Mint Debian

[Mindhunter2202]

Nobody who wants to try it? It's discussed for so long now and it would really be a good idea!!!
I'll try to help anyone who is willing to spend some time on this project.

[Mindhunter2202]

Ok, I played a bit with Debian Lenny and the first results are very good!
mintUpdate, mintMenu and mintInstall work in general. Maybe theese apps need little modifications... When there is more time, I will try to implement Multimedia functionality and wipe out all the (in my opinion) unnecessary programs.
The biggest problem atm is to make it a Live-Cd. If anybody knows how to do this with Debian, PLEASE TELL ME! Another problem: How can I remove all the Debian Branding?

If somebody likes to help, plz send me a pm (english or german).

[lakehousetech]

It's not a matter of lack of interest. If you take a look back into this thread you will see that Husse made some comments regarding the subject. The Linux Mint developers would need to give they're blessing for such a project to be started. Also, I am not entirely sure how many people would be needed to support a project like pure debian base Mint. I believe Alan @ Parsix handles his distribution individually for the most part. Anyway, I'm always curious to see what the future holds, and will continue to enjoy Linux Mint just as it is. BTW stable would be much easier for the current Linux Mint users to adjust to.

[Mindhunter2202]

It's not a matter of lack of interest. If you take a look back into this thread you will see that Husse made some comments regarding the subject

I read the complete thread and I know about theese hurdles. I started tryouts because of the possibility to find some enthusiastic users that would give the Mint Debian project a chance.

The Linux Mint developers would need to give they're blessing for such a project to be started.

That's simply false. If I play around with Open Source Software, I don't need the bless of anybody. If I call it Mindhuntix, everything is ok!

I don't have the know How to do such a project alone, and this was a cry for help...

[lakehousetech]

Cry for help huh? Clem and the team work really hard making this distribution. Why would you want to branch off and make your own when having knowledgeable people and a good support community is so valuable? Give it time. I'm sure that it's still a consideration since they did experiment by releasing an alpha months ago.

[Mindhunter2202]

Cry for help huh? Clem and the team work really hard making this distribution. Why would you want to branch off and make your own when having knowledgeable people and a good support community is so valuable? Give it time. I'm sure that it's still a consideration since they did experiment by releasing an alpha months ago.

I tried to engage a NEW Community Edition. This means that this edition is from the community, not from clem and the existing dev team. So there is no reason to wait for the existing team. They really have enough work to do with their editions. This is why I wanted to engage a new team that likes to try this challenge. Maybe I was a bit to enthusiastic. Don't worry, that will not happen any more...

I won't longer try to support this project, I'll cook my own soup and experiment with all the possible choices. If someone wants to have feedback of the technical advances, you can reach me by pm.

[BakUp]

This is why I wanted to engage a new team that likes to try this challenge.

I think there is plenty of interest in the Mint community for a Mint Debian edition, and if there was such a thing, the support would be here. The problem is the ones that want it to happen, may not have enough talent for such a project themselves and the ones that would have the ability to develop a Mint Debian, do not have the time, as they may be involved with other projects.

Someday, I hope we will be fortunate enough to find the right user/users that would take on this project.

cheers,
BakUp

[cmost]

Cry for help huh? Clem and the team work really hard making this distribution. Why would you want to branch off and make your own when having knowledgeable people and a good support community is so valuable? Give it time. I'm sure that it's still a consideration since they did experiment by releasing an alpha months ago.

I tried to engage a NEW Community Edition. This means that this edition is from the community, not from clem and the existing dev team. So there is no reason to wait for the existing team. They really have enough work to do with their editions. This is why I wanted to engage a new team that likes to try this challenge. Maybe I was a bit to enthusiastic. Don't worry, that will not happen any more...

I won't longer try to support this project, I'll cook my own soup and experiment with all the possible choices. If someone wants to have feedback of the technical advances, you can reach me by pm.

Now see, this is exactly the WRONG attitude to have: "either play my game my way or I'll take my ball and go play in my own yard....if you want to watch, you can peer over the fence..." Perhaps the reason Debian Mint hasn't skyrocketed to the forefront of everyone's priority list is because regular Linux Mint (aka Ubuntu based) is so damn good! Yes, it would be nice to have a variant of Mint based on Debian Linux and so would World peace. People will accept what's working for them and if time permits, assist with a new movement forward. Besides, working with pure Debian is not without its hurdles (as I've painfully discovered as I myself tried to integrate Mint tools, etc. into pure Debian.) In short, you should try to embrace the community and enlist its support and feedback. Not ask a question and then sulk in solitude when you don't hear the answer you want.

