What’s new in Linux Mint 20 beta

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https://blog.linuxmint.com/?p=3906

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OscarCP, Ascaris

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Linux Mint 20 beta, no Chromium browser.

“This is a dummy package. It can safely be removed. Chromium-browser is no longer available as a package in the repository, but only as a snap. Linux Mint does not support snap and will not let packages install snap behind your back. You can download and update Chromium directly from https://www.chromium.org/getting-involved/download-chromium.”

https://community.linuxmint.com/software/view/chromium-browser

http://mirror.bytemark.co.uk/linuxmint/testing/

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Any idea anyone if the new Mint version now being tried out in beta, comes with the (possibly) new version of Cinnamon that may also have a feature for choosing the BPI resolution *continuously* with a slider? To me, that would be real progress.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Cinnamon 4.6 has already been released, and it does contain fractional scaling support.  It will be the version in Mint 20.

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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OscarCP

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I’m intregued by an app called ‘Warpinator’ in Linux Mint 20.
Basically, this app allows sharing of files across a local network, without server or configurations, so computers on the local network would automatically see each other that enables users to drag and drop files from one to another.
The app sounds like a feature attraction especially for non-techies and home business users.
KISS goes a long way here, keep up the good work Clem & Co.

Windows - commercial by definition and now function...

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KDE has something similar called KDE connect.  With it, you can copy files, PC to PC, with a simple right click, to another PC or a mobile device. It too automatically shows any other devices (PCs or Android mobiles) running KDE Connect on the LAN, and it will let you offer to pair with any or all of them.  Once paired, you can zap files back and forth at will.

It also allows shared clipboard, remote control of one device with another, using the tablet as a touchpad for the PC, or as a remote control, and also opening a page you’re viewing in a browser on one device on another, all kinds of stuff.

I have no use for any of it except the shared clipboard, shared web page, and file sharing.  I have the rest turned off.

I used to have SMB file shares to easily move files back and forth, but this is even easier.  Right click, select “Share using KDE connect with [device]”, and it’s sent.

KDE Connect apparently has a Windows version too.

Somehow, unfortunately, Ubuntu managed to foul it up with Kubuntu 20.04.  Its version of KDE connect cannot share files from PC to PC… it tries to start, but the transfer never takes place, popping up a progress meter on the computer receiving the file that never changes. From what people have written, it seems that sharing to or from a mobile device may work, but Linux PC to Linux PC doesn’t.  I’ve tried Kubuntu 20.04 to Kubuntu 20.04, Kubuntu 20.04 to Neon, Neon to Kubuntu 20.04, and Kubuntu 20.04 to Kubuntu 18.04.  None worked.  Neon to Neon works fine, and I think Kubuntu 18.04 to and from Neon wotked too.

The same version of KDE Connect that is in Neon (1.4.0) works perfectly there, as you would expect, given that Neon is KDE’s distro, currently still based on Ubuntu 18.04.  I’ve yet to figure out what package(s) is/are responsible for the regression, but it does not seem to be in the KDE Connect packages.  I downloaded the source from KDE and followed their directions to build KDE Connect 1.4.0 using all of my native libraries, and it did the same thing.

I think the issue is that Ubuntu got so carried away by the mobile aspect that they didn’t adequately test PC to PC.  The language of the menus and such in KDE Connect also places an emphasis on “connect your PC to your Android phone,” because of course, we’re all about the little Google spy slabs in the Linux community!

KDE Connect is so handy that it was ported to GNOME, as GSConnect (GNOME Shell Connect, I believe).  It’s a complete port of KDE Connect to GNOME… and since Cinnamon is a fork of GNOME that is based on the same GTK+ toolkit, it should fit right in.

Just another option if you like that sort of thing.

 

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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Cybertooth

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Ascaris, KDE Connect: very interesting.

When you write “PC to PC”, would this include from a Mac to a PC running Mint with KDE Connect on the latter? And can one run this application from the Cinnamon GUI or it has to be from the Terminal? Finally, do you know — or anyone here does — if this also works in Macs? (Many LINUX applications also run on macOS.)

 

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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OscarCP wrote:

When you write “PC to PC”, would this include from a Mac to a PC running Mint with KDE Connect on the latter? And can one run this application from the Cinnamon GUI or it has to be from the Terminal? Finally, do you know — or anyone here does — if this also works in Macs? (Many LINUX applications also run on macOS.)

There is a Mac version of KDE Connect.  The page I read said that Windows KDE Connect has works really well, while the Mac version isn’t quite as good yet.  What that means, exactly, I do not know, but at least there is a Mac version.

I also have learned that the GNOME version is a plugin to the GNOME desktop, not a standalone program, so it won’t work with Cinnamon. It is possible to use the actual KDE connect from the Ubuntu repo, but it drags in a lot of extra dependencies that it probably doesn’t need to.  They won’t hurt anything being there, but they will take up space.

