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Story: Review: Linux Mint GNOME 201109Total Replies: 18
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Koriel

Sep 25, 2011
5:55 PM EDT
I like Linux Mint XFCE, but I have to agree that they really need to work on the updates system it has on all my systems been troublesome with broken dependencies.

Its getting to the stage that no matter how much i like the system overall if they dont start throwing some quality control at the updates then im going to move to something else as its getting to be a real pain in the arse.

At this point im evaluating Salix for exactly that purpose.

Bugger: I posted this in the wrong place, its meant to be in the "you do?" thread.
DrGeoffrey

Sep 25, 2011
8:27 PM EDT
If you like XFCE, and don't mind it not being version 4.8, you may want to try SalineOS. A fairly minor distro, SalineOS proved quite stable for me when Mint XFCE stopped recognizing usb printers.

My experiment with Mint XFCE is not over, however. After my son's success at installing the last revision, I reinstalled it yesterday. For now I'm using the incoming repos, but may back off to latest. I need my lappy for work.
Koriel

Sep 26, 2011
12:51 AM EDT
Unfortunately i love XFCE 4.8 and am thoroughly hooked on it, its just simplest of things though that has me hooked on 4.8 over 4.6 the ability to drag app launchers to desktop or taskbar.

Once XFCE was able to do that I knew it was ready for the big time even before Linus :)

A tip for those haveing trouble installing VLC in Mint, VLC in the multimedia testing repository has broken alsa dependencies so the trick is switch the repository from testing to stable. It wont get you the latest VLC but will mean you can at least install the previous version.

Hopefully Mint will get these problems sorted as it is a nice distro, I dont mind rough edges but when rough edges have the potential to break a system or prevent upgrading they need to addressed before adding in new stuff. Plus these things can have a major impact on how new users view the distro and garner negativity which I have begun to notice in various places including the mint forums regarding the distro.

Steven_Rosenber

Sep 26, 2011
2:04 PM EDT
How about Debian? Testing has Xfce 4.8: http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/xfce4
Jeff91

Sep 26, 2011
2:16 PM EDT
Steven - if he is having issues with updates from Linux Mint DE he will have just as many (if not more) from Debian testing. LMDE takes all it's packages from Debian testing.

~Jeff
Koriel

Sep 26, 2011
2:22 PM EDT
Yep Linux Mint XFCE mostly uses Debian testing but also has one of its own repository's, I think the dependency issues arise from their own repository not closely tracking whats going on in the Debian testing repositories, although this is just a wild guess.
Steven_Rosenber

Sep 26, 2011
6:36 PM EDT
As I'm running Debian Stable, I have no first-hand knowledge about how Xfce is running in Testing/Wheezy.

I am running GNOME, Xfce and LXDE in three separate Debian Squeeze installations, and the only problem I've had is with the LXterminal app in LXDE, which goes wonky on my Thinkpad R32. Solution is to run Xterm instead.
Koriel

Sep 28, 2011
6:56 PM EDT
Well 201109 just broke again for me all 3 of my desktop machines are reporting cups gutenprint broken dependencies with the latest updates. This is with the default 201109 repositories. Pretty much the final straw for me, will speed up my move to Salix.
BernardSwiss

Sep 28, 2011
7:13 PM EDT
I'm curious about something.

I've played with Mint 9 a bit (regular, Gnome edition) on an old laptop, and noticed that the mintupdate tool is configured so that it doesn't offer the same choices as Synaptic/Aptitude. In fact, it appears -- to my admittedly shallow and casual examination -- to be noticeably more conservative in what updates it recommends.

In my case, the laptop's ability to cope properly with closing the lid broke after using synaptic, not after a regular update or install through the Mint tools.

So my question is: do people who stick entirely to the Mint Update GUI tool, experience as many problems?

Koriel

Sep 28, 2011
7:28 PM EDT
I have no idea, I just use synaptic select status and go to the Installed (upgrades) section, which is the same as i have done for the last 4 years with whatever distro im running at the time without a problem.

Mint Debian is the most problematic ive ever used certainly my last distro Xubuntu never gave me a single problem for the entire year i used it only reason i switched to Mint was because Xubuntu was a memory hog.

If we are not supposed to use Synaptic then a warning should be given or dont ship synaptic with the distro.

But the problem still exists if you do, so it has to be the repositories.

sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get upgrade sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

tracyanne

Sep 28, 2011
7:36 PM EDT
@BernardSwiss, that's odd, I update via mintupdate, sometime synaptic and sometimes Ubuntu Tweak. I've never had anything break due to updates. I'm currently running Mint 9 and have been since it was released.
BernardSwiss

Sep 28, 2011
8:10 PM EDT
Well, maybe it was just a coincidence. I understand that getting suspend/hibernate to work properly with Linux, on a "designed"-for-Windows laptop, has always been a tricky issue.

Nothing else has given me any trouble, aside from the laptop being so old I've taken to running it under Openbox, and will probably try a few other light environments, when the weather makes other activities less appealing.



Koriel

Sep 28, 2011
11:40 PM EDT
Just wish Salix OS came with XFCE 4.8 as its a nice distro otherwise, I may just have to bite the bullet and live with XFCE 4.6
Koriel

Sep 28, 2011
11:49 PM EDT
@Bernard

Just tried your suggestion Bernard and I used the mint-update-debian tool and it upgraded my system without error.

So it appears that synaptic may not be completely reliable anymore at least on Mint Debian.

Thanks for that suggestion at least i got my upgrades done, will try out on my other 2 machines and hopefully get the same results.
jdixon

Sep 29, 2011
10:19 AM EDT
> Just wish Salix OS came with XFCE 4.8 as its a nice distro otherwise, I may just have to bite the bullet and live with XFCE 4.6.

Since Salix is based on Slackware, and there are XFCE 4.8 packages for Salckware, it may be possible to install them on Salix.

See http://slackblogs.blogspot.com/2011/01/xfce-48-for-slackware... You can find the packages themselves at Robbie Workman's site, http://connie.slackware.com/~rworkman/xfce-4.8/
Koriel

Sep 29, 2011
1:08 PM EDT
@jdixon

Thanks for that info.
BernardSwiss

Sep 29, 2011
1:25 PM EDT
I'm glad that worked out. It will be interesting to see how the upgrades on the other two machines works out.
jdixon

Sep 29, 2011
2:16 PM EDT
Koriel:

De nada. If you try it and get it working, you might want to let the Salix folks know it's doable.
Koriel

Sep 29, 2011
10:42 PM EDT
Ok, my other 2 machines all upgraded succesfully.

Both of those also complained of dependency issues related to cups and vlc when trying to upgrade with Synaptic all went well with mint-update-debian.

One issue did arise due to Nvidia drivers and the kernel upgrade from 2.6.39 to 3.0.0.1 because it didnt upgrade the header files which were left at 2.6.39 while th 3.0.0.1 kernel was installed which meant nvidia-kernel-dkms failed to build properly after the upgrade, was easily fixed by installing the 3.0.0.1 headers and re-installing the nvidia drivers.

Will give XFCE upgrade on Salix a go tomorrow.

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