Linux Mint, the popular Ubuntu based Linux Distribution, announced the beta release of 22.1 today!
The new Linux Mint 22.1, code-name Xia, is based on Ubuntu 24.04 with long term support until 2029!
It features Cinnamon Desktop 6.4, that includes new default theme with rounder design and flat style buttons.
Following GNOME and Plasma 6’s design, the start menu, indicator applets, and panel context menus in Linux Mint 22.1 are now rounder and floating away from the bottom panel, which looks more modern. Continue Reading…
This simple tutorial shows how to install the latest Cinnamon Desktop 5.8 in Ubuntu 22.04 or Ubuntu 23.04 via PPA.
The source of Cinnamon 5.8 was out a few days ago! It will be officially announced later in this month along with Linux Mint 21.2.
Cinnamon 5.8 features built-in touchpad / touchscreen gestures support! There will be new “Gestures” option in System Settings utility. Where, provides options to configure actions for 3-finger/4-finger swipe, 2-finger/3-finger/4-finger pinch, and activation thresholds.
The new release also added new theme option (prefer light, prefer dark, left app decide) to switch between light and dark mode.
How to Install Cinnamon 5.8 via Ubuntu PPA
Cinnamon 5.8 will be default in Linux Mint 21.2 coming later in this month. Ubuntu user can try my PPA repository instead.
NOTE 1: This is an unofficial PPA! NOTE 2: The packages seem working good in my case in Ubuntu 22.04, but WITHOUT well testing! It MAY or MAY NOT WORK due to various reasons! NOTE 3: light/dark switching feature does not work in my case. Not sure if something is missing! NOTE 4: Do NOT install this PPA in production machine! NOTE 5: New gestures feature seems using touchegg as background service. If the feature does not work, try installing touchegg from its official PPA.
1. First, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When terminal opens, run command to add the PPA:
Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.
2. While adding PPA, it should automatically refresh package cache. When done, run command to upgrade to Cinnamon 5.8 in Ubuntu Cinnamon:
sudo apt upgrade
For non-Cinnamon desktop environment, run this command instead to install it:
sudo apt install cinnamon-desktop-environment
It’s better to write down what packages it’s going to install, in case you want to completely remove Cinnamon desktop later!
After installation, restart your computer and go to “System Settings -> System Info” to check the desktop version. You need to of course switch to ‘Cinnamon’ session from login screen.
Uninstall:
To restore the original Cinnamon desktop environment, open terminal and run command:
The previous command will restore Cinnamon to stock version in Ubuntu repository. To completely remove the desktop environment, use sudo apt remove package1 package2 package3 ... by replacing the package names to what you installed in previous step.
Linux Mint’s Cinnamon desktop has tagged its 4.0 release for more than a weeks. For those who want to try out new desktop release, here’s how to install Cinnamon 4.0 in Ubuntu 18.04.
Cinnamon 4.0 is not officially announced at the moment. It’s mentioned in the last Linux Mint blog post:
New panel layout, you’ll have the option to embrace the change or to click a button to make Cinnamon look just like it did before.
Ability to define a different icon size for each of the three panel zones
Mint-Y-Dark now is the default Cinnamon theme.
Support for mainline kernels was added to the Update Manager.
reduced system memory consumption, and various other changes.
Install Cinnamon 4.0 via PPA in Ubuntu 18.04:
1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut, or from application launcher. When it opens, run command to add the PPA:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:embrosyn/cinnamon
Type your password (no asterisks feedback) for sudo prompt and hit Enter to continue.
2. Then install Cinnamon desktop via command:
sudo apt install cinnamon
Once installed, log out and login with Cinnamon session.
For those who want to try out the latest Cinnamon Desktop 3.8, without downloading Linux Mint 19, here’s how to install Cinnamon 3.8.x via PPA in Ubuntu 18.04.
Cinnamon 3.8 will be included in the upcoming Linux Mint 19. This Gnome based desktop environment has received better support for GTK+ 3.22 and client-side decorated windows, fully ported to Python 3, backported various changes from upstream GNOME, and more.
For Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, a stable PPA has built the Cinnamon 3.8 packages, so the desktop can be easily installed via following steps.
1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcuts, or by searching for ‘Terminal’ from app launcher. When it opens, run command:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:embrosyn/cinnamon
Input your password (no visual feedback) when it prompts and hit Enter. Read the PPA description and finally hit Enter to add the PPA.
2. Then run command to install Cinnamon Desktop 3.8:
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
3. Finally restart your computer. When you’re at Gnome login screen, click on your username and then click the gear button to select ‘Cinnamon‘ desktop session.
Uninstall:
To remove Cinnamon desktop, open terminal and run command:
Cinnamon desktop environment has reached the new massive 3.4 release a few days ago. Though there’s noofficial announcement published on Linux Mint blog at the moment of writing, you can now install it in Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.04 via PPA.
Cinnamon 3.4.0 brings over 160 changes, and here are some of them:
The settings daemon is split into multiple processes. Make it easy to identify excessive CPU or memory usage and isolating crashes to only affect a particular plugin.
Nemo is split into two separate processes. One for the desktop icons, and one for the file manager windows.
Added “Run now” button in the settings’ module for managing startup applications
Support for configuring the LightDM login manager in Cinnamon Settings.
New Cinnamon Settings option for configuration acceleration and sensitivity of the mouse.
Cinnamon is now capable of adapting to the multi-process CSD.
