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The Linux Mint team announced today the release and general availability for download of the “EDGE” ISO flavor of the latest Linux Mint 21.3 “Virginia” release for those who need support for newer hardware.
“This image is made for people whose hardware is too new to boot the 5.15 LTS kernel included in Linux Mint 21.x. It ships with kernel 6.5 instead.”
Linux Mint 21.3 “Virginia” was released earlier this month on January 10th based on the Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish) operating system series and powered by the long-term supported Linux 5.15 LTS kernel, which is also used as the default kernel in the initial upstream release.
The “EDGE” variant of Linux Mint 21.3 ships with a newer kernel, namely Linux kernel 6.5, which will be included in the upcoming Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS point release by default, due on February 22nd, 2024. This kernel brings new and updated drivers to enable support for newer hardware.
Therefore, the “EDGE” ISO image promises to support newer machines and it’s targeted at those who want to install the latest Linux Mint release on PCs where the normal ISO image does not recognize their hardware.
Every new Linux Mint release comes with an “EDGE” ISO flavor for those who need extra hardware support and Linux Mint 21.3 is no exception. However, Linux Mint 21.3 EDGE was supposed to ship with Linux kernel 6.2 from Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS, but the Linux Mint team identified some compatibility issues with recent AMD GPUs, wireless chipsets, and SSD controllers used in some Acer laptops, so they bumped the kernel to Linux 6.5.
Unfortunately, the Mesa graphics stack remains unchanged in this new EDGE ISO image, which ships with the Mesa 23.0.4 graphics stack from the Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS release, on which the Linux Mint 21.3 “Virginia” release is based, and which is also included in the standard ISO images of Linux Mint 21.3.
Without further ado, if you want to install the latest Linux Mint 21 operating system series on newer computers and you’re experiencing boot issues or undetected hardware with the standard release, you can download the “EDGE” ISO image right now from the official website.
It should mention the fact that the EDGE ISO image only ships with the Cinnamon desktop environment, which is the flagship edition of the Linux Mint distribution. Unfortunately, the Linux Mint team does not provide “EDGE” variants for the Xfce and MATE editions of Linux Mint.
Last updated 3 months ago
