Linux Mint 20 New Features

#4 - warpintor- sharing on local network. Like at home? One PC to another PC over he home network?

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yes, that is my understanding. from here:

Warpinator

The star of the show in Linux Mint 20 is a new application called Warpinator.

10 years ago, Linux Mint 6 featured a tool called “Giver” which could share files across the local network. Without any server or configuration, computers would automatically see each others and you could simply drag and drop files from one to another. When the Giver project was discontinued it had to be removed from Linux Mint and we’ve been missing that functionality ever since.

Warpinator is a reimplementation of Giver. Server configuration (FTP, NFS, Samba) is overkill for casual file transfers between two computers, and it’s a real pity to use external media (Internet services, USB sticks, external HDDs) just to share files when there’s a local network which could do just that.

With Warpinator, Linux Mint 20 brings back easy file sharing across the local network.

The main window shows you the computers on the local network which are also running Warpinator:

it also looks like they may offer an option to add warpinator to mint 19.x installations (from mint’s github):

Mint 19.x and Ubuntu Bionic (18.04) users

Add this PPA to satisfy dependencies (for the time being):

GRPC : Clement Lefebvre

Otherwise,

meson builddir --prefix=/usr  (I think it needs to be /usr for gobject introspection to work).
ninja -C builddir
sudo ninja -C builddir install
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I can confirm the first quote in your last post. A while ago, I set up an FTP server on one of my Raspberry Pi’s, just because I often transfer files onto my PC from this Pi. This is everything but an elegant solution. However, Warpinator sounds easy and seems to fit in the empty lot that was left behind when Giver left.

The only thing I wonder is, what if the network stuff is wrongly set up? Then this easy tool won’t be as easy. For example, if you have set up a computer to be invisible on the network. Then Warpinator will simply not work. Or when you are on the guest network, usually the 2 networks are separated for security reasons. Then Warpinator also wouldn’t work.

So I guess everything has its pros and cons, as it is always the case.

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@01101111, the reason I was concern about snaps was that I read that Chromium was not supported as an install thru Mint. I use Chromium sometimes, so I want to get it installed on Mint 20. And I also wonder, what else might be available on snaps.

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the release notes link to this page with a few different ways to install chromium. the very last one describes how to do so through the snap store. that is followed by a link to a more in depth description of mint’s criticism of snaps and the snap store. you can browse what is available from the snap store here.

in case it is of interest, mint comes with with flatpak installed by default. it is similar to the snap concept. their hub (like snap’s store) is here though it does not include chromium browser.

edit: in case some of this comes across as just one distro trying to set themselves apart from another, i would add that i have read of ubuntu users uninstalling snap on their systems because they also don’t like the performance.

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final edit? maybe :roll_eyes:

i just noticed when reading this whole thing that the method it describes for installing the snap store involves a couple of extra steps over the one that describes how to install chromium from the snap store. i would definitely follow the one on this page if you decide to install snap.

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out of curiosity i started up a mint 20 xfce vm to see what configuration options were available. you are correct that there aren’t a whole lot of settings. i did read a passing comment on github that someone was using it between arch and mint so at least portability sounds like an option.

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Yes, so perhaps the file exchange is being made very easy and accessible, but it requires a perfectly set up network (even if it is in many situations the case anyway). So all problems that are network related are still not solved. Maybe it would be a good idea for them to append a quick How-To as to what the network should be set up like, with many examples to copy from.

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I would have to say #4. Almost also #1, but my main file browser is “Double Commander”.
Although I still do some distro-hopping, just to check out different distros, my main “driver”
has been Mint-MATE for over 10 years. However, I find myself using BionicPup, both the 32 and the 64b versions, more and more.

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@01101111, would installing Chrome (which is the same as Chromium) forego the snap problem?
Is Chrome a trusted install for Linux Mint in your opinion?

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yes, installing chrome can be done without adding snapd to your system. i just did so on a mint 20 xfce vm according to this guide. the guide is a little older than mint 20, so please ignore what it says about installing chromium at the top. the bottom basically says go to https://www.google.com/chrome, download the .deb file for debian/ubuntu(/mint) and double-click the icon in your downloads folder (or wherever you have your downloaded files stored) to let gdebi (package installer) install it.

i don’t use chrome so i don’t really know about its trust level either personally or in general. it seems to be a fairly well liked and commonly used browser from what i understand though.

