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The Linux Mint team have released ‘Uma’ for Cinnamon, Mate and XFCE that brings the version up to 20.2

In the provided https://linuxmint.com/ link, there is also a walkthrough for those who wish to use the Mint upgrade system coming from 20.0 or 20.1

Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.2

Linux Mint Mate 20.2

Linux Mint XFCE 20.2

All these versions are supported until 2025.
Features and changes are within respective editions.

[Moderator edit] changed topic to a generic releases title. Putting all release notices in one thread makes it easy to find the latest info

If debian is good enough for NASA...

5 users thanked author for this post.

DrBonzo, klang, jburk07, Lars220, Bill C.

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I’ll have to wait for the Mint 20.2 HWE Kernel vetting and see what Kernel will be used there as Kernel 5.4 is just not going to work out well for My Ryzen 5 3550H APU based Laptop that has to have Kernel 5.6 or later to operate it’s cooling fans properly. So when Linux Mint 20.1 was released there was a vetted HWE Kernel 5.8 “Edge” ISO offered by the Mint Maintainers and I had been using that but have since updated my Kernel to 5.11 and have had no issues that I have noticed there. But I’m waiting to see if there will be a Mint Cinnamon “Edge” ISO with Kernel 5.11 as that’s a little newer there for that AMD Ryzen APU Hardware that’s getting more features supported with the Newer Linux Kernels. I’m also running a Ryzen 3400G Based Mini Desktop PC that’s running fine so far with Linux Kernel 5.11. But I’m never one to move right away to any new Mint “Point” release before that’s been out for a few months just so see if any regressions or bugs show up there.

 

I’m still on Linux Mint 20.0 on my older Intel Core i series laptops that are Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge and one First generation Intel core i series based laptop that will probably do fine on Kernel 5.4 until 2025 anyway. It’s just my newer AMD Ryzen APU based hardware that’s getting the HWE Kernels as that’s still getting some features enabled and supported in the Kernel so I’m more than Likely to be keeping the Latest Mint Edition on the newer hardware rather than hardware that’s as old as 10+ years since release and will not likely need any significant  feature support other than bug/security fixes and some minor API Updates!

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I keep telling you– Mint devs have nothing to do with the kernel. The kernel for Mint is whatever Ubuntu offers, straight from the Ubuntu server, with no Mint involvement whatsoever. The Mint devs do not vet the kernel or do anything else with it. Most of the packages in Mint are straight Ubuntu, and the kernel is one of those things. When Ubuntu LTS point releases (like 20.04.2) moves to a new kernel, so does any Mint version based on 20.04.2.

If you’re already using 5.11 (HWE-Edge) you’ve nothing more to do. It’s 5.11; it’s not going to change if the underlying Ubuntu version moves to 5.11 (which will cause Mint to move to that version also).

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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No I was initially running from the Mint 20.1 Edge ISO that shipped form the Mint maintainers website that’s since been updated to Kernel 5.11 by me on may laptop/PC. But When I got that Mint 20.1 ‘Edge” ISO that’s for my Linix Mint 20.1 “Edge” Live ISO that shipped with the Kerne 5.8(HWE) and really any 5.4 kernel, at that time, would see My Asus TUF laptop overheat and throttle as that laptop needed a newer Linux Kernel(5.6) for an Included Kernel patch so the ASUS Tuf Laptop’s fans would ramp properly under load!

So that Mint 20.1/Kernel 5.8 Edge ISO is burned onto a USB Thumb Drive for that ASUS Tuf Laptop’s emergency repair Live ISO and Kernel 5.8 is later than Kernel 5.6 and thus includes the fan driver/fan profile fix for that ASUS Tuf laptop. I’m always looking at the Mint Edge ISOs on My AMD Ryzen APU based PC and Laptop as AMD’s still plumbing in support for features that are needed on the 3000G/3000H series Ryzen APUs on my Mini PC and Asus Tuf laptop.

 

My older Intel Ivy Bridge/earlier generation laptops are doing fine with Kernel 5.4 as those laptops features where pretty much filled out years ago but still get updates to this day under Linux/Linux Mint!

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And the Mint 20.2 (Non Edge ISO) is still using Kernel 5.4 so will not make a usable emergency Live ISO for my ASUS TUF laptop. But when reporting on any new Mint release please do the users of newer hardware a favor and do link to the Edge ISO if linking to the non Edge Mint ISOs. Because AMD’s APUs are rather Popular in laptops but as normal for AMD their Linux support lags their Windows OS support. So nominally it can take 2 or 3 years after release for Ryzen APUs to get their full Linux Feature set support plumbed into the Linux Kernel!

