Linux Mint Cinnamon 22.1 and VirtualBox.

[bob466]

Yesterday I downloaded the Mint Cinnamon 22.1 ISO as I wanted to try it in VirtualBox...should be easy.

I ran the verify tool and it's ok...so I started to install and got to nearly the end and it stalled..

After 20 minutes I deleted all files.

I downloaded the ISO again from another mirror and got this...

I downloaded the ISO from another...ran the verify tool and got this...

So I installed it in VirtualBox and at the end I got this...

It wouldn't install and had corrupt files...what the hell is going on here. In total 4 ISOs...two failed the verify test...the other two passed but none would install. ISOs were downloaded from these mirrors...Clarkson uni...James Madison uni...Uni of Waterloo Canada and Freemont Cabal.

So I tried to install Cinnamon 21.1 and got this...

It installed...so it's not me or VitrualBox.

I also installed Kubuntu and Linux Lite without any problems...

A few years ago Mint Cinnamon was easy to install in VirtualBox but didn't run very well but now in won't install and then there's the bad ISOs...not good.

 

[wizardfromoz]

G'day Bob, I can see your frustration from that little red guy above (love those gifs you get), but here I feel it is misplaced.

1. With your 2nd screenshot above, the bracketed 1 (1) indicates that that is a 2nd copy of the Mint iso, it may account for the verification failure.

So get rid of any extra versions and then try the verification process again.

2. I am not sure why you used the 3 US mirrors. If you take Mint's download mirrors and scroll down past America and Asia, you will find Australia and New Zealand. The Aussie mirror (for me) shows as

aarnet.edu.au


What I did to try to duplicate your efforts:

1. I already had a 'Xia' Cinnamon iso in stock, so first I checked its verification, that checked out. Then I deleted it (I had got that one via Distrowatch/SourceForge), and downloaded the iso from Linux Mint using the aarnet mirror.

Then I verified that one, went fine. The screenshot below shows the old iso verified in the left terminal, and today's download in the right Terminal.

2. With that done, I rebooted into a Linux Mint 21.1 'Vera' MATE I have, which has Virtualbox installed. IIRC you use 21.2 'Victoria' Cinnamon, but this was the closest I could come. I gave the virtual guest 4 GB RAM and 4 cores.

I then used the freshly downloaded and verified 22.1 iso to install the VM, and the result is shown below, including the VBox version

It appears to work fine.

So while I certainly commiserate over the problems you have experienced, I can't see that there is any problem with the Mint iso, nor virtualbox.

HTH

Chris

 

[bob466]

I've just installed Mint Mate 22.1 in VirtualBox with no problems...

The verify tool says...

It's only Mint Cinnamon 22.1 that's a problem but because I'm stupid I'll try a local mirror and see what happens.

 

[wizardfromoz]

It's only Mint Cinnamon 22.1 that's a problem

Yes, but that is the one that I downloaded, and then installed on VB. It is simply that I performed the exercise on a 21.1 'Vera' installation I have, I was trying to match the VB versions as best I could.

Perhaps what I posted above is unclear, regrets if that is so.

Wiz

 

[bob466]

This time I downloaded Cinnamon 22.1 ISO from AARNet...verify tool said...

But it installed without any problems...

Four bad ISOs that wouldn't install...verify tool not worth the effort to run because it doesn't work...so it seems to be the luck of the draw...what a joke.

I haven't tried to install any of them on an internal Drive...if Linux Lite can get it right the first time...why can't Mint.

 

[Condobloke]

I just downloaded this via Torrent....rececked it via torrent......then right clicked to Verify it...

 

[Condobloke]

Take a closer look @bob466, there has to be some damn thing that is escaping your attention.

 

[wizardfromoz]

...verify tool said...

Bob, it may actually be the verify tool itself which is at fault - did you do the same (right-click) as Brian did or use a terminal command?

I will be back with more asap.

 

[wizardfromoz]

With my case, I verified from Terminal.

