eRacks Systems Tech Blog

Linux Mint 21.1 (Vera) is Now Available with eRacks Systems.

Linux Mint 21.1 “Vera” was released on December 20, 2022, a full 14 days after the beta appeared. The popular Ubuntu-based distribution’s intuitive desktop environments make it especially popular among newcomers to Linux.

Linux Mint 21.1 code name “Vera”, brings several interface changes including a cleaner desktop with more vibrant colors. Vera also sees the arrival of more controls in the update, driver, and software managers. New system sounds, ISO tools, and mouse pointers round out this update to the popular Linux distribution.

Let’s see what new Linux Mint 21.1 has in its store for users.

Linux Mint

Linux Mint is one of the most successful distributions based on Ubuntu. And with the number of Ubuntu derivatives out there, that’s saying something. Linux Mint must be doing a lot of things right—at least, according to its passionate user base.

Linux Mint is focused on desktops and laptops. It provides customized desktop environments with a choice of Cinnamon, Xfce, and Mate. It has the Snap store disabled by default; a move first made in Linux Mint 20.

Linux Mint doesn’t have a server version. Its purpose is to provide a simple, intuitive, attractive desktop Linux experience for its users, especially newcomers to the Linux world. The Linux Mint team want a mac or Windows user to be comfortable with Linux Mint within a short time.

Linux kernel

The release will continue to use the Linux 5.15 LTS kernel under the hood, based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

A Refreshed User Interface

When you first boot into the desktop, you should quickly notice the new look of the cursor. It features the new Bibata theme by default.

The cursor icon theme inventory has new options like Yaru, Breeze, and GoogleDot along with the traditional DMZ theme.

Users will also find a unique set of app icon themes to choose from in addition to the traditional Mint-X, Mint-Y, and Mint-Legacy themes. This includes Papirus, Breeze, Numix, and Yaru.

Another interesting thing you may notice is the default accent color isn’t the traditional green anymore, and that’s because the desktop theme is now switched to Aqua. The accent color library offers more vibrant colors and gives the desktop a clean and attractive look.

For those who want the legacy look back, there exists a “Mint-Y-Legacy” option in the theme options. 

Moreover, the Computer, Home, Networks, and Trash icons previously visible on the desktop are removed by default and can be accessed in the file manager. The Home folder icon is displayed on the panel instead. If you want to return the old arrangement, you can do so by heading to the system preferences.

Cleaner Desktop

The desktop has been purged. The “home”, “computer”, “trash”, and “network” icons have been removed.

Clicking the folder icon pinned to the panel opens your “home” directory in the Nemo file browser, so it is still only one click away. Counter-intuitively, its tooltip reads “Files”, but it gives you a fast way to get to Nemo and your “home” directory all in one.

The “computer”, “trash”, and “network” locations are available through the “Go” menu in Nemo or by searching in the start menu.

Files that you copy or save to “~/Desktop” still show up on the desktop, as do mounted devices.

There’s the usual selection of new background wallpapers. You’ve got access to the generic Linux Mint wallpapers, the backgrounds from the Linux Mint 21 Vanessa release, and the new Vera-specific backgrounds.

It’s a stunning collection of images by skilled photographers. Whoever curated these backgrounds did a great job too.

There’s a new “Show Desktop” button at the extreme right-hand end of the panel. It hides all open windows, clearing the desktop with a single mouse click.

It’s practically invisible, but it’s there. Point at it, and you’ll see its tooltip.

A Modern Mouse Pointer

The default mouse pointer has changed. Linux Mint 21.1 uses “Bibata Modern Classic”, which has a gently rounded shape without a tail.

With all of these cosmetic tweaks, what looks good is subjective. If you don’t like the defaults, you can change them in a flash to something more agreeable to you.

New System Sounds

The system sounds have been updated. As before, the volume can be adjusted, and individual sounds can be switched on and off if they’re too distracting.

A Liberated Driver Manager

The Driver Manager application has been changed to run in user mode. This means it’ll run without the need for a password.