And the Mint Maintainers do vet their Edge  ISO Kernels for stability with all the Mint DEs and other software that ships with the Mint ISO!

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Belatedly responding here…

anonymous wrote:

And the Mint Maintainers do vet their Edge ISO Kernels for stability with all the Mint DEs and other software that ships with the Mint ISO!

It’s not “their” edge ISO kernels. They’re Ubuntu’s kernels. Mint devs don’t do testing of kernels… that’s handled by Ubuntu. Mint tests their own software and configurations on the Ubuntu kernel that is (or will be) used by a given Mint release, but the intent is to find bugs in their own packages. If they should happen to find a bug in an upstream package (one that comes from Ubuntu directly), they can report that bug to Ubuntu and work with them to get it fixed, or if that fails, they could fix it themselves and add that package to their own repo, but that seldom happens.

A given Mint version uses exactly the same kernel and other base packages as the Ubuntu version it is based upon. The Linux-signed-image that is necessary for secure boot to work, for example, has an Ubuntu signature, not a Mint signature.

Mint developers work on Cinnamon and some Mint applications, but otherwise their work consists of packaging that stuff on top of Ubuntu. Ubuntu does by far most of the heavy lifting.

Most of the packages that ship on the Mint .iso are straight Ubuntu packages, drawn from the Ubuntu repo and untouched by Mint developers. If you check the version of any of them, they will contain the Ubuntu version numbers and metadata, not that of Mint. The updates for these packages do not come from the Mint repo… the Mint repo does not include those packages. That’s why derivative distros like Mint have Ubuntu and Mint repos set up… if they had only the Mint (or Neon, or whatever else) repo, their users would miss out on most of the updates, and certainly nearly all of the security updates, which are handled by Ubuntu directly without any Mint devs being involved.

If there is a particular package that Mint devs want to override with their own version, that will then be offered in their repo, and that’s certainly the way it is done for all of the packages that differentiate Mint and Ubuntu, but otherwise, anything a Mint installation needs comes from Ubuntu directly to your PC without Mint servers ever being involved (whether that’s by way of an .iso installer or an internet connection handling the updates).

The moment Ubuntu approves a new kernel for use with Ubuntu, it is available on Mint instantly (not even a split second later), because it is coming from the same server as for actual Ubuntu installations. There’s no time for vetting anything. Ubuntu releases it, Mint users receive it from Ubuntu, and Mint isn’t involved in the process. It works that way for the majority of packages that make up a Mint installation.

If you want to have a rescue ISO that has a kernel new enough to get along with a newish laptop, I’d suggest the latest version of Ubuntu (non-LTS, generally), or if even that’s not good enough, something like Fedora or Manjaro, which tend to have the very latest kernels and packages pushed out as soon as they are available upstream. I have all of these available in .iso form (along with the Veeam rescue .iso, the Super Grub 2 .iso, and the Macrium Reflect rescue .iso) on a USB stick using Ventoy, so it can boot from any one of the .isos as if they had been burned to a USB drive.

Dell XPS 13/9310, i5-1135G7/16GB, KDE Neon 6.2
XPG Xenia 15, i7-9750H/32GB & GTX1660ti, Kubuntu 24.04
Acer Swift Go 14, i5-1335U/16GB, Kubuntu 24.04 (and Win 11)

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I do not care to split hairs but my ASUS Laptop(TUF FX505DY-WH51) has to have at least Kernel 5.6 to work properly and I like to have a Linux Live USB Image with at least the Kernel 5.6/Later so when I first got the Laptop I had to wait until The Mint Maintainers packaged that Ubuntu Kernel 5.8 HWE into their Mint “Edge” ISO to have an emergency Linux Mint Live USB that played nice with the ASUS TUF  Laptop. So I do not know how to make my Own Linux Mint Live ISO Image from scratch.

I do already Know that Mint uses the Linux Kernel from the Ubuntu upstream but that’s beside the point as I never am without a Linux Live USB for my Laptops so I’m still dependent on the Linux maintainers “Edge” ISOs for that ASUS laptop that will overheat and the Ryzen APU will clock throttle without a patch that ships with Linux Kernels 5.6/Later.