I cd'ed to my folder where I keep isos, and used

mint-iso-verify linuxmint-22.1-cinnamon-64bit.iso

and enjoyed success.

That being said, there is not an actual package named

mint-iso-verify

... well there is, sort of in the shape of

/usr/bin/mint-iso-verify

... but it may be a part of a suite, not sure

What actually happens is that mint-iso-verify acts as a stub, or else calls, a Python script known as

verify.py

located as

/usr/lib/mintstick/verify.py

and whose content can be seen here (you'd have to be keen)

https://github.com/linuxmint/mintstick/blob/master/lib/verify.py

That script includes the Trusted Signatures, one of which we have already seen - the 27DEB one

TRUSTED_SIGNATURES = {"27DEB15644C6B3CF3BD7D291300F846BA25BAE09": "Linux Mint",
                      "C5986B4F1257FFA86632CBA746181433FBB75451": "Ubuntu",
                      "843938DF228D22F7B3742BC0D94AA3F0EFE21092": "Ubuntu",
                      "10460DAD76165AD81FBC0CE9988021A964E6EA7D": "Debian",
                      "DF9B9C49EAA9298432589D76DA87E80D6294BE9B": "Debian",
                      "F41D30342F3546695F65C66942468F4009EA8AC3": "Debian"}

Confused? Good, lol, so am I.

Best I can say is that if the iso works to install, fine, and if you want to report a bug on the verification process, try

https://github.com/linuxmint/mintstick

Regrets I can't be of more help

 

[wizardfromoz]

BTW, Bob, what I can do further is this -

If you confirm for me what aspect of the verify method you used (Terminal or right-click file from FM), and that you are using LM 21.1 'Vera' Cinnamon :

I have 21.1 'Vera' Cinnamon in my stable and can at least go there for the verification attempt.

Let me know

Chris

 

[wizardfromoz]

...or is that Victoria Cinnamon, 21.2 ?

I have that, too.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Got it, if your signature is still current, just noticed.

Off there now

 

[wizardfromoz]

OK now I am dizzy.

That worked OK for me. From right-clicking, verify, in Nemo, on LM 21.1 Cinnamon

 

[Condobloke]

This is maybe flogging a tired horse......but....I note that when I get : The Checksum is Correct"

....I also get "The checksum is correct but the authenticity of the sum was not verified.
To do that: (from : https://linuxmint-installation-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/verify.html#authenticity-check )

Authenticity check​

To verify the authenticity of <span>sha256sum.txt</span>, check the signature of <span>sha256sum.txt.gpg</span> by following the steps below.

Import the Linux Mint signing key:​

gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.openpgp.org:80 --recv-key 27DEB15644C6B3CF3BD7D291300F846BA25BAE09


Note

Check that the key was properly imported:

gpg --list-key --with-fingerprint A25BAE09
The output should contain 27DE B156 44C6 B3CF 3BD7 D291 300F 846B A25B AE09 and look like this:

pub rsa4096 2016-06-07 [SC]
27DE B156 44C6 B3CF 3BD7 D291 300F 846B A25B AE09
uid [ unknown] Linux Mint ISO Signing Key <[email protected]>


and in Terminal looks like this:

brian@brian-desktop:~$ gpg --keyserver hkp://keys.openpgp.org:80 --recv-key 27DEB15644C6B3CF3BD7D291300F846BA25BAE09
gpg: key 300F846BA25BAE09: "Linux Mint ISO Signing Key <[email protected]>" not changed
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: unchanged: 1
brian@brian-desktop:~$ gpg --list-key --with-fingerprint A25BAE09
pub rsa4096 2016-06-07 [SC]
27DE B156 44C6 B3CF 3BD7 D291 300F 846B A25B AE09
uid [ unknown] Linux Mint ISO Signing Key <[email protected]>

brian@brian-desktop:~$

 

[Condobloke]

So, just to really flog it to death.....

