Peppermint 6 Respin with UEFI Support Released

peppermint_laptop_screen_logoTeam Peppermint are pleased to announce a respin of our latest operating system Peppermint 6 with full UEFI / GPT / Secureboot support (64bit edition only), and a new version of Ice (our in house Site Specific Browser framework) that now supports the Firefox web browser as well as Chromium / Chrome.

We’ve fixed a few minor bugs, and tweaked the Peppermix-Dark theme a little in line with user feedback

And all updates to the original Peppermint 6 respin are also included in the respin

The Peppermint 6 feedback we’ve received so far has been overwhelmingly positive (thank you), so we’ve not made any major software or UX changes this time around, we hope the UEFI support opens up Peppermint 6 to a whole group of users and we’d love to hear from you at the Peppermint forum.

Peppermint 6 respin (Peppermint-6-20150904) hightlights:-

  • The primary change (and the reason for the early respin) is the 64bit version now has working UEFI and Secureboot support on disks with a GPT partition table .. allowing easy installation of Peppermint 6 64bit alongside Windows 8/8.1/10 in dual/multi boot configuration on GPT disks, or just installed on its own without needing to switch to legacy BIOS mode (CSM) and disable Secureboot.
  • We’re pleased to announce a new version of Ice with added support for the Firefox web browser (alongside Chromium and Chrome) .. allowing the creation of SSB’s that open in a Firefox window without the usual toolbar/address-bar/tab-bar clutter and neatly integrating them into the system menus, thereby putting web applications on an equal footing with locally installed applications as far as system integration and appearance.
    For further information on Ice and SSB’s, please see here
  • We’ve made some slight tweaks to the Peppermix-Dark theme:-
    a) Switch from a striped background in the menu to a plain dark gray lightly textured background.
    b) Switch from a striped background in the Nemo file manager left hand panel to a plain dark gray lightly textured background.
    c) Removed alternating row striping in the Nemo list view (Nemo file manager and Synaptic package manager, etc.).
  • The respin includes a few minor bug fixes and tweaks:-
    a) Minimum disk space requirement for installation adjusted to 3.8GB (for EeePC users with 4GB SSD’s, and people that want to do a full non-live installation to a 4GB USB stick)
    b) The removal of the unnecessary xfce4-power-manager-data package (left over from our switch to mate-power-manager).
    c) Removal of the duplicate “Window-Shot” keyboard shortcut action that caused focussed window screenshots to be saved twice (once on the desktop and once in the users home directory).
  • Includes all updates to date.

We invite you to compare Peppermint to other operating systems, we are confident you will be impressed. To take Peppermint Six out for a test drive, visit our website at peppermintos.com where you can download it for free. If you need help installing Peppermint Six, or have any questions about using it, we have a second-to-none user support team at forum.peppermintos.com.

About Peppermint OS LLC

Peppermint OS LLC is a software company, based in Asheville, North Carolina. Founded in 2010, we are committed to building the best operating system for both enterprise and consumers available on the widest range of devices. To find out more about our company, please visit us at http://peppermintos.com.

 

This Post Has 98 Comments

    1. Mark Greaves

      If that tutorial works in Ubuntu 14.04 I can see no reason it shouldn’t work in Peppermint 6 .. As this is a support question, can you please ask on our support forum:
      http://forum.peppermintos.com/
      where we’ll be happy to assist :)

  1. Pidus

    Peppermint Six was a great release. Now it just got better! I always wanted ICE to work with Firefox. Thank you devs. Thank you devs for adding this feature. Now it’s time to torrent!

    1. Mark Greaves

      You’re most welcome, but I hope you realise that the new version of Ice will also come through as an update for the original Peppermint 6.
      If you already have Peppermint 6 installed, just do a full system update .. then check out Ice ;)

      1. Pidus

        I have used Peppermint 6 before. But not using right now. I had an issue with Chrome and Magnet links. Always popped up Audacious! Could not fix it. Other issues like mouse pointer speed auto-change, screen tearing were fixable. Being said that, I was really impressed with Peppermint. You took the best features from Linux Mint, Xfce; added some Ice and created something unique and useful. :)
        BTW, do you think I can make Ice to work with other derivative browsers like Pale Moon and Slimjet, by editing any (Ice) config file/s?

