DistroWatch Weekly |
DistroWatch Weekly, Issue 873, 6 July 2020 |
Welcome to this year's 27th issue of DistroWatch Weekly!
Linux Mint is a widely popular desktop distribution and the project's main edition is based on Ubuntu long-term support releases. The Mint team published a new version, Linux Mint 20, at the end of June and we begin this week with a look at some of the distribution's new features and key characteristics. One feature Mint continues to support, that many distributions are moving away from, is home directory encryption. If you are migrating from a distribution which used directory encryption to one that does not support the feature it may be necessary to rescue your encrypted files. We offer tips on how to perform this rescue in our Tips and Tricks column. Do you use home directory encryption? Let us know in this week's Opinion Poll. In our News section we talk about new improvements coming to the Project Trident system installer and new filesystem & driver support arriving in Haiku. Plus we link to tips on upgrading Ubuntu 19.10 as this version of Canonical's operating system is nearing the end of its supported life. We are also pleased to share the releases of the past week and list the torrents we are seeding. We wish you all a wonderful week and happy reading!
Content:
- Review: Linux Mint 20
- News: Project Trident updates its installer, Haiku improves filesystem support, Ubuntu 19.10 nears its end of life
- Tips and tricks: Rescuing encrypted home directory data
- Released last week: openSUSE 15.2, Tails 4.8, Zenwalk Linux 15.0-200701
- Torrent corner: Arch Linux, CoudReady, GParted Live, IPFire, Linuxfx, KDE neon, openSUSE, Pardus, SolydXk, SystemRescue, Tails, Zenwalk
- Opinion poll: Encrypting home directories
- New distributions: SulinOS, HefftorLinux
- Reader comments
Listen to the Podcast edition of this week's DistroWatch Weekly in OGG (13MB) and MP3 (10MB) formats.
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Feature Story (by Jesse Smith) |
Linux Mint 20
Linux Mint is a desktop distribution which is available in two branches, one based on Debian and the other which uses Ubuntu as its base. The project recently published Linux Mint 20 which is based on Ubuntu 20.04 and promises five years of security updates. The distribution is available in three editions: Cinnamon, MATE, and Xfce. These editions are available for 64-bit (x86_64) computers exclusively and the download for each edition is approximately 2GB in size.
There are a few key new features in Linux Mint 20. One is Warpinator, a simple desktop tool which makes it easy to share files in a peer-to-peer fashion with other computers running Mint on the same local network. Warpinator replaces a past Mint utility called Giver and works much the same way, making sharing files across the network a point and click experience.
This release also features the NVIDIA Prime applet that can be used to switch between using one video card and another. This is helpful when running laptops that have an Intel video card and another from NVIDIA.
The Cinnamon desktop now allows each monitor attached to the computer to have different fractional scaling and this should improve the visual experience on HiDPI screens.
Unlike its parent, Mint does not ship with support for Snap packages. In fact, Deb packages which would normally install Snap bundles (the way Ubuntu's Chromium package does) have been replaced with empty packages. Mint instead supplies Flatpak support for people wishing to run portable package formats.
The project's release notes include a few warnings and workarounds. For instance, we are told that encrypted home directories are available, but may not unmount properly when logging out of the system due to a regression between the ecryptfs software and systemd.
Guest sessions are available, though disabled by default, and can be activated through the Login Window settings module. We are also warned that Chromium web browser packages are not available in the default repositories, but can be found in an add-on repository if the browser is needed.
The live session
Booting from the Cinnamon live media brought up a menu asking if I wanted to start the distribution, launch the distribution in compatibility mode, or perform an OEM install. There is also an option for performing a memory check.
Taking the default live session option brings up the Cinnamon desktop. The desktop's background is mostly black with the Mint logo. A panel along the bottom of the screen houses the application menu to the left and the system tray to the right. Icons on the desktop open the Nemo file manager and launch the system installer.

Linux Mint 20 -- The Cinnamon desktop and application menu
(full image size: 321kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
The application menu is split into three sections. To the far left we find launchers that have been marked as favourites, along with shutdown and logout options. The middle of the menu is home to category names of software, such as Internet and Preferences. To the right of the menu we can see specific launchers for programs in a selected category. At the top of the menu is a search bar which can be used to locate specific launchers by name.
Installing
Mint, like its parent, uses the Ubiquity system installer, a graphical application that makes it very straight forward to install the distribution. We are given the chance to select our preferred language and offered a link to the project's release notes. The installer also guides us through picking our keyboard's layout from a list and the local time zone from a map. One screen asks if we would like to install optional media codecs.
When it comes to disk partitioning Mint's installer offers automated partitioning which can use LVM volumes. ZFS volumes, which are offered by Ubuntu, are not available. Manual partitioning allows us to work with most filesystem types and the manual partitioning tool is quite friendly. The first time I installed Mint I opted to use Btrfs for my operating system's partition in the hopes of using filesystem snapshots. At the end of the install process we are asked to make up a username and password for ourselves and we are given the option of encrypting our user's home directory. Once the installer finishes its work it asks if we would like to return to the live desktop or restart the computer.
Early impressions
When I first started working with Mint I noticed the boot process would display repeated error messages about failing to activate /swapfile. I will come back to this issue later. Mint would successfully boot to a login screen. Signing into my account would bring up a welcome window on the Cinnamon desktop. The welcome screen presents us with five tabs: Welcome, First Steps, Documentation, Help, and Contribute.

Linux Mint 20 -- The welcome window
(full image size: 290kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
The Welcome tab offers us a brief greeting while the Documentation tab provides access to release notes and an overview of new features. The Help tab provides links to the distribution's chat room and forums. The Contribute tab links us to a web page which lists ways people can donate to the distribution or work on helping the project in various ways.
The First Steps page is probably the most interesting as it links to common ways we may wish to customize or set up the operating system. For instance, we can pick a preferred desktop colour scheme and select a light or dark theme. We can also pick a traditional or modern desktop panel. The traditional option displays small icons and window titles in the task switcher while the modern version shows just a large icon for each open window.
The First Steps screen also offers links to create snapshots (through Timeshift), open the driver manager, open the update manager, launch the software manager, open the Cinnamon settings panel, and open the Gufw firewall tool. I tested out these tools and found they each seemed to function well. For instance, the Timeshift tool did make it easy to schedule Btrfs snapshots and it worked well. I like being able to access past versions of the filesystem easily. Timeshift also offers an alternative option where we can copy files using rsync instead of Btrfs, but this approach is much more time consuming and uses a lot more disk space.
The driver manager will search for third-party drivers which may work with our hardware. In my case the driver manager did not find any components on my system that would benefit from alternative drivers.

Linux Mint 20 -- The update manager
(full image size: 268kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
updates
The update manager and software manager I will touch upon later, but for now I can say they worked. The update utility showed me 55 available updates, about 90MB in size. I could optionally select which items to download and all new packages downloaded and were installed without any problems.
The system settings panel is very nicely laid out and easy to navigate. I like that it features a search option to help us find specific configuration toggles. I had no problems when exploring and changing settings, with one exception. The project's release notes mention we can enable a guest account through the settings panel. The login screen options were easy enough to find and turning on the guest account is a simple toggle switch. When I signed out of my account there was no guest sign in option on the login screen. I rebooted and the guest login option appeared. However, trying to sign into the guest account brought up an error message saying the ICEauthority file could not be updated and the session immediately kicked me back to the login screen. This happened repeatedly so it seems that, for all practical purposes, the guest account option does not work.
Hardware
I started my trial with Mint by installing the distribution in a VirtualBox environment. This worked fairly well. Cinnamon can be a little sluggish in a virtual machine, but I think its performance has improved slightly in recent years. Cinnamon these days is not snappy in VirtualBox, but ran well enough to be practical and fairly smooth. One of my few concerns with running Mint in the virtual machine was that the desktop would not dynamically resize with the VirtualBox window. We can, instead, manually adjust Cinnamon's dimensions through the settings panel.

