Linux Mint Changelog

What's new in Linux Mint 21.3

Jan 13, 2024

CINNAMON EDITION:
This is Linux Mint 21.3, codename Virginia:
Linux Mint 21.3 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2027. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable.
KNOWN ISSUES:
Snap Store:
The Snap Store is disabled. For more information on this or to re-enable it read https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html.
Virtualbox
Black screen:
If the screen is black when launching Linux Mint in Virtualbox, change the VirtualBox graphics controller to "VMSVGA". Do this by opening up the settings for your VM and select Display -> Graphics Controller.
Garbled screen:
If the screen is garbled when launching Linux Mint in Virtualbox, switch to console with HOST+F1 (e.g. the RIGHT Ctrl key, no ALT) and back to tty7 with HOST+F7.
Another workaround is to disable "nested paging" (in the System -> Acceleration settings) and to increase the video memory to 128MB (in the Display settings).
Note: This issue only affects the live session. You don't need these workarounds post-installation.
Guest Additions:
To add support for shared folders, drag and drop, proper acceleration and display resolution in Virtualbox, click on the "Devices" menu of Virtualbox and choose "Insert Guest Additions CD Image". Choose "download" when asked and follow the instructions.
For more info, read Installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions.
Home directory encryption:
Benchmarks have demonstrated that, in most cases, home directory encryption is slower than full disk encryption.
The move to systemd caused a regression in ecrypts which is responsible for mounting/unmounting encrypted home directories when you login and logout. Because of this issue, please be aware that in Mint 20 and newer releases, your encrypted home directory is no longer unmounted on logout: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1734541.
Guest sessions:
You can enable guest sessions in the "Login Window" utility, but this option is now disabled by default.
Touchpad drivers:
The default touchpad driver in this edition is "libinput" (provided by the xserver-xorg-input-libinput package).
If you experience problems with it, you can switch to another driver called "synaptics" (provided by the xserver-xorg-input-synaptics package).
To know which driver is used by your input devices, run the following command:
grep -i "Using input driver" /var/log/Xorg.0.log
When both drivers are installed, "synaptics" takes priority.
To switch to the "synaptics" driver, install it with the command:
apt install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
Then log out and log back in.
To go back to using "libinput", simply remove the "synaptics" driver:
apt remove xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
Then log out and log back in.
Note: You can also try installing the "evdev" driver (provided by the xserver-xorg-input-evdev).
Wine:
To install the complete version of WINE, open a terminal and type:
apt install wine-installer
Among other things, this will install wine-desktop-files, which adds menu entries for regedit, your C: drive and other items which are missing from upstream WINE.
Sound and microphone issues:
If you're facing issues with your microphone or your sound output, please install "pavucontrol".
This will add "PulseAudio Volume Control" to your menu. This application has more configuration options than the default volume control.
No Keyboard on Lenovo laptop:
An upstream kernel issue affects keyboards on Lenovo laptops. If your Lenovo laptop keyboard doesn't work, or stops working when coming back from suspend check the following link for more information: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1352604/ubuntu-20-04-keyboard-not-working-on-lenovo-yoga-slim-7i-pro.
Mouse Pointer theme in root, Qt and Flatpak applications:
To modify the pointer theme for root and Qt applications you need to set it system-wide using the update-alternatives command:
sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme
To get a Flatpak to use your pointer theme, install and run Flatseal. Select your Flatpak and give it permissions for "All user files" and/or "All system files".
DVD Playback with VLC:
If VLC does not find your DVD player, click on Media->Open Disc, and specify '/dev/sr0' as the disc device.
OTHER ISSUES:
Linux Mint 21 is based on Ubuntu 22.04. Make sure to read the Ubuntu release notes.
Tips
Username and password in the live session:
In the live session, the username is "mint" and the password is empty (i.e. just press Enter if asked for a password).
Moving windows which don't fit in the screen:
If your screen resolution is too low, some windows might not fit in the screen.
While pressing the ALT key, you can grab any part of a window with the mouse and move it across the screen.
