Linux Mint 12 "Lisa" RC released!

[briarpatch]

Thanks. I see it now. But I can't say it works as smoothly as it does in stock Gnome 3, or as it does in this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRHAio98 ... e=youtu.be

[Shadowfax]

I agree with the previous poster 'meh' You've taken a good thing and ruined it.
Whats up with the upper bar...taking up real estate and bringing back the whole reason
I migrated from Ubuntu....I hope 'Katya' is a LTS

[kmb42vt]

I agree with the previous poster 'meh' You've taken a good thing and ruined it.
Whats up with the upper bar...taking up real estate and bringing back the whole reason
I migrated from Ubuntu....I hope 'Katya' is a LTS

The "upper bar" is part of Gnome3/Gnome shell and not added by Mint. The lower panel has been added by the Mint devs via a shell extension mainly to provide a Gnome 2 type panel that shows all open apps (more functionality to come). It also generates notifications from various apps which I think works fairly well. The lower bar can also be disabled.

There's a shell extension that allows you to autohide the upper Gnome 3 panel. It can easily be added via a PPA and enabled using Gnome Tweak (Advanced Settings in the menu). See this post:

http://www.webupd8.org/2011/11/autohide ... nally.html

Try not to blame Mint for having to deal with decisions made by others, namely the decision makers at Gnome. It's not Mint's fault that Gnome.org threw Gnome 2 and it's traditional style desktop out the window and replaced it with Gnome 3/Gnome-shell. This is what Mint has to work with now that Gnome 2 is no longer and they're doing their best to make the Gnome shell environment usable. Yes, certain other distros might state that Gnome 2.32 will be supported, etc, etc but it won't be supported by Gnome and there certainly won't be any further development on it by any other distro or at the very least, no other distro has laid claim that it will. Use it as is? Yes. Take up further development of it? No.

[sailor8]

Installation worked fine, but got soon problems with the display on my machine with an AMD APU (in my case A8 3850). The Desktop was nearly unreadable but fortuntatly system was still in function.

It seems to me, that the additional proprietary ATI grafic driver offered for Installation by mint 12 / Ubuntu is an old version.

For me this way worked to solve that grafic problem with my AMD APU. Zero guarantee that it helps in other ATI problem cases !!! Just a hint what helped me:
-----------------------

Open Synaptic and search with the keyword fglrx for any existing installed fglrx file. Delete with Synaptic any existing old fglrx files . (If there are not any fglrx file installed it is good -> continue with ...open firefox...)

restart the machine - in my case grafic looked now big and and in wrong resolution - but system worked.

Open firefox and google for amd grafic support or go directly to

support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/pages/index.asp

and download from there the latest version of ATI Catalyst after checking through the offered question boxes on the page. My values for example were:
Destop grafics
A-series APU
A8-38xx APU (i ignored in that case for security reasons the option: "Auto detect and install")
Linux x86-64

Go the the downloaded file in your file manager (in my case in home/download) right click and make it under rights (German Zugriffsrechte) executable by marking the little box for it.

I restarted my system after that but think it is not needed to restart.

Double click on the now executable downloaded file. In my case a box with a running script opened and after a while a new window popped up, which offered "Installation".

Click on the Installation option, say ok to the legal BS and let it install. Stay a bit patient and watch the total progress bar developing. After this is done restart the PC and all should work in right grafic resolution without doing anything more and with the feeling, that you got the best available grafic solution from the producing company AMD itself.

-------------------------------------------------------------

I am a layman. But I like to suggest professionals and developers: please check out: which Catalyst version is downloaded by the function additonal driver or proprietary driver available (forget how it was called) - that one what pops up after a while after restarting a fresh installation. My guess is, that there is an old version downloaded, which does not work with the relative new AMD APU. May be change to the latest ATI Catalyst version at that point can save many AMD users with new AMD APUs some trouble.

Sorry, for rusty English, my mothertongue is German

[remoulder]

Get a moderator to monitor the official thread

It is not the job of moderators to interpret what is and isn't a bug, nor for that matter to monitor a particular thread.

Joe Random User will often not be sure whether what he sees is a bug

This is exactly why it "should" be reported as such rather than Joe Random User asking for a solution here.

[rhY]

This guy:

t just isn't anywhere nearly ready for mainstream use. I also think a stand like this, by the current No.1 Distribution on Distrowatch would send a message to the developers of Unity and Gnome 3 that their efforts are not suitable for the vast majority of desktop users.

I'm positive that the reason Linux Mint has toppled Ubuntu from the top of the poll was its holding on to the Gnome 2 desktop UI (mind you Mint was always No1 for me!). To adopt Gnome 3 now would just throw us into the pool with everybody else. As inspired as MGSE and MATE are, they are just not ready yet.

Please take a stand now, before it is too late.

