Linux Mint 13 Xfce released!

[cwwgateway]

The release is very nice, I've had no problems, and I think its great that there's an Ubuntu-based LM Xfce now. Also, I'm extremely happy that it comes with Xfce 4.10.

[brucedp]

LM13 XFCE is fine for some, but LXDE fits my needs so much better. But after reading the forum, it seems no one is going to pursue a LM13 LXDE LTS spin (sad).

So, I DL'd & installed LM13 XFCE. It works fine, but is much more demanding of one of my PCs. While I thank the LM team for the great^2 work they do, that LM13 XFCE version is not a do-all spin for everyone. Here my situation/needs ...

I have a 64-bit quad-core 4Gb PC (running 32bit OS's) that zip through them all fine. Give it Gnome/KDE/whatever and it will eat through all the overhead and/or other loop-d-loops that slow down a PC (I am not a PC speed-freak, I just need to go from point A to get to point B). With that PC almost all distros of any flavor do fine.

However, live (survive) in place that heats up in the day like a box (nights not so bad). I have the above PC run off as low a powered power supply as possible that gives me the PC stability it needs. Even so, it is like having a small space heater on low constantly blowing on your legs (a cheap sauna).

So, I reviewed what older PC hardware I have in an attempt to build a ~100w green/low-power PC with enough performance to do the job and cheaper to build than an atom mobo PC. I came up with a GW Essex micro-ATX mobo (P4 socket 478, 1Gb ddr2, 40Gb eide, USB2.0, 64Mb embedded VGA graphics, etc.) running in a hp pavilion micro-tower case that has a 110w SFX power supply (with the fan blowing out the rear). You can barely feel the heat coming out of that power supply because the PC consumes so little power.

So, during the hot weather days, I use that green PC during the day, and the faster (space-heater) PC during the night.

When I installed LM13 XFCE on the green PC it worked OK, with no special effort to get anything to work. But it was slower than LM12 LXDE, there were pauses before menus would open up, and the video was a little jittery on LM13 XFCE. Clearly XFCE demands more from a PC than LXDE.

So, I reinstalled LM12 LXDE and all is well except its LM 12 support is going to expire 4/2013 (8 months from now) and yes there will be some repository life for a while longer after that ... but the clock is ticking.

*Conclusion: a LM LXDE LTS version that performs like LM12 LXDE would be the answer.

{brucedp.150m.com}

[James R]

The cursor doesn't move when I change to Xcfe mode on Maya.

[caractacus]

Using it now. Works splendidly, as always. Every single thing worked properly out of the box. The only thing lacking is a theme manager to keep things consistent, but that might be an upstream issue for the Xfce people.

[karlchen]

Just a quick question: is Mint4Win included in this release again?

As has been explained before, Mint4win.exe is absent from the ISO file. True.
Yet, the mint4win.exe that came with the May releases of LM13 Maya "Cinnamon" and "Mate" can be used with LM13 Maya "XFCE" as well.
Therefore, I am typing this (somewhat late) reply on my Mint4win installation of Linux Mint 13 Maya "XFCE", 32-bit.

Karl

[Flemur]

I installed the Cinnamon version first, didn't like it much (looks nice, but kinda buggy and weird) so tried MATE, not a real fan of either so kept using fluxbox in both- then installed the XFCE desktop, which is what I'm using now. Looks, nice, pretty easy to customize. At some point I'll prolly reinstall from the XFCE iso so as not to have extra stuff around.

I agree with DisableAnimation about (unasked for) effects and such - tho I'm not seeing his problem with this XFCE setup.

[Mr. P-teo]

Got this installed, so quick, customizable, and looks awesome. Prefere it to MATE and Cinnamon.

[greenman-23]

I wouldn't be too proud.... Having just installed linux mint maya 13 with the Xfce desktop I'm a bit peved to discover the software manager won't install.... confused!!

it's nice and fast, just what I want but if I can't install software then it's pretty useless to anyone...

this isn;t a minor bug issue.. and whilst linux distros may be free finding one that works that isn't ubuntu is too big a headache...

sorry that my first post here is negative but linux distro's have so far cost me weeks of time.. crashed my system twice and made Windows OS look good for the money...

If I could only find a wireless driver for the XP on my asus 1215n then I would likely revert back....

I want to use linux, I want to supprt the concept but not if it means having to face constant 'mis-selling' of the distros which just don't do what is claimed...

[karlchen]

Hello, greenman-23.

the software manager won't install

Do I understand this right? The software manager itself has not been installed properly? Or does this mean the Software Manager refuses to install other software?
In both cases, Linux Mint 13 xfce comes with an alternative, Synaptic Package Manager. (Menu => System => Synaptic Package Manager)
Provided the bottom of the problem is Software Manager itself and not the software "apt" and "dpkg" underneath which both make use of, Software Manager as well as Synaptic, provided this is the case, it should be feasible to repair Software Manager with the help of Synaptic by re-installing Software Manager.

In any case, this is an issue which deserves to be posted in its own dedicated thread and not just as a side remark to support the hypothesis Linux Mint were green banana software. (It is not.)