Installing multimedia codecs offline:
To download the multimedia codecs into an installable archive:
Boot from the Linux Mint ISO on a computer which is connected to the Internet
Open a terminal and type "apt download mint-meta-codecs" (without the quotes)
This creates a "mint-meta-codecs.tgz" archive
On computers which do not have an Internet access, you can decompress this archive and run ./install.sh (or alternatively "sudo dpkg -i *.deb") to install the multimedia codecs.
Solving freezes during the boot sequence
Some graphics cards don't work well with the open-source driver present in Linux Mint.
If Linux Mint freezes during boot time, use the "Compatibility Mode" boot option.
In this mode you should be able to boot Linux Mint and install it on your computer.
After the installation, reboot the computer and wait for the boot menu to appear.
Add the "nomodeset" option as illustrated below:
Your browser does not support the video tag.
If your graphics card is from NVIDIA, once in Linux Mint, perform the following steps to install the NVIDIA drivers:
Run the Driver Manager
Choose the NVIDIA drivers and wait for them to be installed
Reboot the computer
With these drivers the system should now be stable and you no longer need to use "nomodeset".
Note: If you're using an Optimus card, you've nothing more to do. Upon reboot, a system tray icon should show up indicating which GPU is currently active. Click on it to switch GPUs.
Note: If you still cannot boot try one of the following solutions:
Try with "nouveau.noaccel=1" instead of "nomodeset".
Try with "noapic noacpi nosplash irqpoll" instead of "quiet splash".
After the installation, use "Advanced Options" -> "Recovery mode" from the boot menu and choose "resume".
Choosing the right version of Linux Mint:
Each new version comes with a new kernel and a newer set of drivers. Most of the time, this means newer versions are compatible with a larger variety of hardware components, but sometimes it might also introduce regressions. If you are facing hardware issues with the latest version of Linux Mint and you are unable to solve them, you can always try an earlier release. If that one works better for you, you can stick to it, or you can use it to install Linux Mint and then upgrade to the newer release.
MATE AND XFCE EDITION:
Linux Mint 21.3 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2027. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable.
ISO Images:
Linux Mint 21.3 comes with full support for SecureBoot and compatibility with a wider variety of BIOS and EFI implementations.
Grub is used in EFI mode. Isolinux/syslinux is used in BIOS mode.
The tools and framework used by Linux Mint to produce its ISO images were updated and are now based on the latest version of live-build.
The team also drastically reduced the internal differences between LMDE and Linux Mint ISO images.

New in Linux Mint 21.2 (Jul 17, 2023)

This is Linux Mint 21.2, codename Victoria:
Linux Mint 21.2 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2027. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable.
KNOWN ISSUES:
Secureboot:
An update in Ubuntu’s shim-signed broke the compatibility of all Linux Mint (and past Ubuntu and derivative) ISOs with secureboot.
If because of this you are unable to install Linux Mint, for now we recommend to disable secureboot.
We are currently working on a fix for future ISOs and taking this opportunity to review the way we produce our images.
Boot error: out of memory
The following Grub bug affects Linux Mint: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1842320.
If you are facing this issue, prepare a live USB using Rufus.
For more information about this issue read https://askubuntu.com/questions/1404415/ubuntu-22-04-live-usb-fails-reports-out-of-memory-with-no-details-even-after.
Shutdown timeout:
For your convenience, the shutdown timeout is reduced to 10s.
If you rely on lengthy operations to finish before shutdown, read /etc/systemd/system.conf.d/50_linuxmint.conf and override the timeout value in /etc/systemd/system.conf.d/60_custom.conf.
Grub2 theme in HiDPI:
If the grub2 theme looks too small in your HiDPI monitor, install the "grub2-theme-mint-2k" package.
Snap Store:
The Snap Store is disabled. For more information on this or to re-enable it read https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html.
Virtualbox:
Black screen:
If the screen is black when launching Linux Mint in Virtualbox, change the VirtualBox graphics controller to "VMSVGA". Do this by opening up the settings for your VM and select Display -> Graphics Controller.
