Lisa - Linux Mint 12

The new babe is coming to town real soon. Time for a separate thread.

For the uninitiated, Linux Mint is a Linux distribution (distro) based on the extremely popular distro - Ubuntu. It is very newbie-friendly and focuses on providing an out-of-the-box working environment with not much need for additional software or codecs.

The latest version adds the new Gnome 3 desktop with Mint Gnome Shell Extensions (MGSE). This allows users to feel familiar with the new, radical Gnome 3 desktop environment. One can fully disable MGSE to get a pure Gnome 3 experience, while those who prefer traditional desktops can enable all options and it will feel familiar.

Linux Mint 12 will release with a Gnome 3 edition, a MATE (a fork of Gnome 2.32) edition and the usual KDE, XFCE flavours. The Linux Mint Debian edition will also be updated (goes without saying).

Check out What's new in Lisa.

One thing I am really happy about is that the default search engine is now DuckDuckGo, which does not track any user information and is a fairly good Google alternative.

Many bugs were fixed in preparation for the final release:

apturl is now fully functional

adding PPA repositories was fixed

MATE received a critical update to mate-session-manager (this bug prevented MATE to be started from the login screen for i386 users)

mintMenu was ported to MATE

packages now open with gdebi

mgse-menu received keyboard navigation and multiple bug fixes

mgse-windowlist was given a brand new look and now looks extremely similar to the Gnome 2 window list

mgse-bottompanel now makes it possible to switch between workspaces using the keyboard shortcuts Ctrl+Alt+Arrow keys

Mint-Z now features silver-looking bottom panels, menu and window list which look similar to Mint 11, as well as a new theme called Mint-Z-Dark which features black components and looks like an improvement of the MGSE desktop from the RC release.

The ability to open directories as root was added to Gnome 3

A couple of screens:

*www.linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/lisa/alttab.png
Alt+tab

*www.linuxmint.com/pictures/screenshots/lisa/mintmenu.png
MGSE

Hats off to the Mint team for making the extra effort to keep the OS user-friendly.

You can download Lisa here: *linuxmint.com/download.php

Ubuntu done right.

Unity.is.crap

Mint always succeeds to create a user-friendly desktop and this time it will too. It is using GNOME 3 with MATE which makes it look and behave like GNOME 2.
here's a screeny
*www.linuxmint.com/tmp/blog/1851/linuxmint12-preview.png

ico said:
Ubuntu done right.

Unity.is.crap

really??? a bit of ping pong we got here.
but i agree, unity sucks, gnome is the wave of the future.

Don't like the inclusion of the minimize and maximize buttons.

This version is going to be a make or break. Donations are at an all time high, indicating increasing user base. If 12 is good, Mint will have scored a major point with its target audience.

Thanks Krow for the info. Mint always shows how it needs to be done without alienating the userbase.

Thanx for the info...Mint 12 looks gr8..

Q:which Linux OS is good in UI?

A

thats really a good work by Linux Mint Team.

Zangetsu said:
Thanx for the info...Mint 12 looks gr8..

Q:which Linux OS is good in UI?

any distro with KDE

nims11 said:
any distro with KDE

NOOOOOO!!! gnome 3 or openbox. or even awesome

G

I have a doubt about the rolling release of mint....suppose if i have linux mint 12 installed and if mint 13 is released over few months...then can i upgrade to it without lossing apps, data,etc?

gopi_vbboy said:
I have a doubt about the rolling release of mint....suppose if i have linux mint 12 installed and if mint 13 is released over few months...then can i upgrade to it without lossing apps, data,etc?

You should be able to. I am not experienced in this but you should ask Arch users how it works. The only problem is that rolling distros may break with certain updates. It is not a regular occurrence but there is a chance.

Krow said:
You should be able to. I am not experienced in this but you should ask Arch users how it works. The only problem is that rolling distros may break with certain updates. It is not a regular occurrence but there is a chance.

That's spot on. Mind you, the breakage is due to the latest and not so much tested packages pushed onto the repos rather than direct consequence of the rolling release model in itself.

@gopi, you're taking of LMDE are you? It doesn't have versions. If you're talking of versions, then it's the Linux Mint. Yeah you can upgrade without breakage but there's always the cases of failed upgrades so be prepared to fix problems IF they arise.

G

Liverpool_fan said:
That's spot on. Mind you, the breakage is due to the latest and not so much tested packages pushed onto the repos rather than direct consequence of the rolling release model in itself.

@gopi, you're taking of LMDE are you? It doesn't have versions. If you're talking of versions, then it's the Linux Mint. Yeah you can upgrade without breakage but there's always the cases of failed upgrades so be prepared to fix problems IF they arise.

So linux mint 11 is not a rolling edition?