Nailed it. I mean, Ubuntu's stupid decision to migrate away from Gnome 2 is a big part of why Mint is currently so successful. Now you guys are gonna just throw it away by making the same stupid decision? Bad idea.

[blueXrider]

Meh.

Been using it for a couple of hours now, and I just don't like it as well as I liked Mint 10 and 11. I hate the upper task bar, and I hate that the other notifications aren't down on the bottom right where I like them. I also really hate the new Start Menu. The old Mint Menu was almost perfect. Now it's gone for this garbage? Uber Lame. I've tried adding shorcuts to the menu, to the task bar, to the desktop (which I hate to do). No dice. It's completely unacceptable that I can't create shorcuts as I'd like. I really don't care to hear the logic or reasoning behind it, nothing will be adequate to explain this hilariously sophomoric oversight. You can't right click anywhere. It's like I might as well have a unicorns one button mac mouse. Are you kidding me? I've converted probably 100 clients over to mint, and been ECSTATIC to do so. Some of the savvy ones have been asking me about Mint 12. Right now I'm going to have to be straight with them: It sucks. It's still better than Windows Seven or Ubuntu, but suddenly it's inferior to amazing OSes like EVERY PREVIOUS VERSION and also Windows XP.

Elegance and Usability just went out the door. I left the Ubuntu party to come here. Where's the party going next? I will be switching all of my clients to another OS immediately if you can't right click the task bars and customize them as you see fit.

TLDR: I can't even add a shortcut?!? confused?!?

Not to start a Rant here but I must agree. This release just doesn't have the Minty Freshness one would expect. Realizing this is a RC version I had also installed it and took it off my machine within hours. I would rather have Ubuntu 11.10 and the fallback than MATE.

[MyWorld]

After playing with Linux Mint 12 64 bit in VirtualBox on my LMDE Sony VAIO Notebook, trying both the default UI and MATE I conclude that the worst action Linux Mint could do is to release it as anything but as an RC. It just isn't anywhere nearly ready for mainstream use. I also think a stand like this, by the current No.1 Distribution on Distrowatch would send a message to the developers of Unity and Gnome 3 that their efforts are not suitable for the vast majority of desktop users.

I'm positive that the reason Linux Mint has toppled Ubuntu from the top of the poll was its holding on to the Gnome 2 desktop UI (mind you Mint was always No1 for me!). To adopt Gnome 3 now would just throw us into the pool with everybody else. As inspired as MGSE and MATE are, they are just not ready yet.

Please take a stand now, before it is too late.

I'm with you on this as well, I was floored when I saw that the Gnome 3 implementation did not live up to what I expected.
I just sat there for a moment deciding what to do now. Mate is a band-aid on a much bigger problem, Gnome 3 and it's lack of customizing.

I have a Netbook that I use Mint on (previously Ubuntu). I want a straight out of the box working solution that requires as little input from me as possible. I use the Netbook for work, presentations and whatnot and often do not have internet to fiddle with settings till I get something going. That is the reason I did not install Arch on it (like on my desktop).

Mint 11 was perfect, and at the same time, sexy. Gnome 3 and Unity is the death of me and the Netbook, the fact that I cannot customize the layout as I see fit on minimal desktop real estate is very troubling and annoying. I have no idea what I'm going to do now... where should one turn if the saviour joins the devil?

[Artichoke]

Oh dear! I've been testing the RC for a couple of hours now and I'm really not liking it. Where have all my right-clicks gone? How do I put icons on my desktop? The whole environment seems to have suddenly become complex and confusing. Mint 11/Gnome 2 is just so clean and elegant. I know that Clem's hands are becoming increasingly tied, but all this business just seems like change for change's sake. All the things that I love about Mint, the simplicity and cleanliness that made me ditch Ubuntu, appear to be in danger of going down the toilet.

I'm so sorry, Clem! I know you're doing your very best to please everybody.

[z06gal]

Oh dear! I've been testing the RC for a couple of hours now and I'm really not liking it. Where have all my right-clicks gone? How do I put icons on my desktop? The whole environment seems to have suddenly become complex and confusing. Mint 11/Gnome 2 is just so clean and elegant. I know that Clem's hands are becoming increasingly tied, but all this business just seems like change for change's sake. All the things that I love about Mint, the simplicity and cleanliness that made me ditch Ubuntu, appear to be in danger of going down the toilet.

I'm so sorry, Clem! I know you're doing your very best to please everybody.

Not sure if you saw his blog but he explains in it how you can still do all that through Mate and or Msge. If you look at the Mint 12 RC thread, there are a number of folks who have posted on all that

[Artichoke]

I'm on my way there now! Thanks for the tip-off.

[russthered]

Oh Dear...

As Someone who has just (tonight) installed Mint 11 in favour of Unbuntu and its Gnome 3/Unity mess I'm worried! It's not a hasty decision to do this, I've been with Ubuntu since ver 7.04, I loved the platform/OS, but Unity was a step too far.

