Petra backports available in Linux Mint 13

Post by **clem** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 10:29 am

http://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=2524

rbeltz48 · Post by **rbeltz48** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 1:52 pm

I am using LM 13 and just did the major update from MATE 1.4 to MATE 1.6 etc. which showed up today in the update manager. It destroyed my desktop and made all applications unusable. In addition, my wife's laptop can't be updated because of some error which no one on the forum has as solution to. I can no longer depnd on Linux Mint to be a stable distro and will be looking for another distro which IS stable. Very sad indeed as I had such high hopes for Mint as a long-term OS.

Trapper · Post by **Trapper** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 5:18 pm

The update to 1.6 did send the panels back to the installation default and required me to set them up to my liking once again. That took all of a couple of minutes. I have yet to find any apps that genuinely were broken because of this desktop upgrade. Shortly after my upgrade some libqt updates became available, however the 'Ubuntu' repositories apparently could not be accessed at the moment to download the files required and the update will not complete at this time. I assume that will be corrected in short order.

I am very happy with LM 13 as a LTS option. I guess we'll have another LTS option with the release of 17. Perhaps some folks that have become a bit disenchanted with 13 will give 17 a try when it becomes available. For me, I am finding no reason to jump ship with LM13. I am very thankful we still have a traditional gnome2 fork available and am also thankful that Mint fully supports it.

jazz.h · Post by **jazz.h** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 5:39 pm

rbeltz48 wrote:It destroyed my desktop and made all applications unusable.

It destroyed my Mint 13 Mate 64bit, too. I tried recovery option to remove broken packages, fix file system errors, it started to boot but it ends with a grey screen with blank panel at the bottom

!
Too bad for such a nice distro to be seen destroyed... big disapointment...

rbeltz48 · Post by **rbeltz48** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 6:10 pm

I couldn't do anything. All the themes were changed. I first tried to add a new panel at the top. Then my screen went crazy with all the icons jumping up and down, like fluttering. The bottom panel completely disappeared! None of the applications would run! A complete disaster!! I managed to backup all my data files to a flash drive, the updated ones since the last backup. Then re-installed Mint 13 and turned all updates OFF until I figure out what I want to do for another distro that is really STABLE.

This has got to be the biggest screw up ever from the Mint team. I hope someone gets a message to Clem about this. VERY upsetting to say the least, as well as wasting several hours to reinstall the OS, applications and copy back all data files.

Trapper · Post by **Trapper** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:07 pm

I have done this desktop update to both 32 bit and 64 bit setups and am getting none of the behaviors you all are describing except for the fact that the panels revert back to the default setup someone would get with an initial distro install. Also had to tweak a couple of settings in the screensaver and caja. Also because i did custom strftime clock display format via mateconf-editor I had to install dconf-tools. Apparently custom strftime clock display has to be done through dconf-editor now. Maybe there are some other minor MATE configuration settings that need to be readjusted but I surely have not experienced any bizarre icon or application behavior like others are indicating.

Incentive I.C · Post by **Incentive I.C** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 8:25 pm

Yours systems are not destroyed your desktop environment is just messed up everything else is most likely fine.. When you press (ctrl+alt+f1) at the same time what happens? this should launch a console we need a new desktop environment so sudo apt-get install xfce4. once its done press the power button and restart the computer. Go to sessions on MDM and click Xfce once logged in (unclick backports for now) go to terminal and sudo apt-get remove mate. then sudo apt-get install mate or install mate from the package manager and you should be good. Not sure it the sudo apt-get remove mate will work but tell if it doesn't.
Its not really Clems fault though. You should have researched the Mate 1.6 and learned about the bugs. Mint is stable but if your are looking for something really STABLE try Debian Stable.

Once we get Mate back up and running now you know not to update it right? An update doesn't mean its better then the previous version. And keep more then one desktop environment on you system,too.

whiteEagle · Post by **whiteEagle** » Tue Dec 17, 2013 10:33 pm

I installed the updates to Cinnamon @ 8AM EST, and it gave me the default desktop (Mint wallpaper, etc.) However, nothing was "clickable!" The mouse was not frozen, and I could "right-click," but choosing any icon or menu did absolutely nothing. I could only exit via "Ctrl-Backspace" or "Ctrl-Alt-F1"

I installed further updates ('mint-meta-cinnamon' and 'ubuntu-system-adjustments') after 12PM EST, but it did not fix my problem! I used Gnome Classic (without effects) the rest of the day then followed the instructions on the blog and removed 'nautilus,' 'gnome-session-fallback' and 'gnome-control-center'

I made sure 'mint-meta-cinnamon,' 'mdm' and 'mint-mdm-themes' were all installed. Still no fix! I'm using LXDE to access my desktop.

Any thoughts on my problem? Nothing is "clickable" -- nothing will execute on the Cinnamon 2.0.14 desktop!

Post by **xenopeek** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 2:17 am

A possible fix for if you run into problems with MATE upgrade as posted by thorx89: http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 58#p797230

whiteEagle · Post by **whiteEagle** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 8:02 am

I should clarify ...