Linux Mint 20 -- The Cinnamon settings panel
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settings
When I switched to running Mint on my laptop the performance was better. The distribution was faster to boot and Cinnamon was more responsive. I would say, on physical hardware, Cinnamon gives average performance, about on par with MATE or KDE Plasma. All of my laptop's hardware was detected and worked properly. I found Mint uses "natural scrolling" (or reversed scrolling) by default on my laptop and this can be changed in the settings panel.
One issue I ran into occasionally was Cinnamon used more of my CPU than expected. When running directly on my laptop, Cinnamon's CPU usage often spiked to 20% when moving or resizing windows. When run in a virtual machine Cinnamon tended to use around 10% CPU when idle and would run consistently between 50%-80% when performing minor tasks like drawing a progress bar or displaying a notification. While the desktop remained responsive during these spikes, it slowed down background tasks, like installing software or browsing the web, whenever animations were displayed on the screen. In summary, I'd recommend Cinnamon for use on physical hardware, but suggest using one of the other editions (MATE or Xfce) when running Mint in a virtual machine.
Mint, when logged into Cinnamon, used about 580MB of memory and 8.5GB of disk space. I found the latter statistic higher than expected and did some looking into it. I found that 1GB of that space was set aside for a swap file, located at /swapfile. However, the swap file was not in use, meaning I had no available swap space. When I tried to activate the swap file the swapon tool reported it was given an invalid argument. Even with the swap file manually formatted for use a swap space, it was not recognized as a valid swap device.
Since I was running Mint on a Btrfs partition and swap files need to be created in a particular way on Btrfs, I later set up a fresh install of Mint on an ext4 filesystem. This time the swap file was created and automatically activated, giving me a gigabyte of swap space out of the box. It seems the swap file only fails to work when combined with Btrfs. In other words, if you plan to use Btrfs as Mint's filesystem, make sure you set up a separate partition for swap.
Applications
Browsing through the application menu I noticed some entries were listed with their name and some with their purpose. For example, HexChat, Rhythmbox, and Transmission show just their names. However, mintBackup is listed as Backup Tool and mintInstall is listed as Software Manager.
Apart from the applications mentioned above, Mint ships with the Firefox browser, the Thunderbird e-mail client, and LibreOffice. There is a calendar application, the Celluloid media player, and a document scanner. The Pix image viewer is included along with an archive manager, system monitor, and the Redshift desktop lighting software.
In the background we find the GNU Compiler Collection, Java, and systemd provides init functionality. The distribution runs on version 5.4 of the Linux kernel.
There are some other interesting programs that add to the Mint experience. For instance, there is a System Reports tool in the system tray. Clicking its icon opens a window that lists potential problems and offers to launch tools to fix them. This can be helpful if you have not yet created a snapshot of your filesystem or are missing out on drivers which would improve performance.

Linux Mint 20 -- The System Reports tool
(full image size: 187kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
reports
The Warpinator tool I've mentioned before and it will automatically try to detect other users who have Warpinator on the network, making it possible to quickly send them files. This is nice as it means we do not need to set up OpenSSH, Samba shares, or cloud storage in order to share files with people in the same house or office.
Software management
There are a few tools included with Mint to help us manage software. In the system tray we find an icon that lets us know when software updates are available. Clicking the icon opens the update manager. The update manager has been streamlined a bit in recent years. It no longer ranks updates based on safety or testing results. Instead all available updates are listed and sorted by whether they are a security update or generic package update. We can select which items we want to upgrade and the manager works smoothly and quickly to download and install the new packages.

Linux Mint 20 -- The software centre
(full image size: 258kB, resolution: 1360x768 pixels)
There are two software managers. The first, mintInstall, is a modern software manager that focuses on desktop software. We can browse categories of software or perform searches for specific items. Each entry is displayed with its name, short description, icon, and a rating. Clicking an entry brings up a full page of information and a screenshot. We can install new software with a click.
The software manager works with both traditional packages and portable Flatpaks, which it pulls from Flathub. Some Flatpak bundles indicate in their name that they are Flatpaks while others only display this information in their full page description. This means if we see multiple entries for items, such as VLC or GIMP, we may want to click the entry to check its repository if we care which type of package we are going to install.
I liked the software manager and found it worked for everything I wanted to do. For people who like working with lower level packages there is Synaptic, a classic package manager. The Synaptic utility lists all available Deb packages and performs both installs and removals quickly.
Both graphical tools worked well for me. Should we want to work from the command line, the APT package manager and Flatpak command line tool are both present.

Linux Mint 20 -- Installing a Flatpak from the command line
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Conclusions
Linux Mint has, in my opinion, a well deserved reputation for providing a friendly, capable, practical desktop operating system. The project takes the best parts of Ubuntu (hardware support, user friendliness, a huge collection of software) and works around some of its issues. Cinnamon requires about half as much memory as GNOME and looks more familiar to people migrating from Windows. Flatpaks are more portable and widely used than Snaps, and Mint wisely avoids installing Snap packages people wish to avoid.
Meanwhile Mint also provides a lot of useful tools like Warpinator, System Reports, and a simple backup utility. I also really like the Timeshift integration with Btrfs for people who want to snapshot their filesystem.
This release had a few rough edges. The swap file does not work with Btrfs and given that Btrfs is needed to take full advantage of the Timeshift tool this seems like an unfortunate oversight. Also the release notes mention how to enable the guest account, but the guest account did not work for me.
All in all, Linux Mint 20 is a solid operating system. It has lots of features, a good look, lots of polished tools, and a very useful welcome window. There are a few rough patches, but these probably won't affect a lot of people and will likely be fixed in version 20.1 In general, I'd recommend Mint, especially to people coming to Windows and trying out Linux for the first time.
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Hardware used in this review
My physical test equipment for this review was a de-branded HP laptop with the following
specifications:
- Processor: Intel i3 2.5GHz CPU
- Display: Intel integrated video
- Storage: Western Digital 700GB hard drive
- Memory: 6GB of RAM
- Wired network device: Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast
- Wireless network device: Realtek RTL8188EE Wireless network card
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Visitor supplied rating
Linux Mint has a visitor supplied average rating of: 8.8/10 from 784 review(s).
Have you used Linux Mint? You can leave your own review of the project on our ratings page.
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Miscellaneous News (by Jesse Smith) |
Project Trident updates its installer, Haiku improves filesystem support, Ubuntu 19.10 nears its end of life
The Project Trident team has published a new update. Though no new media has been published, the current update will provide a new installer which can be run after the existing net-install media boots. "The 20.06 updates for the Project Trident packages, as well as an updated version of the installer routine are now available! This can be used by selecting the 'release/20.06' version of the install script when prompted in the installer. Note that the net-install ISO has not been changed. There is simply a new version of the installer routine available for it to bootstrap and use. Main Changes: Switch to using the new trident-base package for basic package dependencies instead of the base-system package from Void Linux. Switch to manually setting up the default UEFI boot option rather than the default setup from the rEFInd package. This fixes all the issues with UEFI booting that we could find on various systems. Leaves a bit more space on the end of the drive when doing the partitioning. Remove the special nvidia-modeset boot option. No longer needed. Cleanup some of the initial configuration for zfsbootmenu." Additional changes to Project Trident can be found in the project's blog post.
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Since the release of Haiku R1 Beta 2 last month the project has been hard at work adding new features. In particular there have been improvements to drivers and filesystem support. "Kyle Ambroff-Kao continues his work on improving our unit tests, fixing some remaining problems with handling of symlinks. The ext2 driver now properly report the filesystem name as ext2, 3 or 4 depending on which disk is mounted. This does not change the behavior, but avoids some confusion as previously it always said ext2. We have a single driver for all 3 versions of the filesystem as they are in fact quite similar and share a very large part of the code. The work on XFS and UFS2 from our GSoC students is also being merged, with initial work towards listing the content of the root directory in progress." Further details can be found in the project's activity report.
