LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

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GeneC

LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by GeneC »

How to add MATE (Gnome 2.3 fork) to LMDE
MY system
LMDE 64 bit
Tracking SID with (Gnome 3.2 from Experimental).

The below will also work with Gnome 3.0 from testing.

LMDE with MATE
(click thumbnail)
Image

How I got there.

1. Fully updated LMDE-tracking SID (Gnome 3.2 from Experimental)

2. Added 'mate-tridex.net repo'
see here :arrow: http://mate.karapetsas.com/

Code: Select all

deb http://tridex.net/repo/debian/ wheezy main
3. Added mate-archive-keyring
:arrow: http://blog.karapetsas.com/

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install mate-archive-keyring
4. Then add MATE core

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install mate-core
===========================================

A few bugs with MATE so far.

Got MINT Menu to work from panel. (that is very good)
Image

Bugs


1. Very high CPU usage (Common problem with MATE). Clem's MINT-MATE fixes fix this in LISA, but have yet to try them (they ARE UBUNTU) in LMDE_MATE.

2. All kinds of duplicate (and missing, extra) entries in menus, but editing with alacarte (It does let me edit, unlike alacarte python breakages in the past). But edits do not show up in menus.
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 7 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
xircon

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by xircon »

Gene, have you tried setting up a new user? It might stop your settings bleeding over. Got Mate installed, but have been tied up doing something else.

The only thing I have noticed was tap-to-click is missing.

Going to logout of G3 and play. See you on the other side.

Steve

:Edit:

Set up a new user called "Mate" testing begins:

Nautilus working here
GeneC

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by GeneC »

Steve

Is it nautilus or caja? (they look the same).

I opened Gnome shell, and caja took over there?
Dont have time to play with this all right now. Maybe in a couple of days.
xircon

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by xircon »

Back in G3 and it still opens in Nautilus 3.2.1 (or Marlin for some things, installed Marlin to have a look at it), will check later, but I set up a completely new user for Mate (called "Mate" very original :)). All I did was tart it up a bit, icons, appearance, tried to put compiz back in and failed (uninstalled compiz, can't reinstall without sorting some major dependency issues). Got bored, came back to the future :)

Will log off and on to Mate. BRB.

Back - opens in Caja. On this log in, the show desktop applet crashed and burned. Back to G3 :)
GeneC

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by GeneC »

Yep!
Changes in Mate carried over to Shell.
Your right on making a new user. that helped
Last edited by GeneC on Sun Dec 04, 2011 12:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
xircon

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by xircon »

Just checked my G3 vs Mate user, there are lots of hidden files created on log-in to mate, that are not in my G3 home folder. You may have a job untangling this :(
zerozero

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by zerozero »

hi 8) just checking in and subscribing to this topic
(before next weekend i'll join you :lol: )
stz*j

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by stz*j »

Joining in the fun as well! :D

Just to make things clear, this is from the Arch wiki at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MATE
It is important to note that many GNOME core applications are rebranded for MATE, as per the licensing terms. Here is a simple Rosetta Stone of GNOME -> MATE applications.

Nautilus is renamed caja
Metacity is renamed marco
Gconf is renamed mate-conf

Other applications and core components prefixed with GNOME (such as GNOME Panel, GNOME Menus etc) have simply had the prefix renamed "MATE" and become MATE Panel and MATE Menus.
Hope that makes some sense. you're not 'supposed' to run nautilus in MATE anymore, it should be caja ;)
wayne128

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by wayne128 »

Gene,

Haha, reading your posts made me want to join in just for fun.
As I had a few Debian partitions and LMDE-Sid-gnome, I would just create one partition just to play with LMDE-testing-gnome and add Mate to see how that goes.

Started from LMDE iso on 201109 so that it is fresh, not going to be affected by gnome3 ( just hope :mrgreen: )

Installation when OK, as usually, but worried about d-u breakages.