  2. armag

    Hello, great that this distro is rapidly improving. As for me, what the menu/desktop miss the most is a quick program/files search function like synapse or krunner. It take too long to search the menu. Beside that, PM6 is going to the top right now for new Linux distros. Well done.
    Thanks.

    1. Mark Greaves

      Keep your eyes open for Peppermint 7 .. in the meantime synapse can easily be installed ;)

  3. Tran Older

    Release 6 is better than Release 5 for sure. However, we are getting tired of the icons & themes. Please make Release 7 even better by using the Dalisha icons and the Boje themes.Thanks and Very Best Regards.

    1. Mark Greaves

      We’ll be looking at new icons for Peppermint 7 (and *maybe* a new theme), and sure we’ll take Dalisha/Boje into consideration.

  4. Tom Darais

    Hi,

    So do all these updates come through the updater (i.e. no need to do a reinstall)?

    BTW, I recently tested Peppermint, Zorin, Netrunner, Manjaro, and Bodhi . . . Peppermint came out on top and I’m sticking with it as my OS of choice. It just works. Awesome job, you guys!

    Tom D.

  5. Timothy Wolf

    Hi peppermint? How do i download this respin

      1. Hans

        UEFI / GPT / Secureboot support (64bit edition only)

  6. Victor

    Trying to DL the ISO of Peppermint six. Goes all teh way to 711.81 MB and stops (DL times out)! Did that already twice with DownthemAll plugin and also once with direct DL in Firefox. Torrent DL page is not accessible at all. Could you guys fix DL problems?
    Thanks.

    VN

    1. Mark Greaves

      Hi Victor, sorry to hear your having problems downloading .. I’m testing the direct download links now but it’ll take a while as the servers are experiencing high traffic at the moment.
      I can say however that I’ve tested both of the torrents, and they’re working perfectly.
      You can get the torrents either from the links on the front page, or from the links in the userguide:
      http://peppermintos.com/guide/downloading/

      [EDIT]

      Both ISO’s downloaded perfectly for me .. we can only assume the problem you had was caused by the heavy traffic we’re experiencing, we apologise for that and hope you’ll either use the torrents or try again later.

  7. Mats Lundahl

    I had problems with installing any Linux distro on my Acer Aspire V3-111p, due to UEFI/Secure Boot issues. I couldn’t get Peppermint 5 to boot in legacy mode either. So I was unhappy locked in with Win 8.1
    So I’m very pleased to say that Peppermint 6 works great with UEFI/Secure Boot on my laptop now and I am happy Peppermint user again. Great job!

    1. Mark Greaves

      Great stuff Mats, it’s good to hear the UEFI/Secureboot support helped you out .. thanks for taking the time to let us know, we appreciate the feedback :)

  8. Phant

    Hello i have a tehnical question. How did peppermint os 6 got build and put together, by installing ubuntu minimal installation and building pepperimnt or by modifying offical lubuntu iso and removing and adding stuff etc.?

    1. Mark Greaves

      Historically Peppermint have started off with Lubuntu then modified it to our spec, but as Peppermint continues to diverge further and further from the LXDE environment that may not be the best way forward for much longer.

  9. penguinforsupper

    Damn! This is one fine little operating system.
    Setup a dual boot with windows 10 on new hp notebook and wiped OSX off my macbook in favour of Peppermint.
    Both installs were smooth and uneventful.
    Great job Peppermint!

    The poor Macbook was overdue for linux. OSX is a horrible OS. It’s huge, slow, awkward, and just plain annoying. I had to double the ram in it to run the last two versions and it was still bad. It’s a rocket with Peppermint.

    I don’t plan on using Winblows much. Just need it for some proprietary software.

    Thanks again for Peppermint and all your hard work.

    1. Mark Greaves

      You still picking on those poor little penguins…

      TVM for the kind words .. Great news with the Macbook (and HP), and thanks for the feedback :)

  10. Barry

    Newbie question. Used PM in the past, love the system but is it possible to load, say ver 6. and when 7 comes out, just do a system update to get ver. 7 or do you have to reload the entire system. It’s been a while since I’ve downloaded and used linux.