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Iain Lane has announced that Ubuntu 19.10 is nearing the end of its supported life. After July 17, 2020 the 19.10 release will no longer receive security fixes. "Ubuntu announced its 19.10 (Eoan Ermine) release almost 9 months ago, on October 17, 2019, and its support period is now nearing its
end. Ubuntu 19.10 will reach end of life on Friday, July 17 2020. At that time, Ubuntu Security Notices will no longer include information or updated packages for Ubuntu 19.10. The supported upgrade path from Ubuntu 19.10 is via Ubuntu 20.04." Tips on upgrading to a newer version of the distribution can be found in the Ubuntu documentation.
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These and other news stories can be found on our Headlines page.
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Tips and Tricks (by Jesse Smith) |
Rescuing encrypted home directory data
A little while ago I was upgrading a Debian-based distribution that had been running on one of my laptops. The installation of the new version was, for the most part, pleasantly smooth and I soon had a fresh copy of my distribution with up to date software. However, when I went to login for the first time I noticed all of my data and configuration files were missing from my account. Since I had not formatted the laptop's /home partition I was curious where those files had gone.
That was when it occurred to me: my home directory had been encrypted under the older version of the distribution. I did some digging and soon found my /home directory contained a hidden sub-directory called .ecryptfs where all my files were still being held in encrypted form. This was good news, my files were still in place and I should not need to retrieve hundreds of gigabytes of data from my backup server over the network (a time-consuming process at the best of times). All I would need to do was make sure the ecryptfs-utils package was installed and use its tools to mount and access my files. Then I learned the bad news: Debian dropped the ecryptfs-utils package in version 10, meaning it was not available in my distribution's repositories.
At this point I had a few options. I could restore my files from the backup server, which would be reliable and time-consuming. I could re-install the older version of the distribution and access my files locally, which should work well but would leave me with an out of date operating system once more. I had the option of downloading the ecryptfs-utils source code and building it myself, which was likely to be time consuming, but should grant me access to the files on my new distribution. I could try to "rescue" the files from their encrypted form and then continue running the latest version of my distribution which would take an unknown amount of time, but leave me running my new system. I decided the final option would be the most engaging approach and decided to recover my encrypted files.
The first thing I decided to do was download a distribution that was based on Debian 9, since that would give me easy access to the ecryptfs-utils package. I opted to download MX Linux 17.1, though any distribution with the ecryptfs utilities in its repositories would have worked.
Once I had booted from the MX 17.1 live media and connected to the network, I then had to perform a handful of steps.
- Install the ecryptfs-utils package.
- Mount my computer's home partition.
- Access the encrypted volume, mounting it somewhere.
- Copy the files from the encrypted mount point to my new home directory.
Installing the ecryptfs-utils package was straight forward and could be accomplished with just two commands:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install ecryptfs-utils
With the software installed on my live copy of MX Linux, I was then free to mount my home partition. In my case the partition was the third one on my local drive, giving it the name /dev/sda3. I could confirm this by running the lsblk command to get a list of all the attached drives and their partitions. I then mounted my home partition under the /media directory:
sudo mount /dev/sda3 /media
My encrypted files were then stored under the /media/.ecryptfs/jesse directory. They could be accessed by running a command from the ecryptfs-utils package called ecryptfs-recover-private. The command accepts the location of a hidden, private directory. In my case, the following command mounted the encrypted volume for access:
ecryptfs-recover-private /media/.ecryptfs/jesse/.Private
I was prompted for my login password, the one I had used to access my account before performing my operating system upgrade. When the command completed successfully it told me my files were available under the /tmp directory, specifically in /tmp/ecryptfs.dec0deabc. I could now copy the files from that temporary location into my normal home directory, which was stored under /media in this case.
From there it was a matter of running a copy or synchronization command to transfer all my encrypted files to their new home:
rsync -av /tmp/ecryptfs.dec0deabc/ /media/jesse/
When this long copy job finally finished and I had confirmed my files were all back in my new home directory, I unmounted the volumes:
sudo umount /tmp/ecryptfs.dec0deabc
sudo umount /media
After these steps were completed I restarted the computer and went back to enjoying having all my usual files in my home directory in my new, Debian 10-based distribution. As a number of distributions, such as Debian and Ubuntu have phased out home directory encryption in favour of full disk encryption, I suspect this steps to recover encrypted directories will be increasingly useful over time.
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Additional tips can be found in our Tips and Tricks archive.
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Released Last Week |
Tails 4.8
Tails (The Amnesic Incognito Live System) is a Debian-based live DVD/USB with the goal of providing complete Internet anonymity for the user. The project's latest release, Tails 4.8, focuses on security updates. "Tails 4.8 is out. This release fixes many security vulnerabilities. You should upgrade as soon as possible. We disabled the Unsafe Browser by default and clarified that the Unsafe Browser can be used to de-anonymize you. An attacker could exploit a security vulnerability in another application in Tails to start an invisible Unsafe Browser and reveal your IP address, even if you are not using the Unsafe Browser. For example, an attacker could exploit a security vulnerability in Thunderbird by sending you a phishing email that could start an invisible Unsafe Browser and reveal them your IP address. Such an attack is very unlikely but could be performed by a strong attacker, such as a government or a hacking firm. This is why we recommend that you: only enable the Unsafe Browser if you need to log in to a captive portal; always upgrade to the latest version of Tails to fix known vulnerabilities as soon as possible." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.
openSUSE 15.2
The openSUSE team have announced the release of openSUSE 15.2. Th new release updates desktop packages, improves detection of other operating systems at install time, and includes a number of new container and machine learning tools. "Several exciting Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning packages are added in Leap 15.2. Tensorflow: A framework for deep learning that can be used by data scientists, provide numerical computations and data-flow graphs. Its flexible architecture enables users to deploy computations to one or more CPUs in a desktop, server, or mobile device without rewriting code. PyTorch: Made for both server and compute resources, this machine learning library accelerates power users' ability to prototype a project and move it to a production deployment. ONNX: An open format built to represent machine learning models, provides interoperability in the AI tool space. It enables AI developers to use models with a variety of frameworks, tools, runtimes, and compilers." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement and in the wiki.

openSUSE 15.2 -- Running the KDE Plasma desktop
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Zenwalk Linux 15.0-200701
Zenwalk Linux is a Slackware Linux-based, desktop-origented distribution. The project's latest release provides users with the Xfce 4.14 desktop and Flatpak support. PAM support, imported from Slackware's development branch, is available available. "Once a year, Zenwalk Current is considered stable enough for a "milestone" release, here's Zenwalk 15 milestone 2020. Based on Slackware Current July 2020, Zenwalk 15 milestone 2020 is fully compatible. As usual, the goal is to provide fast simple setup, refined desktop, selection of the best apps, ease of use, with full respect of the Slackware philosophy. The news items are: New Xfce desktop based on the latest Xfce 4.14+ with many tweaks providing the widest possible workspace for modern full HD displays. Introduction of Flatpak support for installing any application from Flathub or GNOME Desktop. New rewritten Netpkg package manager for instant access to thousand of packages from the Slackware community, and keep the system up to date with one liner command. PAM authentication system thanks to upstream. Kernel 5.4.50...." Further details can be found in the project's release announcement.
GParted Live 1.1.0-3
Curtis Gedak has announced the release of GParted Live 1.1.0-3, an updated build of the project's specialist live CD/USB image that ships with an assortment of disk management and data rescue utilities, all compiled from software present in Debian's "unstable" branch: "The GParted team is pleased to announce a new stable release of GParted Live. This release includes GParted 1.1.0, updated packages and other improvements. Items of note include: based on the Debian 'Sid' repository as of 2020-07-01; Linux kernel updated to 5.7.6; fixed issue #94 - Netsurf browser crashes on some websites. This release of GParted Live has been successfully tested on VirtualBox, VMware, BIOS, UEFI and physical computers with AMD/ATI, NVIDIA and Intel graphics. Note that the default boot options does not display an X Desktop on old Acer Aspire laptops. The workaround is to select 'Other modes' of GParted Live and choose 'GParted Live (Safe graphics setting, vga-normal)'." Here is the brief release announcement.