Garbled screen:
If the screen is garbled when launching Linux Mint in Virtualbox, switch to console with HOST+F1 (e.g. the RIGHT Ctrl key, no ALT) and back to tty7 with HOST+F7.
Another workaround is to disable "nested paging" (in the System -> Acceleration settings) and to increase the video memory to 128MB (in the Display settings).
Note: This issue only affects the live session. You don't need these workarounds post-installation.
Guest Additions:
To add support for shared folders, drag and drop, proper acceleration and display resolution in Virtualbox, click on the "Devices" menu of Virtualbox and choose "Insert Guest Additions CD Image". Choose "download" when asked and follow the instructions.
For more info, read Installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions.
Home directory encryption:
Benchmarks have demonstrated that, in most cases, home directory encryption is slower than full disk encryption.
The move to systemd caused a regression in ecrypts which is responsible for mounting/unmounting encrypted home directories when you login and logout. Because of this issue, please be aware that in Mint 20 and newer releases, your encrypted home directory is no longer unmounted on logout: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1734541.
Guest sessions:
You can enable guest sessions in the "Login Window" utility, but this option is now disabled by default.
Touchpad drivers:
The default touchpad driver in this edition is "libinput" (provided by the xserver-xorg-input-libinput package).
If you experience problems with it, you can switch to another driver called "synaptics" (provided by the xserver-xorg-input-synaptics package).
To know which driver is used by your input devices, run the following command:
grep -i "Using input driver" /var/log/Xorg.0.log
When both drivers are installed, "synaptics" takes priority.
To switch to the "synaptics" driver, install it with the command:
apt install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
Then log out and log back in.
To go back to using "libinput", simply remove the "synaptics" driver:
apt remove xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
Then log out and log back in.
Note: You can also try installing the "evdev" driver (provided by the xserver-xorg-input-evdev).
Wine:
To install the complete version of WINE, open a terminal and type:
apt install wine-installer
Among other things, this will install wine-desktop-files, which adds menu entries for regedit, your C: drive and other items which are missing from upstream WINE.
Sound and microphone issues:
If you're facing issues with your microphone or your sound output, please install "pavucontrol".
This will add "PulseAudio Volume Control" to your menu. This application has more configuration options than the default volume control.
No Keyboard on Lenovo laptop:
An upstream kernel issue affects keyboards on Lenovo laptops. If your Lenovo laptop keyboard doesn't work, or stops working when coming back from suspend check the following link for more information: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1352604/ubuntu-20-04-keyboard-not-working-on-lenovo-yoga-slim-7i-pro.
Mouse Pointer theme in root, Qt and Flatpak applications:
To modify the pointer theme for root and Qt applications you need to set it system-wide using the update-alternatives command:
sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme
To get a Flatpak to use your pointer theme, install and run Flatseal. Select your Flatpak and give it permissions for "All user files" and/or "All system files".
DVD Playback with VLC:
If VLC does not find your DVD player, click on Media->Open Disc, and specify '/dev/sr0' as the disc device.
Other issues:
Linux Mint 21 is based on Ubuntu 22.04. Make sure to read the Ubuntu release notes.
Tips:
Username and password in the live session
In the live session, the username is "mint" and the password is empty (i.e. just press Enter if asked for a password).
Moving windows which don't fit in the screen:
If your screen resolution is too low, some windows might not fit in the screen.
While pressing the ALT key, you can grab any part of a window with the mouse and move it across the screen.
Installing multimedia codecs offline:
To download the multimedia codecs into an installable archive:
Boot from the Linux Mint ISO on a computer which is connected to the Internet
Open a terminal and type "apt download mint-meta-codecs" (without the quotes)
This creates a "mint-meta-codecs.tgz" archive
On computers which do not have an Internet access, you can decompress this archive and run ./install.sh (or alternatively "sudo dpkg -i *.deb") to install the multimedia codecs.
Solving freezes during the boot sequence:
Some graphics cards don't work well with the open-source driver present in Linux Mint.
