Mint 20.1 and OSCAR 1.2.0

[becker44a]

For those who pay attention to Linux things, Mint 20.1 was released within the last week or so.  As a Mint user myself, I keep track of such, and downloaded a copy to try.  I always test installs in a Virtual Machine (VirtualBox 6.1) before committing them to anything important.  I did succeed in getting OSCAR loaded and running, but not without some issues.  I'm posting this in case it might save someone else some grief.

On first attempt to load the .iso image, it stalled with a black screen.  I checked the Release Notes, and this issue has already been noted.  With some workarounds, I got it booted, and installed a fresh copy.  I did notice some erratic behavior on the part of the video:  sometimes during bootup/login, it would resize the VM window to unexpected size/resolution.  I ran System updates, and this issue seemed to mostly settle down.  The kernel was updated from the installation default of 5.4.0-58 to 5.4.0-60.

After some initial prep adjustments, I installed OSCAR (uneventful). and imported some data.  Everything appeared to function properly EXCEPT the Daily page graph area.  It showed up as solid black.  After some fiddling, I noticed that it occasionally showed fragments of one or more graphs, mostly depending on where the mouse pointer was sitting.  No other portion of the displays or menus appeared to be affected at all.  I tried changing the OSCAR graphics engine - no effect.

I noticed that the Mint 20.1 kernel can be upgraded to a 5.8 series, so I tried that, installing 5.8.0-36.  This upgrade seems to have resolved ALL this issues with the VM Video.  No more weird changes to the video size/res, OSCAR graphs appear and behave normally.

So, after some strange behavior, it appears I have a successful OSCAR installation under Mint 20.1.  Note that if attempting this on a physical machine, the video environment will generally have no similarity to that provided by VirtualBox , so experiences will probably be different.

Hope this is helpful for someone.

[untoutseul05]

I think Mint 20.1 is based on Ubuntu 20.04.
I use Xubuntu (on physical and VM) 20.04 and Oscar did not do what you describe.
But, in my test (last summer), I had some strange behaviors. I don't remember if it was the sames as you described.
Maybe, it's a issue between Mint & VM graphical process.

[becker44a]

I think Mint 20.1 is based on Ubuntu 20.04.
I use Xubuntu (on physical and VM) 20.04 and Oscar did not do what you describe.
But, in my test (last summer), I had some strange behaviors. I don't remember if it was the sames as you described.
Maybe, it's a issue between Mint & VM graphical process.

Hi untoutseul05,
Yes, Mint 20.1 is based on Ubuntu 20.04.  As most hardware issues are controlled and/or resolved by the support built into the linux kernel, I believe this issue was the result of the particular kernel that the Mint team chose as the default kernel for the release of Mint 20.1.  Thankfully, they also included the 5.8 series kernel as an option, which resolved this issue.

[untoutseul05]

On Xubuntu 20.04, my kernel is 5.4.0-60-generic (on a physical machine) and there is not the issue on OSCAR.
I don't know what is the 5.8 series but I think it is not the LTS kernel.