SolydXK 10.4
SolydXK is a Debian-based distribution that offers two main editions: KDE and Xfce. The project's latest release is SolydXK 10.4 which is based on Debian 10.4 "Buster" and offers improved privacy settings for the web browser. The release announcement reports: "The SolydXK Team has worked long and hard to create the next point release based on Debian Buster. Highlights: Based on Debian Buster 10.4 release with the latest kernel version 4.19. usr directories have been merged where the /{bin,sbin,lib}/ directories become symbolic links to /usr/{bin,sbin,lib}/. More info on the subject. Many bugs were resolved and we changed the SolydXK Firefox settings even further to improve user privacy. This is done in the firefox-solydxk-adjustments package which can be purged if you don't need it."
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Development, unannounced and minor bug-fix releases
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Torrent Corner |
Weekly Torrents
The table below provides a list of torrents DistroWatch is currently seeding. If you do not have a bittorrent client capable of handling the linked files, we suggest installing either the Transmission or KTorrent bittorrent clients.
Archives of our previously seeded torrents may be found in our Torrent Archive. We also maintain a Torrents RSS feed for people who wish to have open source torrents delivered to them. To share your own open source torrents of Linux and BSD projects, please visit our Upload Torrents page.
Torrent Corner statistics:
- Total torrents seeded: 2,054
- Total data uploaded: 32.5TB
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Upcoming Releases and Announcements |
Summary of expected upcoming releases
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Opinion Poll (by Jesse Smith) |
Encrypting home directories
In our Tips and Tricks column we talked about encrypted home directories and recovering files from past encrypted directories. We would like to hear how many of our readers use encrypted home directories and how many use fully encrypted disks or partitions.
You can see the results of our previous poll on filesystem layouts in last week's edition. All previous poll results can be found in our poll archives.
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Encrypted home directories
I encrypt my home directory: | 75 (6%) |
I encrypt my whole partition/disk: | 229 (17%) |
I use encrypted file vaults: | 108 (8%) |
I do not use storage encryption: | 921 (69%) |
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Website News (by Jesse Smith) |
Distributions added to waiting list
- SulinOS. SulinOS is an independent, systemd-free, general purpose operating system based on the Linux kernel and glibc. SulinOS aims to be simple, compact and safe. It can be used on desktops, servers and embedded devices. It uses it's own package manager called inary and OpenRC to manage services.
- HefftorLinux. HefftorLinux is a rolling release distribution which provides a series of desktop editions based on ArcoLinux.
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DistroWatch database summary
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This concludes this week's issue of DistroWatch Weekly. The next instalment will be published on Monday, 13 July 2020. Past articles and reviews can be found through our Article Search page. To contact the authors please send e-mail to:
- Jesse Smith (feedback, questions and suggestions: distribution reviews/submissions, questions and answers, tips and tricks)
- Ladislav Bodnar (feedback, questions, donations, comments)
- Bruce Patterson (podcast)
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Extended Lifecycle Support by TuxCare |
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Reader Comments • Jump to last comment |
1 • Warpinator (by brad on 2020-07-06 00:29:31 GMT from United States)
Well, at least I got a better explanation of Warpinator here than from the LM developers - seems as though you need two computers, both running Warpinator, in order for files to be shared.
Excuse my ignorance, but how is this very much different from client/server models? Sure, it's "easier to set up", but I'm disappointed - Clem and crew made it seem like magic!
: - )
2 • Re Zenwalk (by Newby on 2020-07-06 00:40:22 GMT from Canada)
For anyone attempting to download the Zenwalk iso, note the following: The header on this page mentions 15.0-200701 The release announcement on this page links to 150-milestone-2020-07-02 The latest, and probably the one you actually want at this date is 2020-07-03 By the time you read this, it could change again, but Zenwalk tends to be one of the more stable distros, and chances are that last one should be relevant for a little while. Anyway, check the available releases before downloading.
For anyone considering looking at this, Zenwalk is based on Slackware, but focuses on the desktop. Package selections have tended to be conservative and useful, rather than bleeding edge, and throwing in the kitchen sink. For anyone wanting a stable general-purpose desktop to just get some work done, this is a good choice.
Other Slack based distros would include Salix and Absolute. Slackel might be Slackware based (haven't tried that one). Think Vector might have been slack based at one point; might be "dormant" now?
3 • Re: Slackware-based distros (by eco2geek on 2020-07-06 01:07:30 GMT from United States)
@2 - Vector was _always_ based on Slackware AFAIK. Yes, it's dormant. The last release was in August, 2017.
Yes, Slackel is Slackware-based.
(See that "Type Distribution Name" box at the top of the page? Typing "Vector" and "Slackel" in there and pressing "Go" will give you this information - and more - about those distros. It's very handy when researching Linux distros.)
4 • encrypted home (by MikeOh Shark on 2020-07-06 01:17:39 GMT from Germany)
I have a laptop and it is portable, hence the simple precaution of encrypting it.
I am curious what other laptop users do if they don't encrypt /home at minimum.
5 • encryption (by vern on 2020-07-06 01:20:41 GMT from United States)
I do not use storage encryption, nor will I ever, hopefully. When systemd-home comes around, I hope I can avoid its encryption of home.
Jesse's experience of encryption and Debian's inexcusable reason for dropping it. They should have known people would be still using it. What if those folks didn't have the expertise as Jesse has.
6 • Encryption for sensitive information only, not for whole partition or whole disk (by LiuYan on 2020-07-06 02:07:25 GMT from China)
I actually DO use whole partition/disk encryption, but not on a real disk.
I created a normal file, then treat this file a whole disk, and build an encrypted file system on it. Currently I use LUKS encryption.
7 • Encryption? No No No (by dhoni on 2020-07-06 02:28:13 GMT from Indonesia)
As i distro hopping alot on linux, encryption is pain in the A55....
8 • Encryption (by DaveW on 2020-07-06 02:37:37 GMT from United States)
I created a partition for my sensitive information, and encrypted that partition with VeraCrypt. Made a backup by copying the partition. Keep the backup current by mounting both partitions, then sync with rsync. Works for me.
9 • Mint 20 Encrypted /home (by shaky on 2020-07-06 02:46:03 GMT from Canada)
“but may not unmount properly when logging out of the system due to a regression between the ecryptfs software and systemd.”
Once again systemd causing more issues than it is worth. What a joke. Hope after doing away with snap they will ditch systemd next!
10 • I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week... (by Welch B on 2020-07-06 03:06:17 GMT from France)
Here: Dual-booting Qubes and Debian Sid with Encrypted SSD I followed: https://micahflee.com/2014/04/dual-booting-qubes-and-ubuntu-with-encrypted-disks/
11 • Encryption (by TheTKS on 2020-07-06 03:18:39 GMT from Canada)
Voted whole disk encryption, but in fact I do that with some of my installed OSs and no encryption with others.
I have also used file vaults.
Veracrypt sounds like something I should look into, as I have been thinking about encrypting other installed OS /home or at least data partitions.
TKS
12 • encfs for encryption (by tsultana on 2020-07-06 03:48:33 GMT from United States)
I still use encfs fuse encryption with paranoia settings on my important folder. With Sirikali as the UI it is convenient and only open when I need it.
13 • Timeshift (by Julian on 2020-07-06 05:36:40 GMT from Greece)
"given that Btrfs is needed to take full advantage of the Timeshift tool" I use Timeshift with a standard ext4 partition and everything works fine. I do not see any need for Btrfs.