After upgrade, Cinnamon displayed the default desktop (though it included my 'custom' desktop folders and panel icons) After installing/uninstalling various packages, it now displays my 'custom' desktop (wallpaper, panel icons, desktop folders, etc.) but nothing launches (nothing "clickable")

THAT would seem to tell me the problem lies in my existing desktop configuration files. How can I delete my custom configuration and allow the scripts to setup the default configuration? And/or, how can I set my desktop configuration to default? It appears the upgrade did not reset configuration.

fraxinus_63 · Post by **fraxinus_63** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 8:38 am

I am running Mint 13 64-bit. I was delighted to see the Petra backports were available and have now installed them.

I needed to re-create my MATE desktop settings and sound preferences after the upgrade. I also found that I had "lost" Pluma and needed to perform a manual ugrade via Synaptic to get it back. But now I have done this everything seems to be working very well indeed. I use MATE on a day-to-day basis but I like Cinnamon too, and I expect I'll now be booting into Cinnamon 2 to explore it.

Thanks, Mint team. This has to be the best deal around - the LTS Maya base with the desktop enhancements from more recent Mint editions.

Brahim Salem · Post by **Brahim Salem** » Wed Dec 18, 2013 3:02 pm

Petra backports available in Linux Mint 13. Complete story here http://blog.linuxmint.com/

rbeltz48 · Post by **rbeltz48** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 12:03 pm

Considering that the MATE 1.6 upgrade made my laptop unusable, I will NOT be doing any updates until after Mint 17 LTS is out and has been thoroughly tested and reviewed. I spent several hours on Tuesday 12/17 reinstalling and reloading Mint 13 and files. Thanks but NO THANKS to any updates that don't work the way they should or need a ton of tuning afterwards. After spending more than 20 years in the I.T. field in programming and consulting, there are really no excuses for what happened to me and other Mint users with this upgrade!

eanfrid · Post by **eanfrid** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 12:18 pm

Backports are not part of the LTS release. If you want stability or don't know how to repair incomplete upgrades, do not enable backports => http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p ... 73#p797173

thanosfrag · Post by **thanosfrag** » Thu Dec 19, 2013 3:32 pm

Hi guys,

I installed earlier this afternoon the petra backports on my MInt 13 xfce system. Everything works fine so far. However, my system has become a bit slower and less responsive than before. It takes, for instance, longer to boot, as well as on the log in phase (i.e. typing my password to initiate the system) it takes longer than before. Does anyone have an idea?

Best
Thanos

dancingdog777 · Post by **dancingdog777** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 6:10 pm

I'd read about the new Mate being available from the backports so like an idiot, because Clem hadn't warned us, I allowed the updates.

What a disaster! I can't open Firefox now and am having to write this from my old computer running Mint 10.

________________

SOLVED
----------

I went into Package Manager and uninstalled Firefox completely, then reinstalled everything again. It's now working but everything has slowed down.

jazz.h · Post by **jazz.h** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 6:28 pm

I was lucky to have dual boot in my PC, MATE 13 and KDE 13.
I switched from KDE to MATE one year ago, when I wanted some change and speed.
It was OK at 1st, but several problems disappointed me too much in MATE:
- webdav links don't work in Caja (bug)
- there's no pgp encrypt in Caja on right click
- changing standard user's password from admin account distroyes that user's DE settings
- it wasn't much faster than expected, after all...
- activating prop drivers for AMD Ati 6450 don't work out of the box in MATE
- now this upgrade to Mate 1.6

These things all work in KDE, so I migrated my documents to KDE partition again, when something is needed I dig it up from Mate home partition.
So I'm done with MATE, I just have to figure out how to migrate my netbook from Mate 13...

nostromo · Post by **nostromo** » Fri Dec 20, 2013 9:17 pm

eanfrid wrote:Backports are not part of the LTS release. If you want stability or don't know how to repair incomplete upgrades, do not enable backports

Exactly....

MtnDewManiac · Post by **MtnDewManiac** » Fri Feb 07, 2014 2:30 am

Those of you who've experienced issues with MATE, did you previously update it in a way that wasn't officially recommended by the Mint developers? IIRC, I read some months ago when a major(?) update came out for it, some folks had problems that turned out to be because they had - previous to that update - added a PPA to their sources list in order to get a new version instead of waiting until the update was added to the regular repos. I might be mistaken, because I don't use that DE (strictly an XFCE user) and only read the thread out of curiosity.

Regards,
MDM

Longshot · Post by **Longshot** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 11:34 pm

rbeltz48 wrote:I am using LM 13 and just did the major update from MATE 1.4 to MATE 1.6 etc. which showed up today in the update manager. It destroyed my desktop and made all applications unusable. In addition, my wife's laptop can't be updated because of some error which no one on the forum has as solution to. I can no longer depnd on Linux Mint to be a stable distro and will be looking for another distro which IS stable. Very sad indeed as I had such high hopes for Mint as a long-term OS.

I'm using Cinnamon and did the update and it's works great. Linux Mint has been great so far.

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