    1. Mark Greaves

      Currently there is no “upgrade” path so you’ll need to do a full “fresh” install of the next version (this is unlikely to change for version 7) .. that said, if you stick to odd numbered versions of Peppermint there’s no real need to upgrade for 5 years as they’re base on long term support releases.
      If you decide you DO want to upgrade there are things you can do to ease a fresh install such as creating a “data” partition and symlinking the Documents/Pictures/Music/etc. folders from your home directory (safer an keeping a /home partition as that also contains config files), and possibly using aptik to transfer package sources and selections.
      If you require any help with this it’d be best if you joined our support forum where you’ll find helpful tutorials and friendly people who will answer any questions you may have, and walk you through the process if necessary:
      http://forum.peppermintos.com
      Hope to see you there :)

  11. Hans

    I just discovered Peppermint OS 6 yesterday and was blown away. I tried various distos and found Mint to be the best and although I liked it, it seemed like something from the later 1990s or early 2000s.

    Peppermint is the first distro that made me want to install it and dual boot. I was so excited until I found it won’t work on the Asus X205TA laptop because of the Atom Intel processorwith UEFI / GPT / Secureboot. I read in the forum that it might be support in OS 7. Then I came back today and there is a respin that supports UEFI / GPT / Secureboot support but only 64 bit.

    So looks like I am out of luck.

    1. Mark Greaves

      Sorry Hans, there’s currently no plans to add 32bit UEFI support for Peppermint 6 but we’ll be looking into it for Peppermint 7

    2. Brotherred

      Hello Mark! You know I am a sold out Peppermint user. Awesome work. I am wondering about what you said about odd number versions as 6 is LTS. What am I missing?

      Thanx,
      Regards

      1. Mark Greaves

        You’re right, previously only odd numbered versions of Peppermint were based on an LTS but since Ubuntu switched to only 9 months support for non-LTS releases (yet we currently only release annually), sticking to the old policy would have left our users with a 3 month unsupported time span. Instead we decided to also base even number release on the previous LTS (Mint also decided to do things this way) .. so both 5 and 6 are based on 14.04 / 14.04.2 LTS, Peppermint 7 then 8 will be based on 16.04 / 16.04.2 LTS.

  12. Tawsif Hossain

    How do I install it on VirtualBox?

    1. Mark Greaves

      Hi Tawsif Hossain, Peppermint 6 should install in virtualbox like any other Linux distibution, the only difference comes after the installation when you add the guest additions where you need to install build-essential dkms and virtualbox-guest-dkms-lts-utopic to be able to change screen resolutions.

      If you’re having problems, can I suggest you join our support forum:
      http://forum.peppermintos.com
      where we’ll be happy to assist in any way we can.

      Hope to see you there :)

  13. hotdiggettydog

    Peppermint OS is the operating system I judge the others against. You guys have done an amazing job.

    I recently tested Ubuntu Mate and Mint Mate (the newest ones) in Vbox. Ubuntu Mate was just OK and I replaced it with Mint. Mint is nice but it lags slightly behind Peppermint. I won’t get into the details because its mostly the feel I get with each OS.

    It would be nice if the developers considered changing up the default look. First impressions are important. For instance, many complain about Mint because they always use the same bland theme.
    Peppermint’s wallpaper is not attractive and I do apologize to the artist. Nothing awes me more than a bootup to a beautiful desktop. Dark themes are depressing.
    The look is a small thing and easily fixed by us in the know but new users could flounder and lose interest.

    Thankyou for a wonderfully functional OS.

  14. Mark Greaves

    The problem with appearance and themes, is that you can’t please everyone .. use a dark theme and 50% of users will dislike it and ask for a light theme. Same goes for default wallpapers use a bright airy picture and half will hate it whilst the other half will love it, there’s just no winning formula that’ll suit everyone.
    All we can do is try to make a theme that’s neither going to be loved or hated (so by definition will likely be a bit on the dull side to most), and then make it as easy as possible to customize to your own specific tastes.
    There’s a whole section on the forum about how to customise Peppermint, including screenshots of users desktops and links to the resources to recreate the look.
    Everyone’s welcome at the forum, there are a lot of friendly people over there that will go out their way to answer any questions anyone might have so why not join us .. in fact joining in on the forum is the best way to get your opinions/likes/dislikes/suggestions across to our dev team .. we do listen you know, last time around a darker “look” was a common request, hence the Peppermint 6 look ;)
    Anyway .. thanks for the kind words, and we’re happy to hear you rate Peppermint right up there with the big distros :)

    1. hotdiggettydog

      ” you can’t please everyone”

      Yes. I understand and thanks for replying.