It searches your computer for drivers that are installed and in use, then lists them. It’ll also identify missing drivers and offer to install them.

Our test machine didn’t require any additional drivers, but it’s nice to know that you’ve got a helping hand if your computer does need them.

Enhanced Update Manager

A similar amount of assistance and hand-holding is available in the Update Manager. It makes what can become a complicated task very easy. You can select the packages that you want to update, and exclude those you’re not interested in at this time.

Significantly, support for updating flatpaks has been added.

More Control in Software Manager

If a flatpack is available for an application, the Software Manager let’s you choose between installing a DEB “System Package” or a flatpack.

It’s not the flashiest software store application, but it looks good and works well. You can find what you want quickly from a huge choice of software, and you get a choice of install types, too. I’ll take that over eye candy any day.

New USB Tools

As you’d expect USB Image Writer tool lets you select an ISO image and the USB stick you want to write the image to. It also has a “Verify” button which lets you verify the authenticity of the ISO image before you burn it, which is convenient.

The USB Stick Formatter tool formats USB sticks for you. You can pick a USB stick, set its device name, and choose a file system. There are four file systems supported:

• FAT32
• exFAT
• NTFS
• ext4

Other improvements

The code which lets you remove applications from the main menu was reviewed and password prompts were removed in situations where administrative permissions weren’t required.

Removing a Flatpak will no longer require a password to be entered. Same goes for simple shortcuts and local applications (i.e. applications which aren’t installed system-wide).

Synaptic and the Update Manager will now also ask pkexec to remember your password so you won’t have to enter it every single time if you perform multiple operations.

Following the upstream deprecation of apt-key, the Software Sources received changes to rework the way it handles PPA keys.

When a PPA is added its key is now only accepted for the PPA itself, not globally for all APT Sources.

Continuous integration for all Linux Mint projects moved from Circle CI to Github Actions. This gives the development team greater control over docker.

Documentation was written and added to the User Guide to cover the following topics:

• How to reset a forgotten password
• How to have Bluetooth disabled at boot
• How to make a Windows live USB stick or a multiboot USB stick

Summary of changes

• First point release of Linux Mint 21, based on Ubuntu 22.04.1 release
• Linux Kernel 5.15 LTS
• Cinnamon 5.6.4 desktop
• Xfce 4.16 desktop
• MATE 1.26 desktop
• Friendly driver manager
• Cleaner default desktop view with fewer icons
• Default theme changes to “Mint-Y-Aqua” from the green-based icons
• New cursor theme: Bibata (one of the best cursor themes in Linux)
• A bunch of stunning wallpapers
• And an array of bug fixes

Including these, there are lot of new features in this new release. Start using new Linux Mint 21.1 to get the full experiences.

To get the Linux Mint 21.1 on your system, simply upgrade the existing Linux Minx 20.x or do a clean install.

Upgrading to Linux Mint 21.1

Upgrading to Linux Mint 21.1 is simple. Long-time users of the distro will be familiar with the steps needed to do so:

1. Use the Timeshift app to make a system snapshot
2. Update any/all Cinnamon spices/applets/themes
3. Open Update Manager and install any updates
4. Select the “Upgrade” option in the ‘Edit’ menu of Update Manager
5. Hit Install

Once all updates are downloaded, unpacked, and installed it’s advised to restart the computer. A reboot ensures all changes take effect, and that the system comes back-up functioning as intended by Linux Mint’s developers.

As mentioned, Linux Mint 21.1 includes a number of visual changes and new artwork. Anyone who makes the upgrade but doesn’t like the new folder icons or aqua color accents can revert to Linux Mint’s older look using the Welcome app available in the applications menu.

Before upgrading or clean install, make sure your system meets the minimum requirements. The system requirements are as follows.

System requirements:

• 2GB RAM (4GB recommended for a comfortable usage).
• 20GB of disk space (100GB recommended).
• 1024×768 resolution (on lower resolutions, press ALT to drag windows with the mouse if they don’t fit in the screen).