If Linux Mint freezes during boot time, use the "Compatibility Mode" boot option.
In this mode you should be able to boot Linux Mint and install it on your computer.
After the installation, reboot the computer and wait for the boot menu to appear.
Add the "nomodeset" option as illustrated below:
Your browser does not support the video tag.
If your graphics card is from NVIDIA, once in Linux Mint, perform the following steps to install the NVIDIA drivers:
Run the Driver Manager
Choose the NVIDIA drivers and wait for them to be installed
Reboot the computer
With these drivers the system should now be stable and you no longer need to use "nomodeset".
Note: If you're using an Optimus card, you've nothing more to do. Upon reboot, a system tray icon should show up indicating which GPU is currently active. Click on it to switch GPUs.
Note: If you still cannot boot try one of the following solutions:
Try with "nouveau.noaccel=1" instead of "nomodeset".
Try with "noapic noacpi nosplash irqpoll" instead of "quiet splash".
After the installation, use "Advanced Options" -> "Recovery mode" from the boot menu and choose "resume".
Choosing the right version of Linux Mint:
Each new version comes with a new kernel and a newer set of drivers. Most of the time, this means newer versions are compatible with a larger variety of hardware components, but sometimes it might also introduce regressions. If you are facing hardware issues with the latest version of Linux Mint and you are unable to solve them, you can always try an earlier release. If that one works better for you, you can stick to it, or you can use it to install Linux Mint and then upgrade to the newer release.

New in Linux Mint 21.1 (Dec 20, 2022)

Linux Mint 21.1 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2027. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable.
KNOWN ISSUES:
Boot error: out of memory:
The following Grub bug affects Linux Mint 21.1: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/1842320.
If you are facing this issue, prepare a live USB using Rufus.
For more information about this issue read https://askubuntu.com/questions/1404415/ubuntu-22-04-live-usb-fails-reports-out-of-memory-with-no-details-even-after.
Shutdown timeout
For your convenience, the shutdown timeout is reduced to 10s.
If you rely on lengthy operations to finish before shutdown, read /etc/systemd/system.conf.d/50_linuxmint.conf and override the timeout value in /etc/systemd/system.conf.d/60_custom.conf.
Grub2 theme in HiDPI:
If the grub2 theme looks too small in your HiDPI monitor, install the "grub2-theme-mint-2k" package.
Snap Store:
The Snap Store is disabled. For more information on this or to re-enable it read https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/snap.html.
Virtualbox:
Black screen:
If the screen is black when launching Linux Mint in Virtualbox, change the VirtualBox graphics controller to "VMSVGA". Do this by opening up the settings for your VM and select Display -> Graphics Controller.
Garbled screen:
If the screen is garbled when launching Linux Mint in Virtualbox, switch to console with HOST+F1 (e.g. the RIGHT Ctrl key, no ALT) and back to tty7 with HOST+F7.
Another workaround is to disable "nested paging" (in the System -> Acceleration settings) and to increase the video memory to 128MB (in the Display settings).
Note: This issue only affects the live session. You don't need these workarounds post-installation.
Guest Additions:
To add support for shared folders, drag and drop, proper acceleration and display resolution in Virtualbox, click on the "Devices" menu of Virtualbox and choose "Insert Guest Additions CD Image". Choose "download" when asked and follow the instructions.
For more info, read Installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions.
Home directory encryption:
Benchmarks have demonstrated that, in most cases, home directory encryption is slower than full disk encryption.
The move to systemd caused a regression in ecrypts which is responsible for mounting/unmounting encrypted home directories when you login and logout. Because of this issue, please be aware that in Mint 20 and newer releases, your encrypted home directory is no longer unmounted on logout: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-session/+bug/1734541.
Guest sessions:
You can enable guest sessions in the "Login Window" utility, but this option is now disabled by default.
Touchpad drivers:
The default touchpad driver in this edition is "libinput" (provided by the xserver-xorg-input-libinput package).
