Mint Debian

[nadir]

@ nadir
After installing the experimental kernel sound is indeed working.
I would probably try the liquorix-kernel when I do a fresh "proper" install, safe in the knowledge that my sound should be working out of the box when testing gets a higher kernel.

Oh, that is good.

Bout the liquorix-kernel. That is your choice. But a higher kernel will not arrive in testing for a while
(at the moment testing has just started the freeze, to prepare the release of squeeze as the stable branch. So: no new kernels in testing for now. If there will be a newer kernel in the next testing, and when, i don't know).
It shouldn't take you much more than five minutes to add the repo, add the keyrings, install the kernel install the headers, boot into it and check if it does what needs to be done. If you are not happy you might remove it again (and again: about five minutes of work). Just saying.

[darco]

@ nadir
After installing the experimental kernel sound is indeed working.
I would probably try the liquorix-kernel when I do a fresh "proper" install, safe in the knowledge that my sound should be working out of the box when testing gets a higher kernel.

Oh, that is good.

Bout the liquorix-kernel. That is your choice. But a higher kernel will not arrive in testing for a while
(at the moment testing has just started the freeze, to prepare the release of squeeze as the stable branch. So: no new kernels in testing for now. If there will be a newer kernel in the next testing, and when, i don't know).
It shouldn't take you much more than five minutes to add the repo, add the keyrings, install the kernel install the headers, boot into it and check if it does what needs to be done. If you are not happy you might remove it again (and again: about five minutes of work). Just saying.

I have LMDE running on a spare drive so I have nothing to lose...installed liqourix w/o any issues...well I did have to re install my vid drivers...

[shayney]

Bout the liquorix-kernel. That is your choice. But a higher kernel will not arrive in testing for a while

Yea I know
But with regards to mint debian as a long term option for me, it will *eventually* get sorted so I'm not left wondering if it will ever work.

[nadir]

@darco:
Good.
The worst which might happen is that a further kernel does make trouble. In that case one removes the new and not working one and is back where one has started. Not much risk there.

@shaney: Yes, i got your point. I had problems with sound on most of my old PC's and it sure is not much fun.
As long you got it working now all seems fine.

I tested it yesterday live and got to say: i like it a lot. Very snappy
(Looks like a good long time option )

[kmb42vt]

So I have the 09/04/10 "approved" (buggy) .iso installed and setup for the most part. I avoided the problems with install by updating the live installer via the Update Manager before installing (thanks for the info ikey) and the install went like clockwork, no problems whatsoever.

First boot, video and audio worked fine, no problems. I installed the proprietary Nvidia driver(s) (195) via Synaptic okay but had to manually start Compiz via the terminal and and add Compiz to my start up applications in the Control Center. Once that was done, Compiz worked fine each boot. All of 175 MB usage with Compiz enabled. Removed the Nouveau drivers, btw.

Note: I also installed "gedebi" and "gdebi core" and although it works and lists any available but not installed dependencies required for a given .deb package, it doesn't install the dependencies with the package as it does in the Mint Main edition. The user has to make note of the dependencies and install them first via Synaptic or the terminal before installing the .deb package or the package fails to install. Same goes for installing a .deb via the terminal (dpkg -i filename.deb). Even if the dependencies listed are available in the repos, they will not be installed with the .deb package. It's workable if there's only a few dependencies but if there's a dozen or so, this can get rather tedious.

Other than that, the system is running great. This has to be the best Debian based distro I've ever used. Not quite up to the usual Mint user-friendly standards but for a first run it's very impressive. A hardware driver app for easier install of video drivers and such is definitely needed for newbies and Windows converts (the more the better). Need to work at breaking it but there's only so much time in the day. Guess I'll have to break it tomorrow then.

[randomizer]

I had major issues with GRUB last night. GRUB would generate a configuration 4 or 5 times before the live-installer spat out an error and hung. Strangely enough, I tried it again this morning with no issues. All done in VirtualBox 3.6.8 FYI. Here's the pastebin if anyone is interested: http://pastebin.com/zrQc72TJ

I should also note that live-installer is still being called after booting the new installation even though it doesn't exist. It doesn't appear to be causing any issues though.

[MALsPa]

This has to be the best Debian based distro I've ever used.

Wow! But how can it be, with all the issues mentioned in this thread?

[mintnoob]

Toyed around with the LiveCD and didn't seem to give my laptop any trouble. Not sure how it would be if I installed. Sorry to see so many people having issues.

Btw, I haven't used the GNOME version in a while. The new Mint Debian looks just like the regular GNOME version. What's different about it other than being a rolling release?

[randomizer]

Well, after playing with both the amd64 Ubuntu-based GNOME version and the Debian version, a few things are noticeable after a short tinker:

1. Mint Debian is faster. Sure it's not Arch vs Ubuntu, but it's definitely snappier, at least in a VM. Mint 9 shuts down faster but boots up slower. I restarted the two (Debian second) and I was back at the desktop faster on the Debian version even though it took longer to shut down and didn't have auto-login. Firefox also started 50-100% faster (subsequent starts were much the same between the two editions), but the versions are different so it's not a scientific test.

2. The installer is less "polished" but still much better than the Lenny GUI installer. I actually like using gparted, because it's simply faster than Ubiquity to do everything since no actions are actually applied until you finish setting up the task queue, and that means no rescanning of drives after every change.