From what i've read on the Mint site, I will be able to upgrade to Mint 12 and still run a Gnome 2 desktop look-a-like. Is this the case? (Hope So)

If not, I think I'll just stay put. What is this thing right now about apps and Icons and searches? Do need it, don't want it.

[Simba23]

I think Mint 12 RC is awesome!!! but first you must get used to it. I turn all my shell extensions off its great on what changes MInt 12 has over the other versions of Mint and other makers of Linux systems.

The two problems I have had so far is first was when I was installing Mint 12 the installer crashed so I installed again without encrypting the home folder and everything was fine. Second problem was when the whole desktop locked up except for the mouse pointer, I had to restart the system to undo this issue as nothing else help. I see someone else had this issue too. When mine locked up I was downloading software, surfing the internet and changing some settings. Besides these two problems I'm having fun with Mint 12 RC!!

[Artichoke]

If you look at the Mint 12 RC thread, there are a number of folks who have posted on all that

Pardon me for being a dummie, but I can't find the 12 RC thread you're referring to, assuming that you don't mean this one...

And I can't figure out how to run MATE when booting from the RC DVD. Any hints, or links?

[JHutson456]

I'm new to linux and REALLY new to Linux Mint. I've been running 11 for about two weeks, maybe three. I'm on a live CD of 12 now. Just wanted to say, it's very nice. Thank you for the hard work. It is apreciated. Will I be able to upgrade without doing a full wipe of my drive or will I need to wipe everything? I don't plan on doing it until the official release, but I'm hoping for an easy transition. Thanks One other quick question. As a developer of Android ROMs I am curioius. What version/versions of Java will be included? Thanks

[z06gal]

If you look at the Mint 12 RC thread, there are a number of folks who have posted on all that

Pardon me for being a dummie, but I can't find the 12 RC thread you're referring to, assuming that you don't mean this one...

And I can't figure out how to run MATE when booting from the RC DVD. Any hints, or links?

There are several posts on this thread about that:


viewtopic.php?f=60&t=85146

[bimsebasse]

Super short video of MATE in action for those who haven't installed the LM12RC but are curious about how MATE looks and works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNEB-fXBhoc

I'm gonna stay with Gnome Shell but MATE is definitely faster, more responsive and without the odd little glitch here and there, a good experience all round.

[bimsebasse]

Mint 11 was perfect, and at the same time, sexy. Gnome 3 and Unity is the death of me and the Netbook, the fact that I cannot customize the layout as I see fit on minimal desktop real estate is very troubling and annoying. I have no idea what I'm going to do now... where should one turn if the saviour joins the devil?

What do you mean you cannot customize the layout? I'm not asking provocatively, just curious. Gnome Shell is relatively customizable, you just have to learn the new ways of customizing since it's a new environment.

And this has probably been said a thousand times in here already, but Gnome 2 is dead, gone, finished, discontinued. Mint moved to Gnome 3 because staying with Gnome 2 is not an option, or at best a very temporary option. And it was out of Mint's hands, they don't develop Gnome.

[LISABLUEANGEL]

i love the new linux mint 12 but beware of viruses.... i got whammed with a virus and it actually messed up my copy of linuxmint 12 lisa because all my words on the operating system were blurry.... be advised to have virus protection when running lisa!

[KBD47]

Interesting reading all the comments here and at the release page. First I want to thank Clem and all the developers involved. You have done wonders with Gnome 3.
I think the complaints are largely coming from those used to Mint 11 or expecting the Mint 12 RC to provide them with an exact Ubuntu pre-Unity experience. Gnome 3 just isn't Gnome 2. But as someone who has used Gnome 3 in Fedora 15 and Gnome 3 in Ubuntu 11.10 I can tell you Mint 12 is an overwhelming improvement of Gnome 3.
I did not like having 2 panels in this Mint 12 RC so I turned off the bottom one, and am much happier with just a top panel. I do think the icons and text in the top panel need some work before the final release, namely the update notifier icon needs to be smaller, all the other icons larger and closer together, and the text needs to be a bit larger in the top panel. I have actually filed a bug report about the icon spacing.
I think if users consider that Mint 12 provides them by default with: MGSE, Gnome Shell, Gnome Classic, and MATE, by simply logging in and out, or turning off extensions in settings, it is hard for me to see anyone being unhappy with the release except those who demand a Gnome 2 experience with Mint 12 when Gnome 2 is dead. But even at that, the Mint developers are trying to keep the old desktop alive through MATE.
I seldom defend any desktop choices lately, but I think Mint 12 is offering the best possible choice for Gnome going forward. I understand the frustration that Gnome has left, but I think Mint 12 is going in the right direction.
(sorry that was so long)
KBD47