Conclusion

If your system doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements, or you need clean pre-installed new system, you can always get one from eRacks Systems store as pre-configured with Linux Mint 21.1.

Asif Raihan December 28th, 2022

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Ubuntu 22.04 LTS “Jammy Jellyfish” Now Available!

The Long-Term Support release of Ubuntu, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS “Jammy Jellyfish” is now available as the Ubuntu default on all eRacks configurations. We also offer custom configurations of Ubuntu, including de-snapify 🙂

Note that one of our favorite Open Source protagonists, Martin Wimpress (Wimpy’s World), published these nifty AI-generated images of what a “Jammy Jellyfish” should look like, and we’ve used one of them here 🙂

Cheers,
eRacks Admin

admin April 29th, 2022

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Fedora 32 is now available! Check Out The New Features.

fedora32

Fedora has done it again. The fruit of their labor is now ready for the masses to enjoy. Fedora 32 will definitely strike the chord for most of its users and the ones who have a keen eye on joining in. Released on April 28th 2020 after a patient wait from the fans and enthusiasts, there are no more barriers to getting it on your hands because it is now officially out.

Outstanding New Features in Fedora 32

There are a lot of changes and new features abound in Fedora 32.  Let’s review some of them.

• Binutils upgraded to Binutils 2.3
• DNF (Dandified yum) improved (for better, more accurate counting of Fedora users)
• GCC 10 compiler upgraded
• Glibc upgraded to Glibc 2.31
• Python upgraded to Python 3.8
• Python 2 removed/retired
• Ruby upgraded to Ruby 2.7
• PHP upgraded to PHP 7.4
• MariaDB upgraded to MariaDB 10.4
• GNOME upgraded to GNOME 3.36(Fedora Workstation 32)
• And many more

For a list of all changes introduced in Fedora 32 Core, refer to the official Fedora 32 Changeset.

 

GNOME 3.36

Fedora 32 Workstation includes the latest release of GNOME Desktop Environment for users of all types. GNOME 3.36 in Fedora 32 Workstation includes many updates and improvements, including:

Redesigned Lock Screen

The lock screen in Fedora 32 is a totally new experience. The new design removes the “window shade” metaphor used in previous releases, and focuses on ease and speed of use.

unlock-screen-fedora

Better Applications Search

Powered by the talent and the evident hard-work invested in this new release, it is amazing now that you can now search applications like lock screen, power off, log out and many more in a beautiful layout. It integrates well with screens that can be oriented vertically or horizontally which makes it sweet to interact with.

New design on the settings App

Renamed to settings, the GNOME Control Center now has an easy to use side bar which embraces the user with an intuitive and fluid navigation through the settings arena. Additionally, the About category now has a more information about your system, including which windowing system you are running (e.g. Wayland)

Supports The New Extensions App

You no longer need to utilize the GNOME Tweaks tool to separately install/manage extensions. Fedora 32 features the new extension app which lets you manage GNOME extensions directly.

fedora-extensions-app

However, you won’t find it pre-installed. You will have to look through the software center to get it installed or simply type in the following command:

sudo dnf install gnome-extensions-app

Revamped Settings Menu

As part of the new GNOME 3.36, you will find the Settings app to be re-organized and more useful than ever before. You can get more information about your system and access the options easily.

fedora-32-settings

Notifications Area Redesign With Do Not Disturb Toggle

The best thing about GNOME 3.36 is the notification area or the calendar pop-over redesign. And, Fedora 32 has it nicely set up as well in addition to the Do Not Disturb mode toggle if needed.

notification-area-design-fedora-32

Redesigned Clocks Application

The Clocks application is totally redesigned in Fedora 32. It features a design that works better on smaller windows.

clock-app-fedora-32

GNOME 3.36 also provides many additional features and enhancements. Check out the GNOME 3.36 Release Notes for further information

Improved Out of Memory handling

Previously, if a system encountered a low-memory situation, it may have encountered heavy swap usage (aka swap thrashing)– sometimes resulting in the Workstation UI slowing down, or becoming unresponsive for periods of time. Fedora 32 Workstation now ships and enables EarlyOOM by default. EarlyOOM enables users to more quickly recover and regain control over their system in low-memory situations with heavy swap usage.

