I no longer use Linux Mint, but I really enjoyed the decade I spent on it. The kernel change seems like a good move considering Mint is targeted towards desktop users.
Haha Mint was my first distro! I wiped Windows 7 and installed Mint, then quickly learned that a tarball is in fact more work than an exe. Good times and a great learning experience! Back then it was the only thing not slow, ugly, or wildly unfamiliar.
So what made you switch after so long?
Are these rolling out to LMDE?
LMDE is already on pipewire as far as I can tell. I have a process running by that name, as well as one called
pipewire-pulsewhich I assume is providing some or all of the old pulseaudio functionality for whatever might be expecting it.No problems I’m aware of. I thought I was having problems early last month, but that turned out to be hardware failure.
That’s great to hear! Thanks
I would expect all these changes get to LMDE except the kernel, which is based on Ubuntu.
Absolutely
Why except the kernel? Of all the things, that’s the easiest to get custom.
Sure, you still can customize the kernel, it’s just not the same default kernel for LMDE. Kernels move differently in Debian but you can always install something like the Liquorix kernel if you need the newest, and Ubuntu still uses the HWE model IIRC.
What I mean is that it’s about the easiest package for the Mint team to package a custom version of. No dependencies to worry about. Or they can pull the HWE from Ubuntu and ship it with LMDE.
I don’t think that’s a good idea. Moreover, it would defeat the purpose of using Debian Stable as the base system and their magnificent team of kernel maintainers. If you want the HWE just use plain Linux Mint, if you need a current kernel, go with a rolling release distro, and if you need Debian, try Sid.
They didnt use Pipewire before??
was not ready you had to use a PPA to make it work well.
Lolz
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/DefaultPipeWire
I know that Fedora does breaking changes and basically beta tests, but Pipewire “just works” since at least 2 years
You’ll have to excuse the fact they’re basing on the LTS.
yeah it worked for most people back then as well, not well as today, and it has been my to tool for audio before the 1.0 release they fixed a lot of issues, and part of the Linux DE Stack had to make a lot of changes as well, the core for Linux Mint is older then 2 years.
Fedora is a Developers OS after all, it would need to pull stuff like that in before most do.
pipewire was the smoothest transition ive ever experienced in linux, and fixed most of my grief with the audio subsystem. mint always takes its sweet time and i feel like this should have happened much sooner, but better late than never.
I switched my Mint install to Pipewire already. Just hope that won’t mess up the upgrade.
In my experience, it probably will. I’ve learned to just leave stuff alone and let the distro people handle it all. They know their own distro way better than me.
Ah well. I guess a reinstall every couple of years or so isn’t such a bad thing.
You can come back to pulseaudio and delete all your pipewire configs before upgrading.
Man just when audio in Linux got decently stable and functional, now we have to switch to some new shit. I run Ubuntu 23.10 that has pipewire and mostly it works but then sometimes it starts crackling, audio turns on and off, skipping, or random muting.
I’m getting so fucking fed up with these stupid Linux desktop pre-alpha software that take a decade to stabilize and by then we’re off to the brand new thing that barely functions.
Well…have you filed bugs for your issues?
Most people have had a very smooth transition over to Pipewire. I have 4 Arch machines and Pipewire has been flawless. I am even using one machine for pro-audio usecases (REAPER, Ardour).
Sounds like a problem specific to your hardware/setup. I’ve never had any issues with pipewire.
I switched over to pipewire for my audio nearly 2 years a go and had 0 problems migrating from pluse to pipewire in Arch btw. You’ll be running an even newer version so it will be just be a drop in replacement and the worst you’ll have to do is restart the pipewire service when you install it or just reboot.
This is why I’m no longer upgrading to non-LTS releases. They add the new stuff in those, the good souls that use them test it and by the time it gets to the LTS, things generally work fine. I think PipeWire will replace PulseAudio in 24.04. It’s had a good run while it lasted. 15 years of mainstream use. ☺️👏
That’s something i’ve been occasionally experiencing with my Amerano usb as well. Though it’s a kernel related problem, because switching to pulse does not solve it, booting up a 18Lts iso does.
In fact it’s a bit better on pipewire and you can also experiment with a low latency kernel.
