Linux Mint 8 – Universal

I installed Linux Mint 8 (Helena) from the Universal Install / Live DVD. The install itself went with out a problem. However, there were a few post-installation issues. This article covers those issues, and a general review of Linux Mint 8.

The target machine for this installation was a HP Pavilion ze4300 laptop, with 512 megabytes of memory. The two issues that immediately surfaced were:

• No WiFi driver for the Ralink  RT2501 USB wireless adapter. I had to use another WiFi card to connect to the Internet and install the rt73 package. It was a surprise as the Ralink driver was part of the Linux Mint 6 installed drivers.
• Linx Mint 8 uses Grub 2 (version 1.97-beta4) as the boot loader. Grub2 is a radical change from what is now called “Legacy Grub.” While I think Grub 2  is a tremendous improvement over legacy Grub, I have a serious problem. When Grub presents the menu, Grub totally freezes, if I attempt to select another entry, other than the first one.

The first problem was easy to diagnose, as the lsusb command showed that the kernel had discovered the device. The lsmod command showed there was no rt driver loaded.

The Grub2 problem is much more complicated. It obviously recognizes the keyboard, as I could press the down arrow key once. After that one key press, Grub2 would not recognize any other keys. This problem is not unique to Linux Mint 8, it is a Grub2 problem. The version of Grub2 used by Linux Mint 8 is the same as used in Ubuntu 9.10, which is the latest version of GNU Grub2. In researching the problem, I found the following references:

• https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Grub2
• https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2
• http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=3106368.0 (one very heavy duty article)
• http://members.iinet.net/~herman546/p20/GRUB2%20CLI%20Mode%20Commands.html (a lengthy tutorial, with examples)

I have not been able to find a solution to the Grub2 problem. I tried Super Grub and it would not even allow me to select the first item. Reluctantly, I switched to Legacy Grub. When Grub2 is ready for prime time, I will try it again.

Since Linux Mint 8 derives from Ubuntu 9.10, it possesses the same problems as Ubuntu 9.10. The HP laptop on which I installed Linux Mint 8, also has CentOS 5.4, and Fedora 12. I use CentOS to keep current with RHEL. It is not a great desktop version of Linux. It is a server distro. Given the problems with Fedora 12, Linux Mint 8 still is my favorite distro on this machine.

Except for the problems mentioned above, Linux Mint 8 has a nice install script. While some do not like the menu structure, it has grown on me. I like the Software Manager for explorering common user applications. Synaptic package manager is still necessary for software tools and source. I did switch to Google Chrome as the default browser. It has a much smaller footprint, and videos seems to run much smoother. While installing extensions to Chrome, I discovered Feedly. Feedly does make for a different front page. While openSUSE still holds the number one spot on my favorite distro list, Linux Mint 8 is running in second place.