If you experience problems with it, you can switch to another driver called "synaptics" (provided by the xserver-xorg-input-synaptics package).
To know which driver is used by your input devices, run the following command:
grep -i "Using input driver" /var/log/Xorg.0.log
When both drivers are installed, "synaptics" takes priority.
To switch to the "synaptics" driver, install it with the command:
apt install xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
Then log out and log back in.
To go back to using "libinput", simply remove the "synaptics" driver:
apt remove xserver-xorg-input-synaptics
Then log out and log back in.
Note: You can also try installing the "evdev" driver (provided by the xserver-xorg-input-evdev).
Wine:
To install the complete version of WINE, open a terminal and type:
apt install wine-installer
Among other things, this will install wine-desktop-files, which adds menu entries for regedit, your C: drive and other items which are missing from upstream WINE.
Sound and microphone issues:
If you're facing issues with your microphone or your sound output, please install "pavucontrol".
This will add "PulseAudio Volume Control" to your menu. This application has more configuration options than the default volume control.
No Keyboard on Lenovo laptop:
An upstream kernel issue affects keyboards on Lenovo laptops. If your Lenovo laptop keyboard doesn't work, or stops working when coming back from suspend check the following link for more information: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1352604/ubuntu-20-04-keyboard-not-working-on-lenovo-yoga-slim-7i-pro.
Mouse Pointer theme in root, Qt and Flatpak applications:
To modify the pointer theme for root and Qt applications you need to set it system-wide using the update-alternatives command:
sudo update-alternatives --config x-cursor-theme
To get a Flatpak to use your pointer theme, install and run Flatseal. Select your Flatpak and give it permissions for "All user files" and/or "All system files".
DVD Playback with VLC:
If VLC does not find your DVD player, click on Media->Open Disc, and specify '/dev/sr0' as the disc device.
Other issues:
Linux Mint 21 is based on Ubuntu 22.04. Make sure to read the Ubuntu release notes.
Tips
Username and password in the live session:
In the live session, the username is "mint" and the password is empty (i.e. just press Enter if asked for a password).
Moving windows which don't fit in the screen:
If your screen resolution is too low, some windows might not fit in the screen.
While pressing the ALT key, you can grab any part of a window with the mouse and move it across the screen.
Installing multimedia codecs offline:
To download the multimedia codecs into an installable archive:
Boot from the Linux Mint ISO on a computer which is connected to the Internet
Open a terminal and type "apt download mint-meta-codecs" (without the quotes)
This creates a "mint-meta-codecs.tgz" archive
On computers which do not have an Internet access, you can decompress this archive and run ./install.sh (or alternatively "sudo dpkg -i *.deb") to install the multimedia codecs.
Solving freezes during the boot sequence
Some graphics cards don't work well with the open-source driver present in Linux Mint.
If Linux Mint freezes during boot time, use the "Compatibility Mode" boot option.
In this mode you should be able to boot Linux Mint and install it on your computer.
After the installation, reboot the computer and wait for the boot menu to appear.
Add the "nomodeset" option as illustrated below:
Your browser does not support the video tag.
If your graphics card is from NVIDIA, once in Linux Mint, perform the following steps to install the NVIDIA drivers:
Run the Driver Manager
Choose the NVIDIA drivers and wait for them to be installed
Reboot the computer
With these drivers the system should now be stable and you no longer need to use "nomodeset".
Note: If you're using an Optimus card, you've nothing more to do. Upon reboot, a system tray icon should show up indicating which GPU is currently active. Click on it to switch GPUs.
Try with "nouveau.noaccel=1" instead of "nomodeset".
Try with "noapic noacpi nosplash irqpoll" instead of "quiet splash".
After the installation, use "Advanced Options" -> "Recovery mode" from the boot menu and choose "resume".
Choosing the right version of Linux Mint:
Each new version comes with a new kernel and a newer set of drivers. Most of the time, this means newer versions are compatible with a larger variety of hardware components, but sometimes it might also introduce regressions. If you are facing hardware issues with the latest version of Linux Mint and you are unable to solve them, you can always try an earlier release. If that one works better for you, you can stick to it, or you can use it to install Linux Mint and then upgrade to the newer release.