Now I change repos to what I read from Steve on some posts and d-u. well, 857 packages :lol: took very long to download, then in the middle of upgrade, it just does not proceed and suddenly return to root prompt!.. I thought testing should have been more stable and less playful than Sid...
got stuck, did a few rounds of d-u, got all sort of problems, :evil:
finally got to gdm3 but without icon and cannot login.
got to command prompt again, this time use aptitude to d-u, haha, luck on my side, it provides an option to delete the gstream...bad...deb and another one so as to clear the dependencies.

after some 5-7 reboot, d-u ( the longest in history :mrgreen: )
Finally I got similar to what look like standard Gnome2 with top panel.
I choose not to install mintmenu :mrgreen: after reading your posts :mrgreen:

Install Mate per zerozero and your posts. went OK. now I have a running LMDE-Testing-Mate running on
kernel 3.1.0-1-amd64 :mrgreen:

So far so good, very snappy,
file manager is Caja 2011.11.10
ff is 5.0...have not install iceweasel 8 yet.

default fonts as you already know, kind of bad. so did a bit of change on appearance to get it nicer for aging pair of eyes... :lol: change theme to Shiki-wise... so it is nice now..

start to play...

lmde64testmate wayne # apt-cache policy gnome-session gnome-shell
gnome-session:
Installed: 3.0.2-3
Candidate: 3.0.2-3
Version table:
*** 3.0.2-3 0
500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
gnome-shell:
Installed: 3.0.2-8
Candidate: 3.0.2-8
Version table:
*** 3.0.2-8 0
500 http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ testing/main amd64 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
lmde64testmate wayne #

EDIT: may be should also change testing to Sid??
wayne128

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by wayne128 »

stz*j wrote:Joining in the fun as well! :D

Just to make things clear, this is from the Arch wiki at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/MATE
It is important to note that many GNOME core applications are rebranded for MATE, as per the licensing terms. Here is a simple Rosetta Stone of GNOME -> MATE applications.

Nautilus is renamed caja
Metacity is renamed marco
Gconf is renamed mate-conf

Other applications and core components prefixed with GNOME (such as GNOME Panel, GNOME Menus etc) have simply had the prefix renamed "MATE" and become MATE Panel and MATE Menus.
Hope that makes some sense. you're not 'supposed' to run nautilus in MATE anymore, it should be caja ;)

Oh, thanks stz*j for the rename...
GeneC

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by GeneC »

Good Day folks! :)

Corrected my problems from yesterday. Reinstalled MATE. She is behaved much better today.
Nautilus is working properly in Gnome shell. Yesterday 'caja' (MATE file manager) took over on shell for whatever reason. Today nautilus is now default file manager again.

Wayne.
Sounds like you had a busy day with Miss Mate. :lol:

stz*j
Thanks for the explanations.

'zz'
Welcome aboard
GeneC

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by GeneC »

Everything is still running well with LMDE-Gnome3.2-MATE

BUT,

Only real bug now, is whenever I open 'file-manager' (say from 'places' on mint menu, or 'places' on AWN dock. It does not open a file manager (caja or nautilus), but opens web browser (chrome)? Got to figure that out.
Anyone have any ideas?
Otherwise works well, and looks good.

I did have to edit font setting with "appearances". I simply adjusted the font setting to the same as Shell (I use Ubuntu 11 with 'slight' hinting). As nice as ever. :)

Also, I know that 'caja' is now the default file manager for MATE, but nautilus still works, and works as well as always? So why "CAJA"?

CPU usage is very high (typical MATE problem)
LMDE-MATE (COMPIZ, Chrome, Rainlendar, Sys Monitor, AWN open)

Image

LMDE-Gnome 3.2 Shell (Chrome, Rainlendar, Sys Monitor, AWN open)

Image

There is a fix by Clem for Lisa.
From BLOG
http://blog.linuxmint.com/?paged=2

It works with Lisa. I tried it.
Last edited by GeneC on Thu Dec 08, 2011 12:51 pm, edited 2 times in total.
stz*j

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by stz*j »

GeneC wrote: Only real bug now, is whenever I open 'file-manager' (say from 'places' on mint menu, or 'places' on AWN dock. It does not open a file manager (caja or nautilus), but opens web browser (chrome)? Got to figure that out.
Anyone have any ideas?
This might help: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php ... 4#p1024154 , but I dunno if it works. Actually, I had the same problem as you did last time but today I logged into my MATE desktop, very eager to debug this, but alas, the bug flew away~