For more details please visit the official Fedora Releases/32/ChangeSet.

 

To upgrade your existing Fedora 31 installation to Fedora 32, you need to run the following commands in terminal one by one:

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade

sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade

sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

You can also perform a clean installation of the Fedora 32 by visiting its download page and download the ISO file. Or click the link below:

• Download Fedora 32 Workstation 64 bit.
• Download Fedora 32 Workstation 32 bit.
• Download Fedora 32 Server.

If you feel like doing so, do give it a try or ask for the help from eRacks Systems’ experts.

Asif Raihan May 5th, 2020

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Fedora 30 is now available

sudo dnf upgrade --refresh

sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade

sudo dnf install dnf-plugin-system-upgrade

sudo dnf system-upgrade reboot

Asif Raihan May 4th, 2019

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Mint 18 is here!

Linux Mint 18 is now available!

Based on Ubuntu 16.04, which was made available in April, this release of Mint is based on the LTS release of Ubuntu, rather than following the twice-yearly updates – and will have only incremental changes and updates over the next 2 years – thus being more stable and predictable, and avoiding any potential instabilities introduced by the biannual Ubuntu upgrades.

So Mint 18 should now be available in all the eRacks product dropdowns – if you don’t see it on the model you want, please contact us and we’ll fix it or give you a custom quote with Mint 18.

As always, contact us at info@eracks.com for any inquiries or questions regarding the Mint 18 release, or any of our products, and what release we recommend for you and your unique needs.

j

admin August 3rd, 2016

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Linux Mint 17.3

With the recent release of Mint 17.3, eRacks now offers this new operating system on servers, desktops, and laptops. Just select it from the drop-down menu when customizing your computer.

Aaron January 5th, 2016

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eRacks/ZENBOOK15.UHD With Open Source: Powerful And Elegant

Introducing eRacks/ZENBOOK15.UHD 4D resolution, high power Ultrabook with Linux or BSD operating system

We wanted to start the month in style. So, we thought what better way there is than introducing a great looking Ultrabook with powerful specification?   Then the light bulb went on: “eRacks/ZENBOOK15.UHD”.

This really stylish and elegant eRacks/ZENBOOK15.UHD laptop that comes with a screen resolution of 3840 by 2160 — four times FHD (full high-definition) resolution – really started looking mighty good.

This Ultrabook by Asus can be delivered by eRacks with up to 24 Gigabytes of RAM and up to 1 or even 2 Terabytes of SSD hard disk space. As a matter of fact this ultrabook has been ranked the number one among all of ultrabooks that you can find online, this is according to gadget reviews, which is a good indication that it will really serve it’s purpose and will cope up with your expectation. With its 15.6 inch 4K Ultra High Definition IPS screen and a view angle of about 170 degrees, eRacks/ZENBOOK15.UHD is really a great looking and powerful Ultrabook.

As with all eRacks Systems products, this elegant looking Ultrabook will be delivered with your choice of Open Source operating system & software pre-installed and pre-configured. The operating system can be any flavor of Linux or BSD (We can even do other OSes like Haiku, etc on request). We will install and configure the OS fully before packaging your Ultrabook and sending it off your way.

In fact, you can be sure that with your Ultrabook ordered through us, you will receive a powerful open source system, configured to the highest specifications according to your requirements. And you can also be sure that no one else can or will offer anything close to the laptop you will get from us.

So, why not expand your laptop computing power to the next level with us. Contact us and ask about eRacks/ZENBOOK15.UHD. We’ll be happy to hear from you.

info@eracks.com

Ron October 8th, 2015

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Heads-Up for Half Petabyte Cloud-Ready Storage Servers

eRacks/NAS50 Half Petabytes of Data Storage Server / Cloud Storage

We were extremely excited to announce the forthcoming release of 500 Terabyte (half Petabyte) storage space upgrade on our flagship product eRacks/NAS50 cloud data storage servers last week.  The new model, to be released shortly, will incorporate 50 HGST 10 Terabyte HelioSeal™ hard drives.  While the new model is not released yet, we are accepting pre-orders from customers.  The current capacity, now available, of the eRacks/NAS50 is 400Terabytes in total, with currently-available 8Terabyte drives. The Azure devops security for data protection purposes as that must be a priority.

