Some issues in the 18.2 Beta

[_Josue_]

I found a couple of issues:
1) Linux Mint Cinnamon
When running it on the latest virtualbox, it falls back to run in software rendering mode. that means there's some sort of bug with the virtualbox native drivers since for example 17.3 can run a live session without the problem.
2) Linux Mint Mate.
Now this is an issue with the panel, only the corners become transparent. Here's a screenshot:




Panel transparency doesn't work as it should.

[MintBean]

As per the blog post announcing the beta, please post issues there, not in the main forums.

[_Josue_]

As per the blog post announcing the beta, please post issues there, not in the main forums.

I already posted there, but I don't think I can post images there.
besides, I'm not the only one posting about beta issues:
viewtopic.php?f=208&t=247171&hilit=beta
Sorry for the inconvinience but seeing that thread, I didn't notice bugs were exclusive to the blog.
besides of that, I wish the blog had an account system that worked with forum accounts.
Or even better: Have a beta testing section in the forums, they are more comfortable than blog replies.

[Cosmo.]

This is not a special bug in 18.2 beta, but a mistake in Mint in general: They add a version of the VB guest additions, which have 2 problems: At first they do only by incidence match with the used version of VB and at second they are by far long outdated and full of (by Oracle since long time fixed bugs).

The question is here, which version oof VB you use and from which source you have taken it.

I am running Mint 18.2 beta with Cinnamon in VB and cannot confirm any special problem with the beta.

[Hoser Rob]

"Some issues"??? It's a beta release. Technically, a beta release is unfinished and by definition unsupported. Of course you'll have issues. Beta releases aren't really for noobs.

If you installed a beta because you have new hardware you'd probably be better off with a currently supported release and trying a new kernel. This isn't entirely reliable but a beta release is pretty much guaranteed to be unreliable.

If you installed a beta because it's just the newest thing, well, I just hope it's not your only computer.

[_Josue_]

Hmm?

How about this? Excessive comunication ends up with people not understanding each other. Sorry, my bad for posting about the beta bugs here, but I really don't like posting in the blogs.

"Some issues"??? It's a beta release. Technically, a beta release is unfinished and by definition unsupported. Of course you'll have issues. Beta releases aren't really for noobs.

You sir don't even seem to have read the main post in this thread. You just jumped into conclusions and replied.

If you installed a beta because you have new hardware you'd probably be better off with a currently supported release and trying a new kernel. This isn't entirely reliable but a beta release is pretty much guaranteed to be unreliable.

If you installed a beta because it's just the newest thing, well, I just hope it's not your only computer.

Of course not! As I stated on the main post I was running live sessions on virtualbox!
I did so because I wanted to test the beta edition to search for bugs and I certainly found something!
Mate Panel transparency is not working well! Only the corners become transparent! And I have tested that in a physical machine live session too!

The question is here, which version oof VB you use and from which source you have taken it.

I am running Mint 18.2 beta with Cinnamon in VB and cannot confirm any special problem with the beta.

Well, I happen to be running the latest version of VirtualBox-5.1.22-115126-Win (and Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.1.22-115126)
Downloaded of course from their official site.

This is not a special bug in 18.2 beta, but a mistake in Mint in general: They add a version of the VB guest additions, which have 2 problems: At first they do only by incidence match with the used version of VB and at second they are by far long outdated and full of (by Oracle since long time fixed bugs).

Just tested Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.1 and it has the "Software Rendering" bug too. It used to work out of the box in 17.3! So, bug, mistake or whatever it is, this is not working well! Not even after installing the guest additions from the cd! Actually, I'm posting that as a bug on Virtualbox behalf, because 18.1 is not a beta and installing the guest additions should definitely work there. https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=83381
bug here bug there I hope they will find the causes and fix everything!

[Cosmo.]

Well, I happen to be running the latest version of VirtualBox-5.1.22-115126-Win (and Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.1.22-115126)

You seem to mix the extension pack with the guest additions. (This happens rather often.) I did not write about the extension pack, as this is not related with the described problem.
The guest additions is something, what you have to install inside of a running VM. In case of Mint you have to remove the pre-installed guest additions beforehand and reboot, before you install the guest additions, which get shipped with VB.

To remove the pre-installed VB-packages (it are 3) open in the guest synaptic and search for virtualbox. Now filter (on the left pane) for installed packages and you will find them. Select for all of them to remove them completely and proceed.

[_Josue_]

Well, I happen to be running the latest version of VirtualBox-5.1.22-115126-Win (and Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-5.1.22-115126)

You seem to mix the extension pack with the guest additions. (This happens rather often.) I did not write about the extension pack, as this is not related with the described problem.

I just mentioned it because I copied that string from my other post at virtualbox forums, nothing else.

The guest additions is something, what you have to install inside of a running VM. In case of Mint you have to remove the pre-installed guest additions beforehand and reboot, before you install the guest additions, which get shipped with VB.

Thank you, but I already know that.

To remove the pre-installed VB-packages (it are 3) open in the guest synaptic and search for virtualbox. Now filter (on the left pane) for installed packages and you will find them. Select for all of them to remove them completely and proceed.

