Linux Mint 20 success or issues

[Moonstone Man]

Installing Windows drivers one by one separately for each device is a nightamre.

Windows generally does a good job of automatically installing drivers.

[Dark Owl]

I have never ever seen any communication from the Linux Mint team where it was stated that Mint was that. And that's a good thing. As we know, it's not, and people who insist that it is are not speaking on behalf of the team.

OK, maybe not exactly in those words I grant you (although I think the magazine article I was reading implied that much), but that's what brought me here in the first place: an easy to use version of Linux with Windows-like familiar interface, which (at the time) booted straight from the iso so I could see what would be my reward for committing my time. If it hadn't booted (as it wouldn't now), I would have looked elsewhere, or perhaps decided Linux was not for me and (very reluctantly) accepted Win10.

It is only now I have invested some time into 18.2 that I was motivated to fire-fight with 20 for future-proofing, and I really was on the verge of giving up with it and settling for 18.2 (I'm not sure I would have realised I could update as far as 19.2 without having gone through this process)... and to be honest, the only reason I have had the time for this at all is because my other activities are curtailed due to Covid-19. This forum is a beneficiary, because I am happy to share what I know or what I find out as a pay-forward.

As I have mentioned elsewhere, something that worked fine (on my hardware) broke between 19.2 and 19.3, and persists in 20. Two steps forward and one back. Is this a problem? Not for people who are unaffected, which I assume includes the developers who are therefore not motivated to solve it. It's not a problem for me now either, because I know the work-around (so long as later releases don't also break the work-around - and if the developers don't have similar hardware, we can never be sure of that).

It's not a problem for users with hardware compatible with the default drivers, which is presumably the (large?) majority. The problem set, so far as I can tell, are home hardware builders on a budget: the cards that don't work with the default drivers are Nvidia*, and budget graphics cards are all Nvidia (or Nvidia reference designs). Even gaming cards are more expensive if you go AMD.

* I have seen somebody mention AMD, but so far as I know AMD cards are not implicated.

The issue is that reading manuals is out of fashion. So long as reading manuals remains necessary, Linux (any flavour) will remain a niche interest. I don't think I am out of touch if I say most computer users just want it to turn on and get stuff done without having to wrestle with the OS (or indeed knowing how).

[deepakdeshp]

I have never ever seen any communication from the Linux Mint team where it was stated that Mint was that. And that's a good thing. As we know, it's not, and people who insist that it is are not speaking on behalf of the team.

It is only now I have invested some time into 18.2 that I was motivated to fire-fight with 20 for future-proofing, and I really was on the verge of giving up with it and settling for 18.2 (I'm not sure I would have realised I could update as far as 19.2 without having gone through this process)... and to be honest, the only reason I have had the time for this at all is because my other activities are curtailed due to Covid-19. This forum is a beneficiary, because I am happy to share what I know or what I find out as a pay-forward.

Try installing the 18.2 kernel in 20 and boot to it from advanced options in grub.

Code: Select all

uname -r

gives the kernel which you have booted to.

[Dark Owl]

Try installing the 18.2 kernel in 20 and boot to it from advanced options in grub.

Interesting, I will have to learn how to do that. However, surely that would be throwing away anything which requires the new kernel to work, or indeed the point of running a supported system longer term.

[kc1di]

I have one problem that I've not been able to solve yet in mint 20 . Launching a wine program that I use every day takes up to 5 mins to launch. It will eventually show up but is extremely slow in doing so. (this is not a Mint problem exactly as the same thing happens in Ubuntu 20.04). Anyone else notice this?

[Dark Owl]

Continuing from another thread (but more applicable here):

I can see how it can seem like 'reporting problems' is constructive, and I appreciate that you probably mean it to be, but the announcement part of the forum is not where bug reports are filed and processed. So it's not really 'reporting' anything if you post about your problems there.

...in which case announcements should be locked treads and people not allowed to post things like "isn't this wonderful" either. If no negative posts are permitted, the representation is biased.

Mulling it over some more, surely the announcement of a release is exactly the right place to highlight any potential gotchas and where to find the information for dealing with them?

It is the norm (and legal requirement) for contracts to not hide crucial information in the fine print, because these days few are inclined to go hunting for hostile conditions buried in masses of legalese. By the same token, it would be much more user-friendly if the announcement also said something like:

If you experience problems booting from the iso, select compatibility mode at the Grub menu and see release notes here: https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_ulyana_cinnamon.php (see "Solving freezes during the boot sequence"). This is most likely to apply to users with Nvidia graphics cards.

[Barbados99]

Issues do crop up with any operating system. I'm not an I.T. guy. So I do read and plan before I try to install Mint. I figure that's not a big deal in exchange for being able to use a great OS for free. What I really appreciate about Mint is being able to come to this Mint Forum for help when I do encounter an occasional issue.

This Mint Forum is the #1 reason why I choose Mint over other distros. I've tried many other distros and they all have their good and bad attributes (having a choice is a good thing for sure). But the best thing about being a Mint user is being able to come here to this forum and get great help. I've done this countless times because I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer when it comes to I.T. stuff. I do need help. And I have always received help here, and never been made to feel like an ignorant idiot (LOL, and sometimes I am pretty stupid with Linux, doing dumb stuff by mistake). By comparison, some of the other distro forums are pretty aggressive (even attacking and belittling people) who struggle a bit to understand what's going wrong with their computer setup. I guess they just love being "smart people" and denigrate people who are not I.T. folks.