      1. Mark Greaves

        On the contrary, thank *you* for taking the time to leave us your feedback .. we can’t make Peppermint without feedback so it’s much appreciated. You never know, Peppermint 7’s theming may be a little ‘brighter’ and hopefully closer to your particular taste .. as I said, we do try to listen ;)

  15. JociX

    Thanks, guys! :) Peppermint works perfectly! My computer is alive again … ;) :)

    1. Mark Greaves

      You’re most welcome JociX, great to hear Peppermint revived your computer :)

  16. Michael

    Been using Peppermint 6 for awhile now and it is by far the best linux distro i’ve ever used. Finally have been able to replace Windows. It’s very stable and ease of use is amazing. The forums have been great in answering some minor issues i had with some things. Great work and much appreciated!! Thanks

  17. Mark Greaves

    Thanks for the kind words Michael, we’re pleased to hear you’re enjoying the Peppermint experience :)

  18. LinuxCrazy

    Plz use xfce power manager as it is more suitable for laptop users. If u can make LXQT power manager to work on peppermint, that would be awesome. MATE POWER MANAGER ONLY GOOD FOR DESKTOP. Think like you are using Linux for the first time on your Laptop. Then you will understand what I am saying.Just give it a thought.

    1. Mark Greaves

      Without giving too much away, all I can say is “keep a lookout for Peppermint 7” ;)

      1. LinuxCrazy

        Thanks for the comment Mark

  19. PeppermintUser

    Hi Mark,

    is there a timeline for Peppermint 7 yet ?

    1. Mark Greaves

      Peppermint don’t work to any kind of fixed release schedule, Ubuntu release in April, we generally release shortly afterwards around May – June, but it’s only released when deemed finished, stable, and as bug free as possible so really it’s ready when it’s ready….

      Sorry but this is about as accurate as it’s possible to get – “Unless there are major problems with the 16.04 code base that need fixing/tweaking/working around, expect Peppermint 7 around May – June (ish)” :)

      1. PeppermintUser

        Thanks for complaining. That’s more accurate than I expected ;-)

  20. Dark Paradox

    Best LXDE Desktop ever :) and thanks Peppermint 6 for reviving my old Laptop. This is only a opinion but i think dark Icons and Theme suits Peppermint so please don’t remove it. if Peppermint 7 gonna have a Brighter Icons and Theme please don’t remove the dark ones. Once again thanks :)

    1. Mark Greaves

      Thanks for the feedback .. Don’t worry, Peppermint 7 will have both a light and dark theme though they’ll probably differ from the current themes. It’s undecided at this point if the old Peppermix themes (from Peppermint 6) will also be retained as an option, this really depends on ISO size, but if not there’s always the possibility we could offer them as an installable download.

  21. LinuxCrazy

    Hey mark, how r u ?
    I have a query, why peppermint doesn’t show connected drives on desktop

    1. Mark Greaves

      Hi LinuxCrazy, you can choose to enable this feature but it needs to be enabled via dconf-editor .. please ask on our support forum:
      http://forum.peppermintos.com
      and we’ll be happy to provide instructions :)

  22. JOAQUIN

    This is a fine endeavor producing magnificent results which haven’t ceased to amaze me. Hardware compatibility right out of the box, speed and elegance all in one pack. Who said there’s no free lunch? At least not at Peppermint LLC.
    Thank you.

    1. Mark Greaves

      Thanks JOAQUIN for that fine endorsement, please enjoy lunch on us ;)

  23. nixio

    Sorry, but I have an old & slow PC. Tell me, how many advantages (BESIDES the speed) I lose, if I install not the sixth, but the previous version (5) of the Peppermint OS? Will there, in my case, any significant deficiencies in system operation compared to the “Peppermint OS 6”?

    1. Mark Greaves

      No, they’re both base on Ubuntu 14.04 so should perform similarly.

  24. MIGHTY BOMBER

    Is PEPPERMINT OS suitable for lenovo laptop ? Can this OS be installed on pendrive with persistence ? Can we have OS for Rasperry pi 2 in future ? Kindly give specific answer . Thanks….

  25. Mark Greaves

    It would be impossible for us to give a definitive answer from just “Lenovo Laptop”, you’d probably be best served either asking on the forum, or searching online for your particular model to see if anyone has reported any problems with Ubuntu 14.04 (which Peppermint 6 is based on).