I download the .iso via torrent.

I then right click on the .iso and select verify (i am running Linux Mint 22.1)

Follow the yellow brick road through that verify process....it is fairly straightforward....

3 things to complete verification......PLUS verify the Authenticity explained above

 

[bob466]

I right click the ISO and select Verify...

Then click Verify...I should get this...

Notice the same ISO with the same checksum and the same verify tool gets two different results...

Is it my eyes or the Verify tool is total crap and just doesn't work.

 

[bob466]

You should be able to download Mint Cinnamon 22.1 ISO from any mirror and get a good one but that's not the case anymore.

When 4 out of 5 are bad and won't install in VirtualBox says it all...that's something you'd expect in windoze not Linux...the good ISO according to the Verify tool that I installed yesterday...today won't boot.

I thought running Mint in VirtualBox would be the perfect way to test the Distro under actual running conditions without installing it on an internal Drive because the Live Session doesn't...maybe it's time to look elsewhere.

Beginners say they're having trouble with Mint Cinnamon 22.1 with different problems and we assume it's the Beginner but not anymore.

 

[KGIII]

Beginners say they're having trouble with Mint Cinnamon 22.1 with different problems and we assume it's the Beginner but not anymore.

Due to historical reasons, I've never really considered Mint to be something I want to run as my only distro. I do have it installed on one system but the whole project is largely run by one person. That's a lot for any one person to do, especially with the increased popularity. Taking on that much work isn't going to be easy and things will be overlooked - no mater how good you are.

I'm 100% certain that I'd make errors if I tried to maintain a distro without a solid team of developers and testers to help me. Even then, I'm gonna make mistakes. Those mistakes get less likely with more eyes on the code.

How's that saying go? Many eyes make all bugs shallow. It's something like that.

This isn't discounting the effort he has put into the project. Not at all. No one human can do that much for that long without making errors - some of which may be significant errors. He does have help, which is important, but the major distros have a bunch of people - including people paid just to work on the distro (and to push fixes upstream - and downstream).

I do have Mint Cinnamon (current version) installed on one system and it's okay. It has been fairly reliable, though a recent software installation nuked it hard enough that I had to use TTY to fix it. It was an attempt to make fuse3 work for appimages and that one small installation meant that it started throwing errors and would no longer boot.

I'd say that one was my fault. I was able to fix it without fuss and figured out the problem by switching the boot screen to text mode (F8) and seeing what the error was. Well, confirming what the error was. Using UEFI and secure boot made that a bit of a hit and miss - timing it properly was wonky. But, once I was able to get to TTY and login, I first tried startx and then just did a re-install of Cinnamon. That solved it.

Anyhow, the major distros have all sorts of help - paid and volunteered. Clem has a fairly small team from what has been disclosed. That's a problem when you have a distro that is this popular.

For the record, I sometimes suggest Mint. It has a decent track record as of late (including this instance of a bug). It's an 'easy' to use distro. The installation process is pretty simple and most folks are fine with the defaults. It installs proprietary drivers automatically, meaning less frustration for a new user. Their support forum isn't terrible.

That sort of stuff...

After all, even I have a Mint system.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Bob, I don't have an answer for the vagaries of the verify tool - that is something that would have to be taken up with Linux Mint themselves, I suspect.

I do have an alternative that might allow you

...would be the perfect way to test the Distro under actual running conditions without installing it on an internal Drive because the Live Session doesn't...maybe it's time to look elsewhere.

and I am starting to write the thread for it.

I have alluded to it at David G.'s Off Topic thread

https://linux.org/threads/the-ubuntu-iso-file-size.55966/

at my Posts at #41 and #43 on page 3.

Hope you find it of interest/use.

Cheers

 

[bob466]

I have just installed Linux Lite 7.4 on my spare SSD and using it to write this post.

Seems to run well...above is my Desktop. I did run this a few years ago as a seconded Distro and is similar to Mint Cinnamon.