The new unit is rackmount and holds 50 removable drive bays.  The 9U unit is suitable for any cloud storage application as well as NAS/Local LAN, since cloud services are really used now a days, you can learn how connecting to clouds directly can help businesses from this link.  eRacks/NAS50™ is also a great solution for media libraries and other applications which require massive amounts of data storage capacity, you just have to make you are also backed up by the best data management services. Visit https://blog.couchbase.com/fuzzy-matching/ and get more information!

Our new servers are truly a remarkable Petascale solution.  The HGST 10 Terabyte HelioSeal™ drives that come with eRacks/NAS50 use two technologies that greatly add to the value that this server carries with it, including other server services from sites as https://www.servermania.com/kb/articles/what-are-the-requirements-for-ubuntu-server/ for ubuntu projects.

The first is referred to as the HelioSeal™ technology.   The HGST hard drives using this technology replace the air inside of the drive with helium.  This would make the drive much lighter as well as allowing the disks to be much thinner.   Due to the helium inside, the thinness of disks will not cause any disruptive turbulence effects.  This will allow us to have more disks inside each drive which in turn means more data space.  Additionally, helium drives have much lower power consumption, as much as 27%, making our NAS50 models truly a green product.

The new drives in the eRacks/NAS50 servers also make use of a technology called SMR.  That is short for Shingled Magnetic Recording.  This technology by itself adds another 25 to 100 percent storage capacity to HGST hard drives.

We are proud of our new eRacks/NAS50 and are ready to take pre-orders.  We are prepared to customize the unit per your instructions with all Open-Source software necessary so your order will reach you completely pre-installed.

Please contact us for pre-orders or any questions you may have.

eRacks Open Source Systems
Phone: (714) 758-5423
Fax: (631) 392-9842
http://www.eRacks.com
eMail: info@eracks.com

Ron September 12th, 2015

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eRacks NAS36 Servers Store More Data At Lower Cost

eRacks Systems NAS36 8TB Seagate Archive Drive upgrade

We can’t help it with our innovations. Our NAS36 servers offered almost 200 Terabytes of data space already. That is considered quite high for a mid-range data storage server. But we just decided to jump even higher and exchange the standard 6-terabyte disks into 8-terabyte ones. That mean our NAS36 model storage servers are now able to hold 288 terabytes of data in total.

The new NAS36 model with higher data capacity brings even more value to our customers not just because of the storage space it provides but also for its price. Yes, we have decided to slash the prices down below $25,000. That is going to bring considerable saving to our customers. [UPDATE Sep 2015:  current price for maxed-out 288TB config with Seagate Archive 8TB drives is just under $22,000]

We are proud to announce this latest upgrade as we continue to provide petascale data storage servers at affordable prices.

We remain dedicated to open-source systems. We also remain committed to delivering pre-installed, pre-configured systems to our customers.

The NAS36 servers are rack-mount servers. We designed the 4U unit specially to hold large number of drives in a very limited space. That leaves ample amount of space for other necessary accessories inside your data center rack.

The 36 drives in the unit are all Seagate Archive Drives, mounted on a single backplane and controlled by a RAID controller. The unit holds 24 drives in front and 12 in the back making the unit case quite compact.

eRacks Systems is a leading provider of high-capacity, petascale data storage server solutions to companies and enterprises requiring massive amounts of storage data.
Our servers are suitable for application and web security on the cloud as well as Near-Line Storage. They are also configurable for NAS (Network Attached Storage) applications.

For a great storage solution at a considerable low price, contact us. We are available through email, phone and our website.

Ron August 19th, 2015

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