    Yes, Peppermint can be installed on a USB stick with persistence .. If you’re using Windows to create the LiveUSB, maybe give this a go:
    http://www.pendrivelinux.com/universal-usb-installer-easy-as-1-2-3/

    We *currently* have no plans to do an ARM port of Peppermint, but never say never. ;)

  26. Jon

    Hi,
    I installed the distro onto a USB flash drive (128GB) and I can boot to it on my home PC and I love the OS.

    The point of installing it on a flash drive though was to be portable between the machines I have regular access to. With this in mind when I try to boot to it on my work laptop the laptop doesn’t see the USB as a bootable device also when I try to boot on my MAC it doesn’t give me the EFI option. I created a “live USB” using netbuntu and this works on all three machines, going to the netbuntu menu on boot up for the home PC and the Grub menu on the work laptop and MAC (via the EFI option) but it’s not as usable as a full install.

    I’m not particularly good at this type of stuff so is what I am trying to do even possible (full install on USB that’ll boot up on all 3 machines, 1 modern PC, 1 PC with the BIOS options locked down and 1 MAC)?

  27. Mark Greaves

    Ji Jon,
    The LiveUSB will work on UEFI with secureboot only if you copy it as an iso9660 (eg. as a direct 1:1 clone of the ISO image .. though this won’t give you persistence), and only if you use the 64bit ISO, you didn’t say how you created the LiveUSB or if you used the 64bit edition.

    But sure, you can do a full “proper” installation to a USB stick (again using the 64bit ISO).

    When you say “netbuntu works”, do you mean the old Ubuntu netbook remix ? .. if so, AFAIK that was 32bit only, so you can’t have secureboot enabled, and must have the UEFI BIOS set to “Legacy BIOS mode (CSM)”, in which case have you tried the 32bit version of Peppermint 6 ?

    You’d probably get more help with this if you join our support forum:
    https://forum.peppermintos.com

    As an aside – Peppermint 7 will be out very shortly, who knows maybe you’ll have better luck with that ;)

    1. Jon

      Sorry, I got some of the detail in my earlier post wrong which seems to of confused:

      For the LiveUSB I used unetbootin (not netbuntu) with the peppermint 6 64bit ISO and added persistence by editing the grub.cfg, loop.cfg (to work on the Mac and work laptop) and the text.cfg file (to work on my PC). As I said in my earlier post depending on which machine I use to boot up with I get either the grub menu(work laptop & Mac) or the unetbootin menu (my PC). This worked but leaves me without the latest updates and I wanted to download steam and play games.

      So I did a full “proper” install to USB which works fine on my PC but neither the MAC or my work laptop can see the USB to boot off. What is the difference in the booting process between my LiveUSB and the full install?
      Is it possible to get this “proper” full USB install to work on all 3 machines?

      Thanks

      1. Mark Greaves

        If I’m understanding the situation correctly you are doing the “proper” installation to the USB stick on the older BIOS PC ? .. if so, the USB stick won’t be being formatted with GPT and the required EFI partition for booting on U/EFI systems.
        You’ll need to do the “proper” installation to the USB stick on the UEFI PC .. this should ensure the installer sets up the USB stick with a GPT partition tabel and the required EFI partition containing the U/EFI bootloader.

        If you require further assistance with this, please post to the support forum .. this page is not specifically designed for technical support, the forum is so would be a much better place to deal explore this .. Thanks in advance :)

  28. Gilles

    Just to say thank you for your work, I just installed the distribution to an Eee-PC 1001HA and it works really great. Even the videos are working fast and smooth, it’s good to have an up-to-date distribution that supports so well such hardware.

    1. Mark Greaves

      You’re most welcome Gilles, happy to hear Peppermint is doing the business for you :)

  29. LinuxCrazy

    Hey Mark wats up. I just want a favour pertaining to the next release. Plz integrate Skype by default in peppermint os 7. Plz Plz. It would be great to have Skype by default like other daily online tools & BEST OF LUCK 4 next big awesome release of peppermint os 7.

    1. Mark Greaves

      Sorry LinuxCrazy, but Skype won’t be a default application, it’s closed source and frankly broken in Linux .. that said it’s pretty easy to add post install, if you have problems we’ll be more than happy to assist on the forum

      Many thanks for the “best of luck” though, much appreciated :)

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