Besides that, there are other options, like KDE Connect Indicator, and I did use that to exchange files back and forth between my KDE Linux PC and the one with Mint.

Right now, the failure of KDE Connect to work Linux PC to Linux PC (I never tried it with the other combinations) is the only thing holding me back from making Kubuntu the main OS on my G3 for the time being.  The other issue I had, the older Qt version in Kubuntu 20.04 that still has a bug that the Qt devs and KDE fixed six months ago, is no longer an issue in 20.04.  I’ve managed to fix it by using the Qt 5.14 libraries from the Ubuntu Groovy Gorilla repo, so that leaves only the KDE Connect issue.  It’s a big ‘un, though!

Eventually, Neon will be rebased to Ubuntu 20.04, but they have not yet said how long that will be.  When 18.04 came along, it took five months. for KDE to release their version of Neon based upon it.

One of the improvements listed in the Mint 20 beta patch notes was the better support for Prime offloading, a function of the better support in the underlying Ubuntu version.  It’s a definite improvement over 18.04, as it is much easier to get Prime offloading working, but I have all the same functionality now that I would in Mint 20 or KDE Plasma based on Ubuntu 20.04.

 

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)

2 users thanked author for this post.

Cybertooth, OscarCP

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Ascaris: So it is work in progress. I hope it gets soon to the point where I do not need to use “Microsoft Remote Desktop” in the Mac to connect the Mac to my PC.

I hope that one can also use KDE Connect to exchange files between a Mac and Linux (now occupying one half of my Windows 7 PC) and, perhaps, vice versa.

And, assuming KDE works well, some day, would it be safer than using “MS Remote Desktop” to connect to the Windows 7 half of my PC?

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Using a remote desktop setup is overkill if all you need is file transfers.  KDE Connect would be one solution, but there are others too.  You could create a standard network share, assuming the Mac can use SMB networking, which I would imagine it can.  KDE Connect makes it really easy (in Neon, anyway… not so much in Kubuntu 20.04, for the time being anyway).

As far as it being a work in progress… that’s what the web page hinted at, but I’ve never used it on Mac, so I can’t really say.  KDE Connect does a lot more than file transfers… it’s possible that that is one of the things it already does well on the Mac version.

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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@ascaris, your post drove me to look into this KDEConnect thing, which I’d never heard of before.

According to the KDE UserBase Wiki, we should be able to have two computers see each other via this feature. (See the last paragraph before the section “Browser Integration”.)

Reading in the Troubleshooting section, it appears as though one needs to open certain ports in the firewall in order to get the computers to see each other. Once the user is done doing whatever they’d intended to do, presumably they would need to go back in and close those ports by hand again.

This all seems awfully lengthy and convoluted. The more steps involved in using a feature, the less likely it is that the feature will be used. IMO this entire operation needs to be automated, rather than asking the user to do things by hand: if you close the GUI, for example, the ports should be closed along with it (or at least, an option to do that should be offered in the GUI).

The whole KDEConnect feature seems to be geared rather toward computer-to-phone connections, and somewhat misconceived even in that  case. Why would I put a phone on a home network? If the idea is to connect my phone to a PC, I can simply plug it into the computer via USB.

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Would help writing a script with instructions to first launch KDE Connect and then with some more instructions to close the firewall ports once KDE Connect is closed down by the user?

If it would, perhaps someone around here might be able to come up with such a script for one or more of the OS that might allow running KDE Connect. Unless that breaks some EULA and the helpful script writer’s days end in a dark and humid dungeon where things can be heard scurrying about unseen.

Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

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Indeed, it is quite possible to pair PCs to one another.  I’ve been using it that way since I first tried it.

When it works, as it does in Neon, all you have to do is go to the KDE Connect dialog, which you can launch from the tray icon, the application (“Start”) menu, or from the system settings (“Control Panel”), and you’ll see all of the devices on the network that also have KDE Connect running.  Select any one of them and press the “Request Pair” button.  The PC selected will pop up a dialog asking if he wishes to pair with the PC that sent the request.  If he accepts the pair, from that point forward, you can transfer a file from one PC to another by right clicking and selecting “send to [name] via KDE Connect”.  The file will instantly be sent… easy peasy.  It works in both directions; either one can be the sender or the recipient.  You can be paired with as many other PCs or mobile devices as you wish at the same time.

The other stuff you describe above as being convoluted is troubleshooting, not part of the usual process.  With Neon, it “just works,” while with Kubuntu 20.04, it just… doesn’t, for file transfers at least, as it is a bug somewhere in there.  Neon uses the same KDE Connect version as Kubuntu 20.04, and it works fine in Neon.

I don’t have an opinion on using KDE Connect with phones, as I don’t have a mobile phone that’s for anything outside of making the very occasional call, but simply right clicking a file in Dolphin and selecting “Send to [phone name] via KDE Connect” is a lot faster than connecting with a USB cable and doing it that way.

