Linux Mint support

[loop-evgeny]

# lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Linuxmint
Description:	Linux Mint 20
Release:	20
Codename:	ulyana

# apt-select --help
Error setting system information:
	Linuxmint distributions are not supported. Ubuntu is required.

Would be nice to make it work on Linux Mint - not for the Mint-specific repos, just for the Ubuntu ones.

[jblakeman]

Hi,

Thank you for expressing interest in apt-select.

Since Linux mint started out as a fork of Ubuntu and has diverged from it over time, naturally, it has its own list of official mirrors and customized apt sources. apt-select has always been Ubuntu/launchpad specific. Supporting a different distribution than Ubuntu (albeit one based on it) would require equivalent custom contributions and probably some new abstractions.
I have not had time to keep this repository maintained in recent years but would be open to contributions if they make sense for the project. Though, a fork might make more sense.

[loop-evgeny]

Hi! I haven't looked at the source, but do you know what would happen if that check was simply removed, i.e. apt-selected just proceeded assuming it was on Ubuntu? As I understand, it does not change the existing sources.list file, but only outputs a new one, right? So I could then manually merge the Ubuntu sources it generates in sources.list?

[glidingthrough]

Similarly, I was hoping to use apt-select for elementary os (currently based on 18.04, but new version based on 22.04 expected soon). I ran into the same issue. The OS check appears to be in apt_select/apt.py, however that's about the limit of my code reading skills. Hopefully someone can pick this up and amend apt-select for popular Ubuntu derivatives, such as Mint and elementary.