My question was not about package breaking..

whether will i lose data if i upgrade from 10 to 11 or 11 to 12...so one..
ie should i do fresh install...like ubuntu

How to upgrade to a newer release - Linux Mint Community

You won't loose any data if you upgrade. Atleast, not in ubuntu.

gopi_vbboy said:
So linux mint 11 is not a rolling edition?

My question was not about package breaking..

whether will i lose data if i upgrade from 10 to 11 or 11 to 12...so one..
ie should i do fresh install...like ubuntu

How to upgrade to a newer release - Linux Mint Community

Linux Mint Debian Edition or LMDE is a rolling release. Whereas Linux Mint is not.

Regarding data loss...I hope you are talking about Documents, Pics etc. There is a reason why most prefer having a separate /home partition if your root partition (the OS) gets screwed up.

Anyone else find the UI a little messy?

Did you use it yet?

Krow said:
Did you use it yet?

yes. I mean it in terms of looks not usability.

Should have used pure Gnome 3 with few enhancements.

R

Linux Mint has always been very user friendly...

It is aimed at beginners, agreed..
However, what do you think of these..

1. Sabayon: Distro based on performance oriented Gentoo, however I find it more easier to use than Mint..

SABAYON: Sabayon | Home

2. Zorin OS: For complete newcomers to Linux who do not want to leave the Windows userspace, I think Zorin is even more user friendly than Mint.

ZORIN OS: Zorin OS - Home

:))

V

RahulB said:
Linux Mint has always been very user friendly...

It is aimed at beginners, agreed..
However, what do you think of these..

1.

2. Zorin OS: For complete newcomers to Linux who do not want to leave the Windows userspace, I think Zorin is even more user friendly than Mint.

ZORIN OS: Zorin OS - Home

I seconded this...Use Zorin Lite which based on Lubuntu but with ability to customization of UI..

vaithy

Not a fan of any kind of emulating Windows or Mac OS X look and feel. If you want to come over here, learn to work by our style which is every bit as good, if not better rather than stagnating your mind with proprietary desktops.
Taking enhancements is fine, but just exactly Windows look and feel is so meh.
If you want a Windows look and feel, and want to use your OS exactly like Windows, stick with Windows.

^^ im with lfc here

H

The final stable version of Linux Mint 12 code named Lisa has been released today :clap: :hap2:

It comes with Gnome 3 but has been heavily skinned so that Gnome 2 lovers don't feel overwhelmed. This version also includes Gnome 2.

Will have to stay up till 2am to download it. This version is sure to be awesome

hyeah:

Release News - Linux Mint 12 â€œLisaâ€ released | Linux Mint – India community

Download page - Download | Linux Mint – India community

(Added this news here as I did not want to create a separate thread about this)

Thanks for the update.

Downloading.

R

woot!

H

Krow said:
Thanks for the update. Downloading.

have you finished downloading?
I downloaded and made a LiveUSB stick to boot into it. Looks nice.
Only one problem that I could readily spot is - whenever I change the volume using the hardware keys in my laptop, the animation of the speaker that is shown, is blurry.
But if I change the brightness, the animation shown is clear.

Anybody else having this issue?

@krow - Update the first post with the release news and download links

I haven't finished downloading yet. Torrenting it. I'll update with links soon.

I

This looks nice.... But it has a long way to go.... Compared to the other flavors in the market....

I think the Ubuntu/Mint repo should offer the latest Catalyst 11.11 by now. I removed Fedora and I installed Mint. Only to realize that GNOME 3 won't work properly all because of an old driver in the repo. Stick to the open source AMD driver if you are using Mint or Ubuntu with GNOME 3.

Catalyst 11.11 in Fedora 16 works fine btw.

Moreover, i wasn't able to force the low power state in Mint while using the OSS driver. Didn't bother to fix it. Back to Arch now.

I wish to know if anyone with nVidia 4X or 5X series card has been able to boot into Linux MInt 12.

Couldn't get the USB to boot at startup. Strange as Ubuntu, Arch and GParted all were booting just fine. Tried using win32diskmanager, unetbootin and the DVD x64 ISO. Anyway, downloading the x64 no codecs ISO now and will check again.

Removed Ubuntu using Gparted and GRUB got deleted so no access to Windows as of now. :lol:

Noob mistake.

Krow said:
Couldn't get the USB to boot at startup. Strange as Ubuntu, Arch and GParted all were booting just fine. Tried using win32diskmanager, unetbootin and the DVD x64 ISO. Anyway, downloading the x64 no codecs ISO now and will check again.

Removed Ubuntu using Gparted and GRUB got deleted so no access to Windows as of now. Noob mistake.

Windows Disk -> Advance tools -> CMD -> bootrec /rebuildbcd, bootrec/fixboot, bootrec /fixmbr

On a netbook with no optical drive. Otherwise that is what I would have done.