New in Linux Mint 21 (Nov 8, 2022)

Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon:
Linux Mint 21 is a long term support release which will be supported until 2027. It comes with updated software and brings refinements and many new features to make your desktop experience more comfortable.
Linux Mint 21 "Vanessa" Cinnamon Edition:
Bluetooth:
In Linux Mint 21 Blueman replaces Blueberry.
Just like Blueberry, Blueman is desktop-agnostic and integrates well in all environments.
Blueberry depended on gnome-bluetooth, which was developed exclusively for GNOME. In contrast, Blueman relies on the standard Bluez stack which works everywhere and can even be used or queried from the command line.
The Blueman Bluetooth Manager:
The Blueman manager and tray icon provide many features that weren't available in Blueberry and a lot more information which can be used to monitor your connection or troubleshoot Bluetooth issues.
Out of the box Blueman features better connectivity, especially when it comes to headsets and audio profiles.
In preparation for Linux Mint 21 the Blueman user interface was improved and received support for symbolic icons.
Upstream, Blueman and Bluez are actively developed and used in many environments.
Thumbnailers:
The lack of thumbnails for some common file types was identified as a usability issue. To address it a new Xapp project called xapp-thumbnailers was started and is now featured in Linux Mint 21.
Improved thumbnail support:
The project brings support for the following mimetypes:
AppImage
ePub
MP3 (album cover)
RAW pictures (most formats)
Webp
Sticky Notes:
The Sticky Notes application now has the ability to duplicate notes:
Duplicating a note in Sticky Notes:
When Sticky Notes is told to pick different colors for newly created notes it no longer picks them randomly, but cycles through the color set to maximize the probability of each note having a different color.
Multiple text size:
The systray icon was restyled.
New notes are positioned relative to their parent.
Clicking the tray icon creates a new note if none are present.
Process Monitor
Automated tasks are great to keep your computer safe but they can sometimes affect the system's performance while you're working on it.
A little process monitor was added to Linux Mint to detect automated updates and automated system snapshots running in the background.
Ongoing automated tasks are shown in the tray
Whenever an automated task is running the monitor places an icon in your system tray. Your computer might still become slow momentarily during an update or a snapshot, but with a quick look on the tray you'll immediately know what's going on.
XApps improvements:
Timeshift is now maintained as an XApp and its translations are done on Launchpad.
In rsync mode, it now calculates the required space for the next snapshot and skips it if performing that snapshot leads to less than 1GB free space on the disk.
Webp support was added to xviewer and thumbnailers.
Directory browsing was improved in Xviewer. Continuously pressing the arrow keys results in a smooth slideshow where enough time is given for each picture to be visible.
When Warpinator fails to find other devices, among other solutions, it now provides links towards its Windows, Android and iOS counterparts.
The Thingy bulk renamer application received UI improvements.
The WebApp manager supports additional browsers and custom browser parameters.
Cinnamon 5.4:
Mutter Rebase:
The biggest change in Cinnamon 5.4 is a major rebase of its window manager. Muffin is now based on Mutter 3.36 and its codebase is much closer to upstream than before.
When Muffin was forked from Mutter 3.2, the plan wasn't to develop a different window manager but simply to make Cinnamon compatible with all distributions of Linux by guaranteeing it had the same manager everywhere, no matter what version of Mutter was shipped.
Time flies. It's been 11 years since that fork. Over time both managers received features and improvements. Muffin caught up regularly by backporting Mutter changes into its codebase.
During that time the design of Mutter changed significantly though. Parts of Mutter were moved over to GNOME Shell and vice versa. This made it harder and harder to port some of the latest changes affecting Mutter over to Muffin because GNOME Shell and Cinnamon themselves are very different.
Muffin also received features and optimizations which weren't part of Mutter. Although these were beneficial to the Cinnamon desktop at the time, they also created a challenge when it came to catching up to Mutter improvements, and over time this became an issue.