14 • Subject (mandatory) (by Name (mandatory) on 2020-07-06 06:30:23 GMT from United States)
OnionShare is superior to Warpinator.
15 • onionshare (by manda tory on 2020-07-06 06:43:07 GMT from New Zealand)
@14 - onionshare seems like a military grade solution designed for global networking, where warpinator is within your home wifi/LAN. I had set up some testing when Mint 20 beta arrived and was quite impressed. Of course for now its limited to Mint to Mint. Something like the Arches (Manjaro) may have it in the AUR - I have not checked. Warpinator (for simplicity and security) only works locally, to the extent that with my home wifi, which is split into two IDs, Warpinator will work on only one leg, not even acroos the two. In many ways i really like this as the chances of it getting hijacked from outside are practically nil. Unlike a global open tool running on an agency intereset attracting platform like onion nodes... called onionshare. Onionshare certainly has its place as the intro story on their website describes. My 10c, YMMV.
16 • warpinator (by peer on 2020-07-06 08:26:53 GMT from Netherlands)
I use ssh for transferring files from pc to pc/smartphone on my network. Why shouldI use warpinator???
17 • @15 - Warpinator for Arch (Manjaro) (by brad on 2020-07-06 09:38:01 GMT from United States)
Looked for it in Manjaro and AUR - not there (yet?)
Still, for home use, I find a USB key and SneakerNet suffices...
18 • Re Zenwalk (by Hyperion on 2020-07-06 09:49:57 GMT from France)
@2 : indeed there have been some confusion with ISO images, sorry for that : the milestone release is the "3a". Download URLs have been fixed on Distrowatch (thanks Jesse), and a new torrent has been posted on https://linuxtracker.org (fcadf507f53372fe2ce24c44934dda3f6dbae2d1)
19 • disk encryption (by Arnheld on 2020-07-06 10:16:57 GMT from Poland)
Nearly full-disk encryption (excluding /boot), including swap. (LVM on LUKS). + Tomb (https://www.dyne.org/software/tomb/) for other secure stuff.
20 • Disk encryption (by Francesco Turco on 2020-07-06 10:53:14 GMT from Italy)
I encrypt all partitions on my disks with LUKS. The only exception is the /boot partition.
21 • Encrypted Home Directory (by Tony C on 2020-07-06 11:09:51 GMT from Australia)
I changed from Open Suse to Mint some months ago because I couldn't update Open Suse beyond version 42 without doing away with my encrypted home directory. The capability of an encrypted home directory was the prime consideration when I came to selecting another distro and its easy to do with Mint.
22 • snaps and flatpaks (by auctex on 2020-07-06 12:41:45 GMT from Spain)
I really don't get why praising flatpaks and demonizing snaps and everything from Canonical, for that matter. I also don't get why mint is biting the hand that feeds them. I don't understand the reference in the review to people not wanting to install snaps, I would find that hard to believe. If anything, the amount of available software in the Ubuntu store is something great, and it's great that Canonical makes it available in all major distributions. I think this is all about the big guy, Red Hat, bullying the small guy, Canonical.
23 • encryption of storage (by Otis on 2020-07-06 13:30:44 GMT from United States)
Tried once for the heck of it. As a choice during install of a distro the name of which I have long forgotten. Something bad happened. I don't know what but I do remember using a disc with another distro on it to walk away from the bad one and never looked back.
No need for much secrecy here; I don't use my computer to bank or buy or look at illegal things, so as far as I'm concerned anybody who wants to see my files is welcome. Don't argue with me, I'm happy being open and free with my computer and not doing stupid things to attract scammers or perverts or whatever.
24 • Timeshift (by Jesse on 2020-07-06 14:01:53 GMT from Canada)
>> "given that Btrfs is needed to take full advantage of the Timeshift tool"
>> "I use Timeshift with a standard ext4 partition and everything works fine. I do not see any need for Btrfs."
If you're using ext4 with Timeshift then you're not getting snapshots, you're using rsync to make copies of data. This is incredibly slow and cumbersome. It also means you are using at least twice as much disk space.
With Btrfs snapshots happen instantly, you can store dozens of snapshots while using hardly any disk space, and your snapshots can span multiple storage volumes.
25 • Timeshift w/ rsync (by Ankleface Wroughlandmire on 2020-07-06 14:04:54 GMT from Ecuador)
Doesn't Timeshift w/ rsync still dedupe the files in the snapshots?
26 • Timeshift (by Jesse on 2020-07-06 14:24:12 GMT from Canada)
>> "Doesn't Timeshift w/ rsync still dedupe the files in the snapshots?"
Not exactly. Timeshift shares common files between multiple rsync snapshots using hard links, but that only helps when you have multiple snapshots. You'll still end up using at least double the disk space of your original data to create the first rsync snapshot.
If you were to try using deduplication or hard links on the first snapshot to avoid using as much space then you'd really only have one copy of the file on an ext4 system and any changes to the file could not be restored/reverted.
27 • Snap, Flatpak, and encryption. (by Friar Tux on 2020-07-06 14:26:17 GMT from Canada)
I voted 'No Encryption'. It is fraught with way too many issues. Anyone that wants to steal my laptop will first have to log in. (Good Luck with that.) Also, I don't actually use my laptop for anything 'questionable' so even IF I was at the library and IF I left it on, and IF someone nicked it... As for the whole Flatpak/Snap kerfuffle, I use AppImage. It has a much smaller footprint and works quite nicely. (Not sure why Flatpak or Snap are even a thing considering AppImage has been around awhile. Must be a Linux thing - have two or three wheels invented, just in case. (Take a peek here for a comparison >> https://linuxhint.com/snap_vs_flatpak_vs_appimage/) Finally, regarding Warpinator, while I think it's a great idea, it's still too early and primitive. Right now, it's just as easy to use a USB key to transfer files within my home. (Actually, the six laptops in my home all have Bluetooth built in and can find each other quite nicely. Works great for large folder transfers.)
28 • *mind boggles* (by CS on 2020-07-06 14:29:11 GMT from United States)
70% of voters don't encrypt their data? The overhead is barely noticeable on modern hardware so the benefits far outweigh the costs.
29 • encryption? (by Jeff on 2020-07-06 14:38:23 GMT from United States)
This is why I don't bother:
https://xkcd.com/538/
30 • Encryption (by user15 on 2020-07-06 14:43:15 GMT from Spain)
@27. If someone steals or access to your PC, he won't need to log in to access to your files, he will just need a linux live USB and start a llive session. This person will access to all your files.
In my opinion encrypting, at least, your home directory is a must. Specially if you are using a laptop. The only problem (in case you encrypt your home directory) is that it will take a bit longer (a few seconds) to boot your system... That is a fair price to pay in order to keep your info safe.
31 • Home encryption (by Tim on 2020-07-06 14:49:57 GMT from United States)
I do not use encrypted storage. My systems are always at home (very slight pun), so I have no reason to. However, I used to work in the financial industry, and our notebooks were required to use encryption. Mostly, this just caused tons of problems. I only recall one incident over many years where encryption helped - an employee's notebook was stolen in an airport. Possibly, that was worth it for all the problems it caused for users and the support time it took to help them. (Of course, in a financial corporation, most of the users are not especially technically savvy.)
32 • qweborf instead of Warpinator (by Ram on 2020-07-06 14:54:38 GMT from India)
+ Well, for Mint user-base, Warpinator is a good initiative.
For me weborf or it's Qt based interface is ok if using Ubuntu based distro, for others there are other similar on-demand micro web servers available like python inbuilt web server etc.
It's useful for not only file sharing but also webpage testing in micro scale. Presently it also support port & interface selection, LAN/WAN restriction, authentication by username-password, SSL, WebDAV, although I haven't tested all of these features yet. +
33 • @26 (by Ankleface Wroughlandmire on 2020-07-06 15:03:52 GMT from Ecuador)
> You'll still end up using at least double the disk space of your original data to create the first rsync snapshot.