I feel 100% comfortable with Linux due to the Mint support I receive here. It is priceless. And little by little I do feel like I am learning more about Linux as I continue on the journey with it as an OS. I am so thankful and grateful for Clem and the Mint Team. I'm so grateful that I decided to become a patron to give a (very) small monthly payment to help support the Mint effort. I'm an old guy on a fixed budget now, but I don't take Mint for granted and just want to give a bit of support - and to show I am grateful to have this OS and the great community here that supports each other. I would never go back to Windows. I don't use it. Don't have it on any of my computers anymore. Love Mint (and especially the XFCE desktop version).

[deepakdeshp]

I installed Mint 20 on a separate partition. Mine is gpt disk EFI system. I chose the default option to install grub at /dev/sda which failed. The grub controlling system is Manjaro on the same disk. update-grub in Manjaro found Mint 20 and the grub is populated with Mint 20. The /boot is sda2, should I have chosen sda2 as the grub loader destination?

[MurphCID]

I love it, but have one small request: The system update icon is rather small and non-descript, and the little red button is hard to see. Could we make the software update button a little more distinctive? That is all, love everything else.

[DisturbedDragon]

Fresh install on ESXi 7 virtual machine with PCI pass-through of GTX650 graphics card (Mint 20 Cinnamon). Install went fine. Initially I set it up without the nVidia GPU and successfully set up LTSP on it for PXE boot from client computers. All was working until the GPU was added and more specifically the driver installation was attempted.

Installed nVidia-driver-440 from Driver Manager and reboot. Greeted with warning to check driver manager as no driver was installed. Checked and it does show installed but acceleration is not what it should be. Attempted to fall back to 390 or previous but Driver Manager is bugged. Will not download and apply another driver. Just says it does and prompts for reboot. Reboot and back in to see the same driver version showing installed. Fought with this for awhile installing from driver manager then removing from CLI. Eventually just doing all from CLI; just easier. Unfortunately the behavior never changed...

Got the official from nVidia and installed on TTY1. Couple standard warnings but no big deal and reboot. Same error about driver not installed and vNidia settings application is just an empty window. Fine!! Purge all....

Try to install again with warning nouveau driver is in use. Sure enough it was. Removed and purged. Verified this and tried to install the official again. Warning again that nouveau driver is being used. Checked again, it's not, nor is it even installed.

Purge nVidia everything!! Autoremove and clean. Installed 440 and just ignored the driver warning at startup.

Checked on PXE boot now files are not loading. Rebuilt the image, IPXE, initrd and NFS. Still not booting, no file received.

DELETE VM! Not had any issues like this with any Mint release and I've used daily since Mint 12. Back to 19.3 until 20 can be sorted.

[Moonstone Man]

Not had any issues like this with any Mint release and I've used daily since Mint 12. Back to 19.3 until 20 can be sorted.

It helps to thoroughly read the release notes before doing anything with a new release. Going "Back to 19.3 until 20 can be sorted" won't fix anything if you try the installation again without reading those release notes.

[DisturbedDragon]

Not had any issues like this with any Mint release and I've used daily since Mint 12. Back to 19.3 until 20 can be sorted.

It helps to thoroughly read the release notes before doing anything with a new release. Going "Back to 19.3 until 20 can be sorted" won't fix anything if you try the installation again without reading those release notes.

I didn't see anything about nVidia drivers not working in Mint 20. Is that a thing?

[Moonstone Man]

I didn't see anything about nVidia drivers not working in Mint 20.

https://linuxmint.com/rel_ulyana_cinnamon.php

"If your graphics card is from NVIDIA..."

[DisturbedDragon]

I didn't see anything about nVidia drivers not working in Mint 20.

https://linuxmint.com/rel_ulyana_cinnamon.php

"If your graphics card is from NVIDIA..."

You misunderstand. The system installs, boots and loads Cinnamon just fine. No matter the driver installed or how it was installed the system still complained no driver was installed though it clearly was and hardware acceleration did not work properly. Attempting to even change the driver in driver manager bugged and failed to do even that. DM said "sure, I changed to that driver" and prompted to reboot. Reboot and same error on login that no driver is loaded. Check DM and sure enough the same version is still installed, no change. All changes and removals had to be done from command line. Even at this the drivers did not work right and Cinnamon complained at each login no driver was loaded.

[Moonstone Man]

I didn't see anything about nVidia drivers not working in Mint 20.

https://linuxmint.com/rel_ulyana_cinnamon.php

"If your graphics card is from NVIDIA..."

You misunderstand.

No, I do not. Notable is the fact that you haven't posted a request for assistance, and if you do, two things will happen. I won't reply and you'll be told by someone to follow the instructions in the release notes.

[DisturbedDragon]

Works for me!

[fmfoo]

Xcfe was a success for me on a friend's laptop.

[Dark Owl]

I didn't see anything about nVidia drivers not working in Mint 20. Is that a thing?

They work for me: GeForce GT710. Without the Nvidia driver, I can only boot compatibility mode (your problems do not read that way). Ditto 19.3. Last version which works for me without Nvidia drivers is 19.2, so that points at the kernel version.

The development team cannot possibly have access to every combination of CPU and graphics card (and maybe motherboard), so it isn't reasonable to expect everything to "just work" unless you participate in the development by feeding problems back to the developers via github - and even then, if the hardware is exotic enough, they might not be able to get a handle on it, or the problem might be in a section of code they can do nothing about (upstream, as they put it, or proprietary if it is a problem with the Nvidia drivers themselves).

Then you have confused the situation still further by testing in a VM - are you certain there isn't some little bug in the VM layer? I would at least see if I got the same problem when running as a full install in some spare disk space.

[Vladimir00]

I updated Linux Mint on my computer to the latest version.It took about 3 hours.I had to stay awake for a long time All OK.I didn’t have any serious problems.

[deepakdeshp]

My update from Cinnamon Mint 19.3 to 20 failed.
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