I make sure that I have a proper Linux Live ISOs burned onto USB drives that are compatible with My Laptops’ hardware and the current standard LTS Mint edition still ships with Kernel 5.4 that’s fine for most of my older Intel Ivy Bridge/Sandy Bridge, and one first generation, core i series laptops. But that ASUS TUF laptop with the Ryzen 5 3550H APU needs kernel 5.6/later so I use the Mint “Edge” ISOs(My current Mint Live USB’s Using HWE Kernel 5.8) that have the Ubuntu HWE kernels built into that “Edge” ISO by the Mint maintainers(HWE Kernel 5.8 and now HWE Kernel 5.11 for Linux Mint 20.2).

I’m still on Mint 20.1 on my 2 AMD Ryzen APU based devices(Mini PC with Ryzen 3400G and ASUS TUF laptop and Ryzen 3550H, APUs) so the ASUS Tuf, if the GRUB boot ever gets corrupted, well I can have a Linux Live USB handy that was made from a Linux Mint 20.1/HWE Kernel “Edge” ISO that’s got Linux Kernel 5.8 and thus is going to work for that ASUS TUF laptop’s needs should the GRUB Boot ever need fixing on that ASUS laptop.

And really it’s the Mint Maintainers that package the ISOs with whatever upstream Kernel for their Distros(Mint and LMDE) that they are using and thus I’m dependent on the Mini Maintainers for the Mint ISOs(Edge ISOs for the AMD Hardware that I own) anyway. And that ASUS Tuf laptop was released end of Q1 2019 and AMD’s still enabling things for the Zen+ generation APUs that are in my mini PC and laptop. And that Patch that was included with Linux Kernel 5.6/later Kernels is a patch that targets that specific make/model of ASUS TUF laptop and ASUS did not provide that patch some Linux community member did, as ASUS mostly vets its laptops for Windows and not Linux.

 

 

 

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My upgrade to Mint Cinnamon 20.2 “Uma” from 20.1 “Ulyssa” was absolutely painless and took under 10 minutes (not including time reading release notes, new features documents, checking Mint forums, and doing a backup and timeshift).

All my settings and customizations were retained.  Steam and all my games had no issues.

Kernel 5.11 was included, but I was using 5.4 under 20.1, as 5.8 created some issues with gaming, and rolling back was the fix. Since the 5.8 testing, I have made some UEFI changes by disabling some legacy compatibility I set during the initial build and burn-in of the PC. It greatly increased the boot-up speed, even with fast boot disabled. I will re-try the 5.8 kernel, and may try the 5.11 kernel.

After reboot, a check of the update manager showed available updates for some of my desklets. That eliminates manually checking that was needed before, so to me a plus.

PC is a pure Linux build Asus Prime Z390-A MB, with Intel i7-9700K CPU, and nVidia GTX-1660Ti GPU using the 460.80 drivers (465 series proved problematic with Steam). Samsung 970 EVO M.2 1TB boot drive with 32GB RAM. Storage drives are a 1TB Crucial MX-300 SSD and a WD Black 1TB NTFS formatted spinner.

2 users thanked author for this post.

Lars220, Fred

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Is there a HWE Kernel ISO Link and I’m guessing that maybe is Kernel 5.11 instead of the older HWE kernel ISO’s Kernel 5.8? So that’s the Mint 20.2 “Edge” ISO for newer hardware.

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https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=4212

Happy New Year everyone!

Linux Mint 20.3 will be available this week, both as a stable release and as an upgrade. The ISO images are currently going through QA testing. We’ll make separate announcements for the upgrade and for the release as soon as they are available.

I’d like to thank all the people who tested the BETA and helped us identify bugs. Thanks to your feedback we went through 85 reports and were able to address many usability issues.

As always I’d like to thank all of you also who donate to our project and continue to support us financially. Many thanks for being there for us.

I hope you’ll enjoy our latest release and I wish you a very happy new year…

1 user thanked author for this post.

DrBonzo

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Linux Mint 20.3: here is what is new

Release Notes:

https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_una_cinnamon.php
https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_una_mate.php
https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_una_xfce.php

New features :

https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_una_cinnamon_whatsnew.php
https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_una_mate_whatsnew.php
https://www.linuxmint.com/rel_una_xfce_whatsnew.php

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OFFICIAL RELEASE LM 20.3
Linux Mint mirrors have now been populated with the LM20.3 iso’s for Cinnamon, Mate and XFCE and are now available for download: https://linuxmint.com/

Tried it earlier today on a usb live session..not overly impressed, sticking with my current version until 2204 LTS is released

If debian is good enough for NASA...

4 users thanked author for this post.

Bill C., Charlie, Fred, Alex5723

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I was planning to upgrade top Mint Cinnamon 20.3 from 20.2, but if 2204 is coming in April, maybe I will wait, but I generally give a new full release a bit of time to ‘ripen’ before I bite and a point upgrade will get me some tinkering practice.

