Linux Mint 22.2 Beta now available for testing

Linux Mint 22.2 Beta is now available for public testing. The latest version is called Zara.

Mint 22.1 Xia was based on Ubuntu 24.04, and was released in January 2025. Linux Mint 22.2 is based on Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS Noble Numbat, the latter was released last week.

Linux Mint 22.2 Beta comes with a new Hardware Enablement kernel (HWE). 9to5Linux reports that Mint 22.2 Beta ships with the Linux 6.14 Kernel as the default. I have been using 6.14 for a few weeks, it's perfect.

Linux Mint 22.2 has a new app called “Fingwit“, which is a fingerprint configuration tool. You can use it to set up your computer's fingerprint reader, and use biometric authentication for the login screen, screensaver, sudo commands, and admin apps.

(Image courtesy: Linux Mint)

Mint's Cinnamon edition is being improved to make input methods and keyboard layouts compatible with Wayland. The new version of Mint brings some theme updates (refer to the image below), accent color support, improved libAdwaita compatibility.

(Image courtesy: Linux Mint)

In early July, I began testing Mint on an external SSD. Three weeks ago, I finally ditched Windows after 30 years, and moved to Linux Mint. I also tested Fedora KDE briefly on my external SSD, but switched it to Bazzite for testing purposes. Sure, Mint gets updates way slower, and Wayland support is not impressive. But I have no trouble with my games (Steam, GOG, Epic Games), or apps on X11. I even have a Windows virtual machine (for testing features/writing about them) in QEMU/KVM.

The Linux Mint 22.2 Beta ISOs with Cinnamon, Xfce, and MATE desktop environments are available for download. Since it is my primary machine, I won't be testing the beta now. But I'll install Mint 22.2 when the stable version is released, likely to happen next week.

On a side note, Debian 13 Trixie has been released. Linux Mint Debian Edition 7 will be based on Debian 13. LMDE 7 is called Gigi, and is expected to be released in September.

Have you tried Linux Mint 22.2?

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Hope you enjoyed this news post.

Posted Monday 11 August 2025 at 6:12 pm AEST (my time).

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