Linux Mint unveils improvements for keyboard support and the Cinnamon menu

It’s a new month and that means we have a new update from the Linux Mint team. This time, it has announced that the next version of the Cinnamon desktop environment will feature improved support for keyboard layouts and input methods. Previously, keyboard settings and the applet only handled traditional layouts, but a new approach will present traditional layouts and iBus input methods alongside each other as if they were the same type of layout in the keyboard settings.

The new keyboard support is also fully compatible with Wayland for both traditional layouts and iBus input methods, this resolves a previous Xorg-only limitation. The team said that the On-Screen Keyboard has been re-implemented natively in Cinnamon to remove the dependency on libcaribou. This implementation brings support for Input Methods and layout switching directly within the OSK. The team has also said they took the opportunity to improve the look of the OSK.

Another part of Cinnamon that got updated is the application menu which has received a complete redesign and new layout. Key changes include the adding a sidebar for sections like the user avatar, places, and favorite applications. The system buttons, such as shutdown, were moved to the top right, next to the search bar. Application descriptions are now displayed under the app name in the application section and the category section was made smaller and less noticeable to shift focus onto the applications themselves.

Earlier this year, the Linux Mint team said that the next Linux Mint release will land in December with the main focus being on the next version of Cinnamon. This means that all the features discussed in this article should be available in just a few months.

Source: Linux Mint

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Posted Friday 3 October 2025 at 4:24 am AEST (my time).

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