3. No compiz as far as I can tell. I have VB Guest Additions on both and didn't get any fancy effects on Mint Debian.

4. No annoying Metacity "fixes" inherited from Ubuntu!!!! That means I can close a maximised window from the extreme corner, something that has bugged me to no end with Mint 9 and Ubuntu Lucid.

5. Get used to your optical drive being referred to as "cdrom" instead of "<disk-label>" when mounted in /media.

6. Missing a number of Ubuntu-specific apps. But you'd expect that. That means no jockey-gtk either

7. RAM usage is lower. I can't say how much lower exactly because I was comparing an i386 and amd64 edition so it's not a fair comparison. MDE uses about 115MB though.

8. Give me a break, I haven't used it enough to come up with 8 thoughts yet

[steveo314]

@darco- yes i didnt have any problem combining the ubuntu ppa repos with debian. i had an install last week where i was running peppermint debian and peppermint ice debian (minus plymouth of course) no problem.

@clem- how did you get the mint plymouth theme running on lmde?? i tried several times over the last year.

[viking777]

I was getting on so well with this distro that I thought it was going to be my new 'default' for sure. But then yesterday afternoon I had two complete freezes following boot/reboot (by complete freeze I mean the only thing I could do was to hold down the power button to get out). I got into recovery mode played around with xorg and since then it has been alright, but now there is that nagging doubt in my mind as to if it is really as stable as the Ubuntu versions or not? I have never had such a freeze with any other Mint version.

It is not reproducible on any regular basis, it happened on two boots only and it is fine now - but will it last?

My only other minor annoyance is that Mount-gtk (a small program for mounting usb devices if you don't like automount) will only mount things if you start it with sudo privileges, on all other distros it works with user privs.

Oh yes, and Exaile doesn't work (it crashes every time you try to start a track). That is not really an issue though because VLC and Rhythybox are both fine.

EDIT. If anyone is interested I have solved the 'mount-gtk' problem. It took a while but I eventually found out that it is because my username was not in the group plugdev, once I added it, all works normally.

Also I have booted and rebooted at least a dozen times today and I have had no recurrence of the freeze problems, so it is looking good again.

[craig10x]

I've had sporadic boot crashes on Mint 9 KDE also...so i guess this isn't the only mint edition that has ever experienced that...though it seems to have either disappeared or is less frequent now (possible a recent kernel update might have fixed it)...

I was wondering if you can download deb files from sites (example: Google Chrome's deb file from their website) and will it install properly and automatically like it does in regular Mint? I was going to play with the live cd of Mint Debian later and was wondering if it was ok to do that?

[shayney]

As far as I'm aware, the chromium PPA is self contained and doesn't need anything from outside it's own repo so if that is the case it should be perfectly safe to use in debian.
Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

[mmesantos1]

OK I downloaded LMDE ISO which was uploaded on 09-06-2010 and ran install. All ran as it should. Did updates and no freeze on Mint Update refresh. So for those who were waiting to download LMDE it seems to be ready.

[Oscar799]

Yes - that is the final version - due to be announced shortly

[kwisher]

I have just read the last few pages of this post and was wondering where I can download the iso for LMDE?

TIA

[Oscar799]

I expect there is a mirror much nearer to you than this one which is in Ireland,maybe someone will jump in with details

[url]ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/../mirrors/linuxmint.com/debian/[/url]

[mmesantos1]

I expect there is a mirror much nearer to you than this one which is in Ireland,maybe someone will jump in with details

[url]ftp://ftp.heanet.ie/../mirrors/linuxmint.com/debian/[/url]

I used this same link when I downloaded mine oscar799.

[shayney]

Could I ask, does the newer iso solve the problem I highlighted with adding extra partitions messing up fstab?

[kmb42vt]

This has to be the best Debian based distro I've ever used.

Wow! But how can it be, with all the issues mentioned in this thread?

Excuse me while I ramble a bit.

Ever try #!CrunchBang Linux Statler? Or Debian itself? The point being is that Debian and Distros based strictly on Debian (like #! Statler for example) and not a completely different fork like Ubuntu, which is considered it's own unique distro and not compatible with Debian or it's repos for the most part, are not what you would call "user friendly". "User" meaning Linux newbie who comes into a Linux without clue one. As a comparison, Linux Mint Main Edition and the current CEs simply work "out of the box" on the majority of hardware and even someone new to Linux can handle a "start from scratch" install with limited or no supervision. Try that with Windows.

That being said, the majority of the bugs reported on this thread relate to the 09/04/10 .iso which was known to be buggy and somewhat broken. And the experience became worse if installed in a VM rather than actual hardware. Still, most of the problems reported were known or found within the first few hours of user testing. Sure, it needs a more user friendly way to install hardware drivers, enable compiz, install .debs and such but heck, it ain't even been announced yet.

IMHO, Linux Mint specializes in being the most user friendly distro available and, even though Clem, ikey and the rest might be thinking that they bit off more than they could chew about now , LMDE is going to have to follow suit. If successful in pulling this off, it means that LMDE has the potential to become the first 100% Debian based distro that's absolutely user friendly for the new Linux user while being lean and fast as well. So far, no other 100% Debian based distro can say that and I've tried enough of them.

Okay, I'm done rambling now.