Sorry if I keep posting things from Archlinux, I'm not really an Arch person but in regards to mate, they do perhaps have an edge. Probably coz the guy who forked gnome2 into MATE is an arch guy? :lol:

Btw, I vote for this post to be stickied :D
GeneC

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by GeneC »

stz*j

Nice find on the Archlinux forum. I saw Perberos' fix
Perberos
Member

From: Rio Negro / Argentina
Registered: 2010-05-30
Posts: 72
kahlil88 wrote:
but desktop icons open in Caja.
You can set nautilus... to run as the file manager:
With mateconf-editor, navigate /desktop/mate/session/required_components/filemanager
and change the value of filemanager, from caja to nautilus. re-login
.
I installed 'mateconf-editor'. Made the change suggested to use nautilus as file manager in mate. Logged out/in. Still uses Chrome to open? Even re-booted, same thing, no fix. At least he is aware of it. Maybe a better fix will come down later. I made a launcher for nautilus to launch from panel, and that works ok.
GeneC

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by GeneC »

A day later. :)

Found no fix for browser opening rather than file manager (either caja or nautilus, I have nautilus set as file manager.
You can set nautilus... to run as the file manager:
With mateconf-editor, navigate /desktop/mate/session/required_components/filemanager
and change the value of filemanager, from caja to nautilus. re-login.
DIDN'T WORK?

Other bugs.

1. AWN dock, many applets do not work correctly or at all.
a. AWN Garbage can opens browser ?
b. AWN and MintMenu Places opens browser? (MATE likes this browser -Chrome) :lol:
c. AWN Shut Down does not work at all.

Dont understand

Mate has its own versions of Gnome aps.
(Terminal, file manager, system moniter, et, et), but WHY? Gnome aps still seem to work perfectly. There seems to be no reason for these new mate aps?

The GOOD

I have MATE duplicating old Gnome 2.3 about 95%
Mint Menu is fine and the same as in 2.3
Compiz and Emerald work. (You have to re-set compiz settings, as the default has almost nothing turned on).
Fonts are as good as ever (actually better to me than Gnome 3), again you have to fine tune them in 'appearances'.

Anybody missing Gnome 2.3. You should give MATE a try.
wayne128

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by wayne128 »

GeneC wrote:A day later. :)

Found no fix for browser opening rather than file manager (either caja or nautilus, I have nautilus set as file manager.
You can set nautilus... to run as the file manager:
With mateconf-editor, navigate /desktop/mate/session/required_components/filemanager
and change the value of filemanager, from caja to nautilus. re-login.
DIDN'T WORK?

Other bugs.

1. AWN dock, many applets do not work correctly or at all.
a. AWN Garbage can opens browser ?
b. AWN and MintMenu Places opens browser? (MATE likes this browser -Chrome) :lol:
c. AWN Shut Down does not work at all.

Fonts are as good as ever (actually better to me than Gnome 3), again you have to fine tune them in 'appearances'.

Anybody missing Gnome 2.3. You should give MATE a try.
+1 on nice fonts

for me no mintmenu, no AWN, may be thus I do not have 100% CPU.

decided to install AWN for a test, without adding anything else, AWN installed and have automatically added firefox icon, click to launch and it did launch firefox...

download a file from firefox.

check system monitor: Oop!! 100% CPU// :lol: :lol:
try a few time, it switch 100% from CPU1 to 2,3,4 ,1 :evil:

So I uninstall AWN.
open firefox, 30 tabs running, download one file
back to running cool with regular low CPU %., averaging 4-15% for all 4 cpu. :mrgreen:
stz*j

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by stz*j »

Ok Gene, I hope this will help. Goto your ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list OR /usr/share/applications/defaults.list and put this line in:

Code: Select all

inode/directory=nautilus.desktop
Found from https://github.com/perberos/Mate-Deskto ... nt-3001258 , didn't test it myself, since I have no problems :P , I think it hates firefox :lol: . And if that doesn't work, I'm not sure what will, but we'll figure it out someday, enjoy your Mate for now :). Strange how the mateconf-editor method doesn't work, maybe it's still using the gconf-editor values :?:
GeneC wrote: Dont understand

Mate has its own versions of Gnome aps.
(Terminal, file manager, system moniter, et, et), but WHY? Gnome aps still seem to work perfectly. There seems to be no reason for these new mate aps?
Well, it seems to run perfectly now but who knows what might happen in the future? I'm using the mate-terminal as my default now coz there's some weird thing happening with gnome-terminal, typing commands lag alot, and characters sometimes don't get inputed in the correct order. But that's probably just some bug caused by my unstable still-selectively-updating-until-mate-runs-properly system.

Why MATE has its own set of apps? Well, if people just want MATE and nothing of gnome 3, they'll need these stuff :) But for us who want to have a mix of both, the reason is probably to avoid future dependency conflicts I guess. Maybe it's entirely possible to continue using nautilus and such, but some might want to preserve the old gnome 2 look, which is what this project is all about isn't it? :D

Running compiz on my MATE desktop uses the CPU like crazy, like 60%++ on both cores. Initially thought it's because of problems with my old gnome settings. I've tried switching to emerald for window decorations instead of gtk-based, and using flat-file configuration backend instead of gconf configuration backend in my ccsm preferences. No luck, and no idea why compiz is not playing nice. Oh it runs fine, but the high CPU usage thing bothers me. Anyone having this problem too?
GeneC

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by GeneC »

stz*j wrote:Ok Gene, I hope this will help. Goto your ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list OR /usr/share/applications/defaults.list and put this line in:

Code: Select all

inode/directory=nautilus.desktop
Found from https://github.com/perberos/Mate-Deskto ... nt-3001258 , didn't test it myself, since I have no problems :P
stz*j
I think your on to something here. :D

My /usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Code: Select all

[Default Applications]
x-scheme-handler/http=google-chrome.desktop
x-scheme-handler/https=google-chrome.desktop
x-scheme-handler/ftp=google-chrome.desktop
text/html=google-chrome.desktop
text/xml=google-chrome.desktop
application/xhtml_xml=google-chrome.desktop
:lol:

I guess I see now why CHROME opens instead of file manager.

Can someone post the contents of their working
/usr/share/applications/defaults.list

Thanks.

=====================

EDIT:

stz*j

The fix you posted
Ok Gene, I hope this will help. Goto your ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list OR /usr/share/applications/defaults.list and put this line in:

Code: Select all

inode/directory=nautilus.desktop
WORKS for me.
'Places' now opens nautilus not 'chrome'.
Very happy about that. It was the only major bug with mate.

I also got my CPU usage down quite a bit, but downloading the Mint-Z theme from Lisa, and using it on Shell (Mint-Z-Mate).
All is looking very good here.
Nice to have the customization's back that can be enabled with 'compiz'.
Hopefully mutter will allow more customization when it matures.

Thanks for the help!
xircon

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by xircon »

I don't seem to have a file called that anywhere in my mate user, sorry.

Code: Select all

 locate defaults.list
/etc/gnome/defaults.list
/home/molly/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
/home/molly2/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
/home/steve/.local/share/applications/defaults.list
/usr/share/gnome/applications/defaults.list
Molly is my old user, Steve even older, molly2 is my current user. "Mate" is my mate user, no file. Had to reinstall and haven't touched mate yet, G3 is too much fun :)
zerozero

Re: LMDE Gnome 3 - adding MATE

Post by zerozero »

As i said, here i am with MATE installed, and as wayne pointed out it installs and runs in testing (so there's no need to bump one's system to sid just to try MATE - unless one wants to :lol: ).

just a couple quick notes (also because i almost just install it):
- if you add MATE to a testing base, you have then to force-install the correct mintmenu version (this if you didn't alter the pin preferences)
- without compiz the cpu usage is very low, once i do a compiz --replace it jumps to about 50/60% each core (not very good :lol: )
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