The shared clipboard is tremendously useful for sending small bits of data to other PCs, cutting here and pasting there.

The other things, like using a phone as a remote volume and media control, a touchpad for the PC, etc., are not things I would find useful, but maybe some do.  The unwanted functions can be turned off easily enough if you want to.

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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Maybe this bug that prevents KDE Connect from working in 20.04 is already present in 18.04. I currently have two Kubuntu 18.04 machines (a desktop and a laptop) running on my LAN, and neither one can find the other via KDE Connect. However, they find each other just fine via Dolphin (Samba Shares –> Workgroup).

 

Keep Running Windows 7 Safely for Years to Come  
Make Windows 10 look and work like Windows 7

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Cybertooth wrote:

aybe this bug that prevents KDE Connect from working in 20.04 is already present in 18.04. I currently have two Kubuntu 18.04 machines (a desktop and a laptop) running on my LAN, and neither one can find the other via KDE Connect. However, they find each other just fine via Dolphin (Samba Shares –> Workgroup).

I only have one installation of Kubuntu 18.04 left (I upgraded the other two to 20.04), but I just tried it, and it was able to see my two Neon PCs without any trouble.  It should work!

The only troubleshooting I have tried with KDE Connect has been to try to get it working in 20.04 by trial and error (with no success), so if I had the issue you have, I’d have to start at one of the troubleshooting web guides also.  It’s possible the router you use is dropping the KDE connect requests for some reason, though that kind of seems like a long shot.  If the firewall has been enabled and configured (called ufw), it might be blocking something, as you already described above.

My Kubuntu 18.04 installation has not been tweaked very much, as it was just a backup for Neon, and I never really customized it like I did Neon.  The settings should be pretty close to the default installation for most of it.

Silly question, but did you hit the refresh button after opening the Connect dialog?  I would imagine so, but just making sure.

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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Linux Mint 20 ‘Ulyana’ BETA.

Only 64 bit. No GIMP, VLC.

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Alex5723 wrote:

Only 64 bit. No GIMP, VLC.

Since there is no 32-bit edition of Ubuntu 20.04, the base for Mint 20, it would be a truly herculean task for a downstream distro to pick up the slack and offer it anyway.  Building and maintaining all of the 32-bit packages would fall on Mint, and they don’t have the resources for that.  On top of that, the audience for a 32-bit version would be small.  That’s not to say those who wish to keep using 32-bit can or should be ignored, only that the amount of work to continue it would yield relatively little benefit to the computing world at large.

I am not really sure why it would be controversial (as the article states)  that Mint had removed GIMP and VLC.  If you want them, they’re both in the repo, and installing them is really easy and quick.  They’re just not included by default.  Most things I intend to run on a PC are not part of the base OS install, whether it is Linux, Windows, or other.

The distro I am using, Neon, is a bare-bones setup as it is first installed.  It doesn’t come with quite a lot of the things I want to use, but that’s no big deal, as most of them are in the repo and can be added quite easily.  VLC and GIMP are missing, as are LibreOffice and Thunderbird (mail).

When considering which distro to use, I don’t even see the relative lack of things installed by default in Neon as a negative compared to Kubuntu, which comes with more things as part of the distro itself.  I’m going to remove and add things that any newly set up PC has installed anyway.

I agree with Mint’s decision (I know, you didn’t mention this, but it’s been in the tech news lately too) to block the Ubuntu Snap version of Chromium by default (by means of blocking Snap in general unless the user specifically opts in).  People use Linux for a variety of reasons, but one thing they have come to expect is to have the kind of control that Microsoft does not give them.  A package that uninstalls the classic Chromium that a person deliberately installed (it’s not installed by default either) and replaces it with a Snap package that has, among other things, the “feature” that it updates itself whenever it feels like it, is not consistent with what Linux is about for many or most of its users.  People don’t migrate to Linux in order to have less control over their PC.

I can imagine a user of Chromium saying, “Wait a minute! When I installed Chromium from your repo, it was a normal package that would be updated only if I wanted it to be.  Now it updates on its own, whether or not I want it to? That wasn’t part of the deal!

Ubuntu replied, “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”

Only it’s Linux, and people have other choices.

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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firemind, Alex5723, Cybertooth

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I am looking forward to Linux Mint 20 but will retain my Askwoody learned smarts and not update for  a while when it is released. Just in case there are a few surprise problems. 🙂

I don’t expect major problems and the exclusion of Snapd is fine. We can opt in and most apps have Flatpak or equivalents from the main repositories. I use one Snap for a game not available in the Software Manager so it’s not an issue for me.

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Linux Mint 20 Approved for Stable release.

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Ascaris

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It’s there but now to decide if I’m doing an upgrade or a clean install?

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