The Cinnamon Desktop 3.2 was released two weeks ago. There’s now a stable PPA to make it easy to install it in Ubuntu 16.04 and/or Ubuntu 16.10.
Cinnamon 3.2 is a massive release with hundreds of changes, it brings support for vertical panels, the ability to play sound effects when displaying notifications, revamped Keyboard applet, a setting for the new menu animations.
Other features include:
new “Peek at desktop” feature
workspace switcher improvements
simplified background manager
keyboard navigation for context menus
updated appindicators and settings
support for displaying percentage next to the volume slider
Cinnamon 3.0, the GTK3 desktop environment developed by (and for) Linux Mint, was released yesterday afternoon.
Here’s a quick overview of some of the changes in Cinnamon 3.0 according to the release note:
Window management improvements on tiling, mapping and unmapping windows, compositor’s window groups and tracking of full screen windows
Improved out of the box touchpad support (edge-scrolling and two-finger-scrolling can now be configured independently and are both enabled by default)
New accessibility and sound settings (both rewritten as native cinnamon-settings modules)
Battery powered devices can be renamed
Different favorite applications can now be set for plain-text, documents and source code files
Panel launchers now include application actions
Animation effects are now enabled by default on dialogs and menus
Favorites and system options can now be disabled in the menu applet
The photo-frame desklet now also scans subdirectories
Improved support for GTK 3.20, Spotify 0.27, Viber
How to Install Cinnamon 3.0 in Ubuntu:
Linux Mint users can upgrade to Cinnamon 3.0 via the update-manager. For Ubuntu, there’s a PPA contains unofficial (though probably closest to official) builds of Cinnamon releases for Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 15.10, and a little old version of Ubuntu 14.04.
Open teriminal (Ctrl+Alt+T), paste below command and hit run:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:embrosyn/cinnamon
After typing your password, take a look at the PPA description in terminal output and hit Enter.
2. Then update and install the Cinnamon desktop via:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
3. If everything goes OK, log out and select log in with Cinnamon session (or Cinnamon (Software Rendering) session if you want it use software rendering to do more of the graphical work).
(Optional) To uninstall the Cinnamon session, use Synaptic Package Manager or run commands:
Linux Mint’s Desktop Environment Cinnamon 2.8 now is available for upgrade. Here’s how to install it in Ubuntu 15.04 via PPA.
Cinnamon 2.8 will be officially released and announced at the end of October. Currently known changes in the 2.8 release:
Better sound applet:
The track info and media controls are now part of a new overlay which sits on top of the cover art. For supported players, a flat position bar is displayed underneath.
Input controls, applications and output devices moved to the right-click context menu. Output devices now show their origins when multiple sound devices are detected (credits go to Cobinja for that).
Battery vendor/model info – display the presence of manufacturer data in the power settings and applet.
a couple of fixes to box pointers
The workspace switcher applet now shows a visual representation of your workspaces, with little cubes for the windows inside of them
Install Cinnamon 2.8 in Ubuntu:
There’s a PPA repository that contains Cinnamon 2.8 for Ubuntu 15.04. Ubuntu 15.10 should be support soon once it’s officially released. Check out the PPA page.
1. Add PPA.
Open terminal from the Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut key. When it open, run command:
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:moorkai/cinnamon
2. Update and install the DE via below commands one by one:
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cinnamon
Once installed, log out and select log back with Cinnamon session.
The 2.6 release of Mint’s Cinnamon desktop environment has reached feature-freeze. The stable release is planned for the end of this month.
Cinnamon 2.6 brings some exciting new features, include:
support for systemd
panel support for multiple monitors
support for new GTK headerbar (client-side decorations)
Cinnamon 2.6 will be made into the Romeo repositories for Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca and LMDE 2 Betsy.
Install Cinnamon 2.6 in Ubuntu:
For Ubuntu 14.04 and Ubuntu 15.04 users, before it’s made into a stable PPA (I’ll update the PP once a stable PPA is available) you can now try out the new release through the Gwendal LE BIHAN’s nightly build PPA .
Cinnamon Desktop 2.4 has been announced recently, which will be featured in Linux Mint 17.1 “Rebecca” planned for the end of November and in LMDE 2 “Betsy” planned for Spring 2015.
According to the release note, the new Cinnamon Desktop brings below new features and improvements:
Little improvements on memory usage and responsiveness to make your experience smoother and more enjoyable.
Similar to Windows, “Super+e” now opens up the home directory.
Single-button touchpads are now supported and actions for 2-finger and 3-finger clicks are configurable.
Compositing in full-screen mode is now configurable and does not require to restart Cinnamon.
The desktop font is now configurable.
It is now possible to give the screensaver a custom date format, but also to change the font and the color of the text.
Theme and Background Settings were completely redesigned, Background Slideshow supported.
A “Slideshow” applet can be added to panel to control background slideshow.
The Network Settings were rebased on GNOME’s latest configuration module.
Add Notification and Privacy Settings.
Nemo now allows quick customization of folder icons with folder-color-switcher.
Install / Upgrade to Cinnamon in Ubuntu / Linux Mint:
NOTE that Cinnamon 2.4 is released a month earlier than Linux Mint 17.1 for the specific purpose to squash new bugs and to gather feedback. So there’ll be bugs.
To help test the new desktop, you can follow below steps to install or upgrade to Cinnamon 2.4 from a nightly build PPA:
For Ubuntu 14.10 and Ubuntu 14.04, run commands below one by one in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):