Ah, right, of course. Thanks for the clarification.
34 • saving encryptfs home folder files (by dolphin oracle on 2020-07-06 15:23:35 GMT from United States)
That is a very useful set of instructions for salvaging encyrptfs folders, thanks!
35 • Mint 20 and encryption (by hotdiggettydog on 2020-07-06 15:41:10 GMT from Canada)
Loving Mint 20 cinnamin. Hidpi and fractional scaling work a charm on my high resolution Dell laptop. I have not used Mint for a few years and am quite impressed with this new release.
I use Veracrypt containers for most of my encryption needs. I can store them, move them to other machines, and access them with veracrypt most anywhere. Veracrypt is reliable and trustworthy.
I found Cryptkeeper very handy but abandoned it when found unsafe. Not sure if it was ever fixed.
36 • What's wrong with LM code names? (by MK on 2020-07-06 16:22:35 GMT from Israel)
I don't really care about LM. One reason is, IMHO, a distro with kernel updates is better then without. Another, the code names. Women names. No offense, but why would I ever use something named Ulyana or Tessa or Sonya? Add a few more, like Aisha and Fatma, and it starts to resemble a harem. No, thank you. It might be a French thing, as every time another Gloria or Barbara is released, I am reminded of the battle of Bien Diem Phu in Northen Vietnam in 1954. The French had strongholds named ... Anne-Marie, Beatrice, Claudine, Dominique, Eliane, Gabrielle, Hugguette and Isabelle. You can look it up and find out what happened.
37 • Swapfiles and BtrFS (by Pikolo on 2020-07-06 16:32:35 GMT from United Kingdom)
Swapfiles work on BtrFS, but they need to be mounted on a subolvume that doesn't use snapshots. It's disappointing Linux Mint doesn't set this up by default, but if you want quick snapshots and a swapfile, look at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Btrfs#Swap_file
38 • Encyption (by Friar Tux on 2020-07-06 17:47:30 GMT from Canada)
@30 (user15) I'll have to disagree. Encryption, as I mentioned in my comment, is fraught with too many issues to make it worth my time. To me, even the time Jesse spent dealing with his encryption issues would make me scrap it. I see it worthwhile in a big corporation as mentioned by @31 (Tim), but not for 'home' use. @36 (MK) Interesting opinion. Me, I'm Canadian and like the 'women's names'. Do you also not like Siri, Cortana, or Alexa? I wonder if it's a cultural thing. I knew someone a few years ago the didn't like certain names, either, and it was a cultural issue. Something about certain sounds being a bad omen. Interesting.
39 • Encryption (by Cheker on 2020-07-06 21:21:06 GMT from Portugal)
I use encrypted containers for what matters. Encrypting the whole disk sounds like something I would've done...after buying the computers. But now they all have at least two OS and I don't feel like it, what's not in containers isn't that important in the grand scheme of things.
40 • @36, LM code names (by Angel on 2020-07-07 02:44:56 GMT from Philippines)
I understand that people like or dislike certain distros, but the reasons given make me scratch my head sometimes.
Kernels: I run kernels from 4.12 to 5.7 and could not tell the difference unless I ask. (uname -r) Unless it improves driver or software performance on your hardware, it makes little or no difference what kernel, as long as security updates are current. Linux Mint runs the same kernels as Ubuntu LTS, (5.4) You may or may not update kernels as you wish. If you want more, you can install from the Ubuntu mainline PPA directly or with a tool called "Mainline."
As far as naming, female names seem a lot more pleasant than things like Avaricious Aardvark or Petulant Platypus. MX19 is Patito Feo (Ugly Duckling) but that is self-deprecating and it does fit. The weird names don't keep me away from Ubuntu, not the women's names from Mint. I refer to them as Mint 20 or Ubuntu 20.04 in any case. If you feel the male gender is slighted, maybe you should suggest the alternate. Maybe: Marsha, John.
You must be really older generation to be reminded a 66-year-old battle. And by the way, the name is Dien Vien (or Bien) Phu. French are welcome there today as long as they bring money, unless they are named Jacques and Brigitte. :)
41 • encryption (by Lurker on 2020-07-07 07:07:22 GMT from Philippines)
I don't encrypt anything on my laptop (main device used). I frequently hop from distro to distro and reinstall my OS for one reason or another. I used to encrypt, but doing so once cost me all my personal files after a kernel upgrade because the system somehow botched the key file(?) and my passphrase wasn't taken. Had to do a quick reformat of the drive and use a tedious undelete utility to recover things. Never again. Encryption is necessary for other people and it works for them, but not for me.
42 • encryption and backup (by peer on 2020-07-07 09:05:40 GMT from Netherlands)
How do I backup an encrypted home directory???
43 • @42 (by denPes on 2020-07-07 11:10:41 GMT from Belgium)
"How do I backup an encrypted home directory???"
Depends what encryption you use. But if you use luks encryption, which has been the standard on linux for a while, it is pretty easy to backup.
basically with luks encryption the system will open your encrypted partition during the boot process, when it asks you for the password. After it is opened, it is no longer encrypted for the user. In other words, you can just backup it as you would normally do with any directory.
Most negative comments here on encryption, like comment #38, are either because they have used stuff like encfs, which imo sucks, or because they have never setup luks encryption manually, and therefore it feels like some blackbox to them. While the process is very simple and transparant. Pretty much all distro's support luks, so therefore opening the container from another distro is not a problem.
Without encryption, losing your laptop or pc (due to theft or or other reason) could a big problem. With encryption you would only lose your hardware. So encryption of at least /home is a no-brainer for me.
44 • Frequent Backups Are Important (by Neo's cat on 2020-07-07 12:24:56 GMT from Ukraine)
@ 41:
> I used to encrypt, but doing so once cost me all my personal files after a kernel upgrade because the system somehow botched the key file(?) and my passphrase wasn't taken.
This is a great example of why, if you value your data, encrypted or not, you perform frequent *backups*. You can't blame encryption on this one, mate.
45 • Encfs & luks (by Friar Tux on 2020-07-07 18:20:27 GMT from Canada)
@43 (denPes) Actually, I've used neither encfs nor luks, nor any other encryption software. I research all the stuff that goes on my computer BEFORE I load it on. Both the good AND the bad. If I think the bad out-weighs the good, I don't use it. This has saved me a lot of headaches that I see others having.
46 • @38 FriarTux: (by dragonmouth on 2020-07-07 20:54:14 GMT from United States)
"Do you also not like Siri, Cortana, or Alexa? " I have no objections to the names but I do have objections to the applications. :-)
47 • encryption (by dragonmouth on 2020-07-07 21:08:31 GMT from United States)
@28: "The overhead is barely noticeable on modern hardware" The day to day overhead may be "barely noticeable". However, when you have to recover a borked encrypted partition or disk, the overhead becomes very noticeable all of a sudden.
@30: "In my opinion encrypting, at least, your home directory is a must" Only if you keep the plans for the next uprising or for a suitcase nuclear device on it. :-) Anybody/everybody is welcome to the garbage that I keep in my /home.
48 • Linux Mint 20 (by Roger on 2020-07-07 22:13:11 GMT from Belgium)
Linux Mint 20 Mate, works like I expected simply good like always when using Mint Mate. The only problem I had was on one PC the driver for Realtek network. Circumvented that by placing a Intel PCI network card and ready, the correct driver will come and I do not bother myself with it now. Maybe I simply leave that card in there, all the other PC and laptop work fine. Using Mint now for eleven years on a lot of PC and laptop, I think I installed it more than a thousand times in that time.
49 • Encryption (by Joe Blogs on 2020-07-08 01:57:07 GMT from New Zealand)
I generally don't encrypt my home directory or drive. Mostly because I just haven't felt the need for it. Which means I haven't really investigated using luks (which is what I would use if I was to encrypt my drive or home directory)
50 • @48 Linux Mint 20 (by Titus_Groan on 2020-07-08 02:03:26 GMT from New Zealand)
unless you have 90 units on the network, installing LM 1000x over eleven years is not a record I would be envious of. I doubt I re-installed Win95 that many times, but enough times to remember a Microsoft Win95 product key to this day.