After months of development, Muffin was completely rebased. Its particularities were reviewed. Some were dropped. Some were moved over to Cinnamon. To ensure easier rebases and backporting in the future, the priority was given to ensure the Muffin and Mutter codebases remained as close as possible.
Window Manager:
To accommodate the new window manager the Display settings were backported from gnome-control-center into cinnamon-control-center. The display configuration which was previously handled by csd-xrandr (part of cinnamon-settings-daemon) was moved into Muffin.
Display Settings:
In the past, applications could be rendered differently based on the technology they used. If a GTK application used a headerbar, its window was a CSD window and its titlebar and shadows were rendered using the GTK theme. If it didn't, its window was an SSD window and in this case its titlebar and shadows were rendered using the Metacity theme.
Although the Mint-X and Mint-Y themes did their best to make their GTK titlebars and shadows look as similar as their Metacity counterparts, in practice these were rendered by two different engines within Muffin and it introduced a slight visual disparity between the two types of windows.
In Cinnamon 5.4 all windows are now rendered with the GTK theme, whether they have a headerbar or not. Metacity themes are no longer used.
Theme Settings:
The GTK antialiasing, which is cleaner than the Metacity one, previously only benefited CSD windows. It's now used on all windows. Rounded corners look crispier.
Window animations were improved. The way they work changed under the hood. It's no longer possible to tune animations and to make your own like it was in the past, but the default set looks much cleaner than before and the global speed of animations is configurable.
Animations Settings:
Other Improvements:
Along with bug fixes Cinnamon 5.4 also features the following improvements:
The CJS interpreter, which was previously based on GJS 1.66.2, was rebased on GJS 1.70.
The settings daemon features improved MPRIS support.
Right-clicking an application in the main menu, shows a context menu. If the application provides commands, these commands are now added to this menu.
Printing and Scanning improvements:
Linux Mint 21 uses IPP, also known as Driverless Printing and Scanning (i.e. a standard protocol which communicates with printers/scanners without using drivers). For most printers and scanners no drivers are needed, and the device is detected automatically.
If your printer/scanner doesn't work properly disable driverless printing/scanning by removing the ipp-usb and airscan packages. Then install drivers from your manufacturer. For more information on printing and scanning: https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/printers.html.
Note: HPLIP 3.21.12 is installed by default.
Other improvements:
In Software Sources, the repository list, PPA list and key list support multiple selection. This allows several items to be removed at a time.
Uninstalling an application from the main menu (right-click -> uninstall) now triggers an evaluation of the application's dependencies. To protect the system from the removal of key components, if another package depends on the application, an error message is shown and the operation is stopped.
Uninstalling an application from the main menu now also removes dependencies of that application that were automatically installed and are no longer needed.
When you switch graphics cards using the NVIDIA Prime applet, the switch is now visible and you can cancel it if you change your mind.
Artwork improvements:
Linux Mint 21 features a superb collection of backgrounds from Aaron Thomas, Aaron Burden, Calin Stan, Constantin, Denise Bossarte, Dave Hoefler, Evgeni Tcherkasski, Erwan Hesry, Erik Skof, Fakurian Design, Hello Lightbulb, Mike Enerio, Marek Piwnicki, Navi, Paul Carmona, Pawel Czerwinski, Roger Bradshaw, Raphael Lopes, Samuel Ferrara, Steve Johnson , W and Zetong Li.
An overview of the new backgrounds:
Initial GTK4 support was added in the Mint-Y and Mint-X themes.
The Mint-X theme was redesigned. It's now built on SASS and supports applications which use dark-mode.
Main components:
Linux Mint 21 features Cinnamon 5.4, a Linux kernel 5.15 and an Ubuntu 22.04 package base.
LTS strategy:
Linux Mint 21 will receive security updates until 2027.
Until 2024, future versions of Linux Mint will use the same package base as Linux Mint 21, making it trivial for people to upgrade.
Until 2024, the development team won't start working on a new base and will be fully focused on this one.