Anyway unetbootin worked with the no codecs ISO. So Lisa is up and running now.

V

Hi, i am trying to download linux mint 12 distro or live cd from its website but seems there site is down, can anybody please provide me the alternate link from where i can download live cd for the same. i am in urgent need of it.

use a torrent

D

For folks not satisfied with Shell or unity, and are unsure about Mate. Clem ( mint developer) has just released Cinnamom- a new shell for gnome 3 which looks very much like gnome-2. You can install it using the cinnamom-session package.

Cinnamon is good, although a little too windows-like.

AMD video drivers are a nightmare. Without installing them, the system was running smooth. After I installed the December drivers, all transitions became glitchy and all tooltips were italicised. Will install January version and see. If there is no improvement, I am doing a fresh install and abandoning AMD drivers forever.

Krow said:
Cinnamon is good, although a little too windows-like.

AMD video drivers are a nightmare. Without installing them, the system was running smooth. After I installed the December drivers, all transitions became glitchy and all tooltips were italicised. Will install January version and see. If there is no improvement, I am doing a fresh install and abandoning AMD drivers forever.

Remove the Catalyst driver and fall back to the Radeon (OSS) driver?

BTW Are you using Linux Mint Lisa? In that case, it uses Gnome Shell and AMD fails big time with GS. Fallback to OSS driver really.

How do I do that. Found some commands on Ubuntu forums and applied those. But some glitches still remained.

Wait are you running Catalyst right now or not? Try running amdcccle, if that runs Catalyst is still running.

I suppose you followed this?
Ubuntu Oneiric Installation Guide - cchtml.com

Yeah something like those commands. Right now I'm on win because of catalyst crapping out on lin. And those drivers are installed. Will try removing those drivers again.

Don't know. Catalyst worked fine with me on Fedora.

Tooltips were italicised in GNOME 3. yea.

M

does Mint support WUbi? Earlier i have installed Ubuntu using Wubi in windows. What is the minimum disk space required if installed using wubi?

If it has to be installed in separate partition what is the recommended size.

There is mint4win instead of Wubi. You can only use it with the CD ISO, so no codecs will be installed unless you download them. Disk space is flexible. I recommend 10 GB minimum.

G

mint hangs during boot though my cdrw - live image...cdrw scratches causes this?...The cdrw drive just keeps blinking with blank bootscreen...or is it because i am using x64?

My laptop -Acer aspire 5738

bad Disc most probably. x64 shouldn't cause a problem.

M

I have downloaded DVD version ..If required i will install dual boot.. i already have win 7(earlier had dual boot with vista and ubuntu 10)...Is there any additional requirement for installing along with win 7?

No additional requirements.

Liverpool_fan said:
Wait are you running Catalyst right now or not? Try running amdcccle, if that runs Catalyst is still running.

I suppose you followed this?
Ubuntu Oneiric Installation Guide - cchtml.com

Just ran amdcccle. It opens catalyst control centre. I am following the uninstall link you provided now.

Ok seems like uninstall worked. Apart from one glitchy screen at bootup, it looks ok. Tooltips are not italicised anymore.

Only problem now is right click does not work on my touchpad. Apart from that the install looks good. Oh and I can't automount NTFS drives at bootup either.

Hey Guys Please Help me here. I'm totally newbie to linux and want to try out Mint. I had several different questions on linux distro any, Ive tried Ubuntu, Fedora and several different distros but haven't tried Mint yet. Hence I installed it in a virtual machine just to try it out.
Did Several Research about the dual boot partitioning and file formats Linux used,

Just one question : Krow you had posted the Start menu bar on the first page of this thread and Oh my!! It was great had zoomed and saw programming in it and further went on to Download X64 bit Genome Torrent version and when Started it was just like Ubuntu 10.10

How could I get that taskbar which you posted?

Next I'm a programmer in C/C++ and JAVA, Using Netbeans and Ms. Visual Studio 2008. Is there any ways in which i can get all these programming facillities added in the Mint? or any other linux distro?

I am very keen in learning it and have learnt a quite Terminal Commands. So just that how could linux help me in developing programms. I have brains but I want an IDE to work with please Guide me or give a supporting link which I could follow

the AMD64 Bit GENOME torrent which I downloaded and unfortunately had the same old looks

^^ First of all, welcome to Linux
While you are at the login screen, make sure you are selecting "Gnome" instead of MATE in the options. I think since you are installing under virtualbox, you might need to enable 3d accelaration in virtual machine settings as well.

Linux is a Developer's best friend
Netbeans is available under Linux. No Visual Studio though. There are good IDEs like Eclipse, netbeans and Codeblocks available for Linux.