I much prefer install x1, and thats it. (I have maybe a dozen computers on Linux, and my daily driver laptop install was in 2014) on-line upgrades have yet to fail, but you do need take the necessary precautions.
re: feature story:
again, it seems like Linux Mint over promised and under delivered. swap failure on BTRFS is something that should have been picked up in pre-release testing.
Guest session not working, again, should have been picked up.
virtual box performance, both speed and screen sizing, should have been addressed.
Not surprisingly, as it seems that LM is still seeming to behave like "Ubuntu released 2 month ago, lets get this thing out the door" .
51 • Encryption, no and yes. (by Angel on 2020-07-08 02:16:11 GMT from Philippines)
No, I don't encrypt home or hard disk. I'm not much of a ratpack, and I am meticulous about keeping sensitive or important data in external storage or in the cloud. All that resides in my home partitions is temporary and harmless.
On the other hand, after many years running a PC service business, I've seen enough of other people's computers, and most would probably benefit from some privacy measures, even if not to protect trade/political secrets and such. Not talking black helicopters here, just maybe avoiding having videos of user and girlfriend on FaceBook or PornHub, or even divorce court. Also, in these days of ubiquitous social media, it may not do to have something written or said and forgotten be displayed online for all to see. People lose jobs and/or reputations often over such things.
Of course, if one is giving technicians access, encrypting hard drive or home partitions won't help any, so maybe better to have other directories or partitions with their own keys or passwords.
52 • LM 20 (by Rick on 2020-07-08 12:03:45 GMT from United States)
It is hard to believe after all these years that Mint does not have a failsafe method for upgrading from one major release to the next without having to do a fresh install. Ubuntu has had something like that for years. Why doesn't Mint? Like Titus Groan stated above, the last install he did was in 2014. You should only have to install Mint once and then all other installs should be automatic upgrades without having to start all over from scratch. It's very time consuming. A fresh install with all my needed data files and programs takes me at least 4 hours. I think Mint is in a rut and is digging its grave deeper and deeper!
53 • Upgrading LM (by Friar Tux on 2020-07-08 13:30:16 GMT from Canada)
@52 (Rick) But they DO have the upgrading from one major release to the next... I switched from LM 17 to LM 18 and then, later, to LM 19 using the Update Manager. It presented no issues or glitches and I was able to just carry on as usual. You can read all about it on the Linux Mint website.
54 • Linux Mint Upgrade Process (by Rick on 2020-07-08 16:15:43 GMT from United States)
To: Friar Tux - Your reply was not clear. You can't upgrade from LM 17.0 to 18.0 or LM 18.0 to LM 19.0, etc. in one step. You have to go from LM 17.0 to 17.1 to 17.2 to 17.3 before you can upgrade to LM 18.0. The same goes for LM 18 to LM 19 and LM 19 to LM 20. It is a 4-step process each time. That's why a rolling release distro is your best bet. You install it once and you're done.
55 • Disk encryption (by Wally on 2020-07-08 17:09:45 GMT from United States)
I use both file containers (for flash drives) and some whole-disk encryption. I can't think of any /home filesystem encryption that I use.
I use VeraCrypt for the flash drives, but LUKS2 for the whole-disk on the laptops.
56 • @40 LM code names (by MK on 2020-07-08 19:02:16 GMT from Israel)
Thank you for the correction, I did mess up the name a bit. You don't have to be old to know history. Sometimes I am reminded of the battle of Asculum or Thermopylae, which are much older, and unrelated to female names or to LM.
57 • Encryption (by Andy Figueroa on 2020-07-08 19:35:53 GMT from United States)
I selected in the poll that "I do not use storage encryption" but that's not totally true. I selectively encrypt files that contain private information.
58 • Mint Upgrade (by Friar Tux on 2020-07-08 19:40:19 GMT from Canada)
@54 (Rick) You're right, of course. I just rounded out the numbers for brevity. But each time an new release comes out, I wait about a month or so to ensure most of the bugs have been dealt with, and then I simply upgrade using the Update Manager. It works just like having a rolling release. Best of both worlds.
59 • @Rick re. LM 20 (by Barnabyh on 2020-07-08 21:44:05 GMT from Czechia)
You shouldn't have to do a fresh install, why would you? I upgraded LMDE 3 to 4 without any hassle, but it pays to follow the instructions.
If you insist reinstalling is better, create a separate home partition next time so you don't have to restore data, then you only need to reinstall your system. Export a list of installed packages from Synaptic as well as additional sources before you do that and import into Synaptic in the new install, apply, all remaining packages will be installed. Doesn't take four hours.
60 • The Advantages of Kernel Updates (by David on 2020-07-09 08:13:50 GMT from United States)
@40
Re: Your comment -
" Kernels: I run kernels from 4.12 to 5.7 and could not tell the difference unless I ask. (uname -r) Unless it improves driver or software performance on your hardware, it makes little or no difference what kernel, as long as security updates are current."
Kernel updates relate to more than just security & performance optimizations, and since you are running v. 4.12 on some of your boxes, this article may be of interest, if code/system bloat is an issue that concerns you -
" Linux kernel 4.18: Better security, leaner code"
"The latest version of the Linux kernel cleans out nearly 100K lines of code, adds file encryption and the Berkeley Packet Filter, plus makes a nod to gamers and mobile devices."
Code Cleanup
"For one thing, the 4.18 kernel has brought about the surprising removal of nearly 100,000 lines of outdated code. That's a lot of code! Does this mean that any of your favorite features may have been ripped out? That is not very likely. This code cleanup does means that a lot of code deadwood has been carefully expunged from the kernel along with one significant chunk. As a result, the new kernel should take up less memory, run a little more efficiently and be less vulnerable to attacks that might have taken advantage of the neglected sections of older code. This change also leaves the remaining code somewhat cleaner and easier to manage."
https://www.networkworld.com/article/3299457/linux-kernel-418-better-security-leaner-code.html
If a kernel update installs security updates, performance optimizations, and deletes outdated/insecure code that reduces system bloat, then I personally consider that to be working to my advantage.
JMHO
61 • Rolling release (by Amg on 2020-07-09 08:29:51 GMT from France)
@54 "54 • Linux Mint Upgrade Process (by Rick on 2020-07-08 16:15:43 GMT from United States)"
"You have to go from LM 17.0 to 17.1 to 17.2 to 17.3 before you can upgrade to LM 18.0. The same goes for LM 18 to LM 19 and LM 19 to LM 20. It is a 4-step process each time."
Install - update - update - .... upgrade to next - update - update... upgrade to next ...... and so on
You can consider this to be rolling release :)
62 • Linux Mint Upgrade (by whatEver on 2020-07-09 10:57:49 GMT from Switzerland)
As much as I know, there is upgrade and "upgrade".
Going from 18.0 to 18.1, 18.2 and 18.3 (point release XX.0 - XX.3) might be easy, however, going from 17.X to 18.X, to 19.X and 20.X (major release) is a huge problem in Mint.
It might work if you don't have many external repositories and even then, it'll be kinda gambling. 17, 18 and 19 use different init's and different display managers...
It's much easier to save those few hundreds of MB of data and make a clean install, which is done in less than an hour (depending on your HW - it might be even done in a couple of minutes), then doing upgrade from one to another major release, that'll take many hours and usually be more or less broken at the end.
https://itsfoss.com/upgrade-linux-mint-version/ https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/upgrade-mint.html https://www.linuxtechi.com/how-to-upgrade-to-linux-mint-20-ulyana/
63 • kernels (by vern on 2020-07-09 13:25:04 GMT from United States)
#40, #60: Sometimes people want the latest release because, well, its the latest :)
Not just kernels, but almost every program. I read the changelog and on most, little to almost nothing of value is of interest to me.