Side note from my perspective:
I prefer using Synaptic over Software Manager anyway, because Synaptic is not so slow as Software Manager and gives me a better overview of the installed software. Software Manager is too much of an app-store for my taste. (kiddies' stuff)

Kind regards,
Karl

[greenman-23]

hi karl,

thanx for the response however (as is so oft the case) the software manager is now working...... the problem was with Opera... after clicking the install button... nothing ?? .. just to make sure I checked the internet folder (no Opera) and tried to install a couple of smaller apps (i.e. kolourpaint4). As a matter of course I install the apps I like imediately following an OS install... so I reverted to a deb package from Opera (which is what I'm more used to coming from ubuntu) .... at first it wouldn't let me do this either

I then chose to install the mint updates (which I ommitted during the install as it makes the install so much longer) and whilst not so necessary nowadays I'm used to allways rebooting after updates... and now the software manager works..

but after bodhi linux enlightenment crashed my system twice and then refused to be overwritten/replaced necessitating a complete re-install of all OS's (or at least that seemed to be the only solution I could find).. I thought oh no.. Ubunto or nothing

admittedly I'm not familiar with linux and just got lucky (found a great tutorial) which allowed me to seemlessly install Ubuntu 10.4, LAMP and WP.. build a web site and then migrate it to a host whilst sat on a rooftop in Morrocco... none of which I seem to be able to repeat...

but this problem aside (solved) Mint is nice, quick and with the Xfce interface not full of bells, whistles and flashing lights.... which a grumpy old fart like me who gets nostalgic over green screens, dot matrix printers and programs on floppy disc... prefers

[karlchen]

Hi, greenman-23.

Nice to read the problem was not as bad as assumed and that you have already solved it.
About installing Opera on Linux Mint:
On a Linux machine where there is no Opera, yet, I always download Opera from their homepage. They realize I am on a Debian based system and give me the appropriate .deb file. Right-click on the downloaded file and "open with ..." GDEBI. Gdebi will install Opera.
From now on updates for Opera will be detected by the Mint Updater like updates for any other software, because the initial installation has added Opera to /etc/apt/sources.list.

Cheers,
Karl

[infoleather]

I usually use the the generic installer or Unetbootin but they did not do so persistent.

[Xain]

Hello,

thank you for this great distro. It's really simple, fast and stable, and it's better than xubuntu.
I don't like Unity and Gnome 3 (two great projects, but too similar to a smartphone interface)
I hope that the Mint team will continue to mantain and develop this distro (and future distros as well...)

Thanks !

[XMice]

Xubuntu failed in 12.04 with doing apt-get dist-upgrade for me, Linux Mint XFCE works!
Beside of that it already comes with XFCE 4.10 and nice Artwork, thank you!

[ricomasha]

As you can see on the download page, the Windows installer (mint4win) is not included with either KDE or Xfce editions: http://www.linuxmint.com/download.php

hey guys,come:
i want to ask you a question about the Linux Mint 13 maya . why i can't use the system by root ,when i install the system i can not set the root user's password so what's is the problem

Thankyou very much

[karlchen]

Hello, ricomasha.

i can not set the root user's password so what's is the problem

Ubuntu and Linux Mint, which is based on Ubuntu, deny direct login to the root user for security reasons. So the behaviour is by design.
Please, read the official article on this subject: RootSudo
There is a way of allowing root to login directly. But be aware you do so at your own risk. You will find the steps how to do so in the linked article as well.

Cheers,
Karl

[tetleyt]

LM13 XFCE is fine for some, but LXDE fits my needs so much better. But after reading the forum, it seems no one is going to pursue a LM13 LXDE LTS spin (sad).

I've been using Lubuntu for the past few months but gave it the boot because of the bugs that seem to stem from PCManFM. IMO that file manager is the only thing holding back LXDE.

[LinuxEmerald]

Hi folks, Hi Linux Mint Creators, would like to thank you for all your work making this great operating system.
After experimenting with many different linux distros, finally have settled into LM13 Maya Xfce, though adding Lxde package brings it to just the right speed for this hardware, though Xfce is still very usable with amd athlon xp2400 cpu, 1 gig pc2700 ram, asus motherboard, Ge-Force 7600 GS graphics.
The Nvidia 304.64 graphic driver works best on this desktop hardware.
Lxde does not have url link launchers, though not a biggie, since those can be manually made or make them on Xfce desktop side, then switch back to Lxde and they will be on the desktop for use.
Also, got me father to use LM13 Maya mate and he is very happy with it on his somewhat newer laptop, his wireless works great and netflix works great, he even uses virtual box to run autocad in XP, which works great also.
One minor thing, for anyone that may have this problem.
It is probably because this desktop hardware is older, the installer will crash at the ubiquity slideshow and a few other 12.04 and 12.10 versions do this as well, like Lubuntu, Peppermint, Nadia and others.
So the solution was, in live cd mode, go into terminal and type,

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get remove ubiquity-slideshow-mint

Then it installs just fine.
Otherwise, great operating system and thank you very much for sharing it freely with all.

[LinuxEmerald]

Also like to add one more thing, that may be useful for folks using torrent software.
The latest wine 1.5.23 works great with the latest utorrent for windows.
Only has some minor text issues, like the names not visible in compact view mode, otherwise, it is easy to check and see what the name is.
Reason this is being shared, is because a very fast torrent client was needed and this wine/utorrent combo is even faster than transmission and with all the added functionality and speed of windows utorrent.
The task manager shows between 7-14 % and between 170-180 megabyte ram usage, idle ram is 150 megabyte.

[catilley1092]

A late Thank You for this release, it ran very well on my two older machines (ThinkPad T42 & Dimension 2400), everything installed smoothly. I like Xfce for it's lightweight, yet still powerful base. Ran earlier versions of Mint Xfce on my low powered HP desktop with success. Have also recommended it to others.

Have since moved both of these machines to the MATE version of Mint 13, which also went well for both & is the last of the main releases they'll support. Come 5 years, they'll be gone anyway.

Cat