Linux Mint 7 RC1 released!

[emorrp1]

ext4 is new for jaunty/gloria. It is faster, has larger maximum filesizes, more precise datestamping, and fsck will skip empty blocks, a blessing for my mostly-empty data partition. My new system now boots in under 25 seconds! (it used to be about twice that)

As far as I can tell most of the people who have complained about gloria's performance have had intel graphics cards, so are suffering from their lack of support.

[kansasnoob]

Very, very nice! Largely due to my visual impairment I made a few immediate changes:

(1) Reverted to the Linux Mint theme.

(2) Disabled fortunes in terminal. (Couldn't find the gui to do so in Gloria, so I simply commented out the line "/usr/bin/mint-fortune" in /etc/bash.bashrc).

(3) Reverted to the old style notifications which requires two steps in Package manager: Step 1, install notification-daemon (0.4.0-0ubuntu4) - Step 2, remove notify-osd. It's very important that you NOT do this in one step as doing so will remove gnome-power-manager, which would be a bad, bad thing!

Other than that it's glorious!

[keygiwawah]

I looked on linuxmint website and there was no download, is this just a beta version that your testing?

[gibbs1984]

This looks great, giving it a go in VirtualBox until I find a blank CD, well done to Clem and the gang.

Love the new darkened theme on the taskbar (or whatever that is called in Linux), the look is great overall.

Is it worth upgrading to this now or is it better to wait for the main release, if I install this and then carry on installing the updates will it eventually be a main release?

Is it easy to upgrade without losing all the packages and software that I've installed?

Sorry to jump the gun but this really does look great!

Steve

[MatchStickMen]

It is beautiful...

[cmost]

I both installed Ubuntu 9.04 and Mint 7 rc1 today. Both work swift. Both install CrossOver and OfficeXP fluently. Both seem to hesitate on the internet, due to an IPV6-setting? Both install VLC well and make it play without problems.

Well, considering Mint 7 is compatible with Ubuntu 9.04 and using its repositories (e.g., many of its packages) the results of your comparisons are not too surprising.

I consider Mint a superset of Ubuntu

[slider]

When installing, there is an option to make the root partition EXT4. I am not sure if this is new or if I just never noticed, but I have been reading up a bit on this and it seems to have some advantages over EXT3, like for one a defragmenting utility. Are there other performance advantages or disadvantages?

Defragmenting in Linux???? Ive never heard of such a thing! Did you mean that this is a utility to use before installing perhaps????

[kansasnoob]

by keygiwawah on Wed May 06, 2009 7:00 pm
I looked on linuxmint website and there was no download, is this just a beta version that your testing?

The RC1 means Release Candidate 1 (there may be no need for an RC2), so you have to look in the blog announcement to find download mirrors:

http://www.linuxmint.com/blog/?p=796

It's looking pretty solid to me!

[idledragon]

I haven't installed RC1, but I believe you can change the font size...Preferences -> Appearance-> Fonts

(I could be wrong)

[marcus0263]

Well I've run it for a couple of days on my laptop and I like it so much I installed it on my main system. This is truly an excellent release, Clem as impossible as it seems you and your team continue to out do yourselves. Gloria is simply outstanding!

Here's a screenie on my main system while I'm compiling the kernel

[kansasnoob]

by constantinos692 on Wed May 06, 2009 4:57 pm
I have just install the new release. it is fantastic. One thing that I want to suggest, that is not a bug, is to increase the font size of the items in the mint menu. In a small laptop like the one I use, the font size is very small and it is difficult to read. Is there any way to change it.

Yes! Right click the desktop and select "Change Desktop Background", or go to Control Center > Look & Feel > Appearance. Either way you'll end up with the same menu.

Then click on the Fonts tab and you can either change individual fonts within the five categories or you can click on Details and change the dpi (dots per inch).

Just pay attention to your changes so you can revert!

[mmesantos1]

Running the RC and so far it is running great. Thanks again for a great OS.

[SpudGun]

Installed it today and all went well, no problems at all. The first thing i tested was playing a copy protected dvd, (i've not been able to do this in ubuntu) and it worked, WOW! i was expecting that usual error box that totem gives you, the other movie playing apps also work but not in full screen, not bothered about that though. Glad to see that the menu is called Menu & not Gloria . I hate the new green icons, but that can soon be changed. Mint desktop is only half its former self, how do i turn off those silly fortunes now? .The open as root thing opens without asking for a password, thats not good. I've also installed mintdisk to mount my NTFS partitions, but that dont work anymore with this release, i'll have to use ntfs.config instead After all my moaning, nice work clem, looking forward to the final version

[emorrp1]

The main menu now has a configurable name, it's in the preferences.
You can turn off the fortunes by editing /etc/bash.bashrc and either deleting or commenting out the last line
Open as root uses the gksu method, which will remember your password for a limited period, to allow you to undertake many consecutive admin tasks. In this case you'd probably done something else that required your password about 5/10mins ago.

[SpudGun]

The main menu now has a configurable name, it's in the preferences.
You can turn off the fortunes by editing /etc/bash.bashrc and either deleting or commenting out the last line
Open as root uses the gksu method, which will remember your password for a limited period, to allow you to undertake many consecutive admin tasks. In this case you'd probably done something else that required your password about 5/10mins ago.

Thanks for that, i did know about the menu name, i just thought that in the old days it was pretty silly to have a girls name on the menu, i'll take note of the other things and test tomorrow. the fortunes thing is a bit of a step back, there used to be a UI for this.

[oliverjames]

Reading the forum I get the feeling that this is an excellent distribution. I look forward to trying an XFCE version (the best desktop) hope that is in the planning.

Stolen the march on Windows 7 in any event.

Oliverjames.

[solar1951]

Just my 2d worth on fortunes in terminal - its not in Ubuntu by default why in Mint ? Get rid !

[marcus0263]

Just my 2d worth on fortunes in terminal - its not in Ubuntu by default why in Mint ? Get rid !

Some people like them, I don't. So if you don't like them just comment out or delete "mint-fortune" on the last line of /etc/bashrc like I did.

[svgt]

I just installed this new Gloria. It looks fine and nearly all is running without problems. There is a tiny little hook for me. In an unknown way I have lost in all windows in the right upper corner the triple signs (- + x). Anyway - I love this new Mint Gloria.

Regards
Svgt

[clem]

Hi there,

The fortune setting was part of mintAssistant which is now discontinued. It will be moved towards mintDesktop, it just didn't make it into this release. The root password setting should eventually make it to Ubiquity. The menu name can be configured in the preferences of the menu and the codename appears when you put your mouse over it.

Clem.