  • $10, Richard A.
  • $10, 3gv V. L.
  • $10, Romina R.
  • $10, John H.
  • $10, Dan L.
  • $10, Stephen W.
  • $10, Jon V.
  • $10, Richard J.
  • $8.38, Julius P.
  • $6 (2nd donation), Thomas M.
  • $6, M. D. aka “Karbono”
  • $5.99, Marcus K.
  • $5.99, Christoph M.
  • $5.99, Rod McCall
  • $5.96 (11th donation), Ronald Trip
  • $5.96 (4th donation), Marco aka “Dictionary-Maker“
  • $5 (12th donation), Antonina K. aka “Tonya”
  • $5 (10th donation), Michael Gstettenbauer
  • $5 (6th donation), CouponCodeSwap.com
  • $5 (3rd donation), Philip J.
  • $5 (2nd donation), Happy Mint aka “😎“
  • $5 (2nd donation), Jerry Jones
  • $5, Sami A.
  • $5, Mulia R.
  • $5, Brian P.
  • $5, Richard G. aka “ForeverLube“
  • $5, Konstantin S.
  • $5, Kirill Shatalaev aka “ksh“
  • $4.79, Markus F.
  • $4.77 (4th donation), SilFox
  • $4, Host-Resource.com
  • $4, Jose A. D.
  • $3.58 (9th donation), Sylwia Bialczak
  • $3.5 (2nd donation), Jacopo C.
  • $3 (2nd donation), Keith K.
  • $3 (2nd donation), Web Design Company
  • $3, Hamidreza S.
  • $3, Артем Т.
  • $3, Patricia L. Q.
  • $2.39, Alessio P.
  • $2 (14th donation), coaching for health
  • $2 (9th donation), Y.K. aka “Market Analysis“
  • $2 (5th donation), Tiaan Steynberg aka “Jesica“
  • $2 (4th donation), Vaclav Pavek
  • $1.35, George F. I.
  • $1.2, Patrick
  • $1 (9th donation), Namestaj
  • $1 (8th donation), Pharmacie en ligne
  • $1 (7th donation), http://uszipareacode.com
  • $1 (6th donation), http://uszipareacode.com
  • $1, Andrew R. L.
  • $1, Carolyn J. W.
  • $0.5 (9th donation), Javier Bassi

Sponsors:

Money raised in July:

* Donations: $3535 (141 donors)
* Sponsors: $8459 (149 sponsors)

http://www.linuxmint.com/donors.php
http://www.linuxmint.com/sponsors.php

Rankings:

  • Distrowatch (popularity ranking): 3794 (1st)
  • Alexa (website ranking): 7,123rd

Events:

News and summary:

  • The Summer months are traditionally quiet but things are going very well for Linux Mint. Version 13 was a huge success and all planned editions (Cinnamon, MATE, KDE and Xfce) were successfully released. The quality of these 4 desktops allowed us to provide users with solid experiences and we can now focus on developing solutions and improving the desktop again.
  • In LMDE, Update Pack 5 reached “incoming” and should hit “latest” by the end of August. The mirror strategy was changed to face the upcoming demand in bandwidth and new servers will be purchased or rented by our project to make sure the release goes as smooth as possible.
  • MATE 1.4 was released and Cinnamon is getting close to a 1.6 release.
  • Development started on Linux Mint 14. The development team is looking into bringing improved “face” support to MDM, as well as a new “driver manager” (in replacement to Jockey which will be discontinued upstream) and improvements in the Software Manager.
  • Within the Cinnamon project, the team’s been working hard on bringing all the features people asked for in 1.4, including configurable panel heights, Cinnamon 2D, Alt-tab preview and outline modes, workspace names and OSD, improved keyboard navigation, Expo grid view, improved configuration tool and menu editor, improved logging, new Scale, Expo, Notifications and Brightness applets and a huge number of bug fixes. Versions from the current unstable 1.5 branch should hit the romeo part of the Linux Mint 13 and LMDE repositories shortly.
  • Announcing the mintBox was a fantastic experience. We were thrilled with the quality of the product and the sales were good. In association with CompuLab, we’ll soon extend the range to include new models, a low-cost unit featuring an SSD drive and a high-end unit based on the Intel i7 processor.
  • Finally, I’d like to thank all the donors and sponsors who help fund Linux Mint. Your contributions and financial help are empowering us and thanks to you we can achieve our goals without worrying about commercial aspects. Many thanks to all of you.