Hmm actually I followed the instructions here
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=79486
I went the command line way and did this:

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sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-guest-utils

After doing that, I selected "Insert the virtualbox Guest Additions CD" and ran it.
The result? everything was even worse! instead of a "fall back to software rendering mode" error message, I got a black screen!
That's why I'm reporting that as a bug in the virtualbox forums. Of course I went the extra mile, I didn't try such a thing while running live, I did that after the longer process of actually installing Linux Mint to the Virtualbox machine I had created.
Anyways, thank you for your time, you are very kind.
Oh, and for the Mate Panel issue, I think I found Mate panel github! I'm going to post my findings there.

[JerryF]

...besides, I'm not the only one posting about beta issues:
viewtopic.php?f=208&t=247171&hilit=beta
...

As my mom used to say, "Just because everyone else is doing it, doesn't mean you have to."

[Cosmo.]

After doing that, I selected "Insert the virtualbox Guest Additions CD" and ran it.

No reboot of the VM in between? I told you to do so in my advice.

[_Josue_]

After doing that, I selected "Insert the virtualbox Guest Additions CD" and ran it.

No reboot of the VM in between? I told you to do so in my advice.

Uhm... actually I think I did reboot. I don't remember well, I did this some days ago, and I had already tried before, but I think I did reboot.
I haven't tried once but at least twice.
Off the top of my head this is what I remember:
I have actually created two virtual machines, the first one a longer while ago using Mate and installing cinnamon on top of it, then getting the "fall back to software rendering" error message. After that, I remember finding similar instructions to uninstall the pre-installed virtualbox packages, rebooting, finding myself with a 640x480 resolution that made it quite hard to install the additions from the CD, but managed to do it anyways, just to find out that they had no effect! the "Software rendering" error message was still there!
Now If I recall correctly my 2nd attempt was with 18,2 and I thiknk I did pretty much the same, just to get similar results. Oh, now I remember, I did reboot!
And I was amazed that it didn't go to a 640x480 resolution like in my previous test!

EDIT, just started the old test virtual machine and found out that it can't start cinnamon! I select Cinnamon and I get Mate!

[Cosmo.]

Installing 2 desktops is often the source of much trouble. You cannot blame anything, if this does not works as expected. By using VB I also do not understand, why you try this at all. A second (or third, fourth, ...) VM is not really a problem.

Besides that: We all are humans, so we make mistakes and we also have some time wrong remembrance. This is true for myself and I do not see, why it should not also apply to you. So don't take it personal: If you cannot clearly remember, than I assume, that you did not reboot.

[_Josue_]

Installing 2 desktops is often the source of much trouble. You cannot blame anything, if this does not works as expected. By using VB I also do not understand, why you try this at all. A second (or third, fourth, ...) VM is not really a problem.

The purpose of trying installing Cinnamon on top of Mate was to see what was the current compatibility
status. Considering that now Mate has been ported to GTK3 and now we have many applications that
are common (xapps) I think that "having several desktops is a source of trouble" should become
a thing of the past. Thinking about testing what problems could arise, possible workarounds
and general testing in order to give suggestions to the developers was the general idea.
I wanted to see how well Mate and Cinnamon got along and if problems were to be found, find workarounds
and suggest the developers of ways to improve the compatibility if necessary, after all, Mate is already GTK3.
I really hope they will keep up the good job and update everything in Mate including Compiz to newer technology, but keeping the style it has.

Besides that: We all are humans, so we make mistakes and we also have some time wrong remembrance. This is true for myself and I do not see, why it should not also apply to you. So don't take it personal: If you cannot clearly remember, than I assume, that you did not reboot.

Well, yeah. We humans make mistakes.
For the sake of doing a better test I started again from scratch.
I made more tests:



This time using Linux Mint Cinnamon 18.1
Live session ran with the "fall back to software rendering mode" error message.
As expected, after installing the virtual machine it was still like that.

ran

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sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-guest-utils

The three packages were removed.
Rebooted.
Surprise! resolution is still high!
I went to the devices menu and selected "Insert Guest Additions CD image"
The cd prompted to be executed. Ignored. went to the terminal and executed sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

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You appear to have a version of the VBoxGuestAdditions software on your system which was installed from a different source or using a different type of installer

dumb message since after checking at synaptics package manager everything was uninstalled.
Really, this message happens in all cases! There should be something left for the installer to detect it.

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Do you wish to continue anyway? [yes or no]

typed Y and pressed enter.

everything seemed fine.

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vboxadd.sh Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions

Reboot.



Everything seems fine, no errors.

So, now let's do the same with Linux Mint Mate again from scratch.

I did things the other way around: made a 17.3 Cinnamon machine and installed mate on top.
after installing the virtual machine clicked on the updates button in the panel.
began updating everything.
Finished updating. Restart.

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sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-guest-utils

The three packages were removed.
Rebooted.

Installed the Guest additions from CD.

Result? Everything is running fine! I can switch desktops without trouble!
However everything changed when on top of that I installed Cairo-dock.
Cinnamon doesn't get the rendering mode error but Cairo Dock renders black!
The whole dock is a black thing!

Who knows if this works fine with former versions of VirtualBox, All I know is that it fais with
VirtualBox-5.1.22-115126.
Clearly the guest additions have bugs that only appear in certain conditions, for example when you install another desktop environment.
However, I think my tests show that it's possible to have both Cinnamon and Mate together without much hiccups. I like both D.E. and there are features I miss from one when using the other... (in the end I switched to KDE for my main laptop but that's a story for another day) Yet, I still plan to install Mate alongside Cinnamon in my older desktop once 18.2 is out.