Security is for me is the reason to upgrade. Also bug fixes come in a close second. I'm going to check up on kernel 4.18 to see what's in store. Thanks
I do agree that without (uname -r) , I wouldn't know what I was running.
64 • @60, Kernel updates (by Angel on 2020-07-09 14:13:58 GMT from Philippines)
"If a kernel update installs and deletes outdated/insecure code that reduces system bloat, then I personally consider that to be working to my advantage."
Bloat: You're kidding! 4.18 had over 1 million more lines of code than 4.12. Out of 25.xx million, 100,000 is not even a drop in the bucket. The 5.7 kernel has around 27.8 million lines. https://i.redd.it/f5dj3resjvw11.png
"security updates, performance optimizations" Just words, unless they translate to to something measurable for the user. If they do, why not? I set up KDE to my liking, and it always ends up looking the same. I can replace the Manjaro (5.6) I'm running with Kubuntu (5.4), or Devuan (4.19) and they'd all look and behave pretty much the same, to the point that on the desktop it would be quite difficult to tell which distro, never mind what kernel.
I threw 4.12 out there as a low end. Actually, I don't have 4.12 running. I think OpenSuse 15 was the last. I do have 4.19, and a server running Centos 7 still on kernel 3.10, and I do have a VM with Lubuntu 10.04 (2.16 I believe) for auld lang syne. I don't have "boxes." I have a laptop and a desktop, with a server for videos and such. A few systems on SSDs, but most are on VMs. More of a hobby than anything else.
But the original argument was about Mint. I worked on expats PCs here, and suggested dual-booting to most, so if they borked their Windows, they could still get their internet fix. I preferred Mint because I could install an LTS, spend a few minutes showing, and not hear from them for years.
65 • Main Objective - Removal of Obsolete Code (by David on 2020-07-09 16:55:18 GMT from United States)
@64
I used the term "boxes" as a generic euphemism indicating PC's/ laptops /servers. I apologize if you found my terminology to be offensive.
The kernel code "bloat," for me anyway, is secondary to the removal of obsolete, insecure, buggy and superfluous code. I believe I have read that subsequent kernel updates have deleted even more lines of outdated code, but I couldn't find a more recent article during my search.
Be that as it may, the conversation veered towards the kernel itself, so I inserted my comment. I made no mention of Mint because I haven't used it in many years, and have no current personal interest in Mint, though I had no problems with it when I ran it on my "boxes."
I run Arch exclusively, so I know at all times which current kernel version I'm running during any given update cycle, uname -r notwithstanding.
I fully respect your right to run any kernel version / distro / DE that you wish to, on any device that you select to operate.
JMHO
66 • Distro Dissimilarity Identification (by David on 2020-07-09 19:44:24 GMT from United States)
@64
I forgot to mention this issue that you brought up in your commentary -
You stated the following -
"I can replace the Manjaro (5.6) I'm running with Kubuntu (5.4), or Devuan (4.19) and they'd all look and behave pretty much the same, to the point that on the desktop it would be quite difficult to tell which distro, never mind what kernel."
A user would be able to detect an operational difference between distros by the terminal command terminology.
A terminal command such as sudo -k pacman-key --refresh will run successfully in a Manjaro terminal, but would surely generate an error in either a Devuan or Kubuntu terminal, correct ?
JMHO
67 • @65,66 Kernels and such (by Angel on 2020-07-09 20:29:40 GMT from Philippines)
I'm so glad you respect my right to run any kernel I wish on any hardware I wish. Is it only Arch users that feel entitled to patronize? I've installed Arch, run Arch, been there, done that. Right now I prefer Manjaro, which in my view has not only made Arch bearable, but pleasurable as well. They look like they may be the next Ubuntu, and I wish them luck. But yes, I do know what kernel I'm running.
All beside the point, which was that if it doesn't make a difference in your hardware, it makes no difference what kernel you are running, and the kernels provided by distros, including Mint, will probably be fine, even if not the latest and bestest. This applies to the majority of users. Example: I own another laptop, now on loan to a relative. Prior to the 5.x kernels, the touchpad and WiFi drivers had to be compiled. No-brainer, use a 5.+ kernel to make life easier. If you want native exFAT support, use 5.4+. I'm sure there are advantages in using later kernels for particular uses. On the other hand: I learned to like KDE with KDE neon, since it was based on Ubuntu 16.04. By using Ukuu (now Mainline), I kept up with the latest kernels (now 5.7.8) just for kicks. The system ran just the same with the original kernel as with the latest. No difference.
"A user would be able to detect an operational difference between distros by the terminal command terminology." Perhaps I needed to further explain that I meant using the desktop GUI. Even then, I suppose one can bring up the "Info" app on KDE and find out. But that would be picking at nits.
68 • A One-Person Argument (by David on 2020-07-09 22:16:53 GMT from United States)
@67
What you characterize as entitlement and patronization was my obviously mistaken & misplaced attempt to politely convey respect for your, and to any other given Linux user's choices.
You choose to be gratuitously argumentative, so please continue to be happy with Manjaro, and I'll leave it at that.
One last suggestion - you may want to evaluate EndeavourOS - I'm running it on a test machine, and I prefer it to Manjaro.
JMHO
69 • Snaps & Kernels (by M.Z. on 2020-07-10 20:09:53 GMT from United States)
@22
All that Snap stuff has been discussed here before. Canonical chose to lock down the format more than anything else in Linux & it bothers those of us who care about having a truly open system. Please don't make up enemies & try to tun the biggest & most powerful name in desktop Linux into some poor little victim when they were the ones who created Snap & decided to make it far more locked down than the alternatives.
@36
I have had plenty of Ubuntu related kernel updates make a system kernel panic/become unusable, and I've had similar issues in Mageia & PCLinuxOS. Creating options for safer more controlled kernel updates made perfect sense; however, it's all completely moot given how much has with backups & system updates in the past few years. It felt like I had LMDE 3 + BTRFS snapshots to prevent stability issues forever, though it was never needed. In fact it feels like it's been so long I can hardly believe anyone was so clueless as to attack kernel updates. At any rate LMDE 4 updated kernels on my laptop with zero intervention from within Mint.
Also, disparaging code names? Really? The Ubuntu ones are a bit silly, but not as silly as hyperventilating about code names. I was rather amused by the kernel 'Linux 3.11 for work-groups' & Fedora 'Spherical Cow', but it didn't make me go out of my way to use either of them any more than alliteration makes me avoid Ubuntu.
70 • Mint 20 (by Rick on 2020-07-12 11:51:28 GMT from United States)
You said: "All in all, Linux Mint 20 is a solid operating system."
Dedoimedo says: "On its own Ulyana Xfce get 6/10."
A rating of 6/10 is definitely NOT a solid operating sysem. I tend to believe Dedoimedo.
71 • @70 Rick: (by dragonmouth on 2020-07-12 13:28:12 GMT from United States)
"A rating of 6/10 is definitely NOT a solid operating sysem. I tend to believe Dedoimedo. " Each user's experience with a distro is unique as evidenced by the responses to DW reviews. No opinions is any more valid or invalid than any other.
Invariably, whenever Jesse find problems with a distro, there are posts to the effect of "You don't know what you are talking about! Distro XYZ is the greatest thing since sliced bread." Conversely, whenever Jesse likes or praises a distro, there are posts to the effect of "You don't know what you're talking about. Distro ABC is the worst I've ever tried."
I am not saying Dedoimedo, or any other reviewer, is right or that he is wrong in his review(s). What we the users need to do is to read the reviews, try the distro(s) and form our own opinions about them.
When you don't like what someone says, don't say he is crazy or stupid. Ask him/her why they are saying what they are saying.
Number of Comments: 71
Display mode: DWW Only • Comments Only • Both DWW and Comments
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