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since you asked about trust and part of my answer was to install a .deb file (in addition to being tangentially related to some previous exchanges we have had about where the packages you install come from: repositories and ppa’s), i wanted to clarify that it is a good idea that you trust both the person recommending a deb package to install as well as where you will get that package from. deb packages are a bit like exe files in windows especially on a distro like mint where double-clicking will automatically open the package installer.

in this instance since you know google makes chrome and hopefully you plan on getting the .deb from their site it seems like it will be just fine.

one other thing to keep in mind with a .deb install is that some of them will be added to your regular system updates, but some will not (related askubuntu thread). it seems that chrome is one that will receive updates (from here):

Double-click the installer, which has the extension .deb , as if it were a .exe installer in Windows. Then it’ll install itself automatically.

Furthermore, it’ll add the software source for Chrome to your software sources list, so that Update Manager will automatically offer you updates for Google Chrome as soon as they become available.

i only use one program on my systems that is installed with a deb file. it was originally recommended by an itsfoss.com article (so i trust the source of the recommendation) and i have never had any issues with it. i am not entirely sure if it gets updates. that is one of the reasons i looked for the askubuntu page linked above as well as decided to come back and add a bit more to my reply :slight_smile:

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Another question – maybe good for other Linux 19.3 users also.
Should I install the new Linux 20.0 or is it just as good to wait for the upgrade to come out that upgrades my system from 19.3 to 20.0 or 20.1?


The upgrade from Linux 18.3 to Linux 19 went well for me.

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Previous upgrades went well for me as well (generally). If you wait a couple of weeks before performing the upgrade, things usually run smoothly.

In my case, since I don’t mind some level of risk, I upgrade 3 computers today (19.3 --> 20).

  • One completed without any issue.
  • One got stuck at “mintupgrade check”.
  • One got stuck at “mintupgrade upgrade”.

I guess I will wait for a “mintupgrade” update and will try again.

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Thanks for sharing your experience with Mint 20 @LoneSt4r. And Welcome to ‘It’s Foss’.

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I had to comment out my crypttab entries for the “mintupgrade check” error to disappear. One down, one to go! :slight_smile:

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i think LoneSt4r’s experience here is probably more helpful than my answer, but i can add that i have read that some ubuntu users wait until the first point release (from 20.04 to 20.04.1) to do their upgrades just to make sure the kinks have been worked out of the system. since bodhi doesn’t have a direct upgrade mechanism, i always re-install for a major release (and sometimes a time or two in between).

if you use timeshift and follow the guidance to make a snapshot, that should help make sure things are at least recoverable in case there are problems. of course that only covers system data so i would take the time to create a clonezilla image if i were trying the same to safeguard my personal stuff (including config files).

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Yes, I am kind of leaning towards a “fresh” / clean install of Mint 20 vs the upgrade to Mint 20. How do you keep track of your mods / updates / packages installed to perform over again when you re-install? Does Linux have a place where all the packages added to it are kept?

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i do mine a little old school :bookmark: i keep a libreoffice document called “bodhi fresh install” (pretty sure i got that idea from @ElectricDandySlider) and do my best to add things to it when i make changes to my system. there was a previous discussion here about trying to come up with a list of installed applications after the fact. this was chosen as the solution. Abhishek also offered a suggestion before that one. i have not run that script myself to verify, but it’s just a dpkg-query so it doesn’t make any kind of changes to your system.

most program mods or configuration changes (all maybe? well, probably some in /etc too now that i think about it, but definitely don’t copy that) are stored in your /home/user directory. my understanding is that is why some people choose to create a separate /home partition when they install. i have never done so. again, i default to my list and just go about setting up things like they were previously :slight_smile:

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i missed this part when reading the upgrade instructions previously, but the other mint 20 upgrade discussion encouraged me to take a closer look and i saw this in the notes:

The upgrade overwrites files in /etc/ with default configuration files. You can restore files indivually by the Timeshift snapshot you made prior to upgrading.

that would give me pause if i were in your position and considering upgrading. i don’t know everything that /etc contains, but it probably has your printer configuration (which i know was a frustration in the past) as well as any installed fonts or icons.

that also reminded me that since

and there have been some printer compatibility issues discussed here recently in relation to mint and ubuntu 20, i would recommend grabbing a copy of your printers.conf file in /etc/cups/ if it exists (you can check in your file manager). since you have an hp (maybe still do?) and if you use hplip there may be a different location, but checking it out certainly wouldn’t hurt.

that file usually only has root read and write permissions so you may need to sudo cat /etc/cups/printers.conf and then copy the output to a regular text file.

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