[Mindhunter2202]

cmost: I used the wrong term. It should be: "I won't longer try to push this project (Mint Debian)".
Maybe the next sentence can be false interpreted too:

I'll cook my own soup

means for me: I try alone and have a look what is possible.
I'm not a native english speaker, so some terms are quite hard for me. If I translate german phrases into english, they could get a different meaning than the original one.
Please don't missunderstand me. I love Mint and I will support Mint in future. I just wanted to say that I won't post any longer every two weeks in this thread to push and maybe to find another fan of Mint Debian. When I have real results, I'll share all my knowledge to the Minties.

[exploder]

I have been doing some searching for, how to build a Debian based Live CD. Here is the best information I have found so far.

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?t=25752

It looks like it can be done but looking through the information leaves a lot of unanswered questions in my mind.

[maybeway36]

You could make a live CD pretty easily, but it wouldn't be installable. For that, we would need some sort of repository to add to an existing Debian install (containing things like mint tools, artwork, and default GNOME settings. And of course a metapackage.)
On a related note, I've always wished regular Mint would put the artwork/settings in a package, like Ubuntu, instead of making direct modifications to the filesystem.

[exploder]

If you look closely at the original poster's signature you will notice where it says, "make installable". The thing is how to put in the massive amount of changes that would make Debian into Mint Debian?

[maybeway36]

I've accomplished these things on Debian lenny:
1. make GNOME look like Mint - see my post on page 5. I made a deb package you can install containing the artwork, but you have to set up the theme, panels, etc. manually. Shouldn't there be a way to make this system-wide?
2. Mint tools - for mintMenu, see my post mentioned earlier. All the others seem to work fine.
3. make a live CD - it's 379M, made with live-helper. I'll provide the config files I used to build it if anyone is interested. The CD is too big for me to really put anywhere online.

[exploder]

Sounds like you are making some real progress. I wish I could try running what you have so far.

[merlwiz79]

I made a deb package you can install containing the artwork, but you have to set up the theme, panels, etc. manually. Shouldn't there be a way to make this system-wide?

Yes copy the file /etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults/%gconf-tree.xml from Linux Mint to Debian.
Make sure to back up the original just in case it doesn't work.

3. make a live CD - it's 379M, made with live-helper. I'll provide the config files I used to build it if anyone is interested. The CD is too big for me to really put anywhere online.

Make an account here and upload it.(up to 1GB) http://www.filefront.com/
Does it have all the codecs?
Seems to small too.

[maybeway36]

It doesn't have codecs, OpenOffice.org, or really much of anything right now.
I tried to make it smaller, but I guess I'll just see how much I can fit in 700MB now since it'll be big anyway.
Debian can play MP3s by default, and I will probably put Flash on it too, but the other codecs probably won't be of much use running from a CD.
P.S. Thanks for the tip on gconf. I will try that out tomorrow.

[lakehousetech]

Let us know when you put it on filefront. I'm very interested in taking it for a test drive. Good work.

[merlwiz79]

It doesn't have codecs, OpenOffice.org, or really much of anything right now.
I tried to make it smaller, but I guess I'll just see how much I can fit in 700MB now since it'll be big anyway.
Debian can play MP3s by default, and I will probably put Flash on it too, but the other codecs probably won't be of much use running from a CD.
P.S. Thanks for the tip on gconf. I will try that out tomorrow.

Well I would put them on anyway as someone might get an installer working.
This would create less work down the road.

[red-e-made]

Well guys, I downloaded Parsix 1.5 Viola, burned a live CD and gave it a whirl on my HP dv6775. I really like it a lot - very slick, easy to work with. A few things I didn't care for were the dual panels (seriously, why two?), no network manager in either panel that I could see anyway, and some default bleep and bloop noises when you click on something or what have you. These are, however, pretty much cosmetic details that could be avoided. My wireless wasn't recognized, but that I expected - a review on DistroWatch that actually tested Parsix on the same laptop encountered the same problem, which was solved easily enough using ndiswrapper.

I couldn't see myself switching to Parsix personally, but if the distro was Mintified it could be a tremendous leap forward, no question.

[maybeway36]

I'm making some really good progress on the live-helper-based CD. MP3 and Flash will be included. DVD support (libdvdcss2) doesn't seem like much use running from CD, but if it fits (it probably will) I'll add that and w32codecs. Any other codecs I forgot?