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20.2 -> 20.3  was swift and okay for me

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I just did the “20.2 Uma to 20.3 Una” upgrade last weekend. First to my small laptop, and a day later to my main PC. Incredibly fast and easy.

Even the laptop which had been unused for 6 months was easy. I updated it to be current and then went to “Una”. Took about 2 hours as that machine has only 4GB of memory and an AMD Turion CPU. The main PC took about 20 minutes.

My last Win10 upgrade of the organizational i7 laptop took about 2-3 hours.

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Linux Mint signs a partnership with Mozilla

Mozilla develops two of the most important software applications in our distribution:

The Firefox Web Browser
The Thunderbird Email and Calendar application..

Firefox will continue to be distributed as .deb packages through the official Linux Mint repositories. Its configuration and the way it is built is changing to make the Linux Mint version of Firefox much more similar (almost identical in fact) to the version which is distributed by Mozilla.

In the past Linux Mint used its own default settings and configured Firefox in a specific way. Most of this configuration is abandoned to go back to Mozilla defaults.

The default start page no longer points to https://www.linuxmint.com/start/
The default search engines no longer include Linux Mint search partners (Yahoo, DuckDuckGo…) but Mozilla search partners (Google, Amazon, Bing, DuckDuckGo, Ebay…)
The default configuration switches from Mint defaults to Mozilla defaults.
Firefox no longer includes code changes or patches from Linux Mint, Debian or Ubuntu…

Another way to look at this partnership :

Linux Mint sells out for Mozilla money — Google becomes default search in Firefox

..Maybe you instead went with Linux Mint because its developers are not beholden to anyone. Well, if that is the case, I have some bad news. You see, Linux Mint has officially sold out! Sadly, the developers of the Ubuntu-based operating system have agreed to accept an undisclosed amount of money from Mozilla in exchange for making significant changes to Linux Mint. This includes removal of modifications to Firefox and a big change for search…

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The author of the betanews article must be desperate to find something to write about.

First, if you don’t like FF, use another browser, there are other 3rd party browsers that run well on Mint.

Second, If you don’t like Google as your search engine, change it.

Third, has he contributed any money to Mint to support it and thereby help ensure it’s viability?

I don’t consider myself to be much of a techie, but even I can install other browsers and set default search engines in them. I’d much rather give money to Mint than MS

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SueW, Bill C., Microfix, Charlie, Fred

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DrBonzo, you are so right,Hear hear,
Pale Moon is a impressive browser to try, in Windows and in Linux

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1 user thanked author for this post.

DrBonzo

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DrBonzo wrote:

but even I can install other browsers and set default search engines in them. I’d much rather give money to Mint than MS

Mint, getting paid by Firefox (which is getting paid by Google) may block overriding Firefox as default browser and any none-Google search as well (see Microsoft’s Edge on Windows11).

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Even if they block a browser and/or search engine as a default, they can’t make me use the browser and/or search engine they have made the default.

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Microfix, Fred

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Linux Cinnamon Mint 20.3 is running good and smooth, as expected.

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Alex5723 wrote:

may block

When that changes to “will block”, let us know.  🙂

cheers, Paul

2 users thanked author for this post.

Microfix, DrBonzo

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Well, if they change to ‘will’, then we shall see if Google will locate the ‘workaround’.

Whenever FF does a version update, I usually do a copy of my old profile and just paste it in and manually edit some files to point to it. That preserves my existing settings and extensions and add-ons.

That was how I duplicated my browsers looks, feel and behavior on all my machines, (2 versions of Linux, and 2 versions of Windows), without doing a sync. Same thing works for Thunderbird.

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I have been watching the FF version updates on both my Windows machines and my Linux Mint machines. I have deliberately NOT done profile changes recently (January 2022 was the last).

None of the FF updates have changed any of my settings vis-a-vis Google or the search engines. I only have DuckDuckGo, Mozilla Support, Google, and Wikipedia, with DDG the default and Google the last in the list. I also never use the Google when logged into any Google app like my GMail, and always log out of Google when done.

I am going to update my main Linux machine from 20.2 “Uma” to to Linux Mint Cinnamon 20.3 “Una” in the next few days and see if that changes any aspect of FF. The 20.1 > 20.2 was very easy.

Personally, I do not believe that Mozilla will restrict browser choice. Especially with the bi-partisan anti-Big Tech monopoly feelings in Legislatures at the Federal and state levels.

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